Probability
" So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him. Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.” For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me. “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not valid. There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is valid. “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light. “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the very work that the Father has given me to finish, and which I am doing, testifies that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. “I do not accept praise from men, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe if you accept praise from one another, yet make no effort to obtain the praise that comes from the only God? “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”" (John 5:16-47, NIV)
[1]
It’s the New Year again and we have either made resolutions and are working to get and stay on track for the coming year or we have decided against it. Regardless of what you are doing or not doing most of us can recognize the need for change. Unless you look back on the past year and are totally content with what you accomplished, your general outlook on life, the manner in which you relate to people and of course the mistakes that you made. While you may not process change easily, it is a certainty that there will be no meaningful betterment in the days ahead unless you introduce change of some sort to you life.
The scripture lesson today – we have watched it together portrays Christ as a “change-maker”. He responded to the needs of a long term paralytic and it wrote him into the “bad books” of those religious leaders who were unwilling to accept change and this growth. Without change there can be no growth.
Christ was the introduction of a new era in relationship between God and man. It would be far beyond their imaginations and would bring them something that they had never known but their attachment to the familiar, to business as usual blinded them. It looked like a very “spiritual” objection, the defense of the scriptural principle of a “Sabbath” observance.
He still introduces change today. If you are to experience something different this year, how will it come? For some the only answer is to try harder. But that’s just another trip around Robin Hood’s Resolution Barn. We’ve all tried hard before and discovered that we don’t have what it takes to do it perfectly and to stick to it for the long haul.
Our prayer is that God will give us eyes to see and ears to hear beyond the blindness and deafness of familiarity and our own traditions.
1. There was an obvious disconnect here for those who persecuted Christ.
" So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews persecuted him . . .”
There’s nothing wrong with meaningful tradition. The church is always one generation short of extinction; and if we don’t pass on to our children and grandchildren what God has done for us and our fathers, the church will die of apathy and ignorance. “Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Ps. 34:11, NIV). It’s when tradition gradually becomes traditionalism that we get into trouble. Theologian Jaroslav Pelikan said, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”[2]
From research and personal experience I've come to the conclusion that in every church 16 percent of the members will never change. The tragedy is I see young pastors every day leaving the ministry because of that 16 percent. It's as if they're butting their heads against a brick wall. What they should be doing is concentrating on the 84 percent who are ripe for change. That's where the real ministry of the local church takes place.
-- Howard Hendricks, Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 2.
In their minds they were defending something sacred. The notion of the Sabbath and it’s keeping. And the notion of heresy – error that would come from someone who claimed a relationship with God that they could not permit. While they looked for the coming Messiah, they could not possibly admit that this was indeed the one. I’m not sure what they were thinking – would they find the Messiah wandering around waiting to be discovered and then revered? Would they seek him out or would He come to them? Could God come to a people who had fallen into a blind relationship with His words that subverted His purposes.
“You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
All of us have those areas that we guard quite closely. Our spiritual pet peeves. We can’t quite point to chapter and verse but we’re sure it’s in there somewhere. If we could find a place to write our convictions into the Word we would. And we try so hard that at times it discredits the Word that we love. You see to add to it is as heretical as it is to subtract from it and God will judge the liberal and the legalist for the same crime. Distorting the Word. Intolerable in God’s economy.
I have used this quote from George Verwer and A.W. Tozer before but it deserves re-using often because it is great truth.
There is another problem that we need to be aware of. Some Christians find it very tempting to be so very certain about what is right that they start laying down the law. Often it is difficult to be both firm and loving.
A.W. Tozer put it this way:
"It requires great care and a true knowledge of ourselves to distinguish a spiritual burden from a religious irritation. Often acts done in a spirit of religious irritation have consequences far beyond what we could have guessed. It is more important that we maintain a right spirit toward the others than that we bring them to our way of thinking even if our way is right. Satan cares very little whether we go astray after false doctrine or merely turn sour. Either way he wins."
Do you know what Tozer means by "sour Christians"? Often they have a good grasp of doctrine and a clear analysis of the situation, but seem to lack gentleness and peace. Any follower of religion can have a religious irritation: . . . It is very easy to right in the wrong way.
There are those certain perspectives that we hold too closely. If they were written in denominational statements as general rules of conduct for others we might have trouble with them. But our own “pet peeves” our religious irritations would never be in that same category.
Often we judge others according to the way that they position themselves to our convictions. If they share them then they are godly and if they don’t then they are suspect.
If I am restrictive with my own children I automatically assume that others should be the same with their children, . . . if they are truly spiritual people.
Ø I don’t let my children go out on Halloween so other Christian people should hold the same convictions
Ø I don’t think that a man should wear an earring
Ø I think it’s wrong to watch Bugs Bunny
Often we find ourselves in conflict with people over things that don’t matter. Rather than standing for things that make the difference we alienate ourselves from brothers and sisters over matters which don’t matter.
If I am going to heaven someday with Pentecostals and Baptists and Nazarenes and Catholics and God will be pleased to let us all into heaven, then are the differences that separate us here and now really all that important.
It seems that as we all grow in relationship to Christ our differences have a way of disappearing as His likeness becomes greater in us.
It is Christlikeness that minimizes our differences.
I would suggest to you today that spirituality is not measured in ways that set us apart from our brothers and sisters but in ways that make us less distinguishable from one another.
There are ways that we unavoidably represent ourselves before men that cause us difficulty in today’s world.
Ø We have a destiny that reminds others of their own destiny.
Ø People misinterpret the claim of the Christian to mean that we are perfect and without fault.
Ø The Christian faith is one that denies all other possibilities. If you are to call yourself a Christian you will call others lost.
Ø Your conduct can be misinterpreted as a “holier than thou” stance. It seems that we live in world that demands that no one stand out above anyone else.
2. God is always at work.
““My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working.”
So is the Son because He was the flesh and blood representation of God among his people. He stood above the system that they had established. They had reason to question. The principle of the Sabbath was near and dear to them and clearly established in the scriptures.
Whether we speak of churches or individuals we need to remember that the things that bring us vitality today are not meant to be grasped for a lifetime.
Over the space of time freshness is lost. Nostalgia causes us to cling to the things that time diminishes. I remember my teenage years and the faith that I discovered back then. It seemed like a God-ordained time and the world was “right” back then. I suppose, in some ways, that I would transport us all back there if I could. Because those days were so important and so life changing.
But they are deadening for others. When we insist that others live in our past experience it is criminal.
The scripture says: “to this very day” God is at work. I hope you believe that today. Don’t miss it because it’s true. To this day He is at work. Unless we embrace this the “change-maker” will leave us as we are and as we were.
When God does a work in people we will always have folks who come among us whose conduct may offend some others who have a greater sense of propriety. This healed paralytic offended their convictions by carrying his mat on a Sabbath.
I remember a baptismal service where a new convert gave Pastor B. the “high five” because he understood no other reason for the pastor to be holding his hand up.
All of us have our traditions, our ways of doing things both secular and sacred. Some of these things may have served wonderful purposes in your past growth and development and they have become relatively ineffective and useless to produce growth today in your life. If you want something new from God that will make a difference, what is ineffective must be respectfully laid aside in your personal life and what is new must be embraced.
3. We are troubled by those who admit to or claim special relationship with God.
” For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
I am not perfect but I am called here to this church for a purpose that God has that is greater than me and it is greater than you. This is not my church and it’s not your church – it is God’s church and He will build it
Pastors bother people you know. Who does he think he is to tell me how I should live my life? Good question. It might be better to ask, “Who is he?” Who is that masked man?
Who in the world is that short guy with the moustache and how did he get behind that pulpit? I’m not completely sure but I think that it goes something like this.
Ø God calls some people to serve him full time vocationally. There are not a lot of people who want my job. I didn’t want my job. They are not more special than other people. They are not more intelligent than other people. Just look at Pastor Peter.
But in order to do this a person must accept the possibility that they may never have certain things that other people have. Sometimes they are greatly blessed as I am to serve this faith family. Sometimes they are more blessed materially than they might have been if they had pursued their own course. Really the only thing that makes me different than you is this “call”. I have a certain responsibility before God that no one else in this room carries. I will be judged “more strictly” than any of you here today not by my ability to live up to your expectations but by my ability to be faithful to that calling. There are times when faithfulness to that call brings me in conflict with people. In trying to please God you sometimes can suffer the wrath of his people. I’m not suffering that right now. I’m sure that there are those who bless me and there are those who question me. That really doesn’t matter to me. Flattery can be intoxicating and distracting and criticism can be painful by the truth that it reveals or the motivation of the person who levels it at you. But I was called to be a pastor.
Ø Churches need pastors. One day this church needed a pastor. My heart was stirred and I entered into dialogue with leaders of this fellowship who interviewed me as a candidate for the position. Now the whole flavor of the process was based on the question, “Who does God want to come to this church as the next pastor?” My own considerations were the same. What is God’s pleasure for my own life? My wife wanted to come immediately and that was significantly different from prior moves that we had made. Note taken! There were a couple of people “short listed” at the advice of our District Superintendent. There was an invitation for me to come and preach. Then there was a meeting of the total membership of the church to see how they liked the sermon. They voted. They were saying that we also believe that it is “God’s will” for you to come and to be our pastor. We agreed. We came. My first regular sermon was Father’s day ‘99’. I have had 5 of the absolute most wonderful years of my ministry experience here at First.
Ø That’s how I got here, now what is my job? I have to do a lot of things that I have had no training to do. The call was simple but the job is not. My call was to preach and pray and comfort and shepherd. To love God by loving his people . To suggest from time to time that God might want us to do this or that. To give subordinate leadership. To express to the people what direction I believe that God is giving to me. That’s tricky because only people of faith respond to God stuff. It takes a people who strain to see the world the way that God sees the world, to follow Him by faith. And when I preach on Sundays, I am trying to pass on to you the truth that God is challenging me with. I preach to you as a person in process as well. Sometimes I’ll get it right and communicate it well and it will work. Sometimes it won’t be so great. Occasionally I will just get it wrong – I’ll make a mistake. When I do I will ask God for grace to admit it and you for the grace to forgive it. I’m not perfect. I’m just trying to stay close enough to God to hear His whispers. I’m trying to do the things that I feel are most important to Him and I’m asking God to work among us to “grow us up” into mature believers who share a common vision for ministry and a common passion for spiritual intimacy and growth and a common commitment to love people in Christ’s name by serving them in Christ’s style – as servants. If you want to be first you have to be last.
Part of moving on into the future is letting go of the past and trusting God to lead us forward through the direction of His Spirit, pastoral and lay leadership.
What are you looking for from God this year in your life? Do you see that these things are a matter of chance or do they have something to do with yourself? In your mind, is there a greater likelihood of winning the lottery than there is of receiving something from God. A lottery ticket costs relatively little compared to the possible return but perhaps it costs a great deal? Please don’t strike any deals with God this year. Don’t ask Him to bless you with money so that you can bless others especially when it is a matter of chance. You might ask God to bless your business, you hard work etc. – the results being proportionate to the investment. Most of us want to get lucky more than we want to be rewarded for our investments. Faith to many is just that minimal investment, maximal return. If I say the right incantations. If I show up in the right places at the right times. If I stay away from bad things. We see the activity of God in our lives as “good things” happening to us.
What is the probability that this year will in actuality, bring something into your life that you have never experienced before?
4. What was the relationship that Christ claimed with the Father?
“Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him. “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man. “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned. By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”
Ø His purpose was not his own.
“Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself
He could do nothing independent of the Father. I think perhaps this could be an important consideration for us today. Vital living for the Christian would suggest that our purposes are not our own. When we become self-absorbed and independently focused we step outside the areas of God’s blessing. Often He will let us go unimpeded in these directions. We think that God’s permission or our freedom to choose is God’s blessing and that is the way that we pray. We ask Him to bless our independence and our self-serving choices. Then we wonder what the problem is when we find ourselves in the middle of another failed experiment and we even resent God or doubt Him for pain that we have personally ushered into the front rows of our lives.
Ø What the Father showed Him he did.
“he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these”
Do you pray for wisdom in your life to do the right thing? If God faced the set of circumstances that you now face would he respond as you are responding or would He do something different. Almost always it is pride in some form that causes us to respond in an ungodly manner. It may not be overtly unpleasant but we find it a struggle to represent Him as He would appear in my shoes.
Ø Entrusted as the Life-giver. He is the appointed judge of mankind. It is Christ alone who
the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son
He said in his own words:
"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10, KJV) [3]
"For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10, KJV) [4]
"For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." (John 3:17, KJV) [5]
It is the purpose of Christ to bring you with Him into heaven, He has come to take nothing from you but to add to your life – to bring a quality of life that you cannot create on your own..
5. What were his credentials?
He gives credentials because he states that what a person says about themselves is unimportant.
Ø The Witness of John the Baptist – He was the first prophetic voce that the children of Israel had heard in over 400 years. They consulted him as to whether or not he was the Christ and John pointed to Jesus.
Ø The Work that He was Doing – Our work is our witness.
Ø The Word of His Father – the scriptures that they knew so well
6. No one is more the author of change than Christ.
It is his very purpose to be ever changing us this side of heaven and to be ever equipping us to better reach our friends and neighbors.
Repeatedly we look within ourselves to find the answers to facilitate the changes that we want to make – we try and we try and we fail miserably. Our conclusion is that there must be another approach that we have not yet thought of. So we think and we try and we fail.
No one has it all together. There is in each of us something that is bigger than our ability to master it. If we have control or the semblance of it in the areas that others are able to observe than we are regaled as disciplined champions of life. In reality few have it “all” together. We may exercise discipline in certain areas. We may display righteousness clearly in specific situations and responses but in reality we are very little different from one another when it comes to measuring our differences by what is observable. One of the weaknesses of membership in any society or pursuit or church is that there are measurable criterion that people can attain. For some this attainment is substantial – they are what they have become – what you see is what you get but for others it is fluff. They spend their lives pursuing perception. They want to be “perceived” in a certain light rather than wanting to become substantially what they are perceived to be. And that’s good enough. Many New Year’s Resolutions fail because they are mere cosmetic fixations. We don’t want to become we want to be perceived.
A Psalm of Single-mindedness
Lord of reality
make me real
not plastic
synthetic
pretend phony
An actor playing out his part
hyposrite.
I don't want
to keep a prayer list
but to pray
nor agonize to find your will
but obey
what I already know
to argue
theories of inspiration
but submit to your Word
I don't want
to explain the difference
between eros and philos
and agape
but to love
I don't want to sing
as if I mean it.
I want to mean it.
I don't want to tell it life it is
but to be it
like you want it.
I don't want
to tell others how to do it
but to do it
to have to be always right but
to admit it when I'm wrong.
I don't want to be a census taker
but an obstetrician
not an involved person, a professional
but a friend
I don't want to be insensitive
but to hurt where other people hurt
nor to say, "I know how you feel."
but to say, "God knows."
and I'll try
if you'll be patient with me
and meanwhile I'll be quiet.
I don't want to scorn the clichés of others
but to mean everything I say
including this.
So we are holographic in our relationships and our witness to others. Just a projection. Something without depth – one dimensional, - we portray what we want people to see and hide what detracts from this desired image. You can be a church member like this. You can practice in any vocation in this manner. It requires more intense effort and labor to maintain a projected image than it does to allow the world to see the total you in every dimension. I wish just once that people who advocate certain standards of righteousness for others would acknowledge the struggle and the periodic failures that they experience in trying to reach that same standard.
Change is found in the person of Christ and the admission that we cannot produce in ourselves anything more than the image of righteousness.
I think that the difference that we are looking for in the next year will be found in this person – not in our creativity or our sense of discipline but in our willingness to let Christ be Christ in us.
Therefore it is pointless to look deeper within to try once again to do what we consistently fail to do. What we abstain from we shall return to.
Let’s look at one very familiar and inspiring story of change in substance in people through
Alcoholics Anonymous began on June 10, 1935, co founded by William Griffith Wilson (Bill W.) and Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith (Dr. Bob). Wilson conceived the idea of Alcoholics Anonymous while he was hospitalized for excessive drinking in December of 1934. During his hospital stay, Wilson had spiritual experience that removed his desire to drink. In the following months he tried to persuade other alcoholics to stop drinking just as he had. Wilson found his first “convert” in Smith who was willing to follow Wilson’s method to find freedom from alcoholism. Four years later Wilson and Smith published the book Alcoholics Anonymous that contains the Twelve Steps and a spiritually based program of recovery for alcoholism.
The Oxford Group
Various sources influenced the formalization of AA’s program as developed and recorded by Wilson. Of these the British born Oxford Group movement and it’s American leader Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Jr., contributed most significantly to the basis of Alcoholics Anonymous. Both Wilson and Smith attended the Oxford Group meetings and based mush of the AA program on this framework.
In the 1920’s and 1930’s the Oxford Group Movement became a revolutionary answer to antireligious reaction following World War 1. Aiming to rekindle living faith in a church gone stale with institutionalism, the Oxford Group declared itself an “organism” rather than an “organization.” Group members met in homes and hotels, mingling their faith with meals. Despite it’s freedom from institutional ties, the movement was distinctly ecclesiastical and looked to the church as it’s authority.
Dr. Frank N. D. Buchman is cited as the leader of the Oxford movement. The group had no organized board of officers but relied instead on “God control” through men and women who had fully “surrendered” to God’s will. Buchman emphasized the need to surrender to God for forgiveness and guidance and to confess one’s sins to God and others. Oxford Group followers learned also to make restitution for wrongs done and to witness about their changed lives in order to help change others.
The Oxford Group’s teachings rested on the following six basic assumptions:
I. Human beings are sinners
II. Human beings can be changed
III. Confession is a prerequisite to change
IV. The changed soul has direct access to God
V. The age of miracles has returned
VI. Those who have been changed are to change others
In addition, Wilson incorporated into AA the Oxford Group’s five procedures which were:
I. Giving to God
II. Listening to God’s direction
III. Checking guidance
IV. Restitution
V. Sharing both confession and witness
While trying to attract more followers to sobriety from 1935 to 1937, Smith and Wilson attended Oxford Group meeting sin New York led by Samuel Moor Shoemaker, Jr. “It was from Sam Shoemaker that we absorbed most of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, steps that express the heart of A.A.’s way of life,” Wilson later recalled. “The early AA got it’s ideas of self-examination, acknowledgement of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Group and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America and from nowhere else. {Alcoholics Anonymous Comes Of Age, (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1957), p.199.}
The Twelve Steps
1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to others, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
Do you know what the major obstacle is for people who become a part of AA? It is to admit that they have a problem. Perhaps the same is true in our own lives spiritually? We call ourselves Christians but we are bound by habits and thought patterns and engrained responses to people. It seems that the gospel to many Christians is to declare that we are righteous and that there is this great division between us that separates us. We want people to know that they are going to hell more than we want them to know that they don’t have to and that they can be forgiven and transformed and set free from anything that keeps them trapped and bound.
7. The Probabilities
What is the likelihood that things will be different this year? Will it be another 365 day trip around the barn that will bring you right back to this same point unchanged and further disillusioned? It might be. It will be unless something takes place in you that is different from the last year.
What is it that you want this year?
At what price will you gain this objective?
Will gaining the objective bring you the desired result?
When we make resolutions we tend to try to bite off the end picture all at once. God gives us life, one moment at a time.
Unchecked Attitude
Forgiveness Withheld
Sin Concealed
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[1] The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
[2]Wiersbe, W. W. (1996, c1993). Be committed. An Old Testament study. Ruth and Esther (Es 9:17). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.
[3] The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[4] The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[5] The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
