Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....
Going about this business of living, whether it' s one day at a time or while making plans for the future, it often happens thot our routine is interrupted by an unexpected turn of events - of which there are many different kinds, not the least of which are disease and death.
Going about his Father's business ... Jesus received word that his friend Lazarus was sick unto death -John 11:1-4.
See the significance of this story in the context of the Apostle John's reason for writing the Gospel that bears his name:
"These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (20:31)
In writing his Gospel, John first introduced Jesus as the Son of God, then, to confirm his identity as the Messiah, John pointed to John the Baptist's testimony. After telling about the baptism of Jesus, John transitioned to several of Jesus' disciples who also testified about Jesus: Andrew who told Peter 'We have found the Messiah" --- Philip who found Nathaniel and said, "We have found the one Moses wrote about: Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth".
Skeptical of Philip's claim, Nathaniel found Jesus and had a conversation with him, after which he had no doubt about who Jesus way, exclaiming, "You are indeed the Son of God!"
Rather than rely solely on verbal testimonies of disciples who had met the Messiah and had been convinced of his messiahship by talking to and listening to Jesus, John did the smart thing: He presented evidence comprised of seven signs (miracles) that proved Jesus to be the promised Messiah.
Please indulge my interest in journalism by thinking with me of John's seven signs as
HEADLINES that might have appeared in The Jerusalem Times:
(1) Jesus Turns Water Into Wine. (2) Jesus Heals Royal Prince. (3) Jesus Heals Poor Man Disabled For 38 Years. (4) Jesus Feeds Throng 5,000Strong. (5) Jesus Walks On Water. (6) Jesus Heals Man Born Blind. (7) JESUS RAISES LAZARUS FROM THE DEAD!
Seven times in his account of the Gospel Story, John presented undeniable evidence to prove that Jesus was the Messiah - the Redeemer of those who by repentance and faith accept Christ as Savior and Lord.
The most striking aspect of the seventh proof is our Lord's authoritative assertion to his disciples before leaving his safe haven to go to the scene of the crisis: This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God. (v. 4)
There's no doubt about Mary and Martha's love for God and devotion to Jesus - which reinforces my contention that to take heart and trust God in all things is to see the glory of God! Sooner or later, we see the glory of God!
By the time Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead several days. To Jesus, though, it did not matter how long he had been dead. Instead, it was as if his friend were asleep, waiting for the Lord God giver of life to wake him up!
Which Jesus did to the amazement of everyone who witnessed the glorious resurrection of Lazarus -John 11:38-45 ... "Loose him and let him go!"
No wonder many skeptics believed in Jesus and received Him into their hearts as Savior and Lord! They saw the wonder of what God can and will do!
Family, It doesn't matter how long the body of a loved one or your own for that matter has been interred or whatever, when the voice of God shouts "Come forth” or "Arisen or "'Wake up”, guess what! Well, there's really no guessing to it!
A dead body that once housed the soul of a human being, a soul redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and sanctified by the Spirit of God - will respond to the voice of God just as Lazarus did!
In our own situation as in that of Lazarus God does not work on our timetable. Our Lord's delay in responding to the sisters' request did not mean denial, either of their need, or the Lord's response to it.
We may have no choice but to wait on God to act on our behalf. Inevitably He will - but a delay is not because God does not care. What it means is:
God our Father has something greater in mind!
Jesus took time to prepare the Disciples, Mary, Martha, friends gathered at their home, for a greater understanding of who He is and what all believers have in store for them by virtue of their (our) acceptance of Christ as Savior and Lord.
Remember our Lord's earlier conversation with Martha: “Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, even though they die, will live. Everyone who believes and lives in Christ will never die.” (w. 25-26)
Jesus asked Martha two significant questions before raising Lazarus from the dead: "Do you believe this?" (v. 26).
Did not I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?"' (v. 40} Jesus said it. That settles it. Believe it.
Martha and many of her friends believed because they actually saw Jesus perform a miracle with their own eyes. But remember what Jesus told Thomas: ". . .Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed."
Blessed are we who have not seen Him bodily and yet believe! We will see the glory of God! Jesus said it. That settles it. Believe it.
Was the death, burial and resurrection of Lazarus the end of the story? What happened next?
“Therefore, many of the Jews believed . . . but some of them went to the enemies of Jesus and told them what he had done ... Then the chief priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin" (11:45-47).
Long story short: They plotted to arrest Jesus in some devious way and get rid of him.
Jesus had already predicted what would happen, saying to His Disciples: “we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests.
They will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Romans who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later He will rise!" {Mark 10:32-34)
Hear once again what Jesus said to Martha that day in Bethany just minutes before He raised Lazarus from the dead:
"Did not I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God!" What greater glory could there be than the raising of Lazarus from the dead? Of course, the raising of Jesus from the dead!
But first things first! Before Lazarus could be raised, he had to die, then God the Son act on his behalf. Before Jesus could be raised, He had to die, then God the Father act on his behalf.
Why did Jesus (the perfect Son of God) have to die? "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
If fallen humanity was ever going to be saved from the penalty of their sin against God, a perfect sacrifice would be required, "a Lamb without spot or blemish". God's love for human beings is so great that He spared not His Son, whose love is so great that He freely gave His life, died for our sins because... "without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins."
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
This is a wonderful story of how we should live our lives...
Carrot, Egg, and Coffee...You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again...
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.
Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word.
In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.
Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see. "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.
The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?" Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity -- boiling water. Each reacted differently.
The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.
The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became
hardened.
The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.
"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?"
Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?
Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial
hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?
Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.
When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?
May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.
The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way.
The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
Our coninuing look at the world religions...
Animism and Folk Religions
Animism, from the Latin anima, meaning “breath” or “spirit,” is an umbrella term for a global family of thousands of religions. In textbooks, they’re often called “basic religions,” based on the evolutionary assumption that in human development animistic religions came first, then polytheistic, followed eventually by monotheistic (and today by atheistic). They’re also known as traditional religions, since many followers see their practices as cultural traditions, in contrast to more formally organized faiths (e.g., Christianity, Islam). These religions rarely have written scriptures or sacred writings; beliefs and practices are passed along orally from one generation to the next.
The label tribal religions represents two features: First, the cultural groups most commonly thought of as practicing animistic religion are remote tribes that still have minimal contact with the rest of the world (such as South American Indian tribes in the Amazon jungles, or the isolated tribes of Papua New Guinea). Second, each group sees their religious beliefs and practices as exclusive to their own tribe. There is no thought that other people from different cultural groups ought to believe in the same spirits they serve.
However, the idea that only tribal groups practice animistic religion is a common mistake. Folk religion describes animistic beliefs and practices that are adapted into one of the formal world religions. Examples include spiritism in Brazilian Catholicism, Muslim prayers offered at the tombs of sheiks and martyrs, and the occult practices of Tibetan Buddhism.
In fact, all major religions have some followers who practice animistic rituals alongside formal activities. These may happen undercover, when the formal religion prohibits such activities, or they may be incorporated into the formal structure and ritual in a process called syncretism. Folk religion has a significant impact on billions of people who self-identify with Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, or one of the other major religions. Additionally, many New Age religions, although typically based on the Hindu concepts of karma and reincarnation, also include beliefs and practices related to animism, as do the rapidly growing Neopagan religions.
The animistic belief system is phenomenally pervasive; conservatively, 40 percent of the earth’s population holds some form of animistic belief. Some textbooks just a half century ago predicted the dying out of animistic religions by the year 2000, as Western-style education progressed in developing nations. In actuality, there has been a resurgence of interest in this manner of connecting or dealing with the spirit world.
Not even the modernized West is exempt. Some Americans who profess to be Christian and attend church regularly believe the number thirteen is unlucky, won’t walk under ladders, and seek four-leaf clovers for good luck. These practices are vestiges of European, pre-Christian animism, (which we will look at next week).
How could such a vast variety of religious expression ever be joined together under one label? Well, despite tremendous differences in outward form, all animistic groups share certain common beliefs about the nature of the world. Animists believe the world is filled with spiritual powers. These may be personal spirit beings, such as ancestral spirits or nature-dwelling spirits. They may be impersonal forces, like Fate or the Evil Eye. Often it is a combination of several or all of these. These spiritual forces are believed to have influence, if not outright control, over people and events. Therefore, the animist’s goal is to find out what spirits or forces are at work so that steps can be taken to protect oneself from harm and harness spiritual power for one’s benefit. Manipulating the spirit world to obtain power or influence is at the core of this worldview.
Many educated people today, even religious ones, deride animistic beliefs as mere superstition, which implies that the spirit world isn’t real. However, the scriptures of the formal world religions, including the Bible, acknowledge the reality of spiritual powers. Denial of the spiritual realm comes out of a rationalistic mindset, not formal religious belief.
Most animistic religions acknowledge the existence of a high creator god, but he is considered to be distant and unapproachable, perhaps even aloof to humans and their problems. It is the spirits that are near, active, and involved, and thus they must be dealt with to avoid or repair calamity and to gain power for achieving goals. Unlike the Holy Spirit of the Christian faith, these spirits are not considered to be God (or equal to God).
Though some of these beings are believed to be the spirits of recently departed ancestors, they’re rarely regarded as benevolent or loving toward humans. At best, they’re neutral; they may even be considered malevolent. Although believers may sometimes approach spirits proactively for help with life issues (e.g., doing well on a test or getting a job), most animistic rituals are in response to a problem (e.g., illness or drought), and involve divining which spirit or spirits are causing the particular calamity so that they can be appeased and convinced to stop causing the issue. In some cases, the ritual might involve calling on a stronger spirit to drive out a weaker spirit.
Animistic religions are generally pragmatic in the sense of focusing on the here-and-now; daily life matters more than eternal destiny or life after death. When an animistic culture has adopted a formal religion, a parallel form of religious practice is common. People claim to be Christian or Muslim and attend church or mosque for matters of the next life, but retain animistic rituals to deal with matters of this life.
The next two teachikngs are more detailed looks at two animistic groupings: Native American religions and African Traditional religions.
Some people incorrectly use the word pagan to refer to a nonreligious person. Historically, and conversely, Paganism was the name given to the ancient European animistic (in some cases, polytheistic) religions preceding the arrival of Christianity from the Middle East. Neopaganism is now a growing movement that seeks to revive these religions with something of a New Age twist. Some practitioners aim to accurately restore the old traditions to look and be just as they were in the past; others are more eclectic and advocate reconstruction. Either way, a pagan is a religious person.
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
Ho'omaikaʻi ka Pua iā kākou