Michael Jackson and 1 John

I think probably everyone in our class felt some sort of reaction at the death of Michael Jackson this last weekend. For our generation, Michael Jackson’s music played a large role as the soundtrack to our adolescence. Maybe that is more so for us fogies up in our middle 30’s, who were just around 10 years of age when Thriller came out, but I think it continued to resonate for even most of you younger folks too. He was a gifted musician and performer who could capture attentions across age, gender and race.

Now what in the world do the life and death of Michael Jackson have to do with our study in 1 John? I’ll get to that, but first let me say a few things. First, in partial answer to that question, any real concept revealed in scripture should be applicable to real world life. Not every teaching will touch every part of your life, but, generally speaking, it should be easy look at life and the world around you and be reminded of how scripture teaches us about, and applies to, our lives. Secondly, I am not writing this to bash Michael Jackson at all. As troubled as he seemed to be, especially later in his life, we should be saddened by his passing or the passing of any human, if not for their loved ones, for the thought that they will be meeting God and eternity, and the consequences of not being prepared for that. May God have mercy on his soul.

Really what sparked this post was not so much MJ’s death as much as one blogger’s words in reflection on it:
And therein, to me, lies both the triumph of his achievements but also the makings of his (and in a sense, our) tragedies. As Jeff Chang argued, "for that voice, he lost his childhood. Or more precisely, he gave it to us," which isn't quite like saying he died for our sins but I think part of what Jeff is suggesting is that if Michael wasn't blessed with such a magical presence, we may not have liked him so well. And if we didn't like him so well, maybe his life would have turned out more normal, less (self)-destructive. These "what if" scenarios are impossible to answer, of course. All we know is the Jackson we were given and if his life is to be read as a kind of sacrifice to our pleasure, at least we can honor that by celebrating his libations.

From Soul Sides blog.

It was the blogger’s intentional references to Christ that made me consider what lessons might be learned. He is, of course, very right that the life and death of MJ wasn’t for our sins, but later he suggests his life could be “read as a kind of sacrifice to our pleasure”. In context, he is speaking of the fact that Jackson’s life appeared to be very tortured as he got older and this was almost certainly due to the fact that he was so loved and adored by his fans from an early age. In that sense, it was for our pleasure that he sacrificed his life.

Obviously I have to compare that to Jesus, who sacrificed his life that we might have life itself…eternal, meaningful, with God, cleansed and forgiven of the sin that stains us. What a waste, it seems, to sacrifice a life for the sake of pleasure. And I mean pleasure in a worldly sense…not in the divine. Divine pleasure is to take joy in nothing other than God, or in other things only as they give glory to Him. Worldly pleasures in music, food, sex, power, personalities, and things, as ends unto themselves, lead only to death…like MJ’s. He is an example of somebody who was devoured by our lust for those types of things. Jesus, too, died as a result of our fleshly cravings. But he rose from the dead to give us life and freedom from those earthly desires. He and desires for him will live forever! Desires for the things of this world will be destroyed with it. If you haven’t caught on yet, this directly relates to 1 John 2:15-17 that we have discussed the last couple of Sundays in class.

This passage, and the example of MJ, stands as an opportunity for us, especially as Americans, to examine our hearts for those desires that fall short of God. I’m actually a little flabbergasted that the blogger suggests we should be “celebrating his libations”. A ‘Libation’ is a drink poured in sacrifice to a god. Should we really celebrate MJ’s tragic life as a sacrifice to the god of our temporal, meaningless quest to be entertained? (I know he probably only means to celebrate those enterntaining, moving things MJ did with his life for us, but with a heavenly perspective, what is the difference?)

We love to be entertained. We love our music. We love our sports. We love our movies and TV shows. We love our houses and cars. We love our celebrities. We love them to death…and that is the problem. That kind of love only leads to death. The King of Pop lies cold in the ground waiting on eternity…a victim, some would say, of our lust for entertainment. But the King of Kings already paid the price for our lusts and now calls us to be much more than earthly entertained…to enjoy God Himself!

-casey

Teacher's forum recap with sound files

I'm posting the sound files from the 2nd part of the teacher's forum we did on June 7th. Enjoy:

Josh talks on the sometimes violent or evil heritage of Christianity.

Russ talks on why God seems so distant some times.

Russ talks on what is required to enter heaven plus a follow up question.

John 1:1 - 2:17 Recap

IT was a lot to cover and we were short on time, so I apologize the lesson was rushed. I'll summarize what we covered as briefly as I can and I was going to give the outline, but it doesn't format very well on the blog. I look forward to Caleb's application lesson this Sunday.

Summary:

"Jesus who was with the Father from the beginning is eternal life and became man. We saw him, fellowship with him, and would love for you to do the same.

Let me cover the basics...God is light. Light and dark don't mix. Being in the light with God means we are forgiven sinners. If you claim not to sin, you are a liar. Being in the light with God means you do what he says. If you claim to know God and don't do wat he says, you are a liar. Doing what he says means loving your brother. If you say you know God and hate your brother you are a liar.

I'm writing you guys because I believe you are in the light, forgiven, and know God...be encouraged!

But...do not love the world...that is incompatible with the love of God. the world is passing away, but God and those who do what he says will live forever."

Some additional thoughts:

1. We know John is writing this at least in part to respond to heretics who have torn the church. It's inferred in this passage that they were claiming to be sinless and also to know God while not keeping his commandments nor loving their brothers. John calls them out for being the liars they were.

2. Consider the profundity of John calling Jesus the "word" both here and in his Gospel (John 1:1-5). Jesus not only carried God's word or message, but was the very essence and substance of God's message for us.

3. Notice how there appears to be little middle ground for John...you are either with God in the light or in the darkness...there doesn't seem to be in between. Either you keep God's command or you don't. Either you love your brothers, or you hate them.

4. What an encouragement verses 12-14 must have been to John's readers at a time when their churches had just been ripped apart and faith had been challenged.

5. I think the warning in verses 15-17 should resonate loudly with American believers today...I think we really struggle with loving the world.

Women's Discussion

Summer-July and August
Wednesday night 6-7:30 at HPBC (room tba)
We will begin by discussing Shepherding A Child's Heart so get a copy and read a few chapters. After we feel we have covered that we will move on to another book.
Dinner is served in the Fellowship Hall starting at 5 (great price good food) if you want to join in that. Childcare starts at 6.

Update - Thanks for praying and Keep it up!

Last week was VBS Xtreme Encounters and at least 7 Homebuilders volunteered-thanks. We had a great week. Around 450 kids attended, many prayed to receive Christ and lots of money was given for Sudan and CWJC food pantry. 7 kids and our own Mary & Dave got baptized on Friday in Quarries Lake-Praise the Lord! Thanks for all your prayers.
...Now keep them up because this week is the family mission trip to So. Texas. They will be doing manual labor around a Christian camp and then an all age VBS. The Clarks are part of the team!
After the Sudan trip, Josh deKoning shared with both classes about his experience. If any of you were moved and want to be more a part of praying for Africa, here is an opportunity:
Come and join in prayer for God's work among the peoples of Africa.
Saturday, June 27th, 10am-noon, Friendship Hall, HPBC.

1 John 1:1 - 2:17

I know it is a lot but this is the passage we will be covering (or attempting to cover) this Sunday morning. So, in addition to your at least weekly reading of the whole book in a single setting, I am asking you to read just this section (1:1-2:17)with some particular focus. As you do so, keep these questions in mind:

1. In the introduction (1:1-4), what does John teach his churches about a) Jesus and b) the undergirding reason for his writing? Does this passage echo any other passages in the Bible you can think of?

2. How does section 1:8-2:2 either seem to balance or contradict section 2:3-11? Especially 2:1 vs. 2:4?

3. When reading section 2:12-14...try to hear it as one of John's church members might have. How would you take it?

Thanks...can't wait to see you guys this Sunday morning!

Oh, I also need to post some notes form last week for those who weren't here and want to catch up with our journey in 1 John. I'll try to do that.

casey

This Sunday, June 14th

This week we start a new series of lessons that I am really excited about. Reading the results of the class survey we handed out back in March, one thing that resounded over and over was the desire for the class lessons to really dive into the Word of God. This is completely in line with my own desires, so we will be studying the book of 1 John for the whole summer.

The curriculum we were (mostly) following is also studying 1 John, but only for the month. I want to dig into the Bible and really try to understand the truths of 1 John and how to apply them on their own terms, instead of quickly going through selected portions topically...if that makes sense.

Caleb and I are going to try some new things as well so you can take advantage of what we feel are some of our individual strengths. This Sunday I will be just giving an introduction to the book and how we will be studying it. I've already had a blast just preparing for this introduction.

What you can do: PLEASE try to take some time in the next few days and spend 15-30 minutes to read through the whole book of 1 John in a single setting.

There are only five chapters folks, its not too hard. I recommend reading through the whole book in a single sitting so you can try to grasp the meaning of the whole work, as it was intended to be read, rather than only focusing in a few verses or passages within the book. Those verses and passages make much more sense, sometimes, when you have a good feel for the context of the whole book. If you don't seem to get much out of it the first time, don't worry, after reading it a few more times it starts to sink in...and that is exaclty what I'll be encouraging us to do while we are studying it....read through the whole thing at least once a week.

I hope on Sunday to hear some of your initial thoughts or reactions to 1 John as a whole.

See you Sunday morning!

casey

Moms, Kids, and Discipline Questions

I wanted to go ahead and try to give an answer for a couple of questions we got for the teachers' panel that we won't get to in class. I'll quote the question and give my best answer.

1st Question: when the bible refers to the "rod" in discipline does it mean spanking or could it just mean consistent discipline? how literally do we take it?

All of the references to the 'rod' I'm aware of come from the book of Proverbs. In context I believe the writer of Proverbs (generally believed to be Solomon) is meaning a literal rod for disciplining that looks very similar to how folks discipline via spanking today.

The question then becomes (with the assumption that the Bible is the authoritative word of God), are references to the rod in Proverbs to be interpreted as 1) absolute commands, and 2) the only alternative for every situation. I believe the answers to both of those questions to be "no". While I do take the Bible very seriously, I also believe Proverbs is primarily a collection of sayings that give general and practical advice. For the most part, they are not commands, but rather applications of Godly based wisdom phrased in such a way that they are memorable and stick with you (at least in the original language and culture, though its amazing how well some of them translate).

Therefore, I don't see that we are commanded to use 'rod' based discipline as the only option in our parenting. However, at the very least these verses in Proverbs stress the importance of serious discipline, and further they lend a lot of wieght to spanking as a method, being that it is the only one specifically prescribed in scripture that I'm aware of (outside of stoning in the OT law, but that is another subect).

Question #2: im reading a book on moses and the author used moses's birth mother as an example of stay at home moms. she had the opportunity to train him up in his toddler years and lay a religious foundation that stuck w/ him into adulthood. he encourages all mothers to follow by example and stay at home w/ their kids and not do preschools ect (unless you have to). i am a stay at home mom who also takes advantage of preschool so my son can develop socialization skills. he is painfully shy and would never adjust to school otherwise. what does other scripture/biblical examples suggest? is preschool not a good thing?

I don't know that we have a lot of scriptural examples for things like pre-school. The example of Moses is only tangentially related, in my opinion. Being raised in Pharoah's house as his own grandchild is a little different than sending your kid to a pre-school...it is more like giving your kid up for adoption. That being said, there are a few legitimate parallels you could draw, however it is far from being prescriptive on how to raise your children, other than showing the importance of instilling in them the faith we have.

In Moses' situation, he was going to be solely raised by another family and be ignorant of his people's customs and God. Moses' mother was able to not only give him those things he would miss, but also be his mom. This is quite different than already being a stay at home mom, and sending your kid to a part time preschool to help him socialize.

I think there are definite advantages to moms staying home with their kids, but some situations won't allow it. The Bible, I think, is silent on trying to impose some sort of rule. Like many other things, this is not necessarily a black and white issue, but requires consideration of many angles, weighing of pros and cons, and possibly most importantly, a check and review of motives.

Relating to both questions, while the Bible has made many issues black and white, there are many more which are gray. If you think about it, religions often have opportunity to give many commands that ultimately end up being culturally or situationally relative. Part of the amazing nature of the New Testament is it's lack of culturally relative commands. Not that there aren't any, but I think God very much limited scripture to focus on the basic absolute truths that are easily applicable across time an cultures. Other "holy" books are full of commands that make little sense out of their chronological and cultural context. The Old Testament could be accused of this as well, however, the New Testament provides us the lense in which to apply and understand the OT laws.

The flipside of that, however, is that we don't have specific direction or commands from the Bible for many of life's questions and decisions, and we are left to apply His law of love situationally. Prayer, His Word and Holy Spirit help us with that, and there is a lot of freedom we have in decisions...often we abuse our freedoms for our own selfish ends. But praise God for his wisdom, direction and the freedom we have in Him. It is tough trying to guess WWJD in all situations of life, but He is graceful and merciful where we get it wrong. We are not going to mess up our kids beyond God's ability to save them. Raising them our very best our kids are still sinners in need of redemption and sure to be "messed up" to some degree or other.

THANK YOU JESUS FOR SAVING US!

Teachers' Panel on 5-31-09

Hello good people of the Homebuilders and the Door!

I've uploaded audio files of the teacher's panel we had last week and have the links below just in case you missed class that day or if you just want to make sure you heard us right because you can't believe what kind of heresies came out of our mouths. :)

I'm just kidding, of course, but seriously, none of us are claiming to be infallible in our interpretation and application...we are trying to be as faithful to the Word of God as possible, though, and not relying on the wordly philosophies de jour.

We covered four questions in class and I've got links for each (questions about Moses and tunring the other cheek are combined):

Introduction and Caleb discusses questions related to suffering.

Casey answers questions on the sin of Moses at Meribah Kadesh and how to apply Jesus' instruction to "turn the other cheek".

Josh gives a short answer to the question of why we pray when God already knows what He is going to do.

I've got another post coming soon addressing two questions on stay at home moms and disciplining children, since we won't cover those in class.

As always...I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

casey

Dinosaurs

Someone asked how dinosaurs fit in the bible. While I am going to restrict my answer to dinosaurs alone it is obvious that this question pivots on another broader question of evolution

I believe there are two main opinions on this question. We’ll address them separately.

1) Young Earth – dinosaurs must have existed we know this from fossil records and man existed form the beginning of creation so thus they must have coexisted and we might expect a mention or showing in the bible… This is coupled with a few side arguments that explain the disappearance of the dinosaurs later, most commonly it is sited that they didn’t live after the flood.

Evidences in support of this opinion:
a) A plain reading of Genesis with our culture’s understanding of “Day” makes it certainly seem logical – man created in first 7 days… unless dinosaurs died the same day they were created they should coexist!
b) Several passages in the bible describe unknown creatures with characteristics so wild that they might be dinosaurs, here are a short list of them
The Behemoth : Job 40:15-24 (brontosaur)
The Leviathan : Jobe 41:33 and Psalms 104:26 (Kronosaurus)
c) The bible in several places uses the Hebrew word that also means “dragon” and it is often translated differently though. For example in the story of the creation Genesis 1:21 when the NIV mentions “great creatures of the sea” which in the KJV was translated “great whale” is this Hebrew word that is sometimes also translated “dragon”… since the word “dinosaur” certainly wasn’t around then some people suggest this usage should be translated differently,… possibly dinosaur.
d) There is a limited few people who seriously claim that archeological evidence can be found for the existence of various known dinosaurs with well known ancient civilizations, thus proving that man and dinosaur did coexist. Here are two links but I have no idea if this is valid or not!!!!
http://www.rae.org/pteroets.html
http://www.bible.ca/tracks/peru-tomb-art.htm

2) Old earth (ie - evolved earth) – this is the bible doesn’t mention dinosaurs because they were mostly extinct by the time man/Adam evolved.

Evidence for this opinion:
a) Scientist of various beliefs, some Christian, other not, down through the history of exploration have almost entirely agreed with the fossil record. While there are limited attempts to say that the majority of the fossil record formed quickly by Noah’s flood – this is suspect since the no plausible explanation of why the massive flood would so neatly lay down layers that contain only specific species of creatures, then another layer with other species, and another layer with different species –so many layers that show a dynamic growth, dying off, growth, dying off… etc. of the species of the world.
b) The descriptions of leviathan in the bible can be matched up with creatures we are familiar with such as the great whales and odd species such as the Oar fish that resemble massive beasts or sea serpents. Whalers for hundreds of years referred to the whales as the leviathans. The massive Nile crocodiles fit the job description of the behemoth possibly.
c) As for the coexistence of dinosaurs and man… that is obvious to modern scientists and the reason why I said earlier that they where “mostly” extinct. Not only do we coexist with their supposed offspring/relatives the birds; alligator, crocodile, caimans, and gavials are most certainly living dinosaurs that have lived almost unchanged for hundres of thousands of years. Though they’re considered reptiles they are certainly odd since they don’t have scales, have four chambered hearts – while all other reptiles have only 3 chambers…etc… they are only placed there in classification cause they don’t fit anywhere else.
d) The extinction of species has been common for thousands of years – according to the fossil record it has been a long time since there was a diversification of species via evolution. So if the bible mentions creatures that are uncommon to us that is certainly possible, but it doesn’t mean we have to assume it is one of the known dinosaurs of the fossil record. It could be any number of creatures that have gone extinct, but are most likely common animals to us that are described in an ancient unlearned language.


Now for my personal opinion. From my reading and education I land on the side of opinion #2. I think that the enormous weight of evidence for an older earth is hard to argue against. It is more likely in my mind that words, literature, and biblical passages do not have to be interpreted in a way that is so drastically antithesis from scientific observation which is in it’s basic framework without any agenda.

Tragedy and pain

Two things I wanted to add/clarify from Sunday morning.
1) I think it was understood where our joy and satisfaction are suppose to come from... but I never remember saying it clearly. Point is: if we trust in the promise to come and are so satisfied with our relationship with Christ... if his promise of peace in our hearts is real... then we find all the joy we need in Christ and the hope of heaven. So we relate to sufferings in the light of a greater happiness.

2) Also I should have guessed that people would suggest that I'd be mad at my dad, but I never think that way. He may have made a sad choice but for me the world around him is the target of my anger, the sin and unjustness that brought about deep depression. If a little girl comes home and says she believes she is fat and ugly... I'd hope we don't get angry at her for what the world has unfortunately forced into her mind. A man who comes to the conclusion that his life is worthless is to be pittied even if he caused other people trouble because of his decision.

This in my opinion is an example of how the futility of life is a means that God uses to make us look to him. If he allowed this world to be full of meaning and purpose we might not look to him, the ultimate glory. But if this world is seemingly pointless, troublesome, futile and purposeless then we have a tendency to look up to him for help. This is what he wants. So my dad has never been the target of my anger... his story is instead a reminder that we grown inwardly and wait in hope for something infinitely greater than this and it makes me say "come lord Jesus, come!"

I'll post a link to a copy of my notes for the talk today and a copy of the sermon I mentioned by John Piper and
more about dinosaurs in the bible this evening here on the blog.