Eternal Perspectives

It has not been easy doing my job this week. The situation in New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport, Mobile, and other places crushed under the relentless fury of Katrina causes a problem for me. It upsets my perspective on other things.

It reminds me of something that happened almost four years ago. The jets had slammed into the WTC and Pentagon just hours before; it was a Tuesday, and I had a full schedule. My first client, a tender-hearted young woman dealing with a painful life situation, walked into my office and sat down on the couch across from me. Tears filled her eyes and, looking directly at me, she said, “I don’t have any problems.”

She did, of course, have problems, but what she was saying was that the weight of the tragedy unfolding in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania gave her a different perspective. Concerns and unhappiness about things like loneliness, lost relationships, and an uncertain future somehow didn’t seem so important as the reality of terror landed on our shores.

It is the same with Katrina. Especially New Orleans. It just keeps getting worse and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. It is tragic and painful to watch unfold.

I’ll confess something. I’ve been to New Orleans more than a few times and traveled through the area quite a bit. I’ve followed I-10 around the city and crossed Lake Pontchartrain on the way up to Slidell, where it connects with I-12 and continues east and west. I’ve walked down Canal Street and Bourbon Street, eaten creole in great little hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and listened to great blues flowing out of open-air nightclubs. I’ve been to Jackson Square, stood on the levee of the Mississippi River, and had a breakfast of coffee and beignets at Cafe du Monde.

I’ve never liked New Orleans in general or Bourbon Street in particular. I’ve always felt like I needed to take a shower when I’ve gotten back to my car and headed home again. It’s my self-righteousness, I suppose, or perhaps it’s a little too reminiscent of a life I used to live before Christ grabbed me and pull me away.

My confession is this: when Katrina was first forecast to hit New Orleans, a part of me was glad. If ever a city needed to be smacked upside the head and humbled a little bit, I said to myself, it was New Orleans. I was even a little disappointed when the storm made landfall east of the city: this meant it was spared the brunt of the hurricane’s power and was only going to suffer a glancing blow.

And then one part of the levee gave way and the water from Lake Pontchartrain started spilling into the sink hole that is New Orleans. And it’s still flowing. New Orleans was already sinking, but now it’s quickly becoming part of Lake Pontchartrain. A lot of people have died; more will die in the weeks to come. Those who escaped with their lives have no lives to return to. It is literally devastation of biblical proportions.

I’ve heard that some people have said what is happening in New Orleans is God’s judgment on the city for it’s sinful culture. Maybe it is, but I doubt it. What frightens me about what is happening in New Orleans is something Christ said to His disciples:

4 “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?
5 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
- Lk 13.4-5

The people in New Orleans are no different from the people in College Station, Texas, or Madison, Wisconsin, or anywhere else. God allows the hurricanes to blow upon the just and the unjust (cf. Mt 5.45) not because one deserves it and the other does not, but because we live in a fallen world where death is just one levee-break away.

It is a humbling exhibition of how fragile life is and how utterly powerless we are to preserve it. Things as simple, basic, and primitive as nature can destroy our lives in an instant. We are not as secure or strong or smart as we tell ourselves. It is unsettling to be reminded of that.

_______
I don’t understand why we name hurricanes. Are we trying to make them more personal? Does it give us a sense of mastery? Is it a throwback to when the forces of nature were under the control of various gods? “Katrina” was a manifestation of the force of nature, not the offspring of “Mother Nature.” We don’t name tornados, earthquakes, tsunamis, or volcanic eruptions; why do we name hurricanes? It trivializes the threat and assigns a sense of purpose or motive that is not real. Katrina did not kill anyone; a hurricane of immense power killed hundreds of human beings and destroyed thousands of human lives.

Jn 19.22

 

I received the manuscript for this book several weeks ago through the Diet of Bookworms. My only compensation is that I am to receive a free copy of the book when it is made available. This is no compensation at all, however, since (a) the book is available free for online reading at Crossway’s site, and (b) it is not a book I would buy, recommend, give away, or use as a doorstop.

Recommendation: Save your money and read it online. Better yet, save your time and don’t read it at all.

I had intended to do an in-depth review of God Is the Gospel, pointing out the serious reservations I have about it while also attempting to salvage what good there is within its pages. The surprise release and availability of the book online, however, makes my review superfluous and so I will primarily share many of the notes I made in the margins of the manuscript during my two readings of the book. I trust you will get an idea of my areas of concern.

Let me begin by highlighting some of the disturbing statements in Piper’s writing. (All emphases are mine.)

What makes the gospel good news in the end is the enjoyment of the glory of God in Christ. The Holy Spirit provides the present experience of that enjoyment. Therefore the promise of the Spirit in the gospel is what makes it good news.” - p. 31

“The effect of this peace with God is eternal life. This too is what makes the gospel of Christ good news.” - p. 33

“That any of us has believed is owing to the mighty work of God’s grace - the grace made possible by the blood of Christ. And this blood-bought grace is essential to what makes the good news good.” - p. 36

“Now the point of this book must be pressed. The point is that the precious gospel events and gospel blessings that I have outlined in this chapter do not suffice to make the gospel good news.” - p. 37

This annoying doublespeak would be minor if it were not for the next step Piper takes in his reasoning. Through some creative hermeneutical gymnastics, he makes seeing the glory of God in Christ at the moment of effectual calling necessary for salvation.
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Jn 19.22

 

[There are a couple of links in this post (”Read more”) that will take the reader to a longer version of this post. If you don’t want to overindulge, just read what’s here; for the full buffet, it’s available via the links.]

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Part of my problem is that I don’t listen to myself, that I don’t remember and put into practice what I already know.

Scrawled in the upper corner of a seldom-used Bible is the following:

“The Christian life - a godly life - does not give meaning to the world’s system or pursuits. The Christian living a godly life has the privilege of participating in God’s system and pursuits. Ecclesiastes’ arguments show the truth of the first statement.”

I think those are my words: I almost always cite the source when I copy something I’ve read into a Bible. I could be wrong about this, but it sounds like something I would say. Too bad I haven’t lived that way.

As I continue to struggle - having been spiritually gut-shot and field-dressed - Koheleth’s book is like the morphine of a cauterized wound. I am comforted by his misery. His wisdom doesn’t validate my experience as much as it exposes my foolishness for having insidiously lived a vacuous existence. I am in remedial Christianity, a cram course for the spiritually challenged, having to study and apply things that were taught long ago but never learned. It is amazing that I could be so blind to so many cues and clues.
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Jn 19.22

 

If there is a single book in all of Scripture that rescues me from despondency and hopelessness, it is the Book of Ecclesiastes. It is also a book to which I turn frequently when - as I noted recently - I have lost my way or forgotten that which is true. I regard the book to be a message of deep wisdom, written by one (presumably Solomon) who had wrestled with God and become convinced of the inscrutable nature of His ways.

In one of my reference books - I do not know which - is written the following description of Ecclesiastes:

Koheleth’s Purpose and Theme: he uses traditional tools of wisdom to refute and revise its traditional conclusions. Like Job, he protested the easy generalizations with which his fellow teachers taught their pupils to be successful. They had oversimplified life and its rules so as to mislead and frustrate their followers. Their ‘wisdom’ was superficial and the ‘counsel’ thin in a world beset by injustice, toil, and death. The sages trod on territory belonging to God when they tried to predict with certainty the outcome of conduct both wise and foolish. The freedom of God and the mystery of His ways were realities that Koheleth knew better than they, who did not always recognize the limits divine sovereignty has placed on human reason, wisdom, and understanding. Failure to recognize human limits has caused man to value their own wisdom, pleasure, prestige, wealth, and justice far too much.”

I first came across this approach to Ecclesiastes while at Denver Seminary. A little commentary on the book by David Hubbard, former president of Fuller Seminary, caught my attention and helped me make sense of the book. This was in stark contrast to almost all the other commentaries I had encountered that dismissed the book as “an unenlightened man’s view of life.” It was the beginning of an important reservoir of wisdom from which I was to drink in future periods of spiritual drought.
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Jn 19.22

 

Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.” - Pr 22.6

I wish I knew how many times I have been approached by parents of small children and asked about this verse; I wish I knew because I would like to be able to go back and correct the stupid things I said to them.

Here’s the empty-headed, psychologically-informed advice I used to give them:

“The Hebrew word here actually means ‘according to his way,’ not ‘in the way he should go.’ What Solomon is saying is that each child needs to be brought up according to his or her distinct, unique personality, according to the temperament God has given to each one of them. If we are faithful in doing that, then our children will grow up to be more consistent, less conflicted adults.

“This is not a promise that our children will remain true to the faith if we are faithful in raising them that way.”

That’s what I said, believing it to be the truth. Sadly, I believed it was the truth because of some Christian psychologist I read or heard somewhere along the way. Being the Berean that I am, however, I did go home and do a word study and found that - by golly! - the Hebrew word can mean “manner.” Of course, in 697 occurences it does not mean “manner,” but a whopping 8 times it does! Case closed. How would you like to pay for my great wisdom?

What never dawned on me was to ask one of the most basic questions of exegesis and exposition: what would the original audience have understood the text to mean? Personally, I have a hard time believing that the following conversation (or anything like it) ever transpired 4,000 years ago:

Isaac: “Uh, Becky, what’s up with Jake? He’s been a little less than candid about some of the stuff he’s been doing lately.”
Rebekah: “Zack, you know how he is! He’s just being a boy!”
Isaac: “Yeah? Well, I don’t want him to grow up to be a boy! I want him to be a man! Where’s my rod of correction?”
Rebekah: “Don’t you dare hit him! Don’t you know that - someday a thousand years or so from now - someone’s going to write that we should raise our children according to their temperaments? This is simply who Jacob is! Why do you want to interfere with the plan of God?”
Isaac: “What?!?”
Rebekah: “You heard me. Now put down that rod and go hunting with Esau, would you? I want to talk to Jacob about some matters concerning the family will and the birthright.”

Maybe it’s me, but I just can’t believe the ancient Hebrews were so child-centered that they spent a whole lot of time trying to figure out the personality of each little darling. They seemed to be a lot more interested in character than personality or temperament.

I also doubt that “manner” is the meaning in mind in Pr 22.6 because of Pr 22.15:

Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.”

How can I smack the snot out of my child without doing harm to his precious little psyche? I’m not talking about abusing a child, but giving him a swat to teach him (a) some behaviors are acceptable and some are not, and (b) there are consequences to behaviors, not all of which are pleasant.

The simple truth is that proverbs are general sayings, general truths that - more often than not - wind up being true. There are exceptions. Sometimes good parents have lousy kids, sometimes lousy parents have good kids. For the most part, however parents train a child - whether in paths of righteousness or not - is how that child is going to behave when she is an adult.

That’s what the verse means. Not all the psychobabble or theobabble in the world will change that.

Jn 19.22

 

I have lost my way. Again.

Back in the ’60s and ’70s, before I became a Christian, I was a Freak. A Freak in those days was not merely someone who smoked marijuana and perhaps did other drugs; a Freak was a person who had rejected the culture and lifestyle of the day and was now living a quite different existence. Hippies wore the clothes and did the drugs, but they were part-timers: they didn’t reject the lifestyle but continued to value the same things they had previously. Freaks looked down on Hippies, considering them to be insincere and inconsistent. Hippies were the Samaritans of the drug culture. Freaks, we told ourselves, were the real deal. Stoned snobbery.

As a Freak, I lived a pretty austere lifestyle. Along with a roommate whom I rarely saw, I lived in a one-room cabin in the woods with no running water and no telephone. Whenever possible, we took baths in a creek that was a hundred yards further into the woods and down a hill; in the winter, we showered at work, a friend’s home, or at our parents’. We had an outhouse with a fingernail of a moon cut in the door. No telephone meant visitors were rare: if someone wanted to see me, they had to drive the 25 miles or so out of town and hope that I would be there.

I drove a simple vehicle - a VW Bug, of course - and had few possessions. When I moved to Colorado once, everything I owned fit in the back of my VW. My primary possessions were a huge collection of select albums - vinyl - and a stereo system with speakers the size of a file cabinet (I still have them, 30+ years later, along with the turntable). My wardrobe was simple: jeans, t-shirt, boots, and an old, dark, drab sports coat. I didn’t spend any money on haircuts: my mane was past my shoulders and my moustache was thick and long. Long hair was a badge of defiance and a celebration of freedom.
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Jn 19.22

 

My creativity tends to be volcanic: I lie dormant for awhile before erupting and spewing words all over the place. Sometimes it’s a good thing, sometimes it’s mediocre, and sometimes it’s downright awful.

I’ve been dormant for some time now, posting only infrequently for the last several weeks. I won’t apologize for that: to paraphrase Kung Fu, “If one’s posts are not better than silence, then one should remain silent.” I could do the cutesy stuff - I’ve done it in the past - but I don’t feel up to it.

I do know that something is rumbling deep down but it defies articulation right now. I have four drafts sitting on my cyberdesk, all on the same subject. None of them feel right, though, and none is likely to ever see the light of day. Or the light of your computer screen.

I wish I could churn stuff out all the time, but things like life keep happening to me and distracting me. As a counselor, I get caught up in the pain and struggles of my clients and spend a lot of time thinking and reflecting on what’s going on and how I can really help. But I can hardly blog about that: they have a right to privacy and confidentiality. They trust me with their hearts, in a way, and I’m not about to betray them. The result? What is on my mind most of the time is not something I can blog about. I don’t regret that for a second.

I value those of you who faithfully stop by and - when there’s actually something new available - take the time to read my posts. I hope I don’t lose anyone, but I’d rather have posts of substance and quality than just something to fill the silence.

Consider this an explanation. Thanks again for stopping by. Hopefully I’ll say something really profound soon.

Or not.

Jn 19.22

 

I just ran across the following two consecutive entries while surfing the Blogdom of God

QOTW-The Girl I am about to marry is not a virgin - League of Reformed Bloggers Aug 11 06:11

Other Issues Related to Reformed Theology - League of Reformed Bloggers Aug 11 06:11

I thought this might be just an amusing coincidence but decided to click over the to The Dickens Family to see if the two ran back-to-back there, too.

Yep, there they were. Reformed believers have some curious theological issues, don’t you think?

If you have the energy, go ahead and click on the link above. Derick gives some solid advice to the young man asking the first question - although I would have asked if he is a virgin - and the information on Reformed theology is interesting, too.

Jn 19.22

 

There are truths in Scripture that are presented almost casually or as an aside that I, for one, sometimes breeze over and fail to grasp. Only through my repeated readings of a passage is God able to get my attention and cause me to notice what I have heretofore missed.

This is what has happened in my reading of Ezek 6. As I mentioned in my last post, what started out to be a quick reading of the least well-known of the major prophets has stalled at chapter 16 and especially at chapter 6. Recalling one of my old soldiers - a Bible that has been set aside for a newer, crisper Bible that I just couldn’t live without - I began reading chapter 6 again and noticed that v. 9 was not only underlined but highlighted:

Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations to which they will be carried captive, how I have been hurt by their adulterous hearts which turned away from Me, and by their eyes which played the harlot after their idols; and they will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed, for all their abominations.”

This verse appears in a passage that describes the lengths to which God will go to make His people understand that He, and He alone, is God. But Yahweh also gives us a truth in this verse that He does not repeat in this chapter: He has been hurt. God has been hurt by the adulterous, idolatrous hearts of His people.

That is simply an unbelievable truth to me.
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Jn 19.22

 

It started out innocently enough. A week or so ago, not having read Ezekiel for awhile, I thought I’d wander through the exilic prophet just to reacquaint myself with his message and refresh my recollection of some verses. He’s been called the prophet of personal responsibility and, since I’m big on that, I like what he has to say and how he says it.

I never made it past chapter 16, though, and keep getting pulled back to chapter 6. God seems to be trying to get my attention about something.

I’m not sure I know the extent or the depth of the message He is trying to impress upon me, but at least part of it seems clear. What follows are the impressions and thoughts that have surfaced from a couple of weeks of reading and re-reading the sixth chapter. I’ll reproduce critical sections of the passage here, making comments as I go.

I’ll start with a little background, first about me (and likely some of you) and then about the author and the book itself.

My personal sitz im lieben: Three-plus decades ago, when I became a Christian, I learned a lot of things - some good, some not-so good. One of the good things I learned was about the eternal security of the believer: having been born again, I was rescued from the wrath of God, my sins - past, present, and future - were paid for by the sacrifice of Christ, and I would never be eventually and eternally separated from Him. I was signed, sealed and delivered - I’m His.

A not-so-good thing I heard was that the “fear of the Lord” really just meant a reverential awe of God. The phrase does, of course, mean precisely that at times: it also means “fear” as in “terror” in other places but, as a believer, I didn’t have to worry about the latter. It was an either/or situation: it either meant “awe” or “fear.”

I’m not completely sold on that anymore. I do believe that the Hebrew and Greek words can mean “reverential awe” and “fear,” but it’s an “and” situation and not an “or” situation. That is, fear is intermingled with reverential awe; reverential awe has an element of fear in it.

I am finally fearful. Or, more accurately, reverentially terrified.
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Jn 19.22

 

Your Blogging Type is Pensive and Philosophical

You blog like no one else is reading… You tend to use your blog to explore ideas - often in long winded prose. Easy going and flexible, you tend to befriend other bloggers easily. But if they disagree with once too much, you’ll pull them from your blogroll!

I often write as though no one is reading because often no one is reading.

And I think I only pulled one person from my links and that was for theological reasons. I’ve deleted a few comments but usually to protect the person from their own foolishness; once because the content was another gospel.

You can insult me all you want, as long as you’re correct about your accusations and don’t mind me giving it back.

(HT: Marla)

How You Live Your Life

You have a good sense of self control and hate to show weakness. You’re laid back and chill, but sometimes you care too much about what others think. You tend to have one best friend you hang with, as opposed to many aquaintences. Some of your past dreams have disappointed you, but you don’t let it get you down.

Your Hidden Talent

You’re super sensitive and easily able to understand situations. You tend to solve complex problems in a flash, without needing a lot of facts. Decision making is easy for you. You have killer intuition. The right path is always clear, and you’re a bit of a visionary.

Jn 19.22