Category: Church Stream

Posted on

May 20



I Corinthians 4-6

We are in the Church Stream today hearing the Apostle Paul instruct the church at Corinth. We are using the Common English Bible this week.

The Thread through the Streams

Looking over the terrain of the scriptures, we can almost feel it in our soul when God shows the vision to the 70 elders in Exodus. The Covenant is laid forth, they gather to dine and they see the dazzling blue above as if God opened a window from heaven and let them see in. “Watch this” <–they heard it back then and they saw. It was a spectacular gift of God.

-In II Samuel there is a rebellion getting some scary momentum. Will Ahithophel get away with this? No. Watch this. Will the army of Absalom snuff out King David? No. They are going down today. God will do them in – this rebellion will die in the forest, watch this.
-In Psalm 50:15, I can almost hear the question being asked of God and his reply, ” cry out to me, I’ll deliver you from trouble – watch this!”
-In Jeremiah they are justifying themselves thinking they will never be punished. “oh yea? watch this as the harvest doesn’t come in, mounted horsemen bent on obliterating you ride. You won’t want to watch this, but you will!”
-Hosea in ch. 11 especially muses at how frustrating this all is for God to call down punishment on His beloved children. Can they see it? God wants to show them compassion if they would watch for Him instead of looking for ways to err into sin.
-Right before Jesus enters Jerusalem for the last time, there’s a “watch this!” as Jesus heals Bartimaeus of blindness. And think that the deed itself says the same thing to the blind man. Guess what?! He can watch Jesus now! Amazing.
-In Corinth there is a fellow engaging is a dark sin that leads to death / not just an ecclesistical inconvenience. He is arrogant about it. Paul almost retorts in his spirit to that man, “you think you are going to get away with this? Keep this up? Stay in the church? avoid evil and love your sin and not encounter grave punishment? Watch this as you get handed over to Satan himself.
Let’s everyday be watching for what God is going to do – it’s terribly marvelous.
Posted on

May 13


I Corinthians 1-3

We are starting a new book in the Church Stream! We are reading from the Easy-to-Read Version this week.

 

Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis

God, thank you for caring for us enough to walk us through such matters as we read about today. Church and Christian Fellowship is the best place on earth to find support and comfort, safety, strength, discipleship, and teaching. You certainly love your bride; the church. And we are grateful – because it is us you love. Amen.

Paul wrote this letter from Ephesus to the Corinthian church after he had left the first time. Corinth was along a busy trade route. It was a cultural and wealthy city of influence. Paul was spurred to write the Believers in Corinth because leaders from there had come to visit him in Ephesus as they were in duress and vexed with how to handle troubles, sin, misconduct, plus relational and doctrinal matters back in Corinth. [btw, Olympic trials were held here before Paul arrived and shortly after he had left.] There was an Aphrodite Temple above town. It had been closed by the New Testament era but there were residual effects from it in Corinth, Paul ended up addressing this issue also. It became an influential church and Paul was fervent to see them “aright their ship”. For within a century there would be a population of 3/4Million people in the area, so now was the time to set the church straight.

1 – Paul encourages them that they are holy because they belong to Christ Jesus. The Greek culture had a goal of attaining a perfect body and a perfected mind. [E.g. the muscle-bound statues, the ‘thinker’, etc.] We can still view this art today. This was a Grecian’s grid of value. and Paul wanted them to know that their value was that they belonged to Christ. This was news!

 
Churches here (as elsewhere) had not built central meeting places. That happened a couple of centuries after Rome had committed to stop harassing and executing Christians. Churches met in homes, halls, fields, caves and were therefore almost never “all together” as a unified group. The tendency was to become competitive. They were following different factions they had created. Paul reminded them that they were all following Christ, together, so stop bickering. And it was vital that they understand the Cross. Greeks didn’t like it because they felt, “why follow a man who surrendered himself to die? I don’t want to die. I’ll follow Apollos! He’s alive…”
[or we’ll follow Peter or Paul or Aquila].  And then there were the Jews who were taught for 1400 years that a lamb was to be sacrificed, not a human. That was too much like Molech or the pagans in Rome. yuck!  As you see, Paul needed to explain the Cross to them….[and to us!] And because of this Cross, Jesus is your strength, your mind, your justification, your freedom.
 
2 – It was important that their confidence switch from being rooted in human thinking (mind worship) to confidence in Christ.  THIS is the root of true wisdom.  The Greek mind and language structure was a rather brilliant system – it still affects the way we think and talk even today.  But it is the wisdom of God, found in Christ Jesus, that we access through His Holy Spirit that leads to true wisdom that transforms us and the world.  This is the wisdom that Paul mentors us into finding and living by.  God has such marvels and wonders to share with us and bring us to, but we won’t find this life in Him via a human path or cranial activity. We will find it by surrendering to Him, His wisdom, His Spirit.
 
3 – Paul takes the time to tell them that the teachers that pass through their live are God’s Servants – not Their Masters.  Follow Christ, let the teachers guide you, and the arguing and comparing would simply cease – as it needed to!  The Greeks (and Corinth is a city in Greece) were very immersed in learning and growing and perfecting and building. There are structures from centuries before Christ that are still matters to marvel over today.  Paul, amid this thinking, asserts to them that THEY are a temple, Christ is at work on this temple. They must bring Christ into all their thinking and building and activity and hobbies and obsessions. Christ would then therefore be their “obsession”. <– We’re saying what Paul is implying though he doesn’t word it this way.  Paul simply wants Corinthians to latch on to a totally higher way of thinking, and wisdom and operating that supersedes anything they have ever known before.  Christ owns you and has so much to bless you with. Let Him.
 

The Thread Through the Streams

:You will all follow a higher wisdom, what God has laid out, or you will end up killing what you think it is you love.
 

In Exodus, God laid out the plan; the “Decalogue” and numerous subsequent laws. Each persons impulses and passions were not to rule the day. God’s Law was the law. What happens in the world, in villages, in families where God’s law is not followed? Eventually murder rules and worse.

-In II Samuel David is feeling the affects of not following God’s 6,7,8, & 10th Commandments. He repented and was restored, yes. But it ends up terrorizing and killing his children however.
-In Psalms, the Sons of Korah are at a crossroads many times. They are so down-hearted. Thankfully they choose to look up to God, and His higher wisdom, and to be encouraged and not let their feelings override their faith.
-Jeremiah is urging them to follow God’s laws and wisdom. But they follow their own vices and darkness – what they think they love.  And it’s going to kill them, their towns, and Temple too.
-Hosea tells them that they are living wrong (teaching their children wrong too), Your idols, your judges – it’s all poison and you will lose everything and be destroyed for turning against God.

-Jesus, in Mark, asserts definitively that He must die (so that you/us/we can live.  This is higher wisdom – the plan that God laid out. This must be loved more than our own lives or we won’t find life ever.  Our life is found in Jesus’ death. [born once/die twice – born twice/die once]

-The Corinthian Church will follow Paul’s higher wisdom and the Corinthian Church will turn from their selfishness or there is going to be no Christian testimony in this city or this region. Their love for Greek culture and argument and body and mind will be surrendered to Christian codes for living or this church is going to devour itself.
 
Posted on

May 6

 

Romans 13-16

We are finishing the letter from the Apostle Paul to the Romans today. We are in the Living Bible translation this week.

 

Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis

Rom. 13  is being written by a man who is going to be executed by the pathological government’s Caesar in a little over a decade.  If he can take this with an upstanding attitude, we can too. Paul does not want Christians to be known as the “rebels of the nations” everywhere they go. . . . We are a growing movement that is blessed so to redeem [not start skirmishes] everywhere we go. Cheerful obedience and civil behavior are powerful tools in starting a wave that has Christians being perceived, “gee, they are awfully nice and friendly and giving.people!”

We are urged anew by Paul to be content people, our main trait is that we are loving, and our heart is to be eagerly awaiting the Return of Our Lord.  This will be the trademark of a vast charitable “army” of people who will embody the largest movement the world has ever seen.
 
14 – Paul knew that as people came to Christ Jesus and joined in the Kingdom and joined church fellowships, and worshiped together, and dined together (Paul knew) that these people would be coming from numerous backgrounds and the natural tendency to unify would be jilted by prior habits and vows and commitments from former beliefs.  People dining together would encounter either the commitment to or revulsion of certain foods. People of Jewish descent had the kosher laws that were superseded once Peter had his vision in Acts 10:9-16.  Others had secular backgrounds and were oblivious to religions that were either sacred or profane. Others had cultic backgrounds and, now being a redeemed Believer, they would be sickened by how they once lived and did not want to eat anything that reminds them of their past. Well here they were together at “church potlucks” and some brought kosher “manna/matzoh” [ok, ok!], others brought pickled shrimp, others – vegan bread and/or (unkosher!)–> cheeseburgers, and … you could see the squabbles that erupted over diet rules to which there was no resolution except to love eachother more than their former laws, or vows, or regrets of the past. The Jewish Sabbath v.s. new Believers honoring Sunday as more important was another needless argument that needed to be put to rest too.. It was vital that they all NOT insist that everyone else adhere to / or live by their own personal preferences, hankerings, or idiosyncrasies. Christian community was more important.  That meant they were not to be criticizing others.
 
15 – The onus was upon the more mature Christians to be accepting and welcoming, nurturing and even to be gently tutoring younger/newer/less mature Christians.  They were to be exceedingly welcoming and warm to one another.  Paul also wants Jews and Gentiles to get along.  From 15:20, through chapter 16; to the end of the book, Paul is talking of preparations, further journeys and travels and his desire to keep the gospel spreading. He’ll be taking a trip through Jerusalem first before coming to see his Roman friends and Believers. Remember that being held back in Israel by the Sanhedrin and the Herod-family only caused the three years of anticipation to see Paul only become more pronounced. You can hear Paul’s impassioned concern that the church grow and grow in all ways everywhere.
 
16 – is a great listing of the people Paul wanted to remember. A case study dedicated to each of the names in this chapter is as entrancing as poring over the 58,000 names upon the Vietnam memorial wall. We should not become fickle and skip these over. Each one shined like a reflection of Christ in the first century church. Some of the names of these people can still be seen upon the homes and structures they occupied back when Paul came through ca. 1,965 years ago. Paul revered each of these.  We ought also revere and welcome and honor each who visit our fellowships today … as Paul has been urging us to do for a few chapters now.
 
The week has been a colorful one going through each of the seven streams of Scripture. The thread throughout we’ll call, “Be Attentive. God is Moving. Move With Him, and Let Yourself Be Instructed.”   After the Exodus, there was water-as-medicine that needed to be ingested, a new diet pattern (failproof food from the sky for 40 years!), Sabbath rules, battles to uphold, a “no whining” law and these would remain for the rest of YOUR lives – catch this!           In II Sam. we are going to regroup in Jerusalem with the Ark for the first time (don’t get too close Uzzah!), it’s time to worship (Michal!) and David would have done better to keep his mind on the war v.s. the girl next door, eh?!  Everyone would have been better off if they had moved with God wouldn’t they??           In Psalms, David is in pain from his sin and the results of it. God is moving him through it however and David learns from it. Come Psalm 40-41 he is finding relief in his God. David does right by his faith again.     Jeremiah laments that Israel/Judahs’ love for God has grown cold. She has become a “queen” of prostitutes in many ways. God moves over them with an offering of repentance. They should move with God’s offer . . . but sadly they don’t let themselves be instructed.  .         Hosea brings a second antithetical story in a row as Israel is vapid/stupid and idolatrous, wretched to the core and refuses to be attentive and learn from God. So God is going to move a vicious army in their direction.        Everything Jesus taught them in Mark this week were very moving and dramatic lessons loaded with vital instruction. Jesus used each “teachable moment” to the full and the disciples caught it eventually.          Paul’s instruction to the Roman church was straight from the Holy Spirit.  God was moving people from all ~walks of life and ~regions and ~refined faith and ~pagan faiths —> right into His Kingdom and the teaching he gave this week was a perfect application to help them understand the moving of God anew .  Let’s let ourselves be instructed by God’s Spirit also so we do not miss what He has for us.