Christ in the Passover

Today marks the official beginning of the eight-day Jewish Pesach, or Passover. Like other Jewish holidays however, Passover actually commenced at sundown yesterday. Since Passover begins each year on the 14th day of Nisan according to the Jewish lunar calendar, it varies in relationship to Easter each year, which is aligned with the solar calendar and falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon that follows the vernal equinox.

I had the privilege and blessing this weekend to meet Bruce Rapp over at Plano Bible Chapel this weekend. Mr Rapp, who heads up the Phoenix branch of Jesus for Jesus, was in town to present Christ in the Passover, in which he walked though a Jewish Passover Seder (complete with table and traditional Passover items), and clearly demonstrateed the links between the Pesach and Christ as the Lamb of God. JFJ currently has dozens of members traveling and presenting the Seder (Passover feast), so please check the their website for times and locations, or to view the video.

The Pesach is celebrated annually by the Jews to commemorate their deliverance from bondage in Egypt. After the Egyptian Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites travel to the Promised Land, God sent a series of plagues in order to force him to let His people go. The tenth and final plague involved the death of each firstborn male child in the land. At the Lord’s instruction however, the Israelite families sacrificed an unblemished male lamb and covered their doorposts with the lamb’s blood. Thus, when the Lord’s angel came, he “passed over” and spared those who were protected by the blood of the lamb. This account, recorded in Exodus 12, foreshadows how Jesus, our Passover Lamb (Jn 1:29, 1Cor 5:7) shed His own blood on the cross to protect all believers from spiritual death.

While Y’shua (Jesus) as the sacrificial lamb is the fulfillment of all the Passover represents as a whole, each individual portion of the ceremony also points to the Jewish Messiah. For example, just after the main meal, we come to the Afikomen (dessert) and the third of four cups, called the Cup of Redemption. The Afikomen consists of a piece of matzah (bread without chametz – “yeast” or “leaven”) that was broken off and hidden (Heb tzafun) before the meal for the children to search out and find after the meal. The eating of the matzah, representing the broken body of Christ, and the drinking from the cup, reminding us of His spilled blood, should be familiar to Christians. We perform this same ceremony when celebrating the Eucharist (or Communion), which Jesus instituted at the Last Supper (Lk 22:19-20). In addition, the hiding and bringing forth of the matzah pictures Jesus’ body being hidden in the grave, and His coming forth from the dead.

Whenever I see or participate in a Seder, as element after element continues to paint a clear picture of Christ, I always ask myself, why can’t our Jewish friends see this? (Of course, we can also ask the same question of non-Jewish unbelievers concerning God’s other revelations). We could offer many theological answers, but I like to suggest a couple of practical reasons. First, many Jews are cultural rather than religious Jews. That is, they go through the steps because of tradition, without even understanding the Jewish meaning of the ceremonies.

Second, for those who are religious Jews, most believe that being Jewish or being a Christian is mutually exclusive. In other words, by becoming a Christian, they are no longer Jewish. Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus was a Jew. The first Christians, including all the writers of the NT (with the possible exception of Luke) were Jews. To accept the Jewish Messiah Y’shua as one’s personal Savior makes one a complete and fulfilled Jew.

Before I end this post, I’d like to say a big “Thank You” to the folks over at Plano Bible Chapel who hosted this event. PBC is a friendly and growing church in East Plano (Texas). I thoroughly enjoyed meeting and speaking with Pastor Larry, who made my wife and I feel right at home. The true church is one body with Christ as the head, but the Scriptures also place great importance on the local assemblies. Our first loyalty (after Christ of course) should be to our home church, but I also enjoy and even benefit from visiting other churches once in a while. It’s always amazing to see the different ways that God is working through various people. I was especially impressed by PBC’s commitment to the historical doctrines of the Christian faith, which have been pushed aside by many churches in a misguided attempt to be “more relevant” to modern society. It was also exciting to see the many missions in which the church is involved, including support for the Jewish people. While the mega-churches receive most of the Christian press, God is doing many great things in the smaller churches. I look forward to returning again soon.

The First Christians

This is the second post regarding the open forum that we held in our Sunday School class a few weeks ago, which was opened up to any questions related to Christian doctrine, difficult passages in the Bible, or any other moral, ethical or family related issues.

This article looks at the raised questions of "Were the Catholics the first Christians?" and if not, "Who were the first Christians"? As I mentioned in the previous post, these questions involve some speculation, so once again, in the spirit of open forums, I've placed a link at the end of the article for those who would like to return to the post and comment.

Read the entire The First Christians article.

Was Jesus Perfect?

A couple of months ago in our Sunday School class, Allan came up with the idea to have an open forum in which all attendees could ask any questions related to Christian doctrine, difficult passages in the Bible, or any other moral, ethical or family related issues. This actually went on for several weeks and provided some very interesting discussions and debates. I’ve written one article featuring some of the questions and have a second one almost completed.

Some of these inquiries pose a different challenge than the ones limited to Bible doctrine. While Bible interpretation almost always requires some reasoning, these discussions involve a bit more speculation than normal. So, in the spirit of an open forum, I’ll be posting a lead-in to each article on our blog, allowing any reader wishing to add their own opinion or comments to return here and do so.

The first article centers on a question regarding Jesus’ humanity while on earth. We know that Jesus was sinless, but “Was He perfect”? In this discussion, we examine the various meaning of the term “perfect”, Jesus’ humanity, His blood (normal or supernatural?), results of the fall, and more.

Read the entire Was Jesus Perfect article.

The Real St Patrick

In our modern times, religion continues to be systematically stripped from our governments, schools, and even our history. To many, Christmas is all about Santa Claus and Easter about bunny rabbits and eggs. Likewise, St Patrick’s Day, celebrated annually on March 17, is now about wearing green and gold, shamrocks, the luck of the Irish, leprechauns, and finding the nearest Irish pub. While it’s a fun celebration, particularly for Irish nationals and Irish immigrants worldwide, its true meaning and origin has been minimized or even completely forgotten by many. One of the largest St Patrick’s Day sites on the web devotes almost its entire front page to the various secular festivities. It offers three vanilla sentences to St Patrick himself, with a link for more information. This site is still better than the official Dublin Site that, along with many others, doesn’t even mention the saint at all. Finally, the last sentence on the page reads “Being a religious holiday as well, many Irish attend mass, where March 17th is the traditional day for offering prayers for missionaries worldwide before the serious celebrating begins”. So, the true meaning of the holiday has been reduced to an afterthought, an “as well” to be dispensed of quickly so that the serious celebration can begin.

Of course, the holiday wasn’t always thought of in this way. St Patrick’s Day began solely as a Christian holiday to pay tribute the patron saint and missionary to Ireland, marked by prayers for spiritual renewal and international missionaries. It became a saint’s official feast day in the early seventeenth century, but like most other religious holidays, it gradually became more secularized. The first St Patrick’s Day parade was organized by the Irish Society of Boston in 1737, with the first Ireland parade held in Dublin in 1931.

In the 1990’s the Irish government created the St Patrick’s Festival, a marketing group charged with using the holiday to promote Ireland and its culture. The first festival was held on March 17, 1996, then expanding each year. In 2009, the festival had grown to five days with an attendance of almost 700,000 people.

Read the entire The Real St Patrick article, including a short bio of the patron saint, and how his work lives on today.

[2015 Update] - This year, we're happy to report that the St Patrick's Day site is much improved. The site is more balanced between the sacred and the secular, having added a link (mostly wiki) containing some personal information on St Patrick that also includes his missionary work. In addition, there is a link to some excellent photos of some Historical Sacred sites that have been linked to the Patron Saint. Unfortunately, this is a rare exception among the many secular-only websites associated with the holiday.

True Believers on the Left

Many conservative writers continue to express bewilderment over the Democrats continuing to push their unpopular socialistic agenda. One columnist, Matt Towery of Newsmax wrote:

In my entire career, I have never been as confounded as I am over President Obama and the Democratic leadership's obsession with a piece of legislation that not one major national poll has shown to be popular. A quick glance at this week's surveys shows about a 10 percent spread between those who favor the latest healthcare legislation and those who oppose it.

In the world of politics, that's a blowout. So I have to ask, why are the president and the leaders of Congress willing to see their entire party and a multitude of other policy proposals go down in flames over something that the public can't stand?... Folks, this is nothing more than a power grab. It's an effort to take one of the most essential elements of every person's life — their health — and put it under the control of government… What the White House and Democrats are hoping is that, after the legislation passes, people will forget about the costs and the hassles in the several years that the whole thing takes to implement. They are wrong.

His article is later concluded with, “And take it from me, the tumble the Democrats will take for such a silly move will be massive”.

Mr Towery makes some great points in this excellent article, but I believe his bafflement, like that of most conservatives, is due to underestimating the determination and resolve of the radical socialist left. This is a moment liberals have been waiting for since the sixties. Someone once said, “Thank God, the sixties is dead”. But the anti-establishment radicals from the sixties didn’t die. Instead, they grew up and became the establishment. We rarely see liberals going into engineering, medicine or other technical fields. Most liberals became lawyers, politicians, philosophers, councilors, teachers or enter other professions that can influence the minds and ideology of others. It is certainly no coincidence that liberals completely dominate the various media and entertainment industries.

Dennis Prager made a very profound observation during a speech at the annual retreat of Republican Members of the House a few weeks ago.

Most people on the Left are True Believers. This is critical to understand. They are willing to lose Congress; Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are prepared to lose both houses to get this through. Why? Because losing an election cycle means nothing compared to taking over more of the American economy.

I can give you an example from our side. There are many folks on our side who, if they could pass an amendment against abortion, would happily sacrifice both houses for a period of time. Understand that just as strongly as some are pro-life or religiously Christian or Jewish, that is how strongly many leftists believe in leftism. Leftism is a substitute religion. For the Left, the "health care" bill transcends politics. You are fighting people who will go down with the ship in order to transform this country to a leftist one. And an ever-expanding state is the Left's central credo.

Indeed, a few weeks later, Nancy Pelosi urged her fellow democrats to Sacrifice their Jobs for Health Care. Yet, most conservatives continue to believe that they are dealing with rational people who will reverse course once they realize that the people who they were elected to represent are angry, and that their jobs are in jeopardy.

Unfortunately, Mr Prager’s point was buried deep within a speech prefaced by "I have never been as proud to be a Republican as I have this past year with your unanimity in opposing Obamacare and the other bills that would transform America".

We salute the few Republicans which have battled against the socialistic agenda of the far left, but for every James Inhole and Jim DeMint, there’s a John McCain and Lindsey Graham. When Jim Bunning took a stand against runaway spending this past week, many of his fellow Republicans joined with the Democrats to criticize him for having the audacity to actually question how to pay for another “temporary” entitlement. Their attitude was, “it’s our job to pass bills, not to worry about how to pay for them”.

I believe we owe much of the Republican resistance to health care and other massive programs to pressure from the TEA parties. If not for their outspokenness, no doubt many of the RINOs would be on board with the Democrats. John McCain has been making all the talk shows, complaining about the massive spending bills “forced upon” the people by the Dems, but he fails to mention that he supported many of them, even suspending his presidential campaign to help ramrod through the first so-called stimulus package. Here in Texas, we were recently bombarded by ads during Kay Bailey Hutchison’s campaign for governor, which claimed she was “leading the fight” against Mr Obama’s agenda. Ms Hutchison however, joined Mr McCain in voting for the bailout and National Service Boondoggle, which basically creates a $6 billion slush fund for liberal groups to indoctrinate more youth.

Thus, the TEA party movement needs to resist the call of Sarah Palin and others to choose sides and to join the Republican Party. Without their independent voice, many Republicans would drop, or at least greatly reduce their resistance to these dangerous policies in the spirit of “bi-partisanship”. Even with the TEA party influence, Republican strategy appears to be that of putting up token resistance to win public favor once the left has bankrupted the country. We can’t wait that long. Conservatives must match the passion and the resolve of the liberal left and put up a fight now… and the first step in a battle is to know your opposition.

Radical Rulers

“We’re just five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
—Barack Hussein Obama, October 31, 2008

The above words were spoken a few days before the last presidential election, but only a small percentage of people who were aware of Mr Obama’s record and associations, had any idea as to what this “transformation” would involve. Most others simply listened to his adoring media, such as Newsweek’s Evan Thomas, who wrote after Mr Obama’s June 5, 2009 speech in Cairo, “I mean, in a way, Obama’s standing above the country, above, above the world. He’s sort of God”.

Even today, while many people are catching on the administration's agenda, others remain unaware that America’s Christian-derived moral, ethical and political values of limited government, free enterprise, and faith-informed social policies are being replaced with a utopian, secular vision of unchecked government. As this administration continues to take over industries and other portions of society previously left to the private sector, government itself is becoming their idea of a god.

But, while Mr Obama recently told his Hollywood buddies “I want you to know that you ain’t seen nothing yet", more and more people are waking up and resisting his socialist agenda for our nation. To this end, we’re pleased to highlight a new book, Radical Rulers by Robert Knight, Senior Writer and Washington, DC Correspondent for Coral Ridge Ministries. The book details Mr Obama’s extremely radical background, associations such as Jeremiah Wright, and influences such as Chicago "community organizer" and Marxist mentor Saul Alinski who wrote Rules for Radicals in 1972 that acknowledged Lucifer as the very first radical. In addition, Mr Knight provides an in-depth examination of a dozen of Mr Obama's appointed “czars” whose positions are not subject to confirmation by, or accountability to, any other agency other than Mr Obama himself.

Some of the radical czars that are profiled include former “green jobs czar” and self-avowed communist Van Jones, GLSEN founder and “safe schools czar” Kevin Jennings, and FCC “chief diversity officer” Mark Lloyd who is attempting to force religious and conservative talk show hosts off the air in favor of “alternative” public broadcasting. Also featured is “regulatory czar” Cass Sunstein, who has advocated giving animals the right to sue humans, “science czar” John Holden, who has proposed forced abortions and putting birth control in drinking water, and many more.

Visit the Radical Rulers website to get this informative book for a gift of any amount to CRM. The website also features additional information, including videos, “meet the radicals”, excerpts, news and author bio. A DVD of the special programming produced by CRM on the subject is also available. CRM was founded by the late Dr D James Kennedy in 1974 and remains one of the most influential Christian organizations today, both in evangelism and in the culture realm.

Ride to Cure Diabetes 2010

My friend and co-worker Greg alerted us of this Juvenile Diabetes event coming up this weekend. Most of us have friends or family members that have suffered from this disease. One of my brothers has battled it for decades. Here’s an opportunity for us to make a difference in many lives.

Greg writes:

Mia and I have been given the opportunity to ride in the 3rd Annual 12 Hour Cycle for a Cure, which is a fund raiser to help find a cure for Juvenile Diabetes.

Juvenile (or Type 1) diabetes affects nearly three million Americans. It usually strikes in childhood adolescence, or young adulthood, and lasts a lifetime. We have known people that have diabetes including a few in our family. And we had the privilege of knowing a lady in our Montgomery Office who suffered from and eventually lost her life to the disease. If you have never known someone with diabetes or have never known much about the disease, then you would be amazed of the impact on the lives of those that face it daily.

What is Juvenile Diabetes?

There are two major forms of the disease - type I and type II. Type I is called juvenile diabetes or insulin dependent diabetes and occurs when the body's immune system attacks and destroys certain cells (beta cells) in the pancreas, an organ about the size of a hand that is located behind the lower part of the stomach. The beta cells normally produce a hormone, insulin, which helps the body move glucose contained in food into the cells throughout the body, which use it for energy. When the beta cells are destroyed, no insulin is produced and the glucose stays in the blood instead, where it can cause serious damage to all the organ systems of the body.

JDRF Mission

The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) is an organization founded on and driven by a single goal: to find a cure for diabetes and its complications through the support of research. In 1970, a small group of parents made a promise to their children --to find a cure for diabetes and its complication. Today that passionate activism continues to drive the organization as it works diligently towards a cure. JDRF is structured on a business world model that efficiently and effectively directs resources to research aimed at finding a cure as soon as possible. JDRF annually receives top ranking from independent sources that rate charitable giving.

Contributions can also be made at the national Ride to Cure Diabetes website. Thank you and God Bless.

Buckets of Hope for Haiti

Most of us have heard the unsurprising reports that much of the donations for Haiti relief is not reaching those inhabitants in need. It is widely known that the Haitian government is one of the most corrupt in the world, which has caused recent donations to decrease. Many of us however, rightly want to provide valuable needed aid to these suffering people. I have a co-worker whose parents and other relatives still live on the island. Thankfully, they were uninjured, but suffered great losses along with the others. Fortunately, there are many good Christian charities which have been working diligently to get crucial supplies to those most in need.

Dr Kim Hall at Hunter's Glen Baptist Church in Plano alerted us to the North American Mission Board's Bucket's of Hope ministry to Haiti, in partnership with the Texas Baptist Men. Kim emails that "we have made contact with Texas Baptist Men and have been assured that they have a good system of distribution which guarantees delivery of donated items." For those in the North Dallas / Collin County area, HGBC is providing a collection point for the buckets or other donations though March 7. See the church website for more information.

Other Christian agencies collecting for Haiti include the International Mission Board and Franklin Graham's Samaritan's Purse. Jennifer Kennedy Cassidy from Coral Ridge Ministries in Ft Lauderdale also emailed recommending Convoy of Hope. Although there are many other good charity agencies, these are a few that we've personally worked with, or that come highly recommended from trusted sources. It was reported that over 4000 bogus charities were estimated to be operating during the Katrina effort, so for those using less familiar charities, Charity Navigator is a charity watchdog group that complies and evaluates information on thousands of agencies.

Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti. As bad as the physical suffering has been, their spiritual needs are most important. Thank you for your generosity and God Bless.

What hath Tim Tebow Wrought?

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on their 2010 Super Bowl victory. It was a fun game to watch, including the Who’s somewhat strained performance at halftime. I last saw them in Houston in the early eighties. The Super Bowl is the only program I know that many people tune in to watch the commercials. I don’t usually get hyped up about them, since most are way overdone, but I guess when a company is paying several million dollars a minute, they are pressured to come up with something out of the ordinary.

Perhaps the most anticipated commercial came in the first quarter. I’m speaking of the Focus on the Family (FOTF) Celebration of Life ad that featured Tim Tebow and his mom, and had been greatly panned by pro-abortion groups for the past few weeks. Tim is a dedicated Christian who won the 2007 Heisman trophy as the quarterback for the Florida Gators, the first sophomore to accomplish this feat. I worked in Gainesville and Jacksonville, Florida for a couple of years (2002-04), becoming somewhat of a Florida Gators fan (I already followed Florida State after meeting Coach Bobby Bowden, another great Christian, about ten years ago). We have a few Gator fans that have transferred to our Dallas office and I still work closely with our Florida offices on a few projects. This connection peaked my interest in what was already an intensely remarkable, appealing and motivating story of the Tebow family.

While Tim is not an activist, his faith has nonetheless consistently annoyed the "tolerant" secular left. Read the entire Tim Tebow Celebration of Life article, including transcripts, commentary, secular protests and reactions etc.

Modern Parable of the Good Samaritan

In Luke 10:25-37, we find the well known parable of the Good Samaritan. To set the context, a Jewish religious leader, in an attempt to test or trick Jesus, asked Him the question, "What must I do to get to Heaven and have eternal life?" Jesus responded with questions of His own, "What do you think? What is written in the Law?" The man responded by quoting Deut 6:5, and Lev 19:18, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus affirmed the answer to be correct, saying "Do this and you will live". (Note that Jesus' statement is not a declaration of salvation by works. The man responded as one under the law, so Jesus merely quoted the promise of the law. To be acquitted under the law, every regulation must be followed perfectly in action, thought and motivation, which is impossible for humans. The man should have acknowledged his guilt to obtain salvation by grace instead of attempting to justify himself). The man then followed up with the question "Who is my neighbor?" which Jesus answered by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan.

In the parable, a man (probably Jewish) is robbed and badly beaten while walking down the road. A priest and later, a Levite (the tribe that assisted the priestly work) noticed the man but crossed over the road and passed by on the other side. Finally, a Samaritan came by, bandaged the man’s wounds, took him to a nearby inn for care, and made provisions for paying any medical expenses. Jesus concludes with the question "Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who was beaten and robbed?" The Jewish leader replied, "The one who had mercy on him." Jesus then told him to "Go and do likewise".

Parables, one of Jesus’ favorite methods of teaching, are brief fictional stories which illustrate a moral or ethical truth. One of the primary characteristics of a parable is that it utilized characters, objects, cultural situations, and experiences which were very familiar to the listening audience of that era. With that in mind, we thought it might be interesting to update the Parable of the Good Samaritan in a familiar modern day setting. We’ll arbitrarily select Dallas as the location, and a crowd of Southern Baptists as the audience, since they are both close to home.

Read the entire Good Samaritan Parable as told to a group of Southern Baptists along with additional commentary.