The Camel and the Needle

by Lenny Cacchio

Jesus once said that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God. That’s a hard saying. Did he really mean it? Did he mean that a rich man can never enter the Kingdom, as we all know that a camel cannot pass through the eye of a needle? On the other hand the Bible clearly indicates that many godly men from Abraham on down acquired great wealth.

Many have tried to explain this hard saying of Jesus in various ways, but clearly the disciples seemed to have taken this quite literally because they immediately asked, “Who then can be saved?” (Luke 18:26).

There is a simple explanation for Jesus’ statement, one that illustrates an effective teaching method that he used often. Jesus was a master of word pictures and hyperbole. Jesus did this all the time. He warned against straining at a gnat while swallowing a camel (Matthew 23:24). No one took it to mean that the scribes and Pharisees were swallowing camels.

He talked about taking the speck out of your brother’s eye while there is a beam in your own (Matthew 7:3-5). No one took that to mean that people had giant two by fours coming out of their eye sockets. They got the point and understood the lesson.

I would offer that it is the same with that camel and needle thing, even though the disciples did not at first get it. Take a look at the context of this teaching.

A rich man approaches Jesus and asks him what he must do to gain eternal life. Jesus tells him to keep the commandments and names a number of them, significantly naming the last several that deal with how we love our neighbor but omitting those that tell us how to love God. Jesus does not contradict the man when he claims that he had kept those commandments his entire life. But he does tell him that he needs one more thing — one difficult thing: To sell what he has, give it to the poor, and then follow Jesus.

By this Jesus was showing the man that while he might have done a pretty good job of loving his neighbor (the Commandments that Jesus quoted to him), he was falling short in his love toward God (the Commandments he did not quote) because he was ranking his wealth before God.

In those days a form of the Wealth and Health Gospel had infected people’s thinking. They believed that having great wealth was proof of God’s blessing, which would imply that poverty was a result of God’s disfavor. Even today many at the preaching of false teachers have fallen for this fallacy, which Jesus’ statement to the rich man should surely contradict. That’s why the disciples asked Jesus, “If the rich can’t be saved, whom God is clearly blessing, then who can be?”

Jesus, of course, said that with us it is impossible, but with God all things are possible, which happens to be a true statement about rich and poor alike.

The point to be made might sound almost heretical. Yes, we accept the Bible as the inspired word of God. But we have to be careful when we take things too literally. We use figures of speech when we talk. We must also accept that Jesus did too.

Lenny Cacchio has a blog on the Bible Sabbath Association website. You can follow him at the following weblink: http://biblesabbath.org/index.php?pr=Lenny_Cacchio_Blog

This blog was originally posted on May 14, 2016

Free Family Sabbath Resource – Sabbath Kids!

On this website, you will find many resources to help impart life-long lessons from the Word of God into your children on the Sabbath, such as:

– Videos about Bible Stories

– Online Coloring tools

– Bible-based games

And More!

Just click the link below to access this FREE resource!

http://www.sabbathkids.com/

By Bill Lussenheide

Professional baseball historically has captured much interest in America, but also around the world. In fact baseball has become so ingrained in the American psyche that even movies that portray baseball have increasingly become “supernatural” or “spiritual” in their nature. Movies like “Angels in The Outfield,” “The Natural,” or “Field of Dreams” all try to capture the idea of either an interest by God in baseball, or providing supernatural talent, or even creating a resurrection of dead baseball players to facilitate a father/son reconciliation.

Baseball itself has an interesting sabbatical element within it — the “Seventh Inning Stretch,” allowing a brief rest bit during the seventh frame, along with the singing of “God Bless America” at major league stadiums. However, there also has been those that have become believers of the truth, especially in regards to the Seventh-day Sabbath truth, that have been involved in professional baseball. This article will outline several individuals who have been associated with professional baseball and who also were or became Sabbath Keepers. The fact that many professional baseball games are played on Saturdays, creates an obvious conflict with a Sabbath observer. However there have been at least two players who, while still active in their baseball careers, attempted to work around the Sabbath. Ed Correa, from Puerto Rico, is a Seventh-day Adventist. He played 3 seasons in the major leagues and was a starting pitcher…”

(This article is an excerpt from the March – April 2013 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel)

To read the rest of this article, which starts on page 17, click this link:

http://biblesabbath.org/media/TSS_2013_Mar-Apr–560.pdf

Tiger And Tom And Other Stories For Boys

By J.E. White

This book is available to order through the Bible Sabbath Association. In it, you will find character-building stories for boys.

Read one of the recommendations of this book:

“I have spent literally $1,000.00’s on educational and character building materials for our son… and none have been as encouraging, nor as influential as your old time stories.”

These stories were compiled from orphanage stories used in the United States many years ago. Fortunately, Godly character does not have a time period attached to it. These timeless stories will encourage boys to choose right from wrong. Read them to your children and even grandchildren!

To order this book, just click the link below:

https://biblesabbath.org/shopping/pgm-more_information.php?id=48&=SID

Did the Sacrifice of Christ nullify the Ten Commandments?

In Ephesians 2:11-15, Paul wrote “11 Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— 12 that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, 15 having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace…” (NKJV)

In Ephesians 2:11-15, Paul explains that each of us who are Gentiles were at one time excluded from citizenship in Israel. However, through the blood of Christ we have been made one with Israel and one with the covenants of promise. For Gentiles and Israelites to be unified, Christ had to die to abolish the ‘law of commandments contained in ordinances’ that separated us from citizenship in Israel. The Greek word translated as ‘ordinances’ in this phrase is dogma, and it refers to a man-made ordinance or decree. The phrase “law of commandments contained in ordinances” refers to the laws and commandments in man-made ordinances of the Pharisees and Sadducees, which separated Gentiles from becoming members of Israel.

The man-made rules of the Pharisees and Sadducees often treated Gentiles as second-class human beings. For instance, some Jewish people had a man-made rule which stipulated that any fellowship with Gentiles would make them unclean. God never said this in the Bible. It was a man-made rule. Rules such as this separated Gentiles from coming into covenant with God and becoming citizens in Israel. As a physical representation of this, the outer court of the Temple in Paul’s time had a wall preventing Gentiles from associating and worshipping with Jews. They had a separate court in the Temple called “the court of the Gentiles”.

This is the middle wall of partition that Paul says was torn down through Christ’s death. This wall was a physical representation of the wall of regulations (man-made ordinances and commandments) that the Pharisees and Sadducees had built to create enmity between Israelites and Gentiles. According to the Law of God, Gentiles were allowed to enter into covenant with God (Leviticus 24:22). They just simply had to take the sign of the covenant, circumcision, and obey the terms of the covenant, which is the Law. When the Israelites left Egypt, they left a mixed multitude of Gentiles and native Israelites (Exodus 12:38). All of the Gentiles that left Egypt with the Israelites became naturalized citizens. They were baptized by the sea and cloud (I Cor. 10:1-4).

Through Christ’s death, everyone is allowed to enter into citizenship in Israel without having to go through man’s rules.

Nags Head Hotel to Pay $45,000 to Settle EEOC Religious Discrimination Lawsuit

Hotel Fired Seventh-Day Adventist Employee Over Sabbath Issue, Agency Charged

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – A hotel group which owns and operates the Comfort Inn Oceanfront South in Nags Head, N.C., has agreed to pay $45,000 and provide substantial additional relief to settle a religious discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced today.

The EEOC’s suit charged that the hotel group refused to provide Claudia Neal, a Seventh-Day Adventist, with a religious accommodation of not having to work on her Sabbath, which is from sundown on Friday until sundown on Saturday.  Neal began working at the hotel in May 2009.  Initially, Neal’s request not to work on her Sabbath was honored.  However, a change in management occurred in October 2010, and in November of that year, the hotel group refused to provide her with a religious accommodation, and fired her…

To read the rest of this article, go here:

https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/7-23-13.cfm

Sabbath Ideas! – Free Resource

On this interesting website, you will find over 350 Sabbath activities for your family and church. These interactive activities will enhance your understanding of the Sabbath. And, you will have fun doing it!

http://www.sabbathideas.org/p/home.html

The Greatest of These is Love

by Clarice Joseph Jackson

(This article is an excerpt from the Jan-Feb 2012 edition of the Sabbath Sentinel)

These are the opening words of a poem written on the back of an envelope while waiting in an airport. The plane would take me to a memorial service honoring Ozzie Engelbart, an incredible man. Ozzie was a big bear of a man with the widest smile I have ever seen. His usual greeting was a bear hug that would almost squeeze the breath out of me! I had the blessing of knowing him for over thirty years. He was pastor of the Church of God I attended as a teenager, and the first Christian minister I knew personally. I grew up in an observant Jewish home and was the eldest child of a Rabbi, a Holocaust survivor.

The cultural transition was difficult to say the least. In those early days, I didn’t analyze what it was about Ozzie that attracted people; what quality he possessed that made everyone feel special when they were in his presence. I didn’t know much about spiritual gifts, but I recognized that the love of Messiah was reflected in this man’s life in a special way. And because of his care, his counsel and example, my faith in Messiah was encouraged and strengthened. In the early days of my walk as a believer in Yeshua, Ozzie Engelbart seemed to instinctively recognize the struggle I faced as the only Jewish member of the congregation. For the sake of my faith in the L-rd, I worshipped apart from my family and all that felt familiar and comfortable. There were times when I almost gave up. But this pastor with the heart of a true shepherd wouldn’t let me quit. More than once he left the other ninety-nine of his flock and went after this one little Jewish lamb who tended to wander away from the safety of the fold when discouraged…”

To read the rest of this article, which starts on page 7, click this link:

http://biblesabbath.org/media/TSSJanFeb2012.pdf