Check This Out! (and tell me what you think)

So, I am thinking about something. Check out this link and tell me what you think about it. It would be an awesome opportunity, that’s for sure!

http://www.midwifeschool.org/index.html

And this girl’s blog is amazing too.

http://www.midwife4jesus.blogspot.com/

In any case, it’s great to see what’s going in the Philippines. But it’s gotten me thinking . . . and praying . . .

Life is Good

This past semester I have done a LOT of thinking about what I am doing now, and what God wants from me. It has resulted in some pretty radical thinking about my life and future. At this point in time, I have absolutely no clue what’s going to happen in the next few years. I have a lot of options that I am weighing and praying about. I guess I’ll know when I get there.

The revolutionary thing for me has been the realization (not just mental, but actual) that I am not my own. That may sound elementary, but when you truly realize the full force of it, it’s life-changing. In other words, we hear things like “I am the clay, You are the potter,” but how often do we really believe or apply that to ourselves? In my case, not often.

It would be nice if life had a map that I could lay out on the table, find the spot I’m at, and see where I’m supposed to go next. But God has chosen to do things differently, and resisting that is absolutely futile. His idea of a map is to place you blind-folded in one spot, and tell you to trust that he’ll lead you safely to the end: an idea that our very natures pull away from in disgust.

I have recently realized that this is my attitude about my life. I want to know what’s going on, I want to control circumstances and choices, I want to choose where I’ll go next, and what I’ll do, and what kind of a person I will become. In some sense, I will actually do that. But it will all be under God’s control.

I am almost at a loss here to describe the difference in my thinking now. It’s freedom, actually. Not the typical freedom we think of. It’s letting go of everything, I mean absolutely everything, and trusting God with your very next breath. Having just a taste of it now makes me want even more. It’s frightening, but it’s awesome.

I don’t in any way make light of the sacrifice. It’s painful, it’s dirty, and it hurts. I am in the midst of experiencing some of the pain it causes at present, and at times, I want to grasp “control” again and fix the hurt. But I can’t. And God is so much more glorified by my trusting him, even though it hurts, than he ever could be by my control of myself.

I am thinking about radically changing my “plans” for present life. That is, God is stirring my heart, revealing my selfishness, and perhaps opening up a new door. I won’t explain what it is at present, as I am not sure at all what’s going on, but it would change almost everything in my life at the moment. But if God would be more glorified, and if I am truly free of myself, then I should be willing to let go and let him lead me.

I think the thing that has brought me to this realization is my endeavors to plan the next few years. As of nine months ago, I was happily enrolled in school full-time, planning to graduate in the typical four years, and excited about pursuing school after that. I love to study. I would love to dedicate my life to studying language and history and the Bible and music, and all sorts of things. I don’t know necessarily that I won’t study more, and hope I will in some capacity. But something has started catching my eye, if you will. My hands are clean, figuratively. And I like it better that way. In other words, I would be perfectly satisfied to pursue the things that I love, and never have to get my hands dirty with something I don’t want to touch. And I’ve realized that that is very wrong.

Jesus washed the disciple’s feet. That seemed hardly fitting for a teacher, let alone for the Lord. So often I have thought about what I was doing and felt satisfaction. I was satisfied with myself because I was doing what I loved and what I wanted to do. Five times in that sentence, I talk about myself. But not God. Where is God in all this pursuit of knowledge? Yes, I’m at Bible College, pursuing a knowledge of him, but is that the same thing as pursuing his will? For some, it surely is. But I am increasingly becoming aware of the fact that my life is not doing much for the kingdom of God. And much of what it is doing, it is doing for myself. Does this make sense?

In other words, I am largely pursuing my goals, not God’s. People have tried to tell me that my pursuing my dreams and goals, so long as they are good dreams and goals, will be a pursuit of what God wants, because God wouldn’t call you to pursue something you didn’t love. I have come to realize that this is a lie, how ever well meant it is. God calls us to fall on our knees before him and worship him, giving him our lives to use as he see fit. That is the truth. Perhaps he will put desires and and his will into conjunction after a while, but we cannot expect to place our heart above his will, and let him conform his will to it. It’s a ridiculous idea.

So the point of this is to say, give up. Let go. Be free of yourself. And let God use you however he wishes. I’m sure it’s hard. I’m sure it hurts very much at times. But how else are we going to be effective in His kingdom for His glory than if we are doing His will? This is all elementary really, if you believe and trust the words of the Bible. But it is, at least in my experience, easy to overlook.

So, I don’t know what I’m doing. I know I’m going to Boyce this Spring, but after that, while I have some very different ideas, I really have no clue. But I am actual happy here. I am excited to see how God is going to use me. And I feel safe, knowing that this is where he wants me, and this is where he will use me the most. But pray for me too, because this is very different from what I was thinking not long ago, and it’s frightening in another sense to completely let go and feel yourself falling through the air, no matter how much you trust your Father’s strong arms to catch you. But I trust. That is the point. At least, I endeavor to trust, and beg God for the strength that I don’t have. He is a good and gracious God. And Life is SO Good!

With All of My Heart, Soul, Mind and Strength… No Exceptions

I just finished reading a really good book. It is called Living Sacrifice, by Helen Roseveare. She was a missionary doctor to Congo/Zaire in Africa.

A week ago, I was struggling with some contentment/trust issues in my life. A very good friend of mine came up to me with the book and said, “Laura, I have a book that you should read. The woman reminds me so much of you. She writes about the complete trust we should have in God about everything. I think it will be a helpful read to you.” So I took it, curiosity sort of piqued, but also with a sense of dread of the conviction I was probably in for. I was very right.

Roseveare’s book is a detailed examination of her heart. She shows many of the weaknesses that she found within herself as she sought to serve God on the mission field, and how surprised she was that she was so weak, when she had always felt so very strong. I found that I could identify almost exactly. When she cried, I cried, because that was me too. Her book was hitting the very tender spot of my heart, and puncturing it with its words. And all I have been able to do is sit back and thank God for it, because it was exactly what I needed to hear.

The book is laid out in six chapters. The first (“His Right to Demand”) introduces and details the problem:  her pride. The next four chapters are named “With All My Heart”, “With All My Soul”, “With All My Mind”, and “With All My Strength.” In each, Roseveare details the struggles she had in each area in giving up her life to Christ completely. And the last chapter (“My Privilege to Respond”) completes the book by applying everything very succinctly to daily life, thought, and action. With each detail she exposed I cringed more. God was exposing my pride through hers.

Roseveare writes,

Peter, when the Lord told His disciples that same night all would desert Him, had boldly declared that he would never do so. He would rather die than desert Him. The test came, and Peter failed miserably, denying the Lord with oaths. Fear had made a coward of him. The cost of loving the Lord wholly in that instant had seemed to great to pay.

Momentarily I had felt the same the night the rebel soldiers first took me captive. Beaten, flung o the ground, kicked–teeth broken, mouth and nose gashed, ribs bruised–driven at gunpoint back to my home, jeered at, insulted, threatened–I knew that if the rebel lieutenant did not pull the trigger of his revolver and end the situation, worse pain and humiliation lay ahead.  It was a very dark night. I felt unutterably alone.

For a brief moment, I felt that God had failed me. He could have stepped in and prevented this rising crescendo of wickedness and cruelty. He could have saved me out of their hands. Why didn’t He speak? Why didn’t He intervene? And in desperation, I almost cried out against Him: “It is too much to pay!”

Yet His love for me cost Him His life. He gave Himself, in that one all-sufficient atoning sacrifice at Calvary. He so loved that He gave all. His sacrifice was the expression of His great love.

But His sacrifice had achieved something. He had saved lost mankind from their sins. What was I achieving by suffering brutality at the hands of rebel soldiers? If I died (which seemed probable and imminent) no one would even know of the suffering. What was being gained? God, why, why?

In the darkness ad loneliness, He met with me. He was right there, a great, wonderful, almighty God. His love enveloped me. Suddenly the “Why?” dropped away from me, and an unbelievable peace flowed in, even in the midst of the wickedness. And He breathed a word into my troubled mind: the word privilege.

“These are not your sufferings: they are not beating you. These are my sufferings: all I ask of you is the loan of you body.”

For twenty years, anything I had needed, I had asked of God and He had provided. Now, this night, the Almighty had stooped to ask of me something that He condescended to appear to need, and He offered me the privilege of responding. He wanted my body, in which to live, and through which to love these very rebel soldiers in the height of their wickedness. It was inconceivable, yet true. He offered me the inestimable privilege of sharing with Him, in some little measure, at least, in the edge of the fellowship of His sufferings. And it was all privilege.  (pp. 20-21)

I have never been called to suffer anything as immensely terrifying as that. Perhaps I never will be. But that does not mean that the cost is any less for me than it was for her. I am just as prideful. And I am just as much in need of giving my all to God to use as he will.

Perhaps the most poignant part of the book were the words Roseveare kept repeating. All was “privilege.” She must learn to “die to herself.” I felt those words hit me like a ton of bricks as I realized that I am so very far from that attitude in my daily life.

Roseveare perhaps summed it up best when she wrote,

Can I see such minor “sacrifices” in the light of the great sacrifice of Calvary, where Christ gave all for me? Can I see the apparent cost as minimal compared to the reality of the gain? Do I accept His right to demand my willingness to pay such a high price in order to enter into the privilege and joy of being used in His purposes? . . .

To love the Lord my God with all my [heart] will involve a spiritual cost. I’ll have to give him my heart, and let Him love through it whom and how He wills, even if this seems at times to break my heart.

To love the Lord my God with all my soul will involve a volitional and emotional cost. I’ll have to give Him my will, my rights to decide and choose, and all my relationships, for Him to guide and control, even when I cannot understand His reasoning.

To love the Lord my God with all my mind will involve an intellectual cost. I must give Him my mind, my intelligence, my reasoning powers, and trust Him to work through them, even when He may appear to act in contradiction to common sense.

To love the Lord my God with all my strength will involve a physical cost. I must give him my body to indwell, and through which to speak, whether He chooses by health or sickness, by strength or weakness, and trust Him utterly with the outcome.

I don’t think there is anything else I can say. This book showed me in a very huge way that I must come to the end of myself  completely before God will use me for His glory. And the end of myself is painful, but oh so necessary! May God keep whittling away at my stubborn heart, to make it more like His. May I learn to truly love Him with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength!

God . . . or “a” god?

In my last post, I briefly explained that I believed the text of John 1:1 in the Greek could only be translated one way: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” I want to here further explain it, both for edification, and for clarification.

I think it will be helpful to post a section of my grammar that discusses this detail. This is an excerpt from William B. Wallaces’ Advanced Greek Grammar.

The nominative case is the case that the subject is in. When the subject takes an equative verb like “is” (i.e., a verb that equates the subject with something else), then another noun also appears in the nominative case—the predicate nominative. In the sentence, “John is a man, John is the subject and “man” is the predicate nominative. In English, the subject and predicate nominative are distinguished by word order (the subject comes first). Not so in Greek. Since word order in Greek is quite flexible and is used for emphasis rather than for strict grammatical function, other means are used to distinguish subject from predicate nominative. For example, if one of the two nouns has the definite article, it is the subject.

As we have said, word order is employed especially for the sake of emphasis. Generally speaking, when a word is thrown to the front of the clause it is done so for emphasis. When a predicate nominative is thrown in front of the verb, by virtue of word order it takes on emphasis. A good illustration of this is John 1:1c. The English versions typically have, “and the Word was God.” But in Greek, the word order has been reversed. It reads,

kaiÉ qeov” h^n o& lovgo”

and God was the Word

We know that “the Word” is the subject because it has the definite article, and we translate it accordingly: “and the Word was God.” Two questions, both of theological import, should come to mind: (1) why was qeov” thrown forward? And (2) why does it lack the article? In brief, its emphatic position stresses its essence or quality: “What God was, the Word was” is how one translation brings out this force. Its lack of a definite article keeps us from identifying the person of the Word (Jesus Christ) with the person of “God” (the Father). That is to say, the word order tells us that Jesus Christ has all the divine attributes that the Father has; lack of the article tells us that Jesus Christ is not the Father. John’s wording here is beautifully compact! It is, in fact, one of the most elegantly terse theological statements one could ever find. As Marin Luther said, the lack of an article is against Sabellianism; the word order is against Arianism.

To state this another way, look at how the different Greek constructions would be rendered:

kaiÉ o& logov” h^n o& qeov” “and the Word was the God” (i.e., the Father; Sabellianism)

kaiÉ o& logov” h^&n qeov” “and the Word was a god” (Arianism)

kaiÉ qeov” h^n o& logov” “and the Word was God” (Orthodoxy)

Jesus Christ is God and has all the attributes that the Father has. But he is not the first person of the trinity. All this is concisely affirmed in kaiÉ qeov” h^n o& logov”.

In an attempt to be more “open-minded”, if you will, I have also copied a section from a Jehovah’s Witness site in defense of their translation.

“On the other pages discussing John 1:1 on this site we have found that the Greek of John 1:1c, namely, KAI QEOS HN hO LOGOS, can be rendered as ” and the Word was a god” and that this is grammatically possible, even grammatically preferable. However, those trinitarians who admit as much argue against it on the grounds that such a rendering conflicts with the belief of monotheism. This is a theological argument. The belief that there is only one who is QEOS, “God,” and this one is the true God, so that, if Jesus is QEOS and yet is not a ‘false god’ he must of necessity be that one true God and not “a god.”

The following will allow the inspired holy scriptures and other relevant writings to show that biblical monotheism and the “a god” rendering of QEOS at John 1:1 is biblically sound . . .

It is to be noted from the above that someone other than “the God,” could bear the title or rather the term “god,” [Greek theos or QEOS] and not contradict or conflict with the notion of monotheism at that time. We have to realise that such terms as ‘monotheism,’ ‘polytheism’ and ‘henotheism’ are relatively modern descriptive terms. Polytheism is the belief and religious worship of more than one god. Each god has a ’sphere’ of their own. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not polytheists. Henotheism is the belief in and worship of one god without denying the existence of others who also can receive religious worship. Jehovah’s Witnesses are not henotheists. Monotheism has been defined as the belief in and religious worship of one God only. Jehovah’s Witnesses are then monotheists as they hold to this. According to the Bible’s monotheism the rendering “and the Word was a god” would not teach polytheism nor henotheism as the Bible does not say that the “Word,” Jesus Christ should receive religious worship, that is, worship as the one true god. Can this be proved from the scriptures? As well as the remarks by Haenchen re Philippians 2:6ff- Yes . . .

In John 1.1 do we see the Word’s being described as theos with “limitations and qualifications”? Yes. John qualifies the Word being theos by his showing that the Word was “with” ho theos, that is with the god, “God.” That is, the Word, while being predicated with the word theos, was not “God.”

Hence, just as the Jewish writer Philo, a monotheist, could write of Moses when expanding on the passage in Exodus 7.1:

“For, since God judged him worthy to appear as a partner of His own possessions, He gave into his hands the whole world as a portion well fitted for His heir…Was not the joy of [Moses'] partnership with the Father and Maker of all magnified also by the honour of being deemed worthy to bear the same title? For he was named god and king of the whole nation”(Mos.1.155-158; Prob.42-44), that the Logos of God was a “god” even a “second god” and also argues that the articular and anarticular uses of God in Genesis 31.13LXX [ego eimi ho theos ho ophtheis soi en topo thou] distinguishes whom theos is applied to in that the articular theosdenotes the one who is “properly called God,” by which he means “He that is truly God, ” the Word is “improperly so called,”(Somn. 1.229-230)

http://onlytruegod.org/defense/monotheism.htm

So, there, in quite technical language (sorry!) is the problem. How is the passage to be translated? What I found consistently in the article was the defense of monotheism, even sometimes above defense of the text itself. The writer claimed that we defend the text on the basis of theological views, when in fact, he does the very same thing. The claim that the belief of Jesus being one with God is polytheism has absolutely no biblical backup whatsoever. Perhaps that is a subject for another day. But it is sufficient to say that belief in the “Godness” of Jesus hardly destroys the “oneness” of God. It is a profound mystery, but the teaching of the trinity is very firmly supported by Scripture.While believing that Jesus is God, I am very firmly a monotheist.

Ultimately, the translation is up to the translator. But there is only one way for it to be translated. John had only one meaning when he wrote it. In any case, this has certainly been a hot debate throughout the years, and will no doubt continue to be so. But I believe that, if what Wallace said is correct, the ONLY way to translate the passage is “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God.”

But of course, you’ll have to decide that for yourself. (That’s why you really should learn Greek. )

Alan,
Thanks for that website. It was helpful in understanding a little bit more about Jehovah’s Witness doctrine, and about the New World Translation.

 

I still believe, and think that it can be proven (even if I’m not yet strong enough in the Greek language to do so) that that translation is in error.

For interest, you might read some of Daniel Wallace, a well-known Greek grammarian. In my Greek textbook, there is a section by him on this very topic. It is long, but I will write it down for your reference.

He says:

The nominative case is the case that the subject is in. When the subject takes an equative verb like “is” (i.e., a verb that equates the subject with something else), then another noun also appears in the nominative case—the predicate nominative. In the sentence, “John is a man, John is the subject and “man” is the predicate nominative. In English, the subject and predicate nominative are distinguished by word order (the subject comes first). Not so in Greek. Since word order in Greek is quite flexible and is used for emphasis rather than for strict grammatical function, other means are used to distinguish subject from predicate nominative. For example, if one of the two nouns has the definite article, it is the subject.

As we have said, word order is employed especially for the sake of emphasis. Generally speaking, when a word is thrown to the front of the clause it is done so for emphasis. When a predicate nominative is thrown in front of the verb, by virtue of word order it takes on emphasis. A good illustration of this is John 1:1c. The English versions typically have, “and the Word was God.” But in Greek, the word order has been reversed. It reads,

kaiÉ    qeov”    h^n    o&    lovgo”
and    God    was    the    word

We know that “the Word” is the subject because it has the definite article, and we translate it accordingly: “and the Word was God.” Two questions, both of theological import, should come to mind: (1) why was qeov” thrown forward? And (2) why does it lack the article? In brief, its emphatic position stresses its essence or quality: “What God was, the Word was” is how one translation brings out this force. Its lack of a definite article keeps us from identifying the person of the Word (Jesus Christ) with the person of “God” (the Father). That is to say, the word order tells us that Jesus Christ has all the divine attributes that the Father has; lack of the article tells us that Jesus Christ is not the Father. John’s wording here is beautifully compact! It is, in fact, one of the most elegantly terse theological statements one could ever find. As Marin Luther said, the lack of an article is against Sabellianism; the word order is against Arianism.

To state this another way, look at how the different Greek constructions would be rendered:

kaiÉ o& logov” h^n o& qeov”    “and the Word was the God” (i.e., the Father; Sabellianism)
kaiÉ o& logov” h^&n qeov”    “and the Word was a god” (Arianism)
kaiÉ qeov” h^n o& logov”     “and the Word was God” (Orthodoxy)

Jesus Christ is God and has all the attributes that the Father has. But he is not the forst person of the trinity. All this is concisely affirmed in kaiÉ qeov” h^n o& logov”.

Daniel B. Wallace

Okay . . . So I’m a Greek Geek . . . So what?

So, I have successfully (I think) completed my first semester of Biblical Greek. It had really been great. There’s been an amount of pain along the way, there’s no doubt (like staying up until 2:00 am trying to parse words for a Greek exam), but what class doesn’t have its share of these things? Working hard for it is what makes it seem so much more enjoyable now . . . because I appreciate the pain it takes to get here.

By here, I do not mean that I have reached the pinnacle of my Greek studies. No, I think there is still a rather long road ahead of me yet. But I am ready to traverse it.

I think Greek (and eventually Hebrew) should become a way of life for anyone who loves the Bible. It is hard, but it is totally worth it, and I can’t even read it all yet! But, as Martin Luther said,

“Languages are the scabbard that contains the sword of the Spirit; they are the casket which contains the priceless jewels of antique thought; they are the vessel that holds the wine; and as the gospel says, they are the baskets in which the loaves and fishes are kept to feed the multitude. . . . As dear as the gospel is to us all, let us as hard contend with its language.”

He is quite right. It is a hard contention a lot of times (believe me, it really is), so I’m not trying to downplay that fact. But anyone who is diligent can accomplish it, even if it takes longer than a few semesters. It is for the purpose of better reading and accurately understanding God’s word. And God’s word is precious to us, isn’t it? So why don’t we try to read it and understand it as purely as possible?

Of course, this is me talking, who’s a little first-year Greek student. I still have at least three semesters left. But I don’t think that I will think any differently even after all of that. It may seem to some that, aside from the Bible, the languages have little purpose, and should perhaps be better left to the studies of the ministry student. I would contend that is absolutely not true. It is just as vital a study for the lay Christian as it is for the dedicated scholar. Again, it is God’s word, in the purest form we can get.

Another reason I think that every Christian should undergo this study is for evangelism. Yes, you can use the languages in evangelism. Not always, I’m sure, but when opportunity arises, you will be ready. I would even contend that the more you are prepared for opportunities, God will give them to you. Don’t we want those? Don’t we want to show people the purity of God’s word, and the reliability of the Greek and Hebrew texts?

I recently had a chance to apply some of what I had learned in the context of evangelism. It was perhaps a somewhat “bold” venture for me, but I pray that God used what I said for His glory. I was out running errands, and I came across a giant booth set up at a very public place. It was plastered with posters saying “Free Bible Literature.” I had my suspicions, but went over to it and grabbed a little book entitled “What the Bible REALLY says.” I didn’t need to read much to know what it was about. It was Jehovah’s Witness literature. I thumbed through the pages and read what it said about “the good man, Jesus.” Nothing about his Godship, his being a Savior, Redeemer, etc. Just a good man that we can take as an example.

I began to feel very angry. Here these people were, passing out literature that was destructive, was ripping at the very core of Christianity, giving it out like pieces of candy. I paid and left the store. On the way out I argued with myself about whether or not to say anything. Finally, my (hopefully righteous) anger won over my pride, and I marched back up to the booth. The two men looked at me rather surprised as I set the book back down and said, “I don’t want this.” “Oh, did you read it already?” One of them asked. “I read enough to know that I very much disagree.” (I know that Jehovah’s witnesses like to discuss their beliefs, and I wasn’t looking for an argument, but I felt very compelled to defend the Gospel.) They both looked at me as I rambled on, “I disagree because I believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. This book and your other literature is preaching a heresy. Do you know that what you are teaching here with all of this literature is a dangerous lie that damns people to hell every day?” They blinked. One of them started to argue with me, asking me to show him in the Bible where it said that Jesus was God. Here it went. I didn’t want to argue. He handed me a Bible. I asked him about the translation, and he said it was The New World translation. I told him that I believed that the translation was faulty. I could not show him passages from a Bible that changed the wording to make Jesus less than God. I showed him John 1, where they change the word to “and the Word was with God, and the word was A god.” I told him that that was NOT what the Greek said. He looked at me funny. I told him that I was a Bible College student, currently studying Greek, and that I had studied this very passage, and that there was no other way for it to be translated other than “and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS God.” He tried to argue something about they had the oldest Greek texts available, but I told him that was not true, and I wasn’t going to argue anymore. I guess we agreed to disagree.

So, that’s not a “successful”, if you will, conversion story, or anything like that. He probably laughed after I left and thought I was a kook. But I was able to defend the Gospel and hold my ground because I had a knowledge of how the Greek HAD to be translated. Jesus IS God. There is no other way to read it. And, even if he didn’t agree, at least he couldn’t prove that wrong.

So, all of this to say, there are SO many good things (that I am only just beginning to experience) to come out of the study of the Biblical languages. And I would encourage everyone to make the opportunity to do so. It will be hard. You can count on that. But it is worth it. Again, as Luther said,

“As dear as the gospel is to us all, let us as hard contend with its language.”

 

 

The Greatest of These

So, in our girls’  Bible Study on Saturday mornings at Panera, we have been studying a lot of things. We have been reading through John Piper’s book, Let the Nations be Glad. It is a great book. We are finding, however, that with the length of the chapters, and the length of time between meetings, we are not getting as much out of reading it together as we could. Or, so we decided this last Saturday.

So we studied Psalm 67 for a while. Ultimately, God will be glorified all over the entire earth, and God blesses us in many ways, causing us, as Christians to “shine” before the nations, making what we believe appealing. Our goal should be to reflect God’s face to the world in order that all may come to know him. Let the Nations be glad and sing for joy!

After that, we got into a long discussion about love (don’t know how . . . it was one of those random rabbit trails that turn out really good, no matter how irrelevant). It’s really that I wanted to write about. It impressed me, because I really struggle with it. The every day, hardcore, unconditional, often unnoticed, often thankless, often humbling kind of love that Jesus calls us to have for each other. I fail so often to think of others before myself. I place my own needs and desires above almost everything else.  And it is very wrong. Paul says in Romans 13 that love is the fulfillment of the law. It is very true. We are commanded really to do only two things: love God with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. In doing that, we are able to fulfill every single requirement of the law.

It was somewhat comforting to find that I’m not the only one who struggles in the area. Each of us confessed a pronounced lack in that area of our lives. But as we discussed it, we realized just how very crucial it is for everything.  So, really, the purpose of this post is just to recap some of those things, and to stir others on to consider these things.

I drew a little diagram for them that was helpful.

God

Non-Believers                      Us                   Other Believers

Family

If that can be made sense of, it is meant to picture how love works. It comes from God, ultimately, since he showed the greatest love ever in sending Christ to die for our sins. We are to then return that love back to him. We continually seek to love God with all of our hearts by reading His word and discovering who He is and worshiping Him for it. We show it by obeying what His word says, without question. He alone can bring us the peace and joy that comes from loving unconditionally.

Our love first then falls to our family. These can fall in one of two categories. Either they will be believers, or unbelievers. But love must extend to both branches. Family will, and should, come first in any of our affections, since they are the people God has placed us among the most for a chance to show love, and for our sanctification. We all took it as a challenge, since most of us are still at home, to try to show great love to our families, who may be some of the hardest people to sacrificially love sometimes, for whatever reason.

Our love has to extend to the church next. We love being with other believers. We talked about ideas of how to love one another. Being all single young women, we tried to think of ways that we could effectively show our love sacrificially. One idea was babysitting for free, another was helping someone with extra housework, painting, yard cleanup, etc. We could certainly look for avenues of service in preparing for the church meetings each week, or in Bible Study. Another way could be prayer. Whatever the case, we all realized that each of us is required and privileged to show love to the church body in some way.

The last area of extension is to unbelievers. We are to show love, even to them. This could be a very hard area. We thought of specific situations where it was very difficult with co-workers, etc., to show the love of Christ. It can be very tempting to act like the world in those areas. But there are many ways in which we can do it. Sacrificing time to visit a nursing home. Going out of your way to help a co-worker. Bringing someone you know a gift of some sort, or writing them an encouraging note. In any case, our love for them needs to be intentionally targeted, because it is so easy to fall into apathy in this area.  We most often just want to fit in, and not sacrifice our pride to show them real, true love.

So, we had a very profitable discussion, and I was very convicted by it. Hopefully we each of us will take what we discussed and learned and apply it to our lives. I truly believe that love fulfills everything else. So, if we can learn to love, truly love, think what kind of people we will be. We will be kneeling with Jesus, washing our friends’ and our enemies’ feet. We will be giving up our own desires to fulfill the desires and needs of may others. We may be called to give up our comfortable existence in America to learn another culture and way of life in pursuit of showing love to people around the world. Some of us may even be called to lay down our lives for the sake of this love. And it is all because of our awesome Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave up his life for sinners so that we could be saved. What an amazing God we serve!

It should not surprise us, therefore, to read the verse “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1Corinthians 13:13. If the greatest of these is love, should we not strive all the harder for it?

 

God

Non-Believers LOVE Other Believers

Family

All Must Die

This is a poem I wrote several years ago that I recently found while looking through some files. It’s not great, but I think it is true, and it is an interesting way of looking at life and death. Anyway, hope some of you enjoy it!

The old, old oak tree spreads its boughs

Above the new grass dotted with

Gleaming stones, wet from the rain

That passed through here an hour ago.

The great tree shivers in the cold;

Its massive trunk gives strong support

To gnarled branches, swayed by the wind

Which long sustains a chilly blow.

‘Tis silent here; ‘tis undisturbed,

And day by day no voice is heard

Within these walls of iron and stone.

They do not let joy filter through,

Like laughter, song, and children’s play,

But only such as death can bring:

Sorrow, weeping, grief and gloom;

It seems the walls are crying too.

A verdant hill slopes gently down

Towards the old oak tree. Around,

Upon the ground, much like a sea

Of snowy foam, are stones, so white

From rain they gleam, and seem to wink

Up at the sky, now bearing down

With gentle beams to warm the earth.

It yawns and soaks in all the light.

How can they sit so silently,

These stones among the unmown green,

When each one represents a life

Filled to the brim with everything

That its creator made to be?

Surely, some lived happily,

While others still were never known,

Yet here lay all, this bitter Spring.

The stones don’t care, nor can they tell

What hopes and fears were in the hearts

Of those who lie beneath their mass;

They only hold the date and name,

The graven proof of who they were,

Yet does that mean that all is done;

That now, buried beneath the ground,

The life forever will remain?

No, it cannot and it shall not be!

Life is not worth so small a thing

As gleaming stone to mark its place.

No, it continues- for a few,

To heaven and all it’s beauty

With victory to God will come.

Yet many more will not find rest,

But realize what they never knew.

This place cries out so solemnly

The warning meant for all who pass

And see the ground where all will lay

Until they come unto God’s throne.

There, mercy, grace, undying love,

Are found, and given, only to some.

Yet the place gives warning to the rest,

That many will have never known.

The songs we can hear from this place

All share the haunting melody.

O sinner, don’t you hear that tune?

It’s telling you to run, to flee,

Before you too will lay beneath

The gleaming stone, your fate then sealed,

With nothing left but heart and soul,

Awaiting then what has to be.

The chorus is but three small words,

The sum of which the warning is:

“All must die.” No more or less.

This cannot change, or pass away.

No matter how you live in life,

When you too lay beneath the stone,

What only matters is your heart,

Which, sealed in death, can never change.

© Laura Wingerd 2007

Is God Just a Combination of Attributes?

So, today I was sitting in the information booth at Red Barn Farm. It was a really slow day, and all I could do was sit there. I couldn’t leave my post. So I got out Greek flashcards and worked on those for a while.

After the Greek, I grabbed some scrap pieces of receipt out of the trashcan and started writing some things down. Here is what I wrote on one of the receipts:

What is God? I know that he’s a Spirit, but how (if possible) do we describe him? I don’t know if we can. He’s awesome, holy, all-knowing, righteous, etc. I can easily describe many of his attributes, but I don’t feel like I’m really describing him. There is no one, all-encompassing adjective that gets at every single attribute of God. The closest is that he is holy, utterly unique. And that doesn’t cover everything, and doesn’t get at his essence, does it? What does it mean to be unique? Set apart, completely different from everything else. But even there, it is a negative comparison, describing what God is not like. It still does not describe what he is. He is NOT like anything else.

So, in other words, God is completely indescribable,  down at the very essence, if we can say that. Perhaps he wants it that way. But sometimes I SO want to know, and SO want to see him, face to face! Maybe in heaven I’ll have a better idea of what God is, and who he is.

If we stop and think about it, we really don’t know much at all, other than what he has revealed to us about his nature and character. It makes him all the more mysterious, and for me, makes me desire to seek knowledge of him even more. Praise God that he is completely indescribable! Praise God that we can keep seeking his face and learning to know and love him!

This is awesome, breathtaking, really, to think about!

Biking (flying) and Dreaming

So, I finally got a good bike. The last one was demolished by my dad and brother after I left for college, and parts were salvaged to fix other bikes. So, needless to say, I needed a new one.

Today Sarah and I biked along the Missouri River on Old South Bluff Road. It’s so beautiful there. You can see the river almost the whole time, and you have the State Park on your other side. It’s pretty neat. And today was an awesome day to bike. The weather was so nice!

I’d really like to bike more. It feels really good! I love to climb a really steep hill, and then feel the  rush of wind in my face as I sail down the other side. It is exhilarating, to say the least. There’s a sense of feeling like you can almost fly, or that you’re at least going to try!  I am going to try and see if my brother will bike with me every morning. It would be a great way to start the day!

I’ve often thought about what it would be like to bike across the whole country. There have been several people who have stopped by the tea room I work at in Platte City who are on some sort of bike route like that. They must see so many awesome sights! And just the accomplishment of actually doing it would be pretty incredible. I doubt I’ll ever be able to do something that extensive, but, you never know. Maybe I’ll just start with biking the 8 miles of trail every day, and see where it goes from there.

“I pray you, show me your glory!”

I have been thinking a lot lately about what it means to pursue God. I mean to truly pursue him.

I listened to a sermon by Paul Washer the other day. He was describing his intense struggle to know God. He retold how he had begun to pray for God to show him his face, his presence. For three months, night after night he begged God to show himself to him. But God “wouldn’t come.”  Then one night, he “came.” Washer describes it as almost being knocked to the floor with the sheer weight of God’s presence. Awesome.

I want that! I want so badly to be “knocked to the ground” with the weight of God’s glory! And I have only felt something remotely like that a couple of times in my life. But it seems so hard to get. It takes so much work sometimes! I want it to be easy! Like in heaven, when we are actually in God’s presence. I want my life to be that way, since I am actually in his presence in a sense. Why is it so difficult?

I think, I know the answer, at least partly. The biggest reason is, of course, we are still in a sinful world, with sin always nagging us, and we are worn down with this life. In heaven, we will truly be in the presence of God, actually seeing him face to face. It will be impossible to be distracted by anything else.

But the practical reason is, we pursue other things. I’m not saying it’s wrong to pursue other things. Not necessarily, anyhow. But it’s the way that we do it. What I mean is, we tend to prioritize our pursuits. And very often, the pursuit of knowing God gets prioritized. Therein lies the problem.

God cannot be prioritized. Pursuing God should be like eating and drinking– a natural desire and fulfillment. But how often I feel like my attitude is : “I will pursue God after I finish this or that. After I get this done, then I will have time to pursue him more deeply.” Well, what I am doing may be very important, but . . . that important?

I was shocked when I found myself consciously thinking something like that the other day. I was at work, and was thinking about how I want so much more to pursue God. Then I felt the flashcards in my pocket and thought, “oh yeah, I have that Greek exam to study for. I’d better get that done, and then  can focus more intensely on my pursuit of God.”  What? Did I actually think that? Yes, and sadly, I realized it’s true of a lot of the way I live my life.

So, all of this to say, pursue God. And that means, first, foremost, before everything else. Greek exams are important, and there are many very important things in life. I’m not suggesting that we need to be anywhere close to the cloistered life of a monk. I’m saying that in daily life, God cannot be prioritized; He must be centralized, and everything else should form around that. I’m sure this has been said before. But it’s helpful for me to write it out anyway. God is so worthy of being pursued. God, please show me your glory! Please knock me to the ground with it!

Then Moses said, “I pray you, show me your glory!” And he said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.” But he said, “You cannot see my face, for no man can see Me and live!” Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place my Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; and it will come about, while my glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will take my hand away and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” Exodus 33:17-23