Guatemala Diary, Day #3 – A Day of Three Oportunidades

No, these have nothing to do with today's story, but I thought they were pretty, so I thought I'd include them. Gladys tells me they're called "camarones" (shrimp), and I guess i see the similarity. There are all sorts of flowers, fruits, and vegetables growing in the garden here!

Time-Sensitive Prayer Request: Dr. Gladys de Chávez, my hostess and translator for most of my time here, has been sick con gripe (with the flu) ever since I arrived, and she seems to be getting worse, not better, despite repeated times of prayer for her. She is to translate Sunday morning and for two two-hour sessions on Monday and Tuesday. (Her sister-in-law, Lilian [yes, no double “l”] will translate for me Thursday and Friday.) Please pray for complete healing for Gladys. And as a matter of prevention, please pray that I won’t catch este gripe from her. ¡No lo quiero! (I don’t want it!) Now back to our regularly scheduled daily blog post…

Me gustan las oportunidades de Dios. I love it when God gives us opportunities. That should be even more true when those opportunities are beyond our means to seize, and we have to rely on Him. I had three opportunities today, one pequeña (small), one mediana (medium), y una oportunidad grande (large).

My Teaching Materials Are Finished: The day started early, as days do around here at Casa Chávez. Maybe the six singing canaries outside my bedroom have something to do with the early rising. That praise and worship team starts early and goes all day long, putting most other such teams to shame by their pure, joyful, selfless, unending adoration. I went back to translating and reorganizing my seminar presentation, pausing only for some time before the Lord up on la terasa (the outdoor terrace off my bedcoom) and breakfast. I worked through until about 10:00 AM, even through the visit of a Pastor Marlón Villa-Toro and his daughter Amy. (The latter, visiting from Florida, and having attended college there, is a confirmed Florida Gator fan. I not-so-innocently asked her if Gator fans, when truly born again, became Seminole fans. Only her surprise fit of laughter kept her from slugging me, I think.) Having the dining room table double as la mesa de tarea (see yesterday’s entry) has its advantages – I could work while Marlón y Amy took their breakfast.

Oportunidad Mediana: Shortly thereafter, Atilio and I were off to la impresora (the printing place) near the universidad to get 50 copies made of my 43-page handout, along with 80 pages of Pastor Cerritos’s handout. I felt that the Lord would have me pay for the whole copying bill, so I forked over 900 quetzales (the local currency, somewhere around 7.75 per U.S. Dollar) while Atilio was engaged in conversation. This is the sort of thing for which the saints contributed to this trip – helping the brethren in any way we can. This was my oportunidad mediana for the day.

Oportunidad Grande: From la impresora, we went across town to a small Christian bookstore in a mall, so that Atilito could pick up a few books he had ordered. The subject came up about study books for the ten new pastors, and I tuned in to the conversation. Here is our oportunidad grande, amigos. But you need some background to appreciate it, so here’s the summary:

•  My first trip here was in March 2008. Six weeks before I came, the Spirit spoke to me one day while I was praying about Guatemala, and He said, “The pastors have no study materials.” I was stunned. I believed what He said to be true, of course, because He is the Spirit of Truth; but for a bibliophile like me to think of a preacher or pastor without the most basic of reference materials… well, as I said, I was stunned. And sobered. During my visit, I asked los pastores in both of the teaching locations if they had study materials. Some had a one-volume commentario, but that was it – no Bible diccionarios, no concordancias. I made no indication about why I was asking, and I made no promises, not wanting to raise expectations that I couldn’t meet. I didn’t feel like I had heavenly authorization to say, “I will get them for you.” But that didn’t keep me from making petitions before the Throne.
• I shared this burden after I got home with our small fellowship. After that, other than prayer, I had nothing to do with the fund-raising. Our Brother Al Strickland was catalyst in getting the money raised (through LendAHand Mission Teams), and by the following February (2009), every pastor had received a three-volume librario – commentario, diccionario, y concordanica de Strong. When I arrived the next month, I spent my time teaching los pastores y líderes (leaders, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now) how the Strong’s index system worked, and how to do a word study in Greek and Hebrew.

Fast-forward to today. In the ensuing three years, ten new churches – and ten new pastors – have been raised up. But these new pastors need their own “libraries.” Most of the brothers have incomes that would make you blush in shame should you ever complain about the things you “don’t have.” (If you have problems with covetousness and loving the things of the world, a few short-term missions trips may help cure you.) Buying three hardback reference books in Spanish, at an average retail price of over US$50 each (about Q400), is out of the question for most of these men. Even with a 35% discount off retail for buying ten at a time, the price per library is about $US 110 (depending on the exchange rate). I’m not going to get out the violins or start the tear-jerking soundtrack that often seems to accompany fund-raising, Christian and otherwise. In 2008 I reported the need, but (other than Brother Al and Sister Sue) our fellowship, readers, and audience didn’t have any part in actually raising the funds. I pray that it will be different this time. If the Lord puts it on your heart, share something toward this need; the workers can work much more effectively with a few simple tools.

Oportunidad Pequeña: Now for today’s oportunidad final. I don’t call it small because of its significance, because to my heart, I think it will prove to be one of the most moving experiences of the trip. No, I only call it pequeña because, to all outward appearances, it was so obscure and insignificant as to be beneath the attention of anyone without Kingdom values. About 17:45, Gladys sat down next to me and said, “We have cell group meetings tonight. I don’t feel strong enough to share at my meeting tonight. Atilio has a meeting in another house. The teens have their own meeting at the church. I have been teaching about the miracles of Jesus. I would like you to share for me tonight, because I don’t feel up to it.  I will interpret.” I asked, “Um, when do we leave?” “In forty-five minutes.” As Hermano Bobby Hoyle is wont to say about these trips, “Expect the unexpected, and go with the flow.”

Less than two hours later (remember, it’s at least a half-hour commute to the neighborhood where this church meets) “the flow” took me to a small barrio home, just across the street from the church entrance. To get in, we had to pass a street-vendor table, of which one of the home’s residents is the proprietress. The main room of the home was lit by a single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. A sister had to climb on a stool in order to switch on the other bare bulb. (Electric bills must be paid by the poor as well as the rich, so we don’t use two lights when one will suffice.) The walls (mainly painted green as I recall) and floor are concrete, and there were no windows that I could see, even streetside. Bright red plastic, stackable armchairs and and green backless plastic stools appeared from somewhere and were formed in a semicircle. Including Gladys, three small children, and me in the count, there were twelve of us in these spartan circumstances, and we ranged from age 5 to almost 60. (I pick the latter number, having certain inside information.)

No, wait; that attendance count is wrong. There were thirteen of us, because the Lord was very present. Gladys opened in prayer, another sister led a worship song, two shared brief testimonies, and then I was introduced (though I didn’t follow all that was said, which may be just as well), and then I began sharing about Jesus’ first miracle, as recorded in John 2. Gladys closed in a long, passionate prayer, we said our goodbyes, and took our leave. About 21:00 the other meetings broke up, five of us filled el pickup’s cab (yes, it’s a double cab), others piled into the truck bed, and off we went delivering some of the saints to their respective homes on the dimly lit streets in other neighborhoods. Then, with all the Chávezes once more in the cab, we drove past La Casa Crema, Guatemala’s analog to our White House, and the Palacio Nacional, on our way home.

About that oportunidad pequeña, that small, bare-bulb-lit meeting: On the way home, unable to fully enter into all the Spanish banter in the truck’s cab (though I did try my hand at my third Spanish pun, which was probably even worse than my usual ones en ingles), I thought a lot about that humble meeting and the people who attended. I would much rather have ministered there tonight than in some large, loud, bright, “successful” church. This venue and these dear folks – they are exactly what Jesus would have encountered in Nazareth, in Capernaum, and all the little villages in which He ministered. Are you trying to discover where Jesus is? He’s present in millions of small, obscure home meetings like this one – around the world, every day. “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in the midst of them.” Gracias, Señor, for allowing me to attend – and even minister at – this one.

Guatemala Diary, Day #2

Our planning meeting at Hamburguesa del Rey. Following the "U" from left to right -- Dr. Gladys de Chávez, Pastor Jorge Cerritos, Pastor Jorge Perez, Superintendente y Pastor Atilio Chávez

I got to bed at 22:30 local time (half past midnight home time) last night, and were I still in the habit of praying my childhood prayer of “Now I lay me down to sleep,” etc., I would have gotten as far as “Now I lay m….” At 4 AM it seemed like the whole neighborhood, maybe the whole city, erupted in fireworks. I woke up for an instant, processed the noise as a celebration of “el día de la madre” (Mother’s Day is today, whereas in los estados unidos, it doesn’t occur until Sunday), then I passed out for another two hours or so.

Gladys fixed un desayuno (a breakfast) of homemade granola, huevos con queso (eggs with cheese), refried beans, and sliced plantains boiled with cinnamon sticks. Then we were off to our morning appointment at Hamburguesa Del Rey (Hamburger of the King — Burger King) about ten miles away. The meeting was with Pastor Jorge Perez, a beloved brother I know from previous trips, and Jorge Cerritos, the pastor who will be teaching alongside me next week. (To make matters more interesting, both Jorges have the same segunda nombre – second or middle name – Jorge Orlando). Hermano Cerritos told us of some exciting, but heart-breaking intervention with a woman who has been prostituted by her “husband” for twelve years. His advocacy ministry among the abused and abandoned is now moving deeper into enemy territory. It turns out that it’s at his church I’ll be preaching Sunday afternoon. Pastor Cerritos, whose English is very good, tells me that one of his adult sons will translate for me.

During our meeting at “el castillo” (the “king” has to have a “castle,” right?), we discussed and changed el horario (the schedule or agenda) for Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday next week, making my teaching slots longer to allow for the time taken by translation. But they need the handout for printed materials ASAP, so I asked that we postpone our afternoon trip to Antigua so that I could reorganize what I brought. (Due to a breakdown in communication, I thought I was teaching all day, each day, not knowing that I’d be sharing teaching duties. So now it’s a matter of settling before the Lord what gets taught this year, and what waits until my next visit. Essentially, it’s a matter of knowing how to end what has become a two-part subject. How can the first part stand on its own. The Lord will help me sort that out.)

Traveling around in el pickup gives me time to wrestle with saying things in Spanish, get corrected, ask about verb forms, meanings and origins of words, and discipline myself to push and coax and mold my brain to “do Spanish.” I look forward to these times, and keep a notepad ready to jot down new words and concepts.

Gladys has been fighting off the flu, and the battle waxes and wanes. Even though this group of churches doesn’t celebrate any holidays, I decided it was a good idea to use Mother’s Day as an excuse to bring takeout food to the rescue. Since I had to go out and exchange some money anyhow, we went to nearby strip mall (which are always gated here) and brought home Chinese food – camarones (shrimp) to go with some rice, vegetables, and other comida Gladys had fixed up.

The rest of the afternoon and evening went by quickly waiting on the Lord, fellowshipping, working on my presentation, setting up a spreadsheet to track money exchanges and outlays, and going over my Sunday message with my translator, Gladys. The family’s evening ended around what I call la mesa de la tarea — the homework table (otherwise know as the dinner table in the dining room), where we also had a bite to eat.  Tirsa (alias “Hermana Tarea” to me, since that’s all I’ve seen her do since I arrived), an 11th grader (the senior year in Guatemala), is sitting to my left, plowing through her química (chemistry homework). Gladys is sitting next to Atilio, who is doing his homework (responding to Facebook posts, and slowly reading through a book written en ingles).  Miriam, the college senior (studying farmacia), just bid us “buenos noches” as she went to her bedroom, kidnapping Pancho Villa (the family’s miniature poodle) as she left.  And German (“Herman” — the “h” in español is silent, and the “g” is one letter that sometimes has our hard “h” sound), the college freshman studying medicina (taking after his mom), is sitting to my right over at the breakfast bar, working with Miriam’s new computer (which I bought and brought for Atilio).  German is the family geek and technical support guy.

 22:02 – Now it’s just Hermana Tarea y yo. Tirsa just filled me in a bit on the edcuational system. Here one graduates from high school in ninth grade. By then, a career path is chosen, and the next two years (or, possibly three, depending on one’s major) are devoted to pre-collegiate studies in one’s chosen field. Tirsa is majoring in the las sciencias, hence today’s multi-hour tarea de química. As for me, I’m working on my presentation, and it’s unclear which of us will outlast the other. But I’ll never get my presentation translated if I don’t end this diary report, so – ¡hasta mañana!

Guatemala Diary, Day #1

Coat of Arms of Guatemala

I’m writing this day after, because I was too wrung out to do it last night. Al Strickland, bless him, picked me up at “o’dark thirty” (04:40 to be precise), and I was being checked in at the Delta Airlines counter by 05:10. Both flights went well – on time, aisle seat, empty seat next to me, onboard WiFi working (until somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico). It was a productive time. I caught up on my New Testament reading in my pocket Bible, did my Old Testament reading on my Kindle (a weight-saving packing alternative) and fired off various e-mails and a few Facebook messages.

Upon arrival, the lines were short for inmigracion, but long for customs. Yet once it was my turn to be processed, I was through in sixty seconds, and most of that “delay” was because I asked for clarification about two fields in a form that needed the correct answer.

El líder of the churches I’m visiting here in Guatemala, Atilio Chávez de Chávez, greeted me from the crowd just outside the arrivals building, and soon we were zipping along in his 2003 Toyota pickup (that’s the word in Spanish, too), a diesel. We had a small bifstec for almuerzo (lunch), and then went on to his home.

I could tell you of the greetings and interaction with Atilio’s wife, Dr. Gladys, and his teenagers, Tirsa, German (pronounced “Herman” in Spanish), and Mariam, all of which were happy. But by late afternoon, exhaustion was overtaking me. I was looking for a special word, a phrase I had learned, but it wouldn’t come to me. It should have been this – Estoy agotado – I’m exhausted. And I was. Many short nights of sleep, capped off by less than three hours the night before the trip, and arising at 03:13 — the “bill” came due and my account was overdrawn. Nevertheless, off we went across town through heavy street traffic to the small evening meeting, where I was asked to share briefly (but not to preach, thank goodness). I knew I was exhausted (I had to fight nodding off during the service) because I really did keep it brief, giving, essentially, a 90-second preview of what I will be preaching on Sunday morning.

I learned part of my schedule while I’m here. I knew about the four days of teaching and one day of travel (miércoles/Wednesday), but these are the newly added assignments:

• Strategy meeting tomorrow morning for next week’s conferences
• Preach in la Ciudad de Guatemala en el domingo (on Sunday) en la mañana
• Preach somewhere else el domingo a las cuatro (4 PM) for some pastor yet to be named, una mensaje del día de la madre (a Mother’s Day message), apparently to a group ministering to battered and abused women. As soon as I heard about this assignment, the Spirit instantly gave me what I’d be preaching.

Thanks, everyone for praying, and thanks for your paciencia. It’s hard to describe what a blessing it is to be here. I can probably get the Day #2 report up this evening.

Guatemala or Bust!

Flag of Guatemala

There’s not much time to write this.  In 29 hours, Al Strickland is going to be loading me and my suitcases into his SUV, so that I can get to Norfolk International Airport by 5 AM.  About an hour after that, the sun will rise here on the East Coast, and by 7 AM my Delta flight should be “wheels up” and nosing toward Atlanta.  Assuming that flight arrives on time, I’ll have just 75 minutes to catch the flight to Guatemala City, which leaves at 10:10 EDT.

Our prayer requests for trip, along with a bit of other info, is contained in this month’s newsletter.  If you received a copy in your e-mail inbox, then great; you need not read further.  But the entire newsletter and its contents are below, conveying our thanks and gratitude to those of you who have prayed and given.  I will post here and on Facebook as I am able during the twelve nights I’m away.

Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast
Episode #10: The Heavenly Race

Summary:

Percy Gutteridge

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Paul takes as a pattern the Marathon footrace of the ancient Greeks, well known to and partly copied by the Romans. This is a stimulating message on the Heavenly Race.  Comfort and encouragement are given from the Scriptures and Christian experience. You will be surprised as to how much the epistles have to say about the Heavenly Race. This is an excellent message to listen to after you have seen the film Chariots of Fire.

Special Note:

This message was delivered as the commencement address at Living Faith Bible College in 1986.

Other Scripture Passages Cited:

Hymns Quoted:

1. Come Ye Yourselves Apart and Rest Awhile by Bishop Edward Bickersteth
2. Safe Home, Safe Home in Port by Joseph the Hymnographer (or Joseph of the Studium)
3. [At the very end of the closing prayer] Jesus, All-Atoning Lamb by Charles Wesley

Books Mentioned:

Your "Round Tuit" — no excuses now!

More Teaching by Percy Gutteridge:

Other free audio messages by Pastor Gutteridge are available on an audio directory on his Finest of the Wheat page, while a growing collection of his books and pamphlets, and message transcriptions, is available on a similar directory on the same page.

We thank Fellowship member Brian Fettes for providing the digitization of the original cassette tape through the services of Audioanalogy Musicworks of Canada.

Subscribe to the Grains from Gutteridge monthly podcast:

Guatemala Trip Log, Entry #1: 20 Days ‘Til Departure

Map of Guatemala

In the grandest sense, my upcoming Bible-teaching missions trip to Guatemala became “real” when the round-trip ticket was purchased a few weeks back. But today it became real in a more personal sense – at the end of a hypodermic needle!

“I’m allergic to hypodermic needles.” At least, that’s what I tell all medical personnel within proximity of any sharp, pointy, flesh-piercing objects, even if I’m not the patient being scrutinized and diagnosed. (No sense taking chances!) So little sympathy do these folks have that they either laugh or roll their eyes; but my condition never gets me any mercy. You would think in this age of protecting self-esteem that giving my cowardice a medical-sounding rationale would be a priority with these folks.

My "allergy" (photo courtesy William Rafti of the William Rafti Institute)

All my other immunizations were current, but not the one protecting me from typhoid fever; and since this was one of two last days before the trip that I could get the immunization, I plucked up my flagging courage and headed over to the Chesapeake Health Department this afternoon. Their cruel indifference to my allergic condition notwithstanding, they are a friendly, helpful, and efficient bunch. And they must see a LOT of people going out on missions trips, because once the nurse learned that I wasn’t going to Guatemala (and later, Costa Rica) for pleasure, she asked, “Business or missions?”

If anyone could make an “allergy sufferer” like me almost look forward to my fate, these are the folks who could do it. I was in and out of the clinic in less than 15 minutes, and the needle was in and out of my left arm in less time than it takes to type “in and out.” In fact, the ONLY pain involved today was the cost of shot itself – $79.84!

Hermanos Guatemaltecos: I’m one day and one shot closer to seeing you again. Veinte días más.  ¡Hasta pronto!

April Newsletter: The Treasure in Guatemala

Guatemalan pastors Fermin and Lilian Chávez baptizing a special candidate

Our latest newsletter was sent out on Easter Eve.  It’s all here–Jim’s upcoming missions trip to Guatemala, quadrupling podcasts, and “a face that’s made for radio.”  If you didn’t receive a copy, but would like to read it without being on the newsletter mailing list, then follow the “Read the Newsletter” link.

Guest Spots on the Pilgrim’s Progress Radio Call-In Show on WAVA-AM 790

During the week of March 12th, Jim Kerwin was a guest on National Prayer Chapel’s Pilgrim’s Progress radio program, hosted by Pastor Ray Greenley.  If you’ve ever wondered what it looked like “behind the scenes” on a live radio broadcast, here are three examples.  (Note: Sound quality on these videos leaves something to be desired, due to the experimental nature of the patches into the live video feed.)

March 13, 2012

March 14, 2012

March 15, 2012

Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast
Episode #9: A Son or Daughter of God, a message by Pastor Percy Gutteridge

Summary:

Orpah returns as Ruth leaves with Naomi for Bethlehem Judah (from an illustration by Doré)

Starting in Ruth chapter 1 as he did in last month’s Grains from Gutteridge podcast, Pastor Gutteridge weaves in Peter’s report about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the house of Cornelius (Acts 11), and brings forth a helpful message about our adoption into God’s family.

Key Scripture passages:

• Ruth 1
• Acts 11:1-18
• Micah 5:2
• Ephesians 3:1-6

More Teaching by Percy Gutteridge:

Other free audio messages by Pastor Gutteridge are available on an audio directory on his Finest of the Wheat page, while a growing collection of his books and pamphlets, and message transcriptions, is available on a similar directory on the same page.

We thank Fellowship member Brian Fettes for providing the digitization of the original cassette tape through the services of Audioanalogy Musicworks of Canada.

Subscribe to the Grains from Gutteridge monthly podcast:

Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 020 - Do You Have Indoor Plumbing?

Is this your experience of the Christian life, or do you have indoor plumbing?

Review of last week’s episode, What We Don’t Know About the ‘Anointing,‘ the second installment in our study of 1 John 2:18-29.

Abiding

• What is the significance of what we learned about ‘the anointing’ last week?
• Do you have indoor plumbing?
• Most Christians don’t have indoor plumbing, and find it hard to believe or even conceive that other people do!
• Living water (John 4:1-42)
• What does “living” mean?
• The water becomes a “well springing up to eternal life” (v. 14)
• An insignificant fact?
• Left her waterpot (v. 28) — why is this small fact important?
• (Side note: Another example of an important fact — Isaiah 6:1.  See Leper in the Throne Room for an explanation.)
• What is our normal thought-orientation about our interaction with God?
• From the top down
• Filling a bucket – this is the Old Covenant concept – God is up there / out there, and must be invoked, prayed or praised down.
• Filling a cistern (e.g., Jeremiah 2:13)
• One of our greatest problems - putting a veneer of New Covenant language on and Old Covenant experience.
• How does a well fill? – from the bottom up, from the inside out. – This is the New Covenant concept – God is within
• John 14:17 – “He [the Holy Spirit] dwells [abides] with you, but shall be in you.”
• What gets born again in the New Birth?
• The human spirit
• Why – it’s where God dwells.
• Coming of the Holy Spirit within restores the “indoor plumbing” of constant fellowship with God, “living water” flowing within.
• Do you have indoor plumbing? Are you through with your bucket and cistern?
• Now do you see why it’s unscriptural to “pray down the anointing”?
• The Anointing isn’t an it; He’s a person, the blessed, indwelling, abiding Holy Spirit, not some spiritual goo or blob of blessing to be “prayed down.”
• “He will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13)
• You abide in Him, and He abides in you.

How the Apostle John Uses the Word Abiding

• John’s use of the noun mone (abiding place, dwelling) in John 14:2, 23
• Recall our discussion of this from Kernels of Wheat Episode 13 – The Love Meter.
• John’s use of of the verb meno (abide, remain, continue, dwell, stay, etc.)
• Uses it 50% more than all of the other NT writers combined
• Recall John’s central theme – fellowship with the Godhead (1 John 1)
• John = the Apostle of the inner and intimate life
• John’s initial use of meno – John 1:32-39
• The Holy Spirit descending and abiding on Jesus – vv. 32, 33
• John’s first question to Jesus — “Where do You abide?” — vv. 38, 39
• Meno as the operative verb in John 15 – the Vine passage
• Meno in 1 John 2:20, 27, in the flow of what has already appeared in the epistle
• v. 6 – a Christian is someone who says that s/he abides in God and God abides in him or her.
• v. 9 – abiding in the light
• v. 24 – let that therefore abide in you… (3 x)
• v. 27 – anointing, the chrisma abides in you; abide in Him
• The word Christian: From the same chri– root we discussed in the last study.
• v. 28 – command – abide in Him

Consistent with Paul’s Understanding and Teaching

• 2 Corinthians 1:21—Now He who establishes us with you in the Anointed One and anointed us is God…
• How do you get your “anointing”? By being in and abiding in God’s only Anointed One.
• Colossians 1:24-29:
• v. 27 — The mystery of the Gospel — The Anointed One in you, the hope of Glory!
• v. 28 — To present every man complete in the Anointed One.

Next Session: Antichrist

First anointing, then abiding, and next week antichrist.  How do they all tie together?

Feedback

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More teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

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Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 019 - What We Don’t Know about “The Anointing”

Part of a 'Strong's Concordance' entry on the word 'anointed'

Review of last week’s episode, An Unhappy Heresy, the first installment in our study of 1 John 2:18-29.

Study on the words anoint and anointing

• No one in the New Testament ever prayed for “the anointing,” so why are so many Christians praying this way?
• If orthodoxy is right belief, what the early Christians taught and believed, then..
• Orthopraxy is right practice, that is, how the early Christians lived out what they believed.
• In all the prayers we read in the Book of Acts, in Paul’s epistles, etc.—in other words, in any passage that would give us insight into New Testament orthopraxy—nobody ever “prayed for the anointing.” What was it that New Testament Christians understood that we don’t?
• Words as tools (and as anchors)
• Words are the tools of thought, and you will often find that you are thinking badly because you are using the wrong tools, trying to bore a hole with a screwdriver, or draw a cork with a coal-hammer.—A. P. Herbert, British politician and writer
• If we aren’t clear on the definition of a word, or, worse, if we have an entirely inaccurate idea of what a word means, we can’t understand the speaker/writer who is using the words. When the Writer is God, in His Word, we need to be extra diligent in understanding how He uses a word and what He wants it to mean.
• A misunderstood word, rather than being a tool, is more like an anchor, holding us back, keeping us from spiritual understanding. There is great difficulty in overcoming preconceived, reinforced notions.
• Terms and concepts from Scripture we think we “know” — but we don’t:
• Anointing
• Antichrist
• (See also Kernels of Wheat episode #1–Words We Think We Know.)
• Today’s study: All the New Testament words translated as anoint or anointing
  

  A page from Strong's Concordance (Click on the image to see it at nearly full size. You can see all the words translated like 'anoint*' at full size. Pay attention to the numbers in italics.)

• Use of Strong’s Concordance
• Background
• Every word cataloged
• Strong’s numbering system: a tool for looking up Greek and Hebrew words and their basic definitions – for people who don’t know Greek and Hebrew!
• Non-italic numbers: refer to entry in Strong’s Hebrew lexicon (at the back of the Concordance)
• Italic numbers: refer to Strong’s Greek lexicon. (Since our study is focusing on New Testament usage, we will only be looking at italicized numbers.
• Words translated as anoint that don’t have the chri— root.
• Strong’s 3462— ??????—moo-REED-zo, muriz?; used 1 of 21 times in the NT
• Anoint for burial (e.g., Mark 14:8)
• Rub with ointment or unguent
• Related words include myrrh (e.g., Matthew 2:11) and Smyrna (Revelation 2:8-17).
• Strong’s 218—??????— ah-LAY-foh— aleiph?—used 9 of 21 times in the NT; from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words:
• Used for an anointing of any kind, such as:
• Physical refreshment after washing, e.g.,
• In the LXX (Old Testament translated into Greek) of Ruth 3:3; 2 Samuel 12:20; Daniel 10:3; Micah 6:15.  (For a review on the LXX/Septuagint, refer to Kernels of Wheat, Episode 5–God’s First Popular Bible Translation.)
• In the NT, Matthew 6:17; Luke 7:38, 46; John 11:2; 12:3; or
• Anointing of the sick, Mark 6:13; James 5:14 (called extreme unction by the Church in years gone by); or
• Anointing of a dead body, Mark 16:1.
• The material used was either oil, or ointment, as in Luke 7:38, 46.
• In the LXX (not the NT) it is also used of anointing
• a pillar, Genesis 31:13, or
• captives, 2 Chronicles 28:15, or
• of daubing a wall with mortar, Ezekiel 13:10-12, 14-15; and,
• in the sacred sense, of anointing priests, in Exodus 40:15 (twice), and Numbers 3:3.
• Word from the root chri— (???—)
• Strong’s #1472—??????—eng-KREE-oh—enchri? — 1 of 21; Vine’s: primarily, to rub in, hence, to besmear, to anoint, is used metaphorically in the command to the church in Laodicea to anoint their eyes with eyesalve, Revelation 3:18. In the LXX, Jeremiah 4:30, it is used of the anointing of the eyes with a view to beautifying them.
• Strong’s 2025—???????—epi-KREE-oh— epichri?, 2 of 21 times; Vine’s: primarily, to rub on (epi, upon), is used of the blind man whose eyes Christ anointed with spit-made mud, and indicates the manner in which the anointing was done, John 9:6, 11
• Strong’s 5547—???????— kris-TOSS — Christos = Christ = Messiah, the Anointed One, the Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King.
• Anoint = Strong’s 5545: ????—KREE-oh— chri?, 5 times. Uses of the verb:
• Luke 4:18—[Jesus reading Isaiah 61:1]:“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed…”
• Acts 4:27—[The Apostles and assembled Christians praying to God the Father]: “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel…”
• Acts 10:38—[Peter preaching in the house of Cornelius]: “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.
• 2 Corinthians 1:21—Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God…
• Hebrews 1:9—[quoting Psalm 45:7]: “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions.”
• Anointing = Strong’s 5548: ??????— KREES-mah— chrisma (3 times in 2 verses)
• 1 John 2:20—But you have an anointing [“unction” in the KJV] from the Holy One, and you all know. [Note: Strong's will list this verse under the word unction, because it was compiled from the King James Version; but the Greek lexicon number will be the same—5548.]
• 1 John 2:27—As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.
• Who Jesus is—the Christ = the Anointed One = “Messiah” = mashiach
• In the Old Testament, only three “office holders” were anointed and called mashiach:
• Prophets
• Priests
• Kings
• There is only one “anointed one,” one mashiach, in the New Testament—Yeshua haMaschiah, Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, the “Anointed One.” Jesus is:
• Our Prophet—e.g.,
• Acts 3:22, where Peter is preaching about Jesus as the fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15-19;
• Ditto Stephen in Acts 7:37;
• Prophet—one who speaks on behalf of God to the people
• The Logos—the One who expresses the mind and heart of God the Father.
• Our Priest—One who intercedes to God on behalf of the people—Hebrews 3:1, etc.
• Our King; in fact, the King of Kings—1 Timothy 6:14-16; Revelation 17:14; 19:16.
• Only one “anointed one” in the New Testament, and only one anointing.
• But what about 2 Corinthians 1:21? “Now He who establishes us with you in the Anointed One and anointed us is God.…” That leads us into our subject for next week.

Next Week: Abiding

We’ll see how this NT concept of anointing ties in with John’s use of the word abiding, and what it all has to do with the word Christian (a chri— word we haven’t yet touched on).

Feedback

Your feedback is appreciated. Leave a comment (below) or drop us an e-mail.

More teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

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Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 018 – An Unhappy Heresy

Review of Last Week — Loving the World = Spiritual Adultery

If only all the heretics were this easy to spot!

Historical setting of 1 John and 1 John 2:18-29

• Response to heresy? What is heresy?
• A belief or teaching that denies an accepted fundamental truth of the Christian faith, usually falling into certain categories:
• Beliefs about God, e.g.,
• The Holy Spirit is not a person, but an “it” or an “influence”;
• The Persons of the Godhead are not co-equal and co-eternal;
• There are many gods;
• Human beings can become god.
• Beliefs about salvation – basically that something else (works, for example) must be added to the work of Christ to gain heaven.
• Beliefs about Christ – usually the major category.
• Can’t study early church history without studying theology, and vice versa.
• When you open your door to cultists, you are facing age-old heresies:
• Jesus as less than God, a “little ‘g’” god
• Polytheism – there are many gods (and you can become one of them).
• Heresies challenging the Church
• What is true?
• Was Jesus really God?
• Was Jesus really Man, really human?
• Are Jesus and Christ one person?
• 1 John may, in part, be a response to a particular heresy—Gnosticism.

Gnosticism

• Gnosticism didn’t have a unified, clearcut, “neat” package of beliefs. Mutated different ways, outside of and inside of Christianity.
• Meanings and import:
• Know = gnoskein, from the word…
• Knowledge = gnosis
• Special “knowledge” liberated the “spiritual essence” of Gnostics.
• Beliefs:
• All matter was evil. The supreme, unknowable Being never meant for there to be “stuff.”
• “Divine sparks” eventually became human beings.
• Demiurge, an evil being, created things, because he was evil. They equated the Demiurge with the Creator God of the Genesis.
• Tried to keep these “divine sparks” (parts of the unknowable Being) bound in flesh, in physical matter.
• This stands the Genesis 3 story on its head. Who is it who tries to give the poor, bound beings special knowledge. “The Demiurge knows that when you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…”
• This made Satan something of a hero.
• The material universe was, at best, an illusion.
• Gnostic “Gospels” – old, heretical gnostic texts, written several hundred years after Jesus died
• Gnostic texts dug up in the 20th century
• Prior to that, most of what we knew of heretical (i.e., “Christian”) Gnosticism came from quote made by Christian apologists in their refutations.
• The modern “spin”— the early Church surpressed these texts.
• The Gnostic problem—the Incarnation of Jesus.
• If matter is evil, and flesh even more so, then (in Gnostic thinking) Jesus couldn’t have come “in the flesh.”
• Ditto the physical resurrection. The “true God” (the Father of Jesus, not the Creator God of the Old Testament) wouldn’t bring back someone “in the flesh.”
• Two views, either of which allowed Gnostics to go on believing Gnosticism:
• A spirit being, the “Christ,” inhabited Jesus of Nazareth, but the two were completely different entities.
• Docetism from Greek dokein = to seem (dokeo, I seem). Jesus only seemed, only appeared to come in the flesh, eat, drink, suffer, die, and be raised from the dead. (Sort of like “a hologram with substance.”)
• The inspiration for much of New Age theology.
• This could be the reason for John’s strong statements in…
• 1 John 2:22-23—”Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also.”
• 1 John 4:2-3—“ By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

A benefit of heresy—

• It forces us to ask “What do we believe? And how do we know?”
• It forces us back to Scripture.
• It forces us back to Church history, to discover the lessons the Church learned.

Some hints about what’s coming up in the next few weeks:

• Nobody in the New Testament ever asked to be anointed, despite how many pray that way nowadays. We’ll find out why that is, and why we pray that way out of a serious misconception.
• The word antichrist never appears in the Book of Revelation–not even once!  It’s important for us to understand why that is so, why the term only appears in 1 John (and 2 John), and how that fact will give us great understanding in this Epistle of First John.

Next Week: Anointing

Feedback

Your feedback is appreciated. Leave a comment (below) or drop us an e-mail.

More teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

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Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast
Episode #8: The Story of Ruth, a message by Pastor Percy Gutteridge

Summary:

Ruth gleaning in the field of Boaz (from a 19th Century illustration)

In this message, Percy Gutteridge explains both the Biblical doctrine of redemption and Jesus’ role as our Kinsman-Redeemer.  Redemption’s part in God’s great plan of salvation is made made clear in the beautiful story of Ruth.

Key Scripture passages:

• Ruth (the entire book)
• 1 Peter 1:18-19 
• Leviticus 25:23-28

More Teaching by Percy Gutteridge:

Other free audio messages by Pastor Gutteridge are available on an audio directory on his Finest of the Wheat page, while a growing collection of his books and pamphlets, and message transcriptions, is available on a similar directory on the same page.

We thank Fellowship member Brian Fettes for providing the digitization of the original cassette tape through the services of Audioanalogy Musicworks of Canada.

Subscribe to the Grains from Gutteridge monthly podcast:

Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 017 – Why the Impossible Is Impossible

Not a "sign from God" (but just as obvious)

Review of Last Week’s “Worldly” Word Study

The Command in 1 John 2:15-17 and the Reason for It:

• Don’t love the world-order or its things
• If you love the world-order and its things, the love of God isn’t in you.

“All that is in the world-order” – what’s included in “all”?

• The word for lust – Greek = epithumeia (noun) and epithumeo (verb)
• Doesn’t always mean “sexual lust”
• The basic meaning is strong desire (legitimate or not), as in:
• 1 Thessalonians 2:17—”…eager with great desire [epithumeia] to see your face.”
• Luke 22:15—[Jesus] said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” Literally, “With great desire I have desired” (not “with great lust have I lusted”), using both the noun epithumeia and the verb epithumeo
• Lust/strong desire of the flesh
• Oftentimes – Legitimate urges gone bad
• Literally, lusts of the flesh; that is, the sin nature, the old man: Galatians 5:19-21 (from Stern’s Jewish New Testament and E.H. Peterson’s transliteration [not translation] called The Message)
• Lust/strong desire of the eyes = Covetousness
• “Evil eye” – idiomatic expression for stinginess, selfishness, greediness, miserliness, jealousy, someone who is a “taker,” not a giver.
• Single eye or healthy eye or “good eye” – idiom for generosity
• Examples of both:
• Matthew 6:22-23
• Proverbs 23:6—Don’t eat the food of “an evil eye” (literal Hebrew), that is, “a selfish man” (NASB).
• Proverbs 28:22—A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth and does not know that want will come upon him.
• Matthew 20:15—“Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your eye envious [lit. evil] because I am generous [by implication, “because my eye is single/healthy,” i.e., generous]?”
• Mark 7:21-23—see v. 22, where “envy” is the translation of the literal “evil eye.”
• Luke 11:34-36
• Pride of life—alazoneia tou biou
• Perhaps best understood as “pride of possessions” (echo of Revelation 3:17?)
• bios = life (“biology”) but it usually meant more along these lines:
• day-to-day life
• manner of life; conduct
• possessions, property, what one lives on
• Example: Mark 12:42-44 (|| Luke 21:1-4)—the widow with the two “mites”
• The “American Dream” – house, car, better job, vacations, investments, retirement – “I’ve got it made!”
• Other summations:
• J.B. Phillips:
• primitive desires
• greedy ambitions
• “the glamour of all they think splendid”
• My own list of the three:
• pursuit of pleasure
• pursuit of possessions and position
• pride of possessions and position
• Bible examples of loving the world:
• Eve: Genesis 3:6
• Lust of the flesh – “The tree was good for food.”
• Lust of the eyes – “It was pleasant to the eyes.”
• Pride of life – “A tree to be desired to make one wise.”
• Achan: Joshua 6 and 7
• Intro: Everything in Jericho was declared cherem, i.e., “devoted to destruction,” and what could not be destroyed was to be given to the treasury of the Lord. The Greek word used in the Septuagint (LXX) to render cherem is anathema (cf. 1 Corinthians 16:22). See Joshua 6:17-19.
• (For a refresher on the Septuagint/LXX, see Kernels of Wheat #5–God’s First Popular Bible Translation.)
• Defeat of Israel at Ai (Joshua 7:1-5)
• Achan’s confession (Joshua 7:20-21)
• Because Achan took the cherem, the items devoted to destruction, he himself was cursed with God’s curse of Jericho (a curse that wasn’t lifted until hundreds of years later – 2 Kings 2:19-22).
• Putting ourselves under the curse of the world-system? “The world-order is passing away, and its lusts; but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”
• Bible examples of overcoming the world-system:
• Jesus in the wilderness: Matthew 4:1-11—
• Strong desire of the flesh – stones to bread
• Strong desire of the eyes (but sort of in reverse order, as in “Look at Me!”) – temptation from the temple pinnacle
• Strong desire of “boastful pride of life”/“pride of possessions” – all the kingdoms of the world-order
• Truly born-again Christians: 1 John 5:4-5

Why does this matter?

• If any person loves the world-system or the things in it, God’s love is not in him.
• The operative word is love, agapeo.
• Remember the context of the epistle: the goal is unbroken communion, a continual love-feast with the Godhead (chapter 1).
• James is the one who casts the situation in a very down-to-earth light of marital love versus adultery in James 4:4-5—
• The concept of adultery means that James is casting our relationship with God as one of marriage.
• The “Archie Syndrome” – Betty or Veronica? Archie will have to make a choice one day.
• How faithful do you expect your spouse to be? 50% faithful? 75% faithful? 99% faithful?
• It’s impossible to be committing adultery and be faithful to a partner in a marriage. The impossible is impossible by definition.
• Adultery is the only allowable cause for divorce. Does God have grounds for divorce from you?
• Adultery is under the death penalty according to God.
• God’s jealousy – James 4:5
• Therefore “the love of the Father is not in him.”

Having a serious change of mind about the world-order and its “things”

• Most North American Christians have no idea just how influenced and compromised they are by the world-order. Our view has been warped from birth by Hollywood, Madison Avenue, politics, print media, digital media…
• Hebrews 13:5— Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU.”
• Vance Packard—The Hidden Persuaders vs. “be content with such things as you have.”
• The price of following Jesus – “all that he hath” – Luke 14:33 (in the context of 14:25-35): Amplified Bible: So then, any of you who does not forsake (renounce, surrender claim to, give up, say good-bye to) all that he has cannot be My disciple.
• Jesus’ declaration (Matthew 6:24): “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Not…
• “You shouldn’t do it.” (Although that’s also true.)
• “It’s very difficult to do, but some people manage it, so maybe you can, too.”
• YOU CANNOT DO IT. JESUS SAYS THAT THE IMPOSSIBLE IS IMPOSSIBLE.
• A new definition of repentance
• “The world-order is passing away…but whoever does the will of God abides forever” – that is, whoever:
• Has only one Master
• Doesn’t covet the world-system and its cherem.
• Is faithful to the Heavenly Bridegroom
• Is more than content with God alone, God Himself, counting intimate communion with Him of inestimable value.

Related Messages:

Kernels of Wheat Episode #16—If ‘God So Loved the World,’ Why Am I Not Allowed To?

Reminder:

• Read through the First Epistle of John once a week
• Remember to substitute the phrase “the Anointed One” for Christ or Messiah for the next few weeks, to get in practice.

Next Week: Unhappy Heresies

Feedback

Your feedback is appreciated. Leave a comment (below) or drop us an e-mail.

More teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

Subscribe to the Kernels of Wheat weekly podcast:

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Jim Kerwin’s Show Notes for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 016 – If ‘God So Loved the World,’ Why Am I Not Allowed To?

"Come again?"

Review and Tie-Up of Last Week: 1 John 2:12-14

A “Worldly” Word Study—A First Look at 1 John 2:15-17

Different Uses of the Word World in the New Testament

• κοσμέω (kos MEH oh, kosmeo –> cosmetics)
• Pre-New Testament Greek:
• setting troops in order
• women “putting themselves in order”— clothing, make-up, etc.; adorn
• regulating
• New Testament Usage:
• Put in order
• (in the sense of trim): Matthew 25:7—Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.
• Matthew 12:44—Then [the unclean spirit] says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. (|| Luke 11:25)
• Adorn, decorate
• 1 Timothy 2:9-10—Likewise, I want women to adorn them­selves with proper clothing…
• Revelation 21:2—…made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.
• 1 Peter 3:3-6—Your adornment [κόσμος - kosmos - this is the noun form; see below] must not be merely external…For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn…
• Do credit to
• Titus 2:9-10—…so that they will adorn [do credit to] the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect.
• κόσμος (KOHS-mohs, kosmos –> cosmos –> cosmonaut)
• Pre-New Testament Usage:
• That which is well assembled or ordered (e.g., Homer: Trojan Horse); well-integrated into the whole
• From Greek philosophy: a developing concept—the order around us –> the earth and what it contains –> all of creation –> the universe (even “ideas”). Some philosophers maintained a distinction between kosmos and ouranos (οὐρανός, oo-rah-NOHS, heaven), while others combined the two.
• Earth, humanity, the inhabited world.
• New Testament usage:
• Half of the uses of kosmos are in John’s writings (78 times)
• Earth (or perhaps a larger scale, creation)— John 1:10— He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
• Mankind: John 3:16— “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
• That order (perhaps we should say world-order) that is now alienated from its Creator and Lord, the stage of salvation history:
• James 1:27— Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
• James 4:4 (and see entire context)— You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
• John 15:19— “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”
• The Church, the ekklesia, the “called out” ones. Called out of what?
• Our relationship to “the world”—strangers, exiles, aliens (Hebrews 11:13; 1 Peter 2:11 [& 12]); also ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:19-20; Ephesians 6:20).
• Our present passage: 1 John 2:15-17—”Love not the world[-system]…”, etc.
• Hangovers from the King James—when a word other than “world” should have been used.
• οἰκουμένη (oy-kou-MEN-ay, oikoumenē) — the inhabited earth (compare Luke 2:1 KJV with NASB) or the “Roman world,” that is, the Empire.
• αἰών (ay-OWN, aiōn –> eon) — a very long segment of time; an age or era; even (in certain contexts) eternity. The adjective is αἰώνιος (ay-OWN-ee-os, aiōnios)— without beginning or ending; eternal.
• Romans 12:2—And do not be conformed to this world [lit. age], but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (nasb)
• 2 Timothy 4:10— …for Demas, having loved this present world [lit. age], has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
• Hebrews 1:2— [God]…in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world [literally, the ages].
• Hebrews 11:3— By faith we understand that the worlds [literally, the ages] were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
• Matthew 12:32—“Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age [kjv=world] or in the age [provided by translators] to come.
• Matthew 28:20—“…teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age [kjv=world].”
• Luke 20:34-36— Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age [kjv=world] marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age [kjv=world] and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage…
• 1 Corinthians 2:6-8— Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age [kjv=world] nor of the rulers of this age [kjv=world], who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages [kjv=world] to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age [kjv=world] has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory…
• 2 Corinthians 4:3-4— And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world [lit. age] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
• Not the god of this world, that is, the earth, but the god of this age of the rebellious world-order
• This Is My Father’s World!
• So if “God so loved the world,” why am I not allowed to love it? Because:
• God so loved all the people in His Creation.
• We’re commanded not to love the world-order and the things it prizes and offers.
• Now that we have this background, next week we’ll look at these three verses more in depth – the warning, the dangers, and the mindset and heart-change that allow us to walk free of the world-order, the world-system.

Related Messages:

Kernels of Wheat Episode #1—Words We Think We Know

Reminder:

• Read through the First Epistle of John once a week
• Remember to substitute the phrase “the Anointed One” for Christ or Messiah for the next few weeks, to get in practice.

Next Week: Why the Impossible Is Impossible

Feedback

Your feedback is appreciated. Leave a comment (below) or drop us an e-mail.

More teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

Subscribe to the Kernels of Wheat weekly podcast:

Legal stuff:
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Podcast theme music: “Steam Train” from the John Williams album Dusty Porch, under license from Magnatune.com

Jim Kerwin’s Show Notes for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 015 – Walking into Maturity

Walking into Maturity

Review and Tie-Up of Last Week: 1 John 2:8-11

Three Levels of Maturity: 1 John 2:12-14

• Little children (vv. 12,13)
• “Because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake”
• “Because you have known the Father”
• Fathers (vv. 13,14)
• “Because you have known Him Who is from the beginning” (twice)
• Young men (vv. 13,14)
• “Because you have overcome the wicked one” (twice)
• “You are strong”
• “The word of God abides in you”

The Goal of Maturity: Knowing Him Who is from the beginning

• Compare this with “What was from the beginning” (1 John 1:1) – knowing Him who is from the beginning is the same as the fellowship of the Godhead into which we are called.
• DeVern Fromke book — The Ultimate Intention
• [Note: The web page for this book is "broken" as we release this episode.  We'll supply a link once the problem is solved.]
• Where we all start: “Little children” – this is what John calls everyone reading the epistle
• On one level, we never grow out of the relationship of being “little children” before God, even the most mature of us.
• “Except you are converted and become as little children” (Matthew 18:2-3)

The Three Levels and Isaiah 40:28-31

• Why do these three things seem to be in reverse order (going from highest to lowest, fastest to slowest)?
• Mount up with wings as eagles
• Run and not get tired
• Walk and not become weary
• In our own wisdom, we would anticipate that the order should be
• Walking, then
• Running, and finally
• Soaring up, “mounting up with wings”
• These three levels parallel the three levels of maturity John addresses in his letter:
• Little children – mounting up with wings
• The joy of forgiveness and new life
• Being able to call God “Father, Abba.”
• The feeling of freedom after being released from the weight of guilt and sin
• “Would you be freed from your burden of sin?” (from There Is Power in the Blood by Lewis Jones)
• Christian’s burden in Pilgrim’s Progress
• “Sky high” emotions; all excitement, all blessing, the thrill of being a new Christian.
• Young men – running
• Engaging God, the work of God, and the world
• Earthbound, but in the fruitful way a plant is “earthbound”
• Spiritual warfare
• Learning how to overcome temptation
• Intercession and warfare
• Casting out demons
• Fathers – walking and not becoming weary
• John doesn’t talk about soaring in the Light or running in the Light, but of walking in the Light
• The ultimate – to know Him who is from the beginning
• Beulah Land by C. Austin Miles

 Far away the noise of strife upon my ear is falling;
Then I know the sins of earth beset on every hand.
Doubt and fear and things of earth in vain to me are calling.
None of these shall move me from Beulah Land.

 Chorus:
 I’m living on the mountain, underneath a cloudless sky;
I’m drinking at the fountain that never shall run dry.
O yes! I’m feasting on the manna from a bountiful supply,
For I am dwelling in Beulah Land.

[Link for full Beulah Land lyrics]

•  Jesus’ form of exercise – walking
• God in the Garden of Eden — walking (Genesis 3:8)

There is no “finally arrived” in maturity – always ongoing.

• All three areas being developed
• The deeper you go, the more you realize you need to grow – very humbling
• Are you a child or a “young man” or a “father” (“Mother in Israel”)? Eventually you get to the point where you answer, “Yes.”

Related Messages:

1. When Is Walking More Than Walking?  (a look at 1 John 1:7)
2. Waiting on the Lord (in which Percy Gutteridge shares about Isaiah 40:31)

Reminder:

• Read through the First Epistle of John once a week
• Remember to substitute the phrase “the Anointed One” for Christ or Messiah for the next few weeks, to get in practice.

Next Week: If “God So Loved the World,” How Come I’m Not Allowed To?

Feedback

Your feedback is appreciated. Leave a comment (below) or drop us an e-mail.

More teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

Subscribe to the Kernels of Wheat weekly podcast:
Legal stuff:
Podcast theme music: “Steam Train” from the John Williams album Dusty Porch, under license from Magnatune.com
Illustration from 123RF Stock Photo

The website logo for Anointed Christian Links

“A blessing from God’s Pockett”?  Yes, Pockett is spelled correctly.  For sixteen years (an eon on the Internet!) Australian Graham Pockett has been running and editing his website, Anointed Christian Links (ACL).  ACL is an alphabetical listing of “well over 2,500 non-commercial [Christian] sites,” many of which, in Pockett’s opinion, “could give you weeks, or even months, of browsing.”

All these sites are submitted by their respective owners and representatives, but Bro. Graham personally visits each submitted site and determines whether it meets the guidelines he has set down for inclusion on Anointed Christian Links.  And those guidelines are pretty straightforward:

1. Is it non-commercial? And,
2. Is it Christian?

Graham Pockett

On the latter point, Pockett has a broad and simple definition: Does the group / church / ministry agree with the basic tenets of Christianity as expressed in the ancient Nicene Creed?  That creed is clearly reproduced on the “Submit Your Site” page.  Those who submit their sites must state that they agree with the creed. Brother Graham explains his reasoning:

So just because a site is listed doesn’t mean Bro. Graham endorses what’s on it.  But he has made his site the Internet embodiment of the motto of the Evangelical Church Alliance (the group with which I hold my ministerial credentials):

In things essential, unity;
in things nonessential, liberty;
and in all things, charity.

Oh, one other thing.  Like any webmaster, Pockett hopes that other sites will link back to Anointed Christian Links, yet he doesn’t make that a condition of being included on his site.  But he has been kind enough to list not only this site, KernelsOfWheat.com, but also our main site, Finest of the Wheat (and our long-retired Parbar Westward Bible Teaching site before that); so it seemed the least I could do to give him and ACL a write-up.  The more people know about Anointed Christian Links, the more groups who list with it, the more valuable it becomes as a resource.  Thanks, Brother Graham, for your labor of love!

Show Notes for Grains from Gutteridge Podcast
#7: Waiting on the Lord

Key Bible Passage: Isaiah 40:9-31

Note especially Isaiah 40:28-31

Moses before God in prayer

Key points:

• Waiting on the Lord is required to see true revival.
• Waiting on the Lord is the spiritual equivalent of physical renewal through eating, sleeping, etc.
• All celestial beings–angels, seraphim, cherubim–
• Derive their life and power from waiting on God
• Serve as examples of what it means to wait on God, ready at every instant to obey His commands.
• Because the rebellious spirits no longer wait on God, their power and strength are fading, so they seek to make up in cunning what they have lost in strength.
• Their greatest work in the church of God: dissuading God’s people from waiting on Him.
• The moon’s phases as a type of the church’s periods of waning and waxing in power
• Moses as an example of waiting on God (Exodus 34, esp. vv. 28-35)
• Food and drink unnecessary for forty days and nights, because he drew his life from God
• Through absorbing God and His glory, Moses’ face shone and had to be veiled.  (See also 2 Corinthians 3:13-16.)
• Abiding in Jesus as a type of waiting on God (John 15:1-11)
• Scriptural examples of flying, running, and walking

More Teaching by Percy Gutteridge:

Other free audio messages by Pastor Gutteridge are available on an audio directory on his Finest of the Wheat page, while a growing collection of his books and pamphlets, and message transcriptions, is available on a similar directory on the same page.

We thank Fellowship member Brian Fettes for providing the digitization of the original cassette tape through the services of Audioanalogy Musicworks of Canada.

Subscribe to the Grains from Gutteridge monthly podcast:

Illustration courtesy of www.TheBibleRevival.com

Jim Kerwin’s Show Notes for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 014 – A New Gift from Jesus

Reminder:

A New Gift from Jesus

1. Read through the First Epistle of John once a week
2. Remember to substitute the phrase “the Anointed One” for Christ or Messiah for the next few weeks, to get in practice.

This Week’s Passage: 1 John 2:6-11–The New Commandment, the New Gift

• A Christian is someone who abides in Christ, and, thus, ought to walk in the same manner as He walked.  Your walk looks more and more like the walk and life and person of Jesus.
• What is the New Commandment?
• “Love one another as I have loved you.”
• First mentioned in John 13:30-35 (specifically v. 34)
• “I give to you”—anything given is a GIFT.
• “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples”; not by doctrine, miracles, worship, denominational or political stances.

The New Commandment in John 15:12-17

• If there’s a “new commandment,” what’s the old one?
• Three challenges/tests made against Jesus in Matthew 22:15-40
• The third test was the most revealing:
• The first and great commandment–Matthew 22:37-38–in which Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:4-5
• The second great commandment–Matthew 22:39 (“You shall love your neighbor as yourself”)–Jesus quotes from Leviticus 19:17-18.
• The new commandment (“as I have loved you”) supersedes the old one (“your neighbor as yourself”).
• New Covenant inner life and inner righteousness superseding Old Covenant law is an overriding theme in the Sermon on the Mount. “You have heard it said…but I say to you.…”
• God is always after what’s on the inside. He wants obedience to spring from what’s on the inside. No matter how deeply God looks, He wants to be able to find righteousness and purity.
• Examples:
• Matthew 5:21-26–from “you shall not murder” (one of the Ten Commandments–Exodus 20:13) to looking at the underlying hatred in the heart which leads to murder.
• Matthew 5:27-30–from “you shall not commit adultery” (another of the Ten Commandments–Exodus 20:14) to ”What’s in the heart which would lead to adultery?”
• Matthew 5:31-32–from divorce allowed (e.g., Deuteronomy 24:1) to treating divorce like adultery.
• Matthew 5:33-37–superseding vows
• Matthew 5:38-42–rewriting the law of vengeance
• Leviticus 24:19-20
• Deuteronomy 19:21
• Exodus 21:24
• Matthew 5:43-48–from “love your neighbor and hate your enemy” to love and bless and do good to your enemies.  (Be like God the Father–perfect in love! Matthew 5:48)
• Matthew 5:20–Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
• Going from the realm of what is true to the realm of what is more deeply true.
• God wants more than outward obedience, so He goes deeper and takes us into “that’s not fair!” territory.
• In the same vein of “going deeper” and getting at the root of things, Jesus puts “the second great commandment” through a metamorphosis – Love each other as I have loved you.”
• A different relationship – from servant to friend
• “Friend” of the king
• You get to be the friend of this king when you are toweled and kneeling and serving in love like He is.
• Love which lays down life for friends
• God incarnate put on a towel and washed the feet of His creatures.
• Footwashing – the job of the lowest, meanest (from the same root as demeaning) slave in the household – cleaning the road dirt, “toe jam,” urine, animal dung from filthy feet and sandals.  ”You love one another as I have loved you.”
• The next day Jesus demonstrated  this teaching again — on Calvary.
• The apocryphal story of John teaching in the church of Ephesus.
• We would rather have “new revelation” than be constrained to live out and work out the basics of love in the real world.
• We don’t want to deal with inward sin, darkness, and selfishness.

In obeying this new commandment, we find the new gift from Jesus.

• Ultimately, loving like Jesus proves that He is in you, and that you are in Him.
• It’s one thing to love Jesus, and prove it by obeying Him, but…
• …it’s a much deeper thing to love like Jesus! That’s the goal for which we strive and the goal toward which God works in our lives.
• “They’ll know that you’re My disciples if you love like I do” — in the power of the Holy Spirit.
• This commandment, if you seek with all your heart to obey it, is the gift that works in your heart to make you like Jesus – a wonderful gift indeed!

Feedback

Your feedback is appreciated. Leave a comment (below) or drop us an e-mail.

More teaching by Jim Kerwin and others can be found on the Finest of the Wheat website.

Subscribe to the Kernels of Wheat weekly podcast:
Legal stuff:
Podcast theme music: “Steam Train” from the John Williams album Dusty Porch, under license from Magnatune.com
Illustration from 123RF Stock Photo

Show Notes by Jim Kerwin for Kernels of Wheat Podcast
Episode 013—The Love Meter

Review

How do you rate on God's Love Meter?

• God’s desire: “That you also may have fellowship with us” (1 John 1:3) — intimate communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
• The reason the Holy Spirit comes within — to draw us into that fellowship and to make us godly, Christlike
• Abiding in that fellowship is the foundation of freedom from sin and sinning
• “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” (1 John 2:1)

1 John 2:1-2

1 John 2:3-6–Taking the Love Meter Test