Browsing Tag

Obedience

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Digging Deep Israel–Next Stop: Tel Arad

Posted on June 3, 2019

What can be better than Diggers looking at the digs of archaeologists who’ve uncovered the places we’ve read about in the Word? Our next stop was Tel Arad. “Tel” Is a word you’ll hear a lot if you study the archaeology in Israel. A tel is just a stacked mound of civilization. So one “occupation” of a piece of land built its culture and temples and homes and businesses and then, when it was conquered by another group, the new inhabitants would just take whatever they could use and build its own structures on top of the old civilization. Thus, a mound of land usually consists of several strata in the Bible Lands. The deeper you dig, the older the civilization. On this day, we were wanting to see the portion of Arad that pertained to the Israelites of the divided kingdom. 

Tel Arad is one of those mounds with layers of different civilizations. Arad is still a modern city in Israel, just west of the Dead Sea. The ancient tel is located near the modern city. There are several layers of civilization there, but the part we visited was the Jewish community that existed during the reign of David and  all the way through the divided kingdom of Judah until the capture of Judah by the Babylonians in about 597 BC. We read about God’s people dwelling in Arad in Judges 1:16: And the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father in law, went up out of the city of palm trees with the children of Judah into the wilderness of Judah, which lieth in the south of Arad; and they went and dwelt among the people.

Some pretty amazing things were discovered in this place by archaeologists Amiran and Aharoni in the 1960s and 70s. 

Ninety-one ostraca (broken pieces of pottery ) have been found referring to the citadel there as the “House of Yahweh.” They contain commands about the sacrifices and lists of names. One piece, the Eliyashiv Ostraca was put together from pieces all found in the same room and contained his instructions to deliver wine and flour and other ingredients in specific quantities.  It’s pretty amazing that the entire terrain at Tel-Arad is littered with broken pieces of ancient pottery. We just literally picked up the little pieces of ancient civilizations.

A temple area was also found mentioning the “House of Yahweh”. It seems uncertain whether the inscription was referring to Arad or to the temple at Jerusalem. A standing stone (kind of a monument) was also in this place, generally assumed to be some kind of tribute to Yahweh. Of course, Bible students know that, by the time of the divided kingdom, worship was often polluted and that the offering of sacrifices in places other than the temple at Jerusalem was unauthorized worship. 

I looked with sadness over a citadel that had once been a thriving community of God’s people. The biggest spiritual lesson one takes from Tel Arad may be that, when people transgress or kick against the authority of Yahweh, the ruins of their civilizations stand as a reminder that nations cannot prosper when ignoring the sovereignty of the One to whom they sacrifice. It’s the clear lesson of I Samuel 15 (the one my mother drove deeply into my heart many times as she was punishing disobedience): “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams.” I will never forget that childhood lesson. May I always have the wisdom and courage to make it more than a quotation from childhood. May it be the mantra of my walk with Him in a world that equates spirituality with a warm feeling about God.  

The pictures you see are mine, just because I’m making a personal journal. You can find many more if you do your own internet search. The coolest (literal) place of the day (a 98 degree day) was in this cistern at Arad, but there were many very cool places! (I think I want to be an archaeologist when I grow up. Do you think it’s too late?)

You can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tel_Arad

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: Grace and Glory and Authority

Posted on September 13, 2018

Embarking on a study of God’s authority without having a heart attuned to His grace is likely to frustrate our best intentions of getting deeply into His will and applying it to our lives. In our study, we are learning that He “gets” to tell us what to do (He is the ultimate authority), because he made us from nothing  and because He bought us back at Calvary. He owns us twice over! We were made for His glory (Is. 43:7) and then bought by His grace (I Cor. 6:20). When our lives are full of His glory and grace, we live His way with the full realization that we must respect his glory in order to be saved in the end. But we do so because we appreciate His grace. We want to live for Him. We live for His glory and in His grace.

Most are familiar with the words of the old gospel hymn: “Amazing Grace – how sweet the sound – that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found – Was blind, but now, I see.” The concept of God’s grace is both humbling and fascinating. It is the greatest and most majestic theme in the New Testament, and perhaps is the ‘key’ to unlocking its mysteries. One may know every word of the New Testament by heart, but unless the concept of God’s grace is understood, one can never fully comprehend the profound truths of the Gospel.

The English word ‘grace’ comes from the Greek word charis, and various forms of the word are found 157 times in the New Testament. Charis, or grace, has been commonly defined as “undeserved kindness” or “unmerited favor.” These definitions, however, fail to reveal the full extremity of the meaning of grace.  Grace is not merely “undeserved” or “unmerited.” Rather, grace is the exact opposite of what is deserved or merited. When we declare our unworthiness of God’s grace, we are actually saying we are worthy of the exact opposite of God’s grace!

This is highlighted by what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:1-10. In verses 1-3, we are described as having been “dead in our trespasses and sins,” “following” the “sons of disobedience,” “carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,” and “were by nature children of wrath.” However, in verses 4-6, Paul tells us that God mercifully put aside the “wrath” that man deserved, because of His great love for us.

It is God’s love for us, or more specifically agapē love for us, that prompted God’s merciful grace toward mankind. Agapē love is willful love; love that is not characterized by emotion or gratitude, but by a willful desire to do what is best for the one being loved. It is love that merely says “I love you,” not “I love you because…” or “I love you if…”

We deserved “wrath” and death (Rom. 6:23), but received the opposite, namely, ‘love’ and ‘life.’ This is the definition of God’s grace. “By grace [we] have been saved” (Eph. 2:5). It is both undeserved kindness and an expression of God’s agapē love. What did God’s grace accomplish? It “made us alive together with Christ” (v. 5), “raised us,” and “seated us in the heavenly places in Christ” (v. 6). Paul tells us that our faith, through baptism (Col. 2:12-13), is how God’s grace is administered in one’s life (v. 8).

What God’s Grace Means

God’s grace has been made manifest in Christ. When we only deserved wrath and death (Eph. 2:1-3), God – because of His agapē love – sent His Son into the world, “that the world might be saved through Him” (John 3:17). Therefore, we have been bought at a price (1 Cor. 6:20; 7:23). An enormous price, I might add. We no longer belong to ourselves. When one believes and is baptized, he or she puts to death her former self (Rom. 6:4) and becomes a new person under new Ownership. As Jesus said to Nicodemus, we have been “born again” (John 3:3, 5). We “have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God” (Rom. 6:22).

When we try to understand God’s grace, we must recognize that it is something to which we are by no means entitled. Though we live in a society where many feel ‘entitled’ to everything (i.e. government handouts, healthcare, security, etc.), the last thing we are entitled to is God’s grace. Though it is a “free gift” (Eph. 2:8), it is not cheap. We must hold on to our gracious salvation (1 Cor. 15:2) with both an attitude of humble submission to God and an eager spirit to selflessly serve His Son (Jas. 2:17). Without an attitude of humble submission and thankfulness for God’s grace, we will fall (Gal. 5:4). (And without it, we certainly will not find comfort in a study of the authority of God.)

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley Dig-a-Bit Podcast

Obedience is NOT (Great Escapes M02E04)

Posted on October 30, 2017


Podcast (digabit): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:41 — 33.6MB)

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Dig-A-Bit is a weekly mini Bible study with Cindy Colley. It supplements the Digging Deep Bible study for women. In this episode, Cindy discusses the things obedience is not. For more information about Digging Deep, visit TheColleyHouse.org.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:

  • 1 Samuel 15
  • Leviticus 10
  • Exodus 7-12
  • Romans 8:28
  • Matthew 6:33

LINKS:

RESOURCES:

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Obedience: Finishing the Climb

Posted on October 12, 2017

 

When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
and laid it in his new tomb which he had hewn out of the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and departed.
And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary, sitting opposite the tomb. Mt. 27:59-61

The progression to the foot of the cross had been a grueling and sorrow-filled climb. Mary had followed the Lord from the halls of Pilate to the hill of Golgotha. She watched the agony of the cross from a distance. She felt the earth move under her and witnessed the tearing of the rocks (Matthew 27:50-56). She was present when the centurion at the foot of the cross made the good confession: “Truly this was the Son of God.” She and the other Mary followed the rich man, Joseph of Arimathea, as he laid the body of the Lord, wrapped in clean linen in his freshly hewn tomb. She watched as Joseph rolled the stone over the opening of the sepulcher (Matthew 27:56-61).

I once had a study with a woman who was contemplating becoming a member of the body of Christ. She was unashamed in asking me just what would be required of her family. “Would we need to be there at every service? My kids have a lot of practices and games and our youngest really has a strict bedtime. The older two have loads of homework. Wednesday nights would be really difficult for us. I just need to know what kind of commitment we would be needing to make.”

I recall an elder in the church in one of the places we lived. Through every sermon, he constantly looked at his watch. He became visibly upset if the service exceeded the hour. I have observed, in some congregations, an exodus of a large number of people after the communion is served, but before the final song and/or prayer.

Somehow, I don’t think Mary was looking at the sundial. I don’t think she was wondering if the commitment from here on out would require more time and money. I don’t think she was thinking about how nice it would be to get home and wash her tired and dirty feet that had climbed the hill to Golgotha. I don’t imagine her thinking about what was for supper or whether there would be time before the Sabbath to go shopping at the market. In short, this woman, who had originally been demon-possessed, was now committed to the Conqueror of demons, of the grave…of sin.  She was the kind of disciple that willingly stayed till the end. Are you?

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: I AM BECAUSE I AM

Posted on June 2, 2016

nature-scenery-at-the-flambeau-riverIn Exodus 3:14, God gave Moses the name by which He wished to be identified to His people, Israel, when he presented to them the prospect of deliverance from slavery to Pharaoh, their hard-hearted taskmaster. 

And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

I AM THAT I AM.  Frankly, as a child, when I heard the story of Moses and the burning bush, the name sounded awkward and left me wondering exactly what God was trying to convey by the nomenclature. But as I read the name today in the American Standard Version, I’m amazed at its significance. The ASV renders it I AM BECAUSE I AM.

Just think of that! Every one of us can wear the first part of this name: I AM. You are. I am. We exist. But we do not exist because of ourselves. We exist because of a mother and father who existed because of another set of parents, who existed ultimately, through the line of generations back through time because of an original cause: Jehovah. God. The Creator. We are because He is. I am because of His eternal being and power. I cannot wear the second half of God’s Exodus three name. I am not existent because of my own existence. In other words, I am, but not because I am. I am because He was, is and continues to be. My name is I AM BECAUSE HE IS.

Jehovah, then, is the only one who can claim the name I AM BECAUSE I AM.  Everyone else has an original cause. He is the Original Cause. So that makes Him God. He had no beginning, no designer, planner, maker or authority. That makes him the ultimate of all of those things. The fact that He is the Original Cause renders Him the superlative in every relationship: the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. The Original Cause does not have to explain Himself. Just as the Exodus three name implies, He not only is because He is, He does because He does. In our modern vernacular, we might say He gets to decide. Everything. The buck stops with God. 

This is why Moses had to take off his shoes in front of that bush that day. Moses, the one who was caused, who was saved from destruction, who was nurtured in the palace and commissioned to deliver was standing, at that moment, before the Great Cause, the Savior, the Nurturer, the Deliverer.  

That’s why every one of us has to deal with God. He is the One with whom we have to do (Hebrews 4:13). There’s a sense in which we all have our burning bushes….The ultimate One is the only One who can truly present the ultimatum of this lifetime. Because He has this kind of superlative power over us, it makes it all the more amazing that he gave us His Son. Jesus, the One who was every bit God, who shared the quintessential power that’s inherent in the Exodus three name, gave up, for a time, the ultimate authority and learned obedience (Hebrews 5:8). Obedience. I AM THAT I AM obeyed. And He did this for me. The One who could wear the name I AM BECAUSE I AM humbled himself to dwell among those who are the caused rather than the Cause and even to die for the caused. 

When I think about this, I know that I’m not worthy to contemplate this humbling of Jesus. I am not capable of fully grasping the great gap between Cause and caused that was bridged at Calvary. But I want to take off my shoes before the  great I AM. Whatever I’m called upon to do as I go forth from my burning bush, I want to do it. I want to bow before the great I AM THAT I AM. 

May all who suffered sword or flame

For truth or Jesus’ lovely name

Shout victory now and hail the Lamb

And bow before the great I AM.

Bless Your Heart by Cindy Colley

Sister to Sister: At Last! the West Huntsville Women’s Seminar 2015!

Posted on August 17, 2015

11222795_10153195680049069_178530950660725037_nIt’s finally time to register! (http://seminar.westhuntsville.org/)…for GREAT lessons about living with purpose that will get you back on track for Him and for your families. “Sweet Hour of Prayer,” the popular Friday night time of petitioning God together in behalf of the needs of those sisters in attendance and those we love, will, once again open our weekend with prayer and refreshing encouragement from sisters. Then, on Saturday, Kathy Pollard, of Denver, Colorado, will be taking us to the scriptures to give us just what we need to keep on keeping on as we close a year that has been one of the darkest years for morality in the history of our country. We NEED this weekend!

Kathy will also give us a crash course in Bible marking, for which I, personally, can hardly wait. There’s free Friday night housing in homes. There are snack times, there’s book-store perusal time, singing time and there’s encouragement coming from hundreds of smiles and praying hearts. We can do this thing of raising kids and grandkids in a culture gone awry! Kathy will be giving us ammunition for the fight that is ahead.

I truly hope you can come. Make it a sisters road trip. Make it a weekend and stay over for Sunday if you can. We’ll meet your flight and get you to your lodging. Bring your prayer requests for Friday night. Bring your Bibles for marking. Bring your daughters for the faith of your future grandchildren. Bring your sisters for growing closer. Bring your non-Christian friends for a glimpse of hope. Bring your appetites, your singing voices and your pajamas. This only happens every other year, so don’t miss it. If you come and you do not find strength for the journey, I personally will refund your registration fee!…

Okay, so it’s FREE. The seminar itself, the snacks , the lunch, the housing in homes…It’s all free of charge and waiting— for your spiritual advantage. So go here …http://seminar.westhuntsville.org/ …for answers to your questions, and to sign up. The T-shirt is the only thing you can buy on the whole page and it’s certainly optional and sold to you at cost for eight dollars.

Have I convinced you? So go sign up, already!

(ps….if you have questions, call or text Emily at 256-509-2541 or Holly at 256-322-7556)