Traitors for Christ
Now…I know that this technically doesn’t fit in the purposes of Traditores but:
(a) I’m a proud dad
(b) My son is a gift from God
(c) His talent is also a gift from God
Here is his euphonium solo from his last high school concert (June 2, 2012)…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKJO-XC4cFM&w=480&rel=0]
And a bonus video…Mikey playing “Amazing Grace” over two years ago (May 6, 2010)…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0W3pFMPjUA&w=480&rel=0]
Now, I’m not saying that I recommend you follow everyone on this list, but if you were looking for Christians to follow on Twitter, please check out Nathan W. Bingham’s “The Best of the Christian Twittersphere.” Sadly neither I (as @alancult) or Traditores (as @traditores) has made it yet, but there is still time. 🙂
Seeing What We Haven't Seen Before
I just wrapped up a four-part series at the Pleasant View Church of Christ…and after it I find myself returning over-and-over-and-over again to one Scripture in the Bible. It's a verse that I've read multiple times previously without it fully registering in my psyche. I'm assuming that experience is not unique to me…is there anyone else sitting here today who, studying a familiar part of the Bible, has said to himself or herself, "Wow?! Why haven't I ever seen that before?!"?
Do you ever wonder if the reason you've missed that awesome revelation from God is because you were just thick…or maybe instead God was "saving" it for you? Perhaps our Lord hides things in the Bible from us so that we'll never get bored reading His Word because of the joy we feel when, like an explorer, we discover something for the very first time.
At least the first time for us. 🙂
It's like the Most High has lifted a veil and we can finally see what we should have seen before…
The Judgment
So, what is this magnificent Scripture that I'm speaking of?
You'll just have to wait to find out. 🙂
Instead, let's first spend a little time looking at a few uncomfortable verses in the Bible…starting with one I've brought up here multiple times…Hebrews 9:27
The Book of Ezra starts of with some great news: Cyrus (king of Persia) proclaimed that the exiled Jews can return to their homeland and rebuild their temple. Not only that, but he encouraged those around the Israelites to donate everything from gold to animals "for the house of God that is Jerusalem" (Ezra 1:4, English Standard Version). Cyrus was also someone who puts his money where his mouth is, and returned 4,500 "vessels of gold and silver" Nebuchadnezzar had taken from Jerusalem back with the returning expatriates (see Ezra 1:7-11). Not a bad way to head back home, eh?
I will admit that after reading through that book this week, the good news that starts Ezra off isn't what is going to stick with me. Instead, it's the situation dealt with in the last two chapters. This is how the ninth chapter begins:
After these things had been done, the officials approached me and said, "The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands…For they have taken some of their daughters to be wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has mixed itself with the peoples of the lands. And in this faithlessness the hand of the officials and chief men has been foremost" (Ezra 9:1—2).
Don't get me wrong, the officials and Ezra had every reason to be concerned. Israelites weren't suppose to marry people from other nations, and when they did it had catastrophic consequences. Even a smart guy like King Solomon proved the wisdom behind the Lord's prohibition: Continue reading “What If’ing the Lord Almighty”
Quick Review
Three sermons have led up to this final talk in my "What" series:
How Soon is Soon?
Of course, so much more was done on the cross…finite words cannot adequately explain the infinite…but we enter this final sermon confident that when Jesus cried out, "It is finished" (John 19:30) He spoke accurately…and truthfully.
Yet I stand here and you sit there.
What Finally Worked
Quick Review
Before I begin the third talk in my four-part "What" Sunday-evening series, I figure it makes sense to quickly review the first two sermons…
#1 was "What Went Wrong"…where we learned that sin didn't start here on earth and that what originally went wrong up in heaven (and then went awry down here) wasn't a case of someone breaking an arbitrary rule.
Instead, it was a breakdown of trust between the creature and the creator. First Satan distrusted God, then one third of the angels, then Eve and Adam. Instead of becoming like God as they envisioned, they developed fear of God.
#2 was "What Was Tried"…where, using a dispensationalist outline, we saw that innocence didn't work, conscience didn't work, dominion didn't work, promise didn't work, and law didn't work. We learned that anything that depends on man fails miserably…and that our loving God never gave up on us rebellious earthlings…no matter how often or how badly we blew it. Praise God! 🙂
Show Me Your Glory
Now it's time for "What Finally Worked"…but before I try to answer that question, I'd like to head back into the dispensation of the law…just as it is beginning. Let's turn to Exodus 33:12-23:
Okay, I'll be up front…I have never even met Penn Jillette…so the title of this article might be considered a wee bit of an exaggeration. 🙂
No, he isn't a close personal friend, but I have had a couple times where Penn has responded to me on Twitter…and considering he's got over 1.7 million followers, that's almost like being famous. 🙂
At this point some of you might be saying, "Who is Penn Jillette?" This is what he has (right at this moment) on his Twitter profile:
More than 1/2 (by weight) of Penn & Teller at the Rio in Vegas, Penn's Sunday School Podcast, P&T Tell a Lie on Discovery, P&T: Fool Us! on ITV.God, NO! – book
As that blurb indicates, he is the larger half of the Penn & Teller act, a pair of comedic magicians. If you have ever seen them, you also know he's the half that speaks (his smaller compadre never utters a word). And speak he does…during his magic acts…during their multiple TV shows…and in any other opportunity he is given. He is loud, fun, informative, and interesting…
And an extremely committed atheist. Continue reading “My Close Personal Friend Penn Jillette”
Dispensationalism
How many people here have heard of the term "dispensationalism"?
My short definition of it would be "God dealt with people differently through the ages." However, I don't have the intelligence gained from a Masters of Divinity, so I suspect that won't show up in any scholarly work, whereas this definition from There Really is a Difference!: A Comparison of Covenant and Dispensational Theology by Renald Showers is a bit more erudite:
In light of the usage of the word for dispensation in the New Testament, the term dispensation as it relates to Dispensational Theology could be defined as a particular way of God's administering His rule over the world as He progressively works out His purpose for world history.1
I don't know about you…but that isn't entirely clarifying to me. Luckily Showers continues:
In order for each dispensation to be distinct from all other dispensations, it must have three essential characteristics. First, it must have a particular way of God's [sic] administering His rule. Each dispensation is characterized by a unique ruling factor or combination of ruling factors. Second, it must involve a particular responsibility for man. Each dispensation makes man responsible to obey God in accordance with its unique ruling factor or combination of factors. Third, it must be characterized by divine revelation which had not been given before. In order for man to know God's new way of ruling and his new responsibility, he must have these things revealed to him. Each new dispensation requires new revelation from God.2
Does it make a little more sense now?
If not, perhaps an example of how history has been divided into dispensations will make it clear.
As I type this I am listening to the greatest negative my apartment has—the constant, fairly loud sound of traffic (often very heavy traffic). I've basically gotten use to it, but I still notice it…especially at places in my abode that have reduced sound proofing (for example, the huge door to the outdoors just before the kitchen).
I've wondered, however, if perhaps it is more of a blessing than a curse. Once as I looked through the open blinds in the living room, it hit me that the vehicles whizzing by 24 hours a day were a reminder of the myriad people out there. It is impossible for me to be a hermit in this location—I am constantly reminded I am not alone. As a Christian this is a benefit—since our duty isn't to self, instead it is first to God and then to others: Continue reading “Compassion for I-580”
Lame Movie Plot Devices
Friday night Barry Junior joined me watching a movie that Barry Senior had brought up after I did my sermon, "Heaven…This is Heaven." For those who caught that, you may recall my mention of the Valkyries (val-`keer-ees)…babes on white horses who collected those who died on the battle field. Barry Senior remembered a movie with Valkyries…one called "Max Payne"—a policeman living a tortured existence as he continues to search for the third man who was involved in killing Max's his wife and infant child.
The movie begins showing Max Payne slowly floating toward the bottom of the river, clearly on the edge of death. After the film made clear how precarious his state was (and how likely it was he would not get out of it), it leveraged a plot device often used in movies and TV shows…
"One week earlier."
To which I immediately told Barry Junior know just how much I hate that plot device. 🙂
Inconsistent Human
And in the spirit of human inconsistency, I am now going to use the same approach as a sermon device. 🙂
From Bartleby.com, this classic by John Donne (I believe the underlying work is public domain):
Batter my heart, three person’d God; for, you
As yet but knocke, breathe, shine, and seeke to mend;
That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow mee,’and bend
Your force, to breake, blowe, burn and make me new.
I, like an usurpt towne, to’another due,
Labour to’admit you, but Oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in mee, mee should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weake or untrue.
Yet dearely’I love you,’and would be loved faine,
But am betroth’d unto your enemie:
Divorce mee,’untie, or breake that knot againe;
Take mee to you, imprison mee, for I
Except you’enthrall mee, never shall be free,
Nor ever chast, except you ravish mee.
I know that the old English makes it difficult to read, but there is immense wisdom in the intentional contradictions in the words…
This poem has not only come to mind today, but whenever I hear this great song by JJ Heller:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3BDYBGhSgI&w=480&rel=0]
And here is a great live version too:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Hd211fJOw&w=480a&rel=0]
"What worried me the most was the fact that he said if you do accept evolution that you’re somehow ethically lacking."
First, I don’t know if Dr. Carson actually said that, but, theoretically, if materialistic evolution (no God) is right, there is no real foundation for ethics. That doesn’t mean atheists are less ethical, but with no "absolute moral authority," who really decides what is wrong or right? If it is society, we've seen over and over how well that works…and it is no better when left in the hands of "enlightened" leaders.
Regardless, is it a new litmus test for non-controversial college commencement speakers that they can’t believe in creation?:
“Dr. Ben Carson’s Beliefs On Evolution Stir Controversy At Emory University”
Have you ever promised something, only to regret it afterward? When you were a kid, did you ever assure someone with the words, "Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye"? Do you ever swear by anything? ("I swear on my mother's grave that…")
Between Bible studies and reading, I've been thinking about oaths in Scripture that have gone awry. For instance, going through Judges this one stood out:
And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, "If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering" (Judges 11:30-31, English Standard Version).
In the previous verse it says that "the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah" (Judges 11:29) so it seems really odd that he would offer something that appears against God's command—sacrificing one's child (see Deuteronomy 18:10). Perhaps that's why after having success beating the Ammonites, our Lord allowed Jephthah's oath to come back and haunt him: Continue reading “Oaths Gone Bad”
Between a couple trips through all 66 (and Bible studying) I've read every word in Scripture more than once, yet I still run into stuff I don't ever remember seeing before. Sure, it could just be that I've got an awful memory, but instead it seems to me that God's written word is like a gold mine where no matter how much you dig the precious metal never runs out…even when you are digging in the same exact place. It is inexhaustible.
For instance, a day or so back I was reading how Ahaziah (bad king of Israel) wonders if his injuries are going to lead to his death and decides to go ask Ekron's god Baal-zebub via messengers. The only real God sends Elijah to intercept Ahaziah's intermediaries, and Elijah sends them back with a pretty negative message. Seeing them so soon the king was surprised, and asked them why they were back so quickly. They relate the communication and then:
[Ahaziah] said to them, "What kind of man was he who came to meet you and told you these things?" They answered him, "He wore a garment of hair, with a belt of leather about his waist." And he said, "It is Elijah the Tishbite" (2 Kings 1:7-8, English Standard Version).
Now, perhaps you are far more observant than I am, but I never caught that Elijah wore clothing made of hair and a leather belt. Why does that matter? Fast forward to the New Testament and: Continue reading “The Result of Double Faith”
Okay, I know it is fair for someone to ask, "Why are you putting a recipe on a religious site?!"
Well, 'cause a few weeks back I made two full recipes of it for a church pot luck! 🙂
Just ask my kids…it may have simple ingredients and sound boring, but it
Ingredients:
Boil the elbows to whatever consistency you like (I prefer not too soft)…drain…poor back into the pan…run cold water on them until they are cool (I don’t run the cold water too fast). Drain again.
Take a large spoon and get three good globs of mayonnaise…plop them on top…and then mix it into the noodles by hand.
Squeeze all the water out of the tuna…and then crumble it thoroughly by hand into a bowl. After that you mix it in…again by hand…making sure it is evenly spread throughout.
Chop the pickles into decently small (but not relish size) pieces (I like using a Pampered Chef Cutting Edge Food Chopper), whacking it 16 times for each group of pickles). Mix it in by hand..again making sure it evenly spread throughout.
Finally, after draining the peas, poor them in…and again…by hand mix…well, you get it at this point. 🙂
When you eat it, salt to taste. For me, that means a lot of salt. 🙂
The "secret" to the recipe is to make it so every bite has a little tuna, peas, and chopped gherkins…but not too much. Well, that and putting some love into it….
P.S. Yes, you can leave out the peas (that’s the way my daughter, April, likes it). I would not leave anything else out, but I know some people aren’t fans of sweet gherkins either. Their loss. 🙂
P.P.S. I'm not sure exactly what her recipe was, but credit for this should go to my mom…who made the original that I loved so much I’m willing to spend a lot of time getting my hands slimy recreating it as best I can…