The Sea of Galilee...a Geography Lesson

        Although Galilee is called a “sea”, it is, in fact, fresh water. As far as size goes, Galilee is less than one quarter the size of Lake Simcoe (744 km²) in Ontario. At minus 696 feet, it is “the lowest freshwater lake on Earth.”  For you geology buffs, note that Galilee, the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, and the entire Arabah, the Gulf of Aqaba and the Red Sea are on the edges of two tectonic plates (the African and the Arabian) slipping in opposite directions to each other and, in some areas, spreading away from each other (and causing several earthquakes mentioned in the Old Testament).

     The Sea of Galilee (Matt.4:19; 15:29), about 60 miles northeast of Jerusalem, figures so strongly in the story of Jesus that it’s worth learning a little bit about it. For instance, it has several other names in scripture too: Sea of Chinnereth (Num.34:11; Josh.12:3; 13:27), Lake of Gennesaret (Luke 5:1), and Sea of Tiberias (John 6:1; 21:1). The box shows a few statistics taken from Wikipedia:

Lake type	Monomictic [the waters mix completely once per year]
Primary inflows	Upper Jordan river and local runoff
Primary outflows	Lower Jordan River, evaporation
Catchment area	2,730 km2 (1,050 mi2)
Basin countries	Israel, Syria, Lebanon
Max. length	21 km (13 mi)
Max. width	13 km (8.1 mi)
Surface area	166 km2 (64 mi2)
Average depth	25.6 m (84 ft)
Max. depth	43 m (141 ft)
Water volume	4 km3 (0.96 mi3)
Residence time	5 years
Shore length	53 km (33 mi)
Surface elevation	-212.07 m (-695.8 ft)
Islands	2

        But statistics are dry; statistics are dull. What life-stories do we know about people around the lake?  

        Way back in Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua, the slopes east of the sea of “Kinnereth” were to be the eastern boundary of the nine and a half tribes, and the western boundary of the two and a half tribes (Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh). This is where the history of the name Gad-ara comes from, where Jesus let the demons go into the swine.

        Moving into the New Testament we read in Mark 1:16-19, “As Jesus walked beside the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake…When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets.”

        This is the lake where our mind’s eye can see Him as He sits in a boat to speak to His audience along the shore at the water’s edge. We see Him calm the storm and the waves. We see Him walk on this water. We see Him direct His disciples to a miraculously huge catch of fish. And this is where, after His resurrection, He prepares fish on a fire of coals, feeds His disciples, and three times asks Peter to feed His sheep.

        Many of us will never “walk where Jesus walked”, in a physical sense, but we can still take His words to heart: To the disciples working on their nets, He said, “I will make you fishers of men.” From the boat, He said, “…other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop...”  In the storm He said, “Peace, be still.” From His sure footing on this very sea, He said, “It is I; be not afraid.” After the failed all-night fishing trip, He said, “Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find.” And on the beach of Galilee He said, “Come and dine.”

        What more can we say? Let’s fish for men and women for Christ. Let’s produce a good crop for Him; let’s be at peace and unafraid. Then we know that He will come in and commune with us, and we with Him.

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Christians in Rome: "Proclaiming the Gospel Without Fear"

     When the apostle Paul arrived in Rome in the spring of 60AD, after his shipwreck and his winter on Malta, he had already been in communication with the believers through his letter (“Romans”, dated 56AD). When Paul wrote later on, blessing the Roman believers for “proclaiming the gospel without fear” (Phil.1:14, from Rome in 61AD), even he couldn’t foresee the torment that was coming. After two years under house arrest, he was released in 62AD. He continued his missionary work away from Rome but in July, 64AD a tragic fire destroyed   two-thirds of Rome (with a population at that time of two million) and Nero blamed the Christians for causing it.

     When my wife and I were in Rome in 2012, we toured St. Peter’s. One of the most poignant stories our young Italian guide told us was of Nero’s “garden parties” not far from where we stood. She described how he “lit his garden parties with the burning carcasses of Christian human torches.”  Christians were tied to poles around his garden, covered in tar and pitch, and set alight! She told the story so well that I could feel the shock of it. Were some of them the believers whom Paul commended in his letter? We know Priscilla and Aquila escaped because Paul mentioned them in his second letter to Timothy at Ephesus in about 66/67AD. But was Phoebe in the group? How about Andronicus and Junia? Tryphena and Tryphosa and Persis? Were Nereus and his sister made into human torches? (See Romans 16).

     The letter to the Romans is full of gospel verses like 3:23, 6:23, 10:9, but after this brutality probably the key quotation is 8:18—“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” Paul, himself, came to his earthly end on the beheading block of Nero in Rome in 67/68AD.

     Maybe some of these very names are people whom the apostle John saw under the altar, in Revelation 6:9-11:— “the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained.” Terrible things have been done!

     Let us, therefore, pray for Christians around the world who face martyrdom even today. May they, like Paul, even though writing in his final days from the Mamertine dungeon in Rome still say, “Fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith!” (2 Tim.4:7).

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20 Clues from the Old Testament

"Pascal's Wager"

     Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, philosopher, and Christian theologian. Some of his quotes are so outstanding that we still hear them today, for instance:

· “There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.”

· “In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.”

· “The heart has reasons that reason cannot know.”

· “Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.”

· “I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”

· “Faith is different from proof; the latter is human, the former is a Gift from God.”

        But what was Pascal’s “wager”? And what was a Christian doing “wagering” anyway? In fact, Pascal wasn’t placing any bets, he was balancing Christianity against unbelief. One form of his evaluation says, “If you gain, you gain all. If you lose, you lose nothing. Wager then, without hesitation, that He exists.”

        To explain a little further, Pascal is saying that if you believe in God you’ve covered all your bets—if there is a hell, you’re safe, and if there isn’t, it doesn’t matter. But there is more. How do you establish yourself on “God’s side”? Mental assent to the wager is not enough because it should be blindingly obvious to everyone.

        The Apostle Paul said, ‘If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.’ (Rom.10:9). Jesus himself explained: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Mat.11:28). And the end result will be, “I know my sheep and my sheep know me.” (John 10:14).

Absolute Commitment!

     For most people in the Bible, their commitment wavered—at some point they faltered. Think of Abraham in Egypt; think of Jacob with his father-in-law; think of Peter at the high priest’s palace; think of Mark, going home from the gospel work in Asia Minor. But there are several people whom we never hear backed down, even under the severest resistance and even when it seemed that God Himself was against them. We might mention Job, or Ruth, or Elisha, for starters.

      The man I want to look at is Ittai the Gittite. Who on earth was Ittai the Gittite? Read the story in 2 Samuel 15:14-22 and 18:1-12. Being a Gittite (a non-Israelite), he was from Gath, the former home of Goliath, deep in Philistine territory.

When David was on the run from Saul, his only refuge was with Achish (aka Abimelech), king of Gath. David and his men were given Ziklag as their town, but from there they secretly raided other Philistine towns. The story is sordid but we believe that at some time during these years Ittai learned of David’s God. He could no longer stay with his own people and, like Ruth in an earlier day, he joined the Israelites, along with his 600 men and their families.

        The real test of his commitment came years later when Absalom rebelled. As David evacuated Jerusalem, he told Ittai to go back to Absalom. Ittai’s response:—“As surely as the LORD lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether it means life or death, there will your servant be.”

        Ittai is a hero from God’s word—Peter made exactly the same promise to his King only a few meters from the same spot, and failed miserably (John 13:37). Let’s remain faithful and claim David’s blessing on Ittai for ourselves, as well, “May the LORD show you kindness and faithfulness.”

Baptism says "I Died!"

     Scripture identifies several ways to die “unnaturally”, such as drowning, stoning, hanging, crucifixion, beheading, by the sword (i.e., in war), and by murder/manslaughter. And there were several ways of getting rid of the body—burial in the earth, sealing up in a cave, burial at sea, and cremating.

     Both Old and New Testament writers put the believer in some of these positions. For instance, Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ.” (Gal.2:20). And, “our old self was crucified with him.” (Rom.6:6).   In Rom.6:4, he says, “We were therefore buried with him...” Heb.13:11 indicates that, for sacrifices, “the bodies are burned outside the camp.” As far as the sailors were concerned, Jonah was a dead man never to be seen again, once they threw him into the sea. (Jonah 1:13-16).

     So, partly as an academic exercise, what are some of the means that could have been used to show association with Christ in His death? Possibilities might include tying to a cross (and releasing), sealing up in a cave (and releasing), simulated stoning, simulated burning, and submersion in water (and releasing).

     In fact, many years ago a missionary from Africa stood at the pulpit in Shoreacres and told us of some believers in the heart of the Sahara who wanted to be baptized. There was no way they could get together enough water to cover a person so they chose an alternative—they got a coffin. As each believer lay down in that coffin, the lid was closed over them. They were as good as dead. Then the cover was opened and they were raised “to walk in newness of life.”

     Out of all these possibilities, the Holy Spirit has chosen baptism—submersion in water—as our way to identify with Jesus. See Acts 8:36, 9:18, 10:47, 16:33, 18:8, etc. It says in clearest picture form, “I DIED WITH CHRIST.” It doesn’t get any stronger than that! As Christians, we are dead to the world and to sin. If we have really made this commitment, let’s pull ourselves together—with God’s help we can resist those calls from sin and the devil. Jesus has something far better to offer:—

     “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.” Ephesians 3:16-19.

     “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise.” Ephesians 5:15.

Book Review: The 10 Dumbest Things Christians Do

The 10 Dumbest Things Christians Do

by Mark Atteberry.

Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Nashville

2006

210 pp

     The author was generous—“dumb” isn’t strong enough—I would call some of his selections “bad” and even “evil”. Atteberry is thorough in his discussion of each item; we’ll use his own words in the following sampling of his list:—

#1. Slinging Mud on the Bride of Christ. “Consider how it must break His heart when we  thoughtlessly besmirch the one He gave His life for, with unbecoming words and actions.”

#3. Living Below the Level of Our Beliefs. “...at that point in his life [re: Bathsheba/Uriah], David’s worship was nothing but a hollow ritual. He was showing up on time, warmly greeting all of his friends, singing all the most popular new psalms, and no doubt offering the kind of beautiful prayers you would expect from one of history’s greatest poets. Then, when the service was over, he was walking unchanged right back into his pathetic, morally corrupt little life.”

#5. Hopping from Church to Church.  “I believe God is disappointed in all chronic church hoppers. I say that because there are so many critical New Testament commands a church-hopping believer simply cannot fulfill.”

#6. Fighting Among Ourselves.  “Friendly. Fire. Two harmless words until you put them side by side. Then they become unspeakably ugly...forgiveness is important because it makes us more like Jesus.”

#7. Missing Golden Opportunities. ”The single most important thing you can do to prepare yourself to be used by God is study the Scriptures.”

#8. Settling for Mediocrity. “The church needs to be more conscious of the way it presents itself to the lost. It’s true, God never said, “Go ye into all the world and impress people.” But you can’t go anywhere in the world and find a business or organization that is thriving on mediocrity...God loves excellence.”

#10. Accepting the Unacceptable. “So anytime you find yourself in a situation where you feel you need to speak up, ask yourself how you can do it in the least offensive way possible. There just might be someone within earshot who is secretly curious about the Lord they see you serving so passionately. Don’t blow that opportunity by being needlessly mean and hateful.”

“In the process, we must never forget to reflect the heart and character of Christ.”

     Atteberry maintains a light-hearted tone throughout the book but he knows and we know that some of his material and some of his examples are heart-breaking.

     I was personally convicted by every one of Atteberry’s items, so much so that I wished we could share every chapter with the whole local church, much like Ezra did in those days of the restoration of temple worship in Jerusalem (Neh.8:1-8). He read the Scriptures then he explained what he had read and showed how it applied to those faithful believers.

     We need to take the Scriptures to heart in just the same way.

Reviewed by Glenn Wilson          

“The Train to Burlington”

     Now that same day two of them were going to a suburb called Burlington about a half hour train  ride from Toronto. They were talking with each other about the violence in the Middle East, then they moved on to police brutality, then to the new construction along the tracks, then to the Leafs and the Jays. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and sat down beside them, but they were kept from recognizing him.

     He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you ride along?”

     They frowned. One of them, named Demas, commented, “You must be a visitor not to know about all these things?”

   "What things?" he asked.

     "All the politics,” they replied. "And the terrorism, and the racial tension, the sale of Hydro One and even our teams?"

     He said to them, "How foolish you are! Do you ever talk about Jesus?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he quickly explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

     As they approached their stop they suggested, "Come to lunch with us." But he was disappointed with their apathy. He travelled on...

                                                                                                                               (Luke 24:13-35,with apologies to Dr. Luke)   Ì

“Breaking of Bread”

   ¹⁹ On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"    John 20:19. 

     Among assemblies, the ‘breaking of bread’ is one of our main reasons for being, and our format for public worship. As a background to what I’ve been thinking, let me tell you that my wife and I were at a meeting very similar to our breaking of bread a few months ago. It was a Wednesday afternoon, and we were there (at Smith’s funeral home) for a man who had just died—we were all there in remembrance of him and we talked with his relatives and friends about his accomplishments in life.

     Don Scholefield loved his wife and his family. He served in the Canadian Navy during the war; after the war he started a flight training school in Quebec; more recently he was inducted into the  Quebec Air and Space Hall of Fame.

     But what a difference between that remembrance service and our breaking of bread! Up at the front of the chapel was a casket and a body. We have no body—we have only an empty cross and symbols of a death—bread and wine.

     We know that the Lord asked His disciples, at the last supper, to remember Him. That was the first Breaking of Bread, as we call it. Now look at our header verse—I believe this is the second Breaking of Bread. The disciples had met together, as He asked, to remember Him. And He came to them again. But Thomas wasn’t there. He obviously didn’t take the Lord’s request to heart, so he missed Him.

     The disciples must have told Thomas what he missed, so he was there the next week, for the third ever Breaking of Bread. And the Lord came again (verse   26). We might almost say that Thomas was there in unbelief, but one sight of the Lord changed him forever!

     Twenty or more years ago, Johnny Cash put out a movie called “The Gospel Road” and in it there is a song that reviews some of the experiences of Peter. To quote the final words of the song—and to reiterate what every Breaking of Bread says...

He’s alive! He’s alive!

        He’s alive and I’m forgiven,
     Heaven’s gates are open wide.
        He’s alive!
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“The One Who Is in You Is Greater!”

   I’ve just been reading through the Gospel of Luke and I puzzled over the passage about the “strong man, fully armed.” Who was he? And then, who was “someone stronger?”

 

²¹ "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. ²² But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder."     Luke 11:21-22.

 

     The context of the whole passage is  the question of Satan being credited with driving out demons. Jesus basically says, “How silly! If he did that he would destroy his own kingdom.” Jesus is “stronger”.

 

     Remember the legion of demons that bound the maniac of Gadara, and Who overpowered them (Luke 8:29). Remember the woman bent over with scoliosis for 18 years (Luke 13:13). Satan had bound her all those years—but Jesus was able to free her with a word. And remember the paralytic at the pool of Bethesda. He had been crippled there since before Jesus was born (over 38 years. John 5:8).

 

     1 John 4:4 is the full expression of the power of Christ:-

 

⁴ You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them [the spirits of antichrist], because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

 

There is wonderful comfort to be had in this knowledge.

 

     Several years ago, Joy and I flew into Santiago airport in Chile. Some luggage was missing so we were delayed getting to the taxi rank. The taxis were all gone but we were

approached by a well-dressed man speaking good English. He was heading into town and would be happy to take us for a moderate price. We walked out to the parking lot and when he opened his trunk for our luggage, there, attached to the inside trunk lid but hidden from the outside, was a cardboard taxi sign. We got in the back, he got into the driver’s seat and at the last second, for no apparent reason, a huge man jumped into the passenger seat—we felt very threatened. We were about to be taken and relieved of our passports and cash!

 

     Now the adrenalin was flowing and Joy said we needed out! How could we get out? At this very moment a “real” taxi pulled up and blocked us in, with the driver wagging his finger at us, “No!” We showed the new driver a Google Map print-out of where we wanted to go, got into his cab, and were pleasantly and safely delivered to our hotel in Santiago. We thanked him, gave him a good tip, and never saw him again. We are sure God sent this driver, and easily stopped the dangerous, perhaps deadly plans against us. We still shiver, but often thank the Lord for preserving us. Once again, “the One Who is in you is greater!”