Recovered In Christ

Walking In The Dust Of Jesus
By Layla Nadda
Friday, April 5, 2013

“Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:9-21)

Hold on one second!! Is Paul saying I get to throw burning hot coals on my “enemy’s” head?? On a bad day I may want to sign up for that – or in the past I’d have used that statement to hold something against the Bible, or just try and ignore it – thinking I’m doing God a favor by overlooking some harsh statement!

But what is the truth here? With our individualism, secularism, materialism, and biblical and cultural illiteracy I am surprised that we can read and understand the Bible at all! No – textbooks and research and a PhD in Jewish culture are not necessary to accept Christ as Savior and be filled with the Holy Spirit that WILL open the scriptures for us to understand and give us the power to live according to God’s laws. But so much of our difficulty in understanding and delays in living God’s Way of life, not only come from ignorance of the cultural context of scripture – but comes from our cultural self-centeredness to not even wonder about these things – it does not even occur to us that we are not to just “apply” Christ and biblical morality to our lives – but to instead fit ourselves according to God’s plan! What does this mean – should I trade the subway train I take to work for a camel ride? No. It means being willing to cross the cultural gulf through whatever means I have available.

Many years ago my mother used to tease me that my “watered down” knowledge of our Arab culture was that of a pheasant visiting a King’s palace for the first time! How was she able to preserve our Arab heritage and way of life and customs and morality into my very DNA? She didn’t give me a book. She didn’t send to “Arabic” class or seem to teach me anything. She simply lived that way of life. It is who she is. “I walked in her dust”. A term that comes from Jewish discipleship. Men who walked so closely in their Rabbi’s way of life, that the Rabbi’s dust kicked up from their daily walk would cover the disciple walking with him!

I ate my mother’s food, I listened to her stories – told through her understanding, I was raised in her interpretation of her Arabic culture – and it is now as much a part of me living in downtown Toronto, Canada as if I had stayed in Damascus, Syria. She crossed and covered the gulf for me. She was my bridge.

Interestingly enough – she as a Palestinian Muslim woman who had never studied Jesus Christ or read a single book about Him – seemed to know so much more about Him than I did at the time, as I was studying and reading and researching!! It was like she knew His family, like he was a distant relative rather than an ideology! Many of the biblical customs and morality that stumped me and my friends; she waved away the confusion and explained in 5 minutes in between sips of tea!

I began to see that the difficulty and struggle for so many “westernized” Christians to live according to God’s word comes from this gulf that needs to be bridged.

I am not suggesting taking a sabbatical to live in Jerusalem or living in a tent to “feel” closer to Jesus – I am also not suggesting reducing the word of God to cultural context only. The Bible has a historical framework. Its characters are real people that lived in verifiable locations during historical events. It also reveals God’s eternal plan of redeeming the fallen human race.  It is the account of God’s action in the world and his purpose with all creation.

My point is that whatever gets lost in ‘translation’ that seems to put Christ in such a dusty dry box for so many people won’t be fixed only by focusing on your singular, individual experience and understanding of Christ, but it will also not be fixed by taking a crash course in biblical culture! The REAL solution is to allow the Holy Spirit to do His job! He is the Bridge, the Teacher, The Comforter, The Helper…He is the one who will lead you into all knowledge and understanding! He will be able to help you not only learn and apply what it means to place coals on your enemies’ heads – but He will progressively change us into His likeness that His life may be lived in and through us.

Paul says that if we give food and drink to our enemies, we shall be heaping “coals of fire on their heads.” To us this doesn’t sound like forgiveness, but like taking vengeance.

In the Bible lands almost everything is carried on the head – water jars, baskets of fruit, vegetables, fish or any other article. Those carrying the burden rarely touch it with the hands, and they walk through crowded streets and lanes with perfect ease. In many homes the only fire they have is kept in a brazier, which they use for simple cooking as well as for warmth. They plan to always keep it burning. If it should go out, some member of the family will take the brazier to a neighbor’s house to borrow fire.

Then she will lift the brazier to her head and start for home. If her neighbor is a generous woman, she will heap the brazier full of coals. To feed an enemy and give him drink was like heaping the empty brazier with live coals – which meant food, warmth and almost life itself to the person or home needing it, and was the symbol of finest generosity. – B.M. Bowen, Strange Scriptures that Perplex the Western Mind

We, Westerners, usually picture vengeance when we think of pouring hot coals on someone’s heads. The Semites pictured something completely different … We, Westerners, must break some of our traditions, if we are to ever come to a deep understanding of the God of the Bible. It is full of beautiful pictures like this one. – Gary Amirault, Tentmaker

“It’s hard not to wonder if the early Jerusalem church might have had a few advantages in understanding Jesus that can help us as disciples today. In the first chapters in Acts we read of their amazing passion — their Spirit-filled prayers, their joyful gatherings, their loving generosity, and their dynamic witness to their neighbors. Until a few years ago, it never occurred to me that the first believers of the infant Jerusalem church in Acts were all observant Jews, men and women who continued to study the Torah and worship in the Temple, even after they came to faith in Christ. In fact, for the first half of Acts, the rapidly expanding church was almost entirely Jewish. It was only after God pushed Peter out of his comfort zone to witness to the Gentile centurion Cornelius that the church considered the possibility that the gospel was for Gentiles too (Acts 10).

We Christians often neglect this as we retell the stories of the early believers’ joyful fellowship. We assume that the remarkable success of the Jerusalem church came from the fact that believers were freshly filled with the Holy Spirit. But Paul’s Gentile church at Corinth had experienced the same outpouring, yet it struggled with immaturity, division, and sexual immorality. Why the difference? As wonderful as it was that the Corinthians found Christ, most had come out of a pagan reality, and their lives had not been saturated by the Scriptures that Jesus read, our Old Testament. They lacked the Torah’s training in moral laws that Christ built upon. They had a lot of catching up to do. Moreover, while the Gentiles worshiped Jesus as their Savior and God, the Jewish believers also knew him as their rabbi. As Jesus’ disciples, they knew their obligation was to memorize his words and live according to his halakha, his interpretation of how God’s Word teaches us to live.” – AR

Holy Spirit

Do not cast me from your presence or take your HOLY SPIRIT from me (Psalm 51:11).And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised HOLY SPIRIT, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God`s possession – to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:13-14). And do not grieve the HOLY SPIRIT of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30).

 

Power of the Most High

The angel answered, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the POWER OF THE MOST HIGH will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God’ (Luke 1:35).

 

Spirit of   Adoption

You did not receive a spirit of slavery leading you back into fear, but a SPIRIT OF ADOPTION through which we cry out, “Abba!” (that is, “Father”) (Romans 8:15 – New American Bible).

 

Spirit of Christ

Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the SPIRIT OF CHRIST in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow (1 Peter 1:10-11).

 

Spirit of Counsel

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the SPIRIT OF COUNSEL and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).

 

Spirit of the   Father

But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, for it will not be you speaking, but the SPIRIT OF YOUR FATHER speaking through you (Matthew 10:19-20).

 

Spirit of Fire

Our God is a CONSUMING FIRE (Hebrews 12:29).He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with FIRE (Luke 3:16).

 

Spirit of Glory

If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the SPIRIT OF GLORY and of God rests on you   (1 Peter 4:14).

 

Spirit of God

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the SPIRIT OF GOD was hovering over the waters (Genesis 1:2).

 

Spirit of Grace and Supplication

And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a SPIRIT OF GRACE AND SUPPLICATION (Zech.   12:10).

 

Spirit of   Holiness

…regarding His son, who as to His human nature was a descendant of David,…and who through the SPIRIT OF HOLINESS was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 1:3-4).

 

Spirit of   Judgment

The Lord will wash away the filth of the women of Zion; he will cleanse the bloodstains from Jerusalem by a SPIRIT OF JUDGEMENT and a Spirit of Fire (Isaiah 4:4).

 

Spirit of   Knowledge

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him –   the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of   power, the SPIRIT OF KNOWLEDGE and of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).

 

Spirit of Life

Therefore, there is now no condemnation   for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of   the SPIRIT OF LIFE set me free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:1-2).

 

Spirit of Power

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him-   the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the SPIRIT Of COUNSEL AND OF   POWER, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).You will receive power when the Holy   Spirit comes upon you (Acts 1:8).

 

Spirit of   Prophecy

At this I fell at his feet to worship   him. But he said to me, “Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and   with your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the   testimony of Jesus is the SPIRIT OF PROPHECY” (Revelations 19:10).

 

Spirit of Sonship

For you did not receive a spirit that   makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the SPIRIT OF SONSHIP. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (Romans   8:15).

 

Spirit of the Fear of the Lord

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him –   the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of   power, the SPIRIT OF KNOWLEDGE AND OF THE FEAR OF THE LORD (Isaiah 11:2).

 

Spirit of the Son

Because you are sons, God sent the SPIRIT   OF HIS SON into our hearts, the spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father”   (Galatians 4:6).

 

Spirit of the Sovereign Lord

The SPIRIT OF THE SOVEREIGN LORD is on   me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has   sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives   and release for the prisoners (Isaiah 61:1).

 

Spirit of Truth

But when he, the SPIRIT OF TRUTH, comes,   he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; He will speak   only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come (John 16:13).

 

Spirit of   Understanding

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him –   the SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND OF UNDERSTANDING, the Spirit of counsel and of   power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).

 

Spirit of Wisdom

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him –   the SPIRIT OF WISDOM and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of   power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:2).

 

Willing Spirit

Do not cast me from your presence or take   your Holy Spirit from me, restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant   me a WILLING SPIRIT to sustain me (Psalm 51:12).

http://dailygoodies.wordpress.com/2010/01/04/heaping-coals-of-fire-a-figure-of-speech/