Archive for December 1st, 2010

END OF YEAR DONATIONS

Wednesday, December 01st, 2010 | Author:

This time of the year, many people think about making a year-end donation.  Last year At God’s Table received many checks on the last day of the year.  That actually caused a bit of a problem.  It means that the check does not go into the bank until after the 1st of January of the next year and this causes some havoc with the accounting.  So, could I ask anyone who is considering writing a check before the end of this year to make sure it gets here by December 26 so I can get it into the bank before the 31st.  That would be an enormous help.

If you are going to make a donation by credit card on PayPal, there is no problem at all as long as the donation is done by December 31.

Thank you once again for your faithfulness in supporting my work.  This year 3 books were finished and, of course, 365 Today’s Word editions were published.  I was able to travel to teach and meet readers in far away places and we all grew as a community.  You made all this possible.

Shalom uv’rachot,

Skip

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Who Is Free? (1)

Wednesday, December 01st, 2010 | Author:

“If you abide in My word, you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32

Free – Which man is free – the one who exercises liberty to act as he wishes or the one who submits to moral precepts?  The question is not trivial so be careful how you answer it.  Our culture and the prevailing opinion of the world at large answers with the first alternative.  The “free” man is the man who has the liberty to live as he pleases.  The “free” man is the man who is not restrained by rules and regulations, by government or convention, by community or commitments.  The truly “free” man is Rousseau’s noble savage, acting in accordance with his own desires.  This image lies behind much of our political debate and is crucial to the proclamation of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” as inalienable rights.  Every man wants to be “free.”

But the Bible has a different answer.

“To the superficial observer it seems that men who do not obey the law are freer than law-abiding men, because they can follow their own inclinations.  In reality, however, such men are subject to the most cruel bondage; they are slaves to their own instincts, impulses and desires.  The first step toward emancipation from the tyranny of animal inclination in man is, therefore, a voluntary submission to the moral law.  The constraint of law is the beginning of human freedom, or in Rabbinic phraseology, ‘None is free, except he who acts in accord with the law.’”[1]

Who is free?  The man who submits to Torah, says the Scripture.  A man is a slave to his own impulses and desires insofar as he has not yet submitted to God’s instructions.  If Yeshua came to set us free, then He came to bring us into submission to Torah.  There is no other way to understand His rabbinic perspective.  For this reason, Watchman Nee’s analysis of the fundamental conflict of Scripture is exactly on target.  The big issue isn’t sin.  It isn’t grace or love or the blood.  Those are all important, but when it comes to issue number one, they pale in comparison.  The biggest issue is authority!  The biggest issue is who’s in charge.  As long as I believe that the objective of my life is my own liberty, I will be a slave to myself, easily manipulated by my current assessment of what is good for me.  I will be a child of Havvah’s deception, imagining that determining my own good is a sign of divinity.  But the Bible confronts me with a much harsher reality.  Liberty is not the same as freedom!

From the moment of our creation, the goal of being human is freedom through submission.  Where we have not submitted to the instructions of YHWH, we are deluded slaves of liberty.  The truth will make us free because the truth is found in abiding in His words.  Do you want to be free?  Do what He says.  Do you want liberty?  Do whatever you like.

Topical Index:  free, liberty, eleutheroo, John 8:32


[1] Isidor Grunfeld, The Jewish Dietary Laws, Vol. 1, p. 11.

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