Another, fairly brief point I can bring up from the Naboth story in 1 Kings 21 has to do with Ahab’s statements about Naboth’s reason for denying Ahab his vineyard. Naboth’s reason for not selling or trading his vineyard is found in verse 3, “The Lord forbid that I should give you my ancestral inheritance.” Ahab repeats this once, muttering to himself in verse 4, “I will not give you my ancestral inheritance.” And once more he restates it as he explains to Jezebel why he did not get his vineyard in verse 6, where he claims that Naboth said, “I will not give you my vineyard.” If we compare the responses side by side we can see the changes: Continue reading “The Devil’s in the details”
In Memoriam
This past Monday Michael Spencer passed away. He was 53. I never met him, but often read his blog and even more often listened to his podcasts. It feels strange to be mourning for someone I never met, but I feel pretty sad about the whole thing. The way he wrote connected with me, and with many others (as it turns out). I browse some blogs – but not many at all anymore. However, Michael’s was one I paid attention to.
I guess the thing that strikes me the most is the senselessness of the loss. I have seen this too often. He was young. He had a family. He was contributing in a meaningful way by teaching and being a chaplain for a Baptist School in the Appalachian Mountains that served as a missionary outpost as much as anything. His ministry was far from over as far as being fruitful and effective. His writings on the internet made his blog one of the top Christian blogs out there, and it constantly provided insight, honesty, grace, and encouragement for many Christians who were struggling with how to live out their faith in a crazy world. A couple of times I had an email written to him that I deleted. It would sound too silly, I thought. He probably gets too many of these things, I told myself. I had just wanted to tell him thank you and encourage him in what he was doing, but I didn’t. And now I wish I would have.
Here is one of the pieces that Michael wrote that stands out most in my memory.
Giving thanks
Thanksgiving is here. I have seen some people through the month of November write something each day that they are thankful for, and I thought that was a pretty good thing to do, but I didn’t do it myself. However, I think it would be appropriate for me to share what I am thankful for.
I am thankful to God for the salvation he gave me through Jesus Christ and the peace I’ve received through the Holy Spirit. In Jesus Christ I not only find forgiveness, peace, meaning, and purpose, but also I have hope. I hope for and long for the day when God’s kingdom will come and his will is done on earth as it is in heaven. One of the things I have taught and preached about often is that things are not now the way they ought to be. I love doing that because then I don’t have to pretend that everything is ok. But there is more. I have within me a deep hope for the day when everything is the way it ought to be. I long for that time. I am thankful for that. Continue reading “Giving thanks”
Temporary and eternal
Our hummingbirds have left. At least I’m pretty sure they have. The males stopped coming to the feeder first, and now it’s been several days since I’ve seen the females. Fall is here, and this is one of the signs of the changing seasons. I love the fall, but I’m sad to see the hummingbirds leave. This is life though, isn’t it? The seasons of our lives change as time marches forward.
As a part of our Revelation bible study, I have been praying a prayer that matches up with some of the things we study in Revelation. The prayer is this: “Grant me, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while I am placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” There is a contrast in the prayer between those things that pass away and those things that are eternal. Continue reading “Temporary and eternal”
The church of the open door
I’ve been studying the book of Revelation for some time now in order to prepare for a class I’m going to teach this fall. As I studied it, I found this recurrence of doors in chapter 3 and 4, in part due to my commentary written by Craig Koester – which is a good little commentary on Revelation if you’re looking. Anyway, I don’t think I’ll be able to use this particular collection of thoughts in the study or sermons, so I’ll post on it.
The multimillion dollar advertising campaign for the United Methodist Church used to read, “Open hearts, Open doors, Open minds.” I found myself thinking of the “open doors” portion of our advertising slogan as I studied portions of Revelation. Continue reading “The church of the open door”
Easter Season, the lectionary, and Holy Week
Today I finished the graphic that I’ll use for Easter season – which, by the way, runs up until Pentecost (May 31 this year). The series will be on “Resurrection Rebels” and will begin to play off of what we celebrated on Easter Sunday. The basic idea is, “Jesus is risen, now what?” How do resurrection people live? What values define us? As usual the scriptures used will come from the lectionary selections for the week, so let me say a word about that. The lectionary is a collection of readings for each week of the year. It typically contains an Old Testament, Psalm, Epistle (New Testament letter), and Gospel reading. There are 3 year’s worth of readings, so you just go through the three year cycle. It does not cover the entire Bible, in fact it leaves a great deal out. It does cover all different sections of the Bible though. I tend to use the lectionary for a few reasons. Continue reading “Easter Season, the lectionary, and Holy Week”