The Truth About Bible Translations...

...is that you oughta pick up a Bible and read it, for cryin' out loud!

(If you want my opinion on the best translations, ask me.  In the meantime, get in there and read.)

Not So Fast...

You only think you know me.  If you know me personally, you probably think I'm a nice fella.  Decent family, good character, funny, plays guitar and sings.  You might know me just by the words on this blog, much like how I "know" a lot of other people.  Really, none of all that would be inaccurate, but it wouldn't be the complete picture.  Sometimes that troubles me a bit.  You know, to think of how other people are perceiving me because of the things I do and am involved in, yet knowing all too well the parts of me they don't see.  If people knew me, like really knew me, would they feel the same way?  What if they knew about my clever use of passive aggression, my loathing for people, my tainted imagination, and my depressive tendencies?

Of all the other humans on earth, my wife knows me best: the good as well as the bad and the ugly.  But even she doesn't know me as intimately as I do.  Not a day goes by anymore that I'm not struck by the realization of where I'd be if the Father hadn't found me, if Christ hadn't saved me, and if the Holy Spirit wasn't doing His sanctifying work in me.  If anything worthwhile comes out of my writing or ministry or living...it's just Jesus, and that's all it can ever be.

 

Pining For The Fjords (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

What an incredible thing to be brought to life by the Spirit of God!  When there was no possibility of self-resuscitation, God, through His Spirit, by the work of Christ, called me out of darkness and into life.  I wasn't just unconcerned about God before that day, it wasn't that I hadn't gotten around to getting saved yet - the problem was that I was "dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1).  As Dan Phillips puts it in The World Tilting Gospel (while cleverly alluding two classic cult films - can you name them?):

"Paul says that we are dead. Not 'resting.'  Not 'pining for the Fjords.'  Not 'getting better.' Not 'only mostly dead.'"

When you're dead, he adds, "that's it.  The music swells, the credits roll, the movie is over....There are not degrees of death.  Death is an absolute.  It is a toggle switch, not a dimmer."

Consider where you would be, believer, if the "wind" of the Spirit had not revived you to repentance.  Now go worship, and work to see others brought to life.

Praying More Accurately

Ever notice how selfish our prayers are at times?  Ever realize how often we totally miss the point in prayer?  Without denying the fact that we need to pray for wisdom and guidance, Derek W. H. Thomas helps us think more clearly and accurately about the content of our prayers in his book How The Gospel Brings Us All The Way Home:

"Instead of a preoccupation with issues of guidance (the preoccupation of our era), we should be concerned to ask the Lord:  'How can I live in a way that reflects the holiness of my Savior?', 'Will You show me how to deny myself?', 'Which sin, or part of a sin, am I to kill today?' "

The World Needs Tilting

Last week (from the time of this writing) at T4G I met up with an old friend, met a new friend, and met Dan Phillips. Dan was friendly and I expect would make a fine friend, but I'm not sure our five minute conversation constitutes friendship, although it most certainly is an acquaintance, and I look forward to chatting with him again sometime either here, there or in the air.

A few months back I read Dan's book, The World-Tilting Gospel, and found myself highlighting a whole-lotta-stuff (technical term).  Since I met Dan in person last week, and since T4G is all about keeping the Gospel the center of our faith, life and practice, I think the following quote from TWTG more than apropos:

"The world needs tilting, and bad doctrinal barriers need busting. I say we do it....The greatest need of the church today is a strategic, full-orbed, robust, biblical grasp of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its transformative implications.  We don't need more glitz or glamour, better marketing or programs, snazzier decor or entertainment.  We do need a whole-Bible grasp of the Gospel."

It seems an odd thing to say, but the church does indeed need to stay vigorously centered on the Gospel; many churches are way off target.  As for transformation, what the Gospel does for the Church, it does for individual believers.  When I allow the Gospel to define my walk and filter my talk, to reign in my ego and open up my heart, Blaine Moore looks like a different person...more like Christ.

Caught Off Guard

Do you know what T4G is? Click and learn. The music is just one of the many soul-nourishing aspects of the T4G conference. It ain't loud (I like loud), it ain't plugged in (I like electric guitars on 11), and it ain't flashy (I like pyrotechnics). It is Bob Kauflin leading thousands of men in song from a piano: songs that are full of rich meaning and beautifully lyricised doctrine (and I like that the best).

Two years ago at T4G I was stopped in my singing tracks several times when tears came and my vocal chords had to halt. This year it didn't happen until the last day of the conference and we were singing "When Trials Come" by Keith and Kristyn Getty. We sang it in a somewhat more hymnlike fashion than the Getty's recording below, but the melody and words are the same, and it was halfway through the third verse when I suddenly stopped singing and the began to weep with joy.

"My confidence will rest in You, Your love endures, Your ways are good."

A Text From My Father

I really, REALLY, want to write about my experiences at T4G last week, but this story has to come first. All things considered, I suppose it is, in actuality, related to T4G in that it pertained to my trip home.

You see, I rode a motorcycle to T4G...was hoping Mark Dever would do an elimination round where I would be the only one left standing because I got there on two wheels, but oh well...and as the day of my 572 mile return trip drew near (the trip out was roughly the same *wink wink* ), heavy storms had entered the forecast near my destination.

This was really no big deal as far as riding was concerned as I've ridden in all kinds of weather, but it DID have the effect of prompting me to bug out of T4G a few hours earlier than I would have liked.

Other people were more concerned than I was, however, and sometime during the course of that day, before I had hit the road, I received a text from my 72 year old father. Yes, he texts. The message read:

"Good morning! Looks like you might get some rain today. Don't put yourself in danger...call and I'll come & get you if it's not safe. Dad."

Now read that again, keeping in mind his age, and my own (41). That is, I think, one of the sweetest things a dad could say to a son isn't it: "I'll come & get you if it's not safe." Do I even need to draw the spiritual connections here, or aren't they already painted in your heart and mind? Don't know if Dad is aware of what a beautiful, Godly thing he wrote in that simplest of statements. But I'm sure somebody in my nosey family will see this and point him toward my blog ;)

Apparently you never stop being a dad. I'll be pleased as punch if, in 30 years, I'm communicating these kinds of messages to my five boys. And I'm pretty sure this will have an influence on my dad skills right here and now.

While I'm thinking "dad" thoughts, CLICK HERE for a side trip to my dad's garage you can take as a bonus.

Go West, Not Left

A finely-aged repost...At 5:30 this morning, I woke up (unintentionally) and began thinking and then blindly writing notes on my hand so I wouldn't forget my thoughts when it came time to crawl out of bed an hour later. I had been dreaming about a friend. In my dream I was giving him directions, strangely enough, to his own house. As I crossed the fuzzy divide between reverie and wakefulness I began to think about how different people give directions.

Some folks are right-left navigators: Go here, take a left, when you get there, go right, and then after this far, take a left. Others are "compass" people: Go east on that street, then head north at the next street, the place you need will be on the west side.

The first method is OK, but the problem is that it only works from one starting point, because right and left are different depending on whether you're heading north or south. That is to say, right and left "change" depending on which direction your nose is pointing.

I like "compass" directions, because even if I make a wrong turn, or head to a location from a different route than the direction-giver, I know that North, South, East and West are still the same.

Alright. So all this is going through my head in the wee hours. Then I think: well, that reminds me somewhat of a Pyromaniac post I read earlier in the week!

People argue about directions all the time; everybody has their own "shortcut". When you're driving to Wal-Mart, the method and route are negotiable. However, when Heaven, Truth and eternity are the goal - there really is only one way. And furthermore, the directions Christians are handing out had better be accurate. The roadmap a preacher presents had better use compass headings that don't change, instead of nebulous instructions such as, "head up that hill, veer left at the windmill, then go a little right at the red barn, and you'll see it up ahead there a-ways." (Post-modern translation: feel good about yourself, form "god" in whatever image suits you, be nice and heaven will be waiting for you...")

People need to hear someone tell them, "Go west", not, "Go left". There's just too much room for error in "go left."

If a preacher, or any Christian, is responsible and wise and compassionate, they won't steer someone else wrong when it comes to directions as important as the True Gospel.

Resemblance

A well-aged repost... One of my sons got a haircut the other day, a major one. As in, we can actually see his eyes now! When I saw him for the first time after the haircut, I was actually startled. I couldn't believe how much he looked like me. A younger son has also inherited many of my features, including my darker skin.

Another one of my boys got his driver's license recently and his face is almost an exact replica of my wife's when she was his age. Yet another son looks just like my wife when he is sleeping.

There are many times that I regard our boys with wonder - I marvel at the mystery of these wonderful creations that are half me and half their mother and fully themselves. I see US in THEM. It can almost be too much to wrap my heart and mind around. Times like that, I feel such a bond with them and with my wife. For me, it just emphasizes the love we share and the family bond we have.

My hope and prayer is that my heavenly Father looks upon me and sees a family resemblance. I hope He sees His Son in me. I'm certainly not a perfect child; without a doubt I'm often quite disappointing. In spite of myself, however, I want more than anything to grow up to be like Christ. I'm comforted by the fact that, even though I am riddled with inconsistency and have at points in the past given my "family" a bad name, my Father is patient, I have His DNA, and I am becoming more like Christ as the years go by. Soli Deo gloria.

2 Corinthians 3: 18 "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."

Earnest

Francis Schaeffer wrote a very readable commentary on the first half of Romans called "The Finished Work of Christ." I highly recommend it. Schaeffer was one of the last century's greatest Christian thinkers and apologists. Below is an excerpt from the book, expounding on Romans 8:23:

"In English law,it used to be the custom that when a portion of land was purchased, the person who was selling the land handed . . . a handful of his soil to the person who was buying it. That handful of soil was the "earnest," or promise, that the whole had been purchased. When you and I are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, this is an earnest of the fact that the whole has been purchased by the blood of the Lamb. The earnest is already ours. He dwells within us in the person of the Holy Spirit. He is the proof that the whole has been purchased. And what is the whole? The whole is the redemption of our bodies. Because the Spirit indwells us, we can be sure that the Lord has purchased our whole being, and the He will one day claim it by raising us from the dead."

In life we endure all sorts of physical trials, from being fatigued to migraines to the painful wasting of dreaded diseases. Ailments are immediate, that is, they directly confront our senses, and therefore factor largely in our day to day life. There are two facts, however, that can (hopefully) somewhat dull the edge of physical suffering.

First, if we are true followers of Christ, the most important healing has already taken place. What good is a healthy body with a sick and withered soul separated from God? How much better to have, through faith in Christ, a soul that is well, forgiven and at peace. Whether we are hale or frail, our salvation is the most important thing.

Second, those who are Christ's can be assured, as Schaeffer's quote explains, that there certainly WILL come a time of healing for the body as well. And not just a healing, but a re-making. Redemption doesn't end with our soul's salvation. Redemption's work is completed when we are united with Christ and our mortal bodies are reworked and remade into immortal bodies. Cool. In Christ, pain is temporary, peace is forever.

Wondrous