theologer

"The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble." - Psalm 37:39

Well I made it. And while this verse may be more about evil-dooers vs. those who trust in the Lord, I still think it applies.

I wanted to rejoice for a minute that the Lord pulled me through the 2nd most miserable trip of my life (One time I flew consecutively from Tirana Albania, to Vienna, to Beijing, to Los Angeles, to Denver... with a 7 hour layover in Vienna, 12 hour layover in Beijing and 10 hour layover in Los Angeles... I wanted to die, and blame this for my unreasonable dislike of flying).

My precious daughter flew wonderfully well and screamed only for a few minutes in the whole 40+ hour extravaganza. I did everything I could to look to the Lord, but credit your prayers and the Lord's grace.

I made it, I was calm, I wasn't miserable, I didn't want to die. And best of all I was reminded of my calling and the heart the Lord has given me for these people.

I'll be around, but need to get back to my kid and wife. Just wanted to say a big thank you for the prayers, and a big praise God for His grace. He is our stronghold, He is our salvation.

"Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;
I have tried you in the furnace of affliction." - Isaiah 48:10

Why does he have to try us? Why through affliction? So often my prayers are "Lord make me humble, but please be nice," or "God I want to understand thanksgiving, but not by having things taken away from me," or "I want to be a man more in love with you, but I fear how you'll bring me there."

There is almost this slight mistrust on my part because I fear of how the Lord will do it. I fear His trial by fire. Trial by affliction.

But he does it for his sake:

"For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
for how should my name be profaned?
My glory I will not give to another." - Isaiah 48:11

Because we take His glory. As you know, I'm about to get on an airplane... in about 18 hours (or so). I'm stressed out. But I also know that if everything went well and I felt in control through the whole trip, then I would look back and say "I did pretty good. I brought us all the way here."

I almost think the Lord brings me adversity in traveling because it is the one thing of which I am unable to relinquish control. I want to trust God with it, but I don't. I want to bring the Lord glory.

So when I get there. I'll try to post something, and thank the Lord for how he brought me safely where I'm going.

That said, I may post once more tonight (I may not), but then I might not have internet access for several days, so if I'm out - well... sorry. But I'll be back.

Life has to return to some normalcy which has been gone for some time. So goodbye for now. I'll see you again shortly.

Apparently it started here, I was tagged here.

I'm supposed to make up a post you might write... then you're tagged and must do the same to 5 other folk.

New Leaven (TC) - I discovered that Bible is a masculine word and will now refer it only as the neuter - "The Word of God" (much like the TNIV chose to do in their translation of "The Word of God")

Scripture Zealot (Jeff) - John 3:16 in the New Revised Todays Updated English American Version (NRTUEAV) says, "God loves us eh? Died for us yo! If we believe in him, we live like... forever"


Sunestauromai (Brian) - How to read a person like a book. (And judge them by their cover).

Crypto-Theology (Matthew) - 1 Corinthians was actually written by the hand of God, not inspired through Paul as many have conjectured.

And just because I really want to, I'm tagging Chuck back.

A ‘Goula Blogger (Chuck) - Antique Bible Commentary notes on the wizard of OZ:
Matthew Henry - If I only had a brain
(BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH)
Adam Clarke - I wish I was brave and not ascardy
(BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH)
A.T. Robertson - Someday I'll have a heart too you know!
(BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH)

"Great peace have those who love your law;
nothing can make them stumble." - Psalm 119:165

I met a guy at RTS who works for John Piper, named David Mathis. I asked him a lot of questions about Piper and he generally said Piper is almost exactly the guy you think he would be. Extremely authentic and down to earth, majoring in the basics of being in the word and spending time in prayer.

Anyhow, he told me had had written this article on the 10th anniversary of John Wimber's death. Since I grew up in the Vineyard Church I found this particularly interesting. Also, I thought it curious that he told me he received a ton of angry emails after posting on Wimber...

Here is an excerpt:

John [Wimber] will be remembered for many things, one of which was his unrelenting commitment to “doin’ the stuff,” as he often put it. As John told the story, he and Carol visited a church early in his spiritual journey, immediately after he had spent considerable time reading the gospel accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus. Following the service, John approached the pastor and asked him:

“So, when do we do the stuff?”

“The ‘stuff’,” said the pastor. “What’s the ‘stuff’?”

“You know,” John replied, “the stuff in the Bible, like healing the sick and casting out demons. The stuff!”

“Oh,” replied the pastor. “We don’t do the stuff. We believe they did it back in biblical days, but we don’t do it today.”

With a rather confused look on his face, John could only say: “And I gave up drugs for this?”

And the full article can be found here.

"And by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses." - Acts 13:38b-39

The law of Moses was useful for a temporary covering of sins. It was not sufficient to cover all our sins. It also pointed us to Jesus among other things.

But think of all the many things it could not do.

By Jesus we are freed from EVERYTHING which we could not be freed by the Law of Moses. The things I think of are:

Fear, lack of hope, sadness, death, pain, eating restrictions, and my future sins.

And that's just a start, I'm sure I could come up with many other things if I spent even another minute. If I haven't mentioned it yet, I'm coming up on the end of a several month furlough. Time to head back home and to work on Tuesday morning. Unfortunately for me I absolutely fear flying. I abhor it. I read this verse last night and was comforted again relating to my anxiety and flying.

I know the Lord has been speaking to me lately through scripture about my fears. If you think of it, I'll take all the prayers you can stand to send my way Monday night and allllll day Tuesday and Wednesday... I try to remind myself that one way or another I'll get there.

So far I've learned, that by Jesus I can be freed from my fear. I've also learned thanksgiving is the key to my fears. I'm working on it.

Hebrews 1:1-3

God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds; who being the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had made purification of sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high...


In high school I loved Hebrews because it helped me defend the Trinity. But I never noticed this shocking fact: that of all the ways God could possibly speak, he spoke finally by Jesus and that of all the things we think we could know of God by any other means, Jesus is the very image of God's substance or essence. So, it is easy for me to start with some ideas about God and then be very confused that God became a man, which is a good thing, to be confused about God's power, but it is far better to look to Jesus to see who God is. The Christian answer to the person who wants to know about God must center on the person of Christ.

So the book of Hebrews floors me because everything Jesus is reveals who God has always been: the one made like his brothers and the one who made purification for sins. [read: died for sinners] If you want to know what God is like, the author of Hebrews says, "look to Jesus." Also, this author says, for those of us who might lose hope that God really is like this:

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Geoff has joined theologer.com to guest blog about once a week. He blogs at The Faceless Name

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer." - Psalm 19:14

Simply because so often,
they are not.

"A friend loves at all times,
and a brother is born for adversity."
- Proverbs 17:17

When I was in High School my best friend stopped hanging out with me one day. This was odd because before then we were literally attached at the hip, and had done EVERYTHING together night and day. Finally I got frustrated and called him and asked him what the stink was going on and he explained to me that he didn't like me, and that no one liked me, I was a terrible person.

I know what you're thinking and yes, this IS the kind of thing that happens  to girls not guys. But my point is, a couple of months later I met another guy who had recently had a similar experience.

Because of a sort of shared experience we became best friends quickly, knowing that we would never do the same to one another. This would fall more under the "born of adversity" than born "for".

But later this friend proved to be a serious friend. Hard experience after hard experience her stood by me and proved to be, "a brother born for adversity."

I truly think it is a unique thing from the Lord when someone supernaturally stands by you. I'm reminded of another friend of mine. When I was a freshman in college I was an outspoken Christian and devastated that I had woken up on morning naked in a hospital. I had gotten drunk one night and had to have my stomach pumped. I had ruined my witness (or at least a big part of it).

This friend looked in my eye and told me, "This is not who you are, this is a mistake you made. Now quit sitting around but go make it right and put it behind you."

That is a friend. A friend born FOR adversity. A friend who loved me at my lowest and help me put it behind me, and gain back the witness I had lost in that situation.

Praise God that I have friends like that.

A few years ago, I brought my car in to get its tyres changed, and as I waited, I sat down in the food court of the nearby shopping mall, trying to get some work done on a Bible talk that I was preparing.

As I sat and worked, I found myself disturbed by a little girl who was loudly singing... "la la la la la la la la" as she danced around. The tune sounded vaguely familiar. I looked at her and marvelled: "Only a child could get away with being that unashamedly, publically joyful," I thought to myself. She just looked so absolutely happy, and couldn't care less about looking silly in front of onlookers. I almost envied her.

After a while, the little girl's mother came along. "Hey - you're not in church now, dear!" she smiled, whisking the girl off to the next shop. Suddenly it hit me: The tune she'd been singing was "Celebrate Jesus, Celebrate!" I was shocked out of my arduous exegetical work... How amazingly appropriate that this sort of unashamed joy was a product of church - and how appropriate that it couldn't be contained by church, but spilt out into the most idolatrous of places, a shopping mall.

Hmm... "Out of the mouths of infants you have ordained praise"....

After a while, I returned to my talk preparation, with a renewed awareness of the privilege of the work, and a new tune in my head: Celebrate Jesus... Celebrate!

Matthew R Malcolm has joined theologer.com to guest blog about once a week. He blogs at Crypto-Theology.

"And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." - Hebrews 11:6

I read:

By faith it IS possible to please Him. And without it we lack even a chance so...
First believe He exists. Check.
Next believe that He rewards those who seek him. Check
Now I can draw near to God.

Interesting, that in order to draw near, we have to believe that the Lord will bless our efforts in seeking Him. That is, we not only have to seek God to draw near, but we have to believe that it will yield something valuable.

Faith. And then we can please Him. But this isn't supposed to be something which we DO. It's supposed to lead us to Jesus.

The writer of Hebrews is saying that God DOES reward those who seek Him. Then he's saying it's only by faith - belief, not action - that we please the Lord.

Belief. Not action. Get that? Faith.

"For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers" - Hebrews 2:11

Today we had a guest speaker come in to class and share some things with us on our class on the theology of ministry. He asked us what is one thing we can do to be better Christians. So think about that for a second before you go on.

What is one thing you can do to be a better Christian?

There were varied answers from "pray and fast more" or "tithe better" to "nothing." I answered that we should sin more so that grace may abound (don't worry, it was in jest).

Anyhow, I thought his point was interesting, it being that as believers we generally believe we are justified by faith - though many of us may live to contrary. But then we also believe that we are sanctified through effort.

Now you may have never thought of it this way, but even those of us who genuinely believe that nothing we can do could possibly earn us salvation - we are the same people who live as focused as we can to be sanctified by own own effort or strength.

I thought this interesting as I was chewing on it today in class. I certainly do live like I am the only one who can sanctify myself. But Hebrews 2 reminds us that it is Jesus who does the sanctifying work, not us.

I certainly need to go dwell on that.

I'm in the airport about to fly home... alone... so I have plenty of time to mull this over (yea right... like you can just figure it out in a few hours... but I can certainly try).

"but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." - Philippians 2:5-7

As I've been sorting through my feelings on blogging and this has been my thought process:

1. People read my blog. Cool. I should keep writing. I like that people read my writing.

2. As more people read I'll become like... internet famous. Which, while the lamest type of fame, is still cool.

3. I write under a pseudonym so I wont be able to become prideful.

4. I've become prideful.

5. I hope it still brings glory to the Lord and I'm not just a moron writing personal thoughts while leaving God out of the equation.

While, what I want to be thinking is:

1. People read my blog. Cool. I hope I'm writing things that are glorifying to God and edifying to these people.

2. As more people read my blog, more people will be blessed by the things I write which glorify God.

3. I hope people know this is a place that glorifies the Lord.

Note this verse in Philippians. HE WAS GOD PEOPLE! He was GOD and he was able to be humble and did not aspire to equality with God. I am not just mere mortal man, but LAME mere mortal man striving for INTERNET FAME! INTERNET respect... LAME!

We all know this verse... and probably the two verses preceding it... here the thought is in its entirety, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." But pride is one of the hardest things NOT to live.

What does it look like to be a servant on the internet? I BEG an answer.

The last week and half have been a lot of fun. It's fun to come to these classes during the summer at RTS because the students all come from such diverse backgrounds and ministries. Most are non-traditional students.

We have pastors, aspiring pastors, businessmen, people from Korea, India, and even missionaries to such places. Lots of interesting fodder for conversation.

Across the hall in one of the fancier classrooms they have a small library across one wall. Here are some pictures:

Among many big fancy and OLD books is one of the biggest collections of Pilgrims Progress you might ever see. Some are VERY old. I tried to take some pictures with ya'll in mind. You vary your headers so much. Feel free to use them if you'd like. Maybe you should credit RTS Orlando for them... but I don't know etiquette for things like this.

This last one was a Latin Vulgate from 1567... in fantastic shape. Just fascinating. I cant help but wonder who held this book. (to see a larger image just click the original)

...but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear...

For those of us who like to argue this passage is much loved because we are to be ready to give a defense of our hope. In other words, we're to be ready to say, "we hope in Christ's making new of all things, because God raised him from the dead to prove that he is lord [read eschatological judge of the world]." And for many of us this means we get to argue about epistemology, historical method, personal relative proof, personal experience, worldviews, etc. This also means that we get to quote the church fathers, make fun of Bertrand Russel, pretend to understand Kierkegaard, parrot Van Til while agreeing with Barth, use Plantinga's terminology, and dismiss Kant and Descartes as though we knew them personally, all of this in the looming shadow of Hume. But I'm not going there.

But when I read 1Peter I am often floored because of the previous clause. We are to set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts. The reason we are to do this, says Pete, is because in a world where Christ is Lord the righteous need not fear performing righteousness because Jesus will vindicate his people. So if we sanctify, or set apart Christ as Lord in our hearts my guess is that our fears, real though they may be, will probably melt away.

My position (that I won't defend apart from its explanatory power) is that sanctifying or setting apart Christ as Lord in our hearts means coming to believe in him whom we have not seen in the same way we believe gravity will make us plummet to earth from space and we live accordingly. Perhaps this happens even more deeply, like knowing him as Lord in the way that I know my best friend loves me and I live accordingly.

So, sanctify Jesus Christ as Lord in your hearts.

BTW: If anybody has any good advice concerning how to do so, please let me know. This is obviously a practice for believers to do, those who have "tasted the kindness of the Lord," so it doesn't mean "wait for Jesus to change you."

Geoff has joined theologer.com to guest blog about once a week. He blogs at The Faceless Name