It Is Necessary in the Nature of the Case

From that time forth began Iesous to show unto his disciples, how that he must (dei: it is necessary in the nature of the case) go unto to Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.  Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, "Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee."  But he (Iesuos) turned, and said unto Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offense unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Matt. 16:21-23

It was on the coast of Caesarea Philippi that the Iesous unveiled to the disciples that he was/is the Christos, the Son of the living God.  It was Peter who voiced their collective confession.  It was to Peter to whom the Iesous said, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hades (kingdom of the dead ones), shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:18)."

Matthew records that immediately after the self-revelation of himself to the disciples as the Christos another powerful revelation takes place.  The Iesous confesses to the disciples his proscribed life imperative.  The language that he uses is poignant and compelling.  The Iesous did not make this confession to the disciples in order to elicit their support or sympathy.  He wanted them to know the intrinsic trajectory of his life.

The Iesous purposely uses the word 'must' or in the Greek Text 'dei' which means 'it is necessary in the nature of the case.'  There was no other way.  There was only one way to complete God's redemptive mandate.  This is powerful pastoral counseling with its focus on a tragic inevitability tied to forensic hope.  It is important to remind ourselves that when we face tragedy or grief we can hope in God.

Peter misses the overall content of the message and deconstructs its meaning for selfish ends.  Peter's interpretation of the Iesous's message portends a violent encounter with the power structure that eventuates in his death. This much was accurate and to be commended, but it was Peter's solution to avert such a tragedy that is suspect and Satanic.  Peter sought to undo God's plan with a rebuke to the Iesous.  "Far be it from thee, Lord"  formulates a toxic appeal, and "this shall not be unto thee" are pleas against the determined council of God.

Peter's specious and fallacious argument is immediately recognized by the Iesous.  Peter's fallacious reasoning originates in the Satan, the opposer in a legal case.  The Satan seeks to undermine and destroy the plan of God by overthrowing the divine council through those who are close to and possess a knowledge of God.

Peter's words recall once again "Yea, hath God said (Gen. 3:1)."  The Satan enters in at the point of deep revelation in order to sow the discontent of his hellish design.  The Iesous rebukes Peter for his unconscionable complicity with satanic mockery of the plan of God.  Beware, of the velvet words that conceal the dagger of betrayal.  Trust only in the Iesous.  He leads us in the paths of righteousness, nowhere else.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.

Peter's "Dark Night of the Soul"

"And the Lord turned and looked at Peter.  Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He had said to him,"Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times."  So Peter went out and wept bitterly."  Luke 22:61-62

Peter had witnessed the arrest of the Iesous, and he followed the Iesous and the temple police who had arrested him to the home of the high priest.  A fire had been ignited in the courtyard to warm those that had assembled to witness mocking of the Christ.  "Peter sat among them, (v.55)."  Peter believed that his presence was anonymous, and was not.

An anonymous servant girl looked at Peter and said that he too had been with the Iesous.  Peter was startled by her harassment of his anonymity.  He insisted that she was mistaken.  She had pointed out the wrong man.  
And then the unthinkable happened to Peter again from another source.  "You also are of them (v.58)."  Peter vehemently denied the witness of yet another person.  Why was this happening to Peter?  For this was the trial of the Iesous and not that of Peter.

It happened to Peter once more, and he exclaimed with an oath, "Man, I do not know what you are saying! (v. 60)."  We are told that while Peter was yet speaking the rooster crowed.  "And the Lord turned and looked at Peter."  Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He said to him, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times."  So Peter went out and wept bitterly (v.61-62).

Denial is served cold.  Little did Peter realize that his own words would become the source of his spiritual test.  We too are often overtaken by our own words and actions.  We too believe that there were no witnesses to our words or actions. We entrap ourselves as Peter had done.  Here, as with us, nothing else
was needed.  A smarting chagrin  fastened tightly upon his soul.  Denial is served cold.

He could never have anticipated this night.  This is Peter's dark night of the soul.  "Night had claimed his soul and he found himself beset by the relentless and crashing denial of his Lord.  It was not so much what the witnesses had said about him as it was that look from his Lord.

That look was fiercely knowing coupled with and absolute and compelling grasp of what had just taken place. And there was mercy too. The Lord remembers our frame, He remembers that we are breath.

After the resurrection, Peter would be invited to attend another fire. It would take place on the beach where his risen Lord had prepared a breakfast for Peter and the other disciples.

There is restoration after failure.  There is fellowship when I have lived in denial of Him.  I too have failed him.  I too have lived in denial.  I had to come back home.  You can too.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.

Peter's Challenge

"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired you, that he may sift you as wheat:  But I have prayed for you, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.  And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death.  And he said , I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me."  Luke 22:31-34

Peter's unique destiny is still a mystery to him.  Most certainly he has a new name but he does not yet know the depth of its reality.  The new name portents unexpected and decisive events that reshape the moral vision of the one so called.  Peter does not know it yet, but he has been chosen for an encounter that will forever change his self-understanding.  Indeed his self-understanding will be rocked to the foundations.

The Iesous knows Peter.  He does not know Peter in a casual manner, and neither does he know Peter from a flood of self disclosures initiated by Peter.  The Iesous knows Peter completely and exhaustively.  There is nothing about Peter that he does not know.  His knowledge of Peter is prior to Peter's very existence.  Being know by God in this manner is to be permeated by His mercy too.

The direct statement to Peter by the Iesous is shocking, and the malevolent intent of the Satan is not hidden.  The Satan had asked to have Peter back for himself in order to pierce him through with calamity upon calamity.  The interrogations of the great Opposer (The Satan) are without equal.  (See the Job Encounter).  His examination methods are ruthless and  cunning, but exposure to them are limited by the mercy of God.

The Iesous lets Peter know that he has prayed that his faith does not fail under the potentially shattering encounter that he will experience under the crushing examination of the Opposer.  The sincere but  naive arrogance of Peter cannot capture the import of what he has just been told.  He speaks to the Iesous with a bravado founded upon an untested foundation.  His words are alive with grandiloquent nonsense.  He cannot possible know where the journey with the Iesous will take him.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.
   

The New Name

"And he brought him to Iesoun, And when Iesoun beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone."  John 1:42

We are invited by these words to step into the mystery of God's ways with the called ones.  Andrew is used by God in a decisive providential event.  Andrew is to bring his brother Simon to the Iesous.  Andrew's words to Simon are startling and provocative.  "We have found the Messiah...the Christos."

Of course, Simon is smitten by curiosity. Deep within himself Simon is guided by a powerful telic motive that compels him to go and see for himself what Andrew has announced.  Both of them are caught up in prophetic reality.  But this event will go deeper still.  A unique destiny will be appointed to Simon.  Heretofore, he had been a fisherman.  He had invested his life in an honorable profession.  He did not know that he had lived completely outside of his true destiny.  His life was shadowy and without substantive import.

Simon is brought to Iesoun by Andrew.  Simon will be given incontrovertible empirical evidence of his brother's words.  God is at work through human agency to fulfill His Word and the vessel he uses is Simon's own genetic kin. Simon will come to know a relationship  that is deeper than human blood lines.  This is his destiny, and later, much later after he has seen himself, he will embrace. the frailty and weakness that is his intrinsic legacy and come to depend solely on the power of God. 

The call of the Iesoun is to the life of deep commitment.  The new name identifies the new reality.  Simon is addressed at the edge of his present status as Simon son of Jona.  The old name that identifies him with the old milieu is recognized and set aside.   The old name cannot possible contain what is to be.  In this encounter Simon is renamed Kephas or rock.

The door is opened into the new reality for Simon.  The old things are passed away.  His experiences with the Iesous will teach him the meaning of this new life.  God moved from the present tense "thou art" to the "thou shalt be" future perfect.  His new identity, that is, who he really is will appear to him in due time. 

God took his time in shaping Kephas as He takes his time in shaping you and me.  God has given you a new name.  Have you accepted your calling?      

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.
  

The Importance of Strong Fathers in the lives of Children

Research data suggests that the role of a father in the life of the child is highly important.  The research data suggests that an optimal developmental environment for the child mandates the father.  One of the main reasons why the role of the father has become a subject science research is the rise of youth violence.

The social engineers and proponents who once touted the minimal value of the role of the father have been forced to reexamine the societal contribution of the father.  Kyle Pruett, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center, reports on the emerging results of his longitudinal study of the development of children in intact families who were raised primarily by fathers.  His research has demonstrated that fathers have a “direct significant influence” on the development of infants.

Pruett found that the child development literature supports the importance of the father-child relationship by noting the correlation between an infant’s test scores on certain assessments of intellectual and motor development scales.  He notes that they are higher if a father has been actively involved during the first six months of the child’s life.  Purett also found that babies are more socially responsive if their fathers have been involved in their everyday physical care during the first two months of life.  These babies also seem to disintegrate less in the face of  distressing situations.

Studies have also revealed the powerful relationship between a father’s interactional style and the cognitive development of preschool children.  Boys contact with their fathers promotes intellectual development through the internalization of the father’s mode of thinking and problem solving.

The National Center for Policy Analysis said: “Experts perceive a direct correlation between teen misbehavior and the lack of a father in the offenders’ homes.”  It is interesting that long and enormously expensive studies and research are required to realize what a few generations ago was commonsense and commonplace truth.  Children need their fathers.  Who would have ever believed that America would have to be told that fathers are a necessary and vital component in the raising of children?

The family is not only a social institution it is also a sacred institution. A country is only as strong as the people who make up its families.  Having fathers fulfill their roles in the home is pivotal.  Charles R. Swindol observed: “…I’m bothered by a trend occurring today; the preoccupation and passivity among fathers.  Remember when men where men?  Remember when you could tell by looking?  Remember when men knew who they were, liked how they were, and didn’t want to be anything but what they were? …Remember when it was the men who initiated the contact and took the lead in a relationship, made lifelong commitments, treated a woman like a lady, and modeled a masculinity that displayed security and stability? …more and more men care less about being men, the family is thrown into confusion.”

We are in desperate need today of men that are willing to do the heavy lifting that is required to be a father.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.

The Substitutionary Sacrifice of Iesous

"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross."  Col. 2:14

Here is a direct statement on the efficacy of the work of the Iesous.  It is uncompromising in its articulation of the meaning of the Gospel.  It is so skillfully crafted and theologically astute that we dare not tamper with its elegant structure.  You and I are well aware of attempts to deconstruct the high Christology of Paul and serve up some specious and reduced Christology for our spiritual consumption.

As one of the main contributors to the documents that comprise the New Testament canon Paul does not back down from his philosophical contemporaries and seek out a synergistic alliance with their doctrines or beliefs.  He does not not play to their hubris.  He knows that his message is intrinsically different, and therefore has no real counterpart or affinity with anything extant in his day.

He told the Community at Rome that he was not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God unto salvation.  Paul wanted the Colossian saints to know that God has done something of eternal value for them through the Iesous.  Paul tells them that God has removed or blotted out the legal document that condemned them as incorrigible sinners.  The legal opinion that stated that they deserved eternal banishment from the presence of God has been swept away by God himself through the Iesous.

So terrible was this document that it was covert and not immediately knowable to us.  The legal opinion that condemned us was nailed to the Cross of the Iesous.  He was truly the Lamb of God that took away the sin of the world.  He was the impeccable innocent One who suffered the penalty of God's judgement on our behalf.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.

A Redemptive Answer to a Problematic Absurdity

Whosoever hates his brother is a murderer (man slayer): and you know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him (1 John 3:15).

The individual who hates another person is the instrumental cause of his own nefarious self-definition.  Yes, he may invoke a plethora of convoluted reasons for his mental attitude sin of hate against other brethren but they are the mere pyrotechnics of self-righteousness.

How disarming are the words of the great Apostle John.  He was one of the most intimate disciples of the Iesous.  How he loved the Iesous and how the Iesous loved him.  John has known the enormous power of self-sacrificial love.  He cannot go back and live within the cramped space of what he thought was love before he met the Iesous. After a genuine encounter with the Iesous reality heretofore known vanishes and eternal life is no mere intellectual assent to a doctrinal statement it is an experiential reality.

John is not merely annoyed by the one who hates.   He is appalled by the intrinsic lie of pretending to know the Iesous and yet treats another, who equally knows the Iesous, but may perhaps have a different accent, skin color, or physical limitation as of lesser value or worth.

Hate is the penalty that the hater has given to the hated one(s).  Yes, it is a gift of sorts.  It is the gift of personal negation or non-being or lesser being.  What if the Iesous gave his life for man made racial classifications?  John will have nothing to do with absurdities, and he will not allow absurdities to be placed at the foot of the Cross.

The murderer must forsake his hate.  The murderer must confess and repent of his sin of hate.  He must have his soul (psyche) cleansed of the wounds of hate.  The Iesous will receive him too, and release him from the self imposed prison of hate.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.

   

A Truth Exposed

We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.  He that loves not his brother abides in death (1 John 3:14).

The greatest hiatus is defined for us by the most simple words. The Community is addressed the aged Apostle in an irresistible manner.  He offers no apology for his words.  He does not need to do so because they have been immersed in the crimson of the Cross.

There is a ritual that is embedded in the very language that he uses.  There is a sacrifice here that he does not ignore as if to appeal to the uninitiated ones.  The Community must know that the Cross is always the compelling and underlying ethic of all genuine encounters with one another.

There is a secret knowledge that we can possess about who we are.  We can know that we have passed over from the anguish of death to the freedom of eternal life by the love we have for our brethren.  Our brethren are of us. We are not complete without them and neither are they complete without us.

The is a viral, malicious, and self-deceptive of Faith that propagates the lie that we can redefine the Faith once for all given to the Saints in terms of non-normative racial psycho-social mandates.  The cross of the Iesous does away with all superficial and self-important mandates.

Look at what is going on around and think carefully about all of the confusion, anger, lies, murders of character and souls of others, murders of the bodies of others for lust or profit and then think about how all of these terrible realities would be overthrown if love controlled our actions instead of self-interest.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.

The Agape (Love) Imperative

"This is my commandment, That ye love one another as I have loved you (John 15:12)."

Please meditate upon the power and compelling content of these words by the Iesous.  They were given to his disciples in the upper room on the eve of his passion.  Notice the succinct structure of the grammar and syntax. The simplicity of this statement is both poignant and instructive.

He is intimately and perfectly conscious of the unspeakable events that are to come upon him.  No one comforts him as the dark chronology of future events invade his impeccable soul.  However, the darkness will not overtake and ruin him (John 1:5).

'This is' represents the present indicative in the Gk. Text. It is the word 'eimi' and stands as a signpost of the intrinsic will of the Iesous much like the 10 commandments given at the Sinai event that represented legal policy or apodictic law that is beyond appeal.

Commandment or 'entole' is a word that stresses the inherent authority of the speaking subject which is represented here by the Iesous.  He alone is the unimpeachable authority who stipulates this attitudinal mandate for his own.

The commandment to love one another is not left merely within in the milieu of what love for each other could mean as generated by collective hubris (pride).  He categorically transitions them out of that limited and conditional sphere because he was acutely aware of their inherent selfishness.  Had they not at one time argued among themselves as to who was the greatest disciple and worthy prestigious accolades?  They must put away the idols of self-importance.  The Iesuos knew that selfishness colored their their motivation along with the desire for preeminence.

The Iesous healed their understanding of himself and themselves by gifting them with the foundational ethic that would substantively set them apart as a powerfully distinctive community.

They were to be zealots.They were to be zealots not armed with swords and hateful antagonism for Rome.  They were to be zealots armed with the agape imperative of the Iesous.

'Love one another as I have loved you.'  'As' is an adverb and it means to the same amount or degree; equally...'  The Iesous is being both descriptive and prescriptive of the nature and type of love that must heal their myopic self-awareness and fill them with a new sense of self as irrevocably joined to Him.

Conjoined to Him they would turn their backs on empty selfish ambition and tawdry one-up-man-ship. They would experience the type of love that consumed the Iesous with the compelling intentional desire to do the will of the Father.

Love as I have loved you is not a religious command.  It is the redemptive act that does not require the addition of anything else.  If God is calling you to demonstrate his love to others today do not resist his will for your life.

Please tell others to read our blogs that they too may be encouraged in their spiritual pilgrimage.

For more information about Dr. Rich and his teaching ministry, please visit his website.