Faith and Circumstances

Thank you God

2012-02-08T01:54:00.000-08:00

Thank you God. You speak truth, not in an archaic or dead sacred language that I have to memorize how it is pronounced, but in words I can understand. May those who do not understand come to understand.

Who am I?

2012-02-01T04:34:00.000-08:00

In human terms, incomplete, puzzled, not fully understood. Others don't understand me. But a simplistic "to my own self be true" view is not the answer. The world doesn't understand me, but I understand myself all too well. I make too many excuses why I don't live up to my potential.

But in God's terms, I am loved, a valuable soul in process. He has committed himself to bring out my greatness. This maturing and forming process is a combination of hearing the inner cries of my heart, and also encouraging me to listen.

And so are you, my reader, a valuable soul in process. I wish you to understand the challenge and the depth of God's love for you.

We are each alone

2012-01-28T10:22:00.000-08:00

One morning before a family reunion, I worried it would be superficially pleasant but not all that interesting. Who in my extended clan is really like me? I grew up in California, they grew up on the east coast. I’ve worked for years in Africa, none of them have. What do I have in common with them?

What if, I then wondered, I was not alone in feeling alone? I knew my list why the others were different. Did they each have their own list? They could well have. We are each unique, no one really knows anyone just like them.

It came to me: We are each alone. We each bear the privilege and the awkwardness or loneliness of being the only one of ourselves. It is God and God alone who knows us totally and perfectly, and who really understands. Sometimes other humans do understand, that is a blessing. But when they do not, should that be such a surprise?

What reminded me of this: Bruce B linked to a blogger I hadn't read before.

The simple Gospel I don't believe in

2012-01-27T07:07:00.001-08:00

What I'd like to believe, but it isn't true:
Just have faith, and all your problems will be solved, all your wants will be satisfied.

The gospel I do believe in:
God is with you. As messy as life gets (and it does get messy), He is always with you and helps you endure.

A good reminder -- happiness comes from God

2012-01-26T06:25:00.000-08:00

We think some external thing, status or experience will make us happy. God says we cannot be happy in ourselves, happiness is a relationship with him.

If we think "If only I could do, or be, or have something -- then I'd be happy," we haven't understood yet.

With God, we'll be OK, even if we are poor, sick, mistreated or abandoned. Without God, even getting all we want won't make us happy.

This post inspired by Ray Ortlund's blogpost.

Someone I don't envy

2012-01-24T04:24:00.000-08:00

Picture this: you're 23 years old, in the second year of your first job out of college. You have a bad day at the office, make two big mistakes. Yet your job is such that your mistakes occurred on nationwide TV and get replayed over and over again, and will be replayed again for years to come. Half the country now knows your name as a classic blunderer, you've received death threats on Twitter. How would you feel?

I've made mistakes in my work answering computer questions. "I can't believe I forgot that I can't install X before I install Z" or "Duh! That's not the password for this account!" Once I opened someone's computer to take out the hard drive to copy files elsewhere, and the hard drive data cable came apart in my fingers. I had to order a new data cable and she was without her computer for a week while waiting for it to arrive. I didn't become a national figure of disdain.

But Kyle Williams, wide receiver and temporary punt returner for the San Francisco 49ers, is now infamous for two turnovers on punts in one game. Kyle, I appreciate your brave words about bouncing back and learning from it. I'm glad you feel the support of your teammates. Patrick Willis and David Akers, congrats on showing real team spirit and holding up Kyle right now.

And all this is just one more reason why the Apostle Peter told us to set our hope fully on the grace coming to us when Jesus Christ is revealed. Don't set your hope on winning or on never making a mistake, you can't guarantee that will happen. I hope Kyle gets another chance in a playoff game. But there's no guarantee that will happen. What is guaranteed? The love and promises of God.

Update: Reportedly, the New York Giants targeted Williams for hard hits, hoping to give him a concussion so he'd make mistakes. . Something's wrong with football if this is how the game is really played.

Scripture's no video game

2011-12-27T02:26:00.002-08:00

I'm thinking about the conquest of Jericho (Joshua 6). The people marched around Jericho a bunch of times, then an earthquake shatters the wall and the city is conquered. If this were a video game, you'd say "Great. I love this level! I'll use the earthquake in every battle from now on."
The people are overconfident when they march against Ai in chapter 7. One might think that after Achan's sin is exposed and he confesses and is judged, the people can go back to marching around the enemy until the earthquake pulverises them. But that isn't what God does -- Ai is defeated by a battle plan that doesn't involve earthquakes or any other miracle. And the rest of the battles don't involve earthquakes. There is one more miracle in Joshua, the day the sun stands still, but the rest of the battles all involve hard combat without miracles. I think God wants us to understand how He is powerful enough to enable a miraculous victory at any moment, but he also wants us to understand he often chooses not to display that power.

I dislike happy endings -- a paradox

2011-12-17T13:11:00.000-08:00

I like Christian fiction, but I dislike when writers give you a nice happy ending with all the character's problems solved. This is a paradox. For isn't the Gospel of Jesus Christ the mother of all happy endings?

But a real Gospel story would show the ending has not yet come. We are always in the middle of the story, still needing hope for what we do not yet see. We are blessed by God here and now, but the ultimate happy ending, happy beyond all we can ask or think, is yet to come.

Blog moving

2011-12-15T16:27:00.000-08:00

I've moved my blog. It is now part of a larger website, www.covhope.com. I created this website as a web home for the book I've begun to publish.

The book is available in Kindle, Nook and other digital formats here:

Covenant of Hope.

Paperback version should be available soon.

New direct address to this blog: blog.covhope.com
The old address, faithcircumstance.blogspot.com should still work as well.

The Spirit, our drill sergeant?

2011-12-15T16:15:00.000-08:00

Is this a familiar story? It feels like I'm remembering it from a classic war movie, but I'm not sure. Maybe from Sands of Iwo Jima.

Here's the story. A young man joins the army and arrives at basic training. It feels like months of hell, since the tough, demanding drill sergeant is on his case all day and all night; telling him to run faster, keep going, clean his rifle faster, try harder and never give up. He endures, telling himself that once basic training is over he hopes never to see this brutal taskmaster of a sergeant again. He finally makes it through training and goes into battle. In the reality of combat, he realizes the necessity of all the drill sergeant had insisted he learn. The sergeant wasn't overly demanding at all, he knew what skills soldiers really needed. Then finally the soldier meets his former drill sergeant and thanks him for being so tough on him in boot camp.

Is the Holy Spirit is like this drill sergeant? He knows we have far to grow in Christlikeness and that we won't be thoroughly happy anywhere short of Christlikeness. He doesn't shout at and insult us, like a stereotypical drill sergeant. But there is a lot we have to learn and he faithfully keeps at us to not stop learning. One day, we'll appreciate all we have learned. Maybe we already appreciate things we have learned, even though learning them was far from present at the time. Hebrews 12 reminds us that God disciplines those he loves, let us be properly appreciative of God's discipline.

Some spiritual lessons

2011-12-01T04:22:00.001-08:00

Some spiritual lessons from recent years:

When it looks like God hasn't kept a promise, go to him and ask for wisdom and help. Messy circumstances that suggest that the promise isn't really true may be the arena where God wants to demonstrate again how true the promise is.
Lay my raw emotions before God in prayer. There is no point in pretending I'm not feeling what I'm feeling. There isn't much point in thinking I can stop feeling something just by deciding that it is wrong or inappropriate to feel that way. A negative emotion laid before God in prayer loses much of its power to perturb God's peace in my heart.
Life may not have given me what I most wanted, but do I really have something to complain about? If I can't be content with what I have, can I be content with what I want?
Change is normal. Don't think of the current change I don't like as something I can get past and never be bothered with again.
Don't judge the wisdom, integrity or competence of others just by whether they make my life harder. Many times life needs to be complicated.
The purpose of life isn't to make us happy but to make us holy. (Adapted from Gary Thomas' book about marriage).

God's wonderful plan

2011-11-26T05:59:00.001-08:00

"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life"Simplistic, or true?True, if we understand that the wonderful plan is not to get the things we want, or to be free from trouble, but to grow in character. Jeremiah 29:11 is a well known promise: "I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."The context is God telling the people not to listen to the false prophets predicting pleasant circumstances. God's plan to prosper his people at that point involve going to Babylon for 70 years of exile. This will be good, not evil, because God will be with them in exile, and they will learn to walk more closely with him. "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you." So let us not assume God is not with us when life is difficult.

More than we can ask or think

2011-10-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

This line comes from one of my wife's favorite verses.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, Ephesians 3:20

This verse has bugged me at times, because while God is able to do far more than I ask or think, I've felt like he frequently does much less than I ask for.I've come to understand that while his power can instantly resolve any problem, his wisdom usually opts for demonstrating I can trust him even as the problem persists.

An earlier post about wisdom and power.

What about my dream?

2011-10-07T03:57:00.000-07:00

O Lord, you know my dream. You know how much it is a part of me. And yet I have no guarantee it will come true.What shall I do? I must admit I don't deserve to have this dream come true. I cannot be sure that having it come true will make me a better person or will bring your kingdom closer. But it is a part of me, and you do not condemn me for it, for you are gracious and merciful to the longings of my heart. You may well want to give me this dream that I know anew your goodness. Yet you may well want to show me your goodness and your ability to encourage me without fulfilling my dream. Do what you will.Lord, help me trust you with this dream. Help me to remember whether you choose to make it come true or not, you are ever with me. When your kingdom comes in all its fullness, that will be the best possible fulfillment of all our dreams, the ones that really matter.

Honesty of a worship leader

2011-10-06T03:53:00.000-07:00

I just read a blog post by a worship leader that challenges my self-righteousness. I think of myself as a "mature ordinary Christian" who would never say any of those foolish things that worship leaders sometimes say. My least favorite thing, when the worship leader says "Good morning", then judges our response too feeble and says "Let's try that again." As if the problem of apathy of heart goes away as soon as we say "Good morning" or "Amen" adequately loud.His closing statement of what worship ought to be and how it just is not natural for any of us without God's grace is a good one:

At the end of the day, regardless of what side of the microphone we're on, we're all suffering from varying degrees of misdirection, and in desperate need of re-direction. We all come to church on Sunday faced with the dilemma of who we've been worshiping and whose kingdom we've been building all week. It's that humble truth that causes me to once again remember what I'm called to do this morning: magnify the name of Christ, confess our desperate need for him, and sing the truths of the gospel with people who are far too consumed with themselves. Like me.

All I've done is feed the fish

2011-09-01T07:37:00.000-07:00

This morning, I stumbled across a blog in Portuguese, which Google translated for me, and I found it inspiring. The 21st century does have its good points.What Google and I think he's saying: Come fish with me in my lake. The lake isn't mine, God gave it to me. The fish aren't mine, God gave me them, too. All I've done is feed the fish.This reminds me of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians.

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?

All we have, whether it is our "natural" gifts, talents and skills, things we've had to labor to attain or perfect, or things we just "lucked" into, are gifts from God. They aren't inalienably mine. All I've done is receive them.Like Senhor Campo says, all I've done is feed the fish.The original: http://arrazmaz.blogspot.com/2011/08/venha-pescar-comigo.htmlThe translated version: http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pt&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Farrazmaz.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F08%2Fvenha-pescar-comigo.html

Lamenting in hope

2011-08-28T02:58:00.000-07:00

I woke up yesterday morning thinking about Lamentations.
What was the secret that kept Jeremiah believing, when all around him was destroyed?
He kept his hope in the Lord, despite the destruction and conquest of all he knew.

I see a key idea in verses 19-23, his great statement of hope.

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope.
Because of the Lord's great love
we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning.
Great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:19-23

Jeremiah doesn't pretend that he's not upset about what has happened. He lays his pain out before God. I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall The book is indeed a lament, mourning the disaster that has come. But he reminds himself of God's great love and compassion.

What I take as a principle: Lament in hope.
Lament: don't pretend all is well, don't hide your emotions
in Hope: as you pour your heart out to God, trust that he is still with you no matter how bad it feels.

Have I learned to do this myself? Not yet, I still struggle.

Real Wisdom

2011-08-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

Wisdom does not mean being so smart you won't be surprised by life. No one is that smart.

Wisdom means knowing who God is and knowing who you are, so that when the unexpected comes, you know how to cope.

This was inspired by a post by Paul Tripp, Prepared Spontaneity (Mon Aug 22nd).

I also like this quote from his "About Me" text.

We believe it is not enough to believe in life after death, we believe in real hope of life before death. We believe in real hope of personal growth and change. We believe in real hope of community and institutional change. Why? Because we believe in the transforming power of Jesus Christ.

A unique wedding vow

2011-08-19T16:55:00.000-07:00

Back when we got married our pastor told us he worried when couples wanted to write their own vows. In his experience, custom vows were often overly long and overly idealistic.

But in this wedding last month, the custom vow wasn't too long and certainly not overly idealistic. The bride told the groom that she recognized that only God could love her as perfectly as she wanted to be loved, so she released him from that false expectation that he can and ought to satisfy her every need.

I like that laying aside of unrealistic expectations. It was actually quite realistic about marriage, that it is a hard thing we need God's help for to do really well.

Anger and righteousness

2011-08-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

"Human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires." James 1:20

If we believed this, a lot of political discourse might change.

Do I believe this? Do I talk about others as worthless, obtuse, and foolish beyond measure when I disagree with them?

Do I discount people who agree with me yet aren't strident enough in criticizing those who don't agree?

Cheap or costly unity

2011-08-13T06:02:00.000-07:00

There is a fast, cheap way to attain unity in an organization. Just get the minority to keep quiet (or fire them). Change in an organization can be complicated by a minority who question the change, who ask the same hard questions several times and are not easily reassured that the details will eventually be worked out to their satisfaction. Costly unity is when both the majority and the minority take the time to explain their perspectives and concerns, and to listen to one another. Any plan or proposal can benefit from being analyzed and critiqued not just by its supporters but its opponents.

Airplane ailerons are an example of this. The Wright brothers really deserve their reputation as aviation pioneers. they were not just the lucky ones who got an airplane off the ground first or had the best publicity. It seems before they pioneered a powered aircraft, they pioneered in systematic aeronautical research, doing detailed wind tunnel testing and advancing the systematic data collection that Otto Lilienthal had started (in the process discovering and correcting a significant error in Lilienthal's data). The Wrights realized a key to flight was being able to control the bank of the airplane. But their method of doing this wasn't the best (as we can see in hindsight). Their idea was to make the plane bank by warping the wing. But aircraft designers soon realized that it made better sense to have the wing stay unwarped, and have a small part of the wing able to pivot to control bank. It is hard to imagine metal airplanes the size of a 747 (or even a DC3) ever being built if the whole wing had to warp.

But ailerons were controversial in the early years of aviation. There are echoes of this in the wikipedia page on the history of the aileron . It is hard to say who first invented them and the Wright Brothers didn't like the idea. What if aviation pioneers had pleaded with each other for unity? "Let's unite around the Wright Flyer, it works the best. Wilbur and Orville have done the most research. Let's trust them". If the aileron proponents had been convinced, we might never have gotten past aircraft made of wood covered with silk. What other material can allow for the whole wing to warp? But aileron proponents did not keep silent, others realized that was the better way to control bank, and today we have 747s. Sometimes the majority can learn from the minority. Who of us can claim the full wisdom of God? Wouldn't God be most likely to distribute different aspects of his wisdom to different people? The Wright Brothers had a pretty good airplane, but the aileron idea made better airplanes.

The hard part is when you're a minority, wondering how much noise to make. Is your concern selfish, because you're putting your circumstances or your job ahead of everything else in the organization? Or are you seeing something that others aren't seeing?

The hard part when you're in the majority, recognizing that someone who keeps bringing up the same concern might have a point, they might not be refusing to go along or blocking progress for selfish reasons. Maybe your plan or policy has a tweak needed, and listening to the minority can show it to you.

So let us take the time and effort to attain costly unity.

An earlier post on unity: Dwelling in Unity

Made to Stick

2011-08-06T04:46:00.000-07:00

Model 1: A traveling businessman is offered a drink by an attractive woman. He takes it, and the next thing he knows he is lying in his hotel bathtub with ice around his body. He calls 9/11 and they tell him he's the victim of organ thieves – his kidneys have been stolen.

Model 2: "Comprehensive community building naturally lends itself to a return-on-investment rationale that can be modeled, drawing on existing practice."

If you read these two, which one will you remember an hour from now? The organ thief story (which is an urban legend by the way). Why? Because it is a story, simple, concrete and evokes emotion.

.Yet the second is the way many organizations write about what they do. Why? Because it sounds more professional? Because its easier? (You don't have to stop and think about what exactly you mean, and how you would express it to someone who doesn't know your organization).

Another example: if John F. Kennedy were a CEO he might have said: "Our mission is to become the international leader in the space industry through maximum team-centered innovation and strategic aerospace initiatives." Instead (because he knew something about how to communicate), he said our goal would be to send a man to the moon and return him safely to earth by the end of the decade.

It's a challenge to write things that really say something, that are simple and concrete. But its worth doing. The easy "semantic autopilot" way of saying things the way you've always said them does not really communicate.

My source for this: Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath.

The surprising compassion of Anne Frank

2011-08-04T17:22:00.000-07:00

Anne Frank is best remembered for her diary. The diary is well written and a compelling story of surviving while hidden away. But more memorable than that, in my opinion is something else she wrote, a short story (perhaps a novella) called Cady's Life.

Cady is a Dutch Christian girl who has a Jewish friend Mary. Cady worries about her friend as news comes of the Nazi's deporting Jews. She goes to encourage her friend one night and discovers an empty, sealed apartment. A Gestapo man threatens her with a pistol, she shows her identity card to prove she isn't Jewish, and he shoves her to the ground but lets her leave. Back home she feels guilt. "Why did Mary have to go away when she, Cady, could stay here? Why did Mary have to suffer her horrible fate when she was left to enjoy herself."

It's mind-blowing to me how this teenager, fearing for her life, can yet imagine the situation of friends who aren't Jewish, and how they would feel survivor's guilt. Maybe the story was partly wish fulfillment -- Anne perhaps wishing she weren't Jewish so she wouldn't be killed. But if it was really wish fulfillment, it would have been a story about schoolgirl adventures, such as looking forward to her prom (or whatever the equivalent was in 1940s Holland). What astounds me is how she, in danger of death herself, can imagine the life of someone who wasn't Jewish. One could also imagine she might feel bitterness or scorn towards Gentiles who weren't doing anything to help the Jews, but she does not.

It is axiomatic that a writer tells his or her own story. What astounds me in this story is Anne Frank telling in a convincing manner someone else's story.

Thanking God for both arms

2011-08-04T02:54:00.000-07:00

I watched Soul Surfer last night, so I'm thankful today to have two arms.

My favorite part of the story was when Bethany has tried to surf competitively again and failed, then goes to Thailand on a mission trip to help survivors of the 2005 tsunami, and helps a little boy (then the whole village) not to be afraid of the water. I liked the idea of Bethany learning compassion and finding people with greater difficulties than her.

I was convinced as I watched that I was seeing the real Bethany Hamilton portraying herself. The stump looked totally convincing. Then at the end they showed video of the real Bethany Hamilton. Apparently the actress, AnnaSophia Robb, wore a green sleeve on her left arm and they digitally removed that from all the images. An astounding work of special effects. After some searching, I found a pic of her with the green sleeve.

Looking at pictures of the real Bethany and her real parents online, they look like fairly average people. I'm wondering why no one makes a movie about average characters with average looking people to portray them.

Amazing faith

2011-08-02T02:43:00.000-07:00

In Luke 7:1-10, Jesus was amazed at the centurion's faith. What was amazing about it? He was willing to believe Jesus could heal, even if Jesus didn't follow the standard narrative (go to the sick person, lay hands, say 'your faith has made you whole').

So let us remember that though God is with us, we cannot predict how he will come through for us. Let us, like the centurion, give God freedom not to follow our script. (Since he likely won't anyway, we'll save ourselves some confusion and disappointment).

Luke 7:1-10

New perspective on a troubling verse

2011-07-30T06:42:00.000-07:00

Some verses are troubling when God seems harsher than we would like him to be.
But sometimes I'm troubled by the verses that seem to promise more good than I experience. I'm prone to wonder "can this indeed be true?"

This is one of those: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!" 2 Cor 5:17

If Christians really are new creations, why are there ugly church splits, bad arguments between fellow Christians, and superficial politeness labeled as close fellowship?

Here's the new perspective I'm coming to. Paul describes the new creation as having come because he's adopting God's eternal perspective. God sees now what he will make of our character when we are in unbroken communion with him and seeing him as he is. We don't see that now, we are still very much in progress, as long as this life lasts. He sees the end now, and views it as a done deal, even though we have a lot of "heres and nows" to get through before that comes.

Paul's detailed exhortations in all his epistles shows that he knows being Christlike in real life is not easy for us. He knows we don't attain godliness just closing our eyes and singing one more chorus of "Kum Ba Yah" or "Awesome God", or going to that one special conference where we finally "get it."

Remembering John Stott

2011-07-29T02:37:00.000-07:00

Noted author and preacher John Stott died this week. A sentence in his obituary in the British newspaper Guardian caught my eye.

He insisted that Christians should engage in "double listening" – to the word of God, and to the world around them – and apply their biblical faith to all the pressing issues of contemporary culture.

This resonates with me -- I think we should be scrutinizing the details of what God has promised, we should also scrutinize the details of our circumstances, and seeking God's grace and wisdom for where the two are not consistent.

Wisdom or power?

2011-07-12T17:16:00.000-07:00

Ephesians 3:10 says God wants to use the church to display his wisdom.

When I pray for a need, I'm usually hoping God will display his power. Lord, cure this disease, work a miracle, fix it right now! I'm ready to celebrate an instantaneous delivery!

But what if God wants to display his wisdom? What if God wants to show how he can outsmart his enemies, not blast them out of his way? What if he wants to show that walking with him is the best way, even when it doesn't bring immediate ease and prosperity? What if he wants to show how the long hard slog towards the heavenly country, even when we don't see it, is the best way to live?

How to repent of a bad emotion?

2011-07-10T02:22:00.000-07:00

Life happens, and you realize you're not reacting well. You're upset when you shouldn't be, or frustrated over nothing (or what should be nothing).

What do you do?

I suspect it is not enough to say to yourself "I shouldn't feel this way, so I won't." It is good to perceive you shouldn't feel this way, but emotions don't turn off just because you decide to stop feeling them. I think the way to proceed is to say to God, "I shouldn't feel this way, but I do. Help me." This expresses our reliance upon God, rather than assuming we can independently control our feelings.

Dwelling in unity

2011-07-08T02:25:00.000-07:00

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! Psalm 133:1

How good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters care about each other, not just about getting the job done or about doing what the boss wants.

How good and pleasant it is when you can express your concern that someone is being treated unfairly, and you are heard, even if you don't have all the right words to express it.

Unity is not when people agree on every detail -- that probably rarely happens. Unity is when colleagues trust each other enough to express what they really feel, and trust each other enough to listen to how the other feels, without being disappointed or threatened.

Do you remember the first time you read Scripture aloud?

2011-06-21T20:30:00.000-07:00

We're in Uganda right now, helping some new Bible translators learn how to translate into their languages. Last weekend, each team visited some other speakers of their language with their draft of the Good Samaritan story.

One man read the passage aloud, as someone in our group recorded him. He asked to have a copy of the recording for his computer. He said it was the first time he's ever read Scripture aloud in his own language, and he wants to be able to share that moment with his children.

Fenelon on God's grace

2011-06-05T00:03:00.000-07:00

God performs everything in us, but does it with and through us. It is his grace when I do what I should and do not what I should not; when I endure difficulties, resist temptation, believe and hope in God’s presence even when I don’t feel it. He invites my cooperation, he does not regularly transform me or my circumstances until I ask for it, until I lay my heart open before him and admit my present weakness and awkwardness.

A paraphrase from Francois Fénélon.
http://www.iinet.com/~passtheword/DIALOGS-FROM-THE-PAST/innerlife.htm (to find the passage I'm paraphrasing, do a search for "grace" on that page.

A prayer of thanks

2011-05-30T05:16:00.000-07:00

Oh Lord, remembering you makes such a difference.

It hurt when my friend mocked my secret weakness.
Did he know, how dare he?

When I remembered to give you this care,
You took it, and soothed the pain,
Now I can offer peace to others,
Not demand that I be soothed.

A good poem

2011-05-21T05:35:00.000-07:00

Tim is a colleague that I've friended on Facebook, but may never have actually met. He wrote a poem which struck me this morning:

Be still, my soul.
Let my self with its need for attention, distraction and connectedness
Melt into the background
Like hard wax becoming molten in the presence of your flame.
Be still, my soul,
Relax the hand that grasps
Into an open hand
From which my empty trinkets can be taken
And into which blessings dropped easily.

Read Tim's whole poem.

The second line grabs me. How I long for attention and distraction. Surely the love of God should fill up my need to be noticed. But it doesn't. I want attention now.

And when God loves me so, why am I so eager for distraction, to escape and kill time?. Why do I not appreciate the gift of this life God has given me?

Lord, open my eyes again to see the length and height and breadth of your love for me.

Job's faith

2011-05-14T03:02:00.000-07:00

I've marveled at Job's faith in Chapter 19, when in the midst of his pain he suddenly confesses hope: "I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God." (Job 19:25-26)

I've just noticed he had a similar moment of hope in chapter 16:
"Even now my witness is in heaven;
my advocate is on high.
My intercessor is my friend
as my eyes pour out tears to God;
on behalf of a man he pleads with God
as one pleads for a friend." Job 16:19-21.

Job sees even in his suffering that God is more than the righteous judge, but also the one who takes our side, who seeks to be merciful. We can have faith in life's perplexing moments that God, our advocate and intercessor pleads for us.

Emmanuel road

2011-04-01T05:20:00.000-07:00

The heart of God's promises: He is with us.

His promises are as real as our circumstances.
It should not be scandalous or awkward to admit we aren't who we should be. He has qualified the unqualified before. It's actually one of his specialties.
So let us walk the road of trusting his promises more than we trust our own capabilities.

Is not this the lesson that our Father Abraham would teach us? He was called to leave the place he knew to travel to a place God would show him. God promised to bless him, and to bless all nations through him. Do we remember Abraham today because of what he did, or because of God's promise?

God is with us, let us be with Him.

A song for the Emmanuel road: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RmZFaruXhs
"As surely as the sun will rise, you'll come to us, certain as the dawn appears."

Esther, a tragedy?

2011-03-22T02:54:00.000-07:00

I'm reading through Esther these days, and I'm reminded of what I'd thought a few years back, that there is quite likely sadness inside her story, or rather the rest of her story. We romanticize the story, the beauty pageant winner who comes away with the grand prize of queenship. And then the drama of Haman's plot and her counterplot to save the Jews from death.

But what was the rest of her life like? How satisfying was her marriage? The social system enabled her husband to indulge any whim he ever had for all the other attractive women surrounding him. Any time she failed to fascinate, he could restage another pageant and enthrone a new charming faced winner. What kind of marriage was it really when she still faced death any time she wanted to come to him and he didn't want to talk? Twenty, thirty years later, did she view her marriage as a Cinderella romance, or as being trapped in a gilded cage?

Did she have children? None are recorded. If she had, the system surely forbade her to have much of a role raising them. They certainly weren't given a Jewish upbringing. A daughter, raised to be another harem beauty? A son, raised to enjoy harem beauties?

What was her life like when she was sixty? Queen Mother, ritually honored but effectively ignored? Could she still manage to believe she was born for such a time as that? By God's grace she could have, she could well have been sustained by the astonishing goodness of peace and joy despite circumstances. But it would not have been easy.

But perhaps in outward loneliness, she learned and experienced the great truth that God is with us, and comforts us in any affliction. Maybe in heaven she was rewarded for more than saving the people from Haman.

Gospel core values

2011-03-18T16:04:00.001-07:00

What is the core of the Gospel? That God shows mercy on unworthy people, forgives them, adopts them as his own and makes them his people.

So what should I believe about this personally?

I can believe that by God's grace I have been chosen, imperfect as I am, to a significant role in God's Kingdom. He has chosen me, knowing my imperfections and takes upon himself the task of qualifying me for this. I will pursue this calling in relationship to God, opening my heart and laying bare my soul with its imperfections to him, because he knows about them already, and has chosen me anyway. I have seen that his grace in my life is bigger than my shortcomings. I can lay my longings and frustrations, both good or evil, before him, and experience his peace, even when in my life the good longings are not yet met and the evil longings have not yet gone away. I will continue in this faith I have learned, to walk in emotional honesty with God and trust his peace in my difficulties. The peace of pleasant circumstances is good when it happens but cannot be relied upon.

This same grace and calling I rejoice in is also given to my brothers and sisters. So I will not disbelieve in their calling when I perceive them as imperfect, but seek to understand their hearts, consider that I as well as they might be imperfect in the issue at hand, and pray for them that God helps them in their weaknesses.

The law of sequels: two exceptions

2011-03-04T01:53:00.001-08:00

Everyone says that sequels are never as good as the original. I agree that the generalization holds up pretty well. Two exceptions do come to mind.

1) The Lord of the Rings books. These were written as a sequel to the Hobbit. And they are better. The Hobbit is good, but the LOTR books are better.

2) The New Testament. Perhaps strictly speaking we shouldn't call it a sequel, since both the Old and New Testaments are actually anthologies of various books. But there is a sequel-like effect in the books that describe Jesus Christ and the New Covenant, a retelling and recasting of the story of God and his chosen people, Abraham and his descendants.

As a sequel, it attains something quite remarkable. In one sense it is a better story, but it also renews my curiosity to go back and read the original story as well.

Prayer for policy makers

2011-02-28T17:45:00.000-08:00

Breathe your life, O brooding enlivening Spirit, into the dry bones of legal requirements and lists of procedures. Use their work to make our places alive, with the gleamingly fresh green of new buds sprouting joy and hope. But not all life comes from policy. Give them wisdom to know what problems their work cannot solve.

Honoring God

2011-02-24T11:27:00.000-08:00

I've heard more than once the ideal that we should "Honor God in all we do or say." I suspect this has become a cliché. When I hear it, I wonder how much it really encourages us to be aware of God's love and truth, or if it is just a platitude we say knowing no one can argue with it.

I also wonder if it isn't a dangerous oversimplification. What comes to mind when I hear it is an idea that isn't Scriptural. It gives me the image of God defining a standard of behavior for us, then expecting us to keep the standard. But that isn't the Gospel. The Gospel says God knows we cannot live up to his standard, but he has provided a solution for us in Jesus Christ.

I would say a better statement would be "In all areas of life, honor God for what He has said and done. We honor God by believing Him when He tells us we fall short of His standards, and believing Him when He freely offers mercy and help to us in our shortcomings. Committing ourselves to admitting where we fall short and seeking God's help to best approach His standards in all areas of our lives."

What is new about the New Covenant?

2011-02-05T07:50:00.001-08:00

The first two thoughts that come to my mind are these:

1) Jesus died once for all for sins, there is no longer a need for an atoning sacrifice every year.
2) The new covenant is also open to Gentiles, not just the nation of Israel.

But I think there has to be more. When Jeremiah writes about the new covenant (Jer 31:31-34) he says it will be different than the old one. What was wrong with the old one? The people didn't keep it. "They broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them (v 32)"

So God says he will make a new covenant. He will put his law in our minds and write it on our hearts. He will make us into people that will keep his covenant.

God could have written off the people that didn't keep the first covenant. "Its not my fault," he could say. "Didn't I say 'do this and you will live?'"

But God didn't write off his people, he rewrites the covenant.
(When he opened the new covenant to Gentiles as well as Jews, he didn't write off the Jews. The New Testament talks about Gentiles being included with Israel, it doesn't talk about Gentiles replacing Israel).

Grace, law and change

2011-01-29T03:41:00.000-08:00

At the Gospel Coalition blogs, (well worth looking at), there was a post last week about the Gospel, the Law and (I think) how to change.

The writer Tullian Tchividian said some things that resonate with me. Here are a couple:

Long-term, sustained obedience can only come from the grace which flows from what Jesus has already done, not guilt or fear of what we must do.

Don't American [Christians] need to be shaken out of their comfort zones? Yes—but you don’t do it by giving them law; you do it, as Dane points out, by giving them gospel.

Brother Tullian says that the law, the standard of God's behavior, is important for Christians. We must not think though, that it gives us the power to do what it requires.

But what do I do when I see in my life things that don't match God's standard? Do I make rules for myself to change? No, I think that would be thinking the standard itself has the power to change me, or that I, myself, have the power to change. I need to seek God to change.

I think this comes back to my Faith and Circumstances theme. God has made many promises, including the ones that I will be changed. I can look at my life and circumstances, and conclude the promises can't be true. Or I can look at my circumstances, including the changes I still haven't made, and say "God, prove yourself in me, here and now. I need You."

Maybe change is supposed to be hard

2011-01-16T06:43:00.000-08:00

You can't read Paul's letters for very long without discovering that God intends to change our natures. Paul says anyone in Christ is a new creation, (2 Cor 5:17), and that we died to sin in Christ (Romans 6:2-6), and that we have been crucified with him (Gal 2:20).

These verses have always made me think that for a Christian, overcoming a bad habit or a recurring attitude should be fairly effortless. All we need to do is have faith and ask God to change us, right? In fact, the change should already have taken place.

But I've never found change in my life to be effortless, like these verses imply. I've figured out in recent years that Scripture has another paradigm besides the total and instant transformation. The story of God's people coming into the Promised Land is a surprisingly complicated one. There are miracles (crossing the Red Sea, conquering Jericho) that feed the instantaneous, effortless paradigm. But there are also a lot of enemies, that have to be conquered one by one, and in not all cases is the victory supernatural and instantaneous. The biggest delay, the 40 years in the wilderness, comes because the people lose faith at a critical moment, but I'm not sure the story should be read that if the people had only had faith, all would have been effortless. What if God intended the process to be somewhat drawn out, because he wanted to give the people the experience of having faith in the promise, even when circumstances suggested that the promise couldn't be true? Faith is the assurance of things not seen, Hebrews tells us. That means something has to remain unseen for faith to take place.

Two phases of selfishness

2011-01-11T02:35:00.000-08:00

I think selfishness has two phases. Phase 1 is when I want other people to get out of my way. Why do I have to wait for traffic, wait at the light, wait at the checkout line? Who do these people think they are? Slowing ME down!

Phase 2 is when I want to be noticed and applauded. I've gotten some good feedback about this blog, but I could take more. Sometimes at a party I can grumble inwardly that I'm not the center of attention. Who do these people think they are? Not noticing ME!

I'm an introvert, so the first phase predominates for me. But the second phase comes in as well.

God's antidote to the first phase: remembering that he loves others as much as he loves me, realizing this world is not for my benefit alone.

God's antidote to the second: Remembering that my story, my concerns are deeply engraved on his heart. I am his adopted child, Jesus is not ashamed to call me 'brother'.

A great prayer for New Years

2011-01-02T18:06:00.000-08:00

All year long you’ll prove your covenant and capacity to keep us from falling. Though we may falter in the journey, the grasp of your grace is steady and secure. When we waver in our adoration of you, you will remain constant in your affection for us. When we are faithless and disobedient, you will remain committed and fully engaged with us. Even when you must discipline us this year, it will be in love, never in disgust or regret that you have adopted us (Heb.12:7-12). We praise you for being the perfect Father to your daughters and sons.

All year long you’ll be at work preparing us for the day when we come into your glorious presence. We’re confident and grateful as we face that day, because you have promised to complete the good work of the gospel you’ve begun in us (Phil. 1:6). Indeed, Father, if this should be the year in which you call me “home,” herein lays my humble confidence: I will stand before you without fault because you’ve placed me in the faultless righteous One, Jesus.

source: Scotty Smith's prayer

I like this. The habit of New Years resolutions can convey that we depend on our own willpower to change. Let us focus on the One who can bring change.

Reenacting the Incarnation?

2010-12-25T06:18:00.001-08:00

I had an odd experience at Christmas Eve service last night. After the first song, a young woman (I guessed in her late teens) read a poem, which at first I didn't like. It sounded too touchy-feely, as if the wonder of the Incarnation was an excuse to celebrate ourselves. I also grumbled in my heart against this young woman reading it. An older person would have read with more authority, I thought. Then the poem did call us to remember that we, with our imperfections, are chosen by God, and we should present our imperfections to him and ask for his help.

Then I realized my grumbling about the youthfulness of the woman reading was in error as well. Mary was about that age (perhaps younger?) when she was chosen to become the mother of the Son of God. But I grumbled at someone so young being given such a small role as reading a poem from the pulpit in a service. I still have things to learn yet. But even so, God is with me, to help me do better than I would on my own.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

The theodicy on my computer

2010-12-22T02:54:00.000-08:00

I have a theodicy on my computer. My son and I bought it at Walmart five or six years ago. It's called "Age of Empires II". The people who developed this game probably weren't thinking of vindicating God's goodness despite the existence of evil, but that is what they did.

If you've never played Age of Empires II, it is a game where you have villagers that gather resources, so you can build castles and make knights and archers and catapults to defend yourself against the computer's army and to conquer the computer's empire.

Like a lot of commercial games, it has cheat codes that you can look up online. One lets you create sports cars armed with machine guns, which totally dominate the medieval battlefield of the game. When I saw this code, I tried it out and it was impressive. One sports car basically won the game for me.

But I've played the game hundreds of times over the years, and only a handful of times have I used sports cars. After all, what is the point? It's not much of a game if I do that.

That is the theodicy of it. When I'm tempted to feel frustrated with circumstances that I know God could fix or remove in an instant, I think of Age of Empires. Does God delay his instantaneous triumph over evil to make the game more interesting? Scripture says he does want us to have faith in His power and authority even when we can't see it in our circumstances.

If my villagers were intelligent, they might well be frustrated with me. Why do I send them out to risk their lives building towers at the edge of the enemy territory when I could win an instantaneous victory? "How long, Master", they might cry out. "Do you not care that we perish?" But I don't want to win in an effortless, instantaneous manner, I want to overcome in a challenging, complex manner.

The analogy only goes so far. I don't care about my villagers because I know they are only pixels on a screen and objects in RAM with a few variables. God does care about me and about the world, he has assured me of that over and over. But he has a much bigger plan than just loving me, and his plan usually doesn't include giving me instantaneous relief over my problems. Age of Empires has helped me understand that.

God's pleasure

2010-12-21T02:53:00.000-08:00

I believe God made me for a purpose, but he also made me fast. And when I run I feel His pleasure.

Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire.

I've been thinking about that quote these last few days. When do I feel God's pleasure in what I do?

One time is when I write, either here or in my narrative projects slowly staggering towards completion. When I take the time to write, I'm often encouraged by a deeper sense of joy than my normal. The colors seem a touch brighter, the music in church seems a touch deeper, a touch happier.

This is a challenging fact, besides being encouraging. Often, I don't want to work at my writing, or anything else. I'm entranced by the 21st century false gospel: Life is supposed to be convenient and almost effort-free. If something is hard, I can't be expected to pursue it until "they" update it to make it easy.

But I think Scripture calls us to a long pilgrimage, often involving struggle against circumstances and my inclinations. There are moments of ease and comfort, an occasional dramatic victory when I see God's power unleashed, but the norm seems to be needing faith to believe in God's great power when I don't see it unveiled in my circumstances.

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!" -- a surprising blessing!

2010-12-07T02:08:00.000-08:00

I've been meditating on Psalm 22 these last few days and have found encouragement in David's cry of desolation.

1) We worship a God who has endured far greater torment than anything we fret over.
2) We worship a God who promises to be with us in our distresses. The desolate feeling of verse 1 isn't the end of the story, read v 22, 24, 29-31.
3) we worship a God who receives and welcomes our honesty when we pour our distressed feelings out to him.

Do people still talk about the Four Spiritual Laws? I'm thinking Spiritual Law #1 could be reworded. Instead of "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life," I'd say "God loves you and has an astonishing ability to give contentment in distressful circumstances."

God is the answer

2010-11-29T03:46:00.000-08:00

"I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away."

C. S. Lewis, Till We Have Faces.

How often we think of questions we want to ask God when we get to heaven. I wonder if we think enough about whether our questions will still be relevant after the transition. Or if the questions don't die away when we see him, their emotional tone would be completely different. Instead of "Why did you allow X?" in a tone of "You'd better have a good explanation;" we might ask "Why did you allow X?" in a tone of "What gave you the idea that X could be made to work out as well as you worked it out?"

God with me

2010-11-25T06:01:00.000-08:00

When life is hard, I have a choice. I can believe God has forgotten me, otherwise this hard thing would never have happened. Or I can believe in this hard time that God is with me even when I don't feel His presence.

There is a related choice. When life is hard, and I've prayed to God for help and it hasn't gotten easier: I can believe God doesn't care about this difficulty and wants me to cope on my own, otherwise he would have fixed it. Or I can believe that something precious and new can happen in my heart when I express to him the difficulties I am feeling.

When Psalm 23 says that God prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies, I think it means that we can be blessed even in the presence of difficulty. The blessing is the peace God gives in the midst of the difficulty.

Emotional honesty in prayer

2010-11-22T03:10:00.000-08:00

The point of my posts about prayer as a Panther's fan (part 1 and part 2) was to say I should be honest with God about my emotions.

Here are some other encouragements I've found to be emotionally honest in prayer.

1) Psalm 22. We usually read it as a prophecy of Jesus' agony on the cross. It is that, and more, I think. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me?" When it really really hurts, saying so to God is not a lack of faith, but is the response of faith. The Psalmist tells God "I feel really, really alone" then reminds himself who God is and that this feeling of abandonment won't last forever.

2) The song "Never Alone" by Barlow Girl. (listen here). "I waited for you today, but you didn't show", followed by "I'll hold fast to what I know, you're here and I'm never alone." The same cycle of expressing the feeling of abandonment then reminding yourself God is with you that David shows in Psalm 22.

3) A quote from Augustine's Confessions in the 4th century.

It is then our affections which we lay open unto Thee, confessing our own miseries, and Thy mercies upon us, that Thou mayest free us wholly, since Thou hast begun, that we may cease to be wretched in ourselves, and be blessed in Thee;

I'd paraphrase those words like this: "We lay our emotions open to you, confessing our weaknesses and difficulties, that you might free us wholly; trusting not our own ability to manage our feelings, but your ability to manage our feelings."

4. From the Westminster Catechism:

Q. 98. What is prayer?
A. Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, for things agreeable to his will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of his mercies.

5. Speaker Sy Rogers describes a dialog with God about his evil thoughts: "Why don't you do with your filthy nasty thoughts what you have never dared do. Why don't you just admit them and submit them to me." (The part I'm quoting starts just after 3:00 in the video.)

Compassion

2010-10-24T03:01:00.000-07:00

Compassion cries aloud in the Walmart lobby, at the busy intersection.
"Open your eyes, people. Get this if nothing else. That person you see, who annoys you, who's in your way, who doesn't get you. They too have a life, the same texture of surprising joys and harrowing sorrows as yours. Their purpose in life is not to ease your pain or make your life better. If they do encourage you, celebrate it. If they do not, are they in need of encouragement? You would not measure your life by how well you've helped them, why measure theirs by how well they have helped you?"

Why do we pray when God already knows what we need?

2010-10-17T05:35:00.000-07:00

One reason: to express our love for the God who loves us. We admit our faults and weaknesses to him, so that he might advance this day the work he has begun in us, that we might yet become like him in character, longing more for his truth, justice and love than we do for our own comfort and pleasure.

The above is an adaptation of something I found the other day in Augustine's Confessions.

I have already said, and shall say, for the love of Thy love do I this. For we also pray, and yet Truth says, “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him.” (Matt. 6:8) Therefore do we make known unto Thee our love, in confessing unto Thee our own miseries and Thy mercies upon us, that Thou mayest free us altogether, since Thou hast begun, that we may cease to be wretched in ourselves, and that we may be blessed in Thee; since Thou hast called us, that we may be poor in spirit, and meek, and mourners, and hungering and athirst after righteousness, and merciful, and pure in heart, and peacemakers.

Prayer of a Panthers fan II

2010-10-12T03:50:00.000-07:00

If you missed part 1 click here.
In January 2009, the Panthers were in the playoffs again. They’d won a first round bye and had home field advantage. Their game against the Arizona Cardinals started well, with a score on their first drive. Then the Cardinals scored 33 unanswered points, while the Panther’s offense sputtered with fumbles and interceptions. The final score was 33-13. “Lord,” I thought, “You know I’ve learned my lesson about honesty in prayer. Why are they getting drubbed again?”

There was no hesitation this time about practicing what I’d learned. And the Lord brought to mind another aspect. He led me to pray for Jake Delhomme, the Panthers’ quarterback. While it is true that I’ve been watching football since before he was born, he didn’t need to hear from me to know he’d had a bad game. While I was disappointed in the game, he must feel devastated. What was it like to have a really really bad day on nationwide TV? Then to have reporters wanting to know how bad you felt and fans clamoring for your resignation? I didn’t know, and I hope I never have to find out. But I could attempt in my prayers to echo the compassion of Christ towards him, and I did.

That next morning before going to church, I posted a Facebook note about my 2006 prayer lesson, the previous nights disappointment, and a prayer for Jake Delhomme that the Lord would comfort him and that we fans would be merciful in our disappointment. At church that morning, I felt joy that my note had pleased God.
This year, the Panthers have an 0-5 start. Jake is with the Cleveland Browns this year, and they’re at 1-4 (and Jake's been injured and hasn't played much). Before the season started, I had a daydream that the Panthers would meet the Browns for the NFC championship. It doesn’t look like that will happen–the Lord continues to work in mysterious ways. But I have a warm spot in my heart for the Panthers and for Jake Delhomme, they have been God’s agents in teaching me a good lesson: Honesty to God in prayer about what we are feeling is a good thing.

Prayer of a Panthers fan

2010-10-12T03:20:00.000-07:00

The Panthers aren't doing well this season. This reminds me of a story ...

January 22, 2006: Why can’t I stop brooding about a stupid football game?
An hour earlier I’d turned off the TV disappointed at the Carolina Panther’s dismal showing in the NFC championship game. The 34-14 score said it all. I hadn’t expected the Panthers to make it to the Super Bowl when the playoffs started, but they’d done well in the first two rounds. Then this night against the Seahawks they had been completely flat.

If left to myself that night, I would have done one of two things. I could have gone to bed, trusting that in the morning I’d only feel a brief tinge of regret at the sad outcome. Or I could have gotten on the computer and rejoiced in my human skill and intelligence triumphing over the villainous yet stupid artificial intelligence that vainly sought to conquer my empire.

But I didn’t have either option. I had volunteered for security duty at my work place, which meant driving around the campus for two hours making sure every door was locked and building alarms had activated successfully. Perhaps the worst thing to do when you’ve just seen a disappointing football game and want to take your mind off of it.

But I really couldn’t believe how bummed I was feeling about the game. Why did it affect me so? First, I’m an intellectual. I know better than to get caught up in these mindless spectacles of popular culture. Second, I’d only lived in North Carolina for eight years, I was hardly a life-long Panthers fan. Now if the San Francisco 49ers had a really bad game in the playoffs, I might conceivably feel a brief pang of regret.

The thought came to offer my feelings of frustration and regret to God in prayer, and ask for his help. I dismissed the thought, this was hardly a spiritual issue. Twelve hours from now, I wouldn’t be worried at all about the game. What personal stake did I have in the outcome anyway? But I remembered an earlier reflection I'd had on prayer. No need is too big to bring before the Lord in prayer, since he is greater than any of our difficulties. But also is it not also true that no need is too small to bring before the Lord in prayer, since he calls us to live in relationship with him? Does not the Scripture say that he works in all things for good?

My skeptical mindset retorted that Paul hadn’t written that verse about football games. Could I seriously expect that when I get to heaven the Lord would show me some great blessing he worked in my life because the Panthers lost the NFC championship this day in 2006?

I decided to go with my impulse. “Lord, I know this is really trivial, but for what its worth, I’m bummed about that football game. I know I won’t be bummed about it tomorrow morning, but could you help me tonight.”

I can’t remember that my mood changed much after that prayer. There was no sudden sense of peace, and no angelic messenger brought tidings of great joy for the next season. Like I had predicted, the next morning I had only the briefest pang of regret about the game.

The next Saturday, in my quiet time, something reminded me of my prayer that evening when I was upset about the Panther’s game. I had the impression God was telling me he approved of my honesty in bringing that frustration to him in prayer. How odd, I thought, my skeptical mind had insisted that there could be no blessing coming to me from that disappointment, and yet here was a blessing.

Was there a larger lesson in this? If God values honesty in prayer, even over very short term disappointments like your team losing a game, how much more would he welcome honesty over the big issues in our heart. Yet I often fail to lay my emotions before the Lord. Why? Sometimes its my pride—the thought that I can handle this, or the desire to pretend that I’m not really upset. Or it doesn't seem like a pious thing to do, which shows I haven't been paying attention when reading the Psalms. Or else I think that since God has allowed this painful circumstance in my life, he either does not care or is not going to help me cope with the emotions.

But what if God wants to help me cope, but waits for me to ask for help? Why not level with him what I'm really feeling, since he knows I feel it anyway?

Characterism

2010-10-09T07:40:00.001-07:00

The name “Conservative” bugs me. The dictionary definition says “favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.” But that misleads as much as it describes. Aren’t Democrats now conservative because they want to preserve their current majority in Congress? Isn’t Raoul Castro a conservative since he wants to keep the Communist Party running Cuba?
But “conservative” as most people mean it does describe my views. I’m in favor of smaller government, focusing on individual freedom and responsibility rather than promoting equality of circumstances. What should this view be called?
I’ve thought of the term “characterism”. This may not work because it is too similar to “characteristic”, but I chose it to assert the value of character. Character is the set of choices that a person makes, the attitudes one takes towards life. Character is what we choose to do with life, how we respond to what we are given. Bad things happen to all kinds of people. Some people collapse and give up. Some people keep on with what they are about. And many people despair for a time, but recover and face life once again.
Many forces in our society insist unhealthily on perfect circumstances. Accusations of racism, sexism or other injustices suggest that the victim can despair. Unless the victimizer is punished, or makes amends, the victim is not expected to get over it. This is good in part. When I am unjust, part of what should drive me to repentance is understanding the suffering I have caused. But it becomes false to take this to the point where a victim of injustice is nothing more than a victim, a person who cannot get over it.
I think there is also a philosophy that good character is a product of good circumstances. Do good to people, give them their rights, and all will be well. This too is partly true, doing well to others frequently encourages them to be better. But I don’t believe the personality is a blank slate, and that bad character only comes because bad things happened to the person. To say a victim can do nothing but wait for recompense before he can get on with his life ignores the great resilience of the human character. We can do good when evil has been done to us, we can get over injustice, and go on to thrive.
The Judeo-Christian world view puts character at the heart of reality. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Before anything else existed, there was God; a person, a character. The secular world view says the universe came first, and through an amazing set of coincidences, we arrived. So in that view, character and personality are secondary, cosmic accidents.
The Judeo-Christian worldview also asserts something very startling about this character at the heart of things. It says that God is good, when there is no force outside of himself that compels him to do be good.
We learn superficial politeness and consideration because of our powerlessness. We can’t make people like us or please us that often, so we learn to be pleasant and offer friendship and consideration so that others will return the favor. But Scripture says at the heart of the world is a being so powerful and resourceful that he could well choose to be spoiled and self-centered, and no one or nothing could resist him. But he has chosen to be good, even exceptionally good. The Christian story adds to this common tradition of powerful goodness, that God became one of us, took on our limitations, and nonetheless retained all excellence in character, even through being persecuted, misunderstood, and finally painfully tortured and killed.

Can computers translate the Bible?

2010-10-01T13:00:00.000-07:00

My job is helping Bible translators with their computer questions.

Did you ever wonder if the computer can translate the Bible automatically? I realized today we can test this idea. I've found an online copy of the Greek New Testament, and Google Translator offers Greek as one of the languages it can translate to and from.

So how well does Google translate the Bible?
Here are the first ten verses of Matthew:

Paper acquisition Jesus Christ Son Son David Abraham. 2 Avraam begat Isaac, Isaac he begat Jacob, Jacob, he begat Judas and his brethren, he begat son 3 Ioudas Fares and Zara out of the Tamar, Fares son he begat Esrom, Esrom begat he son of Aram, 4 Aram he begat son Aminadav , Aminadav Naasson son he begat, begat he Naasson of Salman, 5 Salmon he begat son out of the Rachav boas, boas he begat son Iovid on Ruth, Iovid he begat son Jesse, 6 Iessai he begat David the king. But David begat Solomon out of the of Urea, 7 Solomon he begat son Rehoboam, Rehoboam son he begat Abijah, Abijah begat But the vague, 8 Asaf he begat Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat son he begat Jehoram, Jehoram son he begat Ozian, 9 Ozias he begat son Ioatham, Ioatham he begat son of Ahaz, Ahaz he begat Hezekiah, 10 Ezekias he begat Manasseh, Manassis he begat son of Amos, Amos son he begat Josiah, 11 Iosias Iechonian he begat son and his brethren on relocating Babylon.

Hmm. I sometimes get bogged down on long lists of names too. Maybe we'll try part of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:1-11:

Seeing the mobs went up into a mountain: and kathisantos him came to him his disciples: and opened his mouth he taught them saying, Blessed are the poor tῷ spirit, because such is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the mourners, for they paraklithisontai. Blessed are the gentle nature, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are you who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they eleithisontai. Blessed are the pure tῇ kardiᾳ for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are dediogmenoi sake of justice, because such is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when he oneidisosin you, and dioxosin and say every evil throughout of you falsely for my sake: Rejoice and agalliasthe, that the wages of you in heaven: outos gar persecuted the prophets were before you.

I think we'll always need people to work in Bible translation. But computers are useful tools for human Bible translators. Read here to learn more.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's psalm of praise

2010-09-21T04:07:00.000-07:00

How easy for me to live with you, Lord!
How easy to believe in you!
When my mind casts about
or flags in bewilderment,
when the cleverest among us
cannot see past the present evening,
not knowing what to do tomorrow --
you send me the clarity to know
that you exist and will take care
that not all paths of goodness should be barred.
At the crest of earthly fame
I look back in wonderment
at the journey beyond hope--to this place,
from which I was able to send mankind
a reflection of your rays.
And however long the time
that I must yet reflect them
you will give it to me.
And whatever I fail to accomplish
you surely have allotted unto others.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

What I admire in this poem is first of all the faith. "How easy to believe" he says, which sounds like some hymns I dislike for being too simplistic, singing that all our problems are over when we come to God. But that is certainly not Solzhenitsyn's story. He wrote this after going off to war as a young man, then going to the Gulag for eight years, then nearly dying of cancer, then suddenly finding success as a writer (for once a good surprise). So he certainly knew the bewilderment of not knowing what to do.

I also admire the humility. The fame he enjoys when he wrote this he sees as him reflecting God's glory. And he knows he's not the only one reflecting God's glory, whatever he does not succeed in is the tasks God has given to others.

Can you believe this?

2010-09-12T03:18:00.000-07:00

A book I was reading quoted Psalm 46. Very familiar words, but I'm tempted to wonder how one can believe them.

1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.

Are you kidding us? You actually expect us to believe you are so serene in God that a cataclysmic earthquake could throw a mountain into the sea, and it wouldn't disturb you? "Oh, that's interesting. How different the mountain looks hurtling through the air. Wow, that splash looks cool. I wonder how big the tsunami is going to be. I'm glad I know God though, otherwise I'd worry."

I don't know about you, but I don't think I could pull that off. If I were at all calm as I watched a mountain flying overhead and splashing into the sea, it would be because I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. Could God keep me calm? I suppose possibly, if Jesus appeared to me, said "Steve, take my hand and close your eyes, you won't want to watch this next part".

But yet the statement isn't false. If I really understood who God is, and that he has promised to always be with me, and to work out every circumstance for good, I wouldn't panic at a huge earthquake altering the landscape or an asteroid the size of Russia heading right for me. I certainly wouldn't panic at some comparatively minor thing like a hurricane that merely flattened my house and cut off power and water to the neighborhood for a couple of weeks. And really minor things like a car wreck or losing my job or discovering I had cancer I'd barely notice.

I can expound how Scripture should give me that kind of confidence in God. But I don't have it. Maybe the Psalmist who wrote these words didn't have it yet either, maybe he wrote this to say "If I really believed what I know I should, I'd be calm." Maybe like me he wrote that down, looked at his words and prayed, "Lord I believe, yet help my unbelief. Help me really get this deep down."

The astounding story in Acts 6

2010-09-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

I think the Holy Spirit did something truly astounding in the beginning of Acts 6. Not an astounding miracle like the tongues of fire and the speaking in unknown languages that happened at Pentecost, nor an astounding healing like the crippled beggar.

The chapter begins with tension. The Greek speaking believers complain that their widows aren't getting as much food aid as the Aramaic speaking widows. Typical humanity, one group complains that another group is getting favorable treatment. What would normally happen? Some Greek speakers might start their own church. The Aramaic believers would criticize those radicals that split the church, who accused the apostles of favoritism. The apostles might call a press conference to say they weren't unfair in distributing food, and accuse their critics of disloyalty to the church God has established. The Aramaic believers might wonder why there weren't many Greek speakers in the church, but conclude that the Greek speakers have hard hearts, are just a bunch of barely converted (if that) pagans.

But instead, the apostles call a meeting and say that something needs to change. How rare is it when a majority group running an organization decides to make a change because a minority within the group is feeling disgruntled? Even more astonishing, the seven people picked by the group to take charge of distributing the food are all (judging by the names) Greek speaking believers. This is what astounds me. The Greek speaking Jews perceive unfairness, so the whole church decides they'll fix the problem by having Greeks do the distributing. Truly the Spirit was working in the hearts of the church members.

Is there always an easy way to do something?

2010-08-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

Now and then I think about my American world view. One thing I think we Americans are always ready to assume is that there should be a fast, convenient way to do anything. We should be able to quickly get any food we want at any hour of the day or night, and the information we need or the music or video we want should be accessible from anywhere on our cell phone or whatever we have with us.

Has anyone else noticed that in our time "doing something by hand" now means typing something out character by character in a different computer program, rather than just selecting the relevant data and clicking on one button that pops it all exactly where it has to be? I'm old enough to remember typewriters. Have I forgotten what a wonder it was to work in a word processor the first time? I could go to any typo I'd made, just delete and retype it, I could insert words I'd forgotten in the middle of the text and the following words just moved over? Now it feels so arduous when I have to select, copy and paste five or ten different numbers from one page one by one into another form or a different page.

Scripture often talks about patience, endurance and long suffering. Paul prays for the Colossians that they would be "strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience." (Col 1:11). When I pray, I usually think of God's power as able to instantly solve this problem and make me happy again. "Lord, I know you can do it. Just divide the sea, throw the mountain in, raise the dead, confound your enemies and let me see what I want descending from heaven right in front of me." The temptation in my prayers is to imagine God's power making patience and longsuffering unnecessary. But that isn't how God works often. Could it be that His ways are higher than our American ways?

Dangerous Daydreams

2010-08-17T03:15:00.000-07:00

Doris at Courage to Grow has an interesting post about Steven Slater, the flight attendant who made the news going down the escape slide after a quarrel with a passenger.

What challenged me was her point that Slater had cherished this fantasy for years, and when the situation presented itself, he acted it out. In my own heart, I can see some dangerous daydreams that keep coming back. How do I not cherish them like Slater did? A simple resolution that I won't think about X only goes so far. It feels paradoxical, like the witticism that says "Whatever you do, don't think about a blue elephant." We hear that and we start thinking about a blue elephant in the act of trying not to think about one.

I have found a real benefit in laying my dangerous daydreams before God in prayer. The temptation is not to admit my weakness, to think it is all a matter of my will power to resist the daydream. But when life is to be lived in relationship to God, I should have the honesty to admit to Him I am the weak person that I am, tempted by the things I am tempted by. My wierd daydreams are no surprise to him, I might as well admit what tempts me. I have felt peace when I have done that.

Another thing I have thought about is to think more broadly than just "not thinking about X". I try to think about the positive things that indulging my daydream of X would destroy or diminish.

The unnamed heroes of Hebrews 11

2010-08-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

Hebrews 11 is described as the Hall of Fame of faith. The writer lists all the great heroes of the Old Testament who did great things because of their faith. There is a recurring refrain "By faith, X did Y": "By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain", "By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice," "By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned," etc.

At the end of the chapter, the writer says he doesn't have time to tell about all the heroes. He lists a few more names, and then describes the life of people he doesn't name. "Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground." (verses 35-38).

This seems like a different kind of faith than what Abraham and Moses had. We don't see great miracles here. Was something wrong with their faith? The writer starts to leave us wondering when he says "These all were commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised."

So you can have faith, not receive what was promised, and that's good? That's what the writer is saying. He ends with this: "God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect." Their faith was good and commendable because it was looking forward to the really great thing that still hasn't come yet, which I think is the Kingdom of God in all its fullness.

God and our organizations

2010-08-10T03:19:00.000-07:00

What is the characteristic of God’s work in human history? God has intervened to come alongside us, sinners who do not deserve His companionship, and works in us to make more of ourselves in His service than we could attain on our own. How should our organizations work in light of God’s work? Here are some principles I’ve thought of:

1) Organizations are only temporary, only God and people are eternal.
The besetting sin of organizations is to think that they are more important than the people in them, to think people only have value when they advance the organization’s goals.
But to say the organization only exists to benefit its members is also not good. Individuals need to give themselves to something larger than themselves, God is pleased when this happens.

2) Organizations please God when they call, encourage and facilitate people to invest their individual effort, time and identity in a larger purpose of God’s, outside their own individual lives. This echoes in a small way Jesus laying down His life and giving His life to live in us. We glorify God when we voluntarily lay down what is merely ours as individuals for a larger purpose.

3) When organizations force people to do certain things, that diminishes the glory of them voluntarily giving of themselves to the task. In the real world, force or compulsion must sometimes be used, it is not an unforgivable sin. But it should be used sparingly. To compel people to do a good thing may have a short term benefit, but to persuade them to voluntarily do the good thing is a greater benefit.

4) People who voluntarily take on a larger purpose will usually perform better than people who follow orders to take on a larger purpose. They will spontaneously and creatively adapt ways to fulfill that purpose in their circumstances.

5) When an individual expresses his fallibility and weakness before God, he is likely telling the truth, and this is a sign of strength. The same is true of an organization. An organization can admit weakness in itself, and the leaders can admit weakness in themselves, while still being faithful to the vision. To gloss over failures and difficulties in the name of upholding the vision is actually to subtly betray the vision.

Truths in tension

2010-07-17T06:57:00.000-07:00

There is a paradox in the Christian faith not often talked about. Two fundamental truths are in tension. The first truth is that God loves us, and identifies with us where we are. The second truth is that God is not content with how we live now, but wants us to do better.

If we focus just on God's love, we accept personal mediocrity or even dysfunction in our lives. Or if we focus just on God's standard of behavior, we set up an impossible standard of perfection that no one can measure up to, and present God as distant and forbidding.

We need to keep both in mind. God accepts us where we are, but then seeks to help us to improve. We shouldn't think we have to change before God can be pleased with us. We also shouldn't think we don't need to change, because we do.

I think Micah 6:8 reflects this paradox:

To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.

"To act justly" focuses on God's standard of behavior. "To love mercy" focuses on His acceptance of us where we are. Both are needed to walk humbly and fruitfully with our God.

Paul confronting Peter

2010-07-05T04:06:00.001-07:00

My wife is working on a guide for new translators to the book of Galatians. She and her colleague have been grappling with the account of Paul confronting Peter. The usual interpretation of "You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew" is that Paul says to Peter "You accept freedom from the Jewish law for yourself, why not give the Gentile believers the same freedom".

My wife and her colleague are thinking there is another interpretation. Maybe Paul is using 'Jew' in this phrase to mean 'a true person of God'. In Romans 2:28-29 he says a true Jew is not just an outward Jew, with a physical descent from Abraham and a physical circumcision; but one who is Jewish inwardly, circumcised in heart by the Spirit. So what would a 'true Gentile' be? Someone uncircumcised in heart, whether they were outwardly non-Jewish or even outwardly Jewish.

Maybe his accusation of Peter is saying "When you withdraw from eating with your Gentile brothers, you are reinstating the separation that Jesus died to end. You are uncircumcizing your heart and acting like a Gentile in heart, even though you are a physical Jew."

This sounds complicated. But I do think it makes a bit more sense of the next couple of verses. "If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God." (Gal 2: 18-19). I've always been puzzled by "if I rebuild what I destroyed", and thought it must mean when Paul repents of sins and attempts to restore relationships with people he'd sinned against, that is rebuilding what he had destroyed. That would mean "through the law I died to the law" is a new thought. But maybe the two are one thought. Maybe Paul means "If I rebuild as a requirement the Jewish law, which I once had died to through my faith in Jesus' death and resurrection, I have become a transgressor". Maybe Paul is imagining himself in the position Peter took briefly, to display what a bad mistake it would be to bring back the law as a requirement.

One thing that does seem clear to me. When Peter separated himself from the Gentile believers, he had forgotten the exhortation from the voice in his vision, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean." (Acts 10:15).

My favorite building in Charlotte

2010-06-28T03:49:00.000-07:00

My favorite building in Charlotte isn't in the skyline photos. It's the Rosewood condominium complex at Providence and Sharon Amity. I like it because it reminds me of classic French chateaux, rather than trying to express the conceit of making the world anew. But the big reason I like it is I know the architect. Curtis and Liz started coming to our Sunday school class some months ago. When they hosted a gathering at their house, I was fascinated by Curtis’ drafting desk in the living room. He had some photos of Rosewood, and told us where to find it.

Some months later, I was driving up Providence and stopped to take a quick look around and take a few pictures (hoping I didn’t look like a burglary suspect casing the joint). It amazes me thinking of this lovely eight story building coming out of the imagination and planning of my buddy Curtis.

I’m reminded of Jesus’ words in John 14:2. “I am going there to prepare a place for you”. The time will come when we’ll see some very special architecture, in a house that will be ours, and we’ll all know the architect. His genius in design we can already appreciate (galaxies, planets, landscapes, many other things). We’ll have many new reasons to appreciate it that day, I’m sure.

The Rosewood Condominium site

The promise of the New Covenant

2010-06-27T02:04:00.000-07:00

This is how the "faith and circumstances" theme started. In 2005 I was pondering Jeremiah's promise of the New Covenant. "This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
after that time," declares the LORD.
"I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.

No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,'
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the LORD.
"For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more." Jeremiah 31:33,34

I found this promise hard to believe. If this New Covenant promise really worked, I thought, our churches would be a lot different. Our churches have many people teaching us to know the Lord, teaching us what the Gospel really means if we truly understood it. The promise seems to say that shouldn't be needed.

Then a picture came to my mind. Moses called the people to go forward into the Promised Land, and everyone except Joshua and Caleb didn't dare go. (Numbers 13 and 14). God had promised to give them the land, but the people didn't believe the promises because the land had enemies living in it. I don't find in Numbers anyone saying "If God had really given us this land, the enemies wouldn't be there anymore", but I bet people thought that. I know I would have. But God didn't drive the enemies out ahead of time because He wanted to show the people they could believe in the promise before it was fulfilled.

So I realized Jeremiah's promise of the Law written on my heart was a promise I could claim and believe in, even when I still saw my heart full of enemies of God's law. I could believe in the promise even while the enemies still lived in the Promised Land. So I began to do that, and my spiritual life began to change.

I still have many enemies of God's law living in my heart. But there are fewer enemies than there used to be. And the promise is nonetheless true.

Literal vs figurative

2010-06-17T03:23:00.000-07:00

Some (both from within and without) characterize evangelical Christianity as taking the Bible literally. I think this is oversimplification. A view I've heard is that one should take literally what was intended to be literal, and take figuratively what was intended to be figurative. So when the Psalms talk about sheltering under God's wings, that is a figurative, poetic image, not to be taken literally.

But I wonder if that formula, while very good, isn't itself somewhat over simplified.
A prophetic passage I have pondered from time to time is Isaiah 7:14. "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."

There are two statements here. First, the virgin will have a child. Second, that she will name him Immanuel. The first statement is fulfilled quite literally. Mary concieved a son while she was still a virgin. The second statement wasn't fulfilled literally. She and Joseph named their son Jesus, not Immanuel, because the angel told them to do so. We do use the name Immanuel to refer to Jesus, but that usage isn't found anywhere in the New Testament.

What in the text tells us that the first statement is literal and the second not so literal? I'm not aware of anything. I suspect we only know how to interpret those two statements because we know how they were fulfilled.

The fang and the thorn

2010-06-08T02:39:00.000-07:00

A dog up the street frightens me. Thankfully, most of the time she is inside. But I have often wondered, walking past that house. She has barked and bared her fangs when I walked past, then she would slink along behind me after I passed showing her fangs when we looked back at her.

One evening my wife and I walked past the house, relieved that the dogs were not in sight. Another neighbor coming toward us, gave words to our sense of relief. “How nice to walk dog-free.”

Tales of animal attacks are big on cable TV. Shark attacks, crocodile attacks, bear attacks, and others. The victim shows his or her scars and retells the story of near death at the fangs of a creature “seeking what it might devour.”
Scripture does have a bear attack story (2 Kings 2:24) and Matthew 7:6 ends with the image of savage dogs or pigs tearing people to pieces.

But Scripture seems more concerned with the thorn than the fang. The curse on Adam was that the ground would bring forth thorns and thistles instead of food. God warns the Israelites that the other nations in the land will be thorns in their sides (Numbers 33:55, Joshua 23:13, Judges 2:3). Laziness leads to thorns in your vineyard (Proverbs 24:31). Isaiah uses thorns as a symbol of a land under judgment abandoned by its people (Isa 5:6, 34:13). Jesus says the cares of this world are thorns crowding out the seedlings of the Word. Paul describes his great trial or affliction as a thorn in the flesh (amplifying the image used by God for the enemy nations).

Yet isn’t the fang more frightening? I’ve never worried about any of our neighbor’s plants, nor have I ever wondered if the neighbors might be afraid of our rosebushes. So why does Scripture worry about thorns so much? It can be argued that thorns are more dangerous. The curse in Genesis 3 is that our agriculture will not always succeed. We will work to grow food, but food won’t always come. History shows us that thousands, at times millions die in famines, when the vegetable kingdom has not produced for us.

Paul’s image of the thorn in his flesh is dramatic because of its implied avoidability. A literal thorn in your flesh ought to be easy to deal with. Just take it out. Yet the spiritual thorn in the flesh Paul cannot take out. He prays to God three times to take it out, but God chooses not to. Is that not part of the unseen drama?
“God, I know you see how much this hurts. And it is not at all hard for you to pluck it out. Why aren’t you helping me?”
“My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. Paul, I could change the circumstances that give you so much pain. But I can also give you peace in the midst of your pain. Which is the greater display of my power?

That dog has been an encouragement to pray. I've thought of David's words: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” Now I shouldn't exaggerate; that dog is not the shadow of death. (She isn’t a pit bull). But I could call her house the shadow of punctured skin. And if God is able to sustain in the fear of death, how much more can He sustain in the fear of a flesh wound? So I began to commit my epidermal integrity to God as I walk past.

A couple months ago I thought about Jesus’ words to pray for our enemies. Can I pray for that dog? I don’t believe dogs have souls, but I’m sure they have emotions. What lies behind their aggressive behavior must be a mixture of fear and anger. So I’ve prayed for those emotions to be stilled. While my prayer is driven by the desire not to be bitten, I don’t think this is a purely selfish prayer. If the dog feels less fear and anger, my prayer would increase her happiness as well as my own.
I’ve also included in my prayers the dogs’ owners. I’ve never met them, but I pray now as I pass that house, that they would be abundantly blessed. May their table be so laden with the riches of God’s mercy and love, that even the dog is transformed by the crumbs of blessing that fall from her master’s table.

In the last few weeks I've noticed a difference. I've seen the dog outside a few times, and she hasn't threatened me, she hasn't even barked at me.

Jehoshaphat's Prayer

2010-05-24T02:38:00.000-07:00

We studied Jehoshaphat's prayer and God's deliverance of Judah yesterday in Sunday School. The story is in 2 Chronicles 20. A large army comes to invade Judah. Jehoshaphat prays, reminding himself and God of God's promises. And God provides a miraculous deliverance.

This story matches the "faith and circumstances" theme of my blog. Jehoshaphat had the faith to believe in God's promises even in difficult circumstances. When my faith has been weak, I would have reacted to Jehoshaphat's circumstances by saying "Now I know God's promises can't be true, or this army would never have come to invade us." But Jehoshaphat still believed God, and called on Him to uphold His promises.

Let us remember to do likewise in our trying circumstances.

Efficiency in God's plan

2010-05-18T17:48:00.001-07:00

God's plan from the Scriptures: preparing a people, becoming incarnate among them, empowering them to tell others so that the message permeates around the world. More than once I've wondered why this seems so inefficient. Why do missionaries have to struggle with learning languages, applying for visas and finding money for airfares?

What do we see in Acts? Among other things, we see the Spirit gifting people with instant ability in a foreign language (Pentecost), and we see the Spirit transporting Philip instantly across a distance of several miles. (Acts 8:39-40). If these two miracles were more common, the two biggest hassles of missionary existence would be solved. Why does God not choose to work that way? Surely every people group could have been reached by the Gospel within two or three centuries after Pentecost. Perhaps even sooner?

I've thought of an even more rapid plan than that. Suppose God the Son had chosen to become incarnate as Abel? Abel could have formed one or two disciples, told them he was not just a son of Adam, but the Son of God, performed miracles, told them he would lay down his life for their sins, and then be murdered by Cain. Abel comes back to life, tells his disciples to tell everyone what he had done, and ascends into heaven. How many people exist to be preached to? Maybe less than ten, maybe forty maybe perhaps even a hundred. This depends on your view of how many children Adam and Eve had that weren't mentioned, plus how many children they had. Potentially the Gospel of salvation could have been preached to every human on earth at one family reunion. Or maybe it would have taken longer (Cain perhaps was anti-social for a while there). But this whole messy period of the Kingdom of God coming into human history but not fully present yet could have only lasted a year, or a few years.

So why didn't God choose to work this way? Obviously I don't have the full answer. But one thing does come to mind as I write this down. In either of my efficient scenarios, I wouldn't be here. Since in heaven we are like the angels, not marrying, I assume that means we don't have children either. So if Christ returned centuries ago and brought in the fullness of the Kingdom, I would never have been born. So I guess that's at least one argument for the "inefficient" mode.

The last verse of Hebrews 11 says that God had planned something better for "us" (the original readers of Hebrews) so that only together with "us" would the heroes of the Old Testament be made perfect. I'm guessing the same logic applies. In God's plan, only together with us twenty-first century folks, will the Apostles and Augustine and Wesley and Townsend be made perfect.

Faith and Circumstances

2010-05-15T04:24:00.000-07:00

Some people believe God's promises can't possibly be true, or they wouldn't be in the circumstances they are in. I've been guilty of that in the past (even though I've hardly suffered any great tragedy in my life).

Other people believe God's promises will come true some day. For now, we just repeat them to ourselves, soothing ourselves with the familiar words but not expecting them to impact life today.

But I'm coming to think the real life of faith scrutinizes the details of God's promises, and also scrutinizes the details of our present circumstances, and lays the discrepancy between the two before Him in prayer. The promises will not be totally fulfilled in this life, but they can be fulfilled to a greater degree than we might imagine.

Completing the parable of the talents?

2010-05-15T04:19:00.000-07:00

For years now, I’ve wondered if parable of the talents (Matt 25:13-30; Luke 19:11-27) was incomplete. A familiar story, a master goes away entrusting three servants with different sums of money. (Luke uses a different term for the money, and different amounts). The first two servants invest the master’s money and are praised when the master returns. The last servant buried his master’s money in the ground because he was afraid to lose the money (also he was afraid of his master, calling him a hard man).

What I want to know, what would the master have done if the servant’s investments hadn’t succeeded? I'd add another servant, between number two and number three. Like number two, he was given two talents. When the master comes back, he comes forward reluctantly. “Master, you entrusted me with two talents. One talent I used to buy goods for a caravan, but the caravan was taken by robbers and your money was lost. With the second talent I bought goods to trade by ship. This began well, your one talent of goods bought two talents worth of gold and spices. But when the ship was returning, a great storm came up, and the sailors had to throw out the gold or the ship would have sunk. Your spices survived and sold for one talent, so here is what is left of your money.”
What would the master say to this servant? Would he have been angry about the lost money? Or would the master have appreciated that the servant made an effort?

I’m coming more and more to the opinion that the master in Jesus’ parable would have honored the servants intention and not punished him for failure. The master might have asked a few more questions about why the servant had chosen those two investment options, but if the servant had good reasons for believing in them, I think the master would have approved. Surely it is not just in our time that investing is risky.

The Biblical passage that I think speaks most clearly to this is in Hebrews 11. The writer gives a list of the great heroes of the faith. Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and several other heroes of the Old Testament are named and their faithfulness praised. But the chapter ends with heroes who aren’t even named. “Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.” Their faithfulness in adversity is challenging for us to remember, but what was the great victory they gained? They courageously faced suffering and death for their faith, but to what good? Aren’t they like the servant I added to the parable, who tried to be faithful but didn’t succeed?
But the writer of Hebrews makes it clear. “These were all commended for their faith,” the ones whose faith didn’t succeed just like the ones whose faith did succeed. He goes on “none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” Even Moses and David, who won perhaps the greatest outward victories in the pages of the Old Testament, didn’t receive all they trusted God to do. Even their greatest victories were imperfect and incomplete. But all faith is seen and rewarded by God, if there is visible success or not.

A question about the Lord's Prayer

2009-06-24T11:16:00.000-07:00

As familiar as the Lord's Prayer passages are (Matt 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-4) I was surprised by them last week.

I was thinking of Luke's version, where the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.

Teachings I have heard about prayer emphasize that it is a relationship with our heavenly Father, we shouldn't think there is a magic set of words or an approved vocabulary, but we should feel free to open our hearts to God.

But Jesus doesn't say this (at least not in so many words) when asked to teach them how to pray. He teaches them a prayer that can be learned by rote. Why?

It is true that if you think about the words, they lead into an awareness of relationship. But why did Jesus give a set of words rather than talk about relationship?

Is there a missing part of Romans 13?

2008-11-03T03:25:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not starting a conspiracy theory about a secret manuscript of Romans that has been zealously guarded by generations of fanatical monks. It just seems to me that logically something is missing in Romans 13. The other times that Paul makes an exhortation to part of society, he balances it with exhortations to the corresponding part of society. Children, obey your parents; and parents, don't exasperate your children. Husbands, love your wives; and wives, obey your husbands. Slaves, obey your masters; and masters, don't forget you have the same master in heaven. So why does Romans 13 exhort people to obey the government, without an exhortation to the government to govern well?

I'm guessing Paul felt he had to leave that implicit, Christianity was already being suspected of subverting the Roman Empire. But he does give us a challenging picture of what government ought to do, right there in the exhortation for citizens to obey the government. Verse 4 says the ruler "is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer." So the exhortation to the government would be "act against those who do wrong, not against those who do right." He might also have added that rulers ought to be humble. God placed them in authority to be instruments of His wrath. They should not think they are irreplaceable. God can remove them and put in other authorities if they don't do what is right.

On this day before election day, I'm thinking we citizens ought to understand both sides of Paul's exhortation. We are ordinary people, who ought to obey the government in our daily lives. But in our representative democracy, we are also the sovereigns, who get to choose who will be the authority for the next four years. May we choose wisely. May God show us the truth about the two candidate, and may we be wise enough that the truth matters to us.

All Saints Day

2008-11-01T03:59:00.000-07:00

Chatting with a Facebook friend reminded me that today is All Saints Day on the traditional Christian calendar. This reminded me of a hymn I loved in my college years that haven't heard for a while, For All The Saints.

For all the saints, who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

For more lyrics and the music, see the Cyberhymnal page

A surprising discovery

2008-10-17T07:00:00.001-07:00

I just spent the last 9 days in England. One morning I took a walk and saw something that compelled me to go back to the house and get the camera. A car in Stockport, England with an Obama sticker. (Click picture for larger view).
We never saw a car with a McCain sticker on our trip, and we never saw another car with an Obama sticker. So I suppose the significance of this electorally is that Obama enjoys a slight lead in the county of Cheshire (1 supporter vs 0 for McCain, out of a total population of ?)

Sarah Palin and Internet Security

2008-09-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

The recent news about a hacker getting into Gov. Sarah Palin's Yahoo mailbox shows at least one lesson about Internet security. When you have a login account to a website, make sure that if it has a "security question" to recover your password, you make it a question that someone can't look up or guess the answer from knowing your basic biography. Gov. Palin's secret question apparently was "Where did you meet your husband?", and the answer was on her Wikipedia page.

It did take some guessing though, because the answer was not just "Wasilla", but "Wasilla High". The account I've read says the hacker was at the "I've forgotten my password" page for 45 minutes until he guessed the right answer. This also seems like a lapse on Yahoo's part, that someone could submit several wrong answers to the secret security question without their system locking the account or locking the password recovery option.

PS. The above should not be construed as a defense of what the hacker did. If someone steals my car, he is a car thief. I may conclude it would be more prudent to get better locks on my next car, but it doesn't mean I 'deserved' to have the car stolen because I didn't have good locks on it.

This commercial deserves an award

2008-09-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

If the annual award show for commercials has a category for best unintended use of irony this one would be a clear winner.

Young boy aware of market risks

The little boy comes in to his mom and dad's room worrying about the family's financial future. "Dad, does your retirement plan provide predictability of income and protection against market risks?" I bet the AIG company wishes they'd signed up with a plan that provided those things.

But wait, the commercial is for AIG! We can see how well the coverage must work, AIG isn't worried at all about market risks right now, is it?

Today in history

2008-08-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

August 27, 1775.

The Battle of Brooklyn.
A British victory was almost inevitable. George Washington was defending a city built on islands (Long Island, Manhattan Island, Staten Island) and his attacker had command of the waterways between the islands. The British had learned at Bunker Hill not to underestimate the American ability to withstand a frontal assault, and had won a maneuver victory by attacking the American flank after a night march. But perhaps the British had learned too much caution at Bunker Hill, or perhaps General William Howe was too sympathetic to the Americans, and thought wiping out Washington's army would make a settlement with the rebels impossible. For whatever the reason, the British had an opportunity this day to largely destroy the American army and they let them escape.

Winston Churchill once wrote about an admiral (Admiral Beatty in WWI) that he was the only person who could have lost the war in an afternoon. Was William Howe the general who could have won the American Revolution for King George in an afternoon, and let it go?

Goodbye to a great writer

2008-08-03T15:43:00.000-07:00

When I wrote my post yesterday about the great divide, the example in the forefront of my mind of a writer who still sees the abundance of good in spite of the abundance of evil was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. This man grew up never knowing his father (his father had died before his birth), as a young man believed Soviet propaganda about the USSR building a new society, until a critical comment about Stalin in a letter to a friend thrust him into the reality of the Gulag. And after surviving the Gulag, he survived a brush with stomach cancer.

The surprising thing is despite the depressing circumstances of Soviet prisons and/or cancer he discusses in his books, his writings are filled with optimism. Not foolish optimism, he knows happiness isn't just around the corner. But he believes that being good is still possible, that we can each choose to be truly human, a "tiny fragment of [our] own people", or a reflection in this life of eternity.

The news today is he passed away at the age of 89, from either a stroke or heart failure.

The great literary divide

2008-08-02T08:11:00.000-07:00

Good writers are celebrated as keen observers of life. Keen observers can easily find things that are wrong in life. Disasters, malice and hypocrisy abound. While popular entertainment suggests that certain kinds of people are usually good and other kinds are usually evil, a keen observer will find that evil abounds in all kinds of people.
A keen observer who sees abundant evil in society can make two conclusions about it. One conclusion is that life is irretrievably flawed. If life was still under warranty we could return it, but since it isn’t under warranty there is nothing that can be done. There is no point in caring about anything because everything is broken. There is nothing better in life than to seek momentary pleasures where one can, and there is no reason to resist impulsive desires. There is a different but related conclusion; since I have suffered a great deal from life or society, life or society owes me compensation. I cannot really proceed with living until this arrives.

The other conclusion is while evil is abundant, good is also abundant. The individual is free to respond either to the good or the evil, and is also responsible for how she responds. She can choose to add to life’s quantity of evil or to life’s quantity of good. When tempted to condemn or avenge oneself against evildoers, one stops to ask ‘am I really any better?’

While the Christian world view favors the second conclusion, I also think a truly keen observer would find it by observation. I think the first conclusion arose because of the unstated assumption in the human heart that existence owes us an ideal situation.

Much of what is acclaimed as serious modern literature is by writers who opt for the first conclusion. I remember disliking English classes in high school, even though I was a proficient reader. My complaint: why did we have to read such depressing books where nothing ever happened? Partly childish, yes. But partly I think I was aware (although I didn’t express it that well) of the prevalent pessimism of these reportedly great writers

I second the call for a theology of suffering

2008-07-14T18:26:00.000-07:00

My buddy Eddie over at Kouya.net says the church needs a theology of suffering. He disagrees with a comment someone says in a newspaper article that

“Miracles and healings are evidence. They are signs of the Kingdom, and if we don’t have signs then all we have is a bunch of theology.”

He goes on to quote Hebrews 11:33-38, about the anonymous heroes of faith who were d and refused to be released, who were stoned, sawed in two, put to by the sword.

Eddie comments:

But how much faith does it take to be d and refuse to be released, to be stoned to , to be jeered, to be sawn in two. Sawn in two! Now that is real faith - truly the world wasn’t worthy of people who were willing to go through that for the sake of their God.

Good point.

I've thought about these anonymous heroes of faith before. In human terms, they would appear to be failures. They believed God would deliver them, would uphold them, and yet He didn't in this life. Hebrews goes on:

39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

But He does uphold them and honor them in the next life. But in this life they appeared to be failures. Along with what Eddie says about not imagining having enough faith to be d, I doubt I'd have enough faith to be willing to appear as a failure.

The 'simple gospel' I don't believe in

2008-07-12T04:41:00.000-07:00

The (overly) simplistic version of the Gospel of Jesus Christ says: Come to Jesus and your troubles will be over. Or the troubles you experience will be only dramatic and impressive ones that never really bother you because you'll be delivered quickly from the difficulty.

I don't believe it. At least I say I don't believe it. An exhaustive transcript of my prayer life probably would reveal times when I wanted to believe it.

The Simple Gospel

2008-07-12T04:31:00.000-07:00

I don't know if this is original with me, but if it isn't I can't remember where I read or heard it.

Is the Gospel simple? It can be. So simple a child can understand it. But simplistic? Not really. I can whistle the first few notes of Beethoven's 5th symphony. (I can even type them -- da da da DAA). If you listen to the symphony you hear these notes repeated often, but there is a whole lot more going on.

So the Gospel of Jesus Christ is like a symphonic theme, so simple a child can understand and repeat it, but capable of an immense amount of variation and exposition. A large percentage of the uncountable sum of God's thoughts have to do with it.

We need to pray for Iraqi Christians

2008-07-09T04:50:00.000-07:00

Christians in Iraq have suffered a lot in recent years, as this article points out.

It appears that having to pay money to not be killed is rather common. I've seen other articles that Christians in Iraq have often been targets of violence.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/26/world/middleeast/26christians.html?_r=3&scp=1&sq=for%20iraqi%20christians&st=nyt&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Someone is reading this

2008-07-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

A friend told me that she likes my new blog. She said it looks interesting because she knows I'm a deep thinker. I made the obvious retort, that I am a deep thinker-- sometimes it takes me hours to get back to the surface.

Thanks, Jeanne!

Interesting quote

2008-07-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

[the] Bible--the most influential indictment of pharisees, courtiers, and tyrants ever printed.

Kevin Phillips The Cousin's Wars 1999. Basic Books p 48.

The book is about the ideological and cultural continuities between the English Civil War, the American Revolution and the US Civil War. The immediate context of the quote is how the high literacy rate in largely Puritan eastern England was a major contributor to the struggle by Parliament against Charles I.

Diversity and loneliness

2008-07-06T05:23:00.000-07:00

It is becoming a commonplace observation that God loves diversity. Many institutions (including the mission I work for) wants to promote diversity, to have more different kinds of people involved and working together. One of our favorite passages is Revelations 7:9-10 "After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:
"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb."

It dawned on me this morning that few people (even introverts like myself) really like loneliness. We don't like being the only one of our kind, the only one who has ever thought X or Y or Z or whatever our idiosyncracies are. We dislike it so much we are tempted to hide what we think or feel when it is very different from what others think or feel. But if God loves diversity, and has never created two people identically the same, doesn't it follow that we are each going to feel alone in some way?

Faith and reality

2008-07-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

We Christians are often far short of what Scripture says we should be. New Creations in Christ, People who have died to sin -- oh really?

I think there are three things we can do about this discrepancy.
1) Conclude that what Scripture says is wrong. I've started down this road many times, but by God's grace I haven't persisted.
2) Pretend that the discrepancy doesn't exist. Put on an act that we're good and OK and all is fine, and make our faith about something external rather than the state of our hearts.
3) Believe that Scripture is true, but that the promises are things to be claimed by faith and through God's grace in our lives. This is what Caleb and Joshua did about the discrepancy between the promises of God that Israel would be given the land of Canaan, and the reality they saw, that the land was inhabited by powerful enemies. And this is what Paul tells us to do in Romans 6. He says we have died to sin in Christ and have been raised with Him in a new life, but he then says we have to reckon or calculate ourselves to sin. It doesn't just happen automatically.

The true British idealism of our founding fathers

2008-07-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

Another July 4 thought

Now and then I've wondered if becoming independent from the British Empire was really the right thing to do. I've thought if I'd lived at the time, I would have supported petitioning the British Parliament to broaden representation to the colonies, but I might have hesitated at armed rebellion. Scripture does say: "Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime!" (Habakkuk 2:12). Isn't this what the Revolution did, found a new nation by bloodshed?

But a few years ago I read a book called "The Cousin's Wars" by Kevin Phillips. He examined the continuity of heritage and cultural background with the English Civil War, the American Revolution and the American Civil War, and states that in each case the better version of political organization won out. It dawned on me that our founding father's rallying cry "No taxation without representation" could have been repeated exactly by Parliament against Charles I. And in general, democracy has proved to be the best system for government that humanity has come up with.

Celebrating the 4th of July

2008-07-05T07:58:00.000-07:00

We just finished celebrating the Independence of the USA.

I'm not sure July 4 is the correct day to celebrate the beginning of the United States of America. It should be July 2.

On July 2, the Continental Congress approved a resolution to become independent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Resolution. What they approved on July 4 was the text of the Declaration of Independence. So it seems the decision to become independent was adopted July 2nd, while July 4th was approving how we were going to communicate that decision.

John Adams had this to say in a letter to his wife on July 3rd:

"The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more."

http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/aea/cfm/doc.cfm?id=L17760703jasecond

The next letter he wrote to his wife was July 7 and he didn't have anything to say about the vote to adopt the Declaration of Independence on July 4.

But now maybe you have to be a real history trivia nut to really worry if Independence Day is celebrated on the right day or not.

Maybe things aren't supposed to be simple

2008-07-05T07:46:00.001-07:00

Since God has many thoughts, and we are supposed to delight in how many there are, why then should it so often surprise us when reality turns out to be more complicated than we thought?

How many are your thoughts, O Lord

2008-07-05T07:30:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite verses from the Psalms is 139:17 "How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!" (NIV). I've been fascinated by the vast number of details God put into creation for years now. In college I studied entomology (insects). I remember one afternoon studying some caterpillars preserved in formaldehyde. The guidebook said that caterpillars of this family could be recognized by the fact they had three hairs on body segment number 7 or 8 (I forget the exact number, maybe I'm misremembering the exact number of hairs too). So I looked at these little critters under the dissecting microscope, and sure enough when I counted to the right segment, there were the right number of hairs.

I was in awe. If I were in charge of designing and creating a universe on the scale of the one we live in, I'm sure I wouldn't have ever gotten around to planning the specs of whether certain caterpillars would have three hairs on segment number 7. I might have made an executive decision about the number of galactic clusters, but the rest I would have left to the many subcommittees of angels helping me in the task. But God created a universe in amazing detail, even down to how many hairs a caterpillar has on each segment.