Being Sanctified Daily

It's Gonna Be the End of the World As We Know It... Again

2012-01-02T17:38:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Welcome, one and all, to the year 2012, which according to the Mayan calendar is supposed to be the last year of the world, as everything comes to an end on December 21st, 2012... though, according to Joseph Robert Jochmans, that's not actually what the Mayan calender claims. December 21st, according to the Mayans according to Mr. Jochmans, is supposed to be a transition period from the current World Age to the next.

Does that mean rampant destruction of our current Age? Will Atrus abandon writing in the book that maintains our Age in order to come rescue his beloved Catherine after she has evacuated us all to the Age of Tay while the one we know and love falls apart? Or is this all a whole bunch of fabrications meant to keep us entertained and distracted while the men in suits work out the next phase of their conspiracy against us?

Of course, May 21st of last year was supposed to be the Rapture, according to Harold Camping, which would have transitioned us into the Great Tribulation. He was wrong, obviously, but surely the Mayans are right. And when it turns out they're wrong, somebody else will come along claiming February 21, 2013 as the end of the world.

It's always the 21st, too....

Anyway.

Looking back at 2011, a lot of firsts for me happened in 2011, some of them good, some of them bad. A number of things continued on as they were, some good, some bad. I was successful in some areas, neglectful in others. I'm happy with some things that happened in 2011. I'm not happy with others. I'm sure we all can say that.

But a new year means a fresh start. It's strange how a new day doesn't seem to have that meaning, or a new week or even a new month or a new moon, but we put a lot of import on the new year. The new year generally comes with resolutions and commitments, and as such I also have resolutions and commitments.

I am recommitting myself to God, and studying His Word and having communion with Him in prayer. I... have to admit I didn't do very well in these areas for the latter half of last year. I let other things consume my mind, my time, and my attention. I am committing myself to doing better this year.

Another commitment I'm making is to the blog. My neglect of the blog is very much related to my neglect of spiritual matters (as mentioned in the previous paragraph). I am resolving myself to do much better this year.

2012 is off to a good start so far, though. I've joined a Facebook group that is following the Grant Horner Bible Reading Plan (also known as the 3650 Reading Plan, apparently). You can find that group here. I'm on day two of the plan, and I haven't fallen behind yet!

Speaking of Facebook, Being Sanctified Daily has a Facebook page that is just dying to be "liked". (Hint, hint.)

So, welcome to 2012 everybody! Whether it's the last year of our lives, or just another one in a long chain of years, let's commit to making it a good one!

To God be the glory through His Son Jesus Christ!

From the desert sands, we arise again.

2011-06-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been going through something, and having a difficult time getting through it? Sure, we all have. Have you ever been in that period, and had somebody tell you about their problems? Probably. Have you ever given them advice, and then realized that you really should be following your own advice?

That pretty much just happened to me.

So, the blog has been dead for two months, I haven't touched Arden's Blessing in a month and a half, and my Bible reading is in a similar state. Hence the picture. Part of the problem has been my usual lack of discipline. Part of it has been the onslaught of summer, and the heat therein that makes me even lazier than usual. And the third part... well...

Anyway, I told myself back on May 31st that June was going to be different, so here I am on June 28th. It's not funny.

This post isn't really substantial, I know. I'm writing this at 3:30 in the morning, after all. It's mostly to let you guys know that

A: God is good.
B: I'm alive.
C: I'm back on the blog again.
D: I have a long-overdue book review that needs to get written and posted ASAP.
E: God is good.

God calls us to obey out of... what?

2011-04-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm currently listening to Eugene Peterson's autobiography, The Pastor: A Memoir. The audiobook was provided by christianaudio as a selection for their christianaudio Reviewers Program, of which I am a part. This post is not a review. The book is twelve hours long- I am nowhere close to being done. My practice in the past has been to not say a word about the book I'm listening to until I write the review. However, for the sake of being as brief as I can be, I often find myself leaving a lot of things out in the review, and then I move on to another book and things I wanted to say are forgotten.

I'm changing my tact, though. I think it's within reason for me to discuss certain points of a book while listening to it, and providing a book review upon finishing it. This way, we all can interact with the book more than just my summary reviews. So, here goes.

In chapter three of his autobiography, Eugene Peterson is describing his experiences as a young child when his mother would take him into the mining and lumberjack communities in the Rocky Mountains, where she would tell embellished Bible stories to gatherings of dirty, rugged men. Peterson describes these nights as having "the best preaching of my lifetime", and his mother as being passionate, and having the love that casts out fear to stand before these groups of men, with nary a female in sight. Peterson then goes on to say the following,

This went on until I was six. It stopped because my mother gave birth to my sister and there was now a baby to tend to. But when my sister was old enough to join us, it was not resumed. Later, when I was a teenager, I asked her why she never started up the Sunday night meetings again. She told me that a man, having learned of what she had been doing, confronted her after Sunday morning worship in our church with an open Bible, and read to her, "Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over men. She is to keep silent."
She kept silent. I will never know, nor did she then, what took place in the lives of those lumberjacks and miners, but by the time she was intimidated into silence, she had achieved something formative and lasting in me.

Listening to this, I was just going along, not certain of what exactly his mother was doing. The description Peterson gives made it seem like simple Bible stories, which I wouldn't really call preaching, but he then calls it preaching, so I don't know. Peterson does not tell us if she was pulling life lessons out of the stories- he only says that she told the lumberjacks about God.

Then somebody at church confronts her with Scripture, and that puts an end to the whole thing. Now, I think it's a great testimony that she submitted to the Word of God, no matter how hard and even heart-wrenching it must have been for her. It's sobering to think of what may have happened to the lumberjacks' spiritual lives, since we do not know if anyone stood up in her place. It is, however, of vital importance for Christians live according to the will of God, which is expressed in His Word, and to live day by day quoting Jesus in the garden: "Not my will, but Yours be done."

For me, however, this was ruined by Peterson's use of the word intimidated. According to one dictionary, the word intimidate means "to coerce or inhibit by or as if by threats". Now, it is entirely possible that this man who confronted his mother did so in a mean-spirited, condescending, "get back in your place" kind of way. I wouldn't be surprised at all if that were the case. The problem, however, is that Peterson doesn't describe it as such. According to Peterson's description, the man confronted his mother by reading the Word of God. So... what was she intimidated by? The information we're given leads to one conclusion- she was intimated by God's Word.

I find a statement like that to be very troublesome, and even shocking. That is the standard opinion of an unbeliever. How can a retired pastor describe obedience to God with such a word as intimidate? Is that how to look at it? If we disagree with the commands of Scripture- and we are sinners, which means that we often do disagree in action, even if we don't want to admit that- is an accusation against God and His Word the proper response for a Christian to make?

A Christian should never describe obedience to God as if God were bullying him into it. This is how the unbelieving world views the situation, but the Christian understands that God saves us. The Christian knows that God loves us, so much so that He sent His only Son to earth, to live a righteous life and die a gruesome death so that, through faith, we may receive his righteousness while he takes our punishment for sins. And the Scriptures are very clear that our relationship to God through Christ is primarily one of love. The evidence of God's love is the sacrifice and resurrection of His Son. The evidence of our love is our obedience- Jesus says in John 14:15, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments". John hammers this point in chapter four of his first epistle, verses eighteen and nineteen- "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us."

When a Christian loves God, that Christian will want to obey God and will therefore strive to obey God. When somebody obeys God out of nothing but fear, that's a denial of the completed work of Jesus Christ- if you are truly saved in Christ, you have nothing to fear, in terms of punishment. Jesus has taken the punishment. Now, Hebrews 12:5-11 tells us that God does discipline us, as a father disciplines His children, but again, that's an expression of His love. It has nothing to do with bullying and intimidation.

Now, all of this does not mean that God is not intimidating. He is. He's God, after all, and that's where the other definition of intimidate comes into play- "to make timid, to fill with fear". Our response to God should be one of humble timidity and worship, with awe and love that He would condescend to love us and even die for us. But God does not use His greatness to make us obedient to Him.

Our obedience to God does not stem from intimidation. It stems from God's love for us, and our love for Him in response.