already/not yet, & the gospel of the kingdom

This is the good news about the kingdom of God. How men need this gospel! Everywhere one goes he finds the gaping graves swallowing up the dying. Tears of loss, of separation, of final departure stain every face. Every table sooner or later has an empty chair, every fireside its vacant place. Death is the great leveller. Wealth or poverty, fame or oblivion, power or futility, success or failure, race, creed or culture — all our human distinctions mean nothing before the ultimate irresistible sweep of the scythe of death which cuts us all down. And whether the mausoleum is a fabulous Taj Mahal, a massive pyramid, an unmarked spot of ragged grass or the unplotted depths of the sea one fact stands: death reigns.

Apart from the gospel of the kingdom, death is the mighty conqueror before whom we are all helpless. We can only beat our fists in utter futility against this unyielding and unresponding tomb. But the good news is this: death has been defeated; our conqueror has been conquered. In the face of the power of the kingdom of God in Christ, death was helpless. It could not hold him, death has been defeated; life and immortality have been brought to life. An empty tomb in Jerusalem is proof of it. This is the gospel of the kingdom.

This quote from George Ladd's The Gospel of the Kingdom is powerful.  We can easily get caught up in the theological discussions of millennial positions and end times.  However, where the rubber meets the road, it is all about the kingdom, and more specifically, about the King!

Merry Christmas!

Isaiah 9:2-7

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shone.
You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

Read more on ESV.org

Word for today

Matt. 6.19-34 (selections)

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ...

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? ... if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ... But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.

Quote

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.
- Saint Augustine

Ah, what a challenge! My wife and I have been blessed to travel some, not so much as tourists but mingling with people.  Our hearts' desire is that the Lord grant more of this in the future, that we might share the joy of His excellencies  among all peoples!

God's moral perfection

"The truth is that part of God’s moral perfection is his perfection in judgment. Would a God who did not care about the difference between right and wrong be a good and admirable Being? Would a God who put no distinction between the beasts of history, the Hitlers and Stalins (if we dare use names), and his own saints, be morally praiseworthy and perfect? Moral indifference would be an imperfection in God, not a perfection. But not to judge the world would be to show moral indifference. The final proof that God is a perfect moral Being, not indifferent to questions of right and wrong, is the fact that he has committed himself to judge the world."

- Knowing God by J.I. Packer, Chapter 14, page 162

Quote

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.

- Leonardo da Vinci

Marriage a Mark of Privilege?

A fascinating article from the NY Times titled How Did Marriage Become a Mark of Privilege?
(by Claire Cain Miller, Sept 25 2017).

The article states:

Currently, 26 percent of poor adults, 39 percent of working-class adults and 56 percent of middle- and upper-class adults ages 18 to 55 are married, according to a research brief published from two think tanks, the American Enterprise Institute and Opportunity America.

In 1990, more than half of adults were married, with much less difference based on class and education: 51 percent of poor adults, 57 percent of working-class adults and 65 percent of middle- and upper-class adults were married.

A big reason for the decline: Unemployed men are less likely to be seen as marriage material.

Just consider these changes in the percent of US population who are married in just the span of a generation:

Group	1990	2017
poor adults	51	26
working-class adults	57	39
upper-class adults	65	56

The article continues:

Americans across the income spectrum still highly value marriage, sociologists have found. 

This is good.  What's more...

Most men feel it’s important for a husband to be a financial provider, especially men without college degrees, according to another new Pew survey.

Again, this is a good thing.  Then we start to see the cracks forming...

Women, meanwhile, have learned from watching a generation of divorce that they need to be able to support themselves. And many working-class women aren’t interested in taking responsibility for a man without a job.

Agreed; I understand this perspective. In part, this is an indictment of our culture's lackadaisical attitude or understanding of marriage: contract vs. covenant.  This, in my view, is an outworking of the secularization of our culture: if there is no transcendent authority to which we, as humans, give an oath or who holds us accountable for a covenant, marriage becomes a relationship of convenience and pleasure.  Marriage relationships founded on this perspective are not sustainable (consider even Aristotle's writings), hence resulting in divorce, and hence women's reluctance to marry.

The article continues

When thinking about how to make families more stable, researchers debate whether the decline in marriage is an economic issue or a cultural one. Those on the left usually say it’s economic — and could be reversed if there were more and better jobs for men without college degrees. Those on the right are more likely to say it’s because of a deterioration of cultural values.

In reality, economics and culture both play a role, and influence each other, social scientists say. When well-paying jobs became scarce for less educated men, they became less likely to marry. As a result, the culture changed: Marriage was no longer the norm, and out-of-wedlock childbirth was accepted. Even if jobs returned, an increase in marriage wouldn’t necessarily immediately follow.

Economists often downplay cultural factors, Mr. Hanson said. “We think about marriage in a laboratory setting, and ignore the role of churches and bowling leagues and community organizations,” he said. “When you have job decline in a big way, that fabric unravels. So even if you bring the jobs back, once the damage is done, it might take a while to repair.”

Agreed, completely! The situation is not either/or; there is no simple answers (as our politicians on both the left and right may have us think).  There is a HUGE role for the church in this question:  teaching and demonstrating a renewed perspective on what marriage is (one man, one woman, one lifetime), the origination of marriage (God), the beauty and satisfaction and joy and struggles and hardships which marriage entails, the analogy of marriage (Christ and the church), and the climax of history which this foreshadows (the marriage supper of the Lamb).

All in all, a balanced article.  Well done New York Times!

hurricanes & climate change

This is another recent segment from TWEII discussing the idea of hurricanes and a relationship to climate change.  I appreciate the perspective; explaining the potential link, and the long-term perspective.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwqBxpGbW8WXT1RlS1E0X0lQNzA

10/8 addition

Dr. Jay Wile has some even more informative posts on this topic.

Sept 11 2017:  http://blog.drwile.com/the-current-hurricane-activity-is-not-unusual-from-a-scientific-perspective/

Sept 14 2017:  http://blog.drwile.com/one-of-the-most-important-aspects-of-global-climate-is-still-completely-undetermined/

adjust worship style to demographics

This segment aired recently on The World and Everything In It (from World News Group).  It served as a good reminder of the need to be sensitive to changing demographics, styles, etc.  While the content and the message does not change, the channel and the style can adapt. 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BwqBxpGbW8WXdm9pSGVTMkRzNHM

To you our morning song of praise,
To you our evening prayer we raise;
In lowly song your glory we adore
O God, now, forever and forevermore.

(Luther, following Ambrose)

from Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
http://a.co/e9xsYwP

Alive in Christ

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.
- Colossians 2.13-15

Two cities, Two loves

(worth repeating of this post from February 2014)

Accordingly, two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God: the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greatest glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, “Thou art my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.”

St. Augustine.  The City of God, Book XIV, Chap. 28: Of the nature of the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly

Saint Augustine, The Confessions; The City of God; On Christian Doctrine, ed. Mortimer J. Adler and Philip W. Goetz, trans. R. S. Pine-Coffin, J. F. Shaw, and Marcus Dods, Second Edition., vol. 16, Great Books of the Western World (Chicago; Auckland; Geneva; London; Madrid; Manila; Paris; Rome; Seoul; Sydney; Tokyo; Toronto: Robert P. Gwinn; Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 1990), 455.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

The Second Coming

W. B. Yeats, 1865 - 1939

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, 
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

This poem is in the public domain.

We are free
And God is free-er.

In 2017, Lord please make the fragrance of my life be pleasing and honoring to You.  2 Cor. 2-3:

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. ... our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. ... Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.