WRITERS' BLOCK

                                                                WRITERS’ BLOCK

We've started a wee Christian writers’ group called WRITERS’ BLOCK. We meet once on month at The Park, Oasis Church, Bray Park. I usually start us off with prayer and a reminder from God’s Word what we’re up to, then read a short but relevant message to hopefully help inspire our discussions.

The Word of Words

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        “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). “God … has in these last days spoken to us by His Son” (Heb. 1:1-2 abbr.). “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last.” (Rev. 22:13). “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.’” (Matt. 12:35-37).

Jesus is God’s first Word and He is God’s last Word to human beings. He is the beginning and the end of the alphabet. Therefore, not only is Jesus the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, He is also the Word of words. Thus, every word and ever letter of every word used by humans somehow points to Jesus. Let us, therefore, as Christian writers, use our every word to His praise.

Get the Point

“And moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yes, he pondered and sought out and set in order many proverbs. The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth. The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh” (Eccl. 12:9-12).

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Though Solomon here has preachers and preaching in mind, there is much we, as Christian writers, regardless of writing genre, can learn from these verses. The general principle for preaching and/or writing is that we ought to use pithy, short sentences punctuated by well-chosen words. Why? So “that good matter might not be spoiled by bad style” Matthew Henry.

We keep the reader’s interest if they get the point(s) (i.e., the goads) we are trying to convey (i.e., the well-driven nails). Between the Internet and a well-stocked library, we have many resources available. Though it can be “wearisome,” e.g., before attempting to write a novel, books by popular novelists can be consulted, paying close attention to writing style, use of words, sentence structure and length, paragraph lengths etc. However, the idea is not simply to emulate others but to utilise the personal gifts God, (i.e., the “one Shepherd”) has bestowed on us for His glory.

Audiovisual

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 In the old days movies had no sound. They were purely visual. Actors had to overdramatise to help get the message across. Films became more realistic with the arrival of the “Talkies.” Thus, the audiovisual was born. Though not a perfect analogy, we see something of this where king Belshazzar saw the dramatic writing on the wall. Visual. Daniel supplied the audio when he verbalised the visual, saying to Belshazzar, “[God] sent the hand that wrote the inscription” (Dan. 5:24).               

Without the audio, though the visual may be dramatic, such as a detached hand that was writing on a wall, its meaning is left to the viewer’s imagination. For example, take creation. The sun, the moon, and the stars in a clear night sky. Silent but dramatic! “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them” (Psa. 19:1-3). Without the audio, i.e., the Bible, creation’s meaning gets distorted in the eye of the beholder. However, as with audiovisual, i.e., creation with the Bible, creation’s true meaning is clear: God’s glory!

Hearing the Gospel proclaimed is the audio. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are the Gospel visualised, i.e., audiovisualised.

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When we write novels or screenplays, we are supplying audio to the visual. Whether describing something abstract, such as a floating hand that writes on walls, or describing something more concrete, like a starry night sky, we are painting pictures with our words. Whether describing something we have seen or creating something out of our own imagination, writers are doing audiovisual. Sculptors and painters say things visually by their art. Visual. Writers verbalise the visual. Whereas the focus of screenplay writers is more about visualising the verbal, novelists are about the business of verbalising the visual. Thus, both operate in the sphere of audiovisual.

Just as the Creator created creation for His own glory, we Christian writers “create” our novels and screenplays for God’s glory too. 

PETS

                                                                            Pets

One I snapped in Springsure, Queensland

        Anyone who has gone through the trauma of losing a family pet knows how attached we become to them. Maybe your pet has been accidently run over by a car. Or worse, maybe someone has killed it intentionally. There are times when we have had to have an elderly pet put down. The death of a pet bird, cat, dog, or even a goldfish, can bring on grief. It can leave us heartbroken. We can fall in love with our pets and mourn their loss.

There is a well-known nursery rhyme called “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” One can picture the lamb following Mary everywhere she went. There is also a Bible story about a poor family that owned a pet lamb, their only lamb. Its death was used to tug the tender heartstrings of the famous harp player and songwriter, David, the shepherd king, after his adulterous affair with Bathsheba. It was designed to bring about his repentance and for him to seek God’s mercy.

“The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, ‘There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb that he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. ‘Now a traveller came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveller who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.’ David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.’ (2 Sam. 12:1-6).

Could you imagine how the family that had their pet lamb stolen, slain, and then eaten by someone would have felt? How would you feel? Would you feel like David did? He burned with anger towards him. Why? “Because he did such a thing and had no pity.” It was then that Nathan sprung his trap by saying to David, “You are the man!”

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        The Bible speaks of Jesus as, “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. 13:8b). This means that God always had it in mind to have His incarnate Son killed by wicked human beings. “This Man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross” (Acts 2:23). Are we reminded of the Lord’s messenger Nathan’s parable here? Nathan, by saying to David, “You are the man!” made the message personal. In so doing, as the Spirit enabled, he showed up David’s sins of adultery, murder, theft, covetousness, etc. By illustrating that David was the man that killed the lamb, he brought about David’s conviction.

Have you recognised that this is what God is doing with His Gospel whenever you hear it? The heart of the Gospel is about the death of His only begotten Son, i.e., “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29b). A line in the hymn, How Deep the Father’s Love, captures the idea, “It was my sin that held Him there, Until it was accomplished, His dying breath has brought me life, I know that it is finished.” Can you see that you are the one that killed the Lamb? Has God confronted you and convicted you of your sins yet? And have you, like David, begged for His forgiveness?

TRUMP 2.0

Excerpted from my SOCIALISM: My Part in its Downfall. See, eg, Amazon AU for a copy: SOCIALISM: My Part in its Downfall : McKinlay, Neil Cullan: Amazon.com.au: Books

Trump 2.0

The Gospel sets us free. And we must stand firm in that freedom. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage’ (Galatians 5:1).

At its founding, the USA got the Gospel right, and God blessed America. To be sure, the founders ought to have mentioned Jesus in their 1776 Declaration of Independence and their 1789 Constitution. But the “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” line stirs complacent and even recalcitrant hearts to take notice.

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Could you imagine what it would be like to leave a country where there is no freedom of speech? We take all the freedom we have for granted. Well, some countries shoot people for complaining about government policy. It must have been great being a refugee from one of these countries, sailing into New York for instance. There’s the Statue of Liberty up ahead. You’re on a boat full of people fleeing the bondage of persecution. Then someone on the boat tells you about this great statue you see growing taller as you grow closer. They quote to you some of the words written on it:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

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         Alas! America opened her borders to the world from 2021-2025. Along with those “yearning to breathe free” came sex and child-traffickers, thieves, rapists, murderers, who robbed, raped, pillaged and murdered their way across the USA. Obviously, these were not exercising the freedom that comes from the Gospel but were clearly illustrating by their actions that they were still in bondage to sin. There was an unforgettable scene at the end of the first Planet of the Apes movie. Charleton Heston (who played Moses in The Ten Commandments) is walking along a sandy beach. He sees the neck and shoulders of a great object jutting out of the sand. It’s the Statue of Liberty half-submerged. Enter Donald J. Trump.

            Trump “lost” the 2020 election which took place during the fog and smog of the COVID-19 pandemic. We all went to bed with Trump well in the lead while the vote-counting continued, only rise in the morning to hear about truckloads of postal votes that had swayed the election against him. Mollie Hemmingway wrote a book about this weird event titled, RIGGED How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections. With eighty-four pages of endnotes, she accurately details how the 2020 US election was rigged. She writes, “This book rose out of a desire to do what the media failed to do: investigate how the election was handled in a year when states, counties, and cities rapidly changed their election procedures with minimal oversight.”[1] Hemmingway also wrote,

            The 2020 election is just the tip of the iceberg. The left’s vehement anti-Trumpism – and willingness to lie, contort reality, and ruin Trump’s supporters to advance its agenda – has undermined half the country’s faith in America’s most vaunted institutions. Restoring that trust will take a gargantuan effort. And regrettably, it does not look like anyone in the political and cultural establishment is willing to do the work required to do so.[2]

Then followed the four years of open borders, multiple fake Trump impeachment trials, from lunatic “Russian Collusion” nonsense to fake rape accusations. Trump spent months attending a New York court defending his good name. This was “lawfare” on steroids! Despite the very pits of hell being arrayed against him, the voters voted in the “too big to rig” 2024 election. The 45^th president became 47^th.

Trump switched from Twitter to his own Truth Social social media outlet. Twitter was bought over by Elon Musk and shifted from being a Leftist propaganda platform to being more of a “free speech” platform. Having learned from his first term as president, this time round, because he could clearly see during the interim four years all those who were the furtive players, from dodgy army generals to backstabbing politicians, Trump was able to drain “the swamp” even more. Because of their ungodly and demonic smear campaigns, the Democrats were confident that Trump had no chance of ever winning again. They thought their trumped-up charges applied by activist judges would ensure that the bad “orange man” would be wearing an orange jumpsuit in some prison. But alas! the forces of neo-Marxism were slowed down if not halted in the USA – for now.

The Democrat Party has been taken hostage by the extreme left of its party. It is no longer the party of JFK. Now it is all about same-sex marriage, transgenderism, and locking up anyone who disagrees with abortion, even late term abortion, state education policies, open borders, illegal immigration, etc. In other words, it demonises and shouts down and tries to shut up and even lock up any who disagree with its politics.

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            Even here in Australia I have personally witnessed what has become known as Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS). This phrase was initially coined by the late Charles Krauthammer (1950-2018) to refer to vitriolic responses and reactions to George W Bush when he was president. Regarding President Trump, I have witnessed people go into “meltdown” at the mere mention of Trump’s name! They have become something resembling a toxic bubbling and smouldering heap of sulphuric acid such as may happen when a car battery is dropped on concrete.

Not the most reliable go-to source for accurate information, Wikipedia says that “Trump derangement syndrome (TDS) is a pejorative term used to describe negative reactions to U.S. president Donald Trump that are characterized as irrational and disconnected from Trump’s actual policy positions.” Another word for TDS is pure hatred of a man, which, as Wikipedia surprisingly accurately states, is “irrational and disconnected.” Someone needs to write a doctoral dissertation on TDS. TDS is sin! And, as my old theological professor would say, “Often we cannot figure out sin, because sin is irrational.”

Why does the mention of President Trump create such a negative reaction in some people even here in Australia? A lot of this can be traced back and attributed to Saul Alinski’s Rules for Radicals approach of demonising your political opponents, “by calling them names – Racist, fascist, misogynist, Islamophobe, homophobe, transphobe, bigot etc., etc. Thus, like acid being thrown in a person’s face, or turning a blowtorch on him/her, your opponent is inundated and blasted with vitriolic hate and hatred. Make no mistake, to demonize your opponent is to spread hate. We now can see the success of using this method for extending the Socialist’s cause. Exhibit A: TDS.

            One is reminded of Saul who, after his conversion to Christianity, became the Apostle Paul. Speaking of before his conversion, when he used to persecute the Church, we are given a picture of Saul's heart where it says, “Saul, [was] still breathing threats of murder…” (Acts 9:1a). Now, it is argued by some, that because Donald Trump has not understood that the way of salvation is through faith, not of works (Eph. 2:8-9), he cannot possibly be a Christian. That being understood, Scripture says, “Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding n him” (1 John 3:15). The general principle here is that, just as a man lusting after a woman who is not his wife has committed adultery with her in his heart has broken God’s 7^th Commandment (Matt. 5:28; Exod. 20:14), so hating someone in your heart is breaking the 6^th Commandment (Exod. 20:13; Matt. 5:21-22; Rom. 13:9). Disagreeing with someone’s politics is one thing, but fuelling hatred is another.

Socialism is a worldview. In other words, Socialism is a religion. Some Christians have been fooled into thinking that Socialism is a form of Christianity endorsed by the Bible. Nothing could be farther from the truth! Neo-Marxism is its most militant form of expression. Though Socialism poses as a movement about loving your neighbour, like Islam, it has been exposed as a religion of hate. Trump 2.0 has been used by God to warn Christians to shun it.   

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[1] Mollie Hemingway, RIGGED How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections, (Regnery, Washington DC, 2021), 333.

[2] Ibid., 330.

A MESSAGE FOR SARAH

                                                        A MESSAGE FOR SARAH

Introduction

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There’s a general principle you see in the lives of all Christians who are used greatly of the Lord. The general principle is this: The more broken the Christian is, the more greatly he is used of the LORD.

To be sure, all Christians are broken before the Lord. To be a Christian is to have a humble and contrite, i.e., broken heart before the LORD. In other words, the LORD humbles you before He exalts you to salvation status. As the LORD Himself says, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent” (Rev. 3:19; cf. Heb. 12:3-17).

As we look at our passage of Scripture, we’ll begin to see something of the general principle just mentioned taking place. The LORD is about to use Abraham and Sarah mightily. Up till now the LORD has been dealing with almost exclusively with Abraham. But, as we’ll see, Sarah was to be honoured as being the mother of the child promised by God. Therefore if Sarah was to be raised to this exalted position among women, then she would need to have the prerequisite humble and contrite heart.

The general gist of the following is: Don’t be discouraged when rebuked, because whom the Lord loves He chastens.

The Men

I’d like us to begin by trying to answer the question: Who are these men? Abraham is having an encounter with three men. There he was, sitting in the doorway of his tent in the heat of the day. Perhaps Abraham was trying to keep cool. Perhaps he was sitting thinking. Perhaps he was expecting visitors, we’re not told exactly. But it was most probably siesta time.

Anyway, we are told in Genesis 18:1 that the LORD “appeared” to him, i.e., He literally “came” to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre. Mamre is in Hebron which is west of the Dead Sea, and way south of what was to become Jerusalem. The terebinth trees are apparently some kind of oak trees. So, the LORD, i.e., Jehovah (or Yahweh, as some prefer to spell it)  has come to Abraham when Abraham was dwelling by the terebinth or oak trees of Mamre.

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        As he sat in the doorway of his tent he raised his gaze and looked. What did he see when he looked? He saw three men standing by. So, what did this ninety-nine-year-old man do? He ran from his tent door to meet them. Then he prostrated himself on the ground before them.

Now, we have to wonder if this act of prostration was a typical ancient greeting given to every stranger who passed you way. “Oh, there’s a stranger, I must run up to them and bow myself on the ground before him!” Is that how things worked at the time of Abraham? Maybe. But we are told here that the LORD appeared to Abraham. And if we keep that in mind we will begin to make sense of this passage.

So, if the LORD appeared before you or me we would, like Abraham, fall on our face. Abraham in verse 3 said, “My Lord, if I have found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant.” Again, is this just some typical greeting for passing strangers, as was the custom in Abraham’s day?

When Lot, up ahead, met two of these men he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. He referred to the two men as “my Lords.” At that point they were strangers to Lot. He didn’t know who they were. So, it looks like this is the customary greeting of respect. And we should note that the word “Lord” used by Abraham is different from the word LORD in the first verse. The word LORD in the first verse means Jehovah. The word used by Abraham means “Master.” It is “Adonai.” So Abraham may simply be using a term of respect. “Sir, if I have found favour in your sight please stay.”

So, the question is this: Does Abraham at this point in time know that one of these three men is an incarnation of God? Well, why is Abraham addressing only one of the men when there are three? “My Lord, if I have found favor in Your sight, do not pass by Your servant.” Is it perhaps because only one of the men is the LORD and the others are not? It’s very difficult to know for sure. Perhaps one of the three looked like the master and the other two his servants? We don’t know! But we do know that Abraham was treating these three men as if they were mere men.

Abraham can see that these they are going somewhere. We know, because we can read ahead, that they are on their way to Sodom. We know that at least two of these men are angels because we’re told these things. Genesis 19:1 says, “Now the two angels came to Sodom I the evening…” So, that’s where these men, well at least two of them, we travelling on their way to.

But clearly Abraham is treating them as mere men. How so? Because he wants them to wash their feet, rest, and have lunch first. So, yes, the LORD has appeared to Abraham. But does Abraham know that this is the LORD and two of His angels? No, I don’t think so, at least at this point. However, having said that, Abraham seems to have think that there is something very special about these three men. He’s a ninety-nine-year-old man and he is running after these men like a bellhop in a five-star hotel! It’s as if he’s never had guests before. He’s got his wife Sarah baking them bread. He runs and gets a tender calf and has some young chef prepare it.

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As the three men ate the meal he stands by under a tree like a maître d.’ Abraham is acting as if he is an innkeeper, and not the master of a household of hundreds of men and women. What humility we’re seeing in this man Abraham! He’s returning to these three men what Melchizedek did for him. Melchizedek brought bread and wine to Abraham after he had rescued Lot. Abraham had heard about Lot’s capture when he was in this very place. So here he is, entertaining three strangers as if they were royalty – just like Melchizedek did for him. But this time it is the three men, well at least two of the men, and not Abraham, who are heading off to rescue Abraham’s nephew Lot. Of course, Abraham doesn’t know this – yet!

So, what at this point does Abraham know? He knows that these three men are travelling somewhere. He knows that travellers need refreshing for the journey ahead. Therefore, Abraham is treating the three men as such, travelling strangers. We believe that the writer to the Hebrews has Abraham at this point and others in mind where he says, “Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels” (Heb 13:2).

We should, of course, be careful. We teach our children not to talk to strangers for good reason. “Stranger-Danger!” But all of that understood, it’s always a good thing to be hospitable. As Jesus says in the Parable of the Talents, “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in’” (Matt. 25:34-35).

Abraham gave these three men a slap-up meal, didn’t he? He gave them bread and butter, milk, and a tender calf. Yet, in verse 5 he calls it, “a morsel of bread that you may refresh your hearts.” It certainly would refresh your heart to be treated like this.

So, having considered somewhat the three men, and we’ll find out more about them as we go, but let’s now consider:

The Message

“Then they said to him, ‘Where is Sarah your wife?’” (Gen. 18:9). How did the three men know that Abraham had a wife? And how did they know that her name was Sarah? It’s not, “Old man, are you married?” No, it’s, “We know you have a wife called Sarah, where is she?” “So he said, ‘Here in the tent.” Literally it’s “See, in the tent.” So, this is no idle chit-chat, “Are you married? How many children?” No, these men have a message for Sarah,

“Where is Sarah your wife? Where is she, we have a message for her.” But doesn’t Sarah already know the content of this message? Hasn’t she listened to her husband Abraham? Hasn’t Abraham told Sarah that she is going to have a son? Well, from what we can see she either hasn’t heard or she hasn’t believed.

The LORD told Abraham back in chapter 17 that He was going to give him a son by his wife Sarah. The son was to be called Isaac which means, “He laughs.” Abraham, you’ll remember, laughed at the good news. But surely Abraham has told his wife the news. I mean they were in the same tent together. He was in the doorway. Sarah was inside. No, we get the distinct impression as we look at this passage that Sarah hasn’t really believed the good news in her heart. What’s it going to take to make her believe that she is going to have a son to Abraham?

So, here we have the Messenger of the Covenant Himself bringing the good news Message of the Covenant to Sarah. What is the message of the covenant? “And He said, ‘I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son.’” (Gen. 18:10). “The time of life” just means the time appointed for Sarah to conceive and bear a son whose name they shall call Isaac. Now, this reminds us of Isaiah’s prophesy, doesn’t it? “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isa. 7:14). To be sure Sarah is not a virgin, having been married to Abraham for decades. However, Sarah was unable to conceive even as a young woman, never mind as ninety-year-old! But here she is being told directly by the LORD Himself that she will bear a son to Abraham.

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We’re told, in verse 10 that Sarah was listening to all this in the tent door behind Abraham. So, we imagine the doorway is open and Sarah can be seen. We don’t imagine she is hiding herself so as not to be seen. In other words, we don’t picture her here as being some kind of an eavesdropper.

We’re reminded in verse 11 that Abraham and Sarah were well advanced in age. Which is to say that Sarah was well past the age of childbearing. So, it would be a miracle for Sarah to conceive, she has never done either. So, what would you conclude if you were Sarah and someone told you that you were going to conceive, and that by Abraham and then give birth to a son? Would you believe it? Or would you just laugh? Sarah laughed. But we’re told that she laughed into herself. And this is the point at which she begins to realize Who she’s dealing with here. The three men are messengers – messengers of the LORD. In other words, these three men are angels.

Angels are messengers. However, one of the angels is no ordinary angel. He is the Angel or Messenger of the Covenant. Malachi in chapter 3:1 makes mention of the Messenger of the Covenant. “And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His Temple, even the Messenger of the Covenant, in whom you delight…” He is THE Angel of the LORD and not AN angel. He is the uncreated eternal Son of God.

We’ve already met with the Angel of the LORD where He looked after the pregnant Hagar in the wilderness in Genesis 18. It says, e.g., in Genesis 18:10, “Then the Angel of the LORD said to her, ‘I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.” And then in verse 13 it says, “Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, ‘You-are-the-God-who-sees’…”

So, the Angel of the Covenant is the Angel of the LORD who is the LORD Himself! And here He is manifesting Himself in the temporary form of a man with two of His angels. He and the two angels were able to eat solid food. Therefore, they were not some kind of apparitions. They were not some kind of Star-Warsian holographs! So, Sarah’s in for a shock when she realizes who it is who’s talking to her. She’s just laughed into herself at the mere thought of her and Abraham attempting to conceive a child! “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?” Sarah is calling her husband “my lord”, i.e., “my master.” As Paul says to the Ephesians, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the Church…” (Eph. 5:22-23).

So, here’s the Head of the Church Himself, even the pre-incarnate Christ speaking to Sarah. And unbeknown to Sarah, Sarah is speaking to the LORD in her heart! O we need to take every thought captive, don’t we? We need to be “bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 5).

So, the LORD asks Abraham, “’Why did Sara laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’” The LORD knew exactly what was going on in Sarah’s heart, didn’t He? Sarah laughed at the message. She didn’t believe the LORD’s message. So, Sarah’s sin here is two-fold: a) She laughed at the message. b) Then she denied that she laughed at the message.

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    Notice that the first half of her sin was internal. It was a sin bubbling in the pot, so to speak. And notice that the second half of her sin was external. The pot lid was lifted. There was death in the pot – and you and I know that the wages of sin is death. So, do you see that it was the LORD Himself who lifted Sarah’s pot-lid? And, as happened to the Woman at the Well, He showed her what was in her heart.

Sarah had lied right to the LORD’s face. But isn’t our LORD most gracious? He didn’t strike Sarah down dead on the spot. But He rebuked her, for He said to her face, “No, but you did laugh!” This is the same Angel of the LORD who stood before Joshua with a drawn sword in His hand (Josh. 5:13). This is the Angel of the LORD who stood before Balaam and his donkey with a drawn sword in His hand (Num. 22:31). This is the One who has the sharp two-edged sword (Rev. 2:12). This is the One out of whose mouth went a sharp two-edged sword (Rev. 1:16). This is the One whose Word “is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:12-13). This is the One who has a message for Sarah.

When Sarah heard the message from the LORD, she laughed in her heart. But notice that when the LORD laid open her heart “she was afraid” (Gen. 18:15). We all know that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10a). But do we all know that “He who heeds rebuke gets understanding”? (Prov. 15:32b).

The Lord’s angel, Gabriel, told Zacharias that he and his wife Elizabeth were going to have a son, John the Baptizer, in their old age. “And Zacharias said to the angel, ‘How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years’” (Luke 1:18). The LORD struck Zacharias dumb for nine months for his unbelief! Gabriel said to him, “But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time” (Luke 1:20).

So, the LORD is letting Sarah off very lightly for her unbelief. The LORD simply rebuked her. “He who disdains instruction despises his own soul, but he who heeds rebuke gets understanding. The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility” (Prov. 15:32-33).

Sarah, of course, heeded the LORD’s rebuke. The LORD was about to honour her with a son of the covenant. Therefore, the LORD needed to humble Sarah before she could receive this high honour.

Conclusion

It should be clear to us that, to begin with, Abraham and Sarah didn’t know who these three men were. It was in the hearing of the message that it began to dawn on them who they were talking to. The Angel of the Covenant revealed Himself as such in verse 14. For right after He read Sarah’s mind, telling her what she was thinking, He said, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?” “See how easy it was for Me to read your mind? Well, can you think of anything too hard for Me to do? Therefore, believe the message of Glad Tidings I bring to you!”

Have you believed the LORD? Have you believed the message of Glad Tidings He has brought to you? Let us repent of our sins and let us believe in the Son God has given us, even Jesus Christ our Lord.

CHRIST'S CROSS

                                                                CHRIST’S CROSS

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        “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2). One of the main features of Christianity is about Christ’s crucifixion. The other, of course, is about His post-crucifixion resurrection. You can’t have one without the other. Indeed, Christianity is symbolized by a cross. People wear them, buildings sport them, and maps use them to identify churches.

When we look up the meaning of the word “cross” in Bible concordances and dictionaries, we see that stauros refers to a pole, a stick, or a stake. There is another word used for cross in the Bible, xulon, which likewise refers to wood, a piece of wood, such as a staff or rod. Peter, in Acts 5:30, says, “The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging Him on a tree.” (See also Acts 10:39; 13:29). He says of Jesus in 1 Peter 2:24a, “who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree…” And Paul says, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’).” This “curse of the law” is in reference to Deuteronomy 21:23.

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        “And He, bearing His cross, went out to a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha” (John 19:17). Obviously, Jesus was not carrying a tree up to the Place of a Skull. The word cross here is stauros, i.e., a pole, stick, or stake. Yet, the other word, xulon, can also refer to very similar items made from a tree, viz., a piece of wood. We get the idea of a rod or a staff made from a piece of wood when see what was in the Ark of the Covenant. “The ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant” (Heb. 9:4b).

You’ll remember Moses carried the rod of God which he used to part the Red Sea at God’s command, and he got in trouble for using it to strike the rock in anger? Well, “Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. So Moses said to Joshua, “Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand” (Exod. 17:8-9). “Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun” (Exod. 17:11-12). This was how God used Moses to defeat His enemies. Yes, Moses did a lot of praying for victory for his people, but the victory belongs to the LORD.

Now, back to Jesus. The cross that Christ carried to His crucifixion was a piece of wood. But was it simply a plank of wood or was it a crossed piece of wood? This is where it gets interesting. We acknowledge that the piece of wood was more substantial than a walking staff. Jesus had already been thoroughly beaten and scourged (Isa. 52:14; John 19:1). So, after Jesus carried His cross for a distance (John 19:17), it changed hands. “Now as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear His cross” (Matt. 27:32). Now, notice what happened when they got to the Place of the Skull, “They gave Him sour wine mingled with gall to drink. But when He had tasted it, He would not drink. Then they crucified Him” (Matt. 27:34-35a).

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        They crucified Jesus by nailing Him to a cross. There were nails through His hands and feet (Psa. 22:16; John 20:27). Jesus was nailed to a piece of wood and hoisted to a vertical position for passersby to see. Are we to understand that He was nailed to a single upright plank that was heavy enough to hold His weight when He was nailed to it but light enough to be carried up a hill by a severely beaten and scourged Man, even with the Cyrenian’s help? Or worse yet, did Jesus (and then Simon) carry two pieces of wood nailed together in the form of a traditional cross? There’s no mention that Jesus carried two pieces of wood. So, we take it that Jesus had His hands nailed to the wooden plank both He then Simon had carried. And then was hoisted into place by lowering that beam of wood which slotted into a supporting wooden pole already sticking out of the ground designed especially for this purpose. This would be similar in priciple to a very basic form of door security used today, where a wooden bar is slotted into fixtures.

It is possible that Jesus may even have been hung on a live tree that was utilized for this purpose. Again, as Peter says, He "bore our sins in His own body on the tree." The tree image fits with the tree of life motif used throughout the Bible (e.g., Gen. 2:9, 3:22; Psa. 1:3; Prov. 13:12; Jer. 17:8; Rev. 22:2). By destroying death, Christ's cross has brought us life, everlasting life! Like the tree of life, the leaves of Christ's cross heal us. "The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" (Rev. 22:2b).

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        Supposing Jesus to be around six foot tall, for Him to have His hands nailed to the cross with His hands above His head, then the pole He carried, allowing for it to be fixed solidly into the ground to support His weight when vertical, would need to have been a solid piece of timber at least nine feet (2.7 metres) long! It would’ve been like carrying  telegraph pole! However, if it was simply a crossbeam (patabulum) He carried, rather than dragging a huge cross (as per the movies and Sunday School depictions), then it would make a lot more sense. Especially, when we read the following, “And they put up over His head the accusation written against Him: THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Matt. 27:37). It does not say that they put up over His hands the accusations, but that “they put up over His head the accusation written against Him.”

And what did Jesus do as He hung there? Like Moses fighting the Amalekites, He prayed to God His Father with His hands outstretched. However, He didn’t have Aaron and Hur support His wearying arms and hands. Rather, He had sinners nail His hands to the wooden crossbeam. “Being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death” (Acts 2:23). And just as Moses’s “hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword,” so Jesus’s hands were steady until the going down of the sun and He defeated His enemies. “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it” (Col. 2:15). Christ’s cross brought us victory!

AN UNHOLY ALLIANCE (Review)

An Unholy Alliance: How Progressivism Brought About an Islamist Invasion by Michael Youssef is an upbeat book. By ending on a high note, it shows you the problem but doesn’t leave you to despair. The problem? It is described in the book’s title.

It was the book’s title that attracted me. What Christian, watching the current invasion of Islamism into Western nations has not wondered why Progressivism is so accommodating?  Dr. Youssef spells it out where he says, “Whenever you take in news, remember that the so-called main stream media or legacy media – Reuters, the AP, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, the BBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and so forth – are all part of the Omnicause, the Red-Green Alliance. The far-left media is fully allied with Hamas and other Islamist groups, no matter what crimes they commit. Why? Because the media shares the Islamists’ hatred for Western civilization.” p. 159.

Dr. Youssef utilizes Ayaan Hirsi Ali of the Hoover Institute’s descriptions of ‘Mecca Muslims’ and ‘Medina Muslims’ to differentiate between mainstream Muslims and a smaller subset of Islamists mentioned in the following, “I want to say this very clearly: Islamists – Muslims who want to impose Islamic law upon all society – represent only a small fraction of the global Muslim population.” p. 145. Apparently, they number, quoting Ali, “well over 1.6 billion [people], or 23 percent of the globe’s population.” p. 145. However, “If the proportion in the Islamist world is as high as 25 percent, that means that there are 400 million Islamists in the world – and that’s a troubling thought.” p. 146. “The ambition among political Islamists today remains one of totalitarian control over the life of not only every Muslim but every human being.” p. 69. “Mainstream Muslims do not speak out against the excesses of the radicals because to do so means risking punishment and death.” p. 63.

As witnessed by the “rape-gang crisis in Great Britain … The politically correct dogmas of the secular left still compel officials to ignore child rape, torture, and even murder if these crimes are committed by Muslims. The officials worry more about being called ‘racists’ than they care about the destruction of innocent young lives.” p. 26. “Progressives will do anything to prove how ‘enlightened’ and ‘inclusive’ they are. Progressives are scared to death of being labelled ‘Islamophobic’ and so, out of cowardice, and an obsession of ‘political correctness,’ join forces with the jihadists who seek to destroy us.” p. 53.

Those Christians in the Dispensational Premillennialism camp (invented by John Nelson Darby, 1800-82, and popularized Cyrus Ingersol Scofield, 1843-1921, in his ‘Scofield Bible') will especially enjoy the chapter under the heading, Islam, the End Times, and the Antichrist. Though he says, “I'm a ‘pan-tribulationist.’ I’m waiting to see how the future ‘pans out,’ Dr Youssef clearly identifies with Dispensationalism. That being so, he goes on to identify many similarities between this view and Islam. “…Islamic scholars specifically identify as the Mahdi the man Christians [sic.] identify as the Antichrist … When he appears, all Muslims will be required to give their loyalty to him … And who is the Mahdi? He is unmistakably the Antichrist of the Bible, and when this counterfeit ‘savior,’ the Antichrist, arises to impose his iron rule upon the world, Muslims will have been thoroughly prepared to meet him.’ pgs. 135-6.   

An Unholy Alliance: How Progressivism Brought About an Islamic Invasion is a timely book that will help alert Christians and will help equip them to understand and counter the Islamic invasion and its symbiotic relationship with Progressivism. The book’s main takeaway is that both Islamism and Progressivism “share the same hatred for Western civilization.”