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Fall has always been my favorite time of year. There is something about the change in the air, especially here in NY, that I just love. I’ve always liked wearing flannel and having extra blankets on the bed.
It’s a been quite a while since I posted. The kids are now in the local public school, enjoying daily, half-day preschool. They are getting quite a kick out of waiting for the bus every day. Usually we wait 10 to 15 minutes outside because they can’t stand to wait inside until closer to bus time.
It was Homecoming and the 125 Anniversary of celebration for Houghton College this past weekend. It was really a great event. The biggest highlight, especially for the kids, was the festivities on the Quad — there was a Ferris wheel and a couple of those giant blow-up slides/obstacle courses. Everything else going on paled in comparison to those (well, with the possible exception of the candy gathered from the parade). (Click on the Flickr box to the left for some images of Homecoming & the kids.)
The biggest thing about Homecoming for me was the general atmosphere of excitement and crowds. Because of our location and the woodland setting, even when college is in session, campus can feel empty and the college’s problems can feel overwhelming. (I know the Lord will provided as long as He wants us here, but the feeling persists if you let it.) With the crowds, laughing children, silly college students, smiling professors (well, mostly smiling) and friends from the community all packed onto campus and enjoying the festivities, cares and concerns seem distant and of less importance.
I’m sure this is one reason why the Lord prescribed Feast Days for his people. There were specific times of gathering, eating, joyously talking and the inevitable silliness that ensues. All of this, when done in the proper context and with the right attitudes, amounts to a kind of worship — taking God at His word and enjoying a feast He Himself has prescribed for us.
Yes, the troubles remain, the problems must be solved. But like a tired worker coming in from the fields, the work can be taken up again with renewed strength after a hearty meal and table fellowship with fellow workers.
Perhaps this is another reason I like the Fall season — it is a time when several feast days are close together; a promise of renewal amidst the falling leaves and failing warmth.
This morning I was prepping for our ongoing men’s study (6 a.m. Sat., Steak & Shake in Mooresville if you’re close enough to attend). We’re working our way through the book of Amos, chapter by chapter. Tomorrow we’re planning on tackling chapter 5. I was struck anew by some of Amos’ message; especially it’s relevance to the church at large today. “Therefore thus says the Lord God of Hosts, the Lord”:
Alas, you who are longing for the day of the Lord,
For what purpose will the day of the Lord be to you?
It will be darkness and not light;
…
I hate, I reject your festivals,
Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies
…
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.
But let justice roll down like waters
And righteousness like an ever flowing stream.
Amos 5:18, 21,23-24
Consider Gary V. Smith’s comments on these verses from his work in The NIV Application Commentary: Hosea/Amos/Micah :
[Amos] does not raise doubts concerning the Israelite’s knowledge of temple worship or eschatological [(end times)] events but inquires about their deceptive approach to these topics. They have turned worship into something worthless and eschatology into escapism. (323)
Amos is against any slanted view of God the deceptively reimagines God as a loving power who will pour out his blessings on his people regardless of their behavior. God is a warrior who will wipe out all evil – both the abhorrent idolatry of pagans and the rebellious sinfulness of his own people…. the biblical record demonstrates what God has done and will do to destroy sin from the world. False notions about God can turn worship into nothing more than playing church. (330)
True and acceptable worship is not so much about issues of the style adopted by a particular congregation, but the extent to which the worshiper’s life is transformed by being in the presence of a holy God. (332-3)
We cannot rightly transpose every word of Amos’ prophecy of judgment to the church today, but the principles remain and need to be taken seriously. Bad theology, practiced either willfully, through apathy or in ignorance, will be judged. We need to read books like Amos to understant just how serious judgment is. Jesus said: “Do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28 NASB). I don’t think he was just trying to comfort persecuted believers.
I learned about the Australian slang version of the scriptures from a news website. A Google search turned up this “translation” of David & Goliath. It’s a fun read, even if you’re just a Yank like me: http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/7091.htm
Every Christian has the responsibility of becoming a type or pattern by which others may mold their lives.
Even more, the Spirit seeks to make us living types of Jesus for the ones who are watching us daily. So we are types of Someone else for someone else.
We never have to strive, sweat, or labor to make disciples; we automatically make them or drive them away by whether or not Jesus is being formed in us by the Spirit. In a sense we do not make disciples; they are being made or unmade constantly by simply watching us.
all the above from: W. Glyn Evans, Daily With My Lord, June 1.
It’s easy for me to get caught up in the academics of doctrine. I’ve often mistaken theological knowledge for Christian maturity and the teaching of doctrine as the imparting of maturity. Properly understood doctrine is essential for a mature Christian — but it is only one mark of maturity, not the sum of it.
It is similar to my experience in the world of faceting. There are certain professional gem cutters who frequent discussion groups around the internet. These guys have a deep knowledge on how to cut stones — they know what combination of lap, lap speed, polish, lubricant, and angles will result in a well cut gemstone of any given species.
But what makes me want to learn their faceting doctrine is not the fact that they take the time to post their methods online. I pay special attention because I’ve seen their stones. Their knowledge is born of experience and skill; they are not simply repeating what they’ve read somewhere else. I desire to learn from them because I want to be able to cut like them.
(image above is a 9.81ct blue spinel cut by Jeff R. Graham. Complete details at his website.)
Salvation in the New Testament is always an intensely personal, but never individual, matter. It is God’s gift in Jesus Christ; and only in Christ, i.e. in the community of which he is head, can it be experienced.
G. B. Caird, Paul’s Letters From Prison, Oxford Univ. Press, 1987. 125.
I’m trying to puzzle this quote out. I feel it’s true, but something doesn’t quite sit right. God has been reworking my personal theology of the church, so I expect the problem is in me.
Perhaps the “never individual matter” is what bugs me. I’m a US citizen and, as such, rugged individualism is the rule. It is so deep in me that I feel a bit ashamed when I have to call a contractor to fix or build something that is beyond my knowledge or skill — surely I could have done the job myself if I had simply tried.
It is easy for me to accept that God deals with me personally. After all, that’s exactly how my society works. Every authority that is over me, from the government to the electric company deals with me personally and holds me personally responsible for my obligations, actions and debts. Even my evangelical heritage supports this attitude. I must have been very young when I first heard: “Jesus loves you so much that if you were the only person in the world, Jesus still would have died for you.” There is truth in that statement, but it plays right into my individualistic mindset.
Jesus did redeemed me personally, but as Caird points out, that means Jesus has incorporated me into His church. I cannot experience my own salvation outside of the church for the simple reason that being outside the church would mean I’m outside of Christ — an impossibility if I’m truly of His flock.
This corporate aspect of my salvation is much harder for me to accept. It means that I cannot remove myself from the life or concerns of the local church because to do so would be to remove myself (in manner of speaking) from Christ. It means I have to admit that it isn’t all about me.
I cannot have two masters; therefore I must make a choice. If I choose God as my Master, I must relinquish all responsibility to myself. This means I cannot be perplexed about God’s will for my life, for if it is His responsibility, then He must inform me, not I Him. All anxieties should cease, for if they do not, then I have assumed charge once again. If the government is really on His shoulder [Isaiah 6:9], then all questions should cease. For God will make clear to me at the right time what I need to know and what I need to do. Also, restlessness should cease, for restlessness means I am not in control, I am not on top of things. Being “on top of things” is now God’s business and not mine. Therefore I rest.
My sole responsibility is not responsibility but response.
W. Glyn Evans, Daily With My Lord, April 14, “The Government on His Shoulders”.
Pastor Evans is exactly right: the natural outworking of God being in control, of Christ being the head of government, is my being at rest. “Rest” here does not mean inactivity, but a certain mental attitude of relaxed readiness.
In this sense, I am most relaxed when I have a clear job to do, a complete knowledge of how to complete the task, the resources necessary to do the work and the ambition to see it through. When I’m lacking in direction, knowledge, ambition, or resources stress follows quickly. But that’s just the point — in Christ we lack none of these things. Anxiety, restlessness, stress enter for reasons other than short provisions: misidentification of my proper task, willful pride, an inattention to God’s leading, a lack of trust (or vision) for the resources, a failure to study, learn and grow.
I find I’m more susceptible to restlessness as a “Stay at Home Dad” then I’ve ever been before (which is sad, as I’ve always been restless). I never thought of it as my attempt at bucking God’s control over the situation. In fact, I’ve often reasoned in the opposite direction: “if I can just get this silly little task out of the way, then I can get on to the important stuff”. “Important stuff” can usually be translated “what I want to do”. It seldom enters my head that the “important stuff”, from God’s perspective, may well be the “silly little task” immediately at hand or the detour I didn’t expect. I usually fail to realize that an unwanted detour may be more important than the road I was determined to follow.
Children take time. When I become restless, watching the clock tick ever so slowly toward nap-time, I am actually rebelling against what God has for me to do now. The projects, goals an ambitions I have in mind for the future must be secondary to the task at hand. The task at hand was given to me by God Himself; the dreams for the future, if legitimate, were also given to me by God Himself. I must rest in knowing that the One who controls everything has my ambitions well in hand. Since He desires to give me good, the real substance of those hopes and dreams will be fulfilled, either here or in the fullness of His glory, when I see His face.
“Trust and obey, for there is no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”
Lord, so many decisions are made today based on feelings. But when the feelings are past, we tend to return to our former ways. “A hundred people came forward!” “Scores came to the altar!” Fine and well. But does that mean a hundred broken hearts? Does it mean a hundred disciples? A hundred Christian soldiers? Lord, You need followers of the Lamb and spiritual virgins, not those who merely come forward. It is easy enough to go forward, but how crucifying to go back to Mr. So-and-so and love him for Christ’s sake!”
W. Glyn Evans, Daily With My Lord, February 23.
I was also reading Blackaby’s Your Church Experiencing God Together this morning, our current Sunday School study. In the section I was reading, one of the Blackabys was contrasting the new and old covenant. He made the point that the cross is not something to simply be carried, it is something to die on.
I think these two points mesh well. Often we are willing to approach Jesus at His invitation to “take up the cross and follow me”, but our 21st century minds (conveniently) forget the underlying context. It was completely clear when Jesus said it (if you listen carefully to the text in Luke 9:23 or Matt. 10:38, you can almost hear the disciples’ short gasps in the background). There was only one reason someone took up his own cross in a 1st century Roman territory: he was going to die a painful, ugly death. The path he followed was to be his last. This was common knowledge to people under Roman rule because the Romans made certain everyone understood.
Of course Jesus was not being literal — if all Christians were required to take up literal Roman crosses, the church would have been gone long ago. No, Luke records the teaching for us: “he must deny himself.” That’s the rub. Going forward in a service may be exactly what a person needs to do as a start — but it is only the act of putting one’s work-clothes on. Deliberately swallowing one’s pride, correcting one’s heart and clearly asking Mr. So-and-so’s forgiveness in a matter is to plant the shovel firmly in the rocky soil and begin to dig. Such work is truly stepping forward to the Altar of God.
This morning, my devotional and daily reading conspired together and got me thinking. It’s been a while since I did a thinking post, this seemed to be a good opportunity to rectify that.
Jesus teaches me to have a ‘single eye,’ which I understand to be an eye fixed on a single goal or object. Purity is allowing no distractions. E. Glynn Evans, Daily with My Lord, Jan. 18.
But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live. Numbers 33:55, NASB
If I’m nothing else, I’m distracted. The things I want are those things I’m not doing at the moment. The things I legitimately desire are clouded by the clutter I’ve allowed into my mind. I failed to “drive out the inhabitants”. No, worse, I’ve invited them to remain and sought out a few others to join them.
The result is that I’m mentally poisoned. Times that should be clear, single-minded focus become dancing grounds for illicit memories. Sometimes these memories may be “innocent” things like a silly commercial or a curious lyrick. Other times the memories are insidious, like a morbid picture from the “news” or smut dredged up from the bowels of the internet. Canaanites all; I failed to obey the Lord and drive them out.
Lord, preserve me from the curse of verse 56! “And as I plan to do to them, so I will do to you.” Numbers 33:56, NASB. The message is clear: if you leave them in your land, not only will you suffer “pricks” and “thorns” but you will ultimately become one of them, and suffer their fate. (cf. Gen. 3:17-19)
It occurs to me that there may be a divine irony in the curse of v.56. One thing God planned to do with the gentiles was save them. Judgment came and is coming, but Salvation has also come and stands ready. It’s just like God to embed hope in a curse. Perhaps it is always that way with God. Maybe the only hopeless curses are the ones we bring on ourselves.
Evans closes his devotional with this:
God, you never told me how hard the way was. You let me find that out for myself. If I had known, I never would have followed. But having begun, I cannot turn back. That backward road leads to nowhere and to nothingness. To go forward is hard, but it promises its reward. ‘That I may know Him…’ (Philippians 3:10)…
I wrote this up for our Point Man group. We’re studying Daniel and, necessarily, have to deal with end-time events. I’m always fuzzy on these points myself (I’m still developing my theology here) and I know a number of the guys aren’t up on what is meant by the various a-, pre-, and post- millennium views. So, a summary was in order. I figured it would work well here too as I haven’t posted in a while and someout out there might find this quick overview useful. As mentioned below, it’s all abstracted from Grudem. (I’m just posting the summary here, not the diagrams.)
Hi Guys –
Last week we started talking about various views on the Millennium as related to the prophecy in Daniel 2. We’ll likely talk about these things again as we tackle the other prophetic portions of Daniel, so I thought a summary would be helpful. The point here is to do a quick overview, not argue for one position or another. (For the record, I believe FBC falls into the last group, “pretribulational pre-millennialism”.)
First off, attached is a set of diagrams that may help in getting a grip on the various views people take on this subject. I didn’t make it anywhere near a copier this week, so print this out if you want to have it for the meeting. The diagrams are based on Wayne Grudem’s diagrams in his Systematic Theology. Grudem presents a summary of the views and argues for/against each; Systematic Theology by Grudem is in the resource center.
The Millennium is that 1000 year period described in Rev. 20:1-6. What will actually take place and when it will happen is the subject of much (sometimes heated) debate. Your views on this subject will necessarily color your views on Daniel’s end-time prophecies. Here’s a quick & dirty overview (again, all from Grudem):
1) Amillennialism
- present church age is the millennium; no future millennium.
- “millennium” figure of speech for long period of time.
- resurrection of all, judgment, new heavens & new earth immediately at Christ’s return.
2) Postmillennialism
- church age gradually becomes the millennium (things get better as gospel spreads).
- “millennium” figure of speech for long period of time.
- resurrection of all, judgment, new heavens & new earth immediately at Christ’s return.
3a) Classic Premillennialism
- Tribulation occurs before Christ’s return.
- Christ returns and establishes his Millennial Kingdom.
- resurrection of believers at Christ’s return.
- Christ returns with believers to physically reign in millennial kingdom.
- resurrection of unbelievers, judgment at end of Millennium.
- some take “millennium” as figure of speech, some literally.
3b) Pretribulational (or Dispensational) Premillennialism
- Christ returns before Millennium and before Tribulation
- Christ & believers return after tribulation to physically reign in millennial kingdom.
- resurrection of believers at Christ’s first return (pre-trib)
- resurrection of unbelievers, judgment at end of Millennium.
- tend to interpret word “millennium” literally.
Because things can get heated on this subject, here’s a bit of wisdom from Grudem that we would do well to keep in mind whenever we discuss prophecy in general:
…it is important to realize that the interpretation of the details of prophetic passages regarding future events is often a complex and difficult task involving many variable factors. Therefore, a degree of certainty that attaches to our conclusions in this area will be less than with many other doctrines…. I also think it important for evangelicals to recognize that this area of study is complex and to extend a large measure of grace to others who hold different views regarding the millennium and the tribulation period. (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 1114).
I’m starting prep-work for a study of Daniel coming up this Fall in my Point Man Group. This verse caught my attention this morning:
But Daniel made up his mind that he would not defile himself with the king’s choice food or with the wine which he drank; so he sought permission from the commander of the officials that he might not defile himself.
(Daniel 1:9, NASB)
The lesson I need to learn here is the simple determination of Daniel in “making up his mind.” That simple phrase means that Daniel took stock of his situation, the truth he knew and chose an action. Daniel was on hostile ground. He was physically safe enough (sorta, we learn about Nebuchadnezzar’s temper in later chapters), but as a Hebrew captive he was in a foreign land surrounded by foreign gods in the midst of a foreign people. Nothing favored Daniel here except that someone thought him a handsome and intelligent youth. Daniel acted on his choice.
I frequently choose against my favorite habitual sin, but I seldom seem to get as far as acting on it. When I do act, it is not for very long. This verse suggests to me that my problem is two-fold:
First, I don’t take sin seriously. Daniel understood God’s perspective on sin. It was important enough to him to avoid, even in a potentially bad situation. I frequently choose my own pleasure over God’s stated commands. It is clear I just don’t care enough.
Second, I don’t realize I’m in captivity. Having grown up in this society, it’s all “normal” to me. Sure the pastors tell me how hostile the world is to Christians, but I seem to get along fine. Scripture is clear on this point and I need to get into my heart:
Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
(2 Peter 2:11, NIV)
Daniel had this on over me – he had the experience of being captured by enemy forces, marched off to a foreign land and impressed into service for the king who made it all happen. Here I sit, quite comfortable in my computer chair, typing in my air-conditioned home, under a benevolent (if occasionally misguided) government. There is a war going on, but for me it is composed of media clips from a far-away land. Daniel was on hostile ground and knew it. Violent death and luxurious living hung on the whim of a king with an ego problem. I wonder if Daniel struggled before confronting the steward in charge of the young men. It probably would have taken me days.
On one level it was easier for Daniel because of this experience. He had a heightened sense for what was sinful and what was not. I’ve found this happens to me on short trips where I have to stay overnight somewhere. Somehow, it’s easier to avoid pornography on the first couple nights in a hotel room – I’m more keenly aware of the availability of smut on the TV and I’m also more on guard because I’m outside of my comfortable context. As I get comfortable, it gets harder. I bet it took a while for Daniel to become comfortable. Maybe he never did.
