Crucified fools with derived wisdom 1Co 3.18

Never mistake fools with divine wisdom for crossless wiseness. Pseudo intellectuals have nothing to say before a crucified fool. Crosslessness renders world wise people to clever for missions, and having too much natural cleverness for ministry. Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seem to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. 1Co 3.18

Tongues of fire Ac. 2.3

The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity (Js. 3.6)
On Pentacost, the result of redemption is a new tongue, a silver tongue, a tongue looking "characteristically like fire" (Wuest Expanded Translation). What an amazing plan from God, to take sinners, who have mouths of death, iniquity, poison, to redeem them, and to put the Bible in their Spirit in their hearts so that they, like the 2 witnesses in Revelation, have tongues of fire. Imagine the scene, the disturbance, the commotion, as prophecy was fulfilled by men with stammering lips, as a sign to the cultured educated men of Israel, who had just missed the boat, now hearing the wonderous works of God, from Galilee-accented, uneducated idiots (greek), in the non-sacred, "secular" heathen gentile langues, but with tongues of fire! That's not mamby pamby, that's not holding back, that's not ear tickling, men pleasing, compromising, crossless, live for now, popular, average, spirit of the age, flesh influenced, carnal, double speak, that's men with tongues of fire!

Prospering out of place, highly exalted Php 2.9

Some themes are often repeated in Scripture.
Abraham in Canaan
Jacob in Haran
Joseph in Egypt
Moses in Egypt
Daniel in Persia
Esther in Persia
They are all out of place, but prospered by God as a sign to others.
It can be sen as a picture of the believer who receives salvation, but more importantly, it points to the Person of Salvation, Himself. Christ came into this fallen world, A Root out of dry ground, humbled Himself, like Joseph in Egypt, was rejected, but because of His himility, and Who He Is, wherefore.. he is Highly Exalted!

Ethnocentric vs Christocentric Gen46.34

Ethnocentrism is assuming that ones ways are higher than others'. "Every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians." (Gen. 46:34). Everyone has their "them", which they look down on. To Egyptians, Shepherds and Hebrew were "them". But the true missionary has discovered that God's ways are higher than all of ours, and the only thing he "has" of any value, is that which he has received, derived, objectively, from outside of himself.

Apart from objective truth (Christ - the Living Word, and the Bible - the written word), all we have is ethnocentrism, subjective human evaluation and proud legalism. This is not ministry. This is the conceited plague of men's hearts. This is something outside of Christ. It is collective self righteousness. Self righteousness assumes self is superior, and prejudges others as inferior. And the world is full of it. The Christocentric minister recognizes that we are all fallen. All cultures are fallen. The missionary does not evaluate others by the subjective sunglasses of ethnocentrism, but instead, sitting where people sit, he manifests thoughts and ways that are higher than our thoughts and ways. (Is. 55) Thoughts that are Christ. And this is Life to people.

Infinately North-South, East-West

[rush transcript] -

Satan desperately wanted to ascend (North) into heaven and have his throne on the sides of the North;

But Jesus witnessed him "fall [south] like lightning."

Quite possibly this happened in the garden, just after the creation of Adam, the object of his jealousy;

Though he still had limited access to heaven (see Job), because the literal blood had not yet been presented yet, he would eventually be confined (further South), to earth. Some of his armies had already been chained further south, below the earth in Tartarus, but he remained free for a time. 

When Jesus came "from above", He entered Jerusalem and left it, through the East gate, which David used, and which He will use when His feet touch down on the Mount of Olives in the East, and it splits from North to Souh.

He was arrested in the East (Gethsemane), came back through the East gate, and was to take our sins, "as far as the East is from the West", in an infinite sense, when He was crusified for them at Calvary, in the North. 

Sheol was on the South side. 

Motivated by the "depths of His love", through absolute identification with fallen sinners, He then "decended into the lowest parts of the earth" (South), into hell, in order to rescue and "lead captivity captive" from one Kingdom (below) into another kingdom (above), by raising us up and made us to "sit above" in "heavenly places" (North), 

After the millenial reign, Satan will be cast down further, not just South, but to the "bottomless pit", (infinately further and further South forever). As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His thougs and ways higher than our thoughts and ways!

Star, Jerusalem, Bethlehem / Light, Cross, Christ

Following light revealed, leads to a cross, which leads to Christ.

Naaman responded to the testimony of the little servant girl. That led him to the humiliating admission that his worldly position and goods were useless in the Divine economy, and upon passing through the cross, he found Christ.

The wise men followed the general revelation God had given them. That led them to a cross, as they realized that their natural logic and wisdom and ideas searching Jerusalem were repudiated by God and they were told to go further to Bethlehem. There in that ghetto, they too found Christ.

May we humbly respond to His light, His Word, accept His cross, and discover His Person, Jesus Christ, daily.
Merry Christmas!

100 Reasons Why I Love Israel

100 Reasons Why I Love Israel