Holiness is the opposite of perversion
... Blessed is the womb that bare thee ... .
Luke 11:27
In so many ways, we're living during a tumultuous, evil time in this world. Faith in Jeesus is the way many of us manage to hope, but there are so many challenges to faith that even some faithful are falling away from those things the Bible speaks to us.
Sadly, that makes me think of one sister who came to me after church and, just out of the blue, said I should read such and such a book of the Bible. She wasn't saying I should do so out of the Holy Spirit's call. Instead, she was lusting after something she thought the Bible was condoning. So, she was urging me to read what she had read, with the expectation that I would follow the lusty gossiping way of telling the scriptures.
Far worse than homespun gossip about what the Bible means by one thing or another, some study groups are actually teaching perverse meanings instead of the wholesome, whole truth of Heaven's word to us.
Yes, it's true that the Bible mentions childbirth, as well as nursing during infancy, many times. In the Christian sense, that's a wholesome thing. The Bible values childbirth, and values the mother as nurturer during infancy. But that value was never lewd.
The Hebrew people of times when the Bible word was being written down didn't turn something Heaven-given into anything perverse. They valued mothers: not nudity, and not perversion.
They were accustomed to simple conversation that exalted motherhood.
"Blessed is the womb that bare thee ... ," one woman cried out to Jesus, ironically at a time when He was rebuking evil perversion (Luke 11:23-28).
1 Peter 1:15 says, "Just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do."
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers ... ." (2 Timothy 4:3)
Thank the Lord (thank Heaven!) for salvation in Jesus, who brings us away from wrong teaching and grows us in light and truth.
Even in Old Testament times, prophets could see the light of Jesus.
"The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. ... In that day, a person will keep alive a young cow and two goats. And because of the abundance of the milk they give, there will be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey," said the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14-16, 7:21-22) about the time of Jesus' birth, which happened more than 700 years after Isaiah's speech.
In true and wholesome context, we see Jesus was old enough to eat honey and something like cottage cheese when he was weaned away from being nursed by his mother.
... But why does the prophet call the food that nature provides "good," and the food of infancy "evil"? It's because, while motherhood is a blessing, that initial bond isn't good to cleave to. Heaven never meant the human condition to be like insects that spend a lifetime gathering pollen from flowers! (So don't even go there, you fable tellers!)
As to why the Apostle Paul rebuked adults, who weren't mature in their understanding, by saying they needed the "meat" instead of the "milk" of God's word: That's an expression!!!!
How many times did we hear, as children, "You have to crawl before you walk"? No one who said "You have to crawl" actually expected adults to stop walking and begin physically crawling!
So, Paul compared adults to babies. It's not because they were physically doing as babies. It's because they didn't have the spiritual appetite that they needed in order to grow strong in Christ.
At no time, until this week, had I ever come close to thinking Paul meant anything perverse. (Thank you, Jesus.) And it's almost a vexation (spiritual harassment) to have to think like someone else about such a simple word of faith in order to try to reason somebody back into Jesus, back into Heaven.
Lord, help.
We would be better off if we would only remember a preacher named Paul, who was saved by the Holy Spirit while he was persecuting Christians.
Paul had a revelation, a prophecy, that applies to us today. He said, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables" (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Sadly, that makes me think of one sister who came to me after church and, just out of the blue, said I should read such and such a book of the Bible. She wasn't saying I should do so out of the Holy Spirit's call. Instead, she was lusting after something she thought the Bible was condoning. So, she was urging me to read what she had read, with the expectation that I would follow the lusty gossiping way of telling the scriptures.
Far worse than homespun gossip about what the Bible means by one thing or another, some study groups are actually teaching perverse meanings instead of the wholesome, whole truth of Heaven's word to us.
Yes, it's true that the Bible mentions childbirth, as well as nursing during infancy, many times. In the Christian sense, that's a wholesome thing. The Bible values childbirth, and values the mother as nurturer during infancy. But that value was never lewd.
The Hebrew people of times when the Bible word was being written down didn't turn something Heaven-given into anything perverse. They valued mothers: not nudity, and not perversion.
They were accustomed to simple conversation that exalted motherhood.
"Blessed is the womb that bare thee ... ," one woman cried out to Jesus, ironically at a time when He was rebuking evil perversion (Luke 11:23-28).
1 Peter 1:15 says, "Just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do."
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers ... ." (2 Timothy 4:3)
Thank the Lord (thank Heaven!) for salvation in Jesus, who brings us away from wrong teaching and grows us in light and truth.
Even in Old Testament times, prophets could see the light of Jesus.
"The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. ... In that day, a person will keep alive a young cow and two goats. And because of the abundance of the milk they give, there will be curds to eat. All who remain in the land will eat curds and honey," said the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14-16, 7:21-22) about the time of Jesus' birth, which happened more than 700 years after Isaiah's speech.
In true and wholesome context, we see Jesus was old enough to eat honey and something like cottage cheese when he was weaned away from being nursed by his mother.
... But why does the prophet call the food that nature provides "good," and the food of infancy "evil"? It's because, while motherhood is a blessing, that initial bond isn't good to cleave to. Heaven never meant the human condition to be like insects that spend a lifetime gathering pollen from flowers! (So don't even go there, you fable tellers!)
As to why the Apostle Paul rebuked adults, who weren't mature in their understanding, by saying they needed the "meat" instead of the "milk" of God's word: That's an expression!!!!
How many times did we hear, as children, "You have to crawl before you walk"? No one who said "You have to crawl" actually expected adults to stop walking and begin physically crawling!
So, Paul compared adults to babies. It's not because they were physically doing as babies. It's because they didn't have the spiritual appetite that they needed in order to grow strong in Christ.
At no time, until this week, had I ever come close to thinking Paul meant anything perverse. (Thank you, Jesus.) And it's almost a vexation (spiritual harassment) to have to think like someone else about such a simple word of faith in order to try to reason somebody back into Jesus, back into Heaven.
Lord, help.
Thank Jesus for salvation. Thank Jesus for Heaven's way of delivering us from sins of the past, for giving us grace to be justified, meaning made right in Jesus (Romans 3:24-26). As some church elders used to say, "He clothed me in my right mind."
No comments:
Post a Comment