When I was young I grew up thinking that eternal life meant "going to heaven when you die". How wrong I was. Jesus didn't leave his Father, come to this broken wretched world and become a human being, die a criminals death staked to a piece of wood, rise from the dead, only to sell us some fire insurance.
Making the Gospel - the good news of Jesus - only about escaping hell, receiving some forgiveness of your sins, and then spending an eternity in paradise with God is an absolute tragedy! It's so much more than that.
Jesus knew we would be confused about this idea of eternal life - which in Jesus day happened to be a very popular idea with perhaps several different meanings attached to it. So Jesus defined it for us. He spelled it out when he said in His prayer to his Father in John 17:3 " And this is eternal life," he says "that they may know you the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent."
Jesus is saying here that eternal life is to know God - to actually know him, like you know your spouse or your friend. This means that we can be intimately acquainted with God, to interact with God, to have conversations with God, to experience God! Isn't that exciting? An this is what eternal life is!
Jesus has reconciled us to God and restored as human beings who can know and relate with their Creator and Father.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
This Biblically illiteral Generation
My wife and I happened to land on the last few minutes of Jeprody the other day. The final Jeprody question was "words in the bible". I love it when they do anything bible related on Jeprody. I remember when i was a kid, I had this picture bible. It was a biblical comic book. I loved it. It helped guarantee many a victory at Bible trivia games in subsequent years.
The final jeprody question was: "From Genesis "For this reason a man shall ____ his parents and _____ to his wife." One letter is added to one to make the other."
Can you believe not a single contestant got it? Catherine and i both thought it was so easy. any of them would have only had to read a couple chapters into genesis to know. They knew millions of other random bits of trivia but they didn't know what god, the one who created them, has to say?
knowing the bible, of course, is only the first step - living it and teaching it to others is where its at. my wife and i just finished reading the book of Ezra. Ezra was a biblical scholar - an expert in the revelation of God. He committed himself to study the Torah, To live it out and to teach others. I suppose my fear is that i don't have what it takes to actually live out the word of god, but God says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He says his commands are not burdensome.
I have been reading a number of songwriting books lately. How useless it would be to know everything there is to know about songwriting, and never write a song. Sadly, this is exactly how it is for many who "know their bibles". I should know - I'm one of them.
How did the fact that i could beat most everyone at bible trivia help me to love others well? In fact it did just the opposite. Somehow instead I ended up with a sense of superiority over all those bucolically illiterates. So you see, "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." just as the bible says.
so does this mean we don't study the word of God because it may puff up our spiritual egos and make us nauseating to ourselves and others? no, it means we spend the time learning about how to write a better song, and then go out and live one.
The final jeprody question was: "From Genesis "For this reason a man shall ____ his parents and _____ to his wife." One letter is added to one to make the other."
Can you believe not a single contestant got it? Catherine and i both thought it was so easy. any of them would have only had to read a couple chapters into genesis to know. They knew millions of other random bits of trivia but they didn't know what god, the one who created them, has to say?
knowing the bible, of course, is only the first step - living it and teaching it to others is where its at. my wife and i just finished reading the book of Ezra. Ezra was a biblical scholar - an expert in the revelation of God. He committed himself to study the Torah, To live it out and to teach others. I suppose my fear is that i don't have what it takes to actually live out the word of god, but God says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He says his commands are not burdensome.
I have been reading a number of songwriting books lately. How useless it would be to know everything there is to know about songwriting, and never write a song. Sadly, this is exactly how it is for many who "know their bibles". I should know - I'm one of them.
How did the fact that i could beat most everyone at bible trivia help me to love others well? In fact it did just the opposite. Somehow instead I ended up with a sense of superiority over all those bucolically illiterates. So you see, "knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." just as the bible says.
so does this mean we don't study the word of God because it may puff up our spiritual egos and make us nauseating to ourselves and others? no, it means we spend the time learning about how to write a better song, and then go out and live one.
"Boom"
In an effort to get a little creative and add a little percussion to a certain very peaceful track, incidently named, "I will give you peace", I loaded in a "boom" with lots of verb so it would sound really spacious. I wanted to get Dale our Cello players very honest opinion, so i didn't tell him it was coming when I had him listen to it the first time. When he heard it he said, "Woe, dude, that sounds like an atom bomb going off, where did you get that? atom bomb.com?"
It's kind of funny he should say that because it was in a song where Jesus is saying, "I will give you peace" - especially ironic that the bomb should explode on "peace" my wife pointed out. Wow, that is hilarious. Needless to say we did not include the atom bomb in the final version.
I had this crazy dream that I was Jesus and angry people were coming to crucify me. I remembered thinking, "Didn't we do this already? Why can't you just love me instead?"
I vaguely remember a verse about crucifying the Son of God all over again. What's that all about? I'll check it out... wow... Here is the passage I was thinking of out of Hebrews 6 (be sure to read through to the end, it's pretty heavy stuff):
4For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— 6and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
7When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing. 8But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.
9Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. 10For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers,b as you still do. 11Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. 12Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.
Does anyone have some insights about this?
Daniel
www.reflectworship.com
It's kind of funny he should say that because it was in a song where Jesus is saying, "I will give you peace" - especially ironic that the bomb should explode on "peace" my wife pointed out. Wow, that is hilarious. Needless to say we did not include the atom bomb in the final version.
I had this crazy dream that I was Jesus and angry people were coming to crucify me. I remembered thinking, "Didn't we do this already? Why can't you just love me instead?"
I vaguely remember a verse about crucifying the Son of God all over again. What's that all about? I'll check it out... wow... Here is the passage I was thinking of out of Hebrews 6 (be sure to read through to the end, it's pretty heavy stuff):
4For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, 5who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come— 6and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
7When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing. 8But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.
9Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. 10For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers,b as you still do. 11Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. 12Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.
Does anyone have some insights about this?
Daniel
www.reflectworship.com
Whistling
I’ve developed a habit lately that I haven’t really considered a bad habit until perhaps today. Whistling. Not whistling a tune. It’s usually just one piercing note, or perhaps a bird call (I specialize in bird sounds). My wife is constantly annoyed by it saying it’s a bad habit. I always told her that it wasn’t a bad habit, it was a good one, and then I’d whistle again.
Today I was having lunch with a friend and as the girl was ringing up my order I whistled. I didn’t even mean to, it just came out. I then mumbled something about how I sometimes do that. She pretended not to notice. And for a moment I felt silly. But just for a moment. Then, as I walked away, I whistled.
I’ve developed a habit lately that I haven’t really considered a bad habit until perhaps today. Whistling. Not whistling a tune. It’s usually just one piercing note, or perhaps a bird call (I specialize in bird sounds). My wife is constantly annoyed by it saying it’s a bad habit. I always told her that it wasn’t a bad habit, it was a good one, and then I’d whistle again.
Today I was having lunch with a friend and as the girl was ringing up my order I whistled. I didn’t even mean to, it just came out. I then mumbled something about how I sometimes do that. She pretended not to notice. And for a moment I felt silly. But just for a moment. Then, as I walked away, I whistled.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
