8/9/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 2. 5-6)

“When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, [Yahweh Elohim].  (They did so as it was written in the Law of the Lord, ‘Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord.’) There they went to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: ‘a pair of doves or two young pigeons.’” (Luke 2.22-24)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

In this season of reflections on God’s Word, I am focusing on “straight paths” presented to us for our instruction, encouragement and empowerment to be disciples of Jesus the Christ. Yesterday, I used a phrase which I will define further in this reflection as “going straight to the source of our salvation.” When the “one” of ten lepers returns to Jesus, the source of his healing and then the source of his salvation, we are called to consider the role of repentance as key to our ability to accept the salvation which God provides perfectly to us in Jesus the Messiah. We know that it is in and through Christ alone that we are saved. No other means is sufficient to meet the need and the want of our lives in this regard. As the scripture says, “What is impossible for humanity to accomplish is [without question] possible for God.” (Luke 18.27) The false application of this scripture leads its followers astray around corners and bends in the road of life. They seek fulfillment and a firm grasp on their own destiny by measures which they have determined meet their criteria thinking they meet God’s (if they even believe in God at all.) To believe in “self-righteousness” and “works- righteousness” is tantamount to idolatry and the practice of unrighteousness which declares “I can place other gods before the One God and I am one of those gods.” I contrasted the quick thinking and acts of the “nine of ten” with the “works-righteousness” aspect. They obeyed the word of Jesus literally and went immediately, straightway, to their particular priests. They accepted the command of Jesus believing that doing so according to the “letter of the law” that the priest would miraculously give his “stamp of approval.” I am not sure what they thought as they hurried away still infected with leprosy. Their salvation would not come in the word of the priest nor in their “act of obedience as if to say (as we hear often in today’s world: Because I say so.)” No, true salvation comes with the healing of our “sin-festation.” It is the relieving of the affliction of the soul which is our hope and “stay.” We may be consumed with disease or misfortune but if our soul remains in the hands of God being surrendered to Him who has given it to us, then we shall know His prosperity of peace, joy and abundant living in this world and in the next. That was the conclusion presented by Luke as he brought to remembrance what Jesus said to the “one of ten.” It was there that the command of the Christ was fulfilled infinitely as He said, “By your faith, you are made well. Go straight home!”

“Go straight home!” Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars, do not worry about the die that are cast. “Go straight home!” This is the tenor of understanding we can bring to Jesus’ words to the Eleven as they gathered with Him in the Upper Room. It was there He said “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God. You can believe in Me. I am going to prepare a place for you in My Father’s House. [He has plenty of room for expansion. He considered it long before you were even in your mother’s womb.] As I go, I will return. You know the way to where I am going.” (John 14.1f) He went on to say, “No one can come to the Father except by Me. I am the way, the truth and the life.” Seeking Jesus as the Christ straightens out our thinking, our actions and our intentions. It causes us to “return to the source of our salvation.” Why? Because it grounds us to the very truth which was spoken in the time before Jesus when God was revealing Himself to His people by His word. He had delivered them out of bondage in Egypt. He was leading them to the land which had been promised before they were born as descendants of Abraham, the “father of faith” as he was called.

So, in today’s reflection on God’s word from Luke, which refers to that pre-existing word found in Leviticus, I am returning us to the “source of our salvation.” We must, as mighty ones of God, live in the validation of the Old Testament. It bears witness to the coming of our salvation. It, the Old Testament, is not our salvation. We should not be tempted to consider that “following the Law” brings us salvation. “Following the Law” is a form of works-righteousness. It was the downfall of the polluted priests who consorted with the ideology of foreign nations and their foreign gods and well as the caste of Pharisees which formed to “hold the priests and the ruling class of the Sanhedrin” at bay. It would be the Pharisees, as the self-appointed watchdogs of faith in practice who exacerbated this works-righteousness mentality. (Today’s prosperity gospel and its companion of “relation versus religion” spirituality, are outgrowths of that same mentality. Yes, I know many will be put off by that statement but it is because they have a wrong sense of what true/authentic religion actually is.) It is our duty and our opportunity to understand the Old Testament revelations of God’s “making paths straight.” These revelations prepare us for what was experienced and recorded in the New Testament. They, in their purpose and function, return us “to the source of our salvation.” It is by God alone we are saved. Jesus knew this. Jesus lived for this. Jesus died for this. Jesus was raised from the dead for this…and for us.

Mighty ones of God, we must fall in love with the Old Testament. It points us “straight” to Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s desire to save us from ourselves, our sin and out of the hands of the Enemy to whom so many so easily surrender themselves with the hope of living in peace on earth (especially if there is no heaven.) Understanding the first steps of revelation which God shared with His chosen people allows us who now chose Him as our One True God to take the next steps boldly, confidently and in fulfillment of our purpose, our ministry and our destiny to “dwell in the House of the Lord forever…that House which has plenty of space for all who will believe and receive Jesus as the Christ.”

That being said, the groundwork is laid to reflect on the passage of scripture from Jesus’ first “anointing” when He was 8 days old. That I will reflect upon with you tomorrow. Until then, shalom.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed Yourself to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.