Whenever I wake up in the mornings, I'm either greeted by the sun or a box of REALLY old computer paper (so old it's 9 &1/2 " by 11") and a stuffed shark, depending on which way I wake up facing. The moon migrates around my room, if I have the blinds open, and disappears behind the brick fireplace. It's really more ornamental than practical--my room bleeds heat because of all the windows. Plus, it burns gas instead of wood, which takes away part of the fun.
Wood warms a man twice; once, when he chops it, and again in the fire.
I've ordered tons of books this past year, and snatched plenty from my family's bookshelves. Many of the thick theological books are unopened. Some of them are even wrapped in plastic, which means they must've been bought in a time when bookstores 1) thrived, and 2) didn't appreciate being treated like a library. I'll probably go abuse Barnes & Noble this weekend to research John Calvin. Would that break the sabbath, if I'd be doing it for school as my primary job? Or what about Greek? Now that I'm being graded, as opposed to studying voluntarily, does Greek become sinful for being studied on the sabbath? Christian, tell me yes or no; My conscience says so.
R.C. Sproul has a nice voice.
Jesus said to not neglect the former commands [following the law to the letter], but especially don't forget the latter [obeying the spirit of the law]!
I just finished listening to the audiobook version of N.D. Wilson's 100 Cupboards, and I liked it. The librarian looked at me funnily when the CDs checked out as a "Children's Book," but that just means I don't have to pay a fee!
I need to read theology and think deep thoughts after God's heart, but I musn't ever forget the magic of the Logos.
We're to be like children, but we're to also mature to desire more than just milk! Is this a paradox?
A few good friends of mine say that I should be more careful about what I post here, and I agree--some prayers are to remain between a person and God. But at the same time, I don't want this blog to remain an outlet for my amateur exegesis of Scripture, or writing appropriate song lyrics, or perhaps a bit of poetry or prose. I can write literary analyses or rhetoric, but metaphors require a real situation to relate something allegorically. It seems I need to still find better middle ground.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
"Love to the loveless shown, that they may lovely be."
I've been struggling with lust, reader. I don't buy into the popular notion within Christianity that men are hardwired to lust with their minds, eyes, and bodies, because that mitigates my sin by differentiating it as normal, compared to the lust of a woman. Nor do I believe that my sin is mitigated by the immodesty of some girls on campus, though perhaps a case could be made here of multiple culpability...
In any case, this particular sin in my life causes me to seek out biblical definitions of proper love. We have one word called "love" that encapsulates numerous things, from my favorite ice cream to sports teams to a solitary girl. As I'm sure you may recognize, Greek has many words called "love." There is an unconditional love, a brotherly love, a committed sort of love, and an erotic love. The Bible is pretty clear: erotic love is restricted to and obligatory to a single person. I'm not sure on where I stand on re-marriage in the event of a death, so I won't go there, speaking of the future tense, but I am well-versed enough to make the case for past-fidelity. If our sins of spiritual adultery (what all sins [idolatry] ultimately boil down to) in this life condemn our souls as guilty before God unconditionally loves us (thinking temporally here, not referring to God's election from eternity past), how can we stain ourselves with physical adultery before we demonstrate our love to our spouses? I've also come to my senses after inappropriately carrying a conversation with a dear sister about what constitutes inappropriate (adulterous) behavior, so I won't go there either, until I have a much better understanding of covenants and the church.
Interesting fact that I am too tired to write elegantly:
Attraction always proceeds love (of the non-erotic sort). This might seem obvious or a re-statement of tabloid articles, but I heard it in a Psychology classroom, so it MUST be true. Hah... right. Anyways, researchers did their tests and such, and found that someone who "loves" someone else will find them more attractive. Admittedly, the findings are a bit subjective, in that most of the evidence is based on the "viewers' " own admittance, but there were a few measurable aspects such as eye widening, body language, memory span, talkativeness, and plain-ole' touchy-feely. I was reminded of this when Jessica (William's fiance) said that "he struck her as handsome" after they had been dating for a while and were geographically reunited.
Title inspiration from a few songs:
Colplay's "A Message"
My song is love:
love to the loveless shown.
...
Your heavy heart is made of stone.
...
My song is love unknown,
but I'm on fire for you, clearly.
You don't have to be alone;
You don't have to be on your own.
Coldplay is a pretty cool band, and since I've been taking a Beatles Music History class, I figured I'd dust off some British music. Though they were inspired by the hymn below, the key message is changed from "My Saviour's love to me--Love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be" to "I'm nothing on my own and I love you; please come home." While this sentiment resonates with the romantic within me, this marks this song decidedly in my mind as one of many God-is-my-girlfriend ambiguous love songs. This version apes two songs that are dear to me: Switchfoot's "On Fire," and the hymn "My Song is Love Unknown." I'll post a few key lyrics from each, because hey, italics are fun.
...'Cause everything inside me looks like everything I hate;
You are the hope I have for change; You are the only chance I'll take
'Cause I'm on fire when You're near me;
I'm on fire when You speak
And I'm on fire burning at these mysteries.
...
Ah, You're the mystery.
--Switchfoot "On Fire"
Switchfoot is a band built on ambiguous love songs, so I took the liberty to interpret this song as being sung to God, thus the capital [ambiguous] second persons singular. I fully understand that the feeling of "being on fire" for someone (or God) is a widely written-on and sung-about topic, but Switchfoot's song is the one that came to mind.
Aaaaaand I'm going to cheat on "My Song is Love Unknown," because I like Fernando Ortega's modernized words (marked by an *) for a verse.
My song is love unknown--
my Saviour's love to me:
Love to the loveless shown,
that they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
my Lord should take
frail flesh and die?
*Why, what has my Lord done
to cause this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
and gave the blind their sight.
What injuries, yet these are why
the Lord Most High
so cruelly dies.
Here might I stay and sing
no story so divine:
never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days
could gladly spend.
This hymn is especially dear to me because of a particular sermon that chronicles redemptive history and culminates with the first verse of this song as its theme: My Song is Love Unknown .
Here's something I'd written about a year ago, and I think it applies nicely now.
In any case, this particular sin in my life causes me to seek out biblical definitions of proper love. We have one word called "love" that encapsulates numerous things, from my favorite ice cream to sports teams to a solitary girl. As I'm sure you may recognize, Greek has many words called "love." There is an unconditional love, a brotherly love, a committed sort of love, and an erotic love. The Bible is pretty clear: erotic love is restricted to and obligatory to a single person. I'm not sure on where I stand on re-marriage in the event of a death, so I won't go there, speaking of the future tense, but I am well-versed enough to make the case for past-fidelity. If our sins of spiritual adultery (what all sins [idolatry] ultimately boil down to) in this life condemn our souls as guilty before God unconditionally loves us (thinking temporally here, not referring to God's election from eternity past), how can we stain ourselves with physical adultery before we demonstrate our love to our spouses? I've also come to my senses after inappropriately carrying a conversation with a dear sister about what constitutes inappropriate (adulterous) behavior, so I won't go there either, until I have a much better understanding of covenants and the church.
Interesting fact that I am too tired to write elegantly:
Attraction always proceeds love (of the non-erotic sort). This might seem obvious or a re-statement of tabloid articles, but I heard it in a Psychology classroom, so it MUST be true. Hah... right. Anyways, researchers did their tests and such, and found that someone who "loves" someone else will find them more attractive. Admittedly, the findings are a bit subjective, in that most of the evidence is based on the "viewers' " own admittance, but there were a few measurable aspects such as eye widening, body language, memory span, talkativeness, and plain-ole' touchy-feely. I was reminded of this when Jessica (William's fiance) said that "he struck her as handsome" after they had been dating for a while and were geographically reunited.
Title inspiration from a few songs:
Colplay's "A Message"
My song is love:
love to the loveless shown.
...
Your heavy heart is made of stone.
...
My song is love unknown,
but I'm on fire for you, clearly.
You don't have to be alone;
You don't have to be on your own.
Coldplay is a pretty cool band, and since I've been taking a Beatles Music History class, I figured I'd dust off some British music. Though they were inspired by the hymn below, the key message is changed from "My Saviour's love to me--Love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be" to "I'm nothing on my own and I love you; please come home." While this sentiment resonates with the romantic within me, this marks this song decidedly in my mind as one of many God-is-my-girlfriend ambiguous love songs. This version apes two songs that are dear to me: Switchfoot's "On Fire," and the hymn "My Song is Love Unknown." I'll post a few key lyrics from each, because hey, italics are fun.
...'Cause everything inside me looks like everything I hate;
You are the hope I have for change; You are the only chance I'll take
'Cause I'm on fire when You're near me;
I'm on fire when You speak
And I'm on fire burning at these mysteries.
...
Ah, You're the mystery.
--Switchfoot "On Fire"
Switchfoot is a band built on ambiguous love songs, so I took the liberty to interpret this song as being sung to God, thus the capital [ambiguous] second persons singular. I fully understand that the feeling of "being on fire" for someone (or God) is a widely written-on and sung-about topic, but Switchfoot's song is the one that came to mind.
Aaaaaand I'm going to cheat on "My Song is Love Unknown," because I like Fernando Ortega's modernized words (marked by an *) for a verse.
My song is love unknown--
my Saviour's love to me:
Love to the loveless shown,
that they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
my Lord should take
frail flesh and die?
*Why, what has my Lord done
to cause this rage and spite?
He made the lame to run,
and gave the blind their sight.
What injuries, yet these are why
the Lord Most High
so cruelly dies.
Here might I stay and sing
no story so divine:
never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in whose sweet praise
I all my days
could gladly spend.
This hymn is especially dear to me because of a particular sermon that chronicles redemptive history and culminates with the first verse of this song as its theme: My Song is Love Unknown .
Here's something I'd written about a year ago, and I think it applies nicely now.
I was reading C.S. Lewis's novel Till We Have Faces , and a line that the ugly, possessively loving sister thinks really stood out to me:
"No man will love you, though you gave your life for him, unless you have a pretty face. So (might it not be?), the gods will not love you (however you try to pleasure them, and whatever you suffer) unless you have that beauty of soul." -Orual, p. 282
But how wonderful that neither of these statements are true! Men of God, seeking to follow Him, should also (in my opinion) look not on the outside, but at the heart (I Samuel 16:8, Proverbs 12:4, 31:10-31), and our God mercifully does not save sinners based on the quality of our souls. Rather, as the apostle Paul so aptly puts it:
"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
If Christ died for the church, and men of God are called to love their wives as Christ loves the church... now that's a sobering thought.
Citations:
Lewis, Clive Staples. Till We Have Faces.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Stamina versus Endurance
"Stamina is short-term longevity; endurance is long-term longevity."
Such was (slightly embellished) a noteworthy quote I overheard last quarter during finals week, early in the morning. I believe it was a Tuesday, and I believe I was studying for Greek. In any case, I was sitting in the park, watching the dew glisten and dance in the rising sun when a couple of guys walked past me and sat down on a bench to my right and began the conversation that I am quoting. They were holding a short devotional, reading Scripture and discussing its practical impact on their lives, using metaphors to relate Scriptural truth to workout schedules. I think you'll see where I'm going with this.
Much like running, in order to build up spiritual stamina and spiritual endurance one must simply do the exercises and disciplines one wishes to improve. Unfortunately, we don't work as awesomely as Barney Stinson of How I Met Your Mother. We can't up and run a marathon without countless hours of preparation and experience.
Our spiritual life in Christ is a marathon, not a sprint. Yet there are times when short-term endurance is necessary. Praying for 1 hour straight? That's certainly not long-term. Fasting is another example of short-term efforts to deny self and grow closer and more dependent on our rising Son, whose words are sweeter than honey. Yet another short-term activity is "random EV," or random evangelism, where we are certainly not often to find a long-term friendship.
I ran cross-country for a year, and sprints in track-and-field (as well as long jump and high jump, which both require bursting energy--stamina), so I have at least a couple years of experience in these fields to base this analogy on. Though it is vital to train (spiritually) for the long run (as many years as God gives us to serve the enhancement and growth of His kingdom and the church), even "distance runners" train their stamina to be able to sprint. Much like the "on-fire" aspect of the "mountaintop" experience many Christians find as their love for Christ buds in conversion, a long-distance runner sprints the first 10 seconds or so of his race, not based off his total energy, but because of the adrenaline boost provided by the gunshot. But that's not the full extent of a cross-country runner's stamina. Whenever an opponent begins to attempt to overtake (shout-out to my European friends!) the runner, he tries to prevent being "passed up" by running faster. I know the metaphor breaks down here, because we (as Christians) do not compete with each other for jewels in our crowns. Yet even the apostle Paul uses competitiveness to drive his point home:
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?
Run in such a way that you may win.
I Corinthians 9:24
Now, Paul was referring to the self-control of the body in order to be the best spiritual "athlete" (or maybe competitor is a better word?), just as Michael Phelps carefully would monitor his workouts, his diet, his posture, his health, and his qualification. Olympic athletes do all things for the sake of their sport, so that they may become fellow partakers in the glory of the competition, and they compete to win.
I [Paul] do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.
I Corinthians 9:23
Thoughts to think about, friend.
Such was (slightly embellished) a noteworthy quote I overheard last quarter during finals week, early in the morning. I believe it was a Tuesday, and I believe I was studying for Greek. In any case, I was sitting in the park, watching the dew glisten and dance in the rising sun when a couple of guys walked past me and sat down on a bench to my right and began the conversation that I am quoting. They were holding a short devotional, reading Scripture and discussing its practical impact on their lives, using metaphors to relate Scriptural truth to workout schedules. I think you'll see where I'm going with this.
Much like running, in order to build up spiritual stamina and spiritual endurance one must simply do the exercises and disciplines one wishes to improve. Unfortunately, we don't work as awesomely as Barney Stinson of How I Met Your Mother. We can't up and run a marathon without countless hours of preparation and experience.
Our spiritual life in Christ is a marathon, not a sprint. Yet there are times when short-term endurance is necessary. Praying for 1 hour straight? That's certainly not long-term. Fasting is another example of short-term efforts to deny self and grow closer and more dependent on our rising Son, whose words are sweeter than honey. Yet another short-term activity is "random EV," or random evangelism, where we are certainly not often to find a long-term friendship.
I ran cross-country for a year, and sprints in track-and-field (as well as long jump and high jump, which both require bursting energy--stamina), so I have at least a couple years of experience in these fields to base this analogy on. Though it is vital to train (spiritually) for the long run (as many years as God gives us to serve the enhancement and growth of His kingdom and the church), even "distance runners" train their stamina to be able to sprint. Much like the "on-fire" aspect of the "mountaintop" experience many Christians find as their love for Christ buds in conversion, a long-distance runner sprints the first 10 seconds or so of his race, not based off his total energy, but because of the adrenaline boost provided by the gunshot. But that's not the full extent of a cross-country runner's stamina. Whenever an opponent begins to attempt to overtake (shout-out to my European friends!) the runner, he tries to prevent being "passed up" by running faster. I know the metaphor breaks down here, because we (as Christians) do not compete with each other for jewels in our crowns. Yet even the apostle Paul uses competitiveness to drive his point home:
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?
Run in such a way that you may win.
I Corinthians 9:24
Now, Paul was referring to the self-control of the body in order to be the best spiritual "athlete" (or maybe competitor is a better word?), just as Michael Phelps carefully would monitor his workouts, his diet, his posture, his health, and his qualification. Olympic athletes do all things for the sake of their sport, so that they may become fellow partakers in the glory of the competition, and they compete to win.
I [Paul] do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.
I Corinthians 9:23
Thoughts to think about, friend.
A songbird's diet consists of Twinkies.
Music taste is so often only a superficial query to start a conversation. I'm going to quickly make the case that taste and choice are vastly different things. It's a fair thing to say that music is like food--one may have a preference for a certain type, style, or culture's food/music, but one may also choose certain foods/music that is healthy. This statement is based on the general principle that 99% of food and music (not counting lyrics) are objectively good. That 1% includes Twinkies and chaotic music, like that one song which had instructions like "release the penguins" and "have a nice day" scrawled in the margins of the sheets. Not that these things can't serve some purpose--Twinkies have calories and chaotic music might wake the dead.
I've got a personal embargo against mushrooms at all and tomatoes in solid forms. I don't know how I'm going to fit that eating disorder into this metaphor. I'll just leave out eating disorders, since it's understood that we are "out-of-order."
Music, that semi-universal language that does not need words to emote and draw pictures and invoke feelings as deep as satisfaction, is not to be taken lightly. It has such dramatic effects, one of the newest branches of the field of psychology (which is fledgling in itself) is a musical therapy of sorts--using music to create feelings (generally "good" feelings, whatever standard modern psychology uses to objectify as the "goodness" of the "psyche") to quell patients. As patience would have it, I'll look past the problem of objectifying "goodness" for just a moment, since I did promise to explain how I think "goodness" as it relates to music is objective. This "Music Therapy" brings my mind to the story of David and King Saul of the Bible:
So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him.
I Samuel 16:23
Now, I'm not trying to say that modern psychologists should try to exorcise their patients. I believe that demonic forces have been trapped, as Revelation has it, for a pretty long time. But that's beside the point. David, the "beloved" of God, would soon replace Saul as the anointed King of Israel. His history is important to consider, if only for a moment. David is from the tribe of Judah, and from his loins the true Messiah-King would be anointed as Savior. Judah was named with the words "now I will praise the LORD." The topic of this post is not about the genealogy of Jesus, but it is from this connection of song with praise that I believe our modern conception of praise as being musical arose.
So how would we objectively qualify music? How does one objectively make statements about art without words? I don't know. Does a certain style of musical order or beat pattern or rhythmic speed or time signature appeal to me, as the subject, because it is good in its own right virtue, or because of some ambiguous or arbitrary choice of mine? Is music, and art in general, really dependent on the subject? No, that can't be true. That would eradicate beauty. Is beauty (art) good because it draws the intended reaction from its participant/recipient as expected? Is beauty (art) good because it follows a pattern that ends on a tonic key/note/chord, to fulfill the psychological journey the listener unwittingly and joyfully embarks on? Is beauty (art) good because it makes the listener want to dance? Does it matter for which reasons that person would want to dance, who they would want to dance with, or how they would choose to dance?
I don't know the answers to these questions. Unfortunately, the Bible didn't come with a CD-songbook. But it did come with general principles for meditation, as Vicki points out, quoting Philippians 4:8 (NKJV).
Since it's too hard for me to figure out qualitative goodness in pure song, I'm going to tap out (Ha!) and simply give a 10-second rant on my personal vice: musical lyrics. Lyrics get stuck in my head, as I'm sure many of you can commiserate, and they won't go away for hours! I thank God that they don't last more than a night. But because I've found that I have songs being sung in my mind almost constantly, it's become a choice of mine to purify my playlist. Besides the fact that music is a powerful tool to add to words to drive home messages, it is the responsibility of the listener to be well-educated on these messages intended for consumption, just as it is the responsibility of persons with food allergies to check labels. Likewise, as a music junkie, it's my responsibility to check labels and thoughtfully choose what songs to fill my appetite and digest throughout the day.
Glean this, reader: words are incredibly powerful. Jesus is called the Logos: the Word, the Thesis, the Argument, the Conversation. God's creation and maintenance is through words, sung in order and in tune, and our small voices are granted back-stage privileges to enter the stage for just a second.
After all, "when we sing, [especially hymns] we are praying twice." --Gary Beaston
I've got a personal embargo against mushrooms at all and tomatoes in solid forms. I don't know how I'm going to fit that eating disorder into this metaphor. I'll just leave out eating disorders, since it's understood that we are "out-of-order."
Music, that semi-universal language that does not need words to emote and draw pictures and invoke feelings as deep as satisfaction, is not to be taken lightly. It has such dramatic effects, one of the newest branches of the field of psychology (which is fledgling in itself) is a musical therapy of sorts--using music to create feelings (generally "good" feelings, whatever standard modern psychology uses to objectify as the "goodness" of the "psyche") to quell patients. As patience would have it, I'll look past the problem of objectifying "goodness" for just a moment, since I did promise to explain how I think "goodness" as it relates to music is objective. This "Music Therapy" brings my mind to the story of David and King Saul of the Bible:
So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him.
I Samuel 16:23
Now, I'm not trying to say that modern psychologists should try to exorcise their patients. I believe that demonic forces have been trapped, as Revelation has it, for a pretty long time. But that's beside the point. David, the "beloved" of God, would soon replace Saul as the anointed King of Israel. His history is important to consider, if only for a moment. David is from the tribe of Judah, and from his loins the true Messiah-King would be anointed as Savior. Judah was named with the words "now I will praise the LORD." The topic of this post is not about the genealogy of Jesus, but it is from this connection of song with praise that I believe our modern conception of praise as being musical arose.
So how would we objectively qualify music? How does one objectively make statements about art without words? I don't know. Does a certain style of musical order or beat pattern or rhythmic speed or time signature appeal to me, as the subject, because it is good in its own right virtue, or because of some ambiguous or arbitrary choice of mine? Is music, and art in general, really dependent on the subject? No, that can't be true. That would eradicate beauty. Is beauty (art) good because it draws the intended reaction from its participant/recipient as expected? Is beauty (art) good because it follows a pattern that ends on a tonic key/note/chord, to fulfill the psychological journey the listener unwittingly and joyfully embarks on? Is beauty (art) good because it makes the listener want to dance? Does it matter for which reasons that person would want to dance, who they would want to dance with, or how they would choose to dance?
I don't know the answers to these questions. Unfortunately, the Bible didn't come with a CD-songbook. But it did come with general principles for meditation, as Vicki points out, quoting Philippians 4:8 (NKJV).
Since it's too hard for me to figure out qualitative goodness in pure song, I'm going to tap out (Ha!) and simply give a 10-second rant on my personal vice: musical lyrics. Lyrics get stuck in my head, as I'm sure many of you can commiserate, and they won't go away for hours! I thank God that they don't last more than a night. But because I've found that I have songs being sung in my mind almost constantly, it's become a choice of mine to purify my playlist. Besides the fact that music is a powerful tool to add to words to drive home messages, it is the responsibility of the listener to be well-educated on these messages intended for consumption, just as it is the responsibility of persons with food allergies to check labels. Likewise, as a music junkie, it's my responsibility to check labels and thoughtfully choose what songs to fill my appetite and digest throughout the day.
Glean this, reader: words are incredibly powerful. Jesus is called the Logos: the Word, the Thesis, the Argument, the Conversation. God's creation and maintenance is through words, sung in order and in tune, and our small voices are granted back-stage privileges to enter the stage for just a second.
After all, "when we sing, [especially hymns] we are praying twice." --Gary Beaston
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
"Be my absolution"
I can't count music very well, Father. The beat escapes me just as quickly as it ceases to be clearly spelled out. Why am I this simple? And what's worse is that I lose sight of Your promises almost as quickly--almost as if they need to be dangling like a carrot always in front of my nose. But that illustration falls short, for the carrot is never obtained, rendering that promise false. And You are true to Your promises! Help me to not only see the flags that enumerate musical time, but also the flags that point to Your promises spelled out in Scripture.
Reaching, always reaching, never reaching solid ground.
Seeking, always seeking, never seeking what I've found.
Hey, baptize my mind.
Hey, baptize my eyes.
Hey, baptize my mind--
for this seed to give birth to life,
first it must die.
Both my hands are filled with guilt. (Be my absolution!)
Both my eyes are blind with filth. (Be my absolution, be my absolution!)
Hey, baptize my mind.
Hey, baptize my eyes.
Hey, baptize my mind--
for these seeds to give birth to life,
first they must die. x2
"Baptize My Mind," Jon Foreman.
Reaching, always reaching, never reaching solid ground.
Seeking, always seeking, never seeking what I've found.
Hey, baptize my mind.
Hey, baptize my eyes.
Hey, baptize my mind--
for this seed to give birth to life,
first it must die.
Both my hands are filled with guilt. (Be my absolution!)
Both my eyes are blind with filth. (Be my absolution, be my absolution!)
Hey, baptize my mind.
Hey, baptize my eyes.
Hey, baptize my mind--
for these seeds to give birth to life,
first they must die. x2
"Baptize My Mind," Jon Foreman.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
"Be Thou my soul's shelter"
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
be all else but naught to me, save that Thou art!
Be Thou my best thought in the day and the night;
both waking and sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my wisdom; be Thou my true word;
be Thou ever with me and I with Thee, Lord.
Be Thou my great Father and I Thy true son;
be Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my breastplate--my sword for the fight.
Be Thou my whole armor; be Thou my true might;
be Thou my soul's shelter; be Thou my strong tower.
O raise Thou my heav'nward, great Power of my power.
Riches I need not, nor man's empty praise.
Be Thou mine inheritance now and always;
be Thou and Thou only the first in my heart.
O Sov'reign of heaven, my treasure Thou art.
High King of heaven, Thou heaven's bright sun,
O grant me its joys after vict'ry is won!
Great heart of my own heart, whatever befalls,
still be Thou my vision, O Ruler of all.
(Eden's Bridge, alternate translation of the Irish hymn)
be all else but naught to me, save that Thou art!
Be Thou my best thought in the day and the night;
both waking and sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my wisdom; be Thou my true word;
be Thou ever with me and I with Thee, Lord.
Be Thou my great Father and I Thy true son;
be Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my breastplate--my sword for the fight.
Be Thou my whole armor; be Thou my true might;
be Thou my soul's shelter; be Thou my strong tower.
O raise Thou my heav'nward, great Power of my power.
Riches I need not, nor man's empty praise.
Be Thou mine inheritance now and always;
be Thou and Thou only the first in my heart.
O Sov'reign of heaven, my treasure Thou art.
High King of heaven, Thou heaven's bright sun,
O grant me its joys after vict'ry is won!
Great heart of my own heart, whatever befalls,
still be Thou my vision, O Ruler of all.
(Eden's Bridge, alternate translation of the Irish hymn)
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Drunk Buttons
Where are the drunk buttons in my life, Lord?
Answered prayers of last year.
10/7/11
Father, my mother needs comfort, and i don't think that i can help her effectively without disrespecting her. i may treat the symptoms, but only You can heal her heart. if it is Your will, Father, rescue her uncle from his deathbed that draws ever closer. he was her rock, her father, and i think his passing into Your glory would be sorrow upon sorrows for her. let him live, if only until my mother no longer has to be strong for us.
10/9/11
thank You, Father, that i was able to use the money given to me to give back to my family, even if those boba drinks were awful. please keep me far from usery, but please also prevent that sin from presenting itself by making calvin a little more responsible about being prepared to pay for things he wants. or maybe he should learn to be content if he has not? in any case, make me generous!
10/10/11
Father, my mother's true father in this world is deathly sick with the same thing You slew her false father with. please heal him!
10/13/11
Father, i do not ask You to reward my great-uncle's faithfulness, for he has only done the duty You require of us as sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers. but Father, will You not remember his life? You gave him faithfulness and a heart that seeks You, and longs to dwell in Your presence. till You forget how he visited the sick, prayed for them, and went without a home to spend his love? do You not remember how he has sought after You, with a whole heart and trembling, and went poor to make others rich? he is a father to the fatherless, and he raised another man's children. he is faithful to his bride!
10/15/11
Father, thank You for showing me how blessed it is to have a strong leader to trust in, though sometimes his back is all i see.
10/19/11
Father, my mother is as stubborn as an Israelite of old and my father is as faithful as her kings. but Father, since You are my Rock and Redeemer, i will not be moved or displaced in fearful and fearless leadership (fearful of You and fearless of the world, of course!), and i pray that You teach me to love the lost sheep just as You love sinners and that You would teach me to love as You love the church.
10/23/11
Father, thank You for mr. reeves and the time all the good people take to gather together in prayer and fellowship and study of Your word. and truly Your words are worth studying! please help me to grasp greek (and later hebrew!), and help me to learn spanish and korean to be able to preach in three languages. i'm not asking to learn czech, Father! that would take a miracle, and You are the Creator of language, creativity, communication, miracles as we know them, and the love that makes it all hold together in Jesus. but do i have to be so graceful to drop things? the food smelled fine, dirty as it was. oh, right. that's what You think of my best attempts to please You.
11/2/11
Father, i'm going to die.
11/3/11
though You slay me, yet will i praise You. but why did class need to be canceled today?
11/8/11
thank You, Father, that i did not run out of fuel on the freeway today. please give me the faith to trim my lamp and to wait diligently with oil that never runs dry, to redeem the lost and to anoint heads with oil. Father, please carry "little grandpa" to Your rest soon, and bring that same peace to my family. You alone bring us peace like a river, for You are the Prince of Peace and You make us peacemakers when You call us sons and we call You "Abba."
You carried him home! what joy! but let me mourn with the mourners.
be still my soul when dearest friends depart
and all is darkened in the vale of tears.
then shall you better know His love, His heart
who comes to soothe your sorrows and your fears.
be still my soul; your dearest Jesus can repay
from His own fullness all He takes away.
Father, my mother needs comfort, and i don't think that i can help her effectively without disrespecting her. i may treat the symptoms, but only You can heal her heart. if it is Your will, Father, rescue her uncle from his deathbed that draws ever closer. he was her rock, her father, and i think his passing into Your glory would be sorrow upon sorrows for her. let him live, if only until my mother no longer has to be strong for us.
10/9/11
thank You, Father, that i was able to use the money given to me to give back to my family, even if those boba drinks were awful. please keep me far from usery, but please also prevent that sin from presenting itself by making calvin a little more responsible about being prepared to pay for things he wants. or maybe he should learn to be content if he has not? in any case, make me generous!
10/10/11
Father, my mother's true father in this world is deathly sick with the same thing You slew her false father with. please heal him!
10/13/11
Father, i do not ask You to reward my great-uncle's faithfulness, for he has only done the duty You require of us as sons, brothers, husbands, and fathers. but Father, will You not remember his life? You gave him faithfulness and a heart that seeks You, and longs to dwell in Your presence. till You forget how he visited the sick, prayed for them, and went without a home to spend his love? do You not remember how he has sought after You, with a whole heart and trembling, and went poor to make others rich? he is a father to the fatherless, and he raised another man's children. he is faithful to his bride!
10/15/11
Father, thank You for showing me how blessed it is to have a strong leader to trust in, though sometimes his back is all i see.
10/19/11
Father, my mother is as stubborn as an Israelite of old and my father is as faithful as her kings. but Father, since You are my Rock and Redeemer, i will not be moved or displaced in fearful and fearless leadership (fearful of You and fearless of the world, of course!), and i pray that You teach me to love the lost sheep just as You love sinners and that You would teach me to love as You love the church.
10/23/11
Father, thank You for mr. reeves and the time all the good people take to gather together in prayer and fellowship and study of Your word. and truly Your words are worth studying! please help me to grasp greek (and later hebrew!), and help me to learn spanish and korean to be able to preach in three languages. i'm not asking to learn czech, Father! that would take a miracle, and You are the Creator of language, creativity, communication, miracles as we know them, and the love that makes it all hold together in Jesus. but do i have to be so graceful to drop things? the food smelled fine, dirty as it was. oh, right. that's what You think of my best attempts to please You.
11/2/11
Father, i'm going to die.
11/3/11
though You slay me, yet will i praise You. but why did class need to be canceled today?
11/8/11
thank You, Father, that i did not run out of fuel on the freeway today. please give me the faith to trim my lamp and to wait diligently with oil that never runs dry, to redeem the lost and to anoint heads with oil. Father, please carry "little grandpa" to Your rest soon, and bring that same peace to my family. You alone bring us peace like a river, for You are the Prince of Peace and You make us peacemakers when You call us sons and we call You "Abba."
You carried him home! what joy! but let me mourn with the mourners.
be still my soul when dearest friends depart
and all is darkened in the vale of tears.
then shall you better know His love, His heart
who comes to soothe your sorrows and your fears.
be still my soul; your dearest Jesus can repay
from His own fullness all He takes away.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Angelos
This past summer in Prague, I served on a missionary English Camp, teaching the Bible and English to Czech children. Pastor Roger Wagner and his wife Sherry Wagner were leading our team. They celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary there, I believe, and they took an extra week off to actually roam the streets in the foggy mornings on Charles' Bridge. They have some pretty killer black-n-whites, I can tell ya, reader. But their leadership and their love are not the focii of this blog post. This blog post is about Pastor Wagner giving incorrect directions by mistake, with (almost) disastrous results.
Mrs. Teahan and her daughter Rachel were also members of our missionary team, and they faithfully taught the youngest school-age children. When the week was through, we all went our separate sight-seeing ways, and they took Pastor Wagner's advice to take the 22 tram going east, when they should have taken the 20. The day waxed old, and the sun began to set when Rachel started seeing signs that did not read like the familiar Czech signs that lead to Zbraslavski Namesti, or even Vaclavski Namesti. They disembarked, and realized they had no coins to purchase fares for the return trip.
{You see, reader, in the Czech Republic one must use the national currency, the Czech koruna (pronounced "crown," abbreviated Kc), or perhaps the Euro if one is lucky. The exchange rate was ~20 Kc = $1 two summers ago, and this past summer it fluctuated between ~16-17 Kc = $1, showing a doubled effect of inflation. Coins, thus, have significant value, if one can hold up to a 50 Kc piece in hand (the largest denomination of coin currency), one has the equivalent of approximately three U.S. dollars.}
So the Teahans found a flower vendor and split a Czech bill. They then bought a pair of tickets and began the journey in the other direction. They got off at Vaclavski Namesti (Vaclav Square), took the subway [the Metro] all the way to Smichovski Nadrazi (the main bus station), and began to wander a bit more. That is, until we ambushed them.
I'd better back up a bit.
While the Teahans were getting lost and the Wagners were falling in love again, Jared and Havalind Farnik (children of the missionaries to the Czech Republic) took me all over the place shopping and touring the parts of the city I hadn't yet seen. We found stores that made shampoo out of beer and body wash from wine (I got a bottle of the beer-shampoo for my brother. Oddly, he wasn't thrilled like I expected him to be), we watched the palace guard being exchanged, we bought freshly cooked corn on the cob, we drank water from decorative fountains (none of us cared, besides the Farniks), and we were almost too exhausted to shout with laughter when our day ended with finding the Teahans at Smichovski Nadrazi. But Jared and I still had an ounce of energy (that's the system we use here in America. An ounce is a very small weight for solids [1/16 pound] and a small weight for liquids [1/16 pint]) to chase down a very bewildered couple of Teahan ladies. We flagged them down, and I didn't notice until Jared was upon them that they were cringing almost in desperate resignation to being mugged.
[I didn't mention, reader, but the Czech Republic has a few noteworthy "bests:"
1. #1 Pick-pocket spot
2. #2 Texting usage
3. #3 Best public transportation system.
I don't know if these stats are current, for Prague only, measured against Europe only or globally, or if these statistics are accurate, but I trust them to be. In any case, back to my story...]
They turned around slowly only to burst into radiant smiles. "We were so lost, we didn't care if you were going to rob us!" We helped them get to the bus station that we would all be taking to get back to the hotel and to the Farniks' home, and then I noticed the yellow rose in Rachel's hands.
--------------------
They called us angels, sent by God to deliver them. Now, I don't know much about angelology or demonology, or what the spiritual warfare forecast looks like nowadays, but I do know that Christ has won, our victory is sure, and He will reign forever and ever, amen. But their comment got me thinking: how am I being used daily as God's providential agent to benefit society? I don't expect for a life of supreme adventure, or that God would intervene using me to find the Teahans or any other lost person on a daily basis. I think God works much greater and much subtler miracles through me so sneakily that even I can't tell what's really going on. It's kind of a trip, reader, to begin to comprehend that there are other people in this world. And they live lives destined for life or death, and they make choices that dive into death unless God intervenes, and they are now so intimately intertwined in our modern world yet so completely alone in a sea of meaningless and shallow relationships, and they have philosophies they cannot truly believe, and they believe things they know are false, and they say, "We have no king but Caesar."
What is my role in this? Father, help me to help them.
Mrs. Teahan and her daughter Rachel were also members of our missionary team, and they faithfully taught the youngest school-age children. When the week was through, we all went our separate sight-seeing ways, and they took Pastor Wagner's advice to take the 22 tram going east, when they should have taken the 20. The day waxed old, and the sun began to set when Rachel started seeing signs that did not read like the familiar Czech signs that lead to Zbraslavski Namesti, or even Vaclavski Namesti. They disembarked, and realized they had no coins to purchase fares for the return trip.
{You see, reader, in the Czech Republic one must use the national currency, the Czech koruna (pronounced "crown," abbreviated Kc), or perhaps the Euro if one is lucky. The exchange rate was ~20 Kc = $1 two summers ago, and this past summer it fluctuated between ~16-17 Kc = $1, showing a doubled effect of inflation. Coins, thus, have significant value, if one can hold up to a 50 Kc piece in hand (the largest denomination of coin currency), one has the equivalent of approximately three U.S. dollars.}
So the Teahans found a flower vendor and split a Czech bill. They then bought a pair of tickets and began the journey in the other direction. They got off at Vaclavski Namesti (Vaclav Square), took the subway [the Metro] all the way to Smichovski Nadrazi (the main bus station), and began to wander a bit more. That is, until we ambushed them.
I'd better back up a bit.
While the Teahans were getting lost and the Wagners were falling in love again, Jared and Havalind Farnik (children of the missionaries to the Czech Republic) took me all over the place shopping and touring the parts of the city I hadn't yet seen. We found stores that made shampoo out of beer and body wash from wine (I got a bottle of the beer-shampoo for my brother. Oddly, he wasn't thrilled like I expected him to be), we watched the palace guard being exchanged, we bought freshly cooked corn on the cob, we drank water from decorative fountains (none of us cared, besides the Farniks), and we were almost too exhausted to shout with laughter when our day ended with finding the Teahans at Smichovski Nadrazi. But Jared and I still had an ounce of energy (that's the system we use here in America. An ounce is a very small weight for solids [1/16 pound] and a small weight for liquids [1/16 pint]) to chase down a very bewildered couple of Teahan ladies. We flagged them down, and I didn't notice until Jared was upon them that they were cringing almost in desperate resignation to being mugged.
[I didn't mention, reader, but the Czech Republic has a few noteworthy "bests:"
1. #1 Pick-pocket spot
2. #2 Texting usage
3. #3 Best public transportation system.
I don't know if these stats are current, for Prague only, measured against Europe only or globally, or if these statistics are accurate, but I trust them to be. In any case, back to my story...]
They turned around slowly only to burst into radiant smiles. "We were so lost, we didn't care if you were going to rob us!" We helped them get to the bus station that we would all be taking to get back to the hotel and to the Farniks' home, and then I noticed the yellow rose in Rachel's hands.
--------------------
They called us angels, sent by God to deliver them. Now, I don't know much about angelology or demonology, or what the spiritual warfare forecast looks like nowadays, but I do know that Christ has won, our victory is sure, and He will reign forever and ever, amen. But their comment got me thinking: how am I being used daily as God's providential agent to benefit society? I don't expect for a life of supreme adventure, or that God would intervene using me to find the Teahans or any other lost person on a daily basis. I think God works much greater and much subtler miracles through me so sneakily that even I can't tell what's really going on. It's kind of a trip, reader, to begin to comprehend that there are other people in this world. And they live lives destined for life or death, and they make choices that dive into death unless God intervenes, and they are now so intimately intertwined in our modern world yet so completely alone in a sea of meaningless and shallow relationships, and they have philosophies they cannot truly believe, and they believe things they know are false, and they say, "We have no king but Caesar."
What is my role in this? Father, help me to help them.
The best possible service.
-Excerpt from Spiritual Parenting, by C. H. Spurgeon-
"O dear mothers, please understand that you have a very sacred trust reposed in you by God! He has in effect said unto you, 'Take this child away, and nurse it for Me, and I will give thee thy wages' (Exodus 2:9). You are called to equip the future man of God, that he may be 'thoroughly furnished unto all good works' (2 Timothy 3:17). If God spares you, you may live to hear that pretty boy speak to thousands, and you will have the sweet reflection in your heart that the quiet teachings of the nursery led the adult man to love his God and serve Him.
Those who think a woman detained at home by her little family is doing nothing, think the reverse of what is true. Scarcely can the godly woman quit her home for a place of worship. However, dream not that she is lost to the work of the church. Far from it, she is doing the best possible service for her Lord."
"O dear mothers, please understand that you have a very sacred trust reposed in you by God! He has in effect said unto you, 'Take this child away, and nurse it for Me, and I will give thee thy wages' (Exodus 2:9). You are called to equip the future man of God, that he may be 'thoroughly furnished unto all good works' (2 Timothy 3:17). If God spares you, you may live to hear that pretty boy speak to thousands, and you will have the sweet reflection in your heart that the quiet teachings of the nursery led the adult man to love his God and serve Him.
Those who think a woman detained at home by her little family is doing nothing, think the reverse of what is true. Scarcely can the godly woman quit her home for a place of worship. However, dream not that she is lost to the work of the church. Far from it, she is doing the best possible service for her Lord."
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
"Fools," said I, "You do not know."
Responsibility (though I know this does not represent all of silence in my life...) has been silent for years. Something I've found to be proven true is that God does not abandon His children for long, if we perceive loneliness at all. Over the years I can see in hindsight how God has shaped me through my errors and sins and disobedience to be a guide to my brother and mother, to model Christ's obedience as a pillar upon which my house can finally stumble to its feet once again. God sent my grandparents to remain within fleeing range, to hear the wholesale cries and groans of my house. God has sent good friends to comfort and counsel me. But one of the major ways God has shaped me recently was through the last two summers' mission trips to Prague in the Czech Republic, where He awakened in me a sort of burning empathy that mourns the rejection of the gospel like David mourned the failure of his predecessor, King Saul, to be faithful to the LORD.
This song eerily captures that feeling.
-------------------------
Hello, darkness, my old friend;/ I've come to talk with you again/
because a vision softly creeping/ left its seeds while I was sleeping/
and the vision that was planted in my brain/ still remains/ within the sound of silence.
In restless dreams I walked alone/ narrow streets of cobblestone/
'neath the halo of a street lamp/ I turned my collar to the cold and damp/
when my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light/ that split the night/ and touched the sound of silence.
And in the naked light I saw/ ten thousand people, maybe more;/
people talking without speaking;/ people hearing without listening/
people writing songs that voices never share/ and no one dared/ disturb the sound of silence.
"Fools," said I, "You do not know/ silence like a cancer grows./
Hear my words that I might teach you;/ take my arms that I might reach you."/
But my words like silent raindrops fell/ and echoed/ in the wells of silence.
And the people bowed and prayed/ to the neon god they made/
and the sign flashed out its warning/ in the words that it was forming./
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls/ and tenement halls."/
Whispered the sounds of silence.
"The Sound of Silence," Simon & Garfunkel
-----------------------
I interpret this song as having the unspoken words of the people in the 3rd verse being the gospel of hope in Jesus's resurrection. The "naked light" that "stabbed [his] eyes" and "split the night," which "touched the sound of silence" is Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, where he is confronted with the risen LORD, and cannot avoid the truth that we hide in silence. No one dares disturb this silence (After all, it is common knowledge one does not talk about religion or politics at a dinner party), but this man with a mission proclaims that this silent and willful ignorance grows "like a cancer," and calls such ignorance foolish. This man's plead is the same as the compassionate Christ's (Luke 13:34, etc.), and his words fall "like silent raindrops... and echoed in the wells of silence," just as Moses's did in his poetic farewell oath against the Israelites (Deuteronomy 32). The song ends with a final warning that states that the signs are there, with the "words of the prophets...written on the subway walls and tenement halls," saying that the masses see them daily on commutes and in their homes, which I interpret to be a line from Paul's statement against idolatry in Romans 1:18-22, which is the same warning of this last verse of "Silence," which warns against idolatry.
The only problem with this song is that the one the singer goes to for counsel on his vision is the darkness, when the God we pray to is eternal Light.
This song eerily captures that feeling.
-------------------------
Hello, darkness, my old friend;/ I've come to talk with you again/
because a vision softly creeping/ left its seeds while I was sleeping/
and the vision that was planted in my brain/ still remains/ within the sound of silence.
In restless dreams I walked alone/ narrow streets of cobblestone/
'neath the halo of a street lamp/ I turned my collar to the cold and damp/
when my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light/ that split the night/ and touched the sound of silence.
And in the naked light I saw/ ten thousand people, maybe more;/
people talking without speaking;/ people hearing without listening/
people writing songs that voices never share/ and no one dared/ disturb the sound of silence.
"Fools," said I, "You do not know/ silence like a cancer grows./
Hear my words that I might teach you;/ take my arms that I might reach you."/
But my words like silent raindrops fell/ and echoed/ in the wells of silence.
And the people bowed and prayed/ to the neon god they made/
and the sign flashed out its warning/ in the words that it was forming./
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls/ and tenement halls."/
Whispered the sounds of silence.
"The Sound of Silence," Simon & Garfunkel
-----------------------
I interpret this song as having the unspoken words of the people in the 3rd verse being the gospel of hope in Jesus's resurrection. The "naked light" that "stabbed [his] eyes" and "split the night," which "touched the sound of silence" is Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus, where he is confronted with the risen LORD, and cannot avoid the truth that we hide in silence. No one dares disturb this silence (After all, it is common knowledge one does not talk about religion or politics at a dinner party), but this man with a mission proclaims that this silent and willful ignorance grows "like a cancer," and calls such ignorance foolish. This man's plead is the same as the compassionate Christ's (Luke 13:34, etc.), and his words fall "like silent raindrops... and echoed in the wells of silence," just as Moses's did in his poetic farewell oath against the Israelites (Deuteronomy 32). The song ends with a final warning that states that the signs are there, with the "words of the prophets...written on the subway walls and tenement halls," saying that the masses see them daily on commutes and in their homes, which I interpret to be a line from Paul's statement against idolatry in Romans 1:18-22, which is the same warning of this last verse of "Silence," which warns against idolatry.
The only problem with this song is that the one the singer goes to for counsel on his vision is the darkness, when the God we pray to is eternal Light.
Monday, January 9, 2012
A spattering of memories: the awe of God
Today's the first day of a new semester beginning this new year, and the commutes began again. It's not comforting, being cold and alone mornings and nights, but my thoughts and the music that plays with them keep me calm. Aaaand that's enough drama for the rest of this year out of me.
---------------
Jesus is unbelievably cool. God is awful in His ways, not simply awesome.
God speaks to His people in ways they can understand, using baby-talk and pictures and brilliant sunsets and spooky darknesses and rivers of blood and miraculous trees and languages He made for joyful voices. And not only does He allow His servants to perform acts that chronicle the history of His grace, but He used inside jokes and puns and feeble illustrations in the words of the prophets and apostles!
That being said, here are a few ways--
1. One of the titles the people gave for the long-expected Messiah was "the Expected (Coming) One." This is evidenced by Luke 7 (NASB), where John the Baptist sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus whether He was the "Coming One," which was really asking in subtext whether Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One.
1.1. John the Baptist prophesied that the Coming One would proceed him both in superiority and in the time of their respective ministries! John the Baptist did this to dissuade the people from incorrectly believing that he was the Messiah. (Luke 3, Mark 1 [NASB])
2. Greater than Solomon in wisdom, the Messiah was expected to be a great king and restore Israel to even greater splendor and peace and power as being the focus of God's gracious blessing. (1 Kings 10:23 and 2 Chronicles 9:22)
Jesus pulls this trump card condemning the Pharisees' desire for signs (miracles served the purpose of pointing to and confirming the messenger's authority and the veracity of the message) in the gospels of Matthew and Luke: Matthew 12:42, Luke 11:31
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him,
"Teacher, we want to see a sign from You."
But He answered and said to them,
"An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign;
and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;
for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER,
so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Ninevah will stand up with this generation at the judgment,
and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah;
and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment
and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon;
and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
Matthew 12:38-45
Now why would Jesus throw the bit about the Queen of Sheba (as we assume, who was recorded to have come to Solomon for his wisdom), and calling Himself greater than Solomon if He were not reiterating the fact that He is the supreme King of kings greater even than Solomon, the greatest king before Him?
3. Another common belief of the time, courtesy of Coach Bex's LCB class, was that the Messiah would come as a fulfillment of Moses and the Prophets (and the Poetic Writings). Jesus states this plainly, but there were plenty of false claims made in Jesus's day to being the Messiah. Jesus was transfigurated by God with the words of all three parts of the Scriptures--
Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying,
"This is my Son,
My Chosen One;
listen to Him!"
Luke 9:35
Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud,
"This is My beloved Son,
listen to Him!"
Mark 9:7
While he [Peter] was still speaking, a voice out of the cloud said,
"This is My beloved Son,
with whom I am well-pleased;
listen to Him!"
Matthew 17:5
All three of the synoptic gospels record the transfiguration of Jesus, which is where God glorifies His name and confirms Jesus to be the culmination of all three portions of the Jewish Scriptures. The first part of the statement is a quote from Psalm 2:7--
"I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD:
He said to Me,
'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.'"
The second portion which varies in its closeness from "Chosen One" to "beloved" to "well-pleasing" is taken from Isaiah 42:1, the beginning of Isaiah's messianic prophesy of the "Servant of the Lord," and from the trial of Abraham and Isaac--
"Behold, My Servant, whom I hold fast; My Chosen One in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles."
He [God] said,
"Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."
Genesis 22:2
The last portion is not referenced in my Bible, because it is not quoted word-for-word, but it is the fulfillment of Moses's indicative statement to the Israelites in his last discourse:
"The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me
from among you, from your brothers,
you shall listen to him.
This is according to all that you asked of the LORD your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying,
'Let me [us] not hear again the voice of the LORD my [our] God,
let me [us] not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.'
The LORD said to me,
'They have done well what they have spoken.
I will raise up a prophet from among their brothers like you,
and I will put My words in his mouth,
and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name,
I Myself will require it of him.
But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.'
You may say in your heart,
'How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?'
When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD,
if the thing does not come about or come true,
that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken.
The prophet has spoken it presumptuously;
you shall not be afraid of him.
Deuteronomy 18:15-22
Here God also spells out the purpose of miracles which I previously explained. However, the opposing statement is true: we are to fear the words of the LORD, and to respect and heed the warnings of the great Prophet, who supersedes and is the end to the prophecies of the old covenant (Hebrews 1:1-2)
God quotes Himself!!!!!! How much lower will He stoop to accommodate our simplicity and filth and weakness?
He took it upon Himself to unite Himself with man. Emmanuel was the new mediator, the new Prophet to bring God's words down from the mountain covered with smoke and cloud. Emmanuel was the King that Isaiah and the Psalmists prophesied would reign in truth and justice, and who truly was the Jeduthun, son of the king named "Beloved" (that's David). Emmanuel was the High Priest who offered Himself as the only sacrifice that would do--the sacrifice of the firstborn son, the Passover lamb dedicated to God so that the angel of the LORD would pass over the sins of all the Isaacs of God's covenant family.
He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
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Jesus is unbelievably cool. God is awful in His ways, not simply awesome.
God speaks to His people in ways they can understand, using baby-talk and pictures and brilliant sunsets and spooky darknesses and rivers of blood and miraculous trees and languages He made for joyful voices. And not only does He allow His servants to perform acts that chronicle the history of His grace, but He used inside jokes and puns and feeble illustrations in the words of the prophets and apostles!
That being said, here are a few ways--
1. One of the titles the people gave for the long-expected Messiah was "the Expected (Coming) One." This is evidenced by Luke 7 (NASB), where John the Baptist sends some of his disciples to ask Jesus whether He was the "Coming One," which was really asking in subtext whether Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One.
1.1. John the Baptist prophesied that the Coming One would proceed him both in superiority and in the time of their respective ministries! John the Baptist did this to dissuade the people from incorrectly believing that he was the Messiah. (Luke 3, Mark 1 [NASB])
2. Greater than Solomon in wisdom, the Messiah was expected to be a great king and restore Israel to even greater splendor and peace and power as being the focus of God's gracious blessing. (1 Kings 10:23 and 2 Chronicles 9:22)
Jesus pulls this trump card condemning the Pharisees' desire for signs (miracles served the purpose of pointing to and confirming the messenger's authority and the veracity of the message) in the gospels of Matthew and Luke: Matthew 12:42, Luke 11:31
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him,
"Teacher, we want to see a sign from You."
But He answered and said to them,
"An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign;
and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;
for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER,
so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
The men of Ninevah will stand up with this generation at the judgment,
and will condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah;
and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
The Queen of the South will rise up with this generation at the judgment
and will condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon;
and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.
Matthew 12:38-45
Now why would Jesus throw the bit about the Queen of Sheba (as we assume, who was recorded to have come to Solomon for his wisdom), and calling Himself greater than Solomon if He were not reiterating the fact that He is the supreme King of kings greater even than Solomon, the greatest king before Him?
3. Another common belief of the time, courtesy of Coach Bex's LCB class, was that the Messiah would come as a fulfillment of Moses and the Prophets (and the Poetic Writings). Jesus states this plainly, but there were plenty of false claims made in Jesus's day to being the Messiah. Jesus was transfigurated by God with the words of all three parts of the Scriptures--
Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying,
"This is my Son,
My Chosen One;
listen to Him!"
Luke 9:35
Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud,
"This is My beloved Son,
listen to Him!"
Mark 9:7
While he [Peter] was still speaking, a voice out of the cloud said,
"This is My beloved Son,
with whom I am well-pleased;
listen to Him!"
Matthew 17:5
All three of the synoptic gospels record the transfiguration of Jesus, which is where God glorifies His name and confirms Jesus to be the culmination of all three portions of the Jewish Scriptures. The first part of the statement is a quote from Psalm 2:7--
"I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD:
He said to Me,
'You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.'"
The second portion which varies in its closeness from "Chosen One" to "beloved" to "well-pleasing" is taken from Isaiah 42:1, the beginning of Isaiah's messianic prophesy of the "Servant of the Lord," and from the trial of Abraham and Isaac--
"Behold, My Servant, whom I hold fast; My Chosen One in whom My soul delights.
I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles."
He [God] said,
"Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."
Genesis 22:2
The last portion is not referenced in my Bible, because it is not quoted word-for-word, but it is the fulfillment of Moses's indicative statement to the Israelites in his last discourse:
"The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me
from among you, from your brothers,
you shall listen to him.
This is according to all that you asked of the LORD your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying,
'Let me [us] not hear again the voice of the LORD my [our] God,
let me [us] not see this great fire anymore, or I will die.'
The LORD said to me,
'They have done well what they have spoken.
I will raise up a prophet from among their brothers like you,
and I will put My words in his mouth,
and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
It shall come about that whoever will not listen to My words which he shall speak in My name,
I Myself will require it of him.
But the prophet who speaks a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.'
You may say in your heart,
'How will we know the word which the LORD has not spoken?'
When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD,
if the thing does not come about or come true,
that is the thing which the LORD has not spoken.
The prophet has spoken it presumptuously;
you shall not be afraid of him.
Deuteronomy 18:15-22
Here God also spells out the purpose of miracles which I previously explained. However, the opposing statement is true: we are to fear the words of the LORD, and to respect and heed the warnings of the great Prophet, who supersedes and is the end to the prophecies of the old covenant (Hebrews 1:1-2)
God quotes Himself!!!!!! How much lower will He stoop to accommodate our simplicity and filth and weakness?
He took it upon Himself to unite Himself with man. Emmanuel was the new mediator, the new Prophet to bring God's words down from the mountain covered with smoke and cloud. Emmanuel was the King that Isaiah and the Psalmists prophesied would reign in truth and justice, and who truly was the Jeduthun, son of the king named "Beloved" (that's David). Emmanuel was the High Priest who offered Himself as the only sacrifice that would do--the sacrifice of the firstborn son, the Passover lamb dedicated to God so that the angel of the LORD would pass over the sins of all the Isaacs of God's covenant family.
He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Dream '11
I had a dream a while back, and I haven't gotten around to posting my recollections until now.
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I was walking along a road again, this time at night. The air was cold, but I was already cold as ice. Winds curled at my feet, and I noticed I wasn't wearing socks between my feet and shoes, which I never, ever do. (I guess boat shoes won't be in my style--I'm a pretty "grounded" person.) But then I noticed something even stranger: there was a sort of glow that I perceived to surround the ground near my feet, so that my path was illuminated. My groggy mind reached to the poetic psalmist; "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." (119: 105) Somehow I knew this wasn't a "real" light per say, because it was the faded orange color of old-n-fancy street lamps, unlike the new white fluorescent bulbs sprinkled in UC Irvine's Aldrich Park and that dot my street. This glow was interestingly only in my perception, splitting the dark shadows along the asphalt.
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And then I woke up.
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I was walking along a road again, this time at night. The air was cold, but I was already cold as ice. Winds curled at my feet, and I noticed I wasn't wearing socks between my feet and shoes, which I never, ever do. (I guess boat shoes won't be in my style--I'm a pretty "grounded" person.) But then I noticed something even stranger: there was a sort of glow that I perceived to surround the ground near my feet, so that my path was illuminated. My groggy mind reached to the poetic psalmist; "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." (119: 105) Somehow I knew this wasn't a "real" light per say, because it was the faded orange color of old-n-fancy street lamps, unlike the new white fluorescent bulbs sprinkled in UC Irvine's Aldrich Park and that dot my street. This glow was interestingly only in my perception, splitting the dark shadows along the asphalt.
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And then I woke up.
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