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Matthew 23:24
New American Standard Bible (NASB)
24 You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Matthew 23:24
English Standard Version (ESV)
24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
R.T. France from his Matthew commentary states: 'This lack of sense of proportion is delightfully burlesqued in the ridiculous picture of a gnat strained out of a drink to avoid impurity (Leviticus 11: 20-23) while a camel also impure, (Leviticus 11: 4) is swallowed whole. The joke may have been aided by an Aramaic pun on qalma (gnat) and gamla (camel).' France (1985: 329).
FRANCE, R.T. (1985) Matthew, Grand Rapids, IVP, Eerdmans.
Following is not a perfect example by any means, but it made me ponder...
On the corporate site I was informed in regard to the landlord reasonably being green in accordance with a major corporate tenant's wishes to also be green and turn the lights down in certain areas after regular working hours.
The results were that certain employees were left in the dark as they needed to perform required functions and were put in slightly dangerous situations that were potentially even more dangerous.
The intellectual and philosophical blindness came to mind of Matthew 23: 24.
In this corporate example an attempt to be green was well-meaning, but placing an area of the site in darkness also placed persons performing functions after regular business hours in darkness and in danger.
A worse thing and evil proportionally was committed.
A problem in this story from the both the billion dollar corporate landlord and trillion dollar corporate tenant is that in their attempts to be green and politically correct they both overlooked the potential human need for regular lighting that would be required in that particular area involved. As a result an incident occurred and now changes are now required to bring the lighting back to regular working hours settings, after hours in that area.
A camel was swallowed (human beings were placed in danger) in an attempt to strain out a gnat (save human beings some energy and be green).
ReplyDeleteHello to the people of this forum< Am Brooke Campbell from Texas and i can say that am the happiest person on earth since last week with what DR ABULU has done for me , it all started last year October when my fiance left me in Texas and travel to see his parents in Ohio at first him was still calling me and show love even when him was away , but it gets to a point when he no longer gives a shit about me , and i noticed it so when i tried to confront him , he told me that he dose not love me again that he feel like being alone i was shocked and heartbroken when i tried talking he will hang the phone on me i was so heart broken and i was frustrated about this , but on a second thought i was not convince that he was on his right senses so i discuss this with my elder sister who lives in California and she directed me to DR abulu of abuluspiritualtemple@yahoo.com saying that the man has helped her friend in such case before so i said to my self let me tried i contacted this man
Beer & Colonoscopy
ReplyDeleteIt was my first time visiting Dr Putz for a colonoscopy.
I went into his office for my first rectal exam.
His new blonde nurse, Evelyn, took me to an examining
Room.
She told me to get undressed and have a seat until the doctor could see
Me. She said that he would only be a few minutes.
After putting on the gown that she gave me I sat down.
While waiting I observed there were three items on a stand next to the exam
Table:
A Tube of K-Y jelly,
A rubber glove
And a beer
.
When Dr. Putz finally came in I said, "Look
Doc, I'm a little confused.
This is my first exam.
I know what the K-Y
Is for,
And I know what the
Glove is for,
But can you tell me what the BEER
Is for?"
At that, Doctor Putz became noticeably outraged and stormed over to the
Door.
He flung the door open and yelled to his new blonde nurse,
“ Evelyn !.........I said a BUTT LIGHT"
I would be careful of religious teachers with temples and instead stay with Biblical teaching and related audio and written tools.
ReplyDeleteA little boy went up to his father and asked: 'Dad, where did my intelligence come from?'
ReplyDeleteThe father replied. 'Well, son, you must have got it from your mother, cause I still have mine.'
'Mr. Clark, I have reviewed this case very carefully,' the divorce Court Judge said, 'And I've decided to give your wife $775 a week,'
ReplyDelete'That's very fair, your honor,' the husband said. 'And every now and then I'll try to send her a few bucks myself.'
A doctor examining a woman who had been rushed to the Emergency Room, Took the husband aside, and said, 'I don't like the looks of your wife at all.'
ReplyDelete'Me neither doc,' said the husband. 'But she's a great cook and really good with the kids.'
Two Reasons Why It's So Hard To Solve A Redneck Murder:
ReplyDelete1. The DNA all matches.
2. There are no dental records.
A blonde calls Delta Airlines and asks, 'Can you tell me how long it'll take to fly from San Francisco to New York City ?'
ReplyDeleteThe agent replies, 'Just a minute.'
'Thank you,' the blonde says, and hangs up.
Two Mexican detectives were investigating the murder of Juan Gonzalez.
ReplyDelete'How was he killed?' asked one detective.
'With a golf gun,' the other detective replied.
'A golf gun! What is a golf gun?'
'I don't know. But it sure made a hole in Juan.'
__________
Moe: 'My wife got me to believe in religion.'
ReplyDeleteJoe: 'Really?'
Moe: 'Yeah. Until I married her I didn't believe in Hell.'
Take Up Your Cross
ReplyDeleteOra et labore, pray and work, that covers it, doesn't it? Some monks did both at the same time, that sounds right too. Right now I'm repenting about my trivial prayer life, and that's a start. But shouldn't I be also working on what I'm asking the Lord to do? How can I get my labore going with my ora?
Abortion is what I'm especially thinking about. Back then everyone knew that Roe v Wade was off the charts—how does protecting your privacy give you the right to kill? Two of the greatest evangelical Christian working theologians I've ever known, Fran Schaeffer and Joe Brown, did their best, and didn't change much. Bill Clinton was for abortion "safe, legal and rare," and Hillary has echoed that—but what does rare mean to our world anyway?
I'm meditating in Habakkuk right now. He complains that God isn't battling evil hard enough, and the Lord answers him, just wait and see how I'll do just that by destroying your evil Israel! If I pray now for my country to do away with abortion, could the Lord get back to me and say: just watch, now comes 9/11 with H-bombs?
I know Israel is special in the Lord's story, and America is not. My great-uncle Ebenezer was borderline British-Israel. He showed me an impressive list of Hebrew words in one column and Welsh words in the next, and they did seem to line up. But my Hebrew is weak and my Welsh weaker, so I'm not buying that anyway. But any country, even my country, can't it still do things wrong, and bring God's judgment upon itself?
ReplyDeleteI know cultural Protestantism is misguided, but I love America. Growing up I'd hear the yearly sermon on the three great Presbyterian Johns, Calvin, Knox, culminating with John Witherspoon. He was the only preacher to sign the Declaration, the Brits said America is running off with a Presbyterian parson, and so they put up their horses in our churches, counting on their manure. America is religious freedom for all the folks who couldn't find it back home, including those Swedenborgians over in Bryn Athyn. America is where my great-great-grandfather Vaughn Davis came so he could have his own farm and not have to pay tithes to the Church of England on top of his Calvinistic Methodist. Did we train preachers! Try Harvard, Yale and Princeton. We had a plan once to evangelize the world in one generation, and did so much to get it done.
But that was then and now abortion right here is not going away. In America it's down to a little over a million a year, and has been as high as 1.3 mill. That's a trend, but one mill is not really rare, is it? The Holocaust was 6 mill, and by now we're over 50 mill. What shall we be doing?
When black slavery was the worst thing about us, our churches had their doubts that the Bible had anything to say, so focused instead only on the "spiritual." When so many people wanted to get help on this from the Bible, we didn't give it. Instead the bloody Civil War had to do the job—except that the followup in Reconstruction was pitiful. I'm not surprised that many gave up on evangelical churches. They wanted a church that made a difference in the world. They said it this way: who needs all that doctrinal precision in a religion about Jesus, we're putting together the religion of Jesus, the kind that joins with him in caring for the poor and down-trodden.
By and large the liberals won that one, especially those Presbyterian. But now they're dying out, and barely to be missed. Now we are left with our precious gospel and enthusiasm for helping people know Jesus as Savior—also as Lord. Without the "Lord" part we're likely not to be that credible either. We need to hear more at the end of the sermons, something like this: isn't the Lord kind to make this so clear and encouraging to us? Now that we know that, what should we do? How shall we get started? Puritans called that "application," what's the point of all that truth anyway? Our preachers help us in so many ways today, but they struggle to end their sermons, at least I think so. There's something even worse than that: I doubt there are many of us who miss that, who say to their preachers, could you help us more with the "now what?"
ReplyDeleteI just passed the buck, did you notice? I don't know what to say about abortion. Yes, we must care for needy people one on one, that helps people understand us, even helps us understand itself. It's hard to be dumped by the guy who got you pregnant. It's hard to get your career preparation drastically interrupted by an untimely pregnancy. I know we are learning this for ourselves, that the American dream of happiness is not what our lives are really about. We know we are called to takes up our crosses daily, to suffer with Jesus Christ in our real life with him. We are learning to love each other in hard marriages, to be content as our income drops, and especially to keep on trusting the Lord when he hides his face. American believers have had it easier than many, but now we are catching up in learning to suffer with Christ. We hope not, but as secular oppression of gospel Christianity becomes more and more blatant, we are ready to be imprisoned for him or die for him. We may not prevail in the abortion battle, but by the Lord's grace we will persist. As we reflect on our own identity of suffering, we can care for others for whom their pregnancy to term will be very hard. In this life there are few quick and easy answers for anyone, but we attest with all our hearts to the reality of joy in Jesus Christ.
As we battle against abortion, that must also not restrict the other battles we must be carrying on. Our Lord has called us to care for the poor. Again, no doubt we seek to care for those we know one on one. Personal love trumps politics, doesn't it? But the Lord has placed us in a democracy where our opinion and our votes are important. My own judgment is still in process, but when Democrats foster abortion but care for the poor, and Republicans do the opposite, then how shall we vote? We hope to know more clearly in a year, but until then we must say openly and honestly that we care deeply for both deep needs, caring for the poor and safeguarding the babies. We must keep praying for the Lord to raise up those who understand his values, and are equipped to make a political difference.
ReplyDeleteWe must be eager to keep our big picture in sharp focus. The Lord calls us to bring the gospel to all, and to build each other up in the faith; but he also calls us to show his wisdom and justice and love in every area of life where he places us. Church and Kingdom too, at the same time—that is our calling. We are fearful of that massive agenda. It is so easy to leave one or the other out, to show the world a truncated Jesus. We are learning to work with Catholics and Orthodox and some liberals to advance justice, and at the same time to seek to help each other clarify just what the evangelistic message is. All of this is harder and more demanding than ever before, and it is easy to wish for the easier calling of a generation ago. But the Lord is still on the throne, almighty God is he!
Oh, what about that Habakkuk? He got our attention by reminding us that the justice we together seek might well come at the cost of his judgment upon our comfortable lives. That is a great but hard blessing, but makes our choices clearer, doesn't it? Are we here to grumble about evil and injustice, or are we here to take up our crosses daily? In that demanding and challenging real world today, we listen joyfully to how the prophet ends the revelation our Lord gave us through him. We have appreciated those words before, but not with the depth that we see coupled now with our hard challenge:
ReplyDeleteI hear, and my body trembles;
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.
D. Clair Davis
An intriguing discussion is definitely worth comment. I do think that you should publish more
ReplyDeleteon this subject, it may not be a taboo subject
but generally people don't discuss such subjects.
To the next! All the best!!
[Clair's Friends, all of you. Lately I've burdened you and your faithful computers with a real load. I want to let you know that you won't be hearing from me now for 2 or 3 weeks. I seeking to grasp a little of what it means to love the Lord, and that's hard for me. So relax from reading, and pray for me to get something so basic, so I can help you with that too].
ReplyDeleteHurry Up and Get Some Rest
When is it time to rest? That's obvious, isn't it? It's when you've got the job done, then you unwind. In the Old Testament, Sabbath was on the seventh day, the end of the week, when it was time to rest. That's what God himself did in the creation week, a good example to follow. That's the thing you're celebrating, after all—the hard tasks are over.
Then why is it that in the New Testament the Lord's Day is the first day of the week? European calendars generally begin on Monday and make Sunday the last day of the week. Airline abbreviations use "1" for Monday too. Is it hard to get used to the idea that you start the week by resting?
The book of Nehemiah helps. After a hard exile, God's people are back home in Jerusalem. They got the defensive wall and gates up, and now can keep the traders out on the Sabbath. They get together to hear God's law in the five books of Moses. They review their lives according to what God has commanded—and they weep! Naturally, don't you think? Here is God's blueprint for my life, and I messed it all up, nonstop, what a waste. Our time of foolishly avoiding God is over, so now we see clearly and painfully what we've done.
But they were wrong, dramatically wrong! They hear about it too, in Nehemiah 8: "stop your crying, this is a day of celebration, eat up, drink up, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." You're hearing hard things, and you need to understand them in order to work on your life. But Where are you hearing them? Back Home, in the Lord's Own House, that's Where. The Lord has forgiven you, you're starting life over again, that's why you need to stop crying and start laughing, stop mourning and drinking some more. A couple chapters later they can get to their serious repenting.
You're called to joy too, and that's your strength for going ahead. What is that "joy of the Lord?" Could it even be, since the Lord himself is so glad you're back, that it's the Lord's very own joy? Like the Father of the prodigal son, putting on his banquet? Not to fake some joy to get your mind off your many failings, but much more, to believe in your heart how much your Father loves you, to know how happy he is to welcome you again?
What does that 40 day waiting period at the beginning of Acts mean? I think it's this: Christ in risen! We have the Holy Spirit! Next we have the enormous task of evangelizing the whole world ahead of us, but God calls us to first take 40 to meditate, to pray and especially to praise. They're celebrating to kick off their work, don't you think?
ReplyDeleteCould you begin a sermon this way: "this sermon will be very hard for me, about loving your enemies. God wants us to do that so I guess I have to preach it—but I have to think about the joy we have in Jesus Christ first, otherwise I'll never make it." Or when you get up in the morning, should you first take 15 to rejoice? I like joy to be spontaneous, but doesn't the Lord have a better plan? Whatever you need strength for right now, it's going to take a big dose of the Lord's joy for you to even get started, so just do it.
I think that's the gospel truth, but I'm nervous about it. I've done all this church history, the laundry list of all the foolishness in God's people. The hardest to work with is always how Law and Grace work together. We need to beware of antinomianism, the too much grace, too little law, slaphappy instead of diligent. That was the challenge we faced in our Westminster Seminary's 7 year conflict over Norman Shepherd's view that we needed "obedient faith" to be justified. How can you put that together with "by faith alone" and "Christ alone? We know that trusting in Christ brings us our salvation, but also that that trust always comes along with faithful obedience to him—so what's so wrong with "obedient faith?"
As moderator I didn't say much, but here were my thoughts: of course we ask Jesus Christ to be our Savior and Lord, the package. But our forgiveness depends only on God's mercy and grace, not on how well we're doing. We strive to be more and more faithful, but when we fail our hope for forgiveness is only his mercy. That's my rerun of Nehemiah 8: rejoice first to give strength for deep work ahead with your sin, rejoice in God's mercy as you fight your battle. I hear now how Serge Mission thinks: it's not the either/or of law or grace, since big grace goes with big law—it's only when you recognize the Lord's radical calling to you that take seriously how radically you need his blessing. I think that moves us along, don't you? We're not really thinking about the beginning of our walk with Jesus but how it looks in the middle, how we move on again after seeing that idolatry in our lives.
I think again about that challenging sequence in Romans 7 and 8: "wretched man that I am, I do everything wrong; thanks be to God." The "thanks be" part must be looking ahead to Romans 8 with its "what shall separate me from the love of Christ." God's plan for us is amazingly comprehensive, covering "all things:" And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
ReplyDeleteAll those gifts of the Lord, going all the way back, all the way back to our being foreknown and predestined! For me that underlines that the grace of God comes first. It would go like this: after years of deserved exile, we're back with the Lord because of his joy in us, OR, after we've done just everything wrong, remember that nothing can separate us from his love since he loved us long before we were even born. I think that's the right way to go. "Election" can seem scary and unknowable, but instead it's really how God gives us our firm foundation in the battle, reminding us that we live in the world of his joy in us and ours in him.
Any Bible truth can be twisted and perverted, including the truth of his abiding mercy. But that's not a good reason for us to turn down his encouraging long-term plan. Too much joy? Are you saying that you don't need it, that you're talented at facing the reality of your life and toughing it out?
John Murray taught us that the hardest Sabbath question was the shift to the beginning of the week. There isn't that much to work with, I know. But we are very clear that our joyful rest in the Lord is what already gives us the strength we need to live this hard life.
By now you know how I complain about preachers who think it's fine to end a sermon with, "may the Lord use this in your lives," when he means, "I haven't a clue." Application is a wonderful godly blessing. Now I hope to tweak that: it doesn't have to be on the end. It could well fit as you go along. "Are you thinking how you could possibly do this, what the Lord asks of you? I am too, it's too much. So before we go on, let's think through our joy. Let's remember that the Lord loved us before we ever loved him, and that he loved us not because he made a mistake, but he loved us especially when he knew what we were like, deep down."
Hebrews 4 gives us a bigger picture: For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two- edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
So God's rest comes when we rest from our own works, and to do that we must strive for it. Work hard to rest? I think so. Read those Pharisee stories again, and see how they don't come to Jesus because healthy people don't need a real doctor. We may have to work at it to see how needy we are. We have to decide whether our joy comes from admiring our own character or from being so glad that the Lord loves us. There's nothing standing in our way, is there? So hurry up and get some rest!
ReplyDeleteD. Clair Davis