A Boomer in the Pew

Uncle Don Harper - our family's king of one-liners

This is my uncle Don, brother of my mother.  Uncle Don lives in Alaska, Michigan (suburb of Grand Rapids), and is perhaps the reigning king of our families one-liners.

I remember as a kid, at the Thanksgiving table, Uncle Don, and my brother Doug, would sit at the table and fire off one-liners left and right.  It was as though the two of them prepared for months for this annual dual. 

It brought me joy to watch their faces as they would smirk with glee at each barrage.  I can hear the laughter of my grandmother.

As you might expect, my Uncle Don has taken to spreading his love of rib-tickling to the Internet with his occasional e-mails. 

I received this from him today, and thought I would share it here.  Even though the Michigan economy is greatly struggling, my Uncle Don is able to poke you in the rib, and squeeze a laugh out of you.

Please continue to read, "Things in Michigan are so tough that...

My "Boomer in the Pew" Blog had visitors from 85 countries last month

I continue to be completely amazed at the reach of this blog.  I am currently doing a little study on my blog, and noticed some very interesting things:

• visitors came from 85 countries.
• someone in Qatar spent 21 minutes on my blog.
• 33 visits from the Philippines, with the average visit lasting 4:34 minutes, where US visits average only 1:11 minutes. 
• Yemen, Fiji, Ireland, Vietnam, Croatia, and Brazil are the next longest visitors.
• 23% of my visitors were returning visitors. 
• Firefox is the largest percentage of browsers at 45%.
• 43% of my visitors came via Google.
• 544 different pages were viewed 7,041 times
• between the blog, Facebook, Twitter, RSS Feeds, and e-mail readers, it seems that I have consistent exposure to around 800 people each day.

When I started this blog, I had no idea that I would have the ability to reach this many people all over the world.

Think about it, what if that person in Qatar found Christ on my blog?  I suppose I will never know, while on this earth.

But just think, what if, when I get to heaven, I have a great crowd who found their way through my witness, open heart, and love for Christ.

According to normal statistical curves, if I am faithful to this project, evidently I will have 6-10,000 readers each day, 6 years from now.

If I have any regrets, in my journey thus far, it is that my family/friends have been, for the most part, silent.  I suppose I understand this, to some extent.  Speaking, as I do, certainly puts one in the minority.  Furthermore, I am fairly confident that many don't quite know what to make of all this theology from me.

It's quite simple really, spend the untold hours that I have reading God's word, and being guided by history's most brilliant men, and your heart will be captured too.

My greatest challenge to all is this: 

If you believe in God, which most do, then grab your Bible and spend time in it each day.  You will not believe what you will find.  A great many things to wrestle with, but why not spend time with your Creator, and attempt to understand his mind, heart, and desires for your life?

Oh my soul, pay attention, and wait only on God!

"The Decent of the Spirit", 1865 engraving, by Gustave Dore'.

Andrew Murray's "Waiting on God" (Day #29) - For the Promise of the Father.

Acts 1:4-5 - And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

As I near the end of this study, Andrew Murray shakes my senses, and reminds me that God, through the Holy Spirit, dwells inside me.

Andrew Murray:

"The Holy Spirit is not a person distinct from the Father in the way two persons on earth are distinct.  The Father and the Spirit are never without or separate from each other;  the Father is always in the Spirit, the Spirit works nothing but as the Father works in Him.  Each moment the same Spirit that is in us, is in God too, and he who is most full of the Spirit will be the first to wait on God most earnestly, further to fulfill His promise, and still strengthen him mightily by His Spirit in the inner man.  The Spirit in us is not a power at our disposal.  Nor is the Spirit an independent power, acting apart from the Father and the Son.  The Spirit is the real, living presence and the power of the Father working in us, and therefore it is just he who knows that the spirit is in him, who will wait on the Father for the full revelation and experience of what the Spirit's indwelling is, for His increase and abounding more and more."

In my mind eye, I am ashamed to admit, I have been picturing God in heaven, and me down here, far away from Him, working my heart out to wait upon Him.

Yet, the Holy Spirit is God.  The Holy Spirit dwells in me.  Therefore, God dwells in me.  God is not far off, he dwells in me!

It is clear to me that a study in prayer is in order.  How could I go 28 days with this picture in my head?  Certainly I have prayed, but I have prayed to God who is out there.  Not to God who dwells in me.

Oh my soul, wait on God who dwells in you.  Hmm....how can you wait on someone who dwells in you?

Maybe, as we learned back a bit, it is God that is doing all the waiting.  Maybe, as we also learned back a bit, I have been so wrapped up in my own...what...self imposed misery, that I haven't paid attention to God who dwells in me?  Is that possible? 

There is a great deal to consider here. 

Holy Spirit, please be so present in me that I can no longer be away from your presence. 

Oh my soul, pay attention, and wait only on God!

Dear Burger King: I am appalled at your lack of judgment in this "blow job" advertisement

Dear Burger King,

I can't begin to describe how appalled I was to happen across this advertisement.  Your double entendre is childish, demeaning to women, vulgar, and a downright foolish thing for a company to do.

Is there no end to the lengths at which you will go to create some buzz? 

Sure, the marketing world is all abuzz about this advertisement.  Childish boys, all around the land, are giggling in amusement.

I, for one, am not amused.  This demonstrates a serious lack of judgment, an obvious moral decay at the top reaches of your organization, and sadly perhaps, a nation that has taught you that this is acceptable corporate behavior.

Well, my prayer will be that America slaps you profusely for this inane act. 

It is a big challenge for parents to rear their children right.  We certainly don't need you, Burger King, demonstrating such sophomoric behavior.

I will never again grace your doors, and support your enterprise. 

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.

Center for Arizona Policy - Senate Passes Abortion Bills - Call Governor Brewer Today

Phoenix, Arizona - this is just in from the Center for Arizona Policy:

June 23, 2009 

 

On Tuesday, the Arizona Senate passed two bills to clarify and update Arizona abortion laws:

1. HB 2564, the Abortion Consent Act, establishes informed consent procedures for women considering abortion, fixes problems in Arizona's parental consent law, and protects health care workers from being forced to participate in abortion against their moral and religious beliefs. It is the most significant pro-life legislation to pass in Arizona.
2. HB 2400 bans partial-birth abortions from being performed in Arizona. It mirrors the federal law, making sure that this horrific procedure will not be available in Arizona.

Governor Jan Brewer now must sign these bills for them to become law. Governor Brewer and her spokesman repeatedly have stated that Gov. Brewer is pro-life!

But Gov. Brewer needs to know that the pro-life community strongly supports these bills. She needs to hear from you today!

ACTION REQUESTED:

E-mail or call Governor Brewer's office TODAY, thank her for being pro-life and ask her politely to sign the two abortion bills. 

•  E-mail webform
•  Phone: (602) 542-4331 or (800) 253-0883  

Forward this e-mail to like-minded friends and family. (use the "Share This" button below)

Pray!

For more information on these two bills, including talking points, visit www.azpolicy.org

Please take action on this right now!

Waiting on God while waiting for His Son

Andrew Murray's "Waiting on God" (Day #28) - For the Coming of His Son.

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 - ...you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven...

It is so easy for us to be consumed, as we look for God, in what will be, rather than what is here before us.

Andrew Murray:  "It is always easier to be engaged with the religion of the past or the future than to be faithful in the religion of today.  As we look to what God has done in the past, or will do in time to come, the personal claim of present duty and present submission to His working may be escaped.  Waiting on God must ever lead to waiting for Christ as the glorious consummation of His work; and waiting for Christ must ever remind us of the duty of waiting upon God, as our only proof that the waiting for Christ is in spirit and truth.  There is such a danger of our being so occupied with the things that are coming more than with Him who is come; there is such scope in the study of coming events for imagination and reason and human ingenuity, that nothing but deeply humble waiting on God can save us from mistaking the interest and pleasure of intellectual study for the true love of Him and His appearing.  All you that say you wait for Christ's coming, be sure that you wait on God now."

Murray goes on to talk about a bride who is about to marry a king.  She so looks forward to what life will be like, to be married to a king, that she spends no time in the present being in love with the king.  Therefore, she becomes an unfit bride.

This behavior is so present in our natures.  We set our eyes on what life will be like when Christ comes, yet all the while He is here present with us now.

Father, please forgive me of this very transgression.  I too have my eyes set upon heaven, but daily am inclined to walk by your very presence. 

Oh my soul, diligently wait on God who is present now!

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!

Jeremiah Burroughs - The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (#2)

 This post is part of a collection of posts, and joined in on-line interaction with scores of others, in the reading of Jeremiah Burroughs' "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment".

Reading Jeremiah Burroughs, if the rest of the book is like the first chapter, will require the ability to hold your breath for long periods of time.

Many Christians, it seems, hop along God's word as a jet ski quickly runs across the top of the ocean.  Burroughs, however, invites us to take a deep, deep breath, and dive down into this thing called Christian Contentment.

In so doing, like the Japanese divers of pearls, we might find, with God's aid, this rare jewel of Christian contentment.

I have already found, as I have been diving down, that my lungs are not accustomed to this diving, and as I scurry to the surface for breath, I explode into the air with an urgent gasping.

Burroughs' first chapter is not unlike sitting on a boat being given diving lessons by the world's greatest pearl diver.  He describes for us where we are going, some of the dangers that lie below, and the techniques, or knowledge, that will keep us safe.

I must admit, I have learned of a shark, or two, in this first chapter, that brings me discomfort.

Here again, is Jeremiah Burroughs' definition of Christian Contentment:

"Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God's wise and fatherly disposal in every condition"

The definition is fairly easy to get my mind around.  Where I am likely to squirm is with the "freely submitting with delight" part.  

Burroughs teaches that with Christian contentment, it is not enough to freely go, and come under (submit) to God's sovereignty, but to do so with delight. 

What's the big deal you say? 

Well, what if God's sovereignty deals a period of discipline?  What if somehow, in this whole mysterious thing called sovereignty, perhaps even the rod of God's discipline, great disaster befalls you, like Job?  Could I, if my children were taken, all my wealth taken away, my property, and I was left penniless, freely submit with delight?

I gotta tell ya, this would be a great struggle!

Burroughs teaches that in such instances we are free to complain, or make appeal to God, but to freely submit with delight?

Friend, if taken seriously, and I am certain God desires that, this is no easy thing!

I remember Jonathan Edwards saying that there is no better place to be than submitted under the care of a perfectly good, and loving Sovereign.  I am certain that is true.  The problems is my faith, and the great amount of kicking, and screaming I am prone to do.

Oh...this is going to be quite the journey. 

Oh my soul, take a deep, deep breath, and learn to trust deeply in God's care for you!