Things I Think…
1. Today is of course, the anniversary of the attacks of 09/11/2001.
I wasn’t planning on writing anything myself, but was surprised that I saw few mentions of the day in general.
I think it good and necessary to remember the lives lost, but don’t know what to say beyond that.
The government used the event to lay down the foundation of a surveillance society and we fought wars of dubious virtue in its wake. I’m beginning to think that future historians (if there is a future with historians) may see the date as the time the great experiment began to fail. I’m getting paranoid enough to wonder if we’re due for another tragedy meant to bring a brief season of unity…I probably need to take another pill…
2. Today is also Patriot Day…didn’t know that until I saw a comment here…we don’t pay much attention to ceremonial days unless a day off comes with them…
3. Usually the first day of football season is a big deal to me…my favorite escape from reality…maybe it’s just me, but I’m finding it harder and harder to be distracted…
4. I think I’ve made it clear that I don’t hold to a fundamentalist, literalist, interpretation of scripture…so I need to make this clear as well…I believe that in a season of deceit and deceivers, that the Scriptures are where we do find truth and the only way to understand what it means to be humans living as fallen people in a fallen world…I cling to the book more and more every day…
5. I get asked a lot lately if I think we’re in the “end times” after years of mocking such notions…yes, I do think we’re in the end times, I’m just not sure if it’s the end of our current governmental structures or the end of everything…I’m not fun at parties, either…
6. I got some pushback because I spoke highly of the New Living Bible translation…I’m trying to care…not really…here’s the deal…the vast majority of Christians cannot read Greek, Hebrew, or Aramaic…we all read a translation…I’m all for anything that helps people fall in love with Scripture and it’s my conviction that the NLT is such a tool…
7. I’m taking the biblical admonitions about deception very seriously…I question everything I read, whether it seems to affirm what I want to think or not…go and do likewise…
8. I’m finding C.S. Lewis more helpful than ever…
9. You know what I hear very little about these days? New converts…
10. Every day now, I have to stop my mother from “packing”…stuffing clothes and food in bags…because she thinks someone is coming to take her “home”… I wonder what she’s actually hearing and from who in the fog of dementia…I know this is common among dementia patients, but I still wonder if her spirit is hearing what her brain can’t process…
You know what I hear very little about these days? New converts…
I think more than a few of us are wondering, “What exactly are
they being converted to?”
bob 1,
I don’t hear much about new converts, period.I could be wrong, but it seems to me that activism has taken the place of evangelism…
“… but it seems to me that activism has taken the place of evangelism…”
I was just reading a Roys article about Evangelism Explosion being involved in this week’s Pray Vote Stand Summit in DC. Trump is scheduled to be there. Gag!!
You’re thinking later than ever into the first day of the week.
But you’re making some insightful observations.
You wrote: “I believe that in a season of deceit and deceivers, that the Scriptures are where we do find truth and the only way to understand what it means to be humans living as fallen people in a fallen world…I cling to the book more and more every day…”
All I can say in response is Amen. Alleluia! Praise the Lord!
CK,
They are simply giving in and promoting the spirit of the age…sad…
#6 – The pastor of the biggest CC here in Phoenix took a lot of heat for often quoting from both the NLT and The Message during his sermons.
Jean,
Life keeps getting in the way of being pithy… 🙂
I’ve always been a Bible guy…but I’m more enveloped in it than ever…
CK,
I was quite the Bible snob for a long time…but anything that helps me convey the truth of Scripture to others is a gift from God…my people love the NLT so I’ll love it as well.
The weird thing is: If someone, anyone, even my worst enemy, invokes the Word of God, I must agree with him, even if in 1,000 other non-biblical matters we have nothing in common.
Jean,
There is much truth to that…
Michael,
There is much truth to what you write every week.
You can’t imagine what it is like to share a theological confession with those who you cannot share a temporal confession.
It is painful beyond belief. It’s similar to having a relative whom you love with an alcohol problem or drug addiction. You want to help, but nothing you say changes anything.
Jean,
Thank you for the kind words.
“You can’t imagine what it is like to share a theological confession with those who you cannot share a temporal confession.”
I can do more than imagine…I’ve had to shrink my personal world considerably…I grieve for those who have this conflict in their homes…
Michael,
What makes it particularly painful is when one’s theology clearly points one to a moral way of Christian life, while others claiming the same theology find interpretations that baptize or excuse immorality.
Jean,
I hear you…”the ends justify the means” is not scripture…
Converted to faith in Jesus — there is nothing else.
When our eyes are opened there is only Jesus.
I don’t know why scorn is so much easier to access than delight.
Ps 1
For now, phxP is my church ( I know Micheal rejects that designation, but it isn’t his church, just mine 🙂
I am so very thankful for everyone who comments here. For me, you are all bringing a psalm, hymn or spiritual song. Each person involved here, whether I have agreed with you or bumped heads consistently, has pointed me back to Jesus over and over and I thank God for you daily.
#6 – So many believers think that by going to war against a particular translation, they will win others to their preferred translation. I think what actually happens, is people get discouraged when the one translation they understand is trashed by someone they respect. Then they just give up on the bible all together.
#9 – I used to see tweets from a couple of local mega churches every week with a 3 or 4 digit figure “356 people came to Christ today!”. I found them obnoxious then…but I’m not seeing them anymore.
#10 – I pray your mom finds peace and home. I’m not talking about passing on, but about abiding in God in the here and now, regardless of what her mental function is right now. God has to be capable. Micheal, you’ve ministered to so many of us for decades now. I know this has burdened you for some time. I pray you fine peace too.
Josh,
It really makes a difference to me to know what we do matters…thank you.
#6…You nailed it. Outside of some obviously heretical version, I don’t really care which Bible a person uses. In church, we all need to use the same one for the most part, but after church is over…I could care less as long as you’re reading one at all. I go back and forth between the NRSV and the NLT at home…depends on my purpose.
#9… It just doesn’t seem like evangelism has the same import that it had in prior days…something has gone sideways…
#10…Thanks…she’s always been a fervent non believer because of how believers treated her for most of her life…and honestly, that became a license to sin. Dementia is a cruel death…for everyone involved.
Dementia- my dad is in the early stages. It is such an awful path. God bless you brother, and I’m confident God will still find her.
Josh,
I’m saddened to hear that your dad and your family have to walk this path…praying for you as always, my friend.
Thanks brother. He’s still in the “more good days than bad days” phase…but the tide is quickly shifting.
My daughter, the nurse, says that I, too am in dementia.
Can’t agree – no voices, still recognize everyone and I can still add, subract and divide…..
dunno, though, do I? (-:
#10 – so, so sorry, praying here also
my mother blamed EVERYTHING on God
Em – to me, you seem sharp as a tack. My dad could not log in to a website and have cogent conversations with others. No way.
Em,
Josh makes a good point.
My mom used to be able to use Facebook and email…she can’t even turn the computer on.
She can’t use a microwave or a toaster and can no longer separate dreams from reality.
You may be experiencing some memory loss…but so am I…
I like translations that do not have the formal tone that was derived from the KJV, I think that most translations that we have today follow this path. I think that the New Testament was written in the common man’s language and dynamic equivalent translations catch the original time better than literal. I’m any case literal makes little sense to me because word order of Hebrew/Greek is not the same as English.
Robin,
I think you make a good point.
The important thing is to find a Bible that you are comfortable with…
Josh and Michael – I appreciate the encouraging words
they say people in the medical professions worry too much – possible
New converts…what is that?
JK.
Actually that is sad but true.
I hope this ties in somehow…
Discouraged today because I wasted time trying to show in the Bible how believers are supposed to act towards those outside the faith, and I am dismayed that from BELIEVERS comes lots of venom and hate.
Dan,
It ties in…like a knot.
Too many believers want to belong to an exclusive club…
Thanks Michael…the whole exchange left a bad taste in my mouth and sorrow how believers today have given themselves over to anger and hate.
Dan,
It’s the water we swim in now…
Pray Vote Stand Summit.
Pray I get–we are directed to do so without ceasing.
Vote I get–every once in a while a ballot shows up and I check a few bubbles and mail it.
Stand I don’t get. I like to sit and walk also. Lie down in my bed…mmmmm.
Summit I don’t get. I’m too old to climb Everest, Kilimanjaro, or Tetons. Heck, getting to the top of my street is a feat without my dogs pulling me…
I don’t publicize what we do, but 2 college freshmen and 2 college freshwomen (sic?) just made decisions to become new Christians in the past 8 days, and we baptized a lapsed older believer who repented of serious sins…..
and I’ve witnessed to 2 white kids raised in the states in a matter of days, raised here, speak English, who’ve NEVER been to church one time, who’ve NEVER read ANY of the Bible….the need is great.
Pray for J and K.
Michael and PP community, what do you think of The Message?
BrianD,
I think it’s a useful paraphrase…Peterson knew what he doing.
Since I wrote this I’ve received notes and pictures from pastors showing the harvest coming in…grateful for all the notes and their work…