Belonging…

There is something to belonging. There is something delightful about looking around and seeing people that accept you. Why do you think teenagers and adults alike have done all manner of things to get it? Belonging I mean? Girls will puke their lives away to fit in—boys too apparently. Come on, you know what I mean. Go ahead and try it. “Aw but Mom! Everyone else is doing it!”

Here, let me oversimplify this for a moment.

I was clearing the kitchen table last night and noticed that one of my children had written their name on the back of their chair. That’s the place they sit every night so they probably feel like it is their chair. It’s not though, because the child doesn’t own it, the parent does. We bought and paid for the table and chairs: albeit for the family to use to sit in at mealtime. They still belong to us.

Of course I’m talking, really, about the Christian. The one who belongs to Christ has been bought with a price. It doesn’t matter what the world scrawls on them. It doesn’t matter what label has been assigned or how they are used. God knows those who belong to Him. And those who belong to Him know him back—in a limited sort of a way—almost, in fact, in the same way that my chair knows me. Which gives us an idea of how much more complex than we are is this great God we worship.

But it’s the belonging that matters. It’s the ownership. We have been bought with a price. We sheep know our shepherd. The goats? They know him too…and tremble. Why else would they spend so much time trying to disprove His existence?

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth..
–Romans 1:18-23

Catch of the Day

That irregular series where I point out some things I caught while fishing the web…

Read:
Joe Thorn’s excellent series on quiet time.

Click:
The new and improved Monergism.com.

Define:
Someone finally tells us what ‘missional’ means. and then confuses everyone with a Diognetus reference.

Split a hair:
Doxoblogy talks about the difference between…well just read it.

Philosophical Phisticuffs:
Someone besides Dr. Mohler finally throws down with Deluded Dawkins.

I’ve already written about the Jesus Family Tomb thing on Larry King.

And one last edit:
Dan Phillips post on Pyromaniacs warrants a read.

The Jesus Family Tomb thing on Larry King

I have a few observations to write down from this whole Jesus family tomb thing that I first saw last night on Larry King Live.

One
How about that Dr. Mohler? I’m very grateful that there are people who have the visibility and the credibility to stand up and publically decry things like this. The guy with the funny hat was unfazed by what Mohler said but but James Cameron was totally backpedaling and mentioned something about if he’d had a larger budget they could have done more research. Listen, when you’re talking about Jesus and whether or the resurrection is true and ‘Golly this may prove, by reason of circumstantial statistics, that He didn’t…’ you better have all your ducks in a row. And I have to add this: the loud Catholic guy was fantastic. You and I may not agree with them theologically but it appears that at least some of the Catholics still get ramped up about Jesus.

Two
Why is it that this story seems remarkably similar to what the Jews paid the Roman guards to publish? It had to be a substantial sum to get a Roman soldier to admit that he’d failed his duty, especially in light of the unique zero-defect policy of the Roman army, I.e., flogging or death. Wow.

Three
Jacob something or other and his bad hat.
He sounded way emergent and questioning. “Lets ask questions” he’d say and then tack on something like then find the answers. As I said above, the question still remains, is Jesus all He said He is? (I’m sure there’s another post in there somewhere). Or is he none of that and dead and buried in Jerusalem somewhere? This is the core of the issue as it has always been. I’m going to go with the first one myself. Oh, and ‘Jacob’ still means something like ‘deceiver’, lets not forget that one.

The bottom line is this: It never ceases to amaze me how people try so hard to convince themselves and others that somehow Jesus was less than God. But I shouldn’t be as this is the natural state of sinful man.

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
–Romans 1:18-23

Links:
The first transcript of the show. H/T to Challies for the tip that it was happening.

Pulpit has two posts up today about this topic: One, Two

Bondage

To lack this knowledge is really to be ignorant of God—and salvation is notoriously incompatible with such ignorance. For if you hesitate to believe, or are too proud to acknowledge, that God foreknows and wills all things, not contingently, but necessarily and immutably, how can you believe, trust and rely on His promises?

—Martin Luther, Bondage of the Will (Review of Erasmus preface “Of the importance of knowing that God necessitates all things”)

Here is a further quote from Bondage of the Will that, I think, well illustrates the problem we have in our SBC churches. We know all about our own ‘felt needs’ and our own ‘decisions’ but have very little knowledge of the choices and judgements of God before the foundation of the earth. How whimsical we must seem to a Holy and eternal God when we ‘rededicate’ ourselves over and over to no avail.

How indeed can we trust in ‘His promises’ as Luther writes when we are really relying on our own promise to ‘be good’–something which we know will crumble at the first chocolate/tobacco/coffee shop/bar and we have no concept of who is really in charge of the Universe at large?

Catch of the Day…

Theres a full net today folks:
Nathan Finn asks the tough questions

Frank Turk tells us to ‘buck up’ and serve in our local churches until they throw us out. Then compounds the problem by getting all biblical about it.

About Abortion and Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Desiring God Blog

Kevin Rhyne directs us to Al Mohler and his views on the subject–always a good move

About Evangelism
LifeWay does another study

Joe Thorn recommends a book on evangelism–which I have added to my Amazon cart–and talks about the convention in general.

About marriage:
Bowden McElroy posts about relationships on his counseling blog

Brent at Colossians Three Sixteen isn’t belaboring the point, he’s just steadfast in ‘reminding [us] of these things.

Because there is always room for grace

I know that after my little diatribe yesterday there are probably some who read it saying, “Duh, what do you mean, ‘Why bother?” but that was kinda the point. There are at least three intense moments of prayer that stand out in my life before I began to go to church in earnest. The first was my conversion—theologically normal by Baptist standards. Conviction and a confession that I needed saving followed by prayer. While I realize that “Jesus please come into my heart and save me” is a long ways from “God the Sovereign Lord of all creation, elects, sanctifies and finally glorifies those whom he has chosen from all eternity to save” it still marks the beginning of Gods long work in my life.

I suspect most people are right in that range somewhere. All of them can’t be damned to hell because of poor theology—and can I get a ‘praise the Lord’ on that one?

What does this have to do with Jesus statements about divorce in Mark 10? Well the second prayer event in my life is none of your business but the third I’ll share. I asked God to please not let my parents get a divorce when I was about ten or eleven and it didn’t’ work. I have been angry about that on and off for the last ‘x’ number of decades. But imagine my consternation when I realize that all it boiled down to was their own hardness of heart?

The few times that I have had opportunity to speak to this point with anyone or any group I always try to belabor the point that divorce does no one any good. It’s hard on everyone involved right down to the poor people that have to deal with the misery you’ve brought on yourself while waiting in line behind you at the grocery store. It paints everything you touch with a certain kind of agony, and only the completely oblivious are unaffected by it. Kids, I discovered at an early age, are particularly susceptible to this grief and if you think that by divorcing your no-good spouse you will be doing them a favor—unless there is some sort of physical threat—you’re sadly mistaken. Trust me, I know that not all threats are physical. Not all bruises are on the skin. In spite of that Jesus makes this rather barren statement to his disciples when they ‘asked him again about this matter’ in v.10. “11 And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” [Mark 10:11,12 ] In fact Matthew 5:32 takes it a step further and says that “everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” I think the Bible makes it plain through and through that any kind of unfaithfulness is an abomination in the eyes of God. Whether we’re talking about scales that balance in favor of the merchant in the book of Proverbs or Christian men who call themselves leaders using their positions of authority for advancing their own agendas in 2 Timothy: God hates unfaithfulness. It is something that he is not and it is a sin.

As I stated above this is something that I have had ample opportunity to consider. I was a part of a singles class in my first church that was taught by a divorced woman. Each time this subject came up—and it did on occasion as you would expect in a room full of divorced folks—the concept of divorce was rationalized by the class members. Each time I would examine my bible and think to myself “This just doesn’t add up.” I can still go around the room in my mind and see the faces and the stories. Domestic abuse and self destruction, irreconcilable differences and a cheating spouse, everyone had a reason for their reasons to divorce. But I still think that it is unjustified in nearly every case. And even the cases where it happens because of unfaithfulness there is still room for grace. Think on that one for a bit would you before you blast me for it.

There is always room for grace, in every activity. And when there is not, it is because of our hardness of heart.

I was struck by this as I was reading through the tail end of chapter nine. One of these days soon, if it hasn’t happened already, one of you—either the husband or the wife—is going to get angry about something. That anger will turn into resentment and pretty soon there will be a pretty dissatisfied spouse running around the house: Either the angry person or the other one who is sick of the other person stomping around all the time. If the two of you have unstintingly applied the ‘readiness given by the gospel of peace.’ (Ephesians 6:15) you will be prepared for such an event because you will have studied the biblical principles behind reconciliation. Otherwise your ‘poverty’ in the Word will leave you out in the cold and possibly not allow you to recover your spouse or your marriage.

As I read those passages, though, I couldn’t help but think that most of the hardship in this world is caused by that same problem. Our hearts are hardened for a lack of the soothing balm of the Word of God. So we write the problem off because of that hardness rather than dealing softly with those who need it.

Your spouse needs to be dealt with softly and you’re the only one who can do it. You hope. Because if you don’t you can be sure that there is someone else out there who would be delighted to plunder that treasure that God has given you.

Correct me if I am wrong and we’ll both be better off.

Catch of the Day…

See? Frank gets it. I mean about the Bible part of my diatribe from yesterday.

Why bother?

I wanted to continue with my study of Mark 10 today, but my first post dealing with divorce and its cause—hardness of heart—has left me with some issues of my own to deal with. It appears that God’s Word, as it always does, is working on to conform me to it—which is as it should be. While my purpose here isn’t to write a thesis on the characteristics of God’s word or its perspicuity (I love that word) I think its important to note that Gods word should change you when you read it and not the other way around. The concept of coming to the Bible and evaluating it in the same fashion as you would Huckleberry Finn or Stranger in a Strange Land is ludicrous. It’s possible to perform those literary gymnastics with Twain and Heinlein I propose that the author of the Bible is quite a bit more difficult to figure out. Can one apply literary standards to the written words of a Holy God? As a reader one must. As a Christian one must be careful. God revealed to man—or rather as much as he can stand—is not the same as Valentine Michael Smith revealed as a SciFi character. To bend the Word even a little to subject it to our own standards is foolhardy as best.

So as the Word does it has bent some of my suppositions and left me in awe of God’s power to change those He calls his own. How, I have to ask myself, have my prayers—weak and pitiful though they are, caused me to draw nearer to God rather than push me further away? Why is it that I pray and go unanswered but still insist that this great God and creator of all things is real? Rather, why do I bother when it seems to do no good?

Unless you suspect me of being bitter about this let me just say up front that I’m not. And that’s not even the comic’s ‘I’m not bitter!’ when it’s plain that he is. Akin to the weeping toddlers ‘I’m not tired’ wailed in a pool of tears and drool and eye-rubs. No it’s the serious I’m not bitter because I think I am beginning to understand some of it, so I rejoice that God sees fit to reveal some of Himself to His children by His Word.

Unbound

Unbound trickled past 2000 hits this past weekend. It took half as long to get to 2000 as it did to get to 1000 (I’m sure there’s some math whiz out there who can figure out just how exponential that is.) But anyway I think its been a great three months.

I really started this as sort of a cathartic exercise. I was–and still am–very disturbed by some of the trends I see in the Southern Baptist Convention. Something is different, I hope, though because I don’t think you can actually change anything with a well placed diatribe here and there and many more rancorous comments on other blogs and websites which are really only aimed at ‘driving traffic to your site.’ The only thing that can work any change in the Church is the Word of God. And that is probably the most delightful thing about blogging–it has driven me back to studying the Bible. For that I am grateful because I have always loved studying the Word of God but I haven’t always been all that disciplined about it.

The second most delightful thing is when I encounter other people on the web. I always enjoy reading other blogs and their comments even if they are diametrically opposed to what I have written on my own. I could get all misty and quote a few bible passages here I suppose but that would do an end run around what I am trying to say.

So keep reading and keep commenting and I’ll keep trying to write solid biblical posts.

Again. And again

Having come from Capernaum in Mark chapter nine all the way to the ‘region of Judea beyond Jordan’ is a long trip but the first verse of chapter ten of Mark brings us there in short order. We are also told in that verse “crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.” I am so grateful that Jesus was always about the business of bringing the word of God to people. “Again” v.1 tells us “he taught them.” Again and again Jesus brought the message that he had come to bring to those who needed to hear it. Are we not called to the same task?

This is just a side note that I feel like I have to include here by way of illustration. While children, I have found, have short attention spans, Adults are worse. Not only that, but they are much more likely to try to submarine what you are saying in your lesson if you’re hitting to close to home. They will rationalize their actions and activities. What I mean is that they will interrupt with a question custom made to deviate, derail, or otherwise cause you change the subject. Jesus was continually interupted with questions. Vital questions the answers to which we are still not understanding.

“Is it lawful,” the Pharisees ask Jesus in v2 “For a man to divorce his wife?” He knows their game. They’ve been trying to catch him in some contrived denial or abrogation of the law so that they could trap him in his own words. But he knows their game and asks them what Moses “commanded.” Good Pharisees that they were they answered with their Sunday School answer—rather, what one would expect of a line-toeing Pharisee. “Moses” they said—probably standing up straighter so they could properly quote him—allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” (v.4) Paper, we see, trumps the word of God in the world for the world is always looking for a new out, a new way to slide around the precepts of God’s word. “Is it true God said…” comes the devil’s reply to our sighing under the ‘restrictions’ of the Bible. Looking for a way to get around those things we read there we often answer when we should flee.

“Moses did it” Jesus tells them “because of your hardness of heart.” Matthew 19:10, describing the same scene, says “The disciples said to him, ‘If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.’” I know it was a long trip from Capernaum but surely they haven’t forgotten that thing about the ‘salt’ from chapter nine verse fifty. You know, “Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

But we see that they have and Jesus has to explain himself—again.