Quick thoughts on Psalm 109

The newest, coolest thing in far-right circles is to tweet, post, have a bumper sticker that says “Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8″.  While it seems innocent on the surface, what this verse says is:

“Let his years be few; let someone else take his position.”

Cute, huh? Praying for the end of Obama and/or his administration.  What these people don’t tell you is this……

…..those are the words of David’s enemies.  Back up a couple verses and this is what David says:

O God, whom I praise, don’t stand silent and aloof while the wicked slander me and tell lies about me.
They surround me with hateful words and fight against me for no reason.
I love them, but they try to destroy me with accusations
even as I am praying for them!
They repay evil for good,and hatred for my love.
They say,“Get an evil person to turn against him.
Send an accuser to bring him to trial.
When his case comes up for judgment, let him be pronounced guilty.
Count his prayers as sins.
Let his years be few; let someone else take his position.

- Ps109:1-8

“They” are David’s enemies. “They” also wish that his children become fatherless and wander as beggars.  “They” also wish that his offspring die and his family name “disappear from human memory.”

All through Psalm 109, David relays what his enemies say yet he never stops praying for them.  He never stops loving them.  He prays to God to give him strength and says he will never stop rejoicing.

So, the next time you see this cute little saying, kindly tell them that Ps 109:8 are the words of those out to destroy King David, the enemies of God and his people, and NOT from those that follow and worship the almighty God.

Conservative Christian Group Calls for “No More Muslims” In Military

The American Family Association, a conservative Christian group, has published an article on its website calling for Muslims to be barred from military service. Bryan Fischer, AFA’s Director of Issues Analysis, argues that the Fort Hood shootings are a signal that “It it is time to stop the practice of allowing Muslims to serve in the U.S. military”:

The more devout a Muslim is, the more of a threat he is to national security. Devout Muslims, who accept the teachings of the Prophet as divinely inspired, believe it is their duty to kill infidels….

This is not Islamophobia, it is Islamo-realism….

And just as Christians are taught to imitate the life of Christ, so Muslims are taught to imitate the Prophet in all things. Yesterday, Nidal Malik Hasan was simply being a good Muslim.

I completely agree with the MJ writer that this pile of dung from the AFA is a “vast wasteland of stupid”.

It’s absolute bigoted garbage… as a Christian, it disgusts me.

Christianity and the death penalty are incompatible

Period.

Those who quote “an eye for an eye” have got it wrong and obviously have forgotten the words of Jesus and Paul.

The OT concept of “ayin tahat ayin” comes in direct response to Lamech’s claim in Genesis 4:

One day Lamech said to his wives:
“Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;
listen to me, you wives of Lamech.
I have killed a man who attacked me,
a young man who wounded me.
If someone who kills Cain is punished seven times,
then the one who kills me will be punished seventy-seven times!” Gen 4:23-24 (NLT)

“Eye for an eye” was to ensure that punishment would be equivalent to the crime, and was intended to be a prohibition against vengeance.

Since, obviously, man screwed this all up, when Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount, he said this:

38 “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. Matt 5:38-40 (NLT)

Then, following the Two Great Commandments, we see this story:

21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven! Matt 18:21-22 (NLT)

Note the similarity in language between Lamech’s lament and Jesus’ answer to Peter.

Paul understood this, and in Romans 12, he says:

Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all! Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord.

Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.” Romans 12:14-20 (NLT)

The underlying point here is that only love can truly change people’s hearts and the world. We may not immediately see the change, however. But responding in love shines a spotlight on the “wickedness” in the hearts of people who “do bad things”.

The clouds have gathered….

….and I feel a storm coming on.

In my last post, I talked about how even in the tough times our family has been facing God is, in fact, present.  Now, I know this.  I also know that its when we’re hurting most that He holds us tighter.

I know this to be true….but…..

…..I’m having a hard time feeling it.

I find myself wonder where He is in all this, why He feels so distant to me right now.  I like to consider myself a man of strong faith but, honestly, I just wonder.

In Hebrews 13:5, God says “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”

I believe that…..I just find myself wishing He was a bit more vocal right now.

I’m sad, I’m angry, and my heart hurts more than it has ever hurt.  We buried 2 family members in 10 days.  My uncle was 59 years old, only 3 years retired, survived an aneurysm 12-13 years ago…..and in a short 6 months he’s gone.

It’s not fair.  I miss him terribly.  I miss his presence.  I miss his banter with Hally.  I miss teasing him about voting for Bush.  I’m going to miss watching pathetic Detroit Lions football on Thanksgiving and shucking clams on Christmas Eve.

*wiping tears*

God, I haven’t cried this much ever.

Through all the pain and heartbreak, a few things stand out to me.

• My wife.  She’s been my rock, my anchor through all this.  She’s allowed me to mourn, to be crabby, to process all that’s overwhelming me.  She’s the most amazing woman in the world, and I’m lucky to have her.

• Last night after SWITCH, as I watched the kids play basketball and chit chat with each other, I felt normal for the first time in weeks.  It was the first peace I’ve had in my heart, the first time I actually felt like everything was right with the world.

• I have great friends.  Troy, Bob, Joy, Jim and the EmDes Gang, Tom and Amy, Sam, Tiffany, the SWITCH leaders, and anyone I may have forgotten…. you guys are wonderful.  I love each and every one of you.  Thank you for your comfort, your hugs, your prayers, your daily checks on me and my family…. you guys truly are a blessing.  You truly live out what Paul said in Galatians about “bearing each other’s burdens”.  I couldn’t have made it this far without you.

• Family.  I hate seeing all of you BECAUSE of this, but our strength through our unity will get us through this.  The word “crap” will keep my Auntie Ann close in my heart.  Whenever I hear it or say it, I laugh inside….. its those things that I treasure.

I know everything hasn’t hit me yet.  I know there’s stormier times coming.

….and feeling distant scares me.

Random thoughts from 30,000 feet

Technology never ceases to amaze me.  I’m sitting here on a flight to Chicago, and ultimately Detroit, to attend my grandmother’s funeral.  Yet, I can still link up to the interwebs.  Sometimes its just amazing.

Anyway, that’s not what I logged on to say.

This last week has been, well, absolutely suck-ful to put it gently.  The up and down and crash of my Uncle’s health and hopes for a liver transplant and my gramma’s death really have struck a blow to the family.  I know for me, this last week has truly tested my faith.  I don’t think that God, Himself, is doing this to test me….let’s make that abundantly clear.  Just that the events of the last week have truly tested me.

It’s easy to trust in God and have faithwhen things are good.  It’s when things go south that it gets much more difficult.  I think it has to do with our desire to control what God does in our lives.  We say “I’ve been good, I’ve been faithful….why is God doing this?  Shouldn’t he be blessing me?”

Well, He is.  In fact, although it’s difficult to see, and even difficult for me to believe lately, His blessings during the tough times are actually greater than in the good.  In the tough times, we can either depend on Him further, or get angry and walk away.  Learning to depend on him more brings us that much closer to Him, makes our relationship with Him that much richer, and, quite honestly, increases the joy and love in our lives.

In the good times, we often lose sight of His work in our lives, thinking we, alone, are responsible for our success.  That’s just human, I guess.

I don’t pretend to understand why my family is facing these tough times.  I think I’ve stopped looking for “why” a long time ago.  I just know that there is a reason, even if I don’t know it or understand it, and that it’s when times are toughest that God draws closest to us and loves us even more.  In our weakness He is made perfect.

I know this is going to be a tough weekend…emotionally and physically draining.  I also know that I have a great family, those at home, those I’m travelling with, and those I’ll be seeing in 5 hours-ish.  I look forward to laughing, crying, breathing, eating, crying some more, laughing some more, and saying “till we meet again” to my gramma.

In other words, I’m looking forward to family.

My Viao is a battery hog, and I’m down to 20%.  I’m not in one of those rows with the DC outlet under my seat, so I’ll sign off for now.

Just know that I love you all, and your words of support and encouragement you’ve shared with me and my family mean the world to us.

Remember… God loves you, always.

Oh… and I still think blogging form 30,000 feet is the cat’s pajamas!

Atheists and Evidence for God – An Update

Back in July, I wrote a post asking “What kind of evidence of God’s existence would Atheists accept?“. I also asked this same question in a religion/theology forum of a political discussion board I participate in.  Now, since the New Atheists are so firm in their insistence that there’s “no evidence” for God’s existence, I had faith that they’d be able to answer this question honestly and, well, realistically.  Judging by the majority of the answers I got, I was sooooo wrong.

So, let’s go the tape, shall we?

• An omnipotent being who refers to themselves as God, on-camera and in english, and i’m operating the camera, with screened-for-rationality witnesses from every religion on earth, and submits to an interview. like Close Encouters, but with Yahweh

• An amputee regrowing a limb, now THAT could count.

• A man rising from the dead, long after brain and heart failure, now that could count.

• To wake up tomorrow morning and find that every single human being (believers of all religions and non-believers) had perfect knowledge of what god is and how it should be worshiped/followed/etc. No more religious wars, disagreements, etc.

• He literally has to come down, knock on my door, and hand me a business card.

…..and then there was this answer….

1) a visitation from an entity powerful enough to convince me of omnipotence. Maybe it would destroy a planet or something.
2) the entity would have to convince me it was “personal”, that it had a personality like I do, thinks in a linear, human like, fashion. A prolonged conversation with such an entity would be a start.
3) The entity would have to convince me of the truth of the assertions in the Bible about it. So it’d need to execute some kind of time travel that could be convincing enough that I would not suspect an illusion.
4) I’d have to meet each of the persons of the trinity, or be convinced that this one entity I was talking with was comprised of three persons. Again, conversation is a good way to do this.

So, essentially what we’ve determined so far is that God has to be the “genie God”…..although the last answer is the best one so far, particularly making God equal with Darth Vader, complete with planet destroying Death Star abilities. But wait, it gets better.

First we have the “shuck and jivers”, responding with:

• First define God. I don’t believe in God because I don’t think the word has any meaning. Give me a hard definition, and I’ll tell you exactly what evidence I would need to acknowledge believe in it. Because right now you’re asking me to tell me what it would take for me to believe in hurmdiddle.

• Nobody really defines what god is, so talking about the existence of god is fraught with issues.

• it’s a hard question to answer because nobody seems to agree on what is meant by “God”

It’s interesting to see that the New Atheists are eager to claim there is no evidence for God, yet when pressed for what would constitute evidence, they switch to the “define God” argument.

If they can’t define God, then how can they say there’s no evidence either way?

Then, just when you thought things were silly enough, they cross over to the completely ridiculous:

• I’ve read many old texts, many of which discuss other sorts of deity. I don’t believe them any more than you do. Kali, Krsna, Ahura Mazda.

• I guess, then that you believe in Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Athena, et al., because of the archeological evidence that Greek civilization existed … or Thor, odin, Frea, etc.

• Letting me win the 36 million dollar lottery tomorrow would be a good start.

• I would need to see the ORIGINAL vault copy Birth Certificate.

• Magically banishing all country music from the world.

• For example, if god made the sky plaid for a day and told everyone it was he/she/it who did it by giving us all the same dream, then this should probably be done once every 20 to 50 years.

There were numerous other conversations, including more of people telling me what I believe, variants of the old standby “believers are dumb”, and  alot of deflecting when it’s pointed out that most of the answers qualify as personal revelation, which is soundly rejected by most atheists.

The lone bright spot is there was one person who admitted that there was nothing that could convince him God exists.  I actually appreciate that answer more than the others simply because it’s honest.

While I have no doubt that there are a substantial number of atheists who don’t, and won’t ever, believe, as time passes I’m convinced more and more that these “New Atheists”, or Dawkins disciples, are simply following a fad in order to sound smarter than they really are.

The Church of Jesus Christ: Phyllis Schlafly Endorses Bloody Revolution; Columnist Plans For Armed Coup

My friend Joel has a really great take on the recent rash of dangerous rhetoric.

Phyllis Schlafly, is an leader among the Christian conservatives, hosting programs on Christian radio, and is the founder of the Eagle Forum. Janet Porter is founder of Faith 2 Action. Both sit as co-chairs for the How To Take Back America group.

At the ‘How To Take Back America Conference’ last weekend, conservative speaker Kitty Werthmann (president of the South Dakota chapter of the Eagle Forum) led a workshop called “How to recognize living under Nazis & Communists.” She told of the immediate parallels between Nazi Germany and the U.S. of today, noting that Hitler, who acted “like an American politician,” was “elected in a 100% Christian nation.”

Read more at The Church of Jesus Christ blog

The Real “Magic Kingdom”

Those of you who know me, know I love to read…especially anything related to history, philosophy, or theology.  Since I’ve been in school for the last two years, I haven’t had much time to read for enjoyment, which I’ve missed terribly.

Now that I’ve got more free time, I’ve started reading again, and one of the books I’ve picked up is “The Secret Message of Jesus” by Brian McLaren.  As I was reading, I came across this sentence:

“When Christianity sees itself more as a belief system or set of rituals for the select few and less a daily way of life available to all, it loses the ‘magic’ of the kingdom.”

The Magic Kingdom.  Now I’d bet money that McLaren intentionally used that phrase because of the imagery behind it.  Well, it worked… got my attention.  It also brought back to the front of my mind something that I keep thinking about and have thought about for years….

απο τοτε ηρξατο ο ιησους κηρυσσειν και λεγειν μετανοειτε ηγγικεν γαρ η βασιλεια των ουρανων (mattthew 4:17)

Or maybe this will work….

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Now, the part that has always intrigued me, the “at hand” part.  Until recently, I’d always assumed that the “repent” part meant confession.  While I was right to be intrigued about the first part, I’ve learned that I was wrong about the second part.  In fact, so wrong, that when put right it puts this bit into a whole new light.

The greek word translated as “repent” is μετανοειτε (metanoeite), which is a form of the root word μετανοέω (metanoeō) which means “to think differently, to reconsider”.

Now, Jesus was around during the height of the Roman occupation.  Rome WAS the Kingdom and Caesar was its deity (which makes the render unto Caesar scripture that much more politically charged).  Most Jews thought that the Messiah would come and deliver them from Rome.

Jesus, however, had a different idea.  He was telling them “Hey.. hate to disappoint you, but you’re thinking all wrong.  The kingdom of heaven (βασιλεια των ουρανων) isn’t coming “later”… its right in front of you and I’m going to show you.”

Now this was a big deal.  How could the kingdom of heaven be here, in the midst of oppression and occupation?

μετανοειτε! Jesus said, or more accurately κηρυσσειν which means “heralded”, sort of like the town crier.

μετανοειτε ηγγικεν γαρ η βασιλεια των ουρανων (mattthew 4:17)

or

Change your way of thinking and you can experience heaven now.

Now, when you’re in Anaheim or Orlando visiting the home of the big eared one, it is a place of joy, of happiness, where all is right with the world and you can be footloose and fancy free.

So now you can see why McLaren used the word “magic” in his book.

Jesus told us how to experience that every day, and it all starts with changing our way of thinking.

So, let me ask you this….do you spend more time focused on the Romans and their Empire in you life, or on thinking differently, like Jesus calls us to?

How To Fail Before You Begin

1. Simply refuse to have the difficult discussions.
2. Simply refuse to change your methods.

How many of us have looked around and thought “Man, this just isn’t working as good as it could…there’s so much potential, but we’re just wasting it”?

How many of us, after thinking that, don’t say anything because we’re afraid to “rock the boat”?

It doesn’t matter whether it’s at work or home or in our marriages or in our parenting…or whatever.  Comfort and familiarity can be our biggest enemies.

In the post on teens, sex, and the Church, I put forth the proposal that perhaps the Church should look at changing the way their message is disseminated, not what the message actually is. In some of the comments this idea was met with strong resistance.  Changing methodology was equated to compromising the message.  This attitude, I believe, is counterproductive and actually serves to sabotage any chance for success the Church may have.

Where would the Church be today if, say, the OT prophets didn’t speak out?

Where would the Church be today if Jesus didn’t tackle the difficult issues and turn the religious establishment’s way of thinking on its head?

Where would the Church be today if Peter didn’t stand up at Pentecost and preach to the multitudes?

Where would the Church be today if God hadn’t struck a murderer blind (Saul) and then use him to take the message of Christ to the world?

Where would the Church be today if Paul hadn’t parted ways with Barnabas and taken up with Silas and, later, Timothy?

Where would the Church be if Philip just ignored the Ethiopian eunuch?

Jesus, in his teachings, used different methods, different stories, different literary devices to convey his message.

Paul adapted how he shared the message of Christ depending on which Church he was talking to.

The Bible has moved from Aramaic, Greek, and Latin into almost every language on the planet and is presented in a number of different translations (KJV, NIV, NASB, NLT, ESV, etc.).

The commonality here is that the message is constant, it’s the medium and methodology that changes.

Another way to sabotage success is to assume that just because you discuss uncomfortable things, that automatically becomes one’s position.  Just because you talk about something doesn’t mean you support it, condone it, or even think it’s a good idea.

However, it does mean that you’re confronting reality head on…..even that bit of reality that you prefer to ignore, that makes you cringe, or that you’d wish would just go away without you doing anything.

Let me put it this way.  If your kid is struggling in a particular subject, do you continue to teach him the same way or do you look for other methods to get your message across?

If your child is engaging in undesirable and even dangerous behaviors, do you just keep on lecturing them or do you look for different ways to reach them so your message makes a bigger impact?

If your marriage isn’t working and your spouse just isn’t getting it, do you just resign yourself to the way it is, ignore what’s going on, or do you try to find a way to reach them to save the relationship?

People, businesses, Churches who have the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” mindset will soon find themselves ineffective at best and irrelevant at worst.

The world is constantly changing.  The Church does not need to change to conform with the world, but it does need to be able to change how it interacts with the world.

For example……

My church used to be part of a larger church based some 1000 miles away.  Their model and their way of doing things worked great for their locality.  However, it did not really translate well to Arizona.  Instead of adapting how they did things, without compromising their message, they continued to do things the same way, stick to the same methods, and were left wondering why they weren’t seeing the same success as they did elsewhere.

Well, honestly, it’s because Phoenix isn’t Oklahoma City.  The culture is different, the attitude is different, the demographics are different…. This requires the Church to be different in how it interacts with the locality.  I’m not saying their way was bad, it was just ineffective in this climate.

There was substantial resistance to changing the way they did things, and, eventually, they realized the best thing was for them to, essentially, grant autonomy, allowing the church to adapt how it interacts with the locality, giving it the best chance for success.  I applaud them for this decision.  I’m sure it required some to admit that their way was wrong, and it’s never easy to do that, and allow it to change its methodologies.

Now, as I’ve said before, I don’t do change all that well.  I stress over it, sometimes I fight it even though I know it’s for the best….that’s a trait I’m working on changing.  I’m learning to embrace change, to be open to doing things differently, to listen to the advice of others so that I can grow, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

Someone once said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

In my opinion, insanity is the attitude of guaranteeing your failure before you even begin.

Favorite NLT Translation: Romans 5:3-5

Romans 5:3-5 is, perhaps, one of my favorite passages in scripture. It’s something I look to whenever life gets me down, and I often refer to it when talking friends through their rough times.

I grew up in the Catholic church and the translation I had growing up was NASB. Now, in the NASB, the passage reads like this:

And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Pretty bland.

Now, the last two years of my studies have been NIV, which is a little better:

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

However, I’ve noticed that NLT is appearing more and more, both in Church and on the radio and in emails, so I’m only recently becoming familiar with it. I thought NIV was easy to read and understand, but the NLT surpasses it and also makes it easier to teach scripture to the youth group I lead:

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

The language is beautiful, easy to understand, and doesn’t leave one with the sense of “huh?” that other translations sometimes do.  I find that even middle school students have an easier time understanding scripture from the NLT.

The richness of the NLT translation of this scripture enhances the message that we are to rejoice in the Lord always, and that the tough times we face as believers do serve God’s purpose for the work He is doing within us.