Part 1: Yesterday and today, God's dwelling is built on our hearts

Acts 17: 24-25

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

Isaiah 57:1-5

"For this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Insight:

The temple has become the physical representation of worship. There is a great connection between God's temple/dwelling among man, and man's heart for Him. God never intended to live in a limited physical structure, but God has used the temple to reveal people's hearts and to expose the condition of people's relationship with Him.

The Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle

The very first time God ever asked for a dwelling place among the Israelites, He said,

"Tell the Israelites to bring me an offering. You are to receive the offering for me from each man WHOSE HEART PROMPTS HIM TO GIVE. These are the offerings you are to receive from them: gold, silver and bronze; blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; ram skins dyed red and hides of sea cows; acacia wood; olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece."

"Then have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishing exactly like the pattern I will show you." Exodus 25:1-9

One needs only to read the specifications of the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant and everything in it, including the costumes of the priests who will serve Him, and the perfume and incense (the recipe was patented by God himself Exodus 30:22-28) to make God's dwelling smell good to be convinced that "Wow! Heaven must be a 100-star hotel!" No doubt, God wanted to dwell in beautiful dwellings. His dwelling is to be kept pure and holy at all times. Can you imagine how eye-catching the tabernacle was considering that the Israelites were camped in the desert? (Ark and Tabernacle covered with gold)

It is awesome just to imagine God's specified design. What was more awesome though is that God was to use the materials offered by the people according to their hearts prompting in building the Ark. What if nobody gives anything?

Problems can sometimes present opportunities. After punishing the Israelites because of their worship of the Golden calf, the craftsmen started working on the tabernacle. Probably grateful that they are still alive (3,000 thousand people died as a consequence of their idolatry), the rest of the people gave more than what was needed for the tabernacle.

"And the people continued to bring FREEWILL offerings morning after morning. So all the skilled craftsman who were doing the work on the sanctuary left their work and said to Moses, "The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done."

"Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: 'No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.' And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work."

I will get goosebumps if this happens today: the leaders restraining the people for bringing more FREEWILL offerings for God's sanctuary. Clearly, gratitude is the greatest motivation to give. When you know that you are blessed and that you owe your life, you will give whatever you can.
The tabernacle was finished according to God's design. God literally stayed among the Israelites in the tabernacle. His cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of God filled the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-38) God's presence signaled the Israelites when to build and break camp.

to be continued...

Beware: Traps of Pharisiasm

Passage: Luke 17:37-54

Scripture/s:
"And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them." vs. 4-6

"...Woe to you...because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who are entering." vs 52

Insights:

Here's one scripture that fascinates me about Jesus' character. Jesus was uttering "woes" against the top religious leaders of his day. These were people whom he spent time with, some of them were his friends, some of them were teachers he learned from as a young man. (Luke 2:46-49, Luke 5:17, Luke 6:1,2,6, Luke 7:36, Luke 10:25, Luke 11:37)

I mean, try mounting on one table and start uttering woes on everyone's sin. You will get the beating of your life.

Going back and forth Luke, I realized that Jesus' ministry almost centered on criticizing the religious practices of his time. In several occassions, Jesus debated with, preached on, utterly resisted traps from, and spoke openly against the Pharisee, teachers of the law, the Sadducees.

If you are interested to learn about the background of the Pharisees, please click on the link entitled "The story of the Pharisees", but in this article, I'd like to higlight Jesus' character.

JESUS IN THE FACE OF PHARISAISM:

• As Jesus professed, He is humble and gentle, yet when it comes to exposing the sins of the people who claim to be leaders, He was ruthless, without fear
• Jesus exhibited complete freedom from the bondage of legalism. It was as natural to him as breathing air. His disciples, Peter and Paul often talked about struggling to escape the false religiousity they have imbibed from their culture.
• Jesus accepted all that was good, and potentially good in the attitudes and teachings of the religious teachers (Matthew 23:1-4), but with clarity He refuted every point of the law that was misinterpreted and distorted. With precision, He rejected what was evil.
• Jesus practiced the law with all His heart and displayed the righteousness of it in His life.
• Jesus became a spokesperson for the masses, who in ignorance of the burdensome religion placed upon them by the Pharisees, could not speak up for themselves.
• Jesus was speaking the truth in love.

AVOIDING THE TRAPS OF PHARISAISM:

As Christians, we must avoid the pitfalls of both legalism (when we are too rigid about rules in our lives) and disobedience to God (when we are too loose spiritually, and tend to live the way we please). One author used this analogy on the paradoxes(seemingly opposite truths) of the Bible:

In order for an acrobat to successfully cross the rope, the two poles at the end of the rope must be pulling in the opposite directions, thereby providing tension for the acrobat to cross the rope.

Walking balancely between the paradoxes of the Bible will create tension, but that is what is healthy.

We must strive to obey God at all times. Sometimes, we do need to create guidelines or rules for ourselves in order to make sure that we obey God. Guidelines are helpful and important. However, we must not think that we can impose the same "rules" to everyone as if they are God's laws themselves. When we induce guilt in others (may be unconsciously) in order for them to follow our advice, when we start to make others fear us more than they fear God, then we might fall into the trap of Pharisaism.

The danger of Pharisaism is that it causes spiritual and psychological damage to people. When we subject people to demanding legalism, we damage their personalities and we make it hard for them to have healthy spiritual lives. This is what so angered Jesus.

The best thing we can do to help others is to encourage them to have an intimate walk with God. We must encourage them to pray for wisdom in whatever situation they have, and to FIRST DETERMINE WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS BEFORE SEEKING OPINION. I believe that God will prompt them to seek further advice from the appropriate people if they need to. Advice is good, the Bible says so (Proverbs 15:22)

God will give back a hundredfold

The best investment we can make are investments we make on God. The returns are wonderful!

Genesis 22:1-19
"I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore."
Malachi 3:10
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the Lord, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it."
Matthew 19:29
"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life."

Lesson:
When we give to the Lord something that is of great worth to us, something that's hard to give but we give Him anyway, He will not fail to give us a hundred, thousand, millionfold of what we gave.

The story of the Pharisees

Reading Luke, I noticed how Jesus spent a lot of time with Pharisees: dining with them, preaching with them, studying with them. But, He also spoke openly against them, which angered them a lot. This stirred my curiousity on the background of this people. I'd like to share some highlights I read from the book entitled, "The Compact Handbook of New Testament Life."

• Pharisee seems to have been derived from a Hebrew verb which means, "to separate". It is unclear whether it means that they are separate from Greek influence, or from the gentile world, or from the mass of the population who are ignorant of the continual demands of the Pharisaic code.
• They were formed during 2 BC in order to form a front against the Hellenism, which is the spread of the Greek culture. The Greek culture threatened to destroy the Mosaic law, which they tried to preserve.
• This placed the Pharisees in aristocracy among the Jews. They love the places of honor.
• The Pharisees were able to successfully eliminate idolatry which used to be the object of God's jealousy in the Old Testament times. Thus, during Jesus' time, it was no longer a subject of concern. The Jews stopped practicing idolatry despite the fact that the Greeks worship graven images.
• The Pharisees had so much time (compared to the masses), so they took painstaking hours to elaborate the law. Their zeal for the scripture solidified into deadening rigidity.
• One of the subjects around which they created so many rules, is the subject of Sabbath practice. The Sabbath is a healthy provision for man by God to set aside a 7th day for rest.
• The Pharisees made the Sabbath observance into an unbearable burden. They cluttered Sabbath with prohibitions (and equally numerous escape clauses, "exemptions to the rules") that any sane person couldn't possibly follow them.
• The regulations on Sabbath are so many that they make up 64 folio columns in the Jerusalem talmud and 156 double pages of folio in the Babylon talmud. A teacher once spent 2 to 3 years studying one of the 24 divisions.
• It became impossible to keep the Sabbath, even for the Pharisees and teachers of the law themselves, that is why, alongside with the regulations, there are as numerous escpape clauses as there can be. (Luke 11:4,6,52)
• Example: It is illegal to eat an egg laid on the Sabbath. But if a person declares before the Sabbath that the hen, which is to commit such "abomination, will soon be killed and eaten, then the egg might legitimately be eaten. The egg becomes merely an object dropped from an already doomed bird.
• Because of this, the Pharisees and experts in the law, unable to fully obey their rules, fell into open hypocrisy. This led to the hardness of their hearts which Jesus could only describe as, "sin against the Holy Spirit."
• The Pharisees failed to provide spiritual leadership. They became "blind leaders of the blind","false shepherds who care not about the sheep."

Prayers

Dear Father,

I know that you expect much from me now that I'm learning more from the Bible. I know that you want me to draw closer to you and to live my life holy as your words require. Lord, much has been entrusted to me, I know that much is expected.

Lord, please forgive for all my sins. I confess that I have given in to lust in my mind. I have also been critical of people, vocally and mentally. I know that all these make me impure in my heart, mind, and soul. Please forgive me. Please forgive me for not keeping your Holy Temple clean and without blemish. Lord, I ask for the blood of Jesus to purify me right now and make me as white as snow. I need you Lord.

Father, I also know that I need to confess my sins, especially to my husband. He is the one person I can trust, and who will love me for who I am despite of my sins. Help me to vulnerable with him and to not be afraid to expose my sins to him. Lord, please help him to be merciful to me, even as he disciples me.

Father, please always remind me that I have a great accountability before you to live my life above reproach. You don't ask me to be perfect, but you ask me to always listen to the Spirit's prompting and guidance that I may walk in your path.

Lord, please forgive me because my heart is heavy right now. I need you to give me courage to humble myself before you and before my brothers and sisters. Lord, come for me. Come to my rescue. In Jesus' name I pray, please forgive me, Amen.