Singing to One Another in Worship

I was intrigued by this verse from Ezra 3 in my Bible reading today:

And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD... (Ezra 3:11 ESV)

The word that caught my attention was the word "responsively". My initial study revealed that a lot of modern translations actually leave that word out - which is really a shame because it really is needed to give the sense of what was going on here. Apparently there were several different courses of priests and Levites who were singing back and forth to each other as they worshiped God. And the chorus, or refrain to that singing is one that is found often in the Psalms and also in 1 Chronicles:

“For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”

Although when we sing in worship we are responding to God - who He is and what He has done - there is also a sense in which we are building God's Word into the lives of others in the body by singing to each other. I'm wondering if perhaps Paul had this verse in mind when he wrote these words:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.(Colossians 3:16 ESV) 

Next time you're a part of corporate worship you may want to consider how you are helping the Word of Christ to dwell richly in your life and the lives of others through your singing. 

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Are we OK with some sins?

I ran across this article last week and it got me to thinking about whether we are really OK with some sins but not others:

http://www.faithit.com/9-sins-the-church-is-okay-with/

I know that these are the kinds of sins that I tend to struggle with and I need to remember that in God's eyes they are just as serious as the "big" sins I see in the lives of others. We would all do well to remember Jesus' command to remove the log from our eye before we go around trying to remove the splinter from someone else's eye.

What do you think of this list? Are there some others you would add? 

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HOW DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT APPLY TO THE LIFE OF A CHRIST FOLLOWER TODAY? - Part 3

Part 3 of a 3 part post:

Let’s work through an example of how this process can be used. We’ll use this command from the Book of Deuteronomy: “When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.Deuteronomy 22:8 (ESV) I checked it out very carefully and I am pretty sure that this commandment is not addressed anywhere in the New Testament. Since it doesn’t fit either of the first two criteria we need to apply this process. Since Mary and I have a home with a flat roof, there is a parapet around the edge of the roof, but for any of you who have houses with pitched roofs, I’m pretty sure you’re violating the literal command since your house is not constructed with a parapet. But are you really violating the spirit of the law here? The first thing we have to do is to identify the general principle, which is pretty easy to do in this case because God gives us the reason for the command. The reason for building the parapet is to keep someone from falling off the roof and being injured or killed. So the broader principle here is that I am to protect my family from harm. The second step is to see if that principle is confirmed in the New Testament. Let me suggest a few passages that would be applicable here:In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.Ephesians 5:28-30 (ESV) But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.1 Timothy 5:8 (ESV) Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you1 of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.1 Peter 3:7 (ESV) So the principle that I am to be diligent in protecting my family, and especially my wife, is certainly confirmed in several places in the New Testament. And that principle can certainly be applied to a number of specific situations. In my personal case, one way I apply that principle is that I have made a commitment never to speak ill of Mary in public or to say anything to anyone else that would damage her reputation. If I have an issue with her I will only discuss it with her one on one in private.
 If we follow the example of Jesus, then the question we ask won’t be “Do I have to keep this commandment?” but rather “How can I keep this commandment?” And this process provides the framework that will allow us to do so.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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HOW DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT APPLY TO THE LIFE OF A CHRIST FOLLOWER TODAY? - Part 2

Part 2 of a 3 part post:

Now we’re ready to develop three principles that will help us answer the question we’ve posed: 1.     If there is an Old Testament Law that is restated in the New Testament, then it is still binding and valid Most of the moral law fits in this category. In fact, we’ll see this next week as Jesus begins to take several of the Ten Commandments and expand upon them in order to help His audience understand the spirit of the Law as well as the letter of the Law.  I don’t think anyone would really argue with this first principle. Even those who want to completely ignore the Old Testament would be okay with this. So we don’t need to spend any more time here. 2.     If there is an Old Testament Law that is set aside in the New Testament, it is no longer binding This principle is best demonstrated by the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. Some in the church were teaching that a person could not become a Christ follower unless they first became a Jew and observed the command to be circumcised. At the leading of Peter, Barnabas, Paul and James – all of them Jews – the decision that was reached is that it was not necessary to follow the Biblical command to be circumcised. However, the council did not completely dismiss the need to follow other Old Testament laws that dealt with idols, sexual immorality and eating the blood of animals. Most of the ceremonial law fits into this category. That makes sense since Jesus completely fulfilled that aspect of the law through His sacrificial death on the cross. 

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near…When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.Hebrews 10:1, 8-10 (ESV) When the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, it is as if God further emphasized the fact that Jesus completely fulfilled these ceremonial laws since it is no longer possible for the people to make sacrifices. Another area where this principle applies is most of the dietary laws that were set aside by both the words of Jesus as well as by the word of God in Acts and in other New Testament writings. Again, no one will really argue this principle at all. In fact, those who want to ignore the Old Testament really like this one. But that leaves us with the most difficult task of all – how do we deal with those parts of the Law that aren’t specifically mentioned in the New Testament. And there are obviously a lot of them. 3.     If there is an Old Testament Law that is not specifically mentioned in the New Testament, then apply this process:
 

• Identify general principles

• See if the principle is confirmed in the New Testament

• Apply the principle to the specific situation

God gave the Old Testament Law to His people for their own good. For instance, the dietary laws were intended to prevent them from becoming sick from food-borne illnesses. Many of the social laws were designed to protect people’s dignity – especially women, the poor, slaves, widows and others who were often in positions where they were unable to protect themselves. The ceremonial laws were given as a way for the people to deal with their sin before God. So as we look at those laws, we need to determine the underlying principle that gives rise to that command. 
Once we’ve identified the principle behind the specific law, we can then go to the New Testament and see if that same principle is given to us there. Since the entire Bible is consistent from cover to cover, we’re going to find that in almost every case, even if the specific Old Testament Law is not addressed in the New Testament, the underlying principles behind the law will be confirmed in some way there. 
Having identified the underlying principle, we can now take that principle, rather than the specific law itself, and apply it to whatever situation we might be dealing with in our lives.

Tomorrow I'll finish off this post with a practical example of how to do this. 

 

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HOW DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT APPLY TO THE LIFE OF A CHRIST FOLLOWER TODAY? - Part 1

I first this together several years ago, but wanted to share it again after a lot of you just finished reading Leviticus with me. It's fairly log, so I'll share in in several parts over the next few days.

      Like we find with so many areas of our lives as Christ followers, people often tend to drift to one of two extremes when answering this question. Although it is becoming less and less prevalent in our culture, there are those who would say that we must follow literally every part of the Old Testament Law. That, in turn would mean that we would stone adulterers and kill children who are disrespectful to their parents. Since most people aren’t willing to go that far, they often tend to gravitate to the other extreme and claim we can just ignore the Old Testament altogether. They usually justify that position by quoting Paul in Romans 6 where he writes that we are not under law but under grace. Unfortunately, that conclusion ignores the context of Paul’s letter as well as Jesus’ words that we’ve been looking at this morning. If Jesus didn’t abolish the Old Testament, we dare not do that. So what I want to do this morning is to see if we can’t develop some practical principles that will help us to find a middle ground that is consistent with the words of Jesus that we’ve focused on this morning. Before we get to the specifics, I want to take a moment to address the nature of the Old Testament Law. Many commentators have divided that law into three categories:

•         The moral law – this is the part of the law that deals with moral behavior and the penalties for violating those standards of conduct. This part of the law is summed up in the Ten Commandments and then further detailed in other related commandments. This part of the law applies to all men.

•         The civil law – this part of the law applied only to Israel and guided how they were to live as a people when they entered into the land that God was giving to them.

•         The ceremonial law – this is the part of the law that applied to Israel’s worship. It includes the sacrificial system.

 These distinctions can be somewhat helpful to us in determining how to apply the Old Testament to our lives as long as we recognize the limitations of this approach. Not all the law fits neatly into one of these three categories and there is often some overlap. But keeping this structure in mind will help us as we develop some practical principles.

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Some thoughts on Leviticus

For those of you who have been reading the book of Leviticus with me for the last month or so, I wanted to share a few thoughts:

1. My guess is that if we didn't have some kind of systematic Bible reading plan, we'd probably just skip over Leviticus. It's not easy to read and much of it seems so irrelevant to us in the United States in the 21st century. But there is actually much we can take away from reading this Old Testament book.2
2. My main takeaway is that God is holy and that therefore He wants His people to be holy. Holiness, is not, as we often think of it, just "being good". God is not holy because He is just like us, only "better." To be holy means to be "set apart" or unique. The detailed rules that God set forth in Leviticus were primarily a way for His people to live so that they would be unique and set apart from all the nations around them.
3. The second main takeaway is the seriousness of sin. Because man's sin separates him from God, it takes some radical actions to deal with that sin. Fortunately for us the bloody sacrifices of Leviticus have been replaced by the blood of God's own Son.
4. God gave those laws to Israel for their own good and to protect the dignity of his people in that particular culture at that particular time in history. For instance food regulations were intended to protect against food borne illnesses at a time when there was not refrigeration. The laws concerning slaves did not condone the practice of slavery but protected those who were subject to a practice that existed in that culture.

I think the greatest difficulty most people have is determining exactly how Leviticus and the rest of the Old Testament Law are to be applied in the lives of a disciple of Jesus in the 21st century in America. Several years ago, I addressed that question and developed what I believe to be a practical and Biblical approach to that question. I'll be sharing that with you in my next several posts.

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A Challenge for Us as Men

I ran across this video on my Facebook feed today and wanted to pass it on to other men. 

https://www.facebook.com/GodsNotDeadTheMovie/videos/842824672487983/

This is well worth five minutes of your time to watch this and whatever additional time it takes to think about what you need to do in your life to address this challenge. 

About the only fault I can find with the video is how a guy that is the chaplain for the Dallas Cowboys could possibly have so much wisdom.  

I'd love to see your comments.

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