Your word is very poor. Or at least, mine is.

Wait...whut??

Ah. There.  That's better.  Much better.

So as you can see it is very easy to make mistakes.  And that proves that God is God and the Bible is his Word.

"Wait.  Whut?" you say?

Lemme explain.  No.  There is too much.  Lemme sum up.
The Scriptures are old.  Some of the oldest writings we have.  They have been copied down thousands of times.  We have thousands of these copies still.

And they're all the same!  Literally, no changes that affect the meaning!  That is staggering because as you can see from my early morning mess up here, my little screw up DRASTICALLY changed the meaning of the text!  When the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered, we found copies of the book of Isaiah one thousand years older than our oldest copy.

And it was the same!  Think about that.  One thousand years.  One.  Thousand.  Years.  We cannot give the same testimony about a car accident we witnessed two times in a row on the same day!  We cannot quote Abraham Lincoln without changing the words and the meaning.  And we have pictures of him!

One thousand years.  God is the same, today, yesterday and tomorrow.  The I AM that IS.  No end.  Unchanging.  No beginning.  Always.  His word is good.  His testimony is true.

Is yours?  Is mine?  Don't trust me.  Go and see for your self.  Then believe!

God is nuts!

Now with real dropped food!

Ya ever think about how amazing it is that God himself gave us His word?  We can know God. No, really think about that!  We. Can. Know. God!

Then read His word!  Meet this God we can know!  He will freakin' blow your mind!  Don't believe me?  Read Song of Solomon!  Read the Gospels!  Read the lineage of Jesus and then go find out who those people are!

Blow.
Your.
Mind.

Then consider this.  He is doing it all for His glory and for His love of you.  Yeah.  You.

Boom. Poof.

Thy Kingdom come

"Would that you would tear the heavens and come down;
    the mountains would quake before you,
as fire kindles brushwood,
    the fire causes water to boil,
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    that the nations might tremble from your presence.
When you did terrible deeds which we did not expect, you came down;
    the mountains quaked because of your presence.
And since ancient times they have not heard,
    have not listened,
no eye has seen a God except you;
    he acts for the one who waits for him.
You meet with the one who rejoices,
    one who does righteousness.
In your ways they remember you." Is 64

Amidst the sorrows of the way...

Pete says it bestest...

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, into an inheritance imperishable and undefiled and unfading, reserved in heaven for you who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time, in which you rejoice greatly, although now for a short time, if necessary, you are distressed by various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, more valuable than gold that is passing away, but is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom, although you have not seen, you love; in whom now you believe, although you do not see him, and you rejoice greatly with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls." 1 Pete 1

And because i like to peek ahead and see the end sometimes...

"What is this coming up from the desert
    like a column of smoke,
perfumed with myrrh and frankincense
    from all the fragrant powders of the merchant?
Look! It is Solomon’s portable couch!
    Sixty mighty men surround it,
        the mighty men of Israel.
All of them wield swords;
    they are trained in warfare,
each with his sword at his thigh
    to guard against terror in the night.
King Solomon made for himself a sedan chair
    from the wood of Lebanon.
He made its column of silver, its back of gold, its seat of purple;
    its interior is inlaid with leather by the maidens of Jerusalem.
Come out and look, O maidens of Zion, at King Solomon,
    at the crown with which his mother crowned him
on the day of his wedding,
    on the day of the joy of his heart!"  Song of Songs 3

It conjures a vision of the Tabernacle, God with us, coming with the pillar of smoke and fire and all the camp of Israel, all of its fighting men, the faithful arrayed around it.  It is the Bridegroom coming for his bride.  Revelations 19.  The wedding supper of the Lamb.  Hang on little bride, your Husband is coming and he won't be riding no lil' mule.

If only.

"They have made their paths crooked for themselves;

    everyone who walks in it knows no peace.
Therefore justice is far from us,
    and righteousness does not reach us.
We wait for light, but look! there is darkness;
    for brightness, but we walk in darkness.
We grope like the blind along a wall,
    and we grope as without eyes.
We stumble at noon as in the twilight;
    among the strong we are like the dead." Is 59

"Jesus replied, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks around in the daylight, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if anyone walks around in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him." John 11

"Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world! The one who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8

Veritas. Quid est Veritas?

i don't care what you think you know or how educated you are, if you are not grounded in the truth, all yer larnin' and shmarts will avail you naught.  Bad data or a wrong conclusion will send the most gifted scientist following imaginary rabbit trails.  Remember when all dinosaurs used to be cold blooded or the world was flat or we descended from monkeys (stay tuned, they'll figure it out)?  Bad data or a wrong conclusion will create evil outcomes.  Remember when certain races were inherently inferior or worse, not even human?  Bad data or wrong conclusions will ruin you.  Anyone remember the Great Depression?  The Dustbowl?  No?  How 'bout then the last recession?  The schemes and ruthlessness of traders who conclude the bottom line is the bottom line?  People buying houses at the very limits of or beyond their credit?

"What is truth?" Pilate asked Jesus, not realizing that had he pursued truth rather than political solutions to human problems, rather than ambition and power, rather than suborning the truth to his own short sighted necessities, he would have recognized the Truth when it was standing right before him.

This is love.

No man has greater love than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

This is love.  This is the ultimate expression of love.  i don't want hear about your needs.  i don't want to think about my needs.  #&^! rights.  Rights don't enter into love.  You want rights?  You don't want love.

Love is patient.  It waits years for the sinner to repent.

Love is kind.  It does not snuff out the smoldering wick or break the bent reed.

It does not envy or boast.  It knows what is its own.  Its tongue is full of the praises of the Lord.

It does not become conceited.  Instead it humbles itself to death, even death on a cross.

It does not behave dishonorably.  It brings honor to the Father and bestows honor on its beloved.

It is not selfish.  It lowers itself from the throne of heaven where it had everything and becomes a servant of its enemies.

It does not become angry.  Unless, you know, you trash his Father's house and allow a bunch of robbers in to do business.  But generally speaking, see patience.

It does not keep a record of wrongs.  Cuz you know that thing you did four years ago!  You know what you said?  Neither does love.

It does not rejoice at unrighteousness.  Cuz unrighteousness isn't loving.

But rejoices with the truth.  Cuz it is truth.

Love bears all things.  Up to and including the sins of the entire world, past, present and future.

Love believes all things.  I don't think that means it's gullible.  See truth.

Love hopes all things.  Cuz it knows where its hope lies.  Or better yet, in Whom its hope lies.

Endures all things.  See patience, anger, record of wrongs, bears, believes, hopes...

Love never ends.  Cuz he's eternal!  From before the beginning and beyond the end.  Never ending, always.  I AM that I AM.  The One Who Is.

So, simple, go do all this!

Nah, just kidding.  You can't.  i've tried.  Not to say i'm the standard or anything, i'm sure there are those of you who will get much closer before failing than i did.  But here's the thing.  You can't.  You can't do it.  None of us can.  Only he who is love can love.  But here's the better thing.  He has promised to live in anyone who trusts in him and his love alone.  Abide in him and he will abide in you.  Then you'll at least have the true love in you and who knows, perhaps that'll peek out every now and then?

Amen! Hallelujah! He is risen!

And certainly not the least of these is...

It Is Finished.

Is it in you?

Good Friday to you.

As we remember the Son's ultimate expression of love and obedience today it is good to remember that we have, living in us, if we love Jesus, the same Spirit of love and obedience.

How do we know we love him?  If the Spirit is giving us a will to and teaching us how to obey his commandments: forgiving others as we have been forgiven by our Father, loving others as we have been loved by the Son, doing our best to live at peace with all men, supporting and loving the Body and Bride of Christ: the church, seeking his face and our washing in the Word, doing justice for the poor and the fatherless and the widow and the alien living among us.  Not that we do these things perfectly, one was perfect, the one on the cross.  But that we express in our brokenness his strength and forgiveness and mercy and grace.  From outside, the church should look like messy people with messed up lives, confessing their messiness and repenting and loving each other and working together for the good of all.  Not pretty people pretending to be perfect.  We don't fake it till we make it.  Yes, we must always be hypocrites, because we are sinners.  Yes, our best attempts at righteousness are filthy, bloody tampons.  Yes, it will seem like work at times but remember, listen to the Spirit, He testifies not to your good work, but to Jesus' good work on your behalf!  You are a child of covenant!  You are a child of promise!  Not of what you will do for God but of what He has done, will do and is doing for you!  We don't "make it", HE. MAKES. US.

Therefore...!

Abide in that love: the shadow of the cross, the sprinkling of his blood, the emptiness of his tomb, the glory of his throne, the hope of his promises.  Walk in His Spirit, the spirit that testifies of the Son and His Gospel, the Spirit seeks to glorify the Father through the Son, so that if He's in us, we should to!

Or, if you look at these traits and realize this Spirit isn't the one in you, if you can't see him or don't know him, get to the Cross!  Now!  While He has graciously given you time.  What better day than today?

For i have become like one who fell asleep in the tanning bed...

This one took me a bit of research.  Afterwards it was kind of, duh, but there we are.  A wise man knows when he doesn't know.  Or so wise men tell me.

It is really simple.  What happens to leather when it is dried out?  No, i mean really dried out.  Like the top of the back seat in a seventy-six Plymouth Valiant.  It dry rots.  It becomes hard, brittle, cracked.  Not the kind of thing you want to put wine in.

This is us.  This is us without Jesus.

"But days are coming when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. But no one puts a patch of unshrunken cloth on an old garment, for its patch pulls away from the garment, and the tear becomes worse.Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the wineskins burst and the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are destroyed. But they put new wine into new wineskins and both are preserved.” Matt 9

You who have been baptized into his death through water and into his life through the coming of the Holy Spirit are a new creation.  You are a new wineskin and he is filling with living water, with the fountain of his blood of the new covenant!  Keep coming to the fountain in prayer and meditation on his Word.  Cuz the world is burning and full of smoke.

A little hell right here on earth: Bonus Wednesday Post

Nobody wants God anymore, they just want his stuff.  And for a time, times and half a time, God is content to allow this so that some would see and taste and wonder about the maker of such good stuff.  That some would see and taste and want the maker more than the stuff.  Sip the water and want the river.

But the world is getting darker and maybe it's cuz God is taking away his stuff.  Starting with light.  The definition of Hell is to be cut off from God entirely.  If you want a preview of what that will look like, read this.

"It is necessary for us to do the deeds of the one who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work! While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9

Quit squirmin'!

"Your hands have made me and established me," Yod begins.  Why oh why, do we think it's about us being holy?  Why do we think it's about us getting it right.  That if we screw up, God will cut us off?  We who have tasted the Gospel know, we KNOW that God has formed us for better things and if he formed us, He will complete us.  Abide in him is much different than be perfect...no, actually, it's the same thing.  Abide in the one who is perfect, therefore, you will be perfect as he is perfect.  Those struggling to get it right are not abiding, they are trying to be like God.

Cue up Stevie Ray... i prefer his version to the Beatles.

And what better time to remember the worth of our God than on the day we have to give half of our money to the authorities he has placed in our lives.  For our good!  Always for our good.  Pray for them.  Much will be expected of them.

Pray for us.  All our afflictions are for His glory.  All our struggles, all our chasing after wind is to drive us to the only one who satisfies.

Pop Quiz

Being saved means:

a) agreeing with a statement or an idea?

b) making a deal?

c) a pursuit of holiness?

d) entering a committed, exclusive relationship?

Your listening to 88.3, WHUT. Whut's on your radio?

Sojourning!  Songs!  Sojourning songs!  My ipod is my personal radio station of my sojourn.  It has over 12000 of them and only a few, unfortunately, are based upon His statutes.  But God, according to Abraham Kuyper, looks on everything in creation and says, "Mine."  So even the songs not based upon His Law say something about Him or life without Him.  Culture itself isn't bad or evil, only what we make of it.  Whom we train it to serve.  After all, if we're silent, the very rocks will cry out.

For better or worse?

Till Death Do Us Part.

These words are not a life sentence.  They are not a ball and chain, a burden to be carried until you're finally done praying for the end of time.

And unlike the way we wacko christians (we're all wacko, don't you know) are portrayed in tv crime dramas, these words are not a loophole to get us out of our commitment.

They are not a contract.  A business arrangement to be legally binding and annulled should they prove unprofitable.



They are a Promise!

They are a promise from the great God who loves us, knows what's best for us and how to give good gifts.  A promise that symbolizes His love, unchanging and eternal!  A promise that symbolizes His love, full of mercy and grace for the unworthy, and we are all unworthy of love! (That we actually are.)

You tell me your sad story of mistakes, misery, misunderstanding, shame and woe?  You tell me of his sins against you? You tell me of her unfaithfulness?  You tell me i don't know?

You're right.  i don't know your story, your specifics, how it fits into the larger story Jesus is telling.  You know, the one where he takes the greatest sin that was ever committed, His adulterous Bride seeing the promise as a contract, sentence and loophole, and torturing him, shaming him and killing him and He, turning that very sin into the vehicle of her very saving and cleansing!  That story?  Yeah, that's the one i know.  If God can do that, if God is really good, if God is really in control of all things...

Then yeah, he can handle your marriage.  It is a gift.

Oh yeah? Well....!

We may hope for what is unseen but we have down payments on the promises.  We have signs that the promiser is faithful.  We have a cross and an empty tomb.  And we have been sealed, not closed but sealed, stamped with the mark of a higher authority's symbol of ownership.  We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit.  We may not have all the answers but our faith is not blind and our revelation is not general.  Trust and learn to see the specific grace in your life.  Trust and learn to see the giver of Life.

You are what you consume.

"Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are pleasing, whatever things are commendable, if there is any excellence of character and if anything praiseworthy, think about these things. And the things which you have learned and received and heard about and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you." Phlipp 4

"“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a bushel basket, but on a lampstand, so that those who come in can see the light. Your eye is the lamp of the body. When your eye is sincere, your whole body is full of light also. But when it is evil, your body is dark also. Therefore pay careful attention that the light in you is not darkness! If therefore your whole body is full of light, not having any part dark, it will be completely full of light, as when the lamp with its light gives light to you.”" Luke 11

"“Ho! Everyone thirsty, come to the waters!
    And whoever has no money, come, buy and eat,
and come, buy without money,
    wine and milk without price!
Why do you weigh out money for what is not food,
    and your labor for what cannot satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
    and let your soul take pleasure in rich food.
Extend your ear, and come to me!
    Listen so that your soul may live," Isaiah 55

"Do not work for the food that perishes, but the food that remains to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For God the Father has set his seal on this one.” John 6

Tied to the wisdom post

We here at the Fricken Coop strive every day to bring you only the very best in mediocre philosophy and theology.  Today as a bonus track and a way of saying, "t'anks" to all our four or five intermittent readers and random victims who due to a misspelling of "chicken" ended up here, we have a wisdom quote from Pappy Fricken...

"Folks who think there's a schism between Faith and Reason ain't spent'nuff time ponderin' either."

Seeker sojourner, which path will you take?

There are multiple paths.

If two is a multiple.

But only one leads to God.

And it is the path which is God himself.

The path he laid down

which was his own body.

John 14

i am a poor, wayfaring stranger...

i love the word 'sojourn.'

It only means to stay overnight.  Basically it's a fancy word for guest but in my head it has the word 'journey' in it and journeyman and that conjures up all sorts of nomadic imagery in my wanderlustful heart.  This is a person who doesn't stay anywhere long because he's searching for something.  Something deeper, something hidden, something hard to find and harder to explain.

This is a pilgrim.

Our time here on earth is a sojourn.  A day's stay. A temporary lodging on our way to a better country.  A place where the fiery pillar is leading us.  A place where God has gone before us and is preparing for us.  A garden the second Adam is cleansing of serpents for us.  A perfect Eden where thorn and thistle do not grow, where tear of mourning is wiped away by our gentle Father, where the reunion does not end, loved ones do not die, where the worm and the moth and the rat do not destroy, where communion is whole and unhindered by shame or guilt or shyness or deception.  All this God will do.  All this God has accomplished.  This is what we read the word for, to remind ourselves of what God has done, not what we must do.  To remind ourselves of our helplessness and His power.  To remind ourselves that we are sinners justified by a sinless God not basically good people getting better.  Sanctification looks like seeing more of your sin and how deep it goes, not less sin in your life.  The more we grow, the more we realize our need for Jesus!

This is why the psalmist can over and over again confess his love for God's word, law, precepts, testimonies and statutes!  Because they all say, "It Is Finished!"

Amen, hallelujah!  Pass the bread and wine!

Here's lookin' at you, kid.

Never forget, these post-its, like Solomon's original verses in Proverbs, are for the training of a young person growing up in wisdom and admonition of the Lord.  That said, we are all young people to an infinite God.  We are his children and the words are for us all.  

The pictures on the other hand are pretty much just for my amusement.  This one was actually inspired by the artwork of one of my sons...

So what's the take-away here today?  Read your Bibles.  Read them to your kids.  “Hear, Israel, Yahweh our God, Yahweh is unique. And you shall love Yahweh your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your might. And these words that I am commanding you today shall be on your heart. And you shall recite them to your children, and you shall talk about them at the time of your living in your house and at the time of your going on the road and at the time of your lying down and at the time of your rising up. And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as an emblem between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorframe of your house and on your gates." Deut 6

Layin' down the Law

"If you love me," Jesus said in John 14, "you will keep my commandments."  Psalm 119 is huge!  i think it was originally an acrostic style poem.  It definitely has a parallelism format, each line is like an "if/then" statement.  It reads like the father of the epileptic, "I believe!  Forgive my unbelief!"  The psalmist declares over and over his love for the Lord and confesses almost as equally, his weakness and inability to love the Lord.  i had trouble seeing this psalm as a love song when i was younger.  Words like "law" and "ordinances" and "precepts" and "commands" tripped me up.  It was the young law student's psalm.  For me, it was just a reminder that i didn't love God's law, i obeyed it, like i obeyed my parent's laws and my teachers' laws and my babysitters' laws and the daycare's laws, not out of love but out of fear.  Fear i wouldn't be loved if i didn't.  Fear i would be punished.  Fear of losing my identity as the 'good kid'.  Later i would learn the laws of my culture which i had better toe if i wanted to be cool or acceptable or at the very least, not ostracized and ridiculed.  Eventually i gave up and became a law unto myself but it didn't take away the fear, it just buried it in loneliness and despair.

There is no fear in love, John tells us.  Perfect love drives out fear.  The reason the psalmist can confess his undying affection for the law of God is because of this, simple fact....

Which i'll get to later.

See you later, Joe.

See Joe.
See the angry mob.
See how they rage.
Rage nations, rage.
Why do they rage?
They are angry because they do not love God.
They do not want God to be God.
Joe loves God.
Joe is about to be burned.
Burn Joe, burn.
Joe is not sad.
Joe is happy.
Joe loves God.
And Joe knows something.
What does Joe know?
Joe knows God loves Joe.
And that makes all the difference.

Doxology

Hallelujah!  Praise Yah!  It is a word i want on my lips all the time in every situation.  If money comes in, God is good!  If we are sinking in debt, God is good!  If we are all healthy, God is good!  If we are sick to death, God is good!  If i am loved by those around me, God is good!  If i am hated by all who know me, God is good!  If we are able to worship in freedom and in the open, God is good!  If we are hunted down and thrown in prison for confessing the name of Jesus, God is good!  If i am successful, God is good!  If i am a failure, God is good!  If the morning comes with birds and sunshine and warmth, God is good!  If the morning comes and looks like evening, with the creek rising and the rain still pouring down like the wrath of the Almighty, God is Good!  In all things, in all ways, in all circumstances,
God.
Is.
Good!

Everybody sucks.

It is very easy for my heart to go here.  i find cynicism and despair are always hanging around the dark corners of my house like mafia soldiers, smoking cigarettes and chucking cards into a hat, waiting for the order to do something worthy of their spite and pent up rage.

Lord, everyone is a liar but you died for us liars.  You died so we might be given the Spirit of Truth.  So we may rest in your finished work and be given new hearts, new eyes, new ears.  So we may speak truth in love with all the grace our God has shown to us!  Hard truth but in love.  That we may be honest people, humble people.  Lord, drag cynicism and despair from among your people, clean those corners, and may faith, hope and joy come lodge here in their place.  But most of all, may You come and dwell in our midst.  Amen and amen.

My chains fell off!

Too much to say, too little time to say it.  Praise God his Word speaks for itself!

Yeah, why should they say that?

Proverbs 14: 1

No, seriously, what the flock??

Sometimes when i'm drawing, especially something i don't draw all the time and have a good grasp on, like oh, say a lamb, i get locked into drawing it in a realistic manner.  Which is not what i'm usually trying to draw.  i much prefer cartoony drawings.  And sometimes i realize i'm doing it part way through the drawing and i attempt to change direction mid-stream.

Once, when Balisticat and were canoeing up the Susquehanna, we lost a paddle and i tried to turn us around in the middle of the rapids to go get it.

Yes, we were going UP stream.

Yes, i tried to turn around a canoe.  You know, one of those boats that's pointy at both ends so it can go either direction equally well.

Yes.  Rapids.

Yes.  It went about that well.  We stopped short of tipping the durn thing over and spilling our camping gear into the river but just barely.

All that's to answer the question, "What the flock is with this deformed looking lamb??"

For the answer to the questions in the Psalm however, i suggest you find a Bible.

Awwww, who the flock are you?

Identity.

We are often obsessed with it, even when we don't know we are.  Who am i?  What am i?  Am i what i do?  What am i here for?  What do others think of me?

Over and over in the Bible, God names someone something and THEN he makes them fit the name.  Abram he names Father of Nations before he ever has a child, while he's married to a barren woman whom God names Princess.  He calls a disgraced, fugitive hiding out in the desert tending sheep, the Deliverer of His People.  Gideon he calls Mighty Man of Valor while he's hiding from everyone in a winepress threshing grain.  He calls a forgotten shepherd boy King, then that shepherd boy has to run from the king.  He calls an unmarried virgin peasant girl, the mother of Messiah.

You are not your job.  You are not your family.  You are not what people say you are.  You are not your financial status.  You are not what you have been trying so hard to be or not to be.

If you have heard His voice and turned toward it, if you have seen Jesus and know him as savior, then you are Beloved.  Son of God.  Blameless.  Holy and Set Apart.  You are His.  You are a Prophet, Priest and King of the One True Living God, the One Who Is, Was and Is Coming Again.

Now, go act like it.  Don't be afraid, the Lord has gone ahead of you, He cannot fail.

Listen to this, if you dare.

If you have iTunes, go here,

if you don't have iTunes go to Brook Hills Church and try their audio or video for the sermon: The Gospel and Nepal.  Maybe it'll work for you, it didn't for me but then, i have iTunes.  

i'm not saying you'll want to listen to it, for me it is the equivalent of surgery without anesthesia, necessary but painful and possibly life changing.

Zat you Lord?

"Hey Pete, what's that guy

 hollerin' about over there?"

"Beats me."

"For He is our God

And we are the people of his pasture

And the sheep of his hand.

Today if you hear His voice,

"Do not harden your heart as at Meribah,

as in the day of Massah in the wilderness..." Ps 95

Clean up, Aisle... um... everywhere.

Blessed is the man who fear YHWH?  i think that's supposed to be fears.  Oh well, you get me unedited.  No make-up.  No airbrushing.  No filters.  No autotune.

Heck, i don't even really have much time each morning to think about this real hard and maybe that's a good thing.  Hopefully the Spirit is speaking.  Not i.  Cuz i got nothing.  Nothing you need anyway.

Always, i am hoping my sons will carry on in the faith.  That they will pursue God and fall in love with him and learn about his greatness.  i can teach and model that all i want but it is not up to me.  God alone can decide whether or not they will respond, God has given them a choice, He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.  That sounds like a contradiction but it's not.  God is sovereign and we have a choice.  Deal with it.  This lifts a bit of the burden off of me.  i still long to see them read the Word on their own, to hear them pray on their own, to have them surpass me in their hunger for the Gospel.  i still sow what little seed has been given me to sow, i just can't do anything about the dirt.  It's frustrating and liberating and a place for me to learn to trust the power and mercy of God.  i lament the years i spent passing on my notions of rule keeping and an angry God.  i repent and i wait for God to restore the years the locusts ate.  In my marriage and in my home, i trust He is big enough to even fix my mess.  He keeps the entire universe spinning on time, figured out every ecosystem that ever was, designed bodies of all types, shapes and sizes, wrote all of history from beginning to end, converts our greatest sin: the Murder of God, into our salvation... yeah, i think He can handle my broken pickle jar.

i love Jesus

i like this picture.

Yeah, i know his hands are all puffy looking and the posing is awkward but all the same, it turned out nice.  i really like what it's about, how the pose expresses the beauty and gentle love of Christ.

But you know.  You cannot know the love of Christ without knowing his wrath either.  His hatred of sin.  His jealous protection of his own glory and honor.  Verses like yesterday's are beautiful too.  Ya know why?

Because who wants a husband who doesn't care if his wife is mistreated or commits adultery?  Who wants a dad that doesn't care if his kids are bullied or go astray?  Perfect love loves perfectly.  The fury of his wrath is evidence of the strength of his love.  As Steve Brown says, "you think about that."

the Day

The clothes make the man...?

i was reading Exodus today.  The garments of Aaron.  The beautiful robe of blue with its bells and embroidered pomegranates; the clean, white, embroidered linen tunic; the ephod of blue and purple and scarlet yarn.  It must have been gorgeous.  It is a symbol of Christ and it is a symbol of us.  We in and of ourselves are cursed.  We are sin.  From before we are born we are in sin, born in it to sinful parents from Adam on down.  For none are righteous, no not one.  All creation groans...

But as Aaron showed us, one who was righteous came.  And as Aaron had our names upon his shoulders, so Christ bore us.  There are only one set of footprints in the sand.  And as Aaron had our names upon his breastplate of judgment covering his heart, so Jesus had in his heart, the wellspring of his life, his mission, his purpose, his desire, was our judgment.  He knew we were cursed.  Cursed to die for our sins.  This he can not abide for he loves us!  We are the desire of his heart!  So like Aaron bore the symbol which read, "A holy object for YHWH" upon his forehead, Christ bore the guilt of all our unrighteous acts upon his own head.  Christ was judged for us and now we are clothed in his righteousness!  We have been given new garments to attend the wedding supper of the Lamb!  We who have been given the gift of faith to believe are the bride of Christ!  We are the queen?  What restored queen would then put back on the soiled dress of the adulteress?  What redeemed queen would put back on the rough tunic of the slave girl?  What beloved princess would put back on the orphan's rags? Not when Christ has laid out your outfit for you and bought at such a price!  This is his gift to you!

What robe will you wear today?

Manna in the mornin'.

i thought about drawing a cute little harp and a lyre (whatever that is) for this one and then i thought, no.  That's not at all what David is saying here.  It totally misses the point.  David was a warrior!  David was a king!  David was a worship leader!  David was a rocker!  David was a roller!  David was an out-of-controller!  David isn't talking about cute chamber music that you notice is being played live half way through the reception, "oh, that's nice."

No.  "I will awake the dawn," he says!  David is opening up the garage at six thirty A.M. on a tuesday, plugging in Doc Brown's amp, cranking all the knobs to 11 and bringing the pick of destiny down on the lyre of ecstasy!  This is Joe Bonamassa stuff!  This is Roderigo y Gabriella stuff!  This is Eddie freakin' no teeth Van Halen stuff!  This isn't breathless whisper, softly sung in G so all the congregation can keep up stuff, this is slammin the Hammond B3, gospel clappin southern fried black choir in full throat keep up if you can whitey and for the love of all that's holy clap on 2 and 4 or don't clap at all stuff!  David has seen that God has not favored their armies anymore.  God no longer goes out before them.  David isn't trying to wake up God.  He's trying to wake up the people!  Awake!  Arise!  Look around!  See what we have become!  See how far we've fallen!  Now turn around!  See God!  See YHWH!  The Just, the Loving, the Faithful, the Strong and mighty and powerful waiting to receive us back again!  YHWH the I-loved-you-so-much-I-sent-my-everlovin'-only-son-to-die-in-your-freakin-place-and-then-raised-him-from-the-pit-of-death-and-hell-for-you!  No half hearted verse of pick your favorite blow dried feather cut shiny, happy worship chorus is gonna do!  He gave his best!  What you got?

Are you ready to rock?

i didn't hear you.  i said, are you ready to ROCK?

weak.  Pitifoo, just pitifoo.

I SAID, ARE YOU FEATHERPLUCKERS READY TO GET NUTS??

MMMMmmmmm, that's some good daily bread!

Got fruit? (yeah, i use this title a lot...)

This post-it was the morning after Rascal and i read Jesus' cursing of the fig tree.  The creator, the blesser, the one who turned the wilderness into a pool for us and settled us there so that we may establish cities and sow fields and plant vineyards, comes to his own and finds no fruit.

The fields are white and ready, the workers are few, the landowner has gone away but is coming again.  Will he find faith when he returns?

Oh yes, there will be blood.

There is a growing tendency to think of the war with the Canaanites as "ethnic cleansing" or genocide.  We christians make excuses for it.  We ignore it.  We pass over it or worse, make up heresies to explain it.  But just like the Ark of the Covenant does not need you to steady it, God does not need you to justify him either.  We could lift a line from Job like, "Who has come to confront me, that I should repay him?  Under all the heavens, it belongs to me." (Job 41)  And just leave it at that.

But our faith isn't blind.  Yes, we hope for what we do not see but not because we made it up.  God desires relationship.  He knows us through and through and is constantly exposing His heart to us.  So what does this Psalm and the conquering of Canaan say about Him?  What does He want us to know?

First, that he hates sin.  No real surprise there.  Second, that sin, all sin, demands blood.  The life is in the blood.  Sin is only cleansed by death, by blood.  From Genesis 3 on down through the Passover and the Temple God is very consistent.  Sin can only be cleansed when blood is spilled.  "Indeed, nearly everything is purified with blood according to the law, and apart from the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." (Heb 9)  God is holy.  God is the only one without sin.  God is the only one with the right to judge.  So we see the basis for God to come in and wipe out the Canaanites, it's not based on ethnicity or race, it is based solely on whether or not they have sinned...

But because of that we also see the basis for God to come in and wipe out everyone.  The Israelites had sinned too.  Time and time again as is documented in the Exodus.  They had probably worshiped idols in Egypt.  What makes them so great that they get to be on the giving end of this judgment?

Nuthin.  Except!  God chose them.  God had poured out his Spirit on them.  He had made a covenant with them.  Just as God did not destroy Adam and Eve in the Garden but killed or "cut off" animals and clothed them in their bloody skins and just like He did not kill Noah but had him take animals to "cut off" in place of him and his family, and just like He instituted the cutting off of the bloody foreskin as sign of the covenant with Abraham, and just like the Passover Lamb had its throat slit for the passing over of the Israelites in Egypt, the blood starts spilling with God's chosen first!  We are under the same curse as the Canaanites.  We need blood to cleanse us too!  God in his mercy and loyal love has accepted another's blood in our place!  Anyone who humbles themselves before God and allies themselves with Him is received by the grace of the blood of His accepted sacrifice.  Through Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham and the Israelites would come the acceptable sacrifice, the spotless lamb whose blood would be shed for the sins of the world!  This is the reason for the choosing.  This is why God puts up with the sins of some and condemns the sins of others.  The Canaanites thought they could appease the gods with the blood of their own children, but their children could only die for their own sins, not the sins of their parents which were magnified by the act of killing the most innocent among them.  God was not pleased.  These were horrendously violent and immoral people.  You would not want your children going to school with them.  You would not want them as neighbors.  They are the kind of people and nation we send armed "peacekeepers" to so they will stop slaughtering each other.  It takes but one generation of living among them for the Israelites to become indistinguishable from Sodom and Gomorrah, even Moses' own grandson!  (Judges 18)  Like Adam should have crushed the head of the Serpent in the Garden to protect Eve, so God, God himself for it is He who over and over again says has delivered the Canaanites into the Israel's hands, He who fights for them, God is crushing the head of Satan and cleansing the Garden where He has chosen to dwell among men.  God is the only rightful king, the Canaanites are immoral squatters abusing his people and his land.  But even those among them, Rahab the prostitute and the Gibeonites who humbled themselves before YHWH were brought into the mercy of the chosen!  God wants to forgive!  God wants to redeem!  God is good and will be proved good in all He does.  It is only those who stand against Him in pride who will be destroyed.  Those who will not accept the blood of the new covenant spilled for the forgiveness of sins, will drink the cup of wrath instead.  Their water of blessing which God gave them in life will be turned to blood.

But for us, the water has been turned to wine.  Do this in remembrance of Him until he comes again at last to cleanse the Garden once and for all.