By His grace, what the radical life of Christ should look in an American context!

believes the points is: Jesus is God and has the authority to forgive us of our sins and command us to show mercy. Mat 9:1-8 @WeeManWest

thinks it tragic that we take pride in being separate from sinners when Jesus took pride in eating dinner with them! Mat 9:9-13 @WeeManWest

believes leading individuals to Jesus Christ, one-by-one, IS the solution to all the geo-political problems we face. Act 13:1 @WeeManWest

is certain as we sell ourselves to our government it will certainly own and claim right to all we are and have. Gen 47:13-26 @WeeManWest

Matthew 9:6 Jesus heals the paralytic to show his authority, not over paralysis, but over sin. Jesus has authority to forgive sin. Such is a prerogative that belongs to God alone. Jesus is God.

Matthew 9:13 We have so strayed in the modern church. We separate ourselves from the wicked. Jesus ate dinner with them! We believe our righteousness is found in our tithe, or in our donated time, or in our good works. Jesus ate dinner with sinners and showed them mercy. God’s greatest desire for us is that we show mercy because we are in the receiving end of so much mercy.

Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 which continues with “the knowledge of God rather than burnt offering”. Jesus isn’t looking for our religious activities, He is looking for us! He wants us to know Him and to be known by Him. His desire is that we enter into a relationship with Him.

Acts 13:1 Antioch was the first mega-church in that it was filled with prophets and teachers and people of influence. Don’t miss that Manaen was a lifelong friend of Herod the tetrarch. As we have opportunity we should challenge and influence people in power toward Christ. Christ IS the answer to our political problems.

Acts 13:2-3 When we worship we will have God manifest Himself. Here He manifests Himself as the Holy Spirit calling the church to send out Barnabas and Paul. Antioch was committed to God and obeys in sending off Paul and Barnabas.

Fasting is something we seem to avoid in the modern church. However, from reading the pages of Scripture one would have to be blind to miss its importance and spiritual significance in history. Muslims fast for a month at Ramadan yet one can hardly find a Christian fasting at any time. Maybe a challenge for us would be to fast from Ash Wednesday through Good Friday in a sun-up to sun-down fast…

Acts 13:11 This magician, Bar-Jesus (son of Jesus) or Elymas (a wise man), who sought to keep other blind in the darkness is struck with physical blindness to grope around in the darkness. Would that all who sought to keep men blinded from truth be struck in like manner that truth would reign in the earth.

Acts 13:13 John Mark leaves Paul and Barnabas. I guess that he went home. This will come back up later and will actually be a great divide between Paul and Barnabas. I can’t help but wonder if the magician had made him doubt his own willingness to continue?

I went on my first mission trip to Uganda, Africa in October. I encountered a man, while walking the streets and inviting people to church, who was beligerant toward me. He was speaking his native language so I had no clue what he was hollering at me about. I recall that the encounter left me quite freaked out. All I could think about for the rest of the day was home. I imagine that John Mark was battling similar emotions at this point as well.

Yet, we don’t need to lose hope. John Mark makes a great comeback later in Scripture and so can we.

Psalm 21:1-7 We would be so blessed as a nation if our leaders would truly rejoice and trust in the Lord. Yes, many of them give Him lip service, but so few actually serve Him in their hearts. I believe that we would see the Lord’s deliverance Psalm 21:8-12 from our enemies if we were faithful to Jesus but we are not and suffer accordingly.

Genesis 46:3-4 After all these years God manifests Himself to Israel. God could have at any time stepped in and let Israel know that Joseph was indeed alive. Yet, it wasn’t time! Now that it is time, God promises to go with Israel into Egypt and to build him into a nation there.

Genesis 27 Israel is 70 people entering into Egypt. Jesus would send out the 70 two by two. This is ten sevens or ten sabbaths. We’ve already discussed that Noah, was 10th from Adam through Seth, that Enoch was 7th from Adam through Seth…that Abraham was 20th from Adam through Seth and the Isaac was 21st from Adam through Seth which is three sevens or three sabbaths. 70 is a significant number Scripturally. In Gemmatria it would break down to 7 (7+0=7) the number of the covenant.

Genesis 47:1 Here we see pictured Jesus Christ with His people before our Father. What a glorious day that will be!

Genesis 47:7 & Genesis 47:10 Jacob blesses Pharoah twice. Just as Melchizedek blessed Abraham. The believer should bless the unbeliever.

Genesis 47:11 Just as Joseph settled Israel and his brothers into the land of their possession so also will Christ settle us into our possession together with Israel.

Genesis 47:13-26 We see here that the Egyptians eventually sold themselves to Pharoah. While this serves as a picture of what Christ will do in His kingdom, it ought to serve as a lesson when we see leaders who are not Christ attempting the same thing. They are anti-christ, trying to make men depend on them as their savior and lord.

The cycle begins with dependence. The people harvested ALL the grain of which Joseph and Pharoah were in control. It was THEIR grain yet they have to BUY it back from their government. We should take great care and concern when we see similar patterns setting up in our own government. This cycle ALWAYS leads historically to the poverty of the people and their enslavement to the government. This cycle NEVER leads historically to free people!

Jesus Christ is the ONLY one that will hold governance over this structure of government in righteousness and holiness for the sake of the freedom of his people. Men who hold goverance over this structure of government use it to impoverish, control, and enslave the people they govern. I truly wish that people preaching the “social gospel” would take an honest look at this passage and what happens in the passage.

In the end, all the Egyptians and even the free Israelites become enslaved because we CANNOT guarantee righteous people will always hold the reigns of this subjecting form of goverance. Within this construct is ALWAYS the power to become a tyrant.