TRIPPED UP BY TRAPPINGS

[A Monday / Wednesday / Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]

I wonder why God seems to create opportunities for people to try to replace conversation with stuff. Deuteronomy 6:8-9 is a case in point. With the directive to bind God's commands on the hand, make them to be frontlets between the eyes, and write them on the posts and gates of their houses, he seems to have set Israel up for the Pharisaical, symbolic elitism in Jesus’ day.

With no specific directions, descriptions, and precedents, the Jewish leaders of later centuries developed elaborate amulets (phylacteries) of varying kinds and sizes in which were tucked copies of the commands of Deuteronomy 6. These were strapped to their arms and their foreheads. More copies were placed in boxes and fastened to their doors (mezuzahs) and touched when entering the house.

What happened to these directives is a God-given warning against associating faith and obedience with any particular methodology or trappings not explicitly described and given precedent in Scripture. These can become methods of self-promotion, self-deception and self-righteous one-up-manship. Want to know how close I am to God? Count the plaques on my walls.

Many traditions are not bad in and of themselves. They can even be beneficial for the memory; but none should be institutionalized as divinely mandated signs or substitutes for spiritual relationships. We do well to remember, the “stuff” of worship and celebration can become more hallowed than it ought. The church has only two absolutely prescribed ordinances (baptism and the Lord’s table), and even those have become encrusted with elaborate rituals, trappings, and superstitions with no warrant whatsoever from Scripture.

My guess is there were things in Jesus' childhood home which reminded the family of God's Word. Perhaps some were etched on a wall. But I also suspect they may have been modest and unpretentious. In these devotional thoughts I continue to stress my thought that central to his home would have been the character and content of its conversation. If we fail to understand the conversational weight intended in the Deuteronomy directives, our decor may be falsified by our conduct. "Spiritual" plaques and pictures will not do our talking for us...or in spite of us.  

NEXT DEVOTIONAL: OF HANDS AND EYES AND GATES AND DOORS

PREVIOUS DEVOTIONAL: WE NEVER KNOW WHO’S LISTENING

FIRST DEVOTIONAL OF THIS SERIES

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ALL FIRST-ROAD ARTICLES

WE NEVER KNOW WHO'S LISTENING

[A Monday / Wednesday / Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]

Considering Deuteronomy 6:4-9 as a call to biblical conversation, we've highlighted the temptation to slip into discussions built around the errors of men, and we've addressed the danger of reducing Scripture to clichés. Other stumbling blocks include debate and insensitivity. 

As for debates, let me just say: some must happen. But we never know who's listening. Does Jesus want our hearers to say, "All they do is argue." 

Of greater concern is our handling of the sin issue. Here we face four problems. First is the subtle self righteousness of denial. It crops up in remarks such as, “I don’t see how people can do that.” What? Have you no struggles with your corrupt old nature? Jesus himself, although never sinning, was in all ways tempted as we are and, therefore, is an understanding high priest. Beware: "There but for the grace of God go I," can be a subtle way of saying, "I thank you, God, that I am not as other men." 

Second is the bold self righteousness of presumption. “I would never do anything stupid (vile, vulgar, wicked) like that.” Pride hath its pit. There’s more than one way to be stupid (vile, vulgar, wicked).

Third, is the tendency to demonize the wicked and then end up stuttering when they do something non-demonic. Jesus' parable of the good Samaritan is not pretty for a demonizer.

Finally, there is the laziness of an unsanctified imagination. We seem very informed and descriptive as to the ways of wickedness and the destiny of the damned, but can we speak conversationally with informed imagination of the way of righteousness or the beauty of holiness?

Yes, we never know who's listening. It may even be the person we're talking to. Do they hear us speak with compassionate understanding, humble honesty and respect, and an authentic delight in God and his ways? How do you suppose Jesus in his youth learned to respond to his brothers (and maybe even his parents) when they struggled with sins and failures?

   

NEXT DEVOTIONAL: TRIPPED UP BY TRAPPINGS

PREVIOUS DEVOTIONAL: RATIONAL, REAL TIME and with INTEGRITY

FIRST DEVOTIONAL OF THIS SERIES

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ALL FIRST-ROAD ARTICLES

RATIONAL, REAL TIME, and with INTEGRITY

[A Monday / Wednesday / Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]

A friend asked me: “What would it take for you to accept evolution?” I answered, “I would have to become irrational.” 

God is necessary, His creation requires His active presence and a sovereignty which allows for supernatural intervention if and when he chooses (miracles). It is saturated with information which implies an overarching purpose and begs Him to communicate an explainable (although not necessarily welcome) reason for order and chaos, joy and suffering. The existence of love, hope, and a sense of justice in the human heart give reason to think such an explanation would include hope or despair or both; and hope would need to be understandable in order to be desired and attainable for those who want it.

This rationality is the heartbeat of biblical conversation. The God who made us has given us his Word. It is real time, not speculative theory. That is, it lives and moves and has its being in daily life. And its content has integrity – it is understandable and applicable in any direction a conversation takes. 

Consider the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. While God’s Spirit takes the Word of God and brings it home to the heart, we have a responsibility to handle it rightly (rationally), give the sense (real time), and seek to know what someone thinks he heard us say (integrity). 

For example, are you aware of the look of glorifying God, or is it just a catch phrase? Is your conversational use of God's glory rational, real time, and a matter of integrity? How can God's glory be explained, imagined, and highlighted in conversation without going into preacher mode? How do the heavens with their clouds, stars, planets, and dangerous meteors “glorify him”? How does knowing this relate to being equipped for glorifying God through faith and good works in real time and with integrity in the neighborhood? Jesus demonstrated a remarkable skill in bringing these things together in his conversations with his disciples. 

NEXT DEVOTIONAL: WE NEVER KNOW WHO'S LISTENING

PREVIOUS DEVOTIONAL: HOW WELL DO YOU LIKE POP-UP ADS?

FIRST DEVOTIONAL OF THIS SERIES

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ALL FIRST-ROAD ARTICLES

HOW WELL DO YOU LIKE POP-UP ADS?

[A Monday / Wednesday / Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]

Talk when you sit at home, talk when you stroll down the sidewalk, when you go to bed, when you get up. In these commands God gives a picture of education as conversation, not as lecture and notes; and it flows from the Sovereign Commands to love God and to love one’s neighbor upon which all His law's hang. We’ll consider the reference to signs on hands, frontlets between eyes, and writings on doors and gates in time. For now, let's focus on the talk category with emphasis on content; and in doing so let’s begin with a caution.

Biblically oriented conversation in the spirit of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 does not refer to "plugging" in Bible thoughts like pop up ads on a web site. Some of those pop ups can be counterproductive. For example. There is the familiar remark – How can anyone say this just happened by accident? The question is a good one, but it can become a rhetorical cliché; and, worse, it can launch a discussion focused more on man’s thoughts rather than God’s truth. One does not honor his wife by pointing out the bad features of the one he didn’t marry. 

How could anyone be interested in Brunhilde?  

Take a moment to imagine a conversation about wisdom and design as realities and not part of an argument? Imagine immersing ourselves conversationally in the obvious, creative genius of our God without one nod to man’s errors. Imagine becoming awed by God's creative magnificence as we wonder together what would be necessary for us to invent something as beautiful or functional? We could even talk about how man uses God’s blueprints of create things we use? Being well grounded in the reality of design makes the fantasy of man-made "creation" theories stand out in bold relief. 

Maybe, in Jesus' humanity, some of that wonder was built into his sinless being through conversations with Dad and Mom. We know he was thoroughly comfortable with creation and did not seem inclined to plug in objections to Greek philosophical influences when he talked about it.  

NEXT DEVOTIONAL: RATIONAL, REAL-TIME and with INTEGRITY

PREVIOUS DEVOTIONAL: BIBLE STUDY OR BIBLE CONVERSATION?

FIRST DEVOTIONAL OF THIS SERIES

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ALL FIRST-ROAD ARTICLES

BIBLE STUDY OR BIBLE CONVERSATION ?

[A Monday / Wednesday / Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]

I believe there are communication factors in God’s “vision statement” to Israel which Joseph and Mary incorporated in raising Jesus and his half-siblings. I suspect God used these factors to prepare Jesus for his extraordinary Bar Mitzvah in Jerusalem, not just in terms of knowledge but in terms of freedom of interaction. In saying this I suggest Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is not primarily about education. Although it begins with a word for “teach” (08150 Nnv shaman – to sharpen, whet as in sharpening a knife) it quickly moves to “talk” (01696 rbd dabar – the common word for conversation). The focus is not Bible study times but an atmosphere of family conversation permeated with real-time biblical content.

“Conversation? In your dreams. I can’t get my family to talk about anything, let alone about God.”

The atmosphere radiates from what precedes in the text. Do you remember our devotionals on the Sovereign Commandments? Well, here they are! The conversational directive is suspended from the first commandment: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” The second (love your neighbor as yourself), is implied in the relationship of our closest “neighbors” – our children. Love for God has an impact on all relationships, including family.

I know the word “relationship” is over used. Nevertheless, it belongs here, and in bold letters. It has to do with the same kind of camaraderie which a healthy family enjoys as they talk about their favorite team, their most recent movie, their joys, their sorrows, their memories, their dreams, their fears, and the awesome pun someone posted on social media.

“Do you come from some other planet? I can’t get to first base on any of those subjects except, maybe, the puns.”

Ironically, the things we do most we study least, with the possible exception of eating. There are several web sites which deal with good conversational skills. For our purposes, however, let’s think of the content flowing from the Sovereign Commands.

NEXT DEVOTIONAL: HOW WELL DO YOU LIKE POP-UP ADDS

PREVIOUS DEVOTIONAL - JESUS' HOME: SOME IMPORTANT ASSUMPTIONS

FIRST DEVOTIONAL OF THIS SERIES

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ALL FIRST-ROAD ARTICLES

JESUS' HOME: IMPORTANT ASSUMPTIONS

[A Monday / Wednesday / Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]

While both Joseph and Mary needed a Savior like any other sinner, there must have been some factors in place which prepared them to cultivate the character and skills of the boy who knocked the sandals off the established teachers at the temple when he was twelve.

We know that Joseph was a just (righteous) man – which has to do with his upright conduct in the community and not his standing before God. We know that Mary found grace (unmerited favor) before the Lord – a grace which developed in her a gracious, discerning, obedient, and contemplative spirit.

With that in mind it is no stretch to assume that they implemented the principles of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 in their home.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

It is likely that in most Nazarene households these commands had degenerated to Phylacteries and Mezuzos if anything at all. But I suspect that may not have been the case in the home where Jesus grew. Personally, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Joseph and Mary may have set aside the outward superstitions of rabbinical law and focused on the spirit of the command. We know that Jesus had a well established habit of doing that in his ministry.   

NEXT DEVOTIONAL: BIBLE STUDY OR BIBLE CONVERSATION ?

PREVIOUS DEVOTIONAL:  A CHALLENGE FOR NOT-GOD PEOPLE

FIRST DEVOTIONAL OF THIS SERIES

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ALL FIRST-ROAD ARTICLES

A CHALLENGE FOR NOT-GOD PEOPLE

Couldn't resist plugging a now-twelve-
years-old grandkid here :-) 

[A Monday / Wednesday / Friday Devotional Feature of the First Road Blog]

When doctrine is put into creed the devil can be in the details. I don’t mean to say it is wrong to establish creedal statements. I appreciate the passion of our Pastor to keep such statements before us. What I have in mind is the tendency to become doctrinally imbalanced when we read the Scripture. In the previous devotional I expressed fascination with Jesus’ ability as a boy to listen, ask questions, understand, and give answers which knocked the sandals off the rabbis with whom he spoke. Why I am intrigued is that I don’t slip into the analysis that, Oh yes, he was God. That's why he could do that.”

Of course I believe he was (and is) God. The Bible gives me no alternative, nor do I want one. But there is another creedal issue involved. I also believe he became perfect man and from infancy he grew in wisdom as well as stature. The Bible gives me no alternative with regard to that either; and neither do I want one. Therefore, when I see him functioning as a man and doing so in an exemplary way, I do not assume that he is functioning as God unless the behavior is clearly a violation of God-ordained natural law, as in walking on water or radiating a drop-dead brilliance.

That having been said, is there something I can discover in this perfect boy-who-was-God concerning growth in wisdom which applies to me as a believing man-but-not-God? And, if so, what does that tell me with regard to encouraging other believing but not-God persons to grow in wisdom? First Peter 3:15 suggests the importance of my questions.

Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give an answer (defense) to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.

NEXT DEVOTIONAL: JESUS' HOME - IMPORTANT ASSUMPTIONS

PREVIOUS DEVOTIONAL: THIS KID KNOCKED THEIR SANDALS OFF

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ALL FIRST-ROAD ARTICLES

Bob Varner - Master Wood Craftsman

Bob Varner is a master craftsman with wood. Not only does he make exquisite gift items like the birdhouses pictured here; He even makes pens.

I have personally enjoyed getting to know Bob. We share a common faith in Jesus Christ and are active members of thesame local church. Incidentally, we also trace our family lines back to John and John Quincy Adams.

When Bob appeared in Sunday School recently with these crafts in hand, I had to capture them on disk. He told me they are made of Ambrosia Maple, New Zealand Pine and Camphor, finished with CA glue. That was the first time I realized Super Glue could be used as a finish.

Born and raised in Melvindale, MI, Bob has had a wide range of employment venues. He began as a journeyman pipefitter and worked on industrial robots for a corporation in Connecticut. His work with robotics put him on a team which developed the GM bird-and-robot ride at Epcot. In more recent years he and his wife, Julia, moved to Florida where he worked at Palm Harbor Homes in engineering. Somewhere along the way he picked up various hobbies including martial arts and scuba diving.

I might also add, storyteller. For anyone who gets to know him, Bob has a wealth of engaging tales such as leaving Mexico City just before its major earthquake and serving as a chauffeur for some noteworthy folks.

If you are in the Lakeland, Florida, area there will be two opportunities to meet Bob and Julia. They will be displaying his handwork at two upcoming fairs.

Friday, December 5, 2014 – Women’s Missionary Conference at the Church at the Mall in Lakeland, FL.

Saturday, December 6, 2014 – Highland Village, 375 W.Brannen Road.  (Be sure to park on the Road to the SPCA)

For more information Bob can be contacted at bobjulia1977@gmail.com

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF ALL FIRST-ROAD ARTICLES

Dyslexia Has a Champion in Lakeland, Florida

The Roberts Academy is an educational outreach of Florida Southern College and began in 2010 with a generous donation from Hal and Marjorie Roberts. It is located on the college's beautiful campus – at the corner of Frank Lloyd Wright Way and Lake Hollingsworth Road. 

The Academy's purpose is to help children in grades 2-6 who struggle with reading because of dyslexia. According to the school's web site, it is “the first transitional school for children with dyslexia in the state of Florida and one of only a few comprehensive schools for such students in the United States." 

An Opportunity for Wisdom on April First

Next Tuesday three Lakeland ministries team up to remind us of God's will concerning our heart toward the stranger, the fatherless and the poor. The Truth Factory, Inc. has put together a stage production which depicts the needs of homeless and sidelined people in our area and the efforts of Lighthouse Ministries to help address those needs. The event will be hosted by First Baptist Church at the Mall.

CHANGE: A Community of Hope

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

7:00 p.m.

First Baptist Church at the Mall

Attendance is complimentary but tickets are required.

A $25.00 donation per ticket is recommended.

Event expenses are underwritten in full by Lighthouse Ministries Family Store Operations.

100% of financial proceeds will directly support scholarships for residents of Lighthouse ministries.

My wife (Judy) and I have the privilege of volunteering at The Lighthouse Ministries. Located on the north side of the city, this ministry provides the opportunity for homeless and destitute people to find a meal and a place to spend a night. Each evening a chapel service is conducted before the meal. But there is more.

Lighthouse Ministries also provides the opportunity to make a choice. A choice which can put a person on the first steps of a new road of hope for the rest of his or her life. A road that stretches out both for eternity and for time.

Through a program which extends a little more than a year, a person can step away from habituated dependencies and grow in the skill of making right choices. Through connections with other educational opportunities in the area, there are options for career training. By means of in-house employment, a financial base can be established to facilitate the move from the program to a responsible life in this or any community. And, with an immersion in an atmosphere of faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, there is the potential of a close walk with God through faith in Him. Faith which can equip the woman or man to make a message of their life story which will enable them to invest in the lives of others.

Book Review: "Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys"

If reading the Scripture one-dimensionally is a real and present danger, so also is our approach to people in their struggles. I find this especially true in academic and ministry paradigms where we are prone to look at people who are not “with the program” in terms of simply making wrong choices. This is why I choose to include in my study of soul problems books by authors who do not come from my biblical worldview. It is not that I doubt the biblical worldview. It is that I doubt our willingness to be life-informed in our biblical worldview. 

The bible is very soul conscious in the study of a world where people are entrenched in living for their own kingdom. It recognizes that there are movers and shakers who establish cultural trends and package them in ways to draw people in and hold them captive. In so doing it speaks with words which are graphic if we would let them be: bondage, captivity, slavery, darkness, blindness and lostness. 

I say they are graphic if we would let them be because I find that we in the Christian community do not do well in letting these words speak to our imagination. We can be eloquent about the wrath of God, but academic with regard to the captivity of the human heart. Christians counselors have observed that we are often forced to go to secular writers to discover what is happening among the sin-bound because they are the ones doing the real life research. My observation is that we are good at glimpsing the surface and giving surface answers. If we take time to let our secular neighbors lift the covers we are forced to dig deeper into the Word of God to find how to make ourselves available to the souls they have exposed. 

It is for this reason that I recommend a book such as Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Lives of Boys by Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson. It by no means represents a fundamental, evangelical or reformed Christian paradigm and, because of that, does not jump to their presumptions before actually examining what is happening in the lives of boys in our culture. Neither do I endorse most of their take on the account of Cain in the book of Genesis. My recommendation has to do with the facts they uncover and the clear dots which they are able to connect. I am not endorsing some of the ways they think the problems should be resolved.

I must also warn the reader that these authors deal with youngsters in the raw problems of life which most of us do not face until suddenly (and all too often unexpectedly) they explode in the life of a son or close friend. That means, if a reader cannot get past quotes which include the profanities of angry and hurting kids he might as well not pick up this book. For that matter, he might as well not make himself available for an authentic talk with a struggling kid. 

No, I am not in favor of the use of profanity. The force of such statements as, “Let your conversation be always with grace…” and “put off…filthy communication,” weigh heavily on my personal word choices. Neither am I impressed by the current trend among “recovering” fundamentalists to throw a four-letter vocabulary around as some kind of profound authenticity. Nevertheless, that does not bar me from listening to a troubled person or reading material which chooses to use their terms to describe their frustrations. People who are in prison (physical or spiritual) are in a culture of deep and vile darkness which will have its impact on their vocabulary. Two of the last four chapters of Raising Cain (“Drinking and Drugs” and “Romancing the Stone” - which deals with sexual concerns) are especially difficult reads for a Christian community, but I believe they serve their purpose well. 

Besides letting us look deep into the dark soul of a kid in trouble, the authors help us put what is happening to the boy in the larger context of home culture, peer culture and social culture which fail to define manhood, sap men of emotional awareness and vocabulary, barrage them with sexual messages, and offer no authentic rite of passage beyond alcohol, drugs and fornication. 

The book’s strongest feature has to do with its subtitle: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys. Here, more than in any other issue, the authors expose a pattern which is all too familiar both in the Christian neighborhood and in our western culture at large. If reading Raising Cain would do nothing else than prompt the reader to begin to look for a way to help boys develop an emotional vocabulary it will have been worth his time.

Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys

Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson

With Teresa Barker

1999/2000

Ballantine Books, Random House