Romans Parts 1 and 2, 1-4 and 5-8: Preschool Class Walking the Line.

Presented to TSA AV Ministries 16 March 2025 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

Before we needed to be away for a little bit, we were looking at Paul’s letter to the Romans quite a bit. Today I want to review a little bit of what we have spoken about and look at some of the broad themes, ideas and context of the first seven or eight chapters. First some questions:

 

·       Who wrote Romans? (Paul)

·       When was it written? (Mid to late 50s CE)

·       Who was it written to? (Holy People / Saints in Rome – which means Christians)

·       Where is Rome? (Modern day Italy)

·       Who is Paul? (an Apostle, a Roman, a Pharisee from Tarsus in modern day Turkey)

·       Where and how does Paul die? (executed in Rome – probably beheaded)

 

This is important. Paul writes these words probably realizing that he is nearing the end of his life. He is respected by the letter’s recipients, and he wants them to be aware of many things. Now this is a very long letter. I have never written a letter this long – even my sermons aren’t near this long! - even in the days when I wrote letters to put in the mail – way back before email and social media, remember that? I never wrote letters this long. Now because this letter to the Romans is so long, he covers a lot of stuff. It is sort of like – do you remember the old days? – Did you ever have a friend or family friend who only sent you a letter once a year – maybe at Christmas – and it would go on and on for pages telling you more than you could ever possibly want to know about their life, children, family and pets, etc.

When Paul writes his letter, he has some things he expects that we will know before he even starts writing. When I used to teach, we would often give students vocabulary sheets of words they needed to know as they read. If the Bible was a Ginn Reader and we each had vocab sheets, words like these may be on them:

 

·       Law – rules the demarcate the people of God (separate out / reveal). Given to the Hebrews through Moses.

·       Circumcision – a sign that specific males are part of the people of God. This was given to the world through Abraham (hundreds of years before Moses was born). Looking around the room, all of us seem old enough that I don’t need to explain how that is done.

·       Flesh – our own body, our own self, our own thoughts, our own mind, as compared to ‘Spirit’ which is of God

·       Sin / Trespass - In Romans this refers to anything destructive that erodes holiness, peace, wholeness and/or life itself. Paul also uses the word to refer to things we do to hurt and decay ourselves and others (often translated ‘trespass’). He also uses the word ‘sin’ or ‘sin nature’ to refer to a desire or compulsion to do something we know that goes against peace, wholeness, and holiness. This is like addiction. We know what is right, we resolve not to do what is wrong but… and Paul spends a lot of time explaining the ‘but’.

·       Faith – this is a key word in Romans. The word faith (Greek: Pistos) also means faithfulness. It is a reciprocal word. Whenever you see it, you should probably read it as the faith of one person (either the subject or the object of the sentence) and the faithfulness of the other,

·       Grace – When one does what is best for another regardless of merit or anything else they are extending grace. Often a person experiences grace and mercy at the same time. You do something, you are awaiting the results or consequences of that action and instead you get a reprieve as grace is extended to you.

 

Romans in Review:

 

Chapter One: Romans 1:16-17 can be read as a thesis of at least the first part of the letter: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. 17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith[fulness] from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith[fulness].”

Chapter Two: Hebrews were given the Law but still they weren’t able to do what it said any more than Gentiles and others who were not given the Law.

There are good things in the Law that we should know and let people know about for their own benefit, because if they know in advance, they can be saved the consequences of these things such as: don’t murder, covet, lie, etc. These truths that are written down are all a very good standard for our life that warn us about what not to do to keep us out of trouble.

Chapters Three and Four explain the weakness of the Law. One of the weaknesses mentioned is simply temptation. Sometimes we would never even have considered doing something wrong, if someone hadn’t come up to us and said ‘no, don’t do that’! I remember I got in trouble a few times in elementary school because I just had to try whatever it was that the Teacher had told us not to do, because I had never even considered that before she told us.

An analogy: a teacher gives her class a rule, ‘no walking on the street’. She gives the class this rule because she doesn’t want them to be it by a car: if they get hit by a car they might be hurt, injured, die, and also, in so doing, emotionally hurt their friends and family, the driver of the car, etc. – so there is a good rule: don’t walk on the road.

Now there are some bad things to come out of this good rule: some people tattle. Some people tell the teacher every time a classmate walks too close to the road, every time a classmate accidently touches the road, every time a classmate walks in the direction of the road. Some people are so concerned about the rule – ‘don’t walk on the road’ – that they abuse their classmates with it. That rule which is made to protect people’s lives is now being used to make their life miserable. This is legalism: when we care more about the rules than the people the rules are there to protect, when we care more about punishing people who do ‘bad things’ than helping people to ‘do good things’ and to be safe – which is the reason the law is there in the first place.

And then, of course, there is that almost uncontrollable temptation, as well. Once the teacher tells Johnny not to step on the road, he wants to try it even though he has never even considered walking on the road before: he will walk as close beside it as he can, then he will put a foot on it. Then he will pretend to fall on it – all the while he is testing to see why this rule is here. And then Cindy Lou Who telling on him all the time doesn’t help either. This all makes him want to break the rule, which makes him vulnerable to the natural consequences of breaking the rule, which is getting hit by a car.

Now if you look at your vocab sheets, you will notice that Paul talks about circumcision. Circumcision is a sign that people belong to a group: the ancient Hebrews, the descendants of Abraham. It is like when classes of children are walking near the road how they all have brightly coloured pinnies or t-shirts on. These are the kids that have been told specifically not to go on the road. Now, it would be best for us all not to go on the road, but only the kids in the class wearing the pinnies have been given that rule for their outing: so the Law is the rule not to go into the road (which could result in death and / or other things) which was given to the children wearing pinnies (which is circumcision) but it really is best for everyone not to step on the road, whether they were told the rule or not. Does that all make sense? There are many ‘pinnies’ we have in the contemporary church to identify ourselves as children of God like this today. In the modern/post-modern church I would say that whenever you read ‘circumcision’ in the Bible, it may be valuable to read ‘baptism’ or any other pinnie that Christians put on to show we are God’s children.

Chapter 5 we have talked about a lot and I will speak more about too – but for today’s purposes, it talks about getting back to the Garden of Eden, getting back to a time before we needed rules to avoid doing what is harmful and to do what is good: when we could just do that by being in a relationship with God. Perseverance through the suffering of life brings us back to the garden.

Chapters 6 through 8, which we will look at soon enough, wrestle with sin: the desire of the children in our school/pre-school analogy, to walk in the road, those telling you to (or not to sometimes) walk in the road, and -of course- the act of walking in the road itself. Basically, what Chapter 6 says is that if you just follow your teacher you won’t walk in the road. These days preschoolers, as well as wearing pinnies, often hold a rope to help them follow their teacher. Chapter 6 says just keep holding the rope and follow your teacher – if you accidently step on the road or if someone else does, don’t dwell on it, just keep looking at the teacher, holding the rope and walking – it is when you stop and focus on the road or your friend who is on the road or the one who is nagging you about walking on the road, that you run into trouble (that is not to say you shouldn’t help your friend up if they fall on the road) but you just need to keep on keeping on following the teacher.

Chapter 7 always reminds me of AA. Anyone here who has ever attended AA meetings will know just how valuable they can be. AA’s step one paraphrased, “We admitted that we were powerless over sin [alcohol] – that our lives have become unmanageable.” Chapter 7 speaks of Sin as that force, that temptation, trying to draw us into that which leads to destruction, into the peril of the open road; Sin in Chapter 7 is the Odessey’s siren song calling us to some imagined pleasure that in reality will just wreck the ships of our life on the rocks of death and destruction. Sin is calling the preschoolers away from the safety of the path towards certain doom in the road. In Chapter Seven, Paul sounds like Odysseus strapped to the mast of his ship, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate to do, I do” (7:16) “So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law but in the flesh a slave to the law of Sin” (7:25)

Chapter 8 offers us the hope. The teacher sees us on and near the road and still “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. (8:1) The teacher pulls us aside, kneels beside us and offers us much comfort. She tells us that we don’t need to worry about all the do’s and the don’ts of the rules. We don’t need to worry about getting into trouble, taunting others, or even telling on them. We just need to follow our teacher along the path she is leading us along and then we will be okay, Romans 8:14, “for those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.’

So that is my wish for us today. Let us just keep our eyes on Jesus – nothing else can save us from sin or death. Nothing else can make us holy or whole. Let us cast our eyes upon Jesus. For us we turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face, all the temptations of life will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Let us pray.

 

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Acts 17:11-12 and 2 Timothy 3:14-17: A-Mainz-ing Grace.

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 30 October 2022 by Major Michael Ramsay

 

Today, as well as All Hallows Eve eve, it is also Reformation Day Eve. The Reformation is acknowledged to have started on 31 October 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, in what is now Germany.

 

When Covid-19 struck the world – at least when the panic and the initial measures were taken, when they started closing borders and not allowing people outside, we were in Germany. Germany was our first stop in our planned trip. We were hoping to see Denmark and other places but most of Europe was closed before we would have a chance but one place that we were able to see before the great lockdown was Mainz in Germany. (Here are some pictures of our time in Mainz) Do we know what is an important artifact relating to the Reformation that is in Mainz? It is something that actually came into being sometime between 1450 and 1454, a few years before the Reformation: The Gutenberg Bible! (show pictures)

 

Acts 17:11-12: Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 1s a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.

 

In that same spirit and more, centuries later, the Gutenberg Bible had a profound effect on history in general, printing, and the Reformation itself. The Gutenberg Bible is named after Johannes Gutenberg, the person who printed it. Textually, the Bible had quite an influence on future editions of the Bible. The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, the Mazarin Bible or the B42, not to be confused with the B52s) was the earliest major book printed using mass-produced movable metal type in Europe. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution", as it is called, and the age of printed books.

 

We were able to see some of two original Gutenberg Bibles and plates in the Museum in Mainz while we were there on one of the very last days that people were allowed indoors in Europe (except for in Sweden). As a result, the museum was quite empty and we were able to have a good long look at things.

 

The museum is primarily dedicated to Johannes Gutenberg. Gutenberg was native of Mainz and not that long ago, he was named "Man of the Millennium". At the heart of the exhibition in the museum are the two copies of the Gutenberg Bible in the walk-in vault. It was quite interesting. we were able to see comprehensive information about his life, work, and inventions, as well as their reception and consequences. The museum itself was founded more that a century ago, in 1900, by citizens of Mainz. It was very interesting.

 

The Gutenberg Bible is an edition of the Vulgate and contains the Latin version of the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament.

 

In 1448, Gutenberg took out a loan from his brother-in-law Arnold Gelthus, quite possibly for the printing press and/or related paraphernalia and in 1455 Gutenberg completed his 42-line Bible. About 180 copies were printed, most on paper and some on vellum. Making the Bible available to more people than ever so we can all examine the scriptures thoroughly.

 

Then, about a year later, some time in 1456, there was a dispute between Gutenberg and Fust, and Fust demanded the money he invested in the project back, accusing Gutenberg of misusing the funds. The court decided in favor of Fust and gave him control over the Bible printing workshop and half of all the already printed Bibles.

 

Gutenberg's printing technology, however, continued to spread rapidly throughout Europe and later the world. The Gutenberg Bible was the first printed version of the Bible. This arrival of mechanical movable type printing introduced the era of mass communication which permanently altered society and the church. The Catholic Encyclopedia describes Gutenberg's invention as having made a practically unparalleled cultural impact in the Christian era. The relatively unrestricted circulation of information transcended borders, and captured the masses in the Reformation making the Word of God available to many.

 

This is important because scripture is vitally important as 2 Timothy 3:15b-17 records, “Holy Scriptures…are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The printing press put this information directly into more people’s hands than ever before and as a result was a major spark to the Protestant Reformation, which started 505 years ago tomorrow. Scriptures are important.

 

The Salvation Army’s spiritual grandfather, John Wesley put a strong emphasis on the Scriptures,[1] he said: “I want to know one thing - the way to heaven, how to land safe on that happy shore. God Himself has condescended to teach me the way, for this very end He came from heaven; He hath written it down in a book. O give me that Book! At any price, give me the Book of God. I have it; here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri! [a man of One Book!]”[2] Wesley noted that all scripture is given by God (2 Tim 3:16-17); the Scriptures are infallible and thus profitable for each of us to engage[3] and even more they are “a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the Day-star arise in your hearts.’ (2 Peter 1:19)”, if we want to share in this experience Wesley said we should search the Scriptures![4]

 

On this Reformation Day Eve, it is important to note that the Scriptures were of the utmost importance to all the Church Reformers. Ulrich Zwingli, in his work, On True and False Religion, stated that the true source of all religion is the Word of God. “The Reformation as a whole was based on this principle.”[5] He said, “there is no law or word that will give greater light to the inward man than the Word of God.”[6] He insisted that the word of man must always be subject to the Word of God rather than the other way around[7] as he perceived was happening in his day and which can certainly be argued is happening in ours. We must remember, only humankind can come to know God and ourselves through the Word of God; it is the Word of God, which sets us apart from the plants and the animals.[8]

 

Like Wesley and like Zwingli, The Salvation Army holds a very important role for the Scriptures in our theological tradition. Our very first doctrine –my personal favourite- reads, “We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God, and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.” We hold that they are the primary authority, the ‘final court of appeal’ for the Christian that supersedes all other claims and that “as we search the Scriptures, we enter into dialogue with them and experience the transforming power of the message.”[9]

 

This is – or should be – I believe, true of all Christians. What about us here today? How familiar are we with the Bible which, these days, is very easily accessible? How many of us spend time reading the Bible on our own? How long does it take to read some of the letters in the New Testament? An hour or less?  Not very long. How many of us set that time aside? We can easily read a New Testament book or an Old Testament story while we are having our morning coffee or our afternoon tea.  It doesn’t take long. How many of us read our Bibles with our children, grandchildren, or great-grand children as the case might be? It needn’t take very long and the blessings are eternal and amazing.

 

2 Timothy 3:14-17: “… continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

 

2 Timothy 3:15 - the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Romans 1:16, the Gospel itself “…is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”

 

Susan has shared her testimony here before. I won’t retell her whole story for you now other than to remind you that as a university student she came to know the Lord through reading the Scriptures to prove those Christians wrong. 

 

Romans 1:16, the Gospel “…is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”

 

Let us pray.

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[1] Captain Michael Ramsay, John Wesley’s Means of Grace compared with Ulrich Zwingli as seen through a Salvationist Lens. Presented to William and Catherine Booth College, October 2008. Available online: http://www.sheepspeak.com/Michael_Ramsay_History_TSA.htm#Wesley1

[2] John Wesley, in The Works of the Rev. John Wesley, A.M. (London: John Mason, 1829), Thomas Jackson, editor, V:ii,iii. Cited in Arnett, William M. “John Wesley and the Bible,” Wesleyan Theological Journal 3, no. 1, (Spring 1968): http://wesley.nnu.edu/wesleyan_theology/theojrnl/01-05/03-1.htm

[3] John Wesley, The Means of Grace, III.8-9

[4] John Wesley, The Means of Grace, III.10

[5] Courvoisier, Zwingli: A Reformed Theologian, (Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1963), 27.

[6] Ulrich Zwingli, Clarity and Certainty of the Word of God (Zurich: 1524), cited in Bromiley, 67.

[7] W.P. Stephens, The Theology of Huldrych Zwingli. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), 52-53.

[8] Courvoisier, Zwingli: A Reformed Theologian, (Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1963), 28.

[9] The General of The Salvation Army. Salvation Story: Salvationist Handbook of Doctrine: (London: Salvation Books, 1998), 8-9.

Proverbs 1:7, 9:10: Yir’ah, The Fear of the LORD.

Presented to the Nipawin, (17 May 2009) Swift Current (27 May 2012) and Alberni Valley Corps of The Salvation Army (15 May 2022) by Captain Michael Ramsay

This is the 2022 version. To view the earlier version, click here:  http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/05/proverbs-17-910-yirah-fear-of-lord.html

 

Today we are looking at Proverbs. A proverb is a wise saying with instructions for living an effective life. Proverbs are characterized by short, memorable statements that reflect the world as we know it As I was considering our text today, I ran across a number of contemporary proverbs about optimists and pessimists:

• –       In the long run the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip. ~Daniel L. Reardon
• –       Pessimist: One who, when he has the choice of two evils, chooses both. ~Oscar Wilde
• –       Both optimists and pessimists contribute to our society. The optimist invents the airplane and the pessimist the parachute. ~Gil Stern
• –       An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan
• –       Always borrow money from a pessimist, he doesn't expect to be paid back. ~ Unknown[1]

My favourite: This is more of a definition than a proverb actually but I thought that I would share it anyway:

• –       An Optimist is a word which here refers to a person…who thinks hopeful and pleasant thoughts about nearly everything. If an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say, in a pleasant and hopeful voice, "Well, this isn't too bad. I don't have my left arm anymore, but at least nobody will ever ask me whether I am right-handed or left-handed," but most of us would say something more along the lines of "Aaaaah! My arm! My arm!" ~Lemony Snicket[2]

 

Proverbs in the Bible often contrasts the wisdom of following God to the folly of following our any counsel that is not based in reverence for our Lord. Proverbs champions the truth, with many different examples, that people have very real choices in life but they all boil down to this: either we follow God and live an abundant life with God or we follow ourselves or anyone or anything else and forego that life with God.

The theme of Proverbs can be summed up in Proverbs 9:10 [9] and 1:7: ‘The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.’ The beginning of any understanding is a fear of God. Well, what does that mean? What does it mean to have the fear of the LORD’?

Does it mean to panic? Does it mean to be timid? No. It is different. To be timid is to cower. To be timid is like…have you ever seen an abused animal who has been terrorized? She pulls back as soon as you reach out your arm. The timid person is walking on eggshells at all times. This concept shows up in the book of Timothy, where Paul tells us that timidity (Greek: deilia) is not from God. Timidity is not the beginning of wisdom. [11]

The timid person reminds me of in the parable of the talents. Remember that parable, recorded in Matthew 25? The king gives three people talents (money). The third one is so afraid (Greek: phobeo) that he does not even invest his talents. He is actually paralyzed with fear. This fear creates what the Apostle Paul calls in Romans 8:15, ‘a spirit of bondage’, a phobia. In Romans 8:15 (like Matt 25:35), the Greek word Paul uses is actually ‘phobos’ – from which we derive the word ‘phobia’, and this as we know refers to an irrational fear.[12] This kind of irrational fear is not the beginning of wisdom. It is not from God: phobia. And the spirit of timidity (deilia) Paul tells us about in 2 Timothy 1:7, is not from God; God gives us power and love and a sound mind. Sometimes even we Christians forget this.

Many –but not all- Christians believe in the so-called ‘rapture’. The idea behind the rapture is that at some point, God will snatch up either those He loves (the more popular belief) or those He hates (a less popular belief) and leave the rest behind. We had a professor at College who was raised in a phobia-producing kind of church environment that focused on a terror of being left behind if you weren’t good enough to be raptured and he told us that one night he heard a car horn or a train whistle and he woke up in absolute terror. He was so frightened that that sound was the trumpet of the Lord and that he had missed the rapture. He was terrified that he might have been left behind. Phobias, timidity and this panic: these are not representative of the fear of the Lord that Proverbs is talking about. This is a terror some even well-meaning people can put into the minds of innocent souls.

That being said, the word for fear here in Proverbs 1:7 and 9:10, yir'ah, is not totally absent of the concept of a terror of sorts. Scholar Allen P. Ross tells us that, “The term yir'ah can describe dread (Dt 1:29), being terrified (Jh 1:10), standing in awe (1 Ki 3:28), and/or having reverence (Lv 19:3). With the Lord as the object, yir'ah captures both aspects of shrinking back in fear and of drawing close in awe. It is not a trembling dread that paralyzes action, but neither is it merely a polite reverence (Plaut, p. 32).”[15]

Strong’s dictionary and concordance both define yir'ah as this ‘fear’ or ‘moral reverence’ acknowledging that yir'ah encompasses more than that – it can refer to a sense of moral fearfulness.[16] What does this mean? What is the difference between a reverent, moral fearfulness that leads to knowledge and wisdom and the fearful, panic-stricken, timid phobia that leads to cowering? We are all familiar with the word ‘deference’, right? Deference means respect. People often have a certain amount of deference (respect) for our uniforms. I have had many people -even strangers- alter their language and try not to swear in my presence because of my uniform.

In many other countries – more than here, students generally have a certain amount of deference for their teachers. They respect their authority. They seem to be a little less likely to speak out than children in our public school systems. I remember once when I was working at an international school, there was this joke among the staff. It went like this: ‘How do you get an international student to be quiet?’ The answer: ‘You ask them to be quiet… please.’ This is respect.

I have witnessed deference firsthand in courtrooms too. You would be surprised at how quickly a person removes his hat or turns off her cell phone with just one sideways glance from that judge. I have seen people talking big outside the courtroom and then a moment later I have seen them inside bowing quickly to the authority and power of the courts. I have seen even your most law-abiding citizens who are not in the court on charges but simply there to assist someone else – I have seen people who know the judge quite well – when they are addressed by the judge, immediately defer to her position. This deference is not entirely without fear. Our courtrooms are probably one of the best parallels to the emotions that accompany yir'ah in contemporary western society.

Another example of that same idea. We have a number of AA groups that meet here during the week. There was a time when I drank – too much. I remember my late teens. I was at a party at a friend’s apartment and I was drinking. It was late. Most of the people had gone home but a few of us remained. Things went bad. A friend and her boyfriend started fighting and when I say fighting, I don’t mean that they were just yelling at each other. She was hitting him quite hard and repeatedly and then he gave her a black eye. Other than them, I was the only one there who wasn’t passed out. I pushed him out on the tenth storey balcony with me and I locked the door behind us so that she would be separated from him. I did not want to be in the middle of this. Well, I thought that I had locked the sliding balcony door but next thing I know she comes through the door and attacks him and in the ensuing scuffle, I am knocked off the tenth-floor balcony. Literally, I am dangling by my fingertips. I am hanging there as they are fighting, trying to kill each other. I have been a Christian since I was a child. I have had way too much to drink and I am dangling from this balcony. I pray ‘God, please don’t let me meet you like this’ – what I mean is ‘God, please don’t let my last act at this time on earth be something so unglorifying to you.’ He answered my prayer obviously and saved my life as I climbed back onto the balcony and into the apartment with my friends and I sobered up and He used even me in that time and place to minister to my friends.

In that moment when I was dangling over the edge of the balcony and coming before the LORD in prayer, I had the fear of the Lord. I had a moral fear of the LORD. I am not afraid that He is going to punish me because I was bad. I am not afraid that I am going to go to hell. I did have that moral, dreadful fear of the LORD though that I – in this moment, in this state – am letting my saviour down. I am not living up to my heavenly potential. I am not holy as I could have been holy. When the Lord saves me, He lets me hold onto not only the memory of these events but also the real memory of the moral, dreadful fear of the Lord. From that experience, I am able to learn so much. I no longer find myself dangling from balconies or drinking too much! Nor am I committing other such errors. I have grown in knowledge and wisdom from this fear of the LORD.  

Even more: When we love someone, we don’t want to fail him or her. When we work for someone, we don’t want to let him or her down. When we love and work for someone, we want to do everything we can for them because we love them. It is this fear of the Lord that keeps us holy. It is this fear of the Lord that causes us to follow the path of wisdom put forth in the book of Proverbs. It is this love, this respect, and this fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom for it is only from this real love for and deference to the only real God, who loves us, that we can possibly be wise enough to serve Him. If we want to be wise it must begin here. Deference and, Prov 9:10: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, …”

What is wisdom then? Wisdom is this: It is how to survive in this world. It is an understanding of how the world works. The Bible and Proverbs are not books of do’s and don’ts randomly generated to organise a society or to earn our way into heaven. The ‘Scriptures… were given by inspiration of God, and…they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.’[17] The Scriptures explain to us the mystery of how and why the world works. The more we read them the more we know about God, just like the more time we spend with God, praying and reading His Word, the more we know Him.

I invite you to read through Proverbs this week. It won’t take long and as you do, you will notice that indeed each proverb is a brief glimpse into the reality that is our life. These are words to live by (as is the whole of Scripture) that we can fully understand when we really do love God when we honestly really have a healthy deference, yir'ah, fear of the LORD, because the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.

Let us pray

 

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[1] The Quote Garden! Quotations about Optimism and Pessimism: http://www.quotegarden.com/optimism.html Cited 03 May 2009.

[2] Lemony Snicket, A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Miserable Mill. (New York, NY: Scholastic, 2000), 26-27.

[3] Cf. DA Hubbard, ‘Wisdom Literature’, NDB, p. 1334

[4] Richard J. Clifford, NIB V: Proverbs-Sirach, ‘Introduction to Wisdom Literature’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1997), p. 9.

[5] Doctrine 2 of The Salvation Army.

[6] Richard J. Clifford, NIB V: Proverbs-Sirach, ‘Introduction to Wisdom Literature’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1997), p.12.

[7] Raymond C. Van Leeuwen, NIB V: Proverbs-Sirach, ‘The Book of Proverbs’, (Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1997), p.34.

[8] Cf. also. Michael Ramsay, ‘Paul and the Human Condition as reflected in Romans 1:18-32 and 2:1-16’. Presented to William and Catherine Booth College (Winter 2007). Available on-line: http://www.sheepspeak.com/NT_Michael_Ramsay.htm#Paul%20and%20the%20Human%20Condition

[9] Derek Kidner. An Introduction to Wisdom Literature: The Wisdom of Proverbs, Job & Ecclesiastes, (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1985), p. 17.

[10]Warren E. Berkley, Expository Files 4.9 (September 1997), available on-line: http://www.bible.ca/ef/expository-proverbs-1-7.htm: You must carefully consider the context in order to assign the proper meaning to the word. It is one of those words that is context sensitive. So, the "fear" we are concerned with in Prov. 1:7 is not identical to the "fear" of Rom. 8:15 or 2 Tim. 1:7.

[11] Cf. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. ‘1167: deilia’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), p.20.

[12] Cf. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. ‘5401: phobos’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), p.96.

[13] Tim F. Lahaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, Left Behind (Cambridge, UK: Tyndale House Publishing, 1996).

[14] But I will argue against it here: Michael Ramsay, The Sheepspeak Commentary. Farewell to the Rapture! March 19, 2009. Available on-line: http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2009_03_01_archive.html#1407993155574202234 Cf. also N.T. Wright, Farewell to the Rapture! Bible Review, August 2001. Available on-line at: http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_BR_Farewell_Rapture.htm

[15] Allen P. Ross, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Proverbs/Exposition of Proverbs/I. Introduction to the Book of Proverbs (1:1-7)/C. Motto: The Fear of the Lord (1:7), Book Version: 4.0.2

[16] Yirah, in The New Strong’s Complete Dictionary of Bible Words. (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1966), p. 395. Cf. also Cf. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. ‘5374: yir’ah’ (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishing, 1995), p.59.

[17] Doctrine 1 of The Salvation Army

 

Devotion 3.15/118: Ephesians 5:15: Jet Lag

Presented to River Street Cafe, 08 January 2018 by Michael Ramsay

and presented to TSA AV Men's Breakfast, 29 October 2022

Read Ephesians 5:18-20

The other day the whole family flew from Toronto to Victoria. Flying can be an adventure – especially when you are travelling with young children. This most recent trip was probably the first one from which we all experienced Jet Lag. Jet Lag is an awful feeling. It wastes your whole day. We have only one week’s holiday and during that time I have some work to do as well and the whole first day or even two are wasted.

Jet Lag is when you feel so tired you can’t really enjoy your day or be productive. It is only when you get over this that you can do what you need to do and experience life.

Are there times we suffer from Spiritual Jet Lag? We want to pray and read our Scriptures and associate with other Christians in a Christian context, we want to even sing praises to the Lord and thank Him for everything but we just seem to be lethargic instead.

God really will get us where we are going a lot faster than any jet but sometimes our strength will lag behind us. This is why there is this encouragement from Ephesians 5 to wake up and live as the wise.

One successful way to get over your Jet Lag is to try to set a normal routine – get up, eat, and go to bed at the proper time. Soon enough you will be back at life.

Likewise, when we become Spiritually Jet Lagged, we are encouraged to get back into our regular routine of daily worship: pick up our Bibles, read a word or two; pray – speak even just a sentence or two to God and listen; call up a Christian friend and encourage one each other with testimonies about what God is doing in our lives.

As we do this we will find that soon we will wake up from Spiritual Jet Lag and find that we are able to enjoy serving the Lord again in the fullness of our daily routines.

- a Salvogesis original

https://salvogesis.blogspot.ca/

Devotion 2.53/105: Hebrews 4:12: Alive

Presented to the River Street Cafe, 23 June 2017

Read Hebrews 4:12

As you may or not not know, my children are all vegetarians; I'm not. My youngest is 8 and 9 years younger than her sisters. My eldest used to be quite a 'rabid vegetarian'. It was very important to Rebecca, my eldest daughter, that Heather become a vegetarian. Every chance she got she would tell Heather when she was just a baby - probably before she was even eating any solid food at all - that eating meat was killing animals. 'You're eating Bambi' or 'You're eating a cow, just like you're stuffed animal is a cow'. It got a little bit frustrating.  So one day I sat my older two girls down and played 'Carrot Juice is Murder' by the Arrogant Worms for them. They enjoyed that. They were and are big fans of the Arrogant Worms. And I explained to them a basic truth of life. In order to stay alive people have to eat living things. People cannot maintain life without eating things that were alive. You will die. A carrot, an apple, a hamburger, and even various parts of a hot dog were all alive at some point.

As this is true for our body, so it is true for our souls and our minds. Paul says (2 Timothy 3:16), “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” and Hebrews 4:12, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

As this is the case, May we always seek to satisfy this hunger by feasting on the Word of God because as Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ explained when He was hungry, “It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'”

www.sheepspeak.com 

Daniel 1-5: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.

Presented to The Warehouse Mission and Corps 614 Regent Park of The Salvation Army, 26 February 2017 by Captain Michael Ramsay

  

I have a challenge for us today: I will say a famous quote and you will tell me whether it is from the Bible or somewhere else. Bonus marks if you can tell me where else it is from or the scripture reference as the case may be. Bible or Not Bible?

·        An eye for an eye (Matthew 5:38)

·        3 strikes you’re out (baseball)

·        Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s (Matthew 22:21, Mark 12:17, Luke 20:25)

·        Turn the other cheek (Matthew 5:39, Luke 6:29)

·        The shoe/boot is on the other foot (19^th Century)

·        Beware of the Ides of March (Julius Caesar by Shakespeare)

·        May the Force be with you (Star Wars)

·        The writing is on the wall (Daniel 5)

Today we are chatting about, ‘the writing on the wall’? We know from where in the Bible that quote comes; do we know to what it is referring? It comes from the book of Daniel (Chapter 5). Immediately prior to the destruction of the Chaldean/Neo-Babylonian Empire, a mysterious hand writes these words on the wall that they can read but the phrase, as such, is one no one can understand. The words themselves may have been common enough but no one knew what they meant written as they were.[1] The words spoke to the fact that their empire about to end. In very short order the Persians would attack and conquer Babylon. The expression, ‘the writing on the wall’ thus refers to the warning signs of a calamity that will strike (or any impending event).

Daniel is a very interesting book. Chapters 1-4 of the Book of Daniel deal with King Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans; what do we know about King Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans?[2]

• Their Royal City was Babylon
• Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the 7 wonders of the world; Nebuchadnezzar had them built for his wife who was homesick
• Nebuchadnezzar and the Chadleans (or Neo-Babylonians) were instruments for the destruction of Solomon’s Temple (This was the first temple; later there would be 2 more temples in Jerusalem – Zerubbabel’s and Herod's – and one more in Israel/Samaria that was ironically destroyed by Jewish nationalists.)[3]
• Nebuchadnezzar was a military conqueror who was involved in the final conquest of Judah
• They deported the Jews (were used to initiate the exile)
• Nebuchadnezzar is important in Biblical history, he is mentioned by Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel here in the Bible

You’d think with all of this he would be considered a ‘bad guy’ in the Bible but that is not the focus of the story of Nebuchadnezzar here. Quite the contrary. Chapters 1-4 of Daniel read like a story of true concern or even a love story for Nebuchadnezzar, embedded in HB which itself can be read as a love story between God and Israel. The Bible as a whole can be read as a love story between God and humanity and/or even a love story between God and all of creation. Chapters 1-4 even show how much God loves the Chaldeans, the Neo-Babylonians, who destroyed the Temple, razed Jerusalem, conquered Judah, and deported the Jews. The Bible’s whole love story between God and humanity – even the Chaldeans – could probably even be subtitled  with this warning of ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin'. ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin' was what was written on the wall. It was the warning that God gave to Babylon on the eve of her destruction. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin.

About God's warnings even earlier in the Bible: Thousands of years prior to Nebuchadnezzar, according to the book of Genesis, do you remember Abram and the territorial blessing God gave him? God promised Abram that his descendants would inherit the Promised Land because, ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin', the writing was on the wall for the Amorites who at that time lived in the land. God was going to remove them. God, however, would leave the Amorites there presumably until their last possible opportunity had passed (Genesis 15:15).[4] But even so, ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin', even then, the writing was on the wall.

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin: Do you remember the Exodus? Do you remember the reason God said he sent the plagues? The Bible says, He said he did it, among other reasons, for Pharaoh’s benefit. He did it so that Pharaoh might know that the LORD is God (Exodus 8:10; cf.14:4,18). Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin: The plagues served as the writing on the wall for Pharaoh: Israel was about to leave Egypt for that Promised Land from which He was about to remove from the Amorites.

The LORD used the Minor and the Major Prophets - and even the Pentateuch (cf. Leviticus 25:23) - to provide the warnings, ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin', the writing on the wall for Israel that she, herself, in turn was going to be displaced from the Promised Land just as the Amorites before them unless they heeded the warning.[5]  They did not (cf. 2 Chronicles 36:20-21).[6] The LORD then used Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, who are mentioned in our text today, to remove them from the land.

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin: are there times when the writing has been on the wall in our own world and possibly we didn’t see something that we really should have seen coming.

The Trump presidency might be one example on an international scale. Many  were surprised by that camp’s election but the writing was on the wall. There are a lot of disgruntled, marginalized Americans who were looking to speak out loud enough for the world to hear them. One party had been in the White House for eight years and there were many people fed up with the establishment - they've had the same group of people, from only two extremely similar parties ruling that country since their civil war. Fear, racism and prejudice have always run deep in the United States. We remember the Communist witch-hunts; lynchings; and that their congress, senate committees and Supreme Court upheld for a long time the fact that when Jefferson said all men were created equal, he didn’t mean people of colour.[7] The media, intentionally or not, flamed that always present prejudice significantly in their recent electoral cycle. We may have been surprised by Trump’s election -or the attention it is getting or the way it came about- but, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, whether you like it or not, the writing was on the wall.

The same with Br-Exit. The world was surprised when the UK voted to leave the EU but there was the same writing upon the wall there.

Or going back a few years now: the second Iraq War. This was not a surprise to anyone I think. As soon as George W Bush was elected, the writing on the wall, I think was there for all of us to read that he was going to complete the US re-conquest of Iraq.

In our own lives people - friends, relatives, or even ourselves have run into health problems when we refused to follow the doctor’s advice. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin: When the doctors, like Daniel, read the writing on the wall during our check-ups, we shouldn’t be surprised if our health fails if we don't listen to them. I have seen this particularly with friends with diabetes or heart conditions. I have seen heart attacks and amputations follow because friends simply don't follow the doctor's advice. Even though it is plain to see they just don’t heed it: Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin

And tragically, sometimes we miss the writing on the wall when our friends, loved ones, or we ourselves fall back into addiction. ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin’, the warnings are often there but for whatever reason we miss them, ignore them, or don't know what to do with them.

The same can be said for the tragedy of many broken marriages and other relationships in our communities today.

The same can be said for students who earn a failing grade. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin: the writing is usually written on the wall well before the ’F’ written on the report card.

The same can be said before the police show up at a domestic dispute or before your bosses’ boss shows up to take your keys.

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin: Many times God himself writes the warnings into our lives but – as plain as they may be to see – like the Chaldeans of Daniel 5, we don’t understand it.

There is much more to these words we have been repeating - Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin - though than just this. Their meaning can be narrowed even further than we have been using it. They can mean more than just 'the writing on the wall': these actual words can be used as more of 'fait accompli'. Here is a more precise textual interpretation, what these words themselves actually mean:

• Mene, means 'numbered', 'counted out', or 'measured' but can also be interpreted as a unit of money
• Tekel, similar to 'sheckle', literally means 'weighed' but can also be interpreted as a unit of money
• Peres, means 'to divide' and the plural here written, ' Pharsin' can refer to a division of money.

Just as we are coming up on tax time and Dean and Iris are making sure that everyone has their year-end tax receipts, these are financial words plastered on the wall in the text here: Numbered, numbered, weighed, and divided. This image would be like a major corporation in today's world being audited and the government who, upon looking at their books, finds that the balance sheet doesn't match up and something really isn't right, and so orders the company to be broken up and its parts sold.

Daniel 5:26-28 “Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Peras: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

This is more than just a simple warning; this is a reminder of all that has occurred in the first four chapters of Daniel and all that the Lord has done to provide for the salvation of Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans. Chapter 1, after using the king to conquer Judah, God sends top advisors to Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, who then are set apart as holy. Chapter 2, God through Daniel reveals and then interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream that He had given him. Chapter 3, God shows Nebuchadnezzar through Shadrack, Meshack, Abendego, and the fiery furnace that indeed God is the only person or thing worthy of worship in the whole world and then in Chapter 4, as Nebuchadnezzar becomes so full of himself to believe that what has been accomplished through him was actually accomplished by him, the Lord still extends him the grace, the mercy, and the opportunity to be humble, submit to the Lord and experience forgiveness and salvation. Even if his heirs here decline it, just like the heirs of Israel and Judah, after so much grace and forgiveness were removed from the Promised Land; it certainly does appear that the king may have experienced both that salvation and even eternal salvation.

There is hope here and it is a good hope and it is not a new hope. There is hope for us. The writings in the Bible and in our lives are an encouragement from the Lord to turn and return to Him. God loves you even as much as he loves Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel, the Chaldeans, the Israelites, and the Judeans. If we are living outside of his salvation in some way it is not 'fait accompli'. Just like he gave the the others opportunity and opportunity and opportunity to avail themselves of salvation and plenty of warnings before ‘the die was cast’ that salvation was available, so too with us today. If there is any way that we have been weighed and found wanting, I invite us to bring that to the Lord; it is not too late. If we are here today, it is not too late to read the writing God has written on the wall of our lives, to read it, heed it, and live out that glorious salvation here, now, and forever. All we need to do is open our eyes, see the the Lord is doing and accept His Salvation.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] cf. G. Coleman Luck, Daniel, Everyman's Bible Commentary. (Chicago, Ill: Moody Press, 1958),70., Gleason L. Archer, Jr., The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Daniel/Exposition of Daniel/V. Belshazzar's Feast (5:1-31)/D. Daniel's Interpretation (5:17-28), Book Version: 4.0.2

[2] Cf. Will Durant, Our Oriental Heritage (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1935), 218-225.

[3] Gail R. O’Day, The Gospel of John, The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 9, ed Leander E. Keck, et. al. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995),563. Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, John 4:1-26,39-42: Good News for Samaria and the World!, (Swift Current, SK: Sheepspeak.com, 19 April 2015), on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/04/john-41-2639-42-samaritan.html

[4] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, ''When God is Bound", Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 52, December 2007 – January 2008, p.5-10. On-line:

http://www.armybarmy.com/pdf/JAC_Issue_052.pdf

[5] Captain Michael Ramsay, "A Holy Environment", Journal of Aggressive Christianity, Issue 72 , April – May 2011, p.38-39. On-line: http://www.armybarmy.com/JAC/article8-72.html

[6] Cf. NT Wright, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the meaning of Jesus' Crucifixion,  (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2016),118-119 about the restoration of the Kingdom.

[7] Cf. Jefferson Davies, The Rise of the Confederate Government, (New York, NY: Barnes and Noble, 2010), Part I