Take It Easy

I do not think I will ever employ any of the following phrases when saying goodbye:

1. "Take it easy." 
2. "Take care of yourself." 
3. Or the shortened version of (2), "Take care."

To use these would seem to encourage egocentricity and sloth.

Tree of the Week (2.10.09)

Tradition

Going Green and Greener Pastures

Going green sure is the trendy thing to do.

Don't get me wrong. I dig the whole idea of keeping the planet clean, having an environmental mindset, reducing, recycling, and reusing. Great.

Here's were I get confused.

People talk about how they save some paper. Nice work. By saving a piece of paper you just saved about 1/80,500 of a tree. I am not mocking this. I understand that it adds up. A lot of people go to work and school each day and can reduce their paper usage significantly.

Unfortunately it is all thrown away (no pun intended) when a growing number of people auto-start their cars and allow them to run for 30-45 minutes before they leave home or work, or don't even bother shutting the vehicle off when they "quick" run into the grocery store for a half-hour. How counterproductive.

This may be comparing apples and oranges, but they are both environmental issues, right? You wouldn't only take your kid to the doctor for pneumonia and not for a broken arm.

Watch this video and I will make my final point.

It is hip to go green, but only when it serves us well to do so. The planet is cool; saving money for the stuff we want by using energy efficient light bulbs is cooler. Reducing our CO2 emissions is cool; being cold for a shorter amount of time because our vehicles are already warm is cooler.

We may need to evaluate just how green we are going if we aren't making any sacrifices.

He Can Make Us Clean

It has been often said that it exhibits little faith to pray for God's will to be done in a sickness situation. Rather it must be prayed that God will heal regardless. Scripture explodes this fallacy.

And behold, a leper came to him and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.” And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I will; be clean.” And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a proof to them.”

-Matthew 8:2-4

The leper shows extraordinary faith, not because he says that Jesus will heal him, but because he says Jesus can heal him. Jesus acknowledges the leper's faith, as He does with others (Matthew 15:28; Mark 5:24), and says, "I will."

Some may argue that this goes against Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen," but I will argue that it upholds the verse. The leper, being human, undoubtedly hoped that Jesus would heal him, but above the hope of physical healing he put his hope in the unwaivering promises of God by acknowledging that God was able to do all things. Not only that, but by saying what he did, he acknowledged that Jesus was God. That is the faith Jesus sees in the leper.

And because of that faith Jesus commands that the cleansed leper go and proclaim his faith to the faithless. The law required much of a leper after he was made clean.

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest, and the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall look. Then, if the case of leprous disease is healed in the leprous person, the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two live clean birds and cedarwood and scarlet yarn and hyssop. And the priest shall command them to kill one of the birds in an earthenware vessel over fresh water. He shall take the live bird with the cedarwood and the scarlet yarn and the hyssop, and dip them and the live bird in the blood of the bird that was killed over the fresh water. And he shall sprinkle it seven times on him who is to be cleansed of the leprous disease. Then he shall pronounce him clean and shall let the living bird go into the open field. And he who is to be cleansed shall wash his clothes and shave off all his hair and bathe himself in water, and he shall be clean. And after that he may come into the camp, but live outside his tent seven days. And on the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair from his head, his beard, and his eyebrows. He shall shave off all his hair, and then he shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he shall be clean.

“And on the eighth day he shall take two male lambs without blemish, and one ewe lamb a year old without blemish, and a grain offering of three tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, and one log of oil. And the priest who cleanses him shall set the man who is to be cleansed and these things before the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And the priest shall take one of the male lambs and offer it for a guilt offering, along with the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. And he shall kill the lamb in the place where they kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the place of the sanctuary. For the guilt offering, like the sin offering, belongs to the priest; it is most holy. The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. Then the priest shall take some of the log of oil and pour it into the palm of his own left hand and dip his right finger in the oil that is in his left hand and sprinkle some oil with his finger seven times before the Lord. And some of the oil that remains in his hand the priest shall put on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot, on top of the blood of the guilt offering. And the rest of the oil that is in the priest's hand he shall put on the head of him who is to be cleansed. Then the priest shall make atonement for him before the Lord. The priest shall offer the sin offering, to make atonement for him who is to be cleansed from his uncleanness. And afterward he shall kill the burnt offering. And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the grain offering on the altar. Thus the priest shall make atonement for him, and he shall be clean."

-Leviticus 14:1-20

But the law did not heal the leper. Jesus wanted it to be known that it was the power of God that healed the leper. No amount of faith in the law would heal the leper. Only faith in God could do that.

The Bible neither teaches that prayers of healing should be made with the assumption that God will heal nor does the Bible teach that one can be healed by performing the rituals of the law. And nowhere does Scripture teach that we have the power to command God's will by adherence to the law or by presuming healing in prayer. 

True faith lies within the understanding that God can do all things and resting in the promises that He has given us.

Tree of the Week (2.3.09)

Resolution 14

Resolved, never to do anything out of revenge.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

-Romans 12:19

Being A Nuisance Makes Great YouTube Videos

Driscoll, Nightline, and Sex

If you read this blog, you probably read several Mark-Driscoll-loving blogs, so this video will no doubt be spamming your feed-reader. It's Drisoll on the latest episode of Nightline.

I only have one question after watching the video: when did the mainstream, semi-liberal media, who broadcast soft-porn soap-operas in prime time, begin to care about what churches--or Mark Driscoll--are saying about sex?

Tree of the Week (1.27.09)

A Selfishness Test

Nothing proves my selfishness more than driving to Wal-Mart at 11:00pm to buy a pregnancy test and thinking about how a baby could screw up all the plans I have made for myself in the next few years.

Wretched Man That I Am

Some mornings when I wake up I am sickened; my depravity is so apparent I am on the verge of crying or throwing up.

But the more vivid my sin, the greater God's grace is magnified. It extends to the far reaches of my rebellion and continues on for miles.

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

-Romans 7:24-25a