I love photos and videos that show the microscopic. It’s all God’s creation and to be able to see the smaller things unusually not observed by the unaided eye just gives me a thrill to peek into His smaller creations that are just as magnificent as the Alps or the change of seasons or the constellations. Here is a short clip of things crystallizing. It’s fascinating. Continue reading “The beauty of creation at the microscopic level”
Category: encouragement
The discovery of 2000 year old Leviticus fragment
What were the original languages the Bible was written in? How did we get the Bible? Is the Bible corrupted by men when they were translated?
Good questions!
The Bible was written in two main languages, Hebrew in the Old Testament, and Greek for the New Testament. Two other languages appear briefly. One of them is Aramaic. A few chapters in Ezra and Daniel were originally in Aramaic and one verse in Jeremiah, also.
There are a few words in another, fourth language that appears extremely briefly for a few words in Job, and that’s Ugaritic. The Ugaritic does’t impact the original Bible’s reading and interpreting so much as it does in helping to understand the Hebrew overall.
Two thousand tablets written in Ugaritic were discovered in 1929. The Kingdom of Ugarit was located in Syria, and was a thriving kingdom of the late Bronze Age (1570 – 1200 BC.) It co-existed with the Hebrew tribes and,
The Ugaritic texts offer innumerable literary and religious parallels to biblical literature. The parallels are so rich and in some cases so specific that it is evident that the Ugaritic texts do not merely provide parallels, but belong to a shared or overlapping cultural matrix with the Hebrew Bible. (Source)
The Ugaritic language was almost letter for letter identical to Hebrew, and where the Hebrew word was unknown or difficult to interpret in context, the Ugaritic texts helped as a kind of Rosetta Stone in interpreting the Hebrew biblical word properly.
Continue reading “The discovery of 2000 year old Leviticus fragment”
Why you must forgive yourself
Recently I’d read the essay 7 Dangers of Embracing Mere Therapeutic Forgiveness and posted a link to it from this blog. The essay focused on the truth of forgiving others.
I’ve been preaching the past couple weeks on forgiveness. In preparing I’ve found Chris Brauns’ work, Unpacking Forgiveness, to be immensely helpful. A position that I have held for awhile now is that forgiveness isn’t simply about us. We don’t forgive someone primarily because we release ourselves from some prison of bitterness. Though that is certainly a benefit—we forgive because God forgave us.
Recently in a coincidence, our pastor explained the same concept, but from a different perspective. We usually focus more on the process and benefits of forgiving others, but what about forgiving ourselves? The scene he was preaching through was from Genesis 45. Joseph is revealing himself to his brothers, who had sold Joseph into slavery 13 years prior. He is reassuring his brothers that he is not angry and will not harm them. Genesis 45:5 says,
And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
Joseph is a picture of Jesus. Joseph did the unthinkable, he forgave his brothers for selling him into lsavery and conspiring to murder him. Yet … note the part of the verse that says ‘do not be angry with yourselves’. People in the church today have made up this brand new phrase. It’s not anywhere in the Bible. It goes like this- “I know that God has forgiven me, but I just can’t forgive myself.” My pastor had explained it this way,
It’s a phrase that has become very popular in church circles. ‘I know that God of the Universe has forgiven me, big deal. The REAL issue is I just can’t forgive myself.’ I heard someone explain this issue in a way that shines new light, sheds new light on this issue. It made me never want to use the phrase. This is what I heard from one pastor. He said, “If you’re saying that if I know God has forgiven me, but I’m still angry at myself, I still can’t forgive myself, what you’re saying is, the blood of Jesus may be good enough for God, but the blood of Jesus is not good enough for me. I have higher standards than the God of the universe.” This means you have put yourself above God and you have higher standards than God.
Also as an example, let’s say you did something at work, and you got fired. You did it. You did something wrong and you got fired. You say I know it was sinful and I’ve repented. I know God forgave me for this but I lost my job and I’m still mad at myself. I can’t forgive myself for what I did. This is a sign in that moment that the job was actually more important than God. The job had become my God-replacement. I was getting my meaning, my purpose, my worth and value, my joy. Now that I’ve ruined it, I just can’t move on. That would be an evidence that God hasn’t taken first place yet in your life.
Forgiveness is an attribute of God which demands our attention because it’s so integral to the Gospel. Jesus forgives us our original sin unto justification:
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14).
Jesus forgives us our sins post-salvation when we repent:
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:19).
In this verse, we learn about the infinite-ness of forgiveness. Such forgiveness includes riches of His grace (which is infinite), how it is dispensed (lavishly), and that it’s made known to us in all wisdom and insight.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:7-10)
Do we have more wisdom than God and more insight as regards forgiveness within the place of His plan? What a ghastly thought! However that is exactly what we are saying when we say we know that God forgives us, but we just can’t seem to forgive ourselves.
On the surface it might sound pious and humble to say that you can’t forgive yourself, but it isn’t. If you knew you sinned and asked Jesus to forgive you, He has. Leave it with Him and go on about your business in confidence of His love and according to the riches of His grace.
Do you feel like you’re just plodding in the faith?
So many people, especially women, are hopscotching the globe founding important ministries, establishing orphanages, ’empowering’ native women, or teaching to packed arenas, that it makes the rest of us humdrum ladies feel, ahem, left behind. Should we be doing the big things? Can we do the bigger things? Are we doing enough?
All I do every single day, is go to work. I come home and I study my Bible &pray, I write, and if I have enough energy after that, I read a bit. Then I go to sleep and do it all over again. On the weekends all I do is grocery shopping, laundry, cooking the week’s lunches ahead, and study a lot more and write a lot more. I go to church on Sunday late afternoon. Bed time. Repeat.
I’m not skipping off to host conferences or giving interviews or unashamedly on tour or in Rwanda on a storytelling trip. I wash dishes in obscurity in Comer GA and my job is to help kindergarteners tie their shoes and learn their ABC’s. It’s not glamorous. It doesn’t seem like it’s very much at all of a contribution to the kingdom. I mean, Beth Moore is a nearly 60 year old grandma busy helping her daughter through her unbiblical divorce and interacting with her grandchildren yet keeps a a packed schedule. Younger women also seem to be doing the big things, the glamorous things, like Jennie Allen and Raechel Myers and Kari Jobe. As for me, I’m just plodding.
Well, let’s hear it for the plodders.
First, if you are a mother, you are in a highly esteemed Biblical position. You are doing such wonderful work for the kingdom in being a foundation block in society, in raising pure young women and strong young men for the next generation. I thank Mrs Paton and Mrs Spurgeon and Mrs MacArthur and Mrs Johnson and all the other Missus’ who raised men and women who in turn, impact the kingdom.
Secondly if you think of the life of Paul most often we think of the highlights. His speeches before thousands, his dramatic miracles, his appearances before kings and leaders.
However, Paul also walked. Thousands upon thousands of miles, he plodded. He trudged. He hiked. From one town to another, in all weathers. In addition, Paul sewed tents. (Acts 18:3). He did the mundane. He wrote letter upon letter to friends. He fundraised. The in-between miracle times in his three missionary journeys were rife with the mundane and the insignificant, except nothing about a Christian’s life is insignificant. Not Paul’s and not mine and not yours. The Lord cares for all our concerns. He clothes us and feeds us and He even knows the number of hairs on our heads. To Him, it’s all significant.
As for the women of the New Testament, Dorcas was beloved not because she was on storytelling tours of Rwanda empowering women for great things, but because she sewed. She made clothes for the poor and she “was always doing good”. (Acts 9:36). She lovingly helped, humbly and quietly, within her own sphere.
Mary, mother of God? Do we hear of her going on her book tour, telling about the angel that came to her one day, and the miracle of the three wise men or hyping up audiences with her harrowing tale of narrowly escaping the massacre of the innocents? No. Whether she was in Egypt or in Israel, Mary simply raised her Son. She brought Him up in the faith and managed her household and she raised Jesus’ siblings too. A few times a year she made the pilgimage to the Temple and the rest of the time, she did what women then and onward have done, she lived in her home and she was faithful to the Lord through His word.
Here are two articles about the plodding kind of faith that endures. That kind of faith is cement. It’s bedrock.
The first is by Kevin DeYoung, titled, Stop the Revolution. Join the Plodders.
It’s sexy among young people—my generation—to talk about ditching institutional religion and starting a revolution of real Christ-followers living in real community without the confines of church. Besides being unbiblical, such notions of churchless Christianity are unrealistic. It’s immaturity actually, like the newly engaged couple who think romance preserves the marriage, when the couple celebrating their golden anniversary know it’s the institution of marriage that preserves the romance. Without the God-given habit of corporate worship and the God-given mandate of corporate accountability, we will not prove faithful over the long haul.
This one is one of my favorites. It’s by John MacArthur, titled An Unremarkable Faith
Meet Larry, a thirty-six year old Science teacher. Larry married Cathy 12 years ago. They love each other and enjoy raising their two sons. Larry’s life wouldn’t hold out much interest to the average citizen. His Facebook account doesn’t draw many friends and nobody ever leaves a comment on his blog. In fact, most people would summarize Larry’s life with one word—boring. But not Larry. Teaching osmosis to junior high students, playing Uno with his kids, and working in the yard with Cathy is paradise to him. But the real love of his life is Jesus. Larry’s a Christian. He’s been walking with the Lord for more than 20 years.
Not that founding orphanages isn’t worthwhile or something women or men can’t or shouldn’t do. Not that going on a missionary trip to Africa isn’t something Jesus wants us to do. But the big doers are fewer than we think, despite the hype. Most of the church is populated with plodders. As Kevin DeYoung concluded his article,
Put away the Che Guevara t-shirts, stop the revolution, and join the rest of the plodders. Fifty years from now you’ll be glad you did.
“Terrorism took down the Towers, but faith rebuilds our hearts”
On September 11, 2001, Muslim terrorists attacked the United States by flying 4 planes into certain targets*, killing all on board and many bystanders too.
They hit the World Trade Center’s two towers in NYC, the Pentagon in Washington DC, and *one plane never did reach its intended target due to the heroics of the passengers. They instead drove the plane, suspected of targeting the Nation’s Capitol building, into the ground in Pennsylvania instead.
The attacks killed 2,996 people and injured over 6,000 others and caused at least $10 billion in property and infrastructure damage and $3 trillion in total costs. … It was the deadliest incident for firefighters and law enforcement officersin the history of the United States, with 343 and 72 killed respectively. (Wiki)
That day was 15 years ago but I remember its searing pain and bewilderment like it was yesterday. It occurred two years and two months before I was saved and I remember in the aftermath wondering a lot about death, eternity, and religion. It is still a painful day to remember.
As the rubble was starting to be cleared two days later, a volunteer who was looking for bodies came across a large piece of steel beam that had fused into what looked like a cross.
The Washington Post also has a story about the 9-11 cross at the Twin Towers site. The article states,
“A grief-exhausted excavator named Frank Silecchia found it on Sept. 13, 2001, two days after the terrorist attacks.” In the clip from The History Channel, Frank said, “Terrorism took down the Towers, but faith rebuilds our hearts”. The article recounts the discovery of the cross. In parts, a Catholic point of view shows through. However, it is still an interesting story of a grief-stricken soul trying to find meaning in the chaos.
The History Channel shows a clip of the story of the cross.
A few years ago I wrote a piece about the cross at the Colosseum in Rome. It is a simple sturdy cross, located at the place where the Christian martyrs were held below ground and pushed up to the floor of the amphitheater, where hungry lions were waiting to devour them.
The photo below is the one I had taken when I visited there in the late 1990s, before I was saved. I never saw the cross when I was visiting and snapping the photo. The lost truly are blind, unable to see the things of Christ. Yet after I was saved and I was sorting through photos, I spotted the cross immediately.
Recently Challies posted an essay titled The High Calling of Bringing Order out of Chaos. I liked reading about the original chaos into which God brought order, the creation of the earth. The article went on to describe the order that comes from labor, you know, work. Laboring to subdue the earth, and tending the Garden. Order is created by man’s work in obedience to God’s will. True order is created in man’s soul-submission to God’s spiritual will, which is belief in the Son.
An unsaved man’s soul is in chaos, formless, and void. It assigns no meaning to events that happen, such as 9-11. It does not know goodness, holiness, or God. The beauty of horrific events is that through them, some are saved. Their souls are knit into likeness of Jesus, increasingly conformed in holiness and purity to His.
Order is created with every regenerated heart. Every time a person comes to the cross, the soul which is without form, and void, is filled with grace and peace and is made a new creation in God’s image. Order ensues for the previously stony heart, made soft and pliable, conforming to His likeness.
The spiritual chaos brought by the terrorists’ act is one that can’t be described in any sensible manner. Shock, disbelief, anger, hunger for any and every scrap of information, then exhaustion, and finally raging grief eventually subsiding to a dull ache that arises whenever one thinks about the day fromt he distance of time. Millions of people asked the same questions that day. “Why does man continually do this to one another? Why is there war? Why did God let this happen?” Without Jesus, one can only answer in platitudes. With Jesus, every answer becomes clear.
Spiritually, emotionally, and nationally, chaos occurred. However, eventually order ensued. It was the same with the martyrs at the Colosseum. The chaos of the ghoulishly gleeful crowds, the spiritually blind howling for death of the Christians, the roars of the lions, the swirl of sand and dust and blood as the martyrs fell one by one. The world without Christ is one of spiritual chaos. With Jesus, the cross brings meaning and order to the troubled, turbulent soul.
Chaos
Life and order in creation must be sustained by God. (Psalm 104:29; Colossians 1:16-17. God uses chaos as a judgment- Isaiah 34:11 See also Isaiah 24:1,3-4,10-12,17-21; Isaiah 27:10; Isaiah 32:14; Zephaniah 1:14-15; Revelation 6:15-17. (source)
Orderliness
In his creating, sustaining and saving work, God reveals himself as a God of order. Likewise, the life of his people and of society as a whole should be orderly.
Orderliness in creation
Isaiah 45:12 See also Genesis 1:31; Job 26:7-10; Job 38:4-11; Psalm 8:3; Psalm 19:1; Psalm 104:5-9; Isaiah 40:26; Ac 17:26
Orderliness in providence
Genesis 8:22. See also Psalm 65:9; Psalm 104:14-27; Psalm 145:15; Acts 14:17. (source)
The attacks happened on a Tuesday. On Sunday, churches all across America were filled. People asking, seeking, trying to find order in the chaos. Pastors grappled with answering the graphically visible questions of life, death, religion. As one article I read said, the attacks delivered an unfathomable religious jolt.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. (Psalm 104:29).
As John MacArthur said after 9-11,
The difficult question, of course, is do most people even know this God they’re reaching out to in this time of need? And is He listening? Are there any absolute authoritative answers to the serious looming spiritual questions being raised as this worldwide crisis trickles down to an intimate individual’s spiritual issue between the creature and the Creator? How can people deal personally once and for all with the problems at the level of their own souls?
The chaos if life without the cross, and the orderliness of peace of life with the cross. It’s all about the cross, which means it’s all about Jesus. Whether times are good and flowing with milk and honey, or dramatically terroristic and chaotic, standing firm under the cross makes the difference.
Brown University, depraved minds, & biological impossibilities
I’m from Rhode Island. I was born in Providence, I lived there a while, and it’s where my grandparents lived their entire lives. I’m very familiar with Providence.
Brown University is an Ivy League school located on what is locally known as the “East Side”.The Boston Globe describes this area as,
communities unto themselves, such as Providence’s East Side. The area is college-centric, with Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design figuring prominently in life here. But even if you largely avoid the two college campuses, visitors still find the East Side rich in history, unique architecture, culture, and culinary flavor.
With Ivy League and Art college ‘culture’ usually comes liberalism. And so we see this headline below,
It’s enough to make me simultaneously sigh, say ‘gross’, and laugh at the absurdity of a man trying to use a tampon because he think’s he’s a woman who gets a period. SMH at biological impossibilities. Headlines like this also sadden me at the state of affairs in the world.
However I also smile in joy because Jesus never leaves us without a witness. Therefore, meanwhile…on the other side of the city, at the same time…
…at Grace Community Baptist Church, we have this-
I’m so grateful for the Lord who is the Head of His church. He is always working, raising up teachers like Dr Lawson, who teach men to preach well, who raise up solid congregations, who in turn identify more men for seminary or local leadership, who nurture youth as they grow, the next generation…
Yes these men will have their work cut out for them. Providence is a liberal city. But then again, Rome, Ephesus, and Corinth were liberal cities at the beginning. They were pagan through and through, without one believer…until the Apostles showed up. Until the women raised their boys in the Lord. Until the churches nurtured believers.
And so it goes. The Lord always leaves a witness. Elijah said to the LORD,
“He replied, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too.” (1 Kings 19:14 NIV).
The LORD answered
Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel–all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him.” (1 Kings 19:18 NIV)
By the way, you see the first photo of Brown University’s official crest & the University’s Motto? It’s “In Deo Speramus”, which means, “In God We Hope”.
Etiquette of meeting the monarch
There is an HBO series called John Adams which I believe to be one of the best historical treatments of one of our Founding Fathers, John Adams. That’s the title, and there is a scene I believe to be fraught with just as much tension as any thriller, and just as much import as any broadcast news flash. The moment was Adams’ torment at how to behave at his upcoming meeting with King George, whom the newly formed United States had vanquished in the Revolutionary War. Now Adams, no longer a royal subject, as a diplomat was was preparing to meet the King.
Wrapped into the wrinkle of defining their new relationship, was also the knowledge that Adams, originally a farmer from Quincy Massachusetts, was about to meet royalty, He lacked the proper etiquette. How does one show deep respect to someone in high authority? Meeting royalty was a minefield of rules and prescribed behaviors, of which Adams knew nothing. Quick lessons ensued. Continue reading “Etiquette of meeting the monarch”
TV, Movies, the Conscience, and Entertainment
I just wanted to watch a nice movie. It had been a long and stressful week. I’d worked all of Saturday writing and by Saturday night I wanted simply to turn my brain off and watch something enjoyable without having to think to much.
I searched for a nice movie like Up. Despicable Me. Babe, Lassie 1997. Eddie the Eagle. Something nice. Children’s movies from this summer didn’t interest me. I am over Nemo, so Finding Dory wasn’t in the cards. She can stay lost as far as I’m concerned. I don’t like Rudyard Kipling so Jungle Book was out. Already saw Secret Life of Pets.
I looked up “faith based movies” and was depressed at the list. There were so many false doctrinal movies on it, and I’d seen the one or two that were good. After having resisted it all this time I tried Mom’s Night Out. Nope, terrible. I was soooo right to resist it. I tried Risen. Nope, terrible. Platitudes and mushy love talk but no Jesus as risen God and no Gospel. Also, it was agonizingly slow.
Sinking Sand seems to have emerged for a nanosecond and disappeared from every radar known to man. I spent a good half hour looking for it online or on any streaming video service. Nope.
Sigh. Continue reading “TV, Movies, the Conscience, and Entertainment”
God’s Providence is like a Pointillist painting
This essay was first published at The End Time in February, 2014
——————————————
We know that the church is a body, a united body of believers.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:12)
The Holy Spirit ordains where each believer is to be and what gifts he is to have. He ordains where we are in the body so as to contribute to the good of the whole.
All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills (1 Corinthians 12:11)
It could be said that the Lord is painting a picture.
If you’re familiar with the Impressionist movement of art that emerged in the late 1800s in Paris, then you’re familiar with the works of Monet, Manet, Sisley, Renoir, & etc. These artists used short brush strokes to convey movement and impression, rather than precision. There was a sub-culture of the Impressionists called the Pointillists. Here is Georges Seurat’s famous pointillist painting, “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte“.
As the website IncredibleArt.org states,
Strictly speaking, Pointillism refers to the technique of using dots of pure color in such a way that, seen at the appropriate distance, they achieve maximum luminosity.” (source). Georges-Pierre Seurat made this technique famous. His painting,
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-1888) is one of the most famous paintings in the world. … At left you see a closeup of Seurat’s painting. It is a closeup of the the man laying down on the lower left. Even thought he appears to be wearing white pants, as you can see, the part of the pants in the shadow just above the grass has no white in it. It’s only when you look at it from a distance that the colors blend in. Seurat spent two years on this painting. He carefully planned it out with several sketches first.“
It could be said, that the earth is the canvas and the people are the points of paint God daubs precisely here and there, working toward an end.
I’ve seen pointillist paintings at museums. You look very closely and all you can see are daubs of color. Dots. If you back away to a distance, you can see the scene clearly. It’s amazing how the colors blend to make a seamless and beautiful picture.
We can think of ourselves as dots. We can’t see the whole picture, we don’t have the right perspective. God does. He puts a pink next to a blue and though all we can see is the blue next to us, we have to trust that the Great Artist is making something beautiful. Even if you don’t like the color pink, you know and trust that the Artist’s purposeful placement of it next to you will make the picture as a whole perfect when it is complete.
Just like heaven.
East is from the west: cardinal directions in the Bible
People don’t refer to cardinal directions of north, south, east, west very much any more. If someone asks for directions and you tell them to go north three blocks, they look at you like you just lapsed into Hindi.
In the days before we were too reliant on GPS, people traveled by using the sun, moon, and stars. They spoke of cardinal directions.
In the Bible there is a lot of talk about the east and the west. (Of course, north and south is also spoken of but I’m concentrating on east-west today).
East is a major direction in the Bible and not just for the directions, but for the symbolism. Let’s look at a few examples.
The Garden of Eden was planted toward the east. (Genesis 2:8).
The scriptures specify the LORD placed cherubim at the eastern entrance of the Garden, to protect it and the tree of life.
After God drove out the man, He placed a cherubim with flaming sword to protect this eastern entrance. (Genesis 3:24).
The tabernacle faced east. (Numbers 3:38).
When God’s glory comes/came to the Temple, it comes/came from the east:
Then he led me to the gate, the gate facing east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. And the sound of his coming was like the sound of many waters, and the earth shone with his glory. (Ezekiel 43:1-2).
The wise men followed the star which had risen in the east.
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him. (Matthew 2:2 KJV)
The Lord will return from the east. (Matthew 24:27).
For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.
The sun rises in the east and its rays shine from that direction. John 1:5 says God is Light, in Him there is no darkness at all. The west is where the sun sets, bringing darkness. The east is where the Light is.
When the sun rises, the light comes from the east. When the Son returns, His Light comes from the east.
There is much more that can be studied on even so mundane a topic as cardinal directions. The wonder of the Bible is that you can take practically any topic, any word, and explore. And do you know what you will come up with?
Jesus.
That’s why the Bible is so great. All scripture points to Jesus.
Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. (John 5:39 KJV)
 |
| Graphics Fairy |
the-end-time.org 