Tag: life

Is There A Balm?

September 12th, 2022

Jeremiah 9 – actually, back up to the end of chapter 8. As Jeremiah laments the self-imposed trouble in Judah, because of their unfaithfulness, he asks:

Is there no balm in Gilead

v14 why are you just sitting there. Gather together… the Lord has destroyed us… because we have sinned against the Lord. It says horses are coming… snakes are going to be sent that cannot be charmed. Then he says in v18 my joy has flown away; grief has settled… my heart is sick v22 … is there no balm in Gilead… no physicians there? The understanding is that there IS medicine, there ARE doctors… So why has the healing of my dear people not come about?

And so then the weeping prophet, the tearful teacher starts ch9 “if my head were a flowing fountain of tears, I would weep day and night… v2 If only I had a traveler’s lodging place in the wilderness

Sometimes we are so full of empty things, we can’t experience true satisfaction. And then Jeremiah makes his accusations about their unfaithfulness, and the result of their selfish sin and in v12 he asks, who is wise enough to understand thing? V13 The Lord said, “It is because they abandoned my instruction, which i set before them, and did not obey my voice or walk according to it.

So then, in this understanding, I picture Jesus in John 7:37-38 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood and cried out…

No wait… realize this is a weeklong festival of food offerings. Truthfully it was supposed to be seven days of offerings, but I am guessing that the “worship” side of this had been lost on them. This was the Feast of the Tabernacles. They are camping in tents, worshipping with food, remembering what God did for them. James Freeman and Harold Chadwick in New Manners and Customs of the Bible say that eveery day a priest would lead a procession to the pool of Siloam and with a gold pitcher would draw water. There would be singers and musicians and upon returning to the temple there would be 3 Shofar blasts and they would pour the water into a bowl on the western side of the altar. It had holes and the water would run out on the altar. It was to remember 1) water provided in the desert 2) the promise of “latter rain” (blessing to come) 3) the coming of the Holy Spirit when the Messiah came.

In this feast, they did this every day, that was pretty, but it didn’t satisfy their thirst. And from Siloam to the Temple is a little walk and uphill. I can see this Seventh Day… the whole fanfare… then the Three Blasts of Trumpet… And then the voice of Jesus, at the perfect silent spot, “is anyone thirst?… Oh my, doesn’t Jesus know timing? If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink –

pino = to drink = is in the present, active, imperative – that tells me this is saying “you must, right now, actively DRINK”.

The one… – that means this is a possibility but must acted upon.

the one who believes (pisteuo) – it’s not about knowing, but beleiving, entrusting, placing faith – so get in, get on, get under, get with – ME (Jesus) then, as the scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him – Oh my yes. We ARE sick. We NEED medicine, need a physician, we need our thirst quenched. Yes, the horses of warring armies are coming, the snakes are biting, and it is our own fault

But there is a balm in Gilead – Do you know that Spiritual? I can hear it in my head…

there is a balm in Gilead, there is a balm in Gilead… Jesus is the balm in Gilead…

Jesus is the Messiah that would come and bring the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that water was poured that day on the altar and then it was gone. And no one had their thirst quenched and Siloam was a little walk away, but Jesus said “believe in me and I will put living water IN YOU

One other thing to notice vv40+ many said “this is the Messiah” and other said “The Messiah doesn’t come from Galilee” and v43 says the crowd was divided” Then v53 days each one went to his own house and 8:1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives – Oh my, Jesus says if anyone believes … but everyone went home … No one invited Jesus home

And my take my thoughts back to Jeremiah 9:13 the Lord said it is because they abandoned me

Jesus is the answer to life, to death, to hope over hopelessness, to thirst being quenched, to the gift of the Holy Spirit springing up within us.

Come, Believe, Right Now, You Must, unless you don’t want life, satisfaction, hope, and love.
When You Offer …

March 14th, 2017

Romans 6:16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey – whether you are slaves to sin, which leds to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.

“I am not anyone’s slave!” Really? That’s what we say, what we think. But we are all slave to something / someone.

Slaves – doulos = servant, slave – (Lexham Theological Wordbook) a doulos is someone who is a slave and obeys the commands of his or her master. Like Matthew 8:9 “I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go’, and he goes, and that one, ‘Come’, and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this’ and he does it.”

The one to whom we respond when they say ‘go’, ‘do’, ‘come’ that is the one to whom we are a slave.

Lexham says the idea of a slave carries the sense of belonging. For Paul “Christ has bought him and owns him”.

so, this doesn’t happen by accident v16 says “when we offer”. – Then we find ourselves slaves to a master we don’t want, perhaps we even loathe, and we ask, “how did this happen?” It happened at a moment in time, a moment when …. “when we offer”. Paristemi = to make available, to provide, to present to (Greek English Lexicon) without necessarily involving actual change of ownership. Oh sometimes we have offered ourselves to one to whom we don’t even belong. Oh somebody …

And there it is. It is when we make ourselves available, when we come near, we offer, yield, say “here I am”, when we offer ourselves to someone to obey – hypakoe = to obey, listen to, to heed, to obey

Then you are a slave / servant

Regardless of the master, good or bad. Regardless of the outcome, holy or sinful. Regardless of the timetable, eternal or temporal. In that instant we are slaves to a master.

Whether slaves to sin or slaves to obedience. It is an interesting choice of words that the Holy Spirit inspires in Paul, the one we obey is either sin or obedience.

Wait, I thought who I obey is what determines. Yes … but if we obey sin, then we are in actuality slaves to DISobedience. We are obeying disobedience. “Sin” is the word hamartia which means to “miss the mark” like an arrow missing a target. So, when we become slaves to sin, we are committed to disobedience, we are committed to missing the target. And Romans 6:23 says that the wage of missing the target is death. So here it says sin “leads” – eis = markers of a change of state.

“Don’t you know” v 16 begins … this is not inconsequential. When we offer ourselves to someone it is a marker leading to a change of state from … to … to … for .

Sin will seek to lead us from freedom to bondage, and from bondage to death. James says that temptation leads to sin, and sin when fully grown gives birth to death.

Oh but Jesus says “But I came (Hallelujah) that you might have LIFE”!

WOW, let me stop and shout for a moment! YES LORD!

But if we reject the master that leads us to miss the mark. If we commit to obedience, to hitting the mark, which is only found in surrender to the justification of Jesus (Rom 3:24) Then Obedience, hearing, listening, taking captive every thought and making it obedient to Christ (2Cor 10:5-6), then we CAN demolish ever pretense, every argument that comes against the knowledge of truth. Oh satan is a conman. He will lie to you, offer you 1000s of arguments, and alternate realities, counterfeits, but they are all ways that are committed to missing the target, and they lead to death!

But in Him, Christ, is life and that life is the light of the world. Walk not in darkness and death. Walk in the light as he is in the light and we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus his son, purifies us from all sin … if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 Jn 1:7,9)

So vv17-18 “But thanks be to God that, though we used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

When we offer … this moment … “Here I am Lord, reveal the righteousness that you have placed within me.”

Tag: life

Is There A Balm?

When You Offer …