Last Call for Submissions – Feb 2013 Biblical Studies Carnival

This is it… Last call for submissions to the shortest (day wise) carnival of the year!

I have collected already some good content – but there is always room for more… If you have a blog post from February, from an academic standpoint  you would like submitted (though you don’t need to be a professional scholar) - contact me soon (piston9 at gmail.com) and I will look at adding it to the carnival!

Otherwise, I will see you all again in two days with all of the fun, fair, frivolity, fairy floss and games of the February 2013 Biblical studies carnival…

You are Empowered to be Called

Exodus 3:11–12 (ESV)
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

I was reading through Exodus this morning when the passage of the burning bush calling to Moses really stuck out to me. Whilst most of us won’t experience a ‘burning bush’ moment where God will physically call to us in a miraculous fashion, there is definitely something we can all take away from this little piece of Moses’ experience.

God said – I am sending you.

Moses said – but who am I?

What was the answer? Not who he is, not how he was prepared, not anything about Moses at all. The answer was ‘But I will be with you‘.

We can look back on the bits we know of Moses life and say he was uniquely prepared for this role – no doubt. But this wasn’t what was pointed out when the call came. The simple answer was ‘But I will be with you‘.

How does this apply to you today?

When God calls, He will be with you. When God calls, you have already been prepared to the point that you need to be.

That doesn’t mean we should avoid study, or preparation! What it means is that there will be times in your life, where like Moses, you will be walking along, minding your own business, and God will call. It may be a small call ‘go and speak to this person’. It may be a little bigger ‘it’s time for you to step up in your service’. It may be a massive call ‘sell everything you own and go to China as a missionary.’

Just remember – the call will come. And when it does, God has already prepared you to go, and provided you with the most important thing that you could need.

“But I will be with you”

January Biblical Studies Carnival

Just a quick note of apology to all – I was right in the middle of studies in 2 Peter and ‘other things’ (read: family and my day job) have prevented me from posting further… I have my next post almost lined up – Jesus IS coming back (and if I don’t hurry up and post He may well come back before i hit publish)- and it should be around in the next few days!

For those that are interested in ‘Biblical Studies’ – in other words, scholarly study into the Bible and related matters, the January 2013 Biblical Studies Carnival is up at Zwinglius Redivivus. This usually isn’t your everyday blog stuff, but (generally) very deep and interesting articles from the world of Biblical studies. A word of warning – I (and you) may not agree with everything on this page, but there are still some good reads there. These carnivals happen every month, and are hosted on a different blog each month.

The Feb 2013 carnival will be held…. Here! So I am extra busy collating articles posted this month to collate at the end of the month! Hopefully there will be some great content posted by others this month so it is a worthwhile read.

God Chooses to use Us

One of the most surprising things about God is that He chooses to use us. He chooses to use people in His plans!One example of God using people in His plans is at the birth of Jesus.

You see, it had been prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. But there was a little problem – Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth.

Not good – this one would need to be fixed.

God could have sent an angel to tell them to get up and go to Bethlehem. He could have told them to move in a dream. He could have chosen ten thousand other ways to have them go to where Jesus was to be born, without using people.

Instead, God chose to use someone. The greatest ruler of the time, the leader of the Roman world, Caesar.

Luke 2:1–6 (ESV)

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.

I’m sure at the time Caesar thought it was a great idea of his to decree that a census should be taken. A king needs to know how many soldiers he can use and how many people he can tax doesn’t he? Almost any king likes the thought of more tax… But it doesn’t matter what Caesar thought, it was God who was directing the scene – so that Mary and Joseph would be in Bethlehem at just the right time.

Amazing.

God can choose to use leaders, He can choose to use beggars. I am sure that Caesar had no idea he was God’s chosen vessel at that time!

And just like that, God can also use us. Not only because He can, but because He chooses to! All throughout the Bible you see things happen where God chooses to use someone to accomplish a task, when it would have been much easier to just do it Himself, or send an angel, or tell by a dream, or anything else. And you don’t need to be a king or earthly ruler. God will use anyone who submits to His will (a study for another time), but He can also use anyone at all – whether they want to be used or not.

Simply Amazing.

An Inescapable Question

Do you ever read through the Bible and picture yourself there? As you are reading some scenes, can you see the scene in your head? For me, this is one of those scenes I can just picture being at.

Jesus is walking to Ceasarea Philippi with His disciples. If the narrative from the previous scene follows immediately, they are in the process of walking the 25 Miles from where Jesus healed the blind man (Bethsaida), to the towns around Ceasarea Philippi. On a related topic, they are walking to a town that is essentially dedicated to the chief human leader of their time - Caesar. That alone makes an interesting parallel to the question posed!

Walking 25 miles. Tired possibly, though less so than us as they were used to walking more than we are! Footsore a little. Emotionally maybe they are still processing the healing of the blind man – that was a pretty serious miracle! They had just witnessed something completely out of this world, unheard of. Someone who was blind, being able to see. They could even see the process as first the healing wasn’t complete – then after a second touch the blind man was healed.

One quick thing to remember – we have heard the Gospel. We have heard about Jesus, we know about His death and resurrection. We may know many of the recorded acts of Jesus, and even some more in depth things from the later letters in the Bible. We may even have faith in Jesus! The disciples knew none of this – they were living right in this passage, right in this time, and anything after was still unknown and in the future.

Let’s take a quick look at the passage in question.

Mark 8:27–30 (ESV)

And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.  

So they are walking along, possibly a little tired, certainly in their minds trying to work through what just happened with the blind man and who Jesus was – and Jesus decides to throw them a few questions.

“Who do people say that I am?”.

Good question really. This isn’t a personal question (don’t worry, its coming). Simply a question about ‘everyone’, a question about what ‘the world’ thinks. Who do people say that I am? What do people say about me? And the answer is varies, but can be summarized – no one is sure – but they do not yet think He is the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the World.

But then Jesus goes all personal on them. Forget generalities, forget personal space. Here goes.

“But who do YOU say that I am?”. 

Uncomfortable. The question is put out there to the disciples, who remember, are still living in this passage – they know nothing yet of the future. But they have seen some amazing things. There is no room for escape, only space for an honest answer. Peter, obviously a leader, speaks up “You are the Christ”. There it is – out in the open. Jesus isn’t just some prophet, just a ‘good guy’ – but the prophesied savior.

Jesus didn’t ask for opinions about what others thought. Jesus didn’t ask what the latest scholarly opinion of him was. Just simply, who do you say I am?

And so Jesus asks today. The world still doesn’t know what it thinks of Jesus. Some think he is a prophet (Muslims for example). Some think he was a ‘good man who died for loving people’ (I’ve heard that one a lot). Some think he was ‘just this guy’ who lived an exemplary life, showing love to all around him, but was nothing more. Others think Jesus is a fraud.

But even today, there is no room for others opinions – Jesus is still asking each one of us , personally, “Who do you say that I am?“. What will you answer?