I haven’t posted for a while, so maybe something light-hearted will follow.

My small group was watching the super bowl with two other small groups last night (yes, we fit three small groups into one apartment), and we had one person really trash talking for the Colts.  We also had someone less vocal defending the Saints.  In the end, we came to the realization that only myself, these two verbal combatants and a few others were invested at all in the amazing game.  When we had to point out the great plays in such an above-average super bowl performance, well, you could tell others had little invested in football.

But when we got back into the car to go home, the Saints man asks for whom I was rooting, and I answered the Saints.  Maybe I was still a little too bitter from Peyton’s last performance against my Bears.  But when team allegiances are irrelevant in big games, I rather choose the underdog.

“Where were you?!”  He asked.  “You’re just like Peter denying Jesus!”

I guess that is a loose analogy, being that I kept out of the trash talk, but I can’t help but chuckle at the thought of our Simon Pedro skit in Mexico about denial and redemption, and our subsequent de-holy-nization of the skit by haphazardly putting crude dance motions to all the actions, creating Simon Pedro: The Musical.

Hoping to redeem last night, I find this situation both true and untrue:  We’re condemned for not being vocal until after the game is over.  True, denying Jesus is a sin, and you really have to question how you are doing faith-wise if this is your favorite pastime, and we don’t much get a chance to affirm a saving faith after our death (or, theologically, in that non-existent second between death and judgment).  But, in a way, it is false in that the victory has already been won, and we already know the outcome.  The game has been over, and we’re not condemned for not being vocal before our own observed personal victories of God.

But both scenarios, true and false, lead to one conclusion:  Speak up.  Not about football; about God.

Boy, oh boy.  I don’t seem good at either lately.

…

So… has anyone else ever had their third and fourth toes fall asleep?

There are two accounts of Jesus’ birth in the Bible:  One in the Gospel of Matthew; the other in Luke.  Elements from both are included in every Sunday School Christmas pageant, but how much of the two stories actually agree?  How much is blatantly incompatible?

Matthew 1:18-2:21 ~ Angel to Joseph via dream; Joseph and Mary wed; Jesus born (Bethlehem); Wise men follow a star; Herod’s intervention; Wise men to Jesus; Escape to Egypt; Massacre of boys under 2 (Bethlehem+vicinity); Return to Nazareth after Herod’s death.

Luke 1:26-38, 2:1-51 ~ Gabriel to Mary in Nazareth (Galilee); Census; Journey to Bethlehem (Judea); No room at the inn; Jesus born; In a manger; Shepherds and Angels; Circumcision at the temple (Jerusalem), Simeon and Anna; Return to Nazareth; Jesus at 12 (Jerusalem and Nazareth).

…

There is a ton of material to cover.  I am going to begin by providing a timetable where there is no logical contradiction in these two accounts.  There are several omissions in each story, but the details that are mentioned could have easily come from one singular, real experience.

Gabriel appears to Mary in Nazareth (Luke 1:26-38).  Mary tells Joseph that this is God’s work through the Holy Spirit, and Joseph decides that the best course of action is to divorce her quietly (Matthew 1:18-19).  An angel validates Mary in Joseph’s dreams, and he takes her as his wife (Matthew 1:20-24).  Augustus issues the census decree, and the couple journeys to Bethlehem, where they find no room in the inn (Luke 2:1-6).  Jesus is born in Bethlehem (Matthew 1:25-2:1; Luke 2:7).  A star rose above Jesus (Matthew 2:2).  A loud heavenly host implores neighboring shepherds to come and worship (Luke 2:8-20).  Eight days later, Jesus is presented at the temple at Jerusalem and meets Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:21-38).  They return to Nazareth (Luke 2:39-40).  The wise men from the east see the star and meet a disturbed Herod a few years later (v16), and asks where the king of the Jews is to be born; Herod and his advisers say Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1-8).  They keep traveling until they come to Jesus and worship Him, returning home by another route (Matthew 2:9-12).  Joseph is warned of Herod in a dream, and the family flees to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15).  Herod orders the massacre of young boys in and around Bethlehem (Matthew 2:16-18).  The family returns home and arrives in Nazareth after the death of Herod (Matthew 2:21-23).  Jesus grows up in Nazareth, and this includes a visit to the temple in Jerusalem at age 12 (Luke 2:41-51).

Now that we have a combined narrative, let’s examine some common perceptions.

Ha!  Mary and Joseph get married in Matthew before Jesus is born, but Mary is only pledged in Luke. (Matthew 1:24-25; Luke 2:5-6)

I admit here that I do not know much about marriage customs of the Jewish people around 0 BC.  However, in much of the Old Testament, a marriage is not sealed until there are sexual relations between the husband and wife.  Matthew makes note of this specifically that Mary was taken as his wife, but he had no union with her until after Jesus was born (1:24-25).  For the sake of everyone else, Joseph and Mary were wed and unified.  This was absolutely necessary because engaged couples had a lot of responsibility toward one another, but no privacy whatsoever.  Mary would seem to be an adulterer (the respective families would swear she and Joseph were never alone together), and her life would be in danger.

Luke, however, is an investigator.  Traditionally (and due to the level of detail), he is said to have interviewed Mary, who knew that she had not been unified with Joseph until after the birth of Jesus and refuted the claim she was married beforehand.

Further complicating the issue is that engaged couples were often called husbands and wives.

The bottom line is that marriage was not as cut and dry as it is today, and we can’t conclude this is a contradiction.

Ha!  They go to Jerusalem every year for Passover in Luke.  That couldn’t have happened if they went to Egypt in Matthew. (Luke 2:41; Matthew 2:13 and 19)

Not so fast.  Where did they flee to in Egypt?  The region known as Egypt back then probably stretched farther than it does today, and there were locations where the annual trip to Jerusalem was not nearly as inconvenient as we may think.

But even if we do assume that Mary and Joseph celebrated the Passover feast in Egypt instead of the temple, do we have a real contradiction?  As mentioned earlier, Luke is thought to have interviewed Mary about the circumstances of Jesus’ birth, so Mary must have mentioned that they went to the temple every year.

If you interview my mother about Christmas, she will say that we celebrated Christmas Eve at our house every year.  But that’s not true.  We started doing that when I was a young boy, perhaps eight or nine.

After the family returns from Egypt, and before this specific story when Jesus is twelve, there are several years to build a tradition where the whole town up and journeys to Jerusalem for the feast.  If I was Mary and this journey had taken place for five years before the story when Jesus is twelve (and for more than a decade afterward), I would say that we went to Jerusalem every year.

Again, we don’t have enough to prove a contradiction.

How can the Wise men from the East follow a star in the East and travel West? (Matthew 2:1-2, 9)

The actual Greek indicates that the star is not necessarily in the East, but rather the wise men saw the star when it rose.  This could mean that the star rose in the East, but it could simply mean the star had appeared, or had irregularly become prominent.

But even if the star rose in the East, it would set in the West, and could lead the wise magi.  Additionally, if the magi were astronomers, the star could simply have pointed them in the correct direction, instead of hovering over Jesus as is traditionally seen.

Finally, the wise men could have not followed the star at all (at first)!  Instead, they travel to Jerusalem like the star was a metaphorical starting gun, thinking it the logical place for the birth of the Jewish king.  Upon arrival, they could note to Herod that they were from the East and then point out what had signaled their travels, a star which at the time could have been rising in the East.

Why assume the wise men come a significant time after the shepherds?

I think this is an alright assumption because Herod decides to kill all young boys under two years of age in Bethlehem in Matthew 2:16.  Herod probably did the math and allowed a little wiggle room.  If the wise men had been on a long journey before they came to him and they had failed to report back to him for a while, then it could be have easily been a year (again, allowing wiggle room).

How can there be so much travel for pregnant/post-pregnant Mary?  Where’s Mary on a donkey?

There were no exceptions for pregnant women.  Some modern women work up until the day they give birth.  Maybe Mary, being young, prematurely gave birth when she wasn’t expecting it to happen.  Perhaps the journey actually induced labor.  Any scenario allows for these possibilities.

The idea of Mary riding on a donkey are those of tradition.  Some would argue that since Mary and Joseph were poor, they could not have afforded a donkey.  However, Joseph is described to us as skilled worker in an area where archaeologists believe Roman colonies were being constructed.  A donkey would have been all but necessary for that kind of profession, and would have been expensive enough to purchase and maintain to leave Joseph monetarily invested in his work and practically poor.

Why return to Judea in Matthew? (v22)

Some would argue Matthew believes Bethlehem to be the real home of Mary and Joseph, as Nazareth is not mentioned until after the re-routing.  However, one way to return back home to Nazareth could have been through Judea, but they simply went around it thinking there could still be trouble.

Don’t the wise men follow the star to Bethlehem? (Matthew 2:9)

Actually, the text says that the magi follow the star to where the child was.  The astrologers and sages for Herod may have directed them toward Bethlehem, but the star is never mentioned as the star over Bethlehem.  As mentioned above, the wise men could have not had the idea to follow the star until well into their journey.  Imagine one possible scenario where they leave Jerusalem under Herod’s advice and travel to Bethlehem searching for Jesus, still oblivious to the star.  When they see ask around and find Jesus is not there, they decide to look to the star, and follow it until they reach the Joseph and Mary’s home in Nazareth.

Why does Herod order a massacre at Bethlehem if Jesus isn’t there? (Matthew 2:16-18)

Herod thinks that Jesus is there.  That’s where the Messiah was supposed to be born.  Again, he left a little wiggle room by ordering a massacre of young boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity.

Why isn’t the massacre recorded in non-Christian sources?  The actual number of babies and toddlers killed for that area might have been around twenty, which is horrible but not the most noteworthy of historians.

So why does an angel warn Joseph to leave if Herod’s target is several miles off?  The answer could simply be that Herod was a madman.  If he tried, he could probably have someone ask questions and track the route of the magi (let’s face it, that caravan would not have been so sleuthy in those parts) to Jesus’ actual home.  It was still prudent to escape to Egypt.

Why the major omissions?  Why not mention wise men, Herod, and Egypt in Luke?  Why not mention shepherds, Simeon and Anna, and 12-year-old Jesus in Matthew?

The answer could be boring, but I think it is because they were written to different audiences.

Look at Luke, which was written to the gentiles.  The events he chooses to include involve angels coming to shepherds, the blessings of an elderly woman, and Jesus’ impressiveness at age 12 among intellectuals in Jerusalem.  Luke emphasizes that this was a humble birth, and that God came to the second-class citizens (shepherds and Anna, a woman), and that even at a young age, Jesus could best the self-righteous Jewish elite.

Look at Matthew, which was probably written to a Jewish audience.  Matthew talks about kings and prophecy.  He brings up the fond thoughts of a kingly messiah, where all the nations bow to a Jew, and the Roman-installed king is jealous and out-witted.  He includes many borderline prophecies so that they will click with Jewish readers.  That’s from Micah!.. Isaiah; Hosea; Jeremiah! Readers would have been more interested in this Jesus of Nazareth having read those quotes and allusions from Matthew’s birth narrative.

…

Although it is not a widely pursued set of contradictions, this is the Christmas season.  Merry Christmas:  Immanuel.

Previous (God Sees Everything)

(Next)

Sometimes I think I am the hardest person for me to figure out.  It is very difficult to get an objective view of yourself.  And even when I get that honest critique, it still goes through the filter of my mind.

Am I weird or am I weird?

It’s so frustrating.

I like writing because the words come out much more easily.  In the real world when I am talking to somebody, it takes so much focus to pick and choose the right word and make a complete thought.  Every word a battle where my tongue fumbles over itself.

And that doesn’t even take into account I’m supposed to listen and make eye contact.  Those two things are very hard for me.  Listening isn’t so difficult one-on-one, but when I’m in some sort of  setting where there are multiple (or hundreds) of other conversations in the imminent vicinity, I hear all of them, and can’t listen to just one.  I have to hear them all.

If I am faced with a hard problem, my eyes un-focus and I can’t really see.

When I am walking or running, I have to concentrate on every minuscule movement.  And when someone tries to teach me some complex action – like shooting a basketball or throwing a baseball correctly – I won’t get it.  I have to have each little piece of the puzzle shown to me individually:  This is how the wrist moves; this is how the arm is bent; this is how the fingers should be placed.  Even while running, I have to concentrate on different muscle groups.  I have to keep my knees high.  I have to have my foot pointed high, and then, when I land, my calf should constrict at the same time as my quads and push off the ground.

Perhaps this is why I chose the sports that I did – baseball and hurdling might seem complex, but the actions are well-defined.

And when it comes to emotions… don’t get me started.  I try to be empathetic, and I am.  Extremely.  I can usually tell when someone feels an emotion.  Facial cues have been hard to understand, but I’m slowly getting them.  Faces are complex, and a mood might be expressed in contrast to its complete opposite in one simple area.  It doesn’t help that my memory, which can remember many things photographically, cannot picture a face.  But back to empathy… once I do understand, I am really overcome with emotion to the point where it’s not displayed on my face, and I look callous.  In real life, I can’t express emotions very well.

All of it is just sensory overload, and I thoroughly dislike it.

I know He’s all throughout, but, to you, does Jesus come in on the top or at the bottom?

Unquantifiable; unqualifiable.  The rigidity of words cannot do justice to God’s character, nor can the word ‘justice’ in the first phrase of the sentence adequately serve to display the true injustice.  The words we use, even if they are in our own language, are re-translated by our experiences so that something as simple as ‘good’ is different for every single person.  Admitting this, many would still hope on the existence of an absolute ‘good.’  The danger comes when our subjective definition is put in place of the absolute.

It’s why I can confidently profess that God is good all the time, even while there are wars, disease, and natural disaster.

Likewise, when an adjective we would find most negative is written describing God, one comes to wonder how this God of Christianity ever got to be called good in the first place.  We take our subjective definitions, and convict God of something which He is definitely not.

I’m going to be honest:  I will fail miserably at this post.  I’ve been dreading it because of its size on my list.  I was surprised to see the full-out assault on God’s character placed in the Genesis 4:15 slot.

Nevertheless, I do intend to show how some of the characteristics are completely warped from God.  I’m not going to deny that God is a vengeful God or that He’s a jealous God, but I will try to explain how the Bible does not contradict itself when it comes to these things.

GE 4:15, DT 32:19-27, IS 34:8 God is a vengeful god.
EX 15:3, IS 42:13, HE 12:29 God is a warrior. God is a consuming fire.
EX 20:5, 34:14, DT 4:24, 5:9, 6:15, 29:20, 32:21 God is a jealous god.
LE 26:7-8, NU 31:17-18, DT 20:16-17, JS 10:40, JG 14:19, EZ 9:5-7 The Spirit of God is (sometimes) murder and killing.
NU 25:3-4, DT 6:15, 9:7-8, 29:20, 32:21, PS 7:11, 78:49, JE 4:8, 17:4, 32:30-31, ZP 2:2 God is angry. His anger is sometimes fierce.
2SA 22:7-9 (KJV) “I called to the Lord; … he heard my voice; … The earth trembled and quaked, … because he was angry. Smoke came from his nostrils. Consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.”
EZ 6:12, NA 1:2, 6 God is jealous and furious. He reserves wrath for, and takes revenge on, his enemies. “… who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and rocks are thrown down by him.”

2CO 13:11, 14, 1JN 4:8, 16 God is love.
GA 5:22-23 The fruit of the Spirit of God is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

A God of Vengeance

In fact, Leviticus 19:18 forbids acts of revenge.  Vengeance today has a terribly negative connotation.  In it lives hatred and murder.  We are trained from when we are young children that violence begets violence, and it’s a never-ending cycle.  Vigilantes are often prosecuted by our courts because the law is not achieved through revenge.

But is there not still a hint of justice in revenge?  At the risk of losing credibility, I give you the comic book hero, Batman.  Modern society has created itself a fantasy hero who is arguably based on revenge.  Batman is one of the darker of the mainstream superheroes, but, bringing us back on subject, I propose this is because of the heavy responsibility of weighing justice and revenge together, a monumental task for a single caped crusader.

Biblically speaking, there are two types of revenge.  The first is revenge motivated by hatred, and the second is justice.

Revenge stemming from hatred is not justice.  It is not a rational hatred, either.  Think back to grammar school when there was a new kid in class.  Sometimes, nothing really happens, but other times, the new student is hazed and outcast as if he had committed some sort of crime.  Now apply that same standard to some grown-up matters, like hate crimes, profiling, etc.  Sometimes, jealousy and bitterness can so invade and divide a heart that we can think another person betrayed the rules of our personal kingdom, and we want to punish them.    A Biblical example of this could be in Jeremiah 20:10, where the prophet claims that his ‘friends’ are waiting for him to be deceived, desperately wanting to report him.  They watch Jeremiah closely, wanting him to slip.  But what had he done against them?  Admittedly, he was a complainer and a fool, but it seems like his ‘friends’ didn’t like the rebuking, and wanted to take revenge on Jeremiah for an unjust reason.  It’s all self-motivated, irrational hatred.  This is what Leviticus 19:18 is talking about.  It includes the phrase love your neighbor for a purpose.

But God is a God of just vengeance.  The concept of vengeance back in the days of the Bible was more likely one of justice.  Today, we have very structured laws and judicial systems.  We live in an un-oppressed, fairly lawful country, and revenge-based justice has little or no place.  It’s considered unnecessary, petty, and, needless to say, negative.  That is far from the situation existing in the Bible, where revenge may be the only form of justice for society.  Think of ‘an eye for an eye,’ etc.  But even further, when I picture this ‘just vengeance’ applied to God, I see passion and compassion.  The Bible does not hide the idea of God having emotions, and here it seems He has a passionate stake in this whole mess.  God is not one of unjust vengeance, nor is He a cold Batman figure, rooted in equal parts justice and revenge.  No.  God is a God of passionate justice.  When God is described as vengeful, the writers are most likely saying that God is following through with His promises of compassion, protection, and justice.  Look again at the verses above.

Genesis 4:15 is the first mention of vengeance in the Bible.  Cain fears for his life because he killed Abel, but God says that he will avenge Cain seven times if anyone killed him.  God effectively promises to protect Cain*.

Deuteronomy 32 :19-27 is a scary portrayal of God’s vengeance against those who turn their hearts from Him.  But the full chapter goes as such:  The LORD is God (v3-4); you abandoned God (5-6); God had nurtured and cared for you and your fathers (7-14); but the once upright people forgot Him and followed other gods and idols (15-18); God will therefore pour out His wrath (19-22); and will all but destroy the unfaithful (23-26); but will not destroy everything or hand them over to the enemy, lest they think themselves victorious over God (27); even the senseless enemy knows God has power (28-33); but vengeance belongs to God (34-35); God will judge the unfaithful so they will turn from their idols and will have compassion on His servants (36-38); The LORD is God, and He will take vengeance on His enemies (39-42); the atonement for His servants will be rejoiced over by His people and the nations (43).  … Why would God be vengeful against His own people?  In the act of abandoning Him, they had given their lives over to sin and detestable practices.  With confidence I can say that the double-whammy of turning themselves over to sin and not having God on their side would have lead to the swift destruction of the Hebrew people.  But through vengeance, God is explicitly bringing His people back to Him, yet still protecting them from their enemies and having compassion on His servants.

Isaiah 34:8 also uses vengeance as a tool of justice, judgment, and retribution.  35:4 gives the reason why:  With vengeance; with divine retribution He will come to save you.

These are three instances of God protecting, sanctifying, and saving His people, and are in no way contrary to His character.

*Just think of the implications of God protecting Cain.  This is another wonderful example of how, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Previous (God Sees Everything)

Next (God’s Character Part 2)

Hiding is something for which we humans are naturals.  When I was younger, I tried to show my little brother how to ‘bridge’ whilst shuffling playing cards, and somehow made one of the cards fly into his eye.  My father came storming into the living room, and I bolted – first down the street; but then to some secluded bushes in the park.

Adam and Eve did it, too.  They hide their nakedness from each other, and then they try to hide from God.  Cain tries to hide the truth from God.  God goes looking for them, and surprisingly asks, “Where are you?” or “Where is your brother?”  Does He not know everything?

GE 3:9 God asks Adam where he is.
GE 4:9 God asks Cain where his brother Abel is.
PR 15:3, JE 16:17, 23:23-24, HE 4:13 God is everywhere. He sees everything. Nothing is hidden from his view.

Why would an all-mighty, all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God ask this?  In the story above, my father and another of my brothers came in search of me, and they all shouted my name.  My brother even passed by my hiding spot at the park, but did not find me because I did not answer.  It can reasonably be assumed that they called out to me because they did not know where I quivered.

God is not like that at all.  He sees anything and everything, and the proof is in the verses above.  Psalmists go as far as saying that wicked ones and evildoers justify themselves by saying that the Lord does not see them (Psalm 94:7, 10:11).  In Psalm 94:8, the writer simply counts those who believe such a thing as fools.  But Psalm 10:4 gives a little more insight as to why one is lead to believe that God cannot see him:  In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.

Us not seeing God is not the same as God not seeing us.  When we convince ourselves that God cannot see us, we’re the fools.  God is pretty indignant in Jeremiah 23:23-24 when people think so little of Him.

So what could possibly be God’s purpose in asking where we are?

The first thing I can think of is to show that He cares.  I imagine an alternate reality where no one came looking for me when I ran away from home; and I imagine a reality where my father sees right through all of the objects behind which I hide, walking directly toward me.  Both are much scarier than the one I actually experienced.  Imagine if God decided to not make Himself known in the garden after the fall, or if God appeared directly behind Adam and Eve, scaring the fig leaves off them.  Both are against God’s nurturing character.  God asks because He cares.

Secondly, we have the sugar cookie explanation.  When I was very young (much younger than the card trick), I reached up onto the table and prematurely ate some of the cookies my mother just baked.  When asked if I had eaten them, I vigorously shook my head, and responded, “No!”  One problem – I had that stupid green crystallized sugar all around my mouth.  My mom took pictures so I would remember this later on in life.  God gives us the opportunity to own up to what we did.  Adam and Eve kind of get this right – they stop hiding and come before God (with a catch, because they proceed to play the blame game).  Cain fails, mouths off to God, and God calls out Abel’s faithlessness in His omniscience in verse 10(b):  Listen!  Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Although in this case Cain rebelled, God asks so that we can own up to our sins and repent.

Finally, it is so we can understand.  The God of the Bible is a God who repeatedly comes down and reveals Himself to us lesser beings.  In Luke 8:45-48, a bleeding woman touches Jesus, and Jesus calls out, “Who touched me?”  Factually, Jesus knows exactly who touched Him.  Jesus compels the woman (for she knows that she cannot hide) to come forward by asking this question.  He does it so that she can become a credible example of faith to the entire crowd, and even more so to the woman, herself.  Jesus could have stopped, and proclaimed to the crowd, “Look, I just healed this woman without even touching her with my hand!”  But He probably would have scared the woman away or been subject to much skepticism from the crowd.  Jesus asks so that we understand.

God always has a purpose behind asking questions.  That purpose is our benefit, and it does not run contrary to any of God’s characteristics, including His omniscience or the fact that He is all-seeing.

Previous (God shows no Favoritism)

Next (God’s Character – Vengeance)

Also (The Christmas Story)

We are in an interim period, where the battle is won, yet God’s will is not being done. ~ Dr. Gilbert Bilezikian

I currently am without home church.  My parents have recently found a new spiritual home at Willow Creek – a more spacious home with a plethora of resources, and last week I watched them get dunked in that massive hot tub.  So this morning I joined them at the early service in the enormous auditorium, where Pastor Hybels and Dr. Bilezikian joint-taught a message from the Armor of God passage from Ephesians 6.  It wasn’t stellar – Dr. B is a theological reservoir of information, but seemed out-of-place in front of the large audience.  But I enjoyed it…

… Except for the above quote.  The message can be found here, under “Beyond Belief: Spiritual Warfare,” but I went to a different service than the one recorded and posted.

I think it is just semantics.

I know from personal experience and from study that God’s will is always done.  All the time, no matter what is happening, God is sovereign.  Period.  I think what the good doctor was really saying is that there is evil in the world, which is certainly against the character of God.  God’s own personal qualities, if we can dare to qualify them, are not reflected by all of creation at surface value.  God is sovereign over every action, but actions exist contrary to the desire of the spirit’s nature.

Yum yum; food for thought.

Thank God my parents have found a place to learn and worship!

A favorite conversation topic in recent days is the end of the world.  A man on Family Radio my Father and I call “Ra Ra” (actually Harold Camping at 91.9 FM in Chicago) has been predicting the date of the rapture to be May 21st, 2011, and the subsequent end of the world October 21st of the same year.  The horrible plotline of 2012 and it’s Mayan calendar apocalypse also play off our curiosity concerning the end.  Just a short time ago, many were convinced that the collider in Switzerland would destroy the Earth via the same manner in which Vulcan is annihilated  in JJ Abrams’ Star Trek.

But how is one to prepare for the end?  The Christian response has for centuries been to wait; or to wait with our lamps ready, and to prepare our hearts.

What does that look like?

Well, I think firstly that it’s not the same as cleaning the house.  Some have likened preparation for Jesus’ second coming to that of someone coming to visit your home – you subject your house to a massive cleaning and wait.  But this doesn’t sit right for me, perhaps because of the sitting.  Let me explain:  When we have relatives over for Christmas, we clean and decorate like crazy, and usually finish the day of.  We complete the mammoth task a couple hours early, before the cousins and such come, and we end up sitting around in our good clothes doing nothing.  I thoroughly dislike sitting.  And I think sitting around is not the attitude commanded of us.

I would liken it more to the idea of building a house.  It’s similar, but you keep on building and adding wings as time goes on.

It’s like the parable of the talents, where the master leaves for a bit and dispenses his possessions for his servants to use.  I imagine that the guy with five talents had to work his butt off full-time to double his master’s money.  But imagine if the person with five talents had worked really hard and gotten a little lucky, and had turned those five talents into another five with much time to spare.  If he laid back and relaxed for the remaining time, would his master still be happy?  Perhaps.  But I do not think he would like the character of that servant as much.

How would you act knowing your world would end very soon?  Paul famously states that it is better for people not to get married because the end of the world is near – there’s no point.  But Martin Luther gives a different perspective:  If I knew the world were to end tomorrow, I would still plant my apple tree.

This rocked my brain.  What value is there in planting an apple tree?  You’re not going to get any fruit:  Trees grow slow.  Certainly not in a season; definitely not in a day.  And apple trees are particularly slow.

I still don’t fully comprehend it.  But maybe it has something to do with the value today, twofold:  The balance of urgency and patience, and the value of work which we do not get to reap.

In terms of evangelism, most people are worth more than five minute conversations.  Yet, when I think about the more powerful times of spreading the Gospel in my life, I automatically drift back to Mexico, where we could not build long-term relationships with the people to whom we witnessed.  I think the fact that I don’t think of my close friends to whom I have tried to witness for years really reflects the attitude of my heart.  I have no sense of urgency when it comes to friendship evangelism and being a Christian example.  We need long term urgency.

In the same way, I look at the work I do sowing as opposed to reaping.  The reaping moments are powerful.  When I see the fruit of God’s hands, I’m moved.  Yet, is there that same power when I am planting seeds… is there the same power when I am planting seeds as when I am leading someone in the sinner’s prayer?  I can’t say that there is, or at least cannot say my mind remembers it the same way.  We need urgency when we don’t see the results.

Maybe, the whole point of end-times thinking is that we need to have the urgency to plant an apple tree.

I think that very few people know what they ask for when they pray to be set afire.  Light the fire in my soul… bring the fire of Your Spirit… let Your all-consuming fire come.

All.  Consuming.

When God brings the fire, it doesn’t mean that you jump up and down during worship or even that your prayers are intense enough to melt the snow where you kneel.  And it doesn’t mean that you feel like taking the leap and you mention God to that weirdo in the cubicle next to yours.

It means that everything you are is God’s… and everything you are is being used by God.  It’s not burning both ends of the rope – it’s burning the entire rope at once.

But still, God does not let the bush wither.

Stomach flu is my lifetime nemesis.  I haven’t gotten it for five years (maybe I built up an immunity to food poisoning during my dorm years), but it’s always the same.  I wake up feeling weak and confused early in the morning.  Around three in the morning it starts, and then I’m owned.

So this morning I must have upchucked on seventeen different trips.  Trips and not times – I did not count the multiples.  Which they all were.  I could not fall back asleep, because fifteen minutes later, like clockwork, I’m hovering over the commode.

My body shook, and I had to hold in a hernia tear and everything.  I wasn’t sure if my stomach lining or a lung or my heart would go first.  Today was fun.  But around two in the afternoon I started to hold down Sprite, and then I graduated to a few corn flakes, just so I wouldn’t pass out.

I cried out to the Lord many times.  I want to share a couple stories:  One about when I was weak, and one about when I was strong.

During my Junior year of high school, the conference meet for track and field was going to be the highlight of my year.  I had already busted open so many different records, and finally I would be able to stick it to that Waubonsie hurdler and my Nequa and St. Charles East rivals.  And my family and girlfriend would be there and everything was going to be glorious.

But I got this here stomach flu on Friday, and conference was on the following Monday.  Plus, because of district rules, I had to go to practice on Saturday or I would not be able to run.  My flu started to fall apart, and degenerated into a nasty fever and cold, and I was completely miserable for a long time.

I ran on fumes during Saturday’s practice, handkerchief in one hand and praying with my other that the Advil would stay down, and Monday finally came.

I won three individual events and ran a leg in our second-place 4×400 team.  I made personal records in two of the individual events and my split for the relay.  Then I went home and died.

The second story, where I feel strong, was rather recent and I’m hesitant to share because (a) nobody will believe me and (b) it can be pretty self-glorifying.

When I was a leader on my church’s West Virginia mission trip, I worked at this shelter/food pantry/goodwill store.  Oddly, the task of the week was to take 80lb bales of clothing and put them into a larger, industrial baler.  It was ridiculous.

The guy I worked with must have been sixty.  He was a heavy smoker named Harry who would occasionally slice the clothing with his razor blade while opening the smaller bales.  He reminded me of my Grandfather (not just because his name was Harry, but he was a tough, blue collar guy).  Anyway, we opened the small bales, loaded the larger baler with anywhere from fifteen to twenty two small bales, wrapped them in long pieces of wire, compacted the large bale, slip-knotted the wires, and then rolled the finished product onto a pallet (as much as you could roll a cube).  He told me never to go behind this pallet, because if the momentum we used to roll the cube of clothing happened to continue, I could very well be crushed.

Harry and I worked our butts off the first day, and we did pretty well considering he was just showing me the ropes.  I got a few compliments because I caught on quickly and refused to take a break (even though it must have been ninety-five degrees outside).  The second day, Harry’s normal help was back (another older man, perhaps fifty), along with a few new recruits that were much bigger than me.  Like a hundred fatty pounds heavier and a couple inches taller.  They were local guys who were unemployed and wanted to do something good with their spare time.

So while Harry’s normal help was taking a break, Harry deferred to the larger guys.  A logical choice, considering they had longer volunteer spans than I.  My job became to throw out waste and reload the wires.  Once in a while, I got to load the smaller bales onto our human-powered assembly line.

Anyway, the younger guys were going at the small bales real quick, and we all worked up a sweat, but then the time came to again roll the larger bale about three quarters of a turn onto the pallet.  One of the larger guys fumbled the pass coming out of the baler, and all of a sudden the crew lost all forward progress, and the bale started coming back down.  The local guys freaked and dropped it, perhaps afraid because Harry had given them the same warning he told me.

Harry got pinned.  His knee twisted in on itself, and he started to go down.  I was in the position to hand off the smaller bales to the big guys, so I was close, and I jumped in under the middle of the bale and put it on my shoulders, compacting myself into the fetal position.  I screamed like I had never screamed before, and I flat-out raised the one half ton bale of clothing until Harry could get out, and rolled it the final turn onto the pallet.

Harry took the rest of the day off, and he came back the next day with absolutely zero damage to his knee.

God did three extraordinary things:  He put me at the right place and time, blessing my instincts to get in before Harry’s leg was completely under; He used a man with torn ligaments in his knee to roll that bale; and He healed Harry’s knee.

I think God is great; take it or leave it