Idol of Security

Who doesn't want to be able to move about without certain fears? Some of my greatest fears are in regard to awful things happening to my wife and children. Nothing wrong with a concern for their safety. But is there a point when security becomes a carved image above an altar where we lay our hope?

I think it's when odds and feelings of being secure become the measurement of what we believe makes us actually safe. We will pay disproportionate amounts of our income and accept almost any new government regulations in exchange for health, physical safety and financial security. Improve the odds, feel better. All are an illusion in one sense.

So our retirement fund is in place, our neighborhoods are white and our sport utility vehicles mean that the other guy gets it, not me.

All fear driven of course. But is there reason to fear? In one sense there isn't. Certainly Biblically we ought not be anxious about anything (Phil 4:6). But we are. It's unbelief isn't it? Could there be a more now-consumed, this life-centered way to live forsaking a kingdom focus? And the more it's true of us, the tighter our grip becomes on our stuff, our little world, our safety.

Another perspective : Paul urged Timothy to tell his people not to "set their hopes on uncertainty of riches,but on God (1 Tim. 6:17)." Is that safe? Not always. All his health and safety was taken away to the point of death and he says, "but that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God (2 Cor. 1:9). Not safe, but good.

I'll never forget the inner city pastor putting his arm around his boy after he'd just been beaten up and his bike taken. Most of us would have been enraged. "Not MY son's stuff! Not hurting MY boy!" This pastor said with a smile, "Isn't this great son? Real missionary stuff!" He had no expectation for safety or any concern for personal possessions. Especially the godly should not expect safety (2 Tim 3:12).

Your own security is a heavy burden. Trusting in God makes it light. In His will we will not be safe. But we will worship at the right altar which values Him instead of self.

Endless Application, Endless Error

It would be difficult to determine what the most ignored principle of Biblical interpretation has been in recent history. But there is an error very common to our present day. Author's (and Holy Spirit's) intent would be my pick.

No one wants to limit God's Word and thus somehow limit God so they might say something like, "there can be endless applications and meanings for this text." After all, God is a big God. It is our understanding that is limited.

Should we ever limit application and purpose of a text? We ought to limit every passage or verse to what the original intent was. That is except in so far as it can be reasonably applied in parallel practical ways.

My first and often still last question is, What's the point? Many times, it seems to me that, the question people ask is, What's my point?

A mere descriptive, historical note, while it may be helpful for understanding, should never be taken as the main point of the passage and yet it happens all the time. If that's putting limit's on God's Word, color me guilty. God may have applications we will never even think of and yet not be the main point.

So here's the issue. If there is a possible inference from a text or logical inference, it is still not a necessary inference or required inference. So just because a point could be deduced doesn't make it a necessary point to deduce, especially if it is only a minor detail in the text in the first place. It is the explicit before the implicit, and necessary inference before possible inference.

We get in trouble when we over-emphasis the wrong part. And there are entire books written on the wrong part! We do it with verses, passages, whole books and even make things a major theme of the Bible that are simply not even a minor principle.

There are great truths there. Dig, discern and understand. But use the context of the immediate passage and book and the whole Bible before you force cultural issues of our day into God's Holy Word.

Drama?

Drama. I mean skits and plays, musicals etc. Never been a real fan of these, especially when they are trying to communicate Biblical truth. I usually cringe at the portrayals.

However, the play (musical) I just saw from Greenleaf studios and the only other production of theirs I viewed a while back blew me away. Been thinking of this latest effort (Ekklesia) ever since.

My understanding was that it was all original. Actors ranging from about 4 to 20 years old just thrilled me. The music and message were moving and the acting was not cheesy but talented and so was the singing.

There are always changes or additions to the Word in these kinds of productions. Never sits good with me. But this was terrific. I am opening up to the idea that communication of Gospel truths can be of various sorts which I once yawned or cringed at.

Not everything we do is Biblically appropriate for a Sunday morning worship service but it doesn't mean it is never appropriate. I was stirred by their efforts and by the truths they were proclaiming in the moving way in which they did so.

FYI, my favorite was Sabra. I'm getting a DVD.

Dead Friends

I often refer to some men as "friends" who I could not possibly have known. We've all said of an author or other influential person in our lives, "I feel like I know him."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, author of my favorite book on the church "Life Together" and other great books like "The Cost of Discipleship" about true belief and the believing life to follow, is one of those for me.

Another is the author of the Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan. His spiritual autobiography "Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners" lets you peer right into his very soul.

I feel like I know them. I call them my friends. I grin as I say it or even think it since D.B. died (hung in a Nazi prison camp) 20 years before I was even a thought on earth and J.B. died almost 300 years before I was born.

I have dead friends. Heroes of mine. They have and still do cause the water in my eyes to come up. It's not only their words as authors but their lives as men. God had made them men indeed. When I hear testimony of them or give it myself I am moved in my soul.

Jesus said there was never any man as great as John the Baptizer. The author of Hebrews relayed a list of Biblical heroes of whom it reads "the world was not worthy."

I love them. I need their example. I am spurred by them. Do you have any?

Poe and the Prophet

Some time back I learned about the poem by Edgar Allan Poe called "The Raven." After some dialogue between the poet and this dark raven perched on a doorpost, who spouted only hopelessness, Poe asked this question, "Is there, is there balm in Gilead?" The raven's response was the same as it had been throughout the poem, "Nevermore."

When God's people went astray in the Old Testament He declared their impending judgment since they refused to repent. He described their hearts this way, "they we not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush." Jer. 7:12

Jeremiah (the weeping prophet) grieved and asked of God, "Is there no balm in Gilead" Is there no physician there?" Jer. 8:22 His question was one of hope. He was asking if, when God has broken them, will there be any healing?

As the pages of declarations go on, there is a hint of an answer to that exact question. "I will restore your health to you' and your wounds I will heal, declares the LORD." Jer. 30:17

We find similar language in the prophetic 53rd chapter of Isaiah in verses 4 & 5. Verse 4 ends, "with His stripes we are healed." The healing to look forward to for Jeremiah's people or for any of us is spiritual. It comes through the crushing of another for our sakes if we believe Him. And He arrives on the scene as God in the flesh, the man Jesus of Nazareth. He took the stripes I deserved and I am healed by faith in Him.

I love His balm. It is sweet to me.

5 Solas

Was the Reformation necessary? I believe it was not only necessary but that it isn't over. "Semper Reformenda" (always reforming)is still the cry of the thoughtful.
The Reformation acknowledged our dependence on grace and not merited favor, sola gratia (grace alone). "...being justified freely by His grace..." Rom 3:23
We realized that the instrument of saving grace was "sola fide" (faith alone) and not the working of any sacraments or any other experience or rite or ritual. "...a man is justified by faith and not the deeds of the law." Rom 3:28
The reformers understood the "...Holy Scriptures lead you to salvation..." 2 Tim 3:15 and are the only sufficient authority for faith and obedience. The church is an ordained support to that truth but not another authority in and of itself. They said "sola Scriptura" (Scripture alone).
The central Person of all the Bible is Jesus the Christ who accomplished redemption for all who believe. "...the redemption that is in Christ Jesus..." Rom. 3:24. So our faith is in a Person Who is God, "solo Christo" (Christ alone) and not another such as Mary or any organization etc.
"I am the LORD, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another..." Is. 42:8 The glory of God is central to the purpose of God and ought to be the passion for the church. "Soli Deo Gloria" (God's glory alone) is the purpose of all the above.
By grace alone, through faith alone, on the word alone, because of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

"Life Together"

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) wrote a book titled "Life Together." It is the book on the community of the New Testament church. There are thoughts and applications of "body life" found there not to be found in any other writings on the subject from what I've seen. I love the church. I love the idea of the church and by church I mean the committed, local gathering of believers.
It is in and from the local assemblies of the faithful that we practice all the commands of brotherly love and the Christian life of following Jesus. Bonhoeffer died in effort to love his neighbor.
Before he was imprisoned Bonhoeffer pastored a group of students and they called it the "Confessing Church". This was to differentiate them from the churches of Germany at the time which failed to foresee the dangers of and stand against the march of Hitler's ideas. In dangerous times the local church loves dangerously. She must.
It is in the local church we are faithful corporately instead of individually or even as individual households. The winds of the Spirit of God blow across a corporate gathering of worshipers in ways that it does not when we are alone. When we are "saved" we are necessarily saved out of ourselves and into community. It cannot be any other way. By definition a Christian is part of a community of believers. We love Jesus there in ways we cannot alone and find Him in our brothers and sisters there.
I love the church. God thought it up! He died for "Her." She is His bride. But she is only manifest, not in the universal idea of the church but in the local body of believers. She is not seen in the theological concept of the faithful of all times and places all being part of that bride but in the community where they worship, work for kingdom purposes and love as fools in love and unashamed.
Bonhoeffer wrote, "The Christ in his own heart is weaker than the Christ in the heart of his brother..." I love what He died for and who He died for and I need them.
When I am among them there is no place on earth I'd rather be. They are a priority to me in such a way that I have no other thing worth doing until our gathering is over. I grow there, love there, seek and find there and delight in service there. It's necessarily who I am in Him. For these reasons I stay where He is and where those He died for are. I find Him in them there.

Why blog?

Without any claim as to whether or not I am gifted in communication to any degree or in any form, the fact is, I love to communicate. Even consider myself a bit of a hack student of forms of communication. When listening, I engage (almost naturally) in such a way that I am almost studying the voice inflections and speech patterns of others. As I read it is not a style that is most easily comprehended that interests me but that style and structure that impacts me most. My wife is deaf and communicates in ASL (American Sign Language). Body language and especially facial expressions are a big part of signing so that even the choices made in the usage of these are interesting to me. As hearing people, our faces tell a great deal and also assist in communicating even while speaking verbally. I observe and listen and remember and adopt from others. When I am speaking to anyone or in public it is always my goal to be not only interesting enough to keep the attention of another but to be impactful and to come across as though I really believe what it is I am attempting to convey. So I am a student in those ways.
So why blog? I love communication. More specifically, I love to think on the things of God in the Christian faith and then give it away. The Bible impacts the way I think and live and work and do family and dwell with my fellow man and all my affections and interests in this world. These are the considerations that consume my thoughts and emotions as a sinful man living in a fallen world and by the grace of God endeavoring to live under His Word.
So will anyone care? Isn't there enough out there? What could be at all special about this spot where I (of all people) type? Well it's mine. And nothing special at all except in so far as what is communicated here is true. May it be that. Soli Deo Gloria