All posts by ljmonson

Culture, Personal, Politics

God on a shelf

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I am not a “gloom, despair, excessive misery” type of person.  Most of the time I strive to seek out the light at the end of the tunnel. But I am discouraged by our nation.  It seems that God seems without substance.  God has become almost unimportant.  God has become an afterthought.  God has become so inconsequential that He has become a supplement, something that you take at night to help you sleep. To me, God in America has become a necessary item to place on a shelf to be called upon when things get so bad that He is pulled of the shelf and shaken up like a holy talisman. If we take a poll, which we seem to think is the only way to figure out what we really believe, God may well still believe in God’s existence. But as one philosopher said, “we may nonetheless consider him less interesting than television, his commands less authoritative than their appetites for affluence and influence, his judgments no more awe-inspiring than the evening news, and his truth less compelling than the advertiser’s sweet fog of flattery and lies.”

I don’t know where the line is, but it is there.  When does our apathy, poll driven, and politically correct country cross the line to where God has had enough?  In my studies this week on the Minor Prophets, I read, “A jealous and avenging God is the Lord; The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord take vengeance on His adversaries, and He reserves wrath for his enemies.  The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” Nahum 1:2,3.

Bible, Bible Study, Culture, Politics, Worship

Micah’s question

It was his favorite spot.

High above his hometown of Moresheth.  Though it was quite a hike up the mountain, it was his place of worship, his place of prayer, his place of solitude, his place of getting above it all and just be still and know that the LORD was God.

It was high enough to see afar off the edge of the Mediterranean sea.  The blue was metered by the distance and late fog that rolled in about this time each evening. The sun was about to dip into the sea.  It was a special time between Micah and the God of Judah.  It was a moment of pure religion and worship.

In an attitude of prayer. He watched the sun just touch the sea.  Light was slowly dimming, to Micah it was a parable of his life.  The colors around him became less and less. Twilight was his hour of meditation.  A time of quiet before God.

Below was the plain of GAD the ancient home of the past enemy of Philisita the home of Goliath. In the quiet of that moment his mind went further up the mountain to its crest.  There was the cave that David had hidden in from Saul.  On the other side was Bethlehem. And even further was Jerusalem.  Jotham had replaced Uzziah and he was even worse leader, filled with sin and idolatry.

Micah had witnessed the wrath of God when Judah’s sister nation fell to Assyria. Some of the Israelites made it out.  With nothing more than what was on their backs they had move back to Judah.  It was a boarder crisis. And with them came their worship of Idols, wickedness and a bent toward the depravity of their hometowns.

Looking again to the setting sun.  The very edge was now touching the horizon.  Dipping its edge into the water grave of the sea.  Sun suddenly was clouded by a fog, intercepting its rays. Darkness came quickly like a great judgement.  The day, the light, the warmth suddenly vanished. With the quickened darkness came a sadness, a loneliness and a pent up anger.

How long will your mercy meter your justice?  When will your wrath become stronger than your love?

Looking at our own world I too ask.  Looking at our nation in turmoil where no one wants to help the regular person. YES LORD, HOW LONG WILL YOUR MERCY METER YOUR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOUR WRATH BECOME STRONGER THAN YOUR LOVE?

Based upon the first chapter of the minor prophet Micah.

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HOPE doesn’t save

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I have been overwhelmed by an effort to understand or at least get some insight into the Minor Prophets of the Old Testament.  It is amazing the weaving of the web of Hebrew life.  I would think the people should all be walking around with neck braces due to the number of times the nation of Judah jerked up and down in a constant cycle of repentance, worship, apathy, excuses, sin and historical calamity.

The answer for the period from the division of the Northern and Southern Kingdoms to the final restoration and the rebuilding of the temple was the rise of Prophet after Prophet.  I watch the life of the people, the chosen people, the people elect, the people called to be set apart, fall again and again and again. I hear the voices of anguish and disappointment in the prophets words.  They were the only hope for the promised ones. 

It was not the hope of traditional worship, ceremonies, sacrifices, great walls, and beautiful temples.  They were not saved by their hope.  Hope goes away when an onslaught of calamity takes the best and leaves nothing.  Hope may well be instructive and may suffice for a moment or two. Never-the-less,  the decadence of the nation, the rejection of righteousness, the growth of priestly formalism, caused hope to simply die a cruel and wimpy death.

“I can’t stand your religious meetings.
    I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
    your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
    your public relations and image making.

I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
    When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
    I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
    That’s what I want. That’s all I want.

That was AMOS 5:21-25 The message.

What do you think?

Ministry, Preaching

Preaching

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It is tough to be the mouthpiece of God.  The task of preaching is nothing to be taken lightly or with little deliberation. It requires the very soul to be transformed to the expected mold of people like Moses, Jacob, David, Isaiah, John, Paul, Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Moody, Graham. It is the most difficult thing to do. 

It is difficult to be an artist.  To paint a portrait with the skill and practice of years of experience.  To touch the canvas in such a way that the person being painted will live.  To create a picture which seems to breath and speak.  But how much more is it to take human words and paint the face of Jesus that will draw mankind to the love of the Savior?

It is difficult to master the art of music. To take the world of tone, harmony, and melodies which set the soul to tingle.  To take eight notes and express them so well that the hearer is filled with the same emotions as the singer.  But how much more is to take the world eternal and translate it into finite human speech, so that human hearts on which it spreads its parade of all history to a point the create a celestial sympathetic vibration.

It is a great thing to take a great piece of marble and expose the form of David like Michelangelo. He made that statue live and all that gaze upon it are amazed.  King David in perfect form and stature displayed for all to see the art of the sculptor’s hand.  How much more to take temporary words spoke but once and create a powerful yet meek Jesus that would please the King of Kings.

The lawyer has a very difficult job to do, but it is not the most.  It is hard to apply the complicated and sometimes illogical laws of man to specific situations to ensure justice.  How much more is the job of a preacher to take the words of the Lawgiver and apply it to all without prejudice or favoritism.  The preacher must proclaim the Just Law of God.

Oh, how about a doctor.  That is a tough job. To know the thousands of possibilities for a cure, to learn pharmaceuticals role in healing, To understand the many inter-related functions of the body.  Without skill and knowledge, the doctor is nothing.  But to preach to a mind sick in sin, to soothe a fevered brow who is filled with guilt and regret, that is something greater than all the aspirin in the world. To be able to soothe a conscience crying out in pain requires something more.

I am a preacher but I take no pride in it.  It is all God, it is “thus says the LORD.”

Bible, Bible Study, Theology

Two Creations?

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Discussion of the Bible is one of the few my great pleasures.  I am not a theologian by any sense of the word, but I do read and try to understand the Bible. 

Because of our discussion a few nights ago I had occasion to dig into the Hebrew language to better understand an assertion of two complete and separate creations found in Genesis

Yes, the Genesis opens with two different creation stories.  Both describe the creation of animals, plants, and humans.  Never-the-less they are also a number distinct differences and may well even contradict each other.

For example, though these stories describe some of the same events, they order them differently:

  • Genesis 1: the creator makes plants then animals and then simultaneously creates man and woman.  In Genesis 2: God creates a humans, plants then animals, and later he divides the human into female and male.
  • Additionally, the two stories employ different names for the deity.  The first account uses the Hebrew word ELOHIM, meaning God and the second instance uses YHWH which is a tetragrammaton for “LORD”.
  • The two accounts are also very different in literary style. 
    • Genesis 1 is well organized into three days of preparation and three days of formation with “and it was so” KJV.  By the seventh day, the creation existed in proper and good order and God rests.  It is a very orderly and well packaged event sequence.  It suggests a very orderly and well packaged universe created by a God that is also very orderly and well packaged.
    •  The second story, starting in Genesis 2:4, through to the end of chapter 3, lacks the structure and orderly structure of the first account in the original language.  It is much less structured and with much less formula.  It is written in very dramatic and painted with melodramatic strokes. It is portrayed as a series of seven scenes with much more detail.

My belief about these differences and similarities derived from my personal studies have been compared to the conclusions to published authors are summarized here:

  1. The differences in accounts reflect two separate sources of oral transmission.  That there was a great span of time from the event and the writing down of these accounts.  The Hebrew Bible from which we as Christians take as God’s communication to the People of God under the leadership of Moses is made up of two viewpoints of the same event.
  2. The account of creation in Genesis was the effort to relate to both oral traditions.  He included both to provide a better understanding of two different viewpoints.
  3. Genesis wasn’t written by a scientist or a modern historian.  Chapter one is pure poetry.  Genesis 1-11, “pre-history,” is couched in figurative language. We read news differently from editorials and poems; we must do the same when we read the Bible and adjust our expectations and reading “lens” to the literary form.
  4. The author’s intent matters.  We must take into account the author and his design to portray ideas and thoughts and instruction. The questions of our time are quite different from the type of questions asked in the times of Moses. 
    • We would ask how the world began.  We would ask WHEN it came into being.  We would ask WHAT was the process and make it specific and exact?  We would ask WHICH came first and how did the next being become what he was?
    • The questions of the ancient world were different: WHO created? WHO’s in charge? WHY am I here, and HOW do I relate to other beings? WHY is there evil and can anything be done about it?
  5. These two viewpoints have a very distinctive predisposition to explain the creation.
    • The first creation is seen through the eyes of someone with a concept of God as being distant.  He would see the creation story as an event having a master plan.  God was a God that dictated the creation and it was done.  Please note this view is also exampled in John’s Gospel as the Father as the Power of creation and Jesus the creator.
    • The second depicts God as a human-like figure who walks in the garden with His creation.  It is a view, God has a hands-on God creation; hence the use of LORD,  God is seen as accessible, touchable, caring.
  6. These two accounts, seen and understood from two quite different experiences, have been combined in Genesis to read as a single literary unit. 
    • The first account starts with a title introducing as the time (YOM) “when God began to create heaven and earth.”  It concludes with an additional summary statement that puts a reasonable border of the account: “this is the story of heaven and earth when they were created” as found in Genesis 2:4.
    • There is a break in our Christian Bible between Genesis 1:31 and Genesis 1:2 which was added by Robert Estienne 1551 and really didn’t consider the narrative style change. And further there should well be a break in the middle of verse 2:4.
    • The second story begins mid verse in Genesis 2:4 with a parallel statement and word pair, “In the day the Lord God made earth and heaven.”
  7. Both narratives start with the same word pair, they place the terms in opposite order.
    • The narrative of the first picture or viewpoint of creation wanted to depict a heavenly creation.  The first account starts with “ELOHIM (GOD) created heaven and earth.”  The first story is very cosmic and seen from the ethereal dwelling place of God.  It is God standing aloof and distant.  The first story pictures the creation of an expanse to be separated between the heavenly and earthly waters along with the sun, moon, and stars.
    • The narrative of the second picture or viewpoint of creation wanted to depict an earthly creation.  The second picture characterized a view point that saw “YHWH (LORD) made earth and heaven.  The LORD was seen as an active participant set HIS priority as the story of earth.  In the second narrative shows not the creation of the sky or heavenly sphere but the formation of shrubs, fields, earth, and a garden.
  8. These two views have been melded and reconciled as a single literary unit.
    • The first text from the heavenly viewpoint ends with a pointer to the earth.
    • The second begins in Genesis 2:4 directing our attention again to the accounts of the earth.
  9. In its present form, as was finalized as a combined in the TANAKH (Jewish Bible) in the major first section of that Bible as the TORAH (Jewish section called the teaching) in the late or early second century BC, the Hebrew sees the creation account providing a prologue to the subsequent stories of Genesis.  These stories are primarily about the promises and accounts of the promised people.  Most of these stories were handed down from father to son for thousands of years.
  10. Context matters when trying to understand the revealed will of God.  Both Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 are together parts to a larger story. 
    • Genesis 1 is about God’s action and purpose.  God is found 32 times and every time He is the subject of the sentence. Every time it is God acting.  Every time it is God intentionally building something characterized as “Good”
    • The “days” of creation are symbolic. Genesis 1 is poetic, and poetic structure has meaning. Sequential days are not there for themselves as perfect 24-hour blocks of time, they are there to show sequence, to show order and hierarchy.
    • Notice that account one begins in darkness, formlessness, and emptiness. On “days” one through three God banishes the darkness and brings order to the chaos: heaven and sky, earth and land. On “days” four through six God fills the void, populating each realm in the same order. God makes people only after everything is ready for them to live in and rule. They are the “end” as in purpose, not sequence, of the created universe.
    • The first sequence is a poetic and literary “arrow” pointing to chapter two and the seventh day. It reveals the grand purpose of creation: that everything is ordered to the Sabbath and worship of God.  Genesis 1 is a prologue to the rest.
    • One Hebrew scholar notes that the first account of Genesis 1 was written much later than chapter 2.   It functions as an “entrance Hymn” to the great drama of salvation.
      1. While it is sung God fills the stage All the other players enter in sequence filling the stage each with their own dramatic entrance.  An all is “Good”.
    • There’s a perspective shift between chapters. In Genesis 1, the reader’s a distant observer of the creation of the universe.  Genesis 2 zooms in for a close-up on the “man” God created everything for.
    • Sequence shows relationship in chapter two.  The events are arranged to show truth about humanity in relationship to God, the animals, and the world. Chapter 1 told us man was created in God’s image, given dominion over the earth, and told to be fruitful and multiply. It is not over.  Creation is still ongoing.  Man, made in God’s image, can create.
    • The creation story from the ethereal God of Genesis 1 points to the hands-on God of Genesis 2.  The second account is an expansion of the first.  It is very human oriented.
      1. Man is made from dust. He does not evolve from something else and no other being is used to create him.
      2. Vegetation is for man’s food and pleasure and to teach obedience—he is creature, not creator of the world, and must learn to relate to God.
      3. The animals are created so man will know his special status—that he’s made for more. He doesn’t come from them, they are brought to him and he names and rules them.
      4. Man is only complete when God brings from his body another, the woman. Side by side, they will not only rule, but fill the earth. Together they are in God’s image: male and female; ruling the earth; fruitful. They live in harmony with creation, with each other, and with God.
  11. The first creation makes sense only considering the new creation in Christ.
    • Genesis 1 and 2 give us two complementary accounts of a single creation that together help us begin to understand the “whos” and “whys” of our existence.  But they are part of a larger story and we can’t fully understand them without knowing the end and purpose of the whole.
    • Perhaps that’s why John started his Gospel with another creation account. “In the beginning was the Word,” he wrote.  “All things were made through him […] The light shines in the darkness […] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
    • John’s deliberate use of language from Genesis helps us see the coming of Christ as a new creation.  It also helps us understand God’s purpose in Creation from the start.

I fully respect my brother’s view of two creations.  I don’t think it will make a difference to his salvation. But as a teacher once said to me, “it is a tertiary discussion that needs noting but not to a point of discord.”  For me, it is enough to say, “God made it, God made me, God Loves me, I love God.”  Anyway according to Revelation 21 it is all going away and will be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth. 

Enough said.  I welcome our continued discussions.

Just Larry.

Life, Motivation, Personal, Sermon Illustration

No choices left?

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I completed a Bible study a couple of months ago with ten men about decision making. It was about the choices we make and what criteria we as Christians should use.  But while looking through my obligatory Facebook friends, I was struck by a forlorn and heart-breaking post.  He lives in the back of his car, lives from moment to moment and he seems to be saying, “I have no choices left.”  The outpouring of this helplessness is being spewed out for the world to hear and it is all negative.

In John 15 there is an account of an invalid.  Someone in worse circumstances than my acquaintance.  He could not walk.  He couldn’t gain meaningful employment.  His only choice was to depend on a few that knew him to bring him to a place of prayer, the pool of Bethesda.  No options, no hope, no dignity, no expectations other than getting into the swirling waters first.  But even that was almost impossible because he had no one to help him in. As Max Lucado said, “God’s efforts are strongest when our efforts are useless.”

Jesus told the man, “stand up, pick up your mat and walk.” In a moment a flash of a second the man was able to do just that.

We have to take Jesus at His word.  When God tells us to get up and get out, God enables this motion, this progress to something better.  I believe there is a stubborn unwillingness to cast off our maladies and just do.  When Jesus forgives your sin let the guilt go with it.  When Jesus says you are a child of God, act like it.  When Jesus says something it is our obligation to believe Him.

When Jesus says, “stand up,” don’t just sit there thinking of all the reasons not to but in faith, get up and go.

Just saying.

Life, Personal, Ramblings

Relationship Ideas!

I have a file in my desk that captures all the things which I need to incorporate into my writings.  It is called “IDEAS”.  It is often surveyed for current relevance and note-worthiness.  Today I pulled one out that seemed to be apropos for today.  I seem to remember this list as a culmination of the teachings of Jesus from the Gospel of Mark.  A listing of relationship concepts that need to be nurtured and kept close to my heart.  It is in no specific order than being typed here.

  • We need an attitude of determination to have relationships.
  • We need to be willing to learn from others and be willing to change.
  • We need to recognize the authority of Jesus Christ.
  • We need to know Jesus personally.
  • We need to be dependent upon God.
  • We need to keep near the warmth of Christian fellowship
  • We need renewal and restoration includes confession to God.
  • We need to accept the responsibility of servanthood.
  • We need to love enough to lay down our lives.
  • God is faithful to us.  We must be faithful to Him.
  • God’s purpose in our personal world is to lead us to greater things.
  • We must let the Word of God stand in judgement of our lives.
  • Good News!  God loves me and loves you.
Uncategorized

Converts or Disciples?

The local congregation of believers I attend has been blessed with celebrations of baptism.  Mostly young teenaged youth along with a sprinkle (not meant as a pun) of young adults.  I am excited that the church still heralds this outward sign of an inward grace.  It should be a characteristic of any spirit-filled church.  The beauty and eagerness of these new creatures in Christ brought to mind the Biblical reference in Acts 16:5 “The churches were strengthened in faith and grew daily in number.”

As my strange and non-sequitur mind works, I started to wonder what is more important than converts to the faith.  I discovered after a couple of hours of research a phrase that has excited me, “The church is not commanded to make converts, but disciples.”  Is the goal of the church, if it is expecting long term growth, to fill the pews with converts or disciples?

One study by the LifeWay Research group compiled data on this question.  They broke their results into two groups.  Churches that have the most converts or “C” churches and churches that have the most disciples or “D” churches. This study was on churches with less than 250 attendees. 

Sorted by church priority, there were no appreciable differences between the convert oriented and disciple-oriented churches in this survey. There were some differences in the order of priority but basically very similar results.

But what stood out to me was the Disciple churches saw evangelism dollars as a higher priority than the Convert churches.  And secondly, the priority to provide for additional outside of the church activities was greater in the Convert Churches than the Disciple churches.  These two data points are remarkable in that the Churches that are making the greatest number of disciples spend more money on evangelism and less emphasis on outside activities. The third conclusion was the method of pastoral care and communications to the unchurched: In the Disciple Church pastors were seen as communicators with the unchurched and the Convert Church Pastors were seen as evangelizers.

So what am I to make of this wealth of data?  Churches that have less than 250 attendees mostly do the same stuff.  The exception is in the perception of the pastor as an evangelist for “C” churches or a good communicator for the “D” churches.

Just saying…

Uncategorized

The Perfect Church

As the time passes in my stream of life on this side of heaven there are fewer and fewer responsibilities which I take upon myself. One of those responsibilities is the care and nurture of my two grandchildren. One is very close and I help teach lessons of life and nature. The other is across the country and I have little or no control to guide. I trust his parents to do their due diligences for my little one’s little one. Joe has expressed a interest in things spiritual like the Bible and church. His mother has taken my little man to church and I am overjoyed at the prospect of new understanding and burgeoning faith.

But there is a problem. My daughter-in-law disagrees with one of the teaching and seems to want to sever the church relationship. This is a letter I sent to her that both time and wisdom has impressed upon me.

“Dear daughter:

After much thought and personal study, I wish to address your concern about a specific teaching at the church you have attended. You point out a difference of belief between yourself and the church.  First there is no perfect church if they let people in the door.  Each has their own ideas, beliefs, rules, precepts, regulations, commands, and even prohibitions. But in reality they are just but small things compared the ultimate lessons of Love and acceptance.  There is no perfect theology (the study of God), each church creates a code of theology and try to hold it up as the best one.  But there is no such thing.  We are all just people with our own windows into heaven.  Do not give into the tyranny of stated do’s and don’ts.  Look for the best and you will find it.  Look for the little things that may separate you and you will also find them. 

Please don’t give in to the Nirvana point of view.  That view says, “I will not go to any church as long as it does not conform perfectly with my point of view.”  The Nirvana point of view would say, “seat belts do not save everyone in a crash, there for I will never wear my seat belt.”  Perfection will always get in the way of the good.  Don’t say to Joey or to yourself, “If it is not perfect, I am not going to do it at all.”  The Church will never be perfect as long as its measuring stick is doing, it must be about being. And the greatest part of being is Love.”

Bible, Culture, Preaching, Theology

Words are important!

I have a facebook account in which you may well call me a lurker. I don’t post much. Once and a while I will be struck by a phrase or an idea that can’t be ignored. Today a post from a wonderful person reposted the phrase, “We need preachers who preach that hell is still hot, that heaven is still real, that sin is still wrong, that the Bible is God’s Word and that Jesus is the only way of Salvation.” What really struck me from that was the seeming lack of any of these things from the pulpit, but even more from those calling themselves Christians. All in the name of being more socially minded and more sensitive, and more politically correct, we (this includes me) have seemed to let the world dictate our speech, our behavior and belief structures.

I believe that we need good strong definitions to the words we use and hold on to. Take for instance the word sin. It does not mean it is all ok if you can get away with it. Or if there are no current prohibitions from in by civil law. For me sin is “any feeling or thought or speech or action coming from the heart which does not treasure God over, under, through, around, and within all other things.” Sin is preference over God. Sin is mainly not what you do, but what you are.