A Boomer in the Pew

2010: A Year of Blogging My Way Chronologically Through the ESV Study Bible

I feel like my brain is fried.

Chronologically blogging my way through the ESV Study Bible, over the course of the last year, has been a world-view changing experience.

I can't tell you how many times I found myself whinning at the pace and desired to throw anchor to do some deep sea diving in some of the more challenging revelations.

And today, as I try to produce a cogent thought about the experience, I find myself completely melted as I consider the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

I find myself with a new deep desire to be with Christ and apart from the struggles of the flesh. Yet, I certainly feel no sense of urgency to leave this earth, family, and friends. 

I understand Paul's struggle and desire to be with Christ, and greatly admire his obedience to remain and labor for Christ.

To be honest, I dont' completely understand his statement, "For me to live is Christ".  My head gets it, my heart somewhat gets it, I could even proclaim those words, but I am...what?...I'm lost for words...perhaps there are still earthly things that still have a piece of my heart? 

Perhaps I need to give myself a break here.  I haven't met Christ on the road to Damascus, and I haven't been swept up to the third heaven.  I haven't been beaten, shipwrecked, seen people risen from the dead, and witnessed anywhere's near the things that Paul witnessed.

I guess my greatest desire for 2011, now that I have consumed God's revelation, is to experince my own Damascus road.  Is it possible to meet Christ here and now?  What does it really, and I mean really, mean to be God's holy temple and have the Holy Spirit living inside me.

Perhaps what I am trying to say is that I desire to move WAY past knowing of God, and actually know God. I mean really.  Personally.  Not just something we all say in church.

Does that make any sense?

The Book of Revelation, the Coming Apocalypse, and a New Jerusalem for God's Redeemed

Bible in a Year Series - Day #365 -  This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.      

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Revelation

I suspect that of all of the books contained in the Bible, the Book of Revelation might rank as the one producing the most head scratching.

The Book of Genesis shares the creation story and the fall of man.  Certainly a head scratcher.

The rest of the books share of God's interaction with man over the course of history and of his plan to redeem mankind from the tragic events in the Garden of Eden with the centerpiece of this plan occuring some 2,000 years ago with the coming of Messiah.

The Book of Revelation shares the story of how God will end his original creation, pluck out his redeemed from a final coming "end of the age", and commence a new eternal kingdom where his own will live with him forever, with God living among his own, in an unimaginable place that he is preparing for those who call Messiah their Savior, Lord, and King.

The author of the Book of Revelation is Jesus the Christ (Messiah) with the banished Apostle John furiously recording the conversation from the island of Patmos.

Having now completed and blogged my way through the entire Bible, the thought that first comes to mind is that:

• No book ever written makes the claims contained in the Bible.
• No other faith is so interweaved with real people, in real places walking throughout the world's history.  Other faiths ask that we believe in the fanciful imaginations of an "enlightened" man.
• No one person ever to walk the face of the earth has affected the world as did Jesus Christ, and he made claims that no man has ever made.

The question for all of us is simple:  Do you believe this testimony, and if so, will you place your faith/trust in the Messiah, Immanuel (God with us), and accept his free offer of salvation from the death that lives in all of us from our first father Adam.

For Carol and I, the answer is a resounding YES!

How about you?

 

1 John: True Doctrine, Obedient Living, and Fervent Devotion

Bible in a Year Series - Day #361 -  This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.      

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.

It is believed that John wrote this letter from, and now resides perhaps in Ephesus prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 a.d..

If my understanding is correct, these letters were written towards the end of the first century and many, if not all of the other apostles are now dead/martyred.

Gnosticism and other "anti-Christ" teachings were becoming vogue and in John's first letter, seemingly a sermon to be read to the churches, he challenges them to understand true doctrine, to practice obedient living, and to possess a fervent devotion to God.

I suppose this is no different than today. 

If you were to ask which Americans believed in God, there would be a long, long line.  But, now ask them to disclose their understanding of God, his wishes for us, and their understanding of truth, and the water gets very, very murky with literally thousands of "ways" rather than the "one way" that Jesus talked about.

When we allow ourselves to refrain from understanding true doctrine (found through diligent study of the Bible), and refuse to live a life of obedience to God, and subsequently lack a fervent devotion to God, then Satan is very pleased to supplant this with understandings that are more in line with the wishes of our fallen flesh.

"Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above." (Hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing)

Let this be our prayer for 2011.

Greatly Desiring a Godly Transformed Heart

Bible in a Year Series - Day #359 -  This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.      

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 2 Peter & Jude

What a mess!

There is a common theme throughout the New Testament writers:  beware of false teachers.

These false teachers were clearly creating problems in the early church, and I recall Jonathan Edwards dealing greatly with them during the Great Enlightenment; which propagated his great text on Religious Affections.

It seems to me that the best course of action, for all of us, is to make certain the we are not false teachers, rather then setting about on a quest to slay false teachers around us.

If we all would seek a godly transformed heart, then certainly there will be fewer wolves in the flock.

For the Christian, almighty God has done something that we ourselves could not accomplish:  brought life where there was once death through his effective call to salvation:

"His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire." (2 Peter 1:3-4)

Contrary to the bunk that flows from the mouths of a great many popular Sunday morning so-called preachers, the path of a godly transformed heart is not easily attained.  In fact, we will now find ourselves at war with our own human natures!

To combat this Peter prescribes:

"For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." (2 Peter 1:5-11)

Interestingly, this path begins with virtue (Gk. aretē, “virtue, excellence” was used by Greek writers to describe the sum of all desirable character qualities - ESV Study Bible) and immediately into knowledge (we must read and seek to understand the Bible for ourselves) and then with self-control and steadfastness seek godliness which produces brotherly affection and ultimately love.

Sadly, a great many never even make it to second base (knowledge) and thus we live with wolves teaching a false doctrine.

We must each resolve ourselves to a steady diet of God's word so that the transformation of the mind that Paul spoke about in Romans 12 can begin to shape our hearts, minds, and ultimately our very souls.

Oh my soul, with a very short chain, chain thyself to God's neverending well of truth.

Are Economic Downturns God's Modern Day Droughts? How the Great Recession has Rocked My World

Bible in a Year Series - Day #357 -  This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.      

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Hebrews

If you are a student of the Bible, one of the clear lessons for us to learn is of God's complete sovereignty over his creation.

Dr. R. C. Sproal has said of God sovereignty that "there exists not even one maverick molecule that is not under God's control".

Furthermore, we have seen over and over, in our year-long chronological journey through the Bible, that God brings discipline on those he loves; which sometimes includes the whole world.

The Old Testament is full of examples of God using drought for his own sovereign purposes.  This makes me conclude that our great recession, given that God is sovereign over all, has occured under God's ordaining.

I can't suppose to understand the mind of God.  However, as I was reading the Book of Hebrews, I found this understanding of how God discplines his own to be striking, somehow comforting, and very instructive:

"Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved by him.
 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”

7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears." (Hebrews 12:3-17)

This great recession hit when we were the most vunerable.  We had recently sold our business and real estate holdings, moved to Arizona, and had nearly all of our assets sitting in a well managed mutual fund.

When this recession hit in October of 2008, and the stock market subsequently crashed, we lost 45% of the assets that we had spent 20+ years accumulating for our early retirement.

Needless to say, this catastrophe rocked my world.

The trajectory of our lives was forever changed.

Although I am often still found reeling under the pain of such a huge loss, it has humbled me, and forced me to reshape my worldview.

Remarkably, I can profess that I am a better person having lost cash assets that possessed 7 decimal places.

I never considered jumping off a bridge as some do, but it did drive me into the deepest of depressions and forced upon me a reshaping of my thinking.

I can't speak for anyone else, but Carol and I can now clearly see the hand of God's discipline in our loss.  It has brought us into a significantly closer relationship with God, and we have been earnestly working to "lift our drooping hands and strengthen our weak knees".

I don't know where the future lies.  The tears I shed as I type this are still bittersweet.  The future that I had built is shattered and lost.

But this I can say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord" (Joshua 24:15)

How has this economic downturn changed your life?

1 Peter: Persevere in Faith

Bible in a Year Series - Day #354 -  This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.      

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 1 Peter

The book of 1 Peter was written while Peter was in Rome and witnessing horrific perseverance under the madman Nero.

Many, in our nation, have suffered a great deal under our great recession.  The Book of 1st Peter is a wonderful balm in the light of such trouble.

Our senior pastor, Jamie Rasmussen, recently did a whole series on the Book of 1 Peter.

You can find his videos here, and here.

The Pastoral Books: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus

Bible in a Year Series - Day #353 -  This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.    

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus

These three books are written specifically to Paul's fellow workers and giving them instructions about the proper care of Christ's church.

The book of 2 Timothy is particularly poignant as Paul is still in prison, now under the emperor Nero, the church is suffering extreme persecution, and Paul knows that his execution is near.

I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors, with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 4 As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:3-7)

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8)

Here's what the ESV Study Bible shares about Paul's final discourse:

"The genre of 2 Timothy is at least similar to the farewell discourse, and many would classify it as such. There are famous farewell discourses in the Bible—e.g., by Moses (the book of Deuteronomy), Joshua (Joshua 23–24), David (1 Chronicles 28–29), and Jesus (the Upper Room Discourse, John 14–16). Conventional motifs include the speaker's announcement of his imminent departure, directives to keep God's commandments, predictions of what will happen after the speaker's departure, words of comfort and instruction for the benefit of those who will survive the speaker, and appeals to the addressees to remember what the speaker has taught. If 2 Timothy, Paul's last letter, is read with these features in mind, the book will fall neatly into place. Paul's charges to Timothy in this letter are not limited to a specific situation (as 1 Timothy was) but are what Paul most wants Timothy to heed for the rest of his life and ministry—the last word from a spiritual father. The reader is led to share Paul's reflective mood as he looks back over past experiences."

There is a significant amount of important doctrine found in these passages (e.g., All Scripture is breathed out by God), but the overriding tone is that of a spiritual father saying goodbye to his son.

I am hoping that there exists a well written, Biblically based historical novel on the live of Paul.  I would love to read such a book.

Do you know of one?

Philippians: The Hymn of Christ, Milton's Paradise Lost, the Valley of Humiliation, and Christmas' Immanuel

Bible in a Year Series - Day #351 -  This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.    

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Philippians

The pace in our chronological journey through the Bible seems almost disrespectful as we are seemingly scurrying through the New Testament.

I know.  I know.  This is at best a journey and not a prolonged visit.

As I contemplated what to speak of in these theologically rich four chapters, it seemed that what has been called "the hymn of Christ" possessed the greatest significance and is infinity worthy of our pondering.

The Hymn of Christ:

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:5-11)

To help in our understanding, and to provide a path for meditation, here is C.H. Spurgeon's Sermon on these verses called Download Our Lord in the Valley of Humiliation.

Equally meaningful are these words from Milton's Paradise Lost, after which William Blake created the watercolor above:

"So judg’d he Man, both Judge and Saviour sent,
And th’ instant stroke of Death denounc’t that day
Remov’d farr off; then pittying how they stood
Before him naked to the aire, that now
Must suffer change, disdain’d not to begin
Thenceforth the Form of servant to assume,
As when he wash’d his servants feet, so now
As Father of his Familie he clad
Thir nakedness with Skins of Beasts, or slain,
Or as the Snake with youthful Coate repaid;
And thought not much to cloath his Enemies;
Nor hee thir outward onely with Skins
Of Beasts, but inward nakedness, much more
Opprobrious, with his Robe of righteousness,
Arraying cover’d from his Fathers sight."

We are but six days from Christmas and a great deal of wonderful family gatherings will occur. 

But when we consider the infinite humiliation of Christ to take on flesh, and then to become the sin-bearer and die a shameful criminal's death, all to cover his own with his robe of righteouness, thus covering us from the Father's sight, how can we not be completely melted with the horror and equally mysterious beauty of this scene?

Who can understand this?  Who can take this in?

Ephesians: The Reconciliation of All Creation and the Creation of the Church

Bible in a Year Series - Day #350 -  This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.    

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Ephesians

The book of Ephesians brings us two significant understandings that were ushered into being with the coming of Messiah:

1. Through the substitutionary death of Messiah on the cross, Yahweh has provided a way of reconcilation to all who might place their faith in him.
2. Christ has united people of all nations to himself through the institution of the church, the body of Christ.

As you plumb the depths of these statements, there are great mysteries found.

Consider, for example, these five doctrinal statements found in this letter to the Ephesians:

1. All people are by nature spiritually dead, transgressors of God's law, and under the rule of Satan.
2. God predestined his elect to redemption and holiness in Christ according to the free counsel of his will.
3. God's rich mercy in Christ has saved sinners; this free gift is by grace through faith alone.
4. Christ's earthly work of redemption was part of his cosmic reconciliation and exaltation in this age and the next.
5. Christ's reconciliation entails uniting all people, whether Jew or Gentile, into his one body, the church, as a new creation.

These statements do not play so well in our post-modern, syncretic culture.

Try and tell one of your non-Christian friends that he/she is spiritually dead, a transgressor of God's holy laws, under the rule of Satan and that the only way out of this eternally condemned predicament is through the graceful election (choosing of God) of them and at the same time through their repentance and true faith in Christ.

Can you see why the world is so appauled at the message of the gospel?  These things are not easily digested and generally dismissed as the rumblings of a fool and bigot.

Nonetheless, there it is, and each of us must personally make a decision about these things.

Trust me, I have spent the better part of four years wrestling with these things.

But:

• I believe in a Creator, not a big bang and a random ordering of primordial cells.
• I believe that the Old Testament is a reliable document, faithfully preserved by our Jewish friends, and that the New Testament is a reliable recording of the Apostles teachings from the time of Messiah's coming.

These two facts alone cause a great many to stop in their tracks, let alone the great head scratching that will come if you can put these two things squarely in your belief system and start reading what the Bible has to say.

Furthermore, if you begin to take the teachings of the Bible seriously, your friends will begin to look at you as though you have been drinking a strange form of Kool-Aid.  Further still, some will tell you, as I have been told, "I don't want to hear about this stuff from you". 

And then, if all that weren't enough, people will begin to judge you by a general cultural layer of misconception and when you falter, as you certainly will, then you will be judged a hypocrite or one lacking real faith.

Isn't that all special?

The journey continues. 

Up next, Paul's letter to the Philippeans.

Colossians: Beware of Being Captive to Human Philosophies, Empty Deceit, and the Confusion of Demons

Bible in a Year Series - Day #349 -  This post is part of a year-long series where we are reading chronologically through the Bible.  Click here to learn more.  You are most welcome to join along at any time.    

Today's text from the ESV Study Bible: Colossians

It is generally believed that Paul wrote the letter to the Colossians while imprisoned in Rome around a.d. 62.

From the ESV Study Bible:

"The church at Colossae apparently got its start during Paul's three-year ministry in Ephesus (a.d. 52–55). During this time, a Colossian named Epaphras probably traveled to Ephesus and responded to Paul's proclamation of the gospel (see Acts 19:10). This new believer returned to his hometown and began sharing the good news of Christ, which resulted in the birth of the Colossian church (Col. 1:7). At the time of this writing, Epaphras is with Paul in Rome and has likely shared the bad news that there was a dangerous teaching threatening the church at Colossae (4:12). Paul writes this letter to respond to this situation and to encourage these believers in their growth toward Christian maturity."

Bible scholars are not in agreement over the specifics of this dangerous teaching afflicting the church at Colossae, but Paul makes it clear that we are to follow only Christ in whom the fullness of diety dwells:

"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily..." (Colossians 2:8-9a)

The "elemental spirits" refers to a persistent demonic influence to confuse and twist the truth of the gospel. 

The student of the Bible can easily find "truths" that conflict with the words of Christ and his apostles.  To protect ourselves from being "taken captive" by these human philosophies of deceit we must be diligent to study the Scriptures and stay plugged into the true body of Christ.

I can personally attest that a false philosophy is easily obtained if one isn't willing to invest time into reading the Scriptures and prayerfully seeking to understand its teaching.

This year-long journey of reading the Bible has been eye-opening and has also been a real wrestling match as my 54 year-old belief system has been constantly challenged.

Can I challenge you, dear reader, to make a committment to yourself and Christ to instill a daily discipline of study in God's word? 

Without a steady diet of God's word, then we too are subject to the false philosophies of "elemental spirits".