the gate

I was reading an LA Times article on personhood and abortion. (It’s a good article.)

In the middle of the article is this statement:

“I don’t believe that just because we will not get enough votes in an election that we should not do this. I don’t recall Martin Luther King checking the polls to see if he was right on civil rights.”
- Keith Mason

Yup. Majority opinion (on anything) is not God — nor is my opinion, or yours. Knowing who is Lord sure alleviates a lot of confusion.

Comments Off

UPDATE 10-6-09 - Check this out
Biggest, Tallest Tree Photo Ever
_______________________________
[end update]

I took this picture on Sunday, and thought of this poem.

World’s largest Cathedral Tree, nine trees in one!
Approximately 800 to 1000 years ago a very large tree stood in the
middle of this formation. When it fell it didn’t die. The roots and burls
of the stump sprouted and these nine trees happened to grow together
in a circle around the original mother tree’s stump, which has long
since rotted away. This tree is the site of Easter services each year
and also many, many weddings.

I think I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast.
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray.
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Under whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives in rain.
Poems are made by fools like me
But only God can make a tree.

Alfred Joyce Kilmer
(1886-1918)

Are you joyful like the trees? “…Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord, for He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth….” (Psalm 96:12,13)
“…The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.” ( Isaiah 55:12-13)

For me, I know when I don’t stay focused on the wonder and truly good news of the gospel, my joy starts to wane.

1 Comment »

As a follow up to Pablo’s post, Sunday night I heard Mark Driscoll say,

“Either you worship your money or you worship God with your money.”

There is no other option.

Comments Off

i’ve always thought that is we took the Law and Grace side by side and voted to see which life is harder, i would vote for grace.  i’m not referring to salvation necessarily, because fulfilling the Law to “earn” salvation is not just hard but impossible.  but in the sense of “lifestyle” for lack of better terms, i think grace is much harder.

see, with the Law, we had clearly drawn out rules and expectations that we could enumerate and follow.  for example:

• do not murder - pretty easy (for me at least)
• observe the sabbath - pull up your bark-o-lounger (sp?) and a coke and watch football all day.  what a sacrifice…
• give a tithe of your money to the Lord - grab your calculator and checkbook, not too hard

however, with grace, we have to listen to the Holy Spirit.  we have to consider our character and our values and what is truly important to us.  consider the opposite of the above passages:

• do not be angry at your brother - not so easy is it?
• live in community and fellowship with your brothers and sisters - that can get messy and difficult, right?
• give generously - i don’t necessarily consider 10% generous, it’s more like a calculated expenditure

in 2 corinthians chapter 8 paul teaches the Church about giving generously.  he uses the example of the macedonian churches that “in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality”.  they gave “according to their ability, and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord”.  and trip on this:  “…begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints”.

i’m pretty sure that the macedonian churches had moved on from the tithe at this point.  they were looking for ways to use their earthly resources to support the work of the Gospel and to support the saints.

paul uses a reference to the days in the wilderness where He fed His people with manna in v15 as if to remind them that the Lord will provide for them.

we shouldn’t be storing up our treasures here on this earth.  that stuff rots by morning.  but we should be living in a way that allows God to give us our daily bread, figuratively and literally.

i’m not speaking against all posessions necessarily, i own a house myself.  but our value to support the Gospel work and the saints is evident in how we choose to spend our money.

in v8 paul says “i am not speaking this as a command, but as proving through the earnestness of others the sincerity of your love also”.  how we use our money says alot about what is truly important to us.

giving according to the Law = not so hard.  giving generously according to grace = not so easy.

where are your treasures stored?

1 Comment »

Here’s a couple of thoughts I’ve been marinating in, and wanted to invite you to marinate with me.

“If the devil cannot ruin people by making them worse, he will ruin them by making them better.” - Martin Luther
(HT: Jeff Mooney)

“If you don’t [know you] need the gospel more than the people you’re sharing it with, you ought not be sharing it with them.”  - Dan Allender
(HT: Doug Wolter)

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Related post:
Are You A Christian Or A Moralist?

Comments Off

what is the criteria for mercy?  do we need to ask for it?  do we need to deserve it?  do we need to have remorse for our offense?

last thursday, famed member of the “manson family” and cold blooded murderer of sharon tate and her unborn baby (among others) was denied parole yet again, close to 40 years after her conviction.  this time, her case was one of medical mercy as she is dying in a bed from brain cancer, a paralyzed amputee.  she will die very soon it seems.  all she wants to do is die somewhere other than prison.

lemme start off with a susan atkins quote.  speaking of sharone tate, atkins says:

“She asked me to let her baby live,” Atkins said. “I told her I didn’t have mercy for her.”

suffice to say that this woman is cold, evil, and showed no mercy to sharon tate and her baby.  so does she deserve mercy?

i think to begin with, we cannot speak the words “deserve” and “mercy” in the same sentence.  mercy is never deserved, it is granted.  it does not require us to even want or request it.  mercy lies solely in the giver.

the Bible tells us in the same breath to “do justly and love mercy” in micah 6:8 as a requirement from our God.  in the case of susan atkins, wouldn’t justice and mercy lie in opposition?

i believe that the entire message of the Scripture is like that verse, to do justly and love mercy.  as ecclesiastes says, there is a time for everything.

** my opinion ** is that we should send her home.  i just came to that conclusion mind you, i’ve been thinking about it since i read the article last week.  we can never love mercy if we do not, on occasion, put aside justice.  and in this case, she is no longer a threat to anyone.

it’s a hard lesson, and a very “grey area” matter.  if you think we should leave her in her cell to rot, i can respect that.

let’s just be grateful to our God that He is rich in mercy and lavished it upon us.  let’s be grateful that He set aside justice (I know, I know - He fulfilled justice on our behalf - go with me here) and chose mercy for us “while we were yet sinners” and “enemies of God”.

Comments Off

have you read/heard obama’s speech given to the school kids today (this was written before the speech aired - i read the text of the speech instead here)?

i’m getting a little irritated at all the right-wing conservatives that immediately assumed that this speech was going to be a communist democratic manifesto of some kind, as if the white house was going to broadcast subliminal messages to abort babies and give them control of health care.

i grew just as weary of the left-wing liberal ”W” haters that immediately looked for a gun rack or a war/oil conspiracy under every rock.

at the end of the day, we need to objective people in our politics.  after all, our politics do not define who we are, our faith in Jesus and our belonging to His family do.

i’m not a big obama fan, but i’m TOTALLY down with this speech.  play it for your kids, bump it over the school loudspeakers.  print it out and make it assigned reading for crying out loud.  our kids need to be educated, and they need to be inspired to stay the course.

chill out for a second crying lady and give obama a chance. 

3 Comments »

First a quote, and then we’ll get all happy.

Charles Hodge, a widely respected theologian, lived in the 1800s. He says,

It is, perhaps, more correct to say that the righteousness of Christ, including all He did and suffered in our [place], is imputed to the believer as the ground of his justification, and that the consequences of this imputation are, first, the remission of sin, and secondly, the acceptance of the believer as righteous. And if righteous, then he is entitled to be so regarded and treated.
- Systematic Theology, vol. III

The gospel tells us that all who rest in what Jesus did on our behalf are completely forgiven by God and counted, by God, as righteous as Jesus himself. Hodge makes the point that if the gospel is true (and it is), then we are entitled to be treated by God as people who are as righteous as Jesus. THAT’S ASTOUNDING!!

Do you expect God to treat you as righteous? Remember when God said of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”? Do you expect God to relate to you like he is well pleased with you? Most of us don’t because we either don’t understand the gospel, or we don’t believe it.

I know, without Jesus, how I deserve to be treated by God. He should put me on a stick and dangle me over the wildfire of his choice (just picture a roasting marshmallow with my face on it). But the stunning truth of the gospel is that, for all who rest in what Jesus did for us, God relates to us as he does to his own perfect Son!

Just think on that for a good long while and see if you don’t get all happy.

“But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it: ‘How happy are those whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sins are put out of sight. Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.’” (Romans 4:5-8)

2 Comments »