Blind in one eye…

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

“In the beginning,” the Bible tells us, “God created….”

All that there is God created from nothing. All the things in which we glory in this whole world from ocean to ocean and pole to pole came into being at his word. “Let there be,” he said and there was. It began. It came into being. Man, no less, created by God and in His own image from the dust of the earth…

And we’ve been in trouble pretty much every since.

You know the story. The garden, the wife, the serpent, the apple and the Fall all wrapped up by God’s curse on all mankind and our enslavement, our bondage to sin as a race. In fact most of the Bible deals with one facet or another of man’s trouble, his disease—Sin. The source of all our pain in this life, the very reason for the curse, that thing which made the cross necessary—Sin. It is more a matter of what we do, it is what we are—sinners; a whole race of them covering the planet and all in need of saving from themselves. Adam fell and as a result his entire family plunged headlong into the curse. All our ambitions and desires are with its stink, this thing we have inherited.

Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from is original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation.
–Baptist Faith and Message 2000

“By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race” it also says. Satan tempted and man chose to sin. A choice, according to this, plunged the entirety of the human species into sin and condemnation. A choice also gets us out of the problem too—a decision more to the point. WE decide to get in and WE decide to get out. There is no need for a God or a Savior in such a scenario. We are save ourselves by the strength of our own will and moral fortitude.

How could it be anything else than something inside of us that causes us to do the things we do? If it were possible to not sin, as the Baptist Faith and Message suggests—for if we can choose to sin surely we can choose not to sin—why hasn’t it happened? In all the long history of the man, who has been free from this? “No one” the Bible tells us “is righteous” note even one. “all have sinned” it says in another place. Sinners we are and sinners we remain—but for the grace of God.

Blind Spot

Part 1, Part 2

When I was a kid the family had to move around some. As a result, I went to more than one High School and one of them was tiny. I remember one of the years I went there were fewer than twenty graduating Seniors. The whole campus would have fit on a Wal-Mart Supercenter lot—including the bus barn and the football field. One of the non-benefits of this smallness was the reliance of the school on regular PE classes to fill in the gaps on the sports teams. What this meant for me was that even though I was a bookish, smallish, out of shape science geek I was suited up for every game I could make and subsequently smashed. Basketball was no better but I learned something about getting taken out when you’re not looking.

Freshmen are easy to blindside. They are dumb and easy to trick because they have no experience. Look over there! Smack! See? When someone gets blindsided they get hit and go down before they even realize what has happened to them. I recall my ninth grade self doing defense drills with the basketball team—the starters mind you—when I learned about this. The benchwarmers had been put on the floor against the starters in a little scrimmage match to work on the first string defense. We were supposed to try to score and I was supposed to go through the lane and come around for a pass inside and when I did—Pow! Oh, look at the pretty birds…not only did I forget my own name for a few minutes I earned one of the coaches famous head-shake and sighs.

A classic blindside. Now I know better because I’m older and have more experience—as do you I’m sure. Or do we? Do we know as much as we think we do? The question is, are we really paying attention or are we just running the drill day in and day out? Of course we are. We know it. We’re content with our comfy sanctuaries and our thirty minute sermon-and-invitation. We love beating those Methodists to Luby’s. We are content with our Southern Baptisticity. We’ve arrived. And that’s our blind spot.

But what if we haven’t? Arrived I mean? What if we’re disobedient children? Could we tell if we were? Nope.

Deuteronomy 28:15 (NASB) tells us this: “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.”

If Christ isn’t Lord are we truly his? Floundering around in our blind disobedience can we tell the difference between truth and lies? Our guides, with whom we have aligned our beliefs, cannot keep us out of the pit if they are afflicted with the same blindness we are. If this is even a remote possibility it is time for a serious and Biblical examination of the Gospel so that we can be sure we are preaching the truth. When we preach the Word but do not know what it says its like cutting across the lane with our eyes closed. We’re going to get nailed every time.

In those days

1Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus, that a census be taken of all the inhabited earth. 2This was the first census taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3And everyone was on his way to register for the census, each to his own city. 4Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, 5in order to register along with Mary, who was engaged to him, and was with child. 6While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

8In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12“This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.”

15When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, “Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us.” 16So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.
–Luke 2:1 – Luke 2:20 (NASB)

What are you doing reading this? It’s Christmas day you lame-o blogger! Since you’re here and if you’ve read this far let me give a little reminder. (You knew I’d have to say something) Lets try not to get so carried away with 1-19 in this new year that we miss out on 20. The “glorifying and praising God” part. Thats the best part of all, doing it for the glory of God. He deserves it. No one else does but HE does.

May God bless you and yours in this year. And if you didn’t go to church yesterday ask yourself why and try to do more about doing less next Christmas. And try THIS year to do more than worry about how many shopping days are left until NEXT Christmas.

Josh
“…the word of God is not bound.”
–2 Timothy 2:9

Be Sure

Considering the usual content of this blog I hesitate to write this post, but I will. I have a houseful of baby girls and I want to be able to clarify something with them one of these days and this thing that I’m writing about might help.

It appears that many are surprised that the Great State of Nevada and her peers and a good many of the residents therein are surprised about something. The state that has done more than any other to contribute to the moral decay of this nation—I mean other than California—the state that has helped more than any other to bring the idea of marriage down to that of a one night stand with legal rights, Nevada, is shocked that one of her own daughters has done something naughty. Miss Nevada, Katie Rees has had pictures posted on the Internet. Naughty ones.

Excuse me a moment. The Hypocrisy detector is about to explode. Nude and nearly nude women parade around two of the largest towns in the state for entertainment. Prostitution is legal in Nevada—in certain counties sure but legal all the same. It’s well ingrained in the culture of the state. And here and there and all over the net today we see righteous indignation concerning the exposed flesh of their idealized representative.

Here’s the part that gets me, they seem to be more upset that she got caught than anything else.

Don’t look too far into this but there are a few things we can take away from this and other incidents that not only remind us that this is a fallen world in which we live but just what type of bondage from which we have been delivered. 23“…you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out.” Numbers 32:23 (NASB) The context of this passage isn’t talking about prostitution but it is talking about disobeying the Lord. It’s talking about sin. Your sin will find you out. Sooner or later we will reap what we sow—good, bad or ugly. The lost are in bondage to their sin. They can’t NOT do the things that displease God. Also remember we who are Christians do not have to do things like this. By our death, burial and Resurrection in Christ we have been set free (Romans 6) so when we sin we do so because we want to do it. We sin because we like it, not because we are in bondage to it—whatever IT is for us.

Repent! Brothers and Sisters, the kingdom of heaven is at hand! Stop sinning!
“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 (NASB)

Remind them of these things

This popped up in Newsgator as a post from 12/15/06 but the Waterless Places blog shows its from February 15, 2006. Either way its a great post. Gird ‘em up men, there’s only 54 more shopping days until Valentines day.

PVD Reminder

It’s important that we be reminded of what the Bible says from time to time. “Love your wife as Chrsit loved the church” comes to mind.

Blind Man’s Bluff

Part 1 (Long Time Blind)

Do you remember how to play blind man’s bluff? One player is blind folded and the rest hide in plain site. As the ‘blind man’ roams around the room the other players try to lead him to each other by answering his questions with ‘your getting warmer/hotter’ or cooler/colder as the case may be. We’re going to start out kind of cool here as we scoot around the Old Testament a little bit but it’ll warm up pretty fast so hang in there.

Exodus 4:11 (NASB) The LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?” A blind person is someone who can’t see physically and anyone who’s read the bible knows that humans are subject to spiritual blindness. Aside from a mention of blindness in Genesis when a certain group of Sodomites are struck with it, this is the first mention of blindness in the Bible (to the best of my knowledge.) Moses is still trying to convince the Lord that he’s not the man for the job by complaining about how he’s not a good speaker. To which the Lord responds with something like “I made your mouth don’t you think I know if it works or not?” He also clues us in here on something we don’t like to think about. ‘Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind?’ the God says to Moses, ‘ Is it not I, the LORD?’ God is in fact the one who makes a person deaf, blind or otherwise.

Aside from the obvious conclusion about God knowing whether or not we can perform a certain thing (God knows) we are faced with the bald fact that physical blindness is something that God does. Sometimes people are made blind. Sometimes they are blinded—physically as well as spiritually. Exodus 23:8 (NASB) tells us: “You shall not take a bribe, for a bribe blinds the clear-sighted and subverts the cause of the just.” A bribe can blind man—if he takes it. See? Our actions do affect us. So from a spiritual standpoint we can blind ourselves if we choose to look the other way. If we allow our own agenda to affect our judgement, we can make some bad decisions. I know taking a bribe is not the same as, say, being for or against tongues or some other major doctrinal issue but it can be a powerful motivator. Religious fervor should never be underestimated.

Now after these verses in Exodus blindness is mentioned a number of times but Deuteronomy 27:18 (NASB) sums up what they say nicely, ‘Cursed is he who misleads a blind person on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ Misleading anyone is despicable let alone someone who is depending on you for guidance. This leader is ‘cursed’. You don’t lead someone in a wrong direction if they’re blind and most teachers and leaders know better.

Considering all these things together, we get an idea of what God wants with respect to guidance and those who cannot help themselves. It goes along with the idea of a Pastor being a shepherd of the sheep. Sheep are stupid and will stand there and be eaten or run over by a truck for that matter. They need someone to care for them. Should that care be done in a fashion that they are led into harm, then the shepherd isn’t doing his job. Neither, then, is the pastor doing right if he leads his flock in a direction that causes them harm.

Are we getting warmer yet?

Cursed is he who misleads a blind person on the road.
And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
–Deuteronomy 27:18 (NASB)

Links:
Pulpit:
Brian McLaren and the Clarity of Scripture (Part 1)

Pulpit: Brian McLaren and the Clarity of Scripture (Part 2)
Challies: The Rise of Lakewood and Osteen

Carl Sagan

Carl’s been dead ten years I hear. I still can still hear him saying “Billions and Billions” of whatever. Star or quarks or something, I don’t know, quantum. I have fond memories of watching cosmos with my Dad back when I was a kid but I have always been a science geek of some sort. Cosmos, then Nova, followed by Nature on PBS. I loved those shows. But I loved hanging out with my Dad even more.

See there? It’s not a matter of what you do with your kids…just do something with them. They’ll remember it and love you all the more for it.

Unbound

Nine point nine posts out of ten I enjoy Dan Phillips of Team Pyro fame and I’ve started frequenting his blog. He’s almost always got something worth reading up. In the comments of a recent Biblical Christianity: Denominational (or otherwise) inquiry“>post he pokes fun at two folks who use the word “conversation” in its typical form. Here is a thesaurus entry from Webster.com for conversation
Function: noun
Text: talking or a talk between two or more people
Synonyms colloquy, dialogue (also dialog), discourse, discussion, exchange
Related Words banter, cross fire, give-and-take, repartee; conference, parley, powwow; babble, chat, chatter, chitchat, gabfest, gossip, palaver, prate, prattle, rap, small talk, table talk; roundtable, symposium; debate, deliberation

Defined, a conversation is—again according to Webster—an oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas (2) : an instance of such exchange : TALK b : an informal discussion of an issue by representatives of governments, institutions, or groups c : an exchange similar to conversation

I am a little ticked that the emergent/emerging folks have hi-jacked this word for their own use even though what they use if for probably falls under “c”. I’ve browsed through several sites, posts, and comments that talk about the emergent conversation and it seems to pretty much just be small talk. Their conversation seems to be sort of a euphoric cloud of spiritualism in which they can walk around, or at least their heads. It’s not actually deep enough for all of them to fit.

I was also reminded during the three or four seconds that it took for me to look this up that conversation used to mean conduct or behavior but that’s now obsolete. I’m hoping that the concept of conversation as we know it today won’t someday come to mean, ‘a group of self-proclaimed non-theologs sitting around talking things to death and calling it church’.

Here’s Ephesians 4:17 – 4:24 with the Kings English version of ‘conversation’ in the text:

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: 19Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20But ye have not so learned Christ; 21If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

Personally I think that’s the conversation we should be concerned about. Even a quick look at the church today will show that we’re not.

Josh
“…the word of God is not bound.”
–2 Timothy 2:9

Calling Names

“Why do we have names Daddy?”

Thats my girl, always thinking.

My initial reply was, “Because if every one was called “Hey You!” it’d be confusing.”
To which I got the sigh/eyeroll deluxe. That’s just the best.

But she was serious, so I explained.

God made the first people and named them Adam and Eve. One of Adam’s first jobs was to name everything. All the animals were named by Adam—so names must be very important to God. And we just kept it up because all of us are related to Adam and Eve. But then they fell into sin. Because of that original sin everyone is a sinner or there’s just something inside of them that keeps them from having a relationship, from knowing God. So our names are a reminder of what we have lost.

The boy says, “Am I a sinner?”

I had to break the news to him that he was in fact a sinner. “Yup. The Bible says that everyone is a sinner son.” I have never seen any reason to sugar coat the truth of our disease. I don’t think he took it very well. Today he announced that he wasn’t a sinner so I had to tell him again that the Bible says he is along with everyone else. “All have sinned….” Which is why we need Jesus. Jesus came to “seek and to save that which was lost”. He came to be a physician to those who are sick, to minister to drunks and harlots and tax-collectors of which all of us are the worst.

So they’re a reminder of what we have been given.

“Are we going to get new names when we get to heaven?”

“Yes sweetie but everyone will know you.”

“I like my name now.”

“Don’t worry baby that’s a ways off.”

So they’re a reminder of what’s to come.

“Names are important.”

“They sure are.” That seemed to satisfy her.

At the end the boy says, “who was Adam again?”

Well it’s a start.

Long Time Blind

One of my favorite passages of the New Testament is the passage in John 9 about Jesus healing a man born blind. To me it deals with two types of blindness: those who are blind and those who have been blinded. The difference is more than grammatical. The Pharisees, for all their knowledge, just couldn’t get Jesus into focus. They were trying hard to fit him into the mold of their own presuppositions—but failed miserably. Eventually they took him to the cross, saying then that they would believe in him if He came down from the cross. They demanded He come to them on their terms. That’s not something God does. The blind man himself was not sure what to make of Jesus he just knew that he was blind and he wanted to see. This was the kind of faith that “made him whole”, something the Pharisees missed out on. I suppose these TV faith healers are in the same boat. They’ve got faith mixed up with something else entirely. It could be desperation or avarice depending on your POV. The man born blind didn’t care—he just wanted to see. He wanted the use of his eyes so he could do something besides begging at the Temple. That was the only productive thing a blind person could do back then. They spent their day calling out for a scrap of food or a few coins to purchase a meal, always hungry, always desperate.

As I write this I cannot help but think of my own life as a church member. I am not surprised that I have been, in the past, so willing to snap up whatever new book or program came along. Spiritually starving, a Christian will take just about whatever comes along if it looks like it might nourish the spirit. If it sounds like the Word of God it must be OK—even if they’re not sure its exactly right. “It sounds right,” they say. Inside, though, its been so long since they’ve read the Word that they’re not sure but too afraid to admit it. They’ve been begging at the temple so long that when the real thing does come by, they might miss it.

The man born blind did not. John 9:1 (NASB) tells us: “1As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.” Jesus had just turned down and invite to a Pharisaical stoning party at the end of John 8. As he passed by he saw the man born blind—and stopped. His disciples were quite happy to ask Jesus to confirm their tradition but He surprises them. Rather than affirm what they know is true he tells them the hard truth that bad things can happen for God’s glory. That the reason for the man’s blindness was “so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” And He healed him. My maps tell me that after Jesus put the mud on his eyes this blind man had to make his way across most of Jerusalem to wash it off in the pool of Siloam. It’s a long trip but the Bible tells us that he came back seeing—and in fact, the change was so obvious that those with whom he had grown up didn’t even recognize him.

That’s the way it works isn’t it? We go a long time blind before we encounter Jesus and he does something to open our eyes. It may take awhile even after that but once they’re open, though, there is no mistaking the change. The man born blind was blind no more. His eyes had been opened and everyone could tell.

I’ll save my favorite part for another post but it’s well worth the read.