Monthly Archive for November, 2010

With his name, the prophet, Micah asks the right question

Published on November 30, 2010 in Micah. 0 Comments

Careful study of Micah will allow you to see that God is holy and judges sin.  But, also that he is a gracious forgiving God.

I am currently preaching a series from the book of Micah. In contrast to his contemporary, Isaiah, Micah does not give us much detail about his personal call, but we do have his name.

“Micah” means, “Who is like Yahweh?”  (“Yawhweh” being the personal name of God given to Israel).  The text of Micah allows us to better know God.

Much of the book of Micah warns that God is holy and just.  Micah prophesied in response to a rebellious people who were breaking covenant with God.  They chose to sin, now they would suffer.  Because of their rebellion, Micah warns that all will become ruin (2:10-11).

We ought not to deceive ourselves.  God will not be mocked.  We reap what we sow.  (Galatians 6:7-8).

But, Micah does not conclude with judgment.  Inserting his own name into the text (notice the bold), Micah concludes:

Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance?  He does not retain his anger forever, because he delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; he will tread our iniquities under foot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham, as you have sworn to our fathers from the days of old (Micah 7:18-20).

Bruce Waltke comments:

“Micah, by artfully inserting his name in the forgiven people’s hymn of praise at the end of the book (7:18) , applies the meaning of his name, “Who is like Yahweh?’, to the Lord’s incomparable quality to forgive his guilty people and to be true to his promises to the patriarchs. God’s memorial name, Yahweh, became famous in the early days of Israel’s history when he hurled the Egyptian army into the depths of the sea. Its luster is added to when he promises to hurl the iniquities of his people Jacob into the depths of the sea (7:19).” Waltke, TOTC, 137.

Stillman Valley Football: Is leaving it all on the field enough?

Published on November 29, 2010 in Sports Links. 0 Comments

Is leaving it all on the field enough?  The answer is “no” and “yes.”

Our Stillman Valley football team came up an interception short on Friday.  With under a minute to play, Stillman began a drive to win a state championship.  Quarterback Dane Green first completed a pass to running back Nate Bond.

#24 Nate Bond followed blocks from #65 Gregg Ballard and #53 Russell Stone before stepping out of bounds to stop the clock.

Green then delivered a downfield strike to Bryce Dixon.  Dixon has been sure handed all year, whether holding for the kicking game or receiving.  He brought Green’s pass in and got out of bounds.  Stillman was seven yards from knocking a win through the uprights.

But, hopes of a game winning field goal ended when Illini West’s Ser Whitaker picked off a Green pass.

No one can question whether Stillman left it all on the field.  They did.  The effort of the 2010 Stillman Valley team is still on the Big Ten turf of Memorial Stadium.

The question is, “Was leaving it all on the field enough?”

On the one hand, where football is concerned, the answer is “no.”  If you don’t believe me, just ask the players.  They will agree.  Just playing hard in the state championship isn’t enough.

Some might counter, “Well over time the loss will soften and the players will accept it.”

With a linebacker in his face, Dane Green completed a pass to sure handed Bryce Dixon. I don’t think so.  Not this group.  In fact, I’ll bet you if they live to be 98 years old it still won’t be enough.  I’ll be long gone, but if you see one of them in 80 years from now in a retirement home, ask him if it was enough to play hard in the 2010 State Championship.  Duck when you do because he will probably his chuck his bingo card at you for even suggesting it.

For the record, I’m with them.  I’d throw my bingo card too.

But there is football, where leaving it all on the field is not enough, and then there is life.  And, where life and character are concerned, the answer to the question is a different one.  Was it enough to show character and resolve and grit, to never give up until the final whistle?  The answer is, “yes.”  Representing our community, playing in front of our state, it was more than enough.  We couldn’t be prouder.

And, if our football team can take such character and apply it to whatever is next for them.  If they can pursue the development of Christian character with such energy and commitment.  Then it will be enough in life too.  Those same qualities will serve them well, even 80 years from now playing bingo in a retirement home.

700 billion minutes on Facebook

Published on November 29, 2010 in Social Media. 0 Comments

Even though I am a pastor in a small town, I am changing how I connect with people as a result of the explosive growth of Facebook.

If you read Tim Challies’ reflections about how Facebook is changing culture you will understand why:

Seven hundred billion minutes. That’s how much time Facebook’s 500 million active users spend on the site every month. 700,000,000,000 minutes. Let that one sink in for a moment. Every month we spend the equivalent of 1.3 million years on Facebook; the equivalent of nearly 18,000 lifetimes. More than half of us login every single day; we average 130 friends. And we spend vast amounts of time on there.

Facebook now offers 900 million different objects or pages for us to interact with—groups, events, community pages, and so on. We upload over 3 billion photographs every month (which means we’re uploading millions every hour).

Do you know what really blows my mind about all of this? Facebook is only 7 years old. Most of us have joined in only the past 2 or 3 years. The growth charts are out of this world:

Facebook Growth

So think about this one.

The rest here.

Questions and Answers with Jerry Bridges Part II

Published on November 28, 2010 in Gospel. 0 Comments

As I mentioned Friday, one of the authors who has most influenced my life is Jerry Bridges.  I am so humbled that he was willing to endorse Unpacking Forgiveness.

If you have a couple of minutes, you will benefit from listening to Bridges give brief answers to important questions.

Here for more.

In this post I give a summary of the Gospel.  Or, here I link to some thoughts from Trevin Wax.

Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly contends that the time to forgive Michael Vick is here

Published on November 27, 2010 in Forgiveness and Sports Links. 2 Comments

Michael VickRick Reilly says it’s time to unpack forgiveness with Michael Vick.  I agree.

I’m just not sure what people want Michael Vick to do.

Quit football? Return to prison? Drown himself in the same lake where he and his crew used to drown dogs? Would he be forgiven then?

Now that Vick is having an eye-bugging season for the Philadelphia Eagles — 11 touchdowns, zero interceptions, four starts, four wins, one "Monday Night Football" jersey sent to the Pro Football Hall of Fame — it seems only to have torqued off dog lovers worse.

"If it were up to me, they would have locked him up and thrown away the key," blogged Sumo Pop recently.

As if 18 months in Leavenworth, and six more in a halfway house, aren’t punishment enough.

"Michael Vick should give half of his … salary to animal rights groups," Liz McGowin wrote on PETA.org.

As if losing $100 million and three years in the prime of his career wasn’t steep enough.

"Michael Vick is a Sociopathic Dog-Torturing, Dog-Maiming, Dog-Drowning, Dog-Electrocuting Pile of S—," somebody posted on Vick’s Twitter page Thursday. Vick’s Twitter page was running about half against him this week — until it was frozen for "suspicious activity." . . .

Read the rest here.

Questions and Answers with Jerry Bridges

Published on November 26, 2010 in Gospel. 0 Comments

One of the authors who has most influenced my life is Jerry Bridges.  I am so humbled that he was willing to endorse Unpacking Forgiveness.

If you have a couple of minutes, you will benefit from listening to Bridges give brief answers to important questions.

More here.

This will get you in the spirit of the holidays

Published on November 25, 2010 in Recommended Links. 2 Comments

Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving. If you watch what happened in this mall in Canada, you will be well on your way to the spirit of the holidays. It makes me wish I could sing!

 

HT: Challies

Suppose at the Thanksgiving table . . .

Published on November 25, 2010 in Psalms and Worship. 0 Comments

Praise is due to you O God in Zion (Psalm 65:1a).

Use this Norman Rockwell image to picture several generations sitting around a Thanksgiving table.

Imagine that as the turkey is set in place, a mother says to her daughter, “Thank Grandma for the turkey.”

And, then picture that the little girl sasses in response, “I am not thanking grandma.  What did the old lady ever do for me?”

How do you suppose that you would process that in your home?

It makes one cringe just to think about it.  The debt that a family owes to the matriarch is incalculable.  Such ingratitude would be despicable.

If we understand that it is wrong to not thank the matriarch of a family, how much more should we see that a failure to thank God is despicable?

A powder keg in Korea

Published on November 24, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

When you watch the news about Korea, pray for the return of Christ, pray Revelation 22:20: “He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming soon.’  Amen.  Come Lord Jesus.”

As we anticipate Thanksgiving and then Advent Season, we should pray for the return of Christ when He will bring great joy to the world and make the nations prove the glories of His righteousness.

Until then, there are wars and rumors of war.  Humanly speaking, one evil despot might easily start a war.

From the Big Picture:

Yesterday, November 23rd, North Korea fired scores of artillery shells at the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, killing at least four (two soldiers, two civilians), wounding 18 more, destroying several houses, and setting numerous fires in one of the most serious clashes between the two countries in decades. North Korea claimed it was a response to earlier shells fired by South Korea – which the South acknowledged had been fired, but as an exercise, and not into North Korean territory. 70,000 South Korean troops were beginning an annual nationwide military drill called "Safeguarding the Nation" in the area, near the spot where a South Korean naval vessel was sunk in March, killing 46 sailors – which Seoul also blamed on North Korea. This attack coupled with recent revelations about the North’s nuclear capabilities and escalating threats and counter-threats have raised tensions around the region – even as athletes from both Koreas continue to compete on a world stage, against each other and other nations, in the Asian Games in China.

More at the Big Picture.

“Where the Wild Things Are,” is only a children’s story

Published on November 24, 2010 in Psalms. 3 Comments

Only God stills the “Wild Things” of life (Psalm 67:7).

When our children were young, Where the Wild Things Are was a favorite.  I can still quote most of it.

The story is simple.  Max mouths off to his mother and gets sent to his room.  To occupy himself, he imagines that his room is a far away land infested with terrifying “Wild Things.”

The Wild Things are a scary bunch.  They roar their terrible roars, roll their terrible eyes, and gnash their terrible teeth. 

Max is having none of it.  He says, “Be still!” and tames them with the magic trick of staring into their yellow eyes without blinking once.  After that, Max and the Wild Things are friends and the wild rumpus begins.DSC_0005

Max has sold more books than Houghton-Mifflin.  Where the Wild Things Are has been made into a movie and it all goes to show that something about the story strikes a chord with people.  (As a lover of books, making a good book into a movie strikes me as positively Canaanite.  It is what it is, as we say). 

So, what is it about this children’s story that resonates?  I wonder if what it is that we like about Where the Wild Things Are is that we all like to imagine ourselves as Max.  We like to dream that we can tame the terrifying problems of life by saying, “Be still,” in a commanding voice.  It’s satisfying to pretend that we are in charge.

Yet, it’s only a children’s story.  If we had known only one person with terminal cancer or studied one war, we have learned that it doesn’t work for us to tell the problems of life to be quiet.  We have no magical powers.  The more we insist on being able to command all the chaos of life, the more fatigued we will find ourselves.

Yet, there is hope.

Psalm 67:7 assures us that only God who established the mountains (v. 6) is the one who can quiet the roaring seas and the tumult of the people.If right now there are some wild things in your life, understand, that it is the God of Heaven and earth can say, “Be still.” 

So, if you are sent to your room without supper, rather than issuing mandates to the wild things, be still and know that God is in control.  Ponder the power of the One who by his strength established the mountains being girded with might (Psalm 65:5), and yet chooses to atone for our transgressions (Psalm 65:3-4).  Rest in God, and when you finally are released from the confines of what has been troubling you, your supper will still be hot.