20 Sept 10 - Catching Up

9/20/10 (in lieu of 9/6/10 and 9/13/10)

I apologize for being two weeks late.  We were with my wife’s mother for Labor Day weekend and with our son’s family the following week, and the ensuing weeks in both cases left little time for research or blogging.  I do feel like this blog is something I need to do, so I will plunge on as best I am able.

So, combining notes and comments for the missing two weeks:

First, it seemed to me that sowing (before reaping, obviously) must sometimes hurt.  Psalm 126:5-6 (KJV)  ⁵They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.  ⁶He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.  Why is reaping tied to crying here?  Some research is called for, obviously. 

It turns out this Psalm was written when part of Israel was out of Babylonian captivity but some remained in captivity.  The last three verses of the Psalm are directed to those still in captivity.  Hence, they weep while they sow because of their circumstances.  It is not the sowing that causes the weeping, rather, sowing when circumstances cause one to weep is a picture of doing what must be done, what is right, even when circumstances make one weep.  Additionally, the assurance is given that weeping (and circumstances) will not last forever, because the harvest is joyful. 

I think there is an application here, however, as the principle that weeping when sowing will return joy in harvest seems fairly universal, not restricted to when weeping arises from circumstances.  When times are really tough, one might not want to part with that seed.  Seed, after all, is itself edible, but then, eating the seed is a final act.  Hence, here is a sacrifice of eating as much now, in the hope (assurance, in this case) that planting the seed and enduring that sacrifice (and likely weeping about it) will cause the joy of a harvest of plenty.  I have no idea why that question never occurred to me in all the years I’ve heard that preached, but it didn’t.  Just goes to show there is always something new from every single place in the Bible, no matter how familiar it is to anyone.

Next, Colossians 1:17 but I’m going to start with v9.  ⁹For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; ¹⁰That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; ¹²Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: ¹³Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: ¹⁴In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: ¹⁵Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: ¹⁶For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: ¹⁷And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

Now folks, if that ain’t one LONG sentence, I don’t know what is.  Here you go in the New American Standard, for comparison, and some clarity due to being translated into a more recent language:  ⁹For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; ¹¹strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously ¹²giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.  ¹³For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, ¹⁴in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.  ¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.  ¹⁶For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things have been created through Him and for Him.  ¹⁷He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

Verse 17 has intrigued me for a long time.  …by Him all things consist.  “Hold together” is a good modern phrase to illustrate “consist.”  “Have their being” is another way to put it.  The greek word used here is synistēmi [ 1) to place together, to set in the same place, to bring or band together; 2) to set one with another].  It’s a pretty interesting statement to say that Christ holds everything ever created together.  It’s not surprising, when you think about it.  It means He actually controls things from the atomic level, all the way to the macro level.  It means, speaking for myself, I think I know why the positive particles in a nucleus do not repel each other there, as they would anywhere else, for instance.  It means I feel like I have a window into why water is the only substance that is less dense as a solid than it is as a liquid (if not, ice would sink, and all the life in a frozen over lake would die).  Think about how that affects the resurrection…  all those old bodies, disintegrated into dust, perhaps cremated, perhaps buried at sea, and He will assemble each of them, because He knows where all those atoms got off to because He is still holding them together!.

OK, that’s the catch up part.  Tomorrow, back to Romans.

Best,

Al

Monday, 6 Sept 10

Good evening reader(s) (just in case there's more than one).  Since this is a holiday weekend, I've just finished unpacking stuff from a weekend trip back home to the hills, where there is no internet.  OK, there is internet in the hills, but NOT at my mother-in-law's house.  Ergo, I do not have a post today, but I will tomorrow evening. 

Al

Monday, 30 Aug 2010

Monday 30 Aug 2010


Romans 12:10-12 (like we were ever gonna get all the way to 12 in one lesson... smile)
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

Recapping v10 from last week, emphasizing the preference that one Christian ought to have for other Christians, that is, putting the other person first. It seems to me that "preference" is about more than just an order of importance. That is merely prioritizing. I get a "want to choose" feeling from "preference." As an example, it's been a longstanding "thing" between my wife and I (after 36 years next month) that I am not a restaurant picker. I can prioritize them, sure. I can say that right now, I'd put steak above fried chicken, then italian, then mex (or similar), then... well, whatever. However, that is different, it feels to me, from having a "preference" for any restaurant, because I factually don't care what one we go to. "Preference" contains "want" as I feel it. If I "prefer" I actively try to get that choice to be the choice that actually gets made. "Prioritize" means passively list; "prefer" means actively seek to make choices fit that priority. At least that's my feeling about it.

From v11, "...not slothful in business..." Steve brings out a good point here, "business" here is not commerce, it is more similar to what we mean when we say "none of my business." It is the daily "busy-ness" that we all go about. It is, in fact, the same Greek word used for "diligence" in Romans 12:8 (spoudē or σπουδή if you can read that).

This seems like a good place to look at all the usages, since translation from Greek to the English of King James' day did not always render this word in the same modern day English usage. Before we do, Strong's Concordance outlines the Biblical usage as:
1) haste, with haste
2) earnestness, diligence
.....a) earnestness in accomplishing, promoting, or striving after anything
.....b) to give all diligence, interest one's self most earnestly

With that in mind, here we go:

Five times, spoudē is rendered "diligence."
Rom 12:8 - ...he that ruleth with diligence...
II Cor 8:7 - Therefore, as ye abound in every thing... ...and in all diligence... ...see that ye abound in this grace also
Heb 6:11 - And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance...
II Pet 1:5 - And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge
Jude 1:3 - Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation...

Twice, it is rendered “haste.”
Mark 6:25 - And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist (haste from Herodias, who hated John, and wanted him dead in the worst way, enough to send her daughter in to dance for her husband and many other men)
Luke 1:39 - And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste, into a city of Juda (haste from Mary just being told she would bear Jesus, conceive of the Holy Ghost, and that Elisabeth, who she hastened to go see in this passage, was proof of such miracles, being pregnant after being barren)

Spoudē is translated “care” three times (once is as “carefulness”), all in II Corinthians. I’ve underlined it in each case so you can pick it out easily.
II Cor 7:11 & 12 - For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.
II Cor 8:16 - But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you

Lastly, once it is “forwardness”
II Cor 8:8 - I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love

So, in context, again, Romans 10:10-12:
10Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;
11Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
12Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

So, don’t be lazy (slothful) when it comes to getting done the things that need done, the things one reasonably expect to include haste and care and thinking ahead (forwardness or forward thinking), which, if you think about it, is not a bad description of what diligence ought to mean to people. Making sure it all gets done, and in a timely manner. Leaving no reasonable stone unturned. Seems to me this would include things like meeting our civil obligations; looking after our brothers and sisters in Christ; being where we said we’d be when we said we’d be there; etc, etc, etc.

OK, that was a lot of stuff for one word, but when our modern understanding of a word does not match the meaning God wrote, it seems worth it to me. I hope it does to you, too.

“Fervent in spirit” brings up yet another whole interesting spectrum of understanding that is packed into these few words…

Fervent is zeo, basically Greek for boiling hot, like boiling water, and it’s often used metaphorically. Steve also said it is applied to solids, as in heated until glowing. I didn’t find the solids meaning, yet, but the meaning is still clear. If our spirit, our inner driver, is not jumping with excitement, then that’s plainly something to work on. It was a good line, from Steve, that Pentecostal folks got it all over us when it comes to being excited about God. There’s a point there, and a rabbit trail, as well (um, yes, I rabbit trail. I’ll try to mark them. I promise).

RABBIT TRAIL #1:

Some of us fundamentalists are, I think, scared of about every demonstration of any sort during any kind of service. It seems that “come apart and be ye separate” has come to mean “don’t do anything that they do (whoever the appropriate “they” is today) so you won’t look like them.” Somewhere in this idea, which has some merit, to be sure, the idea of it’s always ok to do biblical things got lost. Excitement, honest excitement, is not only ok, it is good, it is biblical, and it should be normal for every believer in Christ. Now, that obviously does not include manufactured excitement, excitement for the purpose of show, excitement that arises from any source other than being the adopted child of the God that created us by means of the blood of His only begotten Son.

Personally, I think we need to get aware that the “I don’t want to even slightly look like __________” attitude is merely an invitation to Satan to block us off from doing good. All he needs to do is set up shop on that one thing, and we’ll run from it (as opposed to fleeing Satan himself, which we should do) and he can prevent us from doing a whole lot of things we should be doing. Certain musical instruments are not allowed in some churches because they are used by musicians that play, frankly, anti-Christian music. Given that principle, in light of Elton John, Jerry Lee Lewis, Mickey Gilley, Liberace, etc, etc, etc, etc, how can we stomach a piano in our churches?

Frankly, I think Satan is already doing a journeyman’s job of isolating us from what should be commonplace in the life of a believer by that method. If some point in a sermon really, really dug down into your soul and made you more joyous than you’ve been for years, would you dare show it or would you keep it in? Most of us would keep it in. That’s just a fact from observing fundamental church services since 1970. So, all Satan did was set up shop on being demonstrative in church, and we all shut up and swallowed our excitement. Don’t want to look like “them” (whoever the current “them” is). How long until it takes more and more to make us really excited, honestly excited, justly excited? Swallowing it, burying it, hiding it, takes a toll. Yes, I think Satan is already blocking us off from valid, sensible aspects of our Christian life, simply by setting up a fake on that point, and watching us run from both the fake and the real. This is a “right now” thing; this is not a warning just for future consideration, in my view.

RABBIT TRAIL #1 END

Back to zeo, a boiling hot spirit. It’s interesting that boiling starts at the innermost part of the pot; right at the bottom; way down deep. No surface effect here. Also, the whole pot is hot, even though the boiling (the roiling visible water) is on the top, the whole pot is just as hot, or very very close to as hot.

Here’s another interesting application or aspect of zeo boiling. Boiling always starts in a defect. If the bottom of the pan were exactly perfectly completely smooth right down to the molecular level, the water would never boil as we know boiling. The water at the pan surface would heat, but no little tiny steam bubbles would form to set up the circulation. What would happen is that as soon as the water at the bottom became superheated enough to overcome the pressure of the liquid holding it down, it would flash out of the pot. Anybody who observed this (and a few have from time to time, but it’s rare) would call it an explosion, and afterwards, the pot is dry. No, boiling, zeo, happens when an imperfection in the pan, a teeny tiny ding, a teeny tiny crack in the surface heats the tiny bit of water that’s down in it from all sides but the top, so it turns to steam first, and makes a little steam bubble, which then detaches and rises to the surface. Once at the surface, by the way, it cools a little bit, and begins to fall toward the bottom, as the slightly cooler water at the top falls, and the hotter water from the bottom rises. Hence, a circulation is set up.

Therefore, I see two parallels here. First, this excitement, this boiling spirit, does not arise from the “perfect” among us, that is, we don’t have to be “one of the really good Christians” to have this spirit. Boiling can only arise from imperfections. Second, this fervency we see here, this zeo, goes on and on and on and on and on as long as the energy (the thing or things God did or God taught us that caused the excitement) is applied. Hence, we’re not talking about reluctantly letting out a quick, but perhaps authoritative, “amen” in church and thinking we’ve shown our excitement.

A good listen to the Florida Boys song from the mid-70s, “If You’re Happy, Notify Your Face” as Steve mentioned, might do us all some good. OK, for you purists, yes, the Lefevres recorded it the same year. It’s still a good message for all of us. If I had found a link to it being sung by anyone somewhere on the internet, I’d have provided the link.



Until next time, then,

Al



Attributions, Links, and notes:

I access Strong’s Concordance online at http://www.eliyah.com/lexicon.html or at http://www.blueletterbible.org (which is where eliyah.com sends you anyway).

I look up verses and passages using http://www.biblegateway.com.

There are other occasional reference links that I use, which will be provided as I have occasion to use them in this blog.

Thanks to these folks for providing free references on the net for people like us.

Getting Started

It happened again Sunday morning. There I sat in Sunday School at Hampshire View Baptist listening to Steve teach from Romans 12 and I felt this driving urge to write my feelings, my impressions, my thoughts, regarding what we were learning.

Hence, this is my effort to respond to that urge.

Acts 17:11 is quoted because it seems so apt, as best I can tell. Paul and Silas had come to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue. As was their custom, they went to synagogue, and they expounded the Word of God to God's People. Seems that a few of the Jews responded to the messages (three weeks of preaching), but of the "devout Greeks" a multitude responded, and of "the chief women" many responded. However, the remaining group (mostly men, I take it, from the text) rebelled at the message, and employed non-believers and non-church people to break in to their host's home and take him before the civil authorities (yet another case of attempting to use the government in the place of God, but that's for another time), and Paul and Silas' friends scooted them out of there to Berea.

There was a synagogue in Berea, and they went about their normal custom, as they had in Thessalonica. However, the response was different. Paul writes (see Title header) that the Bereans were "more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." "These things" of course, refer to what Paul taught and talked about from the Scriptures.

Note the Bereans' "readiness of mind." They were ready to learn, ready to examine scripture, ready (apparently) to let scripture override their own personal wishes and wants and status. Note also their response, that they searched the Scriptures. This is a two-fold response.

First, they did not rely on the man that expounded on the Scriptures as the final word. They used his words rather as a starting point for their own personal understanding of their connection and relationship with God. Seems they already knew what Paul later tried to teach the Corinthians (I Cor 2:4-5 "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.")

Second, they went to Scripture to check Scripture, so not only did they reject a man as a final authority on truth, they went to the correct final authority on truth to check what the man said.

So, we arrive here. Monday; Sunday's over, and it's time to take the Bereans' example and put it to work. I hope I can/will keep this up, regularly. I will do my best, and ask for your forgiveness if fail. It is worth a start, I believe, so it’s started.

Al