Thursday, August 29, 2013

Devotion - Thursday, August 29

If you listen to my sermons or read these humble offerings, you will soon realize that I have a deep love for the Old Testament.  

Its characters are so much more "real."  They make real mistakes, and the writers of those ancient books tell us about it.

The absence of a clear, central authority means that differences of how one is to speak of God, or serve God, come to the surface.

Some within the Christian community do not share my love for the first 39 books of our Bible.  Some even go as far as to reject those books.  Many more simply harbor the thought, "I don't see how the God of Jesus is the same God being served by all those violent Kings in the Old Testament."

First, let me advise you, one of the first heresies identified by the Church is Marcionism.  As early as the second century, followers of Marcion were speaking of two differing Gods - one of the Old Testament; another of the New Testament.  This was rejected by the members of The Way (the original name for the Christian Church).

This came to mind for me this morning as I was reading Acts 24.  Paul is on trial.  Speaking of his innocence, he says, "I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law or written in the prophets."  Paul, clearly, sees no such division between two gods.

I realize too, that Paul had had opportunity to do much study on his own.  He was learned, and he was insightful.  When he refers to the law and the prophets, he isn't as dependent upon what others have said as we might be.  He had the luxury of discovering for himself what the law is about and what the prophets had written.

Before you make comments like, "I am not so sure about the God of the Old Testament," give some thought to the possibility that you simply don't know as much about the Old Testament.  Perhaps, rather than joining the chorus of voices which question the caring nature of the God of Abraham and Issac and Jacob, you could might admit that the style of writing makes it more difficult for you to arrive at the meaning.

I read all of the Bible through the lens of Galatians.  I prefer the story of Jesus to the stories of David and Saul.  But I do not reject the latter; they help me to understand the long history of God's attempts to teach us His way and His truth.

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