Enoch’s Faith; Or, How to Mezuzah Your Life
Soul Structuring—Hebrews 11 Series #5
Hebrews 11:5
S-1505
Anthropologists have known for years that primitive peoples spend 30-40% of their time interacting with the supernatural world: preparing and performing rituals, dances, and ceremonies.
It doesn’t matter how much time they needed to eek out a living or not, a significant portion of time was devoted to religious matters.
They can tell how much free time a society had by the art work and crafts they engaged in—or not. If survival was not too difficult, they had time to paint and etch and fire their pots and produce beautiful artwork. If it took every hour of every day just to survive, there was no time for art; the pots were just fired with no decoration.
But, no matter how hard it was to survive or not, the people always spent 30-40% of their time in religious and spiritual endeavors, rituals, etc.
Why? They do that so their feeling is in right relation with the world they’re in. It just made the world feel right.
God never intended for the sacred to separate from the secular. For two centuries we lived in a society that made sense. The secular and the sacred intertwined. It was like we had a sacred canopy over our country—like most other societies throughout history have had.
“One nation, under God;” “God and Country;” “In God we trust;” Up to WWII many newspapers ran a Sunday sermon from the day before as part of the regular Monday edition because the sacred and secular just made sense. It made the world seem right.
We now live in a “twisted” society that seems Hell-bent on eradicating the sacred from our every day lives. This is a most unnatural thing.
SLIDE #1: In the early 60s the supreme court of our land outlawed the 10 commandments in the schoolroom.
SLIDE #2: Shortly thereafter, the freedom to pray publicly in school was rescinded.
SLIDE #3: Nativity scenes forbidden in public places.
SLIDE #4: Last session of Supreme Court: Prayer at High School ball games forbidden
SLIDE #5: The secularization of our society is being done under the auspices of the “Doctrine of the Separation of Church and State.” This concept is foreign to the U.S. Constitution; as far as the Constitution is concerned, this idea was created by the U.S. Supreme Court out of nothing.
SLIDE #6: Note carefully the wording to the 1st amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting and establishing religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right to the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
This has to do with forbidding the establishment of a state religion (like existed in England from whence the colonists had just come) and forbids the establishment of laws which would hinder the free expression of anyone’s religion (which the U.S. Supreme Court has been violating since the early 1960s).
STORY: Brie and Paige forbidden to sing about Jesus in a talent show at Donaldson elementary. Came to word Jesus they were instructed to leave it out and hum. Finally pointed the name of Jesus to Heaven.
Our empathy goes out to school teachers.
Many surveys reveal that the average American believes that we have less religious freedom in America than ten, twenty, or forty years ago.
Raise hands: How many feel that our religious freedom is being restricted?
Lunch with Rick Wilson: “They did not put anything back in its place.”
Look at the world our young people grow up in. Murders, gangs shootings, kids sit frightened in school, 16 year old kills mom and two children for wheel rims. We ripped out the sacred values and absent secular values will never do the job.
Coming out of WWII we lost the sacred canopy, people are now putting up their own “sacred umbrellas”.
We all know that Roman Catholics and members of some other religious traditions made the sign of the cross from forehead to breast and from shoulder to shoulder.
Historians tell us that this practice developed out of a very early and widespread Christian tradition of using a thumb or finger to trace the shape of a small cross on one’s forehead or an object.
Second-century church leader Tertullian had this to say about the practice:
SLIDE #7: “In all our travels and movements, in all our coming in and going out, in putting off our shoes, at the bath, at the table, in lighting our candles, in lying down, in sitting down, whatever activity occupies us, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross.”
Make everything a holy thing. Set up sacred umbrellas.
Pray to make Casas’ new site a sacred umbrella for folks.
Need to sacredize the spaces that we live in.
Soul Structuring Lifestyle arts.
READ HEBREWS 11:1-2.
SLIDE #8: 1. My faith means I listen to what God says and live accordingly.
Faith always begins with a word from God—the Bible or my inner spirit—then I do whatever God says.
READ HEBREWS 11:3.
SLIDE #9: 2. My faith means I live and act on the basis of the supernatural, invisible world.
Heaven is right here. Push back the curtain and it is right here in another dimension.
SLIDE #10: 3. My faith believes that in a universe as large as ours, my God is really big.
Too many of us have a God who is too small.
A big God allows for a big faith.
READ HEBREWS 11:4.
SLIDE #11: 4. My faith in the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ for my sin restores my broken relationship with God.
Now we come to the next lifestyle art.
SLIDE #12: My faith means I creatively integrate the sacred into my everyday life.
READ HEBREWS 11:5: By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.
Here we have the sacred testimony that this man pleased God. We would do well to discover why and do likewise.
His story is found in Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
READ Genesis 5:18-24: When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. And after he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Jared lived 962 years, and then he died. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. And after he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
(Please get the supplemental tape #S-213 available at tape table today for a further study on Enoch’s life and times. Enoch’s translation is a picture of the Rapture of Christians. The age in which he lived paralleled the age which will exist just before the 2nd coming of Christ.)
Key is verse 24. Enoch’s walking with God was very attractive to the Almighty. This morning I want to describe what that might look like in our generation.
SLIDE #13: MEZUZAH (or Sacredize or sacramentalize) Your Life
On the right side of every Jewish doorpost is nailed a small piece of parchment rolled and inserted into a wood, metal, stone, or ceramic case called a mezuzah.
SLIDE #14: Deuteronomy 6:4-9: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children.
SLIDE #15: Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
The idea is carried over in the New Testament:
SLIDE #16: 1 Cor. 10:31: So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
SLIDE #17: Colossians 3:15-17: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
As we go through life we set up sacred canopies in all sorts of spaces to make it all make sense.
SLIDE #18: MEZUZAH YOUR HOME
Julie and I enjoy traveling. In states usually stay in hotel. Usually on business, anyway. Go overseas, arrange to do something different. Creative ways to save money and have great experiences. Convent in Rome. They rented out rooms to travelers. No AC, sparse, it was a convent. Julie did not like the accommodations the first. Next morning chimes and nuns singing filled the convent. Did it every day. Time to go and Julie wanted to stay another night. It was such a holy place. Those nuns muzuzahed their home.
SLIDE #19: Here is the house I was born in: corner of Mixon and Park Lane.
SLIDE #20: Here is my house growing up. Mom and dad still live there.
This is a sanctified house. It is sanctified by the stories and experiences my mom and dad brought into that house.
Mom’s wall of special memories of trips and pictures.
They were careful to bring God into that house and I never got over it.
Kitchen table where we had endless discussions on theology, how to build a church, reach people.
Inside hall we knelt in during a tornado that struck Dallas and prayed for God’s protection.
Couch where I saw my dad kneeling in prayer early in the morning praying for the family.
Does God live inside your house? In what ways do your children know it? How do you know it?
SLIDE #22: Here is a picture of the official plate commemorating Mark McGwire’s 62nd home run. What made Mark McGwire’s sixty-second home-run baseball worth $1 million? It’s the same $5.00 ball that anyone catches. The story is what makes it so valuable. Stories are sacred.
If you go into our house you will find stories everywhere. Pictures all over the walls. Julie’s dad’s clown paintings. Raggedy Ann doll hanging from ceiling fan represents Brie who has gone away. Little girl on a swing hanging from a hook over the sink represents Bronwyn.
SLIDE #23: If you walk into the front entry way there is a picture of Elijah etched in marble that was given to me in the Ukraine—represents teaching spiritual growth. I have sat before it on many long hard nights remembering God’s provision. Vase also given in Ukraine representing Mary pouring out all she had over Jesus. I want those things in my life.
Julie “Servant”
SLIDE #24: MEZUZAH YOUR ARTIFACTS
When you polish the silver candelabra you inherited from your grandmother, clean the treasure your wife gave you on your honeymoon, or vacuum your mother’s oriental rug, offer a prayer of gratitude to God for their influence in your life.
When you get a car, bless it for God’s use. Then treat it with respect.
Every time you open you Bible, say a prayer of thanks for William Tyndale, the biblical scholar who gave his life so that you and I can do something we take for granted: read the Scriptures in our own language.
SLIDE #25: MEZUZAH YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
Every encounter is a divine encounter. People are not there by accident.
If you are too busy then people are an intrusion rather than an opportunity.
Make every person you encounter leave your presence feeling better, not worse. Say something encouraging to everyone you meet. Let them touch God in you.
Practice the spiritual discipline of secrecy. Pay for someone’s meal without them ever figuring out who the benefactor was.
Gregg and Ruth Spykerd and Kelly Glover bought us dinner: Made us feel so wonderful. Made them feel better.
SLIDE #26: MEZUZAH LIFE’S TRANSITIONS
Why don’t we send our parents and grandparents a handmade note and gift on our birthday, thanking them for this precious gift of life? One man sent a note like this to his mother (who lived with him the last eleven years of her life). “I found in her purse when she died.”
Julie’s best birthday was at Gloietta, NM this past month. Video tape of people telling her what she had meant to each of them. “God did use me to touch that person’s life. This was so special, I can pull out that tape whenever I get depressed or discouraged.
Party! Glorietta police had to come and break it up. But that is another story for another time.
SLIDE #27: MEZUZAH YOUR MOMENTS
I have a rock collection to mark significant moments with God.
Into every life God moments will come: it may be angel money, God presences, comforting consolations. But God moments will come.
If you’re a teacher, what kid blessed your heart today?
If you’re a salesperson or checkout clerk, what customer cheered you up and calmed you down?
There is one day in your life that will be your best day. There is one day in your life that will be your worst day.
It’s important to know when you’re having one of life’s best moments. And worst. Landmark both.
It’s important to know when you’ve eaten the best peach you’ll ever eat. And worst. Landmark both.
Mezuzah your moments: “God was here.” Look for when God penetrates the heavens to open shafts of divine light on earth.
Poem by a contemporary Danish poet I heard on Garrison Keillor several years ago. It is entitled TIME. Moments passe by before we know it.
SLIDE #28: We have twelve clocks in our house; still there’s never enough time.
You go into the kitchen and get chocolate milk for your spindly son, and when you return, he has grown too old for chocolate milk, demands beer, girls, revolution.
Your daughter comes home from school, goes out to play hopscotch, comes in a little later, and asks if you would mind the baby while she and her husband go to the theatre.
While they are at the theatre, the child, with some difficulty, is promoted to the tenth grade.
You photograph your full-blooded young wife, with fashion-coordinated outfit, an opulent fountain in the background,
But the picture is hardly developed before she announces that it is time to collect her old-age pension.
Softly, the widow inside her awakes.
You want to make the most of your time, but it gets lost all the time.
Where has it gone? Was it ever there at all? Have you spent too much time throwing time out?
So you roam around for awhile, without time and place.
And when it’s time, you call home, and you hear,
“Hello, this is the operator, you’ve called 959-4939. I’m sorry. That number is no longer in service.
(Click)
Make the most of your time while you have it.
These lifestyle arts are critical in a society where the sacred canopy has been removed.
“By faith he was translated that he should not see death.”
Enoch had been walking with God for so many years that his transfer to Heaven was not even an interruption.
SLIDE #29: I’ve often heard said, “No one is ready to live until they are ready to die.”
SLIDE #30: Enoch lifestyle are is this: “When you have sacredized your life it is easy to die.
Who do you know who died well?
SLIDE #31: Albert Fox:
SLIDE #32: Hildegard and Heinz Janssen
SLIDE #33: Hildgeard Janssen.
Newly widowed. Going to take a whole bunch of people to heaven with her. Winter of life.
1. Mechanic came to fix her washer. Taking her blood pressure. “Will you take mine?” It was very low. “You will live forever.” “No, I might fall down the stairs today and break my neck.” “Are you ready to meet God?” Shared how to right with God. Twenty minutes later he bowed his head and prayed to receive Christ.
2. Began a Bible study in the hospice. Started with 4. Now have 14. Talking about the 2nd coming of Christ. “Is everyone here ready to meet Him?” “No.” “Led her to Christ in front of all the others.
3. Handicar occasionally takes her places. Passed by a funeral home and driver said, “I don’t ever want to go there!” “Why?” I am afraid. Are you afraid?” “No, I am going to see Jesus.” Shared gospel. “Now are you ready to receive Christ?” “I’ve been a really bad boy.” “Wonderful, these are the people God loves the most.” Led him to Christ.
4. Talking to employee at the hospice. “How old are you?” “I am 81.” “Aren’t you afraid of dying?” …
Roger, it is so easy. You just tell them how much God loves them. It is so easy.