Posts

The Pain-Pleasure Worldview

/in /by

2 Chronicles 1:5-7 Moreover, the bronze altar that Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was there before the tabernacle of the Lord, and Solomon and the assembly sought [the Lord].6 Solomon went up there to the bronze altar before the Lord at the Tent of Meeting and offered 1,000 burnt offerings on it.7 That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, Ask what I shall give you.

I searched the internet attempting to attach a modern day, monetary equivalent to Solomon’s sacrifice. One article suggested that the animals used for sacrifice would cost roughly one month wages of an average worker. Thus, Solomon sacrificed roughly 84 months of wages to seek God. That’s approximately seven years wages – in one day.

A western Christian would look at the cost of Solomon’s sacrifice and be highly offended. Offended at the sacrifice being an animal, and offended at the pain to see it through. Why is sacrifice offensive to Modern Christians?

Matthew Pickering, in his online article titled, THE CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITIES OF THE PAIN-PLEASURE WORLDVIEW, addresses this issue writing: Missiologist David Williams writes, “We are seeing the demise of guilt-innocence as the dominant worldview in Western cultures. I suggest that guilt-innocence is a fading paradigm. I think we are moving from being a guilt-innocence culture to becoming a pain-pleasure culture.” Our culture has changed. The new way of being in the world means all the following propositions and more. ‘I exist to pursue pleasure by becoming my true uninhibited self which can be anything I want it to be. Pleasure is good and therefore anything that limits or threatens my pleasure is bad. Pain is bad and anything that causes it is therefore also bad and should be avoided or even punished. If my pursuit is challenged, if it causes anxiety, if it is not working, I need therapy not correction.’

Pain and Pleasure participants, and adherents judge and dismiss Solomon’s Sacrifice as “over the top.” Interestingly, the person who wrote the book of 2 Chronicles took the time to count the number of animals sacrificed and record it. What’s sad is that the Pain-Pleasure Worldview has crept into the Church. Its’ members now count the number of songs sung, calculate the time spent traveling to and from church, and the number of minutes it takes for the sermon to be delivered. We’ve gone from picking up crosses, dying to ourselves, to wearing fashionable, miniature facsimiles.

Regarding this issue the writer of Hebrews states: Heb. 13:15 Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name. AMPC Pain and Pleasure adherents moan and groan over such a thought: let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise??? Pain and Pleasure participants challenge this thinking disregarding its truths exposing who and what is the center of their worldview. (And it’s not Jesus). Psalm 50:23 states: He who brings an offering of praise and thanksgiving honors and glorifies Me; and he who orders his way aright [who prepares the way that I may show him], to him I will demonstrate the salvation of God. The real Jesus, not the velvet Jesus, or the hip, and cool, reimagined Jesus – points you to Someone and Something bigger than your pleasure-seeking, pain-avoiding SELF. Psalm 50 above compares sacrificial offerings of praise and thanksgiving as the means to order your way aright. The greater indictment is implied, Those who don’t order their lives around sacrificial thanksgiving and praise, aren’t glorifying Jesus. If we are not glorifying Jesus then who has taken His place? Glorifying something implies making something larger than anything else in comparison. Is our Western Culture making the Temple of Pleasure bigger than Jesus? Bigger than His crucifixion? Bigger than His Resurrection? Bigger than His Ascension? Bigger than His offer of salvation from an eternity of suffering in hell?

I’m reminded of the 2012 Marvel Movie, The Avengers, in which a character by the name of Loki – half brother to Thor states: ENOUGH! You are, all of you, beneath me! I am a god, you dull creature, and I shall not be bullied by–[Hulk grabs Loki by the legs and slams him around like a rag doll, then leaves him face-up on the floor in a crater]. Hulk: Puny god. [Walks off]

Maybe our culture needs to trade places with Jesus and restore to Him the only attribute that sums up Who He is: God Alone! But as Bobby Conner has stated, We have become too familiar with an unfamiliar God. Solomon wisely stated: Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. Guess Who Wisdom is in the Proverbs? That’s where we begin knowing Him.

The Burning Man

/in /by

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Have you ever known someone who was on fire for Jesus? What does it mean to be on fire for Jesus? What does it take to burn with such passion and zeal? How is Jesus symbolized in the Priestly Tabernacle of Moses? How is our walk with Jesus symbolized in these symbols from the Old Testament? Are you a “burning man” for the Lord?

Revelation 1:15 His feet glowed like burnished (bright) bronze as it is refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. 

This strange depiction of Jesus found in the book of Revelation reminds us of another Old Testament depiction found in the book of Daniel, chapter 10, verse 6: His body also was [a golden luster] like beryl, his face had the appearance of lightning, his eyes were like flaming torches, his arms and his feet like glowing burnished bronze, and the sound of his words was like the noise of a multitude [of people or the roaring of the sea].

It’s an intriguing fact that Israel camped around Moses’ Priestly Tabernacle in the form of a cross. 3 Tribes to the north, south, east and west. Even more intriguing is the fact that when the furnishings of the Tabernacle are laid out they also form a cross. To enter the Tabernacle the priest could only go through one door. Jesus referred to Himself as the Door or the Gate for the Sheep in John 10 repeatedly, and also stated in John 14:6 that He was the Way. With that in mind when you see the Priestly Tabernacle as a type, shadow, or symbol of the Cross of Christ you discover that as you enter the Door the very first thing you will see is the Bronze Altar. This altar is where all of the sacrifices took place, especially the sacrifice of lambs. The Amplified Translation makes reference to this in 1 Peter 2:24 when it states: He personally bore our sins in His [own] body on the tree [as on an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. 

We know from Scripture the story of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son, Isaac on an altar. What’s easy to miss is the rest of the story:  Genesis 22:7-8 And Isaac said to Abraham, My father! And he said, Here I am, my son. [Isaac] said, See, here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt sacrifice. Abraham said, My son, God Himself will provide a lamb for the burnt offering. So the two went on together. 

The story concludes in Genesis 22:10-14And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took hold of the knife to slay his son. But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! He answered, Here I am. And He said, Do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear and revere God, since you have not held back from Me or begrudged giving Me your son, your only son. Then Abraham looked up and glanced around, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering and an ascending sacrifice instead of his son! So Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide. And it is said to this day, On the mount of the Lord it will be provided.

To come to the Bronze Altar was to come before the feet of the Burning Man, the Man whose feet glowed like burnished bronze refined in a furnace. For those of us called to not only kneel before Him at the Cross, but to join Him in being crucified with Him on the Cross, we become altars ourselves. Consider the following exhortations: Romas 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship. 

Add to this Scripture Hebrews 13:10-15 We have an altar from which those who serve and worship in the tabernacle have no right to eat. For when the blood of animals is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin, the victims’ bodies are burned outside the limits of the camp. Therefore Jesus also suffered and died outside the [city’s] gate in order that He might purify and consecrate the people through [the shedding of] His own blood and set them apart as holy [for God]. Let us then go forth [from all that would prevent us] to Him outside the camp [at Calvary], bearing the contempt and abuse and shame with Him. For here we have no permanent city, but we are looking for the one which is to come. Through Him, therefore, let us constantly and at all times offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, which is the fruit of lips that thankfully acknowledge and confess and glorify His name.

We join Jesus in carrying the wood of our flesh, and the fire of obedient sacrifice, as we join Jesus in carrying His cross up to Golgotha, the place of the skull. Here we put to the death that which is at war with God – the mind of the soul man. Here we allow His cross to penetrate our skulls to free our spirit man from its prison bringing it to surrender and bow in submission before the transforming power of His Spirit and Word. Here we become an altar and our walk burns like burnished bronze as we follow in the steps of our Lord and King.

When I was younger fellow Christians would talk about another believer being “on fire” for the Lord. We all knew what it meant but very few knew what it would take to burn with such love and passion. Here in Moses’ depiction of the priestly tabernacle we discover a good place to begin.