Opus 2025-554: Paul’s Timing

I’m thinking that Paul’s trip to Rome was well planned as far as the timing goes.  Paul was one of those type A personalities that seemed to really be able to change the world around them.  Those of us who are not type A don’t understand what it’s like to be locked into that kind of motivation and self assurance.

I think that the biblical gift of apostle would be better translated missionary, and by missionary I don’t mean someone who goes to an established field and teaches theology.  I’m talking about someone who goes into a pagan environment and carves out a church.  It requires a kind of drive that most of us don’t have.  A lot of missionaries should have stayed home and run VBS.  I think of a dynasty in my denomination that went to Africa and served for two generations and made no converts.  I salute their commitment but not their wisdom.  I heard stories of two different “missionaries” who went to Japan and came home after one tour because they could not penetrate the culture.  That showed a proper sense of humility.

In modern times I think of someone like Mark Driscoll when he was at Mars Hill.  Years ago I used to listen to his podcasts as I would go walking.  He claimed it was the most unchurched area in the United States and I can believe that.  In that atmosphere God allowed him to build a large church on multiple campuses.  I have my theories about what brought him down.  It may have just simply been God’s time for him to move on.  He was definitely a type A personality like the apostle Paul.

I read the journals of John Wesley.  Wesley was one of the great men of God.  He was used by God to bring about revival in England, which preserved the culture and kept the country from dissolving into revolution and chaos.  At the same time I don’t think I would have enjoyed spending an afternoon with him.  He was intense to the point of being obnoxious.  If he felt something was right, nothing would keep him from moving forward.  God has a special place in his heart for people like this.

Down through history I think there have been many people like this.  Be thankful for them.  At least be thankful for the ones who were willing to be submissive to God’s guidance so they could advance righteousness in the world.  This type of personality, misusing the gift, probably also came out in the evil of tyrant and warlords.

I think Paul had to constantly fight this in his life.  He was on a crusade to destroy the church.  He was steeped in biblical knowledge, or at least in the rabbis’ interpretation of it.  He had a heart for God.  At the same time, he was so sure of himself that he didn’t spend as much time listening as he should have.  That’s why God had to deal with him severely on the road to Damascus.  That’s why Jesus had to appear to him personally and teach him personally.  Paul was not the kind of person who would listen to others, but he had the gifts that God wanted for the task ahead.

Paul went into pagan areas and was used of God to found churches.  I think the longest period he stayed was Ephesus for three years.  Other than that he would come in, preach and teach for a while, appoint elders and pastors, and move on.  He had been called by God to go to the Gentiles.  If you read your New Testament, you’ll find that in spite of the fact that he kept broadcasting that call he always started with the Jews.  He would go to a town, visit the local synagogue, be accepted as a rabbi, and start teaching.  After a while, he would make some converts and the rest would throw them out.

He would move on.

What brought me to this at the beginning was observations I made from reading the opening chapter of the book of Romans.  You’ll notice that he is anxious to come to Rome.  His reasons? Basically it comes down to the fact that he feels like they’re not as spiritual as they should be and he wanted to raise them to a higher level.  He completely ignores the fact that the church was established without his input, and as far as we know, was doing quite well without his assistance.  In spite of that he felt like he had a need to get in the middle of it.  Thankfully, God used this to provide us with the book of Romans.  But you noticed that somewhere in his involvement with Rome, he was arrested and eventually executed.

We also find I think three places where he starts talking about “my gospel”.  I don’t think he was aware of what he was saying there.  It was not “his” gospel.  It was the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I think he would have admitted that.  At the same time being such a forceful personality, he personified everything.

We have to go on tradition and legend at this point.  We don’t know that Paul was actually executed in Rome.  If he was, he was still in the prime of life.  He still had many years left if God wanted to preserve him and his ministry.  Instead, God brought it to an end.  We often wonder why people die when they do.  In reality, the only God knows, but I think He has a good reason for His timing.  Paul performed an invaluable service to the church and the kingdom.  It was time for him to step aside, but people with his personality don’t have a tendency to do so.  So God promoted him.

Now it’s your turn to do your part.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-553: Advent Calendar: Day 4, Micah

When the Wise Men appeared before Herod the Bible scholars were called for.  The question of the day was, “Where is the expected king to be born?”  As you and I would expect, there was an answer, and it was found in the Bible.

(Mic 5:2 KJV)  But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

The key to this prophecy is in that last phrase which points out this is not just a regular ruler but an eternal one.  I am guessing that was more than Micah was asking for.

As you go through this Advent season you will have situations.  You will have questions.  You will need to make decisions.  Make sure one of the sources you check is your Bible.  You may find that something you have read many times suddenly comes to life under the current need.

Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-552: More Jellybean Philosophy

I sometimes wonder why people can’t see the inconsistency in their thinking and the application of their thinking.  My focus is on theology, but it would apply to just about any discipline.

Last Sunday in our Sunday school hour we were looking at Romans chapter 4.  The apostle Paul is discussing the relationship of faith and the law.  I had to sit on myself because the nuances that I would have wanted to go into could not be explained in that format.  The simplistic statement that all you need is faith was repeated again and again.  At its heart, that is a correct statement.  Faith, belief stating that you were on board with Jesus, is an essential element of salvation.  You can’t argue with that.  The problem is that everybody ignores the rest of what the Bible says.

But that’s not the inconsistency I’m talking about.  That’s just having a focal point of a lesson and emphasizing what is important.  Where it came home was an hour later in the sermon, by the same leader, in the same building, too many of the same people, the theme was making the right decisions in daily life.  Again, decisions are important. But when 2/3 of the sermon focuses on fornication and alcohol abuse I start to wonder, what happened to the faith being the only thing needed?

I am aware of these two requirements presented in the Bible.  We must have faith in order to be saved.  The problem with that statement is the Bible also makes it clear that we are to walk in righteousness.  It is not optional.  The way they were presented on Sunday made them mutually exclusive.  Anyone paying attention would’ve asked themselves, “What?”  They can be explained.  They can be brought together.  The problem is that requires a little deeper study and a broader application of scripture.

Somehow, I think we have the same problem in the areas of science, the pseudosciences such as psychology and sociology, economics, you name it.  People have their themes.  They have their thought at the moment.

And here’s where I get to my title.  I think most people’s thinking is like a bag of jellybeans.  Every jellybean has its own distinct flavor.  Every jellybean is separate from the others.  There might be a little bit of a coating wiped off on another, but they are still unique.  You might put several in your mouth and chew them up at the same time and get a totally different flavor.  All that time the jellybeans are kept separate within themselves.

We should have more of an approach of a nice beef stew or a clam chowder.  Perhaps a whole grain bread would work.  We need to get to where we take all of the ingredients in our intellectual pursuits as well as in our cuisine and realize that they work together for the finished product.

It’s not cynicism. It’s needed skepticism. It’s not naivety, but wisdom.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-551: Advent Calendar: Day 3. Abraham

We can follow the idea of the seed down through the ages, but Paul summarizes it when we get to the book of Galatians.

Galatians 3:16 (KJV) Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.

Jesus was the promise that was given to Eve.  Each generation would assign one person to carry the promise.  If you look at the genealogies of Matthew and Luke, you see a list of how this was passed down until it came to Jesus.

Christmas was the fulfillment of a millennium old promise given by God in the garden of Eden.  It wasn’t a later addition.  It wasn’t an adaptation.  It wasn’t an afterthought.  When sin entered the world God provided the promise for a cure.  Christmas is that promise.  Jesus is that cure.

Rejoice and merry Christmas

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-550: Advent Calendar: Day 2, Replanting the Seed

Yesterday we saw that God had established the promise of the seed.  You could take this to mean a general sense of being a descendant about him and Eve.  As we continue reading, we find that this term is meant to be selective.  Jump forward a little bit and you’ll find that after Cain killed Abel, God again communicates something to Adam and Eve.

A new child was born and notice what the Bible tells us about that child,

Genesis 4:25 (KJV) And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

Cain was still alive.  In the literal sense the seed of Eve was still being passed on, but noticed that God specifically bypasses him and goes to Seth.  We will see this pattern down through the years.  It’s not that every descendant of Eve is considered in the path of the seed.  That would mean the entire world is the Messiah and we know it was only Jesus.

Keep in mind that God plans ahead and, even though some people deny the possibility, He can adjust His plans to meet the ways in which human beings respond to His overtures.

Merry Christmas. Be grateful that Seth stepped up to the plate.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-549: BIG TRUTH, little truth

I’m sitting here thinking about how serious, honest people of good faith can differ on their understandings of things.  My reference of course is theological, but I see this in politics in economics and just about every area.  How do we know what is true as opposed to what we want to be true?  I know I’m quite capable of seeing how other people do not grasp the big picture.  What comes back to haunt me is the question of whether I actually see the big picture.

Is truth simple or complex?  That’s another one of those questions which you answer, “Yes”.  It’s almost pointless to try and break down the question itself without specific examples.  So let me give you an example.

If I would walk out beside the road and pick up an object from the ground and show it to you and ask you, “Is this a rock” you would be able to answer me in most cases yes or no.  If what I picked up was a leaf you would say obviously that’s a leaf not a rock.  It was a piece of well worn concrete you might not be sure.  But ultimately, it would be easy to determine if this was a rock or not.

Is that truth?  Is that simple?  Is there more to it?

And then I might ask you OK, what kind of rock is this?  If you’re not into geology, you might have no idea.  I know that there’s limestone and granite.  I know that there are geodes that have beautiful colors inside when you break them open.  I know there is volcanic rock.  I know just enough to be dangerous.  I know just enough to know that there are deeper truths to the question of what is a rock?

One of these will be TRUTH, and the other will be truth.  Life is like that.  There always seem to be deeper levels.  When we have disagreements, we have to decide how deep a level we’re going to go to.  In the discussion of rocks, we have to come to a basic understanding of what the generic term rock means.  After that, we can start breaking it down and look for deeper meanings.  We can get down to the chemical composition, what elements are in that rock.  We can ask ourselves does it contain gold?  But we have to agree on what the basics are before we can go deeper.

It always amazes me how I can talk to people who will look at Donald Trump, agree with everything he’s done, think that he has been a positive force on America, recognize that the world has responded positively towards what he’s done, and refused to vote for him no matter what because “Orange Man bad”.  And yes, these people exist.  You have massive numbers of young people who are excited about socialism and communism.  The evidence of what these systems produce is clearly demonstrated by history.  They don’t care.  They are literally saying, don’t confuse me with the facts.

I guess we just have to keep stating the truth loudly and strongly.  We need to keep checking our facts to make sure that they aren’t talking us into delusions.  We have to build relationships with people by being patient and kind and courteous.  We have to hope that somehow the latent intelligence that’s buried deep under the layers of indoctrination can breakthrough.

Keep talking. Keep listening. Keep praying.

homo unius libri

Opus 2025-548: Advent Calendar: Day 1, The Protoevangelium

The coming of the Messiah was not a last minute project.  In fact it begins right inside the garden of Eden as Adam and Eve are about to receive their eviction notice.  This verse has a fancy name which you saw in the title.  Break it down.  The proto is the first design as in prototype.  The second part is our word for evangelism which means “good news”.  This is a prophecy about the relationship between the serpent and the seed of Mary, Jesus.

(Gen 3:15 KJV)  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

God plans ahead.  If he were living in Texas today He would already have His shopping done.  The message was that Jesus was coming.  For us it is that He is already here.  Merry Christmas.

homo unius libri