A Boomer in the Pew

William Ernest Henley's Invictus got it wrong, I am not the captain of my soul.

Photograph - William Ernest Henley, poet, (1849-1903)

Timothy McVeigh, the terrorist bomber of the Oklahoma City Federal Building, made no final remarks before he was executed for his horrible deeds.

However, he did leave behind, in his cell, the words of atheist William Ernest Henley's famous poem, "Invictus":

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

Here is a dramatic animation/reading of this poem.

I have seen this poem bantered about, in my many years of attending business conferences.  I can further profess that this poem has stirred many a great resolve, in business minds all across this land.

Further, I must profess, with my previous worldview, I too would have cheered the indomitable spirit that this poem seeks to praise, and promote.

But alas, I have been conquered.  I am not the master of my fate.  I am not the captain of my soul.

Hiding deep in the dark corners of my nature, lingers a small voice screaming, "You traitor! Are you nuts?  Have you gone off the deep end?  What do you mean you are not the master of your fate, and the captain of your soul?  YES, you are!"

"No", I say to this nagging voice, "I am dead to that thinking".  "Although culture everywhere around me holds this to be true, it is not."  "It is utterly impossible to read, and understand the Bible, and possess this view." 

Oh my soul, you are not the captain, you are the created, in service to the Creator.  To hold forth anything else is pride, arrogance, and an affront to holy God. 

Dear reader, I really am not crazy talking to myself in this manner.  I learned this from King David, in the Psalms.  He talked to, and instructed his soul all the time.  I figure that he, being God's "beloved", should serve as a role model.

So now, my inquiring minds asks, "What is to drive a man in the pursuit of business, if not to champion his fate?"

Answer?  Business....for the glory of God!  After all, according to the Bible, the end purpose of man is to glorify God. 

I must confess, I am not fully in custody of this credo.  But I am daily walking in its direction, and diligently seeking the wisdom of which the Bible speaks.

The hard part is that this is sheer nonsense to the natural mind, and frankly, I fear the dishonor of my friends.  However, I suppose my closest friends will understand my quest, and those who would intend to smear, were no friends at all.

Libertine - Liberty's Evil Twin Sister - Thoughts for the 4th of July

July 4th - America is a most blessed place to have been raised.  As I contemplate all the places in history, or all the places in the world to have been born, I marvel that I am here, and now.

July 4th is a day of celebration.  We celebrate the founding of our country, the Declaration of Independence, and words like freedom, the pursuit of happiness, self-government, self-determination, human rights, civil liberties, free will, and liberty.

These are wonderful things.  They are, and I am most pleased to live in a land where we can openly talk of such things.

However, I fear that a great deal of our inhabitants are actually under the spell of Libertine, and not Liberty.

Libertine is an unrepentant philanderer, a seductress, a playboy, a lecher, a womanizer, an adulterer, ladykiller, fornicator, Don Juan, Casanova, a debauchee.

Perhaps America is at a crossroad.  Will we be seduced by lady Libertine, and give away our precious liberties to this temptress?  Or, will we cherish our liberty, but again come to the realization that liberty is bought with individual responsibility.

Oh America, come to your senses.  We are in danger of destruction under the spell of the Libertine.  Seek wisdom, fight hard for what is right, love your neighbor as yourself, seek God with all your might, and pray that He, in His great mercy, might more fully shine the great light of His grace upon our land.

Proverbs 5:1-14

My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding,
 2 that you may keep discretion,
and your lips may guard knowledge.
 3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil,
 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
 5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to Sheol;
 6 she does not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.

 7 And now, O sons, listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
 8 Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house,
 9 lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless,
10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
11 and at the end of your life you groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 and you say, “How I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 I am at the brink of utter ruin
in the assembled congregation.”

So, let's eat our hot dogs, let us sing our songs, let's watch our parades, and let us celebrate the wonder that is America.  But let us also, individually purpose, from this day forward, to pay strict attention to our personal responsibilities, while enjoying our individual liberties.

Otherwise, at some distant dreaded day in the future, we might find ourselves under the rule of the Libertine.

Solomon as Kohelet explains the "Unhappy Business of God"

"Biblia Sacra #54 - Vanitas Vanitatum", 1969 Lithograph, by Salvadore Dali.

In this painting we find King Solomon, Kohelet (Sage, Preacher), bedecked in all his finery, pointing his finger to the sky.  This lithograph was created by Salvadore Dali in response to Solomon's proclamation that all is vanity.

ESV Study Bible Devotions

Ecclesiastes 1:12-18 - I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13 And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14 I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.

15 What is crooked cannot be made straight,
and what is lacking cannot be counted.

16 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” 17 And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.

18 For in much wisdom is much vexation,
and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.

Here are a few things that wise Solomon desires that we understand:

• Try as we may, the natural mind will never understand all the things of God.  God's mind is infinite, while our minds are clearly finite.  The difference between the two is incomprehensible.  Therefore, some things of God are simply going to be unknown to us, and must be labled as mystery.  Anything else is simply attempting to catch the wind in your hands.  Absolutely impossible.
• When you do apply all the wisdom you have, you will end at a mighty infinite chasm staring with sorrow, as you realize that the "unhappy business of God" is our eternal separation from God.  We are born fallen, dead, separate from God.  "What is crooked cannot be made straight".

The simple truth of the matter is that without acquiescence to Solomon's findings, we can never fully know God.  As long as we in our foolish pride strive to catch the wind, the end result will be madness, folly, and ultimately eternal separation from God.

For some unknowable reason, God has ordained that we endure hardships in our present fallen state.  Why did God ordain evil, pain, hardship?  We cannot search the depth of the infinite mind of God.  We simply are not completely told.

Thankfully, God has provided a way out of this eternal separation.  Although we endure pain, and suffering, here on earth, this is temporary, a vapor, a puff of smoke, in light of eternity.

From Jesus Christ, in Luke 19:10 - "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

God to Moses - "When you die, these people will whore after foreign gods"

The object to the right is an alabaster head found at the Great Eye Temple at Tell Brak.  It is from the third millennium BC, and believed to be one of the earliest pieces of human sculpture ever found.

Although experts are not certain whether this represents a god, goddess, or worshiper, it is clearly an object used in idol worship. (British Museum)

ESV Study Bible Devotional

Deuteronomy 31:16-18 - And the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. 17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods.

We have been standing with Moses at the River Jordan for many days, as Moses has been giving instruction to the Israelites, who are about to cross into the promised land.  God instructs Moses to bring Joshua to the Tent of Meeting where Joshua will be commissioned, as Moses is not to cross the Jordan and will soon die.

God appears before them as a pillar of cloud, tells Moses that he is about to die, but most sadly tells Moses that even though the Israelites are about to receive their inheritance, they will soon whore after foreign gods.

This must have broken the heart of Moses.  It broke mine.  It served to remind me how prone I am to wander to the things of this earth.  Today we whore after money, Internet, pornography, shopping, Hollywood idols, even our families.  There is no end to the things that we put before God.

Surely, that cursed apple from Eden stains us all.  We are all prone to wander, and leave the God we love.  It is in our natures.  We are all completely enslaved to this nature, and need divine help.  Without help, God must, and will turn his face from us, and we too will be devoured. 

We need...a Savior.  Oh how the history of the Old Testament shows us how we need a Savior.  I am only in Deuteronomy and the need is screaming at me.  Thank God for the cross.  Thank God for the sacrifice.  Thank God that he calls me among his elect. 

Friend (may I call you that?), it is impossible to read this holy text, and not have these understandings burned into your soul.  These words are God breathed, direct from the lips of the Holy Spirit.

You want understanding?  You want joy?  You want peace?  Read the Holy Scriptures.

When I started this blog, about 18 months ago, I confessed that I had only moved from mother's milk to oatmeal, in my spiritual diet.  I suspect that I have graduated to oatmeal with a few raisins, and almonds tossed in.

I am yet to fully possess this holy joy, and peace of which the Bible speaks.  I have had a taste here, and there.  But it seems that I have yet a great deal of wrestling to accomplish with my understandings, and worldview.  I continue on.  Care to join me?

Abba, although I wander daily, please chain me close to Thee!

Vanity of Vanities - Why are we here?

"Young Man holding a Skull", c 1626, by Frans Hals.

ESV Study Bible On-line Devotional

Ecclesiastes 1:1-3 - Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
 3 What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?

There exists a style of painting, made popular during the 17th century, called Vanitas.  The Vanitas style explores, in visual statements, the vanity of life. 

Here we see a young boy holding a skull.  We live, we die, and for what, the painting asks.

In Ecclesiastes, the word vanity is actually translated in the Hebrew as vapor.  Our lives are but a vapor.  Think about it, how well do you know your great-great-grandfather?  In three generations, most of us will have disappeared as though we never existed.

So...what is this about? 

Solomon is widely held as the wisest man that ever lived, and the richest man that ever lived.  Tell me, if you could read the life journal of such a man, would you read it? 

Ecclesiastes is just that!  Ecclesiastes is King Solomon's personal journal.  Here King Solomon looks at, and answers the question of all questions:  why are we here!' 

His answer will surprise some.

Does not America, and all of its inhabitants, stand with Moses at the Jordan?

ESV Study Bible Devotions

"...you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them."  (Deuteronomy 29:17)

What an incredible scene our God reminds us of in Deuteronomy 29.  Here we are, standing on the shores of the Jordan, about to cross into the promised land, and God, through Moses wants us to understand his heart, his intentions, his blessings for obedience, and his curse on those who are insubordinate.

Looking back on the last forty years of this journey are some unfathomable scenes.  Here we are to remember God's plagues toward Pharaoh, the crossing of the Red Sea, the giving of the 10 Commandments, and the law, the building of the Temple, God dwelling among his people, the manna from heaven, the foolishness of the golden calf, the earth swallowing up those who oppose him, many peoples worshiping false gods, peoples with perverse rituals involving killing their own children, and untold sexual perversions.

These people have seen, and witnessed incredible things.  And now, they stand at the shores of God's promised land.  Yet he holds them still for instruction.  He warns them of turning away, while they are living in his, about to come, incredible blessings.

Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, 19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ (Deuteronomy 18b-19)

Our nation, and the world for that matter, have perhaps reached the bottom of a most challenging period of financial calamity.  We have traveled through a period of time of great wealth, worshiping modern idols of money, sex, pornography, movie stars, and on, and on.

Are we not standing at our own Jordan?  Is not this country, and every inhabitant of the land called by God to pay attention, and heed his warnings, and look to his blessings?

Look at Deuteronomy 30: 1-10, and let us all purpose to give our whole heart, and our whole soul to God.  Let us turn from our wicked ways, and let's together cross the Jordan, and enter into God's delight:

“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. 8 And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. 9 The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul."

Oh my soul, love God with all your might!

Proverbs - Surely I am too stupid to be a man

In the proverbs we hear "If you are wise, you will heed my words".  But Proverbs 30 presents us with the complete opposite.  Agur desires that we understand who God is, and who we are in comparison.

To me, it is imperative that we get ourselves to nature to more fully understand.  The Scriptures tell us that God has revealed himself in creation.

I shot this photograph a few years ago, standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon.  When you are in the presence of this place, you are presented with immense awe.  It puts you in the right mind to read something like Proverbs 30:1-4:

The man declares, I am weary, O God;
I am weary, O God, and worn out.
 2 Surely I am too stupid to be a man.
I have not the understanding of a man.
 3 I have not learned wisdom,
nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.
 4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son's name?
Surely you know!

A Sticky Note from God

I was doing some serious whining to God, in my prayers today.  I mean serious:

"God, where are you?  Where is this strength to mount up with wings like eagles?  For three years, I have been quite literally wandering in the desert!  I am tired!  UNCLE!

Please understand, this was not a disrespectful prayer, but it was a prayer of exhaustion. 

I don't know if His thumb has been removed.  But I did receive the most wonderful "sticky note" from God today.

Not literally, of course!  But in a way most personal, and clear.

Thank you God!  I heard you!

Your son, David

Moses' Third Speech - Blessings and Curses from Gerizim and Ebal

Mts. Gerizim and Ebal from BiblePlaces.com

One of the things we must keep in mind, as we read the Scriptures, is that it is deeply rooted in actual geography.

Today I am reading Moses' third speech, as the Israelites prepare to cross the Jordan, into the promised land.

God instructed that as the people eventually moved through, into the land, that blessings be shouted from Mt. Gerizim, and curses shouted from Ebal.

What excitement there must have been in God's people on these days of waiting at the Jordan.  I feel a sense of excitement myself, as I listen to God's instruction, and anticipate what might be coming next.

Looking back on this scene, now perhaps 4,000 years later, it strikes me how blind the people were to the actual plans of God.  Little did they know that the law was given to show their complete, and categorical need of a Savior.  Little did they know that they would blow it, and be removed from this promised land, and many times throughout history, be scattered as a nation.

So too, we must understand the same in our lives.  God is a Sovereign God, and in his infinite ways he has made plans.  Plans of which we are unawares. 

Therefore, in our going out, and in our coming in, in our labor, and in our leisure, we too must daily be reminded that God is, God reigns, and we do well to trust, and obey.

Contemplating God's Instruction and Discipline

This morning, as I continue my journey to read through the whole of my ESV Study Bible, I was thinking back on the scene where Christ calls Simon (Peter) to follow him, to become "fishers of men".

The scene presented in Matthew is not Peter's first encounter with Messiah.  Evidently, it was about a year earlier that Peter's brother Andrew came running down the beach, "Simon, Simon, I have seen the Messiah!"

For hundreds of years, God had remained silent in his relationship with Israel.  And for hundreds of years, the remnant mourned, wailed, and cried to God to shine his face once again upon them.

And here is Simon, fishing in his boat, when God (let that sink in) walks up to Simon and calls him into his employ.

I wonder, what must have Peter have seen, as God walked the planet for the past year.  Can you imagine? 

Those men had no idea what was about to transpire, in their lives, in the next 3-5 years.  Their whole paradigm would be absolutely shattered.  Messiah come to conquer, but not in the slightest way imagined.

I too have found Messiah. He has captured my heart, and at the moment I appear to be in the period of instruction, fellowship, and growth in a proper relationship as his son.

I must confess, I have done a bit of squealing.  Coming under that Lordship of a Sovereign King, yet loving Father, is not an easy transition for such an independent, and proud one, such as I.

When Jesus knocked Paul of his horse, I wonder what transpired in his life, over the next three years as he submitted, and learned.

I find myself whining a lot, "God, I didn't get to actually see you, like Peter.  It is far more difficult for me to possess this type of faith.  Besides that, you seem to run me through these periods of silence, even though daily, I work to be constrained to thee!"

I find myself whining in this way, less, and less.  Slowly, but surely, as I continue to pursue Him, I am learning.  I can see light at the end of this tunnel.  Clearly I can see the reason for the season of discipline, and instruction.

And you know what, in spite of all the calamity, I am now disposed to be immensely thankful that He cared enough to keep me in the palm of his hand, and apply just the right amount of pressure to snap me out of my prideful, idolatrous path.

I look forward to the day, when the message is clear, "David, go, feed my sheep."  Don't get me wrong, we are all called to do that, and I am doing that, but I look forward to doing it in a way that is clearly, without question, wonderfully anointed of God, and blasting Him glory, boatloads of glory, with every breath that I take.

Oh my soul, wait only upon God!