I spent part of this July 4 morning reading through Isaiah 66 as part of my regular Bible reading plan, and it is quite an epic ending to the book and a fitting chapter to read on such a day.
Independence Day is a great day. It is a great day because we are responding to a great event that took place in history and has huge implications across the globe.
But it pales in comparison to the good news of the Gospel.
Just as Americans across the globe celebrate an historic event that has changed our lives, Christians the world over celebrate the biggest event of history–Jesus–who has truly changed out lives.
Independence Day is not a day to fight for independence through our own efforts, but a day to celebrate the independence we already have bought with the lives of others and a day to spread the “good news” of independence in places where there are those who are not free.
The gospel is not something that we do, but a message to respond to with celebration and an urgent joy to spread this good news to those who have not heard it.
May our joy for temporal independence be dwarfed by our joy for true freedom to be spread to all the nations.
For I know their works and their thoughts, and the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and shall see my glory,and I will set a sign among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the coastlands far away, that have not heard my fame or seen my glory. And they shall declare my glory among the nations.And they shall bring all your brothers from all the nations as an offering to the Lord, on horses and in chariots and in litters and on mules and on dromedaries, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, just as the Israelites bring their grain offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord.And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the Lord.
“For as the new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me, says the Lord, so shall your offspring and your name remain.From new moon to new moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall come to worship before me, declares the Lord.
“And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.”
Christian parents bear the responsibility to monitor, supervise, and limit the digital exposure of their children. Something is seriously amiss when the average teenager is sending 2,272 text messages a month. There is no way that teens can be paying adequate attention to homework, to reading, to conversation with family members, and to the interior life of the soul while listening for the phone to vibrate with a new text message every few minutes.
But I somewhat disagree with Mohler’s slight aside,
Let’s be honest, we adults have plenty to answer for when it comes to our own digital obsessions, but most parents are not sneaking text messages while feigning activity in a backpack.
True, maybe most may not, but I see far more parents openly in bondage to their phones than I would expect. We adults, especially parents, are far more open and blatant with our digital obsessions: mesmerized by the television for hours, relegating real relationships to be facilitated by Facebook, and spending more time on our phones and computers than with God and his word.
As one who spends just a few hours every week with adolescents and young adults, Moms and dads: whatever you know about the condition of your children’s digital obsessions, it is probably far worse than you think.
I’ve been hearing much talk in the news about the auto industry and why we need to save it. I’m all for saving jobs and helping people out, but there seems to be something missing.
I have yet to hear any talk that Americans do not need to buy as many new cars as we do or that we should cut back on our consumption (at least from the sources I frequent such as NPR and some major print publications).
In a similar vein, I do not really hear any serious talk about how maybe Americans are just a tad bit consumed with consumerism and should learn to live with less.
The problem is not that we are getting less, but that we expect too much.
It seems that there are two ways to cite the viewpoint of an external source (an article, speech, book, etc.) in relation to one’s own opinion.
I can say something to the effect of, “Chomsky makes a good point in this article, though I disagree with this or that conclusion.” Thus I can bring in this external source as an equal voice with which I can divide into pieces that I like and pieces that I do not like. No one can hold his article above me and claim that I hold to its every tenant, for I may conveniently distance myself from obtuse or abrasive portions as I see fit.
But for the Christian it certainly must function differently with the Bible. If the Bible is believed to be the inerrant word of God, then it cannot be viewed as an “equal voice” in the arena of ideas, for it must be the supremely authoritative voice and the ultimate paradigm-shaping idea to govern all areas of life.
If we treat the Bible as such, we cannot distance ourselves from it, we must not make excuses for it, and may we never seek to escape from its authority.
Are we ashamed or embarrassed by things we read in the Bible? Are there things written in it that make us feel uncomfortable? Are there things that we wish were not in there? What kind of excuses do we make for these things to others?
We must not approach the Bible as an equal–or worse, an inferior–message we can manhandle and divide to our liking. Rather, we must humbly submit to it and let it manhandle our pride, divide us from our deficiencies, and form us according to God’s liking, not our own.
Dr. Ralph Winter passed away this week. He is arguably the most influential thinker in global missions in the past 100 years, revolutionizing missions with his call in 1974 for Christians to go to “unreached peoples” and not just nation-states.
My senior year of college I had the great opportunity to hear Dr. Winter speak to a small group of students one evening. His final words of the night have vividly stuck with me. When asked what we could pray for he told the group that he was dying of cancer, but that we should not waste our time praying for him and his health. Instead of praying for an old man, he wanted us to pray for the peoples of the world.
He spoke these words with full conviction. They were not petty words leisurely thrown out to brighten a reality with self-deprication. They were words of a man who truly counted his life as not his own. The lives of others–all the peoples of the earth–were more important.
We are the three musketeers
Not the knights of the big round table
With our skinny round swords
Like some guitar chords
Walking into the castle
The king looking forward to see us
The cardinal is his guard
Writing in fancy handwriting
Oh I say, we are the three musketeers
Not the knights of round table
This isn’t medieval times
To end this song but don’t sing along
All for one and one for all
My personal preparation for Good Friday and research for a paper collided this week as I came across this intriguing thought from Walther von Loewenich:
For [Martin] Luther the cross is not only the subject of theology; it is the distinctive mark of all theology. It has its place not only in the doctrine of the vicarious atonement, but it constitutes an integrating element for all Christian knowledge. The theology of the cross is not a chapter in theology but a specific kind of theology. The cross of Christ is significant here not only for the question concerning redemption and the certainty of salvation, but it is the center that provides perspective for all theological statements. Hence it belongs to the doctrine of God in the same way as it belongs to the doctrine of the work of Christ.
Luther’s Theology of the Cross, (emphasis mine)
I’m not quite sure what I think about that, but I’m pretty sure I won’t stop thinking about it after Friday.
I am finishing up a paper on Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will, and am continually hit hard by this:
But the ungodly man sins against God, whether he eats, or drinks, or whatever he does, because he abuses God’s creation by his ungodliness and persistent ingratitude, and does not from his heart give glory to God for a single moment.
Ouch.
Too much of my life is filled with persistent ingratitude–for God, and others.
Here is another very rough look at some music that my good friend James and I are working on for our alt-country project. Our first take on reworking Beautiful Scandalous Night:
Once again, this is very rough and was our first take playing this together. We recorded with just one mic into my macbook in James’ living room, so that’s why it sounds like it was recorded in a living room.
