Sin Ain’t Gonna Reign Here Anymore

Greetings in the Name of the Lord! We were in the Temple with Jesus as He was about to leave with the boys, His Disciples and future Apostles and Evangelist, to go to Bethany in our last lesson.

• Jesus had run out the money grabbers and sellers and told them in no certain terms not to come back to the Temple they were not appropriate there anymore. (see Mark 11.11; Matthew 21.9-17)
• Sin Ain’t gonna reign here anymore. Not good English, but it gets the point across pretty succinctly. We often hear that our wills must be broken. NO. That is very poor psychology and even worse theology! Man, alive are we getting down to some teaching today

Christ is not only our Savior, He is our Lord. Redemption involves much more than salvation from the guilt of, and the judgment due to, sin! It includes our deliverance from the power and authority of Satan who is the god of this world and glad subjection to the One who purchased us with His blood!

Let's take a look at 1 Corinthians 6.19-20 "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."

Our wills are not to be broken, no! A broken-will person is no longer capable of making definite decisions. Our wills are God given for His glory and use.

• Tennyson - Our wills are ours - To make them Thine!

Memorize Tennyson if you are having trouble with being strong willed. We aren't to yield to Him anything that is "broken." Our wills should be of delight, not of exhaustion.

Mark 2.18-19 “Now John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.”

Christianity is indeed a wedding. Jesus is echoing the words of John the Baptist. Remember the death of John the Baptist was still fresh on the minds of everyone. The Pharisees and Sadducee had become victims of rote from their own self-righteousness.

It really had nothing to do with personal hygiene, nor were they commanded by the Law. These were professionals theological “hit-men “. They got upset each and every time Jesus undermined their authority over the people and their man-made traditions.

Tradition is nothing more than a fence around the Law. The Mishnah, a compilation of the Jewish oral tradition made at the end of the 2nd century A.D. is still used. The Jews viewed tradition as protecting Gods Holy Word ad assisted God's people in keeping it.

Well, we are at Mark 7 to study a bit. This I studied on my Master's path that took a little over 2 years and I lost my Masters adviser to death by the way.- Dr. Bill Cornagay was not only my adviser but a dear friend and encourage as well and it affected me deeply. If there was ever a time to keep calm and trust God, it is now.

People are more nervous now than at any time I have seen in my life. I understand and wish there is something I could do to reach out and help those that feel this way. I feel that way some and I pray reverently and it helps. That may work for you and I hope it does. Let's get started in the study. God's blessings to you.

The Jewish people at the time of Jesus probably viewed tradition as protecting God's Holy Word and assisted His people in keeping the Mishnah. This probably began with good intentions, but ultimately produced some rather famous absurdities. The Talmud came along in the 3rd century.

In an effort to protect the Sabbath from being broken by inadvertent labor the devout were given an amazing list of prohibitions - "fences"

• One could not look into a mirror, lest a gray hair might be plucked!
• One couldn't wear false teeth, lest they fall out, and picking them up would be working!
• The rabbi's debated about a man with a wooden leg if his home caught fire could he retrieve his leg on the Sabbath?
• If someone spit on the Sabbath he had to take care of where it landed if it landed in the dirt and it was scuffed with his sandal it would be cultivating the soils and working.

I am told that in Israeli hotels on Shabbat you will encounter the Sabbath elevators; every floor is pre-selected to avoid having to push a button. Usually, there are two: one stopping on odd numbered floors the other on even.

I am writing more. I hope you like it and will consider email me and let me know what your thoughts are on the study and if there is any information you would like to know about. I can write on Northern Maine as well.

But my passion is the Old and New Testament and occasionally a new book about the Bible or Biblical history that comes out which I may review for you as well. This all depends on my health holding up which the Lord has control for the most part.

Thank you for reading the article and I hope you learn from it. God's blessings to you, Gary