Mark Byron

Grace Drive?

I was driving in town a bit north of our apartment, and noted a sidestreet named Grace Drive. I thought to myself that that is a theological misnomer, since we can't drive towards grace. Grace is given by God, not earned; if we earned it, it wouldn't be that unmerited favor that defines the term grace.

Can we drive towards sanctification? Yes, to an extent, but we'll never fully get there in this life. However, grace is something that only God can grant; it is so far away from our earthly selves that any drive towards it will come up short.

"Let his blood be on us."

It's Good Friday morning as I hang out at my Plus Friday classroom. I was looking at the Holy Week passages in Matthew and this part of chapter 27 (NIV) stood out-

²⁴When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!"

²⁵All the people answered, "Let his blood be on us and on our children!"

They were right in more ways that one. The more literal version of that was applied by a number of churchmen over the years to blame the Jews of their day for Jesus' death.

However, in a spiritual since, Jesus' blood is on all those folks and their descendants, cleansing their sins, not marking their actions. That is what the day means, that Jesus became the sacrifice to end all sacrifices, that His blood paid our debts.

That's why it's Good Friday.

Edifier du Jour-Malachi 3:1-4(NIV)

¹ "See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty.

² But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. ³ He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, ⁴ and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years.

I was thinking about the refiner's fire here in verse 2 and thinking of the two meanings of the word forge. There is the non-pejorative sense of creating something via a fire-melting process and there's the pejorative sense of creating a fake.

God wants to forge us into something useful for His kingdom, but we often want to forge ourselves, giving us a Christianized veneer without changing our core nature. Going through a full-scale forging will require a melt-down, both figuratively and literally.

Malachi ask "Who can stand when he appears?" Not the people who want sanctification on the cheap.

It's Not About Us

I was moved by newly widowed Amy Welborn's post here.

Imagine my surprise as I prayed over the past week - prayed the Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rosary - imagine my surprise when the words of the prayers did not include ...[various prayers that would bring her dead husband back]...

I didn’t hear or read any of that, anywhere.

Instead it was all about God.

God here, God there. Thirsting for God’s presence, for God’s love and justice. Rejoicing, even. Rejoicing in the Word made flesh, embracing the cross. Mercy was sought. Mercy was begged for. Peace. Refuge from enemies. Eyes looking forward, hearts aching, spirits racing for God.

I plead guilty of having far too much of a temporal focus, on being a good teacher and a good husband to focus on loving and serving God. Even when I'm doing something churchy, like looking after the two-year-olds during church or studying the lives of the apostles as part of our Sunday School class, there's not the awe and wonder and joy of serving and experiencing God that I've had in the past.

Part of it might be some emotional-related stuff; I might be a bit numb from some of the struggles I've been through in the last few years. Part of it might be not quite figuring out a routine when on an all-night-school schedule and having days that go 2-10 rather than 9-5. Whatever the excuses, experiencing God and his Word has gotten out of my loop.

The line "...it was all about God" resonated. I'm not into Catholic prayer infrastructure, so Rick Warren's line "It's not about you" is what comes to mind. I'm focusing on shopping, cooking, paying bills and running herd over four classes and three independent studies and not focusing on the One who put me here.

I'm not sure of the best way forward to redevelop a spiritual routine without it becoming routine, but pray for me to find it.

Crack-ers

I had an interesting moment last Sunday during communion. We were getting the standard type of communion practiced in most of the churches I've been in, where small plastic cups of grape juice and a mini oyster cracker is the bread and wine stand in. Unlike the flat wafers that are Catholic norm, these crackers were rounded and hollow.

Somehow, my cracker got cracked, as one side of the cracker imploded, leaving my hand holding a lot of crumbs from the demolished side of the cracker while the ushers finished up passing out the "elements."

However, as we got to the partaking part, the stock lines of invitation from 1 Corinthians 11 came up "Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you." It sure was broken.

That connected that cracker to Golgotha in a way I can't recall connecting to Jesus' sacfifice during communion before, having His body trashed on a pair of crossed planks to appease a Judean mob.

Git 'r Done, Disciple-Style

Today's sermon sort of meshed with my lecture to my MGT 499 class on Wednesday. Pastor David focused on the Great Commission's call to create disciples. We're not called to have great music, wonderful Sunday School classes and great youth programs, we're called to make disciples. Those other things are only nice if and only if they contribute to making disciples.

That reminded me of my MGT 499, which noted that the first job of a manager was to "make things happen," which I revamped a bit to include the motto of one Lawrence the Telecommunications Technician:

1: Git’ R Done! (a.k.a. Making Things Happen)

Meeting and organization are nice, but the first goal is to get things done that advance the goals of the business. The book mentions a case at Gateway, where the new CEO was too busy organizing the firm like a conventional business that they got in the way of making good computers and getting them to customers.

Another historical example comes from the Civil War, where early Union general George McClellan was big on training; his Wikipedia states that-“although McClellan was meticulous in his planning and preparations, these attributes may have hampered his ability to challenge aggressive opponents in a fast-moving battlefield environment.” His indecisiveness lead President Lincoln to rant "If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time."

That’s not to say that a manger should ignore planning altogether, but any planning and management should add to the ability to do the business’ job, and not see meetings be where “minutes are taken and hours are stolen.”

Pastor David even moved into that vibe, mentioning a letter from Starbucks' CEO (I think I have the same one he cited) of trying to move the company back to its funkier, more human past and away from trends towards making the stores more efficient but also more antiseptic.

How then do we best git disciple-making done? For instance, does Sunday School help? I'm now helping Eileen run herd over the two-year-olds at church. Did any of the five rug rats take anything away from the story of Daniel and the veggie diet? I don't know, but it's hopefully a start towards a good knowledge of Scripture that can firm up their faith in the years to come. Even if that wasn't much help, freeing up their parents to go to class themselves, which should help their discipleship.

If stuff doesn't add to making disciples, think about giving it the heave-ho. Easier said than done, though, since a lot of traditions (or new innovations of the month) are hard to ditch.

Edifier du Jour:Psalm 44:23-26(NIV)

²³ Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever.

²⁴ Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?

²⁵ We are brought down to the dust; our bodies cling to the ground.

²⁶ Rise up and help us; redeem us because of your unfailing love.

News flash-God doesn't sleep or if He does, He puts the Universe on pause until he gets back. Some prayers are answered "no" or "not yet."

When you're going through a tough stretch, it's often hard to feel that "unfailing love" that the psalmist references. It's easy to question how unfailing that love is, since there are some areas that you'd like to see some success in that isn't happening at present.

Make that "I'd like to see." I've had a rough year or so and need to work at drawing closer to God; sometimes, it's not God hiding His face, but me hiding mine. That's not good.

I'm going to try to bring the Edifiers back to a daily feature. There are times where my confidence is shaky and I don't want to put stuff to print, but one way to get that confidence back is to express myself anyway, even if I'm not sure about how valid it is. It's seemed to be valid to a lot of folks over the years, and I need to remember that without getting cocky.

 

Lucky or Blessed?

I saw this MSNBC piece on alien life back during fall term, but the series got fubared when I went back to it the next day; I don't read MSNBC much at home, but since the Sullivan U computers come with IE and generic pre-set bookmarks, MSN and MSNBC is the default news site if I don't want to call up my Firefox bookmarks from my flash drive.

I came back to it yesterday, and the series is back working again. SETI's Seth Shostak is the main speaker in the piece. Here's my money graph-

Shostak notes that there is no direct proof for any life beyond Earth, but the universe is home to a lot of stars. And as research over the past decade has shown, perhaps at least 50 percent of those stars harbor planets. Shostak estimates there are 1 trillion planets in the Milky Way alone. "Surely some of them have undergone what Earth has undergone and developed life, and eventually what we call sentient life," he says. The argument, he notes, is simply one of probability. "If we are the only intelligent beings in the galaxy, or for that matter in the universe, then we are truly a miracle," he says.

You've got that right, Dr. Shostak. Yeah, but it's from that dreaded diploma mill called Cal Tech ;-). I think the guy knows his stuff.

However, we've got one data point for life in the universe, and it's here. Lots of possible candidates, but only one proven to this point.

Given the size of the universe, we can't be that lucky. Either life should be relatively bountiful or something other than random chemical processes got us here.

Something like an intelligent designer, maybe? A Guy who's in the miracle business.

That's not to say that there may not be life elsewhere. Most of the Peanut Gallery can recite Genesis 1:1 from memory-"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Even the non-church goers in the crowd would have that down, especially after we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 8 reading of Genesis from lunar orbit last week. Genesis goes into detail on what happened on the Earth, but nada about the heavens.

SETI scientists hope to find other life in the universe. Others of us are also interested in eternal life and some of those miracles, the biggest coming back in Bethlehem and Golgotha about 2000 years ago.

Edifier du Jour-Job 40:6-14(NIV)

⁶ Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm:

⁷ "Brace yourself like a man;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.

⁸ "Would you discredit my justice?
Would you condemn me to justify yourself?

⁹ Do you have an arm like God's,
and can your voice thunder like his?

¹⁰ Then adorn yourself with glory and splendor,
and clothe yourself in honor and majesty.

¹¹ Unleash the fury of your wrath,
look at every proud man and bring him low,

¹² look at every proud man and humble him,
crush the wicked where they stand.

¹³ Bury them all in the dust together;
shroud their faces in the grave.

¹⁴ Then I myself will admit to you
that your own right hand can save you.

That's a harsh indictment, but it's true. It rings especially true as we approach Christmas and remember why Jesus needed to come in human form, to provide that salvation that we lack in our own strength.

I'm reminded of the denouement of Ghostbusters, where the guys are asked "Are you a god?" At least the guy had the common sense to say "No." Powerpacks were enough to do in a demonic Stay-Puft marshmallow man in that story, but you need a Savior to protect your spirit in real life.

Not only are we not gods (except metaphorically in at least one passage), we definitely aren't God. Saving ourselves is below our pay grade.

Edifier du Jour: John 11:38-43(NIV)

³⁸Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. ³⁹"Take away the stone," he said. "But, Lord," said Martha, the sister of the dead man, "by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days."

⁴⁰Then Jesus said, "Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"

⁴¹So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. ⁴²I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

⁴³When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out!" ⁴⁴The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

The sermon we got this morning at NE Houston Baptist was a bit odd, for the story of Lazarus was the focal point on this Sunday before Christmas. However, it isn't that odd when you reflect on why Jesus came to Earth in human form; to be the sacrifice to end them all and to beat Death at his own game.

Not everyone's going to get a Lazarus experience and be raised from the dead, although you do get reports of such miracles from time to time, some of them legit. It will not be something that mere mortals can do on their own. We can have better and better ways to treat the damaged and dying, like this new method of saving lungs for transplant longer, allowing more of them to be used.

However, if someone is dead, especially for any significant length of time, they're gone barring a miracle. That's why the four days was important; after three days, any hope of the death merely being a coma or bad faint was gone and the soul was deemed to have left the building.

It's ironic that we had this sermon today; last night, as I was wondering through a gas station in East Texas waiting for Eileen to make her bladder gladder, I spotted this "Screaming Meanie" alarm, "loud enough to wake the dead" as the blurb on the box says.

Nice try. I don't think Jesus needed 110dB to get Lazarus going, just the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus needed that power to raise the physically dead, and applies that power to all who believe to break through our sinful nature and draw us to Him.

That's what He came for, to give the spiritually dead new life in Him, and occasionally bring the physically dead back to show His power over the Universe.

Edifier du Jour- Galatians 4:17-18(NIV)

¹⁷Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. ¹⁸It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you.

A couple things struck me as I read this passage. The first one reminded me of so many Christian rallies and revivals where people get pumped up to reach the lost or to rededicate themselves, then never take that energy out into the real world. They acquire the fire over the weekend, but then sell it back to the world sometime on Monday afternoon.

Paul is saying something to the effect of "If you're going to get pumped up, stay that way and not just put on a show of devoutness when I'm around."

The second part that hit me is the idea that being zealous is good only if applied to a good purpose. There are a lot of things that we're zealous about that aren't all that good, like our favorite sports team or favorite politician or least favorite politician. However, if the things were zealous for are detracting from God's kingdom, they're not things we needed to be juiced about.

Edifier du Jour-Romans 13:1-7(NIV)

¹Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. ²Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. ³For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. ⁴For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. ⁵Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. ⁶This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. ⁷Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

That was one of the passages that Pastor David went over this morning, which didn't sit too well with certain people in my Sunday School class afterward. They understood the truth of that, as well as the need to pray for those in leadership; Jeremiah 29:7 was also quoted-"[S]eek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper."

Quite a few folks there are old-school cradle conservatives who look at Obama as a possible real-life Nicolae Carpathia. A lot of conservative bloggers might not go quite that far, but cracks about Senator Infanticide come close. Dave mentioned in the sermon, without mentioning Obama by name, that such a vitriolic level of hatred will make it hard to pray for those folks if and when they get elected.

I recall my solidly Keynesian liberal Intermediate Macro prof at CMU in January 1981, just as Reagan was taking office. When a student ask whether he thought Reaganomics would work, he said that he hoped so, for that's what we were getting.

I don't recall if he was a praying man or not, but we could take a page from that econ prof's book. If the "bad guys" get elected a week from Tuesday, we need to pray for God to guide them and their appointees to run the country well and that their policies work. If they put forward a program, pray that it work well unless it's something clearly demonic (and that doesn't include government-run health care or ramped-up college aid, you in the back right of the Peanut Gallery).

Praying for someone to keel over or to become a bumbling idiot doesn't count, either. Note the prayer of Jeremiah, that good come to where we live, even if the leaders aren't the ones we chose.

That also applies to the left wing of the Peanut Gallery too. If McCain manages to squeak one out next week, he'll need all the help he can get; he's far from the devil incarnate, even from a liberal vantage point, and will be far better than the caracature that is presented as of late. Bene, that means praying for Harper even when (especially when) he starts to go either neocon or theocon on you. Richard, that means cutting both Brown and Cameron some slack when they are navagating to your right and praying for them to do a good job despite their shortcomings.

For me, that means giving grace and extending prayer to folks like Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi as they lead Congress and standing ready to give the same courtesy to a President Obama if and when that happens. I don't agree with them on most issues of contention, but they're in (or may be in) charge, and deserve our respect and our prayers.

Edifier du Jour-Galatians 4:21-26(NIV)

²¹Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? ²²For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. ²³His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

²⁴These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. ²⁵Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. ²⁶But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.

That's some interesting imagery, one that I will admit to not being used to. Maybe my mind would go on autopilot before the Fruit of the Spirit passage in chapter 5 to notice, but I don't recall digesting this passage before.

We're used to fatherly imagery in Scripture, but motherly? Catholics may be more used to it with a Mother Church meme, but it's not an image I'm use to seeing in evangelical quarters.

Could we use a motherland metaphor to make it easier? If we wanted to savage our exegesis, possibly, but that seems to do Paul a disservice.

People go home to Mom and Dad, not Dad and Mom. When football players mug for the camera on the sidelines, they say hi to Mom, not Dad.

It is that attachment to mothers that Paul is shooting for. Our first allegiance is a heavenly one, as he makes the New Jerusalem that awaits into our unshackled mama.

Given that most of us didn't have dads with mistresses, it's harder to make the metaphor of Hagar apply personally. The things of this world is the concubine that dad doesn't want to talk about in polite company and your half-brother who is a bad influence that Mom warns you away from. That is a post in itself with plenty to think about.

However, thinking of heaven as Mom's house might make it a bit less intimidating. I'm still wrapping my mind around that.

Edifier du Jour:Galatians 3:1-5(NIV)

¹You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. ²I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? ³Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? ⁴Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? ⁵Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

I've been used to doing more church-related stuff than I'm doing at present. Our church doesn't have any small groups other than our Sunday School class (a.k.a. Life Groups in Victoryese) and I've had Wednesday night classes to teach at Sullivan for the last two terms; I'll have Wednesday's off next quarter, thankfully.

That makes me feel more than a bit like a stealth congregant compared to where I've been in years past, especially compared to Eileen, who gets to go to church on Wednesday, is in the choir and teaches Sunday school. I used to wonder about (and look down upon) guys whose wives were pillars of the church but were too busy with other things to be active themselves; thus, I have to fight off looking down upon myself as my night-centric teaching schedule makes it hard to be hard to be an active churchman.

However, I don't see in the Bible where lack of attendance on Wednesday nights is a mortal sin or a requirement that you have to be a teacher or choir member to be a good Christian. Not that they aren't good things, but some people's gifts may be used elsewhere, or be on hiatus from a more active role due to other things; my sister used to be knee deep in church activity before she had children.

I'm having to get back to remembering that there are no time cards in heaven. I can minister in other ways, this blog being among them. So, I'm going to try to get back to my older modes and not feel like I'm isolated from God because I don't do anything churchy during the week.

God willing, getting back to a daily Edifier will be one of them.

Edifier du Jour-1 Samuel 8:10-22a(NIV)

¹⁰ Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. ¹¹ He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. ¹² Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. ¹³ He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. ¹⁴ He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. ¹⁵ He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. ¹⁶ Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. ¹⁷ He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. ¹⁸ When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."

¹⁹ But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. ²⁰ Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles."

²¹ When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. ²² The LORD answered, "Listen to them and give them a king."

This passage came to mind as we close in on election day. The US isn't Israel, but there is a downside to being like all the other countries. Samuel was warning the people that there was a price for being a normal country, and that meant having a king that can and will concentrate power and money around himself.

Most of the Peanut Gallery would think that we as Americans are about to do something unwise, if the polls are any indication. However, it wouldn't be the first time folks wanted something different and got it wrong.

Or are they? It could be that modern conservatism is a few years past its freshness date and that an honest (yes, at least more so than most) liberal is worth trying.

Either way, God gives us enough free will to make mistakes or to make good choices. Life goes on, either way, so don't get too discouraged if your guys don't win in two weeks.

Edifier du Jour:Galatians 1:6-9(NIV)

⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! ⁹As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

One thing to remember as we see the stock market go to h-e-double-hockey-sticks in a handbasket is that has little to do with the Gospel either way. The needy don't have much in the stock market in the first place and the wealthy are seeing the worldly things they put their trust in go down in value at warp speed; it might actually get a few folks who didn't think they needed God much to change their mind as their retirement funds plunge.

So, a "gospel" focused on wealth isn't a real gospel; this stock market and real estate market is getting a few Prosperity Gospel folks to question their world-view.

Your standard-issue Republican isn't in the Prosperity Gospel camp, but they have a faith in an unfettered free market that isn't justified; folks on the economic right might grouse that it's the lack of freedom that's the issue rather than an excess of freedom, but whatever we label it, our current system is underperforming. Instead of questioning whether a bit more of a safety net is required, most conservatives are doubling-down, asking for more tax cuts and even smaller government.

The free-market gospel might not be valid, but the big-government gospel isn't a panacea, either. Handing power over to the Best and the Brightest in Washington isn't the answer in many cases, for the collective wisdom of the marketplace is ususally smarter than the sharpest pack of Ivy League PhDs. Looking for a bit less freedom and a stronger safety net is natural in tough times, but you need to make sure to make the safety net easy to climb out of, lest it turn into a spider's web of regulaton and negativity; fixing the economy can have different meanings.

Even if a stronger central government can help stabilize things and give us a calmer, albeit a bit less profitable, life, it doesn't change our need of a Savior. A President Obama may have our economic backs, but he doesn't have our spiritual backs. Neither would a President McCain for that matter.

The big-picture issues aren't political. If "your guy" doesn't win four weeks from tomorrow, life will go on either way. If the Dow goes to 15,000 or 1500, life goes on. People may have more or less economic needs and fears, but their spiritual needs don't stop.

Let's not lose focus on the bigger picture as we get to a rather ugly last few weeks of this campaign; the McCain folks seem to be getting down into the mud that the regular media doesn't want to throw at Obama. It will make whoever loses next month bitter and nasty and we need to be ready to move on to normal life even if our guys lose.

If you're a conservative, note that we survived four years of Jimmy Carter and eight years of Bill Clinton. If you're a liberal, note that we survived eight years of Dubya and a dozen years of Reagan-Bush. Life goes on close to normal either way, with the politics tweaked a bit in one direction or the other.

The heat of the moment has us dragged to false gospels that get in the way of the real one. Let's not take the bait. That doesn't mean we stop plugging for our guys, but that we need to realize that neither is the be-all-and-end-all of our lives.

Edifier du Jour: Hebrews 7:23-28(NIV)

²³Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; ²⁴but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. ²⁵Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

²⁶Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. ²⁷Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. ²⁸For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

I'm about to borrow from Renfield from Love at First Bite: "All those sacrifices are dead. Don't you have something that's alive and keeking?"

As a matter of fact, we not only have a high priest that doesn't buy the farm but we have a sacrifice that ends them all, a sacrifice that refuses to stay dead, short-circuiting the need to keep sacrificing the old-school stuff.

Edifier du Jour-Hebrews 2:1-4(NIV)

¹We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. ²For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, ³how shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. ⁴God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Drift Away is a neat song, but Mr. Hebrews notes that it's bad theology. If we're going to get lost in anything, it needs to be the greatness of God. First amongst that greatness is the idea that He sent part of Himself to die for us.

One of the problems of the modern church is that we can wind up drifting away and get lost in the rock-'n-roll of churchiness. The biggest thing is the salvation that God offers; the signs and wonders that charismatics long for is the sizzle, not the steak itself.

The steak is the stakes that went Jesus' ankles and wrists, a Savior dying for our sins. The activity of the Spirit today merely points the way to salvation, the smell of good grease leading us to the cookout.

Such activity (and other mundane activity of the church) needs to point to that salivation rather than be an end in itself.

Edifier du Jour:Hebrews 1:3-4(NIV)

³The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.

Modern copiers have gotten so good, that it's often hard to tell the original from the copy, especially in replicating black-and-white text. I have to look at the stapling (manual versus mechanical) of my "professor's copy" versus that of the handouts to tell the difference between the two.

That's what went through my mind as I looked at verse three; that and the story of the identical twins Amal and Juan-"If you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal." Jesus wasn't acting like God, He was (and is) God.

Angels have been a growth industry as of late; it's easy sport to pick on a certain disgraced revivalist's spokesangel Emma. However, we're shown here that Jesus trumps angels; it would be fair to say that if Jesus trumps angels, so does the Holy Spirit in a trinitarian framework.

Thus, having angels speak to you isn't that big of a deal; the Holy Spirit can speak directly to us without angels. That's worth noting, since various fallen angels in the Devil's employ can make themselves out to look like God's representatives. We need the Spirit to discern spirits, for Satan can make bad things look good.

Edifier du Jour-Hebrews 1:1-2(NIV)

 ¹In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ²but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.

Too often, I wind up high-tailing it through the beginnings of an epistle, writing off the first paragraph as boilerplate. That isn't the case here; it shouldn't be in the others, as well, but this one jumped out at me this morning.

You've got a lot of assertions in that once sentence. The writer (probably Paul, but his MO is to introduce himself, so this cut-to-the-chase intro without establishing one's theological chops isn't Paul's style) notes that Jesus is superior to the prophets. Not only was Jesus superior to the prophets (I keep wanting to spell it profits; bad finance professor, no leftover pizza) but that He was instrumental in the creation of the universe.

"...through whom he made the universe." Wrap your mind around that.

Somehow, I'm thinking of some sort of extruder for noodles or Play-Doh when I hear "through" and wondered if that was a valid translation of what Paul was after. The Greek there was dia, which Strong's has down as "a primary preposition denoting the channel of an act." An alternative reading would be " by the means of."

So, not only was the world created, it was created via Jesus. Creation not only got run by Him, but run through Him.

That changes how we need to look at the world. Jesus did more than passively sign off on creation ("yeah, Abba, I think I can live with it.") but processed the universe. Thus, creation will have Jesus' fingerprints all over it.

Burning Bushes

That might be what some quarters of the left might be doing at the GOP convention, but it's the one that Moses talked to that got me thinking this weekend.

Our church is in the middle of VBS, and Eileen's teaching the second graders this week; since it's a night-time thing and I teach Monday through Thursday nights, I'm out of the loop other than to help set up her room with the cheesy Polynesian decor for the Outrigger Island (the Southern Baptist's official 2008 VBS) theme.

Anyways, she was working on the Monday lesson from Exodus 3, Moses and the burning bush. Let's review; here's the NIV take-

¹ Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. ² There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. ³ So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up."

OK. Let's take this out of children's story and apply some lay physics (I'm not a physicist, so take my science with a grain of salt). Normally, if something is burning, it is shrinking, as the hydrocarbons of the wood are turning into carbon dioxide and water vapor and energy and some charcoal. If the old Einstein equation is to hold, additional energy will require converting some mass. However, the mass wasn't getting converted; the bush wasn't shriveling up like it should in a wildfire.

The reason it wasn't burning was that God was supplying His own energy. Our normal laws of thermodynamics assume a closed system; God has the option of opening up the system and adding or subtracting energy, since He is outside the system.

That applies in our lives as well. God does supply energy even today. Recall Isaiah; "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." God can get us through the tough times with a supernatural push of energy, a second wind. Billy Joel may not the best example to be pulling Edifiers from, but Second Wind's bridge comes to mind as valid advice.

But I survived all those long lonely days
When it seemed I did not have a friend
Cause all I needed was a little faith
So I could catch my breath and face the world again

Don't forget your second wind

A little faith in God and a little pray can give you the energy you need to tackle the things God has for you to do. You might not have the energy, but God does.

Edifier du Jour: Luke 5:27-32(NIV)

²⁷After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. "Follow me," Jesus said to him, ²⁸and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.

²⁹Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. ³⁰But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and 'sinners'?"

³¹Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ³²I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

That’s good to remember, since we draw away from God (and especially Jesus) when we’re in the most need of Him. When we’re down, we’re feeling unworthy and self-centered, often falling back into bad habits.

It’s then when Jesus comes along side, kicks you lovingly in the keister, and says “News flash, Sherlock; you’re not perfect. I already died for all that. Let’s get moving in the right direction rather than standing still.”

Edifier du Jour: Galatians 3:1-5(NIV)

¹You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. ²I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? ³Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? ⁴Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? ⁵Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

You can't work your way to faith and can't work your way to a larger dose of the Holy Spirit.

One of the problems with many modern Christians is that they either have to work at a list of dos and don'ts of proper living or that they are so wound up in improving their faith that "faith" becomes works. If miracles aren't happening in their lives, they must not have enough faith, or so the Word-of-Faith meme tends to run; people then try to work on their faith in various ways, developing a "By faith" regime that is very work-oriented, focused on reading the right books, listening to the right CDs and praying the right prayers.

Faith is a gift. The "gifts of the Spirit" are gifts, not frequent-prayer rewards that kick in after 5,000 prayers. Some people have them, some don't, and the folks that don't aren't second-class believers.

Edifier du Jour:1 Corinthians 10:23-24(NIV)

²³"Everything is permissible"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"—but not everything is constructive. ²⁴Nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others.

This is a classic verse of discipleship that came to mind when reading about Charles Barkley's pledge to stop gambling, after belatedly settling a $400K tab he rang up with a Las Vegas casino.

"I have no, no money problems whatsoever. Nobody's coming after me for money," he said. "I screwed up and didn't pay them. Could they have handled it differently? Yes. But it was my fault."

Barkley has talked openly about his gambling, estimating during a May 2006 interview with ESPN that he'd gambled away about $10 million over the years. He always defended it by saying he had the money to lose, but said Monday it was time for a break. He added he would try to do it on his own without seeking help.

"Just because I can afford to lose money doesn't mean I should do it," he said.

Check that last line. That's one that we call can think about in our creature-comfort milieu; just because I can afford to do X doesn't mean I should.  Just because we can do X doesn't me we should.

Sir Charles has fought being a role model for decades, but he may have become one for a change. He could use some council, but he's stumbled uncontrollably into the truth on this one.

You and I aren't going to blow six figures in Vegas (at least I hope you aren't). We may very well blow two figures on a nice dinner out or blow a few dollars on a cup of your favorite Starbucks creation. The scale's a bit lower, but a bit closer to home.

We had a clothing give-a-way at church last weekend, where church members brought in clothing and other left-overs to give to the needy in the area. Bedding was in short supply, and our Sunday School leader noted that he grieved over not have more sheets and blankets to give away.

It wouldn't have taken too much money to purchase some surplus "white goods" from a department store chain and donate them to folks. If the 300 or so people who call Victory Baptist home gave up $3 that week, we could have $900 to buy stuff; buying in bulk, that could go a long way to meeting those needs; just a latte or two could buy a blanket to keep folks warm for a lot longer than that cup of joe will.

This story has a bit of a bigger price tag, but there's more than a bit of irony, since it involves Barkley TV ad phone pal Dwayne Wade and what he did for his mom-

Before she was known as the mother of the Miami Heat superstar and 2006 NBA finals MVP, Jolinda Wade was known as an inmate, a fugitive, a drug user and drug seller. Her life turned around seven years ago when, after years of urging by her children, she got help and got clean. Along the way, she devoted her life to spreading the word of God, starting her first ministry while doing time in state prison.

Now, that ministry has a new home -- the Temple of Praise. Jolinda Wade's very own church in Chicago.

Her son bought it, and her children and her congregation gathered to dedicate it Sunday.

We can't afford to buy a church, but most of us can afford to do more than we are doing to help the Kingdom of God along. That's the pot calling the kettle black; that finger pointed at the crowd means that three more are pointing back at me.

Edifier du Jour-Galatians 1:6-9(NIV)

⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! ⁹As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

Todd Bentley came to mind as I was reading this passage today; it you've missed the last few weeks of writing, he's the new superstar of the Pentecostal circuit, being the keynote preacher of a well-attended revival meeting series in Lakeland, FL. His theology is a bit out there even for charismatics, claiming regular visitations from angles.

A common put-down around these days in evangelical circles is "Jesus plus...", where the Gospel is burdened with extra unneeded requirements (legalisms, undue separatism, et. al.) or errant theology. Bentley's ubiquitous visions and over-emphasis on healings and other manifestations would seem to qualify as a such a problematic addition, although the "Holy Spirit junkies" who Google in here might beg to differ.

Even if something looking supernatural is delivering a message, we still have to ask whether it is of God, of the Devil or of our own imagination; I have a feeling that a lot of Bentley's visions would fall into that third bucket of a wild imagination.

However, one thing that I'm fearful of is that we get so afraid of going "Jesus plus" that we create "Jesus minus." People can be so fearful of over-the-top manifestations of the Holy Spirit that they'll leave a lot of the power of the Gospel that flows from that under-appreciated member of the Trinity unused. Another "Jesus minus" can be an antinomian attitude that can result from a fear of legalism, where we avoid discipline and create an anything-goes mentality.

We're supposed to present and preach the Gospel and avoid adding or subtracting to the core message. We may have flourishes that appeal to cultural or stylistic differences, but the core message needs to be straight-forward idea that God loved us enough to send his son to die for us and rise again, and that those who accept his Son as Lord and Savior have eternal life.

Edifier du Jour:Psalm 109:4-13(NIV)

⁴ In return for my friendship they accuse me,
       but I am a man of prayer.
⁵ They repay me evil for good,
       and hatred for my friendship.
⁶ Appoint an evil man to oppose him;
       let an accuser stand at his right hand.
⁷ When he is tried, let him be found guilty,
       and may his prayers condemn him.
⁸ May his days be few;
       may another take his place of leadership.
⁹ May his children be fatherless
       and his wife a widow.
¹⁰ May his children be wandering beggars;
       may they be driven from their ruined homes.
¹¹ May a creditor seize all he has;
       may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
¹² May no one extend kindness to him
       or take pity on his fatherless children.
¹³ May his descendants be cut off,
       their names blotted out from the next generation.

...and may a herd of camels have diarrhea on his front lawn. He doesn't like the guy, does he?

That's David, Mr. Man after God's Own Heart, condemning otherwise innocent children. He might have Ruth as his grandma, but he himself is ruthless here.

Does David the Bad Example go beyond Bathsheba? Yesterday, I was looking at David's multiple wives as a character short-coming, and we see what seems to be another short-coming here, at least from a New Testament, pray-for-your-enemies vantage point.

Are we supposed to pray for God to deliver a triple-whammy on our foes and their kids? That's not the God I've grown up with. That's not to say that God doesn't punish wrongdoing, but it seems out of place to ask for it to be applied to others.

 

Edifier du Jour: 2 Samuel 3:1-5(NIV)

1 The war between the house of Saul and the house of David lasted a long time. David grew stronger and stronger, while the house of Saul grew weaker and weaker.

2 Sons were born to David in Hebron:
       His firstborn was Amnon the son of Ahinoam of Jezreel;

3 his second, Kileab the son of Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel;
       the third, Absalom the son of Maacah daughter of Talmai king of Geshur;

4 the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith;
       the fifth, Shephatiah the son of Abital;

5 and the sixth, Ithream the son of David's wife Eglah.
       These were born to David in Hebron.

We normally associate Solomon as the multi-wife guy, but David's doing a good job of looking like a old-school Mormon role model here. Six sons, six wives, not counting Michal (Saul's daughter) and well before Bathsheba (she shows up in chapter 11).

Can you say "Palace politics", boys and girls? I thought you could.

Abigail is mentioned earlier as a good example of hospitality, but Maacah sounds like trouble even when she doesn't remind you of George Allen; she's the daughter of a foreign king, one who might not be the best God-fearing lady. Even if you didn't know that Absalom would grow up to lead a rebellion against his dad, his pedigree would lead you to think that he'd be the one to keep a very close eye on.

 

Edifier du Jour:Mark 1:9-13(NIV)

⁹At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

¹²At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, ¹³and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

"You've just been anointed by God as the Messiah. You've just won an all-expense paid trip to Disney World the desert, where you'll sleep under the Galileen sky and eat... absolutely nothing." Or at least the other Gospels have him fasting during this stretch.

I'm reminded of the verse in Hebrews "the Lord disciplines those he loves." During the rough times, I've been prone to say "Lord, you don't have to love me that much."

You think you have it bad? Look what Jesus gets stuck with; a 40 day wonder in the desert. That's after God's stated that He's well pleased with Jesus.

Why 40 days and why the desert? 40 matches the years in the wilderness for Moses and the Hebrews coming out of Egypt; there is some interesting symmetry there.

Also, if Jesus were to launch right into ministry after that dramatic baptism and response, He might have been too eagerly received as a conquistador Messiah; giving things a month to cool off seems to match the low-key style that is often Jesus' MO in the gospels. Jesus tended to do things with a more personal touch and a minimum of fanfare.

 

Edifier du Jour-Deuteronomy 6:4-9(NIV)

⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Are you all-in for God?

If your channel surfing has paused on one of those ubiquitous TV poker games, you might be familiar with the concept of all-in, where the player bets all he has on his current hand. If he wins, he doubles his money (plus whatever what was in the pot prior to that final bet), but he goes belly-up if he loses.

There's plenty of all-in folks in the Bible. Peter leaving his nets behind, the parable of the pearl of great price where the discoverer hocks everything to buy the field it's in, Abraham willing to sacrifice Isaac.

We're called here and elsewhere to be all-in for God. However, many of us still want to keep some chips in our hands, fearful of losing. Often, those are emotional chips rather than financial ones, where we are looking to hedge our bets and not get too excited about God, or not to have too much invested emotional when things turn sour.

One of the things that struck me about my life is how little I do talk about God in a casual manner. I'm probably not alone in talking more about spring training or March Madness rather than God, even in a week where we just got done with Easter. We can start putting some more chips in the pot by moving some of our conversations away from trivialities and towards God.

We might not get fully all-in in our daily walk, for that would look like a monk, but we can get far closer than we are at present.

Edifier du Jour-Deuteronomy 5:12-15(NIV)

¹² "Observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy, as the LORD your God has commanded you. ¹³ Six days you shall labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox, your donkey or any of your animals, nor the alien within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest, as you do. ¹⁵ Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and that the LORD your God brought you out of there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.

That's one of the Ten Commandments we don't do a great job of; it's one of the few that you can violate with a clear conscience in most evangelical quarters. The first, about loving God whole-heartedly, probably gets nuked even worse, but that's a matter of the heart rather than a matter of hitting Olive Garden after church.

I'm not talking of the Jewish minutia of what constitutes work, to the extent that they have their elevators go from floor to floor automatically since pushing a button is considered work. Nor do I want to get on a Saturday-versus-Sunday sabbath theological food fight. What I'm looking at is giving everyone we're associated with a work-free day, including ourselves.

In the old days, it was easier to keep these, since very few stores were open. If you were oot-and-aboot after church yesterday, you got a bit of a flashback to the blue-law era, where a lot of places were closed on Easter; restaurant A was closed, causing us to go to restaurant B.

We don't have a problem with dining out on Sunday and have little qualms about swinging through the grocery store after church as well. However, that's putting somebody to work. Even if they aren't interested in keeping Sunday pristine, the wording points to giving everyone the day off, even the "aliens" in the land.

Why do we take this commandment lightly and major on the others? One possibility is that Jesus did. However, the "work" He was doing was healing and He was (and is) God. We don't want God to take the day off.

Legalism isn't good, but hedonistic expediency isn't good, either; we seem to have leaned a bit too much towards the latter in regards to this commandment.