A Boomer in the Pew

A New Year Hymn and Prayer for Biblical Understanding

A great many people around the world have started a year-long journey through the Bible commencing on January 1st.

This year begins my own third journey through the Bible.

As I was doing a little study on a separate year-long journey through Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology, I happened upon this hymn that Wayne offered in his text regarding spiritual nourishment from God's word written by Mary A. Lathbury:

Break Thou the bread of life, dear Lord, to me,
As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea;
Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord;
My spirit pants for Thee, O living Word!

Bless Thou the truth, dear Lord, to me, to me,
As Thou didst bless the bread by Galilee;
Then shall all bondage cease, all fetters fall;
And I shall find my peace, my all in all.

Thou art the bread of life, O Lord, to me,
Thy holy Word the truth that saveth me;
Give me to eat and live with Thee above;
Teach me to love Thy truth, for Thou art love.

O send Thy Spirit, Lord, now unto me,
That He may touch my eyes, and make me see:
Show me the truth concealed within Thy Word,
And in Thy Book revealed I see the Lord.

I think this a worthy prayer for all of us as we begin to journey through God's word.  If you care to sing these words to God, you can find the tune here.

My Father: "Life's a Bitch and Then You Die"

I was reading in the Book of Job this morning:

"where then is my hope?" (Job 17:15a)

It is an absolute certainty that each of us, as we travel through life, will encounter suffering and death.

Each of us, with little effort, can call forth excruciating examples. 

In only takes moments for me to recall a dear loved one struggling with cancer and ultimately death, someone who is suffering with drug addiction and ends his life with suicide, someone who is completely lost in life and drowns their woes with alcohol, someone who precious daughter was killed in an automobile accident, quite a number of people whose life-savings were decimated in our current recession.

Consider this lithograph.  It depicts absolute and utter hopelessness, nakedness, and even a sense of trying to find protection from an unseen assailant.

Sure, all of us work hard to focus on the blessings around us.  Those of us who live in the United States enjoy unparalleled luxury and ease, as compared to many around the world.  We have nice houses, wonderful families, automobiles, flat screen televisions, and lots of stuff.

But, where does it all end? 

Naked and a return to dust is the final destiny for all of us.

You say, "No!  Stop talking about that!  That's so negative!"

Perhaps.  Nonetheless, your desire to turn the head doesn't make it less so. 

A great multitude would have us "live in the now".  Fine, wonderful, but your ultimate destiny is still the same.  Death!  The end of you.

My father, for better or worse, continually proclaimed:  "Life's a bitch and then you die".

If you are currently in the midst of heart-wrecking pain, or will take a few minutes to consider these words, and plumb the depth of its stark reality, you will find terror-stricken loneliness, pain, and hopelessness.

Hopelessness.  What an awful thing!

So, where then can we hope?  Is there anything, or anyone in which we can place our hope?  Is our life a meaningless existence and death?

We must all answer this question for ourselves. 

For me, I have surveyed the evidence and have concluded that God does exist.  Furthermore, looking at the testimony of a great many over the world's history, I have also concluded that this God, my creator, has communicated to me where hope can be found.

Did you get that?  Finding hope is a BIG, BIG deal.

I have placed my hope in the character of God.  I have chosen to believe, and place my faith in the fact that God is sovereign, that God is just, that God will vindicate me, and while still infinitely hard to completely believe, I have also placed my faith in what theologians call "that great hope":  life everlasting with God.

Dear reader, do you have hope?  Where do you find it?

Are You Possessed by Your Possessions?

My wife and I spent a good many years faithfully saving money from our successful business with the goal of early retirement at the age of 50.

In 2006, we acheived our big hairy audacious goal (BHAG) only to have our assets ravaged in the great market downturn of October 2008.

This website is actually one of the fruits of that disaster as I have been trying to mentally work my way through God's design in my broken plan.

On Sunday, Pastor Emeritus Dr. Darryl DelHousaye was speaking in our church (Scottsdale Bible Church), and asked a very pointed question:  Are you possessed by your possessions?

To be honest, I squirmed in my seat quite a bit.  For you see ... the honest answer is yes.

Having 45% of our assets destroyed in 2008, along with the loss of a monthly income stream, messed up my life and my plan in a big way.

Now, here in 2011, I am hunkered down and have my arms wrapped tightly around the remaining funds.  Please God, don't take this too!

Is it possible that I still haven't learned my lesson?  Sure, I no longer possess the massive pride I did.  But ... am I still placing my faith in my possessions?  Am I possessed by my possessions?  If I lost all of my possessions tomorrow, how would I handle that?

OUCH! 

Dr. DelHousaye reminds us over and over that there is nothing wrong with having a great amount of possessions.  In fact, it brings God joy to bless us and many times that is with possessions.

But, at the end of the day, who do these possessions belong to?  Will we be taking our possessions into our graves? 

I would greatly encourage you to watch Dr. Darryl DelHousaye's video from Sunday.  (Hint: start at 6 minutes)

I have some more work to do in this area, and I suspect that I am not alone.

How about you?  Are you too possessed by your possessions?

Paul Maier Argues: All Religions, except Christianity and Judaism, are the Figments of Someone's Imagination and Have no Basis in History

Today, in my second chronological journey through my ESV Study Bible, I have completed the narrative of earth's primeval history which starts with creation and ends with the patriarch Abram.

Abram hails from Ur of the Chaldeans. In the 1920s, the whole world watched with great excitement as archaeologist Leonard Wooley would spend the next twelve years unearthing this ancient city at Tell el-Muqayyar in modern Iraq. (Link to photographs and story of this dig from The British Museum)

As I was exploring the fascinating finds on this website, my mind drifted to atheist Richard Dawkins who would fashion Chrisitianity to be the wild fantasies of the mind.

Perhaps he is ignorant of the incredible arcaeological record that supports a belief in God and his recorded words in the Bible.

Just before Christmas, I was reading  In the Fullness of Time: A Historian Looks at Christmas, Easter, and the Early Church (affiliate link) by historian Paul Maier.  In his introduction, he makes the following statement:

"Of all religious beliefs in the world, past or present, none have more thoroughly based themselves on history than Judaism and Christianity.  The divine-human encounter in the biblical faiths always involves claims about real people, living in real places, who acted in real events of the past, many of which are also cited in secular ancient history. 

Because Judeo-Christianity has so thoroughly influenced Western culture, we are prone to imagine that all other world religions have similarly solid historical base.  This is by no means the case.  It can, in fact, be argued that every religious system before or since Judaism and Christianity has avoided any significant interaction with history, and instead has asked its followers to believe, by sheer faith alone, the claimed revelations of its founder(s).  This is true of the mythologies of yesterday and the cults of today, the religions of the East or the "New Age" of the West."

Did you get that? 

Maier argues that all religions, except Christianity and Judaism, are the figments of someone's imagination and have no basis in history.

Strong words?  You bet!

The Bible is loaded with very strong statements that will shock a serious student to the core.  The Bible maintains that the earth is ruled by Satan who has created false religions to decieve and keep a great many ignorant of the truth.

The simple fact is, if you look at the whole record of Christianity, combined with the incredible trail left behind in archaeology and history, then as Josh McDowell proclaims in his The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict (affiliate link), there is enough evidence to demand that you make a decision.

Dear reader, don't stick your head in the sand on this.  You do not want to find out that the claims of the Bible were true after you are dead and standing in front of God's White Throne of Judgment.

The ESV Study Bible is a Great Gift to the Body of Christ

I am in the second day of my third annual journey through the ESV Study Bible.

I have chosen once again to use a chronological reading plan as I found this to be less confusing and allowed for a greater focus on the content.

However, this year I will not be blogging each day about my journey as I did last year. 

Instead, I will continue my early rising to again journey through the Bible, but my concentrated blogging will be elsewhere.

Here is a link to my 2010 year-long series of posts reading through the ESV Study Bible.

Having now made my second journey through the ESV Study Bible, I am once again thunderstruck at what a great gift this is to the church.

To have the ESV translation (arguably one of the best), combined with the massive collection of study materials culled from the minds of the world's greatest living theologians is certainly God's providence.

Therefore, before I begin my third journey, I want to publicly thank those who followed God's calling to collaborate on this mammoth project:

• Thank you Lane T. Dennis, Executive Editor, Crossway Books & Bibles.
• Thank you Wayne Grudem, General Editor, Phoenix Seminary.
• Thank  you J. I. Packer, Theological Editor, Regent College.
• Thank you C. John Collins, Old Testament Editor, Covenant Theological Seminary.
• Thank you Thomas R. Schreiner, New Testament Editor, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
• Thank you Justin Taylor, Project Director and Managing Editor, Crossway Books and Bibles

And, last but certainly not least, thank you to the scores of theologians who contributed the study notes for each of the Bible's sixty-six books, as well as the vast collection of accompanying helpful articles.

Having the ESV Study Bible in my possession has greatly added to my understanding of God, his redemption story, and the great hope that awaits those who have placed their faith in the Savior Jesus Christ.

I am certain that a special reward awaits each of you for your faithfulness to the glory of God, and for the shepherding given to each reader of this great work.

Each of you has helped to provide me with a proper worldview, an understanding that my chief aim is to bring glory to God, and alongside the Holy Spirit have pointed me to the one source of true truth.

For this, I stand on my desk, clap my hands, and shout loud plaudits to you all!

 

Contemplating My Course of Study for 2011

I have been contemplating for some weeks the direction of my studies for 2011.

The first thing that comes to mind is perhaps to make an annual journey through the Bible a regular course of action. 

If I were to limit my study to a fairly simple read, rather than study and blogging, I think this behavior would take about 15 minutes/day.

Can't hurt to read the Bible every year for the rest of my life.  Right?

The two year-long studies that come to mind are:

1. Study one of the great cathecisms of the church.  I'm currently not sure which I would choose, but this might be a way to burn some of the Bible's core teachings into the brains cells.
2. Take a year-long journey through Dr. Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology.  If I remember correctly, his book has 52 chapters.  Plus, with him being a member of my local church, I have at my disposal years of audio lessons where he went through his book in a Sunday school class. 

Another objective for 2011 is to create more community on this website.  Blogging my way through the Bible in 2010 was quite a labor intensive project and left little room for community building.

Well, those are my current thoughts.  It's January 1st, I had better get a decision made.

What are you going to study in 2011?  Let's talk about it in the comments section.

The Boomer in the Pew Speaks out on the Immigration Crisis and Arizona's SB 1070

When you live in Arizona, you are forced to possess a different perspective, regarding SB 1070, than those who would scream from afar having no real stake in the game.

Further, with the intense emotion involved, it is very difficult to see clearly.

Further still, a great majority get their "truth" from the prevailing winds of society, and have done precious little to have a cogent argument of their own.

In the heat of a great amount of shouting, here comes Dr. James K. Hoffmeier (Professor of Old Testament & Near Eastern Arcaheology,Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), helping us to understand that these very same issues were found in the Old Testament:

"The national debate on the plight of illegal immigrants has been simmering for years. On April 24, 2010 a contentious bill (SB 1070) was signed into law in Arizona that permits state authorities to apprehend illegal immigrants. This bill, though not scheduled to take effect until July, has blown the lid off the pressure cooker, resulting in marches, boycotts and lawsuits. The burning issue is, what should be done with illegal immigrants (estimates vary from 12-20 million)?

Christian organizations, churches and individuals have been wresting with this question. Understandably, Evangelical Christians want to know if the Bible offers some guidance on the agonizing problems surrounding the debate. As a matter of fact the Old Testament has a lot to say about aliens or sojourners, after all Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were aliens or immigrants in Canaan, and the Children of Israel sojourned in Egypt for centuries. In order to come to an understanding of the relevant biblical terms, what they mean and how they might be applied to the current crisis, I carefully investigated the Scriptures, studying the Hebrew terms contextually. The results of my work was published by Crossway in a book The Immigration Crisis: Immigration, Immigrants and the Bible (2009).

For over thirty years I have been a professor of Old Testament, and have read through the Bible many, many times. Nevertheless, I was surprised by what I learned. Here I offer just two salient conclusions, but invite the readers to examine the book to follow the arguments and the data that lead to these observations.

First, the Hebrew word ger has been variously translated as “stranger” (KJV, NAS), “sojourner” (ESV, RSV), “alien” (NIV, NRSV), and even “foreigner” (TNIV, NLT). The latter is misleading and inaccurate as there are two other Hebrew terms that mean “foreigner,” namely zar and nekhar. From the Abraham and Isaac narratives in Genesis we learn that the Patriarchs had to negotiate treaties and agreements to sojourn in the territory of and obtain water rights from the local Canaanite and Philistine kings (cf. Gen. 20, 21 & 26). Pharaoh gave Joseph permission for his family to “sojourn” in Egypt (Gen. 45:17-18), and when the family arrived in Egypt the brothers asked Pharaoh for permission to “sojourn” in Egypt with their flocks (Gen. 47:5-6). From these and other references, I conclude that a ger was a foreigner who comes to live in another land with the permission of a host or the proper authority.

Second, the Old Testament law insists that once a foreigner attained ger status in Israel, he was to be treated like a native born Hebrew (Exod. 14:49; Lev. 18:26), enjoying legal protection, social benefits and religious inclusion. The Law, however, does not offer the same protections and benefits to the “foreigner” (nekhar and zar). For example, an Israelite was not allowed to charge interest to a ger, but could to a nekhar (Lev. 25:35-37; Deut. 15:3). Similarly, the ger could participate in Passover observances while the nekhar was prohibited (Exod. 12:43-49).

These distinctions demonstrate that the “foreigner” and the “alien” did not have the same standing in biblical law. Applying the foregoing observations to the current immigration dilemma, I propose a correlation between the ger of the OT and the legal immigrant today, and the “foreigner” and the illegal immigrant. In the current debate about the status of the illegal immigrants, some have cited OT passages about the ger arguing that illegal immigrants be treated accordingly. If my analysis is correct, this is a faulty application of these biblical laws to the illegal immigrant of today. On the other hand, the biblical laws urge us to help and incorporate foreigners who are legally among us, especially because they are easily exploited (Deut. 24:14-15)." (via Crossway Blog)

For decades, illegal (remember a key word in this debate is illegal) immigrants have been allowed to simply walk, tunnel, climb, or swim their way into Arizona with little repercussion.  Now, with Arizona's economy billions of dollars in the toilet, the staggering costs of a society harboring millions of illegal immigrants has become a great festering boil.

Complicating this matter immeasurably is the fact that many of these illegal immigrants have been living peacefully in Arizona for decades, and a societal fabric has been created around them.

Shame on those who didn't protect our borders many decades ago.  Shame on them for not greatly wrestling for a proper solution back then.  And shame on a long parade of other politicians who lacked the fortitude to resolve the issue.

For now, the problem is far more difficult, and involves the lives of many millions.  Further, as I understand it, those children born in the US of illegal immigrants are in fact now US citizens.  What a colossal mess!

The economic burden to support millions of illegal immigrants is categorically staggering.

A very difficult line must now be drawn in the desert sands.  This problem must be resolved, and unfortunately, thanks to the lack of "huevos" from our forefathers, it is now going to be most difficult.

Therefore, might I ask that we all take a deep breath, gird ourselves with love, and diligently work together for a workable solution?

All this grandstanding only pumps up, and leads us nowhere.

For now, let's first start with protecting our border, and stopping this immense daily flow of new illegal immigrants.  Secondly, if there exists a person that has just come across our borders, we certainly have the right to ask, and if they are in fact illegally here, send them back.  All this talk about profiling is doublespeak.

Further, if we find that someone is in fact profiling for discriminatory reasons, then we must come down hard on that person and make an example.  Further still, this law does not give legal officials the right to simply ask every dark skinned person for their papers.  They must have been caught doing something illegal, and then we can ask.  Seems simple, right?

So, all you who love to stir controversy, go back to the rock you crawled out from under, and let's hope that our federal government, our state government, and all of the citizens of the great State of Arizona can work to resolve this most difficult problem once and for all.

God loves Mexicans, and I have quite a number of Mexican, and Mexican American friends that I dearly love. 

This isn't about that. 

This is about societal order.  Don't get the two things confused.

Albert Mohler: The Shack Reveals a Disastrous Lack of Discernment in the Christian Community

Cowabunga!  I had no idea that this book has sold 10 million copies.

Frankly, it makes me very sad.

Let me just let Dr. Mohler explain:

"In evaluating the book, it must be kept in mind that The Shack is a work of fiction. But it is also a sustained theological argument, and this simply cannot be denied. Any number of notable novels and works of literature have contained aberrant theology, and even heresy. The crucial question is whether the aberrant doctrines are features of the story or the message of the work. When it comes to The Shack, the really troubling fact is that so many readers are drawn to the theological message of the book, and fail to see how it conflicts with the Bible at so many crucial points.

All this reveals a disastrous failure of evangelical discernment. It is hard not to conclude that theological discernment is now a lost art among American evangelicals -- and this loss can only lead to theological catastrophe."

As I see it, this book touches people on a deeply emotional level.  The problem is that the foundation upon which it stands is deeply errant.

When we allow our emotions to overpower our Christian discernment then we are certain to play into the hands of the Great Deceiver.

The universalism that is presented in this book stands squarely against the words of Messiah, and I am deeply troubled that 10 million people can't see that.

John Piper: Why do the Righteous Suffer - Book of Job

As we are coming to the end of the Book of Job, in our year-long study of the Bible, I thought it might be beneficial to call upon one of the big guns, in the world of theology, to help our understanding.

Here is a link to a recent video/audio series on Suffering, and the Book of Job.

Contemplating the Roman Catholic Rite of Confirmation and my Role as a Protestant Godfather

First of all, let me say that it is not my desire that this post turn into a theological diatribe between Protestants and Papists.

We can talk about such things another day.  Fair enough?

One of my best friends is a Roman Catholic.  He harbors deep distrust for the "organized church", but nonetheless has raised his beautiful children in the Roman Catholic Church.

When their first child was born, a most beautiful girl, we were asked to be her Godparents.

When I was asked what that meant, in the Roman Catholic tradition, I was told something to the effect that this tends to be an individual(s) chosen by the parents to take an interest in the child's upbringing and personal development.

I was certainly happy, and honored to step into that role.

Fast forward 14 years, and we now find our Goddaughter about to receive the Roman Catholic Church's rite of Confirmation.

Here is this from the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church:

"The sacraments of Christian initiation — Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist — lay the foundations of every Christian life. 'The sharing in the divine nature given to men through the grace of Christ bears a certain likeness to the origin, development, and nourishing of natural life. The faithful are born anew by Baptism, strengthened by the sacrament of Confirmation, and receive in the Eucharist the food of eternal life. By means of these sacraments of Christian initiation, they thus receive in increasing measure the treasures of the divine life and advance toward the perfection of charity.' (Catechism of the Catholic Church #1212)"

So, it seems the Roman Catholic believes that new life (regeneration) begins at Baptism.  Then, once the age of understanding is reached, the Confirmation (receiving the Holy Spirit) occurs to provide the strength to bear your witness, with the Eucharist being the weekly food of eternal life.

In preparation for this upcoming February event, we have been asked by our dear friends to write "an encouraging letter that our Goddaughter can open during her Confirmation Retreat".

I am most certainly going to do this.  What to write her?  This my current quandary.

I am currently leaning towards something to the effect:  be strong, the world will challenge your faith, your friends may desire to pull you down imprudent paths, and know that we are always here to help and guide. Above all, know God, and make your life's most important mission to get your name in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Thoughts?