Sunday School Class Proverbs 25:11-15 Sticks & stones may break my bones...
Choruses (F): I’ve
got a river of life; I love you Lord; Where the Spirit of the Lord is;
scripture reading: #673
Sunday evening @ 5 - The
life of Christ chronologically in a 'harmony' of the Gospels. Luke 12:35-59 What
is involved in being 'ready?'
Wednesday Study Class
Turning a 'fast' into a feast
Zechariah 8:16-23
16. These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth
to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; 17. do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to
swear falsely. I hate all this," declares the LORD.
18. Again the word of the LORD Almighty came to me. 19.
This is what the LORD Almighty says: "The fasts of the fourth, fifth,
seventh and tenth months will become joyful and glad occasions and happy
festivals for
20. This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Many
peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will yet come, 21. and the inhabitants of one city will go to another and say,
`Let us go at once to entreat the LORD and seek the LORD Almighty. I myself am
going.'
22. And many peoples and powerful nations will come to
23. This is what the LORD Almighty says: "In those days ten men from all languages and nations will take firm
hold of one Jew by the hem of his robe and say, `Let us go with you, because we
have heard that God is with you.'"
An Oracle
16. These are the things you are to do:
'If you love truth and peace and don't plot evil toward
your neighbor and do not lie about your neighbor (because the Lord hates all
that) then your times of fasting will become times of celebration – joyful and
glad occasions, happy festivals. Therefore love truth and peace.'
That's my
paraphrase of these verses in Zechariah chapter eight. Let’s look at it again:
16. These are the things you are to do:
·
'If you love truth and peace and
·
don't plot evil toward your neighbor
and
·
do not lie about your neighbor (because the Lord hates all that)
then your times of fasting will become times of celebration –
joyful and glad occasions, happy festivals.
·
Therefore love truth and peace.'
There's one more
part of this passage that is especially intriguing. Verses 20-23 talk about the
inhabitants of many cities and powerful nations coming and saying that they have
heard that the Lord is with you.
A couple of
phrases come to mind - "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is
Peace;" and, "By this shall all men know that you are my disciples,
in that you love one another."
This is an address to a nation about national
relationships.
My, my, my...where does one start? Let's see, perhaps we could start with 'loving truth and peace.'
We could follow that closely with not plotting evil toward neighbor nations.
We could talk
about
·
'doing good' and
·
'feeding the hungry,
·
clothing the naked,
·
healing the sick...'
We should be
talking about things such as whether it is a basic human right to expect
·
health care,
·
education,
·
basic shelter and
·
nutrition.
If we have the
ability, capability and capacity, how can we as Christians
Biblically justify denying these to any of the children and
impoverished people of the world?
If we provide
these basics with a spirit of truth and peace, what would this do to national
relationships? Now don't tell me it won't work...this is God's command (Re:
Zechariah 8:16-23). This command wasn't in reference to friendly nations -
there really weren't 'friendly' nations around
Our 'Christian'
political leaders would say this is impractical and won't work. That's the
amazing thing about being Christian in deed and not merely in political
affiliation - God works through the good deeds of His people.
We are to be "Doers of the Word and not hearers only." We
are not to be counted among those whose 'lips profess but their deeds deny...'
We need to 'try
God' by obedience to His mandates and see if He 'will open the windows of
heaven and pour out blessings more than we can contain.' We can NOT Biblically
expect God to bless
Why wait until
we've ravaged a country with our bombs before we invest in reparations? Let's
do something really novel and skip the war - let's take capital, technology and
human resources into trouble spots and rebuild their country without killing
them off first.
Let's love and
lift up those who think we don't like them and don't care what happens to them.
What momma and daddy is going to hate you if you heal
and feed their sick and hungry little one? It's better to give dignity than to
give offense.
'What have you
done if you do good to those who do good to you, even the heathen do that.' The
test of our relationship to Christ is when we do good
to those who hate us and have done all manner of evil toward us. THAT is when
the power of Christ overcomes the evil of the world.