2 Timothy 1-2

2:22 "Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart."

What stood out to me is the "along with" in the verse. The Christian pursuits that Paul is encouraging are not to be sought in seclusion. Our growth and sanctification is a process within the body of Christ. Trying to do these things on our own might be compared to mountain climbing without any rope... precarious at best.

This post was meant as a test run to see how running my blog as my journal would work with my current schedule and resources. I just picked the part of scripture I was already reading and this is what came up. The main reason I like the idea of using the blog to journal is that if I fall of the horse, everyone reading will know about it. I need that kind of accountability. If you take the time to check here over the coming year and you see that it's been a couple days since my last post, please email, call or talk to me and tell me to get with the program. Thanks.

By the way, this starts Jan 1, so chill out until then ;^)

Lord help me to pursue You and Your purposes. Help me to do this with transparency among my brothers and sisters in Christ. Amen.

State of the Blog

I must apologize for the lack of new content on the blog. I primarily started this blog out of convenience for my endeavor to journal my Bible reading. I was surprised, however, to find that I somehow developed a small but regular following among some friends and family. After some re-evaluation of how much time and energy I devote to the things in my life, I have decided to cease posting to this blog and accept an invitation from Ryan to be a contributor on his blog, Out of the Miry Clay. I appreciate your willingness to listen to my point of view on scripture, and invite you keep up with Ryan, Chris and I as we tackle all things Christian and try to relate them to the world. Thank you (all six or so of you!), and God bless.

Dave

John 14

14:6 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way , and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.' "

Jesus gives this famous response to Thomas' comment about not knowing how to get to where Jesus was going.

And who says guys don't ask for directions?

I read this passage (which I have read many times before), and a light bulb went off. I went back and read over what Jesus said a couple times and realized something amazing! Jesus says that the way to Him is Him! In this account is the spirit and thought behind Colossians 1:19 and the whole book of Hebrews. Christ is everything! Think about how Jesus describes Himself in this chapter:

- The Preparer of a place for His children
- The Redeemer who will come back for us
- The Destination we are bound for
- The Path to the destination
- The Truth
- The Life
- The One who introduces us to God the Father
- The Knowledge of God
- The Presence of God
- The Revelation of God
- The Glory of God
- The Agent of God's power
- The Mediator of God and man
- The Sustainer of His children

Good grief! Jesus is everything we need and (should) want! I feel like I'm using too many exclamation points, but I can't help it! I read this and I wonder why I ever have feelings of wanting more out of areas of my life. I have the ultimate source of all that is good dwelling inside me. I would do well to go to Christ and try to draw on the depths of what He is offering me. If I would just fill up more of my life with Him instead of other things, I would never feel wanting.

Lord, You are all I need. You are the fullness. Fill me with that fullness and help me seek the depths of the good gifts you have given me.

John 7:32-53

7:52a "They replied, 'Are you from Galilee too?'..."

The Pharisees rebuke Nicodemus for defending Jesus.

Prior to this outburst at Nicodemus, the Pharisees scold the men they sent to arrest Jesus by asking them if they have "also been deceived?" It struck me as comical in a sense that they hate Jesus so much that they regard anyone moved by the obvious power in His message as dolts. It really seems that the implication of their two statements is to ask "are you stupid?" Galileans unfortunately had a stereotype of being uneducated manual labor-types.

This points to a problem I have with sharing my faith. Among like minded brethren, I love discussing my faith and God's holy Word. Among unbelievers, however, I'm not as comfortable because I expect the same reaction as with the Pharisees. Mind you, I don't doubt the truth of the Bible, but I expect scoffing from those who do doubt, and in all truthfulness, I don't want a reputation of idiocy. To avoid beating around the bush, I have a pride issue. I wholeheartedly believe my faith is true saving faith, but I still care about spiritually blind people calling me stupid.

Boy, when you write it out like that... I actually do sound stupid.

So, to rectify my problem (after I repent to God), I'm going to meditate on 1 Cor. 1:18 tonight and for however long it takes to drive out this preoccupation with what my unsaved acquaintances think of me.

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

Who cares what they think!? They think it's stupid because they can't understand it because they don't have the Holy Spirit because they're lost! I should react to derision with pity and prayer, not shame.

Lord, help me to be quick to boast about You and Your salvation. Help me to be bold in proclaiming You and Your gospel. Draw in the hearts of the mockers and open their eyes to Your truth and glory.

2 Kings 20, 21, 22

Today's reading was done from my brand new ESV Bible. Thanks Ryan!

2 Kings 22:11 "When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes"

King Josiah hears the words of God for the first time and reacts with fear and penitence.

I did the math and found out that Josiah was 26 when this happened... the same age as me. That got me thinking; what if the Bible I was just given today was my first Bible? Well, first of all, I'll go out on a limb and assume I wouldn't be a believer. My family would probably be a mess (and might not even exist altogether!). Many areas of my life would be disgusting junk heaps. I probably wouldn't know many of the dear people I count as friends today. Yet I know I take this book for granted sometimes.

I'm not at all suggesting we do this, but I wonder how many people would have a greater appreciation for the Bible if they had to live without it for a couple months or years. Josiah instantly knew what he had been missing and reacted just as God wanted him to. With humility and a penitent heart. I'm trying to think of the last time I felt cut to the quick after reading a passage or hearing a convicting sermon... ok, it was actually quite recently.

If you're a fundamentalist like me (and I don't mean in the "suicide bomber" sense of the word), you probably struggle with the balance of making truth come before experience and emotion, yet not pushing emotions out of the picture completely. We need to come to the word completely and allow it to perform it's convicting work in us. We should use proper study and exegesis to mine truth, but when the truth slaps you in the face, take a second to stop studying and talk to God about it.

If you were "slapped" by James 1:20, pray for forgiveness for a temper that stunts your spiritual growth. If you were "slapped" by Psalm 65:1-4, praise your God for choosing you and saving you. This should be a conversation, God talks through His word, we respond through prayer and application. Don't be afraid to show some emotion!

Lord, thank You for Your Word! Let me be consumed with Your words and let them convict me and lift me up. Let me meditate on Your precepts and fix my eyes on Your ways. Let me delight in Your statutes and not forget Your word.

John 5:1-24

5:24 "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."

Jesus summarizes the gospel, emphasizing the power He yields to save.

I was thinking about passing from death into life. This isn't a reference to hell vs. heaven as much as it is a statement of the difference in the earthly life of a believer vs. an unbeliever. We have "passed" (past-tense) from death into life. What is "death" and what is "life"?

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world...in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath" - Eph 2:1-3

"Death" is the slavery to our own sin nature. Like zombies we walk around not even hardly aware of our spiritually dilapidated state. We sin and think nothing of it, we deceive ourselves with good works that are themselves sins of pride and arrogance.

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." - Eph 2:4-6

"Life" is the freedom from sin and the exultation with Christ. Despite deserving destruction, we are exalted with Christ by being joined to Him in His resurrection. The miracle of the "third day" when Christ showed His power over death is ours as we pass from "death" to "life". We are rejoined to our Creator as we had never been, but always should have been. We are given a desire to do good works for God's pleasure, not our own. We are given the Holy Spirit, God dwelling inside us to guide and mold us. We are grafted into the body of Christ, the church which gives us direction, purpose, and support. Now that's what I call life!

Don't get me wrong... heaven will be great! But when you read this passage, don't skip past it with fleeting images of pearly gates and gold pavement. Realize that Jesus is talking about the power to punch the bully of sin a deathblow and lead you to the life that God always dreamed for you.

Lord, help me to appreciate the LIFE I have now! Thank You for Your Word, the good works You prepared for me, Your Holy Spirit, Your body, and most of all for the ability to commune with You as I was made to do. Help me to ever grow closer to You.

1 Kings 10,11

11:2 "...the LORD had said to the sons of Israel, 'You shall not associate with [foreign women], nor shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.' Solomon held fast to these in love."

The writer summarizes the downfall of Solomon.

Chapter 10 is the pinnacle of Solomon's success. He is blessed with fullness of wisdom and riches. Everyone wants to meet him to get a piece of wisdom to treasure for themselves. The Queen of Sheba is amazed at all he possesses and gives glory to God. He made "silver as common as stones in Jerusalem" for crying out loud! It reminds me of Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof" singing "If I were a rich man..."

But how quickly it all comes crashing down.

God punishes Solomon by giving him headaches in the form of enemies all around Israel, including one from his own ranks. This former servant of Solomon, Jeroboam, is also revealed to be the one who will rule over the majority of Israel after Solomon's passing, leaving only Judah under the reign of David's lineage. Stress and shame galore which is traced back to a heart led astray from God. Solomon's downfall was in diverting his affections from God to the fancies of his many wives. While this may be enough application for those of you currently hanging out with worshippers of Ashtoreth, the rest of us should dig deeper into the story for our lesson.

How did Solomon get to that position of turning from God? One would argue that he did not stand up to the machinations of his foreign wives for what he knew to be right... and that one would be correct. Another would argue he should never have taken the foreign wives in the first place... and that one would be correct too. I think the answer is in 11:2. I put forth that the beginning of the end for Solomon began before all that - Solomon's doom was that he didn't take God's word seriously. Instead of hungering for God's messages of truth, he was hungry for Hittites.

So what do I put before God's word? While my journaling has been lacking recently, I have been reading my Bible, but certainly not as often or as intensely as I (or more importantly, God) would like. I know there were times when I could have better spent my time this last week, but I didn't do what I was supposed to do... most of the time out of laziness.

I just celebrated my 26th birthday recently and was reflecting on the blessings I have that many people don't reach by 26. Five years of marriage to a wonderful wife, two awesome kids and a third on the way, a degree from the UW, and our first house. I look at all that and I see 1 Kings chapter 10, a la Dave. I don't want a chapter 11, and I don't mean in the legal sense (although that would stink, too).

Lord, help me to take Your word seriously. Help me to hunger for Your truth and to be bored with worthless pastimes. Give me the maturity to crave Your teaching like the air I breathe.

Luke 20:1-26

20:24,25 " 'Show Me a denarius. Whose likeness and inscription does it have?' They said, 'Caesar's.' And He said to them, 'Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's' "

Jesus deftly answer's the question of those trying to trip Him up.

The thing that stood out to me that I hadn't noticed before was the word "likeness." I'm in a theology class and last week we talked about it a lot as the lesson that week was "The Image Bearers of God" and what it means to be made in the likeness of God. God said in speaking of our invention:

"Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness..." (Gen. 1:26a)

So when I read the verse in Luke, the thought occurred to me that Jesus is saying that the denarii belong to Caesar, evidenced by the fact that his likeness is on the coin, thus his listeners shouldn't be too broken up when he wants them back. In the same way, God wants what is His. And what bears His likeness? All mankind!

I'm not sure what I really thought "render to God what is God's" before I thought about it, but this never occurred to me. I think maybe I assumed it was good works or something. But it makes more sense that Jesus is saying God wants our lives, our souls, our hearts. We should not be astonished when God wants to reclaim what was always His in the first place. This helps me to remember just who I really belong to.

Lord, help me to remember I am Your possession. Let me surrender all of myself to Your holy will. Help squash my pride from convincing me I am my own man.

Luke 18:18-43

18:27 "But He said, 'The things that are impossible with people are possible with God.' "

Prior to this verse, Jesus made an observation about the innate difficulty for rich persons to become saved. His disciples ask with desperation "who can be saved?", to which Jesus gives this response.

I think this verse is often misused to apply to ministry, healing, or whatever the reader is wanting God to accomplish, but it should be noted Jesus is specifically talking about salvation.

I just recently watched a special on CNN talking about sexual issues and how they played out in religious circles. One of the segments focused on homosexuality and ministries that aim to "cure" homosexuals. While I appreciated the presence of evangelicals devoted to ministering to gays in love, I was bothered by the whole mindset of the approach. One of the key groups involved in this segment was the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). Their position is that homosexuality is mainly a result of "psychological (family, peer and social) influences" (this is a quote from their site http://www.narth.com/menus/positionstatements.html).

This framed the whole discussion on this show and everyone spoke about the "mental illness" and administrating a "cure". Only at the very end of the show when they interviewed Ken Hutcherson from Antioch Bible Church was there a mention of sin. The problem with treating gay people as victims of mental illness is that it sidesteps the real danger. These people need salvation! While the Bible does hold homosexual acts in higher contempt and shows a record on God's part of harsher punishment, from a punitive standpoint the sin is no better or worse than any other sin. Any impurity creates a rift between man and God and all have sinned. We all need Christ.

The reason this came to mind when contemplating this verse relates to my work experience at Dick's Drive-In in Seattle. I worked alongside a gay man (we'll pretend his name is Rick) and to my astonishment he asked me one day "Dave, what does the Bible say about being gay?" Talk about an open door! I told him in as clear yet loving words as I could find that the Bible teaches homosexuality is a sin. Rick told me he knew that, but that he really didn't think he could change. I told him that he was right. He couldn't. I also told Rick that I wasn't able to change my sinful self either.

But Christ was able to change me.

I assured Rick that if he gave his life to the Lord, that God would begin a work in him to rid him of all sin including being gay. It wouldn't be easy or instant, but God is always faithful to complete the good work He begins in us. I told Rick that nothing was impossible for God and that Christ could save even a gay man.

He lost his job soon after that discussion, but I frequently pray that I will meet him in heaven and find out that God used that interaction to lead Rick to the Lord. And for those reading this, if you are aware of sin in your life, be it homosexuality, lies, lust, greed, or whatever, don't despair. It is impossible for you to save yourself, but with God, it is possible. Run to him.

Lord, thank You for Your power over sin. Thank You for saving me. Wherever Rick is right now, remind him of this truth and if he hasn't already, draw his heart to Yourself.

Luke 15:11-32

15:21 "And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' "

Jesus tells the parable of the prodigal son in response to the Pharisees' disdain towards sinners.

The point of this parable is the father's reaction in that Jesus is trying to show God's desire for the return of His wayward children. But in this story, we see a picture of what our attitude should be when we are the wayward child in question.

When we repent at the moment of salvation, and the subsequent times after being saved, we are to lower ourselves and beg forgiveness. I don't think people have a problem with this with the initial repentance since the impetus of true salvation is the Holy Spirit weighing our guilt on us to drive us to God. But for someone like me who is already saved, do I humble myself as I first did to the point the prodigal son does? Do I merely say "I messed up, I'm sorry. I'll try not to do it again" or do I cry "Father, I have sinned against heaven and and in Your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called Your son." ?

There is comfort in knowing that God will never forsake me and will always take me back, but the feeling should still be there that I don't deserve it. I need to repent more promptly and with more humility and disgust of what I've done.

Lord, forgive me my sins. Every stumble is one more weight on Your Son at the cross, and I don't want any part of it. Take me back and cleanse me. Thank you for Your forgiveness.

Judges 20,21

21:3 "They said, 'Why, O LORD, God of Israel, has this come about in Israel, so that one tribe should be missing today in Israel?' "

The tribes of Israel mourn over the their recent divinely endorsed decimation of the tribe of Benjamin.

I hate death. I recognize I have not had much exposure to it compare to a lot of people, but last month I lost my cousin and today a good friend from church went to be with the Lord. His name is Gerwin; he was a faithful brother in Christ who, despite his health issues, was always smiling and offering encouragement and good humor. As I contemplated his passing today, it occurred to me that he is fine right now bumping elbows with his Creator and the prophets. It also occurred to me that Gerwin didn't suffer death, but those of us still here do.

Death is separation. I suffer Gerwin's death because I am separated from him and I hate that. I'm happy for Gerwin, sad for myself, and especially sad for his wife. And as I thought about how I hate that separation, I turned my disdain towards sin. Sin caused Gerwin's death. I don't mean Gerwin sinned and God struck him down, I mean this:

"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive" (1 Cor 15:22)

The Israelites were ordered by God to strike down Benjamin, so why were they sad? They mourned because death is not the way it is supposed to be. Because of sin, death prevails and creates divides we cannot cross. Thank goodness Christ showed his mastery over death on the third day!

But for now, I miss Gerwin. I hate death. Most of all I hate sin for introducing us to death. I do take great comfort that I will get to shake Gerwin's hand again and see him walk without pain or limping. The best thing I have taken from this experience is a deeper hatred for sin and I hope I can apply that to pushing it further and further away from me. I have a better understanding of Paul's cry:

"Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24)

Lord, help me to hate sin. Help me to abhor it for what it did to me, my fellow men, and most of all You. Have fun with Gerwin, he's a real character.

Joshua 6,7

7:2 "The LORD said to Gideon, 'The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, "My own power has delivered me." ' "

God expresses His motivation in sending a small group to the battle site to ensure credit is given where it is due.

I really appreciated the juxtaposition of Gideon's attitude and God's attitude. Gideon was completely consumed with the question of how the Midianites would be defeated. He was concerned about logistics, manpower, and strategy as it related to ensuring victory. And he was quite stressed out about it.

God, on the other hand was completely consumed with the question of how He would be glorified. He was concerned about logistics, manpower, and strategy as it related to ensuring the greatest glory to His name. And He was quite confident about it.

The lesson I derive from this is not to focus on how God is going to solve a problem, but how God is going to be glorified. God is going to do what He wills to do, and nothing can stop Him. To worry about the physical outcome of a scenario is fruitless. We should, however, be concerned about God's glory. The way we approach our crises will have an impact on the magnification of our Lord's name. We need to guard our thoughts, speech, and even body language to ensure that as others see us doing our part of God's will, their reaction will be to praise God.

Personally, I'm worried about a lot of stuff right now and I need to get down to business confession my anxiety and focusing on what I'm doing to lift up the name of Jesus.

Lord, help me to be more concerned about Your glory and less concerned about my welfare. Help me to trust in Your absolute power and control over circumstances so I can be free to magnify Your name.