ONE BOOK

"The early church had nothing but the Old Testament. The New Testament lies hidden in the Old; the Old Testament lies open in the New." - Randall Terry

I am slowly gaining a new appreciation for - and even a fascination with - the Old Testament. If this had happened before I started seminary, maybe I would have pursued a study of Hebrew. 

It's a little embarrassing for this paradigm shift to hit me so late in life and after being in ministry all these years.

My oldest brother, Ryan, told me today that his pastor often says something like, "There's one page in your Bible that you ought to tear out - it's the page between the Old Testament and the New."

I like that. 

After all these years I am starting to see the Bible as ONE book.  

SOMEDAY WE WILL MEET

This morning we attended a memorial service for my great nephew, Maximus Gregory McPike, affectionately known as Mighty Max.

Max spent the majority of his ten months of life at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, enduring one physical battle after another. He was my niece's firstborn and even months before his birth the doctors were making dire predictions about his future. 

His arrival went better than hoped in many ways. But all along, Max's existence was so tenuous that none but the immediately family - and the doctors and nurses - ever got to meet him and hold him. 

Losing a child is the sort of trial that can either deepen the marriage bond or fray it or break it. From all appearances, Lauren and Sean are stronger than ever. Their faith in a loving and all-wise God kept them afloat through months of fear and anxiety and their faith continues now even in their grief.

Death is the greatest test of faith, isn't it? It's where the ultimate rubber meets the ultimate road. 

Do we believe in the afterlife? Do we all have resurrected bodies to look forward to? Will we really get to experience an abundant life 100% free of tears and pain and sadness? 

Shortly after Max passed away, my oldest brother pointed out that this special little guy had already been greeted on the other side by my parents, his great grandparents.

Whether or not we take that meeting as reality makes all the difference in the world - not only to how we bear the grief of loss, but also how we face our own mortality. Not to mention how we live our lives from day to day.

As for me, I do believe my parents got to meet Max before I did. And I do believe that I will get to meet him some day and that my parents will likely be close by when I do.

And I look forward to that day. 

A GRAPHIC - HUMAN MOVEMENT

Sermon preparation has been so useful to me.

The past few months in particular have been fruitful as I seek to clarify in my own mind how the book of Genesis sets key themes in motion - with enough momentum to carry them all the way to Revelation.

Since I am a very visual thinker, here's a little graphic I put together this morning picturing the basic overall movement of Scripture:

What do you think? Anything you would add or change?

I may be partial, but I like it better than this:

THE FOUR OTHERS

You might remember the popular book by Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Church, published nearly 30 years ago now. I always considered Warren to have done a great service for the American church by pointing out that there was more to being the Body of Christ than attending a weekly worship service. 

Warren's book reminded Christians that worship was just one purpose among 5 for which God’s people have been gathered together.

Maybe it's time to revisit Warren's thesis.

I can't help but notice that while worship is clearly vertical in nature, the other four – fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission – are primarily horizontal. Much of being a believer is concerned with how we interact with our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and the stranger.

These four horizontal purposes of the church could be grouped together under the Biblical term “edification”, which is the “building one another up” which the New Testament urges upon us as believers. There is no indication that the early church was focused solely or even primarily on worship. 

If anything, fellowship seemed to occupy most of the early Christians' time. 

I think one of the great weaknesses of the modern church is that we continue to assume worship is THE central duty of the church while fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and mission are consigned to the fringes.

Some church members consider them optional add-ons. Others give them no thought whatsoever. 

Meanwhile, the culture around us is starving for true connection.

BASIC

Have you ever seen people turning the word "Bible" into an acronym?

• Basic 
• Instructions
• Before
• Leaving 
• Earth

This really sticks in my craw.

What an impoverished view of Scripture! Not to mention what it does to the gospel itself. 

All in an attempt to be clever.

This slogan reduces the Bible to a "How To" book full of "instructions" for gaining heaven. 

No living and active word of the Lord here, sharper than any two-edged sword.

And what's with the talk of leaving the earth? 

If you're a believer, you aren't leaving earth. You're getting a new heaven and a new earth and the Kingdom of God come in its fullness.

All of this becomes much clearer - and life becomes far richer - when you actually pick up the Bible and start reading it. 

PRAY FOR LEADERS

After witnessing that train wreck of a "presidential" "debate", all I want to write tonight is this:

1 Timothy 2:1-4: “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” 

We do need to pray for our current leaders, but more and more I find my heart turning toward the future. 

I pray that God would raise up holy men and women - people of faith and character - at the federal, state, and local levels of government and in our schools and in our churches. 

WATERING

It’s September and the overnight temps are dropping into the 40s. Soon we'll need to watch the weather closely to know when to bring our houseplants inside.

A year ago, I moved a dahlia into my church office in Sardinia and never took it back outside over the summer. It’s got a nice sunny spot by a window - but it’s not flourishing because I’m not there enough to give the regular watering it needs. 

As a result, it’s thin and spindly and it never did flower this summer.

In 1 Corinthians 3, the Apostle Paul uses a garden analogy for God’s Kingdom and says some workers are tasked by God to plant and some to water. And they are not in competition with each other since both serve God’s purpose as He alone brings the growth. 

While I am grateful for those who plant in the Kingdom, I am happy to work for Mission Resource where we are called to water! And I rejoice in seeing the growth the Lord brings to brothers and sisters half a world away as they receive what they need to create and sustain successful Kingdom businesses. Families are nourished, kids are educated, communities are served and churches expand. 

We have seen many individuals and families bloom as entrepreneurs in incredible ways and it always leaves me wondering how many more across the developing world would bloom if only they had the water they needed. 

PRIESTHOOD OF BELIEVERS

Since I was looking into Melchizedek this past week and thinking about the Old Testament priesthood in general, I ended up looking at Peter's description of believers all together serving as a "royal priesthood".

I suppose there are many different angles to that analogy. Among them:

• "Offering spiritual sacrifices to God" (1 Peter 2:5)
• Practicing holiness - being set apart for God's purpose (2:9)
• Being in God's "employment"
• Proclaiming God's goodness to the world (2:9)

Peter goes on to urge his readers to submit themselves to every earthly authority (2:13) and to be willing to suffer for doing good (2:19). 

Verse 15 is worth a bit of meditation: "For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men."

How do we silence those who are opposed to God's ways?

By shouting them down? No.

By shaming them? No.

By getting righteously angry with them? No.

Simply by continuing in doing good.

Fundamentally, I see this fact in our call to be a royal priesthood: 

On our end, we are not called to be in an adversarial relationship with the world. 

SEPTEMBER SATURDAY

Today was a good and pleasant day.

After a slow start to the day, Melissa and I met her mother at the farmer's market downtown. The sun was shining but the air was in the low 60s, an ideal September Saturday morning. 

We bought locally grown vegetables, drank coffee and ate a couple of outstanding street tacos. We caught up with a couple of local friends as well as our niece and her husband who always have a tent up to sell their homemade sourdough bread. 

I had a conversation with a woman who supports Mission Resource and she took the opportunity to thank me for one of my weekly newsletter article that had inspired her to begin praying the Lord's prayer on a daily basis. 

On our way home, Melissa and I were craving more tacos and I suggested a little restaurant around the corner from our house that neither of us had ever visited - and we discovered some of the best tacos we'd ever had were being produced right there in our neighborhood. 

In the afternoon, Melissa worked on canning some homemade salsa. I did some work on my sermon and smoked a couple of pork loins. 

In the evening, I delivered one of those loins - along with green beans, roasted potatoes, watermelon, and chocolate chip cookies - to the family of a lady in our church who recently had some major surgery. (And she was very grateful for Melissa's cooking.)

Afterwards I took a sharp young high school student to the local pizza place in order to talk about his upcoming baptism.

Once I was back home, to end the day, Melissa and I enjoyed watching a half hour show together online while I enjoyed some ice cream.

Outside of winning the lottery, I'm not sure how the day could have been better. We are blessed. 

MISSION

Sahil Bloom is a writer I am just starting to get to know. Along with 800,000 other people, I subscribe to his email newsletter The Curiosity Chronicle.

I find his perspectives on life useful. As a believer, here's one idea which stood out to me in particular: thinking of life more in terms of Missions than Goals.

Bloom contrasts the two like this:

"Missions are life journeys with no specific end. Missions are not goals. Goals are finite—focused around discrete achievements, with specific ends that create their own problems. Missions are infinite games.

"You do not reach a Mission, you live out a Mission." 

And so he has defined a mission in each of three areas of life: the professional, the personal, and health. 

So for instance, under health, Bloom has this life mission: "To build and maintain my fitness and vitality to perform at an elite level relative to my age."

I like that. I could adopt that as my own ... although I might tone down the "elite" to "above average". ;-)

I think I already live by mission, but I think it would be a useful exercise to put my missions into words. I need to give it more thought.

What are YOUR missions in life? 

PRIESTHOOD

This week I am looking into the first notes of the priesthood theme in Genesis and still have much research and thinking to do.

Some scholars say that although they are never called priests, some of the language used to describe Adam and Eve's role in the Garden is connected to priestly duties elsewhere in Scripture.

And then in Genesis 14 along comes Melchizedek out of the blue, blessing Abram and receiving a tithe from him. He seems to be an independent priest of "Yahweh Most High". And he comes bearing bread and wine!

This is the second mention for each of those elements. Bread gets mentioned in Genesis 3:19 as part of God's pronouncement of consequences for Adam and Eve: "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

Even more curious is the first mention of wine - occurring when Noah steps off the ark, grows a vineyard, makes wine, and gets himself drunk. (Which leads to some vague sexual misconduct which prompts Noah to bring down curses on his grandson Canaan!?) 

But now Melchizedek appears bearing bread and wine and they are for a godly use - as a gift to be shared with Abram. 

Later, of course, Aaron's family and the Levites serve all the rest of the people as official, God-ordained priests, mediating between God and man, offering sacrifices, and teaching the Law. 

But these priests end up with a very mixed track record over the years. And when they fail in their priestly duties, the people suffer greatly.

It turns out, the Old Testament priesthood - just like the Law - fell short of reconciling humanity and God and needed to be replaced by something better.

Along comes God's Son to live the perfect human life, teach God's Law, and offer the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the people.

But that's not where the priesthood ends. For one thing, the risen Jesus continues in His role as mediator. And secondly, the Holy Spirit comes and enables all believers to become a royal priesthood themselves.

There's much to consider here! And obviously central to the story the Bible is telling. 

LITERALLY

I listened to a podcast today about how useless the word "literal" is when it comes to discussions about how to read the Bible. Although I largely agreed with his stance, his explanation ended up being unnecessarily confusing.

I guess I would explain it this way: People don't generally speak or write in a strictly literal way, so we should beware of hyper-literal readings of any text - especially something written thousands of years ago in a distant land.

Here's an illustration any parent or teacher will immediately recognize:

Your kid comes home from school and tells you, "My math teacher yelled at me today for not having my homework done."

Do you A) ask your kid why he didn't have his homework ready to turn in or B) make an angry phone call to the principal demanding the math teacher be fired for verbally abusing your kid?

Because you're not an idiot, it doesn't even cross your mind to make that phone call. 

You know your child was simply communicating the teacher was irritated over the missing homework. 

Fortunately, nobody will berate you as a bad parent for not taking your kid's words literally. 

FATHER ABRAHAM

When you were a kid, did you ever sing the following ditty during Sunday school or at church camp:

Father Abraham had many sons, 
Many sons had Father Abraham.
I am one of them
And so are you,
So let's just praise the Lord.

That was all there was to the song, but after the first run, the leader would shout out, "Right arm!" and we would all sing it again while waving our right arms around. (The boys would take the opportunity to smack each other "accidentally".) 

After the second round, the leader would shout, "Right arm! Left arm!" and now both arms flailed. Eventually, we'd all be singing and swinging arms and legs while turning in circles.

I always figured the lyrics were just nonsense, since the point of the song seemed to be nothing more than an excuse for kids to work out some extra energy. 

I don't remember anyone ever explaining who Abraham was or what the song meant. 

Or in what way I was a "son of Abraham". 

Or why that would be cause for praising the Lord.

I don't think I ever suspected that "child of Abraham" was a Biblical concept. 

Now as an adult of advancing years, as a pastor, and as a student of the Bible, I have to wonder how the church has come to neglect teaching something so central to the Bible's Big Picture. 

Consider that Jesus gave a whole lot more explanation about the necessity of "being a child of Abraham" in John 8 than he did concerning "being born again" in John 3. 

And then Paul also expounded on what it means to have Abraham as our father in both Romans and Galatians. On the other hand, I'm not aware that he ever used the phrase "born again" in any of his letters. 

My point, of course, is not that being born again is unimportant - it's that what we choose to emphasize from Scripture can be a little random at times. 

Being a child of Abraham seems like a big deal - worthy of inspiring more than a silly song. 

PUGNACIOUS BULLY

“God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards.” ― Walt Whitman, American poet

As far as I can tell, Whitman was a Deist and did not shy away from proclaiming a belief in a "universal Spirit" type of God. Apparently, "pugnacious bully" was his term for the God of "conventional religion", which he openly disdained.  

I have to admit that his characterization of God is not too far off from what many modern Christians seem to believe. (Of course they wouldn't put it so bluntly or negatively.)

It makes me wonder if Whitman hung out with Calvinists. 

This illustrates an important motivation for presenting the gospel accurately - you don't want someone avoiding Christianity and Scripture after rejecting a "God" who is not even the God of the Bible. 

SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT

A quote worth considering from poet Walt Whitman:

“I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine—it always keeps the way beyond open—always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake—after a wrong guess.”

This "scientific spirit" Whitman admired so much is how believers should approach matters of interpretation of Scripture and of doctrine. 

Instead, we all too commonly latch onto - unquestioningly - whatever we grew up with or whatever we have heard some charismatic preacher propound for 30 minutes.