tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16462495327707127942024-03-12T23:51:34.044-04:00A Heart Full of Highwaysאַשְׁרֵי אדָם עוז־לו בָךְ מְסִלת בִּלְבָבָם Psalm 84:5Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00460746265464143027noreply@blogger.comBlogger38125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-31636311823166135972013-03-27T12:31:00.000-04:002013-03-27T12:31:46.289-04:00Rock Hill City limitsI finished riding every road in the Rock Hill City limits two weeks ago. Dave Metzl from CN2 did a piece on it that made the news:
<object width="500" height="300" data="http://www.cn2.com/CN2-News-Content/flowplayer/swf/flowplayer.commercial-3.1.2.swf?0.7478279199640108" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="movie" value="http://www.cn2.com/CN2-News-Content/flowplayer/swf/flowplayer.commercial-3.1.2.swf" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><param name="flashvars" value='config={"key":"$1567e34d4606b0df839","plugins":{"controls":{"display":"none","playlist":false,"autoplay":true}},"clip":{"baseUrl":"http://www.cn2.com"},"playlist":[{"url":"/cn2-file-dir/news/20130326_26_Every_road.flv","baseUrl":"http://www.cn2.com"}]}' /></object>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-14746672810167664412012-01-19T00:55:00.000-05:002012-01-19T01:07:58.699-05:00The Perfect AssassinLast night I had a dream that I was back at my alma mater, Columbia Bible College, or euphemistically, Columbia International University. I was walking across the back side of the campus toward the dorm I lived in when I was a student; I passed Ernie Taylor and gave him a high five, then some others wearing bright blue shirts with numbers on them, like they were dressed up for the north-south football game held every year (which, as I reflect, I realize I never attended in seven years at the school, usually because I was in the library). When I approached the road that heads toward the old faculty houses, I heard a siren go off and some gunshots on the opposite side of my old dorm. Somehow it was made known to me that there was a shooter on campus, and people were fleeing in every direction. I kept walking away from the campus toward the pointe, a promontory that overlooks the Broad River and the prisons on the other side. I think there was someone with me, and the road was a strange mix of how it was when I was in college, and how it is now, which is non-existent, because the ridge it was built on was bulldozed into the valley so apartments and athletic fields could be built.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3422/3989975591_798f01fb62_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3422/3989975591_798f01fb62_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciuimpact/3989975591/sizes/o/in/set-72157622413093775/">Aerial view of the Pointe</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Anyways, I was afraid to go back to the campus, though it seemed no one was fleeing in my direction. When I reached the overlook, I decided it would be safest to hide in the woods down the steep ravine towards the river. I noticed that the erosion on the rocky slope was worse than it was twelve years ago, so I descended carefully. When I got to the valley, my two roommates, Nathan and Thomas were there, along with one or two others that I couldn't identify. Strangely, the attacker showed up too, and we were for a time at a loss with what to do with him. Somehow we overpowered him, and the dream ended with my four friends each holding a limb as if we were about to quarter him, and I had him in a headlock.<br />
<br />
I woke up and realized this was a vivid picture of my psyche on Monday and Tuesday. I'd spent most of both days doing biblical research for the ministers of the church plant I'm joining. I've been looking forward to the opportunity for a month or two since Andy mentioned the possibility to me. I jumped at the chance since I've been sensing a call back in the direction of my education for the past year. But by the end of the day Tuesday, I was quite discouraged, because I realized that the same weakness that so hindered me for years, and finally burned me out of pursuing biblical studies, was still very present and more powerful than my ability to resist. Like the shooter who violently invaded my college campus, it reared its head when I was a student, drove me away into solitude (only it was more often to the library than to the pointe), kept me working on a 100 page master's thesis for two and a half years (while others finished in six months), and crippled my efforts to teach high schoolers. What was it? Hyper-perfectionism and thoroughness bordering on obsessive compulsive disorder. I don't know how all the psychological tests I've taken for it have never given a positive result for OCD; anyone who reads even part of my thesis won't need a test to diagnose me. Not to mention the time records I kept of the entire 1000 day process, including tasks I did every time I worked. It came out to 1009 hours in 1010 days, if I remember correctly.<br />
<br />
It's so frustrating, because it only comes out when I'm dealing with tasks or people I really care about, and it drives away the people and paralyzes me from efficient productivity in work, yet it compels me to be drawn to them too. Right now I'm discouraged by it, because I've so been looking forward to this work, and the report I finished tonight took me 25 hours when it should've taken me 5. If there's any encouragement at all, it's that for the past three days I did work with unusual resistance to external distraction. Now I just need to work on internal distraction and the controlling thought that it's never good enough. It's also good that right now I'm surrounded by people I can confide in and who want to help me overcome this tendency. Almost like our effort to quarter and strangle the assassin in my dream.<br />
<br />
I heard this song as I finished writing; I thought it was fitting.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Bqeslwx-OCs" width="560"></iframe>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-61857810091454729722012-01-13T14:21:00.000-05:002012-01-15T16:02:46.175-05:00The Answer to the Double Rainbow Man's QuestionFascinated as I've been by astronomical and atmospheric phenomena this year, I've found a few wonderful sites online explaining some things I've seen, and some I never knew existed. <a href="http://www.atoptics.co.uk/">Atmospheric optics</a> is a treasure chest of knowledge. It was there that I first learned of the famous "double rainbow" youtube clip, and my life has never been the same since.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OQSNhk5ICTI" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
I love and laugh at his question, "what does this mean?" Our post-enlightenment reaction to this may tend toward scorn at his seemingly naive mystical view of nature, and though we do know much of how light reflects and refracts to produce the rainbow, the folks at atmospheric optics <a href="http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/primrays.htm">note</a>, "<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: -webkit-left;">Ray path</span><b style="text-align: -webkit-left;">s</b><span style="text-align: -webkit-left;"> are something of a fiction and geometric optics is incapable of explaining many aspects of rainbows."</span> </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">According to Scripture, <i>God</i> has assigned a meaning to rainbows, and they prompt his memory every time he sees them; that means every time they occur, which is more often than they are seen by humans. In fact, it is <i>every time</i> sunlight hits water droplets. This is because "</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow#Explanation">all raindrops refract and reflect the sunlight in the same way, but only the light from some raindrops reaches the observer's eye</a>" and "<a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_423748786">t</a></span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="http://www.atoptics.co.uk/rainbows/primcone.htm">he rainbow is a collection of rays with particular directions, it does not otherwise exist and it is not located at any particular point in space</a>." But God sees unseen rainbows, since his eyes are in every place (Pr 15:3; 2 Chron 16:9; Zech 4:10). What do these always visible rainbows prompt God to remember? He tells us: </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: -webkit-left;"></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. (Genesis 9:14-15)</blockquote>
What's more, as <a href="http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/lord-earth">Tim Keller proposes</a>, the rainbow is a physical image of the gospel of Jesus Christ. No wonder then, that in apocalyptic visions of God and His anointed one, He is <i>surrounded</i> by a rainbow (Ezek 1:26-28; Rev 4:3; 10:1).<br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-37573339037175868742012-01-11T01:50:00.000-05:002012-01-11T02:07:07.336-05:00Φως `ιλαρον<span style="background-color: white; color: #1a222a; font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">On Christmas Day, I wrote about <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/12/light-shines-in-darkness.html">the beginnings of my pilgrimage</a> toward a greater appreciation for the celebration of Christmas. I mentioned that the line of thought that gave me insight into the deeper significance of George Bailey's character, which I explained in my last post, eventually led me to realize how appropriate it is that we celebrate the birth of Jesus at the time of winter solstice. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1a222a; font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #1a222a; font-family: Philosopher;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Here's the roundabout version of how it happened: before I came to see the image of Christ in the story of <i>It's a Wonderful Life</i>, I discovered him while teaching through the stories of Elisha in 2 Kings, which are some of the most bizarre narratives in the whole Bible: floating axe heads, bears mauling boys, "death in the pot", and the like. The full explanation of that will have to wait until later, but suffice it to say that it opened up an entirely new perspective on the Old Testament and what is meant by "all the things concerning Jesus" (Lk 24:27) in the Scriptures. At about the same time, I began to expose myself to the teaching of Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. At first I found his approach to the Scriptures, in which he draws out of every text its supposed fulfillment in Jesus, artificial and forced, schooled as I was in conservative evangelical literalism that is highly suspicious of allegorical or spiritual approaches to Scripture. But the more I listened, the more I came to see the approach to be not only biblical, in that it put every text not just in its immediate literary context, but in its broader theological and redemptive context, but also extremely refreshing spiritually, in that it gave me a view of the colors and contours of the person and work of Christ, which view is the central spiritual act of the Christian life (2 Cor 3:18; Gal 3:1). Before long, I began to absorb from Keller the instinct I believe he caught from Jonathan Edwards of seeing all things in relation to divine truth and images or echoes of divine truth in all things. Keller does this well with psychological habits common in our culture and typical social interactions from the world of film and literature, which I suppose was the catalyst for my interpretation of <i>It's a Wonderful Life</i>. Gradually, o</span></span><span style="color: #1a222a; font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">ther insights that came through this paradigm seemed to confirm it, often with poignant relevance to my immediate experience.</span><br />
<span style="color: #1a222a; font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #1a222a; font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">This year, after experiencing a personal spiritual awakening in January, I found myself increasingly transfixed with this vision of the Scriptures that sees foreshadowing, allusion, and images of Christ in the Old Testament. My father and I attended the national conference of the Gospel Coalition in April, which had as its theme "Preaching Christ in the Old Testament." I was hoping to learn more about the Christological approach to Scripture, but the conference was aimed at practitioners, and the closest it came to answering my questions was a panel discussion that shied away from an impasse, and a conversation with a rep from Westminster Seminary, who recommended the works of Geerhardus Vos. The panel reached an impasse over the question of whether we should preach the atonement from "Thou shalt not steal." I was hoping for some resolution, and though the discussion didn't offer it, God <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/dissolved-by-thy-goodness/">dumped an answer in my lap</a> in my personal study later that day. </span><br />
<span style="color: #1a222a; font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #1a222a; font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">In hindsight, that was just the beginning; the type of insight God gave me that day seemed to run over into every area of life for the rest of the year. "Images of divine things" jumped out to me in <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/06/unapproachable-light.html">the nature of light</a>, odd providences such as <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/06/adventures-in-sleep-deprivation-and-god.html">sleep deprivation</a>, a <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/07/prudence-to-simple-and-spiritual-bears.html">bear lurking around our vacation house</a>, <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/07/on-top-of-world.html">bike ride routes</a>, <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/07/lord-thunders-over-tour-through-thors.html">Tour de France results</a>, even <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/07/standing-together-or-falling-apart.html">signs passed on ride routes</a>. I could go on, but if you want to see more, just go back through my blog for the past six months. There's been some form of this in just about all of the posts. It's led me to a firm persuasion that God speaks in types and images in Scripture <i>and </i>creation. I'm not the first one to think this; Jonathan Edwards writes </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For indeed the whole outward creation, which is but the shadows of beings, is so made as to represent spiritual things. It might be demonstrated by the wonderful agreement in thousands of things, much of the same kind as is between the types of the Old Testament and their antitypes, and by spiritual things being so often and continually compared with them in the Word of God. And it's agreeable to God's wisdom that it should be so, that the inferior and shadowy parts of his works should be made to represent those things that are more real and excellent, spiritual and divine, to represent the things that immediately concern himself and the highest parts of his work. Spiritual things are the crown and glory, the head and soul, the very end and </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">alpha and omega of all other works: what therefore can be more agreeable to wisdom, than that they should be so made as to shadow them forth?<br /><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">And we know that this is according to God's method which his wisdom has chosen in other matters. Thus, the inferior dispensation of the gospel was all to shadow forth the highest and most excellent, which was its end; thus almost everything that was said or done that we have recorded in Scripture from Adam to Christ, was typical of gospel things: persons were typical persons, their actions were typical actions, the cities were typical cities, the nation of the Jews and other nations were typical nations, the land was a typical land, God's providences towards them were typical providences, their worship was typical worship, their houses were typical houses, their magistrates typical magistrates, their clothes typical clothes, and indeed the world was a typical world. And this is God's manner, to make inferior things shadows of the superior and most excellent, outward things shadows of spiritual, and all other things shadows of those things that are the end of all things and the crown of all things. Thus God glorifies himself and instructs the minds that he has made.</span><span style="color: #1a222a; line-height: 20px;"> (<a href="http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/Yy4xMjo0OjE6NDA0LndqZW8=">"Miscellanies" no. 362</a>) </span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I have a theory that by His providence, God often makes people, objects, and events meaningful in this sense at a <i>personal </i>level. In this I go beyond Edwards, at least what I've read of him so far, which isn't much. But Edwards does see these things as a means of God's communicating with us:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">If we look on these shadows of divine things as the voice of God, purposely, by them, teaching us these and those spiritual and divine things, to show of what excellent advantage it will be, how agreeably and clearly it will tend to convey instruction to our minds, and to impress things on the mind, and to affect the mind. By that we may as it were hear God speaking to us. Wherever we are and whatever we are about, we may see divine things excellently represented and held forth, and it will abundantly tend to confirm the Scriptures, for there is an excellent agreement between these things and the Holy Scriptures. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;">(</span><i style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1417411313">Images of Divine Things</a></i><span style="background-color: white; text-align: left;"><a href="http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/Yy4xMDo1OjEud2plbw==">, no. 70</a>)</span></blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.eerdmans.com/Content/Site146/ProductImages/9780802866127.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.eerdmans.com/Content/Site146/ProductImages/9780802866127.jpg" width="212" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No way!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.eerdmans.com/Content/Site146/ProductImages/9780802865120.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.eerdmans.com/Content/Site146/ProductImages/9780802865120.jpg" width="132" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unbelievable!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I'm inclined to make such a bold claim because I've seen it so many times this year. From a spectrum appearing on my ceiling while I read about electromagnetic waves to <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/11/broken-record.html">God getting my attention</a> through conspicuous events revolving around <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/11/stranger-than-fiction.html">bicycling</a>, Scripture, numbers, and pancakes (those who know me well will appreciate the significance of those means to me), to a splinter hitting me in the eye while chopping logs to remind me of hypocrisy in my heart (see Matt. 7), to a <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/search/Matthew+24%3A45-51/">real life parable of Jesus' return</a> on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_end_times_prediction#Prediction_for_May_21.2C_2011">May 21</a>, to seeing crepuscular <i>rays</i> the night I met Dr. Ray :-), to this past weekend's trio of findings surrounding Epiphany: I found two fascinating books along this trajectory of an ontology of divine relationality; as I meditated with great profit on the rainbow signed covenant of Genesis 9, I saw a brilliant <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSNhk5ICTI">double halo around the moon all the way across the sky</a>, and the next afternoon a rainbow; Sunday, two friends returned goodies I thought were permanently lost...it was truly a weekend of hidden things coming to light, and I went between laughing and crying for joy I was so stoked. Perhaps I could put my theory in Edwardsean terms: a divine and supernatural impression (or type/image?) immediately imparted to the soul by the providence and Spirit of God...whether it will be shown to be a <a href="http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/edwards_light.html">Scriptural and rational doctrine</a> remains to be seen. At this point, I have at least recorded it as a theorem in divinity, as Edwards would say.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://covers.openlibrary.org/w/id/611416-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://covers.openlibrary.org/w/id/611416-L.jpg" width="130" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">ευρηκα!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">So what does all of this have to do with the observation of Christmas? Just this: that though the early Christians adopted the date of winter solstice for Christmas for symbolic reasons and to counter pagan feasts of Sol Invictus and Saturnalia, as the book pictured at right explains, they inadvertently timed Christmas </span><i style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">perfectly</i><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">, in my opinion. I mentioned in my </span><a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/12/gospel-according-to-george-bailey.html" style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">last post</a><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"> that all the best Christmas movies feature a depressed person (e.g., Charlie Brown, Ebenezer Scrooge, George Bailey, etc.) transformed into joyful gratitude. Why do these resonate with us so deeply, and why is the alignment of Christmas with pagan rituals to the sun so fitting? Because just as daylight reverses its trend from shortening to lengthening on the solstice (or as ancient polytheistic pagans thought, the sun is "reborn"), bringing increased light and renewal of life to plants and animals and </span><a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/06/affliction-and-wanderings.html" style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">man alike</a><span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">, so at the birth of Jesus "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light" (Is 9:2), "the sun of righteousness (rose) with healing in its wings" (Mal 4:2), and the life of Jesus is the "light of men" that "shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (Jn 1:4-5). As I see it, the celebration of Christ's birth belongs at the winter solstice not because that's when Jesus was born in the year, but because the year and its seasons are a microcosm of the history of the human race, and in view of the cosmic significance of the advent of Christ (e.g, Lk 2:13-14; Eph 3:9-10; Col 1:15-20), the birth of Jesus is the "winter solstice" of the entire cosmos.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Philosopher;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Now that we're past the solstice and the days are growing, here are a few thoughts to close on what we're headed for both in the year and in the history of redemption:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The changes that pass on the face of the earth by the gradual approach of the sun is a remarkable type of what will come to pass in the visible church of God and world of mankind, in the approach of the church's latter-day glory. The latter will be gradual, as the former is. The light and warmth of the sun in the former is often interrupted by returns of clouds and cold, and the fruits of the earth kept back from a too-sudden growth, and a too-quick transition from their dead state in winter to their summer's glory, which in the end would be hurtful to them and would kill them. So it is in the spiritual world. If there should be such warm weather constantly without interruption, as we have sometimes in February, March and April, the fruits of the earth would flourish mightily for a little while, but would not be prepared for the summer's heat, but that would kill 'em. This is typical of what is true concerning the church of God, and particular souls. The earth being stripped of its white winter garments, in which all looked clean but all was dead, and the making of it so dirty, as it is early in the </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">spring, in order to fit it for more beautiful clothing in a living state in summer, is also typical of what passes in the spiritual change of the world, and also, a particular soul. The surface of the earth is as it were dissolved in the spring. The ground is loosened and broke up, and softened</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">with moisture, and its filthiness never so much appears as then; and then is the most windy turbulent season of all. (<a href="http://edwards.yale.edu/archive?path=aHR0cDovL2Vkd2FyZHMueWFsZS5lZHUvY2dpLWJpbi9uZXdwaGlsby9nZXRvYmplY3QucGw/Yy4xMDo1OjEud2plbw==">Edwards, <i>Images of Divine Things</i>, no. 152</a>)</span></blockquote>
Though we're in January, on a bigger scale we're already into the spring, and looking forward to the summer day that will never end:<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
The sands of time are sinking,</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The dawn of heaven breaks;</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The summer morn I’ve sighed for -</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
The fair, sweet morn awakes:</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Dark, dark had been the midnight </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
But dayspring is at hand, </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
And glory, glory dwelleth</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
In Emmanuel’s land. </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
-Anne Cousin</div>
<div style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-top: 0.6em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left;">
</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-19718684644131917402011-12-31T02:51:00.000-05:002011-12-31T19:28:49.058-05:00The Gospel According to George Bailey<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gonemovies.com/www/drama/drama/WonderfulRuthHarry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://www.gonemovies.com/www/drama/drama/WonderfulRuthHarry.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">George learns he won't be leaving Bedford Falls after all</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In my <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/12/light-shines-in-darkness.html">recent post about the beginning of my journey away from religiously inspired moderate scroogehood</a>, I told of my frustration with the conclusion of <i>It's A Wonderful Life</i> and its moral lesson "no man is a failure who has friends." For such a feel good movie, where does that leave those who have no friends, or those who think or feel that they have no friends? The question I was led to ask is "How does George come to have so many friends?" As I considered the plot of the movie, I realized that more significant than the fact that George <i>has </i>friends is that he <i>makes </i>friends: he continually sacrifices his own desires and dreams for the sake of his community, and those sacrifices win the friendship and respect of everyone in town. I began to see the movie as a vivid illustration of the words of Jesus, that <span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="background-color: white;">Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13 KJV). </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">When I watched the film through that lens, I saw more clearly George's inner conflict at each point he is called on to sacrifice for those around him, and was </span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">most moved by those moments of self-denial. I'd also always appreciated George's relationship with his father; the first moment in the movie that always grabs me emotionally is when George doesn't know what to do when Mr. Gower the druggist unwittingly puts poison in pills for a patient. He glances at a cigarette ad on the wall of the store which reads "Ask Dad, he knows." It's such a trite maxim, but moving for me, as one who identifies so much with George, and has often turned to my dad in moments of confusion.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3228/3121087194_fc965491bb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3228/3121087194_fc965491bb.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Apparently he <i>doesn't</i> know about lung health</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">But George Bailey's relationship with his father Peter isn't just a sentimental embellishment to the story, it's actually just as central to the plot as George's self-sacrifice: his two-fold concern in all his painful decisions is the good of the community and his determination to honor his father by preserving the family business. That sounds like the one who spoke the words quoted above about the greatest love. Could it be that George Bailey's wonderful life is a contemporary portrait of the most wonderful life of all? Consider a few other details of the film: the antagonist of the story, Mr. Potter, takes over the entire town during the depression, except one institution, the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan, and on one occasion, tempts George himself with the offer of a job. But his masterstroke against George and the building and loan is his theft of $8000 intended for deposit in the bank Mr. Potter owns. Potter thinks he has George beat, and even in George's desperation, Potter feigns lawful indignation while George responds with grace to his question about what happened to the $8000: "I lost the money." But George <i>hadn't</i> lost the money; his Uncle Billy had </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">absentmindedly given it to Potter in a brief encounter in the bank. George takes the blame, while inwardly he is driven to the brink of despair.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"></span></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eWF0BAKjizE/Tv61fjXyEaI/AAAAAAAAAMw/CMmhXEH4who/s1600/LaVieEstBelle7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eWF0BAKjizE/Tv61fjXyEaI/AAAAAAAAAMw/CMmhXEH4who/s320/LaVieEstBelle7.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">"<i>I</i> lost the money."</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">He stumbles into Martini's bar, where he softly cries, "Dear <i>Father</i> in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if you're up there, show me the way...I'm at the end of my rope." Ten seconds later, he's answered with a punch in the face, and says, "That's what I get for praying." In despair, he stands on the bridge over the icy river, contemplating suicide, when Clarence, his guardian angel, comes to his rescue. But his method of rescue is telling: he doesn't stop him directly, he dives in himself, knowing that George will act in character, and jump in to save him. Though frustrated and flawed, when tested, George <i>always </i>lays down his life for others. Even afterward, when talking with Clarence, George thinks it'd be best for his family and friends if he'd never been born. In one sense, this is a self-absorbed thought of despair, but at another level, it is George's ultimate act of self-sacrifice. In Clarence's granting George a temporary view of his wish, he descends into the hell of Pottersville, where Bedford Falls is twisted into a cesspool of lust, greed, and violence. This vision awakens George, who responds by crying out "I want to live again!" And so through Potter's darkest scheme that temporarily destroys George, George and the community he loves win their ultimate triumph, as the people pray for him in his distress, and come to give selflessly to save the Building and Loan. </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">For some readers, this perspective on the plot probably makes clear what I'm seeing in the film. Some may think I'm just an over-imaginative Christian who listens to too many <a href="http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/nakedness-holiness-god">Tim Keller sermons</a>. That's probably true, but the parallels in this story with the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ are quite remarkable. Consider several points of similarity:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Jesus referred ultimately to himself in John 15:13, and the rest of Scripture bears abundant witness to the selfless love of Jesus in his offering himself for our sins (Jn 3:16; Rom 5:7-8; Eph 5:2; 1 Jn 4:9-10)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">As George always sacrifices for his father's business, Jesus sought his Father's honor and will in everything he did in life and death (Mt 26:39; Jn 5:19, 23; 6:38; 17:4)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">As George continually fights against and resists Mr. Potter's evil schemes, so Jesus did battle with the devil in his temptation and works (Mt 4:1-11; Lk 10:18; Jn 16:11; Heb 2:14; 1 Jn 3:8)</span></li>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KCuj861R0fU/Tv62bL9nTlI/AAAAAAAAAM8/d0HQmczS3z0/s1600/IAWL-Bailey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KCuj861R0fU/Tv62bL9nTlI/AAAAAAAAAM8/d0HQmczS3z0/s1600/IAWL-Bailey.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">George's Gethsemane</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">As George takes the blame for the lost money before Potter, so Jesus "bore the iniquity of many" (Is 53:5-6, 10-12) and prayed for the forgiveness of those who crucified him (Lk 23:34).</span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">As George, hunched over a drink and drenched in sweat, prays to the Father for help and is answered with a punch in the face, so Jesus in his agony cried out to the Father "take this cup from me" as "his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground," and immediately afterward he was met by Judas and the soldiers who arrested him (Lk 22:41-54).</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">As George helps others even as he is "dying" (his dive to save Clarence, his thought that everyone would be better off if he'd never been born, his concern for all those he loved when he was in Pottersville), so Jesus looked in pity on others as he died the most pitiable death (Lk 23:28, 34, 43; Jn 19:26-27)</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">As George temporarily enters the degenerate Pottersville, the world in which he was never born, so Jesus, according to the apostles' creed, "descended into hell" after his crucifixion (Eph 4:9-10; 1 Pet 3:18-19; this point is disputed by theologians. See articles by <a href="http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/34/34-1/34-1-pp103-113_JETS.pdf">Grudem</a> and <a href="http://www.etsjets.org/files/JETS-PDFs/35/35-1/JETS_35-1_091-099_Scaer.pdf">Scaer</a>). </span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">As George's despair and "death" are his greatest defeat from Potter but also his greatest triumph, so Jesus' agony and crucifixion are his greatest defeat at the hands of the devil, but also his triumph over the devil (Gen 3:15; Lk 22:3; Jn 12:31; 13:2, 27; 16:11; Col 2:15; Heb 2:14).</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">As George, after his restoration to life, returns home first (except for the authorities and his children--not sure how they fit in yet) and was followed by all the people for whom he sacrificed, who return to him all the gifts he'd first given to them, after which his brother rightly proposes a toast to "my big brother George, the richest man in town," so Jesus is described as the "the beginning, the firstborn from the dead" (Col 1:18; cf. 1 Cor 15:20-24) who ascended, "receiving gifts among men" (Ps. 68:18; <i>and giving </i>them, cf. Eph 4:7-12), so that in his triumph he "divides the spoil with the strong" (Is 53:12) and receives supremacy over all things (Mt 28:18; Eph 1:20-23; Php 2:9; Col 1:18; 2:10; Heb 1:4).</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">Though she's his wife in the film, Mary is the steady heroine of the story, and her odd position in the final scene, standing on a chair, hands folded in a saintly pose, asks for commentary from my Catholic brethren. Probably also the part about George lassoing the moon so she can eat it and moonbeams can come out of her hair and fingers and toes. I'm Protestant and don't know about that stuff because it ain't in the Bible. :-)</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">While the surface theology of guardian angels in the form of talking galaxies and getting wings when bells ring is almost obnoxiously hokey, the subtle but pervasive portrayal of the humiliation of the Son of God is profoundly Christian. As I see it, <i>It's A Wonderful Life </i>is the gospel of Christ in terms of 20th century American middle class culture, and our identification with and admiration of George Bailey is a small but real indication that Jesus is truly the "<a href="http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/c/c307.html">dear desire of every nation</a>," as we often sing in this season. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The question that remains is whether these things written in by the filmmakers, or can someone who knows the Bible well enough read the gospel into anything? The latter might be true, but in this case, I think the former is more accurate. Here are a few subtle but concrete details of the movie that make me think the writers intended the story to be a picture of the gospel:</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">The slum owned by Mr. Potter is called "Potter's Field." This is the name of the plot of ground Judas purchased with the money he received for betraying Jesus, where he also hanged himself (Mt 27:3-10; Acts 1:18-19).</span></li>
<li>Though their roles in the story are not exactly parallel, there are characters named Mary, Joseph, and Peter.</li>
<li>As the angels converse in the beginning of the movie, they say about the night of George's wishing he'd never been born, "tonight's his <i>crucial</i> night." Interesting in this perspective.</li>
<li>As George talks to his dad at the dinner table the night he has the stroke while George is at the dance, Peter tells him "George, you were <i>born </i>older." He means that George has always fit the role of older brother, but if George is a Christ figure, this might allude to Micah 5:2, the prophecy of Messiah's birth in Bethlehem: "But you, O Bethlehem...from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, <i>whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days</i>."</li>
<li>Perhaps the clearest indication of the Christological nature of the story are the presence of "O Come, All Ye Faithful" in the opening scene, as George's friends pray for him, and the singing of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" in the closing scene. In traditional Christmas Eve services, these are the opening and closing carols. </li>
<li>As they sing the closing carol, something very significant happens as they sing the words "God and sinners reconciled..." If you want to know what it is, you'll have to watch the movie again. You wouldn't want me to give it <i>all </i>away, would you?</li>
</ul>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.pastimesonline.ca/storage/blog-images/SeventhDayofChristmas.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1323726099175" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="224" src="http://www.pastimesonline.ca/storage/blog-images/SeventhDayofChristmas.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1323726099175" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Seven Swans a-swimming</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I realize that most people don't watch Christmas movies after Christmas day. Oddly, even in my days of stoicism about the celebration of Christmas, I was adamant that if we're going to celebrate it, we should celebrate all twelve days, with Epiphany at the end, as the more ancient branches of the church traditionally observe it. It breaks my heart to see Christmas trees at the curb before New Year's. I've never watched the movie after Christmas Day, but with Auld Langsyne at the end, it would make a fitting close to the seventh day of Christmas, and to the year.<br />
<br />
This is not the end of the story of my adoption of the celebration of Christmas, but it gets at the question I'll try to answer next time: why do all the best-loved Christmas movies and television specials feature a grumpy, ungrateful, or angry person who is delivered into gratitude and rejoicing? Since Charlie Brown is the only one of these I'm thinking of that is set after 1960, only Charles Schultz uses the contemporary term "depressed." But the theme is the same from <i>A Christmas Carol</i> to <i>It's a Wonderful Life</i> to <i>Miracle on 34th Street </i>to <i>A Charlie Brown Christmas</i> to <i>A Christmas Story </i>(even the old man finally smiles when the duck smiles at him before being decapitated in the Chinese restaurant). The answer to this question leads to the reason why I think it's so fitting that we remember the birth of Jesus Christ at this time of year. Merry Seventh Day of Christmas!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-4290920323991688462011-12-29T23:09:00.000-05:002011-12-29T23:09:47.037-05:00Dead Preachers Society: Session 3 Notes<br />
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm meeting with some friends to read Jonathan Edwards' typological writings, vol. 11 of the Yale Edition of his works. I decided I'd post my notes on our last meeting and some additional thoughts from the reading here in case anyone finds them interesting. This was originally an email to the group.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Ray, Andy, Daniel, and I discussed pp. 50-93 of Edwards' vol. 11. I asked why Edwards saw shadows of spiritual truth in the created world, and whether he saw this perspective as necessary. We all noted that the inspired biblical authors saw things this way, and that the Scriptures are not exhaustive, but rather a springboard to understand everything as designed by God to communicate truth to our minds. Ray noted that Edwards was mindful of God in the theater of nature, and Andy mentioned how he found Edwards a good balance to his reaction against over-spiritualization (a reaction we've probably all had to the excess of "God moments" zealous naivete often sees). </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="yiv1134717252Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I asked which examples of Edwards were particularly compelling. Several favorites were the jealous love of a husband as particularly reflective of the love of Christ for the church (no. 32), the customs of triumphant Roman armies as a picture of Christ's triumphant entry into heaven (no. 81), and the height of the heavens above the earth that shows the surpassing worth of heavenly pleasures compared to earthly ones. Daniel, Andy, and Ray commented that Edwards extended the the Reformed understanding of the sacraments to all of creation...small "s" sacraments, that is. I sat and learned.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="yiv1134717252Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Andy admitted he was challenged to greater wakefulness by Edwards' example; as professional religious people, we're often like Eli with Hannah, Zechariah (father of John the Baptist) with the angel in the temple, and the woman in prayer with Peter at the gate in Acts. Did someone mention Mary and Martha with Jesus, too? I.e., we're so caught up in our habitual service that we become myopic and miss the presence and works of God that are right in front of us. Ray said the three of them should write sermons on those texts and "take this on the road". I'd go to that revival. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="yiv1134717252Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I'll apply that by confessing that as we discussed these things, I was distracted by three things I was trying to do, all Martha-like: finish the reading (it was only 2 pages, but still...), write out some good questions for discussion, and take notes on what was being said. If Edwards had been with us, he'd have said that my distraction was a type of the very thing we were discussing: I was distracted from the grace of exchanging ideas by my anxiety to make sure I had all my ideas organized for the exchange. I'm not sure what he'd say about the fact that I was delayed to the meeting because I lost my wallet at my sister's house in Charleston; I'd actually put it in my travel kit so I wouldn't lose it...we should come up with a name for this phenomenon. How about "perfectionistic irony"? I for one am persuaded that God often speaks in this manner providentially, that he accompanies insight into his written word with corresponding illustrations, often in our immediate circumstances. I mentioned the presence of a deer in the grocery store a few weeks back when I'd been pondering "I adjure you by the gazelles or does of the field..." in Song of Songs. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="yiv1134717252Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Okay, this is no longer brief. Daniel asked if Edwards presupposed or predicted Van Tilian presuppositionalism. Ray mentioned that for communists, looking at the material world often broke them of their atheism. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="yiv1134717252Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="yiv1134717252Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Definitely some good trajectories of thought to explore further. Here are some others that I had in mind that the river of our collective thoughts avoided:</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">1. Is Edwards correct in thinking this way? Why/not? Edwards may be the father of American Evangelicalism, but he's not our pope, so let's think critically about his ideas. Maybe we can do this by picking the example that made us laugh the loudest as we read. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">2. Edwards mentions in no. 95 that the cursing of the serpent in crawling in the dust represents the curse on the devil, and thus "proves that outward things are ordered as they be, to that end that they might be images of spiritual things" (88). This raises some questions of enormous importance in my mind...If the serpent and devil in Gen 3 are an example of type and antitype conjoining, is there a pattern or rule to when type and antitype conjoin in Scripture? (Edwards also mentions the sunrise/set with the death and resurrection of Christ, pp. 64-65, no. 50, nt. 2. maybe others too). Also, is <span style="font-style: italic;">everything</span> in Eden typical and sacramental? It seems at least the trees, the serpent, Adam's sin, and Adam and Eve's nakedness are. That is, they're both literal and representing deeper spiritual things. Or perhaps in Eden there was a kind of hyper-typical nature to all of these things, so that what we perceive as "types" of spiritual things actually <span style="font-style: italic;">were </span>(pre-fall) the very things they would later typify. Curious in this light and in view of Edwards' thoughts on rivers (p. 77, no. 77, which numbers seem to typify the perfection of the analogy of God's providence) is the fact that the river out of Eden splits into four rivers typical of God's presence as the fountain of life before the fall (as opposed to rivers joining and flowing into the sea/streams of providence joining to flow into God after the fall)? Just a thought, but if that is true, are the trees and river and etc. in the new heavens and earth also restored to their (hyper?) typical/sacramental nature? Does this get at the "groaning" of creation subject to futility in Romans 8? I.e., is the futility, in part, that it no longer bears this sacramental nature? </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Also interesting in this connection are the mention of Jesus' side as proof to Thomas and his breathing on them in Jn 20, in light of God's creation of man by breathing into his nostrils, and woman from the side of man. Edwards p. 70-71, nos. 62-63 got me thinking this way. </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">3. p. 57, no. 26, Edwards says of Jesus' use of a tree known by its fruit as "not merely mentioned as illustrations of his meaning, but as illustrations and <span style="font-style: italic;">evidences of the truth of what he says</span>" (emphasis mine). Are there other examples of this in Scripture? No. 7 seems to be similar re: 1 Cor 15:36</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div id="yui_3_2_0_1_13252081306411160" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">4. page 74, no. 70, By types in creation "we may as it were hear God speaking to us." Should we then follow Edwards' lead as a kind of spiritual discipline? <span id="yui_3_2_0_1_13252081306411159" style="font-size: 10pt;">In light of no. 77, the river as God's providence, what is typified by a tree planted by streams of water (Ps. 1)? Does day and night meditation on the word lead to a greater connection to the streams of providence in our lives, so that we do truly see correlation between peculiar turns of providence and objective truth we see in the word, and thus hear God speaking to us, as Edwards says? </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">5. page 80, no. 78: the course of sap/life in trees is reverse of the flow of water in rivers, which represents the providence of God in the church in giving life through the trunk of Christ. Edwards doesn't mention my thought from point 4 above, but could it be that the church is a macro-example of what we are to be individually? I.e., specially favored by providence (cf. Eph 1, called according to his purpose who works all things...) to hear God speaking in Christ and Scripture, and for the word we hear to correspond with the collective force of God's word to us in <span style="font-style: italic;">everything </span>we've experienced. That thought needs better words. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">6. page 85, no. 85: sunrise as both resurrection and the Gospel dispensation. What then of multiple senses applied to one object? So too seas/lakes are God's wrath (nos. 27, 64), and in relation to rivers, God himself (no. 77). What up with that?</span></div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-7493248826722002672011-12-26T00:19:00.000-05:002011-12-26T00:19:23.575-05:00The Light Shines in the Darkness...In my more puritanical days, I was at best ambivalent about the observation of Christmas on December 25, and at worst cynical. This was because, in all likelihood, Jesus was not born on December 25. In addition, many of the traditions now associated with the observation of Christmas have pagan origins, and those whom I looked to as theological forebears were opposed to Catholic holy days. Charles Spurgeon expresses this view well in the first half of this paragraph from a sermon preached December 23, 1855:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This is the season of the year when, whether we wish it or not, we are compelled to think of the birth of Christ. I hold it to be one of the greatest absurdities under heaven to think that there is any religion in keeping Christmas-day. There are no probabilities whatever that our Saviour Jesus Christ was born on that day, and the observance of it is purely of Popish origin; doubtless those who are </span></span><br />
<a href="http://www.gbc-sd.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Spurgeon1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="http://www.gbc-sd.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Spurgeon1.png" width="400" /></a><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Catholics have a right to hallow it, but <i><b>I do not see how consistent Protestants can account it in the least sacred</b></i>. However, I wish there were ten or a dozen Christmas-days in the year; for there is work enough in the world, and a little more rest would not hurt labouring people. Christmas-day is really a boon to us; particularly as it enables us to assemble round the family hearth and meet our friends once more. Still, although we do not fall exactly in the track of other people, I see no harm in thinking of the incarnation and birth of the Lord Jesus. (emphasis mine. HT: <a href="http://www.challies.com/quotes/a-bethlehem-in-your-heart">Tim Challies</a>)</span></span></blockquote>
This view is not without biblical warrant either, depending on how we interpret texts such as these:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:16-17)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. (Galatians 4:9-11)</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CslMv3dDSzA/Tvf3vf0yucI/AAAAAAAAAMk/8pDdPEwQRnw/s1600/Star+of+Bethlehem+reader.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CslMv3dDSzA/Tvf3vf0yucI/AAAAAAAAAMk/8pDdPEwQRnw/s320/Star+of+Bethlehem+reader.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">presenting the treasures of Kidger's book, Christmas 2004</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
For a few years in the early 2000s, though I didn't spread tidings of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3XsnSEMock">"Bah! Humbug!"</a>, I was rather stoic about the remembrance of Jesus' birth on December 25. Nevertheless, or perhaps because of this, I was intrigued to study the origins of Christmas. My interest in astronomy already made me an observer of equinoxes and solstices, first in choosing those dates to cut my hair or shave my beard, and later with solstice parties, especially the winter solstice. For several years at Christmas I had a fascination with astronomical theories about the star of Bethlehem. I was glad to find that several professional astronomers had researched the matter and proposed plausible theories. As I remember now, the best book I read on the matter concluded that it was a conjunction of several planets in a constellation that was somehow associated with the Jewish nation. It was Mark Kidger's <i><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=_ISv1gPQJV4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+star+of+bethlehem&hl=en&sa=X&ei=evb3Ttu5BYfHtgfVtcXPBg&ved=0CEIQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=the%20star%20of%20bethlehem&f=false">The Star of Bethlehem: An Astronomer's View</a></i>; I also read some of Michael Molnar's <i><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=GXUTibYxdDcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+star+of+bethlehem&hl=en&sa=X&ei=evb3Ttu5BYfHtgfVtcXPBg&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=the%20star%20of%20bethlehem&f=false">The Star of Bethlehem</a></i>. I don't recall if I finished either of the books, as is my custom, but they were both great reads. Recently I came across a more thorough explanation of the <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/search/Genesis+1%3A14%3B+Joel+2%3A30-31/">"signs in the heavens"</a> surrounding both the birth and death of Jesus. Rick Larson, who is a doctor by profession and an amateur astronomer, makes a compelling case:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL4C803CFCAA33623C&hl=en_US" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
My former practice at solstice parties was to show <i>It's A Wonderful Life</i>. When my first attempt to show the film at a solstice party in Rock Hill was overruled in favor of a Jim Carrey slapstick, I decided maybe I'm the only one who cares to celebrate the solstice, or watch sappy Jimmy Stewart movies, or maybe both. So after 2005, I observed the solstice and watched my favorite movie alone, which probably saved me from a good deal of embarrassment since I tend to tear up a few dozen times every time I watch it. In spite of this, it's not a good movie to watch alone, because it concludes with a message that "no man is a failure who has friends." What a letdown. After identifying so much with George Bailey, the frustrated idealist who never gets to pursue his dreams, I looked around at the end of the movie and felt like I had no friends. But in the darkness of self-pity I started to ask questions, and that's when light dawned on a much deeper significance to George Bailey's character. Not only that, but pursuing that line of thought has led me to a new understanding of the significance of this time of year that persuades me that we <i>should </i>celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25. That will have to wait for another post; for now I'll let you laugh at my hokey tastes in film.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-72336480535807444582011-12-10T01:25:00.000-05:002011-12-10T13:42:15.639-05:00A Broken RecordAs the calendar goes, yesterday I was a third of a century old. It was a typical day I suppose. While packing a box with newspaper at work, I came across Peggy Noonan's column from the April 30 Wall Street Journal: <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704463804576291513299466454.html">"Make John Paul II a Saint"</a>. I was intrigued that he was laid to rest April 8, 2005, which by the calendar was exactly 6 and 2/3 years ago. Speaking of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LP_album">33 and 1/3</a>, I'm turning into a broken record with all my talk about threes, but I figure this would be a good time to <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/11/stranger-than-fiction.html">finish my thoughts</a> on the significance of the number three as it's been repeatedly brought to my attention this year. I feel like I'm giving an academic lecture on an episode of Sesame Street. Maybe so. I'm just trying to understand and explain what I've seen. My understanding is based on the belief that God is both infinite and personal, and that He has spoken and continues to speak. He's spoken primarily and most clearly in His Son as He is presented in Scripture, but He also speaks continually, though not as definitively, through creation and providence and conscience. Apparently God has given me the ability (or handicap, depending on which way I look at it) to spatially perceive numbers, dates, and many quantifiable aspects of reality, and it seems He's chosen to speak to me through them of late.<br />
<br />
What's He saying? I don't know, but I have theories. Most generally, it seems the number three in some sense reflects the nature of God, in that He exists eternally in three distinct persons who are nevertheless of one being or substance. The Trinity is a mystery that can't be fully grasped by finite human minds, and there's no adequate analogy we can devise to illustrate Him. But it seems to me that the nature of the number three, while not <i>illustrating</i> the Trinity, correlates with God's triune nature in peculiar ways. First, the nature of a third: it is an endlessly repeating number (.3333...) in which each digit calls attention to the nature of the whole from which it came. Each of the three parts is an endless string of "threeness", if you will. To be clear, the Father, Son, and Spirit are <i>not </i>"parts" of God; the one essence of God is not divided between the three persons. But the correlation between thirds and the nature of the Trinity lies in their infinity: at no point could the decimal end or change to a two or four and still be a third; and in their reflection of the whole: just as the Father, Son, and Spirit eternally <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/search/John+16%3A13-15%3B+17%3A1-5/">glorify each other</a>, so each of these thirds endlessly "glorifies" the "threeness" of the whole. <br />
<br />
Of course, this only works in base ten, and that we use base ten is only due to the fact that we "happen" to have ten fingers and ten toes. Perhaps, but interesting things also happen in other bases: 1/3 in binary, which would be expressed 1/11, equals <a href="http://www.csgnetwork.com/binmultdivcalc.html">.010101</a>...; in base 3, .1; in base 4, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1RNCN_enUS324&aq=f&gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=1%2F3+base+4#pq=1%2F3+base+four&hl=en&sugexp=eqn&cp=39&gs_id=5t&xhr=t&q=.25%2B.0625%2B.015625%2B.00390625%2B.0009765625&tok=_sfhbk3024ASdVWIaAPBFw&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&rlz=1C1RNCN_enUS324&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=.25%2B.0625%2B.015625%2B.00390625%2B.0009765625&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=c68993b7b411a584&biw=1024&bih=653">.11111</a>... (link shows 1/4+1/16+1/64+1/256+1/1024, which are the base ten equivalents of the first five decimal places in base four); in base 5, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1RNCN_enUS324&gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=1%2F16#pq=1%2F16&hl=en&sugexp=eqn&cp=44&gs_id=7i&xhr=t&q=.2%2B.04%2B.04%2B.04%2B.008%2B.0016%2B.0016%2B.0016%2B.00032&tok=FMXap2QCnPtBvqIYfw3DDQ&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&rlz=1C1RNCN_enUS324&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=.2%2B.04%2B.04%2B.04%2B.008%2B.0016%2B.0016%2B.0016%2B.00032&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=c68993b7b411a584&biw=1024&bih=653">.131313</a>...; in base 6, .2; in base 7, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1RNCN_enUS324&gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=.0204081633#pq=.0204081633&hl=en&sugexp=eqn&cp=69&gs_id=4v&xhr=t&q=.142857143%2B.142857143%2B.0204081633%2B.0204081633%2B.0029154519%2B.0029154519&tok=MZ5wd3qRU1rYwGF2fqfAow&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&rlz=1C1RNCN_enUS324&source=hp&pbx=1&oq=.142857143%2B.142857143%2B.0204081633%2B.0204081633%2B.0029154519%2B.0029154519&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=c68993b7b411a584&biw=1024&bih=653">.22222</a>...; in base 8, <a href="https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1RNCN_enUS324&aq=f&gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=.125%2B.125#sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&rlz=1C1RNCN_enUS324&source=hp&q=.125%2B.125%2B.015625%2B.015625%2B.015625%2B.015625%2B.015625%2B.001953125%2B.001953125%2B.000244140625%2B.000244140625%2B.000244140625%2B.000244140625%2B.000244140625&pbx=1&oq=.125%2B.125%2B.015625%2B.015625%2B.015625%2B.015625%2B.015625%2B.001953125%2B.001953125%2B.000244140625%2B.000244140625%2B.000244140625%2B.000244140625%2B.000244140625&aq=f&aqi=&aql=1&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=25690l31189l16l33287l4l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=c68993b7b411a584&biw=1024&bih=653">.252525</a>...; in base 9, .3. A question that I'm curious to investigate is whether there is any integer <i>n</i> less than 10 such that 1/<i>n</i> in <i>any </i>base yields a value of .<i>nnnnnn...</i>. I'm thinking there's not, but I'm not sure. My brain is starting to hurt. All of this makes me want to study number theory, but only a little. And I'm glad that we all have ten fingers.<br />
<br />
More specifically, it seems that God has spoken through the conspicuous appearance of threes to alert me to His providential guidance of my life. In my post summarizing the odd numeric occurrences, I forgot to mention how clearly I was reminded of this the day after my accident in September. When my friend Noreen had a very serious accident in June, I <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/06/back-in-saddle-rolling-through-hood-and.html">mentioned</a> the comfort for riding on dangerous roads I find in the truth expressed in the Heidelberg Catechism:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b style="background-color: white; color: #1a222a;">1. Q. What is your only comfort in life and death?</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #1a222a;">A. That I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Savior Jesus Christ; who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and delivered me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation, wherefore by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready, henceforth, to live unto him.</span></blockquote>
<div>
It was <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/09/crooked-shall-become-strait.html">no small comfort</a> to me on Sunday, September 11, when we read this confession of faith as I was still stiff and sore from the previous day's wreck. I believed that truth in June, but in September I saw it. And it seemed clear that my frustrations that culminated in the accident were a pattern of providence calling me to focus on other things, particularly whether my interest in theology and biblical studies was to become a vocation again rather than just a hobby.<br />
<br />
Until now I've not written about another theme that's been intertwined with the conspicuous numbers. What I didn't say before about my contract negotiation with Paul over pancakes was that I was distracted the whole time we talked by insights I wanted to share from the Old Testament. I couldn't stop talking about Elisha and Isaac as types of Jesus; the fact that he was buying me a bike was relatively boring news. About six months later, I returned to the same IHOP and sat across from Dick Belcher of <a href="http://www.rts.edu/">RTS</a> to learn about doctoral studies at <a href="http://www.wts.edu/">Westminster Theological Seminary</a>. During our conversation, into the restaurant walked Denis Regan, who in November 2007 bought a Litespeed from the bike shop and turned that job from a temporary stop gap into a potential career. I went back to the same IHOP Thursday October 13, 33 days after my accident, where Paul and I again discussed the things of the Lord after a <a href="http://birdandkey.blogspot.com/2011/10/on-beauty-event-friday-arts-project.html">brilliant lecture</a> from Kirk Irwin on the nature of beauty, which concluded with the suggestion that beauty is the intersection of truth, goodness, mystery, and <i>timing</i>. Fast forward to November 10, when I was facing a decision about which direction to go: bike shop long term, or theology and biblical studies. Through a peculiar combination of illustrative events at work and an epiphany of freedom from the fear of regret, I decided to intentionally head toward theology. I wrote out the reasons in an email in case I should forget, and sent it to myself. A half hour later, the next email into my box was from Associate Pastor Mel Wines asking if I'd like to teach an adult Sunday School class. I've not taught since I finished teaching at WCCS four and a half years ago, and frankly haven't wanted to, but it seemed too clear an open door not to walk through it. I wrote him back and said I'd like to teach. The next day was 11/11/11; I was 33 years, 3 months, 3 days old, and again talking the things of God with saint Paul. After sharing some thoughts on 2 Corinthians 3:18 with him, he said "When you said that, it was like Jesus was saying it to my soul." I'm not Jesus, but took the well-timed encouraging word as an affirmation that maybe God has given me grace for pondering on and communicating His truth.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 4:10-11)</blockquote>
This past Sunday I started teaching. I'm actually really excited about it, at least in part because the class is flowing out of the typological insights I've been pondering all year. I've organized the class around three themes, based on statements from the <a href="http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/nicene.htm">Nicene creed:</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
1. "only begotten Son...before all worlds": types of Christ's Sonship<br />
2. "light of light": types of Christ as light<br />
3. "for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven...": types of Christ's salvific work</blockquote>
I'm also reading volume 11 of the works of Jonathan Edwards with some friends, <i>Typological Writings</i>. I didn't realize it until Ben Carver told me last month, but Edwards thought a lot of the things I've been thinking almost three centuries ago. I'm also wanting to turn some of the ideas I've had into something publishable; maybe a magazine article, maybe a book, and hopefully a journal article. So far, those are the only concrete things I'm pursuing, but I think it's time to start looking at PhD programs. My only hesitation on that is what I really want to study. My B.A. and M.A. are biblical studies, but my recent interests seem to be more along the lines of natural, spiritual, or even mystical theology. If I had my choice, I'd probably become a monk and pursue a life of reclusive contemplation, and maybe do some gardening, pancake making, and writing, but I'm kinda Protestant, so I don't think that'll work.<br />
<br />
I said in my <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/11/stranger-than-fiction.html">last post</a> on these issues that I wanted to reflect on some texts I was reminded of by the seemingly symbolic connection of my accident with my vocation(s). I haven't done much more thinking on them, but what I see going on in this year is what I see going on in the lives of so many biblical characters: God meets them in terms of their deep identity, reflected in their vocations or names (or both), humbles them, even punishes or breaks them, so that they walk away wounded but transformed. This happened to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Paul, and ultimately Jesus, to whom they all point. My favorite example apart from Jesus is Jacob, when he wrestled with the angel.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Genesis 32:22-32)</blockquote>
<br />
Wow. After reading that I realize that I'm still saying "tell me your name" trying to figure everything out, when I need to start walking. I also feel like I have a new limp; I don't have the boldness nor the desire I used to in cycling, but it seems the sun is rising on me. What the new day will bring remains to be seen.<br />
<br /></div>
<div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
</div>
</div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-72414109290850262952011-12-06T00:42:00.001-05:002011-12-06T12:57:01.345-05:00Love is a Black HoleSong of Solomon repeats this warning about love:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>by the gazelles or the does of the field,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>that you not stir up or awaken love<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>until it pleases. (Song of Solomon 2:7; 3:5; cf. 8:4)</blockquote>
Having pondered those words a couple of weeks back, I've been oddly reminded of them since. I've had trouble waking up lately, especially today, when I went to bed early enough but still hit the snooze for a good 90 minutes. At least I made it to work on time, but Saturday I regret how late I slept. A good friend was visiting, and we foolishly stayed up past 3 AM, rambling on about bitter failed relationships. Thinking back in light of the text above, I realized that at least one of my errors was that I awakened love too soon; I jumped in when I should've waited and sought wisdom. My friend planned to wake up at 8:30 to meet another friend for breakfast, and I set my alarm for 9:15 thinking he'd either wake me before leaving or wait until I woke up. When I woke up at 9:15, he was gone without a trace, and actually I haven't heard from him since.<br />
<br />
Sunday night when I picked up some white canned coca-cola classic from Food Lion, a deer was loose in the store, apparently a fawn that had been hit by a car on Herlong Ave. I went to the back of the store to see it, but it was in the back room, and the swinging door was spattered with blood. Police and animal control were there; it was a bizarre scene.<br />
<br />
Why "by the gazelles or the does..."? Why is love compared to a sleeper not to be stirred up? Is prematurely awakened love grumpy? I don't know the answers to these questions. I do know that the other subjects of deer imagery in the song are...interesting. And I know that I have made the mistake numerous times of awakening love prematurely, and the results have been disastrous. <br />
<br />
Tonight I read this New York Times article about the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/science/space/astronomers-find-biggest-black-holes-yet.html?_r=1">discovery of supermassive black holes</a>. It ends thus:<br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Astronomers also think the supermassive black holes in galaxies could be the missing link between the early universe and today. In the early days of the universe, quasars, thought to be powered by giant black holes in cataclysmic feeding frenzies, were fountaining energy into space.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Where are those quasars now? The new work supports a growing suspicion that those formerly boisterous black holes are among us now, but, having stopped their boisterous growth, are sleeping.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Mr. McConnell said, “Our discovery of extremely massive black holes in the largest present-day galaxies suggests that these galaxies could be the ancient remains of voracious ancestors.”</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Let’s try not to awaken them.</span></blockquote>
At first I didn't understand how black holes could power quasars that "fountain" energy into space, but after further reflection I realize that the light and energy put off by the quasar might be from the stars that haven't yet "gone down the drain". But I was struck by the final sentence: "Let's try not to awaken them." It's a joke, of course, but it served to alert me to the possibility that black holes bear some resemblance to love. Solomon or whoever wrote the song wasn't aware of black holes, but he chose something that was to the ancients probably as mysterious and fearful as black holes are to us today:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
for love is strong as death,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>jealousy is fierce as the grave.<br />
Its flashes are flashes of fire,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the very flame of the LORD. (Song of Solomon 8:6)</blockquote>
The word translated "the very flame of the LORD" (yes, that's one word in Hebrew) is <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'SBL Hebrew', Tahoma, Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">שַׁלְהֶ֥בֶתְיָֽה, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">which is also found in Job 15:30: "</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span">he will not depart from darkness; </span><i>the flame</i> will dry up his shoots, and by the breath of his mouth he will depart" (Job 15:30 ESV). The preceding phrase "he will not depart from darkness" is at least interesting in this context of deep space objects with such strong fields of gravity that not even light escapes. And I wonder how much love is like a flame, a hurricane, or a black hole: love pulls together, consumes, makes those under its spell more bright and energetic, yet doesn't reveal its secrets to those who look on from the outside. I think I'll let that one lie.<br />
<br />
As usual, I'm reminded of musical poetry by these thoughts, but I can't decide to go with "won't you wrap the night around me?...love is drowning in a deep well, all the secrets, and no one to tell..." or "the wreckless raging fury that they call the love of God." So I'll go with both. Enjoy.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CkJMVdCG9b4" width="560"></iframe>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/NITX93fvM0A" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-45826800969749909372011-11-27T02:43:00.000-05:002011-11-28T03:30:42.323-05:00Stranger than Fiction<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
One of my previous<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/10/creative-riding.html">posts</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>on the analogy of writing and riding
is a chip off the old block of ideas contained in this one. I say “old block” not
just to use the figure of speech; I’ve been pondering these ideas for months,
and I still don’t fully understand them. But I want to attempt to tie together
some threads I left loose over the past few months: <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/10/god-once-spoke-through-mouth-of-ass.html">my
continued sense</a> of God's providence in the circumstances of my riding,
and <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/10/rough-places-plain.html">why
I was reminded</a> that Christ fulfilled Isaiah's vision of <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: Philosopher;">the
rough places becoming a plain (Isaiah 40:4) by some road work where I crashed. </span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
I started this blog thinking I'd write about riding every road in
the county, and titled it as I did because I figured it would also include some
detached ivory tower-type thoughts about God and spirituality. But shortly after I started the blog, I realized in a fresh way
that cycling, especially in its more competitive forms, is a striking metaphor of
Christian spiritual pilgrimage: suffering that leads to glory lies at the heart
of both. Then I thought to use this metaphor as a paradigm for reflection and
writing, but now I find the metaphor coming to life, and myself as a character in
the story.<br />
<br />
W<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">hen I set the goal to ride every road in the county, I had in the back of my mind several quasi-spiritual
motivations. Among them were a desire to do something definitive
as a means to consider Jesus in my 33<sup>rd</sup> year (the 33 part will
become significant below), and a desire to serve as a symbolic peacemaker
between local cyclists and motorists. I figured that if God has given me
special favor in cycling, so that I’m more comfortable than most riding in
traffic, I'll put that to use and serve other cyclists by riding all the roads,
both to show other riders that it can be done safely, and to show motorists
that bicycles belong on the road. I wrote<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/a-violent-peace/">abstractly
about this motivation</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>in
April: "</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe the way we make peace between enemies is by
'killing the hostility' by absorbing it into ourselves, the way Jesus did when
he lovingly absorbed the sin of the world and the wrath of God into
himself." I didn’t intend to put myself in harm’s way, but to assume the
same risk I have in my zany riding goals the past few years, only this time
with a purpose bigger than my desire to triumph over my car’s odometer.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: inherit;">The spring went well; I made
good progress at systematically working my way around the county, neighborhood
by neighborhood. I enjoyed tracking my progress too, fascinated as I am by
maps. I took a few weeks off in May and June to move into a new home, and
when I returned to riding after the solstice, I started to feel doubtful about
my goal. I loved the challenge, but it was eating into more important parts of
my life. During a family vacation on 4<sup>th</sup> of July weekend, I had time
to reflect, and the prospect of abandoning the goal seemed more sensible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: inherit;">But when I returned to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Rock Hill</st1:place></st1:city>, with one ride I was swept up in the pursuit once again. On the same ride, I also gained insight into myself that in hindsight highlights the sense I've had all year of being torn between competing callings. I even <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/07/on-top-of-world.html">wrote about it</a>, and was quite excited about it, but didn't think it called for any change of course necessarily. But then the hang-ups with the riding endeavor became more tangible, accompanied by odd numerical occurrences and conspicuous reminders of Scriptural themes. When I try to tell people these things in conversation, I find the thoughts too complex to express verbally. Perhaps it would help to list them by category. First the physical obstacles, then the numerical oddities, and last the reminders of Scripture.</span><br />
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W7U7uVuqA38/TtHgVUy3IpI/AAAAAAAAAL8/z1u8T_8Wvm4/s1600/IMG_7840.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-W7U7uVuqA38/TtHgVUy3IpI/AAAAAAAAAL8/z1u8T_8Wvm4/s320/IMG_7840.JPG" width="258" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Don't play with cracked carbon" -R. Davis</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: inherit;">One by one, all the elements involved in my endeavor gave out on me:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Computer: My laptop is 2005-style obsolete, and Google Earth had been overloaded for a while, but soon after I returned from our mountain retreat, the computer grew extra sluggish. In my frustration I paid $250 for the services of mycleanpc.com, which was a total waste. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">GPS: During a test run of the Garmin battery in July, I accumulated a week's worth of rides, many of them on new roads, only to find my computer wouldn’t recognize the device when I tried to upload them. That meant hours of manual mapping if I wanted to record the progress I made. I did it, but with great frustration and loss of riding time.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Riding itself: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">On July 31, I rode in 24 hours of Booty, the 2nd big event I'd aimed at for the year</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">. The lead-up to it was stressful as I struggled in vain to get in long training rides. The weather forecast for triple-digit heat during the event was foreboding, and my ride was disappointing; I didn’t come close to the 483 km I rode last year. My goal was 500 km and I ended with a meager 353. </span></li>
<li>Bike: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Afterwards, I took another week off to recover from the depleting effort. My first ride back, the best bike-handler I know hit me from behind in a fluke accident while we rolled around an intersection re-grouping. </span></li>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P9yj0VVBm4E/TtHelOSZ8CI/AAAAAAAAAL0/54zhA44rHQE/s1600/crunch.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P9yj0VVBm4E/TtHelOSZ8CI/AAAAAAAAAL0/54zhA44rHQE/s320/crunch.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">8 days later my phone wasn't too bad off</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Phone: I got a new frame, and six days later took it on its first long ride. I was texting at a stoplight when the light turned green, had to roll with the phone still in my hand, hit a pothole, and dropped it. This was the intersection of Cherry and Celanese, the two busiest roads in Rock Hill; good luck retrieving that one. Dozens of pictures I'd taken on my rides were lost. </span></li>
</ul>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">When I returned from that ride, I learned that an earthquake had struck Virginia while I was out, which capped off a truly strange day. But upon further reflection, I realized something even more strange. The first of the numeric oddities occurred on March 11, which was also the date of the massive earthquake in Japan. The number 33 has shown up in my experiences almost as if on cue...</span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
</div>
<ul>
<li>The "pro contract": My good friend Paul Sutton presented the idea to "sponsor" me by buying me a bike. We joked after striking our deal that I was now a professional cyclist, something I dreamed of for most of my adolescence. Afterward, I realized that he proposed the idea on 3/11/11 at 11 PM, and that as we discussed it, I passed through the 3rd hour and 33rd minute of the 33rd day of the second half of my 33rd year of life. Upon re-calculation months later, I realized it was only the 32nd day, if February 8th is taken as the beginning of the second half of my birth year. But 182.5 days (exactly half a year) from August 8 at 8:46 pm is actually February 7 at 8:46 am, so it turns out I was 32.5 years, 32.5 days, and 3.25 hours old at 12:01 AM 3/12/11, when Paul and I were striking the deal over pancakes. </li>
<li>Lust for miles at the Booty ride: I passed through 333.3 km after 12 hours, 12 minutes of ride time, a very biblically complete number, and I thought to call it a day. When I pressed on to get maximum miles, I wound up with 13 hours, 37 seconds of riding, an average heart rate of 130, and 13th place in the hill climb portion of the ride. I'm not superstitious about the number 13, but that's almost enough to tempt me.</li>
<li>The frame-cracker ride: the collision happened 60 hours to the minute before I turned 33 years old. </li>
<li>After the dropped phone ride and the earthquake, I toured Fort Mill on the way back from Charlotte, and unintentionally finished the ride after 3 hours, zero minutes, zero seconds of riding time. The elapsed time was 3:33:03. I'd taken 33 minutes and 3 seconds to get a drink and a new phone. </li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Tega Cay Day: I rode every road in Tega Cay Sunday, 9/4, the longest and most crooked ride I've done this year. A customer popped into the store as John and I prepared to go, and though we were closed, he purchased a bike, the price of which after tax was $333.83. I finished the day with 99.93 miles. </span></li>
</ul>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">It was on this ride that Scriptural texts corresponding to my riding experiences became most conspicuous, in part because circumstances had brought to my attention many </span>texts with the theme of straight paths.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zGolvn2OFzA/TtHkQYQiSqI/AAAAAAAAAMU/4jRtndgZhKc/s1600/297193_10150261745288231_501708230_7801843_3882732_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="254" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zGolvn2OFzA/TtHkQYQiSqI/AAAAAAAAAMU/4jRtndgZhKc/s320/297193_10150261745288231_501708230_7801843_3882732_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Oh Boy! At last a bike that fits!"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">By the time of the accident that cracked the frame, I was thoroughly frustrated by all the setbacks. I got a replacement frame and was particularly excited after building it up because it was the first time in more than six years I was on a properly sized frame. This was August 16. On the 17th I took it for its first ride in a team time trial at Charlotte Motor Speedway, and the seatpost slipped. As I examined it afterwards I discovered a crack in the seatpost itself. "What next?" I thought. While working on it that night, I was listening to the Bible, as I sometimes do, and though much of it went in one ear and out the other, this cut to the heart: "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px;">When you discipline a man </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">with rebukes for sin, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px; text-align: left;">you consume like a moth what is dear to him" (Psalm 39:11). Ouch. I wasn't sure what my sin was, but that rang true. </span> </span></span></li>
<li>The more I thought about it, the more the idea of God's discipline seemed to fit my circumstances. I knew cycling had been occupying too much of my attention and time. I wasn't sleeping well, eating well, working well, the house was a mess, the yard even worse, my bank account yet worse; I was undisciplined and careless in every area of my life except riding all the roads and recording them. </li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">With this in mind, I turned to what is probably the best known Bible passage related to the Lord's discipline, Hebrews 12. "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us... It is for discipline that you have to endure... Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed" (Heb 12:1,7,12-13). I was gripped by v. 12: "make straight paths for your feet", and began to meditate on other texts with similar theme: "ponder (or "make level") the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure" (Prov 4:26-27); "In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths" (Prov 3:6).</span></li>
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Then came Tega Cay Day. I was stoked about the hilly course and to be knocking out so many roads in one day. As I considered the crooked and undulating course for the day, the sermon text for the morning service at church was strangely fitting: Mark 1:3: "Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths <i>straight</i>." At first I was tempted by the superstitious thought that God was speaking to me about my ride plan for the day, but as I rode, more light was given on the words from Mark 1. Mark was quoting Isaiah, who follows the call to "prepare the way" with a promise: "</span>Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain" (Isaiah 40:4). Forget my bike riding plans, how was this fulfilled? Didn't Jesus lift up our valleys and smooth our rough places by walking through them? Turn our suffering into the loving discipline of our Father to make us like our older brother (Rom 8:17; Heb 12:7; 5:8), and turn the ultimate enemy death into a friend by tasting death for all of us (Heb 2:9)? In that sense, was riding every road more deeply symbolic of Christ and what He accomplished in his incarnation and humiliation than I first intended or realized? The thought was so fleeting that I could hardly remember it after the ride, but other reminders seemed to present themselves...</li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Six days after riding every road in Tega Cay, I set out to finish off all the paved roads on the opposite end of the county. I was joined by three friends in what was to be a 78 mile venture. 68 miles in, I was taking a drink when I realized too late I was headed for a ridge in the pavement and a pothole. I had enough time to realize it would be sketchy, but not enough time to react and put my hand on the bars. Thankfully I landed on my back and my bike was unharmed. As I reflected on the accident afterwards, I realized the circumstances were stranger than fiction. I was 33 years and 33 days old, I wrecked on Strait Rd. wearing socks with "let us run with endurance the race set before us" (Heb 12) stitched into the sole. All three themes of broken bike parts, the number 3, and Scriptures related to discipline and straight paths converged in a most remarkable way. </div>
<div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6aEZcghiqiU/TtHDHUL6vMI/AAAAAAAAALc/5hObnQgg0jY/s1600/receipt.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6aEZcghiqiU/TtHDHUL6vMI/AAAAAAAAALc/5hObnQgg0jY/s320/receipt.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I may be nuts, but eleven threes kinda stood out</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>
<div>
I've already written about this several times, but the more I ponder it, the more strange it gets. I mentioned above that I perceived in the repeated reminders of "straight paths" a call to be more disciplined and responsible in taking care of myself and my house. When I bought ingredients to cook a meal September 23, the first time in months I'd made something other than a sandwich or cereal for dinner, the grocery store receipt was $33.03 before tax, which means $.33 tax, for a total of $33.36.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a26E5cFSAxk/TtHNb1Pe9qI/AAAAAAAAALk/lupbKBmzRzY/s1600/standing+where+I+fell.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-a26E5cFSAxk/TtHNb1Pe9qI/AAAAAAAAALk/lupbKBmzRzY/s320/standing+where+I+fell.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Standing on a street called Strait</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
A week later I returned to the scene of the accident and found the whole that wrecked me filled in, which reminded me of the insight I had on Tega Cay day and seemed to be enough of a symbolic confirmation that I decided to <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/10/rough-places-plain.html">write about it</a>. I didn't mention this before, but the stats of that ride were peculiar too: <a href="http://app.strava.com/rides/1821846">Strava</a> said I climbed 1033 feet and hit 32.9 mph, though <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/118399445">Garmin</a> said 555 feet and 33.3 mph max, but both gave avg heart rate of 144, max 177 (do the subtraction). I'm not a numerologist, I promise. I'm not predicting the future with any of this, just observing. I have some theories about the spiritual significance of these things in light of my unusual sensitivity to numbers, but that will have to wait for another post. For now, here's something to ponder: "even the hairs of your head are all <i>numbered</i>" (Matthew 10:30).<br />
<br />
The latest thing to strike me is the significance of the first thing that struck me when I fell: my keys. They were in the back pocket that cushioned my landing. Actually they didn't cushion it; they made it much worse. I'm still healing up from that one. A bike accident is obviously significant for someone who makes his living from bicycles, but what is probably not as obvious is that my night job is locking doors. So I fell off my main source of income and landed on the other source of my income. Odd. Here are some texts I'll be chewing on for my next post in which I'll reflect more on this: Genesis 3:17; 17:5; 22:16-18; 32:22-32; maybe Colossians 1:24 and Romans 8:17-23 too. </div>
</div>
<br />
In light of these things, Bob Dylan's "Every Grain of Sand" has grown more meaningful to me. Emmylou Harris does it best, I think. <iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/AUf-D749rWA" width="560"></iframe>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-84533748437952840242011-11-24T18:10:00.001-05:002011-11-24T23:36:51.688-05:00Trying to be ThankfulFor the first time in my life, I spent Thanksgiving alone. I decided not to travel to Columbia to see my family. For reasons I can't explain here, it would've meant visiting them in a restaurant and a hotel, and selfish idealism got the better of me. It was so far from "home for the holidays" that I wanted no part of it. My family actually were more okay with it than I was; I felt miserable all day and they were the ones reassuring me. As is often the case in the months of long shadow and gloom, long anticipated gatherings of family or friends often suddenly and violently lose their appeal to me as I'm getting ready or on the way, and I recoil and stay home sulking. I know I'm wrong to do it, but it's better than sulking in a crowd, which I do quite well given half a chance. If you're thinking "this man needs professional help," you're right, and I have it. It helps; it doesn't fix. <br />
<br />
I intentionally rode south of town to where a tornado struck last week, killing three people and destroying several homes. I stopped on the side of Williamson Rd., where I could see the site of the mobile home in which two people died, and a swath of downed trees and the charred ground where homes once stood. I considered how much the victims lost, and how much I have to be thankful for. I was rebuked, but not broken. My heart is as hard as the barren ground scoured by the storm. What an elusive thing gratitude seems to me right now; seeking it directly doesn't seem to be working, so I think I'll stop. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P3smO8mQMcw/Ts7Y8EzORXI/AAAAAAAAAK8/waHEw9ztnvE/s1600/image+%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P3smO8mQMcw/Ts7Y8EzORXI/AAAAAAAAAK8/waHEw9ztnvE/s400/image+%25283%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanksgiving with Nebuchadnezzar and friends</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I passed by the Courtneys' house and said a prayer for them. There were a lot of lookers driving around the area. After crossing the cotton fields near Mobley Store and turning back toward town, I stopped when I saw some beautiful cows. They were close, and I scrambled to get a picture of them, but by the time I'd retrieved my camera, they'd bolted away, and I scared the piss out of one of them. I thought for a minute or two about that. "The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth..." (Gen 9:2). Why is that? Beyond the fact that "every moving thing that lives shall be food for you..." (9:3), what does that signify? I'm channeling Edwards here, thinking typologically. I considered Psalm 8, "You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field" (Psalm 8:6-7). Nothing dawned on me, so I asked the question, threw a leg over the bike, and kept riding. Now that I'm home, though, I think there might be more to ponder in the phrase at the end of Gen 9:2 "Into your hand they are delivered" and the New Testament's application of "all things under his feet" to Christ's lordship over all things including death (1 Cor 15:25-28; Heb 2:5-9). Hands and feet and animals and death and Jesus. What's that all about? Not sure, but I'm pretty sure there's a goldmine just under the surface where those texts converge.<br />
<br />
I wanted to ride back by the site of the worst damage and get a picture. I'd refrained on my first pass because I thought it would be insensitive, but I saw a section of forest away from the homes damaged that I thought I could capture, so I looped back around on S Rambo and 324, where I passed this: <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8f5IKOBLGlA/Ts7ZC4DnqZI/AAAAAAAAALM/bk41OxhfD24/s1600/image+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8f5IKOBLGlA/Ts7ZC4DnqZI/AAAAAAAAALM/bk41OxhfD24/s640/image+%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
What struck me was the thought <i>be</i>ing thankful, not just giving thanks. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Like the NIV's mistranslation of James 1:22 "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." Just <i>do</i> it, huh? Trouble is that's <i>not</i> what it says.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; text-align: center;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'SBL Greek', Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">Γίνεσθε δὲ ποιηταὶ λόγου καὶ μὴ μόνον ἀκροαταὶ παραλογιζόμενοι ἑαυτούς.</span> Wow, after looking up </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'SBL Greek', Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif;"><a href="http://concordances.org/greek/1096.htm">Γίνεσθε</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'SBL Greek', Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I feel even more strongly. "Become"; it signifies a change of condition, state, or place. Literally it reads "Become (but) doers of word and not only hearers deceiving yourselves." </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">No lie I had an argument about this with an imagined opponent as I rode away from the sign. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">If you ever wonder why I'm so quiet on bike rides, it's not because I'm not talking, it's just I'm talking to people only I can hear. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Okay, so what's the big deal? "Become a doer of the word" or "do the word" are saying the same thing. Isn't it just semantics? I've already written plenty <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/11/impossibility-of-doing-good-with-bad.html">here</a> and <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/11/throwing-my-baggage-under-bus.html">here</a> trying to prove the point that it's closer to life and death than it is to semantics. We don't change the fruit on a tree by stapling store-bought apples onto the tree, we give the tree good soil and water and light. I'm thankful for my friend Ellen's advice to <i>cultivate</i> thankfulness through <i>mindfulness</i>. I'm still struggling with my mind's tendency to see all glasses half-empty, but at least the demon is named and I can fight the battle where it rages. </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I rode back to the site of the worst damage. You can see the trees broken and stripped of leaves in the center. </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DvA4fwrCoxc/Ts7ZBZ3blHI/AAAAAAAAALE/w9d7pH-UKro/s1600/image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DvA4fwrCoxc/Ts7ZBZ3blHI/AAAAAAAAALE/w9d7pH-UKro/s640/image.jpg" width="640" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">You can also see my shadow, which I didn't notice, the same way I didn't notice that I was being watched as I captured this. I turned around and saw a man and woman sitting in their carport with several cars, but nothing but a few bulldozers where their house once was, and a smoldering fire consuming the last of the rubble. I was embarrassed. I didn't want to treat their suffering as a spectacle for my curiosity, even if dozens of cars per minute were doing just that, but I'd been caught. I stood there for a minute feeling uncomfortable, and then waved. Actually I think they waved first. I rolled onto the pavement, and the woman said "You can hardly recognize it, huh?" </span></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">"Yeah." </span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"Glad y'all weren't riding out here that night; it came through about the time y'all normally do." </span></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I talked to them for a few minutes, trying to show some measure of appropriate sympathy, but it wasn't much use. How do you console someone you just met who's sitting in their metal carport next to a patch of dirt that used to be their house--on Thanksgiving? Rather, they were the ones showing kindness to me, in part because they'd received such grace in the midst of tragedy. Albert (I think that was his name), the 80-year old father, was home when the tornado struck; two family members hid under the couch, and the next thing he knew, the roof collapsed. He received a few scratches. His house had seven fireplaces, which are particularly dangerous in violent storms, but all of them exploded or crumbled. Their neighbors across the street lived in a mobile home and were both killed. Sue said, "I've never seen one before, but I can say now that I've seen a miracle." She also told me how amazed she's been at how many volunteers they had helping them clean up. I asked them about their house, and they said they're planning to rebuild. "We're thankful. We can replace a house, but we can't replace each other." I thanked her for letting me stop by. "Sure, you're welcome to stop by any time." What beautiful people. </div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I rode away struck with my own ingratitude and selfishness. In moments like those, I sometimes think I'd better be grateful for what I have; it might be taken away from me. Then by legalistic reflex, I "thank" God, fearing the possible consequences if I'm not thankful. I'm not sure what that is, but I don't think it's gratitude. </div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">Hebrews 12:28 says "Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe." Literally "therefore, a kingdom unshakable receiving, let us have grace." It's been said that thanksgiving isn't </span><i style="background-color: white;">giving </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">out of </span><i style="background-color: white;">our </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">abundance; it's </span><i style="background-color: white;">receiving </i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">such abundance so deeply that it overflows back to its source. That's the secret, but it's so true that "there's nothing harder than learning how to receive":</span></div>
<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/98fO4r-GzM0" width="420"></iframe>
<br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-55324642264677268082011-11-17T01:28:00.001-05:002011-11-23T03:58:56.775-05:00The Grace of SleepI sometimes defend my habit of staying up too late with the thought that the early bird may get the worm, but the night owl eats the early bird for a midnight snack. I don't know if I'm the first to say that, but inasmuch as I stay up trying to get work done, I think I'm wrong. I keep beating my head against this wall:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Unless the LORD builds the house,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>those who build it labor in vain.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Unless the LORD watches over the city,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the watchman stays awake in vain.<br />
It is in vain that you rise up early<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and go late to rest,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>eating the bread of anxious toil;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>for he gives to his beloved sleep. (Psalm 127:1-2)</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.trainweb.org/texasandpacific/collection/railroadiana/ad_unlesstheLord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://www.trainweb.org/texasandpacific/collection/railroadiana/ad_unlesstheLord.jpg" width="297" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.trainweb.org/texasandpacific/collection/railroadiana/ad_unlesstheLord.jpg">Here's</a> an interesting application of that text</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This psalm alludes to the possibility that work done in a certain manner is in harmony with the will of God to the extent that it amounts to <i>God himself working</i> (cf. Psalm 90:16-17; Isaiah 26:12; Ephesians 2:10). I'm open to correction on that interpretation of verse 1. But if I'm understanding correctly, how does vain labor differ from work that is the LORD's? It seems the only quality of vain work mentioned by the text is the habit of rising early and going late to rest. How does rest or the lack thereof determine whether our work is God's or in vain?<br />
<br />
It dawned on me two weeks ago when I stayed up past 3 AM three times in one week in order to write <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/11/impossibility-of-doing-good-with-bad.html">this</a> that there is a correspondence between the necessity of physical rest for effective physical work and spiritual rest for effective spiritual work. It was particularly striking to me because I was writing that the only way we can do good moral works is from a posture that <i>rests in Christ's work</i> for righteousness and acceptance with God, and I found myself sluggish and less than sharp in my routine work at the bike shop because of a <i>lack of rest</i>. Isn't it odd that past a certain point, the harder we work, the less we get done? So too in the spiritual and moral realm (not that physical work has no spiritual and moral value), when we don't rest in Christ as our righteousness, but seek to justify ourselves through our work/s, our works shrivel, regardless how hard we try.<br />
<br />
This is an on-going struggle that's been particularly intense for me the past few weeks. I set a goal to finish three substantial pieces of writing by the end of October, and three weeks into November I'm not done with any of them. And it seems the more I redouble my efforts, the less progress I make. Since much of my writing is theological, I also find myself greatly hindered when my desire to produce turns into a desire to perform, and my heart craves the approval of people for what I speak in public more than the approval of God when I seek him in private. Then comes the subtle perversity of seeking God so that I can be productive and have something good to write rather than for His own sake. Scary. As Keller summarizes Edwards, the difference between a genuine and false believer is that a false believer finds God useful and the true believer finds God beautiful.<br />
<br />
That leads quite naturally to this prayer:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Let <i>your work be shown</i> to your servants,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and your glorious power to their children.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Let the <i>favor of the Lord our God be upon us</i>,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and establish the work of our hands upon us;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>yes, establish the work of our hands! (Psalm 90:16-17)</blockquote>
Our work "established" is dependent on a vision of God's work and power, and receiving his favor. The word translated "favor" is the Hebrew word <i>noam</i>, which may also be translated "beauty" or "pleasantness," and is the source of the name Naomi.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
O LORD, you will ordain peace for us,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>for you have indeed done for us all our works. (Isaiah 26:12)</blockquote>
I don't fully understand how those two things relate, but Paul alludes to similar ideas in Ephesians 2, perhaps by way of elaboration.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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 <i>his workmanship</i>, <i>created in Christ Jesus</i> for good works, which <i>God prepared beforehand</i>, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8-10)</blockquote>
<i>His</i> workmanship, <i>created </i>in Christ Jesus, God <i>prepared beforehand</i>... we walk. How much more clear can Paul be that the key to our works is <i>not </i>our works? He continues...<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b><u>Therefore</u></b></i> remember that... you were at that time separated from Christ... But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. <i>For he himself is our peace</i>, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility... that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so <i>making peace</i>, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and <i>preached peace</i> to you who were far off and <i>peace</i> to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.<br />
(Ephesians 2:11-18)</blockquote>
There's much more that could be said about these texts and others, but for now, I'm off to enjoy sleep, that constant reminder that neither my work nor my works can save me, and that God works and gives while I close my eyes and snore.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7SwkrAMl2Sw" width="420"></iframe>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-9060432762630016562011-11-13T15:46:00.001-05:002011-11-23T03:38:46.006-05:00Throwing my Baggage Under the BusIn my <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/11/impossibility-of-doing-good-with-bad.html">last post</a>, I described my experience of spiritual and theological confusion regarding the issue of justification and how I may come to have righteousness and a clear conscience in the sight of God. What I wrote was essentially the form of the ideas when I was teaching on them five years ago. After I posted it, I realized it was incomplete in a few areas, and in a few others I misspoke, and I'd like to tie up the loose ends and correct myself.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://mychinaconnection.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/thrown-under-the-bus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://mychinaconnection.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/thrown-under-the-bus.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rescuing or taunting? I can't decide either</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
First, I realized that I threw a few parties under the bus when I said that they compounded my struggle. Lest I suggest that I have nothing good to say about my alma mater, Baptists, and Catholics, let me clarify. First, I admit that what tainted my interaction with these forms of the faith and their adherents was my own insecurity and guilty conscience. Many of my peers in Bible College had a very enriching spiritual experience. Though my experience was overshadowed by a sense of doubt and guilt, my education equipped me with a knowledge of Scripture that has benefited me immeasurably. I stumbled at the way that the "victorious life" and world evangelism were so emphasized that Christ himself seemed to be a means to those ends, but it was probably my guilty, prideful fear that caused me to perceive things that way. The same goes for my interactions with parents while I was teaching. I was at fault in some of my teaching, not sensitive enough to doctrinal differences, and overly sensitive when criticized. But I confess I really enjoyed rocking the Christian school boat by questioning the motive of "see you at the pole," quoting the apostles' creed, talking about predestination (it's kinda in the Bible, no?), acknowledging that some devout Christians believe in evolution, and giving attention to Mr. lightning rod himself, Martin Luther. But I have a hunch that if <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvejyvnEidY">"God in the form of this angry young man"</a> showed up showed up in an American Christian school environment, he'd cause more than a little controversy. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Kierkegaard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="File:Kierkegaard.jpg" border="0" height="320" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Kierkegaard.jpg" width="216" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Soren Kierkegaard</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Second, I got a little carried away with the exegesis of texts and failed to reason adequately from my insights to my main point that justifying faith and its immediate effect of a clean conscience is the <i>only </i>foundation for good works, holiness, and the justification of proven righteousness. I assumed this was clear by demonstrating that what Abraham believed to perform the radical act of obedience in sacrificing Isaac was the same thing he believed (and more importantly, <i>we </i>believe) in order to be justified, declared righteous and forgiven. That connection was a Copernican revolution in my understanding of sanctification. What I thought before seeing this was that sanctification (as Protestant theology calls the justification of practically proven righteousness) was the means to prove to myself that I was justified, based on a reading of 2 Peter 1:10 that ignored 2 Pet 1:9, a misunderstanding of certain parts of Hebrews, and a failure to read Jesus' demands for discipleship in the gospels in light of the cross. The result was that I sought assurance of salvation by sanctification, which inevitably degenerated into the pursuit of justification by means of sanctification, or justification by works. But Abraham obeyed <i>by faith</i> in the same promise by which he was declared righteous to begin with, not by self-conscious effort to prove to himself that God had made that promise and he had believed it. So the quintessential act of sacrificial obedience, an act so radical that <a href="http://www.wehavephotoshop.com/PHILOSOPHY%20NOW/PHILOSOPHY/Kierkegaard/Kierkegaard.-.Fear.And.Trembling.pdf">Kierkegaard called it a leap of faith into the absurd</a>, was not the scary arbitrary demand of a harsh God that I once thought, but rather accorded with justification by grace through faith. I thought sanctification was the path to justification, or at least to the assurance of justification; in fact the opposite is true. Unless I can rest in Christ and his righteousness, I will never progress in love.<br />
<br />
Third, I failed to explain practically why good works must flow out of a clean conscience before God. The simplest answer to this question is that if we believe our works are saving us, we aren't doing them for others or for God, but for <i>ourselves</i>. I'm not the first one to say these things. Martin Luther writes in his <i><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=Z8Y47Plz0LIC&lpg=PP1&dq=Martin%20Luther%20treatise%20on%20good%20works&pg=PA28#v=snippet&q=true%20inward%20trust&f=false">Treatise on Good Works</a></i>, section ix, "Now this is the work of the First Commandment, which commands: 'Thou shalt have no other gods,' which means: 'Since I alone am God, thou shalt place all thy confidence, trust and faith on Me alone, and on no one else.'" In essence, he says that <i>justification by faith is implied in the first commandment</i>. He continues:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And this faith, faithfulness, confidence deep in the heart, is the true fulfilling of the First Commandment; without this there is no other work that is able to satisfy this Commandment... Compared with this, other works are just as if the other Commandments were without the First, and there were no God...</blockquote>
As Paul says of his fellow Israelites who don't believe in Christ, "they did not submit to God's righteousness" (Romans 10:3), so Luther equates failure to believe in Christ for justification with idolatry and its fruits:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Section X: Now you see for yourself that all those who do not at all times trust God and not in all their works or sufferings, life and death, trust in His favor, grace and good-will, but seek His favor in other things or in themselves, do not keep this Commandment, and practise real idolatry, even if they were to do the works of all the other Commandments, and in addition had all the prayers, fasting, obedience, patience, chastity, and innocence of all the saints combined. For the chief work is not present, without which all the others are nothing but mere sham, show and pretence, with nothing back of them; against which Christ warns us, Matthew vii: "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing." Such are all who wish with their many good works, as they say, to make God favorable to themselves, and to buy God's grace from Him, as if He were a huckster or a day-laborer, unwilling to give His grace and favor for nothing. These are the most perverse people on earth, who will hardly or never be converted to the right way. Such too are all who in adversity run hither and thither, and look for counsel and help everywhere except from God, from Whom they are most urgently commanded to seek it; whom the Prophet Isaiah reproves thus, Isaiah ix: "The mad people turneth not to Him that smiteth them"; that is, God smote them and sent them sufferings and all kinds of adversity, that they should run to Him and trust Him. But they run away from Him to men, now to Egypt, now to Assyria, perchance also to the devil; and of such idolatry much is written in the same Prophet and in the Books of the Kings. <i>This is also the way of all holy hypocrites when they are in trouble: they do not run to God, but flee from Him, and only think of how they may get rid of their trouble through their own efforts or through human help, and yet they consider themselves and let others consider them pious people.</i></blockquote>
Wow. I didn't realize that Martin Luther was taking notes on me while I was in college. That fits my experience to a tee.<br />
<br />
A generation later, the <a href="http://www.prca.org/bc_index.html#a24">Belgic Confession</a> stated the same truth in article 24:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://yinkahdinay.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/1561-belgic-confession-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://yinkahdinay.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/1561-belgic-confession-cover.jpg" width="209" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Parlez-Vous Francais?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
We believe that this true faith being wrought in man by the hearing of the Word of God, and the operation of the Holy Ghost, doth regenerate and make him a new man, causing him to live a new life, and freeing him from the bondage of sin. Therefore <i>it is so far from being true, that this justifying faith makes men remiss in a pious and holy life, that on the contrary without it they would never do anything out of love to God, but only out of self-love or </i><i>fear of damnation</i>. Therefore it is impossible that this holy faith can be unfruitful in man: for we do not speak of a vain faith, but of such a faith, which is called in Scripture, a faith that worketh by love, which excites man to the practice of those works, which God has commanded in his Word.</blockquote>
That's strong. It strikes me that this theory of good works presupposes the Christian doctrines of the sinfulness of humanity, our need of salvation, and that God will judge the world. I suspect, however, that the principle applies no matter one's worldview, that without the security of grace, good deeds are acts of selfishness, but that calls for further thought. For now, fast forward three centuries to when Charles Spurgeon told the story of "The King and the Carrot:"<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.kaleo.ws/.a/6a00e008cb2b6f883401157037be06970c-320wi" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.kaleo.ws/.a/6a00e008cb2b6f883401157037be06970c-320wi" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What a jolly looking fellow Charles was</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Once upon a time there was a king who ruled over everything in a land. One day there was a gardener who grew an enormous carrot. He took it to his king and said, “My lord, this is the greatest carrot I’ve ever grown or ever will grow; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” The king was touched and discerned the man’s heart, so as he turned to go, the king said, “Wait! You are clearly a good steward of the earth. I want to give a plot of land to you freely as a gift, so you can garden it all.” The gardener was amazed and delighted and went home rejoicing. But there was a nobleman at the king’s court who overheard all this, and he said, “My! If that is what you get for a carrot, what if you gave the </span></span></span>king something better?” The next day the nobleman came before the king, and he was leading a handsome black stallion. He bowed low and said, “My lord, I breed horses, and this is the greatest horse I’ve ever bred or ever will; therefore, I want to present it to you as a token of my love and respect for you.” But the king discerned his heart and said, “Thank you,” and took the horse and simply dismissed him. The nobleman was perplexed, so the king said, “Let me explain. That gardener was giving me the carrot, but you were giving yourself the horse.”</blockquote>
Greg Salazar <a href="http://experientialtheology.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/spurgeons-the-king-and-the-carrot/">summarizes well</a>: "You cannot barter with grace. Grace says, 'you don’t deserve anything and yet I am giving you everything.' The one who understands this will be like this farmer graciously giving the King everything. This is the true fruit of a tree planted in God’s vineyard."<br />
<br />
G. C. Berkouwer writes in <i><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=zBwNTqyD6a0C&lpg=PA78&ots=NRjwm4o7e-&dq=gc%20berkouwer%20continued%20orientation%20toward%20justification&pg=PA77#v=onepage&q&f=true">Faith and Sanctification</a></i>,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It is well to note that the Reformed Confessions never teach that believers, having gone through the gate of justification, now enter upon a new territory where they must, without outside help, take their sanctification in hand. It is not true that sanctification simply succeeds justification... Hence there is never a stretch along the way of salvation where justification drops out of sight. (77)</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.logos.com/images/landing/facet-landing/gcberkouwer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.logos.com/images/landing/facet-landing/gcberkouwer.jpg" width="155" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Berkouwer looking somewhat annoyed</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Genuine sanctification--let it be repeated--stands or falls with this continued orientation toward justification and the remission of sins. (78)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The believer's constant "commerce" with the forgiveness of sins and his continued dependence on it must--both in pastoral counseling and in dogmatic analysis--be laid bare, emphasized, and kept in sight. Only thus can we keep at bay the spectre of haughtiness--"as if we had made ourselves to differ."<br />
The dangers that beset us in our reflection on the work of the Holy Spirit (here he refers to a view of the Holy Spirit's work that divorces it from justification by grace, so that the grace of the Spirit is "placed in physical, instead of ethical, antithesis to nature. The ethical contrast of sin and grace yields to that of nature and super-nature" [82]) cannot simply be evaded by means of a theological technique. It is very well possible to speak about the Spirit's operations and still think of man only in his sinful self-containment. There is no rational technique that affords a priori insurance against anthropocentrism, nomism, and pharisaism. The only insurance known is an exultant faith which thrives on God alone and "forgets not all his benefits." (84)</blockquote>
This reminds me how I once viewed the Pauline teaching to "walk in the Spirit." Pardon me while I engage in a little nostalgic introspection. "For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Romans 8:13). In 1998 I read in John Piper's <i>Future Grace</i> that this refers to eternal death and eternal life (he probably said more than that, but in my fearful selfishness it's all I heard) and thought "I must lack assurance because I'm not walking by the Spirit; I'd better be more careful to do that. But what does that mean? Do I follow these impulses and "promptings" of conscience to do things I don't want to do? Is that obedience? I feel compelled to go and "witness" to people on the street, and I've done so, but still feel doubtful and guilty. Maybe it's because I've not shared the whole gospel. Maybe it's because I've only spoken to people I already know or only when I'm with other people in my church's visitation training, and that doesn't take a real leap of faith, and I need to just bust out a sermon in the middle of Wal-Mart like Peter in Acts. Yeah, that's what I need to do. If I pray enough beforehand, and just take the first step, the Spirit will come on me with power and maybe I'll even speak in tongues." It didn't happen. I felt condemned. It sounds so silly now, but it was no laughing matter. The devil had mixed my hyper-sensitivity, an educational environment charged with expectancy of transformation and spiritual power for ministry, a world-evangelization centered hermeneutic and spirituality, a decisionist understanding of faith in the gospel, thrown in a few twisted Bible verses for good measure, and served me up a lethal brew of law posing as gospel. And I drank it down to the dregs year after year.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
<a href="http://www.ciu.edu/sites/default/files/images/discoverciu/Victorious-Christian-Living.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.ciu.edu/sites/default/files/images/discoverciu/Victorious-Christian-Living.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.ciu.edu/sites/default/files/images/discoverciu/World-Evangelization.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="World Evangelization" border="0" src="http://www.ciu.edu/sites/default/files/images/discoverciu/World-Evangelization.jpg" /></a><a href="http://www.ciu.edu/sites/default/files/images/discoverciu/Authority-of-Scripture.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Authority of Scripture" border="0" src="http://www.ciu.edu/sites/default/files/images/discoverciu/Authority-of-Scripture.jpg" /></a>I was at fault in many ways; though I sometimes spoke to mentors about this, I was never fully open with all my thoughts. I was too proud to admit how much I was struggling. But no one wanted to hear it, not even close friends, not to mention pastors or professors. I certainly wasn't confident enough to be persistent with them, and wasn't the picture of promise and potential that spiritual leaders usually choose for discipleship relationships. I wonder if this isn't an unavoidable symptom of contemporary evangelical activist fascination with success and numbers, so that most spiritual leaders are so determined to bring justice to the nations that they don't notice the bruised reeds and faintly burning wicks right in front of them (Isaiah 42:1-3). I also wonder if my alma mater, with its <a href="http://www.ciu.edu/discover-ciu/who-we-are/core-values">core values</a> of the authority of Scripture, victorious Christian living, and world evangelization, doesn't make Christ himself subservient to these emphases. The people Jesus rebuked were all about the Bible (Jn 5:39), victorious living (Luke 18:11-12), and making converts (Matt 23:15), but they missed Jesus. I was known by some who knew me superficially in those days as a CIU poster child; indeed I was impressed with these three values, but in all honesty I was more impressed with them than I was with Jesus and his gospel. Why is this? I think part of the problem is that victorious life teaching does not view "constant commerce with the forgiveness of sins" as the foundation of holy living. In practice, if not in explicit doctrine, it communicates that we "move on" from that to greater things.<br />
<br />
If my interpretation of the "victorious life" of Abraham in my last post was correct, this couldn't be further from the truth. I'm so grateful that about the same time I saw this in Scripture, I began to be exposed to the teaching of Tim Keller, from whom I learned of the sources I quoted above (no, I have not read those works of my own initiative). His teaching refreshed me, and continues to do so, because he preaches <i>Christ </i>from all of Scripture, so that what impresses me most from the word isn't the authority of the particular text, nor the moral demands it rightly places on me, nor the call and need to proclaim it to the world, but Jesus himself, whose face is the ultimate power of transformation (2 Cor 3:18). His sermon <a href="http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/inside-out-living">"Inside-Out Living"</a> on Luke 18:9-14 has been particularly meaningful to me, and if you listen, I think you'll see why and appreciate it too.<br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-6293794333468161582011-11-06T22:27:00.000-05:002011-11-30T02:05:13.045-05:00The Impossibility of Doing Good with a Bad Conscience<div style="text-align: left;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zT2VjQAZdso/TrOB4nAM8CI/AAAAAAAAAJo/UBKMYC3O6oM/s1600/Secret.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zT2VjQAZdso/TrOB4nAM8CI/AAAAAAAAAJo/UBKMYC3O6oM/s320/Secret.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The secret's out. I saw these signs on a ride <br />
the day after I stayed up all night writing most of this</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
It's no secret to anyone who reads my blog or has known me for longer than a few years that I am continually plagued by an uneasy conscience. As one who professes to believe in a Savior who has secured total pardon for all my faults and the never-ending favor of God, occasionally I am awakened to the inconsistency of my guilt and God's faithful grace in spite of my weakness. The past few weeks have been one of those times, as I've gradually perceived a lack of faith in Christ's sufficiency driving my recent reclusive reflection at the expense of more pressing practical priorities. The reason I keep coming back to Reformation theology and its emphasis on justification by faith is that I am by nature and functional conviction <i>not </i>Reformed Protestant, but rather very monkish and religious and worksish, trying to assuage my guilty conscience by things I do and prayers I pray and inward spiritual feelings I attain. Myers-Briggs says the second most common occupation for my personality is a brother in a Roman Catholic religious order. The number one occupation is a <i>sister</i> in such an order. I've been tempted on several occasions.<br />
<br />
One of my religious habits is observing Reformation Day, the anniversary of Martin Luther's posting his 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenburg, October 31, 1517. For the past few years I've made a habit of pondering particularly Lutheran themes during the month of October, and of watching the movie <i>Luther</i> on or near Halloween, in memory of the two years I focused on such things while teaching Bible to 8th, 9th, and 10th graders. After watching the film again Monday night, and seeing Joseph Fiennes portray Luther's transformation from fear, trembling, and self-loathing introspection to bold, daring, self-sacrificing endeavors for others, I recalled with refreshing poignancy the insight I received while wrestling with the teachings of Jesus, Paul and James, and <i>trying </i>to teach what I saw.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZuVgWF5nO_0/TrNVE4Z1MyI/AAAAAAAAAJY/dESYiKC3zME/s1600/das+bearden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="273" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZuVgWF5nO_0/TrNVE4Z1MyI/AAAAAAAAAJY/dESYiKC3zME/s400/das+bearden.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">November 1998. Midnight in my dark night of the soul.<br />
Cochran, Ioiel, and beards helped keep me from total insanity. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Until then, I saw Paul's teaching about justification by grace through faith in Christ and his finished work in confusing tension with Jesus' and James' teaching of justification by words and works, striving to enter by the narrow gate, and that only those who do the will of the Father will be saved, etc. "How can I have confidence that I'm justified now and will finally be declared righteous in the last judgment if that depends on what I do? I understand the idea that the works are the proof of the faith, but I don't see much proof, hard as I try to bear fruit and do good." Ironically enough, it was my evangelical Bible College that seemed to reinforce this absence of peace with all its emphasis on <i>sharing </i>the gospel and "victorious" living, with relatively little attention given to justification. And John Piper's book <i>Future Grace</i>. "The faith that justifies also sanctifies." I love John Piper and agree with this and most of what he says, but that statement killed me. All I could hear in it was "You're not very sanctified, so you're probably not very justified either." For most of the next decade, I sought to prove to myself that I was justified by being sanctified. It didn't work. Downward and inward I went, year after year, with little moments of relief that lasted about as long as my clean-shaven face in college.<br />
<br />
Then one day in Autumn 2006, while teaching my fifth period ninth and tenth graders, I mentioned justification by faith as the fulfillment of the blessing promised to Abraham, as Galatians 3 teaches. Jesse Roberts stood up and said "Woohoo! Martin Luther! Justification by faith alone, baby!" To which Dusty Flowe replied "It can't be by faith alone, because then why would we need to be good?" (I might be misquoting Dusty, but it was something to that effect). When I realized there were several students who were troubled by this idea, and that I didn't understand or deeply believe what I claimed to believe, I naturally decided "Yeah! I don't get this at all, so I'll teach fourteen-year-olds about it!" Those two weeks of teaching were some of the hardest days not only of my stint as a teacher, but of my whole life. Parents pulling students out of my class, conferences with parents telling me I was upsetting their children's faith and my biblical exposition was garbage, even administrators telling me to stop teaching on the topic, all compounded by the fact that I lived alone at the time, and interacted with no one outside of teaching. I trembled at the thought they might be right, and that I was causing little ones to stumble. But I refused to leave off the topic; I felt my soul was at stake, and I was determined to resolve the tension I saw without regard for whether it left me Protestant, Catholic, or none of the above. I was also determined to push my students past a simplistic understanding of justification and of the divide between Catholic and Protestant. Through it, I gained the most precious insight into Scripture I've ever seen, and it marked the biggest turning point I've experienced in my ongoing battle with spiritual depression and doubt. Ever since, in the darkest moments of doubt, I find "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIwRiDym3Xc&feature=related">the mercy seat is open still</a>" and I take refuge in Christ, and not the works of my hands. I think one or two students might have actually picked up on my main points too.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-agpv_ff1GFs/TrOB6yIssGI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/6jf1x6qO0FE/s1600/Grace.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-agpv_ff1GFs/TrOB6yIssGI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/6jf1x6qO0FE/s320/Grace.jpg" width="320" /></a>So what's the insight? It's that justification by faith is not only congruent with the necessity of good works for the justification of proven faith (James 2) and a favorable verdict in the final judgment (Matthew 7, 12), it is the <i>necessary </i>foundation for them, the <i>only </i>way by which we may perform such acts of love, mercy, pure speech, and sacrificial obedience. For this reason, I prefer to state the biblical doctrine not as "justification by faith <i>alone</i>", which may be too easily misunderstood as faith that <i>is </i>alone, unaccompanied by other graces, but as "justification by faith <i>only</i>," because in Paul's sense of the word, pardon for sin and peace with God (Romans 3-5), justification is <i>only </i>by faith. There is no work we can do to attain it or secure it, only cast ourselves on the grace of God in Christ and rest in His promised righteousness. <br />
<br />
In terms of Scripture, what I sought to understand and reconcile when I was teaching were the apparently contradictory teachings of Paul and James. Here are the key texts:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<u><b>Paul:</b></u> "Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness" (Romans 4:4-5)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"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."<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Galatians 2:16)</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><u>James:</u></b> "You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." (James 2:24)</blockquote>
Some read these and conclude that there were multiple, contradictory Christianities in the first century, and that the teaching of Paul cannot be reconciled with that of James. Without going into all the reasons why I disagree with that stance, let me offer a few thoughts on how James and Paul harmonize with each other beautifully.<br />
<br />
A straightforward reading of James and Paul quickly reveals obvious differences in meaning in the three key terms of "faith" (compare Rom 4:18-21 and Gal 2:20 with Jas 2:14, 19), "justification" (Rom 4:6-8; 5:1; cf Jas 2:16, 20), and "works" (Rom 4:9-15; cf Jas 2:15-17). Paul affirms that acquittal and forgiveness before God are received as a gift by trusting in Christ instead of by law adherence, while James denies that we are shown righteous by believing (or saying we believe) in God, while neglecting to obey Him. Most interpreters harmonize the two in this manner, but the question still remains: how does James' teaching that Abraham was justified by works (2:21-24) <i>relate </i>to Paul's teaching that he was justified by faith (Rom 4:1-5)?<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
</div>
The first point to observe is that the two are looking at different events from Abraham's life: Paul speaks of his believing God's promise that he would have a son and his offspring would be as many as the stars (Genesis 15), and James of his offering that son as a sacrifice (Gen 22). Obviously, the event described by Paul happened first, but is there any other textual evidence to suggest that the faith in Paul's mind precedes Abraham's radical obedience expounded by James?<br />
<br />
James connects the two episodes by calling the sacrifice of Isaac the fulfillment of Genesis 15:6: "You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness'—and he was called a friend of God." (Jas 2:22-23). Abraham's faith in the promise of God became "active" and was "completed" in the sacrifice of Isaac. Genesis describes it as God's "testing" of Abraham (Gen 22:1), an idea which is consistent with the broader teaching of James, who opens his epistle with the well known words "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."(James 1:2-4). The Greek word translated "trials"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'SBL Greek', Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">πειρασμοῖς, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>peirasmois</i>) </span></span></span>shares the same root as "tested" in the Greek translation of Genesis 22:1, and the idea of "perfection" is also repeated in James' exposition of the sacrifice (Jas 2:22). So James himself connects his teaching with the focus of Paul's exposition of Abraham's faith.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
In what manner then did Abraham's works complete and make active his faith by which he was justified? Did he believe God's promise in order to be <i>counted righteous</i> (Paul's sense of "justified") and then grit his moral teeth to complete his faith with works in order to be <i>proved righteous</i> (James' sense of "justified")? That wouldn't be too unreasonable an assumption, and we might conclude such with only James' teaching to go on. But Scripture tells us "<i>By faith</i> Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac" (Heb 11:17). We might even understand that statement, as I once did, as "Abraham believed he needed to add works to his faith to finally be saved, so he obeyed." Functionally, that's probably where many, if not most, Christians live their daily lives, seeking to add works and obedience to their faith like icing on a cake. But that's not how Abraham obeyed.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Genesis 22:5-8) </blockquote>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://artbiblique.hautetfort.com/media/00/00/2637309612.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img height="307" src="http://freechristimages.org/Images_Genesis/AbrahamIsaacJohannHeinrichFerdinandOlvier.jpg" style="color: black;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://freechristimages.org/Images_Genesis/AbrahamIsaacJohannHeinrichFerdinandOlvier.jpg">"Abraham and Isaac"</a>, Johann Heinrich Ferdinand Olivier</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In one of the most agonizing narratives, Abraham expresses his faith explicitly when Isaac asks him where the lamb is for the burnt offering. He believes that "God will provide <i>for himself</i> the lamb for the burnt offering" (v. 8, emphasis mine). Abraham's confidence that Isaac would somehow be delivered is also reflected in verse 5, as he tells his servants that he <i>and Isaac</i> will go worship <i>and return</i>. The letter to the Hebrews reveals another facet of Abraham's confidence, that "God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back" (Hebrews 11:19).<br />
<br />
As Abraham performed this most radical, even scandalous, act of sacrificial obedience, <i>he wasn't looking to what he would give God, but rather to what God would give him</i>. He believed two things: God would provide a lamb for himself, and God was able to raise the son of promise from the dead. For those who are familiar with the Christian Scriptures, this foreshadowing of the gospel of Christ almost needs no comment. Belief in provision of a lamb <i>for God</i> anticipates how Christ's sacrifice first provides for God and the demonstration of his righteousness before it can benefit us.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom <i>God put forward as a propitiation</i> by his blood, to be received by faith. This was <i>to show God's righteousness</i>, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was <i>to show his righteousness</i> at the present time, <i>so that he might be just</i> and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:23-26, emphasis mine)</blockquote>
And he believed God would raise Isaac from the dead before he'd let his promise fail. So we are told:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and <i>believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead</i>, you will be saved. For <i>with the heart one believes and is justified</i>, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:9-10) </blockquote>
How was he so bold to believe these things? For one, he had learned through experience that he could have complete confidence in the promise of God. Again and again, God made promises, and Abraham acted in ways inconsistent with those promises, from lying twice about Sarah to protect himself (Genesis 12, 21) to taking her maid in an effort to help God keep his promise (Gen 16). But God kept giving more specific and more amazing promises, until at last He began to fulfill them with the birth of Isaac, when Abraham was 100 years old, and Sarah 90. Through all of it, Abraham had learned that God was <i>on his side</i>, continually pursuing him in grace. Had he been unsure of this, and responded to God's call to offer Isaac as a means to secure God's favor, he would have been paralyzed. But with the passive righteousness of faith, Abraham was able not only to obey, but to <i>comfort </i>both his servants and Isaac through the promised provision of God: "God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." How gut-wrenching that question must have been to Abraham, and how faithful, truthful, <i>and </i>compassionate was Abraham's answer!<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C72hoqMwEkY/TrOB8PBSu2I/AAAAAAAAAKA/divfwKbTpgo/s1600/Grandparents.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-C72hoqMwEkY/TrOB8PBSu2I/AAAAAAAAAKA/divfwKbTpgo/s400/Grandparents.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We live in the shade of trees planted by our grandfather in the faith</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
If Abraham believed in Christ as he was presented to him, in <i>seed </i>form, and had such confidence and willingness to obey, how much more confidence and obedience may we have! In comparison, we have a massive <i>tree </i>of fulfillment in Jesus' incarnation, death, and resurrection, all explained and applied to us with the power and authority of the Spirit. We live in the shade of His tree, where we can <i>see </i>the yes to all of God's promises in Christ (2 Cor 1:19-21; 3:18). It's reasonable then that our call to radical sacrifice is more thorough (Rom 12:1), and the works which we will do far greater (John 14:12). <br />
<br />
What are we to do then if we don't perceive the fruit of obedience in our lives? The answer is not "try harder." Rather,<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us... <i><b>let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience</b></i>... let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Hebrews 10:19-25, emphasis mine)</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mWp7usUMGPw/TrNt9KvtrmI/AAAAAAAAAJg/EUkcfS7FI2E/s1600/strangeconviction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mWp7usUMGPw/TrNt9KvtrmI/AAAAAAAAAJg/EUkcfS7FI2E/s400/strangeconviction.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trying to justify myself through preaching a promise <br />
I felt I couldn't believe, July 1998</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Drawing near to God through Jesus for the cleansing of our conscience <i>must</i> precede and produce any outward works. When we confuse or equate good works with faith, as I've done many times, we don't please God and we don't benefit those around us. Take for example the time I served as a leader on a youth mission trip while burdened with a sense that I would not be saved unless I submitted to God by following fearful compulsions to evangelize strangers. When the mission leaders asked for a volunteer to share a message at an outreach event, I offered, dogged by my evil conscience and the speaker's teaching on responding to the "voice" of God. I failed to realize that the offer was intended for the students, not the leaders, but I was too wrapped up in myself to think about the students. Ironically, the text I shared was one of the most brilliant promises of gospel grace in all of Scripture, but from which I felt completely shut out.<br />
<br />
As Luther said, "It is the supreme art of the devil that he can make the law out of the gospel," turning the grace of Christ and the call to believe in him into a meritorious work. But thankfully, "Even the devil is God's devil," as he also said, and "I myself...owe my papists many thanks for so beating, pressing, and frightening me <i>through the devil's raging</i> that they have turned me into a fairly good theologian, driving me to a goal I should never have reached..." (Preface to Luther's Works in German, 1539, emphasis mine). Leave out the "good theologian" part and insert in place of "papists" Keswick theology, John Piper's distillation of Daniel Fuller's doctrinal novelty, Baptist and Catholic parents, Vineyard teaching about the voice of God, and my own conscience, and you've got my story. All of them taught in some form or other a theology of glory, and drove me to the theology of the cross, which is the gospel of Jesus.<br />
<br />
So what was the promise I preached without believing? It's perhaps the clearest<i> </i>statement of our confidence as those justified by faith in Christ:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'SBL Greek', Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">ἐφείσατο)</span> his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Romans 8:31-32)</blockquote>
But this is not just a statement of our confidence, but echoes God's word to Abraham as he raised his knife to kill Isaac:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing <i>you have not withheld </i>(LXX <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'SBL Greek', Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">ἐφείσω) </span><i>your son, your only son, from me.</i>” (Genesis 22:12)</blockquote>
When I preached the words of Romans, I believed I was offering something valuable to God and saving myself. Ironically, it was that belief which made my offering worthless, for it's only as we're more impressed with God's grace in Christ than we are with our sacrifice that our sacrifice becomes acceptable to God. Abraham demonstrated this self-forgetful faith when he called the name of that place, 'The LORD will provide'", and so it was said, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided (or <i>he shall be seen</i>)” (Genesis 22:14). Whether or not this mount was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moriah">location of Jesus' crucifixion geographically</a>, we see here God's provision through Jesus Christ in vivid color. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and so in Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, in my spiritual and theological angst, and wherever God calls his children to be conformed to Christ's sufferings, we may think God is destroying us, but because of the cross, He is actually saving us.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-36732906894627760252011-10-29T02:19:00.000-04:002011-10-29T20:59:07.890-04:00Writing, Riding, and ContemplationI've not been riding much, and I've not been writing much. Say that out loud, and unless you have a higher-than-average pronunciation level (say, that of my dad in the 1960s), you'll sound like someone with an advanced case of Alzheimer's. Writing it alerts me to yet another way that these (near)-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophone#Pseudo-homophones">homophones</a> have become tightly interwoven means of expression for me this year. More accurately, I <i>have </i>been writing much...and deleting, editing, re-organizing, and otherwise second, third, and fourth-guessing myself in just about all of it; since mid-September, I've written fifteen posts (is there a better word for these?) and only published four of them. I've not been riding much; I'll leave that statement unqualified and unedited.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kvL87bYT8Yo/TquZlflRebI/AAAAAAAAAI4/P2oH_Yl4WjA/s1600/1231101618a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kvL87bYT8Yo/TquZlflRebI/AAAAAAAAAI4/P2oH_Yl4WjA/s200/1231101618a.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reaching the goal for 2010</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I had a goal to polish up the remaining pieces and publish them here by the end of October. As soon as I set the goal, my creative juices dried up immediately, and I've been greatly frustrated. I have ideas in my head, but can't clothe them with words to save my life. Why can't I write when set my mind to get some writing done? Oddly, it seems cycling works in the opposite fashion; I ride best and have the most surprising adventures and experiences on the bike when I'm aiming for some big goal. Of course, I've set big goals for the past three or four years, so maybe I say that only because I don't remember what it's like just to ride by feel, and not focus my effort on achieving something, even if the thing I seek to achieve lacks any merit beyond my own arbitrary sense of accomplishment. My goals for the past four seasons illustrate this point: 10,000 km in 2008, riding further than I drove in 2009 (failed) and 2010 (achieved, along with 12,000 km), and for 2011, riding every road in York County. Maybe the reason they're different is that riding rewards steady effort, even mindless obsession, while writing does not. To write with a mindset of endurance, pounding out words the way I sometimes pound out miles on the bike, has in my experience led to the kind of dryness I later wish I'd left unwritten: tired cliches, unimaginitive boring words, dumping of information rather than reveling insight. But who knows? Maybe I'm too easily discouraged from the prospect of enduring writing, and too obsessed with numbers and "getting somewhere" to try riding with non-quantifiable aims. Writing endurance and Riding creativity...I think I might try that.<br />
<br />
<u style="color: red; font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold;">Update:</u> Today as I worked, I realized a commonality between riding toward a big goal and writing by feel, which was my usual habit until my accident-imposed riding hiatus and subsequent writing goal: both of them look to something beyond themselves. That my time off the bike has led to redoubled writing efforts with fractional fruitfulness evaded my notice while writing last night. I'm tempted to say it's as simple as lack of riding equals lack of writing material, but it's not; I've had many ideas I want to put into words, but haven't been able. Oftentimes the best insights and forms of expression burst into my mind while my lungs and legs are bursting on the bike, and I'm presently made painfully aware of my neglect of that outlet, or inlet, I suppose. But cycling functions in my life as more than a means to greater ends such as spiritual contemplation or writing inspiration. I'm inclined to say that it's so tightly connected to these things that it is a living metaphor, even an organic extension of them.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-23074332669807135002011-10-23T22:39:00.001-04:002011-10-23T22:39:47.480-04:00Filling the World with Endless Books<br />
The Apostle John closes his gospel with these words:<br />
<blockquote>
Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25)</blockquote>
I'm increasingly persuaded that this is a conscious allusion to the conclusion of Ecclesiastes:<br />
<blockquote>
My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh. (Ecclesiastes 12:12) </blockquote>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonni07/4230879080/" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" title="Endless Books by bonni_07, on Flickr"><img alt="Endless Books" height="300" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2517/4230879080_714b8c5b72.jpg" width="400" /></a>This gains support from parallels in the contexts of the two verses: compare "Besides being wise, the Preacher also taught the people knowledge" (Eccl 12:9) to "Now there are also many other things that Jesus did" (Jn 21:25), and "This is the disciple . . . who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true" (Jn 21:24) to "The Preacher sought to find words of delight, and uprightly he wrote words of truth" (Eccl 12:10). And perhaps even "The words of the wise . . . are given by one <i>Shepherd</i>." (Eccl 12:11) with Jesus' threefold re-commissioning of Peter: "Feed my lambs", "Tend my sheep", "Feed my sheep" (Jn 21:15, 16, 17). Unfortunately, I don't have any commentaries on Ecclesiastes in my personal library, and the one I have on John's Gospel (Calvin), doesn't note the allusion. This <a href="http://bible.org/seriespage/exegetical-commentary-john-21">online commentary</a> mentions it, but doesn't interpret the statement in light of its allusion.<br />
<br />
What does the allusion mean? It seems to be a contrast; whereas in Ecclesiastes the endless books are a weariness of the flesh to beware of, the potential endless books that could be written of Jesus' deeds are a source of wonder. Speaking of which, I wonder if the gospel doesn't end this way as a subtle indication that Jesus' followers are, in a sense, those who continue to fill out the endless books with our deeds done in his name. As Jesus said,<br />
<blockquote>
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also <i>do the works that I do</i>; and <i>greater works than these will he do</i>, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, <i>this I will do</i>, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, <i>I will do it</i>.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(John 14:12-14, emphasis mine)</blockquote>
Lots we could explore there about the mystical union of Jesus with his people, and how He is the one at work in us to do His works, and even to fill the whole world with them. There seems to be some suggestion of this in Paul's teaching that <i>believers themselves </i>are a letter from Christ addressed to the whole world (2 Cor 3:2-3), a poem (Gk. <i>poiema</i>) written by God to artfully express His goodness to the world (Eph 2:10).<br />
<br />
I think that might be an even more profound truth than what I originally intended to write, that in Christ, the study of books is transformed from an exercise in futility into a life-giving pursuit. I say this because study is not the only thing Ecclesiastes speaks of as a "weariness": "<i>All things</i> are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it..." (Eccl 1:8, emphasis mine). Whatever interpretive approach one takes to the book, it is clear that its perspective on some things is incomplete, that some of its ideas are transformed through the gospel of Jesus. For example, the contrast between "work hard because you'll die someday and not be able to work anymore" (Eccl 9:10) and "work hard because Christ has triumphed over death and you'll be raised too" (1 Cor 15:50-58).<br />
<br />
In any case, here's a quote from Martin Luther on the subject:<br />
<blockquote>
"There never yet have been, nor are there now, too many good books." -Preface to W. Link's <i>Annotations on the Pentateuch </i></blockquote>
This contradicts Ecclesiastes 12:12 rather bluntly, but is spoken by a man who truly found new life in Christ through study of <i>the </i>good book. Here's another reflection, based on the text from John 21 quoted above, from historian Mark Noll:<br />
<blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/files/2011/03/Mark-Noll.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/files/2011/03/Mark-Noll.jpg" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Noll at Study</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
What is true for the life and work of Christ in general is also true for the life of the mind. <i>If the meaning of what Jesus did and is exceeds the capacity of all the books that could be written, so too the meaning of what Jesus did and is, with respect only to the intellectual life, exceeds the capacity of all the books that could ever be written</i>. Christian believers who realize that it is impossible ever to fathom the depths of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Jesus Christ nonetheless know that the proper place to begin serious intellectual labor is the same place where we begin all other serious human enterprises. That place is the heart of our religion, which is the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. (Introduction to <i>Jesus Christ and the Life of the Mind</i>, Erdmans, 2011, xii, emphasis mine)</blockquote>
I was thrilled to find a thinker as well-respected as Noll saying almost the same thing I was, even if he didn't base it on the allusion I propose. I am intrigued though by the second sentence; why does he make that conclusion about the intellectual life? I'm off to more reading, and hopefully I'll report back with a good answer.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-25961470818060414082011-10-11T03:00:00.000-04:002011-10-18T01:01:19.967-04:00The Rough Places PlainContinuing the theme of <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/10/god-once-spoke-through-mouth-of-ass.html">God's word coming through strange means</a>, here's a familiar text set to familiar (to some) music presented in a most unusual way:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/UjFRpkmPf5U" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Wow. I'm pretty sure that doesn't live up to its own lyric "Speak ye <i>comfortably</i>..."<br />
<br />
This text and its theme of straight paths have been <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/09/crooked-shall-become-strait.html">brought to my mind repeatedly</a> in the past two months or so, not the least by my cycling experiences. My first long ride after the crash set them before me once again. On Friday, September 30, Will Thompson and I rode south of Rock Hill to the place where I crashed on Strait Rd. Here's what we found:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o42LRboskug/TpPdjsxcyrI/AAAAAAAAAHo/7xt200pY6xg/s1600/The+rough+ground+smooth.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o42LRboskug/TpPdjsxcyrI/AAAAAAAAAHo/7xt200pY6xg/s640/The+rough+ground+smooth.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The hole that caused my crash was filled in</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I don't know if my accident had anything to do with the filling of the hole; it's possible, because the man who gave Robert and me a ride back to town said he'd been requesting the repair for a while and that the hole had almost caused a car accident (whether for him or someone he knew I don't recall). Either way, I was reminded of the words of Isaiah, "The uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain" (Isaiah 40:4). Did Isaiah work in earth removal on a highway crew? Probably not, but his use of natural imagery suggests he probably spent a good deal of time outdoors.<br />
<br />
What does this phrase mean, then? The context speaks of the Lord's comforting His people, forgiving the sins of Jerusalem, and revealing his glory to all flesh (Isaiah 40:1-2, 5). Isaiah 35 also connects the renewal of the wilderness with the revelation of the glory of the Lord and a "highway of holiness" for the redeemed to travel, with the added promise of healing for the blind, deaf, lame, and mute (Is 35:1-2, 5-6, 8-10). Isaiah 51 shares similar themes, echoing ch. 35 and its promise of God's redeemed people returning to Zion (Is 51:11; cf. 35:10), and tellingly speaks of "waste places," "wilderness," and "desert" as aspects of Zion which God will "comfort" (Is 51:3). This suggests that the geographical imagery in these texts is to be understood at least in part (it may have multiple senses, as the prophets often do) as referring to moral or spiritual qualities God sees in people's hearts and lives.<br />
<br />
What kind of lives are like deserts and rough ground? Luke gives us confirmation as well as some guidance in this interpretation in applying this text to John the Baptist<br />
<blockquote>
the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. <b><i><u>As it is written</u></i></b> in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,<br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>‘Prepare the way of the Lord,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>make his paths straight.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Every valley shall be filled,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and every mountain and hill shall be made low,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and the crooked shall become straight,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and the rough places shall become level ways,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://hillschurch.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/brueghel_pieter_the_younger_john_the_baptist_praching.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="277" src="http://hillschurch.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/brueghel_pieter_the_younger_john_the_baptist_praching.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>St. John the Baptist Preaching in the Wilderness</i>, Pieter Bruegel the Younger</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
He said <b><i><u>therefore</u></i></b> to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”<span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>(Luke 3:2-9, emphasis mine)</blockquote>
John's exhortation in the desert of Jordan to the people to repent and be baptized for forgiveness fulfills Isaiah's prophecy of a voice crying in the wilderness, and his instruction of how they should live, having repented, corresponds to the call to prepare the way of the Lord. That so many people heard and responded to John's message (cf Mark 1:5) seems to be the fulfillment of the promise of filled valleys, lowered mountains, straightened crooks, and leveled roughs. Or perhaps a fulfillment of the promise: the threatened judgment against the people's self-righteousness, spoken of as God "raising up" children of Abraham from stones and "cutting down" trees that don't bear fruit echoes the lowering and raising language of Isaiah.<br />
<br />
This theme of "turning things upside down" continues as the kingdom of God arrives and advances in the person of Jesus and his words and deeds. So many of Jesus' teachings fit this pattern: the meek inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5), the one who exalts himself is humbled (Luke 18:14), and the one who seeks to save his life will lose it (Luke 9:24). Even the ongoing ministry of the apostles after Jesus' ascension is spoken of as <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 15px;">men who have turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6). </span></span><br />
<br />
But perhaps Jesus' greatest work of leveling was his humiliation, suffering, and death. In these he walked through our uneven ground and rough places, indeed the "harshest terrain" any of us ever face in this life, and by walking in them, He made them smooth.<br />
<ul>
<li>he became poor so that we through his poverty might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9)</li>
<li>he was rejected by his own people (Is 53:3; Jn 1:11), so that we who receive him might be received as his people (Jn 1:12; Rom 5:1-2; 9:25-26)</li>
<li>he learned obedience through his suffering (Heb 5:8) so that we might experience suffering as the Father's loving discipline that makes us holy and leads to glory (Heb 12:3-14; Rom 8:16-18)</li>
<li>he became sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21)</li>
<li>he died to destroy the devil who had the power of death and free us from our fear-of-death-induced lifelong slavery (Heb 2:14-15)</li>
</ul>
This last point is one to dwell on; I don't think we listen carefully, let alone believe, the <i>amazing </i>things the New Testament says about the transformation of death through Jesus. This was brought to my attention this week by the comment from Steve Jobs in his 2005 commencement speech at Stanford that "no one wants to die; even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there." Hmm. I may be speaking defensively of my beliefs as a Christian, but I don't think he's quite right. Paul wrote to the Philippians some of the most amazing words ever expressed by a person about death,<br />
<blockquote>
<i>it is my eager expectation and hope</i> <i>that</i> I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always<i> Christ will be honored in my body, <b>whether by life or by death</b></i>. For to me to live is Christ, and <i><b>to die is gain</b></i>. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. <i>Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two</i>. <i><b>My desire is to depart and be with Christ</b></i>, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, (Philippians 1:20-25)</blockquote>
Paraphrase: "I don't care whether I live or die as long as Christ is glorified." The telling feature of this passage is that Paul speaks <i>precisely </i>the way someone speaks who is torn between two options: can't you hear someone speaking this way about which job to take, or where to go out to eat, or what bike to buy? "I can't decide; I'm hard pressed between them. I want to do this, but it would be better for them if I do that."<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://irrco.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/stpaul.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="397" src="http://irrco.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/stpaul.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;">Paul, Archiepiscopal oratory of St. Andrew in Ravenna, Italy, late 5th century</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Some would say Paul had lost his mind, to which he replies "I am not out of my mind . . . but I am speaking true and rational words" (Acts 26:25). Paul wrote more of the New Testament than any other human author, and is regarded as the most influential theologian (behind Jesus himself) in the history of Christianity; much of his moral teaching is regarded by people of all faiths as sublime; and his depth of insight into human nature and Scripture stretches the minds of the most brilliant scholars. He's not a lunatic. Rather, he had seen the risen Christ, and was so convinced that Jesus was risen that he said Christians were pitiable fools if he wasn't raised (1 Cor 15:12-19). But he also experienced more deeply than most the life-transforming power of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus himself promises to give to those who ask for him (Lk 11:13). The Spirit is the Lord and giver of life who mediates Jesus' personal presence and gives assurance of regeneration and such confidence in Jesus' resurrection and our share in it that the heaviest burden of suffering becomes light in comparison to the eternal weight of glory it produces (2 Cor 4:17). Not only did Paul desire to depart and be with Christ, but he wanted to suffer for him and <i>with </i>him:<br />
<blockquote>
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ . . . and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:8, 10-11)</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. (Col 1:24)</blockquote>
Paul's willingness, even desire, for suffering and death sound shockingly morbid to us, but in these statements, he's not suicidal or morbid, but rather exuberant and hopeful, out of love for Christ. The Spirit of God had sealed to his heart the full depth of Christ's death-defying death and these truths he wrote and God speaks to us:<br />
<ul>
<li>"the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." (Rom 8:18) </li>
<li>"Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." (Rom 8:34-35)</li>
<li>"For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:28-39)</li>
<li>"For <i><a href="http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/children-heirs-and-fellow-sufferers">all things are yours</a></i>, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life <i>or death</i> or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. (1 Cor 3:21-23)</li>
<li><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“<i><a href="http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/suffering-if-god-good-why-there-so-much-evil-world">Death is swallowed up</a></i> in victory.”<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“O death, where is your victory?<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:51-55)</li>
<li>Those who have died in Christ are "asleep." (John 11:11 1 Cor 15:18; 1 Thess 4:13-15) </li>
</ul>
Like parents describing thunder as God rolling strikes in his heavenly bowling alley, Jesus and his apostles almost jokingly describe death like an afternoon nap; one day, Jesus will say to all of those who are part of his bride, "<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=hhUDWECTYA8C&pg=PT57&lpg=PT57&dq=Tim+Keller+wake+up+honey&source=bl&ots=X6vLewdPpf&sig=ZTD5S0WKgyAJmOhXgxMann56e1o&hl=en&ei=fb-bTsDsH8KftwffqeH6Aw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBoQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false">Honey, wake up</a>" (Mk 5:41).<br />
<br />
To believe Jesus' power over death is nothing less than to see the glory of God, as Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:40, cf 11:4, 25-26) That our original text from Isaiah 40 also connects the leveling of uneven ground with the revelation of God's glory suggests that this interpretation is on the right track:<br />
<blockquote>
Every valley shall be lifted up,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and every mountain and hill be made low;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the uneven ground shall become level,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and the rough places a plain.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And <i>the glory of the LORD shall be revealed</i>,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and all flesh shall see it together,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:4-5) </blockquote>
<div>
<ul>
</ul>
Isaiah's next words also support this:<br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>All flesh is grass</i>,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and all its beauty is like the flower of the field.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>The grass withers, the flower fades,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>but <i>the word of our God will stand forever</i>. (Isaiah 40:6b, 8) </blockquote>
In light of this, John's familiar words come into sharper relief: "And the <i>Word </i><u><b>became</b></u> <i>flesh </i>and dwelt among us, and <i>we have seen his glory</i>, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." (John 1:14). <i>This</i> is how we see the glory of the Lord in brightest color, that the eternal Word of God (Jn 1:1; Is 40:8), the second person of the Trinity, became flesh and was even cut down like grass, but was raised back to life, so that through him we might stand forever (cf Jn 12:23-24).<br />
<br />
In the spirit of divine beauty expressed in an outwardly unattractive form, here's <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9p5ey_sprockets-germany-s-most-disturbing_shortfilms">Schprockets</a> meets Handel. The style is odd; the singing impeccable.<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/d5z-bFKOsbo" width="560"></iframe></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-27478560078310650782011-10-03T01:43:00.000-04:002011-10-18T01:01:02.921-04:00"God once spoke through the mouth of an ass..."It's October! Time to bust out the monk robe, bury myself in some books, pour pumpkin into my pancakes, and maybe even throw back a beer or two. And read some of this guy:<br />
<blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5s7JdUqS1c0/TolSZZ9M1AI/AAAAAAAAAHk/JFufTql6oIc/s1600/luther.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5s7JdUqS1c0/TolSZZ9M1AI/AAAAAAAAAHk/JFufTql6oIc/s1600/luther.jpg" /></a></div>
"(God) once spoke through the mouth of an ass (Num 22:28); therefore, no man is to be despised, however humble he may be. On the other hand, He permitted the highest angel to fall from heaven; therefore, no man is to be trusted, no matter how wise, holy, or great he may be. One should rather give a hearing to all, and wait to see through which one of them God will speak and act." -Martin Luther in <i>Temporal Authority: To What Extent it Should be Obeyed</i>
</blockquote>
I mention this quote for more than shock value; my recent <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/09/crooked-shall-become-strait.html">cycling experiences</a> have reminded me of God's opening the mouth of Balaam's donkey in Numbers 22. Balak, King of Moab, summoned Balaam the prophet to curse Israel; after initially denying him permission, God let him go, but warned him "only do what I tell you" (Num 22:20). Here's the pivotal part of the story:<br />
<blockquote>
But God's anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. And the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road. Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. And when the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall. So he struck her again. Then the angel of the LORD went ahead and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD, she lay down under Balaam. And Balaam's anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. <i>Then the LORD opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” And the donkey said to Balaam, “<b>Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.”</b></i><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-IE4Hi_1yKQM/RigtX7wfB2I/AAAAAAAAAhk/LdG4mvslCyc/gustave_dore_bibel_the_angel_appearing_to_balaam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-IE4Hi_1yKQM/RigtX7wfB2I/AAAAAAAAAhk/LdG4mvslCyc/gustave_dore_bibel_the_angel_appearing_to_balaam.jpg" width="317" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Angel Appearing to Balaam, Gustave Dore</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. And the angel of the LORD said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, <b><i>I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me</i></b>. The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.” Then Balaam said to the angel of the LORD, “<b><i>I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back</i></b>.” And the angel of the LORD said to Balaam, “<i><b>Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you</b></i>.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak. (Numbers 22:22-35, emphasis mine)</blockquote>
I can imagine my bike saying to me, "Am I not your bike, on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?" To which I echo Balaam's answer "No." That's my story, besides some donkeyishly stubborn chronic wheel problems and a few broken parts from riding too hard. Before August, the worst damage a wreck had caused me was a bent rim; and I'd not been to the emergency room since sixth grade. That's more than 20 years and probably 40,000+ miles of riding. Then in one month I have two accidents that crack my frame and put me in the hospital, albeit only for a few hours, thankfully.<br />
<br />
Not only that, but my cumulative bike woes this summer have gradually opened my eyes to the<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'SBL Hebrew', Tahoma, Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">מַלְאַ֤ךְ יְהוָה֙ (</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i>malak Yahweh</i>, lit. "messenger of Yahweh") standing in my way, with his drawn sword in his hand. No, I've not had visions of angels and I'm not losing my mind, at least not any more than usual. The "angel of the LORD" in the Old Testament is commonly viewed by Christian interpreters as a pre-incarnate appearance of the God the Son; one reason is that texts where he appears often comingle this title with simply "the LORD" (e.g., Gen 16:7-13; 22:15f.). Here, the angel of the LORD assumes divine prerogatives in giving Balaam similar commands as God (Num 22:20, 35, 38) and carrying out God's will (Num 22:22). I've come to perceive that Christ is opposing me in my way, and the sword He wields is not one for cutting off my limbs, but sharp enough to pierce my very soul and judge the thoughts and intentions of my heart (Heb 4:12; Luke 2:35).</span></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/precipitous_bluffs-297x300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.toptenz.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/precipitous_bluffs-297x300.jpg" /></a></div>
What is he saying? I've noted before how God seems to be <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/search/label/Conspicuously%20Providential%20Ride%20Statistics%20and%20Circumstances">providentially bringing my attention back to several texts</a> dealing with themes of His fatherly discipline and straight paths. I've been seeking to give heed to the exhortation to "make straight paths for your feet" (see Heb 12:12-13), often praying "Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths" (see Ps 25:4-5), and He's answered "All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness" (Ps 25:10) and "Let your eyes look directly forward . . . Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil" (see Prov 4:25-27) and "let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus" (Heb 12:1-2). The insight that's helped me most is that the root idea of the Hebrew words translated "<a href="http://concordances.org/hebrew/1870.htm">ways</a>" and "<a href="http://concordances.org/hebrew/734.htm">paths</a>" in these texts isn't so much concerned with going somewhere new as it is with habit, manner of life, custom, which is what paths really are: they're places people customarily travel. I get so obsessed with riding, with knocking out particular sections of roads, with getting "done" with my goal, that I let more important things slide, and this choice of priority quickly becomes a habit, even an addiction, and it's not good. I don't set out to, but I end up neglecting sleep, eating the same thing day after day, letting the house and yard go, riding too many loner cul-de-sac ventures and no club rides, slacking off in work responsibilities, not to mention my neglect of spiritual disciplines of prayer, reading Scripture, and fellowship with God's people. In terms of Balaam's story, "I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me" <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;">(</span> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'SBL Hebrew', Tahoma, Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 20px;">כִּֽי־יָרַ֥ט הַדֶּ֖רֶךְ לְנֶגְדִּֽי, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">lit.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'SBL Hebrew', Tahoma, Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 20px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">"for the way precipitates (<a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/precipitate">falls headlong with violent speed</a>) in front of me") </span></span>(Num 22:32). </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/231007_202722683098942_169976193040258_487031_3648769_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/231007_202722683098942_169976193040258_487031_3648769_n.jpg" width="328" /></a></div>
I wrote several times over the summer that I found some of the Proverbs particularly challenging regarding these same ideas, but though I noted them, I didn't change my course. The riding was still the priority; everything else took a back seat. But thanks be to God that he instructs sinners in the way (Ps 25:8), that the same God who sought out Adam in the garden, asking gently "Where are you?" (Gen 3:8-9) and came down to oppose Balaam, also came to seek and save the lost (Lk 19:10). He came to me in such grace: not only did He get my attention through the very things that were turning my gaze away from Him, but He brought specific teachings of His word to mind that spoke in terms of ways, paths, and running with endurance, i.e., the very things that were distracting me. All of this to call me to run (or ride, as I like to think) with endurance in the straight paths He's set before me, to set my heart on the highways that really lead to life and beauty and meaning and purpose. He truly is Immanuel, God with us.<br />
<br />
In the three weeks I went without riding other than a commute, my sentiment regarding riding every road in the county was like Balaam's "if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back" (Num 22:34). I was prepared to completely abandon the endeavor, but I think instead of that, God would have me proceed in the spirit of verse 35, "Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you" (cf. Num 22:20). I'm challenged by that to be more careful in what I write, to handle Scripture more faithfully, and not recklessly assume my zen-like insights are all true and worth spreading abroad. In the larger context of Balaam's situation, that meant speaking a word of blessing over the people of Israel instead of cursing, and that in keeping with the seminal promise God made to Abra(ha)m in Genesis 12:2-3, "I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great . . . I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse." I've been thinking for several months of how I might make the riding itself into more of a benefit to other people rather than just a way to stroke my cycling ego and gratify my urge to study maps. I want to use it to make a map of the county that classifies roads by bikeability and notes obstacles, hazards, and sites of interest to cyclists. It's time to take action on that. I'd even love for it to develop into a website that has a dynamic system of rating the roads, since they do change over time, and this endeavor to ride them all is going to take more time than originally thought as well.<br />
<br />
I've been back on the bike twice this weekend, and I'm continuing to see God's hand in it all. More on that next time. <br />
<br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-71550709058712310592011-09-30T01:04:00.000-04:002011-10-02T22:51:52.389-04:00The Shadow of a Great Rock in a Dry and Weary LawI've been seeing more correlation between special revelation and general revelation lately. Here's one example.<br />
<br />
Psalm 19 speaks of the glory of God revealed in the skies, and in a second section, of the perfections of God's law. Here's the first section:<br />
<div>
<blockquote>
The heavens declare the glory of God,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Day to day pours out speech,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and night to night reveals knowledge.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>There is no speech, nor are there words,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>whose voice is not heard.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Their voice goes out through all the earth,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and their words to the end of the world.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>In them he has set a tent for the sun,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Its rising is from the end of the heavens,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and its circuit to the end of them,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and there is nothing hidden from its heat.<br />
(Psalm 19:1-6 ESV)</blockquote>
Though we often think of the nighttime sky when we think of "the heavens" revealing the nature of God, here David focuses on the daytime sky, and particularly the sun. If you've been to Israel (or any desert, for that matter), you'll understand the attention given to the daytime sun: the clean dry air makes the night sky breathtakingly beautiful, but the daytime sun shows the<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1876057943"> </a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'SBL Hebrew', Tahoma, Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://biblos.com/psalms/19-1.htm">כְּבֹֽוד־אֵ֑ל</a>, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nad/2580612018/">glory</a>, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyalk7/2101368874/">heaviness</a>, <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielme/2558180258/">splendor</a>, and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/yanv/4242339020/">copiousness</a> of God. When I was there ten years ago, the dryer where we stayed broke, but it didn't matter (besides a little embarrassment at everyone seeing each other's underwear), because clothes dried faster in the sun than they did in the dryer. And this is exactly the conclusion reached by the Psalm regarding the sun in verse 6: "there is <i>nothing hidden from its heat</i>." </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">Speaking of embarrassment, I've often felt it when looking back at pictures of the trip, all of which show me wearing this goofy safari hat, helpful as it was in the glorious desert sun:</span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UlKLnZnxkTs/Tn6nniZAO6I/AAAAAAAAAHc/WNcv8DFMZP8/s1600/blown+away.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="435" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UlKLnZnxkTs/Tn6nniZAO6I/AAAAAAAAAHc/WNcv8DFMZP8/s640/blown+away.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 20px;">Mt. Arbel 1200 feet above the Sea of Galilee. The wind almost blew me off into oblivion. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><br /></span></span><br />
Back on topic then, the second half of the Psalm:<br />
<blockquote>
The law of the LORD is perfect,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>reviving the soul;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the testimony of the LORD is sure,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>making wise the simple;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the precepts of the LORD are right,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>rejoicing the heart;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the commandment of the LORD is pure,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>enlightening the eyes;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the fear of the LORD is clean,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>enduring forever;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the rules of the LORD are true,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and righteous altogether.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>More to be desired are they than gold,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>even much fine gold;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>sweeter also than honey<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and drippings of the honeycomb.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Moreover, by them is your servant warned;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>in keeping them there is great reward.<br />
(Psalm 19:7-11)</blockquote>
I love this Psalm, though I've often wondered how the two halves relate to each other. Recently I saw a connection between the meditation on the glory of God revealed in the skies, and the moral perfection revealed in the law. The Psalm continues:<br />
<blockquote>
Who can discern his errors?<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Declare me innocent from hidden faults.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>let them not have dominion over me!<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Then I shall be blameless,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and innocent of great transgression.<br />
(Psalm 19:12-13)</blockquote>
Do you see it? The conclusion of the section about the glory of God shining in the sun is "there is nothing <i>hidden</i> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'SBL Hebrew', Tahoma, Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 20px;">נִ֝סְתָּ֗ר</span> ) from its heat" and the conclusion of the teaching on the law includes the prayer "Declare me innocent from <i>hidden</i> (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'SBL Hebrew', Tahoma, Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 20px;">מִֽנִּסְתָּרֹ֥ות</span>) faults" (the Hebrew word is compound for "from <i>hiddens</i>", if I may create an English word; the English "faults" is merely implied). Because God's perfect law demands obedience, it wakes us up and brings us to realize our failure, our errors, our hidden faults, and that the path to blamelessness (<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'SBL Hebrew', Tahoma, Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 20px;">אֵיתָ֑ם</span> <i>eytam</i>; cf. v. 7<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white;"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'SBL Hebrew', Tahoma, Verdana, 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Arial Unicode MS Standard', sans-serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 20px;">תְּ֭מִימָה </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>temiymah</i></span></span></span>) is not in our ability, but in God's gracious intervention. He alone can declare us innocent, keep us back from presumptuous sins, and deliver us from their dominion.<br />
<br />
In his conclusion to the Psalm, David prays:<br />
<blockquote>
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>be acceptable in your sight,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.<br />
(Psalm 19:14)</blockquote>
While the "law" half of the Psalm brings us to the LORD as redeemer, what of the title "my rock"? The attention given to the sun as revelator of God's glory and similar to a bridegroom and champion warrior fits with Scriptural metaphors that describe God (Psalm 84:11; Isaiah 54:5; 62:5; Psalm 78:65; Zephaniah 3:17). So why not "my <i><b>sun </b></i>and my redeemer" in v. 14?<br />
<br />
In Scripture a rock is a symbol of strength and perfection (Deuteronomy 32:4, 15; "rock" is used <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/search/rock/Deuteronomy/">seven</a> times in that chapter), a source of water in the desert (Isaiah 48:21; Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:11; Psalm 78:16, 20), and a place of refuge from an enemy (most of the <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/search/rock/Psalms/">28 occurrences</a> in the Psalms). Amazingly, in the closest encounter with God of all the Old Testament prophets, a rock serves Moses as the place of protection from God himself (Exodus 33:18-23). Why does Moses need protection from God? Because, as God says, "'you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live'"(Exodus 33:20). The immediate holiness and glory of God are literally more than a human can bear. Is this not <i>exactly </i>what the sun <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sungazing">"says" in its shining</a> every day? The sun is a lethal danger to our vision, our skin, and if we're over-exposed to its heat, to our overall vitality.<br />
<br />
Might it be that just as we need protection from the sun's heat and light, so we need protection from the law of God, not because they are in and of themselves destructive, but because <i>we </i>are so frail that we cannot bear their brilliance? Maybe the giving of the law in the desert was more than a geographical and historical accident, but was rooted deeply in God's wisdom, to flavor the entire law with sun-baked dryness that impels our longing for shady waters. Where is the shade at the end of the legal wilderness? Isaiah foreshadows the relief when he compares a future king and his princes to<br />
<blockquote>
a hiding place from the wind,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>a shelter from the storm,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>like <i>streams of water in a dry place</i>,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>like <i>the shade of a great rock in a weary land</i>. (Isaiah 32:2)</blockquote>
Who are the king and the princes, and how do they give this shelter and shade? That will have to wait for another post, but for now, let's listen to God speaking through Isaiah once again:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
“Come, everyone who thirsts,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>come to the waters;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and he who has no money,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>come, buy and eat!<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Come, buy wine and milk<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>without money and without price.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and your labor for that which does not satisfy?<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and delight yourselves in rich food.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Incline your ear, and come to me;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i><b>hear, that your soul may live</b></i>;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>my steadfast, sure love for David.<br />
(Isaiah 55:1-3, emphasis mine)</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-709797100295692612011-09-15T22:26:00.000-04:002011-10-02T22:55:27.912-04:00Beautiful FeetWhile doing my laundry tonight I realized <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/09/crooked-shall-become-strait.html">another</a> reminder of Hebrews 12 from my ride and crash Saturday. I was wearing these socks:<br />
<img alt="Adam Little" height="285" src="http://www.defeet.com/images/galleries/image/17-307159513-2010-10-25.jpg" width="400" /><br />
They say "<a href="http://biblia.com/books/niv/Heb12.1">Run with Endurance the race marked out for you</a>". They were made in memory of <a href="http://www.pre-reg.com/Users/RacerMain.aspx?Type=1&EventID=619">Adam Little</a>, who was tragically killed while riding to work in Charlotte last year. He was a believer, and like Abel, "through his faith, though he died, he still speaks" (Hebrews 11:4). I didn't know him, but after his death the local cycling community was grief-stricken; he was loved by all who knew him.<br />
<br />
I see all this, and connect the dots, but <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/search/Hebrews+12%3A3-6/">my heart faints</a>. God has answered my prayer this week to show me my <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/search/Hebrews+12%3A13/">crooked ways that need to be made straight</a>, and that has hurt and humbled me, but I feel weak and lazy and my heart is distracted with temporal things and dispassionate toward the invisible things of God.<br />
<br />
<br />
Hear my cry, O God,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>listen to my prayer;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>from the end of the earth I call to you<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>when my heart is faint.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Lead me to the rock<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>that is higher than I,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>for you have been my refuge,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>a strong tower against the enemy. (Psalm 61:1-3)<br />
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-74033902476294344622011-09-12T03:58:00.000-04:002011-10-02T22:55:27.914-04:00The Crooked Shall Become StraitYesterday I had a bicycle accident that put me in the emergency room for a few hours. That was a first. (Now that I think of it, I went to an urgent care facility in the sixth grade when I unsuccessfully tried to navigate a sandy corner in front of my parents' house without touching the brakes.) Anyways, this accident had some peculiar circumstances to it that I've not quite figured out yet, so hopefully I'll figure out something as I tell you about it. Kind of like this from Augustine:<br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;">"I count myself one of the number of those who write as they learn and learn as they write." -</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: purple; font-size: xx-small;"><a href="http://theoldguys.org/category/augustine/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 21px;">from a letter </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; line-height: 16px;">To Marcellinus</span></a></span></blockquote>
In my last post, I wrote some about the intriguing appearance of threes in the stats of my most significant rides in the past month or so, and that such numeric oddities cause me to ponder God's working in my life. Here they are again, briefly:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>24 hours of Booty 7/29-30. I reached 333.3 km at 12 hours 12 minutes ride time. </li>
<li>group ride 8/6: accident that cracked my frame happened 60 hours before I turned 33 years old</li>
<li>8/23: ride from Charlotte after dropping phone: 3:00:00 ride time, 3:33:03 elapsed time after 2 stops</li>
<li>9/4: rode every road in Tega Cay: 99.93 miles. Sold a bike before leaving for $333.83.</li>
</ul>
After I wrote the other night, I read <a href="http://www.stevenfurtick.com/personal-development/the-perception-principle/">Stephen Furtick's comments about how perception and expectation affect experience and how we interpret it</a>, and I started to think I'm only making a big deal of these things because I'm looking for them. That may yet be true, but after yesterday's accident, I'm less inclined to think it's just my (mistaken) perception. As I sat waiting in the ER, I realized I was 33 years and 33 days old. There's more though . . .<br />
<br />
Last Sunday, when John and I rode every road in Tega Cay, I was pondering part of the sermon text from morning worship.<br />
<blockquote>
the voice of one crying in the wilderness:<br />
‘<i>Prepare the way of the Lord,<br /> make his paths straight</i>,’” (Mark 1:3, quoting Isaiah 40)</blockquote>
This stood out to me particularly because the day's ride route was <i><a href="http://app.strava.com/rides/1503689">not straight</a></i>. As I thought, I remembered what comes after the words above in Isaiah 40:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Every valley <i>shall be</i> lifted up,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and every mountain and hill <i>be made</i> low;<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>the uneven ground <i>shall become</i> level (or "the crooked shall become straight" Luke 3:5)<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and the rough places a plain.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>And the glory of the LORD <i>shall be revealed</i>,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and all flesh shall see it together,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:3-5)</blockquote>
How shall the uneven ground become level, and the crooked ways straight, but by God coming to walk in them? Even the way of the crooked foolish sluggard, full of "thorns" and wandering aimlessly (Proverbs 15:19; 22:5; Ecclesiastes 10:15), terms which at <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/09/prayer-answered-by-crosses.html">times</a> have seemed to describe my summer, sounds a lot like what Jesus experienced in his humiliation: born in a barn, driven as a refugee to a foreign land as a toddler; prepared for his time as a teacher in the wilderness with the devil and wild beasts for company; often had to avoid towns or flee from them during his ministry (Mark 1:45 Luke 4:29); when he did head straight toward Jerusalem, encountered opposition (Luke 9:51ff.), and when he got there, he was rejected and executed as a cursed man outside the city (Hebrews 13:12; Galatians 3:13), and on his "way out" of this world (Luke 9:31), all he could see was thorns (Matthew 27:29).<br />
<br />
God with us in Jesus is also the answer to the frustrating feeling of undergoing God's discipline, because our elder brother has gone through it first:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
<i><b>Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.</b></i> In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons?<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>nor be weary when reproved by him.<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>For <i><b>the Lord disciplines the one he loves</b></i>,<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and chastises every son whom he receives.”<br />
<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is for discipline that you have to endure. <b><i>God is treating you as sons</i></b>. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. <b><i>For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant</i></b>, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:3-11)</blockquote>
For the moment it seems painful . . . amen to that. But in these painful experiences of God consuming like a moth what is dear to me (Psalm 39:11), God is treating me like a son, even like His only begotten Son, who lost everything in the path of obedience to the Father: he had no home, lived off donations, his friends and family abandoned him, his last possessions were divided up as he died on the cross. Why should I expect otherwise in walking his path? And why would I <i>want </i>otherwise?<br />
<br />
The exhortation linked to this is very pertinent, and brings the theme back around to the idea of "straight paths": <br />
<blockquote>
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, and <i><b>make straight paths</b></i> for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:12-13)</blockquote>
I'm still working through what crookedness I need to make straight, but isn't it interesting that I crashed on a rough patch of pavement on <i style="font-weight: bold;">Strait </i>Rd?<br />
<br />
A few months ago, I <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/06/back-in-saddle-rolling-through-hood-and.html">mentioned</a> the Heidelberg catechism question 1 as something that expresses my hope when I venture out on hostile roads, and said<br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Philosopher; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Without the will of my heavenly father not a hair can fall from my head. Those cars can't touch me unless God lets them, and that to serve my salvation and everlasting joy. I believe this because God has said it, and because it really does correspond to my experience. I've seen His deliverances on the road and in the circumstances of my life. I can't explain how I've been spared and guided any better way.</span></blockquote>
No cars touched me this time, but I can't escape the belief that God let me fall but spared me serious injury. So this morning at church, when to my pleasant surprise we recited question 1 of the Heidelberg Catechism, I made it about as far as "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; line-height: 22px;">I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own . . ." before I was too choked up to speak. But I've never believed it more than I do now. </span><br />
<br />
<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="405" scrolling="no" src="http://app.strava.com/rides/1596153/embed/a47c985cbe552f25f71b6315413d90d29196e8d7" width="590"></iframe>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-65198728904622274852011-09-09T03:12:00.000-04:002011-10-02T22:55:27.909-04:00"The Numbers Fell off the Clockface..."<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In my last post I wrote about how I sensed the Lord's discipline in frustrations with my bike in the past few months. What tipped me off to the notion that there was some particular divine purpose in it all were some conspicuous numbers. Conspicuous to me anyway. Augustine said,</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #000619; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"The Divine Wisdom is reflected in the numbers impressed on all things. The construction of the physical and moral world is based on eternal numbers." -<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=dRpai2f54UEC&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=numbers+are+the+thoughts+of+God+the+divine+wisdom+is+reflected+Augustine&source=bl&ots=xgQWum1OSJ&sig=1KW5VBHlUD3t7QP-zXfFfc_x8Gk&hl=en&ei=gpBmTqPNNo65tgfKz7WmCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=numbers%20are%20the%20thoughts%20of%20God%20the%20divine%20wisdom%20is%20reflected%20Augustine&f=false">Apparently in a commentary on the Psalms </a></span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As one who <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_form">sees numbers spatially</a>, and who believes that God <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/Psalms+139/">communicates directly and deeply</a> with the spirits of his children, I have a theory that sometimes God intervenes in my life, and perhaps in the world in general, in numerically significant patterns.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Anyways, what caught my attention was the realization that the accident that broke my bicycle frame happened 60 hours to the minute before I turned 33 years old. It was 8:46 AM on Saturday August 6, and I was born at 8:46 PM on August 8. What does 60 hours mean? Nothing in and of itself, but considering the <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/a-block-headwind/">numerical significance</a> of the circumstances surrounding my acquiring the bike to begin with made me start to wonder. The timing of my "pro contract" with Paul has set the number 33 in my mind for most of the year, and it keeps popping up in peculiar ways, even in the past month of cycling, which has largely been frustrating for me. Consider these numbers from four of my biggest rides of the past month:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">At <a href="http://www.24hoursofbooty.org/site/PageServer">24 hours of booty</a>, I passed 333.3 km 12 hours 12 minutes into riding, and considered stopping, but continued on to finish with <a href="http://app.strava.com/rides/1044033">13 hours 88 seconds, with an average heart rate of 130</a> and <a href="http://app.strava.com/segments/648741">13th place on the hill climb section</a> (now that I'm writing this I've dropped to 26th place and am one second behind the fastest woman. Interesting). I'm not superstitious about the number 13, but that's weird. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The crash on <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/106171545">August 6</a> occurred exactly 60 hours before I turned 33.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The ride back from a meeting with a close friend and valued counselor the day I dropped my phone on Cherry Rd (yet another frustration) was <i>exactly </i>3:00:00 of ride time and 3:33:03 elapsed time, after stopping for a drink and a new cell phone. <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/108969209">I'm not making that up</a> and it was unplanned and unknown by me until I uploaded the ride data from the Garmin. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The ride of Tega Cay this past Sunday turned out to be <a href="http://connect.garmin.com/activity/111980059">99.93 miles</a>. The <a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/48027468">planned route</a> was just under 98 miles, but that changed when we ran out of fluid (twice; Tega Cay has no gas stations), took a wrong turn or two, re-did a road or two, I forgot to turn the GPS on after stopping, John had to get back home and we couldn't stop for dinner, and I decided <i>not </i>to carry on past 100 miles when I neared the house and realized I was a few hundred feet short. I wasn't sure how much I needed since I was reading kilometers on the Garmin. And another thing I almost forgot. When I met John at the bike shop, a customer came in, we told him we weren't really open, but he asked if he could buy a bike, and the price after tax was $333.83.</span></li>
</ul>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What does all of this mean? I'm not sure, but as I look back and remember what was going on in my spirit on each of these rides, the numbers correspond quite well. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">on the booty ride I was frustrated, impatient, and self-absorbed (even moreso than I am all the time:-), greedy for miles. Somewhat pleased with the ride, but not joyful. </span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">on August 6 I was tired from long work hours, encouraged to be riding after a week off, but after the crash despondent, though starting to wonder if all my frustrations were more than coincidence</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">the day I dropped my phone seemed to encapsulate all of the emotions of this month in one ride. When I started I was running late, frustrated, angry; how I felt at the booty ride. When I dropped my phone I was apprehensive and a little scared since I was riding on an iffy tire on strange roads, but also starting to laugh at yet another material possession falling apart. After meeting with my friend I was hopeful, encouraged, determined to follow through on the day's riding goal and with new optimism for life in general. It was a turning point of sorts, and all the 3s made me smile when I reviewed the ride data.</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">On Sunday I was excited, looking forward to the ride for the physical and geographical challenge (some of the routes through the neighborhoods were rather serpentine), and anticipating a big haul of elevation for the Strava climbing competition. That and John is one of my favorite people to ride with. He keeps it real. The verse from Mark 1 also was looming in my mind, and I was looking forward to pondering the straight paths of the Lord as we wound our way through some very crooked and steep roads. God gave fresh insight into his word, and plenty of strength for one of the hardest rides I've ever done, and by the end of the eight hours of riding, the frustrations seemed to make sense and there was a sense of resolution and completion. </span></li>
</ul>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Scriptural insight will have to wait for another post, but I think the gist of what I'm learning (or re-learning, as is often the case) is that the cracked frames, dropped phones, long miles in sweltering heat with not enough water, unrecorded riding miles, and unfinished centuries of life (read into those metaphors what most disappoints and irks you) are all part of the way God makes His children like their big brother. If that makes no sense to you, <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/search/Romans+8%3A16-17%2C+28-29%2C+35-38/">here's some food for thought</a>. I'll try to explain more next time I write. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And here's a song that's also been on my mind this year with all these thoughts about threes, followed by pictures of my latest progress on the roads of York County. "three thirty three, and the numbers fell off the clockface...". More on that <a href="http://allu2.blogspot.com/2009/05/gods-phone-number-on-u2s-album-cover.html">here</a> and <a href="http://u2.interference.com/f194/someone-explain-unknown-caller-to-me-194023.html">here</a>. </span><br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YMzfeV2GE0M" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Rides with new roads in August:
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NYCqMCyzSVU/TmmzPqXhycI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/bQ9g9v-MYpA/s1600/GoogleEarth_Image+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NYCqMCyzSVU/TmmzPqXhycI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/bQ9g9v-MYpA/s1600/GoogleEarth_Image+%25282%2529.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Rides with new roads in July and August:</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yojQ-wD5bKs/TmmzR3i9aEI/AAAAAAAAAHU/h8uuhTLSxO8/s1600/GoogleEarth_Image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yojQ-wD5bKs/TmmzR3i9aEI/AAAAAAAAAHU/h8uuhTLSxO8/s1600/GoogleEarth_Image.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">End of August year to date (roads ridden are in red): </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-meQCKaenkig/TmmzThzMpMI/AAAAAAAAAHY/sOpj_2MjXPE/s1600/GoogleEarth_Image+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-meQCKaenkig/TmmzThzMpMI/AAAAAAAAAHY/sOpj_2MjXPE/s1600/GoogleEarth_Image+%25281%2529.jpg" /></span></a></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-88696681918760474382011-09-05T01:30:00.000-04:002011-10-02T22:55:27.917-04:00Prayer Answered by Crosses<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So I rode my bike 100 miles today, and as usual after such a mammoth effort, I feel compelled to stay up late and write instead of crashing hard like my body is telling me to do.</span><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As I went, I was thinking about the ride at hand, <a href="http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/48027468">an effort to ride every road in the very hilly lakeside town of Tega Cay, SC</a>, and a verse from the sermon text at church this morning:</span></div>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"the voice of one crying in the wilderness:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>‘Prepare the way of the Lord,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>make his paths straight,’” (Mark 1:3 ESV)</span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Yikes. Should I abandon this crazy ride route in favor of something more flat and straight?" "Is God telling me to abandon my goal of riding every road in the county this year?" Such questions plague my guilty conscience, especially since I've been struggling with pessimistic thoughts about riding and writing for a good part of the summer, as I've run into so many obstacles in my endeavors. When I first started in the spring, it seemed that <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/a-block-headwind/">God was smiling</a> on the whole deal, but about the same time I sensed <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/06/affliction-and-wanderings.html">my countenance falling with the end of lengthening days</a>, it seemed He wasn't pleased with much of anything I was doing, particularly my cycling endeavors. Texts like these seemed to condemn me:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense. (Proverbs 12:11 ESV)</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>but the path of the upright is a level highway. (Proverbs 15:19 ESV) </span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The latter because everything connected with my riding seemed to be falling apart: my computer was acting more sluggish than normal (not that normal for a six-year old laptop is fast), and my attempt to streamline the process of uploading rides, as well as testing the battery life of the Garmin, backfired, including completely losing my best week of rides in July, and wasting $200 on a poor decision to have mycleanpc.com try to fix it. Then I realized I was broke and couldn't afford that anyway, along with other purchases or promises I'd been making with money I didn't have. This was largely due to working shorter hours in the spring and early summer to free up more time for riding and writing (thus the first verse above cut to the heart). Preparation for my second biggest riding goal of the year, the 24 hours of booty, didn't go according to plan, and I didn't come close to surpassing my ride from last year.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I took a week off after that, and my first ride back I was hit from behind by the most skilled rider I know while we were coasting and regrouping at an intersection. It was a total fluke, so much so that I couldn't be mad about it, and coupled with the previous frustrations, only sunk lower. I felt like Cain, whose <a href="http://www.esvbible.org/search/Genesis+4%3A1-7/">countenance fell when the Lord had no regard for his offering</a>, or like Jeremiah, who said "<a href="http://www.esvbible.org/search/Lamentations+3/">surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long</a>.", or even John Newton, who wrote:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He made me feel</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The hidden evils of my heart;</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And let the angry pow’rs of hell</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Assault my soul in every part.</span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Yea more, with His own hand He seemed<br />Intent to aggravate my woe;<br />Crossed all the fair designs I schemed</i>,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Blasted my gourds, and laid me low. from "<a href="http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2011/06/23/i-asked-the-lord-to-grow-in-grace-and-he-almost-drove-me-to-despair/">Prayer Answered by Crosses</a>"</span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perhaps it seems silly to put so much weight into what's going on with my bike, and surely there are people right around me carrying much heavier burdens, but since it's an outgrowth of my profession, and in <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/07/on-top-of-world.html">some ways</a> <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/07/standing-together-or-falling-apart.html">almost a means of grace to me</a>, and for several months this spring seemed to be enjoying conspicuous favor from God and man, maybe it's not so unreasonable that I've been disappointed.</span><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Amazingly, the friend who hit me insisted on paying for the repair, which turned out to be as expensive as a new frame, so I took that route. I'm appreciative, but also uncomfortable with it; it's humbling, even humiliating, to receive like that. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In any case, the cracked frame led to another week and a half off the bike, and on the first ride back, the speedway team time trial, the seatpost slipped down, apparently due to a crack, and all I can figure is that the crash caused it too. Then I discovered a cut in otherwise good Michelin Krylion tires, which aren't cheap. What is going on here? Can I just make it a week or two without something on the bike falling apart so that I have to drop time and cash into fixing it? Light started to dawn with this:</span><br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I am mute; I do not open my mouth,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>for it is you who have done it.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Remove your stroke from me;</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>I am spent by the hostility of your hand.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span><i>When you discipline a man<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>with rebukes for sin,<br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>you consume like a moth what is dear to him</i>;</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>surely all mankind is a mere breath! (Psalm 39:9-11 ESV)</span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Key word <i>started</i>. All of this is the reason I've not written for a month: I've felt opposed by God. What is there to say in such a state? Not much in my mind. But I'm here writing, and that means something has changed, and it's related to these things as well as the text from the sermon mentioned above that was ringing in my ears as I rode today. More on that later . . . </span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-74763809119441620392011-08-04T00:18:00.000-04:002012-06-29T18:34:29.804-04:00A Midsummer Night's DreamLast night I dreamt I was at my grandparents' old house in Asheville, only it was a split level, and I was fighting off bandits. More on that later . . .<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But first, about last weekend's big event, and one of the two biggest riding events of the year for me, the 24 Hours of Booty. My goal was to ride 500 kilometers, or 310 miles. Last year I had the same goal and fell just short with 298 miles. I figured I'd be able to get it this year with no problem, seeing as I lost time last year running late at the start, then taking 20-30 minutes later in the evening to carry stuff from my car to the tent, wasting an hour or two Saturday morning trying in vain to sleep, 15 minutes to a flat tire Saturday afternoon, and having to stop 20 minutes before 7 because of flooding on the course. This year I was determined to get there early, be set up and ready to ride at 7, and beat 500 k with strength to spare. It didn't happen. Here's why.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I was running late again. I'm always running late. I didn't get good sleep last week, averaging about 5 hours per night from Sunday through Thursday nights, mostly due to my own negligence. When I heard the high Saturday was supposed to be 99 degrees, I pretty much abandoned my goal of 500 k; I remembered how I felt last year by late Saturday, and realized that to combine that with less sleep and more heat, not to mention my relative lack of fitness compared to last year, would be unwise. Thursday night I was getting my bike ready and ran into problems with my rear wheel, which is the bane of my cycling existence. I had to work half the day Friday, then made the mistake of trying to catch a nap afterwards when I should've just gone up to Charlotte. I finally got to the course about quarter to seven, and didn't bother riding the first few laps, but registered, got dressed, and got rolling at 7:30. I was so visibly stressed when leaving the shop in Rock Hill that my co-worker John gave me the good advice to just go have fun. He was right, and that was my mindset Friday night. I had to take two more trips to the car to get sleeping bag and a backpack, which took about ten minutes each. When I ran into Matt from the team from <a href="http://www.hopecommunity.com/index.cfm">Hope Community Church</a>, I decided to take him up on his invitation to join them for a drink at midnight. It was good to hang out with them, and when I started back riding at about 2 am, I thought I might still meet my goal. I was 100k in. I rode for 45 minutes or so and had a flat, and that's when the wheels started to come off. I decided to stop for the night, and changed wheels to my backup set rather than bothering finding the puncture. Then I couldn't fall asleep until almost 4, and when I woke up before 7, I was a total zombie. I ate breakfast and started out, but never felt energetic all morning. By lunch I was delirious. It wasn't pretty. I took an extra hour to avoid the midday sun, and continued on. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
At this point I was at about 150 miles, and 310 was impossible. I couldn't decide what mileage goal to shoot for, but was determined to ride until the course closed at 7. It always helps me to have a number of some significance to shoot for. My heart rate was steadily dropping, very similar to the feeling during the Assault on Mt. Mitchell; I just couldn't try hard. It wasn't there. About 4 or 5, water and powerade and Accelerade became quite unappealing. I remember a few moments of lucidity, when I passed riders whose number said "Survivor" or "Riding in memory of my husband". "Wow," I thought, "they've really been through a world of pain I know nothing about." I said a prayer for them and tried to speak some encouragement as I passed. Then there were a few passing me, as well as this guy:</div>
<div>
<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-RQNJvaL-_q4/TjomnTHAqxI/AAAAAAAAAHA/3neElQVleZA/s640/Paul%252520Neal%252520is%252520my%252520hero.JPG" /></div>
<div>
Paul Neal. Cyclist extraordinaire. He's ridden one of these from Rock Hill to Myrtle Beach.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I thought of aiming to get more miles than fundraising dollars, or to double up the high temperature, and I thought to stop when I reached 333.3 kilometers and I was 12 hours and 12 minutes into riding. It sounded nice and biblical and complete, no? But I kept going until seven pm, by which point I was thoroughly cooked, and had to lie down on the ground for a good 15 minutes after finishing. I wound up with 353 kilometers, or 219 miles, in 13 hours a few seconds of riding. By that point my avg heart rate had also dropped to 130, and when I got home and uploaded the data, I'd placed 13th on the "<a href="http://app.strava.com/rides/1044033#15715622">Col de Hopedale</a>". Hmm. I suppose if I'm going to make a point of it when the numbers <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/a-block-headwind/">seem significant</a> in a positive way, to be consistent I should do the same when they're not so "favorable," huh? Not that I put any stock in the number 13 as a sign of bad luck; I think there's a difference between symbolism and superstition, but it's a good reminder not to drift that way in my growing fascination with the symbolic quality of things. In addition, the whole experience of frustration surrounding this ride was a good reminder of the sense of futility faced by those who suffer with cancer, which is what the ride is all about. Sometimes our ground is thorny, and we can't make sense of it, which brings me to the next part of this post, which was supposed to be the main part, but will have to be abbreviated now.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
My experience with the booty ride was representative of much of my experience riding the roads of York County and of my entire summer in many ways. It has often felt like I'm riding with my brakes rubbing, or my way is overgrown with thorns . . .</div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<div style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt;">
</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -48pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;"></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">
</span><br />
<blockquote>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -48pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">19</span> The way of <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>ch. <a href="#ref=Pr 19:24,hi=Pr 19:24" class="bibleref" title="Proverbs 19:24">19:24</a>; <a href="#ref=Pr 22:13,hi=Pr 22:13" class="bibleref" title="Proverbs 22:13">22:13</a> </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">h</span></a>a sluggard is like a hedge of <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>ch. <a href="#ref=Pr 22:5,hi=Pr 22:5" class="bibleref" title="Proverbs 22:5">22:5</a> </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">i</span></a>thorns,</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">but the path of the upright is <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p><a href="#ref=Je 18:15,hi=Je 18:15" class="bibleref" title="Jeremiah 18:15">Jer. 18:15</a> </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">j</span></a>a level highway. (Proverbs 15:19)</span></div>
</blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;"></span></span></div>
<blockquote>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">5</span> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>ch. <a href="#ref=Pr 15:19,hi=Pr 15:19" class="bibleref" title="Proverbs 15:19">15:19</a> </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">u</span></a>Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked;</span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<div style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">whoever <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>ch. <a href="#ref=Pr 21:23,hi=Pr 21:23" class="bibleref" title="Proverbs 21:23">21:23</a>; [<a href="#ref=1 Jn 5:18,hi=1 Jn 5:18" class="bibleref" title="1 John 5:18">1 John 5:18</a>] </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">v</span></a>guards his soul will keep far from them. (Proverbs 22:5)</span></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div>
Am I encountering all of these obstacles because I've been sluggish or crooked? I've had to search my heart. Surely both of these tendencies are present in me and still at work, and I've been considering the moral and spiritual value of hard work in a new way. Even its redeeming value, in connection with the idea from Psalm 104:30 "<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;">When you <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>See <a href="#ref=Job 33:4,hi=Job 33:4" class="bibleref" title="Job 33:4">Job 33:4</a> </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">i</span></a>send forth your Spirit,<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>Or <span style="font-style: italic;">breath</span> </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">3</span></a> they are created, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;">and you <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>[<a href="#ref=Re 21:5,hi=Re 21:5" class="bibleref" title="Revelation 21:5">Rev. 21:5</a>] </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">j</span></a>renew the face of the ground." in relation to the curse of Genesis 3:17-19 and what I think is its resolution in the giving of the Spirit to dwell in the children of God (Galatians 3:13-14; Romans 8:19-23). Think about it: when did God send forth His Spirit? When <i>does </i>he? Where? On whom? etc. See Galatians 3:1-5, Romans 8:1-17. </span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;">Another thought that's been looming in my mind is the theory that when we see the shortcomings of others, especially when they bother us to the point of judgment or anger, the purpose of our being made aware of them is not to judge or correct them, but because we're guilty of the <i>same </i>or a similar fault ourselves, and we need it brought to our attention. I suggest this because of Jesus' teaching on judgment: </span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-weight: bold;"></span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-weight: bold;"> </span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>For ver. <a href="#ref=Mt 7:1–5,hi=Mt 7:1-Mt 7:5" class="bibleref" title="Matthew 7:1–5">1–5</a>, see <a href="#ref=Lk 6:37,hi=Lk 6:37" class="bibleref" title="Luke 6:37">Luke 6:37</a>, <a href="#ref=Lk 6:38,hi=Lk 6:38" class="bibleref" title="Luke 6:38">38</a>, <a href="#ref=Lk 6:41,hi=Lk 6:41" class="bibleref" title="Luke 6:41">41</a>, <a href="#ref=Lk 6:42,hi=Lk 6:42" class="bibleref" title="Luke 6:42">42</a>; [<a href="#ref=Ro 14:13,hi=Ro 14:13" class="bibleref" title="Romans 14:13">Rom. 14:13</a>; <a href="#ref=1 Co 4:5,hi=1 Co 4:5" class="bibleref" title="1 Corinthians 4:5">1 Cor. 4:5</a>; <a href="#ref=Jas 5:9,hi=Jas 5:9" class="bibleref" title="James 5:9">James 5:9</a>] </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">r</span></a>“Judge not, that you be not judged. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" id="Mt 7:2" rel="verse" style="cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Matthew 7:2"> </a><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">2</span> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p><a href="#ref=Ro 2:1,hi=Ro 2:1" class="bibleref" title="Romans 2:1">Rom. 2:1</a>, <a href="#ref=Ro 2:3,hi=Ro 2:3" class="bibleref" title="Romans 2:3">3</a>; <a href="#ref=Ro 14:10,hi=Ro 14:10" class="bibleref" title="Romans 14:10">14:10</a>; <a href="#ref=Jas 2:13,hi=Jas 2:13" class="bibleref" title="James 2:13">James 2:13</a>; <a href="#ref=Jas 4:11,hi=Jas 4:11" class="bibleref" title="James 4:11">4:11</a>, <a href="#ref=Jas 4:12,hi=Jas 4:12" class="bibleref" title="James 4:12">12</a> </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">s</span></a>For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p><a href="#ref=Mk 4:24,hi=Mk 4:24" class="bibleref" title="Mark 4:24">Mark 4:24</a>; [<a href="#ref=Jdg 1:7,hi=Jdg 1:7" class="bibleref" title="Judges 1:7">Judg. 1:7</a>] </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">t</span></a>with the measure you use it will be measured to you. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" id="Mt 7:3" rel="verse" style="cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Matthew 7:3"> </a><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">3</span> Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>[<a href="#ref=Jn 8:7–9,hi=Jn 8:7-Jn 8:9" class="bibleref" title="John 8:7–9">John 8:7–9</a>] </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">u</span></a>do not notice <i><b>the log that is in your own eye</b></i>? <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" id="Mt 7:4" rel="verse" style="cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Matthew 7:4"> </a><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">4</span> Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" id="Mt 7:5" rel="verse" style="cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Matthew 7:5"> </a><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">5</span> You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5)</span></blockquote>
</div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;">Why does Jesus seem to take for granted that judgers are always guilty of that for which they judge? How does He know I have a log in my eye? Maybe I'm doing fine and just want to help a brother out . . . or maybe not. I think Edwards was on to this when he wrote . . .</span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Lucida, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 26px;"></span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Lucida, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 26px;">Resolved, to act, in all respects, both speaking and doing, as if nobody had been so vile as I, and as if I had committed the same sins, or had the same infirmities or failings as others; and that <i>I will let the knowledge of their failings promote nothing but shame in myself, and prove only an occasion of my confessing my own sins and misery to God.</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;"> (Jonathan Edwards, <a href="http://www.apuritansmind.com/the-christian-walk/jonathan-edwards-resolutions/">resolution 8</a>)</span></span></blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;">The other reason I think it's true is that it's been true for me as often as I've tested it in the past three months. <i>Every </i>time I am aware of a particular grievance I have with someone, I realize almost immediately, if I'm willing to consider my ways, that I am treating someone else in a similar way, and am offending more than I'm being offended. Try it out and see if it's true for you. </span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;">
</span><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px;">
Into this context of thought came a dream last night in which I was guarding my grandparents' old house (which was also the scene of many happy memories from my childhood, and the source of the most meaningful treasures in my current house) from bandits who wanted to come in and rob us. When they showed up in force, I went out to talk to them face-to-face, (perhaps a remnant of a confrontation I had with a customer at the shop Tuesday?), and they started throwing rocks at me, to which I replied by inviting them into the house. On the porch I told them why I was letting them in: because Jesus had treated me the same way when all I had for him was hostility. They came in and I told them where they could and couldn't go, and when I found them going into the attic a few minutes later, I was livid and drove them out in fury. When I came to, I tried to make sense of it, but couldn't understand it. What did it mean that Reuben and a friend of his were helping me take care of my grandparents house? Or that my parents were inside reading newspapers when I came in with the horde of bandits? Odd. Then I read this:</span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"></span><br />
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12pt; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -48pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;"></span></span></div>
<blockquote>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 12pt; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -48pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"><span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">30</span> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>[<a href="#ref=Job 5:3,hi=Job 5:3" class="bibleref" title="Job 5:3">Job 5:3</a>] </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">h</span></a>I passed by the field of a sluggard,</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">by the vineyard of a man <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>See ch. <a href="#ref=Pr 6:32,hi=Pr 6:32" class="bibleref" title="Proverbs 6:32">6:32</a> </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">i</span></a>lacking sense,</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -48pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" id="Pr 24:31" rel="verse" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Proverbs 24:31"> </a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">31</span> and behold, it was all overgrown with thorns;</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">the ground was covered with nettles,</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">and its stone <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p><a href="#ref=Is 5:5,hi=Is 5:5" class="bibleref" title="Isaiah 5:5">Isa. 5:5</a> </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">j</span></a>wall was broken down.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -48pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" id="Pr 24:32" rel="verse" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Proverbs 24:32"> </a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">32</span> Then I saw and <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>[ch. <a href="#ref=Pr 22:17,hi=Pr 22:17" class="bibleref" title="Proverbs 22:17">22:17</a>] </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">k</span></a>considered it;</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">I looked and received instruction.</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -48pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" id="Pr 24:33" rel="verse" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Proverbs 24:33"> </a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">33</span> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" rel="popup" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="<p>For ver. <a href="#ref=Pr 24:33,hi=Pr 24:33" class="bibleref" title="Proverbs 24:33">33</a>, <a href="#ref=Pr 24:34,hi=Pr 24:34" class="bibleref" title="Proverbs 24:34">34</a>, see ch. <a href="#ref=Pr 6:10,hi=Pr 6:10" class="bibleref" title="Proverbs 6:10">6:10</a>, <a href="#ref=Pr 6:11,hi=Pr 6:11" class="bibleref" title="Proverbs 6:11">11</a> </p> "><span style="font-size: 14px; font-style: italic; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">l</span></a>A little sleep, a little slumber,</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;">a little folding of the hands to rest,</span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -48pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1646249532770712794" id="Pr 24:34" rel="verse" style="color: #34448b; cursor: pointer; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Proverbs 24:34"> </a> <span style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 0; vertical-align: 2px;">34</span> and <i>poverty will come upon you like a robber,</i></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 24px;"><i>and want like an armed man.</i></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="font-size: 12pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt;">
</div>
</div>
<div>
All three streams of thought converged: the connection of laziness and thorny disorder; "receiving instruction" from someone else's failure; and the armed robber of poverty ready to pounce on the sluggard. I needed to hear that. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I'm a sluggard because everything's got to be perfect and I'm never ready to go, and so often I just need to let it go and move on. Sing it for us Ryan:</div>
<div>
</div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/LW-_vOKxRfs" width="425"></iframe>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1646249532770712794.post-45797748944546569562011-07-28T02:20:00.000-04:002011-10-02T22:55:27.905-04:00Standing Together or Falling Apart?We saw a good street sign today, and I couldn't resist stopping for a group picture:<div><br /></div><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DM44BwaWUXl7LrmbBlPXMg?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-lofTHHkd7BU/TjEAg4rMTrI/AAAAAAAAAGo/4W4l6GRA3Qg/s640/Standing%252520Together.JPG" height="512" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/116357536627241682266/July282011?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">July 28, 2011</a></td></tr></tbody></table>Yep, we're doing what the sign says. I guess I could've picked a better angle for the picture.<div><br /></div><div>It was fitting to see this sign along the route today, because for the past month, I've been falling apart. Not that there haven't been <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/07/on-top-of-world.html">bright</a> <a href="http://aheartfullofhighways.blogspot.com/2011/07/lord-thunders-over-tour-through-thors.html">moments</a>, but in general, I've been lonely, depressed, angry, avoiding community, and experiencing something of</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><blockquote><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; "><span class="Apple-style-span">Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire;</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 48pt; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: -16pt; "><span class="Apple-style-span">he breaks out against all sound judgment. (Proverbs 18:1)</span></p></blockquote></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span">and needing to hear this warning:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"></span></span><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span">Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. <a rel="verse" id="Heb 10:24" title="Hebrews 10:24" style="color: rgb(52, 68, 139); cursor: pointer; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; "> </a><span style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: 2px; line-height: 0; ">24</span> And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, <a rel="verse" id="Heb 10:25" title="Hebrews 10:25" style="color: rgb(52, 68, 139); cursor: pointer; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; "> </a><span style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: 2px; line-height: 0; ">25</span><i> not neglecting to meet together</i>, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span"> (Hebrews 10)</span></span></blockquote>In <a href="http://www.bibelwissenschaft.de/online-bibeln/greek-new-testament-ubs-gnt/lesen-im-bibeltext/bibelstelle/hebr%2010/cache/1127981675d1a12d343fdb4326b384ac/#v23">Greek</a>, that's all one sentence (actually the latter half of one that starts in <a href="http://ref.ly/He10.19">v. 19</a>), the import of which is to suggest that "neglecting to meet together" is but a symptom of not "holding fast the confession of our hope" and not "considering one another unto the provoking of love and good works" (v. 25 literal). Thus the strong warning that follows</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span">For if we go on <i>sinning deliberately</i> after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there <i>no longer remains a sacrifice for sins</i>, <a rel="verse" id="Heb 10:27" title="Hebrews 10:27" style="color: rgb(52, 68, 139); cursor: pointer; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; "> </a><span style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: 2px; line-height: 0; ">27</span> but a <i>fearful expectation of judgment</i>, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.</span></blockquote>There are no explicit New Testament commands telling believers to gather together; it's everywhere assumed they will and do, but when some are drifting in the habit of neglecting fellowship, it's addressed in the strongest terms. It demonstrates an abandonment of hope in the gospel (and attendant apathy for the people of God), for which the alternative expectation is fiery judgment. "Falling apart" is no overstatement. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; ">This makes me all the more thankful for two new forms of fellowship I enjoyed today. The first was meeting to speak and listen to the Word with John Croom and Randy Deas (they're in the middle of the picture below), and the second was meeting with some beautiful people who are part of Remedy Church in the evening for Bible study, prayer, and accountability. It's amazing how powerful God is to speak through such simple and seemingly mundane means.</span></div><div><blockquote><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; ">In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 0px;"><i> </i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; ">the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:22)<br /></span></span></blockquote><table style="width:auto;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3qKOv5iEMHb3lwle-IO3Gw?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-EZVaCQi4N9A/TjEAgusYVLI/AAAAAAAAAGk/tDqk9_EPKT8/s640/Standing%252520Together%2525202.JPG" height="512" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td style="font-family:arial,sans-serif; font-size:11px; text-align:right">From <a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/116357536627241682266/July282011?authuser=0&feat=embedwebsite">July 28, 2011</a></td></tr></tbody></table></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com2