It is publicly announced today on Trinity Bible Church of Dallas’ website that Steven Lawson confessed to his elders of an inappropriate relationship that he has had with a woman. The elders then removed Lawson from all ministries. He had been their lead preacher.
Dr. Lawson has been a Teaching Fellow with Ligonier Ministries, Professor of Preaching and Dean of the Doctor of Ministry program at The Master’s Seminary, and Executive Editor for Expositor magazine. He is also on the board of The Master’s University and Seminary, Ligonier Ministries, and Reformation Bible College. In addition to Trinity Bible Church, Dr. Lawson has served as a pastor for over 40 years in Arkansas and Alabama. He is the author of 28 books. He and his wife Anne have four children. Lawson is 73 years old.
A minister is supposed to be above reproach, (1 Timothy 3:2) and maintain a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:7).
When he falls below reproach with some kind of disqualifying sin, it is devastating to all those around him, and to the global church. Not to mention bringing reproach onto Jesus.
Some went to Twitter to express their disappointment-
And I agree, it is entirely discouraging to hear of a solid pastor falling into disqualifying sin.
Other reactions,
Others displayed less grace when speaking of this sad situation,
The problem when a pastor falls into sin is that there are consequences for him, or course. Lawson has been removed rom his job as lead pastor. The link to his Teaching Fellow page at Ligonier Ministries no longer works. He will likely be removed from the roster at Shepherds Conference to occur in 2025. And so on.
But also, his church falls under a cloud. His fellow congregants are impacted. They may wonder if their conversion under his preaching is genuine, or perhaps regret lifting him up as an example to others.
But also his doctrines come into disrepute. The anti-Calvinists are having a field day over this sad news, and gloating about how ‘Calvinism’ is unwieldy and false. His eschatology is also coming under fire. So is ‘Lordship salvation’.
Any way satan can continue the mud slinging, he will do it. The rings of impact go out further and further, impacting many people, ministries, doctrines, and churches as the rings widen.
This is because we are ambassadors, ALL of us. We all are replicating Jesus message of Good News. We all are part of one body. When one falls, we all feel it. When one sins, we all bear that burden.
Remember to pray for your pastors and elders. Pray for each other. Pray for yourself so you do not fall into a snare of the devil. Pray for Lawson and his wife and children, who must be sorting through heaps of emotions right now, the least of which is betrayal.
Trinity Bible Church wrote at the end of their announcement,
We would ask for your prayers for the elders, for our Body, and for Steve and his family. Let us always be mindful of the words of 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.”
I’m Italian-Irish/English. But we spent more time with the Italian side of the family. My father was thoroughly Italian. That meant he liked bread. He could not conceive of a meal without bread being served. If we went to a Chinese restaurant (where the preferred starch was rice) he brought bread with him.
I grew up in the 1960s (“the nineteen-hundreds” as I tell my students and their eyes widen). A popular slang term back then was “bread” which stood for “money”. Someone might say, ‘I can’t go out tonight, I got no bread, man.’
Bread could mean actual bread you make a sandwich with, or it could mean money.
In the Bible, bread is a staple food for both the Old Testament Hebrews and the New Testament Christians. Bread was made from wheat (preferred) or barley (lesser quality but more affordable). The book of Revelation mentions wheat and barley.
And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.” (Revelation 6:6).
A quart is a quarter of a gallon. So for the same price in that future time, you’d pay a day’s wage for a quarter gallon of wheat but get 3 quarts of barley for the same price.
Bread could mean a food made from grain, or it could be used metaphorically to indicate spiritual food/nourishment.
Israel’s most common form of their staple food was bread made from wheat or barley, which are mentioned over 30 times each in the Old Testament, according to The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Common phrases used bread, such as ‘breaking bread with’ meaning, to partake of a meal with someone.
In the New Testament the Greek word for bread, (artos), usually refers specifically to baked bread, but could describe food in general (Matt 4:4; 6:11; Luke 11:3). Wheat bread was still more expensive, the poor made bread called barley cakes.
As the Lexham Bible Dictionary further explains, “The Gospel writers use the term ἄρτος (artos) metaphorically, to express theological statements. In John, Jesus refers to Himself as the “bread of life” (John 6:35, 48) and “the living bread” (John 6:51). After feeding a large crowd with five loaves of barley bread and two fish, Jesus uses the literal bread as a metaphor for His own ability to provide the world with sustenance and new life (John 6:1–13, 22–58).”
“In Matthew and Mark, Jesus metaphorically refers to His miracles as bread for the Jews, yet He allows a Canaanite woman to partake of the “crumbs” (Matt 15:21–28; Mark 7:24–30). Similarly, God’s blessings to the rich are implicitly likened to bread in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, when the rich man blessed by God with wealth is unwilling to share even his breadcrumbs with poor and needy Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31).” The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Lexham Press.
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; the one who comes to Me will not be hungry, and the one who believes in Me will never be thirsty“. (John 6:35).
“I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I will give for the life of the world also is My flesh.” (John 6:51).
Imagine this. In the future, when the Bride is safely home, we will break bread with the Savior! See this scene in Luke 24:30-31,
And it came about, when He had reclined at the table with them, that He took the bread and blessed it, and He broke it and began giving it to them. 31And then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.
The 2 men from Emmaus, one of whom is named Cleopas, broke bread with the risen Savior, who taught them the scriptures! We will too, in heaven, in our new abode Jesus is preparing for us. What a day that will be!
David Powlison was a well-regarded Biblical Counselor who passed into glory in 2019. In his book Seeing with New Eyes, in chapter 7 Powlison addressed idolatry by setting before the reader some questions. He called then “X-ray questions.” They are designed to allow the Christian to ask him or herself some insightful questions to get at the ‘heart’ of one’s heart.
Of course we know the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, but in honestly addressing ourselves with some purposeful questions we can chip away at the darkness around our heart and bring light to any sin or idolatry that may be forming there.
X-ray is a good title for his questions. X-rays see beyond the flesh down to the bone.
My dentist told me that after 3 days particles on one’s teeth become tartar. I know you are hearing the dentist’s scraper now! He or she uses a scraper (called a curette or a scaler) to forcibly remove hardened particles known as tartar from teeth. If tartar is left too long, it darkens the teeth and damages the teeth and gums.
That’s like sin. Unaddressed it hardens and clings. Eventually becomes like mini-barnacles. It takes more work to remove the long-unaddressed sin from our heart and sometimes, not without damage.
But the best way to remove hardening from our heart is sincere repentance and asking forgiveness from God. He can easily remove it! (But sometimes there is still damage or consequence).
Remember, idolatry can happen any time, anywhere and even through ‘good’ things like marriage, children, or worship , etc.
What are these questions Powlison had written for us to ask ourselves? Here they are. I’d suggest taking one or two questions a day and pondering them. Pray and ask the Spirit to illuminate the answers to you. Because God is transcendent and because He knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, He will deliver direction to you on these issues. It glorifies Him for the blood-bought Christian to earnestly and vigorously partner with Him in pursuit of holiness.
God on His throne knows the thoughts and intentions of everyone- that is 8 BILLION People! And He knows this at every moment of every day.
He is also sustaining the universe, managing millions of angels, knitting new humans in the womb, receiving worship, answering prayer, justifying new saints…
Every moment of every day from eternity past to this very second.
Our God is transcendent. Transcendence is the concept of “the aspect of God’s nature that is wholly independent of and beyond the physical universe, emphasizing divine otherness.”
GotQuestions says, The “LORD God Almighty (in Hebrew, El Shaddai) created all things on the earth, beneath the earth and in the heavens above, yet He exists above and independent from them. All things are upheld by His mighty power (Hebrews 1:3), yet He is upheld by Himself alone. The whole universe exists in Him and for Him that He may receive glory, honor and praise.
One way satan likes to chip away at the Transcendence of God is to drag Jesus down to levels equal with humans. He makes people think Jesus is our Butler, answering named and claimed fleshly things. Or by making Him a romantic partner as in a boyfriend, delivering satisfying emotions women seek in a partner. Or simply by making Him seem just like us.
But Yahweh is not a partner. He is transcendent! Jesus said,
And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” (John 8:23)
“He who comes from above is above all; the one who is only from the earth is of the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.” (John 3:31)
It is worthwhile, I think, to ponder God’s transcendence, one of his incommunicable qualities. He is very ‘other’. And that is a good thing! We love and resect Him for his other-worldiness. Would we admire Him as much if we could ‘figure Him out?’ No. Isaiah 55:9 says
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Love our God, and love Him for who He is, not who we want Him to be. Praise Him for all His goodness and transcendence!
Some verses just strike fear into the heart. They make you shudder. Or even cry. Several verses do that to me, including the well known “Depart from me you evil doer. I never knew you!” (Matthew 7:23). Also the one in Revelation that simply says the one who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth “and the earth was reaped.” (Revelation 14:16).
There is this which struck me at church on Sunday:
but they continually mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD rose against His people, until there was no remedy. (2 Chronicles 36:16).
Until there was no remedy. Ponder that. In this day and age, people have dragged Jesus down from His heights of transcendent glory, to make Him a buddy, a boyfriend, a butler in their minds. They render Him toothless, weak, and a simpering milquetoast, pleading for souls but unable to bring them into the kingdom if they choose to reject. They have errantly thought that His longsuffering is endless, that His patience is boundless.
But no.
There will come a day. That day will come for individuals, when he gives them over to their sin, forever locked in a deadly embrace with it, to gnash but also pet their sin even in hell. There will come a day for nations, when there are not even 10 righteous, and like Sodom, will be smote under His wrath. One day, in one moment, it will be too late. God’s limit allowing sin has been reached, and He will punish their sin.
Matthew Henry says,
“They mocked the messengers of God (which was a high affront to him that sent them), despised his word in their mouths, and not only so, but misused the prophets, treating them as their enemies. The ill usage they gave Jeremiah who lived at this time, and which we read much of in the book of his prophecy, is an instance of this. This was an evidence of an implacable enmity to God, and an invincible resolution to go on in their sins. This brought wrath upon them without remedy, for it was sinning against the remedy.” (Source Henry, M. (1994). Matthew Henry’s commentary on the whole Bible: complete and unabridged in one volume (p. 614). Hendrickson.)
If you are playing church, if you are doubtful you are actually saved, if you are pretending to be Christian, you may be coming up to the line of no remedy. For it isn’t only mocking and deriding God that provokes His anger, but our sin itself is enmity against Him. Rejection of God’s word is not mere disagreement, it is actually despising it. As my friend said Sunday in his sermon devotional, “Rejection of God leads to rejection by God.”
He promised that and He DID do that with his own People that He chose, the Israelites. He will do the same with His very own people who may dwell in nations that reject Him.
Today is the day of salvation! Find Him while He may be found.
and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)
Beth Moore is a self-identifying Bible teacher, who writes and publishes material based on the Bible. She also is President of her corporation Living Proof Ministries, in which Moore goes from city to city teaching material she says is related to the Bible. In addition, she has a TV show on TBN, Youtube, and other outlets. She has written a novel and recently published her autobiography.
She is 67 years old and has been teaching woman AND men – and eventually preaching – since about 1983.
She has always been false. She did not start well and go off the rails. Nor did she recently turn soft or errant. She has been false since the beginning. There are sheep and there are goats, one marked for blessing and eternal life and one marked for condemnation. Moore is the latter. I discussed that fact here:
I’ve been tracking Moore since 2011 when I was taken to a Live Living Proof event, and later a simulcast retreat weekend. I’ve written many critiques about both Moore’s doctrine, her teaching style, and her lifestyle. Last week, I checked in to see how Beth Moore’s teaching is going, with viewing her latest Bible series, “When is He Present?”, a study looking at what it means to truly seek the Lord’s presence. Key Scriptures: 1 Samuel 2:12-18, Jeremiah 7:12-15, Jeremiah 2:1-8, 1 Samuel 3:1-10, Proverbs 3:5-6.
Conclusion: Beth is still false.
Let’s take a look at why. This isn’t just about marking a teacher, it’s about leading the reader through WHY Beth Moore is false, so the reader can develop her own discernment and be on the alert for true and false teachers. That act alone glorifies the Lord. Rightly dividing the truth glorifies Him. Submitting to and learning about the actual God as revealed in scripture glorifies Him. Alternately, following a false teacher or believing wrong doctrine does not glorify God. This is why we critique teachers- to glorify God and to aid sisters in developing discernment.
But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to distinguish between good and evil. (Hebrews 5:14)
-The first is the Davidic Covenant, -A second theme is the sovereignty of God, -Third, the work of the Holy Spirit in empowering men for divinely appointed tasks is evident, -Fourth, the books of Samuel demonstrate the personal and national effects of sin.
Ligonier’s overview of 1 Samuel teaches three truths, that God always intended for Israel to have a king; God selected David to be king and promised him an eternal dynasty, God selected Jerusalem to be the place where He would provide a substitute for His people.
Knowing now the devastation of Israel’s national and personal sin, and how they were at a low and weak point because of persistent sin, how does Beth Moore introduce the theme and background of 1 Samuel? Let’s take a look.
Moore opens the lesson thus:
A paradox of being completely self-absorbed is that the more we fold into ourselves the more we try to just give ourselves to every craving every yearning anything we want regardless of what it does to anybody else that the more we do that the more and more Barren we become. ~Moore
Moore uses the word barren 9X in this lesson but the word sin only once. It seems that Moore is inserting her gynocentric focus here, in making these chapters be about women, barrenness, and birth. She opens with a focus on women- not sin, not kings, not Israel. Women and their child-birthing capabilities, or lack thereof. Moore knows her audience likely knows about barren Hannah, so Moore seems to have latched onto the birthing issue and barrenness and extrapolated it into the theme.
First, she uses the word barren when saying that when we give in to cravings, (carefully avoiding the word sin) it makes us “barren”. If that was all she said, one might surmise from the scant context, that Moore meant spiritually dry. But then she confuses things in the next moment by using the word barren to mean Hannah’s physical inability to have children.
screenshot from the video lesson
Moore conflated the word barren and then goes on in the ‘lesson’ to overuse the word without clarifying. Moore matches the spiritual dryness of disobedience to one woman’s inability to have children.
This lack of clarity and the cobbling together of cherry-picked words is the usual MO of how Moore has publicly said she crafts her lessons. She prays and waits to hear a literal word from the Spirit, then she goes through books of the Bible and picks out that word and makes a lesson out of it. Here, she seems to have ‘heard’ the Spirit say “barren”. You notice above how many books of the Bible and how many verses she intends to teach through. She is always all over the place.
I’m just a few minutes into Moore’s lesson and it is incorrect and confusing already.
In fact, the next statement Moore gives is that Moore claims the entire theme of the book of 1 Samuel is about barrenness. She said,
So the book unfolds 1st Samuel chapter 1 and goes into to chapter 2 and then we see it in chapter 3 the book unfolds with a whole theme of barrenness. It’s showing us the idea of barrenness in the woman by the name of Hannah…
This is incorrect. The theme of 1 Samuel is the installation of a King over the people, the beginning of the monarchy. Not barrenness.
screenshot from the video lesson
She goes on to say,
it puts us on the page of Hannah’s barrenness but that is not where it stops. Because what it immediately shows us is that this particular people of God has become Barren. That spiritually they are completely Barren.
So are the people unable to have children? Or are they barren spiritually? Because Moore has used the word in both senses in rapid order by now. And what exactly IS spiritual barrenness? How can an entire people be ‘barren’? The men too? She never defines it.
This is a tactic politicians use, when they use words that are commonly understood but that each person can attach their own individual interpretation to what it exactly means. Words like peace, liberty, freedom. Politicians do this so they can appeal to the widest possible audience (voters).
In faith-based organizations like Living Proof that twist the word, the speakers first rip out the context, then they use words that make sense on the surface but are in fact nebulous, so they can appeal to the widest audience possible (consumers).
Barrenness makes sense, but what IS it, really? The people at this juncture were SINNING. They were DISOBEDIENT. Moore doesn’t use the more specific and appropriate words of sin and disobedience. Only ‘barrenness’.
there’s nothing like barrenness to make God want to birth something… ~Moore
What?! Sometimes barrenness, if we interpret it as disobedience, causes God to punish, not birth something. See: Sodom, The Disapora, Intertestamental 400 years of silence…
Moore goes on to reference Sarah who was barren and in the NT Elizabeth who was past child bearing years. Moore again cobbling together a false doctrine out of her cherry picked word. Now it is true that God used barren women for His plan. In fact, He was the One who MADE the women barren in the first place. He didn’t look down on these poor women who could not give birth and decide out of compassion to give them a child. It is the Lord who opens and closes wombs and decides whether or not he gives a woman a child. He uses them as part of His plan.
Next, Moore says,
Elizabeth a woman past the years of childbearing there’s just nothing like a time of barrenness …
What does that mean??
Anna wasn’t mentioned as having children, and her life was rich a teaching ministry in the Temple. Lydia is not mentioned as having children yet her ministry of hospitality was thriving. What does that mean, “there’s nothing like a time of barrenness”?
so I want to say to you if you come here this weekend in your life your soul your heart just feels Barren you may be in exactly the right place because it may be that God is just about to birth something brand new in you.
Or it might mean you’ve been disobedient and need to repent.
The above sounds like Joel Osteen doesn’t it? Moore uses nebulous words in order to emotionally connect with her audience, rather than teach the plain meaning of scripture and allow the Spirit to connect in transforming their mind.
Beth, just stoppppp with the ping-ponging back and forth between the spiritual barrenness and gestational barrenness!
Moore refers to Hannah’s promise to dedicate the child to the LORD when he is old enough, and for laughs, Moore says she’d renege on that promise to YAHWEH:
I’m going to tell you something, if it were me, He just never would get old enough, isn’t that the truth…[laughter]
I’ve often remarked that Beth Moore lacks gravitas. Not that we moon about and wear a long face, but her frequent quips and pause for laughter moments chip away at the foundation of the seriousness of the topic on which she is speaking, and eats away at the due seriousness of the Bible itself. Should we joke about abandoning a promise to God?
Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT [ab]MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.’ (Matthew 5:33)
Moore admits a bit further on that she changes translations frequently and when she does she reads the verse a bit differently and it “captures my fresh attention.“
This is rather a sad confession, but one that to my mind confirms once again that Moore is an unsaved person and looking for ways to liven her Bible reading (which is always dry as dust to a pagan). The Holy Spirit livens the reading of God’s word to us as He uses it as the mechanism to transform our mind and melt our heart and grow our soul. But not for a heathen. Heathens need tricks to make the Bible interesting and keep one’s attention. So Moore changes translations often.
Moore continues with reading a passage from Jeremiah where God is speaking to the people about their lack of awareness and failure even to ask “where is the Lord?” never noticing that He is not present among them. Moore extrapolates that to a lamentation for our day, that,
we should really be seeing the Lord move in our midst and moving some obstacles and making some ways in the wilderness and this is a God that does wonders for his people and where where is the Lord?
Is she saying that we should be expecting visible proof that the Lord is moving? Miracles and wonders? Seems so. If the Lord feels far from you, what are you called to do? REPENT. That word does not appear at all in the transcript of Moore’s 30-minute teaching. We seek the Lord’s presence through seeking His forgiveness for our sin through our repentance. This is not a mention in the transcript nor is it the theme in this lesson.
Moore went on like that for a while. Her teaching was not 100% devoid of truth. False teachers always include some truth which they mix with a heaping cup of confusion and a dollop of emotion. But her teaching was human centered, not God-centered.
What descriptions are used for false teachers? Spies, masquerade, creep in, secretly… If you could immediately detect their falsity then we would not need so many warnings in the Bible about training in discernment so we cold detect them.
Moore’s error in identifying the theme of 1 Samuel, her incorrect use of barrenness, and her ripping out of context the story of Sarah and other childless women are clues that her teaching that is not healthy.
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these.
That’s a LOT! In truth, it is getting hard to avoid people such as those. They seem to be growing, those kind of people are everywhere. Love, especially, is dwindling in quantity and in form.
Where is the love?
In 1972 Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack published a song called exactly that, Where is the love? I remember it because it was popular and ended this way-
LOL, you didn’t think that 7-11 songs were invented in the 2000s, did you? Anyway, I am focusing on love in this edition of Prata Potpourri because we all need it.
For many here in the US, Labor day means back to school season. Here in Georgia, we started back in August, but in many other places the first day of school begins after the September holiday. BBC Good Food has some tips on back to school anxiety. Becuase we love our children and want them to be safe and happy:
What is sanctification? It’s growth in holiness. It’s a partnership with the indwelling Holy Spirit, who points us toward Christ and incremental growth in His likeness, but includes our choice to obey and to mortify sin in us as we grow. Why do we obey? Because we love Jesus. Obedience is the evidence of our love of Christ.
The one who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him. John 14:21
Here is an essay called Sanctification explained simply: “I am convinced that this is the exact opposite of how the Spirit works to sanctify us. Sanctification isn’t a stairway upwards to higher and higher rungs of holiness. No, sanctification is a downward soul work“.
Remember the book about the 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman? It was first published in 1992. That’s over 30 years ago! Time flies. On Google Books, it says 72% liked this book. But enough time has passed since its publication that research has been done on whether we really DO speak in love languages. Notwithstanding people’s personal enjoyment of it, the question is, does the premise hold? Research says…no.
Mt. Zion Church’s ministry Chapel Library has a monthly booklet on a theme, with the old guys’ essays on that theme. This month it’s “The Christian’s Love for Christ”. I highly recommend the booklet, called Free grace Broadcaster. You can read it online, download it to your device, or have it sent free to your Postal mailbox.
In this issue of the FGB, The Christian’s Love for Christ, J. C. Ryle introduces this crucial subject with Christ’s question to Peter: “Lovest Thou Me?” Thomas Vincent explains why true Christians love the unseen Christ. Following that, Jonathan Edwards lists biblical motives to love Christ. Charles Spurgeon declares that love for Christ is the great test for confirming that we are children of God. Ryle, in his second article, identifies the marks of love for our precious Savior. In Spurgeon’s second article, he asserts reasons to love Christ and the consequences of being without love for Him. Edwards follows with a second article that describes God’s dreadful curse on those who do not love Christ. Vincent then helpfully gives an overview of how to examine and prove our love for Jesus. In his third and final article, Ryle asks a heartfelt, probing, and personal question that we must all answer: Do you love Jesus Christ?
Ligonier says the “‘ethical mandate’ is to “The ethical mandate of the Christ-centered life is to love God and to love others with our whole selves.” Good essay. Here’s another quote-
Only the Spirit-changed heart can exercise this Christ-defined love because Christ reconciles us to God and to neighbor and even puts back together the broken pieces of our own selves. The ethical mandate is to put on the agap of Christ because we were loved by Christ all the way to the end.
“God’s grace is older than history, reaching back before the creation of time itself. It is not merely poured out in the moment of salvation; it is evident throughout His eternal plan of redemption.”
Such love!! More at link above
In conclusion, thought love in the world may be waning, if you are in Christ, He loves us to the end. He will never not love us. His love is sure, steady, and eternal. Our love for Him in response should be the same, and for each other. Where is the Love Donny and Roberta asked? It is in Christ, glowing out in glory rays to His beloved, aimed at hearts to change them into hearts of flesh, beating with the grace-filled love He has given us.
There IS life after death. It’s eternal and there are only two places we would dwell: in Jesus or out of Jesus. In heaven with Jesus or in Hell where His wrath abides. There is only one way to heaven. Through Jesus. And that way id the way of repentance of our sin and belief in Jesus who died as the sacrificial Lamb, enduring God’s wrath for sin for all who would believe.
As a Bible times Jewish person, talk of “the wilderness” struck fear into their heart. It was the place their ancestors wandered, thirsty and grumbling. It was where predators lurked, from the large such as hyenas and jackals and wolves, to the small, such as scorpions and snakes. It as where there was no shade from the relentless heat and sun, where thieves hid out, and where there was no food or safety.
It was where Jesus was tempted.
It was also where John the Baptist lived and preached.
It was where they went walking after a day’s journey to hear John the Baptist and perhaps to be baptized, and have their heart’s hope ignited that the Messiah was finally arriving.
Pictures from this website may be used on another website or blog, with the following restrictions…https://www.bibleplaces.com/
“Because of its lack of water and good routes, the Judean wilderness has been (mostly) uninhabited throughout history. Consequently it was an ideal place for those seeking refuge from enemies or retreat from the world. When on the run from King Saul, David hid in various places in the Judean wilderness (the Wilderness[es] of Ziph, Maon, and En Gedi are part of the Judean Wilderness). John the Baptist preached here, and it was likely that this was the wilderness where Jesus was tempted.” Source Bibleplaces.com.
It is hard for me to imagine people today walking for a whole day over rough terrain, stones in sandals, in the blazing heat, to hear preaching. But back then they did. They came in droves to “the wilderness” to hear John the Baptist.
And all the country of Judea was going out to him, and all the people of Jerusalem; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. (Mark 1:5).
Big Bend National Park TX. EPrata photo
Then when Jesus came, he was led by the Spirit to “the wilderness” and there he stayed 40 days, being continually tempted at all points by satan. No food, no water, nothing except “beasts,” as Mark and only Mark, notes in Mark 1:13. What were these beasts?
Vincent’s Commentary says the region abounded in boars, jackals, wolves, foxes, leopards, hyenas, etc.
Yikes.
For Israel the dry, mostly uninhabited desert engendered fear and awe. It could be described like the original chaos prior to creation (Deut. 32:10; Jer. 4:23–26). Israel was able to go through the desert because God led them (Deut. 1:19). Its animal inhabitants caused even more fear—snakes and scorpions (Deut. 8:15); wild donkeys (Jer. 2:24). The desert lay waste without humans or rain (Job 38:26; Jer. 2:6). The desert was a “terrifying land” (Isa. 21:1 NASB). The only expectation for a person in the wilderness was death by starvation (Exod. 16:3). God’s judgment could turn a city into desert (Jer. 4:26), but His grace could turn the wilderness into a garden (Isa. 41:17–20). In the NT the desert was the place of John the Baptist’s ministry (Luke 1:80; 3:4) and where demon-possession drove a man (Luke 8:29). The crowds forced Jesus into the unpopulated desert to preach (Mark 1:45). Jesus took His disciples there to rest (Mark 6:31) Source- Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary.
I kept wondering, did the beasts recognize Jesus?
And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him. (Mark 1:13 NASB1995)
The wilderness of Judea. source Logos
Our pastor said that the inclusion of beasts in the verse but then the immediate mention of angels ministering to Jesus, likely means that a contrast is intended. Beasts opposing Jesus while Angels were helping Him.
But the beasts got me thinking of all the times God used beasts in His plan.
Beasts as used in the Bible, especially the New Testament, could be an animal that is domesticated or wild. Sacrificial or useful. Beast is sometimes used as a metaphor for a brutish nature or wicked men. Then there is THE Beast of Revelation, AKA the Antichrist. He is the man with the most brutish & wicked nature of all.
God sent the animals to the ark two by two – Genesis 7:15 God used ravens to feed Elijah – 1 Kings 17:6. He used bears to kill the mockers – 2 Kings 2:23-24. God closed the lion’s mouths so they would not eat Daniel in the lion’s den – Daniel 6:22. God used Aaron to make frogs come up over the land of Egypt – Exodus 8:5-6. Same with gnats – Exodus 8:17 He used a great fish to swallow Jonah and then to spit Jonah up onto dry land – Jonah 1:17 He used a donkey to speak to Balaam – Numbers 22:28
God is sovereign over all the animals. Though the manner in which the angels were ministering to Jesus in his wilderness temptation period is not described, perhaps it was the angels who protected Jesus from the beasts while He was occupied with fasting and praying.
I was wondering if the beasts recognized Jesus in the wilderness, because Balaam’s donkey did. Numbers 22:27.
It is interesting to think of the wilderness as the place of spiritual desert. Devoid of flourishing truth, a wasteland, as the pagans who do not know Jesus are wandering in. Jesus fed the 4,000 in the desolate place east of the Sea of Galilee (Mark 8:1–9).
The wilderness was not only a setting, a location, a real place. David hid there. Jesus was tempted there. John The Baptist baptized there.
Big Bend, Texas. EPrata photo
But the wilderness is also a metaphor.
In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, the wilderness has many functions. It is a place of actual barrenness and hunger, and also spiritual drought. It’s a source of nourishment from God (water and manna), but also a place where truth was preached and the seekers were nourished with that truth. It’s a location for God’s testing of His people and of Jesus too. It is the place of the backdrop for their transformation.
The People traveled through 6 actual wildernesses; Shur, Etham, Sin, Sinai, Paran, and Zin. When people today say they are having a rocky time, they may say they are metaphorically going through a “wilderness experience.”
Soon there will be no wilderness, no desert, no beasts. All will be green and healthy and flourishing. There will be no barrenness, no lack and no want. No place where dangers lurk and no place where truth isn’t present.No place of testing, for the testing will have been done and the inhabitants have passed- thanks to Jesus’ death and resurrection.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy You visit the earth and cause it to overflow; You greatly enrich it; The stream of God is full of water; You prepare their grain, for so You prepare the earth. 10You water its furrows abundantly, You settle its ridges, You soften it with showers, You bless its growth. 11You have crowned the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip with fatness. 12The pastures of the wilderness drip, And the hills encircle themselves with rejoicing. 13The meadows are clothed with flocks And the valleys are covered with grain; They shout for joy, yes, they sing.
I’m reading William Carey’s biography, written by his great grandson S. Pearce Carey. It’s a wonderful book for many reasons. Full of nuggets. Like this one:
Carey’s sister Mary, nicknamed Polly, became an invalid at a young age. Her spine started to go. By age 25 she was a paralytic.
Carey had already evangelized his family, and blessedly, Mary was a believer when her infirmity struck. Mary was confined to her sick room for the next 50 years. She had been the one to accompany her brother tramping on their field forays, examining nature and admiring God’s handiwork. Thus, Mary’s confinement was a grief to her, as she too, loved to roam. Worse, for eleven years after her final paralysis, she could not speak. She contracted smallpox, and after recovering, whispered a sentence or two with great pain and difficulty. Then she was mute again for another 20 years.
Mary only had the use of her right arm and hand, and could write, but only in pain. However, she led a Bible study, using a slate to converse. She wrote copiously to William when he was abroad on mission. Some of these folios have been saved, Mary poured out her heart to William, and she wrote every bit of family news. She was a huge encouragement to William.
She was a prayer warrior unparalleled, S. Pearce Carey calling her one of Carey’s ‘chief priests’, saying, “the incense of whose ceaseless intercession was fragrant to God.’ She prayed every single day for William’s needs and his mission, for 52 years.
Mary had drawn her sister’s many children to Christ. Mary was so loved, “to part with her would tear us asunder” wrote Mary’s niece in 1828. In the end, Mary was just skin and bone, barely able to sit up in a chair while her bed was being made, yet her face shone with the love of Christ. She was known by all as a sweet tempered Christian lady, empathizing more for others than herself. Yet finally, in 1842 at the age of 75, Mary was brought home to her Lord, where she was finally free from all pain and standing upright to see His face.
Her ministry of evangelizing, letter writing, encouraging, praying, and teaching is known to us 182 years later as remarkable and a grace upon grace.
So it is with grief when I read of egotistical cretins like Beth Moore who complained an interview that she was “in a tradition where there were just very limited things that a woman could do” as Beth has said, so, that is why she chose to step out of God’s role for her and satisfied her venal ambition to preach. Her God-given role was “limiting.”
Limiting. As in, not big enough.
Gladys Aylward
A woman like Moore, with full body capabilities, given the blessing of two children, having a home and wealth (not evicted as Carey’s sister’s family was), considered her role limiting. Mary, bedridden in the 1700s-1800s, mute, one useful arm only and that in pain, lovingly cared for as she engaged in not one, not two, not three, not four, but five ministries, having global impact and heaven only knows the eternal impact.
Does Moore and her ilk not know of this? Do these strutting spiritual strumpets not know of lowly Cockney, uneducated, impoverished maid Gladys Aylward, denied support to go on mission in China, but went anyway? Pouring out her life to minister to and evangelize orphans? Working tirelessly for the pagan Chinese from 1930 to 1970, when she died in Taiwan?
Do they not know of Selina Hastings, the Countess of Huntingdon, who was born into lordly British privilege, and used her means to become an ardent supporter of ministers who preach the truth? Inviting others to her home and founding dozens of chapels for the area’s preachers to do their godly ministrations? In 1783 she founded “The Countess of Huntingdon’s Connexion”, a society of English preachers and churches that continues to this day.
Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon – Portrait – National Portrait Gallery, London
Do they not know of the blessing of motherhood, helpmeet, teacher of children, godly role and support of the household? Beth Moore and rebels of her ilk consider motherhood limiting. Praying: limiting. Letter writing: limiting. Philanthropy: limiting. Parenting: limiting. They consider all the roles and opportunities to serve God too limiting. They want to preach. They want to be in front. Well, ladies, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
I am sure, SURE, on THAT DAY, women like Gladys, Selina, Mary will be standing in front, receiving due praise from the KING for their obedience and positive impact for the Kingdom. I am sure, SURE women like Beth Moore and Christine Caine and Jen Wilkin and Aimee Byrd etc. who rebel and whine, and ‘step into the classic leadership role’, as Caine has said, will be told “DEPART FROM ME” because of their rebellion and their negative damage to the kingdom. These disguised servants of righteousness will be unmasked, seen as they are- ministers of wickedness. As 2 Corinthians 11:15 says, their end will be as they deserve.
Meanwhile, dear sister, nothing is too limiting with God. Wherever you are and with whatever means He has given you, you can make an impact for His kingdom and for lost souls. Mary, Martha, Susannah, Dorcas, Lydia, Priscilla, Lois, Eunice…Gladys, Selina, Mary-Polly; whatever amount of education, whatever amount of finances, whatever the family situation, look to the excellent examples of our sisters in the faith. One day, we will meet them all. What a day that will be.
the-end-time.org 