Helping

The difficulty of effective charity is a recurring theme in my thoughts.  Here is a comment I left on a Facebook post of the displayed image:

Let's not concede that "funding" = "helping." Very often giving money to people with money problems feeds the problem. Yes, there are people who have suffered unfortunate circumstances despite their best efforts, and they should be helped -- in fact, I would argue we are obligated to help fellow Christians in this condition. However, what most people need is encouragement to overcome their challenges in life, to gain the confidence that they do not have to rely on any man for anything.

Collusion

You probably learned in school about separation of powers, and how in our system of government the divisions between the federal legislative, executive, and judicial branches provide something called "checks and balances" in order to prevent any one branch from becoming too powerful.

What was never explored, at least in my formal education, was whether the system actually performs as designed -- whether it is at least moderately effective in restraining abuses of power by the federal government. I contend that it has failed miserably, based on evidence far too voluminous to present here of intrusions upon freedom not imagined by the founders of our nation. It appears that, while in theory the separate branches are responsible for opposing each other in defense of the rule of law, they have no interest in doing so. This suggests that the separate branches are mutually interested in the concentration of power within the federal government in general, knowing that it will benefit each branch in particular.

There are perfectly legitimate instances of mutually interested action, for example when competing organizations join together to promote a product produced by their industry, as in the promotion of milk in a way that does not necessarily benefit a particular dairy producer. The problem with mutual interest is when it is used for fraudulent purposes, and becomes collusion.

Collusion, agreement between two or more persons to defraud persons or institutions of their legal rights, or to obtain an object forbidden by law. All acts effected by this means are considered void. (emphasis added)

Does this sound like anything happening in America today? Does it suggest a solution?

Pondering the Kingdom

Some of my favorite scriptures with respect to my view of God and His intentions, with commentary:

Matthew 6:10
"...your kingdom come,
your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven."

(How is God's will done in heaven?)


Matthew 13:33
He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."

(How much of the dough was leavened?)


Isaiah 9:6-7
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this.

(What happens to the government of Jesus?)


Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45
[Dream]
While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.

[Interpretation]
"In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands—a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces.
"The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy."

(What happened to the Rock?)


Isaiah 2:2-4
In the last days
the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.

Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.

(What happens to the mountain of the Lord's temple?)


Ezekiel 47:1-12
The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side.

As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep.

He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. He asked me, "Son of man, do you see this?"

Then he led me back to the bank of the river. When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. He said to me, "This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, where it enters the Sea.

When it empties into the Sea, the water there becomes fresh. Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Great Sea. But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing."

(What happens to the river as it progresses?)


Habakkuk 2:14
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
as the waters cover the sea.

(How much of the sea is covered by water?)


Isaiah 31:34
No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,'
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,"
declares the LORD.

(When will this happen?)


Revelation 11:15
The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:
"The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever."

(How did Jesus come to rule the worldly kingdom?)


John 1:1-4
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.


Isaiah 55:11
So is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

(Who is the word again?)


Final comments:
Jesus is the Word of God. This can be taken quite literally; Genesis records that God spoke everything into existence, while John tells us that everything was made through Jesus.
The Word brings forth the Kingdom; it does not fail, but is effective, accomplishing all that God intends.
The authority of the Kingdom is represented by the Mountain image.
The Church is represented by the House on the mountain. It is a subset of the Kingdom (God is working around and ahead of His people).
The life of the Kingdom is represented by the River / Seas image.
The Mountain and River continually increase in the earth until there is no place untouched, at which point God can honestly call the Church a victorious bride. He then switches from subversion by proxy (Jesus is currently seated, right?) to authoritative, visible, and final confrontation with the remaining rebellious outposts (swamps and marshes). He defeats them and we rule and reign with Him forever.

If any part of our theology is depressing or scary or results in God or His people failing, and the world getting worse and worse and everything going to hell in a handbasket, and the devil just having the run of things, maybe we've got it wrong. And if the way we believe prevents us from laying foundations, digging up hidden truths in the Word, having children and sending them out as reformers to every area and institution of culture, and generally investing in things that won't bear fruit for a generation or more, then maybe the devil has us just where he wants us.

If God says His kingdom continually increases, and everyone else says that the kingdom of darkness continually increases, who's telling the truth?

Almost Perfect

Disclaimer:
I don't know everything. I may be wrong. I also have the unshakable conviction that we as members of the Body of Christ need to be searching out and advancing ideas about where we are and where we are going. I keep hearing it prophesied that there are new, undiscovered truths in the Word of God. So please allow me to dig, hone my skills, stumble somewhat, and contribute to a marketplace of ideas where healthy competition elevates those things that are beneficial and discards those that are not. Thank you.


Almost Perfect

I love this verse:

Habakkuk 2:14
"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."

It's so interesting that it doesn't say the glory will be everywhere, just the knowledge. It kind of reminds me of that part of the Great Commission where Jesus commands us to make disciples of all nations -- not that every individual in every nation will be saved, but that as a whole, the nations will acknowledge Christ as Lord.

I'm noticing a recurring theme of the exuberant Old Testament prophesies -- they have so much to say about wonderful things happening on this earth, in this lifetime, and, importantly, before any sense of "absolute perfection and the end of all things" has arrived. For example:

Isaiah 2
2 In the last days
the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established
as chief among the mountains;
it will be raised above the hills,
and all nations will stream to it.

3 Many peoples will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,
to the house of the God of Jacob.
He will teach us his ways,
so that we may walk in his paths."
The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

4 He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.

It really sounds like the people are still in a state of "seeing in a mirror dimly" rather than "knowing fully as we are fully known." Otherwise, why would the people a) need to learn God's ways, b) need the law, c) have disputes, and d) own weapons? It's almost as if God were reigning but not actually physically present on the earth to completely enforce His will.

Given that God has given us images like this of a reformed-but-not-yet-perfect world, why then the current passivity of the church in the arena of world-influence (that is to say, culture and politics)? I suggest it's a case of doublespeak; we need to spend trillions to solve our debt problem, we've always been at war with Eastasia, and God has to lose before He can win. I'm speaking of a literal, chronologized, and modernized interpretation of the book of Revelation and other apocalyptic passages.

Jihadist Muslims believe in ordained chaos, so they order their lives around accelerating it. Western Christians believe in ordained chaos, so they sit back and numbly or gleefully watch it happen. This is not surprising -- you can see the same trend in relationships. Imagine a young engaged couple: maintaining purity is hard work because the devil is constantly pushing them toward physical intimacy before they are in covenant. On their wedding day, the tactic switches: since he hates marriage, he does everything in his power to drive them apart. Similarly, to advance the doctrine of ordained chaos, the devil drives one group to create chaos, and placates another against resistance.

Understand what I'm not saying: I acknowledge that judgments must come, and certainly we in America are experiencing national judgment right now. However, the Biblical pattern of the Flood, the Egyptian Plagues and other judgments is that they are times of dividing; God wipes away the wicked and causes the righteous to escape, and often to inherit land and wealth. (Aside: this is a very appropriate thing. Since wealth simply gives the power of being a "decider," you want Godly individuals doing the deciding. People in positions of wealth and power determine what is reported in the news, taught in the classroom, directed in the boardroom, encoded in law, entertained on TV/movies/radio -- in short, they control the culture.) Even when Jerusalem was destroyed in A.D. 70, the Christians who had been forewarned or driven away by persecution were not massacred. It was the Jews who rejected their Messiah and engaged in false worship in the Temple that were destroyed. Judgments are a case of God bringing alignment to the earth and therefore cause the devil to lose power, not gain it. (Aside again: I can't stress enough that this should be making the Church think, "Opportunity!" rather than "Hunker down.")

I love the statement made about a year ago that "Jesus was a community organizer." I completely agree, and I believe that He established and commissioned the Church as a world-organizer. When He sovereignly moves and causes certain things to happen, we need to understand that He is creating the conditions necessary for us to do our jobs.

I think a big (BIG) part of the Church's job is simply to be a voice that loudly and insistently speaks the truth. Going back to the Biblical pattern - John teaches us that Jesus is the Word of God. Through Him all things were made, and later, through Him the devil (the father of lies) was defeated. So part of the job is boldly confronting lies (remembering that the Truth has already won). Another part is casting vision -- you can't just be against something, you have to be for something. Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint, so we need to advance a hopeful vision of where God is going, and share whatever He is currently saying or what we have discovered in the Scriptures, with anyone who will listen. "Wisdom calls aloud in the street / she raises her voice in the public squares."

I really love the work some are doing to train young people with a Biblical worldview and send them out into the mountains (arenas of influence) of culture. I also feel strongly about the value of pleading established e.g. governmental covenant in prayer, necessarily involving imprecation as well as establishment. ("See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.") That is, I feel that if we can uncover the solid foundations laid by our forefathers, God can empower us to build "new and better" structures upon them.

Understanding that all things are already in the mind of God, I want to apprehend the spirit John Adams had when he said, "Why have I not genius to start some new thought? Some thing that will surprise the world?"

Upcoming Elections

This is why the Nov 4 elections are important:

When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice.
But when the wicked are in power, they groan.

Proverbs 29:2 (New Living Translation)

If you want to rejoice and not groan, get out and vote for the candidates whose principles are more aligned with God's truth.

Can a nation be changed in one day?

Readers Are Leaders

Here is a must-read book for anyone concerned about whether the book of Genesis can be understood as a scientifically accurate and authoritative guide to the origins of our world.

The book is In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood. In it, Dr. Walt Brown explains, using easily understood, experimentally verifiable scientific laws, why the geologic evidence supports a young earth recently shaped by a global flood, not billions of years of random chance.

I know when I was in high school, evolution was a Fact, and humans were monkeys that learned to use tools. If you wanted to believe in God too that was fine, but this was science and God didn't have much to say about it. I have several Christian acquaintances who espouse theistic evolution - the idea that the earth is billions of years old and we evolved from a primordial soup, but God directed the process to get us where we are today.

The problem with this line of thinking is what happens when you follow it to its logical conclusion: If God used evolution to create man, then God by definition introduced death into the world before man sinned. Consequently, the wages of sin is not death, Adam and Eve are abstractions, and the new Adam, Jesus Christ, is irrelevant. Who needs a Savior when the Fall is a fairy tale?

I can't do justice to the book in a blog post; read for yourself. If you're local, I have a copy I'm willing to lend out. The full text is also published online at www.creationscience.com.

Three Good Words

Three words from my loving Father for me tonight, that hopefully will be encouraging truths for someone else out there...

• It is your determination that is going to carry you into your destiny.
• An acceleration is coming.
• God does not prophesy to us at the level of our circumstances; He speaks at the level of His vision for us.

Money

God talks about money a lot in the Bible. I think about money too, mostly because it's something I use a lot of in the maintenance of a family of six.

Here's a couple nuggets:

Dishonest money dwindles away,
but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.

and

A good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children,
but a sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous.

(Proverbs 13:11,22)

This got me to thinking: What if I stopped focusing on how much I need now, and started thinking about meeting needs that don't even exist yet?

I've heard the idea of a 100 year plan before - where do we see the Church after we're gone? How will our actions today set the stage for the next advances of the Kingdom on earth? I think one facet of our preparation needs to be in the financial arena. How many good ministries today are less effective than they should be because they are under-funded? Will that get better in the future if we don't have a vision of the future today?

The great thing about 100 years in the future is it's a long time away :-) That means there's a lot of leverage for the magic of compound interest to work. Answer a quick question for me: If I wanted to have a million dollars in a hundred years, how much would I have to invest now to get it?

drumroll...

...

...

...

...


Of course, it depends on the rate of return, which varies constantly and between investments. However the historical average rate of return for the S&P 500, a prominent U.S. market index, has been about 10% over the last 80 years. If we can assume a similar well-chosen investment vehicle over the next 100 years, the magic number we need to attain a million is a present-day investment of $75. That's right; not $10,000, or $1000 -- only 75 bucks.

Well gee -- if it's only that much, I could probably save that more than once. What if I saved $75 a year -- could that mean that in the future someone could have at their disposal $1,000,000 a year, for every year I made the $75 investment?

What if -- let me dream here -- what if I invested $75 a month? Could the beneficiary reap a million dollars a month?

Assuming a lot of things and the Lord's protection and wisdom in guarding it... the answers are 'Yes!'

Right now about half of U.S. workers are living paycheck to paycheck -- totally controlled by the money they need to make, one step ahead of disaster. I'm there -- families are expensive -- and it's no way to live. Guess what -- my parents never had much, and their parents didn't either. Someone has to break the cycle.

It's not enough to hand down money, of course. The world's rich have often either (a) bequeathed large sums to the detriment of their children, or (b) given away their money to protect their children from its effects. But what if we raised our children to master money in the fear of God? What if our children continued to invest their extra wisely, and taught their children the same? We have a window of God's blessing on this nation, where there is relative prosperity everywhere. (When was the last time one of your friends died in a famine?)

Do we have the vision to lay up treasures for the godly people who will inhabit the earth after we leave, so they don't spend their lives wishing they were free to pursue God's purposes fully?

The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.

(Deuteronomy 28:8)

Benefits

It's easy to forget that there are benefits that go along with being a child of God. Here's a refresher:

Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-

who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,

who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,

who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Psalm 103:2-5

Hunger

We're supposed to hunger after God, not just fill our stomachs. I'm getting there -- and I have something to help me.

Ouch

There's a challenging video over on Brandon's blog you should see.

Waiting, Standing.

I got my instructions today, courtesy of BibleGateway. I've been waiting for a breakthrough for what seems like forever, but God knows what He's doing. He wants me to hold on a while longer and trust Him completely.

Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

Psalm 27:14

Which is very reminiscent of an old favorite:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Ephesians 6:10-13

When something in the Bible is repeated, that usually means it's important. I'm listening...

Assurance

Most of my life I've wanted assurance of one thing, that I was doing what God wanted me to. Somehow it's easy to work and plan and hope that God approves, but harder to trust that He guides our steps and we are in fact right where God wants us.

Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.
Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.

Proverbs 19:20, 21

Word for Walls

I've been busy being a graphical designer recently. This primarily stems from a conviction that I need to have the Word in front of me to increase my faith. Check out the sidebar feature "Word for Walls" with all my nice PDFs.

Quiz

I couldn't resist this when I saw the post on Brandon's blog...

You scored as Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan, You are an evangelical in the Wesleyan tradition. You believe that God's grace enables you to choose to believe in him, even though you yourself are totally depraved. The gift of the Holy Spirit gives you assurance of your salvation, and he also enables you to live the life of obedience to which God has called us. You are influenced heavily by John Wesley and the Methodists.

Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan		96%
Charismatic/Pentecostal		64%
Fundamentalist		54%
Reformed Evangelical		54%
Neo orthodox		50%
Emergent/Postmodern		43%
Modern Liberal		25%
Classical Liberal		11%
Roman Catholic		4%

What's your theological worldview?
created with QuizFarm.com

God Has Made His Choice

And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the fire.

Zechariah 3:2 NLT

Your Choice

For the despondent, every day brings trouble.
For the happy heart, life is a continual feast.

Proverbs 15:15

Of Greenery

I saw a story this morning. It looked something like this:


Here's the story.

The asphalt was a barrier constructed by our enemy to separate the life-giving resources in the soil from the life-sustaining resources in the sky (sun, rain) in order to neutralize the children of God (the grass). Any seeds trapped in the earth underneath or falling on top of the barrier would be unable to grow.

However...

God, in His wisdom, had set into motion unseen forces that stressed the asphalt and, in time, caused tiny cracks to form in its surface. He used wind and rain to cause soil to collect in the cracks, and planted tiny grass seeds there. The seeds germinated, sending roots down to the soil below the asphalt, and blades of grass above the asphalt, and they grew. The seeds prospered in isolated communities, but were bound by the constraints of the asphalt around them.

What the seeds didn't know, and what nobody could have predicted, was that the simple fact that they were growing and being nurtured, sending blades up and roots down and reproducing, was slowly but inexorably crushing the asphalt walls that contained them. In time, no matter how unlikely it may seem, the pavement will be broken up and totally consumed, lost to time in a forest teeming with life. The structures intended to squash God's blessings will not only be destroyed, but will be replaced by new, more flexible structures that will support the fullness of life that God intended.

Beloved

How handsome you are, my lover!
Oh, how charming!
And our bed is verdant.

Lover

The beams of our house are cedars;
our rafters are firs.

Song of Solomon 1:16-17

Since It's My Day

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?

Isaiah 8:6, NIV