Berean Jews

I have this app on my iPad called a scripture shaker. It gives me a random scripture to read, then I shake it and another pops up. It's really neat. This morning I forgot my bible here at work, so I decided to use this app. I came across a verse in Act 17, that just struck me the right way.

Acts 17 talks about Paul during one of his missionary trips around the Roman Empire. In verse 11 the author makes a statement that I think we can and should learn something. It goes like this:

--Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.--

I love the phrase "more noble". It really says a lot about these Jews.

Let me ask you something, yesterday when the minister in your church got up to do his thing, what was your reaction. Were you excited? Bored? Indifferent? I remember one time sitting in the second service at my church, during the summer, and when the Pastor got up to speak, the women in front of me whispered,"Ugh! here we go!"

I could not believe it!!! I felt like tapping that lady on the shoulder and saying, look if you don't want to be here to hear this you can leave.

Do we have the same reaction to hearing the Word of God as the Berean Jews? Here was a guy they had never meet before, Paul, bringing a message and they were glad to hear it. Or do we react like that typical church goer, Ugh! here we go? Take note that she knew that Pastor quite well. How come the Berean Jews were so more excited about a guy they had never met and we receive our Pastor's message with contempt.

Now don't get me wrong I am not saying that all believers react like that typical church goer, but do we have the reaction of the Berean Jews, excited and eager to hear the word? You know, we all have extremely busy lives, I don't need to expound on that. I don't have the time I would like to sit and study God's Word, I do my best with the time that I carve out for me and God but I never feel like it's enough. But the Pastor, it is his job to study the scriptures and study them to the point that he or she can give a message on Sunday morning. So I appreciate the message that the Pastor brings, but I pray that God would give me the spirit of the Berean Jews to receive that message with eagerness and excitement.

Also, take note at the last part of the verse, what did the Jews do? They examined the Scriptures and found what Paul was saying was true. Now I don't want to sound like I'm coming down on the church, I don't want the Daily Feast to turn into my ranting about how I feel about the church or whatever.

But I think this is something that is common. So many times I will be with friends talking about the scriptures or what we've been learning about in church and they repeat something the pastor said and it doesn't sit well with me. It doesn't match with what I've read in the Scripture.

Pastors are human too, they make mistakes, say the wrong thing, put something out of context. It's our job to take what they have said and examine it. Not only for our benefit, to make sure that it is Scripturly sound but for their benefit as well. The Bible says that iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. To go to a pastor and ask about something he or she said to get clarification, is not being a bad church goer. It actually makes you an excellent church goer.

The point is you can't just sit back and take whatever the pastor says as final word. Look at it for yourself. Be like the Berean Jews examine the scriptures and make sure the message was true and in line with the Scriptures.

I remember listening to the radio a while ago and the host of this show made a facebook page for Paul the apostle. It was a joke that he was doing as a fun thing for the fans of the show. He would make the status' things that Paul wrote in his letters but he wouldn't reference them. He made one of the status' a verse Paul wrote in Galatians about the law. I don't remember exactly what it was but it came right from scripture, I know because the host read the scripture on the air when a fan called in and said, he couldn't just make a statement like the one he did on Paul's page.

This guy, who claimed he was a believer since childhood, said the statement the host made, THAT CAME RIGHT FROM THE BIBLE, was false. The guy, who if I didn't mention it, claimed to be a believer, didn't even know what the scripture says. How sad is that?

We claim to love Jesus, to be followers and we don't even know what his word to us says.

I have been reading Crazy love lately and I love the statement the author makes. I want you to think about this for your life. We serve a God who pursues us with RELENTLESS LOVE, and what is your reaction, as a follower, to Him?

High Places

There are some very interesting objects that are found in the Old Testament, they are called High Places. These objects can be found first in the book of Joshua (best book if you ask me...haha). A High Place is defined as an elevated site, usually found on the top of a mountain or hill; most high places were Canaanite places of pagan worship. The average high place would have had an altar (2 Kings 21:3, 2 Chronicles 14:3), a carved wooden pole that depicted the female goddess of fertility (Asherah), a stone pillar symbolizing the male deity, other idols and some type of building. At these places of worship the people would sacrifice animal and sometimes children (Jer. 7:31). Incense would be burnt, sacrificial meals would take place and often rituals involving male and female prostitutes. Scripture speaks extremely in the negative about the high places though they played a huge role in the lives of most people who lived in Palestine before the land was conquered by Joshua and the Israelites.

When the Israelites enter Canaan, they were ordered to destroy all the high places so they would not be temped to worship the false gods (Numbers 33:52). There was a time where exceptions were made. The people were to worship God at Shiloh before the temple was built (Joshua 18:1-1Samuel 1:3). However Shiloh was destroyed by the Philistines and construction of the temple did not take place till Solomons time. During that time scripture says that Samuel worship in the city of Ramah at a high place dedicated to the worship of the one true God. A group of prophets worshiped at the "hill of God". David and Solomon worship at a high place in Gibeon where the tabernacle and altar were located. But not too many chapters later we read that Solomon built new high places for the gods of his foreign wives. After that it pretty much goes down hill till we get to the exile. The kingdoms divided and Judah began to worship Baal, and Israel worshiped two golden calves located in Dan and Bethel. The kings in 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles were evaluated by what they did with the high places. King Josiah was considered one of the best kings in Judah because he went all Rambo on the high places and the priests of the false gods (1 Kings 22-24).

So I only have one question; what are the High Places in your life? I know that this might sound corny or a stretch, but I think the concept is legitimate. Are there things in your life that you know you should get rid of, just like the Israelites were told to destroy the worship places of Canaanites, but you just can't let go of; sins, addictions, etc.

Jesus died so we could be free of sin, he gives us the power to destroy those things in our lives. Why hold onto them or try and defeat them ourselves.

Francis Chan says in Crazy Love that Lukewarm Christians have a tendency to want to be free from the penalty of their sins, but not the sin itself. Just like the Israelites, being God's people they thought they could get by still having these places in the Holy Land. The sins we hold onto keep us from fully giving ourselves to the Savior.