At 3:55 am last night, I woke up from a dream recorded in the previous post. I really, really wanted to write it down, but dreams are so fragile, that even turning on the light can make you miss parts of them.
Fortunately, I know shorthand, and can do it with the keyboard. You never know when these things might be important ;-)
I whipped out my trusty BlackBerry, and started clicking, right there in the dark. (Andreia would understand.)
So, for the approximately none of you who will be amused by this, here is the raw shorthand record of the dream as BlackBerry'd at 4:00 am.
--
I met her af seg h nu apologia saddle lhr-rk patrn.
Ab 45. Z wore a brown suit hg wh h jakt unbuttoned. Her hair was ha mdl-ajd zrt bt fmnn, nd her fas ws lind laftr. Her zus kd b run n, bt wnt wl whh sut.
Hre o us wnt f a ride. At one pynt Z trid to do smhg nd misd. N frustration, z hru an oranj at h tail o Her horse. T rold al h wa dwn to h CVS. I kd not hlp bt notis ha t ws less han dvin to do so.
Z jogd al h wa dwn to CVS nd pkd up her ornj. Z had hre, nd stood dwn hr aprnte lkg f a wa to zo us ha Z ws God,
Ftunte, I had a rakt wh m. I held t n my ry hand tltd dwn to kac her hro. I ws scared o hw fast t myt kom, bt I stnd n. Z hru, nd t amazge hit h rakt wh enf topspin ha t spun bak up my leg nd nto my pokt.
Z dd smhg amazg f my fnd.
Z had one mor ornj.
Z lkd at h sky nd ht.
Nd ht.
Hn, z hru t so fast t tore nh air, nd h seeds kam out, splt, nd hit boh our rakt strqs. Hy wnt strat up nh air ab 20 fet, hn fl nd landd on our ceks as h fst drops o rain fom a strm ha ws j startg.
W lafd wh utr, cildz dlyt, as God kam gglg bak to Her horse,
I wok up, nd j had to rit hs.
10 May, 2006
Other people's dreams are boring, but...
I will tell you mine anyway. I will not be offended when you ignore it.
---
I met God at some sort of ranch. I was admiring the new "Apologia" leatherwork pattern on a new saddle, and She walked up.
She was between 45 and 50. She wore a brown pants suit with the wide lapel favored in the late 80's. Her hair was that middle-aged short but feminine and not completely gray. Her face was deeply lined with laughter, and was totally comforting. Her shoes could be run in, but went well with the suit.
God, a buddy and I went for a horse ride. I don't know who the buddy was, so it must have been you. :-) It was just a pleasant ride in the country - no lessons, no point, just joy. At some point God dismounted, and tried to do something that didn't quite work. She laughed and threw an orange at her horse's tail. The orange rolled on down the hill about 200 feet to the CVS drugstore that was naturally situated out in the middle of nowhere.
I could not help but notice that the whole incident was less than divine. It was merely wonderful.
God jogged all the way down to the CVS, and picked up her orange. She was down the hill from us, and She had three oranges. I don't know how, but I could tell that She wanted to show off a little.
Fortunately, I had my tennis racket with me. I held it in my right hand, angled downward to knock her throw out of the air when it came. I was scared of how fast it might come, but I knew she would somehow hit that racket from 200 feet away, and I stood in! She threw, and it hit the racket with enough topspin that it bounced down to the ground, then spun itself up my pant leg, and into my pocket.
She did something equally amazing for you, but I could not remember it when I wrote this down.
She had one more orange, but two friends with Her.
She looked at the sky, and thought a little bit.
And thought a little bit more.
Then, She threw the orange so fast that it tore in half in mid-flight, and the seeds were scattered from it. The seeds alone came and hit the strings of our tennis rackets, then flew straight up in the air about 20 feet. When they fell back down, they landed on our cheeks as the vanguard of a cloudburst of large raindrops.
We all three got soaked, and just laughed with utter, childlike delight. God came giggling back to Her horse, and I woke up.
---
I was just so happy when I woke that I had to write it out and post it.
---
I met God at some sort of ranch. I was admiring the new "Apologia" leatherwork pattern on a new saddle, and She walked up.
She was between 45 and 50. She wore a brown pants suit with the wide lapel favored in the late 80's. Her hair was that middle-aged short but feminine and not completely gray. Her face was deeply lined with laughter, and was totally comforting. Her shoes could be run in, but went well with the suit.
God, a buddy and I went for a horse ride. I don't know who the buddy was, so it must have been you. :-) It was just a pleasant ride in the country - no lessons, no point, just joy. At some point God dismounted, and tried to do something that didn't quite work. She laughed and threw an orange at her horse's tail. The orange rolled on down the hill about 200 feet to the CVS drugstore that was naturally situated out in the middle of nowhere.
I could not help but notice that the whole incident was less than divine. It was merely wonderful.
God jogged all the way down to the CVS, and picked up her orange. She was down the hill from us, and She had three oranges. I don't know how, but I could tell that She wanted to show off a little.
Fortunately, I had my tennis racket with me. I held it in my right hand, angled downward to knock her throw out of the air when it came. I was scared of how fast it might come, but I knew she would somehow hit that racket from 200 feet away, and I stood in! She threw, and it hit the racket with enough topspin that it bounced down to the ground, then spun itself up my pant leg, and into my pocket.
She did something equally amazing for you, but I could not remember it when I wrote this down.
She had one more orange, but two friends with Her.
She looked at the sky, and thought a little bit.
And thought a little bit more.
Then, She threw the orange so fast that it tore in half in mid-flight, and the seeds were scattered from it. The seeds alone came and hit the strings of our tennis rackets, then flew straight up in the air about 20 feet. When they fell back down, they landed on our cheeks as the vanguard of a cloudburst of large raindrops.
We all three got soaked, and just laughed with utter, childlike delight. God came giggling back to Her horse, and I woke up.
---
I was just so happy when I woke that I had to write it out and post it.
Yesterday's amusements
There was no post yesterday, because I was off talking about debtors at Better Bibles Blog. Specifically, I was opining on how to correctly translate "opheilema" in the Lord's Prayer.
For those of you who don't know this, that's a lot like me lecturing on knitting. I have spent a couple hours at a spinning wheel, but that don't make me no fiber-arts expert! They were very gracious and if you think that kind of thing is interesting, you might enjoy the chat.
There are three posts in the works for today. We'll see how many I can get out. (Of course, one of them looks like this, but that's just me. :-)
Ftunte, I had a rakt wh m. I held t n my ry hand tltd dwn to kac her hro.
For those of you who don't know this, that's a lot like me lecturing on knitting. I have spent a couple hours at a spinning wheel, but that don't make me no fiber-arts expert! They were very gracious and if you think that kind of thing is interesting, you might enjoy the chat.
There are three posts in the works for today. We'll see how many I can get out. (Of course, one of them looks like this, but that's just me. :-)
Ftunte, I had a rakt wh m. I held t n my ry hand tltd dwn to kac her hro.
08 May, 2006
Movies: The Promise
All day today, I could not sit still for more than 10 seconds without finding myself asleep again. That made "movie night" with my little girl more than a little bit scary. There's very little less fun than struggling to stay awake and to enter into an experience with a distant teen.
From the credits forward, I never blinked.
I would love to share opinions of this movie with ya'll if you get to see it.
It is not a children's movie, but it is never gratuitous. If you like art movies, you will like this. If you liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the beautiful visions, you will love this. If you like conflicted love stories, this will get to you.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Suddenly, though, I am dealing with the whole "every time I blink I'm asleep" thing again.
Night ya'll.
From the credits forward, I never blinked.
I would love to share opinions of this movie with ya'll if you get to see it.
It is not a children's movie, but it is never gratuitous. If you like art movies, you will like this. If you liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the beautiful visions, you will love this. If you like conflicted love stories, this will get to you.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Suddenly, though, I am dealing with the whole "every time I blink I'm asleep" thing again.
Night ya'll.
07 May, 2006
:8( [Which means embarassment]
I was so embarassed at church today!
One of the dear middle-aged ladies in church today was sharing how much it hurt her that her daughter was being fooled by the Da Vinci Code. She was beside herself as evidently she is in doubt of her daughter's salvation anyway, and now this daughter is actively angry with the church for all the evil it has perpetrated.
The good news is that she has agreed to read Josh McDowell's book on the subject, so she may come out of all this stronger.
Her story really connected with me, because my daughter is causing me heart palpitations, too. I said so during the meeting a couple times.
I went up after the meeting, and gave her a hug, and she was still a little verklempt. She looked up at me and thanked me for not saying that her daughter was obviously not elect. She said that would really have hurt.
[[[[[------ shame! ------]]]]]]
:8((((((((
I was horrified, though I didn't let the moment become all about me. I just told her that I did not believe that way, and got back on the subject of staying in prayer for her daughter.
I believe that everything is predestined and I also believe that we pray with passion for our loved ones. I won't trouble you here with how I can believe those two things together. It's just true. I pray for my daughter, and I could never, never conclude that a single soul was "not elect". It would be a blasphemy for me to look at any person created in the image of God and judge that I could quit praying for them because they were obviously not elect. God forbid that I should ever take a prerogative that God even forbids His angels. (Matt 13:25-30)
We are going through Romans 9 now, and the teacher knows I am a predestinationist. That makes it pret' near impossible for me to sit in complete silence. Honestly, though, I am not trying to change anyone's mind on the subject. I am more there as a circus oddity - a freak if you will - so I am not surprised if I come off as a bit of a monster to them, just disappointed.
If any of you wondered whether I think anyone is beyond God's power to redeem, or whether I believed that our prayers are pointless, I hope that you now know that I don't.
One of the dear middle-aged ladies in church today was sharing how much it hurt her that her daughter was being fooled by the Da Vinci Code. She was beside herself as evidently she is in doubt of her daughter's salvation anyway, and now this daughter is actively angry with the church for all the evil it has perpetrated.
The good news is that she has agreed to read Josh McDowell's book on the subject, so she may come out of all this stronger.
Her story really connected with me, because my daughter is causing me heart palpitations, too. I said so during the meeting a couple times.
I went up after the meeting, and gave her a hug, and she was still a little verklempt. She looked up at me and thanked me for not saying that her daughter was obviously not elect. She said that would really have hurt.
[[[[[------ shame! ------]]]]]]
:8((((((((
I was horrified, though I didn't let the moment become all about me. I just told her that I did not believe that way, and got back on the subject of staying in prayer for her daughter.
I believe that everything is predestined and I also believe that we pray with passion for our loved ones. I won't trouble you here with how I can believe those two things together. It's just true. I pray for my daughter, and I could never, never conclude that a single soul was "not elect". It would be a blasphemy for me to look at any person created in the image of God and judge that I could quit praying for them because they were obviously not elect. God forbid that I should ever take a prerogative that God even forbids His angels. (Matt 13:25-30)
We are going through Romans 9 now, and the teacher knows I am a predestinationist. That makes it pret' near impossible for me to sit in complete silence. Honestly, though, I am not trying to change anyone's mind on the subject. I am more there as a circus oddity - a freak if you will - so I am not surprised if I come off as a bit of a monster to them, just disappointed.
If any of you wondered whether I think anyone is beyond God's power to redeem, or whether I believed that our prayers are pointless, I hope that you now know that I don't.
06 May, 2006
Metamorphosis and Connection
Just a quick followup to that series of posts from so very long ago.
I read the other day in The Week about the rise of the megachurch. It was really quite interesting (and mercifully brief - The Week's forte.)
I was amused to discover that I probably think the megachurch is about the best idea going. I think I could be at home in one if they would just change one thing. Instead of having a bunch of intimate small groups that revolve around a charismatic leader, they should have a charismatic leader that revolves around, supports, and enables a bunch of small groups.
If the small groups were the center, and they had a decent preacher, I think the pattern would be powerful.
I hate myself for liking something so popular, but there you have it, I guess.
The second thing is that I answered the questions I needed answered when I started writing that series. I feel like I'm getting a handle on my direction for the church. That helps.
When I started this blog, I did it anonymously. I chose to do so out of the usual discomfort, and also because I was not ready for some of my old friends to find me. I needed to have my head on straight first.
After that series, though, I cannot think of any reason to remain anonymous. So, if any of ya'll are ever near Columbus, OH, just look up Kevin Knox in the phone book. I check my voice mail at least twice a month, because that's about how often I use the phone, but I'm home every now and again. You might catch me.
I'd offer a bunch more revelations, but I doubt there's much more I haven't already said.
I read the other day in The Week about the rise of the megachurch. It was really quite interesting (and mercifully brief - The Week's forte.)
I was amused to discover that I probably think the megachurch is about the best idea going. I think I could be at home in one if they would just change one thing. Instead of having a bunch of intimate small groups that revolve around a charismatic leader, they should have a charismatic leader that revolves around, supports, and enables a bunch of small groups.
If the small groups were the center, and they had a decent preacher, I think the pattern would be powerful.
I hate myself for liking something so popular, but there you have it, I guess.
The second thing is that I answered the questions I needed answered when I started writing that series. I feel like I'm getting a handle on my direction for the church. That helps.
When I started this blog, I did it anonymously. I chose to do so out of the usual discomfort, and also because I was not ready for some of my old friends to find me. I needed to have my head on straight first.
After that series, though, I cannot think of any reason to remain anonymous. So, if any of ya'll are ever near Columbus, OH, just look up Kevin Knox in the phone book. I check my voice mail at least twice a month, because that's about how often I use the phone, but I'm home every now and again. You might catch me.
I'd offer a bunch more revelations, but I doubt there's much more I haven't already said.
04 May, 2006
I Love Bread - or - How being ground into dust is a good thing.
Lev 23
10 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. 11 He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. 12 On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the LORD a lamb a year old without defect, ...
15 " 'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. 16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD.
This is the coolest thing. There are so many things I love about it.
Tonight I was doing step one of making bread, and remembered how much I love this one particular moment in the process. Next thing I knew, I was remembering this whole story.
The Israelites knew this as a law. We know it as a prophecy, because it is fulfilled. (All of the appointed feasts are fulfilled, except one.) Every year the tribes of Israel acted out this prophecy, and had no clue what they were doing. They believed that God liked to see His children waving sheaves of grain and baked loaves of yeasted bread. Of course, I would be pretty jazzed if everyone I knew stopped everything they were doing to wave some sandwiches toward me, but God is above all that. Really.
10 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter the land I am going to give you and you reap its harvest, bring to the priest a sheaf of the first grain you harvest. 11 He is to wave the sheaf before the LORD so it will be accepted on your behalf; the priest is to wave it on the day after the Sabbath. 12 On the day you wave the sheaf, you must sacrifice as a burnt offering to the LORD a lamb a year old without defect, ...
15 " 'From the day after the Sabbath, the day you brought the sheaf of the wave offering, count off seven full weeks. 16 Count off fifty days up to the day after the seventh Sabbath, and then present an offering of new grain to the LORD. 17 From wherever you live, bring two loaves made of two-tenths of an ephah of the finest flour, baked with yeast, as a wave offering of firstfruits to the LORD.
This is the coolest thing. There are so many things I love about it.
Tonight I was doing step one of making bread, and remembered how much I love this one particular moment in the process. Next thing I knew, I was remembering this whole story.
The Israelites knew this as a law. We know it as a prophecy, because it is fulfilled. (All of the appointed feasts are fulfilled, except one.) Every year the tribes of Israel acted out this prophecy, and had no clue what they were doing. They believed that God liked to see His children waving sheaves of grain and baked loaves of yeasted bread. Of course, I would be pretty jazzed if everyone I knew stopped everything they were doing to wave some sandwiches toward me, but God is above all that. Really.
Here we see the seeds of the gospel planted, and then harvested as believers come to Christ. Christ is the Seed (in the John 14:24 sense) Who was planted to bring forth many seeds. The harvest is alive. This harvest is Christ in us, and it is displayed before God. We are purified by the sacrifice of the Lamb, and held up before God and all the world to display the wonder of Life reproduced in us by God.
But that is not enough.
50 days later that life, that food, us, we are ground and crushed and blended together. Today, we call this the church.
Each grain suffers alone, and is destroyed, but it happens to all of us at once. We all suffer at the same time. The kernel is mashed, and then blended, brother with brother, sister with sister, and brother and sister together. We become the finest flour.
But that is not enough.
This lump of flour must be made into bread. Let me skip over the yeasting for a second, and come back. My favorite moment in all of bread making happens after a few minutes of kneading the dough. Kneading bread dough involves folding all these little bits of wheat dust over onto each other, again and again and again. You start with a wet, frankly nasty, lump of wheat mush and you start folding. You try never, never to cause a tear in the mush. You just keep connecting mush from one side of the lump with the mush from the other side. Gradually, the mush begins to get sticky. It sticks to everything. It becomes genuinely unruly. They don't call the sticky stuff in wheat, "gluten," for nothing.
Then suddenly, it's over. The gluten takes over, and the wheat only sticks to itself. The lump no longer sticks to anything. It goes from being a slimy lump sticking to every exposed surface of the world, to a smooth, round loaf.
It's the closest thing to magic I've ever seen.
You keep right on kneading. You just keep folding that loaf in on itself until not one grain of that loaf could possibly be parted from its neighbor.
But it's not enough.
Yeast is added to the flour. They just finished the Feast of Unleavened Bread a short time ago, in which yeast is the symbol of sin. It is natural to assume that yeast is sin here as well, but it's not. I think I may be alone in this interpretation, but I don't care. God is asking the priest to wave this yeast before Him. It is holy.
Yeast here is Life - Life added to the loaf. The Holy Spirit working in His church. Yeast is added at the very beginning, long before the mush has begun to be kneaded, but you cannot tell. It is only after the kneading has strengthened the bread that the yeast can make Himself known. We need to be so tightly bonded to each other that the release of the Spirit is captured and expands us, making us rise like a loaf of bread.
But it's still not enough.
From that one lump of dough two loaves are made; one wheat, one yeast, one lump, two loaves. Israel was looking for a city made without hands, and they performed the story of that city here without even knowing it. The first loaf is the church before Christ, and the second is the church after He was manifest - we are that second loaf. The two loaves are made from the same wheat, the same Yeast, the same kneading, by the same loving God.
And then, those loaves are cooked.
And that is enough!
And do you know what happens to those loaves?
Our Priest enjoys them! He eats those loaves.
20 ... They are a sacred offering to the LORD for the priest.
After all the work our High Priest lavishes on us in love; after the Spirit is kneaded into us with great care; after we have been joined to each other through suffering, through folding, and through fire, we become an aroma to Him, and a sweet taste in His mouth, and a deep satisfaction. We are truly made deep joy to the infinite God by the mercies of His grace and labor over us.
I love bread. I love the church.
Romans 8:4 - Fulfilling the Righteous Requirements of the Law
Romans 8:4 TNIV ...in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
The Question:
How is it that we fulfill the righteous requirements of the law?
The Players:
Travis, Danny Kaye, Milly (and hubby), codepoke, DugALug, Japhy
The Rules:
This study is the product of everyone's input. As such, every word may not be blessed by everyone who contributed, but we all reached the same general consensus. Codepoke did the editing.
Introduction:
We have been given the opportunity to accept the gift of salvation, but we are by no means saved unless we act upon that invitation. As for what we do after we accept Jesus Christ, we cannot expect "living by the Spirit" to just take hold of us; we must act.
"[Who] was neighbor to the robbers' victim?" He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:36-37)
Jesus did not say "correct" and pat the man on the back. He told him to "do likewise". We cannot take the example of Jesus, the perfect human, and frame it and put it our wall and say we are living in the Spirit. We must live in the Spirit!
References:
(All links are to the KJV. The KJV is more or less equally disdained by users of all other versions, and Blue Letter Bible is just easy to link. ;-) The actual quotes are from multiple versions.)
James 2:18 But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do
- I see this as saying that deeds/works are a legitimate litmus of true faith.
Gal 5:19,22-26 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness... In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit. Let us not be conceited, provoking one another, envious of one another.
- In contrasting the "works" of the flesh with the "fruit" of the Spirit, Paul is showing how the law exists because of the desires of the flesh, but "there is no law" against that which is driven by the Spirit because the Spirit produces only good fruit.
Col 1:21-23a
And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him, provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard.
- Paul seems to be telling them that, while Jesus's sacrifice on the cross has made life in the Spirit possible for them, they must "follow the Spirit". Jesus said that himself: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." (Mark 8:34) We must follow, not just stand by and watch.
Mark 1:17 (NKJV)
Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
Philippians 3:14 (NKJV)
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
- Jesus uses the term 'follow'. Paul uses the term 'Press'. These are not the words of a spectator: these are words of action. I believe the Holy Spirit quicken us to action. Japhy quotes Galatians about the works of the flesh and fruit of the Spirit. This scripture shows us that 'good works' are the biproduct of a Spirit-filled life. What we do by our own effort cannot be clean or 'good'. This is what Isiah said:
Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV)
But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
- If we live by the Spirit, good works will follow us and the Law will be of no matter. If we live by the flesh, we will never be able to live up to the Standard that God has set in the law.
Acts 23:1-51
Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day." 2At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. 3Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!" 4Those who were standing near Paul said, "You dare to insult God's high priest?" 5Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people."
James 4:10-13 (New International Version)
11Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
Mat 7:17
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
- The fruit does not make the tree, the tree makes the fruit.
2Cor 6:16 - 2Cor 7:1
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in [them]; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
- Holiness is a real part of our calling.
Tit 2:11-14
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
- The grace of God teaches us to obey the law. First the law taught us to come to Christ, and then Christ teaches us to fulfill the law. We ought to be cleansed.
Rom 9:31 & 32
But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because [they sought it] not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that Stumblingstone;
- Though we are to be cleansed, it is not in order to please God. Those who attempt to please God by righteously following a righteous law use Christ wrongly. Christ is to be the Cornerstone and Foundation of all our works and all our life. But if we are are fulfilling the law on our own, we are not founded on the Cornerstone. Instead, when we follow the law to please God, the Cornerstone is made a Stumblingstone to us.
Gal 5:4 & 5
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
- Justification is by faith, not the law. We are made righteous before God by our faith in the work of Christ, and Christ makes us clean in this world by the work of the Spirit.
John 15:23 & 24
23 Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
- We obey Christ's teachings, and our obedience flows from the love we have for Him - or it doesn't.
Discussion:
My husband had an example of how the Catholic church says that you can only take communion in the Catholic church, and no other, if you are Catholic. That’s man made - not from God. I used to laugh at the Catholic church for that. Jesus wasn’t of a "church" He traveled to cities and spoke the Word. If he walked into the Catholic church could Jesus take communion? (Man’s lines in the sand again.)
We have to live in the Spirit, not just live our lives day after day following only man’s laws. We must live in Christ for life.
I did a study on Colossians called "Crammed with Christ" a while ago and I basically came up with three conclusions.
1) Live according to the Law and try to attain righteousness that way
2) Be crammed full of Christ and attain His righteousness,
3) Or choose none of the above and live believing that righteousness is not needed. (atheists, agnostics…).
Col 2:9-14 states that the circumcision of our sinful nature is done by Christ. The passage also states that the circumcision by Him is a direct result of us “having been buried with Him in baptism” leading to our being “raised with Him” in the same nature as Romans 6:4. By faith, I can know that Christ has circumcised my sinful nature at that point and I am henceforth “given fullness in Christ”, or in the Greek “pleroo”, (literally meaning “to cram”). That’s where I get the title of my study “Crammed with Christ”.
There are levels of faith. There are levels of passion. There are levels of many spiritual things. But If Christ is in you…He is in you all the way, filling you with His life and love, and giving life to (our) mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in (us)." (Rom. 8:11)
The liberty of being free from the consequence of the law leads us to worship. So following the law is now an act of understanding rather than an act of obedience.This was one of my points on my blog post:My La La Post
God is after our heart and we are instructed to be more Christ-like. That means seeing things as Christ sees them.Thus, living by the Spirit is allowing God to mold or shape our heart so that our entire lifestyle and outlook will be an instrument of praise towards God.
As the Good book says: Faith is counted as righteousness.
The Bible clearly says that, as redeemed saints, God's Words are enscribed on our heart. These words give us understanding that is impossible without God's input. In the end, I really believe that God changes my perspective on life. The path of following the law is available to us through asking of and submitting to the direction of the Holy Spirit.
John 1:14 (NKJV)And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth
This scripture says God is tied to the Word. So understanding the Word is to understand God. I would have to say that understanding the Word is inclusive of the law. And thus, understanding the law is good. I believe that this understanding is impossible without the Holy Spirit. Without sounding circular, I contend that following the law is at the quickening of the Holy Spirit.
Paul is saying that while our flesh exists in the framework of the law of sin, our spirits exist in the framework of the law of God. It is possible for our spirits to do works in the law of the flesh, but it is not possible for our flesh to do works in the law of the spirit. We are no longer governed by the power of the law of sin (which is death) because of our salvation in Christ Jesus, but we are still able to commit acts which violate the law.
Christ was the first person through whom the requirements of the law were truly met, and so we now have the model of Christ to follow.
The desires of the flesh are opposite the desires of the spirit; you cannot serve two masters at once.
I've heard contention between "works" and "faith" as far as salvation is concerned. There's one side that says faith in Christ is all that's needed (and they base this on a few lines from Paul's letters) and another side that says faith alone is not enough.
Ephesians 2:8-9 is the oft-quoted excerpt: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast." Harping on this, they neglect so many other things written by Paul and others (e.g. James 2:14-17), as well as the teachings of Jesus himself (e.g. Matthew 25:31-46, "whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me").
But moreso, they confuse the meaning of Paul's words. It is not by works that we are saved, it is through faith. That faith then works in and through us to produce good works, by which we justify the grace and salvation given us by Christ's sacrifice.
We all sin again (sometimes the same sins) after we have asked God for forgiveness. But God knows our hearts; He knows when we're sincere and when we are not, He knows when we are truly sorry for our transgressions and when we secretly delight that our behavior has made someone else just a little more unhappy than us. God knows human nature, if not only because He created us, but because He took our form in Jesus Christ.
And it's because we have Jesus as a model to follow that we're not hopeless; he was like us in every way but sin: he was tempted, but did not give in, and that meant he followed God's will, even to his death. That is the example we are given to follow: a life of obedience to God's will.
So, to sum it all up, now that we have been given this great gift, let us sow our faith like seeds, that it yield a harvest. Christ followed the will of the Father, and that is the example we have. Christ told us to spread the gospel, to make disciples of the nations. I don't think we can ever hope to accomplish that by never sharing the fruits of our faith (that is, good works inspired by the Spirit) with others.
Conclusions:
I don't often hear sermons about obeying the righteous requirements of the law. The focus is always on justification, and how we are justified by faith. The focus is on believing unto salvation.
This verse, and this study, put justification in focus. The day we find out we are declared righteous before God is the beginning of a journey, not the end of all works. We begin to open ourselves to the working of the Spirit. We put off the dead works of the flesh. We are cleansed, not just before God, but in this life. Paul failed to attain righteousness in this life, but he did not just wait passively for it to come to him. Paul "pressed":
The Question:
How is it that we fulfill the righteous requirements of the law?
The Players:
Travis, Danny Kaye, Milly (and hubby), codepoke, DugALug, Japhy
The Rules:
This study is the product of everyone's input. As such, every word may not be blessed by everyone who contributed, but we all reached the same general consensus. Codepoke did the editing.
Introduction:
We have been given the opportunity to accept the gift of salvation, but we are by no means saved unless we act upon that invitation. As for what we do after we accept Jesus Christ, we cannot expect "living by the Spirit" to just take hold of us; we must act.
"[Who] was neighbor to the robbers' victim?" He answered, "The one who treated him with mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:36-37)
Jesus did not say "correct" and pat the man on the back. He told him to "do likewise". We cannot take the example of Jesus, the perfect human, and frame it and put it our wall and say we are living in the Spirit. We must live in the Spirit!
References:
(All links are to the KJV. The KJV is more or less equally disdained by users of all other versions, and Blue Letter Bible is just easy to link. ;-) The actual quotes are from multiple versions.)
James 2:18 But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do
- I see this as saying that deeds/works are a legitimate litmus of true faith.
Gal 5:19,22-26 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness... In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit. Let us not be conceited, provoking one another, envious of one another.
- In contrasting the "works" of the flesh with the "fruit" of the Spirit, Paul is showing how the law exists because of the desires of the flesh, but "there is no law" against that which is driven by the Spirit because the Spirit produces only good fruit.
Col 1:21-23a
And you who once were alienated and hostile in mind because of evil deeds he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through his death, to present you holy, without blemish, and irreproachable before him, provided that you persevere in the faith, firmly grounded, stable, and not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard.
- Paul seems to be telling them that, while Jesus's sacrifice on the cross has made life in the Spirit possible for them, they must "follow the Spirit". Jesus said that himself: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." (Mark 8:34) We must follow, not just stand by and watch.
Mark 1:17 (NKJV)
Then Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”
Philippians 3:14 (NKJV)
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
- Jesus uses the term 'follow'. Paul uses the term 'Press'. These are not the words of a spectator: these are words of action. I believe the Holy Spirit quicken us to action. Japhy quotes Galatians about the works of the flesh and fruit of the Spirit. This scripture shows us that 'good works' are the biproduct of a Spirit-filled life. What we do by our own effort cannot be clean or 'good'. This is what Isiah said:
Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV)
But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
- If we live by the Spirit, good works will follow us and the Law will be of no matter. If we live by the flesh, we will never be able to live up to the Standard that God has set in the law.
Acts 23:1-51
Paul looked straight at the Sanhedrin and said, "My brothers, I have fulfilled my duty to God in all good conscience to this day." 2At this the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near Paul to strike him on the mouth. 3Then Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! You sit there to judge me according to the law, yet you yourself violate the law by commanding that I be struck!" 4Those who were standing near Paul said, "You dare to insult God's high priest?" 5Paul replied, "Brothers, I did not realize that he was the high priest; for it is written: 'Do not speak evil about the ruler of your people."
James 4:10-13 (New International Version)
11Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?
Mat 7:17
Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
- The fruit does not make the tree, the tree makes the fruit.
2Cor 6:16 - 2Cor 7:1
And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in [them]; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
- Holiness is a real part of our calling.
Tit 2:11-14
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
- The grace of God teaches us to obey the law. First the law taught us to come to Christ, and then Christ teaches us to fulfill the law. We ought to be cleansed.
Rom 9:31 & 32
But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because [they sought it] not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that Stumblingstone;
- Though we are to be cleansed, it is not in order to please God. Those who attempt to please God by righteously following a righteous law use Christ wrongly. Christ is to be the Cornerstone and Foundation of all our works and all our life. But if we are are fulfilling the law on our own, we are not founded on the Cornerstone. Instead, when we follow the law to please God, the Cornerstone is made a Stumblingstone to us.
Gal 5:4 & 5
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
- Justification is by faith, not the law. We are made righteous before God by our faith in the work of Christ, and Christ makes us clean in this world by the work of the Spirit.
John 15:23 & 24
23 Jesus replied, "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
- We obey Christ's teachings, and our obedience flows from the love we have for Him - or it doesn't.
Discussion:
My husband had an example of how the Catholic church says that you can only take communion in the Catholic church, and no other, if you are Catholic. That’s man made - not from God. I used to laugh at the Catholic church for that. Jesus wasn’t of a "church" He traveled to cities and spoke the Word. If he walked into the Catholic church could Jesus take communion? (Man’s lines in the sand again.)
We have to live in the Spirit, not just live our lives day after day following only man’s laws. We must live in Christ for life.
I did a study on Colossians called "Crammed with Christ" a while ago and I basically came up with three conclusions.
1) Live according to the Law and try to attain righteousness that way
2) Be crammed full of Christ and attain His righteousness,
3) Or choose none of the above and live believing that righteousness is not needed. (atheists, agnostics…).
Col 2:9-14 states that the circumcision of our sinful nature is done by Christ. The passage also states that the circumcision by Him is a direct result of us “having been buried with Him in baptism” leading to our being “raised with Him” in the same nature as Romans 6:4. By faith, I can know that Christ has circumcised my sinful nature at that point and I am henceforth “given fullness in Christ”, or in the Greek “pleroo”, (literally meaning “to cram”). That’s where I get the title of my study “Crammed with Christ”.
There are levels of faith. There are levels of passion. There are levels of many spiritual things. But If Christ is in you…He is in you all the way, filling you with His life and love, and giving life to (our) mortal bodies through his Spirit who lives in (us)." (Rom. 8:11)
The liberty of being free from the consequence of the law leads us to worship. So following the law is now an act of understanding rather than an act of obedience.This was one of my points on my blog post:My La La Post
God is after our heart and we are instructed to be more Christ-like. That means seeing things as Christ sees them.Thus, living by the Spirit is allowing God to mold or shape our heart so that our entire lifestyle and outlook will be an instrument of praise towards God.
As the Good book says: Faith is counted as righteousness.
The Bible clearly says that, as redeemed saints, God's Words are enscribed on our heart. These words give us understanding that is impossible without God's input. In the end, I really believe that God changes my perspective on life. The path of following the law is available to us through asking of and submitting to the direction of the Holy Spirit.
John 1:14 (NKJV)And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth
This scripture says God is tied to the Word. So understanding the Word is to understand God. I would have to say that understanding the Word is inclusive of the law. And thus, understanding the law is good. I believe that this understanding is impossible without the Holy Spirit. Without sounding circular, I contend that following the law is at the quickening of the Holy Spirit.
Paul is saying that while our flesh exists in the framework of the law of sin, our spirits exist in the framework of the law of God. It is possible for our spirits to do works in the law of the flesh, but it is not possible for our flesh to do works in the law of the spirit. We are no longer governed by the power of the law of sin (which is death) because of our salvation in Christ Jesus, but we are still able to commit acts which violate the law.
Christ was the first person through whom the requirements of the law were truly met, and so we now have the model of Christ to follow.
The desires of the flesh are opposite the desires of the spirit; you cannot serve two masters at once.
I've heard contention between "works" and "faith" as far as salvation is concerned. There's one side that says faith in Christ is all that's needed (and they base this on a few lines from Paul's letters) and another side that says faith alone is not enough.
Ephesians 2:8-9 is the oft-quoted excerpt: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast." Harping on this, they neglect so many other things written by Paul and others (e.g. James 2:14-17), as well as the teachings of Jesus himself (e.g. Matthew 25:31-46, "whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me").
But moreso, they confuse the meaning of Paul's words. It is not by works that we are saved, it is through faith. That faith then works in and through us to produce good works, by which we justify the grace and salvation given us by Christ's sacrifice.
We all sin again (sometimes the same sins) after we have asked God for forgiveness. But God knows our hearts; He knows when we're sincere and when we are not, He knows when we are truly sorry for our transgressions and when we secretly delight that our behavior has made someone else just a little more unhappy than us. God knows human nature, if not only because He created us, but because He took our form in Jesus Christ.
And it's because we have Jesus as a model to follow that we're not hopeless; he was like us in every way but sin: he was tempted, but did not give in, and that meant he followed God's will, even to his death. That is the example we are given to follow: a life of obedience to God's will.
So, to sum it all up, now that we have been given this great gift, let us sow our faith like seeds, that it yield a harvest. Christ followed the will of the Father, and that is the example we have. Christ told us to spread the gospel, to make disciples of the nations. I don't think we can ever hope to accomplish that by never sharing the fruits of our faith (that is, good works inspired by the Spirit) with others.
Conclusions:
I don't often hear sermons about obeying the righteous requirements of the law. The focus is always on justification, and how we are justified by faith. The focus is on believing unto salvation.
This verse, and this study, put justification in focus. The day we find out we are declared righteous before God is the beginning of a journey, not the end of all works. We begin to open ourselves to the working of the Spirit. We put off the dead works of the flesh. We are cleansed, not just before God, but in this life. Paul failed to attain righteousness in this life, but he did not just wait passively for it to come to him. Paul "pressed":
Phil 3:12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
So, we fulfill the righteous requirements of the law by the Spirit's work in us. We don't work toward this end because of any fear. We are justified in Christ, and appear before God as His righteous children. It is because we love Him that we work to obey His commands. When we succeed, it is because His Spirit moves in us, transforming us and making us alive to the things that our new nature loves. Jesus did not leave us alone in the world, but sent the Comforter to walk with us the whole way.
Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. 12 It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 13 while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, 14 who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Da Vinci Code
That is the last time you will see me willingly mention those 3 words on this blog.
Is anyone else completely bored with this whole kerfluffle? It's all I can do to read the summaries of the posts about this one book. I'm 100% sure that I have nothing to add to the discussion with all the great information out there now ... over and over and over again.
Just whining.
I suppose it's only fair to quote the site that has given me the best information on DVC, and that has helped me move from curious to DVC'd out so quickly.
The Christian Cadre
Da Vinci Code Page
CC's othercott suggestion: Go see Flight 93 on the day DVC opens.
CADRE COMMENTS BLOG
Is anyone else completely bored with this whole kerfluffle? It's all I can do to read the summaries of the posts about this one book. I'm 100% sure that I have nothing to add to the discussion with all the great information out there now ... over and over and over again.
Just whining.
I suppose it's only fair to quote the site that has given me the best information on DVC, and that has helped me move from curious to DVC'd out so quickly.
The Christian Cadre
Da Vinci Code Page
CC's othercott suggestion: Go see Flight 93 on the day DVC opens.
CADRE COMMENTS BLOG
03 May, 2006
Back, and none the worse for wear
I recommend that if you have to get up at 4:00 to put in a 16 hour day, by all means try to lay in bed awake from 11:00 until almost 1:00. ;-) It sure worked for me.
Not much to say. We got 223 voters through our machines in 13 hours of the ~750 in our precinct. Over 30% turnout for a midterm primary with no issues on the ballot is respectable. The new machines worked well. Only 2 or 3 people really hated them.
Being a presiding judge was interesting. It's only the second time I've ever worked the polls, and 3 of the 4 judges I was overseeing had a combined 70 years of experience or some such. It was vaguely unsettling to have them waiting for me to come back from the bathroom to figure out how to handle a provisional voter. They seemed to be happy all day, though, and I don't think anything went badly wrong. One of the judges said her buddy quit because of the last pj, and she was glad that she had decided to give it one more year, so that was cool.
Besides, we closed out our polls 5 minutes faster than the other precinct set up in the same room. That's how they really judge you. :-D After 13 hours of voter processing, they only care how quickly you can get them home.
It was fun. It wasn't a "rush" like back in 2004, when we had lines stacked out the doors for fully 14 hours, but it was pretty wild being "in charge".
And I got some reading done in "Ante Pacem". The man makes me think!
Not much to say. We got 223 voters through our machines in 13 hours of the ~750 in our precinct. Over 30% turnout for a midterm primary with no issues on the ballot is respectable. The new machines worked well. Only 2 or 3 people really hated them.
Being a presiding judge was interesting. It's only the second time I've ever worked the polls, and 3 of the 4 judges I was overseeing had a combined 70 years of experience or some such. It was vaguely unsettling to have them waiting for me to come back from the bathroom to figure out how to handle a provisional voter. They seemed to be happy all day, though, and I don't think anything went badly wrong. One of the judges said her buddy quit because of the last pj, and she was glad that she had decided to give it one more year, so that was cool.
Besides, we closed out our polls 5 minutes faster than the other precinct set up in the same room. That's how they really judge you. :-D After 13 hours of voter processing, they only care how quickly you can get them home.
It was fun. It wasn't a "rush" like back in 2004, when we had lines stacked out the doors for fully 14 hours, but it was pretty wild being "in charge".
And I got some reading done in "Ante Pacem". The man makes me think!
01 May, 2006
The Gospel in 4 Characters
That's 4 written characters, pictograms really.
Maeghan has posted some of her research into how some of the bigger, richer words describing the gospel are written in Chinese. Language is so very intriguing and heartwarming, and these pictograms open up a whole new window on the subject.
Imagine if every time you thought of being reconciled to God, you pictured yourself as an ox whose horns had been removed. Wow.
Thanks, Maeghan!
Maeghan has posted some of her research into how some of the bigger, richer words describing the gospel are written in Chinese. Language is so very intriguing and heartwarming, and these pictograms open up a whole new window on the subject.
Imagine if every time you thought of being reconciled to God, you pictured yourself as an ox whose horns had been removed. Wow.
Thanks, Maeghan!
30 April, 2006
The Symbol of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Surely, this is not an original thought, but I will think it nonetheless.
The Tao is a big deal for most people. In everything good, the seed of evil. In everything evil, the seed of good. This makes great sense! The Tao is really right on. In the most awful of deeds, you can find evidence that the person who committed it knew that their evil was evil. And that knowledge is a seed of future good. It probably won't grow, but it's a seed all the same. In the most altruistic deed is the possibility of future reward or vainglory.
This is it. This is the symbol of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
When a man understands it, he attains as highly as he possibly can on his own. He has mastered godlike-ness as well as ever he will. This is what satan sold to Adam.
So what is the symbol of the Tree of Life? What is the symbol of Christ?
Count to 10 before you answer. :-)
No, I don't believe it is the cross.
Neither did the early church. Berger Pearson reviews Ante Pacem by Graydon Snyder. I have Ante Pacem, and highly recommend it (though I last read it over a decade ago).
Snyder argues that the specific Christian symbolism of the cross did not exist before Constantine. He refers to the “striking lack of crosses in early Christian remains,” and states that the crosses that do appear in Christian—and Jewish—art are “crypto-crosses” and are not symbolic of the crucifixion of Jesus.
The images of the first churches were happy. Jesus is pictured as a happy, happy man, and so many of the things happening in the images were joyous. That's how and why the church went 300 years without using the cross as its symbol. 300 years! 300 years ago, the 13 colonies were still happily paying their tiny little taxes to Great Britain, and George III would still not be born for another 30+ years. 300 years after the death of Christ is a long, Long, LONG time for the church to live happily without using the cross symbolically.
Snyder finds in ancient Christian art, these symbols:
... the lamb, anchor, vase, dove, boat, olive branch, orante (a female figure depicted with outstretched arms and hands upraised in prayer), palm or tree, bread, Good Shepherd, fish, vine and grapes, and the cross.
The fish made the biggest impression on me. Forget the Ixthos fish. That came much later. The original fish is a great picture of Christ and of the church as well. The sea is figurative of death, so a fish alive in the midst of death is a perfect picture of Christ and His church living in this world.
So, what do you think our best symbol is?
Posting and commenting may be light
Yep, instead of blogging tonight, I am listening to an EXCITING DVD about how to be the presiding judge at a poll precinct for the upcoming Tuesday, May 2 primary.
Golly, folks.
I get to get up at 4:00-ish to be on site before 5:30 so I can be organized and awake for the other 3 judges, and then I get to drop my stuff off sometime after the polls close at 7:30. And I think they will frown upon me connecting to the Internet to keep up with our conversation threads. ;-)
So, Monday I will chat as usual, I imagine, and then disappear behind the moon for a while.
I worked the polls for the big Nov 2004 event. That was pretty exciting. For this, I expect to have to bring a book.
Golly, folks.
I get to get up at 4:00-ish to be on site before 5:30 so I can be organized and awake for the other 3 judges, and then I get to drop my stuff off sometime after the polls close at 7:30. And I think they will frown upon me connecting to the Internet to keep up with our conversation threads. ;-)
So, Monday I will chat as usual, I imagine, and then disappear behind the moon for a while.
I worked the polls for the big Nov 2004 event. That was pretty exciting. For this, I expect to have to bring a book.
29 April, 2006
40 Days
Have you ever had the same revelation over and over, and it's new every time? I'm not talking about wonderful stuff, either. It's like a recurring nightmare that I keep forgetting. A few weeks later, I have this little revelation again, and it's like I have never had the thought before. Then a deja-vu thing starts rattling around, and suddenly it dawns on my that: A) This is hardly original, and B) I am more than a little daft. :-)
It seems that every time I think about the suffering God has ordained in our lives, I end up thinking about how most of the suffering is in the waiting. We wait on answers, on events, on faith, and on deliverance. And much of that waiting seems to be done on an empty stomach. Some day, He will deliver. And so we wait, seemingly endlessly, in a dry place.
And after the long wait, a strange, unexpected thing happens.
We have to fight for our lives!
??
But this is exactly in keeping with the scriptural pattern.
Luke 4
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, ...
At the end of 40 days of fasting, Jesus was hungry.
Then, and only then, the devil tries Jesus three times. The 40 day wait was an integral part of the trial, and there was nothing that could substitute for it. We are talking about the Son of God here! It seems like He might have better things to do with His time than growing weaker while waiting for a final battle with the devil!
But He didn't.
Waiting on God and the battle seems to be a part of the pattern of life that He has allowed in this age.
In the Army, they used to remind us that the march was only to the battle. While training, it gets to feeling like the march is the battle. It's not. After you march for 40 days, you get to dig in and prepare for the actual fight, and that is where we are truly tried.
Now, I just need to find a way to be able to remember this little lesson for more than 3 days!
Gal 6
9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
(Uh, I haven't already blogged this, have I?)
(FTR - life is pretty sweet these days. These thoughts are not born out of any suffering :-). Just praising the Lord for the fight He waged.)
It seems that every time I think about the suffering God has ordained in our lives, I end up thinking about how most of the suffering is in the waiting. We wait on answers, on events, on faith, and on deliverance. And much of that waiting seems to be done on an empty stomach. Some day, He will deliver. And so we wait, seemingly endlessly, in a dry place.
And after the long wait, a strange, unexpected thing happens.
We have to fight for our lives!
??
But this is exactly in keeping with the scriptural pattern.
Luke 4
1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, ...
At the end of 40 days of fasting, Jesus was hungry.
Then, and only then, the devil tries Jesus three times. The 40 day wait was an integral part of the trial, and there was nothing that could substitute for it. We are talking about the Son of God here! It seems like He might have better things to do with His time than growing weaker while waiting for a final battle with the devil!
But He didn't.
Waiting on God and the battle seems to be a part of the pattern of life that He has allowed in this age.
In the Army, they used to remind us that the march was only to the battle. While training, it gets to feeling like the march is the battle. It's not. After you march for 40 days, you get to dig in and prepare for the actual fight, and that is where we are truly tried.
Now, I just need to find a way to be able to remember this little lesson for more than 3 days!
Gal 6
9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
(Uh, I haven't already blogged this, have I?)
(FTR - life is pretty sweet these days. These thoughts are not born out of any suffering :-). Just praising the Lord for the fight He waged.)
Stumped and Stamped
Over at the Funnest Place on the Internet, Rich has me stumped. I mean the kind of stumped that doesn't even know where to start at getting unstumped. He has found 3 possible answers to the question, "Was Jesus Forsaken by God?" on the cross. The first answer is the standard one that we all got in Sunday School, but #'s 2 and 3 are pretty stout.
While you're there, just check out some of the things he does to keep his loyal subjects entertained :-). Like this gem from January. NATIONAL MASCOT CHALLENGE CHAMPIONSHIP or his inimitable lists.
And Congratulations to Danny Kaye who has stamped his name on the blogosphere for a full and utterly unpredictable year! I don't know anyone else who has gotten the word out on Iraq, tackled the perfect church, and discovered the reason for the Internet.
While you're there, just check out some of the things he does to keep his loyal subjects entertained :-). Like this gem from January. NATIONAL MASCOT CHALLENGE CHAMPIONSHIP or his inimitable lists.
And Congratulations to Danny Kaye who has stamped his name on the blogosphere for a full and utterly unpredictable year! I don't know anyone else who has gotten the word out on Iraq, tackled the perfect church, and discovered the reason for the Internet.
27 April, 2006
Which Singer Do You Follow
The song, "Which Jesus Do You Follow?" has been filling up the Christian radio waves here in Columbus, OH. I guess the real title is, "My Jesus", and I guess I'm not supposed to copy the lyrics over here, so I will link them, and copy individual lines that interest me.
What do ya'll think about this song?
There are parts of it that I like, but mostly I find it offensive. Which means that I must be one of the comfortable Christians that Mr. Agnew is blasting. That's OK, I guess. Perhaps the Spirit will allow my conscience to bite me at some point.
Of course, it almost goes without saying that I love the violin in this song. ANY song that has a violin doing THAT is going to be on my favorites list. How they make those strings weep like that is beyond me, but I could listen to it all day.
Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to be blessed with the wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand
Great stuff.
I want to be like my Jesus
but I'm not sure what that means to be like You Jesus
Cause You said to live like You, love like You but then You died for me
Can I be like You Jesus?
I want to be like my Jesus
This is stunningly beautiful. This is true. I could sing and pray this all day long.
But, there's so much pointless harshness in this song.
Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet would stain the carpet
Um. No. When the unwashed enter our church, people get confused and scared but flock to them anyway. I have never seen a person who had not bathed in a week enter our church, but they were surrounded by people trying to make them feel at home. If a dirty, bleeding man stumbled into our church, he would immediately get our couch - I'm sure of it.
So, why insult like this?
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part
Hmmm. In a song about the mercy of our Lord, Mr. Agnew is going to rely on sarcasm.
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ
Then why do you look so much like the world?
...
He spent His time with thieves and liars
So, Jesus looked so much like the world that thieves and liars were comfortable with Him, but we look so much like the world that Jesus would not be comfortable with us. That sounds awfully Catch-22ish to me.
He spent His time with thieves and liars ... and sluts ... and the least of these
... I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd
Interesting. I had to look up Beale St. It's a famous hang-out for blues musicians in Memphis. I think on the radio he says, "High St."
I get it. I know what he is trying to say, but I don't think it's true. I fear Phariseeism, but the days when Pharisees hung out in churches are dying out pretty quickly I think. And, I doubt highly that Jesus hung out with thieves, liars and the like for long. They left their selfish lives, and started loving God, or they moved on from Jesus.
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable ... the rich ... the arrogant
I don't see Jesus accosting anyone, except those who violated His Father's house. Maybe I'm wrong on this one. I see Him responding to those who tried to reject the Truth or accept it half-way, but I just don't see Him being obsessed with them. They come to Him for rejection. He does not accost them.
Anyway, I think "Asleep in the Light" might be fun to compare side-by-side with "My Jesus". I loved AitL as a kid, and don't know that I would feel quite the same about it if it came out today.
Nah. I don't think Keith made so many blunders.
It's been on my mind.
What do ya'll think about this song?
There are parts of it that I like, but mostly I find it offensive. Which means that I must be one of the comfortable Christians that Mr. Agnew is blasting. That's OK, I guess. Perhaps the Spirit will allow my conscience to bite me at some point.
Of course, it almost goes without saying that I love the violin in this song. ANY song that has a violin doing THAT is going to be on my favorites list. How they make those strings weep like that is beyond me, but I could listen to it all day.
Blessed are the poor in spirit
Or do we pray to be blessed with the wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Or do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand
Great stuff.
I want to be like my Jesus
but I'm not sure what that means to be like You Jesus
Cause You said to live like You, love like You but then You died for me
Can I be like You Jesus?
I want to be like my Jesus
This is stunningly beautiful. This is true. I could sing and pray this all day long.
But, there's so much pointless harshness in this song.
Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet would stain the carpet
Um. No. When the unwashed enter our church, people get confused and scared but flock to them anyway. I have never seen a person who had not bathed in a week enter our church, but they were surrounded by people trying to make them feel at home. If a dirty, bleeding man stumbled into our church, he would immediately get our couch - I'm sure of it.
So, why insult like this?
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part
Hmmm. In a song about the mercy of our Lord, Mr. Agnew is going to rely on sarcasm.
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ
Then why do you look so much like the world?
...
He spent His time with thieves and liars
So, Jesus looked so much like the world that thieves and liars were comfortable with Him, but we look so much like the world that Jesus would not be comfortable with us. That sounds awfully Catch-22ish to me.
He spent His time with thieves and liars ... and sluts ... and the least of these
... I think He'd prefer Beale St. to the stained glass crowd
Interesting. I had to look up Beale St. It's a famous hang-out for blues musicians in Memphis. I think on the radio he says, "High St."
I get it. I know what he is trying to say, but I don't think it's true. I fear Phariseeism, but the days when Pharisees hung out in churches are dying out pretty quickly I think. And, I doubt highly that Jesus hung out with thieves, liars and the like for long. They left their selfish lives, and started loving God, or they moved on from Jesus.
He loved the poor and accosted the comfortable ... the rich ... the arrogant
I don't see Jesus accosting anyone, except those who violated His Father's house. Maybe I'm wrong on this one. I see Him responding to those who tried to reject the Truth or accept it half-way, but I just don't see Him being obsessed with them. They come to Him for rejection. He does not accost them.
Anyway, I think "Asleep in the Light" might be fun to compare side-by-side with "My Jesus". I loved AitL as a kid, and don't know that I would feel quite the same about it if it came out today.
Nah. I don't think Keith made so many blunders.
It's been on my mind.
26 April, 2006
Hmmmm. Link rot
Turns out that if you change the title of a post, the archive links fail. I may be able to fix it by rebuilding the index. Just thought I'd make note of this little blogger quirk, though.
(Discovered while mining through the Romans 8:4 posts to put together the final study. The ball has been in the air for a while, but I have not dropped it!)
Update.
Yep, republishing the entire blog did fix the broken links in the archives. It would not, however, fix any permalinks that had been set up outside of this blog. On the ridiculously slim chance that someone were to permalink to a page of mine, I would hate to break it by changing the post title. Therefore, I will give up the idea I was playing with of changing the post title whenever I wanted people to know what I had updated.
You link and learn, or you don't link long.
(Discovered while mining through the Romans 8:4 posts to put together the final study. The ball has been in the air for a while, but I have not dropped it!)
Update.
Yep, republishing the entire blog did fix the broken links in the archives. It would not, however, fix any permalinks that had been set up outside of this blog. On the ridiculously slim chance that someone were to permalink to a page of mine, I would hate to break it by changing the post title. Therefore, I will give up the idea I was playing with of changing the post title whenever I wanted people to know what I had updated.
You link and learn, or you don't link long.
Science - They have discovered fermentation
Scientific American announced this morning that they have discovered that Bacteria Render Beans Easier to Digest and More Nutritious
Amidst using a bunch of really long words, and telling about how rats get stronger, they tell us, "Such lactic acid bacteria are already used to help create products like yogurt." In other words, you should ferment your beans in fermented milk products so that you can get more nutrition and less gas from them.
Duh.
Amidst using a bunch of really long words, and telling about how rats get stronger, they tell us, "Such lactic acid bacteria are already used to help create products like yogurt." In other words, you should ferment your beans in fermented milk products so that you can get more nutrition and less gas from them.
Duh.
25 April, 2006
Revolutions - lasting?
The Economist does a survey in every issue. This week's survey is about the New Media - blogs, wikis, podcasts - versus the Old Media. Very cool. It's about 10 articles long, and starts here.
The final article begins with this quote that I found really, really solid and completely new to me:
AS A rule, some people, such as Jacobins, tend to be more enthusiastic about revolutions than others, such as monarchs. Another fairly reliable rule is that revolutions abrupt enough to be associated with a single year (1642, 1789, 1848, 1917) tend to cause trouble but rarely bring lasting change. By contrast, revolutions gradual enough to be associated with a name (Renaissance, Reformation, Industrial Revolution) often do have enduring effects. A third rule, or hypothesis, might be that revolutions seem never to be entirely for the better or the worse, but somehow manage to combine both.
Nope. I had never noticed that, but yeah. That groks.
How long I have longed for a revolution in the church! Now I know that I am hoping for a nice, patient, slow one.
The final article begins with this quote that I found really, really solid and completely new to me:
AS A rule, some people, such as Jacobins, tend to be more enthusiastic about revolutions than others, such as monarchs. Another fairly reliable rule is that revolutions abrupt enough to be associated with a single year (1642, 1789, 1848, 1917) tend to cause trouble but rarely bring lasting change. By contrast, revolutions gradual enough to be associated with a name (Renaissance, Reformation, Industrial Revolution) often do have enduring effects. A third rule, or hypothesis, might be that revolutions seem never to be entirely for the better or the worse, but somehow manage to combine both.
Nope. I had never noticed that, but yeah. That groks.
How long I have longed for a revolution in the church! Now I know that I am hoping for a nice, patient, slow one.
24 April, 2006
Destined through Weakness
Nobody changes his theology when everything is going well. It is coping with trials of different types that brings a man to question himself, and to look more deeply into the Word and into his life. So, I would say that why a man changes his theology is more important than whether he does.
That I believe this is not really a surprise, though, since I am a feeler more than a thinker. I am often reminded that I use lots of big words, but they are just masking the reality that I always want to cry, laugh, shout, attack, run, mope, sing, whine, or any other of a long list of emotions. My vocabulary choices are driven by the things I am trying to say. I'm one gigantic emotion on overdrive that only knows how to express itself in words, so I struggle to find words extreme enough for my feelings.
It was emotion that drove me to into predestination's arms in 1983. I know that particular doctrine is supposed to be able to ice any heart, but it didn't feel cold, dry or dusty to me. Predestination was two of the warmest arms I had ever felt pulling me back from the edge of an awful precipice. Predestination was the Eyes of God softly taking in my shame without surprise or regret, and a gentle finger collecting tears that He always knew I would weep. Predestination was Jesus truly accepting me.
For those of you who have never been hit over the head by a Calvinist with a bible, let me explain that predestination is an overloaded word. Overloading is a computer programming term. It means that a single command can mean any number things, depending upon the context in which you invoke it. Calvinists, Arminians, and a host of others invoke predestination from the context of their particular opinions. Like armpits, we all have a couple of those and without attention they can be quite offensive.
Before go into why I embraced predestination, let me try to give brief (if unintentionally stilted) definitions of the Calvinist and Arminian position on predestination. I really want to get on with the post, but I am afraid that if I start without defining this a little bit, someone is going to get lost.
In a Calvinist context, predestination means that God planned out the most-est perfect-est world that His eternal imagination could conceive, and created it from beginning to end. God ordered every thing that ever happened to you. Not just you, but every person who will eventually be saved and every person to be damned was created by God to a certain destiny, and even the path by which they would arrive was predetermined. To be clear, Calvinists do not believe that God forces anyone to be damned against their will, only that He limits His effective mercy to His chosen people.
In an Arminian context, predestination means that God saw the end of His creation from the beginning. He knew who would be born, and He knew whether each of those people would soften their hearts to accept His Love and Grace. He offered His grace to all, but He knew that all would not accept. Those people whom He could foresee would eventually choose Him, He loved and predestined. Predestination to Arminians (and most believers are Arminians) is more about the "ends" than the "means". God predestined the end that we would be saved, but to make it happen He adjusts His plan daily to deal with obstacles thrown up by sin.
In 1982, my context was hard-corps Arminian. I had been given all the proof texts against the Calvinist heresy back in '78, and I was ready to take on any of those scoundrels who might come my way. Of course, there were not many of them, so it never happened. But that was OK! I was ready. I was armed with every doctrine necessary to the perfect life, and the world was mine for the fixing.
I don't even need to say that this did not happen.
No, instead I fell in love, but it didn't go so well. Mine is a typical tale of teen love, except in two things. 1) I know nothing of half-measures. And 2) I had a boatload of unrecognized emotional problems before the relationship problems even started. Somewhere deep down in my soul, a place that was supposed to be strong just wasn't. Only I didn't know it was broken. I thought that people just were supposed to be the way I was.
When the relationship ended in '83, I was shattered. Shattered is really a pretty weak word to describe the boy who was left. Suicide was never an option, because it would have been too happy. Like getting drunk, suicide was a cheap solution to a very important problem, and I like very important problems too much to let this one slip by so easily.
Most of all, in the midst of my shattering, I knew that I should be rejoicing in the Lord.
But I was not rejoicing in the Lord.
Oh, I was praising Him. I was thanking Him. I was worshipping and waiting. You can say words of praise by pure willpower, but week followed week, and there was no joy.
Instead, I was selfish beyond measure, and morose.
In other words, I was failing God and I could not help myself. I could not stop being so weak. I was where I was because I had failed God in the first place. And now that I was here, I was failing Him again, when He had never failed me.
I wept because of frustrated romance, and then I wept because I was weeping. Gradually, I had to admit that I was depressed, and the fact that I could not pull out of this depression began to really work at my conscience.
If there was a weakness in my soul in the area of romantic love, I was a cripple toward failing God. I was terrified of what God must be thinking of me. My sins piled before my eyes like so many bricks between God and my heart. I had been raised to believe that a man could sin unintentionally after 70 years of faithfully serving God, and still be damned. Unrepented sin was unrepented sin. At 12 or so, in '76 or so, I learned about "once saved, always saved" and that was good news, but OSAS was not enough.
I knew that He was a God Who forgives sins, so I repented. I repented especially of unbelief, unbelief in His providence, and unbelief in His patience. God was faithful and just to forgive my sin. And I repented. And He forgave. And I repented. And He forgave. This cycle gets old after a few weeks or months. As quickly as the bricks were gone I had sinned against Him again, and I was blocked from the haven of His presence again.
I knew the verses that I needed to know, and I knew the Psalms. I knew that it was OK to pour out my heart's grievances to the Lord, but the Psalmist always found peace with the Lord by the end of his prayer. I could do that, too. Given a few hours alone, I could pray the Truth back to God until my heart was at peace, and I could sleep. In the morning, though, it was like I had never heard the Truth in my life. I was back at ground zero.
My body and my mind were breaking.
The weeks became months. And the months marked an anniversary, and there was no healing in sight. I was broken with the Truth in my hands, and I did not know what to do. Every now and again some poor soul will say something to me about how suicide is an unforgivable sin. I forgive them, but I never look at them quite the same way again. That is a person who is willing to talk with authority on matters about which they know nothing.
Anyway, this disturbed youth walked into a Christian bookstore in which an old lady ministered. Turns out she was one of those Calvinist heretics I was so well trained to confront, but confrontation requires strength and I was desperately short of that. Instead, I walked out with a pile of books a good foot high. I don't believe I gave her a penny. Whether I did or not would not have mattered. I love her with all my heart to this day.
One of those books was "The Five Points of Calvinism Defined, Defended, Documented". It was fewer than 100 pages, and from page 24 to page 60 it was nothing but scripture. I still have a copy, so I could quote all sorts of great verses on predestination here, but why go off-topic. ;-)
I took that book home with me with all sorts of thoughts in my mind. I had made a friend. I had in my hand a book with which I could argue. That was going to be fun. And I had a niggling doubt.
For almost a year Ephesians 1 had been whispering for attention from the back of my mind. I actually sat in the back of the church one day with some of my Arminian church-mates as they explained away Eph 1:3&4 (Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.) I listened while they made the old arguments, and I had nothing to add. They had done a good job. Nobody was more surprised than I when I said, "Yeah, but it means something. God didn't put those words in there for nothing."
It was like I already knew what it meant for us to be chosen before the foundation of the world, but was not ready to admit it.
I was ready to dig into that little book.
I was not ready for it to dig into me.
I skipped everything and went straight to the scriptures. There were dozens, and I zoomed through them. It was like spinning the dial of a combination lock. I would read a verse, and three or four other verses would come back to mind that seemed to echo or complete the thought of that one. The further I went, the more tumblers fell into place in my mind. Long before I had read the last of those 36 pages, I was a Calvinist and was only settling details.
That was what was happening in my mind.
In my heart, something else entirely was going on.
Rom 5:6-8
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus was speaking to me directly in those Living Words. He was magnifying the cross to take in much, much more than I ever thought possible. The cross was no longer just the place that an infinite supply of grace was made available if I asked for it. The cross was the place that every one of my sins was known and atoned by Jesus. Remember that sin that I feared I would commit when I was 70? Jesus knew that sin. He foreknew that sin, and 2000 years before I committed it, He paid it in full. It was within His plan, and so it was within His sacrifice.
My weakest weakness was fully accounted for in His atoning work, and in His promises. Jesus knew my every betrayal, and He loved me and paid each debt in full before I was ever born. I was arrested.
In the words of a Merrill Womach song (done by many others, but I only know it by him.)
Jesus stood before me
With His arms held open wide
And I fell down on my knees
And just clung to Him and cried.
This message unravelled all my training.
When I was 7, I was taught to choose Christ in order to be saved. I had to trust Him, and give myself to Him. I did this without reservation, and with great joy. At age 12, though, at the same time that I was taught "once saved, always saved," I was taught that I had to "get serious" about my faith. I was supposed to give my life to the Lord "all the way", and to become a disciple. I was supposed to be 100% committed, and on fire for the Lord.
I lived my first dozen years with an all-seeing, all-knowing police-Lord Who expected discipline of his children. When I failed, I was allowed to confess, but Jesus wept over my failures. He had given so much for me, why could I not just overcome my faithlessness with this girl?
As I read 36 pages of scriptures, I could see that the path of false discipline had played itself out in my life. They called it discipline, but really it was just Phariseeism. I was a dry, empty husk of a child trying to be a man. You will certainly tell me that I was just "trying to do it in my own strength," but it was the only strength I was taught. If I tell you "use the electric power drill" but never tell you about power outlets, I should not be surprised when I find you using the drill as a hammer. I was converted in an Assemblies of God church so they talked all day about doing everything in the power of the Spirit, but they lived something much lower. I learned discipline and fear of God young.
At their core, they believed that God had done His part, and now He had sent His Spirit into our hearts so that we could do our part. We were, therefore, responsible now for our part. If we were not doing our part ... [insert shudder here] ... well, we were obviously not trusting the Spirit, and we were not living godly discipline, and we were at risk of hellfire.
Romans 5 amazed me. The Jesus I saw there amazed me. His grace reached much further than I had ever imagined.
... when we were still powerless ...
Sure, the unsaved were powerless, but so was I. I had been walking with the Lord for 12 years, and I had well and truly come to the end of my power. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe I should have been able to walk in the Spirit and take victory over these thoughts that ruled my mind and my life, but I was not that man. I was powerless.
... Christ died for the ungodly. ...
Maybe He died for the godly, too?
...for a good person someone might possibly dare to die...
This truly was not my case. I was not a good person, and not a person for whom anyone should die.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Yes, I thought, maybe. I thought maybe Jesus died for believers, too. I was saved, but I was still a sinner. Maybe God's love was such that even after I was saved, He still loved me. Maybe Jesus went up to that cross as much for me after I was saved as He had gone there for me before I was saved. I had believed (whether I was taught it or brewed it up on my own I don't remember) that God loved sinners, but that He expected believers to do better. He grew impatient with believers. He grew distant from believers. He left believers who would not submit to His providence.
Maybe God was going to dump me.
But Jesus died for sinners, even sinners who were still sinners.
God had predestined not only my salvation, but my life. He had set before me every struggle, and He had set before me a time of overcoming it. Maybe those two didn't have to happen in the same instant. If He had predestined these things that came into my life, and if He had known and paid for every one of my sins before I ever actually committed them, maybe He could do this amazing thing. Maybe, He could trust me with a trial that was destroying me, because He had complete faith in His ability to carry me through it.
You see, the core difference between Arminianism and Calvinism is that Arminians accidently teach that God has to hope that I have enough faith to overcome. God has no basis for such a hope in my experience. Calvinism teaches that God gives me all the faith I need to do all He has asked of me. I cannot go to God until He has first come to me and given me the faith I'm going to need.
Eph 2:8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
As an Arminian, I was past doubting that I might fail the test of my 19th year. I was certain. I had done failed, and was only waiting to see whether my failure would result in damnation or merely shame. I believed that God was hoping that I would have the faith to get over this girl, but I did not. Yes, I knew that God never lays anything on us beyond what we can bear, but that was scant comfort when I needed faith to bear it, and I had run out. This clearly was beyond what I was able to bear.
That little book, with it's 36 pages of verses, showed me over and over that God in Christ took upon Himself the responsibility for my success or failure. Verse piled upon verse presenting God as wholly and totally victorious. There is not one verse that shows God mourning because He failed to deliver one of His beloved children. I was His, and He would deliver me.
Rom 8:29
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
We were not merely predestined to make it to heaven. We were predestined to be made like Christ. We were predestined to run the entire course, and to run it well. We all don't run it the same, some 100-fold, some 60, and some 30, but we all run it to the glory of the Father.
Rom 8:30
And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
A 19 year old sat in his room, and dealt with the fact that God had accomplished everything for which he was striving. It was hard for me to lay down the pride of someday "overcoming for God", but having utterly failed made it a little easier. I could not overcome, but God already had. I saw that "those" included me, and that God had done everything that needed doing. In Paul's mind, these things were finished. The Father glorified "those" when He glorified Christ. That 19 year old boy was glorified.
Rom 8:31
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
God was for me, and He would never repent. I did not earn His favor before I was saved, and I could not lose it afterward.
All those verses about rest really meant something, finally. If it was God in Christ reconciling the world and me to Himself, then I did not have to take on the load of maintaining that reconciliation. Jesus finished it. God was not hoping that I would live up to His standard, but He had ordained that I would, and He had put the infinite weight of His mercy to work ensuring that I did. Christ was made All in All for this.
I was safe.
---
So now you know why I am a predestinationist.
So how did the story end? Becoming a Calvinist did not get me over that girl. The trials went on for another 4 years, and were every bit as hot. I thought I had cut the Gordian Knot when I married, but I failed in that, too. The Lord mercifully walked with me through day after day, and I failed over and again. I experienced no more success as a Calvinist than I did as an Arminian, but the nights were not as black.
I finally knew that God was not walking away, and that saved my life. Suddenly it was not more than I could bear. God was no longer the One in heaven Whom I most often disappointed, and least wanted to. He was the One Who had ordered my life before me, and Who could wait patiently while I slogged through each failure. I could rest, knowing that He had guaranteed He would be glorified in what He was doing in me. I did not frustrate the grace of God.
It was almost a quarter century later, on 14 Feb 2006, that I finally gained a little insight into the root of that problem that had afflicted me since before I can remember. (I know because in my excitement I dashed off an overly hasty letter 2 days later that marks the event in my outbox.) If the Lord had told me in '83 how much longer it would take, and how many more people would be hurt, I don't know what I would have done. He knew. He had ordained it. I repent the slowness of my heart, but I nestle more fiercely in His promise, and rest.
---
I have hardly included any scripture here that defends, defines or documents Calvinism, but I am open to having that discussion. We will solve nothing, but there is value in discussing the Lord and His ways. The fact that we don't understand aright is often used to discourage discussion, but it should encourage it even more.
Don't be surprised if I am no longer a Calvinist per-se. I have never read Calvin (and probably should), but I know that I disagree with some of the conclusions of his recent champions. I am also shamed by the graceless attitudes of many of those who would defend the truths that have done so much to keep my soul.
That said, it would be a fun chat.
---
Regarding a possible requirement for a doctrine of predestination in the Familyhood Church (did such a figment exist)....
Absolutely, yes. You must believe in predestination. I mean, come on! It's a word right there in the bible! You have to believe in it. :-) Of course, we may not exactly see eye-to-eye when it comes time to define predestination...
I am currently fellowshipping with a church of Arminians (except for a couple who used to be Calvinists and who have rejected predestination) and we all love each other.
Still, I gotta be me. I cannot offer any advice to a believer in time of trouble without reference to God's sovereign plan. If a Familyhood Church existed, and if they would let me be what I have to be, that would be enough for me. I don't need anyone to agree with me, as long as I am accepted by my brothers and sisters. Predestination is one of those mysteries hidden beyond the veil. Discussing it rightly warms our hearts toward God, but requiring anyone to hold one specific theory of how it happens is unjustified. We just don't know enough.
Lord bless!
That I believe this is not really a surprise, though, since I am a feeler more than a thinker. I am often reminded that I use lots of big words, but they are just masking the reality that I always want to cry, laugh, shout, attack, run, mope, sing, whine, or any other of a long list of emotions. My vocabulary choices are driven by the things I am trying to say. I'm one gigantic emotion on overdrive that only knows how to express itself in words, so I struggle to find words extreme enough for my feelings.
It was emotion that drove me to into predestination's arms in 1983. I know that particular doctrine is supposed to be able to ice any heart, but it didn't feel cold, dry or dusty to me. Predestination was two of the warmest arms I had ever felt pulling me back from the edge of an awful precipice. Predestination was the Eyes of God softly taking in my shame without surprise or regret, and a gentle finger collecting tears that He always knew I would weep. Predestination was Jesus truly accepting me.
For those of you who have never been hit over the head by a Calvinist with a bible, let me explain that predestination is an overloaded word. Overloading is a computer programming term. It means that a single command can mean any number things, depending upon the context in which you invoke it. Calvinists, Arminians, and a host of others invoke predestination from the context of their particular opinions. Like armpits, we all have a couple of those and without attention they can be quite offensive.
Before go into why I embraced predestination, let me try to give brief (if unintentionally stilted) definitions of the Calvinist and Arminian position on predestination. I really want to get on with the post, but I am afraid that if I start without defining this a little bit, someone is going to get lost.
In a Calvinist context, predestination means that God planned out the most-est perfect-est world that His eternal imagination could conceive, and created it from beginning to end. God ordered every thing that ever happened to you. Not just you, but every person who will eventually be saved and every person to be damned was created by God to a certain destiny, and even the path by which they would arrive was predetermined. To be clear, Calvinists do not believe that God forces anyone to be damned against their will, only that He limits His effective mercy to His chosen people.
In an Arminian context, predestination means that God saw the end of His creation from the beginning. He knew who would be born, and He knew whether each of those people would soften their hearts to accept His Love and Grace. He offered His grace to all, but He knew that all would not accept. Those people whom He could foresee would eventually choose Him, He loved and predestined. Predestination to Arminians (and most believers are Arminians) is more about the "ends" than the "means". God predestined the end that we would be saved, but to make it happen He adjusts His plan daily to deal with obstacles thrown up by sin.
In 1982, my context was hard-corps Arminian. I had been given all the proof texts against the Calvinist heresy back in '78, and I was ready to take on any of those scoundrels who might come my way. Of course, there were not many of them, so it never happened. But that was OK! I was ready. I was armed with every doctrine necessary to the perfect life, and the world was mine for the fixing.
I don't even need to say that this did not happen.
No, instead I fell in love, but it didn't go so well. Mine is a typical tale of teen love, except in two things. 1) I know nothing of half-measures. And 2) I had a boatload of unrecognized emotional problems before the relationship problems even started. Somewhere deep down in my soul, a place that was supposed to be strong just wasn't. Only I didn't know it was broken. I thought that people just were supposed to be the way I was.
When the relationship ended in '83, I was shattered. Shattered is really a pretty weak word to describe the boy who was left. Suicide was never an option, because it would have been too happy. Like getting drunk, suicide was a cheap solution to a very important problem, and I like very important problems too much to let this one slip by so easily.
Most of all, in the midst of my shattering, I knew that I should be rejoicing in the Lord.
But I was not rejoicing in the Lord.
Oh, I was praising Him. I was thanking Him. I was worshipping and waiting. You can say words of praise by pure willpower, but week followed week, and there was no joy.
Instead, I was selfish beyond measure, and morose.
In other words, I was failing God and I could not help myself. I could not stop being so weak. I was where I was because I had failed God in the first place. And now that I was here, I was failing Him again, when He had never failed me.
I wept because of frustrated romance, and then I wept because I was weeping. Gradually, I had to admit that I was depressed, and the fact that I could not pull out of this depression began to really work at my conscience.
If there was a weakness in my soul in the area of romantic love, I was a cripple toward failing God. I was terrified of what God must be thinking of me. My sins piled before my eyes like so many bricks between God and my heart. I had been raised to believe that a man could sin unintentionally after 70 years of faithfully serving God, and still be damned. Unrepented sin was unrepented sin. At 12 or so, in '76 or so, I learned about "once saved, always saved" and that was good news, but OSAS was not enough.
I knew that He was a God Who forgives sins, so I repented. I repented especially of unbelief, unbelief in His providence, and unbelief in His patience. God was faithful and just to forgive my sin. And I repented. And He forgave. And I repented. And He forgave. This cycle gets old after a few weeks or months. As quickly as the bricks were gone I had sinned against Him again, and I was blocked from the haven of His presence again.
I knew the verses that I needed to know, and I knew the Psalms. I knew that it was OK to pour out my heart's grievances to the Lord, but the Psalmist always found peace with the Lord by the end of his prayer. I could do that, too. Given a few hours alone, I could pray the Truth back to God until my heart was at peace, and I could sleep. In the morning, though, it was like I had never heard the Truth in my life. I was back at ground zero.
My body and my mind were breaking.
The weeks became months. And the months marked an anniversary, and there was no healing in sight. I was broken with the Truth in my hands, and I did not know what to do. Every now and again some poor soul will say something to me about how suicide is an unforgivable sin. I forgive them, but I never look at them quite the same way again. That is a person who is willing to talk with authority on matters about which they know nothing.
Anyway, this disturbed youth walked into a Christian bookstore in which an old lady ministered. Turns out she was one of those Calvinist heretics I was so well trained to confront, but confrontation requires strength and I was desperately short of that. Instead, I walked out with a pile of books a good foot high. I don't believe I gave her a penny. Whether I did or not would not have mattered. I love her with all my heart to this day.
One of those books was "The Five Points of Calvinism Defined, Defended, Documented". It was fewer than 100 pages, and from page 24 to page 60 it was nothing but scripture. I still have a copy, so I could quote all sorts of great verses on predestination here, but why go off-topic. ;-)
I took that book home with me with all sorts of thoughts in my mind. I had made a friend. I had in my hand a book with which I could argue. That was going to be fun. And I had a niggling doubt.
For almost a year Ephesians 1 had been whispering for attention from the back of my mind. I actually sat in the back of the church one day with some of my Arminian church-mates as they explained away Eph 1:3&4 (Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.) I listened while they made the old arguments, and I had nothing to add. They had done a good job. Nobody was more surprised than I when I said, "Yeah, but it means something. God didn't put those words in there for nothing."
It was like I already knew what it meant for us to be chosen before the foundation of the world, but was not ready to admit it.
I was ready to dig into that little book.
I was not ready for it to dig into me.
I skipped everything and went straight to the scriptures. There were dozens, and I zoomed through them. It was like spinning the dial of a combination lock. I would read a verse, and three or four other verses would come back to mind that seemed to echo or complete the thought of that one. The further I went, the more tumblers fell into place in my mind. Long before I had read the last of those 36 pages, I was a Calvinist and was only settling details.
That was what was happening in my mind.
In my heart, something else entirely was going on.
Rom 5:6-8
6 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Jesus was speaking to me directly in those Living Words. He was magnifying the cross to take in much, much more than I ever thought possible. The cross was no longer just the place that an infinite supply of grace was made available if I asked for it. The cross was the place that every one of my sins was known and atoned by Jesus. Remember that sin that I feared I would commit when I was 70? Jesus knew that sin. He foreknew that sin, and 2000 years before I committed it, He paid it in full. It was within His plan, and so it was within His sacrifice.
My weakest weakness was fully accounted for in His atoning work, and in His promises. Jesus knew my every betrayal, and He loved me and paid each debt in full before I was ever born. I was arrested.
In the words of a Merrill Womach song (done by many others, but I only know it by him.)
Jesus stood before me
With His arms held open wide
And I fell down on my knees
And just clung to Him and cried.
This message unravelled all my training.
When I was 7, I was taught to choose Christ in order to be saved. I had to trust Him, and give myself to Him. I did this without reservation, and with great joy. At age 12, though, at the same time that I was taught "once saved, always saved," I was taught that I had to "get serious" about my faith. I was supposed to give my life to the Lord "all the way", and to become a disciple. I was supposed to be 100% committed, and on fire for the Lord.
I lived my first dozen years with an all-seeing, all-knowing police-Lord Who expected discipline of his children. When I failed, I was allowed to confess, but Jesus wept over my failures. He had given so much for me, why could I not just overcome my faithlessness with this girl?
As I read 36 pages of scriptures, I could see that the path of false discipline had played itself out in my life. They called it discipline, but really it was just Phariseeism. I was a dry, empty husk of a child trying to be a man. You will certainly tell me that I was just "trying to do it in my own strength," but it was the only strength I was taught. If I tell you "use the electric power drill" but never tell you about power outlets, I should not be surprised when I find you using the drill as a hammer. I was converted in an Assemblies of God church so they talked all day about doing everything in the power of the Spirit, but they lived something much lower. I learned discipline and fear of God young.
At their core, they believed that God had done His part, and now He had sent His Spirit into our hearts so that we could do our part. We were, therefore, responsible now for our part. If we were not doing our part ... [insert shudder here] ... well, we were obviously not trusting the Spirit, and we were not living godly discipline, and we were at risk of hellfire.
Romans 5 amazed me. The Jesus I saw there amazed me. His grace reached much further than I had ever imagined.
... when we were still powerless ...
Sure, the unsaved were powerless, but so was I. I had been walking with the Lord for 12 years, and I had well and truly come to the end of my power. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe I should have been able to walk in the Spirit and take victory over these thoughts that ruled my mind and my life, but I was not that man. I was powerless.
... Christ died for the ungodly. ...
Maybe He died for the godly, too?
...for a good person someone might possibly dare to die...
This truly was not my case. I was not a good person, and not a person for whom anyone should die.
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Yes, I thought, maybe. I thought maybe Jesus died for believers, too. I was saved, but I was still a sinner. Maybe God's love was such that even after I was saved, He still loved me. Maybe Jesus went up to that cross as much for me after I was saved as He had gone there for me before I was saved. I had believed (whether I was taught it or brewed it up on my own I don't remember) that God loved sinners, but that He expected believers to do better. He grew impatient with believers. He grew distant from believers. He left believers who would not submit to His providence.
Maybe God was going to dump me.
But Jesus died for sinners, even sinners who were still sinners.
God had predestined not only my salvation, but my life. He had set before me every struggle, and He had set before me a time of overcoming it. Maybe those two didn't have to happen in the same instant. If He had predestined these things that came into my life, and if He had known and paid for every one of my sins before I ever actually committed them, maybe He could do this amazing thing. Maybe, He could trust me with a trial that was destroying me, because He had complete faith in His ability to carry me through it.
You see, the core difference between Arminianism and Calvinism is that Arminians accidently teach that God has to hope that I have enough faith to overcome. God has no basis for such a hope in my experience. Calvinism teaches that God gives me all the faith I need to do all He has asked of me. I cannot go to God until He has first come to me and given me the faith I'm going to need.
Eph 2:8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
As an Arminian, I was past doubting that I might fail the test of my 19th year. I was certain. I had done failed, and was only waiting to see whether my failure would result in damnation or merely shame. I believed that God was hoping that I would have the faith to get over this girl, but I did not. Yes, I knew that God never lays anything on us beyond what we can bear, but that was scant comfort when I needed faith to bear it, and I had run out. This clearly was beyond what I was able to bear.
That little book, with it's 36 pages of verses, showed me over and over that God in Christ took upon Himself the responsibility for my success or failure. Verse piled upon verse presenting God as wholly and totally victorious. There is not one verse that shows God mourning because He failed to deliver one of His beloved children. I was His, and He would deliver me.
Rom 8:29
For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
We were not merely predestined to make it to heaven. We were predestined to be made like Christ. We were predestined to run the entire course, and to run it well. We all don't run it the same, some 100-fold, some 60, and some 30, but we all run it to the glory of the Father.
Rom 8:30
And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
A 19 year old sat in his room, and dealt with the fact that God had accomplished everything for which he was striving. It was hard for me to lay down the pride of someday "overcoming for God", but having utterly failed made it a little easier. I could not overcome, but God already had. I saw that "those" included me, and that God had done everything that needed doing. In Paul's mind, these things were finished. The Father glorified "those" when He glorified Christ. That 19 year old boy was glorified.
Rom 8:31
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
God was for me, and He would never repent. I did not earn His favor before I was saved, and I could not lose it afterward.
All those verses about rest really meant something, finally. If it was God in Christ reconciling the world and me to Himself, then I did not have to take on the load of maintaining that reconciliation. Jesus finished it. God was not hoping that I would live up to His standard, but He had ordained that I would, and He had put the infinite weight of His mercy to work ensuring that I did. Christ was made All in All for this.
I was safe.
---
So now you know why I am a predestinationist.
So how did the story end? Becoming a Calvinist did not get me over that girl. The trials went on for another 4 years, and were every bit as hot. I thought I had cut the Gordian Knot when I married, but I failed in that, too. The Lord mercifully walked with me through day after day, and I failed over and again. I experienced no more success as a Calvinist than I did as an Arminian, but the nights were not as black.
I finally knew that God was not walking away, and that saved my life. Suddenly it was not more than I could bear. God was no longer the One in heaven Whom I most often disappointed, and least wanted to. He was the One Who had ordered my life before me, and Who could wait patiently while I slogged through each failure. I could rest, knowing that He had guaranteed He would be glorified in what He was doing in me. I did not frustrate the grace of God.
It was almost a quarter century later, on 14 Feb 2006, that I finally gained a little insight into the root of that problem that had afflicted me since before I can remember. (I know because in my excitement I dashed off an overly hasty letter 2 days later that marks the event in my outbox.) If the Lord had told me in '83 how much longer it would take, and how many more people would be hurt, I don't know what I would have done. He knew. He had ordained it. I repent the slowness of my heart, but I nestle more fiercely in His promise, and rest.
---
I have hardly included any scripture here that defends, defines or documents Calvinism, but I am open to having that discussion. We will solve nothing, but there is value in discussing the Lord and His ways. The fact that we don't understand aright is often used to discourage discussion, but it should encourage it even more.
Don't be surprised if I am no longer a Calvinist per-se. I have never read Calvin (and probably should), but I know that I disagree with some of the conclusions of his recent champions. I am also shamed by the graceless attitudes of many of those who would defend the truths that have done so much to keep my soul.
That said, it would be a fun chat.
---
Regarding a possible requirement for a doctrine of predestination in the Familyhood Church (did such a figment exist)....
Absolutely, yes. You must believe in predestination. I mean, come on! It's a word right there in the bible! You have to believe in it. :-) Of course, we may not exactly see eye-to-eye when it comes time to define predestination...
I am currently fellowshipping with a church of Arminians (except for a couple who used to be Calvinists and who have rejected predestination) and we all love each other.
Still, I gotta be me. I cannot offer any advice to a believer in time of trouble without reference to God's sovereign plan. If a Familyhood Church existed, and if they would let me be what I have to be, that would be enough for me. I don't need anyone to agree with me, as long as I am accepted by my brothers and sisters. Predestination is one of those mysteries hidden beyond the veil. Discussing it rightly warms our hearts toward God, but requiring anyone to hold one specific theory of how it happens is unjustified. We just don't know enough.
Lord bless!
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