January 29, 2017

CARTOONS, DOLLS, AND MOSQUITOES


Have you ever misunderstood something someone said? Have you ever thought you knew something only to find out later that the mental concept you had of it was quite different from the way it actually was? It happens to all of us, especially when we are young.
As you may or may not know, my sister and I lived with our grandmother from the time I was three and she was two. I remember a time in those early years when our grandmother got really sick. I don’t know what was wrong with her, but she was sick enough that she couldn’t take care of us. She couldn’t take care of herself either, so we went to our aunt’s house so she could take care of her. Maybe she had something contagious because they sent us to stay with our mom and dad until she got well. I don’t remember how long we stayed there but it was quite an adventure. I’ll write more about it later, but for this post, I want to focus on just one thing from that time.
They only had one bedroom, so when it was bedtime they slid two recliners together facing each other in the living room, next to our younger sister’s crib, and that was where we slept while we were there. We slept with our grandmother at home so it was a bit scary being away from her, and in a room with no adults to protect us. We kept calling our mother and asking for water and other things. Finally, I remember our dad telling us that if we didn’t go to sleep a big mosquito would crawl through the keyhole and get us.
I pictured a giant mosquito standing upright like the ones in the old cartoons. It was as big as my dad and climbing through the keyhole one limb at a time. That scared me to death because at the time I didn’t know cartoons were not real. I was quite a bit older before I realized that some things on TV were only make-believe. I remember pulling the covers up around my neck, and the next thing I knew it was morning.
Another time my grandmother told us about her mom having twins. She said they were born too early, and they were very small. They only survived a few days before they died. Their names were Mark and Cora. My grandmother said they were so small they both fit on a pillow and they looked like little dolls lying there. Well, being a child and having the mind of a child, I pictured them actually looking like little toy dolls and that’s how I saw them for years.
As I was thinking about these and other times the visual concept that my mind created of something I was being told about, I thought about the Bible. There are so many things in God’s word that we can only imagine as we read. There are things that happened in places we have never seen, and almost as far back as six thousand years. Then there are the things God says will happen in the future. There’s the resurrection, heaven, and the new earth. These things are so far beyond our imagination that anything our simple minds can come up with can’t even be close to what it will actually be like. Look what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:9
1 Corinthians 2:9 
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
Now take a look at what God says in Isaiah 55:8-9.
Isaiah 55:8-9 
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Compared to the intelligence of God, the creator of everything that has, or ever will exist, the smartest of us are only children in intellect. There’s no way we can completely understand all these things right now. Like the song says, we can only imagine.

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January 08, 2017

WAS JESUS A NAZARITE?


Was Jesus a Nazarite? Many people believe he was but the word of God doesn’t support that. In fact, it shows the opposite to be true. He was a Nazarene, which simply means he was from Nazareth of Galilee, a little town in Northern Israel. Maybe that’s where the confusion comes from; Nazarene, Nazarite. A Nazarite is someone who has taken the Nazarite vow. Being a Nazarite was not necessarily a lifetime commitment. It appears to be only for a limited time. Jesus was NOT a Nazarite, at least not after he was baptized and began his ministry. Let’s look at a few Bible verses starting with Numbers chapter 6.
Numbers 6:1-8 
1 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the LORD: 
3 He shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine, nor vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes nor dried. 
4 All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, from the kernels even to the husk. 
5 All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head: until the days be fulfilled, in which he separates himself unto the LORD, he shall be holy, and shall let the locks of the hair of his head grow. 
6 All the days that he separates himself unto the LORD, he shall come near no dead body. 
7 He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head. 
8 All the days of his separation he is holy unto the LORD.

According to the Bible, the Nazarite vow included three restrictions.
1) A Nazarite could not drink or eat anything that was made from any part of the grapevine, including fresh grape juice, wine of any kind, strong drink, and grapes, and raisins.
2) A Nazarite could not cut their hair.
3) A Nazarite could not touch a dead body.

This is how we know Jesus was not a Nazarite.
1a) Jesus drank the fruit of the vine. Whether it was grape juice or alcoholic wine is debatable, but the fact remains, he did not keep the first rule of the Nazarite vow.
Luke 7:34
34 The Son of Man has come eating and drinking; and you say, Behold, a glutton, and a drunkard.
1 Cor. 11:25
25 After the same manner also he took the cup when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.

2a) Did Jesus have long hair? Many believe he did, probably from the many paintings of him with long hair, but we don’t really know what he looked like. We know from one of the many prophecies of his death that he had a beard when he was crucified (Is. 50:6), but the Apostle Paul says, “it is a shame for a man to have long hair” (1 Cor. 11:14). Hair length is subjective, though, like a big dog, or a tall tree. The tallest tree in Mississippi is a Spruce Pine which was 154 feet at the time it was measured. To me, that’s a tall tree, but it’s not tall at all compared to the tallest Giant Redwood ever measured, which was 379 feet tall. The fact is we just can’t be sure what length the Lord’s hair was.
3a) Did Jesus touch a dead body? Yes, he did. In Matthew 9:21-43. A ruler of the synagogue named Jairus came to Jesus begging him to come and heal his daughter who was dying. When they arrived she was already dead, but Jesus went in and took her by the hand, and brought her back to life (Mark 5:22-43, Luke 8:41-56). Numbers 6:11 says it is a SIN for a Nazarite to touch a dead body, and we know Jesus never sinned (Heb. 4:15, 1 John 3:5 1 Pet. 1:18-19 & 2:22).
In, conclusion, Jesus drank the fruit of the vine, and he touched at least one dead body. So, we can say with confidence that Jesus was NOT a Nazarite. He was from Nazareth, which made him a Nazarene.

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My Blogs
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com
https://teddylynn.wordpress.com

© 2016 Teddy Lynn – All Rights Reserved

My books are available in paperback and digital format on Amazon @ 
https://www.amazon.com/Teddy-Lynn/e/B01MZDB6L6