A Boomer in the Pew

Please donate $10 to give the Phoenix, Arizona homeless life-giving water

I was saddened to read that a Phoenix area homeless man died yesterday simply from heat exhaustion.

Certainly, I don't know all the details, but one thing is for certain, I can send a little money to help buy some water for those in need.

Care to join me?

Here is the link to the Phoenix Rescue Mission. 

Even $10 is appreciated, and goes a long ways to buy water for the homeless.

Whether or not you are able to give, would you please pass this post around to your circle of influence? 

Matthew 25:35-40 - For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Shocking words, from the writer of Hebrews, to those who are "easy-believers"

ESV Study Bible Devotions

Sadly, the largest deterrence to Christianity is the behavior of a great many who call themselves Christians. 

It would seem that a great many have joined the club, got the membership card, and then have simply gone about living their lives, with their membership card safely tucked away in their wallets.

This "easy believism", or "cheap grace" as Bonhoeffer called it, is very unattractive, and understandably repulsive to an honest, thinking onlooker.

The simple truth of the matter is that Christianity is anything but easy.  As sincere person, reading the whole of the Bible, is going to struggle greatly as they attempt to wrap their minds around its teachings.

If you come at this with integrity, you are going to be constantly pressed upon all sides, as you begin to grapple with these words.  If you begin to understand what is being said here, you are going to ask yourself: can this be true?

If you have not wrestled in this way, if you, professing to be a Christian, have not even read the text, then is it possible that you are not actually a true Christian?

This morning, in my yearlong journey through my ESV Study Bible, I came upon the writers very stern warnings against apostasy.

First off, there is a verbal spanking for those who have been on a diet of spiritual milk all their lives (I used to be in that camp), and then there is a most disturbing interchange regarding those who merely have the membership card, followed up with a reminder of God's certain promise to the true heirs of Christ.

This section is very disturbing to read.  The honest, transparent, thinking person cannot read these words, and remain unmoved in the faith that they claim to possess.  It will shake you, challenge your beliefs, and force upon you, if taken seriously, integrity.

Furthermore, if more were to choose to strap on this difficult theology, is it not possible that intelligent, onlooking people might engage in the debate then be forced to gawk in disgust with those who cling to a cheap faith?

If you can read the words of Hebrews 5:11-6:12, and not be shaken, then you simply must question the sincerity of what you claim to believe.  Perhaps you are bringing shame to yourself, and the name of Christ because your so called faith is nothing but a membership in the Christian social club.

Tough words?  You bet, but I didn't write them.  But if we heed them, at least it shows integrity in our faith.

Phoenix Art Museum: Tony Foster, Searching for a Bigger Subject

"BS7 From Walapai Point looking East South East", 2004, by Tony Foster.

Today we ventured to the Phoenix Art Museum to see the Tony Foster:  Searching for a Bigger Subject exhibit.

Generally speaking, I am not a fan of watercolors as they tend to have muted colors.  But that is definitely not the case with Tony Foster. 

His paintings were alive with color, and because his medium is watercolor, there seemed to be a sort of deference to the majesty of the Grand Canyon.

As I stood in front of his creations, I felt as if each canvas were a blog post of sorts.  Besides the articulate capturing of the scene before him, Foster also includes a little story on the bottom of each painting, as well as a few artifacts, and even various colored soils, sorted in small vials, affixed to the painting.

Each painting was a story in paint, text, objects, and soil.

Tony also, in his texts, did a wonderful job bringing you into the scene as he describes encounters with rattlesnakes, tarantulas, birds pooping on his canvas, California condors peering down at him like he might be their next lunch, frigid 28 degree temperatures, passerby's bringing him cookies, sudden rainstorms threatening to ruin his paintings, and much more.

All in all, it was a wonderful escape into the mind of Tony Foster, replete with a view from his very own pupils.

We thoroughly enjoyed his work, and would recommend it highly.

Note:  click the photographs for a larger view.

Heard Museum North Scottsdale, A Summer Saturday Visit

This afternoon we made a visit to the Heard Museum North Scottsdale.

As is turns out, this museum is literally across the street from our community.

We started our visit with a wonderful lunch in their cafe', and then spent about an hour browsing in this satellite of the Heard Museum. 

Heard Museum North Scottsdale offers a wonderful cafe', a nicely appointed museum gift shop, a permanent collection of Native America artifacts, as well as special rotating exhibitions.

Currently their special exhibit is entitled Beyond Face Value.

Pictured above from left to right:

• a Navajo rug, by Sadie Begay.  I found the Christian influence interesting in this Noah's Ark scene.
• Cochiti Pottery
•  Rio Grande Madonna, by David P. Bradley, Chippewa, 1987.  David enjoys humorous, yet deeply symbolic take-offs of iconic archetypes, and then re-materializing them with his contemporary mixed-blood Indian perspective.

All in all, this was a wonderful little excursion, and a wonderful thing to do on a hot, 113 degree Saturday afternoon.

I recommend it highly.

Note:  click the photographs for much larger versions.

Ecclesiastes, Kohelet, King Solomon, and the Meaning of Life

The Personal Journal of Solomon:  The Secrets of Kohelet - A Commentary of Ecclesiastes for the Common Reader, by Dr. Darryl DelHousaye & Dr. Bobby Brewer

Chapter 1 - Who is Kohelet (Book Study Post #2)

"Omina Vanitas", 1848, by William Dyce

Men and women, throughout the ages, have asked of themselves the meaning of life.  There even exists a style of painting called "Vanitas" (vanity), generally seen with a human skull, as if to say, "we live, we die, what's the point?"

The Bible comes to us through three different types of writers:  priests, prophets, and sages.

DelHousaye:

"Sages were wise men who observed and examined life, and under the inspiration of God, would extrapolate what was called hokma, or wisdom, the skill of living."

He goes on to tell us that us that the Bible gives us 5 wisdom books, and that they are divided into Affirmative Wisdom (Psalms, Song of Songs, and Proverbs), and Acceptive Wisdom (Job and Kohelet, ie., Ecclesiastes). 

Affirmative wisdom is when one can begin to figure out and understand how God's world works and how you can become successful at living in it.  Where Acceptive wisdom recognizes the paradox of life, the tension of life.  "The fact is", says DelHousaye, "we cannot always figure it out and understand how God's world works.  At times it doesn't make a whole lot of sense!"

John Wesley: God's Three Greatest Punishments

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"

As I have been working my way through Jeremiah Burroughs' text, I happened across this from John Wesley:  "The three greatest punishments which God can afflict on sinners, in this world are:

1. To let loose their desires upon them.
2. To let them succeed in all they wish for.
3. To suffer them to continue many years in the quiet enjoyment thereof.

As I continue to wrestle with the concept of contentment, I am beginning to allow these precepts into my life.

It's not that success is evil in itself, it's that we have stamped in our natures, this propensity to begin to worship ourselves, when great success happens upon us.

When great success occasions our lives, we creatures think that we have no more use of God. 

This, as you can imagine, is subtle, yet greatly destructive, and the world is littered with the bones of many who have fallen because of such pride.

Therefore, will not God on occasion bring about a great financial recession to reign in the pride of his creation?

Ehud, Eglon the Moabite, the Mesha Stele, and the Bible's veracity

"The Mesha Stele", 11th Century BC, the Louvre.

ESV Study Bible

It appears that the book of Judges is going to be a 400 year, roller coaster ride of stunning victories, and humiliating defeats.

With the promised land in hand, the Israelites, just as we would likely do, began to be prideful in their spirits, and because they did not clean out the land, as instructed by God, further began to worship false gods.

In Judges 3:12-30, we find the Israelites captives again under King Eglon, the Moabite, for 18 years.  Evidently, this Eglon character was exceedingly fat, and we find a very gruesome account of Ehud running him through with his double edged sword.

The Christian testimony is unlike any for many reasons.  One of them is a consistent stream of archeological evidence.

The Mormon's, for example, have come under attack over the years, because in spite of the rich stories contained in the Book of Mormon, not one shred of archeological evidence has been found to support its authenticity.

Christianity, on the other hand, possesses a stunning archeological trail to lend veracity to the Sacred Text.

The Mesha Stele is one such example.  Although this object is from a latter period, than our current story of King Eglon, it "constitutes one of the most important direct accounts of the history of the world that is related in the Bible. The inscription pays tribute to the sovereign, celebrating his great building works and victories over the kingdom of Israel during the reign of Ahab, son of Omri. The mention of "Israel" is its earliest known written occurrence. Dhiban, ancient Dibon, where the stele was found, was the capital of this kingdom of Moab, located on the left bank of the Dead Sea."

Although it is folly to place our faith in these objects, it is fascinating to begin to bring the archeological story along side.  For the scoffer of Christianity, as Josh McDowell so rightly puts it, there is an astounding amount of evidence that demands a verdict. 

Furthermore, as the Scriptures teach us, we are all called to make a decision with regard to the veracity of the Bible.  To simply dismiss it's claims, with the starling amount of evidence, is well...most certainly foolhearty.

Wayne Grudem from the European Leadership Forum Conference in Eger, Hungary

A Russian woman holding her new ESV Study Bible.

From Wayne Grudem:

"I wanted to send you these photos of some of the people who received the ESV Study Bibles that you provided when we went to our European Leadership Forum conference in Eger, Hungary.

These people were just overwhelmingly happy with this gift.  All through the conference people kept coming up to me and asking that I thank my class for this wonderful gift. I am sure that these Bibles will continue to bear fruit in over forty countries for many years to come.

I just thought that you would appreciate seeing their faces as they received the Bibles."

Thanks Wayne, it does bring great joy!

Without thorns in our sides, we would likely worship ourselves

"The Queen of the Night Relief", Old Babylonian, 1800-1750 BC, From southern Iraq, (British Museum)

"The figure could be an aspect of the goddess Ishtar[Ashtoreth], Mesopotamian goddess of sexual love and war, or Ishtar's sister and rival, the goddess Ereshkigal who ruled over the Underworld, or the demoness Lilitu, known in the Bible as Lilith. The plaque probably stood in a shrine."

ESV Study Bible Devotions

Judges 2:1-3 - Now the angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, “I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? 3 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides,  and their gods shall be a snare to you.”

What a difference a few pages in my Bible has made.  Joshua has died, and already God is upset that the Israelites have not driven out all of the inhabitants, and as a result have fallen prey to worshiping their false gods, like Ashtoreth (sex goddess shown above).

It serves to teach us a lesson with respect to our natures.  A great many, in our post-modern times would believe that man is basically good.  However, the Scriptures teach us the complete opposite.

Here we see the Israelites, transformed from slaves in Egypt, to entering the promised land, and in less than a generation, they are lusting after foreign gods, and participating in evil idolatry.

I suppose we should understand that we are to be always on our guard, to fight against becoming the frog, slowly boiled to death in water.

As I reflect on this story, I am also reminded of how we might begin to understand contentment, in spite of the thorns in our sides.  If God didn't provide the thorns, we would likely, in our pride, also fall prey to the worship of all sorts of idols.

Therefore, if we believe in the sovereignty of God, we should look for, and find contentment, and even joy in our thorns. 

That is most contrary to our nature, isn't it?

Learning not to merely cut off the toes and thumbs of my inner Canaanites

"Cutting off the toes and thumbs of Adoni-Bezek", 1728 engraving, by Gerard Hoet.

ESV Study Bible Devotions

The transition from the book of Joshua, to the book of Judges already has me scratching my head.  The first obvious change is that there is no passing of leadership after Joshua's death.

Didn't Joshua have an apprentice, as he was to Moses?  I wonder why God, in his sovereignty, chose to leave all these people without a leader?

We see the various tribes going to battle with the Canaanites still in the region, but they did not completely rout them as God instructed.

This being the very wealthy end of the "Late Bronze Age", there would have been many temptations for the Israelites.

This from my ESV Study Bible notes:

"The major problem for Israel during the period of the judges was its penchant for turning away from the Lord and toward the gods of the Canaanites. What was it about Canaanite religion and culture that proved to be such an irresistible attraction? The land of Canaan was awe-inspiring to the Israelites, as can be seen in the story of the spies who reported on its wealth and strength (Numbers 13). To a recently freed slave people, accustomed to the hardships of life in the wilderness, the cosmopolitanism and material wealth of Late-Bronze-Age Canaan, with its large urban centers, could not have failed to impress. The Canaanites were clearly superior to the Israelites on many levels: art, literature, architecture, trade, political organization, and more. It is not difficult to see how the Israelites would have been tempted by the elaborate Canaanite religious system, which ostensibly supported—and even provided—all of this. One prominent feature of Canaanite religion was its highly sexualized orientation. The system of sacred prostitutes—“priestesses” of Baal—allowed people to combine sensual pleasures with worship of Baal. This undoubtedly was attractive to many Israelites (cf. the Israelites seduced by the Moabite women in Numbers 25)."

Evidently, the book of Judges is going to portray the downward spiral of Israel into apostasy.  Rather than completely routing the land, as instructed by God, they are going to permit various pockets of Canaanites to persist in the land, enslave some of them, and gradually, these seemingly wealthy, and perverse lands will begin to spread their cancer in God's people.

I think of my own life.  Where have I allowed the Canaanites to remain encamped?  Perhaps in my love for the world, my persistent temptations, my love of the Internet, my struggle to find contentment in Christ?

Oh my soul, seek to route every last morsel of worldliness in your life.