the desolate wilderness and the fair land

"The Desolate Wilderness" and "The Fair Land" have appeared annually on the Wall Street Journal Editorial Page since 1961. I love Thanksgiving and it is a deep joy to again meet with these articles as well as the great country they represent. How interesting that they were penned by a man named Vermont Connecticut Royster, whose family tradition was to use the names of states for its children. Now there's a pen that can write.

Those of us Americans who have lived in foreign lands know just how special our country is. We do indeed have great cause for thanksgiving at the bounty our Heavenly Father has bestowed upon us.

Read these two articles together with your families, reflect, and give thanks. America is unique and it is incumbent on us to preserve it, defend it, and bequeath it to our posterity.

Just yesterday I came across an old truism that seems especially appropriate for Thanksgiving Day: "Today is not a problem to be solved but a blessing to be enjoyed."

Happy Thanksgiving.

The Manhattan Declaration

Today I signed The Manhattan Declaration and urge you to do the same. This declaration is a call for the church to be salt and light in society with regard to the sanctity of human life, the dignity and spiritual reality of marriage, and freedom of conscience.

The link above provides an Executive Summary of the full declaration, which can be read here.

biblical roadmaps

Jeremiah 33:14-16

For Sunday, November 29, 2009

First Sunday of Advent (starting Year C)

““ ‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will fulfill the gracious promise I made to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which it will be called: The Lord Our Righteousness.’”

(Jeremiah 33:14–16 NIV)

Passages like this are fascinating because to be understood they point to the need for a roadmap for understanding the Bible as a whole. The context here is this: the kingly line of David had been cut off leaving only the stump of a tree. Yet a shoot would spring forth from that stump and grow to provide eternal and enduring refuge for God's people. Most if not all Christians agree that the shoot is Messiah, and that Messiah is Jesus.

What we don't all agree on is what Jeremiah had in mind when he says, "Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety." Is this a promise already fulfilled when the Jews returned to Jerusalem under Persian King Cyrus? Or is it a promise being fulfilled in our own day with the establishment of the modern State of Israel? Or is it a future promise, and if so, is it to be fulfilled with reference to the nation-state of Israel, or with regard to the church as spiritual Israel?

There is a wonderful chart and article in Wikipedia to help you determine whose roadmap you want to use. The chart appears at the beginning of this post.

The article contains a good summary of a number of hermeneutical roadmaps of the Bible. They are:

• Supersessionist
• Covenant Theology
• Kingdom-Dominion Theology
• Dispensational
• Allegorical

The two that I find most compelling are Covenant Theology and Kingdom-Dominion Theology. Between these two I find Kingdom-Dominion Theology most persuasive. It suggests that the incarnation of Christ is the center point of all of history and that the overarching theme of Scripture is the Kingdom of God, meaning the establishment of God's rule over God's people in God's place.

Here is how this roadmap makes sense of passages such as Jeremiah 33:

In the New Testament, God's rule is exercised through Jesus Christ the King, who is also the "temple" of God (John 2:19-21), over his people the Church (of which Israel was a type). Salvation for all people in all times is found by trusting (explicitly or implicitly) in Jesus. Thus, Abraham, Moses, David, and all Christians today are saved by the same faith. The Jews are regarded as special in God's plan (as in Romans and Ephesians) and yet the Old Testament prophecies regarding Israel find their fulfillment in Jesus and the Church rather than in a literal restoration of Israel.^[1]

If you haven't already chosen a biblical roadmap for yourself, let this be the week that you pick one by which to navigate your understanding of Scripture as well as the very trajectory of your own life. A secular culture which has lost its way as well as its very belief in a destination desperately needs people who know where they are going and what to expect along the way.

activism on ObamaCare

I think it is the duty of every Christian to seek to have a redemptive influence politically. While believers can respectfully disagree on policy choices I hope we can encourage one another to engage.

I sent the following email message to Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl this morning:

Dear Senator Kohl,

I am writing to express my opposition to the health care bill being presented on the Senate Floor today. I am opposed to it and urge you to vote 'no' for the following reasons:

1) The best health care solution is one in which citizens and private insurance companies are free to make decisions for themselves.

2) A 2,000 page bill that is released 1 day before a weekend vote is politically and ethically disgraceful.

3) This legislation is not revenue neutral and as a nation we can't afford it.

Sincerely,

Steve Godfrey

I will be sending a similar message shortly to my other Senator, Russ Feingold. I urge my fellow Christians who agree with this point of view to do likewise.

understanding the times

William Blake, "The Ancient of Days"

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

Proper 29

For Sunday, November 22, 2009

One of this week's readings, albeit an alternate one, is Daniel Chapter 7. I've always found the Book of Daniel intriguing. It offers what appears to be a scheme for interpreting history. There are four beasts - a lion, a bear, a leopard, and a fourth terrifying beast with ten horns.

The first three beasts appear to correspond with three historical empires: the lion being Babylon, the bear being Persia, and the leopard being Greece under Alexander the Great. Much speculation has gone into the identity of the fourth beast. It has often been thought of as Rome and the continuation of the spirit of Rome, which is often thought to include the contemporary West.

Stepping back for a moment from the details, in which it is so easy to lose sight of the forest for the sake of the trees, what's really the point? It is what we read in vv. 13-14:

In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

All of us long deep down for something secure to which we can anchor our lives. Some of us devote ourselves to our careers. Some of us pour ourselves into an avocation. Some of us buy gold.

The "one like the Son of Man" is Jesus and "the Ancient of Days" is his Father. Jesus has been given authority, glory, and sovereign power. If we want to anchor our lives to something truly enduring then it is going to have to be him. For his is the only dominion which is everlasting and his the only kingdom that will never be destroyed. If not even Babylon, Persia, Greece, nor Rome could endure, in what else are we going to put our hope? The U.S. Dollar?

Ask yourself this: "To what am I anchoring my life, ... really?" If it is to anything other than Jesus Christ, then your spiritual GPS is currently chirping, "You have deviated from route. Would you like to recalculate?" How will you answer?

boundary lines in pleasant places

Psalm 16

For Sunday, November 15, 2009

Proper 28

"The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance" (Psalm 16:6).

Where are the boundary lines of your life falling today? I see in my own life how so much of this is framed by the state of my relationship with the Lord. When I truly seek him, prayerfully and faithfully, then despite the hardships that are present, I see God's redemptive hand powerfully at work.

I see this looking back five years when the mission team I was leading imploded without warning. The conflict was so deep that our own teammates asked us not to return to Siberia where we were serving. As I've shared with friends subsequently, I'd like to write a book about it entitled _Exiled From Siberia_. This remains the most painful experience I've ever gone through, more painful than my Dad's death 3 years ago, and even more painful even than presently watching my one and only younger brother waging a life and death struggle with cancer while simultaneously watching my Mom wrestle with a debilitating mental illness. By the end of this year it is likely that I'll be the only functioning member of my family of origin left standing.

Yet despite all of this I can say that the boundary lines for me are falling in pleasant places. Had we not been exiled from Siberia I would not have had four precious years with my Dad before his death. I would not have been there holding his hand and looking into his eyes as he passed, which was a direct answer to prayer. My three boys, the oldest of which is now 13, would not have really ever known their Grandpa.

My Father is using the pain of being exiled from Siberia, the pain of losing my Dad, and the present pain of walking with both my brother and Mom through profound illness, to shape my soul for his purpose. It is a purpose that includes being a resource to other missionaries who have or are going through team conflicts, something that is remarkably common on the field. It is a purpose that includes a continuing ministry to Russian-speaking people both locally an internationally. It is also a purpose that is now leading toward a ministry to urban churches and leaders right here in Milwaukee.

When we were preparing to go to Russia fellow Christians would ask us, "Why are you going all the way there? Aren't there enough problems here?" The Lord gave me a great answer: "Yes, there are profound problems here, and that's why you're here." Well, ... now I'm here, and in fact, some of the social dynamics we experienced in Russia, particularly in regards to both human servitude and fatherlessness, are clear and present dynamics which we can now help to address.

Our gracious Father intends for the boundary lines of each of our lives to fall in pleasant places. This doesn't mean that within those boundaries there won't be some deep chasms. Yet what the enemy intends for evil God will certainly transform into good. Christ's resurrection at Calvary is both the downpayment and security on this divine promise.

Will you today along with me entrust our Father with the boundary lines of our lives? When we truly yield ourselves to God's plan and purpose profound blessing is the inevitable result.