The scarlet thread

“There’s a scarlet thread that runs through the entire bible” I think to myself as I admire the beautiful tapestry hanging on the museum wall. As I am looking closer the tapestry, an incredible portrait of Jesus Christ hanging lifeless on a wooden cross, I realize that the threads woven into it are continuous, that is they run from one end to the other. Although they disappear for a moment here and there they ultimately emerge to consummate the drops of blood falling from the Savior’s broken body.

It was later that week, as I was preparing for the 7:00 pm Wednesday night bible study at the Youth Center, when the Holy Spirit illuminated several scriptures that constitute a message thread that runs through the entire length of the bible. I like to think of it as the finger print of the One, True and Living God who has woven a brilliant scarlet thread into the fabric of the bible. The bible as a whole is a message from God that has been woven together by the Holy Spirit through forty authors over a time span of thousands of years.

The unraveling of this scarlet thread began for me as I was studying the fifth book of Moses, Deuteronomy chapter ten, verses 12-18.

 "And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Indeed heaven and the highest heavens belong to the Lord your God, also the earth with all that is in it.  The Lord delighted only in your fathers, to love them; and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day. Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.” 

We see God’s grace and mercy as he administers justice and defends the fatherless, widow and stranger. We also see God instructing His people to “circumcise the foreskin of their hearts”, in other words to soften their hearts by removing the calluses that cover their hearts, encouraging them to treat others in need with love, grace and compassion.  Circumcision no longer just an outward sign but now becomes a change of heart.

Our scarlet thread disappears out of sight for a thousand years until it resurfaces as the Lord speaks through the prophet Jeremiah. "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah- not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

So, here our scarlet thread reappears in our beautiful tapestry as a clear picture of the promised Redeemer or Messiah where Jesus Christ begins to come into focus. This prophecy was not only given but also recorded five hundred years before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Here, clearly, God promises to make a New Covenant where He will not only take away our iniquity but also remembers our sin no more. 

Finally, our scarlet thread reaches the end as Jesus Himself, Matthew 26:27-29, proclaims just what this New Covenant is. "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."

   

800 words through the bible

In the beginning God created everything we see around us from nothing. He made a man in His image and then from the rib of the man created a woman to complete Him. In order to know if the man and the woman would love Him, God allowed them to be tempted by a fallen archangel. The man and the woman sin as God sets a curse on humanity but also promising to send the solution in the form of the Blessed Redeemer or Messiah. God covers the couples’ nakedness with the skins of animals the man was entrusted to care for and instructs them on the correct way to worship and how to approach Him.

In the process of time, two brothers are born. One obeys God in the acceptable way to worship by bringing a lamb to the altar while the other brother attempts to worship God in his own way by bringing the fruit of the field. When his sacrifice is rejected, jealousy fills his countenance as he murders his brother. Meanwhile the earth is becoming filled with selfish, destructive people who have completely turned their back on their Creator. God shows His grace and mercy and saves a small  remnant who love and trust in Him, as the heavenly floodgates and fountains of the deep open up, covering the earth in a catastrophic worldwide deluge.

Safe aboard the ark, eight people wait for God’s deliverance as a dove returns with an olive branch in its mouth. Once again God blesses His creation and commands them to go spread out and fill the entire earth, promising never again to destroy the earth with water. Generations pass as people forget about God and decide that the fertile plain below the ark is probably a better place to stay, build cities and towers to their newly invented gods of creation; gods made of earth, wood and stone.

God, wanting to reveal Himself to the entire world, chooses one family line through which the promised Savior would come into the world. God promises that his family would prosper, eventually becoming as numerous as the stars in heaven or the sands of the sea shore. One descendant is blessed with twelve sons who become the twelve tribes of this new God-led nation. 

The youngest son, being mistreated by his other brothers, is sold into slavery and bought by a wealthy Egyptian noble. Because of his obedience to the One True and Living God he is blessed and prospers, eventually becoming second in command of the entire Egyptian nation. In God’s time, a famine devours the entire land of Canaan, forcing the other brothers to look for food down in Egypt. Unknowingly, they are granted an audience with their brother who they do not recognize. They end up being fed, cared for and eventually relocate to Goshen, Egypt.

Four hundred and thirty-two years pass as the small family of twelve brothers grows into a nation of Hebrew slaves.  Because of their growing out-of-control population, the Pharaoh commands that all male children be thrown into the Nile River. One male baby escapes death by being put into a small ark of bulrushes and floated down the river where the Pharaoh’s daughter finds him. This Hebrew baby grows up as one of Pharaoh’s own sons with all the luxury and entitlement that one can dream of.

When he is older, he kills an Egyptian who is beating a Hebrew slave. Now the young man is banished from Egypt and escapes into the desert of Midian. At the age of eighty, the shepherd is sent back to Egypt to demand that the Pharaoh let his people go! After ten plagues that were focused on the Egyptian gods of nature, gods of wood and stone, the death of the first born is the last straw as Pharaoh lets the fledgling nation of Israel go. 

The people grumble and complain and are sentenced to walk for forty years in the desert. After this generation passes, they are allowed to go into the Promised Land. Soon mighty kings are building a very large and powerful nation. However, they once again forget the God who has led them there and begin to worship the gods of nature, gods of wood and stone.

So, when the moment was right, God sent His own Son. He opened the way so that everyone who had hoped and believed that when time was done, God would be able to make us one! But the selfish and destructive people grabbed hold of the Son of God and they beat Him, mocking Him until He died as the angry crowd nailed Him to a tree.

So the promise in a garden ended as a gift on a cross.

The grand illusion

All eyes were fixed on the magician who stood sharply dressed in a sleek black silk suit and top hat. His hands moved with practiced precision, slowly drawing all eyes to view an empty hat box that sat upright on a small round nightstand that was placed on stage. As he raised his hands towards the ceiling, a string of brilliantly colored silk scarves were pulled from a secret storage in his jacket lining. One after another beautiful scarves of all shapes and sizes filled the area in front of the nightstand and gently floated to the floor. From the audience’s perspective, the scarves seemed to materialize from thin air and began to pile up on the stage floor. Many minutes passed as scarves continued to form a large mountain of silk directly in front of the hat box that sat on the table. The pile grew so high that it eventually hid the hat box from everyone’s view. 

Meanwhile, beneath the elevated floor, stage hands were silently exchanging the table and hat box with an identical looking set through a trap door located under the stage rigging. Just as the trap door shut the magician ran out of silk scarves and playfully began kicking the pile of colored silk out into the audience. After receiving a few chuckles and laughs, the magician purposefully stepped back to the table and with a flourish of his wand made seven white doves fly out into the audience from the once empty hat box.

Our minds are so easily fooled by perceived information. What we think we know or see many times is just an illusion that our mind has pieced together from incomplete information it receives. Because the audience didn’t see the box and table switch, their minds were fooled into thinking that the doves somehow materialized out of the same empty hat box that they had previously been shown. This simple trick has been used for millennium to capitalize on an unsuspecting audience.

It’s interesting to me how easy our minds can be fooled. If we are not careful to thoroughly inquire, completely inspect and collect the whole truth from all angles, then many times our minds will piece together the wrong conclusion and we end up making some very bad decisions. 

 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man-and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”

Many people today are being fooled by Satan, the master magician, who has clouded the waters of truth by sowing seeds of illusion, falsehood and lies. He has switched an empty hat box with one which fills the minds of his audience with an incomplete theory of evolution. Our enemy has also corrupted the institution of marriage and the natural love between men and women behind dark curtains of homosexuality. He has also cleverly deceived the nations into thinking that “we the people” can solve the global problems that cling and grow like cancers on the earth.

For our magician’s final trick the curtain raises as he tells the world that all roads lead to God and everyone will arrive in heaven. To some, the great lie states that if we just live good lives, we will reach God while to others he whispers that if we just clear our minds and meditate on endless droning, heartbeat or mantra we will reach universal bliss. Basically, his message to the entire world is that we will eventually get better and don’t need God’s cure for sin.

However, if you search the bible you will discover the truth. Not just part of the truth or an illusion propagated by sleight of hand or lies but the whole truth of how humanity ended up in the condition that it is and where it is ultimately going.

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." Romans 16-23.

Wind under my wings

Cars were passing me as if I was a picket fence. I usually don’t have a problem going the speed limit usually the reverse is true but today I was preoccupied with texting. So first off,  I want you to know that I was not physically texting while driving but instead using my smart phone’s “hands off” option and dictating to Siri. It is actually refreshing, liberating and excellent use of my time to have both hands on the steering wheel, my eyes on the road and communicating.

When I got to bible study Donny was busy cleaning up the Youth Center. You can imagine after 8 hours of use how much of a mess thirty-five children can make. 

“Hey pastor, what’s cooking?” asks Donny with a smile as he maneuvered his motorized wheelchair to take a trash bag out to the dumpster in the parking lot. You see Johnny is a volunteer and a soldier in Christ’s army. He is always available to pray with people while hitching a ride on the bus or while holding up a cardboard sign that says “God loves you!” Suddenly while watching Donny I felt humbled and reflected on how often I start complaining about things.

So feeling a little guilty for the way in which I let myself be overwhelmed with daily life I turned and asked Donny “ What keeps you going, where does your strength come from and what is your favorite verse you like to reflect on?”

“Well pastor, there is work to be done, Jesus Christ keeps me going and I love to read Psalm 61”  smiled Donny.

Its dark after the study as Donny says goodbye and begins a journey of seven miles on the highway in his wheel chair back home. I began to think to myself “Man what a whiner I am”. So on my way home after completing a couple more “hands free” texts via Siri, I push the button on my phone and say “Siri, I love you” to which the female voice on my phone responds “You are the wind under my wings”, by the way if you know my wife please don’t tell her I talk to my phone that way.

“Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to you, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy.  I will abide in your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of your wings.  For you, O God, have heard my vows; you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. You will prolong the king's life, his years as many generations.  He shall abide before God forever. Oh, prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him!  So I will sing praise to your name forever, that I may daily perform my vows.” Psalm 61.

I wonder if God looks at us in the same way Siri answered me “You are the wind under my wings”? What a word picture that is for God’s love where we fill the space under his wings; that we were created for that very reason. He values and loves us so much that He gave His One and Only Son for us; and yet while we were sinners, Jesus Christ was born into this world to save it. It’s so good to know and better to believe that God’s wings are a shelter from the storms in this life.

Because when Donny’s heart is overwhelmed he goes to God’s word for comfort and through the shelter of His wings, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father will lead him back to the Rock that is higher than I.  Even in our own lives when problems arise and our enemies lie in wait, again God is a strong tower that we can run into. The tent or tabernacle of His presence will be incredibly sufficient to deliver us through the veil of death and usher us into His presence. So tell me, what is there that we should fear?

 King David, who wrote this psalm as his son Absalom is forcefully taking over his kingdom throwing him out of Jerusalem into the wilderness, must have felt abandoned and forsaken by God. So even though David felt like he was at the ends of the earth God was always there with him, listening to his prayers, preparing him to get back out there and engage the enemy.

So I’m indebted to Donny who by his trust in God has showed me not to fear when the battle begins to heat up but to run to the Rock that is higher than I!

Battle lines

Egypt was far behind them as was forty years of desert wandering. Moses was looking forward to seeing the Promised Land but would not be allowed to enter in because of disobedience. The Jordan River was the last geographical barrier which was separating the Israelites from entering the Promised Land; a land that was flowing with milk and honey.

It was here on the plains of Moab, that God commanded Moses to take vengeance on the Midianites for seducing some of the Israelites to worship and serve other gods of wood and stone. So Moses commands twelve thousand armed men to kill all the Midianite men, male children and women who have had intimate relations with a man.

This section of scripture is very difficult for us to read and understand God’s reasons for commanding Moses to take such drastic measures. It’s also evident from the Israelites’ inability to follow through with the command that they didn’t understand nor comply completely with God’s directions. The incident on the plains of Moab was a kind of crash course in what God requires of all of us as we turn towards Him and begin to allow Him to purge the world out of our lives. Let’s look at what God spoke to the children of Israel as they prepare to cross over into Canaan.

“Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, saying,  ‘Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all their molded images, and demolish all their high places; you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess. And you shall divide the land by lot as an inheritance among your families; to the larger you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance; there everyone's inheritance shall be whatever falls to him by lot. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers. But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell. Moreover it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them.’"

God’s command though difficult was designed to protect a newly born Nation from vile forms of false worship and belief in false gods. God chose the sons of Jacob to be the vehicle in which He would introduce Himself to the entire world, preparing it one day for the final sacrifice which would be the death of His very own Son, Jesus Christ.

This is a picture of what God is doing in the life of a Christian. He wants our entire life and wants every bit of the world driven from us. But what is of special interest to us is that Phinehas, the son of Eleazar the priest, was to carry the holy articles and the signal trumpets in hand before the Israelite army.

Why send the priests out with the Ark of the Covenant before the army? The battle is a spiritual battle and the Lord is the One who must fight it! In Zechariah 4:6 we read “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit; says the Lord of Hosts.” God was teaching the Israelites that there is a spiritual battle going on all around us and He must go ahead of us to fight it or we will be defeated by our unseen adversaries.

We must put on heavenly armor and fight in the spirit for if our enemy gets us to fight in the flesh, on his terms, then he has already won the battle. I know it sounds extremely strange but there is a cosmic war going on for the ownership of men’s souls. An unseen battle to our human perception but none the less rages on all around us. 

We must hold up our shield of faith to capture the flaming arrows of the wicked one. And then use our only offensive weapon which is the Word of God! That’s what Jesus did when He was being attacked by the enemy. The Word of God is so powerful but is often the last option we turn to. It holds the truths that set men free and the key to eternal life. 

God is speaking to many of you and He is calling you to come, come and believe in Him!