What Paul (Saul) gave up for Yeshua!

I have been reading a book by F.F. Bruce called “Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free”. While I am only a chapter or two into the book, I am struck by the author’s descriptions of Cilicia and Tarsus, the region and city of Saul birthplace. Although the books author did not say this (at least so far in my reading), I am beginning to realize the position, education, breeding etc of Paul’s family life and what he gave up.

The city of Saul’s birth had a LONG history before he was born. On the order of almost 2 millennia. It was exempt from Roman taxes by Augustus Caesar. They prided themselves on a long and deep love of culture and Tarsus was a center of education that rivaled Athens and Alexandria. Bruce equated Tarsus to a “university” town, similar to what we have in many areas of the world. Paul would have received a Jewish education, one common to his era but because of his status, (see next paragraph) it would have been deeper. Because of the surroundings he could have easily have learned a great deal about the Greek and Roman culture.

Paul himself was a Roman citizen, something that not many in Tarsus would have achieved. It is likely that the family of Paul would have been part of the wealthy elite of the area, certainly one of the wealthy Jewish elite.

For Paul to have traveled to Israel at an early age to study with the rabbi’s, such as Gamaliel, he would have had to have shown great aptitude in his studies.  By the time of his being part of the party of the Pharisees, his education and training would have been on a world-class level.

Yet, after Saul’s encounter with Yeshua on the road to Damascus, he was willing to give it all up to follow the Lord. For me it helps explain a statement Paul makes in his writings:

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. ⁷ But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Messiah. ⁸ Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Messiah Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Messiah ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Messiah, the righteousness from God that depends on faith- ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Phil 3:4-11 (ESV) adapted

The Difficult Road of Jeremiah the Prophet

Redefining the meaning of success.

Are you prepared to receive a shock? Here it comes . . . If Jeremiah was alive and in ministry today many people in the body of Messiah would consider his ministry a colossal failure. If you don’t believe me, I suggest you spend a few minutes thinking about what you would consider a successful ministry. Ask yourself what size building you think is needed, the amount of finances necessary, number of ministries and so on. If you find yourself using words such as “growing” and “larger” alongside the word “success” than you may have a problem. By that definition, Jeremiah the prophet is a failure of immense proportions.

He was called at a young age to speak the word of the Lord to the people of God as well as to the nations. He spent his entire life speaking, preaching, pleading, begging and crying for people to repent of their sins. He spoke bluntly and emotionally to people telling them the Word of the Lord. The sins of his people didn’t make him mad but instead would break his heart. In short, he was a man who desperately loved his nation and his people. Some people spend their days telling others what is wrong with their life but usually do it with a wrong and/or haughty attitude  . . . not Jeremiah. Seeing the condition of his people made him weep. I may be wrong, but I doubt if the Lord would have wanted Jeremiah to be anything else but who he was.

Yet . . . for all his praying, prophesying, preaching, pleading and begging . . . no one listened. From the time he started his ministry until the time he died, no one repented. He was rejected, hated and ignored, his warnings discarded. He was persecuted, locked up and there was even a time when he was thrown into a cistern (reservoir) and left to die. After the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of its people, Jeremiah and his aide were forcibly taken to Egypt, away from the land he loved.

He received a clear call of God into ministry, yet he saw no fruit and no one repented of their sins. He was poor and unpopular. No one listened to him and there was no revival. His message, clearly from the Lord was just as clearly rejected. By today’s standards, Jeremiah would be considered a failure and a rather large one at that. Yet he never gave up and never stopped loving his people.

Jeremiah did not live up to ANY of our western definitions of success in ministry, yet he always remained obedient to his call. Perhaps the definition should not be limited to size and growth. Maybe we need to consider the possibility that we can be called into a ministry that could take years or decades to succeed. We need to consider that, like Jeremiah, we may be called to speak words that will be mostly ignored.

Maybe it is time we redefine the meaning of success.

Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD,  I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:17-18 (NIV)

Joseph’s Choices

Have you ever wondered how Joseph’s life could have been different if he had made other choices in his life? Obviously, the only answer is “Only the Lord knows.” However, there were points while a slave in Egypt where Joseph could have done things differently if he had chosen to do so.

• While running the estate of Potiphar, Joseph received the favor the Lord. He could have chosen to take advantage of the situation. He chose not to.
• He could have chosen to have an affair with Potiphar’s wife. It was unthinkable to him to make that choice.
• While Joseph was in prison and running the lives of the prisoners, he received the favor the Lord. Joseph could have chosen to take advantage of the situation and the prisoners around him. He chose not to.
• While interpreting the dreams of the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and baker, Joseph could have tried to take a little credit. Instead, he gave the glory to God.
• Joseph, a slave, had the amazing audacity to give Pharaoh some advice. His intention was to save lives, not self-promotion. Joseph could have been executed but was instead promoted to governor of Egypt.
• When he saw his brothers, Joseph could have refused their request for food. He chose to forgive.

At each of these times in Joseph’s life things could have gone differently if he had so chosen. If he had made a different choice in any of the situations mentioned, the outcome of the entire story could have been different or it might have been the same. Only the Lord knows, but that is the key to the entire story. ONLY THE LORD KNOWS. Joseph made choices that pleased the Lord not man. Since he never would have thought in his wildest dreams that he would eventually become governor of Egypt (would you in his situation!), Joseph’s choices were simply a reflection of his devotion to the Lord. He chose to obey God and to do the best he could while being a slave. Joseph made choices that, in retrospect, had future consequences, but to him they were simply choices that had to be made.

You never know where your path will lead. Only the Lord knows. Like Joseph, the Lord might or might not be planning to promote us into a situation that earlier in our life would seem wild and crazy. However, whether that happens or not, we should remain devoted to the Lord, obey Him and do the best we can where we are.

Some Lesson’s are Harder to Learn

Sometimes, for whatever reason, some lessons in our life are harder to learn that others are. Whether it is because of our personality or the fact that it gets harder to change as one gets older, sometimes we need to take unusual means to be trained in the way we should go. In Scripture, there are some people where the Lord took unusual measures to make sure they never forgot the lesson.

Ya’acov (Jacob): He spent a long time manipulating and being manipulated. The list is much too large: his father and mother, his brother Esau, his wives and his father-in-law. His life to that point was one of constant struggle to get the best of others. Yet Jacob must have realized that he was not doing something right because he decided to set things right with his brother Esau. The internal struggle in him was graphically dramatized by having an all-night wrestling match with the Angel of the Lord, which is the Lord Himself, Yeshua. When the Lord pronounced the statement that Ya’acov had struggled with God and Man and had overcome, He was saying that Jacob was learning the lesson. To make sure that the message would never be forgotten, the Lord wrenched the socket of one of Ya’acovs hip. Now his pain and limping would be a constant reminder of the lesson and a guarantee that Jacob would never return to the way he used to be.

Kefa (Peter): Loyal and headstrong, Kefa was zealous for the Lord. Willing to take some risks and make mistakes, he sometimes leapt before he looked. When Yeshua (Jesus) prophesied that Kefa would betray the Lord, Peter was certain that it would never happen. Later, after Yeshua was arrested, Peter did in fact betray the Lord. When the rooster crowed and Peter remembered the prophecy, he must have gone into shock when he realized that he had indeed turned his back on Yeshua. Coming to the end of himself and because of his shame, Kefa wept uncontrollably. After the resurrection, Yeshua restored Peter. Now wherever Peter went the crowing of the rooster would be a reminder of the grace of God and a guarantee that Peter would never return to the way he used to be.

Paul’s (Shaul) thorn in the flesh: No one knows exactly what the thorn was, but it doesn’t matter. All that matters is the purpose of the thorn in the flesh: to keep Paul humble and dependant on the Lord. The thorn in the flesh was a constant reminder to Paul of his weakness and of the grace of God. It would serve as a guarantee that he would not return to the world of pride in himself and his accomplishments.

Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Messiah can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses, and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Messiah. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2Corinthians 12: 8-10 (New Living Translation – NLT – Messianic terms added.

There But By the Grace of God. . .

1st read Daniel chapter 4

Writing about this chapter presents somewhat of a problem for me. On the one hand, I can easily just do a small study of Nebuchadnezzar. The issues, problems and solutions are all laid out in the chapter. What led up to his mental collapse, what caused it and how was he healed. It would be all too easy to write about. The problem starts when I go beyond the simple lesson and start applying it to my life. OOPS!!! Everything seems to break down after that! So here’s what I’ll do. Let’s first do the easy part, a short study on Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4. After that let’s discuss the hard part, applying it to my life (Or anyone’s life for that matter).

The Easy Part: What happened to Nebuchadnezzar?

Nebuchadnezzar clearly had a massive ego, something all too common among rulers of countries. A chapter earlier three Jewish men defied the Babylonian ruler and refused to bow down to a statue the king had set up of himself. The Bible records that Nebuchadnezzar was so furious that his face was distorted with rage. He punished the three men by trying but failing to have them burned alive. In Daniel chapter 4 we then see the king getting a forewarning vision from the Lord concerning his future. Daniel’s interpretation was that the king was going to learn a lesson the hard way. He needed to learn that it was the Lord who installed people into leadership and the Lord could just as easily “uninstall” them. Unfortunately for the king, the Lord knew that the only way to learn the lesson was to let him suffer the consequences of his actions.

A year later while the king was taking a stroll he looked around and started bragging and boasting to himself. To his way of thinking, he did all the work to bring Babylon to this point. Within a split second he came under divine discipline. Within the hour he went insane and was driven from society. It was seven years until he regained his mind and sanity.

Why did this happen to the king? It happened to the king because the Lord hates pride. He detests pride! He will humble every single person that displays pride and arrogance. We have His word on that issue. What happened to him was to show the king and us how much the Lord hates pride. The Bible clearly states that what happened to Nebuchadnezzar was not just for him but to be a lesson to all of us. “. . . so that everyone may know that the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world. He gives them to anyone he chooses-even to the lowliest of people.” Daniel 4:17b (New Living Translation- NLT) bold emphasis added.

That issue was not lost on King Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel 4:37 is the last line of a letter he wrote to his subjects: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and glorify and honor the King of heaven. All his acts are just and true, and he is able to humble the proud.” To me, the letter is extraordinary. Not just because it is in Scripture but because the king was finally willing to admit his faults and errors to his subjects. How many times have you seen anyone in government do that?

The hard part: applying it to my life

The hard part, to me, is trying to apply this to my life. When I was younger I used to mentally pat myself on the back because I thought I didn’t have nearly the number of problems in my life that I saw in others. At the time, I didn’t realize that was pride. Oh the folly and ignorance of youth!!! As I have gotten older and made more than my share of mistakes I have come to realize that I am fallible and frail just like everyone else. What a shock to my system!!! Yet now, for me, there is a freedom in knowing that I am weak. There is a joy in knowing that Yeshua is there to guide me.

When I was much younger in the knowledge and wisdom of the Lord I might have thought that if I was in Nebuchadnezzar’s shoes I would never have acted like he did. I thought that I knew better then that. As I have gotten older and wiser I think differently. I realize that I need the grace of God everyday. I need His power to move forward, constantly praying for His help and guidance.

Now when I read stories like Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 4, I am not so arrogant to think it would never happen to me. When I read newspaper accounts of business scandals I stay sober. I recognize that if I don’t stay alert and watchful I could easily fall prey to the same problems and errors that plagued King Nebuchadnezzar or anyone else on this planet. As Yeshua told His disciples at the Mound of Olives, “Why are you sleeping? He asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.” (NLT)

I now realize my complete dependence upon Yeshua in all situations.

“Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5 (NLT)