Five Minute Friday: Escape

Today I am participating in Five Minute Friday, where a group of writers get together and free write about a one word prompt for 5 minutes. Today's word is "escape." Usually I wrote non-fiction, but today I thought about trying some fiction again.

Begin.

There was no escape. I was standing there just listening to them. I was trapped, trapped in the middle of those who had been my brethren. But now I just felt like I was on the outside, looking in. It seemed like mania in that room.

The officers were standing there shuffling their feet back and forth, one with beads of sweat forming on his brow, waiting for a punishment to come.

I couldn’t take it any longer. So, I just blurted out, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing?”

Every face in the room turned to me. The chief priests, the Pharisees, and the officers all stared at me intently. After the surprise wore off, a few of the Pharisees knit their eyebrows in confusion, and possibly some in anger.

I really wanted to turn and run. But I held my ground. I stared back and waited for the inevitable; a chastisement was surely coming.

A few of them began to speak in unison, all with the same thought. “Are you also from Galilee? Search and look, for no prophet has arisen out of Galilee.”

It was all I could do to not roll my eyes. I simply said, “Hmmmm” while stroking my beard, trying to appear in thought. This diverted their attention away from me and back to each other somewhat. It was not time for me to give myself away just yet. Who knew what else was to come?

After I lost their attention, I turned to leave the boiler of a room, and walked away with my hands behind my back, mumbling quietly under my breath, “Well Jonah came from Galilee.”

As I walked out the door, I could hear them plotting. “We must trap this carpenter in his own words, expose him before the people. But what can we do?”

End.





*This is a fictional rendering of the events that happened in John 7:45-52, from the perspective of Nicodemus, the night before a woman caught in adultery is brought to Jesus in the Temple.

By Faith Moses

 

By faith Moses, when he was grown, refused to be called the son    of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to suffer oppression with God’s people rather than to experience the fleeting enjoyment of sin. He valued disgrace for Christ above the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his reward.

-Hebrews 11:24-26 (BSB)

So, check out this verse. This says Moses valued disgrace for Christ!! What?? Moses lived close to 1500 years before Jesus.

What does that mean?

If you go read Hebrews 11...again...because I am sure you already have, with this verse in mind, you will see something new. Or maybe it is just new to me.

All of Hebrews 11 is about Jesus. Every act of faith mentioned is about Jesus!! It is about pictures of Him, foreshadowing of Him, and them looking for Him. What does this teach us about faith? That it all pertains to Him.

If you go on and reach Hebrews 12:2, it confirms this:

"looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God" (BSB).

Wow. So just write Jesus' name at the time of Hebrews 11. In fact, I would almost go so far as to say every time faith is mentioned in the Scriptures, you could put His name there.

A Foundation of Grace: Grace in the New Testament Scriptures

There are 157 occurrences for the Greek word "charis" in the New Testament. This word is most often translated "grace," but when looking at scriptures, I also found that it is translated as "favor, credit, thanks, gift" and a few other words. To read more about the definition of the Greek word "charis," please read an earlier post in the series here.

I thought I would share some scriptures with you about grace today, so you could see them side by side. Sometimes when we see scriptures together, it is like a puzzle with many pieces starting to click and form a picture.

And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.-Luke 2:40

And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.-John 1:16

And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.-Acts 4:33

Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.-Acts 14:33

Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.-Acts 14:3

But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they.-Acts 15:11

But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.-Acts 20:24

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.-John 1:17

To all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.-Romans 1:17

being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,-Romans 3:24

For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)-Romans 5:17

Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,-Romans 5:20

For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.-Romans 6:14

But as you abound in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us—see that you abound in this grace also.-2 Corinthians 8:7

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.-2 Corinthians 8:9

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.-2 Corinthians 13:14

I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,-Galatians 1:6

I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.-Galatians 2:21

There are so many other scriptures about grace in the New Testament, as well as the Old.  But I think we can see from these how important grace was to the Early Church and how it should be to us as well.

Grace and peace to you...

To read more in the series, please join me here, at A Foundation of Grace.

A Foundation of Grace: Grace in the Greek

You therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.-2 Timothy 2:1 (World English Bible)

For the last few days in this series, I have been sharing stories about Jesus, and how there are pictures of the difference between law and grace in these stories. But, what is grace? I think we need to let the Bible define grace for us by looking at it in its original language.

There are words for grace in the Old Testament in the Hebrew Language. We might look at them later. But since the New Testament is what we have been primarily been studying in this series, I thought we would look there first. As Believers, we are part of the New Covenant. Jesus came to fulfill the Old and usher in the New.

The New Testament was originally written in Greek. So, we can also look at the definition in the Greek.

The Greek word for grace is "charis."

Looking up Greek words in the Bible is fun because we get a much broader picture of what the word is supposed to mean. And sometimes it redefines it for us, because we might have a smaller picture in our minds that what the word really means.

The Greek word for grace is "charis." There are 157 occurrences of this word in the New Testament Scriptures.

There are several different Bible study tools that can help define this word for us.

Strong's Concordance defines it as "grace, as a gift or blessing brought to man by Jesus Christ, favor, gratitude, thanks, a favor, kindness.

Helps Word Studies defines it as "favor, disposed to, inclined, favorable towards, leaning towards to share benefit.

New American Standard Bible Exhaustive Concordance defines it as "grace, kindness" and translates it as "blessing, concession, credit, favor, gift, grace, graciousness, gracious work, gratitude, thank, thankfulness, thanks."

Thayer's Greek Lexicon contains some more lengthy, descriptive definitions, but in brief, it defines grace as:

1. sweetness, charm, loveliness

2. good-will, loving-kindness, favor; kindness which bestows upon one what he has not deserved

So, we can see that grace is something that is a free gift given to us, one we did not earn, or deserve, but based upon God's favor and goodness in our lives. And when Jesus came it brought it forever, eternally with Him.

To read more in the series, please join me here, at A Foundation of Grace.