BECOMING A BAPTIST

I have a confession. 

Before I became a pastor for an American Baptist church, the burning question I secretly wanted to ask a Baptist was ... why center an entire denomination around the rite of baptism?

Other denominational names made a fair amount of sense:

• Some were named after their founder - like the Lutherans.
• The Methodists decided to take an intended insult and make it their identity.
• Other denominations tried to corner the market - calling themselves simply Disciples of Christ or Church of Christ.

But why claim baptism as your identifier?

After all, you've never heard of a gathering of Communionists. 

But a year and a half in, I am starting to appreciate how central baptism is to the Christian life - or at least how central it is supposed to be. 

It is all about that vast gulf between before and after meeting Jesus. 

And THAT has reason to be front and center in our churches' lives, no matter the denomination. 

Pray for me - this coming Sunday is my first opportunity to baptize anyone as an official Baptist preacher! I will be baptizing a father and his son and I am very excited. 

IF GOD IS IN IT

The more I think about it, the more excited I get about this retreat idea for my dissertation project.

Do you know that feeling you get when you sense that God is at work in some situation? It is a mix of anticipation, enthusiasm, and confidence which feels like it is coming from the outside. 

Significant progress has been made in the past week since this lightbulb first lit up. 

I have now reserved a date for the retreat with the local Baptist campground: January 31st to February 2, 2025. It's a great facility and just 15 minutes from the church. 

Having a date gives me the all important pressure of an actual deadline!

And then today I came across a possible avenue for paying for the retreat - at least a 50/50 match: the Center for Congregations. I think Sardinia Baptist will get behind this project and be willing to financially support it. And with a matching grant from the Center for Congregations, it feels like the Lord is encouraging me to dream bigger:

• I could invite youth from beyond our own congregation.
• I could have my friends Tim Price and Jamie Hudgins come and lead music and games.
• I could print top quality curriculum and offer resources that the teens could take home with them.

The weird thing is that as much effort and thought as I feel inspired to put into this retreat, I sense it will become the first step towards something ongoing and bigger.

Only if God is truly in it. 

OFFICE HOURS

At the beginning of this year, I began observing regular office hours at my church. It's only 4 or 5 hours a week on Mondays, but it makes a world of difference. I usually take the time to write some birthday and anniversary cards and, almost as important, get a jump start on the week's sermon writing. 

And since I live 25 minutes away in a different town, being there on a weekday keeps me a bit more connected to the little community surrounding the church than if I just commute in and out on Sunday mornings.

Fortunately, the "pastor's study" (now that it's been renovated) is a very pleasant place to work. And typically quiet.

In recent weeks, though, it has been less quiet than when I first started the practice of keeping office hours. 

(But quite alright by me.)

Today I had two visitors, one right after the other. And the leisurely conversations with these two men from the congregation were the highlight of my day. 

I wonder if this might be another secret advantage of the small country churches: perhaps life is not as hectic here as among the bigger congregations in town. Rural folks allow more space in the margins of their lives. They grow zucchini and then bake it into bread. They visit with neighbors. 

As an unexpected bonus, each of my two visitors today came bearing gifts. One gave me a book and the other gave me a bag full of freshly picked green beans. 

Don't make the mistake of thinking bigger always means better when it comes to churches! 

THE BOW

Maybe you already knew this, but as I studied the Noah story this past week, I was surprised to find that the text does not say God put a rainbow in the sky as part of His promise to never destroy humanity again. 

The word that is used is simply "bow" - as in "bow and arrow" and it denotes a weapon for hunting, destruction, or warfare.

So God hangs His weapon up, in the heavens, and pledges to never unleash the floodwaters again. 

But when God does this, nothing has changed in the human heart! 

This begs the question:

So what IS the plan going forward? How will God and humanity coexist? Will humanity's evil be allowed to run unchecked?

Everything in the Bible that follows Genesis 9 is an answer to those implied questions.

If God has hung up His bow and His ultimate solution is NOT to wipe humanity out, then an alternate solution must be in His mind. 

And it turns out to be a plan which will cost HIM instead of humanity. 

BIBLICAL MIRRORS

"Biblical characters are not models for behavior, but mirrors for self-reflection." - Dr. Tim Mackie

This really ought to be obvious but, if you're like me, you often read Bible stories with the assumption that everything the central characters do must be aligned with God's will and, thus, instructive for our own behavior.

Is it just lazy - or wishful - thinking? Is it because we assume righteousness is an all-or-nothing proposition? Do we suppose a happily-ever-after template kicks into place as soon as you "ask Jesus into your heart"? 

If we do, that's not coming from the Bible. The biblical characters are not portrayed as having their acts together 100%. We are NOT supposed to mimic everything they do because not everything they do is guaranteed virtuous.  

There's Noah, rescued from the flood because he was "righteous in his generation". And as soon as he's off the boat, what does he do? He plants a vineyard, harvests grapes, makes wine, and gets drunk and naked.

There's Abraham and Sarah conspiring together to use Sarah's servant for sexual purposes, thinking that might be necessary to move God's promise of descendants along.

There's Lot offering his own daughters to the men of Sodom if only the men will leave the visiting angels alone.

There's David who is called a "man after God's own heart". He commits adultery, gets the woman pregnant and then has her husband killed.

And even in the New Testament, you find Peter being two-faced about mixing with Gentiles in front of his Jewish friends. 

Not to mention all the crazy stuff going on in the various churches which Paul planted. 

Being a believer means you are moving toward holiness, but it doesn't guarantee there won't detours along the way.

We need to keep this in mind for our own sake as well as for the sake of our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

And we definitely need to remember this when reading our Bibles.

EXPERIMENTS

I've said before that "Heretic!" is the theological realm's version of politics' "Racist!" 

Like "racist", "heretic" used to mean something fairly specific, but now the smallest step away from established orthodoxy gets labeled heresy.

And - like "racist", it's a great word to shout if you want to shut up your opponent. 

But what if we took H. G. Wells' framing?

“Heresies are experiments in man’s unsatisfied search for truth.”

If we didn't attach our egos so tightly to our doctrinal stances, we might be able to hold onto our "truths" a little more lightly.

And allow others to do the same.

SYNONYMS FOR SALVATION

It's starting to dawn on me that one of modern American Christianity's biggest problems is a basic mis-framing of the gospel. 

It's not intentional. We use the biblical term "salvation" (Greek soteria) and it's a great word, but I think everyone tends to mentally tack 2 words onto it that weren't originally there:

"From hell."

Salvation ... from hell.

And with those 2 imagined words, all of the carefully developed themes running from Genesis to Revelation get brushed aside in the effort to "save people from hell". 

The Greek word for "salvation" has connotations of "welfare, prosperity, deliverance, preservation, and safety".

Think how differently Acts 4:12 sounds with any of those words substituted for the normal translation of "salvation".

Compare: "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

To: "Preservation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be preserved.”

Or: "Safety is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be brought into safety.”

Or: "Deliverance is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be delivered.”

Any of those alternatives make it seem like God desires to rescue us from some present problem. And rightly so! 

Why do we automatically read "salvation" as rescue from some future problem?

Is it time to employ synonyms for "salvation"? Would that help to get the gospel back on track?

I KNOW A GUY ... OR A GAL

A little different sort of post here this evening, because I love telling people about an organization I am a part of called BNI. I have learned so much and have made some great new friends along the way...

Fixing the Hole Where the Rain Comes In

Last week I had an urgent need to get a hole in my roof fixed before a scheduled appointment with a house appraiser.

I considered attempting the repair myself … and then came to my senses.

Now normally I procrastinate on calling in the professionals on such projects because I don’t know who to call. How do you find someone you can trust to do the work well and charge you a reasonable price, you know?  

But this time? Well, I knew a guy.

Randy.

And Randy isn’t just a roofer. I consider him a friend.

We met through BNI.

What is BNI?

At 7:00 every Tuesday morning for the past year, I have driven to the Moose Lodge in downtown Columbus, taken the elevator to the basement, and then spent the next hour and fifteen minutes with about 20 or so businessmen and women. Strangers a year ago, I now consider these folks my friends.

Business Network International is an organization meant to foster trust and referrals between businesspeople. Meetings are structured to maximize relationships and communication. I am there to represent Mission Resource. 

Each week members get the opportunity to share a 30-second “commercial” describing some aspect of their business or a particular type of customer they are looking for. And each week one member gets a full 10 minutes in the spotlight to share about their business in greater depth.

Throughout the week members are expected to get together for one-to-one meetings, continue business networking education, and pass referrals.

I can honestly say, as I have gotten to know my fellow members, I would gladly and confidently recommend any of their businesses.

I Know a Guy … or a Gal

In my chapter we have a variety of professions represented.

So if you live around the Columbus, Indiana area and find yourself in need of a banker, an insurance agent, a realtor, a chiropractor, a roofer, an electrician, an investor, a graphic designer/printer, a florist, a CPA, an office cleaner, a payroll service provider, a window blinds installer, a radio advertiser, or someone who deals in promotional products, give me a call.

I can point you towards someone who is competent and trustworthy.

Randy needed several hours to replace a small section of decking and all the necessary shingles but only charged me $250 for supplies and labor.

I’m a tightwad, but even I thought that was a good deal! I will be calling Randy again in the future.

And I will gladly pass his number to you after the next hailstorm or anytime you need a free estimate on roof or siding work!

P.S. Come See for Yourself

If you are a business owner in the Columbus area whose enterprise might benefit from referrals, I would love to personally introduce you to my BNI chapter. Visitors are always welcome at our meetings. Give me a call and we will set something up.

INTERPRETIVE HUMILITY

I listen to a lot of theological debates on YouTube. They always feature individuals who are cocksure that their interpretations of various passages of Scripture are 100% correct while their opponents are mistaken.

I was talking to the teens yesterday morning at our Bible study about ways Hebrew varies from English as a language - 

• completely different letters
• no vowels
• written and read right to left
• no punctuation

When you add all those considerations to all the other language distinctives like idioms and verb tenses as well as the overall fact that the Bible was written in and to an entirely different culture thousands of years ago ...

It's amazing to me that we don't exercise so much more humility in our interpretation of it! 

GROWING CLARITY IN MY DISSERTATION

Officially, I haven't made much progress on my dissertation work these past few months.

Unofficially, though, I have done the most important work: zeroing in on the best approach for the ministry I want to pursue. 

Originally, I wanted it to be all online. I imagined automating a series of 40 short, daily emails. That aspect of my prospectus got shot down by my professor. He thought it needed a face-to-face component. 

In retrospect, I now agree. Too much of our lives are disconnected and online as it is. Matters of faith are transmitted primarily through relationships. 

That said, I haven't tossed the email concept - I just decided that it would not be the best starting point. 

A new direction was inspired by a call from the youth pastor at my church yesterday evening. She had the teens at a campground for the evening and I was still in the car returning from Milwaukee when she called. She was excited to report that our youth had been talking about wanting me to organize a weekend fall retreat at the Baptist camp. 

A retreat!

Now THAT could be a good starting point. 

An educational retreat followed by an automated chain of emails to reinforce the learning might be the perfect combo for what I have in mind.

My interest is in fostering the spiritual discipline of regular personal Bible study among believers. (Perhaps specifically among teenagers. We'll see.)

I see two main obstacles which currently stand in the way of this being as widespread of a practice as it ought to be:

1. Having a framework for understanding the Bible as a whole. 

    Our approach to Scripture within the church at large is scattershot. We assume people know more about Scripture than they really do and then we jump from passage to passage without context.

2. Exercising self discipline.

    This is where it would be so useful for individuals to have an understanding of what James Clear and others have uncovered about how the mind works in forming habits. 

If I could organize a retreat where believers are given some training on those two pillars and practice with a practical way to study the Bible at home on their own and then follow up with 40 days of emails - THAT might be the winning combination. 

BIG DIFFERENCE

"It is the inner life of the soul that we must aim to transform, and then behavior will naturally and easily follow. But not the reverse." 

This quote from Dallas Willard sums up much of what his book, The Divine Conspiracy, is all about. (p. 144)

The Christian life isn't so much about changed behavior as it is about a changed heart.

It put me in mind of some teaching from James Clear about habit formation. 

"Many people begin the process of changing their habits by focusing on what they want to achieve. This leads us to outcome-based habits. The alternative is to build identity-based habits. With this approach, we start by focusing on who we wish to become."

The key is to take our eyes off what it is we hope to achieve - in the case of the Christian, true righteousness - and focus instead on our identity: what type of person we desire to become.

This is the difference between striving to do good deeds on God's behalf ... and becoming like Christ Himself, loving God and loving neighbors. 

ALEX'S WEDDING

Today was a picture-perfect day for a wedding and Melissa and I thoroughly enjoyed our time with friends and family. Nephew Alex was joined to lovely Karina at a ceremony in a large Catholic church outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Since we arrived last night, Melissa and I got to enjoy a relaxed morning with Samuel and Hannah exploring a small town situated on the shore of a local lake. 

The wedding itself didn't begin until 2 pm. It's great being a part of a wedding in which you have no responsibilities beyond showing up on time!

(But I do look forward to someday serving in the role of father of the bride or groom.)

We enjoyed the opportunity to spend a little over 24 hours with Samuel. So glad he decided to take a couple of days off from selling books to be here.

Our two got to reconnect with some of their cousins - and, I believe, found opportunity for deeper friendship now that the cousins are teens.

The bride and groom were stunning and seemed to revel thoroughly in being surrounded by their loved ones. 

And the reception was such a good time - right there in the ballroom of the hotel where all the guests were staying. It made it so convenient. 

Good to spend time with brothers Russ and Ryan and their wives. 

And what a treat to see my mom's sister Ann and my uncle Dave - it's been years now. (And it was like having part of mom present for the occasion.)

Alex and Karina are off to a grand start. We're praying that God grants them many happy years together.

INTERVENTION

Melissa, Hannah, and I spent over 6 hours in the car and battled Chicago traffic today to be set to attend my nephew's wedding tomorrow. Samuel drove himself up from his book selling territory in southern Illinois to join us. (First time we've seen him since early May.)

It's funny to be in Milwaukee today just as the Republicans are driving away. As we are focused on family and "real life", the rhetoric of politics seems a million miles removed from us. 

This past week I have heard and read more political opinions than I have an appetite for these days. 

In particular, I'm not a huge fan of the glib mixing of politics and religion. (There's certainly value in discussing the intersection of politics and faith, but the depth and nuances of that discussion do not translate well to bumper stickers or tweets.)

I have seen plenty from both sides: "Trump is our savior" or "Trump is the devil" followed by "if you don't agree with me, you aren't a real Christian". 

Here's one that really got under my skin today:

Is Pastor Pavlovitz saying that God never intervenes in human affairs? Or that He would only intervene on behalf of the innocent? Why did God allow James the brother of John to die by King Herod's sword and then turn around to send an angel to free Peter from Herod's prison? (Acts 12)

The hatred Pavlovitz harbors for Trump is blinding him and warping his theology.

Isn't it possible that Christians from various backgrounds could believe that God intervened to spare Trump's life without agreeing what God's motivation was for doing so?

• Was it to guarantee that Trump would be elected and to make America great again?
• Was it to spare the U.S. the violence and chaos which would have followed an assassination?
• Was it to put Trump back into office as a judgment on America?
• Was it in answer to those believers who take seriously their duty to pray for their leaders? 

Who knows? Who has the authority to pronounce God's intentions?

MOSTLY FINISHED

I only have energy for a bit of stream-of-consciousness writing tonight, so here goes:

It's weird to finish a project that you've been procrastinating on for nearly 4 years. 

My deadline for the stair railing was 2:00 today. That was when an appraiser was coming by our house to judge what it is worth. 

With an extra hand from Hannah at the finish line, I had all the balusters in place by 2:45, just as the appraiser was ready to leave.

He complimented my work, said he was glad it wasn't his project, took a picture of it for his records and then walked out the door. 

I mentioned yesterday that I am greatly helped by having a firm deadline. I hate to admit it publicly, but I am sure I would get more done at both my jobs if I had some outside force setting deadlines.

(I am finding it very hard to make progress on my dissertation work because I easily blow past my own deadlines. There are no repercussions - besides feelings of guilt and inadequacy.)

Melissa is more than happy with the way the stairway turned out. And making her happy is a big motivator for me. 

Maybe I should put her in charge of my weekly calendar?

(I say it's finished, but that's not exactly true. There is still painting and trim work to do. But I am determined to break out of my handyman reputation of being "King of Almost Finished Projects", so perhaps when Melissa travels out to Myrtle Beach with Hannah in a couple of weeks to do some apartment hunting, I will get the stairs 100% complete.

Now that I've stated it publicly, Melissa is bound to hold me to it!)

POWER OF A DEADLINE

There's nothing like a firm deadline to motivate me.

Sandwiched between our anniversary getaway these last two days and a trip to Milwaukee for our nephew's wedding this weekend, Melissa and I are frantically attempting to finish some home improvement projects.

So it's almost midnight and I am halfway through installing a new railing on the steps down to the basement.

These steps have been rail-less ever since I ripped the old railing out as part of our updates to the house post-Haiti.

Only 4 years or so! 

And it's been a year and a half since the lack of railing contributed to Melissa breaking her toe! 

Now it needs to be finished by 2 pm tomorrow.

Will it happen?

Only God knows. 

Right now I'm off to take a power nap...

48 HOURS TO CELEBRATE 24 YEARS

I consciously took last night off from writing - the first time in at least 6 months - for the sake of uninterrupted time with my wife. 

Yesterday marked the 24th anniversary of the day Melissa and I stood before friends and family and God and pledged to stay with each other for better or worse.

There's no doubt we've been blessed with quite a bit of "better" and very little "worse". 

So even though the timing was far from perfect (being in the midst of a dozen home projects under the pressure of summer days quickly passing), the two of us packed a bag, jumped into Sarah's convertible (while she's away at camp), and drove an hour south to Madison, Indiana, on the Ohio River. 

It's a beautiful little historic town and one of our favorite places for a day trip. We had never spent a night here before. 

As a bonus blessing, the apartment Melissa had booked for 2 nights ended up double-booked by Vrbo and the owner bumped us to the more expensive apartment for no extra charge - because it was our anniversary. 

So we are staying in the upper floor of an old livery and sleeping where bails of hay used to be stored for the horses. 

Things have changed since then.

This place is gorgeous! And includes every amenity. (Being old-fogeys, Melissa and I have been fascinated with having access to "Alexa" to play whatever music we want at any time. Personally, my favorite part is the heated toilet seat.) 

Melissa's favorite is the bathtub next to the wall-mounted "fireplace".

The owners are a neat Christian couple and the wife did a bit of extra decorating before we arrived.

And in the fridge was a big chunk of cake - which I basically ate by myself over the course of the first day. (I wasn't just being a pig - Melissa is gluten-free. She had one bite.)

We got dressed up and had a fancy meal out in the evening. 

It's been an incredibly enjoyable, relaxing, and memorable couple of days together.

Back to reality tomorrow. 

And time to start planning something even more special for our 25th. 

I love you, Melissa! We are blessed. 

FINGER POINTING

I have been following developments on Twitter since the attempted assassination of Trump yesterday. I don't read it regularly anymore but it does tend to be a good place to take the culture's pulse on the topics of the day. 

I was surprised at how many tweets in the last 24 hours sought to pin blame for the shooting on somebody other than the would-be assassin. 

And, of course, the other party was always "the one who started it". 

It's strange - I don't remember a single tweet suggesting the shooter's mental health as a possible factor.

And there was zero speculation about demonic influence.

But I have to wonder - especially when it comes to the arena of political leadership - do we take seriously the biblical depiction of destructive spiritual forces at work in our world, unleashing chaos and suffering?

Do Satan and other demonic forces exert influence over individuals and entire cultures or not? Seems like the Bible says they do. 

How come they seldom get any of the credit for the chaos unleashed by sin? 

INCH FROM CHAOS

Imagine the chaos which was nearly unleashed on this country (and the world) this evening. If that bullet had been an inch to the right, our timeline would have taken a sharp turn into instability and the unknown, for all of us - Republicans, Democrats and Independents alike.

Tonight I am thanking God that the shooter failed in his mission and praying for the families of those who died. 

What needs to happen is a swift and permanent cooling of the rhetoric on both sides, but I fear this will only inflame it instead. 

The major sentiment I see on X so far from those on the right is that this will cement Trump's re-election. 

Among those who lean left on X, I am seeing the word "staged" trending. And a few saying, in effect, "he brought it on himself". 

I doubt this is going to bring much introspection!

GOD-GIVEN WORK

Tomorrow morning, on behalf of Mission Resource, I get the opportunity to address the monthly men's breakfast group at Community Church of Columbus, my former church home.

I help in the kitchen each month as a way to keep ties there. The menu always includes biscuits and gravy, hash browns, scrambled eggs and sausage. There's always prayer and worship music and then a guest speaker. Dave Ketchum and I will be filling that role tomorrow.

The attendance averages around 35 to 40, so there's always a good energy there.

As a Scriptural grounds for my portion of the talk, I plan to read Genesis 2:15 -

In my recent preaching on the opening chapters of Genesis, I haven't had time to pursue this aspect of the text: Work is not just some necessary evil - it was a part of God's plan from the beginning. 

Consider this: God put Adam to work even before taking care of his need for companionship. Adam was employed as a gardener. And the work was to be done in God's image - when Adam was on the job, he was functioning as God's representative.

And it was all God's idea. 

And when everything went south and Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden, their work got more difficult - what with thorns and sweat and all - but it was still to be done in God's image and at His behest. 

Work could still be a godly pursuit. 

Even most Americans have at least some idea of the suffering which comes with extreme poverty - lack of healthcare, inability to put your kids in school, getting by on one meal a day. Or less. But we don't often consider this aspect of extreme poverty: the spiritual pain and the loss of human dignity when there is no work to be done.

I have met some incredibly talented people in Haiti and in Ghana. In those places it is the slimmest minority who find work which expresses their unique God-given talents. Most would consider themselves blessed to be hired to dig ditches for a couple of dollars a day. 

I sometimes wonder what sort of talent is going to waste all over the world simply because it's trapped in places without opportunities. 

That idea is part of what keeps me motivated to support Mission Resource with my own time and talents. We are in the business of creating opportunities which don't exist otherwise. 

NEW CHAPTER FOR HANNAH

A little family update tonight.

Melissa and I took Hannah out for dinner this evening to celebrate her first real world job offer!

After graduating from Olivet in May, Hannah has been researching interior design firms and sending out her resume. If she couldn't move to Italy, she was praying for the opportunity to live somewhere near the ocean, preferably in North or South Carolina. 

Eventually she came across a small firm in the market to grow their team: iQ Designs ... in Myrtle Beach.

It's looking like a true Win/Win. Hannah gets her dream location and a steady paycheck doing what she loves while iQ Designs gets a creative, intelligent, and competent newby to train up and put to work. 

You can check out iQ Design's website to see some of their projects in the hospitality industry along the coast. They do quality work! 

Melissa and I are so proud of this recent grad - now joining the adult world. We are going to miss having Hannah close by, but at least we will have a good reason to visit Myrtle Beach on a regular basis. 

(Plus, she has promised to take one of the dogs with her!)

THE GOSPEL OF SIN MANAGEMENT

I am more and more convinced that the shrinkage of the American church is due to the narrowing of how we understand - and proclaim - what we call "the good news":

You are a sinner, but if you put your faith in God's Son, you will be forgiven all your sins and you will go to heaven when you die.

How utterly anemic this is compared to the true gospel!

Dallas Willard calls it "the gospel of sin management" and suggests the ineffectiveness of  the modern church "is not in spite of what we teach and how we teach it, but precisely because of it". (Divine Conspiracy, 40)

"People think they have heard the invitation. They think they have accepted it - or rejected it. But they have not. The difficulty today is to hear it at all." (11)

Willard says the true gospel invitation is "to make a pilgrimage - into the heart and life of God".

Amen. 

There's so much more to it than wiping clean your record of sin.

A SECOND REBELLION?

I am preaching this week on Genesis 6:1-4, the weird prelude to the flood narrative. 

1 When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.”

4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

This is a passage that a lot of people aren't familiar with because most preachers avoid it. And you can't blame them. 

What do you make of various "sons of God" descending to have sex with human women? And furthermore, if you piece together information from elsewhere, you realize that the Nephilim - implied to be the offspring of these illicit relationships - turn out to be giants! (Numbers 13:33)

I had never thought of it before, but Dr. Michael Heiser makes a strong case that this development is a "cosmic rebellion" on the same level as Adam and Eve eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil back in Genesis 3. 

After all, things get so bad, God decides to reverse creation by bringing the waters back over the land and then rebooting the whole thing.

Compare the severity of the consequences of these two famous incidents in the early chapters of Genesis: eating from the forbidden tree results in God exiling humans from the garden and pronouncing painful childbirth and thorny ground along with the unleashing of a general death. 

On the other hand, this mingling of the spiritual beings with the humans results in God unleashing catastrophic floods, bringing the physical death of an untold number of humans - men, women, and children - and animals and then God banishes a number of spiritual beings to a pit. (We find that outcome referenced in 2 Peter 2:4-6 and Jude 6,7.)

MEDITATION LITERATURE

Throughout the summer I have been meeting with the teens of the church on Monday mornings for breakfast and Bible study. 

[The difficulty of getting teens to the church at 8:00 am following a summer weekend is actually part of the design. I didn't necessarily want it to be easy.]

This morning we had 4 young men in attendance and we had donuts, fried eggs, and bacon and looked at Genesis 2 - the creation of Adam and Eve. 

After we read the passage out loud, I encouraged these guys to pose questions that the text raised in their minds. They had some good ones:

• Why did God place the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden in the first place if He didn't want Adam and Eve eating from it?
• Why was Adam created from the dust of the ground instead of being spoken into existence like almost everything in Genesis 1? Why not "Let there be man"?
• Why did God make Eve from Adam's rib instead of grabbing more dust?

Somewhere recently I came across a theologian referring to the Bible as "meditation literature" - I want to say it was Tim Mackie - meaning the Scriptures are meant to be read and then chewed on. 

They simply don't yield their truths to speed readers and skimmers. 

They demand meditation. 

And meditation always starts with questions. 

IT TAKES TIME

I don't know that I have ever stepped back from the gospel stories so as to consider that those first disciples attached themselves to Jesus assuming that he was potentially a great rabbi, but not really suspecting He was anything more than that. 

They certainly didn't assume they were walking alongside the Son of God.

Not at first.

They likely were thinking no more than "Here is a man who can teach me about God."

It was only over time that the thought started to dawn on them, very slowly, "Wait a minute - This IS God!"

I think pastors need to be OK with folks in their congregations who take their time in deciding that Jesus is more than a good teacher of morality. 

After all, the disciples were physically with Jesus 24/7 for 3 years and still struggled to grasp exactly who He was.

Hopefully the light bulb comes on eventually. 

ENOCH PLEASED GOD

Enoch is a fascinating mystery of the Old Testament. He is introduced in Genesis 5:18 and his story is wrapped up by 5:24. His main defining character attribute seems to be that he "walked with God". Among the scarce details we are given is who his father was (Jared), who his son was (Methuselah), and that he lived a total of 365 years.

And THEN, we are told rather cryptically, Enoch "was no more" BECAUSE God "took him away". 

This is highly unusual, to say the least. Only one other character in the Old Testament skips the whole death ordeal: the prophet Elijah. 

In the New Testament, Enoch shows up in the famous Chapter 11 "Hall of Faith":

5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death, and he was not to be found because God took him up. For before his removal he had been commended as having pleased God. 

And then the author draws an incredible lesson from Enoch's life:

Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

"Pleasing" God is tied directly to believing good about Him, specifically that He "rewards those who seek him". 

There is much to chew on here. How many people get the first part right - and believe that God exists - but then believe all sorts of horrible things about His character?

It's not hard to see that it would be very difficult to please God if you believe Him to be blood-thirsty, vengeful, stand-offish, un-personal, Santa-like, or any number of other misunderstandings of Yahweh's character. 

NEEDING FURTHER CLARIFICATION

A former student of mine posted this warning on Facebook recently:

Having no knowledge of this young woman's political leanings, I cannot even guess which candidate she is advocating I vote for so as to "get it right in November" and retain my freedom. 

The rhetoric on both sides of the political aisle is so heated, so partisan and so hyperbolic, I can easily imagine this very sentiment being put forward by either a Democrat or a Republican. 

Without cue words like "senile" or "felon", how can I know which man I can count on to preserve my freedom? 

PROVIDING A TEMPLATE

"Christians are starving for serious biblical content, not the basics of the faith with adult illustrations. If pastors don't preach and teach the text, they don't provide a template for how to study Scripture. If you can't retrace your pastor's sermon in the biblical text after Sunday, you may need to find a mentor somewhere else." Michael S. Heiser, Brief Insights on Mastering Bible Study, Chapter 26

One of the main weaknesses of the topical preaching found in so many pulpits (not to mention the topical teaching in most group study curriculum) is that it rarely sets a biblical passage in its context. 

And if the context is never explored, then zero opportunity exists for the teacher/preacher to "provide a template for how to study Scripture". 

It seems like many preachers have resigned themselves to be the lone Bible student of the entire congregation. (And then even they get lax about it.)

Me? I may not always hit the mark, but I do strive to model how to think through a text.

It takes effort and strategy to get under the surface of a passage of Scripture to where the deep truth lives.

BEING WITH FRIENDS

Tonight I am left reflecting on a particularly pleasant evening with friends. 

Kate and Storly are the ones who introduced Haiti to Melissa and me back in 2010, turning our lives upside down for the following decade.

For this I will be forever grateful.

These days - 14 years later - we live just a couple of miles apart in this town of Columbus, Indiana, allowing us to stay in regular contact. Our youngest works side by side with their youngest at the local ice cream parlor. Kate and Melissa get together sometimes for coffee. Storly and I get together sometimes for lunch.

This evening the two of them invited us over to their house for some Haitian food followed by the community 4th of July fireworks. We had rice and beans and creole chicken and fried plantain and even a little pikliz. Melissa and I contributed some corn on the cob and blackberry pie.

What a feast. 

This was followed by card games and ping pong and conversation. 

When the sky went dark around 9:30, Storly brought out a ladder and we all climbed up on their roof to enjoy the best view of the fireworks we could have asked for. 

It was magical.

It made me homesick for Haiti. And it wasn't just the food. It was the unrushed, play-it-by-ear, simple pleasures of being with friends.

Just being. 

CALVINISM ON THE SPECTRUM

In the course of my weirdest hobby - consuming YouTube debates over Calvinist doctrines - I recently came across a young YouTuber who wears his Calvinist doctrine like a badge of honor.

I mean, even more than your average Calvinist does.

His videos frustrated me. Although he often came across as incredibly intelligent, he made really poor arguments in favor of the 5 points of "TULIP" and seemed incapable of fully grasping his opponents' perspectives. His temper would flare on occasion and he would fling politically incorrect slurs at his challengers. 

I sometimes engaged him in the comments section of his videos and he told me Scripture is "objectively obvious" - there was no need to dive into the Greek or Hebrew or even spend any time examining the context of a passage. If you were born again and could read English, you could read any Scripture passage and instantly grasp its meaning.

If God said in Romans 9, "Jacob I loved and Esau I hated" then that's what it objectively means: God hated Esau. It's there in plain English.

And if you didn't "get" that, then you were probably not born again. 

There was no use in speaking of Biblical idioms, the Old Testament context from which Paul was quoting, or the fact that Jacob and Esau represented two nations from the time they were in the womb.

None of that mattered because the Bible says plainly that God hated Esau. 

In our back and forth in the comments section he often repeated his conviction that I myself was a "God hater" since I didn't accept the doctrines of Calvinism and I was denying what the Bible objectively said. 

I thought this was particularly dangerous ground for a believer to occupy since, in effect, he was saying salvation wasn't dependent on faith in Christ alone - but also on a proper understanding of certain doctrines. But I couldn't get him to see the problem with that!

Finally, this evening the lightbulb went on in my head and I decided to ask him a straightforward question: 

"Are you on the spectrum?"

His response came quickly and bluntly: "Yeah, big time."

And suddenly I found myself utterly uninclined to debate with him any further. If he finds comfort inside the harsh contours of Calvinism, who am I to argue?

I would have never picked a fight with this guy in real life.

The internet so easily twists communication and social interaction, blinding us to each other's humanity. 

AN ANALOGY OF THE SOUL

The YouTube algorithm served me up a video offering a refutation of Hell as eternal conscious torment. The presenter was a pastor named Daniel Wilson who has about 550 subscribers - I don't know anything else about him, but I thought he made a decent and concise argument.

What really caught my attention, though, was a thought-provoking analogy Wilson used to answer a question I have had for years:

What is the difference between our soul and our spirit? 

Are those terms synonymous or do they indicate two different aspects of human existence? If they are different, in what way do they differ?

"Soul" and "spirit" are two different terms in Greek. 

In Matthew 10:28 Jesus says, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell."

"Soul" here is the Greek psuche.

Whereas "spirit" - as in "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" (Mark 14:38) - is the Greek pneuma. 

Granted, from what I can tell, most uses of pneuma in the New Testament refer either to the Holy Spirit or to "unclean spirits". But it is clear that man has a spirit as well. Stephen's last words are a cry to Jesus to "receive my spirit" (Acts 7:59).

So it seems clear that psuche/soul and pneuma/spirit are not synonymous in biblical thought. 

Back to Pastor Wilson's analogy ...

Wilson says the human body is like a lightbulb - it is the part of us made of physical substance. The spirit which God breathes into us is like the electricity coursing through the lightbulb. 

The soul, then, is the magic of "light" which results from the combination of bulb and electricity, body and spirit.

What do you think? Does that make sense?