Watch out - I'll be having some new material to write about on this blog in the near future. I'm currently reading Louis Lamour's autobiographical Education of a Wandering Man, which is wonderful! i've also got a copy of The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksander Solzhenitsyn and On Self Reliance by Emerson. Lamour would have been proud of me. I got these books for ten cents a piece at a used book market!
An odd point stuck in my mind during the evening service yesterday. Probably not the central point of his talk, but it stuck nonetheless..
Lane made the point that because we were in a denomination in which the Bible is believed to be inspired and inerrant, we must study and figure out how to make the Bible apply to our lives. How to conform ourselves to the scripture and be transformed by it (as in Romans 12:2). This is not the exact phrasing he used. He said it better. But the interesting part was that his phrasing reminded me of a paragraph in Adler & Van Doren's excellent book, How To Read A Book in the section on 'how to read canonical books.'.
They make the point that anytime there is a canon (literally measuring rod, norm or rule), there is a right reading of it (literally Orthodoxy). Just like there is a correct way to read any measuring device. The interpretation of canon is not left up to opinion. Adherents that beleve that the canon is an inspired rule are bound to read it with the purpose of trying to transform themselves to fit it rather than attempting to transform their interpretation of scripture to fit their whims. As Adler puts it...
The faithful reader of a canonical book is obliged to make sense out of it and to find it true...He reads essentially without freedom; but in return he gains a kind of satisfaction that is possibly never obtained when reading other books.
And speaking of measuring things (canon), don't you love this picture?
I figure to change the blog layout a little. I'll be posting the Scripture memory of the week in the header above so that it is always at hand, just like Deuteronomy 11:18-20 says:
...bind [these words] as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes... teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates...
Last week during church service, I'd given each of my kids a few quarters to put in the offering plate. We sat on the front row and Whit gave his, then Knox gave his, then it was Quin's turn. He dug down in his pocked and fished out a grape. The guy holding the collection plate thought that was cute and laughed. Quin fished around in his pocket again and pulled out... another grape. By this time the guy with the collection plate was getting behind and started to go on to the next row, but Quin told him to wait. Quin went into his pocket again and out came a third grape. The first grape fell on the floor and rolled away and Quin had to go get it. I held his grapes while he finally dug his quarters out and put them in the plate. Quin carefully took his grapes back and put them back in his pocket.
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I told the guy with the collection plate that those were the Fruits of the Spirit. We're all still laughing about that one.
Paraphrased, the third commandment says, “Do not take the Lord’s name in vain” (Exodus 20:7, Deuteronomy 5:11). Typically, in common use, perhaps especially in the South and in the Bible Belt, this has been taken to mean do not swear or curse. Frequently it is specifically used as an injunction against the particularly vile curse, “G__D___.”
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This common understanding of the third commandment makes some sense based upon other scriptural references, like Proverbs 17:27, Proverbs 21:23, Ecclesiastes 3:7, James 1:26, and 1Peter 3:10) But I think that interpreting Exodus 20:7 to simply mean, “do not curse” is taking the easy way out. A lot of young people take a while to realize that swearing is not cool, and some people never outgrow it, but most are able to temper their tongues at least somewhat by the time they are young adults.
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The Third commandment is not just an injunction against swearing.
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What does it mean to take the Lord’s name? When Abraham’s descendants said, “we are God’s people” (e.g. Judges 20:2, 2Samuel 14:13, Hebrews 4:9, etc…) they were taking the Lord’s name, just as a bride takes her husband’s name. Similarly, when followers of Jesus identify themselves as Christians (e.g. Acts 26:28, 1Peter 4:16, etc…) they are taking the Lord’s name.
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How does that become an act of vanity? When our lives are such poor examples that we make the Lord ashamed to be called our God as in Hebrews 11:15-16. So, how do we shame God?
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Jesus condensed all the Law and Prophets into the great commandments and the great commission. We are to love the Lord and love other people (Mark 12:28-34), evangelize, baptize, and teach (Matthew 28:16-20).
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When we make such bad examples of ourselves that other people see us and say, “I’d rather die than be a hypocrite like those Christians,” we take the Lord’s name in vain, and we also are violating all of the teachings of the Law and Prophets because it makes us worse than non-productive in the kingdom of God. It makes us counter-productive to the Great Commission.
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This common understanding of the third commandment makes some sense based upon other scriptural references, like Proverbs 17:27, Proverbs 21:23, Ecclesiastes 3:7, James 1:26, and 1Peter 3:10) But I think that interpreting Exodus 20:7 to simply mean, “do not curse” is taking the easy way out. A lot of young people take a while to realize that swearing is not cool, and some people never outgrow it, but most are able to temper their tongues at least somewhat by the time they are young adults.
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The Third commandment is not just an injunction against swearing.
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What does it mean to take the Lord’s name? When Abraham’s descendants said, “we are God’s people” (e.g. Judges 20:2, 2Samuel 14:13, Hebrews 4:9, etc…) they were taking the Lord’s name, just as a bride takes her husband’s name. Similarly, when followers of Jesus identify themselves as Christians (e.g. Acts 26:28, 1Peter 4:16, etc…) they are taking the Lord’s name.
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How does that become an act of vanity? When our lives are such poor examples that we make the Lord ashamed to be called our God as in Hebrews 11:15-16. So, how do we shame God?
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Jesus condensed all the Law and Prophets into the great commandments and the great commission. We are to love the Lord and love other people (Mark 12:28-34), evangelize, baptize, and teach (Matthew 28:16-20).
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When we make such bad examples of ourselves that other people see us and say, “I’d rather die than be a hypocrite like those Christians,” we take the Lord’s name in vain, and we also are violating all of the teachings of the Law and Prophets because it makes us worse than non-productive in the kingdom of God. It makes us counter-productive to the Great Commission.
...let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:16; ESV)
Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1Peter 2:12; ESV)
By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. (John 15:8; ESV)
When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. (Matthew 9:8; ESV)
Yesterday I was chatting with Lane about a curious phrase that pops up in the epistles a lot, "...in Christ Jesus." Sometimes the meaning of the sentence is clear but often, this phrase seems to be tacked ontothe end of a sentence and seems to add no meaning. For instance...
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phillipians 4:6-7)
The phrase "in Christ Jesus" does not really make good English sense in this context. Well Lane pointed out that the preposition "in" in the Greek is sort of vague, and can mean lots of things, including in, on, by, through, etc... In other words, it can signify position (in, on, by, etc...) or enabling (through, by, etc...). So the implication of the phrase could be that Christ Jesus enables us to rejoice always, pray without ceasing, etc...
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Lane didn't really feel like he gave me a good answer. He thought it was vague. We decided not to get side-tracked by a preposition. But the more I think about it, the more I think that phrase might be the key to the whole thing. After all, Christ is supposed to be the key to the message of the Bible.
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Lane pointed me to another scripture that really gave this "in Christ Jesus" phrase meaning...
I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Corinthians 1:16-20)
This really struck me as awesome the more I thought on it. A while back I posted on God's various ways of answering prayers, including "No, I love you too much to do that." But here it says that God does not vascillate or equivocate, answering "Yes, but No" at the same time. In fact, he doesn't even ever answer prayer, "no." All of his answers are, "yes" (see also, Matthew 7:7).
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And not only that, but this passage tells us that God's "yes" answer to us is Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the affirmative answer to all of our prayers. Everything that we could possibly need and ask for in prayer has already been given to us by God in Christ Jesus.
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So, the phrase 'in Christ' in the above passages seems to signify that when God sent Jesus, he was answering all the prayers we could ever pray and that Christ is the enabler of all these things (rejoicing, praying without ceasing, giving thanks, not worrying, being at peace, etc...)
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Exciting!!!
The other day at the High Noon men's study, we were discussing the first chapter of the Westminster Confession. The chapter on scripture. We were talking about how the canonical scriptures came to be accepted as canon. Lane correctly made the point, and Westminster backs him up, that there is no way to prove that scripture is inspired, inerrant, etc... That it is the working of the Holy Spirit that convinces each man of the inspiration of scripture.
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But it's not like a group of old dead saints just got together and each chose five personal favorite texts to include in the Bible. There were several rules that they followed when they chose the books that were eventually canonized.
- The Rule of Internal Consistency - says that a document must not contradict itself. If you were to find a document that said that it was written during the reign of a certain known king but it quotes (not prophesies) later events, that document would lack internal consistency. All of the books of the canonical bible are perfectly internally consistent.
- The Rule of External Consistency - says that a document must not contradict other texts that are already considered canon. All of the books of the Christian canon are perfectly in accord with each other.
- Aristotle's Dictum - says that if you think there is an inconsistency or inaccuracy in a text but you think you may not understand the context perfectly, you have to give the benefit of the doubt to the text. An imperfect individual cannot declare the Bible to be in error based on his own limited understanding of it.
- The Bibliographic Rule - says that you want to use texts as close to the source as possible to avoid error. Texts were selected for the canon that had some direct tie to the apostles of Jesus because they were first-hand witnesses. Most of the NT canon was written within one lifetime of the events that took place. The Dead Sea scrolls demonstrated that the OT canon had not changed appreciably in 1000 years, lending validity to it based on the bibliographic rule.
I was reading Genesis last night and it occurred to me that It's really neat how you see something different each time you read through a given story. Even when you've read and heard the story a million times. Last night I read about Lot's flight from the destruction of Sodom. The really funny thing is, even after he was told by the two angels of the Lord, "You'd better run, we're about to bomb this town back into oblivion," (Genesis 19:12) he tarried until the angels had to physically take him and drag him out of the town (Genesis 19:15-16).
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What kind of numbskull lays around after a warning like that?
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Well, I suppose there are times in all of our lives that God has to forcibly drag us kicking and screaming out of a bad situation. This seems to me to be a great example of unmerited, irresistable grace. Isn't our God great, to be willing to drag sinners as screwed up and unwilling as us into sanctification?
Here is another old song that recurs in my memory from time to time, though it is not commonly sung in church anymore. For some reason it is such a striking song to me that I can (I think) recall the 1-2 times that it has been sung in church in the last 20 years. Here is a version of it I found by Karen Clark-Sheard. She really kicks it up a notch!
There is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole,there is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sinsick soul. There is a balm in Gilead, to make the wounded whole, there is a balm in Gilead, to heal the sinsick soul. Sometimes I feel discouraged, and think my work's in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again. If you cannot preach like Peter, if you cannot pray like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus, and say, "He died for all."
We decided to do a shorter, easier memory verse this coming week since the previous couple of weeks were long, more involved ones.
But it is the Spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand. (Job 32:8; ESV)
This verse really points in my mind to Psalm 51:10-12:
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
I've done better lately about treating my regular Bible reading as a special, spiritual exercise and have taken the time to pray and invoke the assistance of the Holy Spirit in reading and understanding God's word and you know what - it really works! I've felt like my Bible reading has been a completely different thing for me lately. I have felt that I've been under the tutorship and guidance of the Spirit in my reading and study. Amazing thing!
If you are interested in making this change in your Bible reading, this is how I am doing it. Treat it like teaching yourself to wear a seatbelt. Try to remember to pray before ever opening the Bible (put your seatbelt on before ever starting the car). If you forget and begin your reading, when you remember, shut the Book (stop the car), pray, and then continue with your reading. Pray for the Spirit to stay with you like in Psalm 51 and to tutor you and guide your thoughts and help you understand, like in Job 32:8. Ask and it (the presence of the holy Spirit) will be given to you (Matt 7:7).
The following is a prayer calendar adapted from a Pray magazine article written by Bob Hostetler. It's been circulated a good bit in various forms on the Net. This particular one came from http://www.eastbrookchurch.org/pray_children.htm.
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Using this calendar will help you to pray thirty-one different biblical virtues into your children. Use it as a guide each month, combining some of the traits for months which do not have thirty-one days. Claim and believe that GOD is working each one, of these virtues into your children's lives.
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I will be circulating a similar form of this at church starting this Sunday. The parents of our youth will get one, as will any other interested people. Our youth crave and covet your prayers. It is the one thing we need most from you. Remember - the character of our children tomorrow is shaped by what they learn from us today. Please pray with us and pray for us.
1. Salvation. "Lord, let salvation spring up within my children, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory" (Isaiah 45:8, 2 Timothy 2:10.2. Grow in grace. "I pray that my children may grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3: 18).3 . Love. "Grant, Lord, that my children may learn to live a life of love, through the Spirit who dwell in them" (Galatians 5:25, Ephesians 5:2).4. Honesty and integrity. "May integrity and honesty be their virtue and their protection" (Psalm 25:21).5. Self -control. "Father, help my children not to be like many others around them, but let them be alert and self-controlled in all they do" (I 'Thessalonians 5:6).6. Love for God's Word. "May my children grow to find Your Word more precious than much pure gold and sweeter than honey from the comb" (Psalm 19: 1. 0).7. Justice. "God, help my children to love justice as You do and act justly in all they do" (Psalm 11:7, Micah 6:8).8. Mercy. "May my children always be merciful, just as their Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36).9. Respect (for self, others. authority). "Father, grant that my children may show proper respect to everyone, as your Word commands" (I Peter 2:17).10. Biblical self -esteem. "Help my children develop a strong self-esteem that is rooted in the realization that they are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus"(Ephesians 2: 10).11. Faithfulness. "Let love and faithfulness never leave my children, but bind these twin virtues around their necks and write them on the tablet of their hearts" (Proverbs 3:3).12. Courage. "May my children always be strong and courageous in their character and in their actions" (Deuteronomy 3-1:6).13. Purity. "Create in them a pure heart, 0 God, and let that purity of heart be shown in their actions" (Psalm 51: 10).14. Kindness. "Lord, may my children always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else" (I Thessalonians15. Generosity. "Grant that my children may be generous and willing to share, and so lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age" (I Timothy 6:18-19).16. Peace-Loving. "Father, let my children make every effort to do what leads to peace" (Romans 14:19).17. Joy. "May my children be filled with the joy given by the Holy Spirit" (I Thessalonians 1-.6).18. Perseverance. "Lord, teach my children perseverance in all they do, and help them especially to run with perseverance the race marked out for them" (Hebrews 12:1).19. Humility. "God, please cultivate in my children the ability to show true humility toward all" (Titus 3:2).20. Compassion. "Lord, please clothe my children with the virtue of compassion" (Colossians 3:12).21. Responsibility. "Grant that my children may learn responsibility, for each one should carry his own load" (Galatians 6:5).22. Contentment. "Father, teach my children the secret of being content in any and every situation, through Him who gives them strength" (Philippians 4:12-13).23. Faith. "I pray that faith will find mot and grow in my children's hearts, that by faith they may gain what has been promised to them" (Luke 17:5-6, He- brews I 1; 1-40).24. A servant's heart. "God, please help my children develop servants hearts, that they may serve wholeheartedly, as if they were serving the Lord, not men" (Ephesians 6:7).25. Hope. "May the God of hope grant that my children may overflow with hope and hopefulness by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13).26. Willingness and ability to work. 'Teach my children, Lord, to value work and to work at it with all their heart, as working for the Lord, not for men" (Colossians 3:23).27. Passion for God. "Lord, please instill in my children a soul that 'followeth hard after thee' (Psalm 63:8, KJV) one that clings passionately to you.28. Self -discipline. "Father, I pray that my children may acquire a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair" (Proverbs 1:3).29. Prayerfulness. "Grant, Lord, that my children's lives may be marked by prayerfulness, that they may learn to pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests" (Ephesians 6:18)30. Gratitude. "Help my children to live lives that are always overflowing with thankfulness and always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20, Colossians 2:7).31. A heart for missions. "Lord, please help my children to develop a desire to see your glory declared among the nations, your marvelous deeds among all peoples" (Psalm 96:3).
I'm reading Job right now in my daily chronological Bible reading. I don't enjoy Job. Much of it I don't understand, so I pray for the Holy Spirit to open up the meaning of the scriptures to me and help me to understand.
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Then this morning something occurrs to me. I don't want to understand Job. Job was literally in a hell of a time in his life. Satan was gunning directly for Job simply in order to show God up (Job 1:8-12) and Job had lost all his wealth and all of his family (Job 1:13-20) except for his wretched wife (Job 2:9). His friends were awful to him (Job 16:2) to the point that he said, "I despise my life." (Job 9:21)
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What's worse, Job takes place post-fall and pre-law, which means that his relationship with God was ruined before he was even born and Moses had not yet brought the Law to provide a way for him to have a relationship with God - or even to highlight the need and the hope for a Savior. Job had no hope and could have no hope. The same must have been true for all the people in this in-between period. They were living in spiritual limbo. All their lives were hell on earth!
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. (Romans 5:12-14)
God help me if I ever grow to understand Job's plight in more than an intellectual sense! You have to be careful what you pray for (Matthew 7:7). This story of Job highlights the awesome thing that God did for us through Christ. We must thank and praise Him for this.
This is cool. Every so often this song pops into my mind from when we used to sing it 25 years ago in youth group. Today It popped in there out of the blue and I looked it up on the net. Give it a listen (click on the picture above or on the link below) and see don't you end up humming it for the rest of the day.
This week's memory verse comes from the beginning of Psalms, and deals with the reason we're doing this emphasis on Bible reading, prayer, and scripture memory in the first place.
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. (Psalm 1:1-2)
Next week's verse is going to be on the same theme, and is going to be a long one, so you may want to get a head start.
Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates... (Deuteronomy 11:18-20).
And the previous weeks verses...
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:2; NKJV)
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Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1st Thessalonians 5:16-18, NKJV)
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Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. (Matthew 7:7, NKJV)
This weekend I got a new Bible for myself. For a while I've had a creeping discomfort with study bibles in general. It is really easy to get distracted and spend a lot more time reading about the Bible than you spend actually reading the word of God.
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For that reason, I purchased a new ESV bible in 2-column format with a center column of cross references and a little bit of concordance and map section at the end. The complete lack of study notes helps keep me from getting distracted and the concordance helps finding half-remembered passages. The cross-references allow you to use the Bible as its own commentary anyway - you know, let Scripture interpret Scripture.
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An added benefit of a non-study bible is that a bible that is studded with lots of commentary and essays and chapter notes, etc... can be incorrectly proportioned. For example, on day-one of bible school long ago, you learnt that Psalms is right in the middle of the Bible and you learnt how far back you have to open the book to find the New Testament. Well, in a study Bible the proportions of the pages can be all wrong. Psalms may not be in the middle. So finding your way around can be harder.
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I still like my old Reformation Study Bible (though I'm not really hip on the NKJV's lack of readability), and I also like Zondervan's NIV Study Bible for the notes and essays. But for my dollar, a non-study Bible seems better.
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