A Boomer in the Pew

If you Were Standing at the Edge of the Grand Canyon Today, What Would be Going Through Your Mind?

Bible in a Year Series - Day #120 - 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: Psalm 102-104.

I took this photograph of the Grand Canyon a few years ago.  When you stand before God's creation, what goes through your mind?

The Apostle Paul tells us in the first chapter of Romans that when we stand in such places our spirit knows that God exists.  That God put this recognition in the heart of every man, so that none might have an excuse for not knowing that He truly exists.

For those who are chosen of God, Psalm 104 would be a great Psalm to sing on the edge of the Grand Canyon as it recognizes God as creator, and God as sustainer of his creation.

Bless the Lord, O my soul!
O Lord my God, you are very great!
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,
covering yourself with light as with a garment,
stretching out the heavens like a tent.

What Will Your Epitaph Be?

Bible in a Year Series - Day #119 - 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 Chronicles 7-10.

In today's reading, we went through hundreds of names in the genealogy of Israel and her various tribes. 

I was, by the way, very impressed with the orators ability to pronounce all these names.  I was attempting to pronounce them as I was listening and failed horribly.

As the Chronicler continued to build his case for the reestablishment of the kingdom, he ended today's reading with this statement about King Saul:

"So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord, and also consulted a medium, seeking guidance. 14 He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse." (1 Chronicles 10:13-14)

I must confess, this isn't an epitaph I would want left to my memory. 

Which makes me think, what will people say of me 500 years from now, should the Lord tarry?  Better yet, what will the Lord say of my life?

Something to consider, isn't it?

Oh my Soul, Drink These Words of God and Have Nothing Before Him!

Bible in a Year Series - Day #118 - 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: Psalms 81,88, 92-93.

Do you believe that the Bible is the infallible, God-breathed word of God? 

I do.

As such, walk out to the end of this pier, sit down, close your eyes, and listen to God's words:

Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
 9 There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

11 “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
12 So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
13 Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
15 Those who hate the Lord would cringe toward him,
and their fate would last forever.
16 But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.” (Psalm 81:8-16)

If God literally spoke these words to you, would your life change?

I believe he just did.

Oh my soul, drink these words of God and have nothing before him!

The Core of Israel's Existence: Temple, Priest, and King

Bible in a Year Series - Day #117 - 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 Chronicles 6.

Today's reading, through the eyes of the Chronicler, takes us on an extensive genealogy of the Levites from the time of the exile clear back to Aaron.

We should remember that here we are viewing the coming Davidic monarchy many centuries later, and the Chronicler wants us to understand that the core of Israel's existence is three things:

• the temple
• the priest
• the king

As we consider the whole of the Scripture's testimony, is not this still the way in which God deals with his chosen? 

Priest and King have been fulfilled in Messiah, and the temple now resides in our hearts with the Holy Spirit taking residence.

I must confess, I can wrap my mind around the first two, but the "temple in my heart" part needs more study.  I am looking forward to learning more about this when we get to the New Covenant.

Did you Know That The Boomer in the Pew is also The Roaming Boomer?

Did you know that the Boomer in the Pew is also The Roaming Boomer?  Here is a sample video from our new travel adventure website.  Come join our adventures!  God has made a wonderful earth for us to explore.

You can also follow us on Twitter, or like us on Facebook.

The Untold Beauty of Nevertheless

Bible in a Year Series - Day #116 - 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: Psalms 73, 77-78.

Today, our chronological year-long reading of the Bible has us back in the Psalms.

In this Psalm, the singer is lamenting those who are swollen in pride at the hand of God's goodness, and is thankful that God has checked his attitude.

Regardless for the reason of our propensity to have a bad attitude about this, or that, I found the singer's ultimate realization a meaningful one:

I was brutish and ignorant;
I was like a beast toward you.

Nevertheless, I am continually with you;
you hold my right hand.
You guide me with your counsel,
and afterward you will receive me to glory.
Whom have I in heaven but you?
And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (Psalm 73:22-26)

How beautiful is this word:  nevertheless.  In this Psalm the singer was jealous of the rich, and had develop a bad attitude.  These attitudes, if we understand Scripture, are ultimately against God, a ploy of the evil one, and are harmful to our own souls.

Nevertheless, God doesn't let go, and helps us to realize that He is all we need. 

Oh my God, there is nothing on earth the I desire besides you!

Was it God who Stirred up the Monster Hitler?

Bible in a Year Series - Day #115 - 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 Chronicles 3-5.

Our chronological reading of the Bible has us again today in the book of 1st Chronicles.  As I mentioned in the last post on this book, the Chronicler is determined to get the destroyed kingdom of Israel to understand her place in God's plan, and to give them the courage to move forward.

A common complaint was:  "If David's kingdom was to live forever, why was Israel completely destroyed and exiled?"

The Chronicler desires to teach Israel about God's divine election, and that although there may only be a very small fragment of what was, there still exists God's sovereign thread.

What the Chronicler didn't know from his vantage point was that this genealogy would ultimately lead all the way to the Messiah, God's perfect King of Kings.

As I listened to this historical recounting, two things seemed to jump out to my understanding:

• there was Divine Election occurring throughout this whole process.  God has determined before creation how this was to all play out.  A complete mystery to our finite minds!
•  When bad things happened to Israel, God did it.  There was no happenstance.  For example, "So the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria".  As a result of this stirring, the Northern Kingdom ceased to exist.  It was God who destroyed Israel, not the imaginations of any mere mortal.

These realities are completely foreign to the post-modern mind.  If I were to go on the evening news and proclaim that it was God who "stirred up the spirit of Hitler", I would likely be tarred and feathered.  They would look at me as though I was deranged.  Yet, I didn't make this stuff up.  I am simply reading, and attempting to understand the words of this book.

The great problem is that a great percentage of the 90% of Americans who claim to believe in God have never read God's book.  Therefore, they dream up their own "realities" of God, and have never greatly wrestled with the actual words delivered to the prophets of old.

Crying for Light and Truth During Times of Trouble

Bible in a Year Series - Day #114 - 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: Psalms 43-45, 49, 84-85, 87.

There are some who seem to think that God is nothing but a large candy machine in the sky, and if we approach him, and merely pull the handles of his love, then we can enjoy "our best life now".

However, the one who seriously desires God's heart will quickly discern that God in fact often leads us through the valley of the shadow of death.

Can we not look at the life of Christ and have some understanding of this?

So how are we to understand the trials of this life? 

It seems to me that the serious student of the Bible will learn that God is absolutely sovereign.  Nothing happens, absolutely nothing, without his ordaining. 

This understanding comes with no small amount of wrestling.  This understanding means that God created, and ordained Hitler.  Don't believe me?  Then simply read the book of Judges.

Armed with this understanding, and occasionally finding ourselves under the thumb of God, we can then apply the lessons learned from Psalm 43:

• why have You rejected me God?  (what lesson do You desire that I learn?)
• send me Your light and truth.
• let Your light and truth bring me more understanding of You and Your ways so that I might enjoy, and praise You even more.
• Oh my soul, why are you now cast down?  With this new light and truth we now have hope.  Hope in God, our salvation and our God.

Oh my soul, find your exceeding joy in God!

Understanding David's Monarchy From the Chronicler's Point of View

Bible in a Year Series - Day #113 - 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 Chronicles 1-2.

Today, in our chronological reading of the Bible we suddenly find ourselves in the book of 1 Chronicles simultaneously while we are reading 2 Samuel, and a number of the Psalms.

This is because we are currently studying the monarchy of King David.

These books do not identify "the chronicler", but Jewish tradition assigns the authorship to Ezra.  These books were written after the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and provide to the Jewish people who will now rebuild the temple the critical remembrance of God's design for not only Jerusalem, but the temple as well.

To do so, the Chronicler starts with a genealogy that goes all the way back to Adam, and as perhaps the Bible's first theologian, is intent on reminding Israel where she came from, and pointing her back into God's good graces.

Here is an informative perspective on these books from The New Dictionary of Biblical Theology:

"The Chronicler’s interpretation of history highlights three areas where God’s activity was of special significance. Firstly, Israel’s history from beginning to end belongs in the context of God’s purposes for the whole world. The work accordingly traces Israel’s origins and those of the nations back to Adam (1 Chr. 1:1–54) and ends with a pagan emperor fulfilling prophecy by inviting the Jewish exiles to return to their Promised Land (2 Chr. 36:22–23). In the Chronicler’s post-exilic context where many Israelites believed that foreign empires had obliterated God’s purposes for them, this idea was a direct challenge to a narrow theology; God’s work is seen as part of a symbiotic relationship linking Israel with the rest of the world.
    Secondly, the Chronicler is especially concerned with the monarchy. This subject dominates the entire work, though the Chronicler concentrates on the United Monarchy under David and on Judah during the Divided Monarchy, emphasizing two contrasting influences. On the one hand, Saul’s kingship is removed because of his unfaithfulness to God and refusal to listen to God’s word, and Judah is finally sent into exile for the same reasons (1 Chr. 10:13–14; 2 Chr. 36:14–20). On the other, God turns Saul’s kingdom over to David and preserves his dynasty throughout the period because of his covenant promises (1 Chr. 17).
    Thirdly, the perspective on Israel’s past from which the Chronicler writes is that of the exile. Though the exile hung like a spectre over the whole of Israel’s history (1 Chr. 5:26; 2 Chr. 30:6–9), it also formed a bridge between the disasters of Israel’s past and their hopes for the future. Beyond the exile lay an opportunity to repopulate the Promised Land, to rebuild the temple, and to restore the worship of God (1 Chr. 9:2–34; 2 Chr. 36:23). The key to understanding the exile is found in the prophetic word. Although the exile had happened because the prophets’ warnings had been repeatedly rejected (2 Chr. 24:19; 36:15–16), prophecy was also the means by which God’s purposes were put into effect and could be renewed (2 Chr. 36:21–23)."

It will be interesting to view David's monarchy from so many different perspectives.

When we Understand who Yahweh is Then our Vocabulary Fails Greatly

Bible in a Year Series - Day #112 - 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: Psalms 6, 8-10, 14,16,19,21.

If our faith in God is completely in the creator of the universe, as he has disclosed himself to us in the Bible, and we understand fully what this means, then would not we stand mute before the glory of God?

I mean, what could we possibly say?

Here is Dr. John Piper's attempt:

"The psalm begins and ends with its main point. Verse 1: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” Verse 9: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth.” The two words for lord (O LORD, our Lord) are not the same in Hebrew. The first one, with all caps, is a translation of the name Yahweh—not a generic name for God, but the personal name of Israel’s God built on the statement in Exodus 3:14, “I am who I am.” God named himself Yahweh, that is, the absolutely existing one—the one who simply is, who did not come into being, and does not go out of being, and never changes in his being, because he is absolute being. He depends on nothing for his being and all else depends on him. 

This name is majestic in all the earth. “O Yahweh, our Lord, how majestic is your name—Yahweh, the absolutely existing one—in all the earth.” There is no place in all the earth where God is not Yahweh—where he is not the absolute one. Everywhere everything depends absolutely on him. He has no viable competitors anywhere. He is above all things everywhere. He sustains all things everywhere. He is the ground and goal of all things everywhere. He is greater and wiser and more beautiful and wonderful than everything everywhere. “O Yahweh, our Lord (our Master, our King, our Ruler), how majestic is your name in all the earth.” That’s the main point of the psalm. And the aim is that we stand in awe of him and worship."

Everywhere everything depends absolutely on him.

If that is true, and if you believe that to be true, then it seems to me that all we can do is silence our lips and ask the Holy Spirit to intercede with words, or ways of communication that we don't yet understand.

Dig deep dear reader!  There is nothing available to us but awe if we understand our majestic Yahweh.

If that doesn't make sense to you, keep digging. 

No wonder David said, "what is man that you are mindful of him?"