I'm glad Jesus got out of bed

The Bible tells us that Jesus, although God in human flesh, was tempted, just as we are. (Hebrews 4:15, all references to the ESV) This verse strongly implies that He was not only tempted, but tempted in the same ways we can be (He was tempted "in every respect").

Note, then, Mark 1:35: "And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed."

If it had been me, I would have been tempted to roll over and go back to sleep. (He had had a hard and busy day previously.) So Jesus must have been also tempted like this. But He got up, and prayed. I'm glad He did. What if He hadn't? If He hadn't, He would, I suppose, have sinned, by yielding to temptation, and, if He had sinned, He would not have been a sinless sacrifice for me.

I'm glad Jesus got out of bed.

Thanks for reading. I hope I pray more.

"Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart" by George Croly

Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move;
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as You are;
And make me love You as I ought to love.

I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
No sudden rending of the veil of clay,
No angel visitant, no opening skies;
But take the dimness of my soul away.

Teach me to feel that You are always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear.
To check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh,
Teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

For You have bid me love You, God and King,
All, all Your own, soul, heart and strength and mind.
I see Your cross; there teach my heart to cling:
O let me seek You, and O let me find!

Teach me to love You as Your angels love,
One holy passion filling all my frame;
The kindling of the heaven descended Dove,
My heart an altar, and Your love the flame.

George Croly, 1854, Public Domain. Sung to Morecambe, by Frederick C. Atkinson, 1870. Public Domain.

I altered a few words, changing all archaic pronouns ("Thee," "Thou," and an "art" to "are," which removes a rhyme. However, I believe the meaning is still present, and more so to us 21st-century readers.

I thank the Cyberhymnal, which is my main source of information on this, and other, hymns. The link allows you to hear the tune.

Thanks for reading.

Jesus Lives, and So Shall I

Jesus lives, and so shall I

Jesus lives, and so shall I.
Death! thy sting is gone forever:
He, who deigned for me to die,
Lives, the bands of death to sever.
He shall raise me with the just;
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives and reigns supreme;
And, his kingdom still remaining
I shall also be with Him,
Ever living, ever reigning.
God has promised; be it must:
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, and God extends
Grace to each returning sinner;
Rebels He receives as friends,
And exalts to highest honor.
God is True as He is Just;
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, and by His grace,
Victory o'er my passions giving,
I will cleanse my heart and ways,
Ever to His glory living.
The weak He raises from the dust;
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, and I am sure
Naught shall e'er from Jesus sever,
Satan's wiles, and Satan's power,
Pain or pleasure-- ye shall never!
Christian armor cannot rust;
Jesus is my Hope and Trust.

Jesus lives, and death is now
But my entrance into glory
Courage! then, my soul, for thou
Hast a crown of life before thee;
Thou shalt find thy hopes were just--
Jesus is the Christian's Trust.

Christian F. Gellert, 1715-1769, translated by Philip Schaff, 1819-1893, public domain.

I am Christ's house

I am his house--for him to go in and out.
He builds me now--and if I cannot see
At any time what he is doing with me,
'Tis that he makes the house for me too grand.
The house is not for me--it is for him.

From A Book of Strife in the Form of The Diary of an Old Soul, 1880, by George MacDonald. The quote above is extracted from the entries for July 15 and 16.

Stewardship in Ezra

Ezra 8:24 Then I set apart twelve of the leading priests: Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten of their kinsmen with them. 25 And I weighed out to them the silver and the gold and the vessels, the offering for the house of our God that the king and his counselors and his lords and all Israel there present had offered. 26 I weighed out into their hand 650 talents of silver, and silver vessels worth 200 talents, and 100 talents of gold, 27 20 bowls of gold worth 1,000 darics and two vessels of fine bright bronze as precious as gold. 28 And I said to them, “You are holy to the Lord, and the vessels are holy, and the silver and the gold are a freewill offering to the Lord, the God of your fathers. 29 Guard them and keep them until you weigh them before the chief priests and the Levites and the heads of fathers' houses in Israel at Jerusalem, within the chambers of the house of the Lord.” 30 So the priests and the Levites took over the weight of the silver and the gold and the vessels, to bring them to Jerusalem, to the house of our God. (ESV, emphasis added.)

Ezra doesn't exactly say so, but it seems that the implication is clear -- these priests had been given something to care for, and at the end of their journey, when the treasure they had been entrusted with would be turned over to others, there would be a reckoning. Had they taken any of the metal for themselves? Any talents, or, perhaps, any shavings off of the gold bowls?

God wants me to be responsible for what I've been entrusted with, too.

Thanks for reading.

The Sharing Knife books: finding lessons there

My apologies to Lois McMaster Bujold, but I spent quite a bit of time reading her four Sharing Knife novels, which aren't short, and I'd like to muse some more about them.

The theme of the books is reconciliation. Here's Paul on that subject:
1 Corinthians 12:13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. (All scripture quotations from the ESV.)

There is reconciliation even more important than two groups of people becoming reconciled to each other, though:
2 Corinthians 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Getting your priorities right is illustrated.
In the fourth book, a wagon train is about to be attacked by a powerful malice, with its slaves. The Lakewalkers tell the farmers with them to run for cover. But some of them don't want to go.
"The wagons are all we have!" cried Grouse.
"You can't stop to defend things." (The Sharing Knife, Volume Four: Horizon. (New York: Eos, HarperCollins, 2009, p. 209. Grouse is a minor character. Dag is the one who answers him.)
Another man, a smith, is asked if he would rather save his wife or his anvil.

Mark 8:37 For what can a man give in return for his soul?
Luke 12:20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

There is love and fidelity in marriage.
There are a number of happy married couples in the book, including the main characters, Dag and Fawn, but many others, some who have been married for a long time, like Fawn's parents, or Mari and Cattagus, are examples of long-term commitment, and unselfish love for another. (Mari is Dag's aunt, and, until he stopped patrolling, his most recent patrol captain.)

At one point, Dag is approached by a woman, who asks him to be unfaithful to Fawn. He doesn't even consider this, but refuses immediately. Cattagus is disabled, and unable to go on patrol when his wife does, but he and Mari are obviously in a mature spousal love relationship. Dag and Fawn have a number of conversations, throughout the four books. Except when Dag doesn't tell Fawn that he knows she is pregnant right away, there is no hint of dishonesty between them.
The Bible is full of admonitions and examples about this.

There are several examples of moral choices. Some characters make the right choice, some do not.

There is love for the natural world, without worshiping it. Dag shows Fawn his favorite place, a spot on the lake where there are lots of waterlilies. Fawn tells him that she loves milkweed flowers. These plants become part of their wedding cords, objects worn for the duration of a marriage by Lakewalkers.

I believe that stewardship of the natural world is part of God's plan for humans.

There is unselfish service to others. The Lakewalkers, who patrol their own lands, and those of the farmers, for malices, are usually considered to be some sort of freaks, cannibals, and the like by the farmers. The farmers are seldom grateful for this service, and many of them don't even believe it is necessary.

Dag, and other Lakewalkers with healing ability, often give of their time and energy, even putting their lives at immediate risk of being groundlocked, to fix injuries and diseases. Dag and Arkady do this not only for Lakewalkers, but for farmers.

There is a conflict between good and evil.
The evil beings, malices, attack at unexpected times and places, and in unexpected ways. They are able to subvert farmers, even Lakewalkers, to be their slaves, aiding their evil purpose, which is to destroy all that is alive and good. They use their slaves, without regard for their safety, or even their lives. This is much the way that the devil operates, according to the Bible.
As Paul put it:
Ephesians 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

And, of course, the most important lesson: Freedom from evil comes only at the cost of a life.
There is no analogy worthy of comparison to the death and resurrection of Christ, the perfect sacrifice for sin, certainly not anything in these books that is so worthy. And there is no hint of a resurrection in them. However, the books do put forth a system wherein the only way to kill a malice is for part of a dying human's ground to be placed into a sharing knife, and that knife be used on the malice.

Thanks for reading. Read the Bible!

The post introducing these books is here. This post is on the theme of the books. This post is on ground, a unique aspect of Bujold's subcreation. A post, on religion in the books, is here.

Revealing Christ

I recently had the privilege of hearing Pastor Kerry Willis present, to a small group, what he said was his main theme, namely demonstrating Christ's presence. He used Galatians 1:15-16, which says, in part: ". . . God . . . called me by his grace, 16 To reveal his Son in me . . ."* As Willis says, on his blog's main page (see previous link) "I only exist so that Christ can manifest Himself in/through me."

Willis also used the familiar story of the call of Isaiah, in chapter 6. He emphasized verse 8, wherein God asked Isaiah who would go for Him, and Isaiah responded that he, Isaiah, would. Willis said that that response was a good one. Isaiah didn't say "here's my agenda. I'll go." He just said that he would go. Willis said that we, Christ's servants, need to go, showing Christ to others. That's God's plan. Some other things are human plans.

Willis illustrated, using his trip from Virginia to South Carolina. He said that he had packed an SUV with his and his wife's luggage, and with his preaching references, but the vehicle had trouble, and he had to go back and take a smaller one, costing him about an hour. He said that he wondered what God had in store for him -- who was he supposed to show Christ to that day? He said that that answer was two children beside the road, who were having a yard sale, of their own toys. Willis believes that God arranged things so that he would take that particular exit, at that particular time, so that he could speak to those kids. No one else was buying anything. The toys were old and of little or no value. But Willis bought one, paying more than was asked, and told them that he had been sent there to tell them that Jesus loved them.

May I represent Christ to someone, each day of my life.

Thanks for reading. Try Willis's blog. The entries tend to be a lot shorter than for this one.

*(KJV. The ASV is very similar. So is the NIV, which is not public domain. I usually use the ESV, but, in this case, it uses "to," rather than "in," in verse 16, with "in" given as an alternate reading. The point I am trying to make requires "in.")

Keeping God's commandments

John 14:15 . . . If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (All quotations from the ESV.)

Psalm 119:35 Lead me in the path of your commandments,
for I delight in it.

Psalm 119:47 . . . for I find my delight in your commandments,
which I love.

1 John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

Meditation on Beethoven's "Hallelujah Chorus"

A number of years ago, I was asked to prepare a devotional to go along with some music that our university's choir was going to be singing on tour. That music was the "Hallelujah Chorus," from the oratorio, Christ on the Mount of Olives, by Beethoven. With minor modifications, this is the result:

I am not a Beethoven scholar or music historian. I’m not sure of the purpose of Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives oratorio, or of the source of the original text. There may be errors of fact or interpretation in this devotional. Regardless, it will remain, I hope, devotional. The words, and the music, are an exhortation to “bright angel choirs,” and to us, to “Praise the Lord in songs of joy,” and to shout “Hallelujah!” Hallelujah is from a Hebrew word meaning “praise the Lord.” It is usually an interjection, a word suddenly exclaimed when the speaker is surprised or cannot repress her emotions, as in “Wow!” or “Yesss!”

This Hallelujah Chorus is certainly a triumphant celebration of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Luke 22:39-46 describes Jesus’ prayer on the Mount of Olives. Shortly thereafter, He was arrested. Why write triumphal music about such a disaster?

Consider sound. What is it? Vibrations of air, pushing on our ears, which send little electrical impulses to our brains. How marvelous that we can interpret these simple vibrations, that they can communicate the simplest and most profound thoughts, that they can express great emotion and beauty. God surely didn’t have to make the world this way. Why did He make sound and music? Because He is great, because He loves rhythm, melody and harmony. Because He loves us, because He Himself wants to communicate with us.

Consider heroes and heroines. What are they? Ordinary people, who achieve God-enabled deeds against great odds—Rahab, deciding to follow God when no one else in her city would, David, going up against Goliath, Elijah taking God’s side against hundreds of prophets of Baal. These were heroes. Not perfect people, but heroes. So was Beethoven. A strange man, a difficult man, yet one who overcame all this, and wrote great music. His music doesn’t reflect his troubles, not even the deafness that deprived him of hearing the music he wrote in the last part of his life. At the first performance of his Ninth Symphony, he had to be turned around so that he could see the audience clapping, because he couldn’t hear them. He couldn’t pick up those vibrations in the air. Those vibrations are triumphant, testimony to the human greatness that God allows us to have, whether others recognize this greatness or not, and, often, testimony to God’s greatness. No wonder that the East and West Germans got together to perform Beethoven's Ninth Symphony when the Berlin Wall came down. Why did God make heroes like Beethoven possible? To show that He loves us, that He loves great achievements, that He wants to communicate with us, that He wants to be our Hero.

Consider Jesus. Who is He? The Son of God. He was Himself the main creative agent in the creation of sound, and in the creation of creatures in the image of God. Without Him, there would be no possibility of music, or of heroes and heroines. The Son of God went to the Mount of Olives to pray. He probably prayed aloud, making vibrations in the air. He prayed for me and for you. He prayed for Himself. He prayed that He would be able to do the hardest thing anyone has ever done. Then He did that hard thing. He separated Himself from His Father, and joined Himself to your sin, and mine, so that He might be our sacrifice, when we couldn’t be our own. Well might the angel choirs sing “Hallelujah unto God’s Almighty Son!” Hallelujah! He loves us, He wants to communicate with us, He is our hero, and wants us to acknowledge it. Listen to vibrations in the air. Listen to music written by a hero, performed by heroes and heroines, about the greatest Hero.

Here is a performance of the work, on YouTube. I have been unable to locate the English text being sung. Thanks for reading.

Remembering what God has done!

Psalm 77:11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord;
yes, I will remember your wonders of old.
12 I will ponder all your work,
and meditate on your mighty deeds.
13 Your way, O God, is holy.
What god is great like our God?
14 You are the God who works wonders;
you have made known your might among the peoples.
15 You with your arm redeemed your people,
the children of Jacob and Joseph. (ESV)

God can, even when we doubt

Numbers 11:18 And say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was better for us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat. 19 You shall not eat just one day, or two days, or five days, or ten days, or twenty days, 20 but a whole month, until it comes out at your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have rejected the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why did we come out of Egypt?”’” 21 But Moses said, “The people among whom I am number six hundred thousand on foot, and you have said, ‘I will give them meat, that they may eat a whole month!’ 22 Shall flocks and herds be slaughtered for them, and be enough for them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, and be enough for them?” 23 And the Lord said to Moses, “Is the Lord's hand shortened? Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.” (ESV)

Who (or what) we must not trust in

In a recent daily Bible reading, I came on these two passages:

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (Both scripture quotations from the ESV.)

Proverbs 28:26 Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool,
but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

We (or at least I) do trust in these things -- the US health care "system," my local library and grocery, the Post Office, my retirement accounts, my own care and good sense. They will not be enough if I get Alzheimer's, or if we go into a depression. They aren't enough now. They weren't enough even before the Paulson Plunge. They never have been, and never will be.

Thanks for reading.


* * * * *
December 8, 2008. Because of a comment, which I am grateful for, and my response to it, I have added "women's roles" to the tags for this post.

Having one ruler versus many

C. S. Lewis, in The Silver Chair (Macmillan, 1953, p. 131), said (through Puddleglum) that "There are no accidents . . ."

My devotional readings included the following, on two consecutive days:

Ezekiel 37:21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. 22 And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. (Both quotations from the ESV, with emphasis added.)

Proverbs 28:2 When a land transgresses, it has many rulers,
but with a man of understanding and knowledge,
its stability will long continue.

I guess there's a lesson in there. Our natural tendency is selfish -- making ourselves the ruler of everything and everybody we can. That way lies disaster. The right tendency is submission to Christ, and to those around us.

Or, as James put it, in what I read on the next day:
James 4:1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2a You desire and do not have, so you murder.

Thanks for reading.

What I was like

Titus 3:3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. (ESV)

Thank God! I hope "were once" is true of me. I'm afraid it's "is now."

Paul on what caused the current financial crisis

1 Timothy 6:9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (ESV)

All things to all people?

Nobody thinks exactly like anyone else. If they do, one of them is redundant. Nonetheless, of course, there are similarities in people's ways of thinking, be the people grouped as "conservative," "professional," "Hispanic," "retired," "college students," or in some other grouping.

Paul, the Apostle, challenged us to reach all sorts of people. As he said:
1 Corinthians 9:20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. (ESV)

Paul was right. I need to reach out to people who aren't a lot like me.

But I think Paul may have been exaggerating. All things to all people? Not quite. Paul had probably never had the care of one or more little children. To state the obvious, he had never been a woman. He had not yet been aged and infirm. And, possibly most important, he had never been ignorant. I suppose that he could understand these types of people fairly well, but he had never truly walked in their shoes. Could he reach them? I'm sure he did.

I can't truly become someone I'm not. I'll never be African-American, or a woman, or Hispanic, for example. I hope I'll never be addicted to some drug, medicinal or otherwise. But I can do my best to understand people who are women, who are of an ethnic background different than mine, or who are or have been drug addicts, and love them for Christ.

Thanks for reading.

I Am Not Skilled to Understand

I am not skilled to understand
What God hath willed, what God hath planned;
I only know that at His right hand
Is One Who is my Savior!
I take Him at His word indeed;
“Christ died for sinners”—this I read;
For in my heart I find a need
Of Him to be my Savior!
That He should leave His place on high
And come for sinful man to die,
You count it strange? So once did I,
Before I knew my Savior!
And oh, that He fulfilled may see
The travail of His soul in me,
And with His work contented be,
As I with my dear Savior!
Yea, living, dying, let me bring
My strength, my solace from this Spring;
That He Who lives to be my King
Once died to be my Savior!
Words: Dorothy Greenwell, 1873. Music: “Greenwell,” William J. Kirkpatrick, 1885
See the Cyber Hymnal for an audible rendition of the music.

Death and roses

It happened this morning as I stood in my garden. Death suddenly jumped out from behind a bush, just when the thought came to me that one day the roses will still be here -- but I won't.
. . . Will I be able to accept death gracefully? With understanding? The years ahead of me are far fewer than those in the past. I pray for positive acceptance of my condition.
After I depart, the roses will manage very well without me, won't they, Jesus?
Malcolm Boyd, Prayers for the Later Years, Minneapolis, Augsburg, 2002, p. 60.

I thank one of our daughters for giving me this book for my most recent birthday.

The borrowed axe head

2 Kings 6 begins thus: 1 Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and let us make a place for us to dwell there.” And he answered, “Go.” 3 Then one of them said, “Be pleased to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I will go.” 4 So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. 5 But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, “Alas, my master! It was borrowed.” (ESV)

Two points in this sermon:
1) Axe heads, and hammer heads, can fly off the handle. I've seen it happen. They have to be firmly anchored, or the stress and strain of constantly being used to hit something will cause them to come loose. When they do come off, not only are they useless for pounding, or chopping, but the act of coming off is dangerous, especially if anyone is standing near the operation. It could easily injure or kill.

Important things, like our beliefs, and our love of family, need to be tied on firmly. The anchor strings need to be renewed constantly. If this isn't taken care of, we can lose them, and not only does that make them useless, but it can be dangerous to others who may be near us when it happens.

2) I suppose that, in this pre-industrial age culture, an axe head was a very valuable item. The Bible doesn't tell us if it was bronze, iron, or of some other material, but no matter. It was expensive. The young man didn't expect to just go to the owner and tell him that he'd go to Wal-Mart and buy him another.

The most important things I have -- my life, my family, my home, my salvation, even my interests -- are borrowed. I'm completely, or mostly, dependent on others for them, mostly God, but also friends, parents, family, co-workers, church, police, medical personnel, even politicians. I should never take these "possessions" for granted. If I lose them, I can't go to Wal-Mart and buy another. I may be held responsible for their loss, to a loving, but fair and just judge.

I found this passage through the ESV on-line daily Bible readings for the month of June.

Thanks for reading!

We are ambassadors: Henri J. M. Nouwen

Spiritually you do not belong to the world. And this is precisely why you are sent into the world. Your family and your friends, your colleagues and your competitors, and all the people you may meet on your journey through life are all searching for more than survival. Your presence among them as the one who is sent will allow them to catch a glimpse of the real life. (Henri J. M. Nouwen, Life of the Beloved. New York: Crossroad, 2002, p. 132)

I thank one of my daughters for recommending Nouwen's brief book to my wife and me.

2 Corinthians 5:20a Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. (ESV)

What kind of ambassador am I?

Thanks for reading.