Psalm 19

Psalm 19

Ps 19:1 The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Ps 19:2 Day to day pours forth speech, And night to night reveals knowledge.
Ps 19:3 There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard.
Ps 19:4 Their line has gone out through all the earth, And their utterances to the end of the world. In them He has placed a tent for the sun,
Ps 19:5 Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber; It rejoices as a strong man to run his course.
Ps 19:6 Its rising is from one end of the heavens, And its circuit to the other end of them; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Ps 19:7  The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
Ps 19:8 The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
Ps 19:9 The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.
Ps 19:10 They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
Ps 19:11 Moreover, by them Your servant is warned; In keeping them there is great reward.
Ps 19:12 Who can discern {his} errors? Acquit me of hidden {faults.}
Ps 19:13 Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous {sins;} Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.
Ps 19:14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer.

Yes every day the wonders of creation are reminding us that they have been created by a wonderful God. Nobody on earth can get away from this message, for it is evident even to deaf or blind people that God’ works are marvelous. The first 6 verses of the psalm tell us this in just a few words that could be expanded on and on and still only touch on the wonders of creation, but it is only the last 8 verses that tell us that God has given us written words of how to know Him personally.

For verse 8 says that the law of the Lord is perfect. Perfect so that we may know who this Creator is in  His character and purpose for us and everybody else as an extra over and beyond the witness of the Heavens. The psalmist uses the word law here to mean that God has spoken with authority to tell us much more, things more wonderful than the starry heavens could tell us. The Heavens do a good job of telling of His great power and wisdom but the written Word tells us of His love and mercy and why we were created along with the stars.

A poet said that all the world is perfect and only man is vile, and that might be so if God had not given us His Word to tell us that we can choose to be like Him to display more of His goodness.

 Let my words and life be acceptible to you, my God.

Occupy 'Til I Come

Luke 19
12  He (Jesus) said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. 13 And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. 14 But his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. 15 And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading.
16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 17 And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. 18 And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds.
19  And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. 20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: 21 For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.
22  And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: 23 Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?
24  And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. 25 (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) 26 For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him. 27 But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. 11 And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. 

The picture holding the class motto was taken more than 60 years ago and the Bible quotation is from the old Authorized Version – that was before most of the Bible versions we have today came out. Other versions translate to say

"Trade ye [herewith] till I come" and "Trade while I am coming." and "Engage in business until I come." and "Do business {with this} until I come {back." But the sense is clear that Jesus meant that while we wait for Him to come back we are to be good stewards doing whatever we do for Him.

Yes, He did say "Do this in memory of me until I come", but that was when He gave His followers the instructions about the last supper or Communion rite as we call it now, so He does want us to be looking for His return very expectantly. But He does not want us to be doing nothing while we are waiting. We are to be busy about the Master's business. A great difference from the post-modern feeling that we are entitled to do nothing.

Although He did not tell us the year or the day when He expected to come back, He could come back any time, even yet today, but in the meantime as we look and hope expectantly for Him, we are to be plying whatever trade we are in. The increase from that activity will determine our future reward.

Here is a link to an article that expresses this whole concept far better than I can say it:

http://affluentinvestor.com/2017/10/why-do-we-work/

Psalm 15

Psalm 15

Ps 15:1 O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill?
Ps 15:2 He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart.
Ps 15:3 He does not slander with his tongue, Nor does evil to his neighbor, Nor takes up a reproach against his friend;
Ps 15:4 In whose eyes a reprobate is despised, But who honors those who fear the LORD; He swears to his own hurt and does not change;
Ps 15:5 He does not put out his money at interest, Nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

Jesus said except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Repent and believe. We repent of our failure to measure up to being in the presence of God and we believe that Jesus died for to pay for our failures, our sins. Then we will qualify to abide in God's holy place, to live forever with Him.

The Comforter Has Come

 

We shy away from some parts of the Bible 

because they are harder to understand than others, and our understanding of the Holy Spirit is one that thus suffers. And no wonder that it seems hard to grasp, because it is impossible to explain spiritual reality in material terms.  The best we can hope to do is illustrate the unseen with the seen.

We live in a physical world defined by created time and materials, but a spirit, and especially the Holy Spirit of God cannot be defined by either of those values as real as they are. Jesus said that God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit. It is no wonder then that it is difficult for us to grasp many of the things that the Bible says about the Spirit of God.

However there is in the Gospel of John a passage that shines light on this problem and helps us to understand more about Him and to harmonize the seeming problems.  The Gospel of John chapter 8 is that passage. It illustrates in real life how our concerns can be answered and how we can know Him better. The Holy Spirit was there in John 8, but not in the way we experience Him now.

Do we wonder how it could be said in Jesus time that the Spirit was not yet given, when there are so many references to what He did in the Old Testament and at the birth of both John and Jesus? We accept that the Bible is the Truth, so there must be something we need to know that is not initially apparent. It is written that we will then know if we continue on to know the Lord, and in chapter 17 Jesus told us that things would be different when He, the Holy Spirit, comes. What things we may ask would be different, and how would they be different, and for the more curious, why would they be different if He is the same holy Spirit, and since we are orthodox we believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forever?

The Gospel of John has a story about Jesus and the woman taken in adultery that happened in the midst of a great crowd of onlookers.  There is no question that forgiveness is the main point of the story.   Yes, God is able to forgive any repentant sinner, and the point was made very clear when Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you”. And we wonder if the Jews in the story were not half expecting Jesus to forgive, although they did not see how He was going to get around the law and the snare they had set for Him. That He did not get around or flout the law is clear, because they had nothing to say about the way He handled the case.

John 8:1 - 11
Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.  And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.
And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.
And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

The woman, on the other hand, must have been very surprised when she looked around to see that none of the men were left there condemning her, and she must have gone away shaking her head when Jesus said that she could go. Did she understand why it had all happened? It is not likely, but she had seen what Jesus did, and she would have a lot of time later to reflect on it and to do her part of repenting and sinning no more. Yes, it would take time for it to sink in, -- actually the rest of her life.

Time seems to be the key idea in this passage. The Jewish legalists had likely thought long about how to trap Jesus, and they had planned very carefully how they would embarrass Him before a big crowd. And they no doubt thought that by suddenly confronting the Teacher with the need to make a weighty decision in haste that they had a real advantage. But they did not know that they were dealing with the Creator of time. However, Jesus knew that even the Holy Spirit needs a space of time to do His work in hearts – not that He is limited by time, but we are.

The Spirit of God applies the Word or Law of God to the hearts and consciences of those who He deals with and, as Jesus said, “When He is come He will reprove the world of sin and righteousness and judgement.”  Did Jesus stoop and doodle on the ground to communicate something to people? Not likely, because they were well acquainted with Moses law.  Did He need to write out their particular offences?  Not likely again, for He knew that His Holy Spirit was about His business of convicting and that He without any help was well able to prove each one guilty of failing to keep the law. And the woman too, certainly she felt the condemnation of the law and the Spirit of holiness. That was the reason Jesus was stalling -- yes He did stall for time so the Holy Spirit could work without any interference.  Although we are not told it, He was also working in the hearts and minds of the crowd of onlookers,  of course He was.

By stepping back and just doodling Jesus knew that He was doing the will of God. He Himself said that he did not come to judge, even though He clearly did call all men to repentance.  Although we do read that the Spirit was “not yet given”, we cannot say that The Spirit of God had never convinced anyone of sin in the Old Testament. And that He – the Spirit -- was given after Jesus arose must mean that after the resurrection He was newly authorized to give assurance of forgiveness. This seems to agree with the experiences of both Old and New Covenant believers. Our experience of assurance of forgiveness is based on the death and resurrection of Jesus. At the time of this incident Jesus had not yet been crucified, so just imagine the agony of conviction of the poor sinner standing before the Holy One while the Spirit condemns her, --  until Jesus spoke those gracious words. Under the Law her only hope would be to wait until the months away Day of Atonement.

Forgiveness is the main teaching of the passage, but forgiveness based on repentance. The accusers were all gone by the time Jesus offered forgiveness, so we may safely assume that they were not included in His gracious statement. And yet to show how important Jesus thought that making a time space for His Holy Spirit to work was, we can see that those accusers may have left the physical presence of Jesus without ever getting away from the Spirit of Truth that went with them. Maybe some of them did afterward repent – they could do so at any time. And the forgiven woman certainly would need the Spirit to go with her and remind her of both her past and her future so that she could “sin no more”. 

What Jesus wrote on the ground was not important, but what the Spirit wrote on hearts was. And it is the same today as the Scripture says, He has written on the tables of our hearts. That day He wrote “Guilty” and could go no further; today He can also write “Guilty but forgiven for Jesus Sake.”

Here then is an explanation for what the difference in the work of the Holy Spirit is now and what it was in Old Testament times. Simply the fact that He had no basis to give assurance of forgiveness before Jesus died. Again think of the turmoil and terror in the heart and mind of that poor sinner as she stood before Jesus with the Spirit probing her thoughts and reminding her what a sinner she was. Contrast that with our own salvation when we were condemned as surely as she was and knew just as well that we were lost and guilty, yet when we repented the Spirit Himself could, and He did, add the words of forgiveness immediately. Now He can do this, because Jesus has paid the price, He died for me, and on that basis the Holy Spirit is much more than just my accuser. He is now the assurance giver, the Comforter and much more. He makes the things of Christ real to me, especially the atonement and forgiveness and all that goes with it.

The coming of the Spirit was promised in the Old Testament, so when He came at Pentecost He came with full power and authority to echo Jesus, “Neither do I condemn you” and to make the things of Christ real to us. These things include a great deal more than assurance of forgiveness, but that is the starting point, the sine quae non of all the Christian’s joy and knowledge. Yes, we can with full hearts sing the old song and spread the tidings around so that others can have this full assurance of hope.

The Comforter has come!

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/c/o/comfortr.htm

               The Comforter has come

O spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found,
Wherever human hearts and human woes abound;
Let ev’ry Christian tongue proclaim the joyful sound:
The Comforter has come!
RefrainThe Comforter has come, the Comforter has come!
The Holy Ghost from Heav’n, the Father’s promise giv’n;
O spread the tidings ’round, wherever man is found—
The Comforter has come!

The long, long night is past, the morning breaks at last,
And hushed the dreadful wail and fury of the blast,
As o’er the golden hills the day advances fast!
The Comforter has come!

Lo, the great King of kings, with healing in His wings,
To ev’ry captive soul a full deliverance brings;
And through the vacant cells the song of triumph rings;
The Comforter has come!

O boundless love divine! How shall this tongue of mine
To wond’ring mortals tell the matchless grace divine—
That I, a child of hell, should in His image shine!
The Comforter has come!

Psalm 14

Psalm 11

Ps 14:1 The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good.
Ps 14:2 The LORD has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men To see if there are any who understand, Who seek after God.
Ps 14:3 They have all turned aside, together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one.
Ps 14:4  Do all the workers of wickedness not know, Who eat up my people {as} they eat bread, {And} do not call upon the Lord?
Ps 14:5 There they are in great dread, For God is with the righteous generation.
Ps 14:6 You would put to shame the counsel of the afflicted, But the LORD is his refuge.
Ps 14:7  Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion! When the LORD restores His captive people, Jacob will rejoice, Israel will be glad.

We use the word fool in talking about someone who fools others or who is fooled himself. In either case the ideas he proposes are not reasonable, they will not stand up. The fool here denies the existence of God, denying that there is anything good to be said about Him. In denying God he is denying that there is any good except himself, but the sentence is against himself, for the end of the first verse says that there is no one who does good. And it is the Creator Himself who looks down and makes the pronouncement. All have sinned against the goodness of God. We all need forgiveness.

Today the good news is that Jesus is calling all of us fools to repent and believe that there is a God who answers our prayer for safety in Jesus. And, yes, there will come a day when the mercy and grace of God is over and He will openly prove that He lives to restore His own nation Israel and Jerusalem to be the place where Jesus sits on the throne and rules both Israel and all the nations of the world. That will be the time of the golden age when everything is right and good because Jesus rules.

Christian Leadership is Different

 

Supervisors who are Jerks.

The high cost of poor leadership has provoked quite a lot of attention in our business world and there are many good writers who have written many good articles on the subject. The following one is a good example that does a good job of highlighting the problem and pointing to a solution. Many Church and para-Church boards are tempted to think that this is the answer to all of our Church leadership problems, but I will be bold enough to suggest another solution.

It is evident that Mr. McKinney understands the basic problem, that leaders, supervisors, managers are human, and that their workers are human, but he then disregards this cause and focuses on the results that it produces.  He even quotes this conclusion from Christian writers of the past and from what every Bible scholar should know about the doctrine of humanity, that in the beginning God made man perfect but they have sought out many inventions as the man of wisdom told us in

Ecclesiastes 7:29 Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. 

Inventions that deny their accountability to God their maker.

Now this represents a real problem for worldly modern educators, for psychiatrists, social workers, and the elite. Every one of their ideas and solutions treats only the results of the problem instead of the problem. None of their ideas or solutions changes the person who has the real problem here. Of course this problem is also theirs and they make it by leaving God out of the picture, He being the One, the only One who can change a fallen man back into His own image of upright perfection.

But Christianity, God, the Bible does have the answer. And so should we. If we take our way of thinking from the world we will have no more answers than they but Paul argued that God even in His foolishness is wiser than all the wisdom of all the wise of the whole world. Worldly wisdom can see the result of the problem but will not admit that the cause is the same as their own self imposed chosen blindness toward God.

For a moment let us digress and assume that a scientist claims that he can prove that the city of Ottawa is not in Canada, and that he can do this using the scientific method. We who know better might think him out of his head but then he proceeds to present his claim. The scientific method he informs us is to propose a hypothesis, a statement to falsify, and then to define the scope of the universe that holds the only data to be considered. In other words the question and where to find the answer.

The statement then to be debated, to be proved is “Ottawa is a city in Canada” after which he delivers us the restricted “universe of data”, a map of Poland in Eastern Europe in which we are to find the correct response to the hypothesis that Ottawa is in Canada. We could never find it neither could we prove that the hypothesis is true, therefore that test confirms that Ottawa is not in Canada.

Not so fast. It proves nothing of the sort, all it does prove, and it does prove this, is that Ottawa is not in Poland which we were told is the whole universe. But you say this is silly, stupid, outrageous. And yet it is scientific and it does disprove the proposed statement. What is wrong is the limitation of the data to that which will prove or disprove only what the designer of the test wanted.  In science this is called a closed system. Closed to other possibilities. And so we see that when we begin by closing out the Eternal we can come up with wrong conclusions.

Yes, this may be all that a non-Christian business owner or manager can do when he looks at his leadership problems, but it is not all that we can or should do as Christians. We do NOT operate in a system that closes out God, unless we want none of His blessings, and God does have a remedy for overcoming the self seeking problems of leaders, even Christian leaders. Obedience to what He has told us. Christian leadership is more than just leadership.

The following is the article that I am referring to:
http://affluentinvestor.com/2017/08/business-like-north-korean-prison-camp-can/

How Your Business Is Like a North Korean Prison Camp and What You Can Do About It

Roger McKinney  On August 30, 2017
Research has shown that high turnover rates at companies are largely due to supervisors who are jerks. Why should that matter to business people? One reason it should be important is because the expenses of attracting, hiring and training good workers are much higher than business people recognize and can mean the difference between success and failure. As a Forbes article said,

    …people don’t leave jobs, they leave managers, and a survey by B2B marketplace Approved Index confirms that this adage is true. In its survey of 1,374 employees in the U.K., nearly half (42%) of them have left a job because of a bad boss and almost a third of them feel their current boss is a bad manager. When asked why they disliked their managers, 41% cited a lack of recognition, while 40% said they felt overworked.

One of the reasons employees feel overlooked, overworked and underappreciated is because supervisors focus on pleasing the manager above them, not on developing a well-functioning team below them. That is human nature.

Another reason businesses should be concerned about poor supervisors is that bad supervisors kill morale. Employees with low morale perform far below their capacity. In other words, the company is getting far less for the wages they pay than they could. One of the best business books, How Full is Your Bucket?, is not about business. It’s about the origins of the field of positive psychology. One of the authors, Donald O. Clifton, studied why US prisoners of war died at a much higher rate in North Korean camps than in POW camps during World War II. In his research he discovered that the North Koreans kept US prisoners isolated, gave them letter from home with only discouraging news, and made them confess their “sins” daily. Healthy prisoners became so depressed that many pulled their blankets over their heads at night and died.

The author realized that for people to perform well at any assignment they must feel good about themselves and their work. He created the field of positive psychology to promote the idea. The great psychiatrist Viktor Frankl also insisted that people must feel confident, relaxed and focused in order to perform well in art, sports or business. Most workplaces are like the North Korean prisoner of war camps. Subordinates hear nothing from their supervisors except criticisms.

The natural response to the problem of bad supervisors by most writers and human resources managers is more training. But it is not a knowledge problem; it is an attitude problem. Knowledge problems are easy to fix with training. Attitude problems take years of counseling or a disaster in one’s life that destroys one’s arrogance.

Most of us have known people who we thought were very nice and easy going people only to find out that the workers under them, or their wives and children, considered them monsters. They live a Jekyll and Hyde existence. That’s because few people can handle even the small amount of power that comes with supervising others. It overwhelms them. Saint Augustine wrote that all people are consumed with the lust for power and when set free it turns nice people into ogres. Lord Acton wrote that power corrupts, and we can see that in action at work in the overbearing attitudes of supervisors toward the employees suffering under them.

If more training isn’t the answer, what is? The solution is to get rid of supervisors and restructure the company in teams. Information on team structured businesses can be found on web sites and in books on organizational behavior. One web site wrote that

    By eliminating layers of management, employees get to make decisions without getting multiple approvals. This streamlines processes and lowers administrative costs. Additionally, employees feel empowered and morale increases. Because people on the team work toward the same goal, they focus on the task at hand rather than petty interdepartmental conflicts requiring management intervention. Using a team-based structure, employees typically solve problems themselves without having to consult superiors, which shortens the amount of time required to complete activities.

A team based structure doesn’t solve all problems. In fact, it can create problems, as many web sites explain. But the problems the structure creates tend to be knowledge based and so can be solved with training. Team based structures solve the attitude problem, the weakness in human nature that power corrupts.
Originally published on ABCT Investing.
Roger McKinney

Separation in Leadership

 

Leadership and Separation

The NASB Bible says it this way:

Leviticus 22:1-2 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Tell Aaron and his sons to be careful with the holy {gifts} of the sons of Israel, which they dedicate to Me, so as not to profane My holy name; I am the LORD".

But other versions follow the original reflexive word order:

Leviticus 22:1-2 Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, that they separate themselves from the holy things of the children of Israel, which they hallow unto me, and that they profane not my holy name: I am Jehovah.

The original reflexive construction  regarding separation seems a bit peculiar to us,  and it begs the question as to why it was put in this way. It seems that the priests, the leaders in the spiritual life of Israel who were specifically chosen to represent the holiness of God are being told to keep themselves separate from the holy things of God. At first this seems to be contrary to what we would expect for it was their business to handle those holy things all the while keeping the holy things separated from the sinful people, but is that the full intended meaning? Believing that every word of God is inspired we look at it as having a literal meaning of its own that does not conflict with the other commands Moses is passing on to his brother and all future generations of priests. What else might it mean?

This instruction given by God through Moses came after the presumptuous sons of Aaron had offered strange fire to the Lord and had died for their foolishness—or was it just foolishness? Very likely it was what we today refer to as familiarity with the sacred, or more explicitly confusing their privileges with their persons.

Now their position as priests or leaders was not based on their own choice or personal qualifications, the positions and the privileges that went with the positions were appointed solely by God's choice. God was the one who had chosen the family of Aaron to be priests, and apart from being barred by deformities it was both their privilege and duty to serve as mediators between the people and the holiness of God. And yet the command here is for them to keep themselves separate from the holy things. Although the words may include other meanings of being separate and holy they certainly do say that the priests were to keep themselves separate from the holy things.

God has described Himself as a jealous God who will not give His own glory to any other, however it is evident that others have tried to claim His glory. Satan is the first example of one who wanted to either share or claim the glory for himself, but Jesus put it very definitely when He said, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God; Him only shalt thou serve."  And leaders are likewise tempted to want glory for themselves, so we have the command to remember that you of yourself are not holy. There is only One who is holy as Jesus reminded the rich young ruler in Luke 18:19 "And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God."

In the past there have been rulers and leaders who have confused their privileges with their persons. Herod suffered a painful and humiliating death when he willingly took honor as being God, and history shows that he was not the only one for there are many other Bible examples.

And not just in the past, but it happens in our own times, for we have even heard of a Christian minister telling us that he would take it personally if we were to  reject his doings. Evidently he did not understand that he was different from the holy things of God. Jesus told us to judge the fruit of the act and at the same time to refrain from judging their character and salvation. Nevertheless the foundation of God stands sure in that He (alone) knows them that are His own. Being in an important position neither keeps us from making mistakes nor from being sinless.

If this failing to see the difference were only limited to Aaron and his sons it would be bad enough, but it is here in all of us. We use the phrase servant leaders, but are we really thinking of little god leaders? That because of the job or position we are made better and deserve to be honored as much or more than the one who gave us the privilege? The message to keep ourselves separate from the holy is for us today. We do not make the holy to be holy, but it can make us to be holy. It is a privilege, not an entitlement.

Certainly we and Aaron are to act holy, to be holy and known and seen as portrayers of the holiness of God before the people, and we are responsible for them being holy, but we cannot do this if we confuse our imparted position and job related holiness with God who alone is absolutely holy. We are only holy in Him.

How does this relate to leaders eating last?  Again think privilege or person. Are we leading for the authority that appointed us or for ourselves?

Writing is communication, and communication is a good way to prevent misconceptions and animosities. If we only knew what the other person was thinking we might not write them off so quickly. And we will never know unless we hear from them and they hear from us. The other day someone said that hypocrites are the biggest problem in the church, and I can agree with that point if you really know what the word hypocrite means, or where it came from.

Jesus used the word and made it popular, but we first see it in the Book of Job. So it has become a popular escape to get us off the hook when we can blame it for mis- or dis- or lacking communication. In His day the Romans were the social rulers of  Jerusalem while the unbelieving Sadducees were the religious rulers and the Pharisees were considered the ones who were faithful to the laws of Moses. The Romans were out and out idolators denying Jehovah's lordship, the Saducees doubted that Jehovah had spoken and yet they collected the tithes, but it was the fundamental Pharisees who were singled out to be called hypocrites. The word hypocrite was not even a Hebrew word, it was a Greek word and had no religious significance at all in those days. However, it did have special meaning to those who respected Moses' laws, for it was part of the detestable Greek virtual reality culture.

When the Roman occupation leaders allowed the worldly crowd to have their way they planned and built an entertainment complex right beside the holy Temple complex in Jerusalem, barely a stone's throw away, and it was there that all the alternates to  worship of Jehovah were presented. It was a full fledged Greek theatre with portrayals of Greek myths and Roman immorality. A direct and blatant denial of all the goodness of the laws of Moses that the Pharisees held dear. And the performers, those who portrayed roles in the theatre were called hypocrites, role actors, fakes, assumed characters, masked and costumed. In Greek theatre the word hypocrite was a good word, but to the Pharisees nothing could be more abominable, so when Jesus called them role players the message was that they were not what they seemed to be. They were only playing the part, they were not communicating the truth. They could not say, "What you see is what you get."

The Pharisees apparently understood the message Moses gave the Israelites that they were to be different from the nations around them. However they were taking the glory for being holy to themselves and God has said that He will not give His glory to another, so that is what Jesus was rebuking. They were right in being holy but definitely not right in being self-made holy.

Matt 23:10 – 17 "Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, {that is,} Christ. "But the greatest among you shall be your servant. "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, {that} is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.' "You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold?

So good and true communication is what might be called anti-hypocrisy and is to be encouraged.  Just like the preacher must be a "what you see is what you get" person so must be the writer. And of course that is what the hope is for the audience in both cases.  Our example is God Himself Who wants us to be as real as He is, and He wants us to know who He really is. The moral is to learn to communicate well using whatever media is yours.

Yes, Christian leaders of any kind must never imagine that holiness, although a basic requirement of Christian leaders, is theirs. Any holiness that others may see in me -- and again we know that it should be seen -- is God's. Yes, He wants the world to see His glory in us, but it is His glory every time.

So after all this we have to say that the text is correct in using a reflexive verb to tell the Levitical priests to never forget that they are to keep themselves separate from the holy things. God makes both them and the sacrifices holy,  and not the priest who carries the vessel and the offering that it is in.

Psalm 10 The Wicked Does Not Seek God

Psalm 10

1. Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide {Yourself} in times of trouble?
2. In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.
3. For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, And the greedy man curses {and} spurns the LORD.
4. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek {Him.} All his thoughts are, "There is no God."
5. His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them.
6. He says to himself, "I will not be moved; Throughout all generations I will not be in adversity."
7. His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness.
8. He sits in the lurking places of the villages; In the hiding places he kills the innocent; His eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate.
9. He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair; He lurks to catch the afflicted; He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net.
10. He crouches, he bows down, And the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones.
11. He says to himself, "God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it."
12. Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted.
13. Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself, "You will not require {it.}"
14. You have seen {it,} for You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into Your hand. The unfortunate commits {himself} to You; You have been the helper of the orphan.
15. Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
16. The LORD is King forever and ever; Nations have perished from His land.
17. O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear
18. To vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, So that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.

Why does God allow evil in the world? Does He not see what is happening? This age old question is asked by both the believer and the enemy of God. Does God care? Does Jesus care? Yes He does!

God does hear those who cry to Him. When we return to Him He will return to us to help and to bless us. He is a good God. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that those who believe in Him might be saved. Call on Jesus, cry to Him. He cares and He hears.

Psalm 8 God the Creator

Psalm 8

The cry of every baby is proof that God is the Creator. Another soul made in the image of God

1 O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth, Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens!
2 From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength Because of Your adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.
3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;
4 What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?
5 Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty!
6 You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet,
7 All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth!

Yes, how majestic is God’s name. It is different and He is different. Different from anything and everything else for He made it all. In another place we are told that God has exalted, that is made His Name higher than or above every other name. A name being a description of what it applies to.
Even though the new learning may tell us that there is no real meaning to words there is meaning, else they would not be talking. Words have meaning, names have meaning and the things that God has done have meaning. Yes, even meaning to us today for He is the same as He always has been. He is God

The many different characteristics, qualities, abilities and creations of God mentioned in this psalm are only a few. No one or even all of them tells all there is to know about God, but they do speak of things that God has done. And without a doubt Who God is, that is His Person, Himself, is far more than what He has done. For example we have learned that God loves the people whom He has created, not because of who they (we) are but because He Himself is love. He gives because He is a giver. He creates because He is the Creator, and so on. He does what He does because of Who He is, and we can observe the things He has done, but we are told that no man can see Him.

Jesus said that God is a Spirit, that is He exists independently of anyone or anything material, material meaning something tangible or that can be seen or felt. He is not part of His creation or any other creation, He is the One who exists because of Who He is.

When God called Moses to go back to Egypt and tell the Israelites that God was going to set them free and to tell Pharaoh to let them go free Moses knew that he did not have that clout with either Pharaoh or his own relatives. His name was mud, so please God, tell me your Name so I can use that as authority. Your Name will describe who you are so they will obey us. Moses did not know then that God cannot be described, but God soon told him that a name could never describe the indescribable God. No Moses, get the idea that I am God for no other reason than because I am God. And  Moses learned for we see when we read the very first words in the Bible that he says in the beginning God.

Yes, God is different

Psalm 11

Psalm 11

Ps 11:1 In the LORD I take refuge; How can you say to my soul, "Flee {as} a bird to your mountain;
Ps 11:2 For, behold, the wicked bend the bow, They make ready their arrow upon the string To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.
Ps 11:3 If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?"
Ps 11:4  The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD'S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
Ps 11:5 The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates.
Ps 11:6 Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.
Ps 11:7 For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.

Although Psalm 11 is a short little psalm it has been a comfort and blessing throughout the ages. Many hymns have been inspired by it, the opening words for one are below, which you may find on YouTube.

It reminds us once more that there is a difference between the wicked and the righteous, or the good and bad, between right and wrong, between the Creator and His Creation, and between those who love violence and those who love God. And that difference matters forever.
It does matter

Flee as a bird to your mountain,
Thou who art weary of sin;
Go to the clear flowing fountain
Where you may wash and be clean.
Fly, for th'avenger is near thee,
Call, and the Savior will hear thee;
He on His bosom will bear thee,
O thou who art weary of sin,
O thou who art weary of sin.

Flee As A Bird To Your Mountain