Thoughts of a Servant

I remember Russell mentioning that missions is a call to worship.  And its interesting because I am looking at the challenge ahead of me, and there is absolutely no logical reason for me to go.  All logic points at me staying here and continuing the great life I have going now.  But its a call to worship?!

I often wonder about this trip to Tanzania, and if it is a permanent thing, what does it mean to me… And WHY does it mean that much to me…

Here’s the thing.  Its a cliche saying, but our whole lives we go searching for something– an unknown satisfaction– an unknown purpose.  And most of us, unfortunately, do not realize that purpose.  And this is because we are searching for the wrong thing.  If we seek purpose in ourselves, we will find failure– but the truth behind our seeking is the finding of worship.

Take a handful of the many African individuals who have had to face reealll tragedy.  They travel from Sudan to Tanzania and Kenya in search of safety, security, and a home because they have lost everything.  This trip is over 1000 miles, and they do it on foot.  This trip isn’t just a relaxing walk either– they are traveling through rebel-infested territory, desert, and forest terrain– resources are limited, medication is non-existant, food is scarce, and loneliness is their worst enemy.  And there is a good chance that they are there alone because they had witnessed their families deaths by a machete right in front of them.  How many of us could say that we have experienced that type of pain?  Not many, but when I look at their life, they have pure joy and continually praise God.  AND on top of it all, when they worship– they worship.  They are dancing, jumping, singing, etc.  But if even one of those things happened to us, or even a diluted version of such tragedy, we would question why God hates us.

I seek the worship that these disciples have.  I admire their joy and want to be in community with them.

What kind of love.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, sometimes I get caught up in facts, history, visual / mental / spiritual definitions and presence within their cultural context, etc.  But I have been taking time to just sit and listen, watch and learn.  Let me say, you may think God isn’t present now, but just sit and watch…  I was eating dinner at the mall today and I saw several things that just blew my mind.  So I got to thinking about our surroundings and our influence on each other…  The best way to get evidence that God is present, isolate yourself from us.

But in all honesty, you have to look around you– if you want evidence of God, go into the wilderness.   In the wilderness, let me ask, what is evil?  What will distract you?  The only answer to that is yourself, your mind, your presence.  You are the only presence of distraction in the midst of amazing evidence of God’s existence.  This means two things: (1) You are not good, you have fallen and cannot seem to think good thoughts and your mind wanders, and (2) You are the most complex living creature on the face of this planet, you are Christ’s masterpiece.  It makes it much more simple if you take the factors of the world out and just look at nature and yourself.  Man was created to rule over the earth (Genesis), and Man was also the pinnacle of creation.  But that fall explains why we can’t go into the wilderness without thinking of power, survival, etc.

Going back to the context of the wilderness comes the concept of faith.  Faith seems to dwell in our minds as a source of foundation.  Faith actually stems from the Hebrew word emunah which means “firmness,” “steadfastness,” “fidelity,” and  ”faithfulness.”  It is also derived from the word aman which means “confirm,” and “trust.”  Some of us choose to blindly follow it and others need scientific proof for faith to be concrete.  Of course, there are different types of faith:  You have faith that your eyes are telling your brain exactly what you are seeing– you have faith that each time you go under a freeway overpass, that it will not collapse on you– you also have faith that when you sleep you will wake up knowing exactly what you knew the night before rather than having to relearn everything.

Atheists have plenty-a-beef with Christianity because there is basically no written hard evidence.  They will say that Christianity is good thinking (faith)– in a sense.  And the Atheists that I have talked to come across as rational and informative individuals who have, basically, convinced themselves that they cannot prove any existence. In the conversations that I have had, they bring up inconsistencies with the Bible and factual misinterpretations of historical events– all based around “evidence.”   And I can completely understand it, Christianity does require a whole lot of faith.  And most of them do not want to believe in faith because it is not rational or it deems contradictory.

But lets look at faith..  Faith is obviously a very prominent part of the Bible:

 

By faith Enoch was taken up so he should not see death (Heb. 11:5); by faith Noah built an ark (Heb. 11:7); by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called (Heb. 11:8); by faith Abraham lived as an alien in the land (Heb. 11:9); by faith Sarah received power to conceive (Heb. 11:11); these all died in faith (Heb. 11:13); by faith Abraham offered up Isaac (Heb. 11:17); by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau (Heb. 11:20); by faith Jacob blessed Joseph’s sons (Heb. 11:21); by faith Joseph made mention of the exodus (Heb. 11:22); by faith Moses was hidden (Heb. 11:23); by faith Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter (Heb. 11:24); by faith Moses left Egypt (Heb. 11:27); by faith Moses kept the Passover (Heb. 11:28); by faith they passed through the Red Sea (Heb. 11:29); by faith the walls of Jericho fell down (Heb. 11:30); by faith Rahab did not perish with the disobedient (Heb. 11:31); by faith they conquered kingdoms (Heb. 11:33).

Colin A. Day, Collins Thesaurus of the Bible (Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009).

 

But one of the key things that struck me is that Faith is a key structural component in this relationship (between God and man) in the Old Testament.  God had created the bronze snake to remind people that they needed to have faith… It is also mentioned several times in the passages above…  God was with his people, and they had to believe in him.

 

The author of Hebrews defines faith as the assurance in our heart and mind of what we hope for, the certainty of what we do not see (Heb. 11:1). And the author also notes that it was “faith” that was the “basis” for the approval of the saints in the Old Testament (Heb. 11:2). The author of Hebrews was right, for without faith it is impossible to be approved by God.

Eugene E. Carpenter and Philip W. Comfort, Holman Treasury of Key Bible Words: 200 Greek and 200 Hebrew Words Defined and Explained (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2000). 56.

 

Its interesting.  Because God said that He created us in his image…  The Bible talks about God’s faithfulness to his people, which means that, being in his image, he would expect us to be faithful to Him.

 

We do not respond to the grace of God with perfect faithfulness. The grace that gives us faith also allows us from time to time to see how weak our faith can be. So our faith is never of an even quality. It is subject to degrees. When our faith is great, we must praise God. When it is weak, we must not despair (weak faith is still faith), but cry to God for greater grace.

Roger Ellsworth, Opening Up Joshua (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2008). 103.

 

Had a good conversation with my roommates about this subject– but it definitely got me thinking.  I heard a pastor start talking about how God is Jealous and he wants us to worship him.  I knew I had this fear, but I couldn’t define it– Consider if someone was jealous on this earth and they wanted us to praise them, we would consider it arrogant and self-praising. . . But for some undefinable reason it is okay for God to say that?  I had to research this, because I know that my perception of the world jealous was skewed and it is really in the realm of zeal that he longs for us.

Russell brought up a good concept, he mentioned the word recognition in his blog–  This is what we all strive for.  Everything in our life was us in our pursuit for greatness, from the garden of Eden, to Babylonia, to Rome, to America.  To us playing sports, to anything that we do.  But why do we seek this greatness?  Because we feel that forgiveness isn’t enough.  We feel as though we have to earn our spot in Heaven.  But when God tells us that his greatness is unparalleled, and that we should praise him, it is because he is pious.  Let me explain a little further…

I was reading Deuteronomy32 today, and my prayers / questions were surely answered.  I saw this verse that completely worded my question:

16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods

and angered him with their detestable idols.

The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996). Dt 32:16.

Where God sees us praising false gods and He becomes jealous.  But not soon after that verse he answered:

The LORD will judge his people 
and have compassion on his servants 
when he sees their strength is gone
and no one is left, slave or free. 
37 He will say: “Now where are their gods, 
the rock they took refuge in, 
38 the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices 
and drank the wine of their drink offerings? 
Let them rise up to help you! 
Let them give you shelter!

39 “See now that I myself am He!
There is no god besides me.
I put to death and I bring to life,
I have wounded and I will heal,
and no one can deliver out of my hand.
40 I lift my hand to heaven and declare:
As surely as I live forever,
41 when I sharpen my flashing sword
and my hand grasps it in judgment,
I will take vengeance on my adversaries
and repay those who hate me.
42 I will make my arrows drunk with blood,
while my sword devours flesh:
the blood of the slain and the captives,
the heads of the enemy leaders.”

43 Rejoice, O nations, with his people,f, g
for he will avenge the blood of his servants;
he will take vengeance on his enemies
and make atonement for his land and people.

The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996). Dt 32:36–43.

He makes it clear that we cannot even fathom the Glory he obtains, along the same reason we cannot see Jesus’ face.  And in actuality, if someone here were to give themselves praise, it would have been out of sinful nature as they want acknowledgement to counter their transgressions… But God has no transgressions– only glory.

Jealousy actually stems to different contexts, and in the bible it is more about striving & deep longing than it is to take advantage of:

And even more importantly, the jealousy God has here is more of zeal:

If we were to look at the jealousness of God, it is actually a Jealousy from an individual that has no rival claim to deity and sovereignty.  He alone is God, all else is His creation.

To worship the creature, rather than the Creator, is to rob God of His uniqueness and incomparability (vv. Deut 35, 39; Ac 17:22–28; Rm 1:25). The Hebrew word translated “jealous” (qannaʾ) also means “zealous.” God’s jealousy is an expression of His intense love and care for His people and His demand that they honor His unique and incomparable nature.

Ted Cabal, Chad Owen Brand, E. Ray Clendenen, Paul Copan, J.P. Moreland and Doug Powell, The Apologetics Study Bible: Real Questions, Straight Answers, Stronger Faith (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2007). 273.

 

In the end, we have to remember that our God is in pursuit of us.  He is not waiting for us to come to Him– he is in zealous pursuit for his lost sheep, and should we turn our lives He will celebrate! God doesn’t want to share our devotion (Deuteronomy 4:24).

So my cousin asked a question and wanted an intellectual discussion on the subjectivity of morality.  I figured this would be a great chance to read up on some actual contemplative observation of morality.

Um, I think there are different types that you will have to consider when classifying morality rather than just stating that “All Morality” is subjective.  I think that there are three definitive classifications of morality: permissible, obligatory, and supererogatory.

Something that is seen as morally permissible would be subjective to one-self because they would refrain from performing an action because it might incur moral guilt.  Then you have morality that resides within obligation which is subject to the other party because of the fear of failure to fulfill moral obligation would bring moral censure.

The third type, moral supererogatory, can be considered to be subject to a higher power. This type of morality is based off of the concept that these are not duties, but are praiseworthy.  For instance, you save someone’s life– instinctive at heart (not morally driven), but producing good.  Another example would be if I was unable to swim, but saw a child drowning in a river, and tried to save them– then my actions are not within my duty (because I cannot swim) and therefore it is an act of supererogatory morality.

However!  I do not think morality is judged by the outcome of actions.  Consider this analogy:

Are consequences, then, the key for determining the morality of the agent? We think not. Our reasoning is best illustrated as follows. Suppose someone sees a child drowning in a swimming pool and tries to rescue him just because he needs help and because it is right to help. Suppose as well the attempt fails, and the boy drowns. On this theory of what it means to be moral, the would-be rescuer did not act morally, because the child died. Surely that conclusion is unacceptable. Likewise, suppose someone wants to rob a bank, but during the robbery he is apprehended before he gets the money. Because of the attempted robbery, the bank installs a better security system. As a result, everyone who comes to the bank will be safer, and money deposited in the bank will be better protected. On this theory of what it means to be moral when acting, the thief tried to do a harmful act, but because he was unsuccessful, he cannot be considered immoral. In fact, since good came from this incident, one might even say the thief acted morally. Examples like these should convince the reader that what makes an agent moral is not the results of his action.

John S. Feinberg, Paul D. Feinberg and Aldous Huxley, Ethics for a Brave New World (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1996). 21.

So in order to effectively evaluate that an action is morality subject to morality itself, we have to consider a few things: First, they must be acting freely — not under obligation or guilt; and second, what were the motives behind the action?  Own interest, others?

So in a sense, morality is subjective, yes, because morality is based off knowledge of good and bad.  Without knowledge of good or bad there wouldn’t be a standard for morality.  BUT morality has different levels of subjectivity.

OH dude, I think we opened a can of worms. Thanks for challenging the post I put up.  I had been looking for a word to do a word study on.  So I figured this is a good opportunity.

I just finished reading this book, Wild at Heart, and it expressed one of the beauties that I cannot even begin to fathom.  That’s when God’ created Eve.  When He created Eve, he declared her the pinnacle of creation (along with man, but mostly Eve– we were chillin outside the garden peeking in).  So this means that her beauty was unfathomable.

There is also a type of beauty that our MANLY God has.  Beauty being the honor that Jesus displayed.  He also has a beautiful crown (Isa. 28:5).  God also made everything beautiful in its time (Eccles. 3:11).

But check this diagram… It shows the levels of beauty as it relates to Biblical terms.

Like what you said, there is also a level of beauty on the inside where we would find God if we accepted Him into our life.  This is what I seem to fall in love with in women is when you can see this Joy, Love- aka Beauty.  But these types of women seem to have a little of each category above.

He even seems to think that tents are beautiful:

“How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,
your dwelling places, O Israel!
The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996). Nu 24:5.

I have to agree with you. When we talk in terms of the God vs Devil battle ground on beauty, we have to look at both sides.

I am trying to think like CS Lewis and the Screwtape letters… If he were writing to Wormwood, he might say that he should direct his human to observe beauty as a physical fulfillment and Holy in nothing more than the physical aspect.  By doing so, it hinders the human from thinking beyond themselves as they are only looking at inner fulfillment based on the beauty that is received.

But if we focus on beauty as a servant, a servants heart can be considered beautiful.  And that kind of focus will be an outward pouring of beauty onto someone else.  Which is what Wormwood would not like to do.

Say God were to use a woman to try and win a man’s heart (lets call him her husband)– she could nag him “blah blah blah,” she could condiscend “why don’t you do this for me you turd,” or she could seduce (from within a marriage standpoint)– from the husband’s standpoint, which one would be prefer?  Hmm.

Well in that case, the concept of seduction within a Godly form is a use of beauty in its most physical definition.  But what else appeals to the man?  Of course the beauty that makes him feel like a man because she pours out beauty and she is also the pinnacle of creation, Eve.

One thing I noticed, what is it about eyes… Throughout scripture we see things like:

25 Do not lust in your heart after her beauty
or let her captivate you with her eyes,

Pr 6:25.

How beautiful you are, my darling!
Oh, how beautiful!
Your eyes are doves.
So 1:15.

So Eyes can be “destructive,” but even more powerful than that, they can be empowering and transparent veils to our heart.  Would one venture to say that the eyes are captivating by design?

In my own life, I noticed that I can see the amount of joy someone has and what heavy burdens they have just by seeking in their eyes.  You can see the level of connection / communication that they have with you when they make eye-contact, and its almost like acknowledging that level of respect of another human being.

With that said, wouldn’t you say it is amazing when God said that he saw that it was Good after he established the water, the sky, the light, the ground, the creatures, and even more importantly– he saw good when he created Eve?

What kind of Love is this?

I have been recently convicted of doubting– even if it is just a tiny tiny bit, it is doubt.   So I wanted to find out more about this word and some scriptures behind what it is, why we get it, and how to deal with it.  Questions arise in many forms, including factual or philosophical issues, assurance, suffering, or unanswered prayer.

Doubt is an interesting thing, it is a sign of distrust / lack of confidence / a certain fear.  It also stems roots from the Greek terms:

Came across this article by Ted Cabal which classifies doubt into three categories:

Doubt may be divided into three general areas. Factual doubt usually raises issues regarding the truth of Christianity. Emotional doubt chiefly concerns our moods and feelings, often posing questions pertaining to assurance of salvation. Volitional doubt is a category that ranges from weak faith to a lack of motivation to follow the Lord.

Ted Cabal, Chad Owen Brand, E. Ray Clendenen, Paul Copan, J.P. Moreland and Doug Powell, The Apologetics Study Bible: Real Questions, Straight Answers, Stronger Faith (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2007). 1614.

I was comforted to find that almost every biblical character experienced some form of doubt.  Abraham doubted whether his son would be born to him in his high-aged life, doubt even ranged through characters like Job, David, Jeremiah, etc.  But it was even more comforting to read on that, “As strange as it seems, doubt can produce positive results, and many doubters are very much in love with the Lord.”

There are many things we can doubt, and these can exist on many different levels– on faith, life, jobs, money, etc.  But all throughout Psalms we see doubt tackled: (see Ps 37:7–8; 39:2; 42:5–6, 11; 55:4–8, 16–17, 22; 56:3–4; 94:19).

in Philippians 4:6–9, Paul tells us to replace our anxieties with prayer and thanksgiving. The apostle promises peace for those who do so (vv. 6–7). Then he commands us to explicitly change our worrisome thoughts to God’s truth (v. and to model ourselves after his pattern, again promising the result of peace (v. 9).

Ted Cabal, Chad Owen Brand, E. Ray Clendenen, Paul Copan, J.P. Moreland and Doug Powell, The Apologetics Study Bible: Real Questions, Straight Answers, Stronger Faith (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2007). 1614.

Overall, doubt is a great sign that you are growing.  Doubt causes questions to arise, causes answers to be questioned and even your own life to be questioned.  But I think the volitional doubt is very dangerous.  This is where we make ourselves doubt or convince ourselves out of our faith– and one of the major cures to this kind of doubt is intervention through friends and family.

I can relate to this type of doubt– I haven’t experienced volitional doubt, but I have a family member who has deliberately convinced himself that there is in fact no God.  He is a brilliant individual who has read every history book including the Bible.  But doing this short study on doubt has made me want to get in touch with him again.  I want to ask questions now  cause this is serious…

But this goes back to my conviction over the weekend when I went to Mexico.  It was almost as if I was questioning if Jesus could do anything.  It was just natural for me to think that because I could only see / feel the pain that these people displayed.  But when in essence, he has given me direct words:

28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

29 “Come,” he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

34 When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret. 35 And when the men of that place recognized Jesus, they sent word to all the surrounding country. People brought all their sick to him 36 and begged him to let the sick just touch the edge of his cloak, and all who touched him were healed.

The Holy Bible : New International Version, electronic ed. (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996). Mt 14:28–36.

He was guiding Peter to him while he was walking on water, and Peter looked away as he was frightened.  Jesus was calling Peter back to look at him because he knew that Peter had questioned his powers.  But that was me!  I looked away for just a moment.

What kind of love is this.