Perspectives VIII: A Death Sentence Lifted

From grief to joy in a matter of minutes. Today my wife and I experienced the intense joy of having a death sentence lifted from our son. Our weeping had a different cause today. I called the specialist’s office to see if we were supposed to continue with his medication, and the nurse told me that the doctor left a note saying: there is no evidence of biliary atresia. I have not wept so intensely in my life, save for the weeping over the grief of my son. This truly is a death sentence lifted.

My faith in the Lord has not wavered in the least during this time. I had already given my son to the Lord, knowing the character of Him who has called me. I had accepted that my son may die; I had accepted that my son may suffer; but I was content in knowing that whatever happened, the Lord is in control. The suffering is real, but so is the rest in Him.

Now we wait to find out what is afflicting our child; at this point anything seems like a walk in the park! We prayed intensely, along with many others (many who may be reading this now), that he would not have biliary atresia. The Lord has granted that prayer, and we are forever, humbly grateful. I knew that the Lord is kind. Now whenever I look at my son I have tangible evidence of His kindness.

Perspectives VII: The Grief of Life

Last Fall my wife shared with me the amazing news that we were going to be having another child. Instantly my heart was filled with joy and I thanked the Lord for the blessing He had given us. Our prayers were that our child would go full-term (as we have gone through miscarriage in the past) and that he would live to honor the Lord. It has been my prayer for both of my children that they would live to honor the Lord and that I would be able to provide an example for them of how to live a life honoring to Christ. I know the mistakes I have made in the past and I want my children to avoid those same mistakes. I also know that it is my job to teach them how to live properly. This is one of the great burden’s of being a father. A father is expected to be a role model to his children while bearing the burden of the the knowledge of his own sins. This sobering reality always makes me pause and search my actions relative to my children. Am I compromising in my own heart where I would not want my children to compromise? How can I expect them to avoid these compromises if I am unwilling to viciously weed out my own sinful habits?

This existential trouble of trying to be a solid example for my children while recognizing my own sinful dispositions has occupied a great portion of my thoughts. I am concerned over the life that my children will live. I’m not concerned as much (though it is a concern) over the material quality of their lives, but rather the quality of their characters. As a father I am overwhelmed with joy that the Lord has put these lifes (I’m aware of the spelling) into my own, to love and enjoy.

But the life of my son has so far been marked with death. 3 days after his birth my grandfather died, and from the time just before we brought him home from the hospital it has been gradually been unfolding how real the possibility is that his own life will be cut short. I’ve had to move from the place where I am praying that he will live a life honoring to the Lord, to a place where I am praying that he will simply have life. My boy has something wrong with his liver and the doctor’s suspect biliary atresia. Infants do not live past 2 without surgical intervention and most end up having to have a transplant at some point in their life. So far his life has been a life of grief. He has undergone more occasions of blood being drawn, had more medical prescriptions, and been isolated for various medical procedures than any 7-week old should have to go through (7-week olds shouldn’t have to go through any of this). Where my wife and I should have been enjoying the life of this blessing from the Lord, instead we have been sorting through our devastated hearts and trying not to completely break down in front of our eldest. I would say that I cannot express how we feel, but that isn’t true, I can: grieved. Our daughter was given her name because she is a source of joy for us. Our son, whom we are overjoyed to see, has delivered to us a heavy mix of grief with joy.

Some Christians say that when we endure painful trials in our lives that we ought to show ourselves happy, remember the Lord, and continue with steadfast endurance without hesitation. I disagree. I think this advice does a disservice to the recognition of the real pain and suffering that we endure as human beings. I think it downplays the terrible effect of sin on the world. We are suffering right now and we have immense pain in our hearts. Our son is suffering right now and he is having to go through some painful procedures with the prospect of more. I remember that Jesus wept. The context of that verse is that His cousin Lazarus had just died. Jesus knew He would raise Lazarus from the dead, and yet He wept. I find myself indebted to the Apostle John for recording this narrative, because without it I would not have known the fitness of weeping and grieving over my suffering. The Lord knew that He would raise Lazarus from the dead, He knew (more intimately than anyone) the character of God, and He knew that all would be made well at the end of history, and yet He wept. He wept because the suffering is real.

I think of Job who is said to have torn his garments, spread ashes over himself, and worship the Lord upon the apprehension of his great misfortunes. Some will key in on the fact that Job worshipped the Lord. However even in his worship he grieved, and grieved more intensely perhaps than I have ever grieved. In this book we read that Job complains that the Lord has acted unfairly and he even despairs of his own life, saying that it would have been better if he had never been born. Ultimately the Lord answers Job that He is just, and His dealings with men are fair. Job acknowledges and repents of his charge against the Lord, but not of his grieving. Through it all there is a recognition that the Lord is fair, He is kind, and there is a gratefulness for the blessings He has given, but grief remains.

The sad reality is that sin is real, and the consequences are real. I see that when I look at my son and think of the suffering he faces. I worship the Lord, I take comfort in His promises, I trust in wisdom and providence; and yet I weep. The grief remains. The suffering is real and deserves attention. I grieve, but not without hope. I grieve not because I don’t trust the Lord, but because the suffering is real. And with this brief reflection I end with a grateful word to my son:

My son, I thank you for helping me to appreciate the grief of life.

 

The Melting Pot VI: Starý Otec

The passing of my starý otec (grandfather in Slovak) is bittersweet for me. On the one hand, it pains me to think that the remainder of this life will be had without him. It gives me greater pain to know that my son, born the same week as starý otec’s death, will not know my grandfather. On the other hand I know that he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to save him from his sins, and so I know that I will meet him again on that day when the Lord takes me home as well. 

My daughter with Starý Otec and Stará Mama

My grandfather made a profound impact on my life. In every conversation I had with the man since 2004, he has tried to convince me to move back to Canada to be close to the family. It is somewhat ironic that his life is part of the reason for my desire to be adventurous and strike out on my own. Hearing the adventures of both him and my father after him has created this need for me to be able to pass on stories of my own life to my children. I don’t know that I’ll ever live up to the generations before me.

My starý otec was full of stories. His life was indeed an interesting one. I sat with him every time I visited him and would try to probe into the great tales of his life. I brought several friends out to the farm with me and we would just ask him questions and listen to his stories. He was fascinating! Many of his stories contained the same event; my grandfather would say “and then I sat down and I cried.” For example he visited the dome of the Rock in Israel, and when the tour guide said something about Mohammed returning, starý otec said “no, no, no, no. Mohammed didn’t rise from the dead, Jesus rose from the dead.” Then the tour guide told him to run, so he ran and ran, and his words, “then I sat down and I cried.” He also told me of his coming to Canada. He got on a train from Montreal and ended up in the train station in Windsor, not knowing any English. Not knowing what to do, he sat down and cried. Then he met a man who brought him out to his farmhouse in Harrow and gave him tea and showed him kindness. Starý otec would later buy that farmhouse and it was the house that he and his wife showed kindness to many of us throughout the years. Starý otec was not shy to communicate to me that he often found himself in situations where he was genuinely afraid and had no idea what to do. The story of his life, at least the way in which he communicated it to me, was a testament to the providential care of God.

Starý otec was also a stubborn man. His stubbornness could frustrate the most patient of men. For weeks I had a running argument with my grandfather about how to say ‘thank you’ in Korean. He was adamant that the word was ‘kanta mida’. I assured him that he was wrong, but hey, what do I know, I only lived in South Korea for 8 years, studied the Korean language, and married a Korean woman. He was positive that ‘kanta mida’ means thank you in Korean, because at the corner store in Harrow was a Korean man who told him as much. Finally, the argument developed to the point where I offered to take my grandfather to the store and ask the Korean man himself what the word for thank you is. He took me up on my offer. When we got to the store we asked the man what the word was, and it turned out I was right. Starý otec cocked his head to the side, shrugged his shoulders, and got that grin on his face that many of you are familiar with––like a child caught eating cookies when he shouldn’t be. We laughed about and from then on he would always throw in a ‘kanta mida’ into our conversation.

My starý otec was stubborn, but good-natured. A kind man who lived a full life. He knew the Lord and now knows the Lord more intimately. Though he may not know it, his life was instrumental in shaping the direction of my own. I owe much to him. I love him and miss him. I will see you again starý otec.

My wife and I with Starý Otec and Stará Mama

The Melting Pot V: Everything is happening!

It's been a year since my last post.... OOPS! I guess I've just been having a difficult time trying to take time to blog and balance everything that has been happening in my life. This post is just a brief update on my life. There are so many things taking place right now, so this post is functioning as a sort of 'life guidemap'; an indication of what has happened in the last year and what I think is next.

I'm set to graduate next Saturday (pending my ability to finish all of my assignments on time, a monumental task to be sure). I'll be receiving an M.A. in Philosophy and in Biblical Studies from Southern Evangelical Seminary. I have really enjoyed my studies here. I used to believe that studying in a formal setting was a waste of money, that I could learn just as well on my own as I could in a seminary setting. I was very, very wrong. One reason that a formal education is so much more valuable than self-study is that you are forced to present your ideas and argue (in the academic sense of the word) for your positions with other academics. One of the great benefits that the classroom has been for me is to expose my views to the criticisms of others, thereby forcing me to think more reflectively on particular issues. I presented a paper at the EPS Regional meeting in Atlanta last month, where I critique a certain individual's view of time and eternity and offer a Thomistic alternative. This was beneficial for me because I had to field questions relative to my paper, thus helping me to think about the topic more robustly. My seminary education is definitely something which I value highly.

Given that I'm graduating, the question now is 'what next'? I am tracking academically and would like to pursue a PhD in Philosophy, concentrating in Philosophy of Language. I'm planning on taking a year off to apply to different programs and see what options are available to me.

Another much-anticipated event in my life is the birth of my first son, who is set to arrive in mid-June. Preparing for his birth has been very difficult for us, as we have to deal with all kinds of immigration and health care questions. Additionally, my wife is hoping to give birth naturally after having a C-section for our first child (this is called VBAC). Over the next month or so we need to secure a doctor who is willing to do this, and start attending classes so that we can better anticipate what will happen. I also need to learn what my role will be in all of this, how I can be a help and not a hindrance to my wife.

This last year has been a good one; it has been trying at times but there has been so much to be thankful for. I'm looking forward to what is to come in the coming months.

Real Stories IV: Egregious Hermeneutics and the Rush Offense

Perspectives VI: Failing the Task of the Preacher

Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such

we will incur a stricter judgment. (James 3:1, NASB)

  Something has been troubling me for years. The state of preaching the Word of God today often leaves me in a state of melancholy. I have spent countless hours wrestling with my own thoughts about this particular issue. Having listened to various preachers-in three different countries-try to teach the Bible has left me wondering where this whole enterprise went wrong. The task of the preacher is twofold: 1) to correctly interpret the text of Scripture; and 2) to apply the text in a way that is relevant to the audience and is borne out of the correct interpretation of the text. The task of preaching is usually failed by either being too focused on interpretation, thus being more like a Bible study or lecture, or by being too focused on application.

Real Stories III: A Revealing Dialogue

Last night at Southern Evangelical Seminary, there was a dialogue between Dr. Michael Brown and Dr. James Tabor over the question 'whether Paul transformed Christianity'. Dr. Tabor recently authored a book titled 'Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity'. The following post is simply a reflection on some of the things that occurred during last night's discussion. I wasn't entirely sure where to put this post, and since it was something that actually took place and I was there for it, I decided to put it in the 'real stories' section of this blog.

What stood out to me immediately was the attitude Tabor had towards conservative scholarship. As Dr. Brown asked him why he seemingly ignored a broad range of scholars concerning certain facts–particularly about the dating of particular books–Dr. Tabor responded with a remark to the effect that evangelical scholars really don't count in the sum total of serious scholarship. This was in keeping with his approach throughout the entire discussion. Dr. Tabor admitted at the front end that he has several points of departure from the consensus of scholars (at least those that he would admit to being scholars). This opened the door to an appropriate question during the Q+A time. The question, asked by Dr. J. T. Bridges of Southern Evangelical Seminary, was how Dr. Tabor decides when to break from consensus and when to stand by consensus. His answer was that we need to take it on a case-by-case basis. Which leads me to want to ask him why he dismisses conservative scholarship outright if we should be looking at things on a case-by-case basis? The points that Dr. Brown was making–when he wasn't being interrupted–were consistently dismissed by Dr. Tabor. It seems to me that he is not consistent with his own methodology.

The second thing that stood out to me was the similarity between what Dr. Tabor was promoting and what Robert Eisenman writes about. There is a lot of similarity between the two, including the radical disjunction between what Paul taught and what Jesus taught, the directing influence of Paul on Christianity away from the traditional apostolic teaching, the dismissal of Lucan literature (Luke-Acts) from giving accurate descriptions of the apostles, and the original Christianity being found in sects like the Ebionites and Nazarenes.1 After the dialogue I asked Dr. Tabor if he was aware of the work of Robert Eisenman and whether or not he had any influence of the former's work. His face lit up at the mention of Eisenman, and he responded that they are in fact good friends. He denied that Eisenman had any influence on his work. His answer confirmed for me the connections that I thought I saw earlier. I now am considering studying this further and demonstrating the connections between the two.

All in all the night was very productive. It gave a good glimpse of how difficult it is for an evangelical to be heard in the broader academic community. There is an attitude that exists that if someone is evangelical, he/she must be biased toward current academic issues. What those who demonstrate this attitude overlook is their own bias toward certain tendencies. The areas of importance that were highlighted for me were: the critical approach taken by current scholarship,2 the dating of the books of Scripture, textual criticism, and early church history. These are all areas which affected the dialogue last night, and which we would do well to be acquainted with.

With my synopsis and reflections complete, I would like to point out that I appreciated both of these gentlemen taking the time to do this. It was a fruitful time. I respect Dr. Tabor for being willing to enter a 'hostile' environment, by doing an event at an evangelical seminary. I was impressed by the breadth of knowledge that Dr. Brown demonstrated, and found his knowledge to be a challenge to myself, that I need to be more broadly aware of certain topics. I would encourage any of you interested in these kinds of issues to attend as many discussions/debates you can. Southern Evangelical Seminary often sponsors these kinds of events, so watch out for them.3




1I treated some of these issues in my response to Paul Oh, which is posted on this blog. You can find it here: Perspectives III.

2I deal with this issue in a paper on the documentary hypothesis. I have not posted this paper, but may do so in the future.

3You can find information about future events at the Southern Evangelical Seminary website.

The Melting Pot IV: 6 Years!

My wife and I just celebrated our 6th anniversary. I can confidently state that I am definitely not the man I thought I would be 6 years ago, and marriage is really nothing like what I expected it to be. I used to think of marriage as being a way to serve my needs, all the time being admired and adored by my wife. I think that's how I entered marriage. I didn't realize it at the time, but I had a definite idea of what a wife should do and what a husband should do. I had no clue how fluid a marriage really is. I had no clue about a lot of things. . .

Perhaps the thing that surprised me the most was that love just isn't enough––at least my understanding of what love is. My wife and I love each other deeply. Yet there were times when we were so frustrated with each other that we could barely be in the same room together. The problem is that love, so far as the emotion of it goes, comes and goes. What I've learned is that love is something much deeper than just a feeling of desire for someone. In Aquinas love is said to be willing the good for some one or thing. To love my wife means that I will the good for her. This helps me when I reflect on what it means when I say 'I love you' to my wife (and also to my children, and other familial relations). To say 'I love you' is to say 'I desire you to be in possession of the good'. That means that I'm concerned to know what the good is for the person I'm declaring my love to.

To love my wife, then, is to be concerned with knowing what it is that will bring her joy. Ultimately all joy is found in the contemplation of God, so in a sense to show love for my wife is to encourage her to contemplate God. This does not mean that I am to try to make our marriage exist on a different plane, though. There are other goods that contribute to the well-being and happiness of my wife. Providing for the material needs of my family is an important way to show love for them.

These rambling thoughts are my way of confirming to myself what it is that I think I've learned about love over the last 6 years. For more than 2 decades I was primarily concerned with possessing 'the good' myself. I sought for the things that I judged to be good, to take possession of them and be characterized by them. These last 6 years have taught me that love is not a desire to be fulfilled by a relationship with someone. That is something else. Love is desiring the object of love to enjoy 'the good'. Seeking the joy and happiness of the one loved over and above my personal desires. And even more than this, but having the joy and happiness of the one loved be a cause for joy and happiness in me.

Marriage has been an entirely different animal than what I thought it would be when I entered into it. There have been some difficult times in the last 6 years. But there have also been some exceedingly great times as well. My wife has been a teacher for me in many ways, constantly teaching me about myself. The love that I share with my wife is not one that is fleeting, the hard times have shown me that. The love that we share is rooted in a deep commitment to one another. This next year I hope that I can grow in demonstrating my love for my wife. It is my desire that my wife be in the possession of 'the good'. The things that make her happy are the things that I want her to enjoy. To know my wife is to know what her desires are, to know the things that she judges to be good. To love my wife is to desire those things for her.*








*I am not saying that everything my wife desires is something that she should have. I'm not promoting a reckless 'partner-centered hedonism'. What I've left unsaid is that the things that she judges to be good, which will not be a hindrance to her growth and maturity, are the things that I want to see her be in possession of. I felt the need to give this brief addendum in anticipation of all 6 concerned readers of this blog.

Perspectives V

Reflections on the Truth Project: Philosophy

I've been a part of several group studies which participated in Focus on the Family's the Truth Project, with Dr. Del Tackett as the instructor. Recently we have begun to do this study as a men's study at the local fellowship I am a part of. This is the first time I have participated in the study since beginning to pursue an advanced degree in philosophy, and I thought it might be beneficial to record some brief reflections on the 'philosophy and ethics' lesson in the Truth Project. I am recording this to serve my friends and family who may have participated or may participate in the future in one of these studies. I don't anticipate that anyone outside of my small circle of acquaintances will read this. That being said, if you are reading this and we are not personally acquainted, I want you to know that this brief reflection is not meant to criticize and attack, but to give some perspective on a topic that is not very familiar for those whom I hold dear.

Perspectives IV

This is an essay which explores the Cartesian epistemology as presented by Laurence Bonjour in his book titled Epistemology: Classic Problems and Contemporary Responses

REPRESENTATIVE REALISM AND THE PROBLEM OF SKEPTICISM.pdf

Lessons from the Sword (IV)

This essay seeks to identify the phrase day of God in 2 Pet. 3:12

Lessons from the Sword (III)

This essay is a survey of worship in the book of Revelation.

The Melting Pot (III)

Here is a paper I recently did comparing Dispensationalism and Covenant Theology. I hope you find it useful in clarifying what the main issue is between the two systems.

Perspectives (III)

A Response to Paul Oh Click the link to view a PDF of a paper I wrote in response to Paul Oh. If you know Paul and have seen his recent Facebook postings, you know that he has attacked the traditional understanding of the Bible and the Apostle Paul. I hope this essay will be a good source for those who were confused by what he was saying.

The Melting Pot (II)

A question to those who find this post.

Prayer is a powerful thing. Having a prayer answered is a tangible demonstration for us of the real, active, working power of God in our lives. God has recently answered a number of my prayers. I'm confident that He has been granting my requests which are made according to His will for a long time, but I haven't really been paying attention so they have gone largely unnoticed. The Christian life is one which by all rights ought to be filled with joy and gratitude. It seems to me, the more I talk with other Christians, that joy and gratitude are inexplicably absent from our experience as Christians. I've come to the firm belief that a large reason we lack this necessary and natural element of the faith is that we don't keep an accurate account of what God is doing in our lives. Before this, though, a lot of my own ingratitude and lack of joy is a result from not spending time with the Lord, gazing at His face, reflecting on His character and remembering His life in the person of Jesus Christ. Beyond the lack of reflection on who He is, though, lies a lack of knowing what He's doing.

It seems to me that this dearth of knowledge of God's workings could be easily overcome by the simple discipline of thinking and writing. By simply thinking about the requests that we've made, writing them down and then returning to them later, we can observe very easily how God has answered prayer in our lives. The problem? We don't like to think and we certainly don't like to write. There are too many more 'important' things that we have going on in our lives which overshadow these helpful disciplines. We need to take inventory of our own requests, and persevere in them until we see the Lord's clear answer regarding them.

What things have I been praying for lately? I've been applying some of Paul's prayers directly to my life lately. There's his prayer in Phil. 1:9-11, where he prays for the Philippians love to grow more and more. I've also been using his prayers mentioned in Eph. 1:17-19. He prays for a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of God, as well as that the eyes of the Ephesians' hearts may be enlightened. There are elements of both the prayers mentioned in Ephesians as well as the prayer in Philippians which indicate to me clearly where I need to grow. I've been seeing growth in very particular areas in my own life, which have been greatly encouraging to me. Other than this, I have been asking for God to change my mindset in certain areas. He has done this for me, and it has strengthened my faith immensely.

At this point, the nay-sayer may say that 'answers' to prayers like this prove nothing; that I'm simply desiring a change in my life and following through on it. To this I would answer that the objection has little impact on me. I'm not using these prayers as an apologetic defense of Christianity. There are other approaches which have far greater value apologetically. These answers to prayer are just simply helpful reminders to myself that the Lord does interact with me when I pray, and so it holds subjective value in strengthening my trust in the Lord. Additionally, knowing how God has answered prayers like these in other believers' lives is a source of encouragement to me. The Lord uses our observed answer to our 'small' prayers as an encouragement to other saints.

With that thought in mind, this post is all about the comments.* I'd like to know what you've been praying for lately, and whether or not God has granted your requests. Please let us all know by sharing in the comment section.





* Comments which are posted under the anonymous moniker must include a name within the comment. We need to know who you are!

Real Stories (II)

The Jump of a Lifetime

Those of you who know me personally, know how passionate I am about a particular hobby of mine. That hobby is cliff-jumping. I love it. I love the total experience of not just jumping off cliffs, but also the experience of discovering new places and being able to appreciate the beauty of some relatively unknown places in Korea. The activity is more than just jumping. There is a good deal of hiking, rock (free) climbing and swimming involved. It’s good exercise, and I certainly can use all the exercise I can get these days.

This last weekend I returned to where it all began for me - the island of Geoje (거제도). My good friend Zach has been jumping with me for 2 years now in Busan (부산). I’ve been eager to show him the places that started the cliff-jumping phenomenon here in Korea. He’s returning to the U.S. this week, so we decided to have one last trip together. Since we were the only two out of the group that we regularly jump with, we called it the ‘executive retreat.’

We arrived late Friday night and tried to sleep in the car, because we’re both cheap. It turned out to be next to impossible for us to do that, so we went and got a small yeo-gwon (여권), which is essentially like a youth hostel. We woke up early that next morning and walked over to the cliffs I used to jump at with my good friend Will, who was during the genesis of the cliff-jumping experience. I was anticipating the gigantic cliffs of my memory and the picturesque landscape around us. The landscape didn’t disappoint, but I was shocked at just how small the cliffs seemed to me. The tallest one was well below where we had been jumping in Busan. It was turning out to be a disappointing day, as I knew the other place we would look to was even smaller than this place.

On our way back to the car, I happened to mention to him that there was a cave nearby that I had never gone into. We checked it out and discovered that this place would be a great place to jump from. It was at least as high as the place in Busan (approximately 60 ft.). We started jumping and couldn’t believe how fun and scary it was. The waves were really crashing in, and the sea was quite rough. Getting out of the water was a challenge, but it was well worth it. After about 2 hours of jumping at this place, we decided to move on to the next place, and verbally confirmed with one another that if we were unable to find anything else as good, we would come back to this place again. This place made the trip worthwhile, if there were no other places with good jumping.

We headed off to the next place. However, instead of going to the place I usually went (the place shown in the blog post titled ‘a story of three friends’), we decided to go to a rock beach and explore along the coast. At first we were only able to find small jumps, maybe 10 - 25 ft. Looking along the coast there seemed to be wonderful, sheer cliffs, but most of them were either too difficult to climb up out of the water to, or they were too shallow or had scattered rocks in the would-be jumping area. After a relatively long swim, probably about half a kilometre, we found a place that looked good. There was an easy place to exit from the water, and no rocks in the water below. I started to climb up, and it was a tricky, scary climb. This place was higher than any place we had previously jumped. We figure it was around 70 - 75 feet. The jump was exhilarating! There was a platform about 15 feet higher than the one we jumped from, and I attempted to climb it. I climbed up about 4 feet and then completely lost my nerve. I kept thinking of my wife and daughter, and my knees began shaking. I have done difficult, vertical climbs before - there were vertical places in the climb below - but never at this height. This cliff would be the first cliff-face to defeat me in Korea. I couldn’t move upward, and so gave up the pursuit. It was a truly terrifying experience. I made the same jump again, and then we decided to move on and return later if there were no better places. This would be our last chance to jump together, so we wanted to go as high as we possibly could.

Around the corner, we found a place that equalled the height of the last place, but which had a much easier climb. We nicknamed it ‘the cheat.’ This place had a platform around 60 feet and a higher platform at around 75 feet. Again, the jump was thrilling. These heights gave for a great feeling on every jump, and they were much easier to do because they had full platforms which allowed us to run into the jump. After doing these jumps, I looked up and noticed it seemed like there was another platform higher up. The climb, again, was simple. Upon reaching the platform, I began to grow scared. Was I really going to jump from this height? We double-checked the water below, and I just decided I had to go for it. I threw a rock out to where I wanted to land, and used the ripples to guide my jump. Keeping the ripples in sight, I began running. I couldn’t stop myself and so I had to jump. Once in the air I kept doubting whether or not this was a wise idea. I was falling, falling and falling some more. It seemed like I would never hit the water. Incredibly I hit the water and as I entered the water, something like a flash went before my eyes. I don’t know what it was. I came up out of the water full of adrenaline. I was thrashing the waves, kicking the water and screaming out of sheer excitement. I would use two words to describe the jump: insane and exciting. Climbing up out of the water, it took me a while to come back to reality. My whole body was shaking from the sheer excitement of what I just did. I really have never experienced anything like that before.

Zach had climbed to the top, and then I joined him. As we were at the top, we observed that we were at the point of the cliff where the trees were growing, and that we were so far from the water that there were no sea cockroaches here, but rather there were ants. Apparently I was in the air for over three seconds!

After some conversation, Zach went for it. He made the jump and came back up with no smiles. He was bleeding from his mouth. Apparently he had chipped three teeth and bit his tongue so hard that it was bleeding. It was a high cliff. After seeing that, I was a little bit scared, but I knew I could do it again… so I did. I jumped again and received no less thrills than before. I remained unharmed, having a perfect entry into the water.

At the end of the day, we saw amazing scenery, explored new territory, and jumped off some cliff-faces which probably had never been jumped from before - or ever will be again. I love this sport, and I was happy to be able to share such an amazing experience with a friend who shares the same passion as me. The Lord is good, and has created some amazing places for us to enjoy. I’m thankful that He was gracious to me to allow me to have this experience.

Perspectives (II)

The Burning Scarecrow

There’s something that bothers me. It doesn’t bother me terribly, but I find it a little frustrating. There’s this man, made completely out of straw, who I’m constantly running into. The poor guy is always being set on fire by people I talk to. It’s embarrassing, really. I don’t know why people feel so comfortable to set straw men ablaze right in front of me, but it seems to happen often.

Let me explain a little so you can understand what I mean. The other day I was out with some co-workers. I had a disagreement about something with one of the guys, and his response was as follows: ‘maybe we should all believe in magical beings in the sky.’ That charge was meant to cut off my legs and invalidate whatever meaningless topic we were discussing. He set a straw man ablaze.

In situations like this it’s very difficult to know how to respond. Usually I just throw one hand up to my forehead in a visible display of disbelief. I cannot believe how arrogant and mindless these people are. People have been dismissing Theists for years in this manner. Why? Hasn’t there been enough death in the name of irreligion that they need to bring the poor scarecrow before the flames again?

To end these types of awkward encounters, let me state two things clearly. First of all, belief in a personal power who created the universe is not the same as belief in a fairy, unicorn or magic. Belief that something suddenly appears out of nothing is actually magic. This is possibly the most tragic thing, is to have someone burning a straw man in front of me, and the whole time I know the straw man is their father. Secondly, having not given my reasons for belief in God to you personally, it’s a little arrogant and presumptuous to assume I only believe because that’s what I’ve been taught. You’d have to look me in the eyes to know that, though, which is a little difficult with your nose up in the air.

It’s time for this senseless slaughter of scarecrows to end. It’s time for real, open dialogue. I don’t personally care if you believe in God or not. In order for us to have meaningful discussion, though, you need to stop dressing up arguments, putting my face on them and then setting them ablaze. It really makes it uncomfortably hot for everyone. Straw really burns well.

Lessons of the Sword (II)

Love in the Void

God is love. What a wonderful statement. The fact that we serve a loving God is such a comforting, praiseworthy truth. It’s something that we take solace in during difficult times. Love is such an overwhelming concept that even those outside of the Christian faith recognize its value. All we need is love. Change the world with love. People look for love, desire it. We all understand the great power that love has over our lives, and we also understand our basic need for it.

It’s often said that love fills the void. Unfortunately, in our contemporary, love seems to be in a void. We talk about love all the time, but each of us has a different concept of what that entails. Lately there are a lot of ‘Christians’ talking about how God is love and nothing can overpower that love. His love is blinding, they say, and it’s because of this love that God can forgive sins. This is nothing short of a tragic, erroneous blunder stemming from a misunderstanding of love and the gospel. First of all, love is not the reason God forgives. God forgives because of the atoning death of Christ. Period. There is no other basis for the forgiveness of our sins than the blood of Jesus Christ. Secondly, it seems like these people have forgotten that God has other qualities. Holiness and justice are two that come to mind. Part of the reason that the gospel is so amazing is because justice is meted out. Wrongs are punished and everything in the end is made right. God’s justice demands that sins are punished. Without faith in Christ, one must face that punishment directly. Period.

Outside of this misunderstanding of the love of God, Christians seem to have confusion about how we are supposed to love. Our love is also not in a vacuum. Philippians 1:9-11 gives us some qualities as to how we are to love. In these verses, Paul is giving us a glimpse into how he prays. He prays for the Philippian believers that their love would grow more and more. He wants their love to increase. Notice, though, that he gives some parameters for that love. He tells them the boundaries that their love is to grow within, and he also gives them the reason for their love.

In verse 9, he writes that their ‘love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment.’ These are the boundaries for their love. Their love is not to be some kind of undiscriminating, touchy-feely, warm sentiments towards everything. It is to be bound up in real knowledge and all discernment. Real knowledge indicates that their is a false knowledge. Hence we have the love that is preached today which says that God’s love negates His justice and holiness. Hence we have a false gospel that says God’s love won’t let people to go to hell. The Scriptures, the real knowledge of God, tells us that God’s love still demands justice. In fact, His justice is important because of His love. Nobody wants Hitler’s crimes to go unpunished. Nobody wants serial killers to run free. Nobody wants kidnappers, rapists and sex slave dealers crimes to go unpunished. Nobody except for the kidnappers, rapists and sex slave dealers. People who love the victims of the kidnappers, rapists and sex slave dealers want to see them punished for the awful crimes they have committed. Love demands justice. The knowledge of God tells us this.

Not only is our love to grow in knowledge, but also in discernment. Discernment, as Paul says in verse 10, is being able to ‘approve the things that are excellent.’ That is to say, to choose the things that are more worthy of being loved. To choose goodness. Love is to be discriminatory. We need to be discriminating in our love. This is not to say that we discriminate against people, for Christ has told us to love even our enemies. We are to discriminate against bad choices, bad actions, bad motives. Their are things that we are not to love. We are to hate sin, as God Himself hates sin. Love is not in a void. There are parameters to our love.

There is a purpose for those parameters, though, and Paul tells us those in verse 10. The purpose is that we may be ‘sincere and blameless until the day of Christ.’ The purpose of love is holiness. Love is not an end unto itself. Love is meant to make us like God Himself. The holiness of God is His controlling attribute. While it is true that God is love, the Bible tells us emphatically that God is holy, holy, holy. We are to grow in love so that we will be holy. Period. Love is not some abstract quality that just makes us blind to the gruesome features of sin and helps us forget about the rebellious war that mankind is waging against God. Love is meant to understand the truth and to be discriminatory against evil. Love is meant to accomodate justice and bring about holiness. Love fills the void, to be sure. It fills it with truth and justice.

A note of apology

To those of you who read this blog regularly (all 3 of you), I'd like to write a note of apology for taking such a long hiatus. I've had a month of transitioning here in March. I've begun 2 new jobs which require a good portion of my time, and my responsibilities at home have also required a little more of a concentrated effort. For these reasons, I've been unable to produce anything this month. I apologize. I will attempt to publish the missing articles from March at a later date. For now, I hope this will suffice.

The Melting Pot (I)

Question About Job

As I laid out earlier in my post titled ‘On Formats,’ I will be using this section of my blog to address questions posed to me by readers, or writing about other miscellaneous subjects. It so happens that I received a question from an anonymous reader regarding the book of Job. I was debating whether or not to address the question, since it comes anonymously and I’m not sure of the spirit the question was asked with. I decided to address the question in this post, because it allows to write on a very important subject.

The question is as follows:

Since you mention Job. I have always found that this passage.. Job 3:16-19...refers to abortion...leaning toward the pro-choice side. Basically meaning that it is better to be aborted than to live a life that is unhappy or filled with negative actions. 

What are your thoughts?

"Or why was I not as a hidden untimely birth, as infants that never see the light? There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. There the prisoners are at ease together; they hear not the voice of the taskmaster. The small and the great are there, and the slave is free from his master. Job 3:16-19"
When we approach the Word of God, it’s very important that we remain sensitive to what the Lord is trying to teach us, and to refrain from imposing our views onto the His holy book. The Bible has been used as a text to support all kinds of wrong thinking. Take, for example, the KKK. This hate-filled, racist group claim that the Bible is their authoritative source for truth. They claim that the curse of Ham is definitive proof that black people are inferior to white. My grandfather uses an obscure passage in the book of Isaiah to claim that people who smoke go to hell. There is a cult group here in Korea that claims God is a woman. They make this claim due to the fact that the Hebrew word used for God in the book of Genesis is feminine in form.

The Bible teaches none of these things. The curse of Ham doesn’t result in the superiority of the white man. The verse in Isaiah doesn’t even speak about smoking tobacco. God is clearly revealed as a Father in the Word of God, but not only that He is also revealed as husband, master and other male roles. Jesus Christ was clearly a man. When we read the Bible, we need to remember that it is a book. As such, it is meant to be read as a book. We are not to infuse every word with some kind of special, hidden meaning. We don’t take things that are stated and hold them up as proofs to views that we want to hold. We are called to bend our will and our understanding to God’s; not vice-versa. The reason that all of those examples are wrong extrapolations of what the Word of God actually says is really for two reasons.

First of all we need to take into account what the Bible says as a whole. This is summed up by the phrase ‘let Scripture interpret Scripture.’ If we think a particular verse of Scripture is making a statement that doesn’t agree with the rest of what Scripture says, our understanding of the passage is probably flawed. We need to dig a little deeper and discover what the text means. Take for example, the book of Ecclesiastes. In the book of Ecclesiastes we read Solomon’s reflections on life. Multiple times in this book he says ‘all is vanity.’ The Bible clearly teaches that their is a purpose and meaning to life, and so we wouldn’t take these verses and make the assertion that the Bible teaches life is meaningless. The purpose of the book of Ecclesiastes is to show that life without God is meaningless. At the end of the book, Solomon states this explicitly, and the rest of the book suddenly makes sense. We need to take into account what the Bible as a whole teaches and not just rip out one verse to argue for a viewpoint.

Secondly we need to, as I mentioned earlier, read the Bible as a book. We need to take into account the type of literature each book is and we need to allow the parts of each individual book to be interpreted from the context of that particular book. Taking the example we gave of the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon gave his answer to the meaning of life at the end of his book. The earlier parts of the book are very bleak and without hope; the kinds of things you may read about in a book written by an atheist. The ending of the book serves to put the whole book into context. The earlier parts are the foundation for what Solomon is claiming. I use the book of Ecclesiastes because it is similar to the book of Job. The book of Job contains many statements about reality. At the end of the book, however, we see God’s response to all that has been said earlier. God effectively quiets Job and Job ends up repenting from his earlier statements in dust and ashes.

Taking into account the type of literature that the book of Job is, then, will help us to accurately interpret the book. The book itself is not a didactic book. That is to say, it is not a book meant to teach doctrine. Each statement in Job is not a direct teaching. Instead, the book falls into the category of poetry, and as such contains quite a bit of narrative. That is to say that the book contains a lot of historical record of what people said. A lot of the Bible is actually written in the narrative without commentary about what is right or wrong. Take Genesis 34 for example. This chapter relates the story of how Jacob’s sons brutally slaughtered an entire city of people. There’s no commentary about whether or not what they did is right or wrong. Jacob complains about the anticipated consequences to himself, but there is no statement as to whether they were in the right or in the wrong.

This is what we have in Job. The verses that are cited are a prime example of misinterpretation. In the context of the book itself, this passage is simply relating the sorrow of Job. He was so sorrowful that he wished he were never born, that his mother had miscarried. There is no commentary here as to whether his feelings are right or wrong. The fact that God silenced him later in the book and Job then repented of his earlier statements could be used to say that these statements by Job were sinful. That’s more than I'd like to to say about the passage, though, at least for the purposes of this article. The important thing to remember is that in its context, this passage has no bearing on the abortion issue. The purpose and tenor of the passage is to relate the deep suffering that Job was undergoing. To add anything more to it would be committing a gross error of misinterpretation.

Thank you for your question, and I hope you found my answer helpful (although poorly written). If anyone has any questions they'd like me to address in a blog, feel free to leave a comment for me. Please tell me who you are though!