The ways of the LORD

Bible study today included Psalm 128.  Verse 1 reads:

"Blessed are all who fear the LORD, who walk in His* ways." (NIV)

I read two sources of blessing in this verse.  First, there is 'fear the LORD'.  Second, there is 'walk in His ways'.

Fear of the LORD is acknowledging that He exists, and that He acts in this world.  Fear recognizes His power and control over the universe.  Fearing the LORD is the beginning of a relationship with Him--you cannot have a relationship with Him if you deny that He exists.

There are real, tangible, benefits to a relationship with the LORD.  The LORD is active in the world, pouring blessings on those who love Him.

The ways of the LORD are attitudes, values, and behaviors; like the Judeo-Christian work ethic.  Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly with your God.  Hard work, balanced by rest and community involvement.  Compassion.  Honesty.  Investment and delayed gratification.  Servant leadership.  Responsibility.

These are all good things to believe in, strive for, and do.  Even independent of a relationship with God, justice, honesty, compassion, and the rest amount to the best possible philosophy for a person.  There are no guarantees.  And every person is fallible, and will fail to live up to their own ideals and values.  But of all of the possible targets that a person could aim for, this target is the one that will most often lead to the best results.

Even independent of God, this pattern of life just works best in this universe.  I believe that this is because He created this universe, and it just reflects His nature.  So His philosophy of life is the most in line with the way that the world works.

It is not what comes natural to a person.  We are all selfish and short-sighted.  We are all lazy.  We all seek to avoid unpleasant situations.  But when we can overcome our own natural impulses and live according to His principles, then we achieve better results.

I think that the natural consequences of this philosophy apply to groups as well as individuals.

There is a movement within the business community to do good.  I don't think this is a mere fad.  I think it is a long-term trend towards improving business ethics.  If you study the history of business then you will see that companies in earlier ages were significantly more corrupt than they are today.  Much of what we decry today as corporate evil is simply how business has been done for millenia.

Likewise, government has been trending away from evil demagoguery and towards real justice.  This movement has been slow and methodical (and uneven.)  Power in government has been getting more and more distributed for all of recorded history.  I look at this trend and see hope for humanity.

I had not put it into these terms until now, but Democracy 2.0 is an attempt to better implement the ways of the LORD within a secular society.  I am working to see the values of doing good gain a stronger hold in this world.  Justice.  Responsibility.  Honesty.  Community.  These are the cornerstones of Democracy 2.0.

I can't market it to a secular society as "the ways of the LORD."  But I can, I think, improve the lives of people by giving them better government.  I think I can win the arguments for the mechanics of this type of better government, based solely on the results that will come.

If I can improve peoples' lives, then I believe that I am fulfilling Jesus's instruction to care for those in need.

Am I abusing the text, or is this a valid application of this verse?

* The NIV does not capitalize the h in 'his', here.  I couldn't make myself type it that way, I had to capitalize it.

The heart

Bible study this morning was over a couple of the songs of ascent.  The last verse really struck me as one of those Old Testament verses that had little spiritual meaning to the original audience--the Hebrews, but has deep spiritual significance for Christians.  Psalm 126, verse 6:

"The one who weeps as he walks along, carrying his bag of seed, will certainly come in with a shout of joy, carrying his sheaves of grain."

I'm sure that is all true in the natural, physical, obvious sense.  But how much more true is it in light of Jesus' metaphors about the harvest of souls.

It makes me wonder.  Shouldn't we be more heartbroken about the eternal predicament that sinners are trapped in?  Would our witnessing be more effective if we were genuinely sorrowed about the fate that awaited them?

I think of a scene with a weeping prophet, mourning and crying as he shares the gospel and his audience rejects it.  His emotions are in line with the reality he professes.  He should be heartbroken if he truly believes that these people will suffer eternal separation from our heavenly Father.

What is prayer?

My wife asked me if I knew any good books about prayer.  As a matter of fact, I do.  But I asked what sort of book on prayer she wanted--what question was she trying to answer.  She had an impressive list of questions.

How come God sometimes changes His mind, like in the story of the good king Hezekiah?  How come sometimes He answers the prayer of one person, and sometimes He only answers after many people pray?  We are instructed to go to the elders for prayer when we are sick, but why do the elders' prayers count more than my own?  Is there a formula for how and when we are supposed to share our prayers?

Well, I'm in the process of building a shared prayer journal website, called Pray with Friends.  It turns out that I have some ideas on answers to these questions.  I think best while writing (and editing the dumb things I write in my first draft.)  So I'm writing my thoughts out here.  I'll also include a few books I liked at the end, for further study.

Will God literally keep His promise to Abraham?

"The Lord took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars – if you are able to count them!” Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”"  Genesis 15:5 (NET)

That is God speaking to Abraham.  Do you expect Him to keep this promise literally?

At the judgement, can you see God say to Abraham?

"Abraham, come and look in my left hand and see that there are 102,503,329,470,927,138,981,467 stars.  And now look in my right hand and see that you have 118,954,304,761,927,724,647,301 descendants.  I was true to My word, spoken to you so long ago.  I fulfilled My promise to you."

I googled for 'how many stars are there', and I found several articles that all said that our best estimate is between 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.  That is, "something like 10²² to 10²⁴ stars in the Universe."

There are about 7 billion people alive today.  That's 7,000,000,000.

Assuming a purely Darwinian world view ("humans" have been around for about 50,000 years, etc.) will give you the largest possible number of humans who have ever lived.  I found one reasonable article that gives that number at 106,456,367,669.

I tried to take the nifty chart from that reasonable article and extrapolate how long it would take to make 10²² people.  I futzed with Excel for nearly an hour (at 1am).  It's harder than it might seem.  (If anyone knows how to do that math please let me know.  See the chart in the middle of this article  for a starting point.)

But to get from 100,000,000,000 to 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 has got to be something on the order of hundreds of thousands of years.

But that is assuming that every human who lives is a descendant of Abraham.  There were people who lived before him, but not really that many, especially compared to the huge numbers we are talking about.  But we have to decide who all counts as descendants of Abraham.

Biological descendants probably includes everyone of Middle Eastern descent, at this point.  Spiritual descendants would include all Jews, maybe all Christians, and maybe all Muslims--all three religions call Abraham 'father'.  Either way would limit you to counting only some portion of the total population.  That means that you need tens of thousands more years to get enough descendants.

Do you believe that the Lord could tarry that long?

How do I interpret the captivity?

We studied Psalms 106 in my men's Bible study this morning.  This psalm sings out the metaphor of the nation of Israel as the man of God.

God is faithful.  The nation and the man are unfaithful.  God pursues.  The nation and the man flee.  God promises.  In their time of need, the nation and the man call out to God for help.  God saves.  The nation and the man quickly forget.  God punishes.  The nation and the man repent and praise God again.  God blesses.  The nation and the man focus on the blessing and forget the source of the blessing.  God calls.  The nation and the man turn again to their sin.  And the cycle repeats.

This metaphor was true during the Old Testament times, when the psalmists were writing.  And the metaphor holds true today, in the era of Christ and the adoption of Gentiles.  Psalms 106 lays out the story of the nation in chronological order.  I was following the metaphor just fine until I hit verse 47.

"Deliver us, O Lord, our God! Gather us from among the nations! Then we will give thanks ¹  to your holy name, and boast about your praiseworthy deeds." (Psalms 106:47, NET translation)

This verse seems to indicate that this was written after the fall of the northern kingdom.  It could be from the period during the exile of Jerusalem in Babylon.  Either way, it got me thinking about the captivity experience in light of the metaphor of the nation of Israel as the man of God.

We don't talk about the metaphor explicitly very much.  But the metaphor is clearly the primary interpretative guide that we use to apply the lessons of the Old Testament to our modern world:
* God's promise to Abraham is like the covenant that He made through Christ.
* I spurned that covenant and got myself enslaved in Egypt.
* I called out to God from my captivity, and He miraculously saved me from Egypt--my personal experience of receiving the salvation that He provided for long ago with His promise.
* I went through a period of learning to obey Him in the wilderness.
* Mostly I rebelled and He was forced to discipline me, before I finally reached a point where I could enter into the promised land of His blessings in this current life.
* As a card-carrying believer I continue to sin, allowing the bad kings to make bad decisions, as it were.  And He continues to discipline and forgive me when I repent.
* And then He sent the nation into captivity.

My own current situation (unemployed for 10 months) leads me to want to interpret the captivity as simply a period of extreme testing.  That interpretation would be comforting to me.  But it doesn't sit well.  I am afraid that is a self-serving (and thus incorrect) interpretation.

In it's context, the captivity is a punishment for continued sin.  Many of the punishments were localized in the nation.  Like the rebellion of Korah, when Korah, his conspirators, and their families were swallowed up by the earth (Numbers 16.)  The whole nation was punished, but the individuals that led the rebellion bore the brunt of the punishment.  The individuals whose primary sin was failure to stop the rebellion were punished less severely.  And it should be noted that not every individual in the nation was sent into captivity.  A small remnant remained, and barely survived as a nation.  And only a small remnant chose to return from captivity.

The Babylonian captivity was different from the Egyptian captivity in an important way.  Egypt is abject slavery.  The slaves had no freedom, but they were ignored in terms of their religious practices.  The Egyptians simply did not care who or what the Hebrew slaves worshiped.  If the slaves bowed to the Pharaoh, or a statue of the Pharaoh, it was treated as merely the obedience of slaves and not held against them as religious rebellion.   Babylon is relative freedom.  The individuals are carried there as slaves, but they have a tremendous amount of freedom in their slavery.  And individuals can earn their freedom and Babylonian citizenship.  In Babylon, bowing to the statue of the king is a sin.

The story of the nation is the story of a child growing up.  Over time the child is given more and more freedom and responsibility.  By the time of the Babylonian captivity the nation has been walking with God for centuries and should be very spiritually mature.  They have been through the rebellion-punishment-repentance cycle many times.  The prophets are calling out their sin and predicting the punishment even while the Babylonian army is making camp outside of the city.  The nation should have been mature enough at that point to repent and avoid the punishment of captivity.

Could it be that God treats us adopted children this way?  If we continue in our sin for too long, does He actually send us away?

I'm not thinking about a believer losing their salvation, but I can certainly see how others would get there.  I'm thinking about a spiritual loss of connection where God is just no longer reachable.  If a believer continues to sin, could God disconnect them from His power and just leave them going through the motions of their Christianity on their own?

We're interpreting a metaphor, so we have to be careful not to treat the metaphor too literally.  Not every believer experiences the rebellion of Korah in the same way; or the pride of Saul; or the unfaithfulness of Ahad; etc.  We are each individuals.  But the general path of the story is true, even if the details differ for each of us.

It might be going too far to say that most, but not all, believers will sin sufficiently to experience their own captivity punishment.  And it might be too much to say that many of those who are sent into captivity will choose to stay there instead of returning to close fellowship with our Father.  Maybe that is beyond the interpretative scope of the metaphor.  But it feels right.  Sad, but right.

I have never been taught that the majority of Christians will continue in their sin for too long, and God will send them away into disconnected spiritual captivity.  They might choose to continue to go through the motions of the Christian life, without experiencing the power.  Or they might get their Babylonian citizenship and just go back to living like a pagan.  But a small remnant will realize what they lost and return to vibrant fellowship.  I have never been taught that.  But it sounds accurate.

Am I wrong?

Please tell me I'm wrong.

How am I supposed to interpret the captivity?

Or, if I'm right, what should we do with this knowledge?

Can we bring them back from captivity?  Can we do something differently in order to keep so many from being sent into captivity?

Hard questions

My pastor has started a new sermon series about the hard questions in Christianity.  I think it might be a good hook for following the Easter crowd.

When the series was announced and the little question cards were handed out, I put 'Why do bad things happen to good people?'  I have my own answer to that question, and I want to hear Matt's answer.

I missed church yesterday because Georgia was sick.  So I don't know what the sermon was.  Probably I missed my question.  That's just the way things tend to work.

But I've thought of two more questions.

1. How can a sinner (even a sinner saved by grace) live a holy life?

2. Why me?

Let me explain.

1. How can a sinner (even a sinner saved by grace) live a holy life?

Christian's sin.  It's unfortunate, but it still happens.  I've only met one guy who claimed that at the moment of his conversion he attained a real-life-moment-by-moment state of sinless perfection.  I told him that he seemed very proud of this.  The irony was lost on him.  Probably I should have tried to be less subtle.

Paul sinned.  Paul referred to his 'thorn in the flesh' that God chose to not let Paul experience victory over.  So we could take this question down to just Paul, even though it applies to everyone, really.

Paul sinned.  Paul committed the same sin over and over.  After he had repented and tried to stop repeating the sin, and he continued sinning anyway, what happened?  How many times can you commit the same pet sin over and over, and honestly ask for forgiveness each time.

"Oops, I did it again."  Seriously.  Over and over.

When it becomes clear that God has decided to let you live with this sin instead of experiencing freedom from it, how should you live?

Does your prayer life change?  Does your physical life change?  Jesus said, "if your eye offends you, pluck it out."  I see no evidence in Scripture that Paul plucked out his own eye.

How do you live holy and sinful at the same time?


2. Why me?

(I have a harder time explaining this one.  Maybe it is just my mood right now.)

Scripture is pretty clear that this whole thing is all about God.  Salvation is a free gift from God, and not earned by works.  God offers suzerainty treaties to us because He is doing everything and we are just recipients of His mercy and grace.

He doesn't need any of us.  If we were silent then the rocks would cry out to praise Him.  When He adopts us we are full of sins and bad habits.  His purpose in our lives is to break most of those habits and teach us to think and act like Him.  When that process is done I will be virtually indistinguishable from Him.  That is the point.

He loves everyone.  He would die for just one person, if that's all there was.  But there are billions, and He loves each one of us.

So I'm one out of millions/billions.  If I didn't obey then someone else would, or the rocks would.  And the whole point of obedience is for me to cease to exist.

I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem like such a good deal to me.  I want to matter.  I want to make a difference.  I want to participate in something other than ceasing to exist.

Why me?  Why not let someone else do it?  My own life will certainly be a failure without Him.  But it will be my own life.  And that just seems like it is better than ceasing to exist.

(This is probably the depression speaking, now.)

It just seems to me that anything I enjoy gets taken away in the name of becoming more holy.  Anything that I am good at gets taken away.  "I must decrease, He must increase" sounds like a beautiful dedication.  But my experience is that it is slow torture and misery.  Is my misery the only thing that He can receive glory from?

Jesus was an introvert

I was at a job seekers' meeting at church tonight, and the Bible lesson was about prayer.  Specifically it was an overview of the most pivotal periods of Jesus' life, with emphasis on the fact that He was regularly praying before those moments.

As is often the case when someone is talking, and I get it, and they keep talking....  My mind was racing ahead and analyzing what else I can see in this set of versus.

And besides praying, Jesus was constantly going away by Himself before and after the biggest events in His ministry.  He recharged His batteries by spending time alone.

Lots of other teachers and preachers are introverts.  There's nothing wrong with it.  But maybe I just feel a little better about being an introvert now.

Father Abram

Sunday school (Adult Bible Fellowship) on Sunday morning was about Abram and the Abrahamic Covenant.  I was really struck by the fact that God made this an unconditional covenant.  That means that God didn't put any qualifications on it.  God simply said, "I'm going to bless the whole world through your family."

It's almost as if Abram couldn't even stop God from doing it.  In most of God's other covenants with people there are conditions that God lays down before the people will receive God's blessing.  Sometimes there are punishments listed for failing to live up to their end of the bargain.

It made me wonder why God did not do any of that in Abram's case.  Abram certainly sinned and made some mistakes along the way.  But the mistakes that he made were not serious enough to threaten God's work.

Did God simply know this in advance?  Maybe God just decided that this project was too important to let Abram fail.  Or maybe He just knew that Abram didn't need the threat in order to be faithful.

Whatever God's reasonings, it seems clear that Abram was the sort of person who would remain faithful without the threats.  Wow.  Think about that for a minute.  Abram was willing to leave his home and follow God's direction with little evidence and little knowledge of God.  Scripture does not indicate that Abram was a simpleton.  Abram reasoned out the situation and decided to trust God, over and over.

If only I could be so faithful.

Rock and roll music

I had an interesting talk with Max last night on the way home from his youth group meeting.  The leader of his discussion time had challenged the kids to not listen to music by non-believers, or as he put it, "people who do not honor God with their lives."  I used to believe that way.  I don't any more.  I don't claim to know the right answer, but I know why I do what I do.

Mark 2:15. While Jesus was having dinner at Levi's house, many tax collectors and "sinners" were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.

16. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the "sinners" and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: "Why does he eat with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

17. On hearing this, Jesus said to them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." (NIV)

Jesus was tempted, but never sinned.  I sin regularly.  That's an important distinction between Jesus and myself.  He could go to parties with these people and resist the temptations He faced.  Sometimes I give in to sin while I'm sitting in church listening to the sermon.  But after 37 years of life and 24 years of walking with Christ, I have a pretty good idea of which temptations I am particularly susceptible to and which have no appeal to me.  I know what types of situations I should avoid, and which I can withstand.

Matthew 15:10. After Jesus called the crowd to Him, He said to them, "Hear and understand.

11. "It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man." (NAS)

If an activity leads you to sin, don't do it.  Regardless of everything else I say below.  This is the first, and most important point.  Don't use your liberty in Christ as an excuse to sin.

Rock and roll music doesn't lead me to sin.

Now, with that said, I think that the Christian life is a balancing act.  We are in the world, but not of the world.  We have to live here, but our hearts and treasures are to be set in heaven.  We have been called by God to reach out to sinners, but we have the duty to not be re-ensnared by their sin.

Philippians 4:8. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (NAS)

I used to avoid much of the world, like rock and roll music.  Now I avoid less.  I'm no great evangelist, but I think that now I am less of a stumbling block.

People who do not trust Jesus for their salvation are doomed, according to the Scriptures.  They are not doomed because of their sin.  They are doomed because of their lack of faith.  Their sin is part of the equation of their unbelief, but that's a long theological argument that is beyond the scope of this article.  But it is an important distinction that the real, fundamental problem is unbelief, not the other sins.

Yes, unbelief is a sin.  But my point is that God has called us to help them believe.  He did not call us to help them stop sinning.  If they believe and receive the Holy Spirit then He will help them stop sinning.  It is important that we understand this distinction.  The steps go in that order.  Belief first, and then stop sinning.

Therefore any arguments that we have with sinners, telling them to stop sinning, are completely counter-productive.  Telling a sinner to stop sinning is putting a stumbling block in front of them.

Romans 14:13. Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way. (NIV)

1 Corinthians 8:9. Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. (NIV)

Yes, that is a serious thing.  I commit a greivous and terrible sin when I tell a lady who enjoys the sin of gossip that God cannot love her until she stops gossiping.  That is not true.  God loves her right now.  He always has.  He always will.  She can come to Him and He will forgive her and wash her sin away.

It is a common saying among Christians that we should condemn sin and not sinners.  I disagree.  I've talked to lots of sinners and they cannot understand the distinction between sin and sinners.  When you condemn sin, sinners believe that you have condemned them.

If you want to lead people to Christ then stop condemning sin.  Focus on the love and acceptance of Christ.  Tell people that God loves them, just as they are.  Don't ignore sin, but don't condemn it.  The stance I take with sin is that once you accept God's love and begin to let that affect your heart and mind, many of the things that you enjoy now will no longer bring you joy.  And at the same time you will find new joys.  The old joys always had consequences--hang-overs, pain, frustrations, etc.  The new joys are more pure and have no consequences.

Most non-believers have heard enough from church people that they know that what they do is wrong.  They will ask.  If you get too close they will throw it in your face.  Be very careful what you identify as sin.

An honest and educated non-believer who is genuinely considering Christ will understand that they will have to stop sinning once they come to Christ.  They will think that they have to do it in their own strength.  They will think that they will be miserable without their pet sins.  Isn't that what you thought before you surrendered to Christ?  And you surrendered anyway.  So will they.  But...

They are making a list of things that they will have to give up.  They have that list on a scale, and Christ is on the other side of the scale.  DO NOT PUT ANYTHING ON THAT LIST THAT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THERE!

Adultery must be on the list.  Homosexuality has to be on the list.  Gossip has to be on the list.  Drunkenness must be there.  Stealing.  Pride.  Pornography.

Cigarettes should not be on that list.  Listening to rock and roll should not be on that list.  Having a beer with friends (distinct from drunkenness) should not be on that list.

Anything that doesn't belong on the list, but that gets there anyway, is a stumbling block our enemy is using to keep that person from surrendering to Christ.  One of our jobs is to remove non-sins from that list.  That's a job that we have historically ignored.

Luke 15:29. "But he answered and said to his father, 'Look ! For so many years I have been serving you and I have never neglected a command of yours ; and yet you have never given me a young goat, so that I might celebrate with my friends ;

30. but when this son of yours came, who has devoured your wealth with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.'

31. "And he said to him, 'Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours.

32. 'But we had to celebrate and rejoice, for this brother of yours was dead and has begun to live, and was lost and has been found.' " (NAS)

And I would suggest that we should err on the side of liberality, if we have to err at all.  I will gladly spend time in heaven apologizing to a friend that I let him believe that he could keep his pet sin when he accepted Christ.  That is so much better than being unable to apologize to a person stuck in hell because he thought he would have to give up something that he didn't actually have to give up.

Where do you meet non-believers?  What do you talk about with them?

Go to the Louvre.  It's full of beautiful art.  Few of those artists lived lives that honored God.  And yet they made some beautiful art.  Pick a painting that you like.  Study it closely.  Drink it in and let yourself thoroughly enjoy it.  Did you sin?  Probably not.  But you have had a normal human experience that non-believers can relate to.

There is probably someone else looking at that painting, too.  They might be seeing and enjoying the same things you see.  But because they have a different past and different eyes there is a good chance that they see something different, too.  Ask them what they see.  Listen to them.  You might find something new in the painting that you had not seen before.  You might find something new in the human experience that you had not felt before.  Or you might find that their experience is not so different from your own.

You have now connected with this person.  You are open and vulnerable to them.  You hear what they are saying.  You hear who they are.  This is humanity.  This is how people relate to one another.  Welcome.  I'm glad you could join us here, even for a minute.

You don't have to go to the Louvre.  There is a world all around us, and a trillion non-sinful things that you can appreciate.  Pick one and appreciate it.  You will probably find a non-believer there who appreciates it, too.  Speak to them.  Listen to them.  Hear their joys and their fears.  Empathize with them.  You might earn the right to share the deeper things in your own heart.

I enjoy rock and roll.  I think Led Zeppelin's Kashmir is the greatest rock and roll song of all time.  I really enjoy the way it ebbs and flows.  It builds to a crescendo, and then continues.  I like the sounds and riffs.  I've listened to a lot of rock and roll, and Kashmir continues to impress me each time I listen to it.

I can talk to non-believers about music.  When they talk about songs they like, I know those songs.  Sometimes I can hum the melodies or recite some of the lyrics.  I don't have to say "you are acceptable", they understand that I'm human like them.  And at minimum they might say to themselves, maybe accepting Christ isn't the death-sentence of boredom that I feared it would be.

1 Corinthians 9:19. Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.

20. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.

21. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law), so as to win those not having the law.

22. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.

I've also found that most good rock and roll deals with the genuine feelings of the artists and listeners.  That genuineness is part of what makes the great artists stand out.  And many of those people have considered Christ and struggled with faith.  That comes out in their lyrics--not every lyric, but fairly often.  Some of it is just religious imagery, but some of it is honest struggle.  And even the conversation about whether this is honest struggle or religious imagery is an interesting conversation.  Dave Matthews, for instance, sings these lyrics in a song where he is struggling with his own angry emotions (from Time Bomb):

"

when everything starts to fall 

so fast that it terrifies you

when will you hit the wall

are you gonna learn to fly

no one would believe it

except for all the people

watching as you fly away

baby when I get home

I wanna pick up the pieces

hammer in the final nail

and lean me up against Jesus

baby when I get home

I wanna believe in Jesus

hammer in the final nail

help me pick up the pieces

baby when I get home

help me pick up the pieces

hammer in the final nail

I wanna believe in Jesus

"

National Day of Confession

Bible study this morning was Psalm 79.  I was struck by how little confession and repentance there was in this psalm calling on God to remove his judgement from the land.  As I thought about that I began to think that we would be well served with some public confession and repentance, both as a church and as a nation.

I wondered if there was any precedence for this.  It turns out that there is.  Abraham Lincoln declared April 30, 1863 a national day of confession and fasting.  I'm even more impressed with Lincoln, as a man and a president, after reading the declaration he wrote.  This is during the middle of the Civil War.

I suggest that pastors around the nation should teach on confession (including repentance and forgiveness) leading up to the day.  I suggest that individuals, congregations, denominations, and the ecumenical Body of Christ should discuss our sins leading up to the day.  And on that day I want to see all of us confessing our sins (both individually and in our various groups) and asking forgiveness.

I could put on my Amos hat and tell you which sins I would like to see confessed (bonus points for you if you thought of this article.)  But I don't feel like God is wanting me to guide that part of the process.

"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." - Matthew 5:23-24

We have a National Day of Prayer (May 6, 2010.)  I propose that we should have a separate National Day of Confession.  April 30 worked for Lincoln.  That date seems good to me, too.  If anything, our prayers on May 6th would be more likely to be heard shortly after a good dose of confession.

April 30th is also:  National Honesty Day,  National Oatmeal cookie day,  Mr. Potato Head Day, and Raisin Day.  But May 6 is also National Hoagie Day, National Beverage Day, National Teacher's Day, National River Clean Up Day, American Lung Association Birthday, School Family Day, Beverage Day, Willie May's Birthday, International No Diet Day , and National Nurse's Day.  So that doesn't bother me at all.

What do you think?

Jesus has AIDS

I love the provocative title.  I can't argue with where Dr. Moore, of Southern Seminary, takes this.  But I wish he had been more pointed.

Psalm 73

I went to a Bible study this morning.  We read Psalm 73.  It starts out pretty depressing.  The writer is lamenting that the wicked have good lives while good people suffer.  It made me think of Jesus' statement that "the poor you will always have with you." ( Matt 26:11)  Since Jesus said it, I guess all of our efforts to eradicate poverty are destined to failure.  We can do some good, but we will never solve the problem; because Jesus explicitly said that we will never solve that problem.

That won't stop me from working to eradicate poverty.  But it does dampen my enthusiasm.

In this Psalm the author says that the wicked have comfortable lives of luxury.  I wonder if they wouldn't have comfortable lives of luxury if the Psalmist hadn't written that.  Or, because maybe the Psalmist is less authoritative than Jesus, if we have any chance of ever fixing our society enough to correct that injustice?  Or are we doomed to failure here, too?

Clearly the main point of the Psalm is that this life is just a qualification round, and the wicked are disqualifying themselves from eternity.  Godly people should take some comfort from that, and from the fact that we have God's presence and assistance in this life as well.

But it is hard to not want the luxury, too.

Call of God's leader

I just got back from Austin Christian Executive's Bible Study.  Another good lesson and great discussion.  Mike Field lead the study.  We looked at the early life of Moses in Exodus 2-4.

I'm an INTJ.  When I look at how Moses operated I think maybe he was an INTJ also:

• He starts out quiet and reserved.
• He has a big vision, but he doesn't tell anyone (freeing the Israelites)
• He acts out as if he has a plan, but doesn't explain it to anyone. (killing the Egyptian)
• When he is confronted and hits adversity for the first time he runs away.
• He avoids confrontation--would rather tend his father-in-law's sheep for 40 years than confront the unjust system that he really would like to tear down.
• He doesn't react with fear when he meets the burning bush--it's just a new thing he will examine and learn from.
• He has all of the reasons and arguments thought out when God tells him to go to Egypt.
• He has a pessimistic outlook.

It feels good to think that God can even use INTJs.

I wonder if Moses gave up on his plan for freeing the Israelites before God called him?  Is that part of the reason why God waited 40 years?

It seems that God's model leaders are all shepherds.  There is a pattern there worthy of additional study.

Moses tells God that he is slow of speech, and therefore cannot be God's spokesman.  God tells him that Aaron will help him speak, and so it seems there is some truth to that claim.  But in Acts (7:22) Stephen says that Moses was powerful of body and speech.  I'm missing something there.  If anyone knows the answer to that conundrum please let me know.

God says His name is "I AM WHO I AM", or "I AM THAT WHICH I AM".  Mike said that he found this translation that seems like a more accurate English translation of what the Hebrew words really mean:
"I shall continually be that which I always have been"
Mike gave the author's name, but I didn't get it written down.  I tried googling the quote and couldn't find it.  If you know the author please let me know.

One of the guys in the discussion made a point about spiritual growth:
"When you reach a mountain top it is hard to understand that you cannot climb the next mountain top unless you cross the valley in between."

Global warming and the Bible

I've been asked about my theology of creation.  In my global warming articles I have quoted the scientific data as if it is undeniably true.  If I believe that the ice core sample data is valid, dating back hundreds of thousands of years, then that means I must be an old earth creationist.  Or maybe I'm not a creationist at all.

So let me clarify my position here:

• God created the heavens and the earth.
• I understand the young earth and old earth creationist arguments, and I think that it is a significantly less important issue than the core truth that He created it.  If you put a gun to my head and forced a decision, I would say that I think the earth is probably as old as archeologists think it is.  My God is big enough for that.
• Scientists believe in the geological data.  They do not believe in what the Bible says about the beginnings of the earth.
• If I am going to credibly discuss the problems with the theory of global warming with the scientists who believe in the theory, then I have to debate the data that they believe.
• These scientists have cherry-picked their data and performed a number of other unscientific mistakes.  They are behaving more like a cult than truly open-minded scientists.  And they are making more money off of this alarmist hype then they ever could from clear-headed fair science.
• I can see many holes in their data and logic, and if given a chance I think myself and other clear-headed folks could temper the alarms and move public opinion towards more fair policies.
• I believe that humans are causing some global warming.
• I believe that the planet has natural systems in place that both cause and counter-act both warming and cooling.
• I haven't seen anything to lead me to believe that man-made global warming will overcome and the earth's natural heating and cooling systems to cause unmitigated catastrophe.
• The ice core data does indicate that we have an 8-degree cooling event coming soon--over a period of about 3,000 years the planet will cool 8-degrees and stay near that new normal for most of the next 100,000 years.
• If you believe in a young earth you should also believe that God carefully placed the ice core data there and gave humans the reasoning facilities to read it; and so He is warning us about the natural patterns of warming and cooling that He built into this planet.
• Because of the behavior of the cult of global warming, we are actually ignoring the real threat to modern civilization--that coming 8-degree cooling.
• I could definitely be wrong about any of the above scientific opinions.  But the cult of global warming is squashing the open and honest discussions of the data, and so I can't get my skeptical questions answered.  The only choice they will give me is to turn off my brain and drink their cool-aid.  I cannot do that.
• My whole purpose in talking about this topic is to try to return the discussion to open, civil, scientific discourse.

Wild at Heart

I just finished reading 'Wild at Heart' by John Eldredge.  Great book.  I highly recommend it.  Especially if you are considering making some changes in your life.  Parents of boys need to read it, too.  And young men should read it at around 16 or 17, I think.

As is my custom, what follows are a few notes to myself about what I got out of the book.  This is just a tease for you who haven't read it.  If the quotes and points below intrigue you, go read the book and then ask me questions.  :-)

If you read below, you will see that I have my answers with regards to Plan A / Plan B....

Fear the Lord

I just got back from the Austin Christian Executives (ACE) Bible study.  It was my first visit.  If you're in the area, it's worth a visit.  Don't read too much into the word Executive.  Jeans and a polo are fine.

David Smith lead the study.  We looked at Exodus 1:15-22.   Pharoah commands the midwives to kill Hebrew boys as they are born.  The midwives "fear God more than they fear Pharoah", and decide to not commit the murders.  Pharoah calls them back in asks them why they didn't do it.  They lie to Pharoah and say that the Hebrew women are giving birth before they get there.

David brought a few very interesting points.  Pharoah had provided midwives for the Hebrew slaves.  These ladies came in to Pharoah's court and spoke directly to him.  That means that they are probably Egyptian women, not Hebrews themselves.

So these Egyptian women spent enough time among the Hebrew slaves that they picked up on the Hebrew God.  They recognized Pharoah's power--they had enough sense to lie to him instead of telling him that they chose to disobey his orders.  But they reckoned that the Hebrew God, whom they had only heard about from these slaves and had never seen, was more powerful than Pharoah.  It's no wonder that God honored them.

We had a good discussion of what it means to 'fear the Lord'.  I think about it this way.  Faith is an intellectual assessment of the evidence of history and a decision to trust in the goodness of God.  Fear is an emotional reaction that comes out of a person's soul/spirit that acknowledges God's power.  You cannot fear God if you are not convinced deep within your spirit that He is, and that He punishes and rewards.  In this way, fear of God is an involuntary proof of deep conviction.

Pharoah has put himself in a bad situation.  He is pretending to be god.  It's unclear whether or not he believes his is god.  I tend to think he realizes he is not, otherwise he would have just used his god powers to kill the Hebrew babies instead of impotently depending upon the midwives.  Then when the midwives fail to do what he wishes, he just shrugs.  The midwives were right about him.

Then Pharoah makes a terrible mistake.  He openly orders all of the male Hebrew children to be killed.  There is no rationale for this that makes sense.  He doesn't put anyone in particular in charge of the edict, so he has no one to punish when it fails.  He gives a command he can't possibly enforce, and thus demonstrates his impotence to the entire country.  And he throws down the gauntlet in front of the Hebrew God.

Do you think that he remembered this edict when Moses announced the 10th plague?  Do you think that God would have resorted to killing the Egyptian boys if Pharoah had not attempted to kill the Hebrew boys?  He named the means of his own destruction, allowing his pride to run off his mouth.

Pharoah was foisted on his own petard.  How often have I made this same mistake?  How often have I trusted in my own abilities instead of trusting in God?  How often have I claimed that "I can handle this", only to have my own pride thrown back in my face?