Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Paul wrote, “The body is a unit, though is is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body.” 1 Cor. 12:12, NIV
A doctor who had served his community for many years as a general practitioner was glad when his son decided to also become a doctor. As the son was nearing the completition of med school, he announced that he had decided to specialize, rather than go into general family practice like his father.
“And what are you going to specialize in?,” asked the father.
“The nose,” responded the son.
“Hummp,” snorted the father. “Which nostril?”
We live in an age of specialization. That’s not bad in itself; we need to become as good and knowledgeable as we can in what we do to earn our daily bread. But far too many people specialize to the extent that they ignore much of their God-given potential. Worse, they even compartmentalize God.
For example, they have their ‘work’ compartment, their ‘relaxation and recreation’ compartment, and their ‘Sunday Go-To-Meeting’ compartment.
We are complex beings, as God created us, capable of many things. We are to become complete in Him, in His likeness. We can not disown part of our body, as Paul states in 1 Corinthians 12:15. Yes, Paul was making an allusion to the Church. This is my point: we can apply that same information to all that we do, because it is a basic truth. We should not say, “My job is not my church; Jesus is not part of my work.” Nor can we leave God out of our choices for entertainment, our hobbies, or relaxation. Saturday Sinners, and Sunday Saints we ain’t!
On the other hand, I have seen some people who are so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good. Keep in mind that the two people who walked by the man beaten and left to die along the highway were “religious” people. The Samaritan was the person who said, “This, too, is part of me.” He had compassion on the man, and took time from his tasks, whatever they were, and brought that need into his life.
All that we do should be acceptable to God. Everyday! No walls, no compartments, no specialization. No saying, “That’s a religious thing, a worship thing. I’ll take care of that on Sunday.”
February 11, 2001

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” Rev. 1:8 NIV
Ahh! The Thirst for Knowledge! Especially when the quest is for more about God, and His creation. Yes, I’ve been immersed in reading again. It started with a Christmas present, a book on Roman history. Not just dates and who did what, but coverage of how people lived, how they farmed, built, fought, and worshiped. The early church was born in the early days of the Roman Empire; they sort of grew up together. Just like Jacob and Esau, the elder (Roman) was in time made subject to the younger (The Church.)
You can not read the New Testament without encountering the Roman Empire. It was a Roman census that sent Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem. It was a Roman governor that approved Jesus’ crucifixion. Roman emperors persecuted the church, and made martyrs of many Christians, including Peter and Paul.
However, just as a building is created from the foundation up, so the history of the church, and world, was built from the Creation onward. Christ and Adam are often compared. Sin came through Adam; salvation comes from Jesus Christ. The Promise came through Abraham. The Genealogy of Jesus (Luke 3:23-37) took me back to the “begats” in Genesis.
A chance encounter of a time-line that mentioned that Noah’s son, Shem, was still living during Abraham’s lifetime piqued my curiosity about the overlap in the lifespans given in Genesis.
Taking the dates and times given in the Bible, I have prepared the attached chart for you.
Talk about long marriages. . . What did Adam and Eve talk about for 900 years? We say, “Oh! Methuselah lived 969 years. Neat!” If so, why didn’t Noah take his grandfather on the ark? But. . . .did he die in The Flood ?
And look at this: Adam was still alive into the lifetime of Noah’s father and grandfather. They would have had the Creation story from The First Man himself! Methuselah and Lamech could have directly passed this family history on to Shem, and Shem on to Abraham.
I even found a reference that “tradition/legend” mentions that the mysterious Melchizidek, to whom Abraham paid his tithe to God, was none other than Shem, the aged son of Noah!
Pity they didn’t include the women!
February 4, 2001

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Adam said,
“I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:10, NKJV

Perhaps you have heard the maxim, as I have:
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”
In theory, the thought is supposed to help us shrug off taunts and name calling. In theory! In fact, words can wound deeper than a sharp blade, can bruise greater than a cudgel.
The injury from a rear-ender car collision often produces “whip lash,” a stressing of the neck, which may leave no visible external evidence, but may cause severe internal damage.
We have only to follow news reports to witness the result of “word lash,” which can also create severe internal damage, psychological damage that sometimes comes out in violent confrontations, perhaps resulting in the death of several people.
More often, though, people ‘hide’ themselves by building a shield - a psychological shield - and hide within it. Henry David Thoreau observed in "Walden", 1854 “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.” He also noted: “Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate.“
It is not just cruel, hateful words that can bring us to destruction, however. Sometimes seemingly innocent words of advice, craftily proffered, can bring down the gullible, or even the diligent soul who seeks to walk in the paths of righteousness. Adam and Eve knew well God’s words concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden. “You shall not eat (of it) for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) Words can not be much plainer than that!
Yet note the words of the cunning serpent: “You will not surely die. . . . You will be like God.” Sweet talk, craftily proffered. And they ate.
In Genesis 3:11 God asks Adam, “Who told you that you were naked?” But this is more than an issue about a lack of clothing. This was something new, an awareness of a vulnerability, a sense of the loss of innocence. Previously, Adam and Eve had nothing to hide from God; they had nothing to be ashamed of. Now, the knowledge of their disobedience envelops them. God knows! His words concerning the tree in the midst of the garden rang in their conscience, weighing heavily and guiltily on their minds. Adam thinks of himself as not only guilty, but as naked before God.
Guilty! They have sinned against the Word of God. Too late. Excuses will not build a shield to hide behind. The serpent (Satan), the woman, and Adam all sinned, and all were punished. Yes, it was God’s Word, and not Satan’s words, that prevailed.
Yet, “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam, all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:21-22, NKJV)

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: John wrote, “ That is the distinction between the children of God and the children of the devil: no one who does not do right is God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love his brother.” I John 3:10, NEB
We have been studying the Book of I John in Bible Study. One of John’s themes in later life was love, Christian love. It is said that he was constantly asked for advice about living the Christian Life, and he would respond, “Little Children, love one another.”
Jesus apparently taught John well. Was John one of the Disciples that at first refused to let little children trouble Jesus? Perhaps. The Bible doesn’t name specific persons. But John had to be close by, and heard Jesus ask to let little children come to Him.
John, like his Master, were talking about all people, adopting a child-like attitude, and coming to the Father with humility. Trusting, Obeying, reaching out to the One who has our best interest at heart.
Jesus said that anyone who harmed “one of His little ones” should be treated very harshly; a millstone tied about his neck, and drowned in the depths of the sea.
Harsh words, to be sure! But think of the fate foretold for Satan at the end time. The Great Deceiver will be thrown into a lake of fire.
John, as well as Jesus, makes it clear that those who oppose and persecute the followers of Christ, His “Little Ones” will suffer the same fate as the Devil.
Those who follow Christ will be selected to spend eternity in heaven with God. Those who love Christ, and the Father, and have the Holy Spirit within them, are of God; those who have not that love are not of God, but of the Evil One.
Eternal life is not earned; it is given as a Gift, by God. However, we must reach out, and accept the gift, the perfect grace of God.
January 28, 2001

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Paul wrote, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” NIV
We all know the meaning of the word “charitable” . . . sort of. Kind and generous in giving help to those in need. (Webster’s New World Dictionary). Even my 1927 dictionary agrees. Both dictionaries also agree that our modern word charity comes from the Old French word charite; the French got it from the Latin word caritas, meaning dearness, love, or loving. Chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians affirms this meaning in the King James Version: Charity is used wherever the word is translated love in other versions.
Interesting! In the original Greek, the word is agape, one of four words the Greeks used that we translate “love.” But “A-hah! The first definition given for charity is Christian love! Love for one’s fellow-men.
So why do the newer Bible translations say love instead of charity, as used in the King James text? Possibly because we have moved way down in the list of meanings to emphasize giving rather than supplying in love.
Suppose two people put ten dollar bills in the offering plate at church. One is a person whose income is well above the typical average. The other is a widow on a pension, shall we say about $600 a month for all her expenses. She does so because she has a love for the work of the church. The other gives because everyone is expected to put something in the collection plate. Jesus used much this same example in Luke 21:1-4. The people gave gifts (my italics) out of their wealth.
The Bible does not condemn wealth in and of itself. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. The striving, the hoarding, the conniving to obtain and keep it. The love of power having money can bring. The rich farmer was not condemned for building barns to hold his harvest. Rather, it was the self-centered joy of wallowing in his own excess. Charity did not enter into his plans for the use of God’s Charity!
Think about it! God didn’t just give us the gift of His Son. He personifies charity - He so LOVED the world . . .
January 14, 2001

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Jesus said, “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” Mark 7:21-22 NIV
Oh wad some power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion.
--Robert Burns

It is said that Scotch poet, Robert Burns, wrote about “seeing ourselves as others see us,” after watching a louse crawl up the back of a lady sitting in front of him in church. She was decked out in the latest fashion, including a large hat with a feather plume in it. Quite proud of her appearance, no doubt!
Puffed-up pride has been around as long as there have been people. Cain’s pride got him in trouble, and so on through history. Proverbs 16:18 notes that “pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
We need to have a certain amount of pride in ourselves, but of a humble sort, rather than haughty pride. A Greek axiom was “Know Thyself.” We need to be knowledgeable of our capabilities, but also our limitations. One of the most destructive traps is the pride that prevents us from admitting that we are wrong, or that we don’t know the answer.
As “Bobbie” Burns observed, “It would from many a blunder free us, and foolish notion.”
One comedy routine went something like this:
1st: “Only fools are positive!”
2nd: “Are you sure of that?”
1st: “Positive!”
Daniel observed that King Nebuchadnezzar was deposed from his royal throne and stripped of his glory because his heart became arrogant and hardened with pride. (Daniel 5:20)
Jesus included pride (arrogance) as one of the things that makes a man unclean. From within, out of men’s hearts, come evils that make a person ‘unclean’. (Mark 7:21-22)
January 7, 2001

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Jesus said, "Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? Luke 6:39, NKJV

Peer pressure! We tend to think of adolescents when we hear the word, but peer pressure goes far beyond the realm of teenagers. It can be brought to bear on any of us, because a peer is anyone of the same societal group, based on age, grade or status. Unless, of course, you are in Great Briton, where the peerage consists of the ranks of duke, marquess, earl, viscount, or baron.
One's peers have a powerful influence over one's behavior. We don't want to be the odd ball, the 'different' one. In group dynamics, there is a weight, or pressure, that functions in determining acts or choices made in common. As part of a crowd, we tend to go along with the crowd. "When in Rome . . . ."
"Birds of a feather" do indeed flock together, research has shown. It is just natural to want to be among others like ourselves. Our 'feathers' may be clothing, choices in music, favorite leisure activities, or beliefs and tenets. A peer group draws a circle, delineating what is 'In' and acceptable, and what is Not a characteristic 'feather' of inclusion. In some societies, the showing of an unacceptable 'feather' can lead to shunning of the offender - exclusion from fellowship.
I suppose a case could be made that the first example of peer pressure presented in the Bible was Adam's acceptance of Eve's fruity snack. The 'Authority' figure that seeks to sway a group's thinking was certainly there, and 'ole Satan is still in there, taking advantage of the 'follow the leader' syndrome.
One of the most disastrous events in the history of Israel hinged on the elements of the generation gap and peer pressure. King Solomon's successor, Rehoboam, first consulted the elders, who enjoined him to be a servant to the people, and speak good words to them. (1 Kings Ch. 12)
Rehoboam rejected their advice, and instead consulted the young men he had grown up with - his peers!
Their promised heavy yoke and harsh kingship led to a split in the nation, starting the northern ten tribes down the long path to idolatry and eventual dispersement among the nations.
We often stand where Adam and Rehoboam stood: We need to make choices - which can either lead us astray, or strengthen our walk on the right path.
Choose well - a peer group of those who can see clearly God's pathway.
By all means, avoid those who are blind to His Way, lest we follow them into the dark ditch of eternity.
January 15, 2006