The Nuggets on the Mount

The class I am taking at seminary is a harmony of the gospels called The Life of Christ on Earth. It is a incredible lecture series taught by an incredible professor that is deepening my understanding of the Lord. Given the winter we have had in DFW, we have missed three classes, so we are moving fast in what appears to be the attempt to get back on track (I had thought we would have make up days, but have not heard anything yet about that).

The other day we spent time in The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5- 7, as well as the much shorter passage in Luke 6. The fact that it was probably a sermon on a plain given the number of people involved is another story for another day (see Luke 6:17). There is so much in that teaching you could probably dedicate a whole semester just to that. We moved more quickly than I would have liked, and my head felt like it would burst open and my brain would spill out like a rotten tomato. Or maybe I would have found out my brain is a rotten tomato. It surely feels that way at times when I try to fully grasp what the Word is telling me.

Here is a brief summary of The Sermon based on my lecture notes:

• The beatitudes of Matthew 5 are characteristics of the truly righteous; the woes of Luke 6 compare godly righteous to the ungodly practices of men.
• Being salt of the earth should create a thirst for righteousness.
• That which generates thoughts of violating God's Law is a violation in and of itself.
• The holiness of God is the true test of righteousness.
• Right things done out of the wrong motives is not righteousness.
• Righteousness can only be obtained through the narrow gate of Christ.
• Stand on the rock of Jesus you are in His Kingdom; stand on the sand of man you are out.

These are just some brief nuggets, but they brought some clarity to me in walking through The Sermon on the Mount. There is so much more, why don't you get into it yourself and have a go?

I just wanted to share a littler bit of what I am hearing and learning.

The Beginning of the End

Today in my seminary class we move on from Daniel into Revelation, where will be for the remainder of the semester. I cannot wait to dig into this part of the study. I have always wanted to spend time in the Book of Revelation, but have never done a detailed study. This one, led by Dr. Pentecost, will be from the pre-millennial, pre-tribulation school of thought. Which is fine, as that is what I hold to personally, I would probably not be studying where I am if I wasn't of that frame of mind.

As I go through the reading of this section, as I hear the events laid out in the bible and compare them to what is going on on the world, I see things developing in a way that one can see Revelation playing out in the future. I am not saying today nor tomorrow as no one knows the day except our Father in heaven, if I may paraphrase Matthew 24:36 a bit.

I can imagine how John struggled to get his mind around this divine revelation, how he must have struggled to put it on paper. (And remember, he had to do it in Greek with all those funny squiggles. You can tell I am not taking languages in school). What did he see, how did he describe it as he did? I am sure without divine inspiration he would be completely lost understanding what it is that was revealed to him. I wonder if he saw it in his mind like we see on a TV or computer (maybe a little 3D or HD action?), if he saw it as it will happen or in images his mind could grasp from the world around him.

That we are heading towards the end of days, I have no doubt. I mean, we are a day closer each day. Will it happen in my lifetime, or the lifetime of anyone alive on the earth today? Who knows. But it is possible that this is more likely true today than it was yesterday, and will be more so tomorrow. All I know is that it will happen when God wills it, and I will be in it those days if that is His will for me.

I do not know what to expect, but I know what to do. Follow hard after the Lord as I walk down The Narrow Road.

School Redux

Today I start class again at Dallas Seminary. I say class because I am taking one class this semester, that is all I can handle while working full time and all the assorted other stuff that has attached itself to me like so many magnetic mines over the course of the past 30 years or so.

I am doing well in class, at least when I contract for a grade that can be classified as doing well. But I have been struggling as a student since I got here, being a student has not changed all that much for me since the 70’s. I really do not like it all that much.

This is a great institution, I just do not like student-hood. I view it as a negative form of childhood I guess. I will soldier through, I have a plan mapped out in my head that gets me to a desired end in a time frame and frame of mind I can live with. I am working the plan and getting it done.

I will enjoy this course, it is on Daniel and Revelation and is taught by Dwight Pentecost, a favorite for me here at DTS. I hope I will be educated enough over the semester to be in a position to share some of it with you.

Details to come.

Now it is off to school, where’s my lunch pail?

Reconciliation

The word "reconciliation" in the Scriptures means "to cause to conform to a standard, to be adjusted to a specified standard." According to the Word of God, the world is out of balance. The world does not conform to the standard which God has set...It is very important that we should realize that God Himself is the standard by which He tests men...If we have a flexible standard, then all need for reconciliation disappears, for every man becomes a standard within himself...God brings us to Himself and causes us to be adjusted to His standards...God, in Christ Jesus, was changing the relationship of the world to Himself so that men in the world are now savable...It was Christ's death that reconciled the world to God, and made it possible for individual sinners to be reconciled to God.
Dwight Pentecost - Things Which Become Sound Doctrine

We need to conform to God's standard, which is God Himself. We cannot do it ourselves, we can only be reconciled to God through Jesus. He reconciled the world to God; He reconciles each and everyone who comes in faith and trust to Him as the only way to salvation to God.

You reconcile your checkbook every month, to keep it conformed to the standard of the bank's records. You only need once be reconciled to God, through faith in Jesus. From then on, none can pry you from His grasp.

Aren't we blessed?

A Colossians 1:18b Christmas

I just finished the Fall 2009 semester at seminary. Christmas is straight ahead with school in the rear view mirror for a month. A time to reflect on what the season means, a time to reflect on my Lord. And here turns out to be a great place to start:

and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
Colossians 1:18b (NASB)

This is the Bible reference one of my professors for this term, Dwight Pentecost, put with his signature in a couple of his books (Things To Come and The Words and Works of Jesus Christ. Great stuff) I asked him to sign yesterday. Did not get to ask him why, I did not see them until I got home and school is done so it will have to wait. But it means something to him, enough to write it with his signature twice. And the class I took was a study of Hebrews, but no quote out of there (Another great book, Faith That Endures. I love reading him). Something about patient endurance or about let us go on, two phrases he used to summarize Hebrews yesterday. Or maybe this one:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 13:8 (NASB)

I wrote my notes right in my copy of Faith, I have a bible study of Hebrews all lined out just by following what he taught us this semester. It was an incredible privilege to study it under him.

Getting back to Colossians, I will think about this verse, what it means to me, what it might mean to him. And his meaning will go way deeper than mine. after all, he has been teaching over 50 years, and ministering over 70. With a love of the bible that is awesome to see in a man in his 90's. I hope I remember to ask him next time I see him, which might take a while since I will not be on campus next semester as I am taking an online course.

Jesus is my hope and my assurance, my comfort and my strength. He has become the great constant in my life in a world that is ever-changing and more rapidly so as time goes past. Yes, it is the season of His birth, I need to meditate on it, and I have been pointed in a specific direction by a professor I admire deeply and have come to both respect and love. Thanks, Dr. P!

Let me know what you think of the verse and maybe I will come up with something pithy by the time I have to respond in the comments box.



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Never Ending

One of my professors at seminary this semester, Dwight Pentecost made a very simple but very powerful statement in class the other day:

The wealth of Scripture is inexhaustible.

It was made in the context of his reviewing a passage in Hebrews and how he now views it, how his thoughts about it have changed, and changed for the better in his opinion. For the purposes of this post, it really doesn't matter what the point he was making is (another story for another day). The point is the power and grace and faithfulness we get from a loving God when we seek Him in awe and obedience. A seminary professor since 1955, 94 years old, and God, through patient and devoted study and reflection, is revealing a little more of His truths on a daily basis. Incredible how loving and patient with us our Lord is.

God will never tire of revealing Himself to His children

How lucky I am to serve such a wonderful God.

Do Not Go It Alone

As we move through life seeking out God, as we look to accept Jesus as our Savior and Lord of our life, we must realize it is not a journey we can go alone:

It therefore remains for us to understand that the way to the Kingdom of God is open only to him whose mind has been made new by the illumination of the Holy Spirit.
John Calvin - Institutes of the Christian Religion 2.2.20

Even after we have accepted Jesus, the fruit we exhibit in our lives, the fruit of the Spirit comes from without us and is instilled in us:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NASB)

We are the vessel, those cracked earthenware bowls that hold that sweet and life affirming fruit that is so precious and dear in our life for it presages the life that is to come.

"Fruit is the overflow of life in the root through the branch"
Dwight Pentecost - Spring 2009 Class Notes

Do not go it alone, do not even try, but seek out the Lord and embrace the Spirit that will indwell you when you do.

True Service

It is one thing to follow God’s way of service if you are regarded as a
hero, but quite another thing if the road marked out for you by God
requires becoming a "doormat" under other people’s feet...Are you willing to give and be poured out until you are used up and
exhausted— not seeking to be ministered to, but to minister? Some
saints cannot do menial work while maintaining a saintly attitude,
because they feel such service is beneath their dignity.
Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest

What Dwight Pentecost calls "taking up the towel", serving in humility, serving with selfless love.Not for your benefit, but for others. Possibly to your own detriment.

Service with a price, but one you are willing to pay. A high standard set by Jesus:

Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands,
and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself.Then
He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet
and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. John 13:3-5 (NASB)

Service like this I struggle to perform. May I do better going forward.