Monthly Archives: March 2011

Isolated Street Smarts

Posted by on March 17, 2011 No comments

The concept of street smarts implies that those who have it should be able to read a situation, make a decision based on the information at hand, and this decision should be true and successful. However, there are limitations to street smarts and this plays out in chapter 44 of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah confronts those who have fled Egypt and who want to continue the practices they participated in while in Jerusalem. He informs them that they are in this situation because they have not worshiped the Lord God in Spirit and Truth. Rather, they have burned offerings to the queen of the heavens.

But they respond and say,

"We had food and were safe while we made offerings to the queen of the heavens. So we are going to go back to making offerings to the queen of the heavens."
— Jeremiah 44:15-18

Jeremiah then explains that because of this only a small remnant will come out of Egypt. That most of them will die by the sword.

To be fair, the response of the women and men has some truth to it. From their perspective their is a correlation between the time when they were at peace and had plenty of food and were making offerings to the queen of the heavens.

But herein lies their problem. Their vision is limited to that point in time. It is limited to what they have experienced. As a result they have not taken into account what came before and what will come to be after their actions. Without this there is no way they can have a full understanding of the consequences of their actions in the present. There is no way for them to determine if what they are doing is right and true in the full context of history.

We are not only responsible for what we experience during our life time, but we are also responsible for knowing the history that brought us to where we are and how our actions will impact future generations.

Our actions do not sit in isolation to all other events. The history that brought us to our current situation, and the future that is to come, is connected by the actions we take in the present. Our actions are judged not only for how things work in our present situation, but we are judged for how our actions work in the context of all of history.

This is where the truth of God comes in to play. It is God's truth that speaks not only to the present context, but also includes the past and the future for He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. This is what Jeremiah was attempting to give them. But they chose to live in the limited present. Then they defended this with isolated street smarts.

But street smarts, when isolated from historical context, are not smart at all.

© 2011, VoiceWind. . .Greg Loveless. All rights reserved.

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God’s Unintended Consequences

Posted by on March 8, 2011 No comments

In Zechariah 1:15 we read,

“But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster.”

Israel had abandoned God, His teachings and His ways. As a result God allowed other nations to conquer Israel. He even allowed other nations to carry the inhabitants off into exile. In fact God allowed other nations to crush Israel.

Then, as this history played out, it is clear that this process got out of control. The nations that conquered Israel took the situation much further than they were justified in doing.

God allowed these nations to conquer Israel, but their free will allowed them to take it further than God had intended. With free will, even God sometimes cannot control the outcome. Because of free will, even for God there are unintended consequences of the events as they unfold.

There is a clear message for us in this passage. The first is not everything that happens to us is God’s will. However, in the long run, God’s will does come to pass. The second is, we should take care not to over step our bounds and authority even when we have been given victory in a situation or against an enemy.

So to work His will God sometimes allows certain events to take place. When He does, those involved still retain their free will. Sometimes this free will allows them to take things further than God had intended.

But no matter which side we stand on, Zechariah’s message is, God will make this right, for in the long run, He is still in control.
 

© 2011, VoiceWind. . .Greg Loveless. All rights reserved.

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Times of Refreshing and Restoration

Posted by on March 1, 2011 No comments

In the book of Acts we read:

19 "Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
20  and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,
21  whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”
(Acts 3:19-21 — emphasis mine)

The following are the key Greek terms used in verse 19.

  1. καιροὶ: Times as is in the right time or a season.
  2. ἀναψύξεως:
    • “to cool by blowing”, “to refresh”, “to relieve”, “to strengthen”.
    • It also denotes the drying out and healing of a wound which the surgeon has left exposed to the air when bandaging a broken limb.
    • “liberation”

Translation — “Times of Refreshing”

To understand this passage, context means everything. Peter and John have just healed a man who was lame. It states that

7  “And seizing him by the right hand, he raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were strengthened
8  With a leap he stood right up and began to walk and he entered the Temple with them and was walking and leaping and praising God.
9  And the people saw him walking and praising God
10  And they recognized him as the lame man who used to sit at the Beautiful Gate and beg alms, and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

Peter then responded to the people…

“Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that the times of refreshing may come from the face of the Lord.”

This is the only use of the phrase "times of refreshing" in the Old or New Testaments.

The “times” and the “refreshing” that Peter speaks of in this passage are in the present age. The “face of the Lord” was just present in the healing of the lame man. Peter is now challenging the people as to whether it is present in them? Peter’s point is it will only come if they repent and turn that their sins may be wiped away. In this the “times of refreshing” may come by the “face” or “presence” of the Lord.

Then in verse 21 we read;

“That He may send Jesus, the Christ, appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until times of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.” (Acts 3:21 — emphasis mine)

The following are the key Greek terms used in verse 21:

  1. χρόνων: Times as is in the right time or a season.
  2. ἀποκαταστάσεως : restoration not only of what was previous, but to a perfect state as existed before the fall.

Translation — “Times of Restoration”

This refers to “time as a duration”. Thus the “times of restoration” speaks to the lasting nature of a world restored to its original purpose.

So in these three verses, Acts 3:19-21, we have the tension between what “already is” and the “not yet fully”.

Those, like the lame man, who believe, come to the “face of the Lord” and are refreshed, in the here and now. And yet they still reside in a fallen and broken world.

However, there will come a time when all things will be restored. When those who participate in the “times of refreshing” will also participate in the “times of restoration”. While those who stand outside the “times of refreshing”, will stand outside the “times of restoration”.

This is a clear warning from Peter to those in the Temple who have seen the healing of the lame man. Many of them are waiting for the “times of restoration”. In so doing, they are missing out on the current “times of refreshing” in which they could participate and partake.

Peter’s point is they should not wait for the “times of restoration” and expect to be included in this new world. Rather, in order to participate in the restoration to come, they must repent and turn so the “times of refreshing” may come from the “face of the Lord”. Once they participate in the “times of refreshing”, here and now, they are assured they will also participate in the future “times of restoration”.

So we also are not to passively wait for things to change and then hope to participate in the restored new world. Rather, we are to actively participate in the restoration of all things in the future, by participating in the “times of refreshing”, here and now. And we do this through repentance that allows us to partake of the presence of the Lord — or literally, to have the very “face of the Lord” take up residence in the events of our lives, today, here and now as it will in the times of the restoration of all things.

© 2011, VoiceWind. . .Greg Loveless. All rights reserved.

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