Casting Pearls- Are we crucifying Christ again?

The people of Israel had been murmuring and complaining to Moses all along, they had ignored the miracles God had already done for them, they chose to focus on the problems of the here and now rather than think of all God had done for them up to this point. All of us are guilty of the same thing, we think only of where we are right now, not where we have been. We ignore the things God has done before in our lives and focus on where we are. 

As the old quote goes, to have a testimony, you must first go through a test. People are proud to tell others what they have gone through, they just don’t think of witnessing to others when they are going through the test. God allows us to go through troubles and tests so we will learn and so we will have a reason to be able to witness to others. The question is often asked, why does god allow these terrible things? This is often the reason why. 

In Exodus 17:1-7 The people of Israel had been in the desert for only days, when they began to run out of water for themselves and their livestock. they complained to Moses that he and God had only brought them out of Egypt and into the desert to let them die of thirst.  Moses prayed to God and he received an answer to go and take with him the Elders of Israel and go to the rock at Horeb. When you get there, ‘strike the rock’ and water will come out for you and the Children of Israel. Moses did as the Lord had told him and water did come from the rock to quench the thirst of all Israel. 

The rock is a shadow, or type, of Christ to show the Israelites and the Gentiles later, that Christ must be struck and from him living waters will flow. Christ was struck once for all men, past and present, who believe on Him. It says in 1 Corinthians 10:4, ‘and did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ.’ 

For many years they wandered around that desert never allowed to enter the promised land that God had promised to them. Why did they just wander? God kept them in the desert wandering making a 11 day long trip into one that lasted 40 Years, so that God could attempt to teach them to rely on Him for the needs they had. Some years after their wandering had begun, Israel had again run out of water, Mirriam, the sister of Moses had just died, and buried in the desert there. Moses was tired and upset at the loss of his sister, yet even then the burden of leading Israel continued. The people rose up in opposition to Moses and his brother Aaron who God had appointed the High Priest of the people. They were out of water again and instead of calling out to God or asking Aaron to ask God for water, they chose to rise up against Moses. 

The people of Israel said the same things again, and murmured against God and Moses. They complained that Moses and God had brought them into the desert to leave them without water and let them die. Moses then asked God for them to provide water for them. God told Moses to bringing his rod with him , gather the congregation together along with his brother Aaron in front of the rock at that place and ‘speak to it’ and water will flow out for all the people to drink. 

Being tired and aggravated with the peoples murmuring against him God and even his brother Aaron, Moses was a bit angry when he gathered the people together there. On top of all that, he had recently experienced great loss in his sister Miriam dying. Moses said to the people, when he gathered them together, in Numbers 20: 6-13, that they were ‘rebels’ and did they want God to provide them water, well here it is, and struck the rock twice with his rod and water came out. 

The Lord then spoke to Moses and said he was  to speak to the rock, not strike it, Because of his disobedience he would lead the people to the Promised Land but would not be allowed to enter it himself. The Lord wanted Moses to let Him show His power to the Children of Israel, by just speaking to the rock and not by striking it as Moses did.

The Rock here is also a shadow of Christ. It also flows the living water for the Children of Israel, the difference here is that God wanted to show it did not need to be struck as before. Christ was struck down once for ALL sin, both what happened before, and what is yet to happen. We don’t need more forgiveness, we already have it. The Rock represents Christ's body and as the Bible says it was broken once for all men. By striking it again, he was striking the body of Christ again, and we do the same thing as WE are the body of Christ in this world. 

Whenever Christians are persecuted, whenever Christians are slandered, whenever Christians are even chastised by the supposed  preachers of the Gospel without good reason, when we beat ourselves up for a sin that has already been confessed to God, the world is crucifying Christ again. The devil takes joy in making Christ suffer again, but because God knows all things and has already forgiven all things, there is nothing Satan can do that Christ has not already paid the price for. 
                 This is not an excuse to be able to go out and sin, Christians should feel the urging of the Holy Spirit not to do anything that is a sin and if we find ourselves in a situation that is questionable, we should ask the Lord for guidance.  He will reveal to us which way we should go. Trust in the Lord, and place all your plans before Him. 

Casting Pearls- Have you cleaned out your temple?

Our bodies are temples in which God lives. Not only are we supposed to be living temples of God, and a representative of God to the world around us. In 1 John 3:24 we see this proof. God dwells in us who dwell in Him. The Holy Spirit reveals to us whenever we begin to stray into things which will make our temple defiled in the sight of God. The Spirit’s conviction lets us know God lives in us. 

We all become agitated with others in some way or another in our lives, we talk meanly to our children, to our co-workers, to our neighbors, to our family members. We are god’s temple and representative in this world, and we may feel as though we are justified since we are told by the Bible to be righteously angry at sin, and to not ‘spare the rod’ with our children. 

What we must remember, is that as we are temples in our bodies, the other people we are agitated with are temples of God too. Our children are temples as well. Everyone is a temple in some state of being built just as we are not yet built. The temple of our lives is still under construction. We need to fight not to be overcome with pride or selfishness that our temple is further along with construction than someone else's. The devil will use any opening we give him to attack us. we must always stay under the protection of The Lord. 

As we are temples, and they are temples, what are we to do? Well as always I refer to the Bible for all the answers. In Romans 12:1-2 the Bible tells us to present yourself both to God and to man as a Holy Acceptable temple, not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the Word of the Lord, so that we may be acceptable to the Lord. We only have control over ourselves. We cannot make anyone else do what we think is right. 

The key word in the previous sentence is ‘think’. In our minds, we see things one way, in their minds they see things another way. We are responsible only to do what is right in our minds, not their minds. If we feel we need to excuse what we have done, it probably is wrong. If we feel that what we want to do is wrong to our own conscience it is probably wrong. Everyone sees things in a different way, they will react differently. What we must do is be willing, as God is, to be understanding of others seeing things differently and act accordingly. 

What we need to do is to ‘crucify the flesh’ as is spoken of in Galatians 2:19-20. We need to be dead to the flesh and the desires of the flesh. The flesh is controlled by the Law of God that can never be lived up to. The Lord gives us the Holy Spirit to live inside us when we are saved so we will be acceptable to  the Lord and to others as a representative of God. The problem comes when we have more than one face we show to the world. We come to Church and say ‘God Bless You’ and ‘Praise the Lord’ but when we go home, we are totally different. A ‘poor at best’ representative of Christ. It is common in people to be this way. We put our best face on when in public, but our real face when we think no one is looking. That is why a persons true character is shown when no one is watching. The whole world would be better off if we all realized that God is always watching, He sees everything we do and knows everything we think. We can hide nothing from God.

We also need to take into account how our representation of Jesus will appear to other people or our children. Will we influence others or our children to be good temples for God to inhabit in the future? That is exactly what God wants us to do. Make them acceptable vessels for God to inhabit. The best way to make others an acceptable vessel is to make ourselves an acceptable vessel and show them how wonderful it could be.

CASTING PEARLS- Hospital for Sinners?

                       Many people refuse to come to church because the supposed saints who come to church are not being a good example of someone being lead by Christ in their daily lives. They refer to Christians as hypocrites, and are right to do so. We are not automatically perfect in all we do when we become saved. Mostly, it depends on how deeply we are willing to let Jesus into our lives. I'm afaid that many 'professing' Christians will receive the same response when they get to Heaven, "away from me for I knew you not".  Church is best described as a Hospital for sinners, where we can meet together and make plans for reaching out to our communities and receive help in strengthening our own faith.
                       We are exhorted in the Bible to study and learn as much as possible about Jesus. It says in John 1:1 that 'In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.' If we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and one third of the Trinity of God, then we also believe that Jesus is the Word that is God. In Matthew 22:29 We find Jesus revealing the truth to the Sadducees saying that they do not understand because they do not really know the scriptures or the power of God. The greek word used for power was 'dunamis' the word from which comes our word dynamite. It also states in the scriptures that 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him as righteousness' in Romans 4:3 We can also find righteousness by showing faith in the promises contained in God's Word.
                      Most of all we can find approval in God's eyes by continually studying the word of God, as with most people we have a relationship with, we wish to spend as much time as possible with them, The way we can spend time with God, is to regularly and diligently study the Word. It was stated from Paul to Timothy in Paul's letter, 2nd Timothy 3:16 that 'All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.' Study and implementation of God's Word is the only way we can reach any hope of being Righteous in God's eyes. It is only through God's Word, and Jesus' blood, that we can even be clean enough for God to look upon us. If we think of ourselves as anything more than filthy rags in God's eyes, we are not even close. Every word in the Bible was given to the writers by God, and ordered by God, and used by God for our teaching, correction, and to instruct us how to live a Godly life.
                       That is why a church is not just a society of saints, but a Hospital for sinners. and the best prescription for each of us is the Word. God's Holy Bible. It will teach us how to live a righteous life, and will also warn us what to look out for in others. Will we still be fooled by others? Why yes of course, we will not be able to use the Word of God to protect us in life. However the Word can help us in how to react to others acting like heathens, and ignoring the teachings of God.