Walk Worthy

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.
(Ephesians 4:1, KJV)

Note three things: Paul’s imprisonment, the calling’s cost, and our duty.

Paul’s Imprisonment
Paul could have omitted his imprisonment, but he didn’t. Why not? Because it added gravity and credibility to his writing. It is like the difference between a middle schooler and a veteran talking about the pledge of allegiance – one only has head knowledge; the other has experience. One cares little; the other cares greatly. The veteran knows the cost of freedom; the child has no idea.

Paul was a veteran. He knew. He gave everything for the call – his freedom, his livelihood, his possessions, and his reputation. All were gone, and he appeared to have no regrets about it. But he also was not one to miss an opportunity to use his loss for the Lord’s gain, and so he wrote, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord...”

The Calling’s Cost
The wording implies that there is a cost or value associated to the calling – it must be worth something if one is to walk worthy of it, but what is the value of that calling? What did it cost?

To us, nothing – we paid nothing to receive it, but that does not mean it had no cost. Jesus paid His own life to purchase our salvation, and countless martyrs have paid their own lives so we could get it.

Just because you did not pay for it yourself, do not think it was cheap.

Our Duty
Paul, fully realizing the value of the calling, beseeches (pleads, begs) that we would walk worthy of it.

Walk worthy by making sure you do not lose the thing to which you were called. Peter wrote, “Give all diligence to make your calling and election sure,”¹ and Paul told Timothy to “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.”² Grab hold of your calling with both hands and do not let go!
 
Walk worthy by demonstrating the glory of that calling. Ensure your life is always one of power and integrity. Live so that “the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in him.”³
 
Walk worthy by not wasting our freedom and opportunities. Paul wrote the Colossians, “Be wise when you engage with those outside the faith community; make the most of every moment and every encounter.”⁴
 
Walk worthy so that at the end of days, God will still “consider you worthy of this calling.”⁵ Do not let Him regret having called you.

 

¹ 2 Peter 1:10 · ² 1 Timothy 6:12 · ³ 2 Thessalonians 1:12
⁴ Colossians 4:5, Voice · ⁵ 2 Thessalonians 1:11

Dad Jokes

Experimenting with the MediBang Paint app...

Bible Coolness: Brevity

Considering today’s all-inclusive media coverage of celebrities (You know: the so-and-so went out in public without makeup kind of drivel that pervades our newsstands), I find it both surprising and refreshing that scripture doesn’t tell everything.

There’s a whole slew of tidbits that “enquiring minds” might “want to know”:

Did Jesus’ grandparents support Joseph and Mary’s marriage?
Did they spend time with little Jesus?
Did they ever come to believe the conception was immaculate?
Was Mary the talk of the town?
What did Jesus look like?
Was He a bald baby, or did He have lots of hair?
What was Jesus like as a two-year-old?
Did He go through the “terrible twos”?
Did Mary ever have to tell Him, “No”?
Did Jesus like broccoli? 

On and on, the list of questions could go... but scripture is pretty silent. We get bits and pieces: the birth, the circumcision a week later, the flight to Egypt, a return to Nazareth, but nothing about early childhood until a decade or so later when Mary and Joseph lose track of Jesus and find Him in the temple. And after that... there’s nothing until Jesus reaches adulthood.

I asked God, “Why don’t we get to read the [juicy] details?”

He said, “Because it’s none of your business.”

God honored Mary by keeping private both some possibly embarrassing details and also some of the special moments she had alone with her child. Those details and moments are hers, and God let her keep them.

God went on to explain, “My Word contains everything you need to know; if it doesn’t say it, you don’t need to know it.”

To me, that’s cool on two different levels:

1. If God’s Word is brief, it’s only because He left out something I didn’t need to know.
2. I know I can trust God with my own business -- He won’t blab!

Bible Coolness: Ambiguity

Sometimes Bible verses can seem a little elusive in meaning, open to interpretation... and to me, that can be a cool thing.

Ephesians 4:12 is one such verse.

You read it one way, and it sounds like ministers have three jobs:

• the perfecting of the saints
• the work of the ministry
• the edifying of the body of Christ

But if you read it in another way, it sounds like:

• ministers perfect the saints, 
• the saints do the work, and
• the work edifies the body of Christ.

This used to bug me: I wanted to know who's supposed to do the work! Did God expect the pastor to do it, or did God expect the saints to do it?

So I asked God, "Who, exactly, is supposed to do the work?  The pastor or the people?"

He said, "Both."

Either way you interpret Eph 4:12, it's right -- both the ministers and the saints are supposed to do the work.  Isn't it cool when ambiguous verses end up richer and fuller in meaning than straight-forward ones! 

One of these days, I'll share the five different meanings I've encountered for the binding/loosing verse (Matt 18:18) -- five wildly-variant meanings, and I believe all of them! 

Bible Coolness: Group Effort

The Bible isn't one single book, written by one single person, but it's rather a collection of books from dozens of contributors over a span of thousands of years.

Contributors include:

Moses

Pharoah's adopted grandson, turned desert nomad

David

A shepherd boy and a warrior-poet who slayed a giant and became a king

Ezra

A priest

Nehemiah

A king's cup-bearer

Daniel

A slave turned statesman

Amos

A farmer

Jeremiah

A life-long prophet

Peter and John

Fishermen

Matthew

A tax collector

Luke

A doctor

Paul

A religious zealot

The cool thing is that although these writers have varying backgrounds and they wrote across varying eras, they agree with each other regarding who God is and how He acts.  This shows true testimony (the authors are testifying about something they truly experienced) and common inspiration (all authors interacted with the same God who inspired their writings).

2 Peter 1:21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God....

Hewing Your Own Tablets

Exodus 34:1

And the LORD said unto Moses, "Hew thee two tablets of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tablets the words that were in the first tablets, which thou brakest."

The original tablets... God prepared.
The second ones... Moses had to.

Fellow Christians, think about this: when God's Word and saving grace first came, it was all God's doing -- all we did was receive it.

But now, sometimes we have to prepare.

Think about the parable of the sower -- which ground produced much? Not the footpath, nor the rocky soil, nor the brier patch, but the prepared ground.

Have you prepared to receive what God wants to tell you?

Don't Let Your Past Abort Your Future

From Genesis 11:

²⁷Now these are the generations of Terah: Terah begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran begat Lot. ²⁸And Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity, in Ur of the Chaldees. ²⁹And Abram and Nahor took them wives: the name of Abram’s wife was Sarai; and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. ³⁰But Sarai was barren; she had no child. ³¹And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there. ³²And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years: and Terah died in Haran.

Terah had three sons: Abram, Nahor and Haran.

His youngest son, Haran, died early, “before his father”, which means “before his father died,” but could also mean, “before his father’s face” or “in front of him.”

Terah packs up his family, and leaves Ur, headed for Canaan, but he halts his journey when he comes to a place named after his dead son: Haran.  Possible that the town Haran could’ve been founded by his son Haran — that happened often in those times.

Terah dies in Haran, without ever seeing Canaan.

Don’t let the memories of some dead thing from your past keep you from obtaining the promise God has for your future.

At Home with Praise

While reading Exodus 15:2, I noticed something odd between two different versions.

Look at this:

Here’s the King James version:

The Lord is my strength and song,
And He is become my salvation:
He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation;
My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

And here’s the New King James version:

The Lord is my strength and song,
And He has become my salvation;
He is my God, and I will praise Him;
My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

Did you see it? In the third line, the KJV says, “I will prepare Him an habitation,” but the NKJV says, “I will praise Him.”

At this point, some assume there’s a mistake in the translation, but all I see is a cue to dig deeper.

A quick check of Strong’s concordance explains the Hebrew word behind the phrase:

navah — a primitive root; to rest (as at home); causatively (through the implied idea of beauty (compare naveh)), to celebrate (with praises) — keep at home, prepare an habitation.

It seems the KJV got it right, but does that mean the newer translation is wrong?

No! God’s Word is much too cool for that.

Take a look at Psalm 22:3:

But Thou art holy,
O Thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

You see, God inhabits praises — you “prepare a habitation” by praising Him.

In other words: when you praise Him, God makes Himself at home in the middle of your praise.

Praise Him!

7 Web Resources for Election Season

It’s mud-slinging season in the United States, and this one’s a doozy. Same-sex marriage advocates speak louder and with larger platforms than ever before. Pro-lifers continue to debate pro-choicers. Bankers and CEOs lean to the right; universities and tech companies lean to the left. Tea parties have been held; Wall street has been occupied, and everyone, everywhere seems to be hollering about something.

To make matters worse, the internet has opened up a floodgate of information. Every day, between my email in-box, my twitter feed and my facebook account, I get inundated with political messages, sent by hundreds of friends who have inadvertently become activists. They text. The internet delivers. I get overwhelmed.

How am I supposed to know who is right? If I want to make an informed vote based on reliable, unbiased information, where can I go?

The good news: The internet has some answers; we just need to know where to look.

1. WWJD: What Would Jesus Do?
The Bible contains over 30,000 verses, many of which can speak to any situation we face — whether political or everyday. Finding the answer may be as easy as reading the Bible, and to help with that, here are a couple of great Bible web sites:

Bible.cc - search multiple versions by scripture or a phrase, see results for multiple versions and/or languages at once — quick and easy! Includes maps, commentaries and word study tools.

BibleGateway.com - includes some modern translations that bible.cc doesn’t carry (e.g. The Amplified Bible, The Message).


2. Fact or Fiction?
The optimist in me wants to believe everything; the pessimist in me wants to doubt everything, but the realist in me uses sites like these:

FactCheck.org - this site consistently wins the Webby award for the best political site on the internet. FactCheck.org monitors political debates, speeches and articles and then, if errors are made, FactCheck lists the errors and points to the accurate information.

PolitiFact.com - like factcheck.org, but features a “truth-o-meter” ranking statements as true, mostly true, half-true, mostly-false, false, or “liar-liar pants on fire.”

Snopes.com - Any time I get an email or read a facebook message asking me to “pass this on to everybody I know”, I simply don’t. I never pass anything on. I do, however, check the statement against snopes.com — the “definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation”. I even check things that say “verified by snopes.com” because many things say they’re verified, but they’re actually not.


3. Follow the MoneyTo be elected, it takes money, a “war chest”, but few politicians are rich enough to pay for their own campaigns. They have to recruit supporters, often making agreements that say, “if you help me get elected, I promise I will....” So the questions for voters are: Who’s buying whom? And at what cost? These sites have the answers:
OpenSecrets.org - ran by the Center for Responsible Politics, this bi-partisan site monitors political contributions and expenditures and shows exactly where the money’s coming from and where it’s going.

MapLight.org - this site cross-references the data from opensecrets.org with legislative data from govtrack.us to show how contributions from big corporations and political action committees (PACs) are influencing current legislation.

4. Mud-Slinging on TV? Use This!
If you’re watching a political ad on TV or YouTube and you want to know immediately who’s behind the ad, how much they paid, and whether the claims are fact-based or not, the answer could be as close as the cell phone or tablet in your hand. Android and iPhone apps can listen to ads while they play, match the audio against a database, and provide details in about 30 seconds.

AdHawk.sunlightfoundation.com - For iPhone and Android, Ad Hawk shows who’s behind the ads and how much they spent.

SuperPACApp.org - For the iPhone/iPad only, the Super PAC app also shows what claims are being made and whether the claims are factual or not.

5. Straight From the Horse’s Elephant’s/Donkey’s Mouth
Instead of relying on what someone tells you about a party’s platform, you can go straight to the source and read the party platform yourself. The web sites for the Republican, Democratic and Libertarian parties have downloadable copies of their 2012 platforms.

Republicans: www.gopconvention2012.com/media-portal
Democrats: my.democrats.org/platform
Libertarians: www.lp.org/platform


6. Foreign News Sources
News businesses are businesses — entities that make money by selling news. The more news they sell (or the larger the audience), the more they make. Conservative outlets bias their news to conservative audiences, because that’s where they make their money; likewise, liberal outlets bias to liberal audiences. One way to eliminate some of the conservative/liberal (or republican/democrat) bias is to see what a disinterested party has to say, which is where these foreign news sources come in handy:

rt.com - Moscow, Russia
jpost.com - Jerusalem, Israel
bbc.co.uk - Great Britain

Note: While foreign news sources may be unpolluted by American bias, they still speak with worldly wisdom, which, according to James 3:15, can be earthly, sensual [self-centered] and demonic. No matter where you get your news, always seek the wisdom which is from above (James 3:17).

7. Something for Sunday Morning
All of this web-based information is nice, but what about the pastor who wants to put resources right in the hands of their congregation?

iVoteValues.org - provides resources just for churches and pastors, including:

• Legal Do’s and Don’ts [worth reading just for this!]
• Videos
• Print-ready advertising materials
• Voter registration materials
• Presidential voter guides

The Concerns of a Mouse

From the CyberSalt Digest (www.cybersalt.org):

"What food might this contain?," the mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed this warning:

"There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The pig sympathized, but said, "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it."

The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse. I'm sorry for you, but it's no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer's mousetrap . . . alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house - the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught.

In the darkness, she did not see it.

It was a venomous snake whose tail was caught in the trap.

The snake bit the farmer's wife.

The farmer rushed her to the hospital. When she returned home she still had a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup. So the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient:

But his wife's sickness continued.

Friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

But, alas, the farmer's wife did not get well . . . she died.

So many people came for her funeral that the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them for the
funeral luncheon..

And the mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and you think it doesn't concern you, remember: When one of us is threatened, we are all at risk. We are all involved in this journey called life. We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another…