Getting to Work

The truth is, the Banner of the Christian Reformed Church has an excellent issue in August. For those of us who have a strong bent toward cultural transformation the article on work is a good reminder and also a good primer. It is something to read and reflect on this Labor Day Weekend.

Culture Matters

The book Culture Matters is a great introduction to understanding how Christians have influenced and built culture over the centuries. I had the honor of reviewing this book for the Work Research Foundation. Check out the review and maybe your taste will be whetted for the whole book.

Grace

Rev. Jacob Eppinga wrote for the Christian Reformed Banner for 40 years. Earlier this year he died of cancer at age 90. His final "Of Cabbages and Kings" (the title derives from Alice in Wonderland) is in the August issue. It is well worth reading as he reflects on his impending death from cancer. The title of the article is "Of Death and Grace".

A grown up prayer

A grown up version of a bedtime prayer. This prayer was written by a puritan in the 18th Century. The words and thought are deep and rich. It is a prayer that makes us think differently and hope deeply.

Sleep
Blessed Creator,
Thou has promised thy beloved sleep;
Give me restoring rest needful for tomorrow’s toil.
If dreams be mine, let them not be tinged with evil.
Let thy Spirit make my time of repose a blessed temple of his holy presence.
May my frequent lying down make me familiar with death, the bed I approach remind my of the grave, the eyes I now close picture to me their final closing.
Keep me always ready, waiting for admittance to they presence.
Weaken my attachment to earthly things.
May I hold life loosely in my hand, knowing that I receive it on condition of its surrender.
As pain and suffering betoken transitory health, may I not shrink from a death that introduces me the freshness of eternal youth. I retire this night in full assurance of one day’s awakening with thee.
All glory for this blessed hope, for the gospel of grace, for thine unspeakable gift of Jesus, for the fellowship of the Trinity.
Withhold not thy mercies in the night season; thy hand never wearies, thy power needs no repose, thine eye never sleeps.
Help me when I helpless lie, when my conscience accuses me of sin, when my mind is harassed by foreboding thoughts, when my eyes are held awake by personal anxieties.
Show thyself to me as the God of all grace, love and power; thou hast a balm for every wound, a solace for all anguish, a remedy for every pain, a peace for all disquietude.
Permit me to commit myself to thee awake or sleep.
Amen.

Preparing our hearts for the Word

Thomas Cranmer was the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was burned at the stake for his faith in 1556. This prayer is a powerful one to get our hearts prepared for hearing and applying God's word to our lives

Thomas Cranmer’s Prayer for the 2nd Sunday of Advent:

Blessed Lord,
which hast caused all holy Scripture to be written for our learning;
grant us that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them;
that by patience and comfort of thy holy word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,
which thou has given us in our savior Jesus Christ.
Amen

Robert Lewis Stevenson

Best known for books like Treasure Island Robert Lewis Stevenson was also a committed believer. In the evening family and friends would gather for a time of worship. Stevenson wrote a number of prayer for these occasions. They are well worth adding to our own repertoire.

An Evening Prayer by Stevenson:

Lord,
Receive our supplications for this house, family, and country.
Protect the innocent, restrain the greedy and the treacherous, lead us out of our tribulation into a quiet land.
Look down upon ourselves and upon our absent dear ones.
Help us and them; prolong our days in peace and honor.
Give us health, food, bright weather, and light hearts.
In what we meditate of evil, frustrate our will; in what of good, further our endeavors.
Cause injuries to be forgot and benefits to be remembered.
Let us lie down without fear and awake and arise with exultation.
For his sake, in whose words we now conclude.

Where do you get your sweets?

We delight in a certain poisoned sweetness experienced in ferreting out and in disclosing the evils of others.
- John Calvin

One more from John Seel

...to be agents of shalom in a deathwork culture, does not require being naive to the dynamics of culture. Suspicion of elites, negative rhetoric against individuals or groups with economic, cultural, and social capital, arose with the Second Great Awakening and has furthered an egalitarian envy that has marginalized the evangelical church ever since. George Steiner warns, “The egalitarian ideal seeks to domesticate excellence.” Capital demands strategic stewardship, not self-righteous abdication. Poverty -- as in the absence of economic capital -- is not spiritual. Dallas Willard writes, “The idealization of poverty is one of the most dangerous illusions of Christians in the contemporary world. Stewardship -- which requires possession and includes giving – is the true spiritual discipline in relation to wealth.” So too cultural and social capital. If evangelicals find themselves in the halls of power, then they are compelled to use their power wisely, which requires that they acquire theological and cultural discernment.

John Seel is a cultural renewal entrepreneur, film producer, and educational reformer. He is a Senior Fellow at the Work Research Foundation and adjunct professor at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

To read the entire article these quotes come from go to Ransom Fellowship

Be Ambitious

The subtlety of pride is manifold. But ambition is not wrong if it is zeal for the kingdom of God. One needs to be ambitious in one’s calling. Ambition for self is a sin, ambition for God, a virtue. William Carey reminds us to “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”

John Seel

Ah, now we know

Quick Thoughts

Three quick thoughts:
1. I was walking yesterday and was overwhelmed by the sky, the breeze, and the beauty of the creation. As I drank it all in I was reminded of a post of a bit ago where I mentioned that the frustration of creation (Romans 8) is that it can't fully show the glory of God. I wondered, "If creation can so captivate and amaze now when Christ returns and it fully reveals God's glory will we even be able to look at it or will it by like trying to gaze into the glory and beauty of God--so overwhelming that we can't take it in.

2. I do my Torah reading on Saturday. Today I'm reading about Jacob/Israel. God tells him to go to Bethel and build an altar there. Before he goes he tells his household to get rid of all of their gods. The text tells us in in Genesis 35.4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that they had, and the rings that were in their ears. Jacob hid them under the terebinth tree that was near Shechem. esv The NIV says that Jacob buried all this stuff under the terebinth tree. I wondered why Jacob didn't destroy the gods, what he planning on a recovery mission after his God visit? But when I checked out the Hebrew I discovered that the word for hid/bury means to "hide something so it cannot be found". Jacob, as head of the household hid the gods so they could not be recovered and so pollute his family.

3. Last thought: Soon after this Rachel dies giving birth to Benjamin. Jacob told Laban that whoever had stolen Laban's gods would be put to death. Did Jacob discover that Rachel had stolen Laban's gods when he demanded all the gods be given to him? Did God carry out Jacob's promised judgment because Jacob would not? Just something to think on.

Responding to the Word

Nehemiah 8 gives a powerful look at how the people responded to hearing God's word. Notice that the Levites explain the word. What's happening is that Ezra has brought a system of Biblical interpretation to bear where those parts of scripture that the people believed no longer applied to their lives are explained for their underlying, timeless truths. This causes a powerful reaction among the people.
It's all a reminder that if we listen, interpret the word well it can have a power effect on us.
8:1 And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. 2 So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. 3 And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. 4 And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose.... 5 And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. 6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. 7 Also...the Levites, helped the people to understand the Law, while the people remained in their places. 8 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. 9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law.

This week's factcheck

By the way if you are trying to figure out who you most line up with on the issues go to www.glassbooth.org

Love this Quote

How modest must [the Christian] be in regard to his own limited insight! How quick must he be to learn, and how slow to condemn! One of the constant temptations in every age, even among Christians, is to make oneself the norm of truth. In an age of pervasive individualism, this temptation takes a variety of forms. But the mark of those who are "in the truth" is the ability to love humbly. This is what God's word teaches us: truth is expressed in love…As we seek the truth together, with respect for the conscience of others, we will be able to go forward along the paths of freedom which lead to peace, in accordance with the will of God.

OK, so I'm not usually a Paris Hilton fan but you have to give credit where it is due. A bit of fun...

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Why Translations Matter

I was reminded again this morning why getting a good Bible translation for study and getting the full sense of the text matters. I'm reading in the book of Judges. This morning I was reading the story of Samson. The English Standard Version in talking about Samson's desire for the woman at Timnah says, "But Samson said to his father, 'Get her for me for she is right in my eyes.'" The NIV translates the same verse, "But Samson said to his father, 'Get her for me. She's the right one for me."

The ESV in staying true to the original immediately calls our mind to the theme that we find at the end of the book, "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." Judges 21.24-25 ESV This connection helps us see that Samson is nothing less than a picture of Israel. He does what is right in his own eyes instead of following after God and God's commandments. His lack of following God finally leads to his destruction. To get that connection it is really helpful to have the words of the text tie things together. (By the way the NIV translates Judges 2.25 as "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit." So it further obscures the connection).

But the importance of the connection does not stop here. The writer of Chronicles picks up on the theme of "in his own eyes" when David becomes king. When it is time for the Ark to come back David calls the people together and they decide together as a community to bring the Ark back into the cultic center of Israel. The ESV reads, 1 Chr. 13:4 "All the assembly agreed to do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people." The connection back to Judges is made. Israel now has a king, people no longer do what is right in their own eyes, they live in community with a king who leads and who desires to make God central. They make wise decisions together under the leadership of a godly king. (The NIV reads, 1Chr. 13:4 "The whole assembly agreed to do this, because it seemed right to all the people.")

While the NIV is a wonderful translation for worship, for ease of understanding and for memorization some of the choices it makes for translation obscure vital connections both within a book and to other parts of Scripture. If you are contemplating digging more deeply into Scripture the NIV is not the best choice. For that kind of work you need to head to the ESV or the NASB.

Those porous borders

Yesterday federal immigration officials arrested 43 illegal immigrants from Mexico in Hawaii.

Exactly how lost were they?

- Jay Leno