Did you say otter skin?

 
Many years ago, as a young pastor, I was re-reading the Old Testament passage about the wanderings in the wilderness of the Hebrew children. As I was reading I came across the passage that told about dismantling the tabernacle for each move in the desert. One of the interesting things was the coverings that went over each piece of furniture in the tabernacle to protect it for traveling. I suddenly stopped reading and said, "Otter skins?!"

The otter lives in/near water. And of course, the Hebrew children were in the desert - way in the desert. To even have otter skins, some of the men would have had to make a trip to the coast to catch otters. So this was a big undertaking. But my main shock was the need to cover the furniture with otter skins in the desert. The main thing value of otter skins is that they are waterproof. So what was the necessity of covering everything with this waterproof material in the desert?

This question haunted me for years. I could not seem to get an answer to this elusive question. How do you search out something like that? I didn't know where to begin, except to ask other pastors and scholars. No one seemed to have an answer. They had just accepted it, thinking that it wasn't all that important. But I knew that everything in the Bible was important. So I kept searching and wondering.

Many years later, I was reading in the Psalms and came across a verse that stopped me in my tracks. It was the long-evasive answer to my question about otter skins in the desert. Psalm 68:7, 8 reads, "O God, when You went out before Your people, When You marched through the wilderness, The earth shook; The heavens also dropped rain at the presence of God; Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel (nkjv)." Wow! There was my answer.

When it was time to move, the pillar of cloud (fire at night) that stood over the tabernacle would lift, indicating to all the people that it was time to pack up and move. As they began to move, the cloud (fire) would go before them, leading the way. And as it lifted up in the heavens and pushed itself through the atmosphere, it shook out the water. Rain! Rain! That is why the furniture was covered with waterproof material. Wow!

That is why I love the Bible so much. It not only is truth for me, it also has mysteries for a mystery-lover. When they say that the Bible is everything; it truly is. What fun reading! What marvelous discoveries are waiting to be found.

Go up, you bald head!

A Facebook friend asked this question, "I have a question for my christian friends. Could 2 Kings 2:23, 24 have been mistranslated? If not, what does it mean?" I don't normally write much in Facebook, just read a lot of what goes on out there. But this question caught my attention, and I felt it deserved an answer. After thinking through the question for most of the day, I finally answered. Here is my answer in two parts, first question and second question.

The Hebrew word is na'ar. It is used of Isaac who was 28, Joseph who was 30, and Rehoboam who was 40. God took the taunting of these children in Second Kings personally in this way. Though Elijah was bald, he lived another 50 years, so he was probably prematurely bald. However, the "Go up" of verse 23 was the real taunt and was blasphemous about the way that God was intending to raise Elijah to heaven. It was a blasphemous insult to God. These children were certainly old enough to have been taught the scripture and respect - especially respect of God. In verse 24, the Hebrew word for children is a different Hebrew word and actually refers to/means progeny - the produce of the womb. My children are 38 and 40. They are still, and always will be, my progeny. In a couple of places in the scriptures (one in Psalms) God says, "Touch not mine anointed, nor do my prophet any harm." Today, there is virtually no respect for pastors/ministers. Most of that is due to some of the ones who have acted in unholy ways, to be sure, some is due to lack of teaching true respect in the home. But it really makes it hard for the ones who try to follow God, hear Him and love others. What if God did the same in this dispensation as He did in Second Kings? Would it help to bring back respect for these men/women of God? Fortunately for us, this is the age of Grace and not Law!

Question two - Could this be mistranslated? It is a poor translation. The problem with translation is that languages and words change in meaning. Example: the Gay 90s and gays today. In the King James times, you would have a sentence like this. "Bring the carriages freely by and by." We would not understand that today without a little research. Carriages were pieces of luggage, freely meant without pay, and by and by meant immediately. (Does that make you scratch your head?) So the sentence today is "Bring the luggage immediately without pay." The problem all translators have is how to stay true to the original language and yet still express the truth in modern parlance.

Paul's exhortation to Timothy is still relevant today. "Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that does not need to be ashamed, handling correctly the Word of God." (2 Timothy 3:15)

After 4 years of writing (off and on), and after more than 15 years of preaching on the subject (more on than off), my new book Victory Ground is out and available from Amazon. Click here to view/order it: http://www.amazon.com/Victory-Ground-Gary-B-Gilmore/dp/1479216526/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351372072&sr=1-1&keywords=Victory+Ground

My wife states: "This book reveals that from the day a person accepts Jesus as Savior, that person is placed on Victory Ground! The outcome of every battle and every trial has already been won. In light of that truth, this book shows how to enjoy this victory which was not earned, but given to us as part of our salvation."

I know you will enjoy it. I have made it easy to read and full of encouragement for even the newest Believer. So many older Christians have thanked me for this book, stating that they have never heard it like this before.

And if you buy and read, I would so appreciate you writing a review on Amazon at the same page where you viewed the book (click on the link above, go down to Customer Reviews).

Thanks!

Are You Holy?

Are you holy? Right now you are probably flinching, withdrawing from the question. Certainly, if you are like the great majority of mankind, you are saying or thinking, "No! Of course not." You know you should be because you are encouraged to be "holy, for God is holy" (1 Peter 1:16). But you know you aren't because you sin, don't pray enough, curse, drink, smoke, don't go to church, etc. You intend to quit all those things, and start living right....but...

If you have asked Jesus into your heart, according to the Bible, you are holy. The problem is, you believe the religious idea of what holy is, instead of the Bible truth. And because of that, you live a life of conviction and defeat, and you try to cover it up or get away from it, so you can have some kind of peace.

OK, let's look at this thing called holy. The Greek word (which is the language in which the New Testament was written) for holy is hagios (don't worry about pronunciation). In it's purest sense, it means "set apart." If I were to invite you to dinner, and seat you at my table, there would be a plate, a glass, and some tableware in front of you. Understanding this Greek word, I would say that those items are holy to you. In other words, they are for your use at that meal. Don't worry, I have my own set, as does everyone at the table. We won't take yours. Why? Because they are set apart for your use.

That is what holy means! Something or someone set apart for another's use. So when God says He is holy, He is telling you that He has set Himself apart for your benefit. And He asks you to be holy like He is, set apart for His benefit. Of course, your can't do that. That is why Jesus died on Calvary and rose again on the third day, and gave you His Holy Spirit: so you could be holy. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing (making holy) of the Holy Ghost" (Titus 3:5).

What Christ did was set you apart for His benefit. When you ask Him into your heart, you become holy. Now all you have to do is act like it. We say to someone, "Be a man!" or "Man up!" And we only say it because the person can. The Bible tells us to be (act) holy, and it only says that because we can. With the help of the Holy Spirit. So...be holy. And when someone asks you, "Are you holy?" Just say, "Yes!"

By the way, there are a number of words we use that are forms of this Greek word holy.
The adjective (which requires a state of being verb) is holy.
The noun is saint.
The verb to make holy is sanctify.
The place where holy people gather is a sanctuary.
All these words are the same word in the Greek - hagios with a different ending to make them an adjective, verb, noun, adverb, etc.

Work Out From the Bible

I was speaking with a family member today. An ongoing struggle with health has invaded the household. It has at times been life threatening. I, for one, do not take health issues lightly. Satan is a formidable foe, defeated to be sure, but certainly formidable. I thought I might share at-large what I said to this family member.

Remember to work out from the Bible. Jesus said, "It is finished." (John 19:30) And Peter says in his epistle, "By His stripes we were healed." (1 Pet. 2:24) Paul tells the Romans, "Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." (Rom. 12:2) Combining all these thoughts into one, I said, "Work out from the Bible." Too often we try to work into the Bible, and we find it quite hard to reconcile what we feel, how we hurt, to what the Bible says. That is not transforming ourselves, but trying to transform God and his Word to how we feel now.

We can't say, "I believe I will be healed." Or some such. That puts the issue into the future, and the future never comes. It is always today, never tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. But if we reach back to what has been said, what has been done, then we can move forward from that position. God says I am healed, then I am healed. Good starting position for transformation.

The Bible says, "By his stripes we were healed." If I was, then I am. If God's word is stronger than anything else, then we are proceeding from the strong, making the weak to bow down. My body may take awhile transforming to God's word, but the promise is that it will eventually.

Psychiatry believes this. It tell us we are a result of our past experiences. For instance, you constantly hear, "You'll never amount to anything." Eventually, you start believing it, and you suffer from that past designation. Well, a past experience is that Jesus bore our sins and sicknesses on the cross, and we are healed (see Isaiah 53). OK, then we begin to say what we have heard, we act out what we have heard. Guess what? Slowly, but surely, it begins to happen.

Now, you may not believe this. That is fine. But before you say it isn't true, you need to know that twice I have been healed from a life situation that the doctors insisted would result in my death. To their surprise, I have now lived more than 20 years longer from their diagnosis of the first disease, more than 15 years longer than their second diagnosis.

If you are willing to do it God's way, it will work. Don't grow weary in well-doing! God is always true to his Word.

"Thanks be unto God who always causes us to triumph in Christ Jesus!" (2 Cor. 2:14)

A great, thriller of a book: Rare Earth

Here's another new book by my favorite author Davis Bunn. Rare Earth is a great book. Read my review below, then answer one of the questions that follows for a chance to win your own copy of the book. Answer both questions for two chances to win.


And NOW my review:

Davis Bunn is a master storyteller. But the story is not the same every time. He manages to create new plots and new progressive story lines with every book. That is why I keep coming back to his novels. It is folly to think you know how a book will go just because it is a Davis Bunn book. On the contrary, he delights in change and newness. Refreshing! Rare Earth will not disappoint the reader. The second book in his Marc Royce Series, Rare Earth is a stand-alone book. Only the main character, Marc Royce, is the same. Everything else changes­—everything! Drop all pre-conceived ideas and notions about this book, and prepare for a fast-paced, hair-raising, all-consuming novel.

Once again, on short notice, Marc Royce is thrown into an impossible situation that will affect whole people groups, nations and individual lives. Kenya is about to be changed from an idyllic, peace-loving country with unimaginably beautiful vistas to polluted water supplies and money-grabbing fortune seekers. Marc enters the country not knowing his enemies from his friends, and his enemies are the deadliest foes one can imagine. He has to make his friends one by one. In less than five days, he totally changes a starving, dying refugee camp into an orderly operation full of hope. But in the process, he accrues great wrath and uncovers a sinister plot to destroy all of Kenya in the name of wealth. Marc is a man of quick understanding, powerful ideas, and great physical, mental, and spiritual strength; and he needs it all to survive and to stop a heinous crime from taking place. Of course, he succeeds. But not anything like you would imagine. More twists and turns than a mountain road, this book will hold you spellbound till the very last word. Enjoy Rare Earth!

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Bethany House Publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Now answer one question for a chance to win your own copy of the book, answer two for two chances. (Be sure to include your email address to be notified, if you win):

1.  If you could serve as a missionary in another country, where would you go?

2.  If you were a secret agent, what two things would you keep on your person at all times?

To view a book trailer of Rare Earth: www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_WbtTeaubI

To read the first three chapters free: http://www.scribd.com/doc/92010687/Rare-Earth-by-Davis-Bunn-Sample-Chapters-1-3

Little Cat Feet

Carl Sandburg, in his poem The Fog wrote, "The fog comes on little cat feet." I have discovered that God often comes the same way in our lives. We all look forward to the big jolts of supernatural awareness, some great thing that God has done that is unmistakeable, majestic, and mind-blowing. But all in all, those times are few and far between for our stimulation needs.

In reality, the God Who has promised to never leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5), does more day-by-day in our lives that, when taken together, far outweigh the jolting moments of supernatural awareness. It seems to me that God much prefers and greatly enjoys the quiet, unseen movements in our lives. I think God enjoys our wake-up realizations that "He was there all the time," as the song goes.

In fact, He has said to me, "I am at work in the quiet places, and the corners, and the edges of your life. Places where you maybe haven’t thought to look for me." And I realize that that knowledge makes me very comfortable and peaceful. He does say, "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts" (Col. 3:15).

I am glad that God comes on little cat feet, in the every day, hum-drum times of life - because there are so many more of those than the WOW times.