Primal or Prime?

Posted by Buck68 on May 13th, 2011 filed in Uncategorized

by Buck68™, May 13th 2011
©2011 by Buck68™, all rites re-served. Each use whatsoever requires prior written permission from the author [email: abuck68@yahoo.com]

I read this article with burgeoning passions about how I was going to save those poor folks from their Bible Study and great debates. As is my habit, I started collecting their errors to prove my point. Then something happened on the way to the Forum… and this is what… came to my senses. In other words, I wrote it …but it’s not my fault. Please – read the article first.

http://worldviewchurch.org/columns/featured-column/628-lloyd-jones-on-the-primacy-and-efficacy-of-preaching

One of my legion of arrogant imaginings is of that multifaceted parental smile on God’s face as He causes Isaiah to write once for forever. Put Me in remembrance; let us argue our case together. State your cause, that you may be proved right. [Isa 43:26] I am so on God’s side, I sincerely feel. Honest. But God says…

Be still, and know that I AM God. [Psa 46:10]. The only time in the Bible ‘still’ is the Hebrew prime root raw faw’ [Strong’s 7503] …which is also the prime root [S.7495] that translates ‘to stitch’ or ‘cure’ as in physician, cure.

What am I trying to relay here? Stealing a word from the Title: Primacy. The article continues a pro & con religious debate about preaching and churches … in the traditions of men. What men say. How we say it, which is to say how we ‘image’ [market] it. What men are passionate about. How men see it. How we ‘prove our point’ by ‘winning’ by out-rationalizing or out-appealing … the other side.

Yet, as Peter famously and irritatingly reminds [2 Pet 1: 12,13], we especially need continual reminder about what we already know. Be-cause? Be-cause Jeremiah 17:9. Be-cause our ways [traditions of men] are not His ways …in any way [Isa 55:8-9]. Be-cause Christ explains our evil nature in perspective and relationship to the Father [Mat 7:11, John 1:18]. Because 1 Cor 10:12-13. Because Hebrews 4:12. Be-cause the perfect explanations and harmonies of His Word …are the essence of living on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God [Mat 4:4]. Be-cause His Word and The Spirit are perfectly speaking the Truth in Love [Eph 4:15] about Jesus Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life [John 14:6]. Thee ONLY way, truth, life. Primal.

Allegorically, we live by His [continual, inclusive] grace – even His faith [Eph 2:8] – on our sojourn on that Road to Emmaus where the Stranger’s words burn [His purification, His way?] our hearts even as TODAY we do NOT recognize Him while telling Him… what is [really] going on in ‘current events’.

Galatians 1:10? Who is naturally the first man among men to please…besides ME? Is this where I say those nice fair phrases like, “I’m only human” and “everybody makes mistakes” and “gimme a break” … so I can … “just move on”?

Now …I wasn’t trying to TELL God. I wasn’t quoting scripture…the parts where God’s on my side and proving my point. I wasn’t trying to win the argument about church and preaching. I wasn’t feeling…saying…thinking…doing what God says in His Word and by His Spirit … I am. His Truth does not convict me… it proves you are wrong or to blame?

So… do we live by quoting some …or my favorite …words from my version of the Bible? Does God…know …our continual thoughts and intentions in my heart about… whatever? If we enjoy the humorous saying, “don’t B.S. a B.S.er” … then how funny is it if each piece of B.S. we send out… goes into that great bag in the sky until we shall render account for [every careless word] in the Day of Judgment [Mat 12:36]?

So let us re-cognize Romans 1:18-23. Let us Matthew 6:33 in the Greek verb meaning – “keep on seeking first”. Prime. Continual…prime seeking. How?

Let us… TODAY … hear His voice [Heb 3:7]. Let us re-cognize that mystery of the Prodigal Son: how did he come to his senses? [Luk 15:11-32] Luke does not say how. Rather, Jesus Christ. And the entire Word of God is about… Jesus Christ. And the Paracletos, the Spirit, is here by His fulfilled promise. So He is how, just as He is Lord of everything infinitely beyond every spectrum of men. And He upholds all things by the word of his power [Heb 1:3] …just as He created everything by…the power of His Word.

Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer…Friend.

Prime. Primary… all in all.

Each breath, He keeps giving us each and all the perfect ‘freedom…in part’ we keep thinking we need, or someone or something …else …is keeping from us. Such perception breeds the natural, traditions of men [Ecc 3:18]. He provides all in His creation for us to compare and contrast. How much does each man have to give up / deny each time he Prodigal’s God’s creation into manly traditions like ‘is this first, or is that’?

Here’s a comparison, perhaps a faint shadow of His smile: “man re-forms; God re-news”. Since it is written He [Christ] was in the beginning with God [John 1:1-2] … there is nothing new under the sun [Ecc 1:9].

Prime… first, now, always, forever.