Soil from Stone

Barriers to Faith

Wherever Jesus stopped, the crowds gathered---and they brought the sick and dying even into His home. One day (Mark 2:4-6), three men tried their best to get through the crowd at Jesus' home with their sick and paralyzed friend, but to no avail. They actually climbed to the top of the house, cut a hole in the roof, and lowered their friend down to land at the feet of Jesus. Their faith in Jesus' power to heal was so strong that not even a roof could stop them. They overcame the roof and their friend was healed!

What roof is a barrier to your faith? Fear? Doubt? Pain? Anger? Trust Jesus to help you break through. Trust is the key word! Trust God for the strength, patience, power and faith to endure through every trial. He will not let you down (unless it's through a hole in the roof!!)

Guest post from Carol Carper, the Mom.

That's Not In the Bible

Our churches and synagogues teach many things that are not explicitly taught anywhere in the Bible. That doesn't mean that those teachings aren't true, of course, because the Bible isn't a comprehensive encyclopedia of all possible truths. It just means that you shouldn't hang your theological hat on any of these things, and that anyone who uses them as a basis for judging anyone else's salvation or "Christian-ness" is engaged in dangerous legalism.

I'm going to start listing these man-made doctrines below. I'll start small and add more over the coming years.

If any of these items upsets you, before you argue with me, accuse me of anything, or start ranting... get out your Bible and prove the point to yourself from Scripture. Find the exact place in the Bible where it says "There is only one God made up of three distinct persons, co-equal in substance and authority." Hints, types, etc., aren't explicit, by definition, so you'll have to do better than that.

Biblical inerrancy
The Trinity
Apostolic succession
You go to Heaven when you die
You go to Hell when you die
Vegetarianism is superior to omnivorism
God wants you to be rich or comfortable
The earth is flat or spherical or the center of the universe
Cessationism (miraculous gifts of the Spirit ceased with the Apostles)
Rome or America or Baghdad is the New Babylon
The Church replaced Israel
History is divided into theological "dispensations"
The Sabbath moved to Sunday
The Sabbath doesn't matter anymore

Chiasm in Deuteronomy 22:13-29 on Marriage and Adultery

One thing to take from this chiasm is that God considers betrothal to be nearly as sacred as the marriage itself. If a man lies with a woman who is betrothed to another man, he is just as guilty of adultery as if she was already married.

Communications channel picker for decade 2020-29

In 2021 we have so many different ways to communicate, I thought it might be helpful to rank them in order of importance and practical usage...

1. In person: Life or death. Someone's going to die if we don't do something now.

2. Voice call: Needs immediate attention. Like...right now. But nobody's going to die. Probably not. Or it's just too complicated for text or chat.

3. Video call: Like a voice call, except I got dressed.

4. Text or chat: Time sensitive. Need information or need something done ASAP.

5. Open a ticket: Need to get this done soon-ish and needs some explaining and maybe CYA tracking. Don't forget it.

6. Email: Heads up, reminder, or more detailed information about an issue raised in a prior call or chat. Especially useful for including a group of people who might want to know but don't need to do anything.

7. Open a ticket: Above my paygrade and I don't care if anything happens with it or not. Fire and forget.

8. Text or chat: Gossip and friendly chatter not directly related to business.

9. Video call: Hey, look! I'm a real person and not a chat bot.

10. Voice call: Umm...why are you calling me? Can you just send me an email or something? The Help Desk phone number is on their website.

11. In person: Wanna grab a beer?

Wait.... Is that a chiasm?

Chiasm and Parallelism in Deuteronomy 9:26-29

Deuteronomy 9:26-29 – A parallelism in a chiasm on God's faithfulness to the covenant

V26 - Don't destroy your people and heritage, whom you redeemed through greatness and a mighty hand

V27 - Remember the Covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Forget the sins of this people

V28 - YHWH wasn't able to keep his Covenant

He hated and destroyed the people

V29 - They are your people and heritage, whom you brought out with great power and an outstretched arm

God keeps his promises and he wants to hear us remind him of it. When it looks like God has forgotten or rejected you, he might just be waiting for you to tell him that you believe in him and trust him to keep his promises.

Chiasm in Mark 11 on the Authority of Yeshua

V1-11 - Authority of Yeshua recognized by the people

V12-14 - Yeshua curses the fig tree

V15 - Yeshua and disciples enter Jerusalem

V15-18 - Yeshua cleanses the Temple

V19 - Yeshua and disciples leave Jerusalem

V20--26 - Disciples see the withered fig tree

V27-31 - Authority of Yeshua challenged by the elite

Yeshua (Hebrew for "Jesus") doesn't require anyone to recognize his authority for it to be real, but he has chosen the lowly, rather than the religious or political elite, to reveal his purpose and nature to the world. This chiasm is bracketed by people's recognition or opposition to his authority, illustrating that everything between those brackets is under that authority.

There are also three geographic domains of authority within Israel represented by the three scenes of this chapter.

All of Israel outside of Jerusalem. (The fig tree might actually represent the religious leadership of Judah instead. See this parallelism in Matthew 21.)
Jerusalem.
The Temple.

There is no "Court of the Gentiles" in God's design for his Temple. Although no unauthorized people are allowed to enter the Temple itself, all people--Jew and gentile, man and woman, slave and free--are supposed to be able to enter the courtyard and approach the altar. The Jewish leadership at the Herodian Temple had barred gentiles from the area of the altar, relegating them to an outer court, which had also become an open air marketplace. The God-fearing gentiles were left with no place to worship at the Temple in peace. (H/T: Ryan White of Faith of Messiah Ministries)

When Yeshua chased the money changers and vendors from the outer courtyard, he asserted his authority as the Son of God to restore the Temple to its rightful purpose. When he stopped everyone from carrying anything into or out of the Temple area, he effectively suspended all Temple activity. The sacrifices and offerings stopped. In doing this, Yeshua asserted his authority over the entire religious system of Israel.

There is no division between civil and religious law and life in God's plan for his people. The King of Israel is the King of all Israel, the land and the people, inside and out.

For more on chiasms--including how to identify, map, and interpret them--check out The Chiasm Course!