Dreamer

Today marked the 50th anniversary of ‘The March on Washington’. The original march drew about 250,000

people fighting equal rights (and jobs) for blacks in America. Today, about 1/10 that number showed up in the rain in the US capital to commemorate what is understood to be the turning point in the American civil rights movement. It was once again a very full day ending with a speech by President Barack Obama at the Lincoln Memorial.

Yesterday, US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan put things in perspective when he made this statement to the Associated Press: “Tomorrow, just like 50 years ago, an African-American man will stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and speak about civil rights and justice. But afterward, he won't visit the White House. He'll go home to the White House.”

There has been some amazing progress made. That’s for sure.

The highlight 50 years ago today ended up being Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s  now famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. One of the amazing things about that which a lot of people don’t realize is that there were actually 21 speakers that day, along with a number of ‘entertainers’ including Mahalia Jackson, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and Peter, Paul and Mary. King took the very last spot of the day because no one else wanted it. Think about that! It had been a long day and a hot day and people were tired. King was slotted to speak for 4 minutes. His speech was written for him by Clarence Jones, a speech writer and attorney.

King stayed with the text in front of him for the first several minutes. I watched the speech again today and you can tell when he leaves his notes. One source I consulted said that it was at the point where Mahalia Jackson yelled out, “Tell 'em about the dream, Martin!” Apparently he had spoken about ‘the dream’ a few months earlier, but there was no mention of it in the text that lay before him that day. But he shoved the notes aside and from that point on we have what has become one of the most famous oratories in American history.

There is a great deal that can be said about the words spoken that day by Martin Luther King. Most people seem to want to ignore the Scriptural references in his sermon and his references to God. He was after all a Baptist preacher. Different parts of his message seem to resonate with different people. For me, one of the lines that I have always appreciated since the first time I heard it was this one:

“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

I guess the reason that statement catches my attention is his reference to character. Martin Luther King Jr. was a freedom fighter, but he would never align himself with the ludicrous notion being preached as ‘tolerance’ in our day. That’s for sure.  

Operation Auca

Jim Elliot

Jim Elliot (Philip James Elliot) was part of a team of 5 missionaries who banded together for what they called ‘Operation Auca’; an attempt to reach the Waodoni (Auca) Indians of Ecuador with the message of the gospel. In 1956, all 5 men were savagely murdered by the very men they were attempting to reach with the love of Christ.  

Life Magazine published a ten-page article on their mission and death. The media coverage and subsequent interest in the martyrdom of these men served to challenge and motivate a great number of young people of that generation with the cause of Christian missions and the willingness to take up the cross.  
      
If you are not familiar with their story, or with the amazing events which followed, you owe it to yourself to do a little reading. If you are a reader, here are a couple of books written by Jim Elliot’s widow that tell their story. Whether you are a reader or not, I’m including a link at the end of this post to a video that you’re sure to appreciate.

A couple of book options:

‘Through Gates of Splendor’ by Elizabeth Elliot

‘Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot’ by Elizabeth Elliot

Jim himself did a lot of journaling. Here are a few quotes of his to wet your appetite for further reading:

“Let not our longing slay the appetite of our living.”

“God always gives his best to those who leave the choice with him.”

“Lord, give me firmness without hardness, steadfastness without dogmatism, love without weakness.”

“Oh, the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on earth!”

“Lord, make my way prosperous not that I achieve high station, but that my life be an exhibit to the value of knowing God.”

“Father, make of me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me.”

“We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are ‘harmless’, and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the Cross. We are ‘sideliners’ - coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!”

“I couldn’t have asked for more than God in deliberate grace has surprised me with!”

“I pray for you, that all your misgivings will be melted to thanksgivings. Remember that the shadow a thing casts often far exceeds the size of the thing itself (especially if the light be low on the horizon) and though some future fear may strut brave darkness as you approach, the thing itself will be but a speck when seen from beyond. Oh that He would restore us often with that 'aspect from beyond,' to see a thing as He sees it, to remember that He dealeth with us as with sons.”

“When it comes time to die, make sure that all you have to do is die.”

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

A few years back, Christian singer/song writer Steven Curtis Chapman explored the story of these missionaries and ended up writing some songs and integrating the story along with pictures and videos into a concert. Here is a link to a video that is an abbreviated version of that concert that would be a few minutes of your time well spent. You won’t regret it.

Video: For The Sake of The Call 

The Parable of the Woodpecker

I often talk about my fascination with analogies and the way that spiritual truths are illustrated in the physical realm all around us. To me, it is all part of how creation wonderfully points us to the Creator.

                                  

I used to think that woodpeckers killed trees; that they drilled holes in the trees causing them to die. It is not an unreasonable observation. You see a woodpecker pecking holes in a tree and the next thing you know the tree is dead! It seems kind of obvious. Certainly punching a tree full of holes is going to kill it! People have been convicted in a court of law with less evidence!

But there is more to the situation than meets the eye. Woodpeckers feed on bugs. If a woodpecker is drilling a hole in a tree, it is because there are bugs in there. That is to say that the tree is already dying.

Now, seeing a woodpecker the other day caused me to think about this in terms of our lives, when we mistake the symptoms for the disease. We watch for woodpeckers, blaming them for our problems and trying to chase them off, when in reality they are only symptomatic of a much deeper problem; one much more difficult to see, and yes, deadly. The woodpeckers represent things that are more circumstantial while the bugs represent our heart issues. We make a grave error when we remain willfully ignorant of what’s going on inside our hearts choosing instead to blame externals. Psychologists call it denial. The Bible talks about it as a refusal to be honest before God and to confess and repent of our sin; to acknowledge it, to own it, and to turn from it. We will never be healthy, never be able to move forward, until we face head-on the real cause of our problem - the sin in our hearts.

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”  1John 1:8

But here is the best part:

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”   1John 1:9

Notice any woodpeckers lately? It may be that God sent them to get your attention, to encourage you to deal with the real problem.  

Inside Egypt

Ramez Atallah is the general director of the Bible Society of Egypt and has a masters of divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in the USA. Writing for the Gospel Coalition today, he highlights some of the things that happened last week that we didn’t hear or see on the news, and he expresses his frustration with the media and why they aren’t reporting the real story.

It’s yet another example of media bias but it’s hard to understand why the media would slant this the way they are. 

Check out Ramez's article here and see what you think - 'An Insider's Perspective On Egypt Today'

Gospel Hermeneutic

Last Sunday morning I spoke on ‘Applying the Law to our Lives’ and I sought to introduce the church family to what I referred to as the ‘gospel hermeneutic’. I thought I’d follow up with that a little today here.

Although the word hermeneutic can put some people off, because it isn’t a word we commonly use or hear in the run of the mill conversations we have, it is simply the more technical term used to identify the important field of study of the principles of good interpretation.

And as I said, more than once on Sunday morning, this is SO important because correct application depends utterly on correct understanding (interpretation). So if we are going to apply the Bible to our lives (read ‘obey’) then the importance of a right understanding of it cannot be overstated.

The most difficult problem in this field in practical terms is applying the Old Testament (Jewish) Scriptures to our lives today as Christians. The OT makes up ¾ of our Bibles so this is a huge issue and it is fraught with dangerous perils. History records some of the horror stories of misapplication resulting from bad interpretation.

There are a number of important hermeneutical principles that we need to be aware of and putting into practice. I spoke about the literal grammatical approach. I also mentioned the importance of the principle of context. But the main point that I wanted to make was the principle that I called the ‘gospel hermeneutic’. (People also refer to this as ‘the hermeneutic of Christ’ or the ‘Christ centered hermeneutic’ and there may well be other terms used to identify the same thing.)

So here’s an attempt today to put it in simple terms that anyone can understand:

This approach to biblical interpretation depends on the other principles of interpretation I mentioned but it understands the Bible as one story and THE story; the grand meta-narrative of life. As stories have plots, so the Bible has one main plot. And although it has many ‘sub-plots’,  all of these ‘sub-plots’ need to be understood in the light of the main plot which is the gospel – the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world.

This is why I said Sunday morning that when we as New Testament Christians read the Old Testament (and we do need to be doing that … not just reading it, but ‘delighting ourselves in the Law of the Lord’) and seek to apply it to our lives, we cannot apply it directly. Rather we read it in the light of Jesus coming and dying for our sin and rising again. And we apply it to our lives as those who have been given new life in Christ and are completely under His authority. The gospel effects everything. Some things it changes. Some things it reinforces. Some things it does away with. In this sense, the gospel is the key to interpreting the entire Bible.

(You can check out our website if you want to hear the audio of the sermon. It’s not my intent to reproduce all of the content here. It’s www.sharethejourney.ca and look for the ‘listen online’ tab)

I did throw in a few comments for parents at the end specifically and received a message from Joel and Angela about this resource that looks amazingly good that I wanted to make you aware of.

‘The Jesus Story Book Bible’ by Sally Lloyd-Jones

Angela says:

“Just wanted to pass along a resource for parents of young kids that encourages the line of thinking you were discussing this morning. This little Bible points each OT story to Jesus. It is really wonderful. We love it.”

Here is what one of the reviewers had to say:

“I was hesitant about this book when I first spotted it because it looked a little hokey, to be honest. But as I began to read through it I was thrilled at what I found. Lloyd-Jones masterfully weaves together the story of the Messiah, the "Rescuer", through the various stories of the Bible. It is just so beautifully written. I have a hard time reading it to my kids because I am so moved by it I get choked up! The heart of God for us, His children, is evident in every story. It is all about relationships and God's unfailing love for His people. Lloyd-Jones brings out some interesting historical contextual information in the stories. Because it is a story-book version of the bible, rather than a translation or paraphrase, she is able to use the original images of the biblical text while explaining the meaning right in the telling of the story. For example, in the creation story, the biblical account talks of God "hovering over the deep", in Llyod-Jone's version, she explains: "Like a mommy bird flutters her wings over her eggs to help her babies hatch, God hovered over the deep, silent darkness."
This is a beautiful, beautiful book - I am so glad that children have a chance to see the connections between the various Bible stories and hear the call of God throughout. Lloyd-Jones does a great job of explaining connections that most adults are probably unaware of, or haven't taken the time to consider. This is a child's book that will thrill and delight children, but will also teach and inspire the adults who read it to them too. I can't recommend it highly enough!