Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011

He is risen!

The Civil War Sesquicentennial

Robert H. Moore over at Cenantua's Blog writes in his own words, "As a Southerner and native of the Shenandoah Valley, I reflect on the Civil War-era South… and sometimes a little more. But… expect the unexpected."

This past week Robert has been posting a number of interesting articles on the 150th anniversary of the outbreak of the Civil War. He quotes extensively from those who were there in Virginia at the time, and in these eye witness accounts of the time, demonstrates the diversity and differences of opinion in Virginia in regard to the issue of succession. I am finding this series pretty compelling reading and highly recommend it. (See link above for Cenantua;s Blog.)

~ The Billy Goat ~

All We Like Sheep...

I came home from work yesterday and TV trucks were parked next door. One of the reporters came over and asked us what we knew, which up to that point was zero. She informed us our next door neighbor, the husband, was arrested on charges of child molestation. His wife runs a licensed child day care out of the home.

We were flabbergasted and shocked. My concern was not to rush to judgement when so few of the facts were known. The reporter asked if we would speak "on camera". We declined, but did give permission to quote us anonymously.

Through the evening more details emerged including a report based on court records that our neighbor had confessed to several of the charges. An investigation is ongoing. The day care has been shut down pending further investigations.

One of our other neighbors did give one of the TV stations an "on-camera" statement. What they said pretty well spoke for all of us in the neighborhood. Shock, pain, grief, disbelief

As my wife and I talked about all this, we agreed the question is not, "Is this a man you would have thought capable of doing such things?" We are all capable of doing many seriously sinful and wicked things in life. The question is not what was our neighbor capable of doing, but one of what did he actually do.

Here is a man with grown adult children, a grandfather with grand-kids, retired; a man who up to this point in life has lived with integrity in relation to the civil laws governing our society. What has come to light must be devastating to his wife, his children, his grandchildren, we who are his neighbors, as well as the parents of the children who were in the day care, and the children themselves. And to top it off, one of those parents is a colleague of mine from work.

I'm still dealing with the emotional shock. Though not close friends, we were friends. Over the years we had chatted back and forth, loaned needed tools for whatever project was pressing at the time, and all the other interactions of casual neighbor to neighbor relations.

Anyone of us could very easily and quickly fall into the same kind of sin. We ought not to kid ourselves that we could never do such a thing. The warning is there. "Let he who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." For it is not about what we are capable of doing. It is about what we actually do. God give us grace and mercy to actually do what is right and good and pure.

Intellectual Integrity Wins!

Have you ever observed people being accused of resisting someones ideas because of fear? Someone writes a controversial book and reviewers critique the book and take exception to the writer's propositions as expressed in the book. Then the author responds that his critics are reacting out of fear.

Oh really? The author knows this for sure? All the criticism of his book is based on fear? Fear is the primary driving motive of the criticism?

But what if it is not? What if the criticism was based on the reviewer's properly critical rational examination of the author's own words and arguments as presented in the book? What if the criticism is based on an objective scholarly analysis of the author's own words and assertions?

What if the criticism comes from a basis of intellectual integrity, and the reviewer in his or her analysis detects that the author has not been entirely intellectually honest with the data; that critical points of context and other relevant information and data have been ignored or overlooked?

And why is the author responding to his critics with an ad hominem argument? Were the critics suppose to leave their brains at the door of their office before sitting down and reviewing the author's book? Are all critical rational thinking facilities to be laid aside when it comes to examining this writers assertions and claims?

And why use such emotional words such as "fear" or "afraid" in labeling one's critics? After all, does the author want dialogue or monologue?

What if in the end it is not fear that drives the criticism, but on the contrary it is application of the rigor of intellectual integrity?

In that case intellectual integrity and honesty wins.

Vacation

We took a quick vacation to Texas; blue skies, sunshine and 70's and 80's. Nice... On our way home we got to St. Louis, MO and there was snow on the ground. Oh well...



We go to Texas Via Missouri and Oklahoma. I really enjoy the scenery in eastern Oklahoma.



One of the more picturesque areas in that part of Oklahoma is the Lake Eufaula area just north of McAlester.




It was nice to get away for a little while.

Of This and That

• The Michigan State Spartans make it to the NCAA dance once again. Life is good.
  
  
• Winter keeps dragging on here in our part of Michigan. We are really ready to be done with it all.
  
  
• Civil War redux: The picture of the Civil War in popular culture is one of a southern slave state unity in a "Confederate Solidarity". The truth is that image of Confederate solidarity is a myth. Here are some blogs I follow that expose that myth for what it is: Renegade South, Southern Unionist Chronicles, and Cenantua's Blog.
  
  
• To The Post-Modernity Child: Even as the gods of your fathers betrayed your fathers and you, so shall the new gods you have replaced them with end up betraying you, and your children, and your children's children. You sow to the wind. You will reap the whirlwind. Sadly, you are becoming the same thing you were trying to avoid.
  
  

• Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, "Be strong: fear not! Behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God He will come and save you." (Isaiah 35:3-4)
  

  
  There are a lot of precious nuggets in Isaiah...
  
  
• Here is a link to Tim Challies's review of Rob Bell's "Love Wins".
  
  
• Internet Wonders: A young friend of ours is on the swim team at a nearby NCAA Division II school. This past week she and some of her teammates were at the National NCAA Div. II Swim & Dive Championships in San Antonio, TX. Through the wonder of a NCAA WWW live stream, we were able to watch some of the events she was in. That was pretty neat... Our young friend is a solid commited Christian, and it was a joy to see her swim her heart out; leaving it all in the pool; swimming to the glory of her Lord and God.

A Letter to Jack

Hi Jack, It been about 55 years ago when you left us... A lot has happened since then. Some good... Some not so good.. Some just outright bad... I need to ask you to forgive me for trying to blame you for messing up the pencil sharpener when somebody sharpened their crayon in it. It was me... At the time I didn't realize what I had done... I'm really sorry about that. You missed some wars and stuff. Some of the guys you knew went to Vietnam. A few came back in body bags. And there was all the anti-war crap, and drugs and the false gods of the so called "Age of Aquarius". We haven't exactly blown up the world yet, but we keep working on it... There's been some good stuff along the way too... Little League baseball, Cub Scouts and then Boy Scouts, 4-H and the county fair. High school plays and sports. A wife, kids and grand kids and good times with friends... Sunsets, ocean beaches, and all that kind of stuff is pretty nice... We've had some good music, art, books, and film along the way too. A lot of good things have happened medically... Ironic that if we had had some of the stuff we have now, you might have been able to stay and go on through life with us. I've wondered over the years about what might have been had you not left us. Maybe we would have had a chance to be friends; if not close friends, at least acquaintances sharing a period of our life together with our other classmates... But... You were gone... They didn't talk to us about it hardly at all. Miss Laseer went to the funeral and that was it. It was only years latter with the experiances of a lifetime under our belt that we found in our remembering that there was a loss. The last 55 years have gone by so fast.. The years are adding up... The autumn and winter of life are upon us. Eventually if the Lord tarries, we also will die. Jack, there is a lot about life and death that I do not pretend to understand. It could have happened to any one of us. When I think of it, I wonder that any of us survived to gorw up, graduate from high school, and go on into life. You were not forgotten. Somehow, someway, your life, as brief as it was, had meaning and purpose. Well... That's about it... Only God Almighty knows what the future will bring. I really want to beleive that just maybe... just maybe... Lord willing... someday we will see each other again... That would be really nice... Regards, Bill

Love wins?

For a number of years in our metropolitan area there have been those who have summed up their Christian perspective in the slogan "Love wins!".

At face value it sounds nice. We think of John 3:16 and all the other familiar verses in the Bible that talk about the love of God. We think of how God expressed his love in sending His only begotten son. We recognize that God's love plays a very important part in the course of Biblical redemptive history.

So why is it that in recent days I find myself questioning that slogan?

Context means a lot. Here is the context of how the slogan "Love wins.." is being used.

Something very subtle is happening here.

Instead of saying "Love wins!", why don't we say "God wins!"?

God IS love... But God is much more then JUST love... God doesn't win because love wins (as though God is just along for the ride). If love wins, (and it does), love's winning is subsidiary to the fact that God in the whole of His person-hood wins.

So I ask once again. Instead of saying "Love wins!", why don't we say "God wins!"?

What I sense is subtly happening is the person of God is being replaced with some concept of love. In doing so we end up worshiping some idea of "love" instead of the God who in His person is the great "I AM". The other pitfall we face is wanting to define for ourselves what "love" is. God as the source of love is greater then love. God as the source of love is the one who defines both what love is, and what love is not.

Idolatry can be very subtle.

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols." (I John 5:21)

God wins!

The JESUS Film Project

"But how can any single film reach so many people and touch so many lives?"

It is the power of the Word of God in their heart language.

Based on the Gospel of Luke, the "JESUS" film has now been translated into more than 1,000 languages, with a new language being added nearly every week. This brings God's Word to people in more than 200 countries in languages they know and understand...

You may if you choose to do so, quibble about any number of things about The Jesus Film Project. I can be as cynical as anyone, and more then a few so called "evangelism" methodologies leave me cold.

And yes, I was even skeptical about the Jesus Film Project... until I started to actually watch the film and realized what was being done.

The Word of God.... from the Gospel of Luke... Scripture itself, yes, being acted out but also being spoken aloud via film... Faith comes by hearing, and not hearing any old thing someone wants to say but hearing the Word of God...

So though I don't put to much stock in the statistics about how many people come to Christ through the Jesus Film, I believe there are those those who do. It is not "the film", it is the Word of God the film is bringing to the ears of millions of people around the world, and that in their own heart language...

Be a skeptic if you want, but don't be a skeptic about the power of the Word of God, and do not be so quick to skepticism regarding the medium that might be used to bring that Word of God to a lost world...

After all it is not about the numbers and statistics. It is about faithful proclamation and the witness of Jesus Christ to every kindred, tribe, and tongue and nation.

Peace,

~ The Billy Goat ~

The Sin of All Sins

In a recent blog post titled Defining Deviancy Down and the Wrath of God Ardel Caneday engages in an extended essay on how we should understand Romans 1:21-27.

The bottom line is that the primary sin the Apostle Paul is dealing with in that passage is not homosexual perversion but man's heart idolatry. This assessment of the essay is a bit of over simplification so I encourage you to read the whole of Dr. Caneday's post here.

As I thought about the things discussed in the essay, I came to a realization.

If we make sexual perversion "the sin of all sins" we are focusing on the issue of what man does; we are being anthropocentric. When we recognize the "sin of all sins" is heart idolatry, the issue becomes one of who God is, and our thinking is now Theocentric. The heart of man's estrangement from God is self-worship in the place of the worship we owe our creator God. All other sins flow from that, and as Dr. Caneday has rightly pointed out, that is the message of Romans 1:21-27.

Thankfully the Apostle doesn't end with Romans 1:22-27. As we read on into the rest of the epistle, the mercy and grace of God as revealed in Jesus Christ is proclaimed.

To God alone be the glory!

~ The Billy Goat ~