Reflections On Isaiah 40...

God speaks comfort to His people. Where the bulk of the prophets seem to be sending warning and speaking judgment on Israel for their transgressions, here the message is comfort. We are reminded that our God is a God of love, compassion, and forgiveness. No matter how many times we turn our backs on Him, He is astoundingly quick to forgive. In one sense, no one's favor is easier to earn than God's, in that we do not earn it but simply receive it. And yet our sin is great enough that it takes the work of God for us to turn to Him (though how that work exactly plays out is debated...). God has made every accommodation to reach out to us, he sent the last Old Covenant prophet John, crying out in the wilderness that the Messiah is coming. The Lord came to us in the flesh in Jesus, God incarnate. In humility He became one of us, in suffering He was crucified by us, in glory He rose before us, so that in love He might restore us. This great work has been written down, that God might be revealed to us. If His Word stands forever while we along with the grass wither, then where should we place ultimate authority? In our own reason, perception, understanding and conclusions? Should we trust our own assessment and set ourselves up as little gods, bowing to the almighty individual, every one doing what is right in his own eyes? Or do we submit ourselves to the Word of the Lord? We as Christians must believe that God's Word is authoritative, and I think most of us really do. But so often we do not act on this, but do what we feel is right. At least I know I often struggle in submitting to God's Word, failing to understand that His teaching is absolutely for my benefit, failing to understand that He knows what is best for all of us, that not out of indignation but out of love He has communicated to us His instruction. He knows how best to operate in this world He created, and He did not stand aloof and distant but through the pages of Holy Scripture is screaming at us, 'life is found here, life is found in me!', or at least something to that effect. Life is found in the Christ revealed in all of Scripture. It stands forever as authoritative, as comfort to a weak and sinful people. God is a God of great might, no one can measure Him, no one can weigh the creation that He spoke into existence, He sits above the earth. Yet still He tends to us, carrying us close to His heart. He knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. It is a comforting thing to be in the hands of a God who is omnipotent and at the same time the very definition of love, and to be able to affirm that God is as much aware of our own frailty as He is of His own glory and power. We should make every effort to know these truths more completely. The Almighty God, as perfectly revealed in the Suffering Servant, is our strength and comfort.

Poking Fun...

Howdy howdy! Sometimes I love Christians. We do stupid, quirky, and/or hilarious things all the time. Hit up the following two links and you'll see what I mean. I'm thinking I could make this a regular feature; posting ridiculous videos from times of Christendom past and present. There is no want of material. Here are the first submissions. (Thanks to Dan Morse for the heads-up on the first.)

http://www.aftertherapturepetcare.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuV21Wotp6s

Reflections On Psalm 19...

Since before the dawn of human history, the sun has been doing its thing with otherworldly regularity and consistency (save for during a skirmish between the Amorites and Israelites). Our constant rotation around this glowing orb simultaneously tells us that we are not at the lowly bottom rung of the expanse of the universe, nor are we at the center. Every evening it sets, and glowing witnesses rise up and tell us another part of the story; that this sun that sits so prominent in our sky is in no way unique. There are millions just like it reaching out to us from unfathomable distances. All this should tell us that there is something or some One very much beyond us. All this beauty came from somewhere, and every rational thought within us, should we choose to listen, will tell us that this matter had an origin. Apparently some Being can create beauty, complexity, and structures of jaw-dropping enormity, and can uphold them in some type of stable relation. This should make us feel very small, it should fill us with wonder, and it often does. It should also drive us to seek out the source of such magnificence, the Creator behind the creation. Every man is given this phenomenal sensory input, and every man will be held accountable for its explanation. In great kindness, God has seen fit to not only cry out to us via the natural realm, but also to clearly reveal His character through His Word. While all of creation tells us that a glorious Creator exists, scripture tells us His nature, and even gives us His name. The Word tells us that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the not just a distant power but a relational God who has seen fit to give us teaching directly from Him, and it is sweet, just, pure, righteous, and to be respected and obeyed. His teaching is efficacious in that it revives us, warns us, enlightens us, preserves us, and makes us wise; it takes us out of the cave. Like David, we cannot look at the greatness of creation and the power and purity of the Word of God and hold our chin up before Him. We can only cast ourselves before Him, knowing that He is merciful, compassionate, and good. We can have full trust and assurance in our Rock and Redeemer.

The Manliest Men Who Ever Manned...

Yep, I'm finally launching this series, and I know you've all been writhing in anticipation. Like I said before, I just want to profile men who have gone before me and shown me what it means to be a man following after God, and just being manly in general. I'll do the not-so-surprising thing and start with my dad (Phil if ya need a name). Proving his studliness at a fairly young age, he married a divorced woman with two children... while in med school. Now the first part is heroic enough. Lesser men would see the two children and run like the wind (and others I'm sure would have hang-ups with a divorced woman), but the pops aint lesser men. He saw my mother for the gem that she was (and is), saw Jeremy and Josh for the blessing they were (and are), and did what it took to seal the deal. Out of love for them he married the woman and adopted my brothers, as a manly man does, all the while putting himself through med school. And it is not an easy field in medicine that he has chosen. He is a perinatologist, which is fancy talk for someone that treats mothers having complications in pregnancy. It's a taxing line of work that sees a lot of life in the womb that never comes to term. I'll admit that the situation at home probably hasn't been a breeze for him either, as there are six of us kids in the family, and we didn't always make life easy on him. But he worked his tail off to provide for a family, even leading us through the difficulty of a mother battling with breast cancer. He'll admit he has done many things wrong, as we all have and will, but the fact of the matter is that he raised six kids, and we all get along and find joy in each other, which I believe is impressive. Most of all he has succeeded in the two paramount fatherly duties. He has loved God and he has loved his wife. He has consistently shown his five boys what it means to be madly in love with a good woman, and has shown his daughter how she should be loved. And above all, in good times and bad, in the rough patches, he has kept his faith and continually pointed his family toward Christ. This is the chief task of a father, and I am ever thankful that I was not raised by a foolish boy but one of the manliest men who ever manned.

Hodgepodge...

This will be maybe my most jumbled post yet. I'm just gonna put down some thoughts; trying to get the writing juices flowing before I journal about a Galatians passage for my theology class. The passage is Galatians 3:16-4:6. It's about God's faithfulness to His promises (i.e. Abrahamic), it's about the Mosaic covenant's preservation of the Jewish people, it's about Jews and Gentiles being one through adoption in Christ, it's about Jesus being the fulfillment of God's plan. Mostly it's about Jesus. How does that affect life and ministry? I need to turn that into I think about a half-page or so. I am listening to Flyleaf right now, noting that their new album is excellent. Gotta love a band rockin hard and giving glory to God. If you get the chance, take a listen to Circle and Arise, both are great tunes. Maybe I'll put one of em on this here page. I'm also thinking about all the good people I know. Facebook constantly reminds me that there are a lot of amazing people that I have crossed paths with, and I wish I could keep in touch with them all, but alas the days are short. I'm thinking even more specifically of the group of guys from my Bible study senior year of college. What a great group of guys, and we've gone on different paths; some starting families or careers or both or neither. To those I haven't kept in touch with- I hope God is still provoking you, I hope you are still seeking after Him. Without Him life is meaningless and empty, it is chasing after unsatisfying accomplishment after unsatisfying accomplishment. I am sorry that I did not teach and lead better at the time, but I trust God used those hours to draw us to Him. They are fond and humbling memories. I honestly don't know if I will ever sit around another table with better men; character and characters gathered on those Monday nights. To my future wife (I'm trusting God in this area), I hope I find you soon, I have no idea whether or not I've met you. I hope God is developing patience, mercy, and grace within you, you will need them. Soon I will need sleep, as I will need some strength to serve local pastors at the Spurgeon Fellowship tomorrow. But for now I write, and with minimal flair. Goodnight and good luck.

From Class...

Here's a little nugget from Dr. Breshears in today's theology class.

Theology without piety is sterile abstraction.
Piety without theology is empty emotionalism.
Joined they are worship and truth.

Community...

Howdy! The holidays are over and school's back in session, which means I'll be getting back to some semblance of routine, which should theoretically lead to more blog posts. We'll see. But for now, I'll start with a brief rant/discussion topic for y'all (and by y'all I mean Greg and Everett). Now keep in mind, this is one of those things that I've been thinking about a little bit, but by no means have considered all angles. That to say- feel free to correct and refine my thinking. But what's been running through my head is this- I've been hearing the word 'community' a lot in churches over the last few years, and I'm not entirely sure what this always means. My impression is that when people talk about building community in a church, they're talking about the people in the church being super-close friends who can talk about deep stuff together. I also get the impression that when people talk about building community, the sentiment is that this is best done in small groups where we spend lots of time talking to each other about what's going on in our lives and what God means to us, and little time is spent studying the Bible. From what I can tell, the idea is that studying the Bible together as a group is not conducive to growing close to one another, and talking about any type of theology or doctrine is sure to spell doom if you're trying to get everyone in your church or small/care/life/connecting/growth group to be friends, and that would be bad. Thoughts?