Leviticus 13

here's one of the hardest chapters in Leviticus. This one has to do with leprosy.

To make matters worse, it's a long, repetititive chapter. It's probably contribubuted a lot to Leviticus' bad reputation.

I don't have anything good to say

It all boils down to obeying what the Bible says. To do that, you have to read your Bible.

I try to post things related to my condition on Mondays. Even then, I try to come from a biblical point of view. If you want to understand how I think, read your Bible.

Nothing I have to say would be nearly as good as if you would just read your Bible.

You can literally get a Bible free from the Gideon's. Throughout most of history it was impossible or illegal or both to own one. How dare you not read your Bible.

You don't have an excuse. Read your Bible.

I used to say that if I could only speak to a congregation once, I'd tell them to be holy. I realize I was wrong. I'd tell each and every person to "Read your Bible."

I don't have anything to say but read your Bible.

Leviticus 12

A lot of people see this chapter as evidence of of sexism in the Bible. I see it as evidence of God's provisos ion.

The end of the chapter God provides for the poor, giviving them a way to make offerings for a newborn. Since sacrificrifices were so important to ancient Israel, this was a big deal.

E

Leviticus 11

Here are the famous food laws.

It's important to remember what they were for, though. The Hebrews weren't tot make a distinction between clean and unclean animals  because God didn't want them eating pigs. He wanted to make a distinction between them and d everyone else.

Five foods I miss the most

Fred Hoeker and Stephen Arterburn were wrong: anything done for 21 days does not necessarily become a habit. I've not eaten anything in nearly a year and a half, and it's almost all I think about.

Regardless, here are the five foods I think about most:

5. Cereal -- I'm no Jerrry Seinfeld, but I like me some cereal. For the record, my favorites are Raisin Bran and Apple Cinnamon Cheerios.

4. Bacon -- Bacon, or "meat candy", is good. That is all.

3. Pancakes -- I've actually always preferred waffles, but the last few months I've craved pancakes.

2. Donuts -- not Krispy  Kreme, which is right down the road, but Blueberry Cake donuts from Dunkin'.

1. Bread -- From biscuits to tortillas to pizza crust, I almost always want bread.

Now you know what's on my  mind.

Leviticus 10

this wasn't something unseen or unthought-of. Nadab and Abihu didn't bring some new and amazing thing Yahweh hadn't seen.

They broke the rules, plain and simple, God sets certain conditions, and he expects them to be obeyed. Where not, the transgressors pay a price.

The incredible thing is that Nadab and Abihu's father and brothers were forbidden from mourning because they served God first. The fact that I find it incredible says more about me than about God.

Leviticus 9

The tenure of the first priests began with their own atonement.

everyone has sinned and needs to be made right with God. Everyone. Even Aaron and his sons.

D

Review: THE ODYSSEY by Homer

the writings of Homer were considered holy in Ancient Greece. They're still thought of as some of the best stories ever written. I say this as anp introduction and to show I know what I'm getting into.

What amazes me is how modern this book seems, even in an old translation. The main character doesn't even appear until several chapters in, and the parts everyone thinks they know -- the monsters -- are told largely in passing, in flashbacks. The only problem i have with the translation is that it uses Latin names for some characters and Greek for others, but this was common inVictorian Classical translations.

Overall, I enjoyed this. While the translation isn't exactly timeless, the story is.

Leviticus 8

it took a week to ordain Aaron and his sons as priests.

They were told to stay in the front of the tabernacle the whole time. This chapter says they did all theLord commanded.

Q

something I just don't get about Calvinism

some people say that Calvinism kills missions. I know that's not true. What I don't get is why.

I understand that if God chose people to be saved, then they will be. I get that missionaries will go whether they want to or not. I even understand that wanting to is an irresistible gift from God.

What I  don't get is why this isn't deterministic. It's no good calling it a mystery. Calvinism claims to explain everything.

Leviticus 7

Peace offerings were just a way of saying thanks to God.

How much does God do for us every day? How often do we thank him?

It's not a bad idea.

Addendum to yesterday: it's been brought to my attention that I wasn't clear enough yesterday. Here's my logic:

If the people obeyed the law, they wouldn't owe offerings for breaking it. The priests ate from the offerings. Therefore if there are no offerings, the priests would starve. They were in the position of hoping people disobeyed the law so they would need atonement.

Let me explain what "completely paralyzed" means

Some people don't seem to understand when they're told about me, so I'll help you out.

All I can do is move my eyes. I can't speak, swallow, or move anything else voluntarily. I can' say hello, shake your hand, or even turn my head to look at you.

I'm literally paralyzed from the eyeballs down.

Please don't ask me to do things I can't do. Please don't make me show off, either.

Thank you.

Leviticus 6

The priests were in an impossible situation.

If the people did what they were supposed to, the priests would starve. If the people kept the law, there would be no need for offerings. Fortunately, the law was impossible to keep.

Review:TEN INDICTMENTS AGAINST THE MODERN CHURCH by Paul Washer

this is either a long serm or a short book. It's actually the the former. After the sermon became popular, a transcript of it was produced and distributed as a free Kindle book.

I've mentioned before that Washer is my favorite preacher, and this is the first sermon I heard by him. He is unsparing in his criticism of what American Christianityhas become, especially as regards evangelism. He is honest, sometimes brutally so, about the way things were done in Scripture.

Some may doubt the need for or wisdom of such negative messages in our age. I think we need to be drawn back to the Bible every now and then. Both the audio and the transcript are available for free, and I recommend both highly. 

Things I don't have to defend

I just have to talk about Christ.

I don't have to defend the Crusades, blue laws, slavery, imperialism,witch trials, the Inquisition, white shirts, racism, hatred of Jews, papal infallibility, any particular denomination, infant baptism, Mariology, a certain style of music, or the King James Version.

I just have to tell people about Christ.

Leviticus 5

God makes provision for the very poor in his law, as well as giving the guilty a means of expiating their tguilt.

He's such a good God.E

Leviticus 4

one of the main points of this chapter is usually overlooked and contained in these four words: if anybody sins unintentionally.

The sacrificial system was never meant to allow people to act any way they wanted and buy God off with some livestock. Why do we think we can sin all the way to Heaven and buy God off with a "conversion" when we were kids.

Leviticus 3

Notice that only a few parts were actually sacrificed.

It wasn't so much the gift as what it meant to the giver

Q

Leviticus 2

Does God really like the smell of burning meat and bread?

Some would say no, that the offerings were the result of contact with other cults. Those of us who believe in pllenary inspiration, though, think that if it says "sweet savor" or something like that then God meant it to.

Q

Leviticus 1

And here we start Levicus, the most hated and feared book in all of Scripture. I'm not going to lie. There is going to be some hard reading ahead. You can do it, though.

The interesting thing to me about this chapter is that the book starts with offerings. Worship is the first concern of God and the first duty of his people.

Good things and not bad

"Shall I accept good things from the Lord and not bad?"

Job asked that of his friends almost 4000 years ago. If they'd been smarter, they would have shut up right then. The  Book of Job certainly would have been shorter.

Lora quoted it to me not long after I'd woken up after my stroke. In so doing, she may have saved my life. I know she saved my soul.

I was a very angry person when I first realized what had happened. I questioned everything I knew about God. Then Lora asked me that fateful question.

Suddenly my whole outlook changed. I stopped thinking about what all I'd lost and realized how much I'd been taking for granted. 

Sometimes it hits me what I can't do, and it hurts. When I think of what's left, though, I realize I'm a very blessed man.

Exodus 40

The tabernacle is built to God's specs, and to shoe his approval he moves inn. That's pretty much the chapter.

Let's look at where we've been so far. If you've read along, on A Chapter a Day a,and this blog, then you've read two of the longest books in the Bible. I didn't even make it through the first one without having a stroke. It gets easier, I promise.

Review: THE 9/11 MACHINE by Greg Enslen

The events of September 11, 2001 are undoubtedly the most important of my life. They're also a huge hook to draw people like me in.

I actually liked this book a lot, though it had a couple of problems. First, it gets a bit repetitive, though given the plot it's hard to see how that could be avoided. Second, this is a very well-written and well-researched novel, which makes lines like "the  coasts of Afghanistan" even more mystifying. Afghanistan is landlocked, so it has no coast.

I'd still recommend this book, especially to those interested in 9/11.

Exodus 39

one thing that's repeated is that the Israelites did everything God said.

Much of the Bible revolves around them not listening, but every now and then  they obeyed. 

Exodus 38

If the last chapter was all about the inside onf the tabernacle, this one is about the outside.

There's not much else to say. They keep building the tabernacle. That's it.

W

I understand Paul better now

If nothing else, my condition has given me a lot of time to think. One thing I've thought a great deal about is  the New Testament, especially two things Paul said

One thing he wrote that I've never really understood is when he called himself the chief of sinners. Now I think I do. Only Paul knew what went through Paul's mind. Regardless of whether he acted on his thoughts or not, he knew what he really was on the inside.

I also never got "to live is Christ and to die is gain". I could tell you what the phrase meant. I knew the churchy things to say about it. What I didn't understand is how a person could mean that. 

I think I do now. Paul knew the truth. He knew what he was, and that Christ had saved him anyway. If you're a Christian, he did it for you, too. He even did it for me. How can I keep from praising him? As for the second part, think about it for a minute. The worst thing that can happen to me or Paul in a medical sense is that we die. But if that happens, a Christian gets to spend a blissful eternity with his Savior. Since Paul's been gone a while now, I'll go ahead and speak for both of us.

That's some gain right there.

Exodus 37

Though the tabernacle was in many ways a communal project, when it came to he ark, altars, lampstand, and incense, God entrusted the work to Bezalel, already chosen and equipped for the building of the tabernacle.

Exodus 36

Notice that the contribution was so great that Moses had to tell the pe people to stop.

I've heard preachers use this to guilt people into giving. If a preacher needs to do this, one of two things are either you aren't donning God's work, or yyou're talking to unsaved people.

God's people will give to his work.

They're not all dirges

The last few times I've been watching during the singing. It seems like professing Christians sing like they have guns to their heads.

Comedian Eddie Izzard noticed this and asked, "Why." I'm not as funny as he is, but I'm also not an English transvestite, for whatever that's worth. I wonder the same thing, though. Why do the people who should be the happiest generally sound like they're headed to the gallows?

I heard "I'll Fly Away" sung like a dirge. That's just not right.

If you're a Christian, you've been saved from an eternity of torment to an eternity of bliss. Think about how long eternity is. It's longer than that. Definitely longer than that. Longer than two of those put together.

The idea should make us happy and thankful. We should be amazed that all he asks in return is worship. Worship isn't an onerous duty, but an expression of thanks and an acknowledgement of something greater than us.

Exodus 35

god may have only chosen two people by name to build the tabernacle, but it was the work of the entire nation.

It seems that everyone wanted to contribute something, even if it was just an earring.E

Review: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Fyodor Dostoevsky

along with Tolstoy's War and Peace, this iis considered one of the greatest Russian novels of all time. It's most interesting for what it isn't. Though it's about a murder, it it isn't a whodunit, because the reader knows the whole time the murderer and the motive.

Despite the title, it also isn't a prison novel; the "punishment" referred to is entirely internal. It merely follows the main character from a double murdrer to his confession several days later. The bulk of the novel is devoted to his physical, mental, and relational breakdowns.

To be honest, I didn't much like it. I thought it was too long, with too many characters. I doubt my opinion will change anyone else's, but now you have it.

exodus 34

The Israelites knew that Moses had been speaking with God, because his face shone.

When God's people are in communion with him, people notice,

Exodus 33

God will do whatever he wants. He's all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good. He's God.

You're not, and neither am I. He is.

My five favorite hymns

Actually, I know not all of these are technically hymns, but deal with it.

1. "Come Thou Fount"

2. "It Is Well with My Soul"

3. "How Deep the Father's Love for Us"

4. "This Is My Father's World"

5. "I am Bound for the Promiised Land"

For anyone who's interested, "Amazing Grace" and "I'll Fly Away" are nos. 6 & 7.

Exodus 32

We should all be appalled at Aaron.

The people did it? The calf just came out? Aaron had the same problem as most people: he was more afraid of men than of God

Exodus 31

All skill comes from God.

Sure, you can work to get better at things, but ultimately all ability comes from God.

The Watchtower on Jesus

I don't pretend to be an expert on Jehovah's Witnesses. I haven't studied their doctrines, and while I found .pdfs of books by Charles Taze Russell and Judge Rutherford, I never got around to reading them.

I do know what they teach about Jesus, though.

JWs believe that Jesus Christ not divine, that he was a creature rather than Creator.. This is based largely on interpretations of a few verses. Unfortunately, this ignores everything else the Bible says about him.

This iis called Arianism, and it was declared a heresy and decisively refuted by Athanasius in the fourth century. The fact that it's still around and fooling people nearly 1700 years later is a sad statement on our own ignorance.

Exodus 30

What stands out in this chapter is how holy the incense altar was.

Even the incense burned there was holy.

Review: THERE'S A TIME FOR EVERYTHING by David Wayrick

Tthis is a commentary on Ecclesiastes, though not a verse-by-verse one. Rather, it's a book about a book.

It doesn't read like a scholarly or pastoral resource, but neither is it breezy or inconsequential. Wayrick has written a popular book on what is by far the most existential and modern part of the Bible. It deserves to be more widely read.

Exodus 29

notice that the consecration of Aaron and his sons took seven sin offerings.

They were decent people, but still people. They had done wrong. That's one reason our high priest tops those of Judaism.

Exodus 28

this chapter is devoted to a description of the pridtly garments. It also has the first mention of the Urim and Thummim.

A lot of ink has been spilled in trying to find the exact identity and purpose of the Urim and Thummim. The fact is the Bible says almost nothing about them, and anything we come up with is just speculation.

Kids

Listen to a group of kids sometime. At some point, one of them will yell, "Mom said" or "Dad said". It's the final word, the great argument-stopper. To a little kid, his parents' word is law. Isn't that how we Christians treat the word of God?

Sadly, no. We complain and ultimately ignore the parts we don't like. We act more like God's sullen adolescents than his children.

Can you honestly deny it?

Exodus 27

 the lamps were meant to be lit forever. Were they?

Who knows? During Solomon's reign the temple replaced the tabernacle, which wasn't always a center of holiness. Neither exists today.

So what does it mean that "this will be statutute forever"?

Exodus 26

God is specific.

If this chapter doesn't convivince you of that nothing will.

W

What I remember

Let me tell you what i  remember about the day of the stroke.

I went to work at five that morning, as I had for several weeks. They were adding on to the building, which meant a lot of extra work for Inventory Department, but also a lot of overtime.

I was alone on the Receiving side, getting ready to move some pallets, when I suddenly felt weak. I sat down, thinking it would pass. When it didn't I called my wife to come take me to the hospital and caled my boss on the radio and asked him to meet me in the breakroom.

I sat down, and my boss came in a few minutes later.  By  this time I was sweating profusely and barely able to hold my head up.

I told him I wasn't feeling well and Lora was coming to take me to the emergency room. I explained what I'd been doing and who could cover for me, and he got me a bottle of water and my things, and sat with me until Lora got there. By the time she did, some of the managers from the front office were there, and one of them helped me to her car.

I don't remember much after that. I said hello to the girls and Gruntley, and leaned the seat back, and talked to Lora. All I remember of the ride is telling her not to speed.

And that's it.

Exodus 25

Some pastors use the first part of this chapter to guilt people into giving. That's not why it was written.

One of the first things I was taught was, "The Bible can never mean what it never meant." Moses  wasn't trying to build a new sanctuary or hire a youth pastor. Stop reading into Scripture. There's plenty there already.

review: THE ROBERT SHECKLEY MEGAPACK by Robert Sheckley

I actually got this one by mistake. I confused Robert Sheckley with R. A. Lafferty, another science fiction writer and a very funny one. Regardless, I like old SF, and while I didn't check the copyright dates, these stories all seem to come from the 1950s and early 1960s.

There's not much else to add. If you like SF from this time, I recommend it.

Exodus 24

Twice in this chapter Israel promised to do everything The Lord said.

They didn't.

And neither would we.

Exodus 23

God makes a lot of promises in this chapter, and sets some conditions.

Israel disregarded all of them.

Not a couple, or a few. Every single one.

If you must put a label on me

I belong to the Southern Baptist Convention by circumstance and conviction.  Circumstance because the church my family joined, and which ordained me, was Southern  Baptist. Conviction because I believe very strongly in the autonomy of the local church, and that the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message is a very good statement of faith.

So I'm a Baptist. All "Baptist" really means, though, is that we don't baptize babies. There were two main streams of thought that came together to form modern Baptist theology: Calvinism and Anabaptism.

I'm not a Calvinist, nor an Armenian. I'm not an Anglican, a Roman Catholic,or any species of Eastern Orthodox. If I identify with anyone, it's the 16th century Anabaptistists.

Exodus 22

There are a lot of regulations in this chapter, but the one that stands out to me is the instruction not to talk bad about leaders.

Badmouthing our leader is an American tradition, and badmouthing Democratic leaders is a Christian tradition.

All based on something specifically forbidden by God.

Exodus 21

Some people try to read the Bible and hit the Leviticus Wall. I don't even make it that far. I hit the Exodus Wall.

Exodus divides exactly in two. The first 20 chapters are narrative that gets them to Sinai. The next20, starting with this chapter, is law.

"If you hate, you're going to Hell"

I don't usually talk about my dreams, for three reasons. First, I remember almost none of them, and second, the few I remember generally have nothing to do with this blog. Third, there's nothing more boring than listening  to someone  go on about a dream he had.

You're in luck. I can't go on and on, because I can't recall anything about this dream, aill I remember is waking up with a voice n my head saying , "if you hate, you're going to Hell.."

That was a while back. Since I don't trust dreams by themselves, I tested that statement against reason (which may be wrong) and Scripture (which never is).

The Bible tells me that I am to love everyone. If you believe as I do that  the Biblr  is God's word, then disobeying it is the same as disobeying him. To disown God is to rebel against him, which is the same crime Lucifer committed. If he deserves punishment, why doesn't anyone else?

After much study, thought, and prayer, I decked that what I heard in my dream was right.

"If you hate, you're going to Hell."

Exodus 20

this is the chapter that everyone has heard of, even if they don't know it. This is the one with the Ten Commandments.

Notice first the name. Not the Ten Suggestions. Not the Ten Good Ideas. They're called "commandments" because God expects  them to be obeyed.

A lot reject God because he seems unfair, based on passages where he promises to visit the sins of the father upon the children down to the fourth generation. And they're right. He isn't fair. Look  at the next verse in this chapter, He promises steadfast love to thousands.

I'm happy to serve such an unfair God.

Review: HOW To CONQUER A NATION by Matt Byrd

This is a good joke in need of a very good editor.

Written as a guide for would-be dictators, this short book is very funny, but so full of grammatical errors that it's hard sometimes to see the humor. I wanted very much to like it, and want very much to recommend it, but I couldn't and I can't.

Exodus 19

Why spend so much time at Sinai if the goal was Canaan?

Remember that the promise made to the Israelites was conditional. They would live in the land as long as they kept to the rules. How did they know the rules?  That's why they were at Sinai.

Exodus 17

this is the first time the Israelites fought anyone. Notice they didn't win. God did.

Throughout the Conquest, it wasn't force of arms that won the day, but faithfulness to God. He fought for thm, but there was always something for Israel to do.

Exodus 18

Fathers-in-law sometimes have good ideas. It's in the Bble.

In this chapter we learn that Jethro not only took care of Moses' wife and kids, but he also taught Moses to delegate. When you consider how many Israelites there were, Moses' ability to judge them all was amazing.

The Gospel

I've mentioned the Gospel, but never said exactly what I meant.

Here's what you need to believe. Everybody has sinned, which just means disobeying God. Since he loves us so much he came up with a way to save us from ourselves. Jesus Christ was both God and man, and lived a perfect life, died, and was resurrected to pay the price for sin. All you have to do is stop fighting and surrender.

Believing isn't just intellectual assent. It's trusting him to do what he says. It's not easy.

Everything else follows from that.

Exodus 16

Some people claim to have found the source of the manna first mentioned here.

That just proves they haven't. This same chapter says it ended when Israel's wandering did.

Pacifism

I'm a pacifist, because that's what God calls us to be. I believe that because a plain reading of the NewTestament tells me so.

This doesn't make me a coward. Some people feel safer with a gun in their hands. I depend on Almighty God instead. This is scary.

You might point out that God ordered his people to fight in the Old Testament. I would remind you of two things. First, war was severely circumscribed even then, and second, Christians today are by definition not Israelites of the time of the Exodus. You might also point out that the doctrine of just war, which allows Christians to wage war, was proposed by Augustine of Hippo, widely considered one of the greatest thinkers of all time. I would again mention two things: Augustine's writings aren't Scripture, and he was born about a hundred years into the church-state marriage.

You may think I'm arrogant, or that I don't write well. You may even think I'm completely wrong. That's fair. I'm just trying to to obey what I see.

exodus 15

The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name.

Moses was not a warrior. Aaron and Miriam weren't. 

The Lord is a warrior; the Lord is his name. 

Review: "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" by H. P. Lovecraft

This is the last and longest of Lovecraft's three novellas. It's also his excuse to write a fantasy story.

Of course, being Lovecraft, it's a very dark fantasy story. A follow-up of sorts to his "Pickman's Model", the scariest thing ii've ever read, it stars Randolph Carter, and while the plot is lacking, this novella features some of Lovecraft's best writing.

H. P. Lovecraft was a great writer, but it's unfortunate that his worldview was so often that of his stories.

Exodus14

To be completely honest, this chapter doesn't say  which sea the Israelites crossed on the way out of Egypt.

More conservative scholars generally say the Red Sea. More liberal ones usually say that's a mistranslation of "Sea of Reeds", a swampy area where the water was only a few Inches deep.

Personally I don't much care. Either God split an arm of the Indian Ocean or he drowned the cream of the Egyptian army in less than a foot of water. Either way, that's one bad mamma-jamma.

Exodus 13

God didn't lead the Israelitites by the easy path, because it turned out it would have been harder.

How often do we work harder trying to do things the easy way? God knew what he was doing.

Bumpin' the Jell-O

My friend Pratt has a saying about prayer. He calls it "bumpin' the Jell-O". It's a good description.

You never know how far a prayer might go, or who it might affect. You just never know. The Holy Spirit lives in every believer, so the reach of each prayer is literally infinite. God can hear every prayer, and he answers them all, though not always like we expect.

Exodus 12

what did dabbing the doorframes with blood have to do with killing Egyptians? Not a lot, except that God told the Hebrews to do it.

God doesn't need great thinkers, writers, or speakers. He doesn't need great warriors or architects. He can do it all better himself. What he wants -- and has always asked -- is obedience.

The Hebrrews had their problems, but this time they listened.

Exodus 11

This chapter is one reason people give for hating God. How dare he threataten all those innnocent Egyptians?

That would be a valid question, if they were innocent. Unfortunately they, like  everyone else, had sinned, and so were guilty. They deservedt to die. So do you. So do I. Yet God made a way for people to be saved anyway.

The old elephant story

We've all heard the story of the blind men and the elephant. One blind man feels the elephant's tusk and says it must be like a spear. Others feel the ear,  side, and tail and declare an elephant to be like a fan, a wall, and a snake.

The point is that we all have part of the truth, but that no one has the whole thing. But the story presupposes an outside observer.

Someone has to know the whole truth. That's the position secular humanism has claimed for itself. All religions, it says, are equally wrong, so it's the only impartial judge.

That's true, if  all religions are wrong. If Chhristianity is right, though, then secular humanism is another false religion, another blind man around the elephant.

Exodus 10

Hell is described as darkness and fire. God already rained fire on Egypt. Now he covered it in darkness.

God brought Hell to Earth to free his people. He does no less today.

Review: HEAVEN by Randy Alcorn

In the words of Douglas Adams, "I had no idea the competition was so terrifyingly good."

If I can't preach I'll be a biblical theologian. I'm interested in what the Bible has to say. Alcorn has written a solid biblical theology about Heaven, a subject that's been neglected by evangelicals. there's a lot about Heaven, but little of it is remotely biblical. Most has nothing to do with  Christianity, no matter what it says.

Alcorn has achieved a difficult balance between scholarly and popular. I've never much cared for his fiction, but  I liked this book. I'd like to read more.

Exodus 9

Pharoah was a liar. There's no way around it. As long as he was being punished, he was willilling to promise anything. As soon as it was over, though, he went back on his word.

But how are we any different? When times are hard, we cry out to God. When thiings get better, we forget about him.

People never change.

Exodus 8

The interesting thing to me is that the Bible doesn't say that Israel was spared the plagues until the fourth. As far as I know, they suffered blood, frogs, and gnats.

Don't think gnats area plague? Obviously you've never been to Pea Ridge, Alabama.

Baptized in vinegar

Two things I've often heard are,"Some Christians are unpleasant," and "You don't have to be a Christian to be nice".

Both are true, Some Christians are just mean, and you can certainly be nice without being a Christian. I can think of several examples of each. These would be valid objections if being nice got you into Heaven.

In reality, both observations are sides of the same coin. Why are so many Chrians such jerks? I like C. S. Lewis' answer, which is basically that you don't know how bad they'd be without Jesus. I was blessed with a naturally laid-back disposition, but I understand that some people's default is anxious or angry. 

Think about that next time you're approached by someone who looks like he was baptized in vinegar.

Exodus 7

Moses wasn't the one who spoke to Pharoah.

If you're like me, you've been influenced quite-a bit by The Ten Commandments. You have stuck in your head Charlton Heston saying, "Let my people go!" with Aaron as at best a tagalong until God let him be high priest.

But that's not what the Bible says. Moses heard from God, but Aaron talked for him. The first miracle was done through Aaron, not Moses. Moses deserves the respect he gets, but let's have a little respect for Aaron, too.

Exodus 6

In a time when long life was considered a reward for faithfulness,Amram lived to be older than Moses.

Who was Amram? I guess you'd better read the chapter.

It's s a good thing I didn't become a Christian to make my life better ...

... 'cause I'd be screwed.

Ray Comfort tells a story about two men on a plane. The first man is told to put on a parachute because it would improve the flight. After a little while, he finds it uncomfortable and unwieldy, and sees the other passengers laughing at him. He throws off the parachute, because it did not, in fact, improve the flight.

The second man is told to put the parachute on because at any moment he'll be pushed out 30000 feet up. No matter how uncomfortable he gets, or who makes fun of him, he'll not only keep his parachute on, he'll beg others to put them on too.

I don't follow Jesus Christ because it makes life easier, even though around here professing him does. I do it because I'm going to die one day, probably sooner than I think, and then Christ will be my only hope. He never promised to make life better, He promised to make death better.

Review: THE GOSPEL'S POWER AND MESSAGE by Paul Washer

Paul Washer is my favorite preacher to listen to, hands down. His delivery isn't what we were taught in school, but his sermons are steeped in the Bible.

This book is very similar; it seems to be a collection of sermons, edited into a book. The focus is tight upon the Gospel: what it is and how it presented. It seems clear that Washer is infatuated with, almost drunk on, the Gospel of Jesus Christ; he is a Calvinist, but foremost aan evangelist. 

This isn't light reading by any means, but well worth  going through.

Exodus 5

It's important to remember that in the beginning all Moses asked was to worship.

Worship is the absolute least we owe God. It's the first tthing his people should do, it I is not a slow song. It isn't a particular hour on Sunday morning. It's finding out that God is bigger and more important than you and surrendering to him.

Exodus 4

Zipporah was the scariest woman in scripture.

Think about it. She was ready, willing, and able to circumcise her son. Alone. In the desert. With a rock.

That's hardcore. I don't care who you  are.

Exodus 3

This chapter is the beginning of the call of Moses. What's even more important than that, though,is the revelation of God's name.

This is a big deal. Even now, when we're so cavalier about giving out our names, we're reserved, always holding something of ourselves back. Not God. 

After all, he have his son. What's a name?

I'm pretty sure your wife has never composed a haiku about Jesse Jackson

Since I can't top that title,I'll just type the haiku:

'It's not okay to 

be racist, unless you're black,"

says Jesse Jackdson.

Behold the wonder that is my life

Exodus 2

There are two main points I'd like to make from this chapter. The first is that God doesn't care about the same things we do. The second is that even after several hundred years of silence, Moses'mother trusted God.

I'm sure we'd all like to know more about Moses' formative years, but we don't get it from the Bible. In fact, this chapter covers about 80 years of his life. The remaining 40 years or so take up nearly four books of the Bible. The next few minutes have two chapters to themselves. The Bible records what God thinks is important, not us.

What's really amazing is that Moses' mother had such faith when, as far as we know, God hadn't spoken in centuries. Her child would definitely die if the Egyptians found him; he'd probably die if she trusted God. It was a bad choice either way. 

She still chose to entrust him to God.

Legalism and obedience

Since I have so many rules, some might wonder if I'm being legalistic rather than obedient. It's a reasonable question, and one I've thought about a lot. I'll try to explain the difference,

Legalism is basically trying to save yourself. It's thinking that you you can keep enough rules to get to Heaven. It's believing that you can be good enough that God has to save you from Hell. Legalism is opposed to Christianity. In short, it's bad.

Obedience, on the other hand, is just being thankful. It's acknowledging that God already did everything, and you just want to do as he says. Obedience cuts against ourmodern habit of questionining everything, but in fact, obedience to God and his Word is Christianity. It is, some would say, good.

I try to  be obedient, not legalistic. Please tell me if I'm doing it wrongly.

Review: "The Case ofCharles Dexter Ward" by H. P. Lovecraft

Rather than the pseudoscientific "At the Mountains of Madness", "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" is a pure horror story. It's also the best of Lovecraft's three novellas, in my opinion.

Lovecraft was good at wiring this sort of thing, and clearly loved New England. When's those two traits combined. As in this story, even his oen long-windedness can't keep him from being a great writer.

You don't have permission

It's been a while since I really ranted about something, so here goes :

I'm sick and tired of people using the Bible to justify disobeying the Bible. For better or worse, I live in a part of the world where the Bible has moral authority. People invoke it a lot  to make a point, or to prove their arguments. The problem is that few read it. They just mine it for quotes they like.

If you'd read the whole thing, you'd know you don't have permission.

You want to leave your wife and kids? You don't have permission.

You want to sleep around? You don't have permission.

You want to abdicate your responsibilities and live like a teenager? It's not even acceptable for teenagers to act like that way. You don't have permission.

Let me be clear: you don't have permission.

You don't have permission.

You don't have permission.

Not from the Word of God.

How to talk to me

The simple answer is, "Like you always have."

The stroke had a great effect on me physically, not mentally, I'm still the same person inside, I'm still a nerd. I'm still impatient. I still love to laugh, usually at stupid things.

I can't respond like I used to. But I still like to listen.

Review: "At the Mountains of Madness" by H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Philips Lovecraft was an American writer who was most active in the 1930s. He is most famous today for his stories in the Cthulhu Mythos, written in a blend of science fiction and horror he called "weird fiction". In addition to his many short stories, he also wrote three novellas.

The first of these, alphabetically and chronocalogically, is "At the Mountains of Madness". It is, in a word, boring. Some would describe all Lovecraft's work that way; he wrote almost 100 years ago, and his style was old-fashioned even then. Personally, I like it, and have been a fan for nearly 20 years, but I'd never read the novellas , and this one honestly bored me.

I spent a great deal of time wondering about that. I finally figured it out. It was dull because Lovecraft was a very good writer. He perfectly caught the dry, academic tone of his narrator. Regardless, I can't recommend it to anyone. It's just too dull.

A hospital

As long as there's been a Church, people have argued whether it's, as I've heard it, a haven for saints or a hospital for sinners. I believe it's the latter, and I'll tell you why.

No one goes to a hospital because he's well; he goes because he's sick. In the same way, churches aren't full of good people, but sinful, broken ones. Jesus, after all, didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent. Everyone has violated God's law, everyone is broken, and everyone needs healing.

If anyone tries to act high and mighty because they're "good church folks", ask them of what they've been forgiven. If they haven't been forgiven, then they're bound for Hell and need the Gospel. If they have been, they came to Christ like everyone else, limping.

Exodus 1

First, we made it through Genesis. Bask in that for a minute.

Okay, back to work. The first chapter of Exodus is essentially a recap of the previous 400 years. It tells in part how the Hebrews went from a position of privilege to one of slavery.

It's important to remember that the first audience for Exodus was the group of Hebrews who left Egypt. They needed to know where they came from, and Moses and God gave them what they needed.

So heavenly-minded you're no earthly good?

I despise that phrase. It's just not true. As C. S. Lewis said, it was precisely those people whose minds were fixed on the next world who did the most good in this one.

The  trouble is that I've heard it from two people I deeply respect. I doubt either meant it this way, buy the phrase itself shows a profound ignorance of both Heaven and Earth.

For a detailed look at what the Bible teaches about Heaven, I'd recommend Heaven by Randy Alcorn. As for Earth, I only have direct experience of a tiny bit of it, but I've read enough that I think I can speculate a little about the rest.

This world and this life are real, but they're temporary. All that we accomplish here will one day end. Even if you influence millions, one day those millions won't be here. Do you think David Brainerd cares that his biography is still inspiring missionaries almost 300 years later? Possibly, but probably not as much as you think.

Why then do we as Christians get so caught up in the pursuits of this world? I think we've bought into the lie that this world is all there is, that we have to make our mark here, and that anyone who doesn't share our obsessions, which are by and large identical to those of the non-Christians around us, as "so heavenly-minded they're no earthly good".

I know where the phrase came from. It was originally applied to those fundamentalists who so strongly believed that that the next life was what mattered that they thought anything done to prolong this one, even feeding the hungry, was at best a wasted effort.

But that's not what Jesus did. He told the story of the Good Samaritan. He taught the people, but he also fed them. He preached the Kingdom and healed the sick.

I hope I can be a fraction as heavenly-minded and earthly good as Jesus Christ.

In case you missed it the first time ...

... The title of this blog comes from the song "Built for Glory" by the Lost Dogs. Go ahead and look it up; you can thank me next time you see me.

Review: CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS by David Garrison

It's difficult to see why this isn't a textbook for LBTS. After all, it has nothing bad to say about Americam mega churches, and speaks approvingly of both Rick Warren and American structures overseas.

On closer reading, though, Garrison has so many good things to say about native missionaries, house churches, and indigenous Church Planting Movements that any compliments paid toAmerican churches seem backhanded. Maybe that's why it isn't a textbook.

The first half of the book provides an in-depth look at representative CPMs in Asia, Africa, and South America, before moving on to post-Christian Europe and  North America and telling about CPMs there. The second  half defines a CPM and tells readers how one might start in their own communities.

Throughout, the book is rooted in Scripture. Many of the modern movements are compared to the remarkable spread of the Church in the book of Acts.

a question for Pentecostals

Let me make it clear from the beginning that I'm not attacking anyone's experience. While I'm a Southern Baptist by choice and conviction, and have been ordained as a deacon and pastor in a Southern Baptist church, I'm not a cessationist; neither the Bible nor personal experience tells me that the "sign gifts" have stopped.

The question I have is this: why does your Bible have the same books as mine?

Hearing directly from God makes you a textbook prophet. If you look through your Bible, you'll notice that it was largely written by prophets. If God is speaking to you, you have a responsibility to the rest of us to let us know what he's saying. It seems odd that the Holy Spirit, the same one who inspired Scripture, has been speaking in thousands of congregations for over a hundred years without saying anything infallible and in need of being added to the Bible.

I'm not trying to fence in the Holy Spirit, but I am trying to respect the fences he put up.

Why I like the ESV

A while back I needed a pocket-size Bible in a translation that I hadn't read before. At the time, I was reading through the Bible about every six months, alternating between more literal and more colloquial versions. I'd seen good things about the ESV, but I have to confess that the main reasons I got it were the cover, which was blue and had a Celtic cross on it, and the price, which was $10 off.

I never read another translation. What the English Standard Version does so well is blend modern language with the style of the King James Bible I grew up with. Some people don't care for that sort  of old-fashioned style, but I do. The facts that it's been well-supported and is owned by a publisher that makes it free on every conceivable electronic platform doesn't hurt, either.

A few rules #004

I thought of a few more.

16. Stupid is always funny.

17. Do your have-tos before your want-tos.

18. A gun is always loaded.

19. There's no point worrying until there's a reason to worry,

20. Everything is a rumor until the Captain says it.

21. There's no point worrying about things you can't change.

22. You get to choose your actions, but not the consequences.

I don't think there are any more, except, "My wife's smarter than me," and she doesn't even believe it.

The danger of Christian masochism

I like things that, as I put it, "kick me in the head".i enjoy being told I need to do better. I'm a fan of Ray Comfort, Paul Washer, and Derek Webb. I like to be convicted.

But when that conviction isn't turned into action, it's just an excuse to be prideful. What good is knowing how lazy I am if it doesn't make me less lazy? What good is being told that I'm complacent if it just means that I can look down on anyone more complacent?

There's a danger in liking to get kicked in the head. One can start to like it for its own sake. That's not a good reason to like anything.

Poor understanding

Let's face it: some things in the Bible are hard to understand. Women should wear a head covering "because of the angels"? I've asked, and no one seems to understand that one.

Evangelicals love to pull verses out of context and apply them to ourselves as promises from God. If you think you're immune, ask yourself what John 3.17 says, or what Philippians 4.12 is about. The vast majority of people in churches don't know. If you're going to continue doing it -- and I certainly can't stop you --- then at least know that you have a lot of company in the cults.

Mormonism, for example, has built several important doctrines from a single verse in 1Corinthians that speaks of baptism for the dead. That practice is never mentioned again in Scripture, and is certainly nowhere commanded or recommended. Yet it is a vital part of Temple Mormonism, and is seen as acceptable by many professing Christians.

Knowing a verse is good. There's such a thing, though, as knowing just enough to be dangerous.

What convinced you?

If you're not a Christian, you probably pride yourself on your intelligence, strength, and refusal to believe anything that can't be proven. All I would ask is this: what convinced you?

I want to be right, so if you have information I don't, please share.

If you believe in some form of naturalistic evolution, what convinced you?

If you believe the earth is four billion years old, what convinced you?

If you believe that all matter and energy was compressed into an infinitely hot, small, and dense point, what convinced you?

There are a lot of questions I could ask, but I think the most important is this:

What convinced you?

Happy New Year!

Today was the first day of 2014, which is good, because to be honest 2013 kind of sucked.

The bad news is that you're probably the same person you were yesterday.

We like to make a big deal out of January 1. I'm not saying we shouldn't, just that we should realize how arbitrary it is.

Were you a believer in Christ yesterday? Then you're one today. Were you not? Then unless something happened overnight -- which I sincerely hope was the case -- then you're not now. I don't say this to praise or condemn anyone, just to state a bald fact, which no amount of calendar manipulation will change.