TCN's Biblical Journey September 11th

Tell City Nazarene Church's Biblical Journey
With Pastor Charles Areson
Today's reading is Hosea 12-14 and Joel 1

I have never appreciated the spiritual leader who gets up points their finger at everyone and declares fire and brimstone because society has done wrong. My guess is that the result of knowing they ought to be doing it first.

Also, some of the “warning signs” of judgment aren’t really warning signs they are just natural phenomenon. Yes, hurricanes actually form on their own.

All this being said, there are times when what is happening to us is a result of our sins. Sometimes, it is our chickens coming home to roost.

We don’t like these words. We don’t want to hear the words Joel is saying: “Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God. Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.” Joel 1:13-14

Yes, this can have a national message as it did in Joel’s time, however, I want us not to look out at the world around us but to look in our own lives. What are we doing? Is this my fault in some way? Do I need to confess and repent? Not just when things are going wrong, but all of the time. Ask yourself, Am I living as Jesus would have me live? If you aren’t, then repent and do what is right.

Whatever the reason, when bad things happen we do need to cry out to the Lord.

TCN's Biblical Journey September 10th

Tell City Nazarene Church's Biblical Journey
With Pastor Charles Areson
Today's reading is Hosea 8-11

Be careful what you sow.

"They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind" (Hosea 8:7).

Often the consequence of sin and wrongdoing seem greater than the original action. This may seem wrong but when considered in life when one sows one seed a person gets back more than he sowed. It is the law of the harvest and when applied to doing and living right it is a wonderful thing. However, when vanity/evil/selfishness is sown the harvest it just as unpleasant. 

We may claim it isn't fair, but it is the way of life. We might not like it but pointing a finger at God and saying it isn't right is like complaining because you don't like gravity. 

The lesson to learn is what is sown grows. 

You can't sow wild oats and then pray for a crop failure. 

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TCN's Biblical Journey September 7th- The truly blind

Tell City Nazarene Church's Biblical Journey
With Pastor Charles Areson
Today's reading is Hosea 4-7

"I don't see it"

One of the saddest scriptures in Hosea is chapter 4:6 “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge.”

I have often noticed that what gets people in trouble is what they don’t want to know. They don’t want to know if they have cancer, so they die with it. Students don’t want to know a subject and find that they fail in that subject.

There seems to be a direct correlation between what we don’t want to know and how it can hurt us or lead us astray. Here as with many who have some knowledge of God, they refuse to learn more because it would mean they would have to change. Even when that knowledge could save them.

Israel had the knowledge of God but didn’t want it. Therefore, this refusal set them up to be rejected by the God who had promised to protect them. It put them in a place outside of God’s protective hand and they didn’t even know it. The reason why? They didn’t want to know.

This reminds me of the old saying which says, “No one is so blind as he that refuses to see.”

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TCN's Biblical Journey September 6th (If you're reading this the end of the world hasn't happened.)

Tell City Nazarene Church's Biblical Journey
With Pastor Charles Areson
Today's reading is Daniel 12 - Hosea 1-3

THE END?

 

If you're reading this the end of the world hasn't happened.

At least, it hasn’t happened here yet.

You may wonder how this observation have to do with today’s reading. A lot actually, because God told Daniel to shut up the words and to seal the book until the end of time (Daniel 12:4). There is a lot of argument over what this all means but personally I believe that the full understanding of Daniel’s prophecies can not be understood until the end of time. To give another example, it is like the end of a movie or book where in the last page you get the clue which explains it all.

One of my favorite movies, if not my favorite, is Signs. In it the reasons, the signs if you will, are understood and come together. In the end faith is made complete. I don’t want to say more because I don’t want to give too many spoilers. (Note: the movie was not written for a Christian audience and does have some language which may offend some people, myself among them).

Since it isn’t the end yet, I don’t think we can fully understand everything in Daniel. Yes, some of it seems very clear. The picture of the Mede and Persian Empire, the rise of Greek and Rome are astounding, but there is some which are still a mystery. I am aware some people think they have it all figured out but Daniel 12:4 tells me we shouldn’t be too confident. God still has some surprises for us and that is okay with me.  

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TCN's Biblical Journey September 5th

Tell City Nazarene Church's Biblical Journey
With Pastor Charles Areson
Today's reading is Daniel 8-11

The Messenger

“Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me because I was detained there with the king of Persia” Daniel 10:12-13.

What is happening here?

Daniel’s communication with God is instantaneous. The angel was sent right away, but then it got waylaid.

What can slow down an angel?

Clearly, there is something supernatural going on. It isn’t fully explained and though we can guess we can’t know for sure.

My own idea is that somehow in the dimensions which angels and demons travel there are fights between them. How and why this is allowed and what powers demons have is a mystery. There is a lot of guesses and a huge amount of myth, but the Bible doesn’t say a lot. Perhaps this is because for us in our lives it normally doesn’t. It may be like the people who track satellites in space. Yes, the work is important but for 99.9% of the population, it doesn’t have a direct impact on the decisions they make concerning their lives. Therefore, God doesn’t say much about it in the Bible. We would make a bigger deal out of it then we need too.

One other note, the scripture here doesn’t say that Daniel fast did anything to help this messenger from God. Why do I point this out? Because there are many people who think that our prayers, fasting, and other spiritual activities give angels power. This idea is extra-Biblical, it is a Christian myth. I do believe fasting, prayer, and other spiritual disciplines are important but not so we can empower angels, they are to help change us.  

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TCN's Biblical Journey Sept. 4th Saint Nebuchadnezzar?

Today’s reading is Daniel 4-7

Saint Nebuchadnezzar?

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble” (Daniel 4:37). This is one of the extraordinary conversions in the Bible and amazingly little talked about. Yes, there is no indication that Nebuchadnezzar became a Jew, but the language seems to indicate at least to me that he became a believer and follower of the God of Israel.

The question might be why would God even worry about reaching this pagan king, who though used of God to bring judgment did it in such a way that God promised judgment on them? Was God playing favorites? Was God just trying to help those in power?

The answer is no. God doesn’t play favorites. There could be many reasons God specifically reached out to Nebuchadnezzar. It could have been so that God’s power would be seen even after his temple was destroyed. It could have been to prepare the kingdom for the judgment which was going to come. It could have been that God was responding to the prayers of Daniel and his friends. We may never know. What we see here is God reaches out to try and redeem those that others wouldn’t. We also see trouble is often the precursor to humility and conversion.

Why does God allow bad things to happen? Sometimes, not always, we have to hit bottom before we will look up to God. 

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TCN's Biblical Journey Sept 3st

Today's Reading is Ezekiel 48 and Daniel 1-3

(I bet you're wondering what this has to do with Ezekiel.)

Am glad to get out of Ezekiel and into Daniel but the last half of the last verse of Ezekiel grabs my attention. "And the name of the city from that time on will be: The Lord is there."

Whatever else eternity may be like for His followers the key to it all will be that God is there.

The phrase "Elvis has left the building" was said to let the audience know that Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, was no longer in the building. This meant there was no chance for an encore performance or a chance to meet him. The reason for staying there was gone. The hope was this would cause (and it did) people to leave.

In reverse, it will be God in the city and now no one will want to leave. To say it another way, at the end of time the angels will announce, "The King has entered the build, let the celebrations begin!"


Photo by Susan Mohr on Unsplash