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Communal Sin

In Daniel 9 he writes down a lengthy prayer of confession. What strikes me most about this prayer is that Daniel makes no distinction between himself and those who have sinned, have rebelled, have been wicked, have not listened to the prophets and have not sought the Lord. For Daniel (and Isaiah) just being counted among the sinful, is the same as being sinful yourself. This idea of communal sin is all but lost on our culture.

I would like to hear any thoughts on how we could encourage this attitude among Christians today.

The Wisdom of This World

There are few things that annoy me more than listening to or reading the words of "Biblical Scholars" who have no faith.

A while back I took a graduate class on the Gospel of Mark. One of the commentaries we were assigned to read was written by a man who did not believe in the Resurrection. When I learned this, I no longer cared about anything else the man had to say. The professor and I did not see eye to eye on this point.

Now, as I read through Daniel, I am faced with a similar problem. I have two commentaries on Daniel. The two commentaries date Daniel's authorship very differently. One says it was written shortly after Cyrus' capture of Babylon in 539BC. The other dates it in the 2nd century BC. I was confused by this until I read my NIV Study Bible explanation of the two dates. The 2nd century view is held by those who believe long range predictive prophesy is impossible.

I am now torn about what to do with the commentary: do I give it away, or do I burn it?

If you don't believe that God can speak eternal truths that are impossible to come by through any human means, you need to read the bible a few more times through, and FOR MY SANITY'S SAKE, DON'T VOMIT YOUR FAITHLESSNESS ON THE REST OF US THROUGH YOUR COMMENTARIES!

Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become the fool so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness", and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile."
I Corinthians 3:18-20

Iron Deficiency

"As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17

One of the main reasons for starting this blog is so that I could share my thoughts with Godly men who would test and approve, reject, modify, or scoff at them. I currently work in a situation where there is very little interaction with other men on a day to day basis, and so I need this to be my iron supplement.

HOWEVER

Nobody is commenting. I am not benefiting from this as I had hoped. I am still getting alot out of it as it helps me think twice about the bible verses I read, but there is so much more to be gained if a few good men (or women) would contribute their voices.

If you think I got it wrong on something, give me a good descriptive comment about how wrong I am.

If you think I hit it on the nail, say so and elaborate.

If you think my comments are on the surface and lazy (which is probably the most likely scenario), say so and challenge me to go deeper.

Thanks in advance for your insights.
Drew

Nearsighted

In Daniel 7, visions are revealed to Daniel regarding the future of God's people. In these visions he sees a great persecution of God's people but it is revealed to him that ultimate victory and salvation belongs to the saints. Even with this knowledge, Daniel said he was "deeply troubled by my thoughts and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself."

A commentary on the chapter suggests that the burden could largely be because he kept the matter to himself.

Daniel had trouble looking past the persecutions to see the ultimate salvation. I have the same problem (see "Dry Bones" post). A good friend of mine who is a Youth Minister in Kentucky, shared with me the same sentiments. Only recently have I been able to articulate and share my concerns for the future of God's people, but perhaps by sharing these fears, we can be built up and en-couraged to meet the future head on.

Blameless

As I read through Daniel, my respect for that man is growing tremendously. When reading Ezekiel, I had to do a double take. Two times in Ezekiel, it holds up Daniel as the epitome of Righteousness next to Noah and Job. Another time it holds him up as the epitome of wisdom.

What struck me upon finding that was that Daniel and Ezekiel were contemporaries. The events of Daniel were going on during the writing of Ezekiel. Ezekiel began writing only 12 years after Daniel was sent into Babylonian captivity. If it is true that Daniel was only 15-16 (as some have suggested) when he was sent into captivity, this would mean that he could have been about my age or just a little older when God, through Ezekiel, compared his righteousness with that of Noah and Job.

Equally impressive is the fact that even though the 120 or so satraps were doing their best to find some dirt on Daniel, they came up empty handed and said, "We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God." (ch 6:5)

This contrasts starkly with political candidates today. No matter how good a candidate appears, there is always some dirt that can be dug up against him/her. But not with Daniel, he was truly blameless.

I sometimes wonder what they would dig up on me if I ran for office. I can certainly think of several things that would be shameful enough to get me disqualified from running, but I wonder how they could find it.

There is one who can always find the dirt on me. He always throws it in my face to discourage me from running my race. He even points these fallacies out to God so that I will lose my election.

However...

I have one who stands in my defense, one who is blameless in every way. He does not listen to the accusations, not because he thinks I would never do such a thing, he knows, he just refuses to let me be bound by my failures. He has set me free, he has washed me, he has declared that I am BLAMELESS.

The Lord Is There

As I was finishing Ezekiel today, I got bogged down with the details of a Temple that was never built. I was having difficulty understanding why God devoted such a large narrative to describing everything about the building.

Then in chapter 43 it tells Ezekiel to describe the temple so that Israel will be ashamed of their sins. I suppose that hearing the wonderful plans God had in store for them would make them ashamed that they ever turned their backs on Him in the first place.

It describes the Glory of the Lord returning to the temple and dwelling among them. It describes a River of Life flowing out of the temple. Then it closes with the name of the city that houses the temple:

The LORD Is There!

What a place to live! Who wouldn't want to live there! Real Estate values would skyrocket.

And yet...

We carry around in our bodies the Living God. The same sign should be on our clothes. People should be flocking towards us to share this gift from God!

Do people recognize that the Lord is here?
Do you feel ashamed of your sin when you realize the plans God has in store for you?

These are just some of the questions I have wrestled with in the closing chapters of Ezekiel. Next up is Daniel. I am looking forward to that.

Dry Bones

In my walk through the bible (literally since I listen while walking with my son Jude every morning), I have come to Ezekiel 37. This verse is not one that is new to me, having known of the Dry Bones ministry in Denver for several years, which centers it's philosophy of ministry around God's supreme ability to raise to life the dead in any situation(the picture above was copied from their website). It just so happens that those dry bones where only MOSTLY dead.

I think that most Christians believe that principle at some level intellectually. I also think that it is proportionally easier to believe with the increase of distance. I have no trouble believing in the great revivals of China and Africa, but it is very difficult for me to see hope in the churches of America.

There are such vast forces arrayed against us that it often appears to be a hopeless situation. When I was young, school kids with regular access to pornography were in the vast minority. Recently, I had to confront a parent with the fact that their 9 year old was viewing hard core pornography on their home computer. And this is one of the good families, one of the best. It terrifies me to think of how many children are growing up with unchecked sexual addictions. Just like any drug, pornography leads to heavier doses, and more fatal drugs. I fear that the sexual crime rate will be skyrocketing very soon.

I also recently heard a statistic that only about 10% of children today are growing up in a family with both biological parents. 1 out of 10 children are being raised in a family like the one God designed. The numbers of fatherless boys is at an epidemic level.

What can the church do in such times?

Even the ideal church would be hard pressed to serve the world in times like these. But look at the condition of our church. We are so utterly divided, we are almost unrecognizable as the body of Christ. Of the 15 or so Churches of Christ in the county, there are only two that we can fellowship with. There are much more splits than mergers, and so many issues that divide those who still worship in the same building.

I do feel like Elisha's servant when surrounded by Arameans. I pray that God opens my eyes so that I can see HIS ARMY with my own eyes. I believe he can raise up these dry bones, I just need help overcoming my unbelief.