Friday, February 26, 2010

Odds ‘n Ends, vers. 18

I hope this week finds you in good health and spirits. Here are a few articles that caught my attention:

1).    US Lab Recreates Big Bang Temperatures. Makes Quark Soup. Article here. US Department of Energy's lab Brookhaven National Laboratory performed a remarkable experiment simulating temperatures close to those that may have taken place at the Big Bang. BNL can add a stunning achievement to its list -- achieving temperatures likely not seen since the Big Bang.  The lab produced temperatures of 4 trillion degrees Celsius, 250,000 times hotter than the Sun's interior, during collisions of gold atoms hurtling at almost the speed of light.  To give another benchmark, the collision produced internal heat approximately 40 times that at the center of an imploding supernova star.

The collisions produced a stunning "soup" of quarks and gluons.  The analyzed data indicates that record high temperature caused the protons and neutrons of the gold atoms to "melt" into the quarks and gluons that compose them, which then formed a plasma, known as quark gluon plasma (QGP).  This appears to be the first time man has been able to make such a quark soup.

This is amazing. My question is – how on Earth could they do this?

2).    Russia Delays Delivery to Iran of Advanced Air Defense System. Article here. Russia raised Western hopes that it will support tougher international sanctions against Iran's nuclear program by announcing a delay in delivery of S-300 advanced air defense missiles. The postponement for unspecified "technical problems" was made public a day after Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, urged Russia to support "crippling" sanctions against Tehran during a visit to Moscow.

The United States and Israel have been pressing Russia not to deliver the S-300 missiles, which would make a successful military strike much more difficult if diplomacy failed to resolve the stand-off over Iran's nuclear facilities…

3).    Faith Healer Benny Hinn Receives Divorce Papers. This story makes me sad. If you have ever heard someone criticize a Christian faith healer, it is likely Benny Hinn they are talking about. But I thought I have seen him grow in his faith, and willingness to preach the Gospel in recent years. Article here. Benny Hinn Ministries on Thursday confirmed that his wife, Suzanne Hinn, filed a petition for divorce in Orange County Superior Court on Feb. 1. She cited irreconcilable differences.

Funniest line from the story – A long time advisor to the Hinn ministries is quoted as saying, "Although Pastor Hinn has faithfully endeavored to bring healing to their relationship, those efforts failed and were met with the petition for divorce that was filed without notice." Faith Healer heal yourself?

4).    Pets and the Law. Two items I found as interesting involving pets.

Rapture Insurance for your Pet? What if you are raptured away to be with the Lord? Who would take care of your pets who are "Left Behind"? Atheists have come to the rescue offering their services by an insurance policy, in the event you are raptured. Article here.

Include your pets in a Domestic Relation's Protective Order. Article here: I learned this week that judges in Colorado would be able to order suspected domestic abusers to keep away from family pets under a bill being considered by state lawmakers… And yes, the Minnesota Senate is taking a look at this bill in SF0838.

5).    From RC Sproul's book The Truth of the Cross, as summarized on Challies Dot Com. Early in the book he spends some time discussing the human condition and as he does so he uses three biblical concepts: debtors, enemies, and criminals. The Bible describes each of us in these terms. What Sproul does here, and this really helped it hit home for me, is show how it is always the Father who has been offended and the Son who intercedes. We have committed crimes against God and are, thus, justly termed criminals. The Father stands as Judge, passing the just sentence of death. But Christ stands between us and the Father, acting as substitute. Our sin puts us in debt to God so that we are debtors to Him. God is the creditor who demands repayment, but Christ stands in as surety. And sin puts us at enmity with God, making us His enemies. He has been violated by our sin, but Christ intercedes as mediator, opening the way between man and God.

Sproul breaks this down into the following simple table:

Sin As…

Man

God

Christ

Debt

Debtor

Creditor

Surety

Enmity

Enemy

Violated One

Mediator

Crime

Criminal

Judge

Substitute

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Idolatry

I have wanted to work on the topic idolatry for some time now. Given that if you review the Old Testament, one major theme of these books is Israel's hunger for worshipping other gods, and their rebellion against Yahweh in their pursuit of these false idols. I have found Israel's continual desire to worship idols as something I do not understand. And so, that is one of the topics I will discuss in today's post – why would anyone worship an idol? But let me start by reviewing the background of idolatry:

Worshipping Idols was forbidden to Israel in the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20). In fact the way God provides the Second Commandment provided Israel with one of its unique characteristics from other nations – the fact that Israel's God was invisible and unseen. Here is the Commandment: You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (Exodus 20:4) And so, Israel was distinguished from other nations because of her imageless worship.

Scripture condemns all forms of idolatry;

One of major reasons for outlawing idolatry was to prevent 'syncretism'. 'Syncretism' is the assimilation of another's religious beliefs or practices into another. When other religions were permitted by Israel, we see things like King Solomon who built the famed Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, also built high places devoted to the foreign gods of Chemosh and Molech (1 Kings 11:7).

So what makes idolatry so desirable? Why even when God did such miraculous things to free Israel from its slavery in Egypt like the Plagues, the splitting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, water from a rock, etc, would Israel so easily and so quickly turn to worshipping idols? For example when Moses ascended Mount Sinai and was communing with God for 40 days, the people of Israel and Moses' brother Aaron were afraid at this delay. And so, they gathered some gold, and Aaron molded it into a golden calf. Wouldn't you think that after seeing miracles up close and personal like the Israelites had, that they would remain faithful a little longer than they did?

Here are a few of my thoughts on why idolatry is so attractive: 1) Human Sensual Desire. first, there is a sense of meeting sexual desires in the worship of idols. Temple prostitutes are described in stories of the Old Testament. Also, the unrestrained revelry of worshipping an idol is shown in the story of Aaron's making the gold calf. Exodus 32:6 describes it as "and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play". Most commentators read the story of the golden calf as including sexual revelry. Sexual immorality is a chief example of rebellion against God.

But there are other things that make idolatry desirable as well. 2) Works Righteousness. By Works Righteousness I mean our desire to do something that requires God to do something for us. This is obviously a common desire for people – we think we are entitled to something if we do something (or refrain from doing something) that we think God will reward us for. There is something of a bargaining with God, which makes it wrong. For me, I know that after I lead a class, I always reward myself with a beer or a bowl of ice cream. My reward for doing something good.

But in the Old Testament, we see a bunch of people sacrificing their children to idols. We see sacrifices being made to Molech (Lev. 18:21, 20:2-5), to Baal (Jeremiah 19:4-7), and to Chemosh (2 Kings 3:26-27). And the only way I can make sense of this is that people are sacrificing something so precious to them, like their children, so that their god will have to answer their prayer. In this way, it is like the foreign concept to Christianity of Works Righteousness – that by our actions, by what we do, God will reward us. Instead, Christianity is the only religion of Grace – God's love for us through the death of Jesus on the Cross, which we do not deserve or merit.

3) Lawless Idolatry. 1 Peter 4:3 describes idolatry as lawless idolatry. Lawless actions brings to mind a number of things – being unrestrained, wild, unconcerned about rules and others. Therefore, Lawlessness is another major way of an ungodly person to be rebellious against God. To worship in idolatry is to be self-centered and self-focused.

4) Material Benefit. There is an element of human longing for more wealth and possessions. This is brought out in Daniel 5:4 / Revelation 9:20, where it describes "idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone and wood". Who wouldn't want to worship a god whose primary concern is to act like a genie in a bottle, and give you the money and home and car and bling etc. that we deserve, right? Rather the God of Christianity is a God of mercy, love for others, and building us into righteous people, not out of obligation but out of our hunger for it.

    This is also the theme of the New Testament discussion of idolatry. The Apostle Paul describes idolatry as something other than being sexually immoral, or greedy, or a swindler (1 Cor. 5:10). And I think this is brought out in Colossians 3:5 (and its related verse in Eph. 5:5), where idolatry is equated with covetousness. Here is Colossians 3:5:

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

I think Matthew Henry in his commentary has a helpful description of covetousness equating idolatry: The love of the world: And covetousness, which is idolatry; that is, an inordinate love of present good and outward enjoyments, which proceeds from too high a value in the mind, puts upon too eager a pursuit, hinders the proper use and enjoyment of them, and creates anxious fear and immoderate sorrow for the loss of them. Observe, Covetousness is spiritual idolatry: it is the giving of that love and regard to worldly wealth which are due to God only, and carries a greater degree of malignity in it, and is more highly provoking to God, than is commonly thought.

Finally, note that covetousness can also include an inordinate desire or enjoyment for other people (or as the Bible describes this "your neighbor's wife"), and not just things. See, Exodus 20:17.

In conclusion, I think it is easy to see the pull that worshipping an idol has in people's lives. It centers on our desire to control things, to have more and more of whatever is driving our worldly impulses, and displaces God's place as Sovereign Lord of our lives. It is hard to trust in the control of our lives to an unseen God, and His promises of love, care and provision, especially in hard times. The question that is left open in this discussion is what is the impact of God's hatred of idolatry for people living in today's world? Given that we do not worship Asherah poles, or figurines of angry looking gods, are we still in danger of violating the Second Commandment (Thou shall not worship a graven image)? I think Matthew Henry's Commentary (above)has hit the nail on the head for us when he tells us that if we are giving love and regard to anything worldly and this love and regard is instead due to God only, this is the sort of covetousness that provokes God. Thanks be to God for the sacrifice of Jesus which redeems from our deserved punishment. Amen.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

FAITH Healings

Happy President's Day weekend to all of you. This morning I am writing to you about Faith. Not just about the saving faith in Jesus, God the Son needed for salvation. Instead, I have assembled the eleven (11) examples in the New Testament where a person's faith in Jesus resulted in God's miraculous healing of a person. These healings include restoration of sight, the lame being able to walk, lepers healed, and demons being cast out. Before I list these verses, here is my quick summary of the observations I have from reviewing these verses:

Faith must be in Jesus;

The Healing is done through faith, and through Jesus (Acts 3:16);

A specific, clear request of what needs to be healed should be made (Luke 18:41-42, Mark 10:51-52);

There is a connection between forgiveness of sins and healing (Luke 5:20, James 5:15);

Healings were not only done by Jesus, but also Paul, John, Peter and Barnabus.  A prayer made by someone with the robe of Christ's righteousness is powerful as it is working (James 5:16);

God heals because of His mercy (Matthew 15:22, Luke 17:13);

Your faith can be used to heal a family member (Luke 7:9-10, Matt. 9:18-29) or even a friend (Luke 5:20);

Sing God's Praises when a healing has taken place!


 

Although there are more examples of healings in the New Testament, I found only these 11 stories where faith was actually mentioned. Alright, here are the New Testament verses that show God's miraculous healing through a person's faith in Jesus:

Luke 5:18-20 – (Story of the Paralytic's Friends) And behold, some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus,
19 but finding no way to bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst before Jesus.
20 And when he saw their faith, he said, "Man, your sins are forgiven you."…

Luke 7:1-2, 9-10 – (Story of the Roman Centurion) Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him.
3 When the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant…And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed… When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith."
10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well. (Also in Matthew 8:5-13);

Luke 7:37-38, 47-50 – (Sinful Woman Wiping Jesus' Feet with her hair) And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment…Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little." 48 And he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this, who even forgives sins?"
50 And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Luke 17:12-13, 19 – (Jesus Heals 10 Lepers) And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance
13 and lifted up their voices, saying, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." 14 When he saw them he said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went they were cleansed. 15 Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; 16 and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.
17 Then Jesus answered, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?
18 Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?"
19 And he said to him, "Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.

Luke 18:35-38, 41-42 – (Jesus heals Blind Beggar) As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging.
36 And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. 37 They told him, "Jesus of Nazareth is passing by."
38 And he cried out, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"…
41 "What do you want me to do for you?" He said, "Lord, let me recover my sight." 42 And Jesus said to him, "Recover your sight; your faith has made you well."

Matt. 9:18-25, 29 – (Jesus Brings Ruler's Daughter Back to Life/Healing of Woman Bleeding for 12 Years) While he was saying these things to them, behold, a ruler came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live."
19 And Jesus rose and followed him, with his disciples. 20 And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment,
21 for she said to herself, "If I only touch his garment, I will be made well." 22 Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well.
23 And when Jesus came to the ruler's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion,
24 he said, "Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him. 25 But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl arose.

Matt. 15:21-28 – (Healing of Non-Jewish Woman's Demon Possessed Daughter) - And Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon."
23 But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us."
24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me."
26 And he answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
27 She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."
28 Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly.

Mark 10:46-47, 51-52 – (Jesus Heals Blind Bartmaeus) And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside.
47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"…
51 And Jesus said to him, "What do you want me to do for you?" And the blind man said to him, "Rabbi, let me recover my sight."
52 And Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your faith has made you well." And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

Acts 3:1-9, 16 – (John and Peter Heal Lame Beggar) Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
2 And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple that is called the Beautiful Gate to ask alms of those entering the temple.
3 Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive alms. 4 And Peter directed his gaze at him, as did John, and said, "Look at us." 5 And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. 6 But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!"
7 And he took him by the right hand and raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. 8 And leaping up he stood and began to walk, and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God…And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

Acts 14:8-10 – (Paul and Barnabas Heal Crippled Man) Now at Lystra there was a man sitting who could not use his feet. He was crippled from birth and had never walked.
9 He listened to Paul speaking. And Paul, looking intently at him and seeing that he had faith to be made well,
10 said in a loud voice, "Stand upright on your feet." And he sprang up and began walking.

James 5:14-16 – …Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.