Drinking Deeply

God’s choice is not like picking teams on the playground

2009-11-12T05:33:00.000-08:00

Deuteronomy 7:6–9 (ESV)

6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7 It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8 but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

Why does God choose us and make us a treasured possession? Why does God set his love on us and choose us? It’s not because of our might and strength and power, but because God is keeping his oath, because God is the sovereign Lord of all! Israel doesn’t deserve God’s love just like we don’t deserve God’s love. We were not great, God did not decide, “oh yeah, Mickey is a smart guy, I’ll choose him for my team.” No, God’s electing choice of me points me out as foolish and weak, as empty and worthless to the world, but chosen in order that the world might be shamed. May I never forget my former ways of life, my hostility, my emptiness, my pride and boasting in my self. Praise the Lord, God saves sinners.

Thinking about courtship

2009-10-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

In general, I lean much more on the conservative end of the "courtship/dating" debate. I believe that in an ideal situation, the father of the woman should have a lot of input and responsibility over their relationship.

The argument for that position generally flows from the OT - how in Numbers 30 the father has the authority to void vows made by their daughters.

The summary of that position is that, "sons leave, and daughters are given." A son leaving his home and setting up a new household as he marries someone else's daughter, who is given by her father.

It's interesting that this picture isn't entirely what the OT puts forth. Abraham was still the head of his household, even after his sons got married and had children. It was Abraham and his whole household throughout. What did Isaac do upon his marriage? He doesn't leave his family structure to start his own, but he brings his wife into his mother's tent (Gen 24:67).

Just a random thought.

Give car rides, not cars

2009-10-28T09:22:00.001-07:00

Random thought -

Many of my best conversations with people have come in a car with them. When you're with someone for even 10 minutes, it's surprising how easy it is to share what's on your mind and ask what's on theirs.

Becoming all to win all

2009-10-23T05:44:00.000-07:00

one quote, and one thought that flows out of the sermon that the quote came from:

Quote

Being in the world is not about being culturally relevant, but it's about being culturally engaged - Paul Poteat in a sermon at Bethlehem College and Seminary Chapel.

You can watch all the movies, read the newspapers, and listen to the music that the culture is taking in, but if you aren't involved in people's lives, if you aren't interacting with a goal to win people to Christ, then it's worthless.

Thought -

Oftentimes 1 Corinthians 9:22 is quoted by people who are more involved with the party scene, the movies, the "hip" scene, etc as a way to justify their involvement-

I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.

While I don't think that this verse is actually saying what they think it is saying, my major issue is that those people are not really applying the verse consistently. Why aren't they joining the chess club to reach out to the chess team? Why aren't they brushing up on their physics to reach the nerds and geeks of the world? Why aren't they trying to reach the socially awkward and physically unattractive (to the world)?

Why is it that to them, "becoming all things," means joining the "cool group" and the "accepted group" and the "interesting group"? And why is it not joining the outcast and the shunned? The people that everyone feels really awkward around?

1 Cor. 1:26-28

26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.

Give me Jesus

2009-10-21T08:27:00.000-07:00

Before I started learning Greek, I thought learning Greek would really solve all my exegetical questions. That somehow, the people who knew Greek would have all my answers. I'm sure I pestered my pastors about answers about this or that many a time, expecting them to say, "well the Greek says this..." and that would settle it.

Little did I know that reading your Bible in Greek actually doesn't solve all those problems, but in fact, raises a whole host of new ones! It turns out that our English translations often clarify a lot more than the Greek!

But sometimes, there's something really really cool that you can see in the Greek text that you might miss in the English (it's there, just harder to see)

Last week I had the opportunity to translate through Ephesians 2, which is a source of incredible joy. You were dead in your trespasses and transgressions... but God!!! What a beautiful phrase!

But I digress - here's a passage that totally floored me.

Ephesians 2:

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus

Specifically, verse 6 jumped out at me. "Raised us up with him and seated us with him" - and that instantly reminded me of the same idea that showed up in chapter 1:19-20

19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

It turns out that in the Greek, those two verbs in verse 20, "raised" and "seated," are exactly the same verbs used in verse 6 of chapter 2, except with a prefix "syn" which, if your vocabulary is better than mine, you'd know was the prefix meaning "with" (ex: synchronic - syn + chronos - at the same time)

What does that mean? If we were to keep the verbs that Paul is using as one word, might say "God raised-with us and seated-with us, with Christ." It seems that Paul is directing us back to that earlier passage and saying, "do you remember that great power that raised Jesus Christ up from the dead? That power that seated him above all the thrones and powers and dominions and anything else? That same power is working in you to do exactly the same things, with Jesus."

That really blew me away. And I was reminded of the call of John Piper's book God is the Gospel. I don't want to be sinless, alive from the dead, seated in the heavenlies, but without Jesus! I don't want the power of God working in me for my good if He withholds the greatest good of all - being with Jesus. I don't need crowns in heaven if I don't get to worship Jesus with them.

Eph 3

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God

This is where I am right now

2009-09-12T12:39:00.000-07:00

Here's an email update. If you'd like one but didn't get one, let me know. I probably just forgot.

I now live downtown Minneapolis with a group of 9 guys (we call our house “The Manhouse”, like a madhouse but with men in it). I’ve been here since April, but just started seminary two weeks ago. I will spend the next 4 years here working on an M. Div with the same group of 15 guys learning the original languages, exegesis, preaching, ministry, and theology. Thus far, it’s been a complete blast. It’s pretty busy (I’ve never worked this hard in my life), but God has been abundantly gracious to me in so many different ways.

My cohorts (companions at seminary) are all incredible men who fear the Lord and long to honor Him. Some of them are training for missions to an unreached people group. Others are praying about becoming full time pastors at a church in the US. All of them strive to live out and share a living and vibrant faith. I have much to learn from each of them. Just last night I was freaking out about how much work I had this weekend, and Scott (a housemate and cohort) was commiserating with me. But at the end of our worries he stopped and said, “Mickey, let’s pray.” I was blessed – oh how much I need to learn that daily dependence!

Classes have been incredible. I’ve just finished sentence diagramming Ephesians 1:3-6 and am struggling to understand what Paul is getting at. “Blessed be God” or “Blessed is God” - Does he desire that the Ephesians join him in blessing God or is he exclaiming that God is a most blessed God? But whatever the case, praise be to the Father who has chosen us and adopted us before the foundation of the world! I feel like I have learned more about reading my Bible in the 2 weeks of classes than I have in the last two years. We’re wrestling through difficult topics like textual criticism (what words were actually in the Bible?), source criticism (did Moses really write the Pentateuch?), worship (why and how should we worship God?). Each topic has been filling and incredibly interesting (well, source criticism is not too interesting) and I’m looking forward to learning more and more as the years go on.

I’ve also gotten a part time job. I’m tutoring math again! I love math and I love kids, so I’m hopeful that this will be a rich opportunity for me. It will also be just enough to get by financially (I hope!), so praise the Lord who provides us beyond anything we hope or dream!

I actually spent much of the summer working a full time data entry job. Tedious, but not too much so. It will be hard to leave (next week is my last). I’ve actually learned a tremendous amount of stuff from the job. Two of which I’ll list here:

1) The importance of single-tasking – I had a couple of major tasks, each one was tedious and long. But I would have all day to do it. So I’d work on something for a couple hours at a time, and then switch. And the great thing of working on one thing for a long time is that you can figure out faster ways to do them, you can understand how the information all ties together, and all these things make you faster and faster the more you work on that one task. I feel like I could get more done in one 8 hour block than I could in 16 1-hour blocks.

2) Keyboard shortcuts are your friend – I spent a couple of breaks looking up keyboard shortcuts for excel and word and now I can zoom through Word and Excel. Add a row, jump to the last entry of the page, hide a row, sum a row, make a table of contents. All done with a few key presses.

One last thing – if you have the time, I would love your prayers for my character and holiness. I was just reading 2 Peter 1 today and this passage caught me:

1 Peter 1:5-8 make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I don’t want to be useless. It is so easy to think that my usefulness to the Lord will be in the knowledge and experienced gained here at seminary. Peter cuts through that and reminds me that it’s about character. With that in mind, please pray that I would grow to be such a man - one of virtue, knowledge, self-control, godliness, brotherly affection and love. Pray that these attributes would be ever increasing as I face the many different pressures of school, work, potential father-in-laws and serving the church.

Longing to be a servant of the Lord with you,
Mickey Sheu

Increase our faith!

2009-08-08T19:49:00.001-07:00

When people talk about faith, they often talk about it like it were some substance that we can put in a can. If I somehow just had "more faith" life would be easier, I'd get that job, I'd know what to do. We pray (correctly) "increase our faith!" Of course, that's not incorrect, but do we really know what we're asking for?

When we ask people to "believe in Jesus" or "put their faith in Jesus?" What does that mean?

When I tell someone that "I have faith in you" I'm not telling them, "I believe that you exist," but instead, "I trust your promises - I believe that your abilities will be able to accomplish this task." Having faith in God amounts to exactly the same thing.

When we are given a new heart and we put our trust in Jesus what are we saying? We don't just believe that He exists, but that his words are true. Maybe not these statements themselves, but a very similar content -

We've fallen short and offended a holy and righteous God.
We are dead, unable to lift a finger towards saving ourselves or setting things right.
But God who is merciful and gracious has stooped down to earth and appeased his own wrath through a substitute, Jesus.
Thus we are no longer under wrath but have a new lease on life.

And as we grow, what deepens our faith? Statements like this -

"No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you."

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

"For nothing will be impossible with God.”

“Your son will live.”

"And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

"it is finished."

(just some scattering of verses that has crossed my path the last few weeks)

As I think about faith, I remember that faith is a "faith in something." That something (or someone) is Jesus Christ. If I want more faith, I need more promises. Either I need to learn more about Scripture and thus have more promises of God in my head, or I need to remember the promises that I do already know and apply them to more and more situations.

I still do pray "increase my faith." It's a gift from God and only He can give it. Along with that prayer, I'm praying, "teach me and remind me of your precious promises!"

Eschatology and Me

2009-06-25T20:45:00.000-07:00

I had a good conversation on the phone with a friend the other day who was asking about Covenant Theology vs. Dispensational Theology. I quickly gave him a brief summary of what I knew about the two. I don't really know all that much, so I'm not going to try to explain it here so an interested reader could probably get a better picture by looking through some articles that are linked.

But anyway, we went from there to the importance of a proper eschatology (aka the end times). But how relevant is one's view on the end of the world? Isn't our goal to love God and our neighbors, whatever we believe will happen in the future?

As we chatted together, I came up with one significant impact that a person's eschatology had on his lifestyle -

Take two people: Person A believes in what is called "postmillenialism," that Christ is currently reigning over heaven and earth. Additionally he believes that over the course of history the Gospel will continue to spread and grow and multiply until eventually one could say that the whole world was saved. Entire nations will voluntarily put themselves under the (gentle) yoke of Christ and there will be (in general) peace and unity under one banner.

Person B is "premillenial," believing that the Church will remain under great persecution (and thus very small) until the second coming of Jesus. Instead of the Gospel spreading publically and conquering nations, he sees the Gospel conquering privately in small packets of people, a remnant of nations. Until the Second Coming, the nations will always be opposed to Jesus and the spread of the Gospel.

Different people may want to phrase pre/post-millenialism differently or allude to different verses, but the general feel is one of optimism and one of pessimism when it comes to our life here and now. Both, of course, are highly optimistic for the life to come =D.

But say we had A and B, and say someone asked them if they were interested in cooperating with a group of people who were seeking legislation that would define marriage as between a man and a woman.

I think that person A's tendency would be more towards being supportive of the group, even if he may not sign up with them. He may reason that since (according to his theology) eventually we'll get to a point were true marriage will be embraced by the whole world, this may be a good first step even though it's not his ideal picture.

Person B's tendency may be in opposing the group. He may reason that since Christ will be opposed anyway, there isn't really much of a point in passing legislation because the world may accept the laws, but they won't accept Christ. He might think that people forming such groups were wasting their time.

Of course, these two views are generalizations. I'm sure you can find post-millenialists who might discourage people from seeking that kind of legislation and pre-millenialists who might encourage, but I think the tendencies are there. Or at least I see that tendency in myself as I've embraced more of the post-millenial view of the end times.

Overall, while it may be hard to see exactly how one aspect of our view on life changes other parts, I think there definitely are connections if we look hard enough and the above example on eschatology is one case of that.

Free Bibleworks Giveaway

2009-06-12T05:42:00.000-07:00

This looks like a good opportunity for aspiring seminary students and other people who are looking into further in depth study of God's Word.

Cal.vini.st is giving away 2 copies of Bibleworks free. Check out the details here.

Baptists and wine

2009-06-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

I had a great discussion with one of the elders of my church yesterday for a membership interview. He asked me about my beliefs regarding baptism and I told him that though I had been baptized by immersion upon profession of faith, I was convinced that children of believers ought to be baptized too.

This sparked an encouraging discussion on baptism and the possibility of unity between convinced credo- and paedo-baptists. Cool beans. I'm very thankful for people who are interested in pursuing church unity on this point. I know it's a topic of great dispute, but I think there's a lot of room for joining together.

But anyway, that reminded me of a whine (*groan) I kind of have against my baptist friends.

One thing that my baptist friends bring up (which really isn't too relevant to the real discussion of the New Covenant, but this comes up) is that the verb "baptizo" means "I dip" or "I immerse," so sprinkling and pouring are not valid forms of baptism.

Yet, at the same time, they maintain that sweetened grape juice is an acceptable substitute for wine in the Lord's Supper. I think this is inconsistent.

Though I'm not convinced that baptizo requires immersion, I think that if people are going to argue for it and say that we have to stick to the literal meanings, they should at least be taking steps for serving wine for Communion.

Joy Inexpressible

2009-05-29T19:54:00.001-07:00

Today I had the pleasure of sitting in on the first part of a two-day seminar put on by Bethlehem Church on "Prayer, Meditation, and Fasting:The Pursuit of Communion with God." Sounds intense, and it was.

One side note - I hope no one (of the 6 subscribers) reading this thinks, "wow, Mickey is so holy, he prays and he fasts and he meditates, look at the classes he goes to." That assumption is... well false. I go to these classes not because I get it, but because I don't but I want to!

But anyway, the first part was about the communion with God. What does that look like, why should we seek it, and what exactly does it mean anyway to have fellowship with God?

This post isn't about that seminar as much as it is about one tiny tiny part of one thing that he said. When John Piper was talking about how the Word sustains our joy through faith, he went to a text that I probably had read a hundred times before:

1 Peter 1:3-9

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

I had read it in commentaries, in my personal devotional time, in my (attempts at) Bible memorization. I've seen it referenced in books.

But here, Piper explained it and I got it. He asked, "what does the this in the beginning of v. 6 refer to? What do we rejoice in here? And he went through the first 5 verses and completely blew me away:

1) He has caused us to be born again
2) We have a living hope
3) Our inheritance is imperishable
4) Our inheritance is undefiled
5) Our inheritance is unfading
6) Our inheritance is kept in heaven
7) We are being guarded through faith
8) All this is for salvation in the last day

And I was absolutely floored. All these connections, of course we're going to be rejoicing! I usually approach seminars/sermons with an eye towards information and understanding but I just couldn't take coherant notes anymore. The rest of my pages are a mess of exclamation marks, underlinings, boldings, and big boxes around "for me!!" and "free!!" "faith!!!" "deliverance!"

Wow.

Rethinking memory verses: Psalm 34:8

2009-05-26T11:40:00.000-07:00

Psalm 34:8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

For me, the phrase "taste and see" was kind of an ambiguous thing. Whatever it was, I guess my general connotation would be with "enjoy" and "delight" in what I know about God, to meditate upon God's attributes and His great work. Certainly a good practice apart from this verse.

But on Sunday, I had the blessing to be able to sit in on a Bible study where they went through Psalm 34. One of the questions posed was, "What exactly does it mean to 'taste and see'?" Unless you're Catholic (or Lutheran), it really isn't possible for us now to "taste and see" God in a physical manner. Through that Bible study, the phrase took on an entirely new light.

If we actually look at the context, we see that "taste and see" is probably best interpreted by, "Trust in the Lord and see that He is faithful!"

Why is that? As one of the members of the Bible study encouraged us, "when in doubt, read the passage!"

Psalm 34's context (v.0) is that David has changed his behavior before Abimelech (Maybe Abimelech is the same person as Achish in 1 Samuel 21? Not sure what is going on with the names).

David sings this psalm and begins with "I will bless the LORD at all times" (v.1) and proceeds to encourage all of Israel to join him (v.3). He testifies that the Lord has "answered [him] and delivered [him] from all [his] fears." (v. 4) He then testifies that, "This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him and saved him out of all his troubles."(v.6) The promise is given that, "the angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them." (v.7)

With all of that setting the background, what does the encouragement to, "taste and see that the Lord is good!" mean?

I think it's a clear encouragement to trust the Lord. To follow in the footsteps of David, who cried out and the Lord delivered him. Much like the Lord challenged Israel in Malachi to, "put me to the test...if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need," David encourages Israel to put the Lord to the test, trusting in Him for provision and refuge.

Don't be like the "young lions" in v.8 who (presumably) trust in their own power and might and suffer "want and hunger," but instead seek the Lord, relying on Him for deliverance and hope.

So to paraphrase, "trust and see that the Lord is good!"

For God so loved the world....

2009-05-03T09:55:00.000-07:00

So I'm still at that spot where I know just enough Greek to get me in trouble, but not enough to really understand deeper implications and such. Alas, hopefully another year of Greek will do me good.

Anyway, John Piper preached on John 3:16 this week and I had the chance to follow along in my Greek Bible. I noticed something very interesting about the Greek text of John 3:16 -

οὕτως γὰρ ἠγάπησεν ὁ θεὸς τὸν κόσμον,

All the translations I checked (NIV, NASB, TNIV, KJV, NKJV, ESV [with a footnote], NLT, Message) render it, "For God so loved the world." That translation probably was correct back in a time when readers understood the word "so" to mean "in this manner," which is the correct interpretation of the first word (οὕτως). But now, my first instinct (and I suspect many others) would read that as "God loved the world so much that." Unfortunately, though the Lord does love His creation a great deal, that's not what the verse is saying, but rather it's explaining how the Lord loved the world.

"For in this way God loved the world..."

The New Living Translation and Message actually puts the idea "so much" in their rendering. Arrgh on paraphrases!

Interesting! Just goes to show...All Things are Better in Koine

Calling vs. Career

2009-03-30T17:55:00.000-07:00

Over at 22 Words, Abraham Piper put up a fairly provocative post on calling vs. career. Since his posts are short, I'm going to quote the whole thing -

God wants policemen and preachers, mechanics and missionaries.

Nevertheless, one category seems like ordinary work, while the other is a calling.

Why?

Lots of good comments there, posting against the physical/spiritual dualistic mindset. But I went a little against the grain and threw out this thought -

I agree with everyone above, but I wanted to throw something alongside what everyone’s said before. Yes, God calls us to obedience in whatever field we do. Yes there is not a difference (brownie pointswise) between “ministry” as a pastor and “ministry” as an engineer.

But alongside that, I think there actually is something good in using the term “calling” rather than “career” for pastoral positions. This isn’t fully fleshed out, but some basic thoughts -

I think the term “calling” actually is a biblical reflection. The OT prophets were “called.” Paul was “called” to be an apostle. In order to raise up elders, they prayed and laid hands on them, so there certainly is something special there.

I think we do want to maintain an emphasis upon the seriousness and soberness with which our preachers labor - that they are shepherds and going to be held accountable as teachers. I think using the term “calling” is helpful for that.

Any thoughts?

Proverbs 20:6

2009-03-29T18:33:00.000-07:00

Came across this verse in my reading today.

Proverbs 20:6 - Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?

Sometimes I feel like some of the contemporary Christian music songs are fulfillments of that verse.

You Are Worthy of My Praise (Various Artists)

I will worship (I will worship)
With all of my heart (with all of my heart)
I will praise You (I will praise You)
With all of my strength (all my strength)
I will seek You (I will seek You)
All of my days (all of my days)
And I will follow (I will follow)
All of Your ways (all Your ways)

I will give You all my worship
I will give You all my praise
You alone I long to worship
You alone are worthy of my praise

I will bow down (I will bow down)
Hail You as king (hail You as king)
And I will serve You (I will serve You)
Give You everything (give You everything)
I will lift up (I will lift up)
My eyes to Your throne (my eyes to Your throne)
And I will trust You (I will trust You)
I will trust You alone (trust You alone)

I will give You all my worship
I will give You all my praise
You alone I long to worship
You alone are worthy of my praise

"Natural" explanations are pretty mindblowing

2009-03-27T16:29:00.001-07:00

As I was driving through Nebraska and Iowa, I managed to end up driving right in between two spring storms traveling east. I had been chased out of the western half of Colorado by the first one, and it passed over me while I slept and I awoke to no rain and drove for the entire day (approximately 14 hours altogether, lots of breaks) without hitting a drop until the end of the evening. Much of it actually was fairly sunny. I felt like I was being ushered along by the gentled hand of God. Godspeed indeed!

As I was driving I realized that the naturalist would probably chuckle at my "reading into" everything this supernatural explanation. And then it struck me, a "natural" explanation for God's providence is far more mindblowing. God doesn't need to stop the winds or push clouds around in defiance of the natural laws, "all" He needs to do is to plan everything from the beginning of time of where I will be, where the winds will be, and what is going on, so that at those exact hours I would not need to worry about the winds or the rains.

And He has done that every day since the dawn of creation. Caring for and providing for His children in just exactly the right ways day in and day out. Sometimes by the miraculous, but all the time by general provision.

"Supernatural" is a misnomer. All of creation is not natural. It is sustained and preserved by the sovereign hand of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 1
3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

Fighting sin

2009-03-25T16:23:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to read a bit of John Owen on Indwelling Sin. He gave three helpful points in disciplines against sin, which I will summarize (from Owen's Overcoming Sin and Temptation, ed. Kapic and Taylor)

Meditate of God with God - When we think of God's excellencies and goodness and glory, we do so in a manner speaking toward God, to give God the glory and fix our mind upon God and humble ourselves before Him.

Mediate on the word with the word - Words are not meant merely to be read over or repeated, but meditated upon. We look to God for help in interpreting and granting us wisdom as we read it.

What we come short of in evenness and constancy in our thoughts in these things, let it be made up in frequency - This one surprised me the most. I think he means that when we struggle to think of things to meditate upon, we ought to make up for that by thinking much and often of the same things, and the Spirit will give us new insights and greater understandings.

I found these helpful. Hope you can too!

Gideon and the 300

2009-03-24T17:28:00.001-07:00

An email I just sent to my fellowship.

Hey all -

Just wanted to let you guys know that I got in safe to Naperville, IL
earlier this aftternoon. Thanks for all your prayers and
encouragement. It actually has been significantly easier than people
had told me. Praise the Lord. Lots of time for thinking, prayer,
singing (good thing no one else was in the car with me! =p), and
calling people.

I wanted to share a brief thought of encouragement for y'all. As I
was sitting in a motel in Sterling, CO, the Gideon Bible was sitting
on the desk next to my bed (Thank God for that ministry! They have
done such an invaluable service to the Kingdom just through the simple
act of distributing the Word of God.) and I was reminded of the story
of Gideon in Judges 7, specifically the Lord's point that Gideon
actually reduce the army of the Lord in order that they may glorify
the Lord because of His strength and they may not boast in their own
doing.

I had been thinking and praying for y'all as I had been driving and
remembered that you had been trying to invite more people and grow the
ministry. Keep at it, doing the work of an evangelist, but don't be
discouraged if the Lord should decide that He would rather pour out a
double blessing on half as many people in order to keep you humble and
Him magnified.

Another example -

My junior year we had _one_ small group of guys. It consisted of
myself, Xuan, Alfred, and John "fearless leader" Kang for most of the
year (James tried to join later). We always tried to bring more
people, and we prayed that God would grow us. And He did, but not the
way we expected. That year was a year of tremendous spiritual growth
for everyone there. I don't think any of the people in that group
would be half as involved in the church without that small group.
Praise the Lord.

So don't be discouraged with smaller numbers each Friday, the Lord may
have you be smaller yet before He will do His work. Continue in the
pattern of sound words that you hear each week on Friday and Sunday
and in small group, and the Lord will give the increase.

For His Kingdom!
Mickey

On the road (1)

2009-03-23T08:20:00.000-07:00

I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore...

Thus far, I've been to Fresno CA, St. George UT, Grand Junction CO, and am now at Sterling, CO. Hooray for free internet at Super 8!

Some isolated thoughts, in roughly chonological order.

I finally got to sit down and have a talk with Allen on the car ride. I had always respected him a great deal and it was good to talk with him and hear how he's been doing, especially with getting married soon. That fact continues to blow my mind. The sophomores are growing up! Well, actually, they've already grown up, being as they're seniors now. But always sophomores in my mind =p.

I could definitely see myself moving to a small town and just enjoying the slower paced atmosphere. There was a distinct change in the mannerisms of people as I left the Bay Area. Something simpler and slower, can't put my finger on it.

It's cold at night! I couldn't actually find a place to stay at St. George, so I actually decided to keep driving. Started getting really tired so pulled over at a rest stop and fell asleep with a blanket. It had been really warm that whole day. Woke up at 2am, grabbed an extra blanket. Woke up again at 4am, grabbed another blanket. Woke up again at 8am, a bit chilly. Thankfully, the rest stop was one of the most well-maintained and cleanest stops I had ever seen in my life, didn't feel dangerous at all to be sleeping in a well-lit parking lot.

Utah is gorgeous! I couldn't believe my eyes how majestic and awe-inspiring the plateaus were. I could not take it all in they were so big! And yet somehow so sculpted. I think one of the strongest arguments for intelligent design is awe and joy. How can a person gain so much pleasure from just a visual picture of something he will probably never get to actually interact with?

Boo on Google maps for not properly leading me to Canaan Way. Just goes to show that I definitely needed Grace to lead me there. Thankfully, Grace's mother and a clear cell phone connection will do.

I got head-butted by a baby boy! My hostess (with the mostest!) also invited a young couple to dinner the same evening I was there. Tom had just recently graduated from Southern Baptist and we had a delightful time hearing his stories as a substitute teacher and other adventures. His son Asher (from Hebrew - Happy or Blessed; you can always tell the seminary grads =p) was this delightful little guy. While I was sitting on a couch and he walked up to me and looked up with these huge eyes. What could I do? I picked him up and set his feet on my lap. *tonk and he headbutted me! I was rather surprised and laughed. And he giggled and *tonk again. Now everyone was watching and chuckling. *tonk once more. Hello to you as well Asher!

Lots more, but I need to go before this storm comes through and really makes the drive rough.

On the road (0)

2009-03-23T07:47:00.001-07:00

So here's an uncharacteristically personal post. I always want to post something serious but someone always beats me to the punch. I guess the only thing I have of value is to talk about me! So some isolated thoughts as I've traveled this far.

I'm currently on the road, (well, not literally). I departed from sunny Palo Alto on Thursday, March 19 with an eventual destination of cold Minneapolis with a stop off in Chicago for a week to see family. I've gotten accepted to go to Bethlehem Seminary and, Lord willing, will be starting in the Fall. My boss asked me to leave early or leave later than June, so I decided early. Why? Because of a special someone who also so happens to live in Minneapolis. Yeah, she also had an impact on my decision to apply there, but just a little ;-).

It's been an adventure. Last week I got my car checked out with the mechanic, and he suggested that since I was leaking so much transmission fluid, I should take it easy. So the 3 day trip turned into a 5.5 day trip. As a result, my brother, who I was planning to spend all 3 days evangelizing, couldn't join me. Alas!

Saying goodbyes was incredibly difficult. God has blessed me with more than my fair share of colaborers and companions in the faith, and it has been hard to say farewell to them. Some of them have been like Paul to me. Some more like Timothy. All of them have been treasured companions and partners (and some, co-conspirers =p).

I feel very much like Joshua might have on the edge of Canaan. Huge promises and exciting times ahead, but Moses is dead! How is he supposed to get by without his closest friend and confident? Not only so, but his entire generation has passed away in the last years. Thankfully though, none of my friends are dead and goodbyes are not forever.

As I've been trying to remind myself (sometimes through tears) -

All good things must come to an end, because God has far better things in store.

So, onward to a grand adventure and a gracious God!

Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Book Review: What He Must Be

2009-03-02T19:00:00.000-08:00

What He Must Be by Voddie Baucham is a book directed at Christian fathers sounding a call for biblical intergenerational relationships. Too often fathers have abdicated their responsibility for the proper care and protection of their daughters and today our generation suffers the consequences with broken and weak families.

Voddie Baucham lays forth a biblical foundation for fathers preparing daughters and sons for marriage. He describes four characteristics of a biblical husband (Christian, Servant Leadership, Christian leadership, A commitment to children) and a call for Prophet/Priest/King modeling (which he splits into Protector/Provider to continue the alliteration).

All in all, it was a good book. It was an easy read, laying forth a biblical groundwork and interspersing it with facts and examples drawn from his ministry. Many books in the same field set up nice ideals, but often leave the reader wondering, "but how do I go about doing something like this?" Voddie Baucham fills the book with personal examples that can help fathers see, "yes, this is how that verse can be applied in this life."

One of my favorite parts of the book was his final chapter on building a godly man, where he encouraged fathers to actively be involved in the lives of the men of the church, maybe not privately grooming someone for their daughter but encouraging discipleship and mentorship, not only to build the kingdom, but to prepare men for ministry. I thought that was just a phenomenal chapter and a call that everyone needs to hear.

If there was a weakness to the book, I think it would be that it is too short. A guy can read the book and think, "yes, this is what I want to aspire to," but may not have much information on how to deal with a father that doesn't have a vision for a relationship with a prospective son-in-law. A girl can read this book and think that she wishes there was someone performing the duties of a father for her, but wonder how she is supposed to deal with her situation. I hope for a follow up book that can help people in such situations deal with such "corner cases."

Overall, good book. Would recommend for people who have daughters and sons, and people who aspire to having a godly dating (or courtship, whatever you call it) relationship.

Choosing Calvinism

2009-02-20T10:37:00.000-08:00

Sometimes an Arminian argues against Calvinism by pointing out that Calvinism makes choices meaningless, because "if God predestined everything, what's the point of doing anything?"

3 quick points

1) I don't actually need God to tell me why I must do something in order for me to do it. We do things because God commands us to. Given, many times God does tell us why we do things, which leads me to ...

2) The ends (what God predestined us for) does not happen apart from the means (our praying, or evangelizing, or any act). Calvinists don't believe in fatalism, where there's an inevitable "destiny" that happens no matter what. We believe that God uses means to accomplish His ends.

3) Rather, it seems that the Arminian, who holds to "free will" is actually more of a fatalist in a sense. To them, we make choices not God, but God has already set a final plan which cannot be overthrown.

If we affirm that our wills are free and independent of God, then either a) we can change God's plan or b) we cannot.

a) leads us to issues with immutability
b) is basically fatalism.

But what of the Calvinist? Well, we would say that since God is sovereign over even our decisions, God does not "react" to anything we do, but has planned and working through us as part of His plan. He does not react to free agents, nor does he set a destiny that happens to us independent of how we got there.

Ephesians 1:11

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will

How old did Adam and Eve look?

2009-02-19T23:54:00.000-08:00

I am a 6-day creationist. I find it to be clear in Scripture and entirely unavoidable. The fact that the language is poetic and there is clear structure reflects the beauty of God and His ability to create in a manner that is pleasing to us.

I think many people find it untenable because if God created in 6 days, they would ask what of the stars? What of the billions of light years? What of carbon dating and the appearance of age? It would seem that God would be a liar.

To which I respond, "well, did God lie when he created Adam and Eve as adult humans even though they were just a day old?"

Need and God

2009-02-15T12:52:00.000-08:00

I've been reading Piper's book A Hunger for God, which is on fasting and prayer. Mostly because I don't fast and I don't pray and yet there are the words, spoken by Jesus, "when you fast" and "when you pray..."

One thing that really jumped out at me was Piper's comments on Christ's fast in the wilderness and subsequent temptation by Satan. One of Piper's point is regarding the source of "man does not live by bread alone" verse:

Deut. 8:3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word[1] that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Piper points out that God humbled and let them hunger in order to teach them to rely upon God.

After going through a particularly stressful week with lots of fears and questions up in the air, I really needed to hear that. The answer for my problems is always the same: The righteous will live by faith.

Yes, the weeks will be hard, work will be stressful, home may be difficult. But that all happens under the sovereign hand of a gracious God. All in order that I might learn to rely upon Him and not upon my strength, my intelligence, my charisma (hah!), or even my friends. He has been, is currently, and will forever, be the source of all strength and joy. Do I believe that?

I believe, help my unbelief.

Help My Unbelief
Taken from the Gadsby Hymnal #278
Words: John Newton, 1725-1807.

I know the Lord is nigh,
And would but cannot pray,
For Satan meets me when I try,
And frights my soul away.
And frights my soul away.

I would but can’t repent,
Though I endeavor oft;
This stony heart can ne’er relent
Till Jesus makes it soft.
Till Jesus make it soft.

Help my unbelief. Help my unbelief.
Help my unbelief.
My help must come from Thee.

I would but cannot love,
Though wooed by love divine;
No arguments have power to move
A soul as base as mine.
A soul so base as mine.

I would but cannot rest,
In God’s most holy will;
I know what He appoints is best,
And murmur at it still.
I murmur at it still.

That's not fair!

2009-01-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

I have a complaint. I'm not getting what I deserve.

This week, while the midwest was buried under yet another snowstorm with record lows, what do I get? 70s and sunny, the whole time. What's up with that?

Starting a month or so ago I needed a replacement take over the last 3 months of my lease because I was planning to move out. Before I even started praying seriously about it or had sent any emails out, one of the people who was staying at our place temporarily said he needed a place for... guess what? The last three months of my lease. What in the world?!

Today, 14 people descended upon our house and we shared food and enjoyed various games and had great laughter and joy. New people were met and old friends were reintroduced. Inexcusable.

There's been a gross miscarriage of justice somewhere.