SBC=>ENCOUNTERS

Not For the Weak of Heart, Nor Thin Skinned

Blogging can be a remarkable hobby.  It can be tremendously challenging, informative and mind-changing.  It can give clarity to a situation or issue, or pollute the comment streams with vitriolic diatribe.  It can bring light to issues or cover topics with clouds of doubt.  It can test your patience, increase your reading comprehension, decrease ignorance, and dispel rumors and stereotypes.  It can calm your fears, lift your spirit and enrich your mind.

It creates for me a new stream of thinking.  It has introduced me to Seminary presidents, professors, missionaries, ministers, DoM's, and layfolk within my denomination.  It's connected me to authors, diverse writers, and faithful readers.  It has linked me to people in China, India, Australia, Peru, Alaska, and more.  I sit here absolutely amazed sometimes on the expanse of it all.  The instant ability to contact someone and share a prayer request, ask a question, or receive information is mindboggling.  However,

for the weak hearted and thin skinned, blogging can be lethal.  It can be addictive.  It can be heartbreaking, dream-stealing, spirit-crushing.  It can make you so angry and irritable that your blood pressure rises, your sleep is disturbed and you find yourself wondering what the world is coming to. Having said this, I was reminded of the scripture passage below by a fellow blogger:

"If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?" Jeremiah 12:5

Some people are easily discouraged.  I am one of those people.  However, as quick as I am discouraged, when I confess it, the Lord strengthens me by His Spirit.  He also uses the many wonderful bloggers I have encountered in the past six years.  As I grow in grace and patience and self-control, I've noticed a deeper desire to listen, and try to grasp the views of others.  Some people do not do this.  They are so embittered that any grievance they've had in the past, colors their view of the present and future.  It's hard to travel in thickets when you've never been strengthened in the easier walks in life.  It's hard to trust someone's testimony when you've been burned by falsehoods and then, base every word of folks you encounter upon every negative experience you've had in your past.

Such is the way of many who try to read blogs, who never see beyond the tit-for-tat sparring in the comment streams.  I've often walked away from blogs because of the senseless arguments and insults.  I do not have enough time in life to keep reading them.  However, I've learned to leap-frog over many conversations and comments to get to ones which have a reasoned and rational dialogue going on.  On various occasions, I found myself wondering where I fit in the SBC blog world given all I was seeing.  Yet, here I am.  Still pecking.  Still reading.  Still praying that through it all, God will use this venue to grow His people, to bind them, to strengthen them and use them as ambassadors of Christ.

I don't know what it is, exactly, that seemingly takes some folks beyond their normal characteristics of communicating when on the internet.  Some things they say to one another on here, cannot possibly be how they talk in a face-to-face, across-the-table, coffee-sharing chat.  Perhaps it is the anonymity of the screen rather than a person.  I know that, at times, I am reading words, rather than a voice, and it is the words I interact with.  I sometimes forget there is a person beyond those black and white letters--a person with facial expressions, tone, and mannerisms.  I'm not sure what it is for others.

Do you ever wonder how folks get along in everyday life, in difficult situations, with disagreeable people when you read some of the conversations on the internet?  I do.  I wonder if it is just me.  I wonder how some folks interact with colleagues, committees, husbands, wives, children and fellow Believers in a Sunday-School class.

Sometimes I think we each forget that our Savior is among us.  We forget our speech is being viewed from Heaven.  We forget we are accountable for our words, accusations, and insults.  I've heard from a few folks who are quite disturbed over the current conversations, the heat, the ire.  They think there is no possible way to bridge the divide.  In some cases, I agree.  In others, I think there is hope.  There is peace to be found and agreement to be made.  Where we end up in the scheme of things is up to us.  How willing are we to yield to the Spirit of God?  How obedient to His Word will we be?  How much can we love one another if we hate one another's words and distrust every sentence they write?

The blogging world is not for the weak of heart or the thin-skinned.  If we find ourselves unable to deal with the wisecracks, the innuendo, and rebuke from across the waves of space upon a virtually neutral piece of metal, wires, and plastic, how can we possibly interact and communicate with the flesh and blood, emotions of tender hearts without severing arteries and piercing veins?  How will we ever be able to weather the major storms we each face beyond our monitors?  selahV

WHAT GOD WANTS

An odd thing happened yesterday.  I was sitting in my recliner reading various articles on faith.  I was putting some ideas together for some blog-posts.  I was studying mostly about Saul's conversion when my daughter came into my house and said, "Mom, you know you have to pick up Dad, today, don't you?"

"No I don't," I asserted, "today is Thursday."

"No, Mom.  Today is Friday."  I don't know why I thought it was Thursday, but I did.  I don't know why I debated the day of the week with my daughter, she's the one with schedules to heed and calendars to watch.  It was just one of those times I couldn't grasp which day of the week it was.  Even as I rushed around to get ready to go pick up my husband from work, I had trouble digesting the fact that it was Friday.  Nevertheless, I quickly did my hair, and grabbed my license, cell-phone, and prescriptions for Wal-mart (figured I may as well kill two birds with one stone), and headed out the door.

As I drove down the road I considered how odd it was that I was so certain I didn't have to get my husband that day.  I was certain it was Thursday.  Yet, when my daughter spoke, I believed her and got ready and went to get my husband.  What I wanted to do was finish reading the commentary on Saul's conversion experience.  But the interruption necessitated that I leave.

It occurred to me that Saul was certain of his mission for God.  He was so certain he got orders from the high-priest to go get those Christians in Damascus.  Then Jesus interrupted Saul's journey.  Saul's mission was no longer a certainty.  What Saul wanted to do, what Saul thought was right and righteous, was not what Jesus wanted.

I thought about several posts I have in my draft status and haven't published.  I thought about a few things I want to see happen in the next few weeks.  I thought about some things I want to do.  Are they all what God wants?

How often have you heard someone tell you what they are doing is what God wants them to do?  How often do we think we are heading in the right direction and are certain of the timing, only to discover we are wrong?  Last night I read an article about someone else who got interrupted in the midst of something very important.  After sharing the reason for the interruption, they proceeded to explain why they agreed to a particular request:

"I didn't want..."  "I want..."  "I want...."

Ever wonder how many things were done in life for all the wrong motives because of what "I-WANT" to see happen?

Lucifer wanted to be as God, so he rebelled.  Eve wanted to be as wise as God so she ate of the tree of good and evil.  Cain wanted God's approval, so he killed Abel.  Sarah wanted a son so she had her husband, Abraham, sleep with Hagar.  Esau wanted porridge so he traded his birthright to Jacob.  Jacob wanted Esau's blessing, so he schemed with his mother to deceive his father, Isaac.  Moses wanted justice for a fellow Hebrew slave being beaten, so he killed an Egyptian.  David wanted Bathsheba so he had her husband killed.  Judas wanted to force Jesus to show Himself as the Messiah, so he betrayed Jesus with a kiss, then regretted what he did and hung himself.  Saul wanted orders to persecute followers of The Way, so he got orders from the high priests and headed for Damascus.  Then God stepped in, to correct and mop up the messes.

What do you want?  Is it what God wants?  Are you sure?  Will it bring Him glory?  Are you like Saul, do you think you know what God wants?  Do you follow Jesus, or a leader?  Do you follow the Word, or the desires of your heart?  Do you do what you want for God's glory or your own notoriety?

I'm still working on Saul's conversion.  Still thinking about God's intervention.  Still pondering the way in which He'd have me go and what He'd have me write.  For now, I am trusting this is what God wants.  I pray I hear Him correctly.  selahV

"And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left." Isaiah 30:21

The Irony Of Life

SOMETIMES IT CHANGES EVERYTHING.

Hubs and I went to dinner tonite.  I haven't been out of the house much lately because life has been dealing me some pretty heavy blows with various things. I even tried to get my grandson to pick up my husband from work.  As I drove to his office, I really had no plans to eat out...it had been a very long day, preceded by some very tough days.  Somehow we ended up at the steakhouse.

While we waited for our coffee, we talked about nutty things that had happened in his day.  One ironic and odd thing after another--one misunderstanding after another that created havoc with his day.  The realtor got info twisted up and sent him places to do things that couldn't be done and it was a crazy sort of day.  We laughed at the confusion.  He is so even-keeled, so patient and tolerant.  Little bugs him in life...unless it bothers me.  Then he is concerned.

So it's my turn to share and the thing that stood out in my day was an email I'd received.  I told him how the emailer wanted to clear up a misunderstanding of sorts that we had.  So over our baked potato and salad, hubs and I discuss the email, the content, and the sincerity or insincerity of the emailer.  Hubs already knew about the whole situation because I share everything with him.  So he and I measure and weigh all the water that has flowed beneath the dam of life and all the factors entailed in its wake.

We discuss the entire issue--from back to front.  We consider my options, the possibilities, the futility of even trying to communicate given the set attitudes I face and the differences in opinion of how and why the train first jumped the track in our communication.

I'm pondering the whole situation and thinking I might just ignore a very prominent man's advice and go ahead and email an answer to this person.  I know from experience that not all email exchanges have deadends.  At least mine don't.  Hubs is leary.  He's not all that keen about the idea.  He has always believed that people are going to think what they want, no matter what you say, or do.  No matter how much you try to explain things.  He wants to protect me.  He loves me.  He knows the way things have been going.  He's read it all.  But I'm mulling this around in my mind, you see.  My head says one thing, and my heart says another. I want to trust, but I know I haven't been trusted, so I'm still troubled.

I'm not too happy about how the last exchange went with the emailer in question.  I was cut off with the old proverbial, we'll just have to agree to disagree, since I "wasn't hearing" what the emailer was "saying".

Questions pop into my head like popcorn in a microwave.  Would it make a bit of difference?  Will it change how I write and blog?  Will it change the emailer's opinion of how I write and blog?  will it change the emailer's mind about me?  Will it make a difference to the world-wide-web?  Will it change anyone's mind?  Will talking it over prove anything?  Will it restore the trust that was broken?  I don't know.  But I'm thinking, okay.  This email really, really, really could be sincere.  I really, really want to believe this is on the level.  I am even drafting my response.  Then I decide to pop over and go over a recent conversation in a comment stream, and, lo, and behold, I discover the emailer had written a very ironic post that dealt with an issue I had just recently addressed--only with an entirely different viewpoint.  I read the post and my mind overrides my heart again. Futility.

Irony.  It's really amazing sometimes how ironic life can be.  And I think...nope.  My heart was wrong again.  Hubs is right as always.  So, I file the email away and say to myself, "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God." Psalm 43:5  C' est la vie, such is life, they say. Que sera sera, whatever will be will be.  selahV

REDEFINING Sin, Discernment, Admonishment, and Exhortation

Is the Mark Driscoll debacle at Liberty University simple a "fuss" that will fade away with him climbing into his limo and leaving the campus?  Perhaps.  For some.  But this "fuss", "kerfuffle", "brew-ha ha", will most likely not end with a one-night stand by Driscoll's speaking event.  No.

The truth is, the influence Driscoll has been granted by the LU leadership has sanctioned his words and his mis-interpretations of Scripture.  His viewpoints now enter the bedrooms and philosophies and marital counseling offices of future ministers and Christian leaders of tomorrow.  Indeed, some will reject them.  Others will try to emulate.  Some will follow and later find their marriages and relationships destroyed or maimed.  "Kerfuffles" have their way of making lasting impressions sometimes.

I consider the lightheartedness of SBC Voices directed toward all those who challenge the status quo in the Christian community of faith for their lack of discernment as merely a "kerfuffle" less than amusing.  In fact, if the recent post above is meant to "amuse" we might evaluate what  a-muse means in light of Adrian Rogers' words.  "A" means "not" and "Muse" means "to think".  When we treat admonishment and exhortations as amusing, we are simply "not thinking".  That said, I defer to John MacArthur on the involvement of Christians in societal and cultural problems today such as speakers for a Christian school:

"Reclaiming the culture is a pointless, futile exercise. I am convinced we are living in a post-Christian-society--a civilization that exists under God's judgment. ...abundant evidence suggests that God has abandoned this culture to its own depravity. Certainly He is not interested in superficial moral reform for an unregenerate society.  God's purpose in this world--and the church's only legitimate commission--is the proclamation of the message of sin and salvation to individuals, whom God sovereignly redeems and calls out of the world.  God's purpose is to save those who will repent of their sins and believe the gospel--not to work for external corrections in a morally bankrupt culture." John MacArthur, The Vanishing Conscience

It's disheartening, for me, to see the amusements of some Christians. It's discouraging to witness coarse jesting attributed to that which other Christians find in opposition to the Gospel message and objectionable as an entre` served up to the consciences of young minds.

Is there really no more sobriety of mind when it comes to things which affect society's behavior and views?  Have we truly become so anesthetized to culture's sinful call, that we no longer see the blackness of the soul, the severity of condoning immoral choices, or laughing at that which opposes the Trinity of God?  When sincerely-presented dissent is batted away like mosquitoes on a summer night, and swatted down as pesky little insects with no more regard than an insignificant "kerfuffle", we have come to a time when discernment is redefined and admonishment is a badge of honor and endorsement to go and do likewise.  selahV

GOD So Loved the Entire World

WHY? Why does God love the world?  Why does He create a world and love it?  Why do you have a child and love it?  Does it do a single thing for you?  Does it serve you?  Does it worship you?  Does it sing your praises every day?  Does it please you in every single thing it says and does?  Do you want your child to live with you forever?  Do you want your child to love you because you say so or because he wants to?  If he does not love you as you hoped when you brought him into the world, do you stop loving him?  Neither does God.  Would you do anything, even giving your own heart as a transplant to make sure your child lived with you forever if you could? So would God...and so did He.

"For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should have everlasting life" John 3:16

And because God is holy, holy, holy...He knew the only way He could have the world with Him for an eternity was to make them holy also.  And so God sent His Son into the world to become the perfect, undefiled, unblemished, totally pure and holy sacrifice for the sin of man.  And just as the unblemished lamb was sacrificed in the Old Testament for the sin of people, Jesus became the Lamb of God who obediently and willingly gave Himself to make we who believe in Him, blameless in order to receive the everlasting, holy life.

Without God, holiness is impossible.  With God all things are possible.  He who is in Christ is holy, is righteous, is secure forever--not through his own goodness, his own perfection, his own ability to keep the law of God, or walk a straight line which man has determined is pure and holy.  Our righteousness is in Christ.

Our walk--the way we live as blood-bought Believers--is a manifestation of a holy God living within us.  It is a manifestation of the growth we are making through dying daily to ourselves and living unto Jesus.  It is a manifestation of our willingness to yield to the Holy Spirit's conviction and leadership in our lives.  It is the manifestation of the "captivity" of our every thought willingly surrendered to Christ's.  It is the manifestation of the new-birth we have in Him and the crucifixion of our flesh.

In that we were yet sinners, He gave His life as propitiation (payment) for our condemned souls.  He did this because He loves what He creates in His own image.  He wills that the whole world would believe in His grace and His Son and that we would live with Him and serve one another forever.  He wants to give us all He is, His complete holiness.  And it is ours as soon as we turn away from ourselves and turn to Him with open hands and receive His Son--the keeper of our faith--that single moment when we place our faith in Christ, He seals us and keeps our faith in His holy vault of love forevermore.  And no one can snatch it from His hand.  No one.  No thing.  No power.  No principality.  Nothing.

Each morning we rise to a new day with new mercies from God.  He gives us these because He knows we need them.  We need His mercy and His grace to live in this fallen world--this corrupt world--this unholy world.  Each morning the Lord gives us His daily Bread to feed us and strengthen us and assure Himself of our well-being. He opens up His palm and says, "There she is, she is covered in My Son's blood".  And because He knows she belongs to Him...He smiles.   

At least, that is how I see the reason God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.  Otherwise...why bother?  selahV

Mark Driscoll, Liberty University Students, and Other Folks I Do Not Know

What do you know about people on the internet?  For that matter what do you know about authors of books? or those who endorse books? What do you know about people who invite speakers to universities--do their trustees approve?  What do you know about anyone who supposedly preaches a gospel message but lives a life contrary to the doctrine they preach?

Do you follow them blindly because someone endorses their controversial book?  Do you believe their words because a few supporters blindly discount another who challenges their values, viewpoints, and behavior?  Do you?

Franklin Kirksey, wrote in his wonderful post at SBCToday: ”Regrettably, some Bible teachers today try to make people think everything is okay regardless of what they believe or how they live.\”

Kirksey's words prompted a question in my mind. What do we do when "some Bible teachers today try to make people think everything is okay regardless of what they believe or how they live."?  It's very difficult to comprehend the mind of man. The Word of God tells us that man does what is right in his own sight. The Apostle Paul has a few words to offer:

"Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them who cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned; and avoid them." Romans 16:17 (embolden mine)

Sadly, unless man looks to God, and seeks His discernment in all things, the "divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine" that they learn will come back to haunt them. God will not be mocked.

In the meantime, what are we instructed to do?  Well, when you encounter someone who "causes divisions and offenses", God's Word says to first "mark" them.  I find this word a very remarkable word in the midst of an instruction to dealing with those who "cause divisions and offense", don't you?  What does it mean to "mark" someone? 

I think first we must see who is to be the "markers" according to the passage.  The "brethren" are to "mark" those who "cause divisions and offense".  Each and every Christian who finds a person who "causes divisions and offense" are to "mark" said person.  Why?  Well, to keep themselves from getting taken in by their words.  And also, to forewarn others...like Paul and Joanna Petry (who were once part of the leadership), coming forth in testimony against Mark Driscoll and Acts29 practices, reservations mount toward the unreliability of Acts29 Network and the teachings therein.

God does not want his innocent and vulnerable children who have learned the correct doctrine, to fall prey to ones who teach "contrary to the doctrine we have learned" to be led astray.  to follow after their leadership.  to pattern ourselves after their character, their viewpoints, their attitudes and behavior. It behooves us to look to those we respect in the faith for advice at times and:

"Mark them - Observe attentively, cautiously, and faithfully Philippians 3:17; be on your guard against them. Ascertain "who are" the real causes of the divisions that spring up, and avoid them." Barnes Commentary notes on Romans 16:17

So here we have the reason to "mark" or "observe attentively, cautiously" study, watch and vet a person who causes "divisions and offenses" which are "contrary to doctrines we have learned". By marking them, and attentively observing the person's behavior with close inspection, and weighing their words against other things they do that do not balance out with their words, we are able to discern what is true and pure and good.  We know why we are to watch them.  Because at the end of verse 17, it instructs us in the way we should go--"avoid them".

Among other things I find troubling about Mark Driscoll and the latest controversy over his "marriage" book which some say disrespects his wife and blames her for everything in their dysfunctional marriage" is the previous articles which "mark" his behavior as in this excerpt from a Baptist Press article:

"Another Acts 29 church (also non-SBC) -- the Seattle-area Damascus Road Church -- sponsors a men’s poker night for which gamblers are encouraged to bring beer. The website also states: “There is just something about having food on your plate and a drink in your hand that makes fellowship that much easier. Whether the food is healthy or fattening, or the drink is coffee or beer, we desire to follow Christ's example.”

The alcohol issue goes straight to the top at Acts 29, whose president, Mark Driscoll -- who is pastor of the Seattle-area Mars Hill Church -- wrote in his book, “Radical Reformission,” that abstinence from alcohol is a sin. In a chapter titled “The Sin of Light Beer,” Driscoll explains that he came to this conclusion while preparing a sermon on the Lord’s miracle at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine.

According to information published on the church’s website, Mars Hill sponsored a New Year’s Eve party that included a champagne bar. Mars Hill’s website also advertises “beer-brewing lessons ... whenever a large group of (Mars Hill) men get together.”

Driscoll is controversial also for once having the reputation of the “cussing pastor.” However, as he recounted on his blog, he finally listened to a friend who helped him realize he was becoming known for “good theology, a bad temper, and a foul mouth,” and he repented, starting with a public apology." entire BP article HERE.

Public apologies are important. They help us discern a repentant heart.  However, when one portion of one's spiritual weakness is acknowledged and confessed, changes must follow.  And if when we continue to "observe attentively", the person and a ministry and more and more and more witnesses relate testimonies, one's "public apology" fails to assure us to do anything in life but "avoid them".

One man's idea of solid sermons on the Song of Solomon, is another man's judgment of Rape/link(John MacArthur on Driscoll's sermons).

"Regrettably," as Kirksey says above, "some Bible teachers today try to make people think everything is okay regardless of what they believe or how they live."  Indeed, "some Bible teachers" and universities and seminary presidents, try to make people think everything is okay.  All the more reason, my brothers and sisters to heed the warnings of God and the instructions of His saints.  selahV

Informed, Conformed and Transformed by hariette petersen of selahV today

I was sitting on my front porch talking to my daughter, trying to explain what is going on in the simplest of terms with my blog, my writing, and the SBC.

In front of us was a small pile of large chunks of gravel, (ones my granddaughters had played with and carried over from the side of our house), where our driveway consists of bushels of gravel chunks, and even tiny stones squished down in between and surrounding them.  I pointed to the small pile of gravel chunks in the front of our porch and told my daughter that it represented a small portion of folks within the SBC of, perhaps 10 to 15 percent.  I told her the ones on the side of the house in the driveway represented the other 85 to 90 percent in the SBC. I told her that if we combined that smaller group of gravel-chunks with all the ones on the side of the house, it would represent the entire SBC.  Then I picked up about 4 stones and separated them from all the other gravel chunks and told her that those represented a very tiny percentage of the 10 to 15 percent that is seeping into the whole and working its way into the convention to try and bring the entire 10 to 15% with them.  I explained how it seems to be pitting us all against one another.  It's not the 10 to 15% that is a problem.  It it is not even 10 to 20 percent of the 85 to 90 percent.  It is the tiny percentage of the 10 to 15 percent.  These folks are pitting teens and college students against parents and grandparents.  It's pitting churches against churches.  And leaders against leaders.

I find myself in the midst of a strange and growing bunch of gravel, in a pit of grave concern.  I do not know where I belong anymore.  I was perfectly comfortable sitting in my spot on the driveway of life--snuggled amongst all the other chunks of gravel.  I was happily providing a space for all the cars to drive over and find their way to the King.  I sat side by side all the other chunks of gravel.  Together we paved a narrow road upon which many folks have journeyed to the kingdom of God.

In thirty-plus years I've never had any major problems holding my portion of the ground for my Lord in the SBC.  Now...I find myself being pushed and shoved from all directions.  I'd always seen myself as fairly informed.  I felt substantially conformed to Biblical principles set forth by Christ, interpreted by Peter, James, John and Paul.  I've been encouraged by Matthew Mark and Luke.  I reveled in the history of the New Testament church and the origins from which it all began in Genesis.  I lived in the wilderness for a portion of time but one day found myself walking across a parted Red Sea of blood-washed Believers.  I followed the miracle of its parting and joined in the Exodus of God's people.  I studied and learned under prophets, judges, and kings.  I settled into a promised land and grew where I was planted, whenever I was planted.  Lately, though, I feel as though I've been jerked out of the ground, along with the flowers of grass growing between me and others in the driveway.  I feel like the roots that cling to my little stone, are dangling in the air.  Exposed to elements unknown.

I don't know if I can figure out a better way of saying this without having my head handed over to the pope in Louisville and the cardinal in Nashville, but this is all I can comprehend from all that is going on in the SBC. How does one please someone who does not recognize that you have been transformed?

It saddens me.  It breaks my heart.  And I know I will be sitting in heaven long before the gravel road I've been supporting is paved over and conformed to a new road.  I know those who would move the earth to make way for more refined roads with less bumps, have their own thoughts on how to build roads to the Kingdom.  I understand the need to build bridges, and in some ways go through reconstruction.  But in the meantime, I find myself still conformed, not unto the world, but to the Word of God, and transformed by the Son of God who brought me down His road and placed me in the spot He's given me to hold.  So I do, as best I know how.

And I hear the words of Paul saying: "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2

I realize I do not "battle against flesh and blood".  I realize that divisions are created from the bowels of hell, and men are all but pawns at times.  Pride and power and the quest for position wreaks havoc among the brethren when man whets his tastebuds on the sweet dainties and appetizers of the day.  Everyone builds their own towers, I'm afraid.  God has given me a tiny, tiny, little stone which rests in a speck of His universe and I know that my place demands I bow down, dig in and burrow myself into the space He has given me to occupy.  I've felt the flood waters rain down upon me and have found myself nudged out of the ground at times.  But God has told me, that "If my people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."...and their convention.  Do you hear what I hear?  selahV

What We See and What We Saw Don't Always Mean We Saw It All

Gotta love my preacher, Doug Passmore.  That man.  That man is one super preacher. He's not a jump-up-and-down kinda guy, or a run-around-the-stage personality (although he tends to invite his alter-personality to revivals and such).  He's a calm, stand-behind-the-podium preacher.  I have no clue what he'd sound like if he raised his voice.  Though... lotsa folks might attest he's a different dude when playing softball.  He gets a bit competitive I'm told.

Yesterday's Easter Sermon was all about not worrying.  Can you believe that?  The whole Christian world is talking about the ressurrection and what does Bro. Doug talk about?  The "tomb".  The grave.  The details of what was inside the tomb.   He did use the megatron to show us a picture of a round stone in front of an open cavern in the side of a hillside which was typical of sepulchers he saw when he visited Israel.  But he didn't get all excited and have the drama team dramatize the event to stir our emotions and promote goosebumps (though he could have and there isn't anything wrong with that).  Instead he gave us all a little Greek lesson on what folks witnessed on Sunday morning at the tomb.  See if you see what I saw.

After the ladies find an empty tomb, they go tell the disciples.  John outran Peter to get to the tomb. He stooped down and while looking, he (casually glanced) inside and "saw the linen clothes lying; yet he went not in." (John 20:5 Criswell KJV)  Basicly, John bent down, noticed the linen clothes and thought sure enough, those women had it right.

But when Simon Peter arrived behind John, he didn't just stoop down and take a peek.  Nope.  He went inside the sepulcher and "seeth [with careful observation] the linen clothes lie, and the napkin that was about his [Jesus'] head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself."  John 20: 6  Peter went in where John had not. He took note, not only that Jesus was missing, but the grave clothes were lying there intact.  Peter observed the body-wrappings weren't strewn all over the place, and they weren't separated like we'd do when we unwrap gauze from a sprained ankle when it heals.  It was as if the body had left the grave-cloth strips in place and simply rose up from it all.  (Uh...yeah.)  Peter examined that whole scene like a CSI crime investigator.  He really "saw" the scene and let the scene speak for itself.

Then John goes back in "also", takes another look and "saw [reasoned out to the point of understanding what had occurred within that tomb] and believed." John 20:8

I love this part.  Peter, the impulsive one, the one whom most people attribute to being emotional and acting and speaking before he thinks, is the one who took it all in.  Then John goes in "also" and wallowed it around in his mind some more, and he believed.

I really love that John, "the other disciple" who often refers to himself as "the one who Jesus loved", gives us this hawk-eye view in his resurrection account.  He even mentioned that they didn't, as yet, put two and two together with what Jesus had told them with scripture.  You'd think at the least, that they--the disciples, the constant companions of Jesus--would have been more attentive to their Master's words than the priests and Pharisees who'd plotted to kill Him, wouldn't you?  Mt. 27:62-63.  At least those leaders "saw" enough of Jesus, to request that Pilate have the tomb sealed on Saturday for fear the disciples would steal Jesus' body, then go around saying the One who claimed to be God had, indeed, risen from the grave.

Funny, isn't it?  Some folks have an uncanny way of seeing things that others do not. Some remember and discern words and buzz-phrases that others (who claim to be closest to a leader), fail to recognize when the situation plays itself out in a sequence of events.  Even when it is clearly shown or explained to them, they refuse to believe until they see it for themselves.  And some folks have to have doors slammed shut in their faces before they wake up and realize that only a part of the house is open to them.  That only portions of what they see are really what they saw.  I guess truth can be disguised at times.  I heard someone say that we can talk a person into anything, persuade them of this or that, but unless they know in their heart of hearts what is truth, another person can come along and persuade them differently.  All the more reason not to be swayed by every wind of doctrine, don't you think?  Sometimes it's all Greek to me, and other times I understand it better than most others. selahV