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NASB | John 12:32 "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 12:32 "And I, if and when I am lifted up from the earth [on the cross], will draw all people to Myself [Gentiles, as well as Jews]." |
Bible Question:
God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. "Double posting" is just one device we use to try to get a point across. The only purpose of this second of a "double post" is to encourage us to listen to each other. This is obviously hard to do. Those who want to lift up the name of Jesus will not listen because something tells them that they should. Can't we listen to them? Psalm 34:3 allows them to lift him up that. Exalting him and praising him are the same thing. “Exalt ”equals “Lift up”. It is the same thing. "Exalt" is the same as "lift up". The idea is to talk or sing about how great God is. And please don’t say we do not need to do that. Many scriptures encourage us to do that. Our brothers and sisters want to do that and here they tell their reasons. Their main reason is they want unbelievers to hear how great God is and to be attracted to him. That idea is soundly scriptural. Can’t we listen to them? I suggest that we need to read the passages cited and just think a little bit. Swift to hear. Slow to speak. That is what we are encouraged to do. The idea of lifting up Jesus is a scriptural idea. But it is not the kind of lifting up that Jesus was speaking of in John 12:32. Can't we just admit that? Lift him up. But use other scriptures. To insist that the idea is in contained John 12:32 forces us to focus on the cross and to rejoice and feel shame at the same time. It impels others to talk about crucifying him again and bringing him to an open shame. It causes one to wonder whether conversations like this do not bring him to an open shame. What if an unbeliever comes on to read his thread? What are they to think? And yet, some tell me that our 7-11 songs are not lifting up Jesus at all. (I only learned recently that that is what they call some of our songs, where we sing seven words eleven times and there’s no substance to it). "Lord, I lift your name on high". Does that mean that we are lifting his name on high? If I say, "I am preaching the gospel" does that statement constitute a preaching of the gospel? Contrast that with the psalms. Psalm 34:3 "O magnify the LORD with me". That is the call, only the call, the alarum, the alert. "Let us exalt his name together". That is only another alert. It is a "Get ready". Psalm 34:4 "I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears". Now, that is substance. That is praise. Now, we are lifting him up. Psalm 34:5ff "They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them". That is praise. That is saying good things about him. And do you wonder why we need to do it? It is first of all to give him his due. He says (Psalm 50:23) "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me". He is pleased with it. Not with empty words that say, "I am lifting you up". Lift him up with words that tell of the character he has and the actual things he has done. If you read Psalm 103, Psalm 104, Psalm 136, you cannot help but see that there is substance there. We need to have more than "I am singing, I am singing". Psalm 34:8 "O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him". This is where we invite the unbeliever to listen. It is his invitation to trust. It is the second reason we lift him up. We lift him up in song. That means we sing about his great deeds, and how wonderful he is. We want our unsaved neighbors to know that. That is one reason we lift him up. Please listen to them and do not accuse them of bad things. But they need to listen also. If it has not been said before, I say this here: Put some substance into the songs. Don’t just say you are lifting him up. Lift him up. Talk of the things he has done. Describe how wonderful he is. But I wonder if you will listen. You used to sing, "O Lord my God, when I with awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made. I see the stars. I hear the rolling thunder. Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee, How Great Thou art! ..." But you have abandoned songs like that for songs that say you are praising God when that is all they say. This is not a put down. It is the truth. And I am suggesting here that you listen. I am not suggesting that you listen to me. I am suggesting that you listen to yourselves. And listen to each other. |
Bible Answer: PART 3 OF 3 I am amazed that they even try. If they honestly do not believe in the charismatic movement they ought to be true to their convictions and reject their music also. But the fact that they are willing to accept the music to attempt to draw people (who are turned off by the vain inscincere ritualism of their tradition) exposes the very reason why they are not open to the Charismatic doctrine in the first place. They love the praise of men and not the Praise of God. The praise of men delights more in intellectualism of grand words in an old hymn than in the scripture being sung on a harp. The Praise of men will not allow them to do anything “radical” like life their hands toward God in worship, and the Praise of men makes them ignore the sound doctrine of saying that the Gifts of the Spirit are still available to the church today and replace it with a made up explanation (not doctrine) that the Gifts were in the Church then but now we have the Bible and do not need the Gifts. They no that it is risky business to state that we do not need something The Holy Spirit gave the first church, but their conscience is quited by words (not even smooth words but shaky and sketchy words) from their teachers and books that say that Paul chided the Corinthians for speaking in tongues, so they also chide men for speaking in tongues. Well enough said for now I will take up the subject again at a later post. May God bless you as you Study His Word. |