6/3/13

From Gary... Who is your real BUDDY?





Alone this morning; Linda is having some tests done (they were OK!!!) and then she volunteers at a local hospital.  So, its just me and Buddy.  We sit together and he understands things like "Walk", "Up", "Down", "Good Dog", "Bad Dog" and the like, but that just the extent of communication.  Oh, he appreciates being petted or having his stomach rubbed, but having a conversation with him is just not going to happen.  He is a dog- he barks!!!  When I saw the above video, I thought it was quite funny, because the dubbing mimicked the character of this little fella, but after all, it IS JUST MADE UP.  Animals are animals and people are people.  We are just different!!!!   While I have grown very fond of Buddy during his stay with us, he will NEVER, EVER REPLACE HUMAN COMPANIONSHIP!!!!!  Check out this passage from Genesis...

Genesis, Chapter 2
 18  Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”  19 Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature became its name.  20 The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper comparable to him. 21 Yahweh God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. As the man slept, he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.  22 Yahweh God made a woman from the rib which had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.  23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.” 24 Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.  25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they were not ashamed.

While I feel that we should love our pets (we also have a couple of birds), they are not our equals.  Society has attempted to make them so, but they never will be.  My wife is a fit companion for me; she seems to know what I am thinking before I say it, realize what I need even before I do and generally make up for my shortcomings.   Watch the video again... just for fun and then remember who you really need!!!  Hint- think TWO LEGS!!!!!

From Jim McGuiggan... Worldly Ways, Favourite Preachers & Clubs


Worldly Ways, Favourite Preachers & Clubs

In 1 Corinthians 1-4, on the exaltation of favourite preachers, Paul makes it clear: "You didn't learn this from me!" What you saw in me was a trembling, insecure minister of the crucified Christ, a lamb thrown to the wolves. What you heard from me was no classical rhetoric or sophisticated arguments. You heard me speak of a God who came in Christ to rescue the world by becoming one with it and taking its sins on him.
"In exalting ministers because you favour this or that method, this or that connection, you are missing the message they were all called to carry." (A message they were all given by the Spirit of God. It wasn't their brilliance that discovered it.) "Your tastes and cultures overwhelm the message and so blind you to the Christ of the cross and so blind you to the God who came as the Christ of the cross. Those cultural and personal tastes also blind you to the nature of true and authentic ministry and ministers. You don't know who ministers are!"
If a minister produces decent and upright people, how can he be a failure? Look at our piety, look at our moral standard, look at our generosity--how can you call us a failure? The way of the cross will always produce virtue and moral integrity, but moral integrity will not always produce the cross. Moral integrity may blind people not only to the fact that they should be "gospelers" in their living, it may blind them to their need of the gospel of the crucified Christ. Note the morally upright in the Jewish and Gentile world who were not "gospelers".
In 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 the word "God" occurs ten times. Paul is denying that Paul, Peter or Apollos are of ultimate importance as ministers, he's saying: "It's God, God, God--not us."
The issue is source not method or messenger. It is by the Spirit that God has revealed these things to messengers. The messengers didn't come up with it.
The Corinthians didn't want themselves to look like fools. They were vain. It's true they had turned to a crucified Christ, but he was now glorified and that gave their commitment to him a wiser appearance. They made choices among the apostles and teachers, sitting in judgment on them (compare 9:3) and in doing that, outsiders (as well as their fellow-Christians) wouldn't think they were gullible. They wanted to maintain their Christian faith but they also wanted to keep the "that guy's no fool!" reputation. So they took pride in one teacher/apostle over another (4:6) and exalted their own tastes and preferences in doing so. But their tastes and preferences were part of their cultural baggage so it was "worldly" to dismiss Paul for Peter or Apollos. The only thing that made any of these Corinthians different from anyone else was God who brought the message of the cross through each of these apostles.
Transforming power didn't lie in the peculiar giftedness of the apostles--it lay in what they had in common! The power for change was in what was brought by the apostles (3:5-7; 4:6).
Christ hasn't finished his work of transformation. In acting and speaking in this vain and arrogant way it was clear the Corinthians hadn't taken on board what the message of the cross implied or meant. They added Christ to their list of assets, they added the gifts he gave them to their list of qualifications and felt themselves even more than able to judge everything than they were before.
They had arrived! They needed nothing more, they were wealthy, they ruled like sovereigns (4:8). ("That's not worth anything;" "He's not worth listening to;" "Now this is valuable enough to warrant keeping.") Yes, they'd arrived!
Paul wishes they had been perfected (4:8) because that would mean his pain-filled task as a wandering apostle of Jesus Christ would be over and he would be perfected also. But he knows from seeing and listening to them they haven't arrived and he knows from his own continuing experience that the job isn't done (4:9-13).
And in all this, where is the glory? Well, it depends on what "glory" we're looking for. If believers seek to bring Christ glory and to live in the glory of Christ, the word of the cross will make the determination. There is no glory of Christ or for Christ in the strutting and posturing of worldly Corinthians.
To bring glory to their master, stewards must be faithful; must be faithful to the trust committed to them (4:2). It isn't for them to go off as mavericks completing their own agenda. And the agenda of the master must be fulfilled in the manner the master has determined (compare 1:26-31).
The Corinthians can't at one and the same time give glory to God in Christ while understanding themselves as "super special" in the body of Christ. This misses the cross and shows they have a false self-understanding; a worldly and self-glorifying approach to themselves and others that is crossless. (See 1 Cor 11:20,29.) "Who are you?" "A part of the body of the crucified and resurrected, the dying and living Lord." How would that self-understanding have affected their party spirit? Their claiming to eat the Lord's Supper? Their not recognizing their brothers and sisters as the body of Christ?

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com

From Mark Copeland... The Parable Of The Wicked Vinedressers


                          "THE GOSPEL OF MARK"

            The Parable Of The Wicked Vinedressers (12:1-12)

INTRODUCTION

1. Reviewing the events of the Last Week recorded by Mark so far...
   a. Sunday - The triumphal entry and brief visit to the temple - Mk 11:1-11
   b. Monday - The cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the
      temple - Mk 11:12-19
   c. Tuesday - The lesson of the fig tree and the authority of Jesus
      questioned - Mk 11:20-33

2. As we continue our study with chapter twelve, it is still Tuesday of
   the Last Week...
   a. In the temple, Jesus begins to speak in parables - Mk 12:1
   b. Matthew records a trilogy of parables, while Mark just one

[Mark records the parable of "The Wicked Vinedressers" (Mk 12:1-12), its
meaning quite clear...]

I. THE MEANING OF THE PARABLE

   A. THE PARTICULARS OF THE PARABLE...
      1. The vineyard immediately brings to mind Israel
         a. The figure of a vineyard referring to Israel was well-known
            - cf. Isa 5:1-7
         b. But here it is not Israel as a nation per se...
            1) Rather, "the special advantages and opportunities which
               were given to the people as the chosen seed" (W.M. Taylor,
               The Parables of Our Savior)
            2) For later Jesus explains the vineyard (or kingdom of God)
               will be given to others ( "a nation producing its fruit")
               - Mk 12:9; cf. Mt 21:43
      2. The man who planted the vineyard is God
      3. The wicked vinedressers represents Israel’s leaders - Mk 12:12
         a. Their chief priests, scribes, elders, and their followers
            - cf. Mt 21:45
         b. Therefore, the physical nation of Israel as a whole
      4. The servants who were sent in behalf of the landowner
         represents the prophets
         a. As a nation, Israel rejected many of her prophets cf. 2Ch 36:15-16
         b. Note the plaintive cry of Jesus over Jerusalem later on
            - cf. Mt 23:37
      5. The landowner’s son is Jesus Christ Himself

   B. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS REVEAL JESUS’ INTENT...
      1. To help them see why God would be just
         a. In bringing condemnation upon Israel
         b. In giving the blessings of Israel to those more deserving
            - cf. Mt 21:43
      2. Their rejection of Jesus had been foretold - Mk 12:10-11; cf.
         Ps 118:22-23
         a. The "builders" were the religious leaders of the nation
         b. The "stone" they rejected was Christ
         c. Yet, this stone would be made a "chief cornerstone" by God
            Himself
            1) In which God would build something new, i.e., the church
               - cf. 1Pe 2:4-10
            2) Where both Jew and Gentile are members of God’s household
               - Ep 2:19-20

[The main lesson of this parable can be summarized in the words of Ps 2:12...

         "Kiss (i.e., pay homage to) the Son, lest He be angry,
            And you perish in the way,
            When His wrath is kindled but a little.
         "Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him."

So obvious was Jesus’ meaning and intent in telling this parable, that
the religious leaders’ would have arrested Him at that moment had it not
been for the people (Mk 12:12).

What application can we make from this parable?  Is there a lesson for
us today that can be drawn...?]

II. AN APPLICATION OF THE PARABLE

   A. GOD OFTEN BESTOWS WONDERFUL PRIVILEGES...
      1. This He had done with the nation of Israel
         a. Like a precious vineyard, God planted Israel in Canaan
         b. He blessed the nation with laws, priests, prophets, and
            other special privileges
         c. He eventually sent His only begotten Son as their Messiah
      2. What about us?
         a. Have we not received wonderful privileges from God?
         b. We enjoy free access to the Word of God, and the freedom to
            worship without fear of persecution; many in the world do not
         c. We are blessed to hear things that prophets, kings, and
            saints of old desired to hear and were not able - cf. Mt 13:16-17

   B. PEOPLE OFTEN MAKE BAD USE OF THEIR PRIVILEGES...
      1. The history of Israel as a nation established by God
         a. They consistently murmured against God in the wilderness
         b. They turned away from God time and again during the period
            of the Judges
         c. They persecuted His prophets, and eventually rejected His
            own Son
      2. What about us?
         a. We have blessings given to us through Christ
            1) The forgiveness of sins through His blood
            2) The aid of the Holy Spirit in putting to death the deeds
               of the body
            3) The joy of fellowship in the family of God
            4) The privilege of sharing the gospel with a dying world
         b. And yet Christians often turn their back on such blessings
            1) They sin, and do not seek forgiveness
            2) They do not seek the help God gives to deal with the
               problem of sin
            3) They neglect their brethren by forsaking the assembling,
               and by not developing close relationships with them
            4) They make little or no effort to spread the precious
               gospel of Christ

   C. JUDGMENT COMES ON THOSE WHO MAKE BAD USE OF THEIR PRIVILEGES...
      1. Again, the nation of Israel is an example
         a. They suffered forty years of wandering in the wilderness
         b. God allowed neighboring nations to be a thorn in their side
         c. They endured Assyrian and Babylonian captivity
         d. God destroyed their temple and their religion by the Syrians
            (167 B.C.) and the Romans (70 A.D.)
         e. He has indeed taken away the kingdom of God from them, and
            given it to a nation bearing the fruits of it - cf. Mt 21:43
      2. What about us?
         a. Consider the words of Jesus - Jn 15:1-2,6; Re 2:4-5,16; 3:1-3
         b. Consider what was written to the Hebrew Christians - He 10:26-31
      3. Clearly, if we do not utilize our special privileges...
         a. God will take away the blessings we have (i.e., the kingdom
            of God)
         b. And give it to someone who appreciates it (i.e., bears the
            fruit of it)

CONCLUSION

1. Truly God has given us wonderful blessings...
   a. He made us worthy to be "partakers of the inheritance of the
      saints" - Col 1:12
   b. He "has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us
      into the kingdom of the Son of His love" - Col 1:13
   c. In Christ we have "redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
      of sins" - Col 1:14
   d. He sent us apostles and prophets of His Son, whose words are in
      the New Testament

2. Let us be careful how we receive them (cf. Jn 13:20), for the next
   time the Beloved Son is sent, He is coming in terrifying judgment!
   - 2Th 1:7-10

Indeed, as Jesus said...

   "For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required;
   and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more."
                                                         - Lk 12:48
Executable Outlines, Copyright © Mark A. Copeland, 2011

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