To read the passage click here http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=job%2038-42&version=NASB.
I really really really like these passages of Scripture. Every time I read I am encouraged. This week, I just want us to refresh one another through sharing and reading other passages. It could be a few verses or a few chapters, but please let others be uplifted by what uplifts you.
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Click here http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=job%2019:23-29&version=NASB to read the Scripture.
Job claims, “I know my Redeemer lives.” It is one thing to say I know my Redeemer lives (or sing it Nicole Mullins style), but it is something else to say it experientially. Think about Job’s statement in context. He has been railing on and on about how God seems bent against him. His friends keep heaping indictments of God’s anger with Job upon his head. In the midst of experiencing not the deliverance but the assumed wrath of God, Job claims “I know my Redeemer lives.”
How does he sort through what his life circumstances indicate and wade through the half-truths or sometimes truths of his friends to maintain a proper “redeemology”? Determining what statements are accurate and to be believed and what statements are erroneous has always been one of the difficulties of reading the book of Job. The Bible is 100% accurate in everything it affirms. The Bible does not claim every statement made by sinful people is true. Job’s friends get chastised by God for not speaking what is right about Him (42:7). How do we determine what is accurate and what is wrong?
We are just like Job in the need discovering faulty premises. From a literary standpoint, determining consistency in declaration is helpful. The truths of the Bible are not stated only one time in only one way. The Bible is consistent in its teachings. For all the declarations of Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu, we can cross check what they say with the other 65 books in the Bible. For instance in 4:7 Eliphaz seems to indicate Job is being punished for sin by saying, “who that was innocent ever perished”. Yet by crossing referencing Acts 7 we see that Stephen died in and because of righteousness. So, while Eliphaz might preach a health and wealth prosperity gospel of works, we debunk his heresy with Scripture.
In the end, this same process is what we need to use in our own lives as well. Instead of Eliphaz, we have Cosmo. Locker room conversations replace Bildad’s banter. Zophar takes the form of atheists and humanists. We are surrounded by solicited and unsolicited advice all the time. Are we diligent to run these ideas through the gauntlet of established truth. Do these statements pass the Genesis, Psalms, John, and Ephesians tests? Job maintained confidence in God by holding fast to the truth. If we want to hold fast, we better screen our lives with the sieve of the Word.
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To read passages online: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%206:5-13&version=NASB and http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%208:20-9:1&version=NASB
Do you remember what you were doing on the day after Christmas 2010? That’s not a typo, 2010. As I am writing this on January 5, 2012 it has been one year and two days since the day after Christmas 2010. What is significant about that date? Nothing. I use it as an illustration. In Genesis 6, God determines to destroy the world by flood save for Noah, his family, and animals sufficient to resume life. In Exodus 8, Noah gets off the ark and receives the promise affirmed by the rainbow in the sky. We often think about Noah spending a little time on the ark. We might even know enough to say it rained for forty days and forty nights, but the entire time Noah and his family spent on the ark was one year and ten days. Ex. 7:11-12 says, “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.” Exodus 8:13-16 says, “Now it came about in the six hundred and first year… In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ‘Go out of the ark…’”
I can’t remember what I was doing a year and ten days ago. I think about how many miles I have driven or even ran. Noah and company had 150 yards by 25 yards. But at least Noah had something to do. He packed food for all of the animals. He got to muck the stalls, feed and water all the animals as well. So before the flood ever came, Noah famously built a big boat miles from and harbor. He gathered food for himself and a crew of animals (and have you thought about how much an elephant eats). Think of all the times God miraculously saved people in the Bible, Daniel and the lion’s den; Shadrach Meshach and Abednego; Peter on the water. Each of these people received an instantaneous deliverance. Noah worked for his. Well, Noah worked through his. For over a year Noah labored in expectation and promise of deliverance. Sometimes God’s clock seems to tick slowly. Sometimes His promised blessing goes hand in hand with the sweat on our brows. But God’s salvation and deliverance still comes.
Do you ever get frustrated waiting? Do you ever fall into the trap of waiting on God to drop blessings in your lap without regard to how He wants to accomplish the blessing? How great is God who can sustain us in the midst of seemingly endless trials?
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Online copy of text: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201:26-31&version=NASB
Women sometimes joke (I think) that God made man first then He improved upon His design by making women. Unfortunately, ladies, God did not create Eve as the crown jewel of creation. So why did God have an order to creation. It seems as though God could have spoken everything into being simultaneously. Was there something that necessitated God progressing through six days?
The linear aspect of creation does reveal to us a progression of both order and value. Out of nothingness came simplistic yet muddled something. The continuation of creation brought about a more clearly defined world, a world with a purpose behind every progression. At the apex of creation comes the formation of man (people) in the image of God. Placing mankind at the end of creation reveals to us something important. Every prior step in creation was established to make possible (or for the use of) the next steps. Mankind is the last step. All creation was made leading up to the end goal of people. While the fish, birds and animals were commanded to “be fruitful and multiply,” only man was told to “rule over” and “subdue it”. Additionally, only after God created man does He say everything is very good.
So why does Eve not fit in with the linear continuation of importance. Or why did God not create Adam and Eve simultaneously. The reason is perhaps that God desired to teach something else through ordered creation. The lesson changed from instruction on importance to instruction on ordering (how things were created to work). As chapter 2 reveals, “it is not good for man to be alone.” By highlighting the singularity of Adam, God drew attention to a deficiency we can experience as people. Beyond just marriage, God so much desires for us to be people in relationship to one another He separated out the creation of Adam and Eve. In doing so, He also instructed us on variances in roles people have been designed to fulfill. He showed need and how He planned for that need to be met. He demonstrated that His plan was for people to be something in relationship to each other for their mutual benefit. The separate creation of Eve does not teach us she is more or less important or well-made than Adam (in the image of God). It does teach us God has a plan for us predicated upon our living together according to His relationship designs. Some of those designs are friendship, instructing one another, holding each other accountable, corporately experiencing God, and others.
How do you think we should handle being the end of creation? Being responsible for ruling the earth? Do you think this means people individually should rule the earth or people as a class, collectively? What is your role? How do you apply the importance of relationships in your life? Have you given much thought to the ordering of relationships according to God’s designs? What (real not felt) needs do you have a person? What needs in others are going unmet by your failure to live God’s way?
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Click here http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%206:33-44&version=NASB to read the Scriptures.
I wonder what the little boy’s mom said when her son returned home and related the story about what happened that day. Was that even her best recipe? Did that validate her overprotectiveness? She appears to be the only mom who wouldn’t let Junior go without taking some food along. Notice that Jesus didn’t sample the food to make sure it was fit to eat. He simply took the gift freely shared and turned it into one of the most memorable miracles that is recorded in all four gospels.
We tend to accept too much praise for things God does while discounting our meager gifts as unusable. The fish and bread weren’t of exceptional quality. Jesus didn’t need more than 1 loaf and 1 fish. Jesus took a gift from an unnamed boy and blessed the entire countryside. It would do me no good to ask you to assess your blessings. Your assessment of them does not matter. Only God who works miracles through them does. Don’t spend much time inventorying your spiritual or physical gifts. Just give anything and everything Jesus asks from you trusting it is enough for shepherd less masses. You never know, you might be the only one out of thousands who can or will give to the Savior. We can’t count on others to give but must make it our responsibility.
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Click here http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%206:14-29&version=NASB to read the passage.
Have you ever killed somebody? Have you ever wanted to kill somebody? Under what circumstances would you ever consider killing somebody? No this blog isn’t trying to convince you to commit murder. In Mark 6 Herod Antipas ordered John the Baptist’s decapitated even though he felt sorry for doing so. Paul also admitted doing what he didn’t really want to do. What factors into us doing what we don’t want to do? Let’s look at Herod Antipas.
Herod’s family was a mess. His dad left footprints of scandal and contradiction. Herod the Great was the one poured resources into making the rebuilt temple grand. It was renowned for being beautiful and lavish. He also is the Herod who sought to put baby Jesus to death after a visit from the wise men. Herod the Great had 10 wives and numerous sons who were half-brothers. Antipas was not the oldest, but he was put in a position of authority in part because of family fighting and deception. Herod Antipas also developed his family by divorcing his foreign (not proper for a Jew) wife to marry his oldest brother’s daughter who divorced her husband (Herod’s half-brother Philip).
As for morality, Herod Antipas arrested a prophet (John the Baptist) for speaking truth against his sinful divorce and remarriage. His word was worth so little that he felt a need to vow to the girl a promise to give her a reward. He not only permitted, but enjoyed a no doubt carnal dance by his step-daughter (Salome) who was also his niece. The party he hosted matched descriptions of drunken debaucherous celebrations common among pagans. Alcohol dulls the senses. Peer pressure and a desire to impress fostered a reckless abandon of reason. Pride forced him to continue in folly even when he realized the error of his ways.
Herod Antipas’s history, disposition, environment, and choices all worked against him in chapter six. If we don’t want to behead John the Baptist, we better watch out. Reality suggests we will never directly or indirectly cause the execution of anyone. But we blunder and fumble our speech and actions on a regular basis. Our family history we cannot change, our sin nature will not be completely severed this side of heaven, and some aspects of our environment remain beyond our control. Other contributing factors in our decisions can be manipulated. If Herod had not remarried his half-niece, she could not have requested John’s head. If he had celebrated without drunkenness or stopped his daughter from dancing, he would have been able to make better decisions. If Herod was humble, he could have admitted his mistakes instead of compounding them.
We have the opportunity to put ourselves in a position for success or failure. Too often I hear people lament things they have done. They act surprised when they fail, but any unbiased person could see from a mile away the direction they were headed. The old adage, “if you play with fire you’re going to get burned” is true. To say it positively, “If you make brownies, you get to lick the bowl.” How much attention do you pay to adding up influences in your life? For Herod, family + party + character flaws = killing John. Before we find ourselves doing something we regret, let’s fill our equations with positives.
What are some dangerous situations we should avoid? What character traits should we nurture? How can we make sure our choices have a positive snowball effect? How can we direct the holistic entirety of our lives towards being, doing and saying what we want?
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We live in a Scrabble world. The Official Word List used to govern acceptable usage in a game of Scrabble contains 178,691 words. The list does not define the words. Effectually, for the game of Scrabble, it does not matter what a word means as long as it is a word. Players take the letters from their tray and arrange them to score the most number of points. Defining the word is only helpful if someone is considering challenging a word. So how do we live in a Scrabble world? People rarely, if ever, live in definition. We take what we have (on our tray) and try to win at life with little to no regard for meaning.
For example, I started out writing this blog by thinking in a slightly different direction. I looked up the lyrics to a song in order to quote correctly and was flabbergasted at the obscenity in what I didn’t remember as being that bad a song. After going to school to learn to determine the message of a passage of Scripture, I tend to do that in all mediums of communication. Songs I used to hear and liked or even memorized part of, when the words are examined are horrendous. Try it sometime. Imagine you are going to teach Sunday School based off of the morality message of a song and see what you can come up with. What does it teach? That is the message you are ingraining in your mind as you listen.
But rabbit chasing aside, we often base our lives off of what fits: music with an interesting rhythm, food with a pleasant taste or low price, word choices that prove a point or achieve a reaction. And there are much loftier issues than the ones mentioned. People are more concerned with what they have than what they should have. Have you even gotten cruddy letters in Scrabble? Chances are good you didn’t turn them in. Why, because you can’t miss a turn. You aren’t even sure the letters you get will be any better. What if I said you could turn in 4 e’s and 3 u’s for Q U I Z Blank I N G? That way you get both 10 point tiles and can play all 7 letters for a 50 point bingo. This is where the analogy of a Scrabble world breaks down. If you are dealt a sorry hand of bad morals, relationships and circumstances, so be it. Trade them in. There isn’t a blind draw for what you will get in return. As Christians, we believe living our lives the way God desires is a recipe for a winning life. Sometimes we don’t have everything in place to succeed at living the way God wants us to. But we can have it if we will trade the desires of this world for the will of God.
A Scrabble world is one that starts with what you have and tries to make sense out of it all. Just rearrange things until you come up with something. Doesn’t matter if you know what the meaning is as long as it fits and you get some credit for it. Morality is yet to be created and can shift with the whims of circumstance.
God’s world did not start without purpose or meaning. In the beginning, and even before, there was God. He is the basis for life and purpose. As we are looking ahead to Courageous Part 2, think about what foundations are in your life. Are you searching for meaning or living out God’s definition of abundant life? The Scripture we are going to look at is in 1 Peter 4:1-6. I’d love to hear your thoughts about our Scrabble world vs. God’s plan. The verses can be read here http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20peter%204:1-6&version=NASB.
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Click here http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%206:1-13&version=NASB to read the passage.
Skeletons in the closet? No, I’m not talking Halloween decorations. Anything you wish you could have a do-over on? Jesus quoted a common proverb of the time relating the ineffectiveness of prophets in ministering to people they grew up with. Now we all have things not to be proud of. We understand people in our past have seen not only our successes but were also there when we failed. But what I want to know is who had a problem with Jesus. Jesus never sinned, even as a boy. Did people not realize when He was growing up, “There’s something special about this one”? It’s not like Jesus had a childhood He had to “overcome”. Was it Jesus’s family that was the issue? They did bring up His mother, sisters and brothers. Maybe you can identify with a family whose reputation holds you back. Maybe the people were jealous of one who rose to prominence when they did not. I don’t know what the problem was. For sinners, we would hope people would be able to separate a jaded past from the truth of our message and power of God through the miracles. Or, if we have a positive testimony and good reputation could we dare expect credence to be given to God at work in us? All of Jesus’s life consistently represented God, but people still couldn’t get over their own spiritual blindness. The validity and truth of His message and the awe-inspiring wonder of His miracles didn’t open their eyes beyond preconceptions and prejudices.
Where are we going with this? Does this mean we need to move away from home if we are to be fruitful in ministry? Why should we expect more from ourselves than Jesus did? I don’t think that is the answer. Nor do I think we should expect people to divorce our actions and past from our message. We should be concerned about our “image”. Paul instructed Timothy to be above reproach. People inherently desire to know what others think about them. Facebook has all kinds of “inbox me and I’ll tell you what I really think of you” and “send me a number” games. Whatever baggage (good or bad) we have loaded into our lives will go with us. Paul was able to say in several letters, “remember how when I was with you…” Our persistence in living with integrity for God can be leveraged to support the validity of our message. But it could be easy for us to look at Jesus having an “ineffective” ministry and become discouraged by mistakes from past and bridges we have burned. But take courage in this, it doesn’t matter what you have or have not done; it is the power of Christ reaching softened hearts does the work. Just look at how effect the disciples were in verse 13. Jesus healed a few (v. 5), but they healed many. Look at Saul/Paul. Look at Christians throughout history. We aren’t basing ministry upon our good decisions and reputation. We base it on the cross. There are some we may reach and some who will close their ears and take offense. Just remember like Jesus, if you are rejected, shake the dust and move to someone who will listen. Until we all…
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To quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, “It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.” Aside from the language being a century and a half old, I like this quote. What the movie Courageous is presenting should not be misconstrued as what the elite fathers of the world should do. It is not an unreachable higher standard. Rather, being a godly parent who invests in the lives of their children is “the healthy state of every man.”
How did we get to a place of weakened expectations and low standards? When did we begin accepting what is most pervasive as what is right? This study is not a call to anything more than what is “constitutional” (at the core, foundational, most basic to who parents are) for us to do. What are your thoughts?
If you want to preview the Scripture the message will come from you can read it here http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=proverbs%2020:6-12&version=NASB.
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Click here http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark%205:21-43&version=NASB to read the Scripture.
I know who you are. You are someone else’s interruption. You are also the context by which many people understand their lives. Mark 5 provides the account of Jarius and his daughter. Smack dab in the middle of it is the encounter between Jesus and the bleeding woman. Is either the primary story being told? Should we interpret one in light of the other? I usually think of the woman interrupting the story, but for her, her healing is the main story. That Jesus was on His way to Jarius’ house just allows everyone to know the context of what was going on the day Jesus healed her.
On most days we all put ourselves at the center of the universe. It is inevitable. We might be able to empathize with someone else, but our point of view is the lens through which the world makes sense. At best we can say a wedding day is all about the bride. But even then we either imagine our own wedding day, critique what we would do different in the ceremony, or project our own feelings onto them. The same is true of having children, battling illness, and other such events. If we imagine our lives as book, we view it as autobiographical, not a novel. The story is about us, not our role in the bigger story. But there is a bigger story.
Jarius and the woman might not have known each other, but they were connected at the point of seeking a miracle from Jesus. Ultimately Jesus is the narration of the Mark 5 not Jarius or the woman. I think it would be helpful to remember the story does not start at our birth and end at our death. There is a bigger picture. Think back about people who have come and gone in your life. Who were your friends in grade school? Who did you experience college with? Who was your first boss? Were you friends with your children’s friends parents? What about those neighbors you used to live next to? All of these people framed our lives and we theirs. They may have been only an interruption in the continuum of your life, a blip on the radar, but each one is part of the fabric of our lives.
What people have framed your life today? Isaiah 6 famously begins “In the year that King Uzziah died.” What is going on in the lives of the people around you that serve as markers that matter in your life? Conversely, whose life is entwined enough in yours to be a reference point for them? What do we do with the people in our lives? Are we upset when someone keeps us from getting to our destination as fast as possible? Ever think they may have been suffering for years and need help just as much as you? Maybe you will get nothing more than a chance to interrupt someone’s life today, will it be impactful? How do you fit into their story? How can you help their story end well today?
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