Here and Now

The prophet Hosea was sent by God to call out the sins of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and declare the punishment that was coming for their sins: exile in Assyria. As Hosea calls out the list of sins and predicts the severe punishment using a host of colorful metaphors, he says this of Israel: "Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents." (9:6, ESV) And again: "The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars." (10:8) Literal thorns would overgrow in Israel because of their exile.  But there is more here.  The metaphor of thorns is used here by the prophet, as it is throughout the Old Testament, as a representation of the curse of God for sin: "And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat ...

 King Solomon is known as the wisest man to ever live.  We read that: "The whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind." 1 Kings 10:24 (ESV)  But perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from him is one we learn from his foolishness.  Let me explain. The book of 1 Kings records the ascension of David's son Solomon to the throne of Israel.  He is chosen by God to build the Temple.  He is given supernatural wisdom from God.  He is rich beyond compare.  He expands the borders of Israel to their farthest reaches, and presides over the kingdom at it's peak.  Chapter 10 ends this way: "Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land. King Solomon made 200 large shields of beaten gold; 600 shekels of gold went ...

  Eschatology : beliefs or teaching about last things. The word derives from  eschatos , the Greek word for “last.” Biblical writings often distinguish between the present age or eon, the period of history in which life is being lived, and the future, coming age, or period of transformed existence that God will bring at the end of history. [1] Preterism :  The belief that all prophecy in the Bible is really history.  The preterist interpretation of Scripture regards the Olivet discourse, the book of Revelation, etc. as a picture of first century conflicts.  The term comes from the Latin  praeter , meaning "past."  Preterism is divided into two types: full preterism and partial preterism.   The Millennium : (Lat .   mille  “thousand” plus  annus  “year”). The “thousand years” of Christ’s eschatological reign (Rev. 20:2–7). Numerous interpretations have been offered. According to Rev. 20, the thousand-year period is inau...

Did you ever find yourself in a situation where you ask: what is God doing? When a loved one is sick, when a relationship is strained, when things just didn't go the way you thought they would or should, do you ask: what is God doing? When you just can't see His hand, His love, His grace at work in what's going on, do you ask: what is God doing? Like when a loved one has an emotional breakdown and tries to take his own life?  When it appears that your cancer may be back and you have to wait...wait...wait for those test results?  When someone you were relying on gives up and just leaves?  God, what are You doing... ...when all of those strains on my relationship with my family and all of those frustrations we were feeling are completely forgotten because we are together to rally around that loved one who tried to take his life.  To support each other.  To pray together.  To just be together. ...when all we can do is rely on You as a family, knowing that even...

I often preach about the problem of abstract faith.  This is the idea that faith is something undefinable - it's kinda like believing in something that's kinda different from knowing something with an element of trust in there and maybe kinda more a heart thing than a head thing... Well, I don't know what that is, but it isn't the faith the Bible talks about.  That almost makes it sound as if what we have faith in may or may not be real, but who cares!  No.  The faith the Bible talks about is a faith based on what actually is - not what may or may not be.  It is a faith that is sure because the object of that faith - Jesus Christ - is as sure as it gets.   Can I get an Amen? However, there is a different kind of abstract faith that affects us as believers in Christ.  It is that faith that believes in Christ - believes in what the Bible says about Him and what it means for us - but that is abstract because we believe these things in principle...

Last week, a long-time acquaintance - a good friend of a good friend - died.  Without giving all the details, we'll just say that years of wrong living and abusing his own body caught up with him.  In the wake of his death, my friend asked me about the after life.  This friend of mine is a believer, though relatively new.  He wanted to know where our friend's spirit was now. The issue is that between his Roman Catholic heritage, much popular misunderstanding of what the Bible says - and doesn't say - about what happens after physical death, along with the influence of modern spiritism, he was unsure of what happens to a person - including an unbeliever, like his friend - when they die.  Is he in hell?  Does his spirit linger on earth?  Does he have a chance to get into heaven? It is sad, indeed, when someone dies and you cannot give those he left behind any assurance that they are "in a better place."  And the truth is that the Bible doesn't g...

COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease.   We see the number of positive tests rising every day, along with, sadly, the number of deaths.   The world is full of sick people, dying people.   They need our prayers.   Those who are at risk of catching the disease, which, let’s face it, is everybody, need our prayers.   This disease is changing the world. And not only that, but… Fear is highly contagious.   We see people all around us, every day, being paralyzed by fear.   We see them acting in ways they wouldn’t normally act and saying things they wouldn’t normally say.   The world is full of scared, helpless-feeling people.   They need our prayers.   Those who have no reason not to fear, they need our prayers.   Fear is changing the world. BUT… Faith is highly contagious.   When we see people around us at peace because of their faith, we are set at ease.   When people see us at peace because of our faith, t...

In the eighth chapter of the book of Acts, we read of the persecution of the early church by Saul of Tarsus. After the martyrdom of Stephen we read: And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. (Acts 8:1 ESV) These early followers of Christ suddenly found themselves at great risk; their lives in danger. So they were forced to change their way of life, leaving their homes - everything was suddenly different! It was an inconvenience. No, something more... It was a trial. No, something more than that... It was an opportunity. God's people were forced out of their comfort zone and had to deal with new situations. And the Word of God spread like wildfire. Like He promised it would. It spread from Jerusalem to all Judea, and then to Samaria. And then, it spread to the whole world. Why? Because Christians were forced to change their situati...

We live in a divided country.  We are divided by our politics, by our beliefs, by our race, by our sexuality, by generation, by social class - by just about anything you can name.  And in these times, division means we must hate those who disagree with us, right?  It means we must tear down the character and reputation of whole people groups if they are "on the other side," right?  We should resort to ad hominem  attacks, legal attacks, and if that doesn't do it, physical attacks to defend our views, right? At least we, as Christians, don't do such things...   Right? Christians, where is our faith? The Apostle Peter, after instructing us to suffer for doing good in a world that will confuse good with evil (welcome to the 21st century) points us to our Lord: For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his m...

  A co-worker said something to me this week that really stuck with me.  It seemed so simple and yet so amazingly profound.  We are attempting to make some wholesale changes to the way we do things at my day job in an effort to improve not only efficiency and profit, but to improve the experience of working there for everyone.  And there is a lot of discussion about how to do that.  And it becomes very easy to get distracted from the actual doing when there is so much talk about how it should be done.  So, eager to start moving towards improvement, my friend said: "Nothing will change if you don't actually change something." - Thomas Ney  Brilliant!   You see, when we want change, we tend to want it a lot more in theory than we do in actual practice.  Whether it is at work, at home, in a relationship, or in the church.  And the same holds true for our Spiritual lives.  We all want to change for the better - to...

Howdy, y'all!  I thought I'd share some of the things I read this week that I found particularly interesting.  (And, in the interest of full disclosure: I have a few posts started but not finished, and I was REALLY pressed for time this week).  Enjoy! Check out this post about how to handle the atheist-created "reason vs. faith" myth here Next, check out some teaching from John Wesley on seeking God here Then, check out a GREAT defense of complementarianism (the belief that God made men and women to fill different but complementary roles) here Then check out this post in favor of pastors staying for a long time in their pastorate  here  (which is a good companion to my post from last week that you can find here  ) Finally, read a great post that a great friend sent to me about making friends who are different than me here (thanks, Leyla!!)

I found out this week that the Senior Pastor of the largest church in Nutley has been reassigned to another church.  I am sorry to see him go.  I have always appreciated this particular man's preaching and heart for God.  I am blessed to pastor here in Nutley.  Though there are many churches in town of all different denominations, we do share some unity by all of the pastors working together in a "Clergy Fellowship" to keep a Christian presence in the town through combined services, prayers, and events throughout the year.    So I started thinking about the departure of this man of God, and I realized something: of the ten congregations that have been represented in the fellowship since I have been involved, five of them have had changes of pastor, one more than once, and one of the churches has closed.  I have been in the fellowship for less than four years.  Am I the only one who sees a problem?   Now, I am not sa...

As a follow up to my last post about how we are to love each other as Christians, I would like to take the next step and point out that we are not supposed to stop there.  While loving each other is a great testimony to the world without which we will not see souls saved, we are also to love the unsaved.  And I think that the reason we sometimes (often?) do not, is because we view our battle in this world as us against them.   But we need to remember that our battle in this world is not with those in this world.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.  (Ephesians 6:12) Satan is shrewd.  And his greatest strategy is to convince people that their war is against someone other than him.  He is currently in control of both sides of countless wars.  He is currently...

I was on an atheist blog the other day, and I can only assume that what was written was meant to encourage those of a like mind and help them grow in their worldview.  It seemed like a harmless enough article: it was well written, it did not insult the intelligence of those who may have a different view, and the author in no way tried to exalt himself or his opinion above the reader.  So what was the issue with it?  The comments. I try to tell myself time and again that I will not read the reader comments below any blogs or articles I read online because I know it is very likely to upset me.  Yet I do it.  I guess I am a glutton for punishment... You should have seen what was being said!  The author was accused of misunderstanding the true atheist worldview, was insulted, and was even called names.  Then, the commenters were arguing among themselves.  This guy said what that said was wrong, and felt obligated to correct him.  The...

I have been making a push since the start of the year for the members of our congregation to get into the Word this year more than in the past, and for all of us to step up our prayer game, as well.  But I realized today that there is an inherent danger in pushing this too hard, and that it isn't enough to just encourage people to read their Bible and pray.  People need to do it for the right reason.  And constant prompting, regardless of how loving, without emphasizing the reason for it can lead people down a bad road of feelings of inadequacy and guilt. Now, please don't get me wrong.  God wants us reading His Word and He wants us to pray, and it isn't possible to do either too much, if you ask me.  But He isn't keeping score .  We cannot have the idea that we need to get in our Bibles a minimum amount so we can cross the threshold from "God wants me in the Word more" to "God is pleased with how much I read today."  And the same is t...

I thought it would be fun to share with you some of what I read this week.  I follow a whole lotta blogs, and I find that they not only give me great sermon material (quotes, illustrations), and they not only keep me informed about what is going on in the world from a Christian perspective, but I am really edified and encouraged by many of them. So check these out and enjoy! Check out Sammy Adebiyi's blog about surrendering to God here And Joe Carter's exploration of whether or not the now legal in some states use of marijuana is sinful here And Steven Dunn's cumulative case for the existence of God here And Ray Ortlund's discussion of four different types of speech Christians should concern themselves with here And an excerpt from a new commentary on the book of Obadiah here

I love the Psalms.  Perhaps as a songwriter myself, I am touched by the overwhelming emotion that the writers of the Psalms pour into their songs which, in turn, pour out to me as I read them.  As I read some Psalms the other night, I came to Psalm 78.  Of course, the initial thought when someone comes to this Psalm is probably "this thing is three pages long!".  That's okay.  Nobody minds when a good song is long, do they?  (Freebird!) The Psalm begins by stating its purpose: to pass along to the next generation the history of what YHWH has done as given to the Psalmist by the previous generation.  In particular, the "glorious deeds"  and the "wonders" God had performed on behalf of His people. Then: 65 verses that detail, in a very honest way, the struggle that has continued since Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the Garden.  Not the struggle between good and evil (especially since God doesn't see that as much of a struggle). Not the strug...

I have noticed on the Christian blogosphere that many a blogger is offering Bible reading plans for the year.  It is, after all, the time for resolutions (see last week's post here ) and there is no time like the present for committing to reading the Bible.  There are plans for reading through the whole Bible in a year, plans for reading the Bible through in 90 days, plans that focus on the New Testament and Psalms, chronological plans, topical plans, all kinds of plans for all kinds of people. So, I want to offer my Bible reading plan.  Ready?  Here it is: pickup your Bible and read it.  I know, I know, it isn't very sophisticated.  And I can't offer you a pretty printable chart that shows each day's reading for the days ahead, and I can't tell you exactly when you will get through the entire Bible, and there is no checklist for you to get through as you finish chapters and books.  Because I don't want you to just get through the Bible in ...

It is time once again for reflection on the year passing and for making resolutions for the new year.  Right now, it feels like anything is possible in 2014.  I did not do everything I determined to last year, but this is the year I will.  I did not keep my resolution last year, but this year I will.  I did not go back to school last year, but this year I will.  I did not read through the Bible last year, but this year I will.  I did not change my career path to something I enjoy like I said I would, but this year I will. This is the easiest time of year to fool ourselves, isn't it? I once heard it said that a goal without a plan is only a wish.  So I wonder how many of us will set goals for 2014, and how many of us are just wishing things will be different this year... This year, I plan to make some changes.  In the past, I have endeavored to do this by setting priorities for the coming year, only to realize sometime in mid-February th...