Discussions

“Most people think great God will come from the sky, take away everything and make everybody feel high.  But if you know what life is worth, you will look for yours on earth.”  – Bob Marley

“The idea that you actually have to go to heaven to enjoy your reward is like imagining that you have to spend your life savings in the bank where your account is held.”  – David Lawrence

If you heard a group of young men say something like “lets go get high”, would you assume that they were heading to the mountains?  Directional words work qualitatively. – me!

Some of the myths I’d like to dispel in this post are:

1. “The big guy upstairs”
2. “Set your thoughts on things above”
3. “heaven is the end goal”
4. “can’t wait to go to heaven”

The early Christians never hoped that they would go to heaven, in fact, nowhere in the Bible does it say that we go to heaven after we die.  The hope of the early Christians was not that they would go to heaven but that heaven would come to earth.  When we talk about hope, our hope must be rooted in God or it is no hope at all.  If I hope for something that God doesn’t hope for then I have no hope.  They say that the first few paragraphs of a blog are the most important.

Heaven

The word ‘heaven’ occurs 641 times in the Bible and so I will not be able to go through every instance.  However, I will be able to broadly categorize the two different ways that it is used among those 641 appearances.  The meaning of the word ‘heaven’ in the world of the Bible can carry either one or two meanings.  In the Bible, heaven refers to the atmosphere which hovers above the earth(clouds, sky, stars) and it is also refers to the location of God, (Our Father in heaven).  Below I have listed the two meanings and have given an example of usage.

1. Earthly heaven:  The atmosphere above the earth.  Genesis 15:5 And He took him outside and said, “Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them”
2. Spiritual heaven:  The location where God is. Ecclesiastes 5:2 Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God. For God is in heaven and you are on the earth; therefore let your words be few.  (italics mine for emphasis)

The Location of Heaven

The clouds, sky, stars (definition 1) earthly heaven exists above the earth but where does the spiritual heaven exist?  The earthly heavens are above the earth but does that mean that the spiritual heaven is also above the earth?  If we say that the spiritual heaven exists above the earth then are we saying that God doesn’t exist on earth?

Where the heck is heaven?

Matthew 3:2 Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.

- Is it close to earth?

Mark 11:30 Johhn’s baptism-was it from heaven, or from men?  Tell me!

- Jesus is asking if an earthly event was from heaven?  Good question Jesus.

John 3:31 The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth, and speaks as one from the earth.  The one who comes from heaven is above all.

-         Jesus was from heaven and yet he was spatially on parallel footing with others?

Ephesians 4:10  He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.

-         Does filling the universe include the earth?  I think so.

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven.  And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

-         We eagerly await a Savior FROM there?  I’m surprised it doesn’t say that we are eager to go there?

Revelation 21:2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

-  Heaven seems to be a storehouse of gifts coming to earth.  Exciting?

Spatial Setting of Heaven

Could the spiritual heaven be closer then we think?  We know from several Old Testament passages that God also lives in places other than heaven.  One dictionary notes “Most of the references to heaven which are important for Israel’s faith speak of Yahweh’s dwelling in heaven. A simple presentation of the relevant instances, however, would give a very one-sided picture. For there are in fact other statements which call, not heaven, but the innermost sanctuary of the temple, or Sinai, or the ark, or other sacral places, the place of the presence or even of the dwelling of Yahweh, and which cannot be brought under the slogan שָׁמַיִם(heaven).”^[1] In the Old Testament God was present in various different places such as gardens, deserts, mountain tops, in the middle of a war, and the very presence of people.[2] Therefore, it follows that if God was present in places which were not above but instead on dry land then heaven might need to take on a different outfit.  If God is in heaven AND God is also on earth then can we argue that heaven exists on earth?  Or further, could we argue that heaven has the potential to be on earth?  What would this sort of thinking do to our Bible reading?  Dallas Willard defines heaven as any place where God’s rule and reign are perfectly enforced and abided by.

Heaven as a Sphere:

“The most helpful way of understanding the meaning of ‘heaven’ when it appears in the Bible is as ‘the dimension in which God exists.’

• Ecclesiastes 5:2 God is in heaven and you are on earth.
• Jesus prayed to his Father who was in heaven and yet his prayers were spoken as if God could hear him loud and clear from where he was at.
  • Therefore, location is not a big deal for Jesus.  He speaks of God being in heaven but he doesn’t denote the locality of heaven.
• We see over and over again in the Bible as heaven being “up”.  However, this does not necessarily denote geography, rather it communicates a sense of holiness.
• Jesus was a bridge between the visible and invisible.  “No one has descended but him who ascended.”

Is Heaven Popular Because Earth is a Loser?

Often time’s heaven is viewed as a better place then earth.  Earth is apparently God’s accidental step child who doesn’t belong.  Earth is full of rust, decay, evil and all sorts of other incumbents that reign against the good way of heaven.  But the question remains, has God given up on earth in favor of heaven?  Perhaps we could refresh our Biblical image of the earth.

Physical World Goodness

Genesis 1 and 2 have much to say about the creation of the earth.  So let us look at what the Creator thought of his creation.  God created a physical world which he deemed good.  God created physical things and felt that they were good.  Next, being the generous God that he is, he decided to create people who would rule over the earth.  Does the Bible say anywhere that the earth is bad because it needs someone to rule over it?  In Gen. 1:26, there is no mention of the earth being bad and therefore needing someone to rule over it.  Is a baby evil because it needs someone to take watch over it?

Things Not Mentioned in Genesis 1 or 2

1.  The earth is a temporary holding place.

2.  The earth is bad.

3.  The earth is a problem.

4.  The earth is a burden to God.

I understand that Genesis 3 takes a turn for the worst.  The created order suffers incredible harm at the hands of an intruder who looks to disrupt the vibrant created order which God deemed good in Genesis 1 and 2.  The intruder is successful in his attempt to overthrow the created order for the time being BUT let’s make a list of things that the intruder was not successful in.

1. Not successful in getting God to turn his back on creation.
2. Not successful in getting God to devalue creation.
3. Not successful in getting God to forego his plans for earth and start dreaming of a heavenly realm.
4. Not successful in making the earth a problem rather than a prize.

Further Examples that God Loves the Earth

1. The flood.  The earth was not destroyed, it was reorganized.  Evil people were destroyed but not the earth. (OT)
2. Romans 8 The creation waits not for destruction but for freedom. (Paul)
3. Physical resurrection demands a physical earth.  (Paul)
4. In Second Peter, elements are dissolved by fire but does that mean they are destroyed?
   1. Shedrack, Meshack, Abendgo, in the furnace yet NOT destroyed.
   2. Fire destroys evil doers, not good things.  Good things survive fire in the Bible.  Psalm 97:3 thematic
   3. Peter put the fire in the same context of the flood, the flood, as noted in point number 1 did not destroy the earth.
      1. Henry Alord “ The flood did not annihilate the earth, but changed it; and as the new earth was the consequence of the flood, so the final heavens and earth shall be of the fire.”
      2. Important distinction with respect to the word NEW in the Bible.  Two different words which have different meanings.  Kainos “that which is better than the old” Neos: that which has not yet been, that which has just made an appearance.

God Regrets Making Mankind

In Genesis 6 we see that God is deeply grieved over the state of mankind.  Does this grieve indicate that God does not value the earth?  Couldn’t the intensity of his anguish toward the earth reveal the bright future it was created for?  Perhaps it is a sign of his love for the created order and his anger toward a distortion of that created order.  *Note The flood does not destroy the elements or the fabric of the earth.  Rather it cleanses the earth.  Humans are still kept alive so that they can order and take care of the earth.  The earth is still in tact.  A big difference between cleansing and destroying.

Earth Theology

God made promises to Abraham and his descendants that his offspring would be great and we tend to focus in on that part of the promise but there is another part of the promise which we might easily miss.

Genesis 12: 2 “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on EARTH will be blessed through you.” (caps mine).

It is important to remember that the Biblical land trajectory which God promised to his people went something like this. Eden à Jerusalem à The Ends of the EARTH.  Initially Eden was the place where God dwelled with his people and sustained them.  Eden didn’t work out so well and so the people began to dream of another Eden.  That place was Jerusalem and then God did the unthinkable.  He showed up in Jerusalem to kick it with his people but his people rejected him.  One early follower of God said “He came to that which was his own but his own did not receive him.”  The amazing thing was that he was crucified in Jerusalem and so that place didn’t end up fulfilling the promise he had long since made to Abraham either.

Controlling Questions:

1. If Christian hope is for a resurrected body which is physical then shouldn’t the home of that physical body be a physical place?  Doesn’t a physical resurrection naturally imply a physical location for it to benefit from?
2. What is more important, what the Bible ACTUALLY says about the afterlife or what we hope for the afterlife to be like?
3. Could a person love heaven and hate the world/earth?

Resurrection is Distinctly Christian

1. Buddhist believe you float off into nothing.
2. Hendu’s believe you get reincarnated into something else.
3. Atheists believe you are obliterated.

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Conclusion

Over the past few years I have been flooded with a flurry of conflicting thoughts regarding the notion of heaven.  I have been confronted with many contradicting strands of thoughts about heaven and mainly; a biblical view of heaven.  What does the Bible say about heaven and what does the Bible mean when it uses the word heaven?  When I think about the story of the Bible, I try to relate the parts to the whole.  I recognize that God’s intention since the fall (Genesis 3), was to redeem the creation.  Naturally, one should be able to see all the different parts of the Bible through one gigantic lens, namely, the restoration of the fallen creation which includes but is not limited too: the earth and all its inhabitants (animals, plants, humans, sea creatures, video game players, flirts and all the rest).

Even though for most of our lives we’ve been taught that heaven is some far off place where we will float on the clouds and listen to angels playing harps, I think we’ve missed the point.  If heaven is some distant future then our lives here are wasted away, awaiting that special day.  It is a lot like the parents who are waiting for their child’s report card in hopes of straight A’s but never taking the time to encourage their child.  Sometimes it isn’t about what you secure or where you are going but the process in which you take to get there.  I do believe that the full realization of heaven is in the future but in the mean time God has called us to pray for heaven to invade earth.  Jesus himself said “let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  Perhaps then, we ought to spend more time entertaining the possibilities of bringing heaven to earth rather then escaping here.

So how does one bring heaven to earth?

It all depends on how you define heaven.  One quaint definition I heard was that “heaven is a place where God rules, and hell is a place God doesn’t rule.”  It is really simple, let me explain.  When something happens here on earth as it happens in heaven, then, heaven has invaded earth.  When something happens here on earth as it happens in hell, then, hell has invaded earth.  Each day we have decisions to make about whether we are going to bring some heaven, or bring some hell.

Does anyone remember the force field the Ninja Turtles would put up around themselves?  Oh did you say no?  No worries, I found a photo on ninjaturtles.com. The force field was a secret hide-away.  Once the force field went up nobody could get to the Turtles.   In the picture you see Rapheal courageously trying to bust into the force field and enter into another realm.  Heaven is a thin film between our reality and ultimate reality.  Our job is to catch a piece of ultimate reality and bring it back to our world.

If any of this made no sense to you,  that is okay.  I’m not quite sure I have it all worked out.  Actually I think I understand it very well but it isn’t easy to communicate.  Let me know if you got the idea.

I just finished reading a Severe Mercy and it is easily one of the best book I’ve EVER read. It is a rather difficult read, if you are not good at reading books which have a lot detailed imagery. However, if you can get past that, then you’ll enjoy a wonderful gift.

The book is about the love story between Sheldon Vanauken and his wife Jean ‘Davy’ Vanauken but truly it is about more then their love. It is about the motivating factor behind their love. I am no expert in love stories but this was one I could believe in. This love pointed to much more.

The couple fell in love while atheists and created all kinds of excellent elaborate schemes for securing their love. In fact there is a chapter called “The Shining Barrier (the Pagan Love) which highlights these rules. It is quite magnificent to read the attempt which is made at securing their love. CS Lewis was instrumental in their conversion and the book contains actual copies of letters he had written to Sheldon during his conversion.

I had to pause many times and meditate upon what I had just read. CS Lewis is extraordinarily succinct. If he had a blog, it wd. contain few words and v. deep thoughts. I don’t want to say much more about the book because I might botch it.

Here are a few quotes which I highlighted.

“One who has never been in love might mistake either infatuation or a mixture of affection and sexual attraction for being in love. But when the ‘real thing’ happens, there is no doubt. A man in the jungle at night, as someone said, may suppose a hyena’s growl to be a lion’s; but when he hears the lion’s grown, he knows damn’ well it’s a lion. So with the genuine inloveness. So with Davy and me. A sudden glory.” Pg. 29

“Our love of course seemed to us a miracle. First love always does the old, old story sung by poets and sneered at by wrinkled of heart. And yet it is a miracle, an unbelievable miracle, just as every springtime of the earth is a miracle.” Pg. 30

“What we did see was that jealousy is fear: it can corrode even if quite baseless.” Pg. 32

“Over-valued possessions, we decided, were a burden, possessing their owners.” Pg. 33

“But death is no respecter of love.” Pg. 44

“The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians – when they are somber and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths.” Pg. 85

“Some people run away from grief, go on world cruises or move to another town. But they do not escape, I think. The memories, unbidden, spring into their minds, scattered perhaps over the years. There is, maybe, something to be said for facing them all deliberately and straightaway. ” Pg. 195

“All our most lovely moments are perhaps timeless.” Pg. 201

“Disobedience is not the way to get nearer to the obedient.” Pg. 210

That is all for now. Check it out if you need another book to read.

This is a great website for more information. http://www.willvaus.com/sheldon_vanauken

This artist makes an excellent contrast between the reality of God and the joke that some have made of him.

All my life I’ve heard plenty of sermons about David and his sin with Bathsheba. I’ve heard about how he slept with Uriah’s wife and then had Uriah murdered. This story has been told over and over, as it should be. It reminds us of the dangers of sin and also of the relentless forgiveness that God offers David. Yes, it is good to talk about David and Bathsheba but why doesn’t anyone talk about Uriah?

Uriah “the Hittite” was an amazing man. I don’t know many Uriah’s but here is a guy who is loyal to his own death. Loyalty is something that our culture doesn’t talk about very much but it is one of the most beautiful virtues in my humble opinion. Uriah was a soldier who was fighting for his country. David was the King who should have been leading the country into war but instead decided to relax in his temple. David liked how Bathsheba (Uriah’s wife) looked and so he slept with her. The Bible is silent as to whether or not she had a choice in sleeping with him, but the bottom line is that he ended up getting her pregnant. Bathsheba sent David a note, letting him know that she was pregnant. David came up with a masterful plan to bring Uriah home and have him sleep with her so that he would think that the child was his. Jerry Springer status. Uriah gets called home from war by David. David thinks that he can cover up his sex scandal with Bathsheba but he runs into a problem. Here is the account found in

2 Samuel 11: Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house……” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house. 10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”

11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”

12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.

In my opinion, Uriah was a mans man. He could not eat and drink and enjoy his wife while his fellow soldiers were out fighting a war. One of my favorite rock band singers says “Today we eat and drink while tomorrow they die” and this is true of our society. So many of our fellow human beings suffer through intense pain on a daily basis and yet I feel a strong sense of nonchalant attitudes among my peers. I’m amazed at how hard it is to find ways of helping the disenfranchised other then giving money.

In a word you could say that I am frustrated over the lack of loyalty. I wish I was more like Uriah and that I lived less for pleasure and more for peace.

The story goes that King David sent Uriah back to war and had him murdered on the front lines.  Uriah carried the note which commanded his own death.  Uriah didn’t open the personal note to the commander out of respect for the King yet the King had no respect for him.  He was an honorable man.

“Do you hear what I hear? A child shivering in the cold.”

What’s so Merry about it Anyway?
Good morning and Merry Christmas. We flutter between the Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas wars. We notice a lot more people in stores and definitely hear different music playing on the radio. People smile and say “Merry Christmas,” and this is supposed to be a positive greeting, but it somehow doesn’t go beyond the smile. For the first time this year, I heard someone use the term “giftmass,” and while new, it was all too familiar because a lot of people, and especially children, think of gifts during Christmas –getting or giving gifts. Christmas is spoken of in many ways but what is Christmas really all about? What is the rational behind Christmas? I wonder how we would respond if we had to answer honestly. The average Joe might mutter something about Jesus being born, but even that doesn’t register anything unique. What is so “merry” about it? Jesus was born….so what? Furthermore, how can we celebrate what we don’t see any significance in?

Process Should Produce the Product
The incarnation of Christ, the birth of Jesus, the invasion, whatever you may call it, can be appreciated from many different perspectives. The one perspective I’d like to highlight in this post is with respect to what the birth of Jesus says about our common humanity. Most people associate Christianity with a ticket to escape the current human situation and eject into a heavenly bliss. The hope of many Christians today is that after they die they will be joined with God in a spiritual enterprise of peacefulness on clouds while playing harps. This view is stated by good intentioned people but it doesn’t jive with the birth of Jesus. There is a direct disconnect between escaping to an eternal bliss in spiritual bodies and the birth of Jesus. What I mean is that the product doesn’t naturally flow from the process. We know from Scriptures and church history that Jesus was fully human(Jn. 1:1-5, 1 Jn 1:1). Therefore, if the end goal is to NOT be human and instead to become a spiritual creature, then why was Jesus born a human? Why didn’t God simply send a spirit, or a ghost of some sort? If God’s goal, as some claim, is to take his Christians to a spiritual state of bliss, then why would He Himself become a human? Apple trees beget apples and orange trees beget oranges. The human Jesus saves human people for a human state. The process produces the product. We cannot dream of a product (heavenly bliss) that is not produced by the process (fully human Jesus). Now some may argue that Jesus had to become human so that he could pay the penalty for our sins and that was only possible through a human agent. And I think to myself, doesn’t that limit God? After all, couldn’t God have saved humanity through any means he desired? If he is the one who thought it up in the first place, then why did he ordain it THIS way? Therefore, we must remain consistent in our argument from top to bottom –the product must be consistent with the process. That is, we must acknowledge that Jesus being a human does not jive with our hopes of NOT being human. A bird uses bird resources to eat bird food. It doesn’t use bird resources to eat kangaroo food.

The Birth of Jesus As an Affirmation
So how does Christmas affirm our humanity? For starters, Jesus was born (I can’t say that enough). He became a human. He had to go through the womb just like the rest of us. His birth was bloody, smelly, and real. He probably had to be slapped in the back so that he could breathe his first breath. I’m sure there were germs all around, and his mom screamed because of the pain. He was born in a dangerous world where the ‘powers that be’ were running over the weak. He was born during economic crisis and warring governments. He was born when one of the most violent and manipulative dictators ruled with an iron fist.  God did not shy away from the real human situation. He didn’t try to get around what it means to be a human. He wasn’t far off in a heavenly bliss but right in the thick of the blood and dirt. He wasn’t born in a palace or a germ-free zone. He didn’t get special treatment. He was born a commoner’s birth.
Bethlehem was no more significant then any other small town in the grips of a megapower (Turlock, Ceres). And with that in mind, we can confidently say that if being human wasn’t something that God looked down upon then neither should we! And that is why Christmas is so important. Christmas reminds us that we have infinite worth simply because we are. Christmas reminds us that our problem isn’t that we’re human, rather it’s that we’re not human enough. Jesus was fully human and that is what we should seek to be. Jesus did not sin; that is, he did not act less than human. When we sin we shouldn’t say things like, “well I’m only human.” No, rather, we should say, “wow I just acted less than human.” Christmas reminds us that it’s okay to be human and that we should strive to be fully human as Jesus was. And so all of us in some way, shape, or form feel ashamed to be human because we notice that we don’t live up to the full humanity which Christ lived. BUT, we have hope. We know that we can be redeemed; we can be fully human because God saw the less than human activity and believed it could be different. He knew we could be different, and so he became one of us and showed us. If God had hope for this mixed up humanity then surely we should have hope no matter our position? Christmas is about a new beginning. Christmas is the birth pains of hope. Now we have seen the glory of the 2nd Adam the fully human man Jesus. We need more of THAT. The one thing that I’d like to highlight with respect to Christmas is that being human can be a a very beautiful thing. It is not to be frowned upon. Instead, it is to be celebrated. It is embraced by God, and it should be embraced by us.

On the other end of the spectrum is the ugliness of humanity on a wooden cross. Two fixed beams which depict the lowest of the low. A wooden cross which captures a broken humanity. But we don’t have to stay there, do we? The grave is empty, and the resurrection, just like the incarnation, is an affirmation of a new humanity in Jesus. Jesus was resurrected with the same body he was born with (flesh and blood) –another stamp of approval on the human condition. We look to the past and remember Christmas, the invasion, but we also look to the future for resurrection, of which Jesus is the first fruits. Once again, in the resurrection we see life in the midst of death. (Can’t wait for Easter blog! and part 2 next year)
Any thoughts?

I came across a concept in a book I was recently reading and it riddled me. The author was explaining a core belief and the belief was posed in the form of a question. The question was “What if Jesus is on his knees praying for us to do something about the starving?” All the sudden I had an image in my head of a powerless God. A God who cannot save His people but instead is hoping that they somehow save themselves. On the other end of that image was an image of an all-powerful God who does the dirty work for his people who cannot do it themselves. Isn’t something wrong with both of these images?

Where is the middle ground? Where do we meet the God who prods us to live as if He was living through us while running with the wind to our backs? Running while knowing that He is the ultimate victor?

These are trying times and times of tough ethical dilemmas. Grey areas abound while the tectonic plates of modernity and post-modernity quake beneath our pathways.

The mystery of Christian theology is that we ought to be the ones helping the starving precisely because God has empowered us to do so. This is a radical shift for the lesser man who believe that He has been helped by God to the chagrin of the oppressed. He is not favored more or less by God but simply bears a greater responsibility to help mankind.

On a side note:
If you truly do care about the helpless and need a place to serve them I advise you check out your local church first. From there I would then look at investing some resources with reputable companies like www.kiva.org or www.onedayswages.org. When was the last time you saw someone passionate about James 1:27? We love to speculate about the oppressed and needy. We love to talk about how God loves even them but hardly ever do we lift a finger to get in the trenches with them. In fact, the social structures we live and work under don’t make room for them. Hardly ever do I see a homeless person at church. Why is that?

Thoughts? Objections?

Moses must have been pretty frustrated. He was living it up in the desert with his wife Zipporah SP?, and then God appears to him in the form of a burning bush and commands him to go rescue the Hebrews from their evil oppressors the Egyptians. So he did what any good person would do, he obeyed God. Yet he did it very sheepishly by constantly pointing out why he shouldn’t be the one to do it. God reassured him over and over and even had his cousin Aaron help him out. So then Moses went along with God’s plan and what happened?

“Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Why, Lord, why have you brought trouble on this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble on this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.” Ex. 5:22-23

Imagine that? You do what God wants you to do and instead of things getting better they get worse! Oh brother.

That wasn’t the gospel I was taught. I was taught that God had a wonderful plan for my life as long as I obeyed him and prayed a little prayer. To quote another famous poet, “Nobody told me there would be days like these.”

Perhaps my human impulse should have understood that following God would NOT be easy BUT perhaps I shouldn’t have been hoodwinked either? Why not be honest about what the gospel means and where it leads. Sure it is nice to have close friends and communities of people who gather in the name of Jesus but eventually they have to learn to let go for the name of Jesus and most of us aren’t very accustomed to that. Are we?

Anyway, just a random musing from some reading I was doing today. If I could talk to Moses at that point in time I would say “yeah”.

Thoughts?

1st century Judaism had an expectation of the coming Christ. 1st century Judaism was really frustrated with the one from Bethlehem who claimed to be the Christ. (Actually, He tried to keep it a secret for a while.) 1st century Judaism rejected Jesus the Christ for many reasons but one major reason was His perceived impotence as a military commander.  He wasn’t the military commander they had hoped for. He didn’t obliterate the Romans and set up shop as a bigger version of Rome.

I had an interesting thought today. In the same way that 1st century Judaism was frustrated with Jesus, are we frustrated with him for not dictating our circumstances the way we’d like? He didn’t wipe out the Romans then and he hasn’t obliterated our enemies now. We all have enemies, be it within or without. We have things inside us which wage war against the members of our body and we have people or businesses outside which make our lives difficult. Do you ever find yourself frustrated with the Messiah because He isn’t ruling the way you’d like?  He didn’t set up shop the way you thought He would?  Sure He has helped in some battles here and there and a lot of the major ones but there are still those enemies that get us and He hasn’t stepped in?  There is still a lot of distortion which needs to be tuned.

I must admit that this is a constant battle for me. Sometimes I want a Savior who does what I want and sees things the way I do but forever and ever He doesn’t. He sees things the way that He does. In His most beautiful and loving ways. In ways that no one could fathom.  It is hard for me to surrender to His love and His good will.  I am still a little blood thirsty myself.  I am torn between the good He has and temptations to settle.  Lately He has been teaching me that His ultimate plan for me is to know His love and to surrender to that love.  My desired circumstances don’t seem to sway His will and this bugs me.  Surely He would do what I desire.  Surely He would see how much I want the things that I want and give them to me?  Surely He would be the Savior who saves me by giving me what I want!!! NOPE.  He knows what I want and He knows what is good for me.  Praise be to Jesus who doesn’t give me what I want but gives me what I need.  Although it is incredibly frustrating I must admit.    He is beautiful and He can woo us but  we gotta let him take us out. We got to check Him out from afar and then check him out when He is near.  Easy does it.

Talk to the Military Commander and ask Him how the war is going. Perhaps you can ask Him if you’re fighting the right war. Perhaps he’s interested in something MORE. Perhaps your interests are too small?  I once accomplished what God wanted me to accomplish only to find out that I was the one who wanted to accomplish it.  But He still worked with my accomplishments.

Some people will have a tough time with this post because they will appeal toward the texts in the Bible where Jesus is portrayed as a commander who will come back one day and stomp all His enemies.  I think He will come back, He will set up shop, but I think even then it won’t look like what we expected.  The book of Revelation has the most vivid images of COMEBACK but even they are depicting the cosmic battle of good and evil and not necessarily a blood thirsty general.  But again each passage must be looked at in its own context.

Comments, anyone comments?

The title for this blog is a bit misleading. I do not mean to imply that there is a balance between good and evil. I’m not sure anyone could ever measure such a thing and I don’t think that is the right way to think about it. There is good and evil in this world. There is no question about that. As I sit here writing this blog I look out the window and I see beautiful people doing there daily deeds as well as the kind of weather that makes you wanna lay down in green grass. So we see beauty but we also see depravity. Outside of this same window are people who struggle with anxiety, depression, hate, malice, lust, greed, envy and while the weather may be nice today, we know there are things like Tsunami’s, hurricane’s and tornados. So how do we make sense of all this? Is the world bipolar? How do we make sense of the creator and sustainer of this world? Is he happy one minute and frustrated the next? Can we walk out of the library feeling safe in a safe world or should we fear the evil that we know is along side the good?

I have struggled with this question for quite some time. I have heard many religious leaders speak of the world in a way that encourages me to walk out in confidence. Many people have presented a view of the world which is vibrant, encouraging, and positive. And I have believed that view but have felt a bit bipolar because while some of these religious leaders have painted such a positive picture of the world they have failed to address the horror. The news highlights the horror. Every time I watch the news someone stole money, murdered, or got into a bad car accident.

Then on the other hand you have the religious leaders who are always preaching that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. This is bad and that’s bad and things are only getting worse. Kids are on drugs, nobody cares about God, soceity is becoming more perverted, ect. The negative view of the world causes one to be depressed and un-hopeful, or not be able to place hope in the world we live in.

So what we get from religious leaders are conflicting messages. Some say the world is beautiful while others say it is ugly and horrible.

Today I was reading a commentary by N.T. Wright and he said something simple but quite profound. He said “But in Judaism and Christianity at least, this much is clear: the world is God’s good and lovely world, and evil is a real, powerful and horrible intruder into it.”

This is the Christian view and I think it is a helpful “balance” in understanding the beauty and depravity around us. This view also gives us hope that one day this good God will put the world to right. That means we can believe that all the good things we see are actually good and all the bad things we see are actually bad.  It also means that the bad is only an intruder and not the way things are always going to be.  Yippeee. This view also helps one to celebrate when celebration is necesary and mourn when mourning is necesary.  Rather then just putting on a smiley face all the time or a putting on a frown all the time, one can recognize that there are times for both.  No need to sit on extreme ends of the spectrum but instead live in rhythm with what is going on. Some things are evil, some people do evil things, and some things are good, and some people do really good things. No need to bat an eye.  Hope this was helpful, I know it was to me.  I sort typed this all out because I have a tendency to believe everything is good or everything is bad and so this post will be a helpful reminder to me.

So I’m sitting in Ecclesiastes class today listening to Dr. Gordon Johnston lecture about the meaninglessness of life. This is my second class with Dr. Johnston, last semester I had him for Hebrew 4.  Class in and class out this man continues to amaze me. I am always in awe of his ability to illuminate the text using his Hebrew language tools and mindset. One theme I have seen over and over in his teachings is “hard work”.  Hard work pays off. Today he was specifically lecturing about how there is a balance to everything that is done under the sun and that hard work has its place, as long as the work is done out of enjoyment.

I’m in my last semester of seminary and one of the questions I have been wrestling with is vocation.  What it is that I like to do and whether or not I have what it takes to do it.  One of my goals was and still is to have a preaching ministry, an excellent preaching ministry. The reason why I came to seminary was so that I could get the skills necessary to dive into the Bible and not only understand what it communicates but also to be able to communicate what it says. As time goes by I see the multi-faceted jewel that the Bible is and have come realize that I don’t have what it takes to know EVERYTHING there is to know about the Bible. But I have learned that there are general themes which run throughout (grace, redemption, love, repentance). This has given me hope.   But I have been weary of preaching for one big reason. As I research passages I see that there are seas of commentaries and there are a number of directions one can go with a given passage. Since I am a perfectionist, I find it necessary to do every little bit of research before moving forward with a given interpretation but this perfectionism has caught up with me in the pulpit. I get overwhelmed with all the different directions, nor can I study all the different directions to see which one(s) is legit. Well this all had been weighing me down and today after class I decided to ask Dr. Johnston to get something to drink at the Cafe. He kindly agreed.

As we walked to the Cafe, I happened to pass by a bunch of people that I knew.  I quickly interacted with them in passing and then waited in line.  In line I began to unload some of my apprehensions on him. We sat in the Cafe and talked for about 30 minutes and during that time he unloaded a wealth of wisdom on me. He zeroed in on some of my talents, reassured me, and gave me some tips on how to combine my talent with his. He put words to the ideas I was wrestling with and brought resolution. These aren’t his exact words but he reminded me that at the end of the day we’re all in this together and there are times where it is okay to trust someone’s opinion on a passage. He reminded me that one of his major contributions  is content while my major contribution would be communicating and facilitating enviornments for the content. That conversation lasted about 30 minutes but it covered about three years of questions. One conversation changes everything. I had a class I was suppose to attend after Ecclesiastes but I skipped it in order to talk to Dr. Johnston. Was it worth it?  I think so.