What We're Thinking

"Blessed exchange!"

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 16:54:50 -0400

"This is the marriage covenant, "Thou shalt be for me, and not for another: so will I be for thee." hos. 3:3. Ah, what a life is the life of a Christian; Christ all for you, and you all for him. Blessed exchange! "Soul," saith Christ, "all I have is thine." "Lord," saith the soul, "and all I have is thine." "Soul," saith Christ, "my person is wonderful, but what I am, I am for thee: my life was spent in labor and travail, but it was for thee." "And, Lord," saith the believer, "my person is vile, and my soul, with all and every faculty; my body, and every member of it; my gifts, time, and all my talents, are thine.""

-John Flavel, The Fountain of Life, 80-81.

life as we know it (Ruth 1:1-5)

Sun, 27 Jul 2008 22:18:47 -0400

The book of Ruth is about life as we know it. Life under the judgment of God. Life where there isn't always enough food. Life lived far from God and alienated from His blessing. Life lived homeless and surrounded by enemies. Life lived with death on every side. Life lived without protection and safety. Life that looks more like death than life.

The book of Ruth is also about people like you and me. Elimelech (whose name means God is my king) is under judgment along with the rest of Israel. He and His land are experiencing famine and hunger (a part of God's covenant curses). Rather than turn to God in repentance (and so find healing and restoration), he looks to the security of another country. His faith in God is weak, if not lacking all together—and his quick death may be evidence that his life-choice to move was out of unbelief. He was certainly experiencing alienation from God. He certainly wasn't "feeling God's blessing" in his land or out of it. He knew the bitterness of the curse as well as we do.

His sons were no different. They married pagan women in a pagan land. (Not good if you're an Israelite under the Old Covenant.) They weren't concerned for holiness toward God or spiritual purity. God was not the first thing on their minds when looking for a wife. They too faced God's judgment for their ignorance of God and His ways—they too died in the land, and after 10 years of marriage, both of their wives remained empty, barren, childless.

Then we have Naomi, now alone and in danger, having no one—neither husband nor son—to take care of her, provide for her, protect her.

Isn't this life where we live? A world that is hostile. A world cursed by God. Lives that are unfulfilling and un-nourishing. Living in places that never seem quite like home. Surrounded by those who would want to turn us from God or are at best indifferent to our walk with Him. When things get rough we doubt God's goodness. We turn to other springs because we think they will satisfy. We are unconcerned with living for God. He doesn't enter into all the little choices we make. We go with what is expedient or whatever makes us happy. And yet we are alone, afraid, vulnerable, and weak. Death is waiting for us, and we know not what will happen when it comes.

The book of Ruth unveils to us what our lives are like and hopefully tells us that if we didn't see these things all around us already we need to open our eyes to the harsh realities of cursed existence in a dying world and our own shabby faith demonstrated in our impure hearts.

Where are you hurting, broken, and experiencing the curse (physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, etc...) that you need God to bring life? Where are you weak in faith and need God to bring faith & trust (vibrant spiritual life)?

It is into this world of difficulty and toil, of misery and sin that Jesus entered. And He didn’t enter with white gloves on, carefully tiptoeing through so as not to touch anything. Rather, he entered into our mess. He became sin for us. He became a curse for us. He took upon himself all our pain, our sin, our homelessness, our alienation, our unbelief, our impurity, our vulnerability, and our guilt, and he took these things to the cross and dealt with them once and for all, so that in His resurrection, we find hope & victory. In His resurrection we see what is ours in Him—strength instead of weakness, joy instead of mourning, blessing instead of curse, love instead of anger, life instead of death.

Bible reading

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:17:21 -0400

It took me 12 years of being a Christian and 6 years of seminary to figure out why it is that we read the Bible. But I think I get it. Okay, let's say I tentatively get a piece of it.

Too often we think we read the Bible to understand it. We spend great amounts of time learning how to interpret it (time well spent, I agree). And our goal is, what does the Bible mean? What does it teach about God or about Christ? (VERY important questions, of course). Maybe we go a step further and ask, what does this then mean for me? Which is a good step, to be sure.

But, our goal of reading the Bible is not understanding or interpreting the Bible. We read the Bible in order to learn how to understand and interpret life.

Bribes and Gifts

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:32:20 -0400

Here is a link to David Skeel's discussion of Bribes and Gifts in the Proverbs.

http://www.law.upenn.edu/blogs/dskeel/archives/2008/06/gifts_and_bribesskeel.html

glory commandments

Mon, 26 May 2008 08:53:13 -0400

I've been thinking some about how each of the commandments relate directly to God's glory. Here is a brief connection with the first four.

1st-do not ascribe God's glory to another

2nd-do not obscur God's glory with idols

3rd-do not rob God of glory by your actions (don't take away from the honor of His name by the way you live your life).

4th-give God glory by giving Him one day in seven as He has asked, a day dedicated to remembering His glory as seen in His mighty acts of salvation.

mental and emotional plaque

Wed, 07 May 2008 20:35:56 -0400

I don't fully understand how, but confession actually enables me to be a better person.

Multiple times in the past month, I have confessed some sinful thought or behavior to other people with at least two all but immediate results. First, I was strengthened in my struggle with the attitudes I confessed. Second, I did not feel as weighed down by those sinful attitudes.

At one point I was talking about certain fears I had of the future, of its uncertainty, etc... Someone responded with a few simple words--words that I had thought many times before!--and those words brought a great peace.

It was amazing because I had thought these words before, he said nothing new, but it was only when someone outside of my head spoke truth into my life that it had it's effect. I had even read similar sentiments in a book, but again, it did not have the same effect.

I am not saying there is something magical about confession. Simply telling others about my sin will not necessarily take it instantaneously away.

At the same time, we our encouraged to encourage one another and build each other up. The Word of God is a means by which God shows His grace to us. When we confess our sins to one another not only does it engender humility and build relatioships, but it also provides the opportunity for others to encourage me by speaking the Word of God to me.

That said, it also provides me with the opportunity to see my situation from another's perspective, which is desperately needed where sin is involved. It's too easy to rationalize as long as I stay within the safe and comfortable confines of my own head. Thoughts begin to bounce around, justifications, rationalizations, bitterness, selfishness, self-pity. But one honest person speaking the Word of truth into my life can dispell all such mental & emotional plaque from my heart.

intercession's downside

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:27:23 -0400

He doesn't need direction right now. He's a high school student, worried about the future. He has no idea what's going to happen over the next year and a half of high school, much less over the following four years of college. He doesn't need career certainty at the moment. (How many of us knew what we were going to do with our lives in our junior year of high school?) He just needs to trust God and do his work patiently.

Oh boy. There are those times, those frustrating-yet-exhilirating-times, times of enlightenment, when you apply the truth of God's word to others only to immediately shut your mouth before God.

"You are that man" were the words of Nathan when David condemned the selfish lamb-theif. Oh boy, were my words after I prayed about my high school friend. He doesn't need direction right now. He just needs to trust God and do his work.

Why did I have to pray those words?

worshipping the bean

Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:54:36 -0400

I was upset (again). I was angry, confused, frustrated. One of my first thoughts? I need to go buy myself a nice, warm cup of coffee. Maybe a mocha.... Well, I don't have time to go all the way to the coffee shop. I think I have a piece of chocolate in my desk. That would be pretty tasty at the moment. On the other hand, I could just forget about work, go home, make some popcorn and watch a movie with my son. That would make me feel better.

And it would, of course. I would feel better by doing any one of those things. I would feel better for a time. Until the next thing came up that I couldn't handle.

But nothing get's solved that way. I just distract myself from my life. It's like that line from Piano Man by Billy Joel. People come to see the piano man in the bar "to forget about life for a while". But then you have to go back. You have to go back and then you get a huge reminder that things are not the way they should be, not in the world, not in my situations, not in my heart.

Well by God's grace, I was able to avoid simply forgetting about my sinful anger and I took it to him. I can't even remember what I said to God in between gritted teeth and groans, but He knows and He heard and He answered so that I was able to gain peace in my heart and mind and continue to do the work He had set before me.

Now, I don't plan on giving up coffee (or chocolate or movies), nor do I think I need to. But, I do need to be on guard. From one perspective, this whole incident is a matter of worship. My anger in the first place was due to me worshipping things and people rather than the one and only True and Living God. But then my first response, to turn to other things for help, that too is about worship. Whenever we try to find our comfort, our meaning, our joy in something, we are worshipping that thing. Whenever I look to something to solve all the problems in my life, I am looking to that thing the way I should be looking to God.

Where do you look to find help in time of trouble, temptation, and sin? Do you run to the distractors? Or do you run to Jesus, who was tempted in every way, yet was without sin, and so is able to hear us and help us in our time of need.

the Bible and our imaginations

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 10:30:27 -0400

One reason we don't enjoy the Bible is we don't have strong enough imaginations.

I once showed the movie Prince of Egypt to a group of high school students after we had spent some time studying the book of Exodus. When we got to the part where the pillar of fire comes down between Israel and the Egyptian army, a student exclaimed in amazement, "Did we read that?" "Sure." I said. " Don't you remember the part when God comes down in a pillar of fire and stands between Israel and the Egyptian army?" "Yeah," was the response. "But I didn't think it looked like that."

What a difference it would make if we came to our Bibles with our imaginations turned on. What a difference it would make if we came to our Bibles expecting to read amazing things and expecting amazing things to happen. Which I guess is just another way of saying, what a difference it would make if we came to our Bibles with the open eyes of faith, rather than the bleary eyes of duty and unbelief.

the Kingdom

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:58:18 -0500

community. movement. society. a new culture of people obeying Jesus. a new culture with room for every culture, but ethicaly and morally transformed by Jesus. a culture-transforming movement that is centered on worship and obedience to the risen Christ. a culture-transforming community of people being transformed by their relationship with the risen anointed ruler (and defender of His own), Jesus, in the hope of the coming renewal of all things at Jesus' climactic appearing.