Servants or Friends?

Which are you: a servant to the Lord or His friend? Both, you say. Or perhaps your answer would be that you are born again and therefore a son, but you are basically His servant since you call Him Lord. How would you describe your relationship?

I don’t believe our relationship with Him is easily compared to any other single kind of relationship we have experienced. Or, perhaps we could say it is a combination of many kinds of relationships we have.

In the Bible we first know God as our Creator. In the Old Covenant (Testament) in the Bible we begin to further know Him partly through His names—Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Rapha, etc. He is also referred to as “Adonai”, or “Lord” which of course describes His position over the universe and over us. It implies obedience to Him.

Switching to the New Covenant (Testament) we hear Jesus, our Lord and God, say these words:

“No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.”—John 15:15

Jesus is telling His disciples that He desires no longer to relate to them simply as a rabbi or a master, but He has taken them into His confidence. This is the relationship of a close friend. Yes, He does expect our obedience, but would much prefer our love and cooperation in His Kingdom processes rather than obedience from the mindset of a servant.

In the book of Galatians the apostle Paul speaks of “schoolmasters” or “tutors”. He saw the law (implying obedience) like a pedagogue, or schoolmaster, of Paul’s time. The tutor was appointed by the boy’s father to arrange for all of the boy’s training. Only when he had completed all of this training was the son declared as achieving his “sonship position” in the household and in society. It was a mark of maturity. He was, as we would say, ready to take over the father’s business.

God, I believe, desires to be to us as a father to a mature son. Also He desires a friendship relationship. Do we desire this or are we always waiting for the “ax to fall” on us because of our shortcomings. Or are we always running off somewhere and doing our own thing? We are already “sons” by birth, yet we must mature so that we can share in the administration of His Kingdom. And, we need to seek God's face so that we may be a friend to Him.

Union or Unity?

The Loops of the Tabernacle

You can tie together the tails of two tigers and you will have union, but its guaranteed that you won’t have unity! When a man and woman marry, they enter into a union but are not always in unity.  A church made up of Christians is technically in union but definitely not always in unity. Why is that? Doesn’t union guarantee unity? (Matt 19:5,6; 1 Corinthians 6:16,17; 1 Cor. 12:12-14)

The instructions which Moses received from God for the making of the Tabernacle were very detailed. Of course, all the elements of the Tabernacle stand as types of Christ and our relationship with Him and others. One detail in particular stands out to me: the loops attached to the coverings for the tabernacle. The covering was made in sections with 50 loops attached on the edges. Then the loops were joined together thus causing the curtain sections to be joined. “He made fifty clasps of gold and coupled the curtains to one another with the clasps, that it might be ONE Tabernacle.” (Ex. 36:13 NKJV)

The Apostle Paul asked the church at Corinth: “Do you not know that you are the Temple of God?.” Also this Church is built “on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being ht chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 3:16 and 2 Cor. 6:16; Ephesians 2:21)

Each Christian is vital for this Tabernacle, this Temple, to be built into the dwelling place of God. Each loop of gold or brass “was carefully numbered and guarded by the Levites, for if but one had been wanting, the curtains of the tabernacle or tent would have been insecurely united.” (The Tabernacle”, by Henry Soltau, p.47) We are already in union with Christ and with one another. We must seek Him for love and wisdom as well as work at our unity so that the Temple may be secure and display Him to the world.

“Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” – Psalm 133:1 and 1 Peter 1:22

Like Layers of an Onion

    Why doesn’t God just whip us into shape when we are first born again. I think the answer begins with a statement in the Old Testament when the Israelites were receiving instructions on their entrance to the Land of Promise: “I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite from before you. I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you until you have increased, and you inherit the land.”—Exodus 23:28,29

I feel like I could teach endlessly on these scriptures, but now is not the time. Point: the whole journey of the Israelites on into the Land is a picture and type of the Christian’s journey through life with Christ. Think about it. Search it out.

Possessing the Land was definitely a process and was to be accomplished a little at a time—like peeling back the layers of an onion. As we walk with Him and talk with Him, He peels back a layer and (hopefully) we receive His revelation from the Word and the Holy Spirit as to how to “increase” so that the land is progressively taken. One layer at a time.

If you have been saved for awhile, you can look back and see this process in action. Were you ready to receive the truth back then that you now have at least partially grasped? Setbacks? Read the Bible if you want to hear of others who had “setbacks”. Some learned; some didn’t.

God is ever wanting to lead us forward with Him: “Come, follow Me,” He says.  “I have already given you the Land—the Land of My Promise--I will drive out your enemies little by little. Possess those parts that I liberate for you, through Christ as your life. Have faith in His processes with you!

“He must increase; but I must decrease”—John the Baptist, John 3:30

Contemporary Church Idolatry

      Stalking boldly across the courtyard, King Hezekiah shouted orders for the men to open all the doors to the Temple of Jehovah. Then he ordered the repair of those doors and the cleaning out of all the trash in the inner parts of God’s sanctuary. He was on a mission, a mission to re-sanctify the priesthood and the Temple, and to re-establish worship according to God’s instructions. His father, Ahaz, had rejected the Law and the Temple. Hezekiah knew that the nation could not be blessed until this work was done. You can read all that took place during this extraordinary revival and restoration in 2 Chronicles, chapter 29 and 2 Kngs 18.

      High on the king’s agenda was the breaking down of the places where sacrifices were made to various idols. At one such place he found an unusual idol: a bronze serpent. This serpent had been made by Moses hundreds of years before. At the time the people were under a plague and God told Moses to make this serpent and place it high on a pole. Those who looked on it were miraculously healed. We now understand that the serpent and pole pre-figured Christ on His cross. However, hundreds of years after Moses did this, the people were worshiping the bronze serpent along with their other idols. They called it Nehushtan.

Today we see many Nehustan worshipers in the Church, i.e they worship something from the past: a type of music, a style of worship, a doctrine, a concept of how “church” should be conducted or organized. For the Israelites, they had transferred their worship from Jehovah to a symbol or representation of past blessing. They no longer worshiped Jehovah or kept His Law.

The Church is transitioning into a new paradigm. We must stop worshiping at the altar of the past paradigms. Someone has said that the “Seven Last Words of the Church” are “We never did it that way before.” God is not static. While His Word or His Person never change, His seasons do. Let’s prepare by giving up our Nehushtans!