luke 9.49-50 Now John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow with us.” But Jesus said to him, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side.”
1 corinthians 12. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
galatians 3.3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
1 thessalonians 5.19-20 Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies.
1 corinthians 14.39 Therefore, brothers, desire earnestly to prophesy, and do not forbid to speak with tongues.
acts 10.46-47 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?”
mark 16.17-18 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
acts 2.38-39 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
acts 11.17 If therefore God gave them the same gift as He gave us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?”
galatians 5.7 You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
romans 14.16 Therefore do not let your good be spoken of as evil.

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there’s no getting around it – the gospel of Jesus Christ is supernatural from first to last. why not dive into the Spirit?

Luke 3.2-6 The word of God came unto John the son of Zachariah in the wilderness. And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; as it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
Hebrews 12.12-13 Therefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.
Luke 2.34 And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against.”

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The message of repentance is a message of turning to God so that your sins might be completely wiped out. Messiah was coming to his own, and God’s call through his prophet John was that everyone would turn from their own ways so that their sins could be obliterated. There was no call to make the army ready, no call to pull together royal pageantry or fanfare. All God wanted from his people at Messiah’s coming was sincere repentance, and a willingness to walk in straight paths. Justice is his measuring line, and righteouness is his level.

Every high thing would be brought low, and all those who were humble and contrite would be raised up and honored by God. The stone from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream (cut out of the mountain without hands) was about to roll down the mountain towards the image of all the kingdoms of man. God will forever resist the proud, but give grace to the humble. The essence of humility is being willing to tremble at God’s Word: to fall on Jesus the cornerstone and be broken, re-shaped exactly in his image >>

photo stitch by monkey, session monday the 18th..

i just squeaked under the wire this year paying my taxes, and right in the middle of my week of trying to get them done, i read this:

Mark 12.13-17 Then they sent to Him some of the Pharisees and the Herodians, to catch Him in His words. When they had come, they said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are true, and care about no one; for You do not regard the person of men, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” But He, knowing their hypocrisy, said to them, “Why do you test Me? Bring Me a denarius that I may see it.” And they brought it (the coin). And he said unto them, “Whose is this image and superscription?” And they said unto him, “Caesar’s.” And Jesus answering said unto them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marvelled at him.

nowadays, taxes can be painful and inconvenient, but in Jesus’ time there was no sorer subject. the roman empire had conquered the known world, and laid claim to the wealth of all nations. to the humiliated jewish nation, these abusive roman taxes were slowly but surely draining their lifeblood & rubbing their noses in their own helplessness; and it was totally obvious that the Messiah needed to come (maccabean-style) and overthrow the evil romans. and here after 3 years of rising to fame and notoriety in israel, Jesus had shown absolutely no promise as a military leader.

so this tax question was supposed to be a once-for-all paralyzing blow to Jesus’ credibility and career. there was no way he could win with this question. if he said YES, it was proof that he was no challenge to rome, & therefore not the Messiah. if he said NO, the jewish leaders had all the ammunition they needed to have the romans snuff him out. so Jesus’ answer is amazing just for the fact that it got him out of a jam.

but way beyond that, in taking the focus off rendering to caesar, & placing it on rendering to God what is God’s, Jesus was divinely re-casting the role of Messiah for all who had ears to hear. of course this applies to what we give to God in tithes and offerings, but – what the Messiah had really come for was to re-cast our very nature in the IMAGE of God. as i just wrote that last sentence, so many scriptures flooded my mind that i don’t really even know where to start, except here:

Romans 8.29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

when we speak out as living letters from God, as ambassadors for Christ appealing to people everywhere to be reconciled to God, when we go into all the world making disciples everywhere, warning and teaching them to observe and do everything Jesus commanded so that we may present every man perfect in Christ – we are holding up Jesus (Christ in us our confidence of glory) as living proof of the image of God restored to human flesh. 2000 years ago, rome may have temporarily won the world through years of military conquest; but Jesus subjected himself to a torturous death on a roman cross, and then conquered all death and hell by rising from the grave, and right now has all authority on heaven and earth. just as the coin was the symbol and proof that caesar had an undeniable claim on the wealth of all his subjects, so the unmistakable image and imprint of Christ in us is the symbol and proof God is holding out to men and women everywhere that they belong to him: body, soul, mind, and spirit.

so yeah…taxes whatever…render to God what is God’s >>

one of the finer 1957 vinyl covers >>

2 sermons about CHANGE, both preached at the temple gate in Jerusalem, about 650 years apart:

jeremiah 7.2-8 “Stand at the gate of the LORD’s house and there proclaim this message:
“‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: REFORM your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!” If you really CHANGE your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.”
acts 3.17-21 “Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Repent therefore and be CHANGED, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things.”

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see the difference? it’s not just about the God of the Old Testament vs. the God of the New Testament, because they are one and the same. the difference is the power to change unleashed in the message of the cleansing blood & resurrection of Jesus Christ.

could the people in jeremiah’s time have heard God’s warning & changed? yes. but just take 2 or 3 hours and read through the Old Testament prophets – major & minor – and you’ll quickly pick up on the overriding tone. it’s way more of serving notice than of rescue. & it’s not because God & his prophets didn’t deeply desire to see the people rescued. it’s because the tide of evil had literally swallowed the people up. they had so been overcome by the sin they had given themselves to, they couldn’t even reach out to grab hold of God’s lifeline. God was faithful, & whoever called out to him was rescued – but so many more were swept away.

today the power of sin & death has been broken. Jesus came in casting out demons and healing all the worst sicknesses, even raising the dead – doing all the things that were totally outside the reach of simple religion & ritual. & when he gave himself up to be crucified & then rose from the dead 3 days later, everything in heaven and earth was forever changed. death & hell literally cracked open, and began to give up their captives. beyond that God has poured out his own Spirit on all flesh.

now when the word of God’s reconciliation goes out, there is such a powerful momentum of CHANGE that resounds in it. the change called for is just as dramatic today, if not more – but now the grace of God (in other words the divine ability to take hold of God’s word and character) is fully released on a level never seen before Jesus appeared. these are the times of refreshing, the day of salvation, the year of God’s favor; and we speak out as the first evidence of God’s total and complete restoration. no one’s too jaded or too dirty or too intellectual or too failed or too guilty to hear & receive this and be instantly & totally T.R.A.N.S.F.O.R.M.E.D >>

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