Worship Lyrics: Are Hymns Really Better?

I was talking to some new friends from our new church last night and was reminded during the course of conversation that there's still a false view out there about worship music in the Christian church that older means better, in terms of lyrical content.

A Lighthearted Discussion on the Necessity of a Divine Creator - Part Two

This is part two in our lighthearted discussion on the necessity of a divine creator. For part one, click here.

So, we’re going with ‘nothing exploded, which brought everything (the sum total of mass and energy within our universe) into existence.’ Alright, if you say so.

A Lighthearted Discussion on the Necessity of a Divine Creator - Part One

Why do intelligent people believe in God?

My God's No Molech, Man!

What's with that title? Just read, man... it's all down there.

Want to know something shocking about the God you and I worship? Here's something: God told the patriarch Abraham to take his only son, Isaac, whom he loved to an as-yet-unknown location and present him as a burnt offering. Aside from the fact that Isaac wasn't Abraham's only son, which makes it look like the author momentarily forgot about Ishmael, this passage seems to blatantly contradict God's character, since He clearly condemns the murder of innocents, and especially the act of human sacrifice (Lev. 18:21), as was practiced in worship of the pagan god Molech.

Almost as shocking was Abraham's response, which was to essentially say, "alright, Lord, Your will is my command." Talk about a mindless automaton, right?

So, what about God here? Is Richard Dawkins at least partially right when he accuses the God of the Old Testament of being, "arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."? (for a guy who doesn't believe in God he sure seems to hate Him a lot...)

So, what's really going on here? Of course a Bible-believing, Christ-follower like myself doesn't believe any of those facetious statements and questions. But if we are honest with ourselves we will have to admit that, at face value, this incident might seem to validate some of the terrible things unbelievers say about our God. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if many of you reading this have, at one time or another - or possibly right now - felt uneasy about this chapter. There are some who likely avoid this story, skimming it quickly when they come to it and never looking back!

Well, my goal with this four-part series on Genesis 22 is to not only dispel the fears and misunderstandings about this wonderful section of Scripture, but to also tear away the ugly veil woven from false preconceptions, misinformation, and plain old ignorance, to reveal possibly the most radiantly beautiful story in all of the Old Testament.

To that end I will craft this into three distinct sections, meaning that there will be three more blog entries on this subject. The first will be an in depth look at something called the "law of first mention" and its presence in Genesis 22. You do not want to miss out on the information which will be found in that entry! In the second phase we will explore the prophetic - messianic really - significance of the event. The third and final will be a special treat, as we will look beyond Moriah all the way to the end times. I assure you that whatever your eschatological stance may be, you will be comfortable with this portion. Of the three this third one seems to be the most revelatory and profound to those I have shared with, so keep an eye out for that!

Next time: The Mysterious Law of First Mention...

WDJT? (What Did Jesus Teach?) Introduction

My buddy, Marc, said something to me recently that has resounded in my soul... Then he said it again. It has caused me to really ponder this topic. To paraphrase, Marc said that, while he doesn't know whether or not Jesus was the Son of God, he believes that Jesus got it right; He understood being human and He lived the way a human should. I agree.

I think that Marc's observation is incredibly poignant. Putting aside the question of His deity (which I fully believe to be true) if Marc is right then each one of us should be paying close attention, not only to what Jesus did, but what He said; what He taught even when He wasn't "teaching".

If the Biblical narrative is to be trusted as pertains to Jesus' life then following are some of His chosen endeavors: He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the lame to walk, fed the hungry, and advocated for the children. These are indeed commendable causes, and activities we should emulate to the best of our ability (I haven't been able to feed thousands out of a Darth Vader lunch box yet...) But what I would like to do in this series of short blogs is to focus on what He said, rather than what He did.

Before I start, in post 1 (this is only the intro), talking about His teachings during His 3.5 years of ministry, I'll just include here His only previously recorded words.

At age 12 Jesus took a trip to Jerusalem with His parents for the Passover and decided to hang back at the temple - you know, blowing the minds of the priests and wot not... totally normal - but His parents hadn't realized and had left without Him. Long story short, when they discovered He was not among their caravan (which was not a 1st century minivan) they went back to Jerusalem and found Him at the temple.

Astonished to find Him mingling with the religious elite, Mary questions Jesus as to why He stayed back. His answer was, in modern terms, "Why are you looking so hard for me? Didn't you realize that I would be in my Father's house?"

Could Jesus have meant that He didn't leave them, but they had left Him, as some commentators suggest? Sure. This would answer the question of whether He was being disobedient or not, and I think it's a great observation. But I believe that the most amazing aspect of this, His first recorded utterance, is found in His description of whose house He was in.

You see, in the Old Testament it wasn't common at all to speak of Yahweh in such intimate terms as "Father". There wasn't this notion, as we see today, of everyone being God's children. God was seen as King of the universe; the transcendent, eternal, omnipotent Creator. Jesus wasn't using a 21st century cozy colloquialism in this scenario. He was identifying Himself as the Son of the One whose house He was in. No Hebrew in the 1st century world would have questioned what He meant when He claimed to be God's Son, and that is confirmed when He is crucified for making the same claim 21 years later.

Thanks for reading the intro, and please wait with great anticipation for part 1! I promise to try and keep the subsequent entries much shorter.

Comprehending the Incomprehensible

If I said to you, "we cannot truly understand God," would you agree with that statement? How often do you think or say, or hear someone else say something similar? Do we not sing songs that express this very sentiment? Isn't there even Scripture that tells us the same thing? How about Isaiah 55:9?

"For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Doesn't this all coalesce into an extremely murky and convoluted image of God; one in which God is so far beyond our understanding that we may as well not even try? Isn't that the message we receive from theologians and Bible teachers so often?

What I am building to is this: In Jeremiah 9:23-24 we find a rather familiar section of Scripture. The lesson we usually take away from these verses is basically that we are not supposed to boast about anything about our lowly selves, whether it be our wisdom, our strength, or our riches, but instead to boast in the Lord. But there's a seemingly minor detail which gets left out of our Sunday school lessons and skimmed over in our devotional endeavors. Jeremiah doesn't just say to glory in the Lord, or even to glory in the fact that we know Him...

See, we often talk of how we can know God relationally while being almost completely ignorant about Him intellectually. While this is, at face value, a fair assessment, seeing that God is an infinite Being; the only infinite Being in fact, we must not ignore what God tells us through Jeremiah here. This is what He says: "...let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me..."

God wants us to know Him, sure, but what else does He specify? He wants us to understand Him! Now doesn't that fly in the face of our general understanding of, well, understanding Him? We're not supposed to be able to, right? Wrong! Not only are we able to, but God asks us to.

Before you start getting confident that you'll have Him all boxed up and labeled by this time next year, let's see what else God tells us through His prophet.

"...let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."

Here's the bottom line: Yes, we can understand Him, but that does not mean that we can fully comprehend Him... comprehensively. It turns out that we are probably right on in one sense when we say that He is too much for us to comprehend. He is! But, He has made it simple for us here to understand His essence. There's infinitely more about Him that we will never know than what we can know, but who He is and what He is like at the core is summed up here in one sentence. Track with me while I break this apart.

He is the Lord. Not a lord; the Lord. He rules. He reigns supreme over time and eternity, over heaven and earth. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess the veracity of this claim. If not here then there...

He has three important practices:
1) Steadfast love. That is unwavering love; love which is not affected in the slightest by us or what we do or don't do. Agape - love which is volitionally unconditional, which means that He chooses to love us despite ourselves.
2) Justice. Basically He sees that righteousness is rewarded and unrighteousness is punished. He upholds the Law, which is synonymous with Himself. The Law is a perfect reflection of who He is and He will make sure that all of creation reflects Him perfectly as a mirror reflects light.
3) Righteousness. This follows, or actually precedes the above. God Himself is righteous. He only ever does what is good because He is only good at His core. He is not just righteous; He is Righteousness, and so He cannot help but practice it.

He specifies here, in case we were wondering if it is only in the heavenly realm, that He practices all of these "in the earth." So, when we, with tear-filled eyes, look around us at the vastness of the reign of evil; as we somberly contemplate the scope and reach of the corruption resulting from Adam's Fall in all its manifestations, both visible and invisible, we need not wonder if He has forgotten us. He practices righteousness in the earth.

Lastly, He delights in these things. What things? In practicing steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. That's obvious, but He also delights in simply being the Lord. Is that megalomaniacal? Not at all. First of all, He is omnipotent, so there is no delusion at all. But, secondly, He knows exactly how bad things would go if someone else were Lord. God delights in being the Lord, I believe, because if He wasn't... the alternative would be unthinkably horrific.

This has been quite a roller-coaster of a blog, which I had originally planned to be a short, inquisitive write-up on verse 24. Please share any comments or questions you might come up with, that is if you get through the whole thing.