Sometimes getting through a trial is like Easter Sunday resurrection. But sometimes it is like return from Babylon.
Israel came back from captivity, but it was only to step into a vulnerable, desolate and dangerous, tentative no-nation status. They suffered from the Samaritans, the Ammonites and the Arabs (Neh 2:19; 4:4 cf. Ezra 4).
According to missiologists, more Christians were martyred in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined. Sorry to sour your Father's Day.
How do you pray when that happens? Sometimes you pray at the table before you eat. Routine. Sometimes you pray on your bed before you sleep. Doesn't mean much. But sometimes you put physical expression in your prayer (like at the death of a loved one). The old Puritans used to say that you need to pray until you've prayed, and liquid prayers are the best kind. Guess you haven't really "cried" in prayer unless you're crying.
"In every prayer we lift up our soul, the eye of our soul, to God, especially in trouble." Matthew Henry.
In Psalm 123, the songster squeezes a prayer into a look (up). What is begun by the chief musician (v 1) is continued by the choir (v 2) and concluded by the congregation (vv 3-4).
He also looks to his master's hand for
1. Direction
2. Provision
3. Protection
4. Correction
5. Caressing
Subjects of a king. Servants of a master. Children of a heavenly Father. He is full of mercy for the maligned. Mercy to do the right thing. To rebuild the temple and restore worship of the King.
It is not until we read the last verse that we discover something. The thing that is amazing me is that he does this WHILE he is bearing disrespect (for motivation see 1 Pet 4:13). Want to go deep? In this Psalm Jesus credits us with his own faith, and burdens himself with our fear.
Nobody wants to bear disrespect today. Least of all the child of God. The spiritual leader. The head of the home. How does this Psalmist do it?
1) He looks to the throne in faith (v 1).To look to him means to trust him. To trust him means that when you have a problem, you really and actually turn it over to him by faith. Can anybody say "patience"?
2) He looks to God's hand in hope (v 2).The master's hand is the source of your provision. Do you follow his hand? It never fails. Even king’s hearts are in his hand (Prov 21:1). Hallelujah.
3) He looks for God's mercy in pain (vv 3-4).
Seventy years in Babylon. Two generations born and buried. Now we need revival after midlife crisis. The Devil doesn't want us back in the ring. People who promised to help us are not reliable. We are fully disrespected.
But God chooses and uses the despised and rejected. So NOW is our finest hour.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Assistance for the Resistance
THE PSALMWhat's in a number? In this case, Psalm 122 contains a profession of the King's love for his people in community.
That's a profound passion, so don't miss it. Let me give you three C's of Christianity: community, commission, and compassion. Okay, since you're not into postmodern-speak, let me throw down some Old School terms next to them: church (community), cross (commission), and Christ (compassion).
If that's not what it's all about, I don't know my Jesus very well. Watch this.
Fifteen songs of ascent. Solomon authored the one in the center. David authored two on each side of that central anthem. The rest are orphans, but probably compiled by Hezekiah. Psalm 122 is said specifically to be by David, who is said specifically to be a man after God's own heart (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:11). So Warren Wiersbe provides a neat outline of what was on the king's heart (which is what our heart should beat for) in this Psalm.
David had a heart for God, 1-2
David had a heart for praise, 3-5
And David had a heart for prayer, 6-9
Slick. Sweet. Right now the King is coming, but he's not back yet. He fought the battle and won it all. Want to be a complete subject in the kingdom? It's a trinity—three C's: community (the spiritual kingdom), commission, and compassion. Psalm 122 provides divine assistance to the Resistance. Come here and let me show you.
First, start with determined dedication (a heart for God). Then, deepen your devoted adoration (a heart for praise). Finally, follow God's purpose in desperate dependence on him (a heart for prayer).
Most issues of life are heart issues. I don't mean to diminish doctrine or deprecate the need for knowledge, but I am with Donald Miller on this one. He doesn't quite say it this way, but truth is impotent until heeded. So you don't just need to read your Bible every day; you need to heed it every day. And that has to do with what goes out from your heart.
That's when you will begin to see the fruit of the Spirit start to work. Joy (v 1), love (v 6), peace (vv 7-8). Peace is the sign of true prosperity. Sunshine and glory. You ain't blessed if you stressed.
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Our last Psalm (121) was sung when the city was sighted from a distance. But this one was chanted as they got up to the gates.
Hold it; you missed that. Too many times you have gone to church, heard the sermon, shouted Amen from the distant pew, but then walked out and promptly stepped out of the gate God invited you to enter. His word corrected you and his Spirit convicted you. You agreed mentally (and perhaps even vocally), but when you walked . . . you went back the other way. Look, if you're going to get to the gates, GO IN!
DOCTRINAL APPLICATION
Okay, I know some of you are type-D personalities. I haven't said nothing if I haven't said something doctrinal, prophetic and deep.
The church is a bride. It is also a city (Rev 22). She is "built" (like a Brick House, the Commodores would say). Matthew Henry points out that means the houses strengthen and support one another (a "closely knit unit," Unger says), as "a type of the gospel church." And its real strength came because justice was administered there—by a man after God's own heart.
Peace is in the walls (for the citizenry). Peace is in the palaces (for the ruling gentry). Prophetically, the nations will sing this Psalm to one another antiphonally as they go up to Jerusalem during the Millennium (see Isa 2:2-3; Jer 50:5; Zech 8:21-23, and for a complete statement of the process, Zech 14:16-21). Gotta go!
What is their hurry? To get to that justice administered by a king after God's heart. That's what blessing is, because his justice will mandate peace. The authority of the twelve apostles, judging the twelve tribes of Israel, will derive from their King (Isa 32:1 cf. Matt 19:28; Luke 22:30). Are we deep yet?
INSPIRATIONAL APPROACH
Go Old School with my girl, Pat Benatar. Worshiping in community with the people of God gives assistance to the Resistance.
Many times I've tried to tell you
Many times I've cried alone
Always I'm surprised how well you
Cut my feelings to the bone
Don't want to leave you really
I've invested too much time
To give you up that easy
To the doubts that complicate your mind
We Belong to the light
We Belong to the thunder
We Belong to the sound of the words
We've both fallen under
Whatever we deny or embrace
For worse or for better
We Belong, We Belong
We Belong together
Step INSIDE the gates. Faith makes present what grace promises. Trust in your trouble and you will triumph. Our High Priest pleads for us. Our Prince delivers us. Our welfare (community) is bound up with our King. Be soul-conscious in sensitivity (compassion, v 8). And exercise that compassion in fulfilling the commission (v 9).
Friday, June 8, 2007
Blue Light Razz
There is one of the candidates on one of the debates who is getting a smattering of support from some Evangelical (mainly Fundamentalist) Christians. He is a dark horse in one of the major political parties. And it doesn't really matter which one, because debate season reminds me why I keep a safe distance from politicians.
In a speech on the floor of the House he had some things to say about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Three years ago he was the lone congressman to vote against House Resolution 676 recognizing and honoring the 40th anniversary of the Act.
Seems like politicians feel like they have to explain why they are idiots whenever it is an election cycle.
You will recall that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed "To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity."
So among other things, it prohibited the use of Federal funds in a discriminatory fashion, barred unequal application of voter registration requirements, encouraged the desegregation of public schools and authorized the United States Attorney General to file suits to force desegregation, and banned discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other places of public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce.
Sounds like a good thing on the surface. But it seems we need at least one politician and Presidential-hopeful to tell us why it was not smart.
But first, let's back up. Here is the gentleperson's take on the Civil War: "Lincoln's original goal was to preserve the union NOT to free the slaves. He was only pushed to emancipation by the circumstances of a prolonged Civil War; if the North had succeeded militarily sooner the slaves would not have been freed."
Wow. He sweeps us off our feet with facts our teacher did not tell us. Yes, those statements about Lincoln and emancipation are true, historically. However, that does not mean that slavery was not the precipitating factor of the war, because there would have been no split from the union by the Southern states except for the controversy over allowing new states to become slave states if they wanted to. All you have to do is read the constitution of any Confederate state, and read the ancient "blogs" written by the Confederate leaders of the time, and you find them all saying the war is about slavery. It is only after they lose the "cause" that you find the South re-writing history to say that the "cause" was freedom, etc. Yeah, right! "States" rights.
Freedom to be a manstealer and own people as property.
Get this. According to this Representative and would-be Presidential nominee, it "did not improve race relations or enhance freedom. Instead, the forced integration dictated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased racial tensions while diminishing individual liberty."
Hmmm. I don't think it forced integration. What it did was force de-segregation. He gets it twisted. Had southern states done the right thing and eliminated their own Jim Crow laws, there would have been no need for the federal government to "violate the rights of private property" by insisting that all states enforce observance of the constitution.
He says, "The federal government has no legitimate authority to infringe on the rights of private property owners [notice how he makes this a State's Rights issue, not a right-wrong issue—because he is in the moral wrong; people who are addicted to their sin always want to be able. . .] to use their property as they please and to form (or not form) contracts with terms mutually agreeable to all parties [especially when one party can take advantage of another, because, for the other party the choice is to either agree or don't survive]. The rights of all private property owners, even those whose actions decent people find abhorrent, must be respected if we are to maintain a free society."
All right then. Let's respect the property rights of pedophiles. Read the last sentence of the previous paragraph again. Do you see how crazy politicians are? Decent people have always regulated abhorrent actions, and it has never been a threat to our freedom. Since when does freedom mean we must respect injustice and immoral actions?
Certain Southern states and communities had 100 years to make it so that no black woman had to stand up in deference to a white man who arrived on the bus, just because she was black. Instead, to defend their right to treat people as property, they turned fire hoses and police dogs on marching women and children who had been organized by the churches.
Even politicians, it seems, must at times deal in realpolitik. Hence this stark admission: "America has made great strides in race relations over the past forty years." But wait, because he's not done yet. "However, this progress is due to changes in public attitudes and private efforts. Relations between the races have improved despite, not because of, the 1964 Civil Rights Act."
They lost the Civil War. They should give it up and get over it. A hundred years of Jim Crow proved that no changes in the law would have meant no changes in public attitudes.
The chicken party has two right wings.
In a speech on the floor of the House he had some things to say about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Three years ago he was the lone congressman to vote against House Resolution 676 recognizing and honoring the 40th anniversary of the Act.
Seems like politicians feel like they have to explain why they are idiots whenever it is an election cycle.
You will recall that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed "To enforce the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity."
So among other things, it prohibited the use of Federal funds in a discriminatory fashion, barred unequal application of voter registration requirements, encouraged the desegregation of public schools and authorized the United States Attorney General to file suits to force desegregation, and banned discrimination in hotels, motels, restaurants, theaters, and all other places of public accommodations engaged in interstate commerce.
Sounds like a good thing on the surface. But it seems we need at least one politician and Presidential-hopeful to tell us why it was not smart.
But first, let's back up. Here is the gentleperson's take on the Civil War: "Lincoln's original goal was to preserve the union NOT to free the slaves. He was only pushed to emancipation by the circumstances of a prolonged Civil War; if the North had succeeded militarily sooner the slaves would not have been freed."
Wow. He sweeps us off our feet with facts our teacher did not tell us. Yes, those statements about Lincoln and emancipation are true, historically. However, that does not mean that slavery was not the precipitating factor of the war, because there would have been no split from the union by the Southern states except for the controversy over allowing new states to become slave states if they wanted to. All you have to do is read the constitution of any Confederate state, and read the ancient "blogs" written by the Confederate leaders of the time, and you find them all saying the war is about slavery. It is only after they lose the "cause" that you find the South re-writing history to say that the "cause" was freedom, etc. Yeah, right! "States" rights.
Freedom to be a manstealer and own people as property.
Get this. According to this Representative and would-be Presidential nominee, it "did not improve race relations or enhance freedom. Instead, the forced integration dictated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased racial tensions while diminishing individual liberty."
Hmmm. I don't think it forced integration. What it did was force de-segregation. He gets it twisted. Had southern states done the right thing and eliminated their own Jim Crow laws, there would have been no need for the federal government to "violate the rights of private property" by insisting that all states enforce observance of the constitution.
He says, "The federal government has no legitimate authority to infringe on the rights of private property owners [notice how he makes this a State's Rights issue, not a right-wrong issue—because he is in the moral wrong; people who are addicted to their sin always want to be able. . .] to use their property as they please and to form (or not form) contracts with terms mutually agreeable to all parties [especially when one party can take advantage of another, because, for the other party the choice is to either agree or don't survive]. The rights of all private property owners, even those whose actions decent people find abhorrent, must be respected if we are to maintain a free society."
All right then. Let's respect the property rights of pedophiles. Read the last sentence of the previous paragraph again. Do you see how crazy politicians are? Decent people have always regulated abhorrent actions, and it has never been a threat to our freedom. Since when does freedom mean we must respect injustice and immoral actions?
Certain Southern states and communities had 100 years to make it so that no black woman had to stand up in deference to a white man who arrived on the bus, just because she was black. Instead, to defend their right to treat people as property, they turned fire hoses and police dogs on marching women and children who had been organized by the churches.
Even politicians, it seems, must at times deal in realpolitik. Hence this stark admission: "America has made great strides in race relations over the past forty years." But wait, because he's not done yet. "However, this progress is due to changes in public attitudes and private efforts. Relations between the races have improved despite, not because of, the 1964 Civil Rights Act."
They lost the Civil War. They should give it up and get over it. A hundred years of Jim Crow proved that no changes in the law would have meant no changes in public attitudes.
The chicken party has two right wings.
Friday, June 1, 2007
Join the Journey
It's the beginning of summer. Things are stagnant. A "plateau" as they say. So what do I do? Start a new series on Sundays. Maybe nobody new will come, so can I dump on you? There is a lot I can't say on Sundays, and more I can't put into the separate study sheets. So here is some of the rest; the behind the scenes stuff that provides both inspiration and information to the series.THE PSALMS
I have always loved the Psalms. One of the things that amazes me is all the books within this book. First, there are the five books of Psalms, with parallels to each of the five books of Moses (maybe more on that another day). Then there is Psalm 119, one acrostic Psalm in 22 alphabetic parts. Whoa! But right after that there are the Songs of Degrees called the Psalms of Ascent. Here are fifteen Psalms as one part (Psalms 120-134).
THE SERIES
These Psalms are amazing me, because they were sung by the tribes as they trekked to the temple.
You missed that. Israel was originally intended as a pilgrim people, only sojourning on life's journey (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all dwelt in tents). Even after they exited Egypt at the Exodus and came into Canaan to possess the land, God still needed to give them a reminder of their pilgrim nature. So three times a year they were to come to the temple to worship the Lord at the major religious feasts (Deut 16:16).
Now you have to understand, Jerusalem is geographical. Okay, I used to be slow, too, so let me rewind. Today, construction (and trash) fill-in and obscure the craggy lay of the land surrounding Mt. Zion (the political capital) and Mt. Moriah (the religious center). As a matter of fact, a major valley in between them has almost been entirely obliterated over the millennia. And of course, navigating the Kidron Valley and Gehenna (the Hinnom Valley) is not difficult now. But back in the day (David's), it was a dangerous deal to scale the heights and reach holy land. You were literally going up to where heaven touched earth and changed it, and the will of God was done on earth like it is in heaven.
HISTORICALLY
It's not just that Mt. Moriah was so high. But the temple was surrounded by valleys that were so low. You descended at least 600 feet, only to have to ascend that much more again. So the Temple Mount was an impressive sight—surrounded by sorrow, sadness and suffering.
Don't miss the metaphor. The temple is made of massively magnificent white marble. All wooden structures are overlaid with gold. When the sun rises and sets, it hits God's house, and the glint and gleam is reflected like a beacon. It is truly a light to the nations and a city set on a hill.
You could see it from afar. It was almost too resplendent to gaze on directly. But to get there from here required descending through the shadow of the valley, and winding around craggy cliffs on the road to the top. Foes without and fears within. What would give you the momentum and motivation to get there? Praise!
DOCTRINALLY
Ready to go deeper? These fifteen Psalms are organized in five triplets (groups of three). The theme in each triplet is (1) trouble, (2) trust, and (3) triumph. So in each group there is an ascent. You start off in trouble, and rise through trust to triumph.
PSALMIC SURVEY
Psalm 121 is the second Psalm in the first triplet, so its keynote is trust. In verses 1-2 the Messiah speaks and states his determination to gain deliverance from the trouble described in Psalm 120. What he will not do is described in verses 3-4. What he will do is stated in verse 5. What he will not allow is listed in verse 6, and what he will accomplish concludes the psalm in verses 7-8.
TEXTUALLY AND EXEGETICALLY
Keeper, keepeth, and preserve (6x in this Psalm) are all the same Hebrew word, referring to the actions of one who is protector and guardian. It is what the shepherd does in tending and watching over the flock.
The word behold (appearing at verse 4) is a word with a purpose. It always points to a fact that should be amazing you.
The word behold (appearing at verse 4) is a word with a purpose. It always points to a fact that should be amazing you.
INSPIRATIONALLY
This is a far-reaching word of teaching. Too many Christians today want to be settlers and not sojourners. Life is short; we still want to be settlers. We get robbed of our goods; still settlers. Even in our amusements; settlers and satisfied. Our society is disintegrating; we are settled and secure. We are tourists with the Lord and settled in the land, instead of being visitors down here and living for the life ahead. We are "leisure suit" Christians, sedated and settled. We need to feel the urgency of the temporary instead of being blinded by the contemporary.
Gradually ascending in spirals, these Psalms reminds you to be "homeward bound."
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Dealing with Depression
Psa 102:1 A Prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and poureth out his complaint before the LORD. Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.
A selfish person always finds it hard to get un-depressed. Even with medication. That's because all sources of happiness lie entirely in the circle of himself, so when he is sad all his resources run dry. A person who is unselfish has other wells to draw from besides those that lie in himself. Take out your purple pen and I'll tell you what to do.
The worst kind of trouble is heart trouble, and it's the hardest to get out of. Nothing pleases us if our heart is unsettled, sad, and not right. So the only way David could comfort himself was in this thought:
Psa 102:13 Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.
In other words, even though HE was depressed, the CHURCH was prospering. Even though he was depressed, someone else was getting saved. However low he got, at least Zion would arise! (Woo-hoo!) What does that mean?
Psa 102:15-16 So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.
Stop taking everything so personal, and viewing everything individually. Learn to satisfy yourself with God's gracious dealings toward the church and his people as a whole. The things that are dearest to Jesus, should they not be dear to you? Even though it is real dark right now, can you not rejoice in the triumphs of the cross and the preaching of the gospel?
Or have we forgotten about doing that? Did we forget that this is the only realistic option to faith, and will preserve us from falling into distrust? Don't let your sadness be compounded by selfishness. Look outward and look upward. Your own personal troubles are forgotten when you look—not only at what God has done and is doing—but at what he is yet willing to bring in answer to the prayer of faith.
Try this. Faith and focus. Focus on the right things by faith. Whenever you are sad in heart and heavy in spirit, forget yourself and your small, selfish concerns, and seek the glory of the cross. Seek it. When you bend your knee in prayer, do not limit it to the circumference of your own small life (sufferer though you are), but send a longing to God for more revival among his people. Then your own soul will be refreshed. Why? Because
Psa 102:17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
A selfish person always finds it hard to get un-depressed. Even with medication. That's because all sources of happiness lie entirely in the circle of himself, so when he is sad all his resources run dry. A person who is unselfish has other wells to draw from besides those that lie in himself. Take out your purple pen and I'll tell you what to do.
- First, go to God. Through prayer, God is always there and always supplying solace to our sorrows.
- Second, there is comfort in God's word. How much do we miss because we are simply too lazy to search the scriptures for God's promises? (Uh-oh!)
- Third, there is encouragement in community. David was so depressed in Psalm 102 that he wrote verse 4.
The worst kind of trouble is heart trouble, and it's the hardest to get out of. Nothing pleases us if our heart is unsettled, sad, and not right. So the only way David could comfort himself was in this thought:
Psa 102:13 Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.
In other words, even though HE was depressed, the CHURCH was prospering. Even though he was depressed, someone else was getting saved. However low he got, at least Zion would arise! (Woo-hoo!) What does that mean?
Psa 102:15-16 So the heathen shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory. When the LORD shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory.
Stop taking everything so personal, and viewing everything individually. Learn to satisfy yourself with God's gracious dealings toward the church and his people as a whole. The things that are dearest to Jesus, should they not be dear to you? Even though it is real dark right now, can you not rejoice in the triumphs of the cross and the preaching of the gospel?
Or have we forgotten about doing that? Did we forget that this is the only realistic option to faith, and will preserve us from falling into distrust? Don't let your sadness be compounded by selfishness. Look outward and look upward. Your own personal troubles are forgotten when you look—not only at what God has done and is doing—but at what he is yet willing to bring in answer to the prayer of faith.
Try this. Faith and focus. Focus on the right things by faith. Whenever you are sad in heart and heavy in spirit, forget yourself and your small, selfish concerns, and seek the glory of the cross. Seek it. When you bend your knee in prayer, do not limit it to the circumference of your own small life (sufferer though you are), but send a longing to God for more revival among his people. Then your own soul will be refreshed. Why? Because
Psa 102:17 He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Dialoging with Demons and Dead Indians
The Amityville murders took place in 1974. A son in the Defeo family killed his parents and four siblings. Thirteen months later a new family moved into the Dutch Colonial house where the deed occurred. Twenty-eight days later they were forced to abandon that home in a suburban neighborhood on the south shore of Long Island, New York, "to an unnatural evil" they felt threatening them. A year later author Jay Anson chronicled their ordeal. His book became a runaway bestseller in 1977 (about 10 million copies) and was turned into an indie film horror movie that grossed over $80 million. It was re-made in 2005. The basis for the haunting of this house was the idea that it was built on a site where the local Shinnecock Indians abandoned their mentally ill and sick, who then cursed the land as they lay a dying. In the movie this is glossed-over in favor of the fable that a witch named the "Reverend Jeremiah" Ketchum (Katch 'em, kill 'em) escaped from the Salem trials and built his house there, which included a torture chamber for Native Americans that was accessible under a basement stairwell (a red room, the gateway to hell). So the premise of the plot is a present haunting as a result of horrible sins of the past.
As with all good plots, the Bible originates this motif. In Exodus 20:5 and 34:7 Moses warns Israel that in the case of exceptional and demonic sins (like idolatry), God will visit "the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me." What is the nature of this "visitation?" There is much discussion about what these words mean. But it is clear that they mean something.
D.H. Lawrence made some penetrating comments on James Fenimore Cooper's "White Novels" (Cooper authored The Last of the Mohicans). Lawrence makes an observation to the effect that "the Red Indian" will never possess the broad lands of America, but his ghost will.
Interesting. Here is what Lawrence says: "The Red Man . . . is dead and unappeased. Do not imagine him happy in his Happy Hunting Ground. No. Only those that die in belief die happy. Those that are pushed out of life in chagrin come back unappeased, for revenge." Then he offers this prescient insight on pathological modern American psychology. "At present the demon of the place and the unappeased ghosts of the dead Indians act within the unconscious or under-conscious soul of the white American, causing the great American grouch, the Orestes-like frenzy of restlessness in the Yankee soul, the inner malaise which amounts almost to madness, sometimes."
Sometimes. A Korean-born American student snuffed out 32 lives at Virginia Tech (my used book proprietor, a man with whom I have done much business over the years, lost his niece). The massacre at VT was billed in the media as the largest mass-murder in American history. And yet a year before the Amityville murders an incident in Wounded Knee, SD, drew the nation's attention back two generations, to the 1890 military massacre there of over 153 Dakota Sioux. (It was described as a "massacre" by Gen. Nelson A. Miles in a letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, March 13, 1917. The U.S. soldiers numbered 500, the Indians numbered 350, and all but about 120 were women and children. Over twenty soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor.) L. Frank Baum (better-known as author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) was a young newspaper editor at the time, and wrote in an editorial that he had "before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies future safety for our settlers . . .".
Virginia Tech. Is it the largest mass-murder in American history? Or is it a visiting of the sins of fathers—sins of racism, covetousness and xenophobia—upon the children of the third generation? Are we haunted by the ghosts of political forefathers who, like Ahab, coveted Naboth's vineyard and, having wronged Naboth for so long, followed it with a final wrong to wipe him out and take his vineyard in safety (1 Kings 21)? How can we reverse this curse, stop the haunting, get out of Amityville, move off Ocean Avenue (or 1313 Mockingbird Lane if you are a child of the Munsters from back in the day)?
And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments, Exodus 20:6.
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, Exodus 34:7.
If, as N.T. Wright has blogged for Newsweek, "Forgiveness means you were wrong" (http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/nicholas_t_wright/2007/04/forgiveness_means_you_were_wro.html), then getting forgiveness means acknowledging to God you were wrong. We cannot correct the culture. But each of us can come correct ourselves, reversing the curse with repentance, and stop passing on to our children's children the ghost of sin's past.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Preach Your Way Out
Depression is the common malady of contemporary society. Even for Christians.
God is not unfair. First-century believers suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous physical persecution (study Foxe's Book of Martyrs). Many bled and died because of their faith, as did believers in Bible times. Read Heb 11:36-40.
God is just. So today we suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous psychological issues. The emotional and the mental are our arenas of affliction. We face gladiators that are really "sadiators," and the lions of lying thoughts. Satan inserts ideas. We don't take them captive but embrace them. Before you know it, instead of sending them back where they came from, they come out of our mouth as our own. "Spinning" things to our own advantage, grieving the Spirit by using corrupt communication, bitter, angry because of our bitterness, wrathful because of our anger. Clamor and evil speaking spewing forth maliciously, we become gladiators against each other, wielding the sword of the tongue, defending ourselves with the shield of selfishness and insecurity (read Eph 4).
The best way I have found to handle being tee-nitchey is to preach my way out. For you, the remedy might come in any number of like medicines. Study your way out. Read your way out. Pray your way out.
You missed it, so let me explain. This was the idea behind the Psalms of Degrees (Pss 120-134). These were songs of ascent. Pilgrims would sing them to encourage themselves on the journey up to the temple for worship. They sang themselves out.
Since you don't believe me, you need to study the topography of ancient Mt. Zion. The temple was the most resplendent thing in the world. The gold would gleam, and the sun would reflect off the white marble. It was not just a light, but a beacon set on a hill.
Did I say hill? It was not that Mt. Moriah was all that high; it was that the valleys which surrounded it were so low. Even after thousands of years, all of Herod's temple work, and modern improvements, it is a pretty rough place to ascend on foot. Back in the day, it took quite an effort to get there. To remind them that the effort was worth it, pilgrims would give God some "layaway praise," putting their imagination for proper purposes (i.e. thinking about what it was like in the presence of God before they actually got there).
This is the cure for mental malady. It works for anger, depression, PMS. Try a dose of Pss 120-134. Don't take every four hours—take as often as necessary. Study and pray your way out so you can preach your way out. Get a vision across the valley.
God is not unfair. First-century believers suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous physical persecution (study Foxe's Book of Martyrs). Many bled and died because of their faith, as did believers in Bible times. Read Heb 11:36-40.
God is just. So today we suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous psychological issues. The emotional and the mental are our arenas of affliction. We face gladiators that are really "sadiators," and the lions of lying thoughts. Satan inserts ideas. We don't take them captive but embrace them. Before you know it, instead of sending them back where they came from, they come out of our mouth as our own. "Spinning" things to our own advantage, grieving the Spirit by using corrupt communication, bitter, angry because of our bitterness, wrathful because of our anger. Clamor and evil speaking spewing forth maliciously, we become gladiators against each other, wielding the sword of the tongue, defending ourselves with the shield of selfishness and insecurity (read Eph 4).
The best way I have found to handle being tee-nitchey is to preach my way out. For you, the remedy might come in any number of like medicines. Study your way out. Read your way out. Pray your way out.
You missed it, so let me explain. This was the idea behind the Psalms of Degrees (Pss 120-134). These were songs of ascent. Pilgrims would sing them to encourage themselves on the journey up to the temple for worship. They sang themselves out.Since you don't believe me, you need to study the topography of ancient Mt. Zion. The temple was the most resplendent thing in the world. The gold would gleam, and the sun would reflect off the white marble. It was not just a light, but a beacon set on a hill.
Did I say hill? It was not that Mt. Moriah was all that high; it was that the valleys which surrounded it were so low. Even after thousands of years, all of Herod's temple work, and modern improvements, it is a pretty rough place to ascend on foot. Back in the day, it took quite an effort to get there. To remind them that the effort was worth it, pilgrims would give God some "layaway praise," putting their imagination for proper purposes (i.e. thinking about what it was like in the presence of God before they actually got there).
This is the cure for mental malady. It works for anger, depression, PMS. Try a dose of Pss 120-134. Don't take every four hours—take as often as necessary. Study and pray your way out so you can preach your way out. Get a vision across the valley.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
