craigwbooth's Xanga

An Hour of Peace (or was it ambition?)

Wed, 14 May 2008 16:15:19 GMT

Over the past few months I have been studying such topics as salvation (according to Scripture contrasted against the “gospel” according to the Jehovah’s Witnesses), biblical hermeneutics, and Joseph’s decades-long dispute with his brothers. All that study has been a blessing. Then, yesterday, after studying, I went shopping with my wife, did yard work, and completed some car maintenance. In the evening, as the sun was setting, my son was at his computer and my wife was watching some singing competition on television, so I grabbed a soft drink, a jar of nuts, and sat in my back yard. For an hour. Watching the green grass grow and thanking God for such a peaceful hour.

I suppose this relaxed hour of peace implicates me as lacking a certain degree of ambition. Yet, is ambition really all that society cracks-it-up-to-be?

and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands, just as we commanded you, (1 Thessalonians 4:11)

Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home [alive] or absent [dead], to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

P.S. At some time in the future I will be sharing more of what I have been learning through my studies in the past few months. But for now, well, there goes another blade of grass, and see that lily, I think it’s ready to begin blooming…

The Bitterness of Sin--Illustrated

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:23:18 GMT

During our last Seder, as I have become accustomed to doing, at element four (the bitterness of slavery / sin as represented by a horseradish mixture), I instructed the participants to “load up a matzo with horseradish and eat it, so as to bring tears to your eyes.” One gentleman at the end of the table had never been to a Seder before. He took my instructions ever so literally and scooped up every last bit of the tablespoon of horseradish sauce from his plate and ate it in one bite.

As he did that, the rest of us, having delicately dipped our matzo into the sauce and taken a bite, were also experiencing a burn unlike many I have endured before. My wife had changed the horseradish mixture this year for an unexpectedly more potent version. As we all grabbed for our grape juice, the poor gentleman at the end of the table was turning bright red and was virtually unable to speak. After downing his own glass of grape juice, tears pouring from his eyes, he explained that he had never actually eaten horseradish before.

After he regained his composure, he noted, “I will never forget the bitterness and pain of sin again!”

Amen!

Celebrating Passover

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:42:27 GMT

This Saturday past was the beginning of Passover for many Jewish households. Our family celebrates a home “representative” (symbolic) Seder almost every year, to remind us of the roots of our Christian faith. This year we celebrated on Sunday the 20^th, with six friends, only two of whom have previously observed Passover with us. It is always a blessing to see how the Passover picture of Christ’s sacrifice touches believers who have never experienced a Seder before.

Unlike other years, we added a ceremonial hand washing. This turned out to be the most somber moment of the evening. Everyone had their hands “washed” by someone else, and in turn, washed another’s as one person read the entirety of John 13:3-17. This idea that we are clean already in Christ, and have need only to confess our sins to restore our fellowship with God, and that we are responsible to our fellow Christians to encourage them on their Christian growth was quite striking as we participated in the hand washing. As a result, a fairly significant discussion about foot washing ensued after the Seder. What a blessing!

Adding the hand washing extended the celebration by ten to fifteen minutes. My wife informed me that it took a total of 55 minutes this year. It is my preference to keep the entire Seder under 30 minutes. Over the years I have added more Scripture reading to our “script.” I am uncertain what to do next year. Already, I feel we are omitting so many passages to keep the time manageable. This will require some thought and prayer.

Here is a link to our present Seder script (without the hand washing) and the recipes my wife used: http://thefaithfulword.org/seder.html

A second link explains my views on the propriety of celebrating Passover: http://thefaithfulword.org/passoverfaqs.html

Feel free to leave a comment about your own Seder experiences.

Conveying Truth

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:57:21 GMT

Some years ago I wrote an essay, but never put it on the Web, until recently. It explored the question of which is true: that most useful meaning in a conversation is transmitted in the words used, or, through the tone of voice and hand gestures used. What communicates the essential core meaning (what matters the most to the sending of the intended message)?

A brief excerpt of the essay follows. To read the entire essay, go to http://thefaithfulword.org/whatyousay.html :

Relate this to the Bible and to church. God did not leave us video tapes or DVDs of the apostles and prophets recorded live as they delivered their messages. All 100% of the meaning and content of these messages are communicated by way of their written words... He gave us the instructions in text form only. All the Bible is in text form only. (http://thefaithfulword.org/whatyousay.html )

Are we really missing 93% of the intended meaning in God’s Word? What role does nonverbal communication play in conveying truth to others? What is your opinion?

For the Joy, or, Instead of the Joy?

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 16:38:04 GMT

A friend of mine who works at Answers In Genesis wrote the following on his personal blog (http://whatdoesthescripturesay.com):

I’ve been blessed by Wuest’s word studies and commentary over the last few years. … It stated the second half of Hebrews 12:2 like this, “who instead of the joy then present with Him endured the Cross, despising the shame…” Which is strikingly different than the usual translation of “who for the joy set before Him endured the cross”. (Tony Ramsek, March 23, 2008, http://whatdoesthescripturesay.com)

Tony goes on to explain how this translation of the Greek behind Hebrews 12:2 is a more natural lexical - theological fit with the rest of the Scriptures than other translations. What motivated Jesus to die for us? I find the clarity of other passages informative: His oft repeated love for His followers moved Him to sacrifice Himself and His desire to obey the Father caused Him to go to the cross. He clearly did not succumb to the cross out of His own personal interests (Philippians 2:4-9), nor did He please Himself by going to the cross (Romans 15:3). Therefore, whatever the best rendering of Hebrews 12:2, it must accommodate the plainly revealed motives of Jesus as discussed above.

Coincidently, as I read this, I was also reading Henry A. Virkler’s excellent book, Hermeneutics: Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation. Virkler, though not commenting specifically on Hebrews 12:2, confirms that other Scripture provides the genuine motivational impetus by which believers today should follow Jesus. And it has less to do with attaining rewards (like personal joy and pleasure) but everything to do with our love of the Lord.

Peter asked the Lord, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Jesus assured Peter that they would be amply rewarded for their service, but then went on to tell the Parable of the Laborers. In this context it can be seen that Jesus’ story was a gentle rebuke to Peter, a rebuke of the self-righteous attitude which says, “See how much I have done (I was not unwilling to give up all and follow You as this young man was). I should certainly get a large reward for my great sacrifice.” Jesus was gently rebuking Peter for possessing the attitude of a hireling--“What am I going to get out of this?”--rather than recognizing that the motive for service in the kingdom is to be love. (Virkler, page 165-166)

Certainly, with Jesus as our model to imitate, we should be serving not with an attitude of “What am I going to get out of this?” but “Am I loving God and others by my service?” Rewards will surely sort themselves out in Heaven (whatever form those rewards will happen to take). But our service on earth is to be consciously driven by a desire to please God (Hebrews 11:6, 13:16), our gratitude to Him for the salvation we receive (Hebrews 12:28), and our love for God and others (Matthew 22:36-40). With regard to Hebrews 12:2, it would be a strange form of hermeneutics that would contradict all these passages so as to have the man, Jesus, motivated to serve primarily by His own self-interest in acquiring joy for Himself. Jesus, as man and God, submitted to the Father in love, going to the cross humbly to serve Him and to gain the joy of salvation for us. It is that servant’s heart of self-sacrificing loving humility that we are to mimic.

For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:14-18)

Far Better to Strive for Christ than Against Him

Sun, 16 Mar 2008 19:06:18 GMT

In a recent Sunday School class we briefly looked at Jacob wrestling with the angel of the Lord (Genesis 32). What a terrifying lesson for my own life.

It is never a good thing to “strive with [against] God.” He is the sovereign master and we are the servants. At least, we are supposed to be the servants who humbly submit to His will. But Jacob had lived his entire life a prideful man, trying to get the blessings of God by his own efforts on his own timing. This led him to effectively defraud his brother, lie to his father, attempt to defraud Laban, take more than one wife, and to do one huge amount of worrying.

And so, he was worried sick about whether he was going to die (instead of resting in all the promises that God had just given him and being comfortable that his present action and circumstances were the direct result of having received prophetic revelation). He wanted to control the outcome of these pivotal events. So God comes to him in the night, and instead of submitting immediately to the will of the Lord, he fights back in pride, never surrendering to God. He fought against God until God finally uttered, “OK Jacob, you have not surrendered to My headship out of faith and you have prevailed in clinging to your sinful pride, so I am going to make you pay attention to Me by breaking your health.” God touched his leg so as to damage the sinew of his hip, resulting in a noticeable limp.

When we insist on doing things our way (in Jacob’s case that often meant using sinful methods) and in our own timing, and we refuse to repent (that is, we strive with God and we prevail), then God has more radical options at His disposal. He blinded Paul temporarily to force him to pay attention. He gave Moses leprosy of his hand to show him that he had no choice but to be a prophet and must go to Egypt’s Pharaoh. Taking away Jacob’s health was an effective means to demonstrate to that self-dependent man that even his personal well-being is a gift from God and subject to His sovereignty. [Note: I will immediately add that it is impossible to tell if another person’s ill health is related to a sin problem, for often, perhaps most often, ill health is merely a result of the Genesis 3 curse and is no more earned, deserved, or the fault of one man than any of other (Luke 13:1-5, John 9:1-5).]

And so Jacob (whose name meant “supplanter”), still in full possession of his own pride, working under his own power, and focused on his own timing, demanded that God bless him then and there. So God did, but first He changed Jacob’s name to Israel. That name means “he who strives with God,” or possibly, “God will rule over him.” A lifetime reminder to Jacob of his own proud stand against God that night, and a memorial to all the generations of God’s people of the same. Indeed, whether we fight against God or not, He will successfully reign over us, so the earlier we submit the more useful we might be to His Kingdom. Far better to strive for Christ than with Him.

Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh. (Genesis 32:31)

The Watchtower

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 12:42:56 GMT

I wrote this essay in the Spring of 2005 while on a business trip to France. This is the first time I have published it.

Here I sit, on aged stone steps in the protective shade of an abandoned French watchtower, as it stands conducting ceremonial sentinel duty. The tower overlooks the main canal that served as both access and barrier to Petite France, Strasbourg. Cooled from the spring heat by a gentle breeze I am privileged to watch the water glide under the stone span that simultaneously supported the tower and acted as a bridge to the main land. The tower was once a military fortress, replete with defensive slots through which the resident soldiers could safely fire upon those who would attack via the canal.

In truth, I count four watchtowers from my vantage point. All the towers look upon various canal entry ways that offer to take one further back into the city.

So it is with medieval watchtowers. They have become neglected and are considered to be relics of bygone days. That was not always true for them. When they were first built they were actively manned by those who were sincerely invested in the safety of the surrounding community, though the average resident may have been inclined to ignore their very presence. Until one day, when a danger which would not be ignored or placated threatened the populace. Then, all the city turned to, and relid, upon the watchtower for assistance. Hopefully, it was not too late.

But what happens when a watchtower is overrun by the enemy? That defensive position becomes a terrible fortress for the enemy to safely reign war down upon the citizens who built the tower.

When I think about my Christian faith, I think about the watchtower. Every pastor, every teacher, every evangelist is a watchtower for the faith. Self-appointed? No, appointed by God. These men were given the gift of teaching and consequently, they are spiritual advisors. As bondservants of Christ, the Holy Spirit gave them their gifts, they did not seek them or acquire them through self-driven ambition. Appointed as teachers, they have no choice but to serve out their commission as watchtowers of the faith.

Rarely are those teachers and pastors respected in the role of watchtower. So very many times I have read, “Anyone who critiques the teaching of a fellow Christian is acting as a self-appointed judge over the faith. For shame.” Yet this is unfair. These watchtowers were appointed and gifted for their task of guardians of doctrine. It would be a sad fact if they did not fulfill their obligations, whether largely ignored by the community or not.

Even worse, consider the fate of the church or spiritual community should the watchtower himself fall into disrepair and be overrun by the enemy--the doctrines of demons. Such a man would be used to reign false doctrine down upon the members of that church, and many of the citizens would be no more the wiser, until they too fell to the onslaught.

As I sit in the protective shade of this obsolete watchtower, I have renewed appreciation for those who have acted selflessly through the generations on behalf of the faith, dutifully in God’s service, and obediently to the Spirit’s gifting. May God continue to build watchtowers among His flock.

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Note: This essay was originally written on my laptop while sitting under the tower depicted in the center of the last photograph on this page: http://thefaithfulword.org/strasbourgtour1.html

Maybe It’s the Fever Talking…

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 11:54:48 GMT

For more than a week I have been fighting one of the worst bouts with influenza that I have ever had to wage. Even as I lay awake on the couch all night long, wrapped in multiple blankets, simultaneously shivering and sweating, I watched the television news. The more I watched the more shocked I became at my opinions as I actually listened to the rhetoric of the Democratic presidential candidates.

To be sure, I am a conservative. Ordinarily I vote for financially and morally conservative political candidates (Republican or Democrat). Mike Huckabee was my hands-down favorite candidate, but I am not adverse to McCain. No surprise there. What caused my self-aware astonishment was when I realized that Hillary Clinton could articulate more genuinely astute and practical answers to real world problems than Barack Obama. Hillary actually answered “what would you do about” questions with answers that demonstrated she understood the political and financial forces that drove the problems and had actually thought through what government could and could not do. Barack most often parroted one cliché after another, never answering a real-world issue with a real-world action plan.

One example was the question of Ohio’s loss of paper manufacturers, as the paper industry rapidly is becoming dominated by out-of-country competitors. When a reporter asked Hillary what she would do, her answers identified the root problem (cheaper labor abroad), the impact to global markets, and her observation that the US government cannot fix every trade disparity with tariffs without rampant negative effects in many other areas of trade. When Barack was asked the same questions his responses sounded like he had never heard about the paper industry, cheaper labor offshore, tariffs, or had contemplated governmental obligations. All his responses were of the slogan variety, “we must persevere” and “with ingenuity we can get through this.” Eh?

While I detest much of Clinton’s morality and social agendas, I have decided that she is a more adept and credible politician than is Obama. And though I have apprehended a higher appreciation for Hillary, I am more thankful there are even better candidates for president from which to choose.

And now a word that will make me sound like Andy Rooney: more than a half year left in the presidential campaign! ugh, this is going to be a long one…sigh…I’m going to get another blanket…

This Event Called the Rapture

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:20:26 GMT

Some of you know that my wife and I have been meeting with Jehovah’s Witnesses for the better part of a year. They explain their dogma to us, we try to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to them. It has been a growing, stretching, and learning time for myself. I mean that with all sincerity.

These meetings have forced me to study the end-times (aka: eschatology). For orthodox Christians this must involve the doctrine we have labeled, “the Rapture.” Oh, to be sure, the word is not technically in our English Bibles, but the concept is certainly there. When I was in Bible school (so very many years ago) we used to sit in the cafeteria and debate forever about pre, mid, or post-Tribulation timing for the Rapture. By the end of my limited time in Bible school I decided the timing was unknowable, and that it really did not matter. And here I am, back again, to reopen the discussion.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

In my recent studies, I have come to conclude that this event must describe what Revelations refers to as “the first resurrection” (Revelations 20:5-6). By this, John means the first of the bodily resurrections prior to the Millennium. This first resurrection is for believers in Christ only, the righteous dead. Jesus comes back to call us to meet Him in the air. The spirits of the dead believers are already with Jesus in front of His throne in Heaven, but when He decrees the first bodily resurrection, He reunites the dead bodies with their living spirits in the clouds of Earth, then, we who are still alive on the Earth will be brought up as well, without having died, being changed from perishable flesh and blood to imperishable perfect “bodies” (whatever form such bodies might take). This first resurrection is the Rapture.

Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:50-53)

Sometime after the first bodily resurrection (the Rapture), the righteous ones in Christ will return with Christ to the Earth to rule for one thousand years (aka: the Millennium or Second Coming), during which time the prophecies of a peaceful Jewish state will finally be fulfilled as the Messiah reigns in Jerusalem. I am now convinced that the first resurrection, the Rapture, will occur before the Great Tribulation begins. And I have come to this opinion on perhaps the most trivial of perceptions. When we are caught up in the air, in the clouds, and meet with Christ at the Rapture, it seems unlikely that we suddenly and immediately turn around in the sky and come back down to the Earth to reign for one thousand years, which only happens at the end of the Tribulation. I find it more likely that we are taken to Heaven to watch the unfolding of the Great Tribulation, the judgment of the unrepentant Earth.

From out of that tribulation period, many more will be saved, and martyred for Christ (Revelation 6:10-11, 7:9-17). They rest with Christ for a little while longer in Heaven. Then, Christ cuts short the Great Tribulation and visibly returns to Earth where every eye will see, accompanied by the saints (Revelation 1:7, Daniel 7:22). The saints will reign (or perhaps this is simply language that means we will live like kings) for one thousand years. At the end of the Millennium of peace, Satan is released from the pit one last time. A massive war is waged, and Christ disposes of Satan. Only then does Christ conduct the second bodily resurrection, in which even the unbelievers are resurrected, but not for eternal life, but for final judgment before the Great While Throne of Christ. The unbelievers are placed into the eternal Lake of Fire, along with Satan, Death, and Hades.

Christ then dissolves the entire universe in fire. He then creates a new earth, a new expanse of stars, called the heavens, and a new city called new Jerusalem (Revelation 21). The Father and the Son move their thrones into this “city” and reside with the people of God for the remainder of eternity.

To be sure, I am aware that my timing of the Rapture may be in error, give or take a few years to allow for the Tribulation period. After all, my opinion on this is not exactly based on the most solid of rationales. Yet, whether the first resurrection happens pre, mid, or post-Tribulation, it gives the believer in Christ great hope and comfort knowing what else is yet to come after that! “And so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.”

How are you doing?

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 17:47:11 GMT

In parts of Taiwan the traditional greeting of politeness is not “Hello,” or “How are you doing?” It is, “Have you eaten yet?” If one has recently eaten, it is assumed they must be doing well. I just love this concept!

Christianity really has no such equivalent. We mindlessly ask each other, “How are you?” And we vacuously respond, “Just fine,” regardless of how depressed, ill, or stressed we might genuinely be. No meaningful information is exchanged, and we in no way feel obligated to seek for a deeper answer or to offer assistance to another, content in our ignorance of the condition of our fellow believers.

What if, like the Taiwanese, our Christian brotherhood greeting of politeness contained some level of necessary meaning? Perhaps something like, “Have you prayed today?” To pray, one’s heart must be right with the Lord, Jesus Christ. God does not hear prayer from those who are presently sinning, or unwilling to confess a sin (Psalm 66:18, Proverbs 28:9, 15:29, Isaiah 59:2). Consequently, those who are harboring unconfessed sin have probably not bothered going through even the pretense of prayer. Only those who are truly “well with God” can honestly answer, “Yes.”

Too intrusive into one’s private matters of the heart? Overly prone to abuse by those who feel spiritually superior? Perhaps. So the search continues for a reasonable and relevant Christian greeting. I am open to suggestions. Still, I wonder, have you prayed today? Oh, and yes, I have just eaten, thanks for asking.