Monday, May 29, 2006
Lady Liberty
Jeremiah 31:3 "I have loved you with an everlasting love." Captivating continues: "Through Eve, God makes romance a priority of the universe." God favored her with feminine beauty so that her gifts of love and relationship, mercy and tenderness could show us these characteristics in Himself. She, as well as Adam, was made in His image.
Uncanny providence brings this truth to me in a special Memorial Day way. President Ronald Reagan "met" the Statue of Libery in a vid we watched last night. As he viewed her from a helicopter, face to face, he remarked, "She is beautiful, not just for what she stands for...she is so feminine!" Is it any wonder this man of God had a deep sense of appreciation for woman's charm. He knew Who made her. Ron Reagan loved Nancy with a God-given romance.
This day of memories and honor, is it such a hard thing for us to remember? She is worth the price...our Lady of Liberty...because of what she stands for. Love and honor her everyday.
On a similar vein, we caught the last day's showing around here of the German flick, Sophie Scholl. It is an amazing story (true) of freedom's sacrifices out of WWII. So I'm late suggesting it but maybe a rental for you, some hot summer's eve.
Uncanny providence brings this truth to me in a special Memorial Day way. President Ronald Reagan "met" the Statue of Libery in a vid we watched last night. As he viewed her from a helicopter, face to face, he remarked, "She is beautiful, not just for what she stands for...she is so feminine!" Is it any wonder this man of God had a deep sense of appreciation for woman's charm. He knew Who made her. Ron Reagan loved Nancy with a God-given romance.
This day of memories and honor, is it such a hard thing for us to remember? She is worth the price...our Lady of Liberty...because of what she stands for. Love and honor her everyday.
On a similar vein, we caught the last day's showing around here of the German flick, Sophie Scholl. It is an amazing story (true) of freedom's sacrifices out of WWII. So I'm late suggesting it but maybe a rental for you, some hot summer's eve.
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Beautiful God
Beauty is transcendent. It emits in us a longing for how things should be. When I was at a low ebb in counseling because it “allows” you to go to dark places safely…well, beauty became my obsession. I wanted to capture it, hold to it tightly. Things like the wind, long and sustained—a steady oceanfront type breeze running through my hair. Then there were the sparkles in the sun off the snow crystals or first morning dew. Shopping for the perfect purple, brilliantly balanced between red and blue, took on maybe a little too much importance. And I’ve always had a fascination for the piercing red of a glowing ruby gemstone or rich velvet. Recently, the disciple John’s description of the throne of God, in Revelation, was elaborated on in Zion’s Fire magazine. John used the colors of stones to draw us a picture: jasper, milky white, mixed with sardis, a blood red! I can stare at my favorite things or stand in a strong wind for uncanny durations…to the point where most would worry about my sanity, including me. Thank you, John and Stasi Eldredge, for such a simply stated explanation. When I don’t want to be here especially, “Beauty draws me to God. There is a glory calling me. Beauty haunts me with eternity.” (Captivating) Beauty IS God.
I’m okay. Sigh. I hope you find that you are too.
I’m okay. Sigh. I hope you find that you are too.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
It Was a Clique
Think of your worst-case scenario of the disconnected Christian. Not, mind you, the super-spiritual, head-in-the-clouds-with-God type. This was more like heads in the sand. We’re talking two solid hours of mission trips speak at the Bible study group gathering we attended. There was practically no eye contact with my husband and I, the newbies. And none of this chatter shared spiritual victories! I could’ve dug that. Logistics jokes, how sick they were, the material experiences of the Third World. Airport checks and scary flights…how the poorest poor came out for the food offered (well, duh), and nothing about whether they received anything else.
When I asked if anyone watched Lost, had seen End of the Spear, United 93, or even if they had been to the new Christian coffeehouse in town, the replies were unanimously “no” and the subject quickly reverted back to their underground endeavors. Aliens—they may not be of the world, (and I’m not so sure they aren’t), but for certain, they aren’t in it either. To be in their world, you’ve gotta check out Haiti or Chile, I guess. Hope they’re enjoying it cause there is a good chance their support system, America, won’t be here to come back to, that is if we continue on our steady plunge toward ruination, thank you very much to the absentee church and high-minded Christian.
Is it no wonder that the Church is dead and the culture IS dying? I know I need to give it to God but I was hoping for a listening ear here too. Hubby and I are quiet types so we are accustomed to being invisible…now I feel obsolete. (Silently crying)
BTW, anybody ever read Bait of Satan, John Bevere? That is the study material, the gospel of forgiveness. It appears to be a one-sided slant on Truth. God forgives and we are to forgive. Missing from today’s teaching…God judges and we are to judge. I am convinced this judgment and rebuking is to be contained within the church. Do not tell me I can’t be angry as a Christian! If God didn’t judge sins, we wouldn’t need His forgiveness! If we fail to discern sin using God’s Word to rebuke, correct, and train, then forgiveness is a mute point. We would NEVER be offended! All I’m saying is, a Christian life requires passing judgment, or as a Christian, I would then have nothing to forgive.
When I asked if anyone watched Lost, had seen End of the Spear, United 93, or even if they had been to the new Christian coffeehouse in town, the replies were unanimously “no” and the subject quickly reverted back to their underground endeavors. Aliens—they may not be of the world, (and I’m not so sure they aren’t), but for certain, they aren’t in it either. To be in their world, you’ve gotta check out Haiti or Chile, I guess. Hope they’re enjoying it cause there is a good chance their support system, America, won’t be here to come back to, that is if we continue on our steady plunge toward ruination, thank you very much to the absentee church and high-minded Christian.
Is it no wonder that the Church is dead and the culture IS dying? I know I need to give it to God but I was hoping for a listening ear here too. Hubby and I are quiet types so we are accustomed to being invisible…now I feel obsolete. (Silently crying)
BTW, anybody ever read Bait of Satan, John Bevere? That is the study material, the gospel of forgiveness. It appears to be a one-sided slant on Truth. God forgives and we are to forgive. Missing from today’s teaching…God judges and we are to judge. I am convinced this judgment and rebuking is to be contained within the church. Do not tell me I can’t be angry as a Christian! If God didn’t judge sins, we wouldn’t need His forgiveness! If we fail to discern sin using God’s Word to rebuke, correct, and train, then forgiveness is a mute point. We would NEVER be offended! All I’m saying is, a Christian life requires passing judgment, or as a Christian, I would then have nothing to forgive.
While the World Is Still Sleeping...
This is a Quinn and Rose thing from this a.m. (104.7 here, XM165 by satellite) ...We'll be bidding America goodbye. Or saying hello to the New America Order. Jerome R. Corsi writes at Human Events, quoting Miguel Pickard on the NAFTA Plus regulations proposal:
Contrary to NAFTA, whose tenets were laid out in a single negotiated treaty subjected to at least cursory review by the legislatures of the participating countries, NAFTA Plus is more the elites’ shared vision of what a merged future will look like. Their ideas are being implemented through the signing of "regulations," not subject to citizens' review. The vision may initially have been labeled NAFTA Plus, but the name gives a mistaken impression of what is at hand, since there will be no single treaty text, no unique label to facilitate keeping tabs. Perhaps for this reason, some civil society groups are calling the phenomenon by another name, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPPNA), an official sobriquet for the summits held by the three chief executives to agree on the future of "North America."
The reason for alarm is the related article in the Detroit News from Judge Michael Warren about Keeping America in Public Schools. Michigan Department of Education has denied this scandalous, treasonous? mishandling of our children's education and time will tell, I hope. Ask Karen Todorov:
No to America: What a state social studies consultant is telling educators in e-mails about using "America" and "Americans" in tests and courses:
"I have promised teachers that we would delete the use of American [when we are really ONLY referring to the United States] from the GLCEs (grade level content expectations) so that everything is consistent and correct as soon as it was feasible."
"It is ethnocentric for the United States to claim the entire hemisphere." -- Karen Todorov, Michigan Department of Education
Quinn hopes to contact Judge Warren. My heartfelt concern compares to Quinn's closing words today: "Somebody help me!" If there is no direct connection to "NAFTA Plus", well...Satan is good at what he does. Conspiracy or no, it gives me the creeps.
Contrary to NAFTA, whose tenets were laid out in a single negotiated treaty subjected to at least cursory review by the legislatures of the participating countries, NAFTA Plus is more the elites’ shared vision of what a merged future will look like. Their ideas are being implemented through the signing of "regulations," not subject to citizens' review. The vision may initially have been labeled NAFTA Plus, but the name gives a mistaken impression of what is at hand, since there will be no single treaty text, no unique label to facilitate keeping tabs. Perhaps for this reason, some civil society groups are calling the phenomenon by another name, the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPPNA), an official sobriquet for the summits held by the three chief executives to agree on the future of "North America."
The reason for alarm is the related article in the Detroit News from Judge Michael Warren about Keeping America in Public Schools. Michigan Department of Education has denied this scandalous, treasonous? mishandling of our children's education and time will tell, I hope. Ask Karen Todorov:
No to America: What a state social studies consultant is telling educators in e-mails about using "America" and "Americans" in tests and courses:
"I have promised teachers that we would delete the use of American [when we are really ONLY referring to the United States] from the GLCEs (grade level content expectations) so that everything is consistent and correct as soon as it was feasible."
"It is ethnocentric for the United States to claim the entire hemisphere." -- Karen Todorov, Michigan Department of Education
Quinn hopes to contact Judge Warren. My heartfelt concern compares to Quinn's closing words today: "Somebody help me!" If there is no direct connection to "NAFTA Plus", well...Satan is good at what he does. Conspiracy or no, it gives me the creeps.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
The Warning
If generation after generation goes away from the true pursuit of holiness and does evil, He will scatter them among the nations! God is holy and just; He is also love. Deuteronomy 4:29 brings the promise: “But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” So is God’s love conditional? No, but our experience of God as love and compassion depends fully on our allegiance. This I learned from Jerry Bridges’ Pursuit of Holiness. We are so quick to accuse God of loving us only if we are good. He loves us every bit as much when we are bad, bad, bad…separated from His holiness…veiled from seeing His affections.
“If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to keep His commandments”…no lying, cheating, jealous envy, stealing even a paper clip…”and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God,” wholeheartedly, with undivided devotion…”then, the Lord thy God will…have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.” ~Deuteronomy 30:10, 3
Isn’t that the church today? Scattered and in many ways ineffective, separated from their God’s affections, delights, and even His very presence in Spirit. You know how everyone says, God never leaves you; you leave Him! Maybe they haven’t read this verse. God pretty much left them on their own! The truth of the matter? Because in our unholy pursuit, we depart from God in a billion selfish directions, His Holy Spirit cannot work as masterfully through the shattered pieces. Pray tell, how does your job get done when your tools break? He is only one call (Jeremiah 33:3) away but that can be an eternity of distance if you don’t “pick up the phone”. We, of all people, should get it. In our newfangled world of contraptions, Australia and the West Coast can illusively be closer than the flesh and blood in the next room! When’s the last time you called your next-door neighbor? Close, yet so far away.
God the Father IS near. His Spirit. That’s the part that is gasping for air, groaning for help from One, Holy Church, united in His Divine Truth, seeking Him with all their might. My mommy taught me this when I was in third grade and prayer was abandoned in the schools. She was concerned with how God would leave us because we had rejected Him. As I grow in wisdom, I recognize hers.
You might be wondering why the cynicism. In the past few weeks, I have been involved in two Bible studies, I informed you of the women’s group last week, Kyrios Theos. I am horrified at the casual ripping apart of God’s Word and amazed that even a direct quote of Jesus is tossed out with the scraps!
A couples group includes quite a few new faces. We know our neighbors, who invited us. I felt invisible last night. It was a social kick off so “Great!” We can get to know these people before we delve into our study on some very personal issues. The topic is offenses, as in forgiveness so here’s hoping for a safe environment, right? Um, we are reconsidering…the why next time. This is sure to become a rant.
“If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God to keep His commandments”…no lying, cheating, jealous envy, stealing even a paper clip…”and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God,” wholeheartedly, with undivided devotion…”then, the Lord thy God will…have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all nations whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee.” ~Deuteronomy 30:10, 3
Isn’t that the church today? Scattered and in many ways ineffective, separated from their God’s affections, delights, and even His very presence in Spirit. You know how everyone says, God never leaves you; you leave Him! Maybe they haven’t read this verse. God pretty much left them on their own! The truth of the matter? Because in our unholy pursuit, we depart from God in a billion selfish directions, His Holy Spirit cannot work as masterfully through the shattered pieces. Pray tell, how does your job get done when your tools break? He is only one call (Jeremiah 33:3) away but that can be an eternity of distance if you don’t “pick up the phone”. We, of all people, should get it. In our newfangled world of contraptions, Australia and the West Coast can illusively be closer than the flesh and blood in the next room! When’s the last time you called your next-door neighbor? Close, yet so far away.
God the Father IS near. His Spirit. That’s the part that is gasping for air, groaning for help from One, Holy Church, united in His Divine Truth, seeking Him with all their might. My mommy taught me this when I was in third grade and prayer was abandoned in the schools. She was concerned with how God would leave us because we had rejected Him. As I grow in wisdom, I recognize hers.
You might be wondering why the cynicism. In the past few weeks, I have been involved in two Bible studies, I informed you of the women’s group last week, Kyrios Theos. I am horrified at the casual ripping apart of God’s Word and amazed that even a direct quote of Jesus is tossed out with the scraps!
A couples group includes quite a few new faces. We know our neighbors, who invited us. I felt invisible last night. It was a social kick off so “Great!” We can get to know these people before we delve into our study on some very personal issues. The topic is offenses, as in forgiveness so here’s hoping for a safe environment, right? Um, we are reconsidering…the why next time. This is sure to become a rant.
Monday, May 22, 2006
When I Say...
My son laid it on the line in our discussion of The DaVinci Code; he believed I am taking it too seriously (as in, getting all worked up!). I don't expect him to see the crumbling world through my older and somewhat wiser eyes but one thing he said rings painfully true. People hate Christians. With the teen caricature term, everybody, he punctuated his point: ...thinks Christians are crazy! So, I googled the poem someone read at my Bible study. Presenting "When I Say I Am a Christian"
Sunday, May 21, 2006
Wonderful, Counselor
I have been known to harp on therapeutic Christianity but I am not dismissing God’s comfort and grace. His love is crucial to our faith and that is a glaring understatement! The needed balance, as we rant and rave on our soapboxes about the demise of our culture and a sin-sick Church, is probably why God sent us the Eldredges. And recently, He plunked Captivating into my lap, on sale! “Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul” goes the subtitle. Don’t click yet, men! You all have been far too long, clueless. Truthfully, so have I. I honestly hate what women have become! I have two sons who are experiencing an affront to their masculinity by forceful, domineering, at times, downright mean females. You all know the term I am dancing around and am too polite to say. So don’t get me wrong…I’m about as far from feminist as you get. But my experience as a woman is one of complete confusion and even shame.
As Stasi writes, sometimes I feel I am not enough and the rest of the time, I feel like “too much”. When I try to keep the standard raised and it’s like I have three sons rather than two (Sorry, Hon), I want to be less warrior because I am getting dangerously close to that b---- word. But ask me if I have been a good wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, person, I will curl up into cocoon formation and want to die. The perceptive, charitable, calm and in control, happy-homemaker—not here.
Oh yeah, I need some good old-fashioned therapy, like 99% of the female population. (You guys could use some help too, eh?) Five years of secular counseling was a bomb; give me some Eldredge. I’ll keep you posted.
As Stasi writes, sometimes I feel I am not enough and the rest of the time, I feel like “too much”. When I try to keep the standard raised and it’s like I have three sons rather than two (Sorry, Hon), I want to be less warrior because I am getting dangerously close to that b---- word. But ask me if I have been a good wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, person, I will curl up into cocoon formation and want to die. The perceptive, charitable, calm and in control, happy-homemaker—not here.
Oh yeah, I need some good old-fashioned therapy, like 99% of the female population. (You guys could use some help too, eh?) Five years of secular counseling was a bomb; give me some Eldredge. I’ll keep you posted.
Friday, May 19, 2006
Solutions Searching
Do you believe your God is honest with men? Has He hidden His Word from us? Has He come very close now to having it in every language of the world? The report from Papua New Guinea a few years back from Wycliffe missionaries was translations are nearing the end. Is your God able to protect His written Word to us? Do you believe in an all-powerful God Who can and has breathed His Truth into a book that we can understand? If He says it is His Word, undiluted, uncompromised, untainted by men, then do you trust that He is Big enough, glorious enough, honorable enough to make it so? Or does your God have limited powers in that He can’t help that men wrote it all wrong? Is the situation so dire that we have been left our own sensibilities to pick it to pieces and figure out which parts reveal Him and which parts are tomfooleries? I am so excited since I have learned to trust God’s oracle, perfectly preserved through the ages! It is so glorious to know Him more, to understand how I need to come to Him, in humility and holiness, “and this not of myself”. “People often talk of their desire for ‘reality’ in the area of wanting to know God exists, (I couldn’t believe when I read this part because of the recent comment from a person with EXACTLY that cry for a supernatural revelation of God’s reality!) but they don’t seem to consider that the Personal God has asked for a ‘reality’ of man’s sincerity and honesty in our search for Him.” (p. 109)
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end (a hope and a future, NIV). Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.” ~Jeremiah 29:11-13
The core of the matter is, men are in a “poor position to edit God’s Book” because we do not have infinite knowledge. Is this a contradiction for, after all, men wrote the darn thing? The True Word was written down and copied by chosen humble hearts who honored God with total submission and trembling. The games of the less sincere generations since then have been to alter and dissect, mince, chop, dice and frappe, adding and disregarding much in the name of social change and cultural acceptance. As Mrs. Schaeffer so blithely puts it, Satan was the first editor when he distorted God’s Word for Eve. We dare not forget that he’s still in the business. We must also not forget that God is also still in the business and He is trustworthy. He has kept His Word intact for His Chosen.
Deuteronomy 4:9—“Only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.”
The faithful remnant was obedient over centuries of time: The Jews, the first Church, the monks of the Dark Ages…faithful; thank You, dear God.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end (a hope and a future, NIV). Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.” ~Jeremiah 29:11-13
The core of the matter is, men are in a “poor position to edit God’s Book” because we do not have infinite knowledge. Is this a contradiction for, after all, men wrote the darn thing? The True Word was written down and copied by chosen humble hearts who honored God with total submission and trembling. The games of the less sincere generations since then have been to alter and dissect, mince, chop, dice and frappe, adding and disregarding much in the name of social change and cultural acceptance. As Mrs. Schaeffer so blithely puts it, Satan was the first editor when he distorted God’s Word for Eve. We dare not forget that he’s still in the business. We must also not forget that God is also still in the business and He is trustworthy. He has kept His Word intact for His Chosen.
Deuteronomy 4:9—“Only take heed to thyself and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.”
The faithful remnant was obedient over centuries of time: The Jews, the first Church, the monks of the Dark Ages…faithful; thank You, dear God.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Kyrios Theos
Elohim, Yahweh, El-Shaddai, Jehovah-M’Kaddesh, Jehovah-rophe…whatever Name the Lord God called Himself in His Word as He revealed Himself…He IS.
He is not your god to create, change, adapt to your personal needs! The only way He is your God is if you are willing to come to Him and worship Him for who He is and what He said. And I don’t mean what He said in The Da Vinci Code! Or the gospel of Judas, Philip, or Thomas!
Some Christians know what I’m talking about and many, many don’t. I called my friend from the PCA neither of us attends anymore. She has grown much in the Lord and it was such a comfort to have support in the faith. So much of my Christian activity involves proceeding with caution. As my friend said, aren’t we supposed to find unity and comfort in the church, our support group? Yet much effort is needed to sift through the muck. Why? The answer at my Bible study was the broad answer given to me by an interim pastor…Jesus Christ as our Savior is our unifying belief. I would and did suggest differently. "The authority of God’s Word as True" brought dissension but there was one in agreement because she had come from a church split. The cause: refusing God's authority in His Word.
The Church is in a shambles. I don’t blame the Bible study leader for what she did. It was innocent. After all, she researched it using multiple commentaries; she is careful. What is a teacher to do when Christian educated leaders, scholars, writers, and preachers ARE WRONG? Yet now she will be held accountable for what she teaches! By God! Like me.
I am thankful that God has helped me rely on His Word, shown me a commentary that does not dispute it, and strengthened my conviction. He gets ALL the credit. If I’m going to teach it, why would I risk offending my Lord by cutting and pasting His Truth. Here’s the kicker. Christians, including my study leader, are professing to believe the Bible is God’s divinely inspired revelation and then use all the liberal excuses…”well that was the culture back then”, “historical context is important”, or “my god (the real Lamb baster!) wouldn’t do that!”
No, my friend on the phone agreed, taking God at His Word, trusting that He wouldn’t allow errors and cultural adaptation, historical mutations, this is hard!
The text under interrogation isn’t even the usual Paul writing! I wonder if Jesus said it here and now, would the Bible study leader raise her hand and ask, “Do you mean me? Wasn’t that the rule way back when?” Matthew 5:31 and 32, Jesus releases only adultery victims from their wedding vows. What about victims of wife-beaters? Hold on to your hats, because with that, the words of our Kyrios are made null and void by many reasoning Christians! First of all, Jesus didn’t say, “Stick with your man no matter what!” He could actually mean for the woman to remain married but separated. Other Scripture has to be weighed in. Is it lawful for a woman to be beaten by anyone? The guy belongs in freakin’ jail! Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount for a reason, and where that leaves the woman? Maybe alone…with children. That is very hard to accept. But “My god wouldn’t…” limits God and expands man’s authority based on a finite view. BTW, the punishment for adultery was death, so my commentary purports this adultery Jesus refers to is unfaithfulness, disobedience, contentiousness of a relational kind other than sex.
Think bigger. Jesus is saying the Church will be under penalty if it commits adultery…you know, fools around with various and sundry gods and idols, false teaching? Jesus can and probably will divorce the Bride who betrays Him like God did with Israel(Jer. 3:8). Who is the adulteress? The one who casually, flippantly says to a group of vulnerable women, “My God wouldn’t do that!” Would YOUR God hang His own Son on a cross and penalize His innocent Body and Soul to Hell? God is tough! Who can comprehend it? God is holy. God is Truth. God is Just. God is Love.
I love what my friend in the study offered! In the context of God’s plan…Jesus might have stuck us with a wife-beater with no earthly recourse but God, Jehovah-jireh, has also provided salvation. If you are remarried, He forgives. If you made a mistake in your marriage, God forgives.
The glory is, when we repent of our wrongs, when we realize we blew it, our Father who also loves perfectly, has redeemed us by the blood of His sweet Son. He will be our Helper and Strength in any situation. I knew a Christian woman who insisted God’s will was to stick it out. I could hardly accept it then and I barely can now. God does give strength and peace to His faithful. I saw His mighty Hand in that woman’s life. His will, not ours, be done.
He is not your god to create, change, adapt to your personal needs! The only way He is your God is if you are willing to come to Him and worship Him for who He is and what He said. And I don’t mean what He said in The Da Vinci Code! Or the gospel of Judas, Philip, or Thomas!
Some Christians know what I’m talking about and many, many don’t. I called my friend from the PCA neither of us attends anymore. She has grown much in the Lord and it was such a comfort to have support in the faith. So much of my Christian activity involves proceeding with caution. As my friend said, aren’t we supposed to find unity and comfort in the church, our support group? Yet much effort is needed to sift through the muck. Why? The answer at my Bible study was the broad answer given to me by an interim pastor…Jesus Christ as our Savior is our unifying belief. I would and did suggest differently. "The authority of God’s Word as True" brought dissension but there was one in agreement because she had come from a church split. The cause: refusing God's authority in His Word.
The Church is in a shambles. I don’t blame the Bible study leader for what she did. It was innocent. After all, she researched it using multiple commentaries; she is careful. What is a teacher to do when Christian educated leaders, scholars, writers, and preachers ARE WRONG? Yet now she will be held accountable for what she teaches! By God! Like me.
I am thankful that God has helped me rely on His Word, shown me a commentary that does not dispute it, and strengthened my conviction. He gets ALL the credit. If I’m going to teach it, why would I risk offending my Lord by cutting and pasting His Truth. Here’s the kicker. Christians, including my study leader, are professing to believe the Bible is God’s divinely inspired revelation and then use all the liberal excuses…”well that was the culture back then”, “historical context is important”, or “my god (the real Lamb baster!) wouldn’t do that!”
No, my friend on the phone agreed, taking God at His Word, trusting that He wouldn’t allow errors and cultural adaptation, historical mutations, this is hard!
The text under interrogation isn’t even the usual Paul writing! I wonder if Jesus said it here and now, would the Bible study leader raise her hand and ask, “Do you mean me? Wasn’t that the rule way back when?” Matthew 5:31 and 32, Jesus releases only adultery victims from their wedding vows. What about victims of wife-beaters? Hold on to your hats, because with that, the words of our Kyrios are made null and void by many reasoning Christians! First of all, Jesus didn’t say, “Stick with your man no matter what!” He could actually mean for the woman to remain married but separated. Other Scripture has to be weighed in. Is it lawful for a woman to be beaten by anyone? The guy belongs in freakin’ jail! Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount for a reason, and where that leaves the woman? Maybe alone…with children. That is very hard to accept. But “My god wouldn’t…” limits God and expands man’s authority based on a finite view. BTW, the punishment for adultery was death, so my commentary purports this adultery Jesus refers to is unfaithfulness, disobedience, contentiousness of a relational kind other than sex.
Think bigger. Jesus is saying the Church will be under penalty if it commits adultery…you know, fools around with various and sundry gods and idols, false teaching? Jesus can and probably will divorce the Bride who betrays Him like God did with Israel(Jer. 3:8). Who is the adulteress? The one who casually, flippantly says to a group of vulnerable women, “My God wouldn’t do that!” Would YOUR God hang His own Son on a cross and penalize His innocent Body and Soul to Hell? God is tough! Who can comprehend it? God is holy. God is Truth. God is Just. God is Love.
I love what my friend in the study offered! In the context of God’s plan…Jesus might have stuck us with a wife-beater with no earthly recourse but God, Jehovah-jireh, has also provided salvation. If you are remarried, He forgives. If you made a mistake in your marriage, God forgives.
The glory is, when we repent of our wrongs, when we realize we blew it, our Father who also loves perfectly, has redeemed us by the blood of His sweet Son. He will be our Helper and Strength in any situation. I knew a Christian woman who insisted God’s will was to stick it out. I could hardly accept it then and I barely can now. God does give strength and peace to His faithful. I saw His mighty Hand in that woman’s life. His will, not ours, be done.
Friday, May 12, 2006
A Mélange
I have been writing for three days…sounds biblical, eh? God affirmed the upcoming teaching on Jonah through my friend’s prayer. But first…A Mélange
As we wait for the next step in God’s providential involvement in earth’s history, we read and remember Daniel’s pictures of the future. Unlike much of the prophets’ writing on the first coming of the Lamb for the one final atoning sacrifice, Daniel was given insight past Immanuel to the apocalyptic coming of Christ as King. It can get confusing…for the writers, certainly. As time distances us from the actual events, God’s history Book becomes a bit more clear and as Mrs. Schaeffer writes, seeing through a glass darkly is still seeing something!
As previously posted in Isaiah 53, the prophet Esaias clearly wrote about the unfair judgment of the Lamb and His substitute death for a sinful people. Daniel wrote a contrasting vision of a coming Messiah and King! Prophets of honor, they wrote exactly what God had told them. How could this mysterious Savior be both of these things? The mix couldn’t be seen for what it was until Jesus Himself clarified. There is this huge gap and we are living in it! Daniel’s Seventy Weeks (a series in archive 4 &5/05, so check out subsequent posts) tried for a broad view but who could discern it? It would be like a blind entrance into some of our present day controversies. Try watching CBS and then listen to Fox tell “the same” story. “Huh?” Might be your most proficient response! Truthfully, I wish the historians of tomorrow all my best. May the truth prevail.
So the Jews were confused when Jesus was right there among them. No surprise there! But some weren’t. The truth was out there to be found. Luke 4:15-20, Jesus read in the Synagogue on the Sabbath with divine revelation for those who would hear. “And there was given (He didn’t choose the book, see?) Him the book of Esaias and when He opened the book, He found the place where it was written, ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.’ And He closed the book, and gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the Synagogue were upon Him. And He began to say to them, ‘This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.’”
But Isaiah 61 continues where Jesus left off! “…and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair…
Vv. 8 & 9 “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity.
In My faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.
For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow,
So the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” ~Amen
This remaining section was left unread that day and its likeness has not yet been seen in all of human history. Jesus stopped reading where he did to stress…this Word of God is happening right here and now. For the rest of it, the world will have to wait.
Jesus said He’d be back. So we wait.
Marvin J. Rosenthal has a new CD, The Redemption of the Earth (drop me a comment for more info), part of which he published in the latest Zion’s Fire. Revelation 4 and 5 are the topic but it blends nicely with Chapter 61. A meager one sentence summary: Jesus will be our go’ el (the ancient Hebrew tradition of redeeming a widowed bride of a family member, see Ruth), our Kinsman-Redeemer when He, the only One who can redeem earth, comes for His Bride.
As we wait for the next step in God’s providential involvement in earth’s history, we read and remember Daniel’s pictures of the future. Unlike much of the prophets’ writing on the first coming of the Lamb for the one final atoning sacrifice, Daniel was given insight past Immanuel to the apocalyptic coming of Christ as King. It can get confusing…for the writers, certainly. As time distances us from the actual events, God’s history Book becomes a bit more clear and as Mrs. Schaeffer writes, seeing through a glass darkly is still seeing something!
As previously posted in Isaiah 53, the prophet Esaias clearly wrote about the unfair judgment of the Lamb and His substitute death for a sinful people. Daniel wrote a contrasting vision of a coming Messiah and King! Prophets of honor, they wrote exactly what God had told them. How could this mysterious Savior be both of these things? The mix couldn’t be seen for what it was until Jesus Himself clarified. There is this huge gap and we are living in it! Daniel’s Seventy Weeks (a series in archive 4 &5/05, so check out subsequent posts) tried for a broad view but who could discern it? It would be like a blind entrance into some of our present day controversies. Try watching CBS and then listen to Fox tell “the same” story. “Huh?” Might be your most proficient response! Truthfully, I wish the historians of tomorrow all my best. May the truth prevail.
So the Jews were confused when Jesus was right there among them. No surprise there! But some weren’t. The truth was out there to be found. Luke 4:15-20, Jesus read in the Synagogue on the Sabbath with divine revelation for those who would hear. “And there was given (He didn’t choose the book, see?) Him the book of Esaias and when He opened the book, He found the place where it was written, ‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.’ And He closed the book, and gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the Synagogue were upon Him. And He began to say to them, ‘This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.’”
But Isaiah 61 continues where Jesus left off! “…and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair…
Vv. 8 & 9 “For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and iniquity.
In My faithfulness I will reward them and make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples.
All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.
For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow,
So the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.” ~Amen
This remaining section was left unread that day and its likeness has not yet been seen in all of human history. Jesus stopped reading where he did to stress…this Word of God is happening right here and now. For the rest of it, the world will have to wait.
Jesus said He’d be back. So we wait.
Marvin J. Rosenthal has a new CD, The Redemption of the Earth (drop me a comment for more info), part of which he published in the latest Zion’s Fire. Revelation 4 and 5 are the topic but it blends nicely with Chapter 61. A meager one sentence summary: Jesus will be our go’ el (the ancient Hebrew tradition of redeeming a widowed bride of a family member, see Ruth), our Kinsman-Redeemer when He, the only One who can redeem earth, comes for His Bride.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
White Guilt and the Western Past
Let's admit it, only a black writer could actually author this one. White journalists would hold back due to the white guilt syndrome portrayed here by Shelby Steele in Opinion Journal. Quinn was right when he read it this week. This is the crux of the weakening West.
"Today, the white West--like Germany after the Nazi defeat--lives in a kind of secular penitence in which the slightest echo of past sins brings down withering condemnation. There is now a cloud over white skin where there once was unquestioned authority.
I call this white guilt not because it is a guilt of conscience but because people stigmatized with moral crimes--here racism and imperialism--lack moral authority and so act guiltily whether they feel guilt or not."
BTW, Quinn and Rose are on XM Satellite Radio, channel 165 from 6am to 9am, for all you foreigners!
"Today, the white West--like Germany after the Nazi defeat--lives in a kind of secular penitence in which the slightest echo of past sins brings down withering condemnation. There is now a cloud over white skin where there once was unquestioned authority.
I call this white guilt not because it is a guilt of conscience but because people stigmatized with moral crimes--here racism and imperialism--lack moral authority and so act guiltily whether they feel guilt or not."
BTW, Quinn and Rose are on XM Satellite Radio, channel 165 from 6am to 9am, for all you foreigners!
