Christian Life with Michael

King

2009-07-08T12:48:00.002-05:00

Yesterday at this time I was watching the memorial service of "the king of pop." There has been an incredible outpouring of grief and love in the wake of Michael Jackson's death, and I have personally come to have a much more positive view of him than I've had probably at any other time in my life. I think Michael was a person with a compassionate heart who did much to relieve suffering wherever he saw it. I also think that among his friends were a number of very vocal believers in Jesus, and I feel certain that he had many chances to hear the Gospel and hope to see him in Heaven one day.

As I was watching the ceremony, a few things impressed me. One was the sight of the coffin... basically a "king" in a box. It's humbling to think that a person who shook the world with his music and dancing and humanitarian work, the person who spawned what might almost be considered a music empire... that person was right there, in a metal box, and would never leave it again. Funerals are always a sobering thing, and this one maybe more than many because of the impact that Michael had on the world.

I was watching the coverage on CNN's Web feed, and along the side of the video was a place where people could post comments via Facebook. One person posted that Michael is "the King of Kings". Presumably that person did not know that saying that is near blasphemy, because "King of Kings" is a title reserved for Jesus Christ (see 1 Timothy 6:13-16, Revelation 17:14, and Revelation 19:16). Michael Jackson was extremely influential, and putting all opinions about his personal life aside, the man made some catchy tunes... and he had the whole world moon-walking! But he wasn't a political leader at all, and I have no idea which "kings" the person considers him "king" of (the king of the king of rap? the king of the king of dancing?) I know the person was expressing appreciation for Michael's accomplishments, but it kind of shows how easily people will appropriate religious imagery, even names of God Himself, when they feel emotionally moved.

Something one of the commentators mentioned stuck with me. She said that the memorial service might possibly be "the most viewed event ever." In this day and age, television signals go around the world, both via satellite/wires/TV signals and Internet streams. There are places in the world where people could view this memorial where they would not have been able to view the funeral of the King of Rock & Roll, or even the funeral of Princess Diana which occurred much more recently. The Internet has basically made it so that people almost literally everywhere can watch an event unfold. It seems like prophecy is on its way to being fulfilled in ways never before possible. Revelation 13:1-4 tells us that in the last days, the person best known as "the Antichrist" (represented in those verses by a "beast") will have a "mortal wound" on "one of its heads," but instead of dying, the "beast" is healed, and "the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast" (emphasis mine). When in history has it been possible for "the whole earth" to experience something at once?

Another incident in the book of Revelation where the whole world participates in an event at one time occurs in Revelation 11:7-13, where two witnesses who are speaking of the true God are killed (by the "beast") in the streets of Jerusalem, and left to lie there for three and one-half days. During that time "some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies." The whole world will know what's going on (and presumably the whole world will know it when, at the end of the three and a half days, God raises them both from the dead!) It is only relatively recently in history that the whole world could actually even know about a single event within three days... in the time of John the Revelator it would have taken longer than that to get word of an event from one end of the known world to another.

I hope it doesn't seem like I'm equating Michael Jackson to the Antichrist, because I am absolutely not. Michael was a good guy, and in the wake of all this, I wish I had gotten a chance to know him personally. But the "spirit of antichrist" (which is actually just rebellion against God) is out there now, and the person who will become the Antichrist may well be out there too... the pieces are falling into place. Maybe the event that will one day eclipse the memorial service of the fallen King of Pop will be the memorial service for a world leader who died of a bullet, a blow, or slice to the head, or a brain aneurysm... but then gets up out of his coffin! If you see that day come, I pray that you will turn to Jesus Christ and make Him your Lord; the days that follow that event will be a lot less fun than the days following the funerals of beloved rock stars. Will people call him the "King of Kings" when that happens? Will they believe it when they say it?

Will that day supplant yesterday as "the most viewed event ever?"

Sick

2009-07-01T09:22:00.000-05:00

I was reading this article about the legal aspects of faith healing cases and a thought occurred to me. I'll preface this by saying that I believe that God does heal people miraculously when they are prayed for. But I also believe that God has given us tools in nature that allow us to make medicines that relieve suffering and can speed healing, and those tools should be taken advantage of when they are needed. I take a 'prophin when my head hurts. I take Claritin when the pollen counts are high. And when children are involved, parents should always have the common sense to take them to the doctor. Pray for them, yes. Then take them to the doctor unless they immediately lose all sign of the symptoms of their sickness. If you pray for a child and they still are obviously experiencing the sickness, to not take them to a doctor is child abuse, no matter what your religious beliefs are.

The article references James 5:14-15 as a common justification for prayer-without-medicine: "Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." I fail to see how that passage of Scripture prohibits use of medicine. In actuality, not even medicine truly heals the sick, as any doctor can tell you... the medicine simply helps your body to heal itself. Pray, believe God, and then if you need it, take some medicine. Get a procedure done, get surgery, take a pill or a shot. My pastor just got knee replacement surgery. You can bet that he has been praying, his wife has been praying, and his whole church has been praying for him. It is not a lapse of faith to allow clever medical practicioners to do what they do best in addition to praying in faith. You may just find that after your procedure, God "raises you up" and you recover so quickly that even your doctor is surprised!

The thing that actually came to mind, though, was a parable Jesus told, recorded in Luke 10:25-37. It's a very familiar story... a man gets robbed and beat up, and two religious people see him but refuse to help him. A non-religious person comes along and helps the man, and is commended by Jesus. I don't think there is anyone who would argue that the "Good Samaritan" did anything sinful or wrong in helping the man; again, Jesus basically commended him for his actions. What did he do that was so great?

[The Samaritan] came to where [the injured man] was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

The Samaritan was commended for administering first aid! He gave the man medical attention! He didn't "pray in faith" and then put the man in the hotel to wait for his miraculous healing... he "poured on oil and wine" (first aid with medicine) and then "took care of him" (additional medical attention).

[Jesus asked the man He was telling the story to,] "Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."

Speaking of radio silence...

2009-03-19T06:54:00.001-05:00

This week Tulsa lost yet another Christian radio station. Let's review this decade so far, shall we?

2001: a new Christian Rock station turns up in place of an underappreciated and undernoticed pop/rock station. Live 101.5 is on the air for about a year and a half, and then in July of 2002 suddenly Christians all over Tulsa wake to their clock radios unexpectedly playing foul-mouthed hip-hop songs. Thanks for that, Clear Channel. I'll bet those urban beat fans were surprised one day a couple of years later when suddenly they tuned in their station to hear people speaking Spanish! Ha ha, ha!

2003: the same people who run the local Christian pop station, KXOJ, introduce The Kross, a new Christian rock station. Signal isn't that good in certain parts of town, but it gains a lot of popularity... until April of 2007, when, citing lack of advertising revenue, the station is converted to a repeater station for the programming on the mother station. Oh well... at least it wasn't Coolio this time.

2006 - A new competitor in the Christian pop market turns up. Spirit 102.3 plays the same kind of stuff as KXOJ. My family likes Spirit 102.3 better than KXOJ, but sometimes we jump back and forth a little. I have a Spirit 102.3 sticker on my car. Last Monday, suddenly Spirit 102.3 turned into a repeater for a sister station, formerly AM-only talk radio KRMG. So Cox Radio can't see their way clear to keep a Christian station on the air either, huh?

So now we're back where we were at the turn of the millennium... KXOJ or nothing. Well, not quite... we have some Air 1 stations now. They're national stations, so it's not like having a local Christian rock presence, but at least it's something. And if you're really desperate, there's that Southern Gospel station with the preachers during the day. :)

R.I.P, Spirit 102.3 and The Kross and Live 101.5 . You were on our station presets when you were with us. We hope now you're in a better place!

Breaking Radio Silence

2009-01-22T09:19:00.001-06:00

It's been a while since I've posted... reason being, I haven't "felt like it." And it's been over a month since I've made a real post to my family blog... the one where I post about family events and stuff like that. Things like birthdays (my daughter's was five weeks ago, and my dad's was last weekend) and Christmas (it was... well, you know when it was). I've actually posted here once since I've posted there, and written about half of another post for this blog that I haven't completed yet.

I haven't "felt like" posting because, frankly, I haven't had the time to catch up on rest. Ever have a time when you feel like you haven't had a full night's sleep EVER, much less recently, and caffeine is the only thing that keeps you from falling asleep whenever you sit down? That's me right now. Part of it is probably still some post-holidays slow-down, too... you run and run, and then in January there's nowhere you need to run and you have to get back to paying your bills and the regular mundane stuff. It can be a rather uncomfortable shift of gears. Today it's 8am and I'm drinking Coca-cola, which I do not normally do this early in the day, but hopefully it will help me keep alert until lunchtime.

Feeling like this starts affecting you emotionally, too. You start wondering about things, second-guessing yourself. Did I make a mistake with the car I'm driving, with the job I'm working at, with the town I live in, with what I ate for breakfast? With my house? With my church? Should I change any of those? Those are things I would probably never question when I was my non-tired self, but at the moment some of them seem like valid questions. And I don't like to air my muddled questioning thoughts before just anyone on the Internet! (Plus, it's kind of hard to keep a thought going long enough to even complete a... hey look, a butterfly!)

But you know what? If this blog is "Christian Life With Michael" then it should be representative of the real life of a real human being Christian, and doubting yourself is sometimes part of that. So I thought I really should share a little bit of my life with you today. I know once I get a good 8-10 hours of uninterrupted sleep (hey, it could happen!) those thoughts will evaporate... I know good and well that they are magnified by what my body is feeling. Until then, maybe say a quick prayer for my weak body to become strengthened. Next time hopefully I'll have some complex profound truth from the Word to talk about. For now, staying awake is about as profound as it gets!

All Through The Year

2009-01-05T08:00:00.000-06:00

This morning I came in early and was taking down the Christmas tree in my office, and I got to thinking about something. I remembered a song by Christian artist Terry Taylor (the evil genius behind Daniel Amos, The Swirling Eddies, and one of the evil geniuses behind The Lost Dogs) about holding on to "the season's inspiration" and letting the birth of Jesus stay part of your life 12 months out of the year and not just one. There are tons of CCM Christmas songs along those same lines. Then I realized that there are tons of non-CCM songs out there with similar themes:

Keep Christmas with you all through the year;
When Christmas is over, save some Christmas cheer.
These precious moments, hold them very dear
And keep Christmas with you
All through the year.

Okay, so that one's the Muppets, but you get my drift.

What is it about Christmas that seems to make people want to hold onto it, but they never do... so the next year there is melancholy about the Christmas they left behind and a new resolve to "hold on" to it this time?

Is it time with family?

Is it the "spirit of giving?"

Is it the chance to see Pac-Man save Santa just one more time?

Is it that we just love "Up On The Housetop" so much?

Is it Jesus?

...

(If it's Jesus, how come people who don't believe in Jesus often feel the same way?)

...?

Fearless

2008-12-15T06:29:00.000-06:00

Last night on the news we saw a story about a young man who had just become a Christian. He was so excited about it that he started telling all of his friends. Apparently he told one of them about it one too many times; the guy was found shot to death at an apartment complex.

So my 8-year-old son was there listening to the story and I wanted to see what he thought; you have to make sure your kids aren't scared by something like that. So I asked Mikey, "What do you think of that? Is that scary, that a guy got killed for telling someone about Jesus?"

Mikey didn't hesitate, and he didn't blink an eye. With total honesty, in answer to the question "Are you scared about that?" he told me, "No, not if it's the Word of God!"

Lord, please teach me to be as fearless as Mikey!

Do Angels Sing?

2008-12-04T00:01:00.000-06:00

A few days ago I was at choir rehearsal, practicing for the Christmas production coming up in a few weeks, and someone told me that there is nowhere in the Bible that it says that angels sing, despite Christmas carols misrepresenting this passage (which, you will notice, says the angels were praising God and saying, not singing). I immediately thought of a passage I recently read in Revelation which I knew had an awful lot of praising in it, but as it turns out, in my ESV it only mentions singing one time, although they do a lot of "saying" in that passage.

So who is singing? Well, it's "the 24 elders" who sit around God's throne, and four "living creatures." Apparently there are folks who believe the 24 elders are angels, but I don't really buy that... if they were angels, how could there be "elders"? I've never heard anything that would lead me to believe that any angels are older than any others. On the other hand, what about those creatures? The description of them in Revelation resembles descriptions in Isaiah (who specifies that he is describing seraphim, a kind of angel) and Ezekiel (who also calls them "living creatures"), but neither of those prophets exactly describes the creatures as John describes them in Revelation, so I'm not sure we can consider them seraphim, or even angels at all. It could be argued that they actually are just some very unusual creatures that live in Heaven!

So that's no good, so I asked the almighty Google for answers. Here are some scriptures that people use as proof that angels sing:

Job 38:4-7 - assuming the "sons of God" are angels, which I think is iffy given this.

Jeremiah 51:48 - assuming that angels are either in the heavens or on Earth, which seems like a fairly good bet to me.

Isaiah 49:13 also mentions "the heavens" singing.

I would consider all of these good college tries at it, but I can't see any of them as being conclusive. So are angels melodious, or tone-deaf? The Bible doesn't seem to care enough to clear it up for us. I guess we'll just have to wait and see! And while we're waiting, there are plenty of places where it encourages us to sing our praises to God!

Blogerella

2008-12-03T23:38:00.002-06:00

I just got my confirmation email for Blogerella!

What the heck is a "Blogerella", you ask? Well, it's a new directory of blogs. When I saw that there were no other blogs yet in the "Religion - Christianity" category, I knew I had to get in on that action! What's the point? The point of Blogerella is to help people find blogs that they'll enjoy reading. How does Blogerella know what people enjoy reading? Votes!

If you could take about 30 seconds to create an account on Blogerella and vote smiley faces for any posts on this blog that you see there that you've enjoyed, I'd really appreciate it. You should be able to go directly from links at the bottom of the posts themselves straight to the voting page for that post. You don't vote for the blog as a whole; you vote for individual posts. And if we get enough votes, we go up in the standings and even more people get to see the blog!

So, get clicking! (If you came here from a different post, vote for that post... it's not really necessary to vote for this one!)

Attractive Worship

2008-10-23T06:30:00.004-05:00

Now Muriel plays piano
Every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her
And they asked me if I would
Do a little number
And I sang with all my might
And she said "Tell me, are you a Christian, child?"
And I said "Ma'am, I am tonight!"

-Marc Cohn, from "Walking in Memphis"

I wonder if our worship services are sufficient to draw the lost to Christ. At my church we have a very contemporary style of worship, very upbeat, with a lot of pop and rock influences. People are welcome to raise hands, jump, dance if they want, whatever. Your church's music may be more traditional and majestic. Either way, we should be expressing something of our relationship with God in worship... either exuberance and excitement to be in God's family, or wonder at His majesty and beauty, or humbleness at his power, or thankfulness at His provision, or something along those lines. We don't worship to be seen, of course, but if someone does see us worshiping God, they should see a living testimony of our relationship with Him. It should be enough that people should want to be a part of that relationship themselves. By the time worship is over, The Lost should already be convinced that they want to be part of The Found.

Coming Out Of The Closet

2008-10-22T08:49:00.002-05:00

Today God was trying to get me to come out of the closet. I failed miserably.

As I was waiting for the bus, someone came up to me and asked me if I could give him a dollar. He gave me the whole "I'll pay you back the next time I see you, I get paid tomorrow, do you always ride this bus?" thing. Maybe it's true, or maybe not, but I believe the Word says to give when people ask of you, so I gave him a dollar without hesitation. I even asked him if he had the extra quarter it would take to ride the bus (he said yes, he had it). The Holy Spirit told me to speak to the guy about Jesus. I did not.

I got on the bus and it was fairly full, so I sat down in the front seats next to a guy. This particular bus runs past the V.A. clinic, and quite often veterans ride it to get to the clinic, sometimes to catch the free shuttle from there to the V.A. hospital in Oklahoma City for more involved treatment (I mentioned one guy I met who does that in this post). The guy I was sitting next to asked the bus driver if he would let him off right across the street from the hospital (the bus stop is maybe 20 yards or so away, so that would save him some steps, especially on a rainy day). I felt impressed that I could find out what was wrong with him and pray for him. But I did not do so. When it started raining harder just before we let him off, I also considered giving him my umbrella so he would be a little dryer crossing the street. I did not, and it's not even an expensive umbrella.

Shortly after we let the guy off at the clinic, the bus driver commented, to nobody in particular, that the rain was really picking up. I had the thought that he would probably be appreciative if I stopped on the way off the bus and prayed for his safety on the job today. But I did not do that.

Strangely, I feel a sense of missed opportunities this morning, but I do not feel like a failure and I do not feel any sense of "condemnation" over it. I'm naturally a very reserved person, not the type at all to strike up conversations with strangers outside of maybe a little joke about something going on around us or something like that, but not anything heavy. But I've been reading about Jesus and how He went around meddling in people's lives, healing their illnesses, casting out their demons, teaching them about His Kingdom, and I know I need to be like that. But it's a learning process for me. This morning I definitely learned what not to do. Besides, the day's not over! I may yet get some chances to share some part of God's good news with someone. I'm not planning on keeping my Christianity in the closet forever! I've cracked the door open, and I've inadvertently shed some light into the darkness outside. Soon another opportunity will come and I will fling open the door and the light of Jesus will shine on everything around me! Holy Spirit, don't give up on me... teach me how to live my life as Jesus would live it!

Jesus' Debating Technique - Part 2 of 2

2008-10-21T00:01:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I started talking about Jesus' debating techniques in Luke 20. This is the other half of that... if you missed it yesterday, you might want to read that first!

Second question: Those same scribes and Pharisees sent flunkies to first butter Jesus up, and then to ask Him, "Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" They must have figured that either Jesus would answer that Caesar should get tribute, thus angering the crowd, or that he shouldn't get tribute, thus opening the door for them to have him arrested. Instead, Jesus knew they were trying to trap him and answered in a way that not only demonstrated that the people should follow the law, but also taught them that whatever has an "image" of someone belongs to that someone. Although Jesus did not explicitly mention this verse, it is the logical basis for His answer; whatever has God's image belongs to God. What has God's image? You fill in the blank! The answer was so perfect that it literally shut up the people who were trying to trick him.

Third question: Some people brought a complicated story based on a rule from Deuteronomy to Jesus, trying to trick Him into being on their side on the subject of life after death. It's not really clear to be if they were trying to do away with Jesus, but they were clearly trying to trick Him. The final question they asked, "In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife" was apparently meant to allow only the answer "None of them will be her wife, because after people die they are dead and gone and it doesn't matter any more." The unexpected answer, that marriage is not an issue in the afterlife, was so clear and such a good explanation that even the people who had been trying to trick Jesus commended Him on His answer and "...no longer dared to ask him any question." Once again, Jesus shuts the mouths of His opponents.

Did Jesus stop there? No, He did not. He continued by asking His own Theological question, on that from the perspective of a Christian is simple to answer, but from the perspective of one of those religious leaders must have seemed like an insoluble riddle. Anyone who still had any idea of trying to outfox Jesus by that point must have been too scared to speak another word to Him!

The whole exchange ends with Jesus cautioning His disciples to be careful around people who are always looking for approval and financial gain at the expense of others, and making a comparison with someone who was somewhere close to the bottom of the social food chain, a widow with almost no money to live on. He basically said that she was closer to God's will than rich people, obviously referring to the scribes, Pharisees, and Saducees He had been verbally sparring with.

In the course of one chapter, maybe 15-20 minutes' worth of dialogue containing three questions and answers, not only had Jesus silenced his critics and made them afraid to say another word, but He had managed to teach several critical kingdom principles to His disciples. He never stopped teaching them, even in the middle of a heated theological debate, and kept turning things around to exactly what He wanted to talk about! Is that some great debating technique, or what?

Jesus' Debating Technique - Part 1 of 2

2008-10-20T00:01:00.002-05:00

There have been a lot of debates lately in the U.S.... "official" Presidential and Vice-Presidential debates, unofficial water-cooler debates over the merits of the candidates, debates in Congress over the economy. This morning I read about my favorite debate of all... one between Jesus and the Scribes/Pharisees which is recorded mostly in Luke chapter 20 (it kind of laps over into chapter 19 and 21 a little bit, but the main part of it is in chapter 20). A while back I read the chapter and was seriously impressed with Jesus' unique debating style and how he flummoxed his opponents, and today when I read it again in my new ESV Study Bible I remembered why I like it so much. It's got to be one of my favorite chapters in the Gospels!

The debate actually starts in the last few verses of chapter 19 when Jesus "cleanses" the temple. This of course made the religious leaders pretty upset: they "...were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words." So I suppose they decided to try to discredit him on credentials, or destroy the people's faith in Jesus' teaching abilities by outfoxing him with questions. Bad idea! You can't out-question the Son of God!

First question: "Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority." I guess they religious leaders figured they had official credentials and Jesus didn't. Instead of answering their question, Jesus answered, I've always assumed, by deftly changing the subject. "Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?" The religious leaders were too afraid to answer what they really believed (that John was a wacko out in the desert somewhere) because they knew the people thought John was a prophet (for the record, yes he was!) and they were afraid of a riot. So they refused to answer, and so Jesus refused to answer their question as well.

Was Jesus really changing the subject? He was not! Jesus' authority came from the same place John's came from, and if the religious leaders weren't willign to recognize John's authority, they weren't going to recognize Jesus' either. So he refused to answer, but he got them to refuse first! Smart, huh?

Then Jesus immediately launched into a story. Is the story unrelated? No, it is not! The story is a parable about some tenants who are given the task of keeping a vineyard for the owner. Every time the owner sent a servant to pick up some of the fruit, the tenants beat the servant up and kicked him out, until finally the owner sent his son, whom the servants killed, thinking they would be able to keep the vineyard for themselves. The story is really about God giving authority to the temple rulers, who misused it and abused the true prophets of God, and who would shortly have God's son executed. At the end of the parable, the tenants are "destroyed" and the vineyard taken away from them. The story completely relates to the question of authority, although the people it was leveled against probably didn't get it.

Come back tomorrow for part 2!

I've got my new ESV Study Bible!

2008-10-16T12:30:00.008-05:00

Yesterday at lunchtime I did something not characteristic of me... I actually left my office and drove down to Mardel to pick up the ESV Study Bible I had preordered! It came shrink-wrapped, not in a box, although that matters very little (I guess it's that much less trash to carry out to the curb on Friday). The dust jacket and cover are beautiful... the dust jacket even has the ESV starburst logo (see it at the top of this page) embossed into the paper!

I got the hardback version. At first the pages seemed a little wrinkly right next to the binding, but after using it for a while they seemed to smooth out. The pages smelled all "new-booky"; I lvoe that smell. I was sniffing it all afternoon! There was an insert inside the back cover which had a scratch-off box with a code that gave me access to the online version, which is really cool although as a Web programmer and experienced Web user myself there are a few things about the online interface that I might change. Not unusable, but I think the number of clicks it takes to get to your information could be reduced. But that's material for another post, maybe!

The content itself is awesome. The colors in the pictures aren't as brilliant as they are in, say, The Holman Illustrated Study Bible, but they are still beautiful and very useful (see some samples here, but the online examples actually look more brilliant than they do in the book... maybe because of the thin Bible paper or the print process). I brought it with me to church last night and enjoyed using it during the message, although as with any study Bible, the temptation is to get absorbed with the study notes and miss part of the message!

I read some of the supplementary material too; I had already read "Introduction: A User's Guide to the ESV Study Bible" in the Book of Luke sample I got at Mardel several weeks ago, and I really am interested in the "Reading the Bible" series of articles (you can read it in the free online samples), but I didn't have time last night or this morning to read that. I did enjoy the "God's Plan of Salvation" article, which is kind of wordy and pretty detailed but ultimately a simple (and complete) overview of The Gospel. Last night before choir practice I enjoyed showing some friends the illustrations in Exodus of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, along with illustrations of the various pieces of furniture (golden lampstand, Ark of the Covenant, bronze altar, etc.) and did my best to impress a writer friend with the way the study notes and the book outlines are visually connected to help you see where you are in the overall structure of the books.

I'll probably lug the thing to church again Sunday to show a few more friends, but overall it's so thick and heavy that I'll probably mostly use it at home. Besides, like I mentioned before, I wouldn't want to get distracted from the message by the study notes! I'm seriously considering just starting from Genesis 1:1 and trying to make my way all the way through it. It'll take a while, but if my study of Luke in my sample copy has been any indication, it will be very much worth it!

Electronic Handheld Bibles

2008-10-13T08:23:00.007-05:00

You know, this weekend I was thinking that I would sure like to see a well-designed hand held electronic Bible that was easy to use, both for personal reading/study and while listening to a message. Maybe something that looked sort of like the Kindle, but with stuff that was specific to the Bible... like letting you view multiple translations on one screen, maybe tile them in the four corners, and turn them on and off at will. Then letting you either link them so they scrolled different translations together, or let you view several different passages from the same translation at the same time for comparison or to follow a preacher as he jumped around during his message. A quick lookup by book, chapter and verse, maybe with drop-downs to make it easier. Touch-screen, like my kid's Nintendo DS. I've seen the Franklin Bibles, of course; I used to have one (after getting a bunch of road use, it eventually petered out, and I ain't talking Simon Peter but that would be a funny pun, wouldn't it?). The Franklin Bibles just seem kind of cheap-pda-from-the-90s to me, though. Some of them even look like toy organizers you can get next to the Matchbox cars at Walgreen's. These days an electronic device has to be easy to look at, particularly for long periods of time (for heaven's sake, don't give people a reason to not read the Bible!), extremely easy to use, and flexible so it works however each individual thinks it should work. And gosh darn it, what's wrong with it being fun to use, too? What if the thing that gave me the in to share Jesus with someone was the nifty Bible gadget I was messing with on a bus or in a restaurant?

The problem with the Kindle is that it's designed to be a book reading tool, not specifically a Bible-reading tool. For Bible reading you really need some tools that are specific to the Bible. maybe the Kindle is flexible enough to provide those, given someone with enough motivation to build that programming into an e-text of the Bible, but I don't think it's the perfect tool. Someone who built the perfect tool would seriously smoke any of the offerings I've seen out there.

eBible now has NIV

2008-10-11T00:01:00.004-05:00

I was looking back at some of my old posts and ran across the one where I mentioned eBible.com and wondered how people would like it without the NIV. Well, that was a long time ago... today I clicked back over to eBible and discovered that not only have they added the NIV and TNIV, but if you visit the site for the first time, the NIV will automatically be your default translation! I guess that's just the treatment you get when you are the CBA's best-selling translation. Based on that list, it looks like they have all the playas but two... from the top ten best-selling translations, eBible has all but the New Living and the New Revised Standard.

The Bible Gateway, which is probably one of the most popular Bible sites out there, has all the translations eBible has, and they have the New Living Translation as well. They don't have the NRSV either, though. If you want the NRSV, there are sites that have it: Crosswalk, StudyLight.org, and The Unbound Bible are some examples. And you can always just buy it for your e-Sword (the cost at this writing is $9.99). But that's one reason I really like the ESV... because of their commitment to electronic use of the translation, the ESV is available pretty much everywhere!

ESV Study Bible Preorder

2008-10-10T10:04:00.003-05:00

I'm so excited... last night we stopped by Mardel (we made it in there minutes before closing time) and pre-ordered my ESV Study Bible! I've been waiting for that to come out literally for years, and in just five days it will be here! I had totally forgotten about the release date coming up, but last Saturday Mikey and I were at Mardel looking around, and I took him back to the Bible section to show him how blessed we are in the U.S. to have so many choices of the Bible in our language (and to mention that there are still many many languages in the world that the Bible is not yet available in), and saw a display with some samples of the book of Luke. I picked one of the samples up, and I've been reading it ever since. I LOVE IT! It's like listening to our pastor, one of the best Bible teachers in the world PERIOD, on one of his Wednesday night detailed series on a specific book (when I first started going to Grace about ten years ago, he had just started the book of Acts. he finished over a year later, teaching every Wednesday that he was in town, which is most Wednesdays. Now THAT'S detail! Right now he's working through James... check out the services online if you like!)

Anyway... I'm pumped about having the whole ESV Study Bible to read. I had to go with the hardback for economy's sake, but it looks so thick that I doubt I would lug one to church with me anyway. I'll either keep carrying the little ESV I've had for a couple years, or get one of the nice leather ones with a center reference to carry to church. I've already got a durable metal one to carry in my bag to work every day.

Want to see what bindings the ESV Study Bible is available in? Here's my list of what they've got at CBD!

Angel Visitations

2008-10-08T12:20:00.002-05:00

I was reading the first chapter of Luke in a sample of The ESV Study Bible that I picked up at Mardel this weekend, and I noticed something that I hadn't noticed before. Zechariah and Mary both had visitations from an angel with very similar circumstances surrounding it, but their reactions and the result were quite different:

Both were visited by the angel Gabriel.
Both were "troubled" by the visitation, but while Zecharaiah was fearful, Mary sought understanding (although it could be argued that Mary was afraid also.)
Gabriel told them not to be afraid.
Gabriel told them they would "bear a son, and you shall call his name..."
Those sons would "be great" and do amazing things.
Zechariah responded by asking for a sign (which he then received, to his chagrin). On the other hand, Mary asked for details of what would happen, but then she accepted the Lord's assignment without resistance.

Why was a priest surprised by or afraid of an angel appearing in the temple where the Presence of God was expected to be, when a little girl in her house seemed to take the appearance of the same angel almost as a matter of course? Maybe Zechariah was thinking about how priests could face death for entering God's presence unworthily (although he was not actually in the "Holy Place inside the veil" but on the other side of the veil where incense was burned) and that sometimes angels were sent to kill people. Why was the priest struck mute (and probably deaf as well) for asking for a sign? Maybe it's because he doubted the clear word of the Lord ("How shall I know this?" Because GOD said it, fool! Don't you see the angel??) Mary did not doubt, but did ask for clarification. Even then, she did not demand an answer, although she did receive one.

People in ministry are sometimes held to higher standards by God than the rank and file, and that may have been part of it, but I think Zechariah reacted to the word of the Lord in fear and doubt, while Mary reacted in submission. I think that's why Zechariah spent the next nine months in silence, while Mary got to spend it glorifying God!

Confidence

2008-10-07T12:00:00.000-05:00

Today I was crossing the street on foot at the intersection of 21st Street and Garnett. This is a fairly busy intersection, with three lanes of traffic coming from every direction. I didn't just walk out into the street; first I pressed the button to get the "walk" signal, and then I waited until I saw the indicator light up that said that it was my turn to walk across the street. When I stepped out into the street, all the cars stopped for me. I didn't even have to raise a hand; they just stopped. Was it because they saw me coming? Nope; it wasn't my power that stopped them. It was the power of the rule that says when the light is red, you stop your car and wait. Because I was following a signal and rule as well, the "walk" sign, I was confident that I could walk safely across. I didn't have to run or be afraid of getting run over. (Of course, it's wise to be cautious and still look both ways before crossing! But for the sake of argument let's pretend that all drivers are completely competent and always paying attention.)

The Holy Spirit is our signal that we can move in the power of God. He is a deposit placed on the inside of us that tells us that when we move by His prompting, we can have confidence not only to come into the presence of God, but to do His works on the Earth. The Holy Spirit is the signal (like my "walk" sign) that lets us know that the power of God is our protection when we do something that might ordinarily be dangerous (like walking calmly out into the street at a busy intersection). If I had walked out into the street without the signal, I would have been in terrible danger. But when I walked out with the proper signal, I walked out in confidence and safety. And when I move by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I can walk in confidence and safety, because I know that the power of God is infinitely greater than the power of a traffic light. If I can trust a traffic light to keep me safe from a couple of automobiles, how much more can I trust God to keep me safe from anything in the universe that would try to stop or harm me?

Purified for Service

2008-10-06T12:20:00.000-05:00

In Sunday school this week the teacher was discussing the story of Isaiah's commission in Isaiah chapter 6. In a nutshell, Isaiah had a vision of the Lord in all His glory, and Isaiah immediately assumed that because of his impurity, he was going to die. An angel brought a glowing coal from the altar fire, so hot that even the angel had to hold in in tongs, and touched Isaiah's lips and purified them. God then spoke a question: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah immediately answered, "Here am I! Send me."

The thing that struck me was how quickly Isaiah went from "Woe is me! For I am lost..." to "Here am I! Send me." From fear to boldness in one single step... the purifying power of God. What is it that purifies? What is it that the sacrifice on the altar represented? The sacrifice of Jesus, the shedding of His blood. When the power of God touches us, it immediately inspires us to service!

(By the way... I can never read that story without thinking of this song...)

Mikey Preaches

2008-09-20T09:35:00.002-05:00

Thursday afternoon my 8-year-old, Mikey, heard my wife Cathy talking about Elizabeth leaving her position as worship leader at Grace and how hard it was to understand, and the spirit of Preach came all over Mikey! I asked him if he had anything to say on the blog, and here's his response...

We gotta stop working in our bubble. We've gotta start getting out there, we gotta start filling the gaps. First we gotta make sure that our church is ready to get out there. We gotta make sure everything is good at our church, we gotta make sure everything is right. Until we get to that point we can't do it! And if we get to that point Satan will not be able to stop us, 'cause we are undefeated! Satan will not be able to stop us. We got a new trick up our sleeve, and God is with us, and He will always be with us! We've gotta go places where people don't know Jesus, where we're not allowed to speak Jesus. God gave us our life so that we could preach, and He gave us our life because He loves us, and He gave us our life, and no matter what, we'll always go to heaven. If we risk our lives like that, you know, we're gonna go to Heaven and we're gonna be there forever. We gotta work where we're not supposed to work. We gotta do what we got to do. We gotta make sure that everyone hears this, everyone's heard the good news, everyone has able to hear God and feel God. A clock has to have all the cogs to work! We've got the cogs. They are the clock. They won't work until we put the cogs in! We've gotta make sure... like in Mama's dream, only the littler rooms were sinking. The large rooms were fine! Our church is like the large room! We're a really wealthy church, now we've got to spread it out where everyone can have it, everyone can be able to know the Lord! We gotta make sure that everyone hears it... EVERYONE. And we will not stop until we get everyone to hear it! We gotta get our of our own little bubbles and start working the gaps! We gotta get out of our shell and go out there and make sure the world knows Jesus! That's what we have to do! And if we don't do that, it won't work. We gotta have everyone doing a specific thing, but it won't work unless everyone wants to. They have to want to do it. They have to not only say, "Oh, I'll do it." They've got to say, "I want to do this! I know that God is always with me, and I want to do this!" They shouldn't just sit there... like in choir, we could do something like this: "We're not gonna do it until everyone's ready. We can't do it until everyone's ready! It won't happen if everyone's sitting down in the middle of praise and worship." Everyone's got to be standing up, everyone's got to be working, everyone's got to praise the Lord or it won't work! Just like if you've got a car and you hit a rock, you gotta get a new tire. And what about if there's a square, it doesn't have a top... it's not a square! We got the top. We got everything the other people need, and we've gotta give it to 'em! We've got to let them have what they need. Not like, the bad let's give it to 'em, but the good, let's give it to 'em, let's give Jesus to them. We've gotta make it happen. It won't do it by itself. We got to make it happen. It's a choice that we have to make, and if we're not ready yet, we're not ready yet; we can't do it. And if we're ready, we'll do it!

I actually cut Mikey off knowing that if I let him keep going he could easily preach me down for an hour and I would never have time to transcribe it all! This is VERY lightly edited from what Mikey said. The boy was on a roll!

Backyard Barbecue

2008-09-15T06:40:00.003-05:00

I learned this weekend, to my horror, that backyard barbecues are an abomination to God, but only if you've got a fence. I learned this during Pastor Bob's message, but he didn't say it; I just saw it in the Bible verse so now I know it. Check it out in your own King James... it's in Romans 14:20!!!

(Hmm... now that I think about it, if you've got a fence maybe you could grill outside and then eat inside. That seems like it would be OK.)

Sarah Palin

2008-09-14T00:01:00.001-05:00

Interesting video that I found via Pastor Mike Goolsbay's blog. I think it speaks for itself.

Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

2008-09-13T06:10:00.002-05:00

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
     And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
     who does not lift up his soul to what is false
     and does not swear deceitfully.
He will receive blessing from the Lord
     and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
Such is the generation of those who seek him,
     who seek the face of the God of Jacob. Selah
-Psalm 24:3-6

If we are going to be worshippers that go to "higher places" in the Spirit, personal holiness is a key. Our salvation does not depend on our actions, but our advancement in spiritual things clearly does. How badly do you want "more of God?" Badly enough to abandon sinful habits? What about bad habits that are not sinful but that distract you from the things of God? What does "lift[ing] up his soul to what is false" mean? It seems like this passage is about being a person who can be trusted, who always tells the truth and knows it. That's awfully hard to do in this life. Have you ever told someone that something was happening where you were, even though maybe it wasn't, just to get off the phone? Ever said a check was in the mail when it wasn't yet? Ever told the officer that you didn't know you were going over the speed limit when you really did know it? I've done things like that any number of times, and I'm sure you probably have too. But this passage doesn't seem to leave any room for "white lies."

How badly do you want more of God's Presence in your life? Badly enough to tell the truth?

My Dream Of Jesus' Second Coming

2008-09-12T06:10:00.002-05:00

Last Sunday as we were discussing the events of the week before in Sunday school, I was reminded of a dream I had last summer. I dreamed about Jesus' Second Coming. The next day I mentioned it to my Sunday school teacher Shelley, just offhand, not even thinking anything of it, just that it was a cool dream. She immediately emailed me back wanting to know the details; she said she thought it might have significance to what was happening at Grace Church. When she said that, I immediately knew she was right; I don't always have "spiritual" dreams (last night, for example, I dreamed of throwing rolls of toilet paper at people's heads!) but occasionally I do, and it turns out this was one of them.Here's the dream, as I described it in an email to Shelley on July 1:

In the dream, Cathy and I and John and Sheri (our friends who have been coming to Sunday School lately) were at a restaurant. I never knew what restaurant it was, even while I was dreaming it, and I don't remember what we were doing exactly (I don't remember us eating anything). My kids were not with us (not unusual, since they hang out with their Meme sometimes when we go out.) Suddenly in the middle of whatever we were doing, there was a loud BANG that I thought of at the time as a "sonic boom" but it was extremely loud and sharp, like a gunshot from a really high-power gun. Not like a long BOOOOOOOOM but like a short POW!!! that went right through us. I looked up, and I could clearly see the horizon as though there were no wall any more to the room we were in. Not looking out a window; just no wall. The sky was bright, although not painfully glaringly bright; I'd say morning-like, although there was no indication one way or another whether we had been at breakfast or up early. I remember fluffy white clouds. I do not remember seeing the sun or any sun rays, but the sky was definitely lit. Between the clouds and us, far in the distance, I could see Jesus. He was a cartoon character! He was flat like a cutout, and looked sort of like anime, although He was so far away that He was tiny and I couldn't make out too many details. He was smiling and very happy. He was not animated like a cartoon on TV; He was motionless, not even visibly getting nearer. The light in the sky did not appear to be coming from Him. I got SO excited when I saw Him that I was jumping up and down, and you know I'm not generally the jumping up and down type. And that was the end! I woke up excited and happy! In the dream there was no indication at all that the cartoon character was not actually Jesus, and although nothing else in the dream was a cartoon, it didn't seem strange to me at all at the time that He was a cartoon. In the dream I was definitely positive that it was Jesus Himself. The overall impression that I woke up was that Jesus is on the way, not any feeling of seeing a counterfeit Jesus or anything like that.

The interpretation that I received after praying about it had to do with the fact that we had been studying a book about how God should move in miracles in our daily life as a sign to unbelievers. Inspired by the Lakeland revival that was occurring at the time, we had been praying for a revival move of God at our church. The meaning of my dream was that when God moved, it was going to look totally different from what I expected... as different as the real Jesus would be from a cartoon character version of Him. The things that happened two weeks ago fit that bill... I would have never predicted that a move of God on our class would be quite like that one was. It was amazing! And the next time, I expect it will be more amazing and unexpected still. We serve a God of endless creativity; I can't wait to see how He will surprise me next!

Sometimes It's Juuuuust Right

2008-09-11T06:10:00.003-05:00

Sometimes worship just clicks. Sometimes you get into the service and the songs just seem right, and you feel how in love you are with God, and your voice seems to sing all the right notes, and you don't get distracted, and tears are streaming down your face and your heart is full and it's just amazing. Those are of course everybody's favorite kind of worship time, and I believe we should work hard to learn to do that every time if possible. Does that mean there's something wrong in times when it's too "easy" or too "hard" and you don't reach that place? Well, maybe, or maybe not. Maybe it's just that sometimes the Holy Spirit chooses to move in certain ways, and sometimes He chooses to move in other ways.

Actually, maybe the real deal is that we need to be ready to worship God in whatever way it comes. Maybe it's part of "being ready in season and out of season." One of the main things about sacrifices in the Old Testament was that they be perfect, pure. Lambs had to be spotless, no bones broken, nothing physically wrong with them at all. If praise and worship are to be one of our "sacrifices" that we offer to God, I would say that the main qualification is that the sacrifice is pure. Offer your worship with a pure heart, pure motives. I'm sure sacrificial lambs often got dusty on the walk to the Temple; sometimes we pick up crud in our daily lives too, and sometimes it's tough to shake. But God can see what's in your heart, and if your heart motive is pure, your sacrifice is pure. Even if you get the words wrong and sing the wrong notes. Even if you find yourself thinking about lunch buffets halfway through the last song. Even if you yawn during "Open The Eyes Of My Heart." Approach God with a pure heart, and when you get to the top of the mountain, He will be there to meet you!