greater glory

Llama In Need preached at my church Sunday. He may not be very active in the blogosphere, but he is and will be a person of great significance in the real, live, flesh-and-blood dimension. He is in seminary right now, and some blessed souls will one day call him Pastor.

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Our seminarian gave an exposition of Genesis 11 and 12, highlighting the contrast between the main people in each chapter. The Babylonians, who settled in Shinar, and attempted to build a tower that would reach to God were marked by pride and they were rebellious toward the Lord. Abraham is known as a man of faith and humility. The people of Babel disobeyed and said they would make a name for themselves. Abraham listened and obeyed, but it was God who told Abe that He (the Lord) would make Abraham's name great.

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Soapbox: Everybody has faith in one sense or another. The difference is were we place our faith. Is it in ourselves? In money or resources? When I talk about faith, I am really talking about foundationally placing our belief in the living God who is absolutely trustworthy.

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A question: Faith and humility. How does a person improve in either of these areas?

windmill

Last Sunday, I saw an illustration of what it means to be filled with the Spirit. First, you see a container being filled with water until it is running over. That seems wasteful. Next, they show a sailboat. As the wind fills the sails, the boat is enabled to glide swiftly through the water. The energy is not wasted. The boat is not without purpose. The illustration is helpful, I think.

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In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, by contrast, he calls drunkenness "dissipation" or "debauchery." (In other words, you end up with nothing to show for it.) "Instead," he says, "be filled with the Spirit..."

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I wanted to draw a little sailboat on my hand to remind myself to keep on being filled, but started thinking whether I should use pen or marker, then which color. What color should I pick, and how would I draw it, etc. Then, after lunch, I found this colorful little reminder. Thanks, Lord; I see it!

strong like sparrows

David asks: How strong is your faith? (Check his site for rules if you want to participate and be recognized.)

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•   I suppose I should begin by narrowing down a working definition of faith. For our this post's purposes, I am talking about those particular beliefs that compose the essential elements of a person's foundational motivation. I like to use the term Prime Motivator. As such, I would say we all have "faith" in something or someone, regardless of whether we call ourselves religious.

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•   Next, there is the object of my faith. God has never broken his word, or failed to do what he promised. He is all-powerful, all-knowing and never-changing. As foundations go, there is nothing more solid. There is enough credibility established by the things that he has done, that I do not feel the need to question the things pertaining to the future or things unseen.

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•   We might discern reliability for a field of science by the scientists established in that discipline, but the reference point for Christianity is Christ-himself, so I do not get bent out of shape when a so-called Christian is disgraced for personal reasons.

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Is that enough dancing around? Are you finally ready for my response? "Anemic" might be too strong a word, but my capacity for faith and the exercise thereof, definitely has room to grow. I worry about things that shouldn't trouble me. I'm not worried about whether I will go to heaven, but when it comes to the small stuff concerning God's provision or timing, I need this frequent reminder:

"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?" Matthew 6:26

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In other words, my faith is such that my knees wobble from time to time, but the ground upon which I stand is solid, despite my weakness. I rest assured, knowing that my faith is not based on what I can't do, but on what He has done.

His eye is on the sparrow, but I know he watches me.

harvest on hold

I had a story in mind that I wanted to tell you about Jesus' parable of the soils; sometimes it's called the parable of the sower. The problem is that yesterday I received a challenge to rethink the way I interpret it, so I have the picture ready to go, but the text got held up in editorial. Sorry.

out from ordinary

Mrs. Craver pointed out this bush, saying how pretty it looked, with the snow piled on some areas. It is in front of the house, and we see this plant all the time. I think it's a Juniper. It releases a subtle, but sweet fragrance when you brush up against it.

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More and more, I am learning to appreciate what goes into picture-taking. Boy, some people just seem to have an eye for it; don't they? I carry my camera with me all the time now, trying to stay alert, deliberately looking for contrast, light, angles, etc. I'm not seeing anything new, but I'm taking the time to observe, savoring these ordinary sights in a fresh way.

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"It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see."

-Henry David Thoreau

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Last year, I tried (and failed) reading through the whole Bible in the calendar year. This year, rather than try to do the same thing, I am going to switch things up and just try to be a more careful observer, taking my sweet time as I go.

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On the drive to work this morning, I enjoyed some memorization from Psalms. I repeated the verses aloud. Then I experimented, emphasizing different parts and using different tones of voice, trying to imagine what it might sound like coming from King David (if he could speak English).

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I don't expect to get through the whole Bible this year, but that's okay. I'll take my sweet time every day with God's word, burrowing deeper, and being careful to notice and savor it. There won't be anything new that I read, but I'll bet that I see some things in a different way!

small voices; big choices

The 4th and 5th graders are a fun group to teach. They are young enough to respect adults, and old enough to understand when I teach.

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A mother and her daughter approached me Sunday, after church with a concern about the day's lesson. The mom asked, "Are you saying that if God does not choose a person, that a person cannot be saved?"

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Here's the backdrop: Last week's memory verse was John 15:16, where Jesus tells his disciples, "You did not choose me, but I chose you..." And I began this day's class with a review and comments about last week's lesson.

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This is good though, and I am delighted about several things:

1. The child took the question to her parents. That is as it should be, because the parents are the ones who are ultimately responsible for the training of the children. It scares me to think what kind of things people are teaching our children, and much of it does not get to the parents' ears.
2. One of the parents spoke with me about it, thereby holding their daughter's teacher accountable, plus giving me an opportunity to discuss the doctrines of grace with them.
3. The other parent spoke with an elder/pastor. That is also a good move if someone has a theological question. Unfortunately, sometimes people forget to do the follow-up, or don't get around to it.

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Anyway, the little girl was nervously wondering, "What if God did not choose me?" What a great question!! I explained that someone who is not chosen by God probably wouldn't care about such a thing. The fact that she was concerned indicates to me that the Holy Spirit may be working on her heart.

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In the brief conversation that followed, I think I answered the question to the mom's satisfaction. I know that election is not always the most popular lesson, but the Bible teaches more than Noah's Ark and David & Goliath. So must I.

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The question now is, will there be an apple in the classroom next Sunday, or an empty chair?

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Related link: Frozen-Chosen at Voice of Vision.

Now, also at Blue Collar.

Pencil Sharpener closeup by Beernotbombs. Image found on Flickr.com.

going batty

I've been itching to put up a fresh post, but things have been kinda hectic lately. Plus, instead of clinging to my own roost here, I've been hanging out at Lorenzo the Llama's. There were some fascinating tangents going on related to bats and creation (a critique of literal interpretation of the Bible). The original post was about composting, and the comments section went past one-hundred. Congratulations, LtL! If anyone goes there from here, please be nice, regardless of your position on any of these matters.

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Anyway, I didn't mean to get hung-up on bats. Today, I want to talk about something else that's on the sonar. There are too many social networks that require membership. I do not want to create any more accounts. I cannot remember any more passwords. I do not have the time to make clever profiles with pictures in each. It's bringing me down because on the other side of those barriers are people. People that I want to know better and enjoy conversation with. I wish I had the time to explore each opportunity, but it is mathematically impossible to do that without dropping something else, and unless social networking becomes my full time job, I will have to use my wings and flee.

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Image by: banniya

happy new year

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If someone stopped you right now and asked, “ON AVERAGE, how often do you read your Bible?” How frequent would you LIKE your average to be? What about your immediate family? Your churchmates? Your denomination? Your country?

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I saw an old survey printed in the pages of Living By the Book by Hendricks & Hendricks. It gave some depressing statistics on Bible reading averages. Who is in the Book more frequently? Men or women? Baptists or Pentecostals? Etcetera, etcetera.

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Maybe those stats don’t amount to much more than a barking contest, but at the time, I considered what my honest answer would have to be, and I knew that it did not fairly represent what I say I believe about the Bible.

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I know one lady who reads through the Bible TWICE every year. As for me, I have gone cover-to-cover (in one year) only once. Shrugging off any past failures, I am committing to do a one-year Bible read-through in 2007. And I invite anyone else who is going to commit to do it to let me know, that we might encourage each other.

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Also, aside from homework or lesson preparation, how frequently are you doing personal Bible reading? That’s rhetorical; don’t answer me. I just want you to see if you’re satisfied with your commitment to the Word.

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In the final analysis, it is not going to impress God that I am in the Word every day, or whether I make a complete read-through in the calendar-year. What matters, is that God is speaking, so I will listen to Him!

cause & effect

She was visibly shocked and even irate that I should be so confident in my assertion that good works can’t earn favor with God. She’s a Jehovah’s Witness. My JW friend was nice enough to give the big guns a break last week and he brought a lady who I believe to be nothing more than an enthusiastic rookie. I hope she learned something. As for me, I’m glad for the break, because this gal wasn’t sly enough to keep changing topics and follow the cult’s script for how to proselytize without using common sense, logic, and a proper reading of the Scriptures. Unfortunately for her though, it seemed that she was deaf—spiritually deaf.

We are not saved by doing good works. Jesus did not only make it possible for salvation, but he paid the full price. Hence, the cry of tetelestai (It is finished!) from the cross. God sprinkles the blood of his own son on the altar to atone for our sins, and we defile the sacrifice when we add our imagined righteous deeds (filthy rags) to the table. It is not an improvement to dilute perfection!

“We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” Galatians 2:15-16 (ESV)

Can a caterpillar become a butterfly if it sips nectar and floats effortlessly in the air? No sir! That’s impossible. First comes the transformation into a butterfly, then the attributes of its new nature are inevitable.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2: 8-10 (ESV)

If we are saved, it is because God chose to save us, not because we pulled our own lifeless bodies up into the rescue boat. The Bible says that God caused us to be born again. And then He protects this hope. If it were up to us to protect it, we have reason to be uncertain and doubt our salvation, but if God is keeping guard over our salvation, we cannot lose it. Oh, good works follow salvation, but let’s not put the cart before the horse.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” 1 Peter 1:3-5 (ESV)

Do the saints ignore the words of the Law and deeds of compassion and righteousness? May it never be!! But are we saints because we do good works or do we do good works because God has transformed us into saints?