SWEAT EQUITY*

Train yourself in godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come (I Timothy 4:7b-8).

According to Iowa State University research, exercising elderly mice boosts their immunity systems so that they are more like young mice. For people it seems to be true as well. Many of the diseases that afflict those in old age are simply caused by weakening immune systems. Exercise enough to sweat every day; that will help keep you young.

I am sure that Paul the Apostle would agree that bodily training has value if it helps us to serve the Lord on this earth a little better for a little longer. That, I think, it does. Do not, however, let up on the godliness training to spend more time on the bodily training!!! Conditioning the "heart" is way more important than conditioning the body!

Grace&Peace,
Tom

*Revised from an earlier post in Silver Bullets.

GRIEF IS ALWAYS AN ISSUE*

He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows . . . (Isaiah 53:3-4).

At a workshop I attended on grief and loss, one of the points the presenting psychologist made was, "Loss is anytime life is different from how I wanted or expected it to be." If that is true then in every counseling situation the counselor has to deal with grief. With every problem comes the realization that life doesn't match the picture of life we have in our heads. Our "should-be" world has been lost.

It is a fallen world in which we live, so our dreams of a perfect world, on this earth, will never be realized. As a result, we will always struggle with grief in this life. Grief is not a bad thing--it is an emotional response to the loss of something important or someone who was dear and loved. A person who doesn't grieve is a person who does not care, a person who does not love. What kind of person is that? Nevertheless, even though grief does not ever really go away, it cannot dominate our lives because life does not stop. Grief must be managed because we still have a life to live! Because of Christ, we can find meaning and hope in our grief, . . . that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again . . . (I Thessalonians 4:13-14). It is in Jesus that grief finds its resolution because His resurrection gives us a legitimate hope for a reunion with loved ones; hope for a perfect world in which we will live and the perfect presence of the One who created all things.

Grace&Peace,
Tom

*Revised from an earlier post.

IT'S A GREAT DAY! IT'S TAX DAY!

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore he who resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgement. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad . . . (Romans 13:1-3).

God has ordained that there be civil government. Civil government is God's instrument to provide order in society. As a result, government officials are entitled to respect and obedience. It goes without saying that government cannot exist if it does not have money; salaries must be paid, office buildings must be built and maintained, equipment and weapons must be purchased, etc. to meet the needs of an orderly society. So, sadly, taxes must be paid; freedom is not free; every one should pay some tax.

Naturally, there is disagreement about what the government should do, how it should work and what the values should be that guide it. One value that has to guide government is that of goodness. If a government does evil and those who do good and stand for what is good are punished then government looses its legitimacy. Government that is a terror to good conduct has lost its legitimacy.

What are the light that guide our government as to what is good or evil? The Bible; Judeo-Christian principles provided the values from which our government has traditionally governed. The Declaration of Independence and, especially, the Constitution are the primary lights. In the case of every American citizen, the Constitution is the governing authority instituted by God. God has not instituted governing officials who took an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution and yet govern arbitrarily.

When Americans allow the lights that guide us to go out, what will become of America? Will we follow lesser lights to our destruction?

Grace&Peace,
Tom

MORE EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins (I Corinthians 15:17).

Books have been written on the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What I present here is not new, but is often over-looked evidence that adds weight to the testimony of the Bible.

1. The bodily resurrection of Christ from the grave is the foundation stone of the Christian faith; if Christ did not rise from the dead, none of it is true. Every time the gospel was preached to the Greeks, the resurrection was spoken of as evidence of the truth of the gospel. Yet, because of the religious and philosophical back-ground of the Greeks, resurrection of a body was not a good thing. To them, the body was not good, it was evil. The tendency of the Greeks would have been to disbelieve it or to change it to something more acceptable; there was no advantage to speak of resurrection to them.

2. It was the women who find the empty tomb and meet the risen Christ first. Given the preference of that culture, this is evidence of the truth of the story. If the story were a made-up one it would have been one of the male apostles, Peter or John, who first met the risen Christ to give more gravitas to the story. But, no, it was the lowly women, perhaps the most lowly one, Mary Magdalene, who had the honor of first seeing the risen Christ. When the resurrection story was told to the males, 'it seemed an idle tale to them.'

These bits of evidence simply add more weight to the already thoroughly documented resurrection event of Jesus Christ. It is because of this event that we have a legitimate hope of entering the eternal country whose builder and maker is God!

Grace&Peace,

Tom

The empty tomb in the garden about 100 meters from the place of crucifixion.

CRUCIFIXION DAY

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last (Luke 23:44-46).

Jesus was crucified at about noon on the 14th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan. There are those who argue that the day of Jesus' crucifixion was Wednesday. Others say, Thursday, but tradition says, "Friday." There will always be arguments about the day of the week because the Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar. As a result, today there are even disagreements about how one calculates the dates for the Easter season. But, there is no disagreement that Jesus was crucified on the 14th day of Nisan, the beginning of the Passover celebration.

The 14th of Nisan was the day God prescribed for the Jews to reenact the events of the Passover. One can read about the institution of the Passover holiday in Exodus 12. Jesus is the real Passover Lamb! He died at about three in the afternoon, the time when it was allowed for the beginning of the sacrificing of the Passover lambs. What the day of the week was is not nearly so important as the fact that He went to the cross for you and for me. Love is the reason for this season because it was His love for God the Father, His love for you and me that held Him on that cross, He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed (I Peter 2:24).

In Jesus Christ is the healing of the relationship of God and man; the curtain of the temple was torn in two. The Passover Lamb was slain that we might have exodus from sin to a life of righteousness. All this because of Crucifixion Day! Have you applied the blood of the Passover Lamb to your life?

Grace&Peace,

Tom

The picture is of a likely place for the crucifixion near the garden tomb.

TRIUMPHAL ENTRY

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" (Matthew21:9).

Save us, we beseech thee, O Lord! O Lord, we beseech thee, give us success! Blessed be he who enters in the name of the Lord (Psalms 118: 25-26).

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass (Zechariah 9:9).

A book could be written about this one event in our Lord's life. There are so many events in the history of Israel that are at play in the minds of those who are meeting Jesus. The Davidic covenant in which God promised that Israel would always have a king of the line of David, was one of them. Another major event in the history of Israel that was influencing the people was the celebration of the liberation of the nation of Israel under the Maccabees. Then there were the miracles of Jesus himself. He fed the multitudes, healed the sick and raised the dead--especially Lazarus. Jesus had to be the one who fulfilled the prophets!

Prophecy its self is a major factor in what happened in the triumphal entry. One of the characteristics of the Jews that made them different from all others is that they had a linear view of history, not a circular view. They believed that history had direction because God was in control of it. They believe history had purpose, that it was not just never-ending cycles. Therefore, the prophets could prophesy because God was in control of the future. Because of the prophets, there was a great deal of expectation for the appearance of the promised Messiah immediately before Jesus' birth, during his life, and for a time after his life on this earth. Jesus' life on this earth fit the description of the prophet's Messiah and so he was welcomed in triumphal entry into Jerusalem.

In less than a week's time the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah because he did not fit their expectations of what a messiah should be. Knowing that it leads to this question, What are your expectations of the Messiah? How do they measure up against the truth of God's Word? Has Jesus had a triumphal entry into your life?

Grace&Peace,

Tom

The picture is of the Golden Gate where Jesus would have entered Jerusalem.