Not quite here...
Like many, I don't blog much anymore. From time to time a particular thought will run too long for twitter and facebook, but it's particularly rare. If you're looking for fresh content, you'd be much better off following me on Twitter and Facebook, or even checking out http://twillia.ms
I noticed a number of people in the choir wiping tears as they sang “When I See the Risen Lamb” today. I’m sure some of it is the powerful musical qualities of the song. But how the musical qualities of the song, and more importantly, the truth of its lyrics to forgiven sinners, cause us to reflect on and ponder the greatness of our Savior. It’s a song that moves one into great happiness and thankfulness.
When I See the Risen Lamb:
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However, pondering the imagery of the next song broke me.
Following “When I See the Risen Lamb” today was “Behold the Lamb.” In this order, I suspect that our music minister, Tom Clay, was intending to paint the picture of the resurrection and the glorified, risen Christ. However, for some reason, my mind went “backwards” to the Old Testament, instead of forwards into the New Testament church.
I could attempt to describe this in the powerful way that it broke me, but almost undoubtedly my words would hinder, and not help, you experience this same brokenness. So I’ll try to keep my words to a minimum, in hopes that you’ll ponder the truth of them:
God is angry and wrathful against the evilness of humanity.
Lambs are baby sheep, less than a year old – the imagery of innocence.
Showing the magnitude of his righteous anger, God ordered his people, from time to time, to slaughter lambs, ripping their bodies apart and spreading their blood on an alter.
Jesus is called the Son of God. God the Father loves his Son. Jesus is also called the lamb of God.
Jesus was slain just as the lamb was slaughtered – innocent and blameless – and because of God’s intolerance for sin, his righteous wrath compelled him to be pleased in the death of his own son.
His wrath was carried out against the Lamb, his son, so that he could love me and adopt me as a son – even though I am the sinner who deserved only the wrath and anger.
What mercy. What love.
Behold the Lamb:
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You can see the service with these songs being sung, as well as the message that was preached, at Grace Life Church’s website here. Look for the 9/20/2009 AM service.
Hosea 2:14
== God’s drawing the unworthy ==
“Behold, I will allure her.”
Man’s evil is so complete impending judgment (what Hosea has been talking about so far, and what will still come) could never turn man back. (cf. Gen 8:21) Instead of giving up, God lovingly entices us back. This is grace. (cf. Rom 5:20)
- This means God will gradually unfold before them the majesty of his excellence. He opens their eyes.
- God will out love all former lovers combined. More love, honor, respect than any other has ever been able to give. The pleasures of God are greater than the pleasures of sin.
- It comes by surprise. The people weren’t expecting it. (eg. Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis). (cf. John 6:41-44)
== God’s bringing to the truth ==
“And bring her into the wilderness.”
When God saves you, he puts you into a new wilderness – a new awareness of sin and guilt. He lets you see the truth about yourself. (cf. Luke 7:40-47)
== God speaks to the heart ==
“And speak tenderly to her.”
(cf. John 16:8-11) The root of sin is unbelief. God speaks kindly to the heart, convincing sinners they have been given the credit of God’s righteousness – unconditional forgiveness. It is God’s work, and his means is the ministry of the gospel.
The full kindness of God is beyond our ability to comprehend. (this morning’s sermon)
Hosea 2:8-13
Idolatry’s Punishment
== Israel’s Sin ==
- (v. 8a) Deepest ingratitude: (They do not know.) God had lavished wealth on Israel, but their hearts were so hardened in sin, they did not recognize that it was God. (cf. Hebrews 3:13, 2 Cor 4:4) Wealth is dangerous, but poverty is not a virtue. The issue is your heart. (v. 13) “She forgot me.”
- (v. 8b) Most offensive use: They turned their unmerited blessings and used them openly in betrayal. Idolatry is in the heart. ‘Do you misuse blessings by looking TO them for your joy, rather than looking THROUGH them for your joy?’ (cf. Prov 22:2)
- It is the converted heart that causes genuine worship. It can not be codified through extra-biblical rules and laws.
== God’s Response ==
- (v. 9, 12) He will remove their blessings to get their attention.
- (v. 10) He will bring public humiliation to demonstrate his power and the impotence of their false gods. Not all humbling is a response to sin. Occasionally it is to bring about maturity.
- (v. 11) He destroys false worship. Why do you go to church? (cf. Amos 8:5)
- (v. 13) Imagery (not meant to be legalistically interpreted) of a wife dressing up erotically for an affair, rather than for her husband. (cf. Ezekiel 16:10-13)
Christ has adorned us with grace. We are married into royalty. Repent of spiritual adultery.
Look at the extent US soldiers go to avoid civilian causalities, even as enemies are approaching them with mortars and RPGs:
*** Intro ***
Titus 3:1-2 = Conduct of the Changed
- Ready for the good deed. Be peaceful. Show every consideration for all men, as much as possible. Titus 2:11-14 = Grace of our God.
Titus 3:3 = Conduct of the Unchanged
- Foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved, envious.
- All of these things, the saved once were.
*** The Hope of God’s Kindness and Love ***
Titus 3:4
Romans 5:8
5/31/2007. AM service. Jeff Noblit.
It is biblical to rest from ministry. It can be prideful to think that you do not need rest.
*** The Commission for the Disciples ***
Integrity. (Mark 6:30) The disciples reported everything they had *done* – not just what they taught. We ought to be doing what we are teaching. Today there is a lot of great writing (a lot of bad too), but the doing seems disproportionately behind – even though we are getting good instruction.
Accountability. (1 Corinthians 4:3 "It’s a small thing that I’m examined by you.") (Mark 6:7 – the disciples were sent out two by two.) (Ecclesiastes 4:9) (Proverbs 27:17)
*** The Concern for the Disciples ***
Mark 6:31 – As much of a command of the Lord as it was to go out a preach the gospel. The context is mostly preachers and preaching, but it applies to all saints. Some call it a hobby, or an escape, but really it is a mandated spiritual discipline.
We are encased in weak flesh. We have a limited physical capacity and a limited emotional capacity. Jeff: "You have to rest, or people don’t want to be around you the next day. God does not have to rest, and he’s wonderful everyday." (Genesis says God "rested" but this is an anthropomorphic illustration to say that God was done with the creation work. The Bible also says that he never rests.)
However, when the work gets tough, don’t let this be an excuse to drop the work of the gospel first. Take all matters to the Lord and allow him to judge.
*** Conclusions for Practical Application ***
#1 – Get away WITH Jesus, not from Jesus. Don’t let God only remind you of your work boots. Associate him with your slippers as well.
#2 – Don’t turn yourself into a sloth. (Proverbs 6:6-11) (Mark 6:31 "… for a while")
#3 – Expect it to be difficult. Even as he went to rest, crowds would still follow Jesus. We probably won’t have that problem. We may deal with guilt.
#4 – You can take mini breaks to draw closer to God while separating from the world.
One of the things I admire about my church is its commitment to Biblical lyrics. I’m heard our music minister, Tom Clay (@brotom / thomasclay.blogspot.com) say “If we can’t preach [the lyrics] from the pulpit, we don’t sing it.” And I assure you, for those unfamiliar with Grace Life CotS, what comes from the pulpit is highly scrutinized against a biblically doctrinal understanding of the Bible. (Yes, the way I described that is unnecessarily complex, but I wanted to fully qualify what I was saying for purposes I’d rather not go into, lest I fall completely off topic. If you’re really curious, just search for Jeff Noblit or Paul Washer on YouTube.)
However, in the flesh, I am a sinner tempted in all sorts of ways, and likewise, when we sing these wonderfully true, powerful songs, it is tempting to idolize them. By this, I mean I am tempted to revere the song itself rather that reverencing God.
I try to avoid this form of idolatry by thinking upon the truths of the lyrics and their implications. It may not feel as emotionally “powerful” as when the song is also enjoyed for its musical pleasantry, but it does keep me grounded in the truth of the song, rather than its emotional appeal.
On the other hand – and I shall seem to talk out of both sides of my mouth here – sometimes I will treat the song simply as good, pleasing music and set aside the theological truths. This way, I’m not ascribing any more worth to the song than it’s due, instead I’m simply enjoying it as something good that’s excellent and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).
But thankfully, most often I am able to do both – to both enjoy the song for its musical qualities, and to worship my God for his eternal qualities. Although I rarely sing publicly – my heart indulges itself in rejoicing and praise through biblical music.
Likewise, I would like to share with you some songs that I *almost* idolize, but praise be to God – this is a sin I constantly overcome, allowing me to rejoice with other believers in the worthiness of our God.
I am using Lala.com to embed these songs (legally). You should be able to play them once, full quality, without signing in and for free. If you are not able to, you may need to clear your cookies and your Flash cookies. I strongly encourage you to patronize them if you are able and willing. They “get” the new business model.
The Power Of The Cross – Stuart Townend
Be Unto Your Name – Robin Mark
Before the Throne of God Above – Dave Hunt
update: I truly should include “In Christ Alone”, even if this particular arrangement isn’t my favorite. The lyrics here are so comprehensive and deeply rich with truth; truly an example of the kind of song that could be preached from the pulpit. (That’s not to say that it is equivalent to the Word, as certainly, there are some phrases here and there that are extra-biblical, but the truth of its message is certainly in line with truth.)
In Christ Alone – Stuart Townend
PS. This is a good time to also mention that I dissociate myself from many stereotypes given to Christians, and at the same time, I confess I am a fallen sinner. I do not view myself as “more holy” – quite the opposite – nor do I desire to “push my beliefs” onto anyone.
God’s grace to you,
- tollie
Wow. I don’t normally find myself reading many slashdot comments, but this one caught my attention as I think it’s dead on.
From: http://bit.ly/kG5dH [slashdot.org]
Is Copyright still a fair deal? (Score:5, Insightful)
by thesupraman (179040) on Friday April 03, @08:13PMThis is not the question to ask.
The question to ask is what good are the public getting in return for giving up such freedoms, AND paying for the giving up of such freedoms (dont forget who pay for the FBI, Police, etc), and paying for the protection of the revinue to copyright owning entities.
Now, this is supposed to be the entering in to the public domain (as in becoming free..) of creative content at the end of the copyright period – a fair and equitable arrangement one could say – we protect their profits for a period, and at the end of that, we gain the advantage of their creativity openly.
However, that was in the days of limited copyright periods, these days thanks both to DRM (an unbroken DRM means an item cannot become free after its legal protection stops) and changes to copyright periods (a lot of things we have already paid to protect should be public now, and are not..) we, the people, have lost our end of the ‘bargain’.
Perhaps it is time for the copyright owners to be carrying the full costs of enforcing their copyrights, since they don’t feel the public should be allowed future advantage of their content?
I wonder what the yearly government costs of copyright enforcement is, it seems more and more public resource is bring piled in to protecting it..
Or perhaps the people (that is, government) should simply cease on their end of the bargain in return, and in light of technological DRM, revoke copyright laws, as they were enacted to protect otherwise unprotectable items (such as books) – does DRM mean we shouldn’t have to suffer copyright laws?
Once upon a time there was balance, an equitable deal between the state and copyright holders – the copyright holders have long since stopped holding up their end of the bargain….
Excepted from myself on Facebook:
The social graph model had a 10x more interesting Home feed. The twitter-clone home stream is almost completely uninteresting and not Facebook.
The highlights preserve some of the interesting aspects of the old home feed, but they are too few, too cluttered, and no longer able to be “tweaked” with sliders or “less of” links.
Additionally, the new home stream lacks filters for profile changes like groups, relationship statuses, and interests.
Basically, my iPhone has become my only interesting way to use Facebook, as it still gives me the social graph model of the Home feed– don’t screw it up, and you should *really* consider revamping the “new” twitter clone to be less of a clone, and more true to what kept Facebook interesting.
Go here for ways to take action: http://bit.ly/2Oz3i (links to Facebook note).
And don’t forget to use http://iphone.facebook.com – maybe, hopefully, they’ll see the spike in traffic to that website from non-iPhone browsers.
UPDATE: In my continuing campaign to get Facebook to fix the “great mistake of 09″, I ended up writing out my thoughts in bullet points. Here they are:
*** 1: The new design didn’t add significant functionality. ***
1a- The old design already had live updates (actually live though), and filtering by friend group, status, photos, etc.
1b- The only “new” functionality was to filter by 3rd party applications – most of which are rubbish.
1c- Indeed, the old functionality of being able to dial up or down what and who you found interesting – it’s gone.
*** 2: The new design is dumb, rather than intelligent. ***
2a- The old “social graph” algorithm worked for me. It digested hundreds of friends and thousands of “data” into a digestible, interesting, useful home page.
2b- The new stream is always the last hour, and if I didn’t block every 3rd party app I find, it would probably be littered with quizzed and sheep throwing. Further, since I check Facebook late at the end of the day, my home stream is almost exclusively west coast people, instead of my local friends who are most interesting to me.
2c- Twitter is about the “stream”, it was founded as a micro-blog. Facebook is NOT about the stream – it was founded as, and ought to be, an intelligent address book that functions like a yearbook, collecting memories with photos, and your friends scribbled notes on the inside “walls” of the book.
MOST IMPORTANT TO ME:
*** 3: The new design reverts Facebook back to 2005. ***
3a- Profile changes (groups joined, relationship status, interest changes) are left completely unpublished, and thus we’re left having to go profile to profile, and trying to remember what was and was not there, in order to find out some of the most interesting aspects of our friends (for me, namely, their relationship statuses – completely and totally obscure now).
3b- The new highlights section has SOME group joins, and you can even hack the URL to filter by groups, but neither are nearly as sufficient as the old Home Feed. And of course, it’s cramped, minimal in number, and absolutely not customizable, so I don’t count it.
***********
