{"id":399,"date":"2021-05-08T17:17:14","date_gmt":"2021-05-08T17:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=399"},"modified":"2023-10-15T18:21:05","modified_gmt":"2023-10-15T18:21:05","slug":"jesus-came-to-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=399","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Came to Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jesus came to a people: Israel.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Israel was a defeated country. Occupied by a foreign army. Taxed into poverty. As a nation, their good days were hundreds of years in the past.\u00a0The political leaders were under Roman control and far more concerned about their power and position than they were the people. <\/span>It was not the government for the people. It was people for the government.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Their religious leaders were corrupt and\u00a0focused on their own ego and power. They were bound by tradition with little spiritual vitality. They were centered on laws, rules and rituals. More concerned with how they looked than what they were. Concerned more with the system and\u00a0the\u00a0institution than people. Because of their own emptiness they were easily threatened and reacted forcefully to any perceived challenge. They manipulated the system for their profit, power, ego and prestige.\u00a0They were on the watch for and challenged any deviation from their nitpicking system. They saw themselves as Spiritually superior, as defenders of the faith and protectors of God. Any deviation from their standards or opposition to them was a direct attack on God that must be eliminated by any means\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They knew God, what God wanted and how God would work in the world and they were at the center of it. If anyone wanted to know anything about God, ask them. They were the experts. They knew God better than God did.\u00a0In their eyes,\u00a0God knew what he was doing when he chose them. They were special. That is why God picked them.\u00a0It had little to do with their God-given mission to bless others<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

They claimed they worshiped God, when in reality they were the center of a religion that had little to do with God. Their religion focused on the peripherals so much that God was pushed out and their image of God took center stage. Their image of God reflected them rather than them reflecting God. Their image of God became more and more like them.\u00a0They then expected God to conform to their image.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The average Joe was at their mercy. They went through the rituals and rules because they were told that was what God wanted. They had a hunger for more so they went out into the wilderness to hear John The Baptist and later Jesus.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus came to remind them\u00a0and demonstrate what God and religion were really like.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0leaders\u00a0could not stand His teaching and attempted to destroy it.\u00a0\u00a0They liked their creation\u00a0of God better\u00a0than God\u2019s revelation\u00a0of himself so they killed Jesus.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I know that there were many synagogues then that were faithful and righteous and following God just as there are many, many churches today whose pastors and leaders are faithfully following Jesus. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

BUT\u2026\u2026\u2026..<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I wonder how similar we are to Israel?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Which way are we drifting? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Where is our focus? <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Are we making God in our image?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jesus came to a people: Israel. Israel was a defeated country. Occupied by a foreign army. Taxed into poverty. As a nation, their good days were hundreds of years in the past.\u00a0The political leaders were under Roman control and far more concerned about their power and position than they were the people. It was not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-darness","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":400,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions\/400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}