the day of the Lord

2 Peter 3:10-11 (NLT)
10But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and everything in them will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be exposed to judgment.
11Since everything around us is going to melt away, what holy, godly lives you should be living.

What do we make of such passages? Welcome to the strange world of the apocalypse. “Apocalypse” means, “Revelation,” or “Uncover.” The Bible has much apocalyptic language, writings that speak of events to come that are interpreted literally or metaphorically. The Book of Revelation, is also entitled “The Apocalypse of John,” and is a whole book filled with this type of material.

Revelation is not the only place we see apocalyptic language, as the passage from 2 Peter above indicates. In an example like this, the second coming of Christ is called “the day of the Lord.” This phrase occurs 20 times in the New Living Translation of the Bible. It is a pretty terrifying. This is the most frequent allusion to what God’s judgment of the world will be like. 14 of the 20 mentions are from the Old Testament.

The first time the phrase appears is in Isaiah 13:9.

For see, the day of the LORD is coming--the terrible day of his fury and fierce anger. The land will be destroyed and all the sinners with it.

What exactly is this “day?”

Tomorrow

be ready

Mark 13:32-33 (NLT)  
    "However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows. [33] And since you don't know when they will happen, stay alert and keep watch.

Christians have been trying to predict the second coming of Christ since Christ ascended to heaven. Every prediction so far has been wrong. Eventually, someone at sometime will be right.

It isn’t the calculation that is important, it is the preparedness. Are we ready? Water, dry food, batteries, first aid kit and camping equipment are ready for the “big one” in our earthquake country household. But how do you get ready for Jesus?

You live as a disciple. Disciples are always ready. Those who are learning from Jesus and his Word and applying it in their daily lives are as ready as they will ever need to be. No matter what is happening in the world around you, to be ready is as simple as focusing on Jesus.  

Waiting

Waiting is a key ingredient to the Christian faith. The key waiting for Christians is for Jesus to return. This is an essential teaching. The second coming of Christ. There are two types of Christians when it comes to waiting.

1. Try to figure out when he is coming, and serve him in the meantime.


2. Don’t try to figure out when he is coming, and serve him in the meantime.

Neither viewpoint is right or wrong. They are just different waiting. If you are a Christian, which type are you?

I will post on this topic this week.  

Happy Thanksgiving

I am stuffed as it should be. I have spent the day with my immediate family and my parents, who are out visiting. They have gone to bed. The family is watching Survivor, and I snuck into the other room to watch Privileged Planet again.

Thanksgiving doesn’t come any easier. Great food. Shared with loved ones. A God who could put it all together on a planet that is virtually impossible within a universe that is virtually impossible with me commenting on the whole thing.

Virtually impossible.
Highly unlikely.
Not normally the case.
A bit unusual.

Oh, all right, it just happened. Happy Thanksgiving.

getting ready

What do you do to prepare for worship? In ancient Israel when the Jews were going to Jerusalem for a festival, we get a glimpse of what was on David’s mind from the “Songs of Ascent,” Psalms 120-134. These are called “Songs of Ascent” because no matter where you are coming from, you are always going “up” to Jerusalem. These songs were probably sung by travelers (pilgrims) coming to worship.

It wouldn’t be such a strange idea to mimic our ancient ancestors and recite a few of these Psalms as we are preparing. A personal favorite of mine is 121, but all of them get you pumped up.

If you want to literally get pumped up why not get up a little earlier and exercise before worship? Nothing like getting the heart pumping to get the Spirit jumping. Or something to that effect.

Some music might do the trick, as well. Blasting a bit of Third Day or if you want to keep with the Songs of Ascent theme, Matisyahu, is sure to get you going. Anything but, A Day in The Life, “Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head.”    

ready for worship

It can be a physical challenge to get focused on Jesus for worship. Your own body may get in the way. Consider this.

If you worship on Sunday morning, your whole routine is probably different than for the rest of the week. On a weekday, perhaps you have a pattern. If you work, then you get up at a certain time and get ready in a similar way. If you are going to school, it is the same, only you wait until the very last minute. Whatever the case, Sundays don’t come at you the same way.

Then there is Saturday night. Chances are you stayed up later. Maybe you spent the evening with friends. Maybe you went out to dinner. A party of some sort. Whatever the case, not the same bedtime.  If you are a teenager, it’s going to be quite a bit later.

Sunday morning arrives and you are in one of two scenarios. One is if you worship at an earlier service at 8 or 9, and you are tired. Didn’t get to “sleep in.” The other is if you attend a later service, 10, 10:30, or 11, then you may sleep in too long. Either way, you come tired. Maybe even dragging.

You get to church. Late for many of you. The music starts, it is time to worship the living God. Ready? Your mind is saying, “OK, we can do this thing!” Your body is saying, “Should have had another cup of coffee…”

Last weekend, I attended a worship seminar by my friend LeRoy, worship pastor at a local church. He had a great insight about what happens at worship.

When you worship in a church setting, what are you doing? What is on your mind? It may be two things that have little to do with worship.

You are looking around thinking about other people who are there.

You are looking around and thinking about what others are thinking about you.

LeRoy is right on. It is so difficult to do anything that doesn’t have to do with what I think or what others think about me. Is it any wonder Jesus can get through all of this?

There is a question that would be helpful concerning worship. When you are leaving the sanctuary (worship center), ask yourself, “After what just happened, is Jesus thinking, ‘Wow! (Fill in your name) really appreciates me!’”

It is not what I think about you.

It is not what you think about me.

It is what Jesus thinks.

as was his custom

How do we declare God worthy in worship? First of all, we show up.


 16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. (Luke 4:16)

“As was his custom?” Why does God have to worship God? This is not so difficult to understand if you consider God in the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always given each other honor, praise, and adoration in their relationship together. When God becomes man the worship is natural and it is memorable. If Jesus found regular worship essential to his life, we do well to follow his example.

Two immediate observations can be made from the model of Jesus for worship.

First, if you ever ask yourself, “Why should I ‘go to church?” one answer is simple. Jesus considered it normal for his life. For some reason, he found it necessary. Probably a good idea to join him.

Second, If you have ever caught yourself saying, “I didn’t get anything out of the worship today,” think about Jesus. Especially when it comes to the preaching. In one sense, unless he is always doing the preaching for the day, logically, what is a preacher going to say that Jesus would “get anything out of?”

My hunch is Jesus would pray for and encourage the other rabbi’s. If he heard teaching that was not helpful, he could always take care of it in his teachings around town. It wasn’t as much what Jesus got out of worship that was important. It was (and is) what Jesus brings into worship. His presence and his attention.      

worship on the moon

Worship is at the hub of the Christian faith. The word,”worship,” from the Old English weorthscipe, worth + ascribe, gives a good foundation for what is happening. When we worship we ascribe (we declare) God worthy. This occurs in several ways.

Archeological evidence dates human worship from about 24,000 years ago (specific religious artifacts) to 8,000 years ago (earliest sanctuary discovered). A little known fact is that the first human worship on the moon occurred on July 20, 1969.

Buzz Aldrin brought at communion kit with him to the moon. After he and Neil Armstrong landed, Aldrin has this to say.

"Houston, this is Eagle. This is the LM pilot speaking. I would like to request a few moments of silence. I would like to invite each person listening in, whoever or wherever he may be, to contemplate for a moment the events of the last few hours, and to give thanks in his own individual way."

"In the radio blackout," he wrote later, "I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, 'I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit.' I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute Deke Slayton had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O'Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas. I agreed reluctantly..." "Eagle's metal body creaked. I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements."

no special awards necessary

I get nothing from God if you are influenced by me to become a Christian. There is no reward or bounty. I don’t get any extra “credits” in life blessings. No special “he reached (fill in the number) section” in heaven. Nothing.

I get no special prestige if you come to Christ. There is no thermometer poster in my church with my name on it so you can see how many people I can influence. There are no gold stars.

No, the only thing I receive when I have an impact on you for your faith in Jesus is satisfaction and joy. I will admit I am pleased to have you as a brother or sister in Christ. It is a blessing to me when you are blessed. I will also admit it makes my world a better place to live. Growing disciples of Jesus are people who are getting healthier and healthier. Notice, I didn’t say, “Christians are healthier.” There is a distinct difference between disciple and Christian.

A “disciple” is someone who is learning from Jesus and acting upon that learning. An apprentice. A “Christian” is someone who says they believe in Jesus. A self-identifying label, but not an assumption that one is living what they believe. God’s desire is that all people on earth become disciples. Jesus said it this way.

…go and make disciples of all the nations… (Matthew 28:19)

As we saw in yesterday’s post, the Christian faith is called, “The Way.” This indicates that you are actually following a direction and moving ahead. As more and more people discover that way, don’t be surprised if you aren’t blessed, as well. It is God’s plan.



  

shock- Christians want others to be Christian

In Acts 24-26, Paul is being accused of causing trouble and inciting riots. He is given the opportunity to explain his case to Felix, the Roman governor of the area. Later Festus, the replacement governor, and then Agrippa, the local Jewish king, also hear Paul’s testimony of the difference between his following Jesus, called, “The Way,” and Judaism. When Paul is testifying before King Agrippa, he says,

“King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do-“

Agrippa replies,

“Do you think you can make me a Christian so quickly?”

Paul replies,

“Whether quickly or not, I pray to God that both you and everyone here in this audience might become the same as I am, except for these chains.”

Christians want people who are not Christian to become Christians. Is that so strange? I don’t know any human being who doesn’t follow this same guideline.

“This is the way I think at my very core. I desire that you would think that way, too.”

Even Baha’i, which is a mixture of many religions, wants people to think Baha’i is correct. I don’t know of any worldview where its adherents don’t think they are right about what they think. Who doesn’t want people to see eye to eye with them?

Veteran's Day

My friend Neil is 92 years old. I was talking to him yesterday and he was speaking of his friends as if it were yesterday. Except these were guys he served with in WWII Pacific Theater. His eyes were glistening as he recalled those days. He used nicknames. He started getting a burst of energy as he continued. Spoke of later years at the American Legion in Fargo, North Dakota and how he misses getting together. Thanks, Neil.

Tuesday at the club, two guys were talking in the Jacuzzi. The subject was off-roading and how they hadn’t done it for years. That got them talking about being in the desert which led to the one guy being stationed for a time in the desert at one of our bases out here in California.

Then they both started talking about Vietnam. Both had served.

“What a complete waste.”

“Many of my buddies were killed.”

“Got spit on by a lady at the airport.”

As is the case when you are in the Jacuzzi, I had license to chime in.

“You both are from California, aren’t you?”

“Ya.”

“I’m from Wisconsin and in my hometown you wouldn’t have been spit on. You would have been respected. That’s what I remember as a teenager when you guys came back.”

Then I asked them if they had read from the recently declassified Soviet documents about the war. How it had thrown the Soviets for a loop in their move to dominate in Asia. Depleted their resources. How many are arguing today that the Vietnam War was a battle period of the wider Cold War and the “end” of the war was in 1989. I asked them to simply look into some of the research. Examine the evidence. It could have been a total waste. Then again, maybe not.

What happened next was interesting. One guy says, “I never thought of it that way before.” The other guy agrees. And their whole demeanor changes.

I finished by saying,

“I could be wrong, but I would take a look for myself. And thanks for what you did.”

Thank you, all of you veterans out there.

Those who are reading this, please thank a vet.

why skepticism?

Skepticism = Intelligence

This formula is a favorite when it comes to considering the Bible. It is a given for me that when someone is really skeptical about the Bible they fall into two camps.

1. They haven’t actually studied the Bible

2. They have studied the Bible, but don’t want to follow the moral guidelines that are summarized within its pages

Rarely do I come across a person whose moral standards are similar to the biblical model, knows the Bible’s content, and is skeptical. When you examine the evidence of the Bible and you are open to following Jesus you quite often become his follower.

There are a variety of events in a person’s life that may draw him/her to Christ. More than any other, of course, are times of crisis. It doesn’t have to be this way. If someone is open to actually being changed in their thinking, then simply examining the evidence in a caring Christian community can be enough.

One such opportunity of learning is an Alpha course.

if I doubt, I am brilliant

In my post from yesterday, I said my guess was everyone in the audience was thinking one way or another of the implications of the latest physics and some of the biblical records. Walking through walls might well be within the realm of physics? Jesus walked through walls, or so it appears (John 20:19). There may be extra spatial dimensions in the universe that we are not aware of? Who could have access to those extra-dimensions if he also happened to have created them?

I must admit I have another hunch. I would guess a large percentage of the audience made the Jesus connection to what was being taught and almost as fast as the speed of light, dismissed this thought. There would be nothing worse on a university campus, Christian or not, than to see any link to Jesus and scientific evidence. The student sitting next to me certainly felt that way.

We had been chatting a bit during the lecture and when it was finished, I said, “It’s kind of interesting he says it is not scientifically impossible to be able to walk through a wall. It seems to me I have heard that story before. The Bible claims Jesus did that.”

His reply, “O, I don’t take that stuff literally.”

I wasn’t asking him if he was a “raving fundamentalist.” I was simply making an observation. So, why the instant dismissal of any Jesus connection? I think a person would instantly dismiss any connection because if I give in to thinking that way about anything, I would have to begin to think seriously about the rest of the stuff in the book!

This is the curse of modern thinking and also why so little of God’s Kingdom life is accessed by people. Dallas Willard addresses this in Hearing God.

Very few people ever develop competence in their prayer life. Why?They are prepared to explain away as coincidences the answers that come to the prayers that they do make. They consider it intelligent to doubt.

As long as I doubt, I am an intellectual.

As long as I am skeptical, I could be brilliant.

I know someone

I attended a lecture at California Lutheran University yesterday. Brian Greene, author of The Fabric of the Cosmos and The Elegant Universe was the guest speaker. Dr. Greene is the science celebrity now, the Carl Sagan of our day. In other words, he’s been on Letterman and Leno.

The talk was hilarious and insightful. Greene makes physics fun. His area of expertise is string theory. I have studied this for a while now, and am fascinated by considering the possibility of extra dimensions existing. Just one example, one of the wild ideas that Greene says in highly unlikely but not impossible is to walk through a wall. I know someone who did that. Someone who can create dimensions and who can operate in no dimension at all. His name is Jesus.

Greene also talked about 20 mathematical equations that explain physics as we know it. These 20 equations are rigorously tested and keep coming up absolutely correct. How can everything in the universe be designed so specifically down to that exact detail? I know someone who is that brilliant. He could formulate equations in such intricacy. His name is Jesus.

Funny how his name didn’t come up in the Q and A of a Christian University crowd. That’s OK. It was a science lecture and not a philosophy class. The evidence was clearly stated. Showing the possibilities of amazing design on the cosmic scale and the quantum scale was quite enough. My hunch is everyone in the audience some way or another was thinking the same thing. This stuff sounds awfully familiar. Could the one who put this all together be…God?

  

Salem Witch Trials

My daughter is studying The Crucible for English class. This play by Arthur Miller, is about the Salem Witch Trials. In his introduction to the play Miller says this:

However, I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history.

Most awful chapter?? Let’s get this straight. Miller attended a few Communist Party meetings as a younger man and even spoke at these events. So, he had to know something of Stalin’s forced starvation of his own people in Georgia. An estimated 6 million were killed. Now how many people were executed as a result of the Salem Witch Trials?

2000
200
Let’s try 20. 5 more died in prison.

Wow! 25 to 6,000,000. That’s terrible.

Yes, the witch trials were ridiculous, but let’s get real.

Obviously, people hold people who call themselves “Christians” to a higher standard than anyone else because either consciously or subconsciously, they know Christians have high standards. That’s also when people want to speak of “Christian” atrocity they often end up at the Crusades. 1000 years ago. I can give you a more current atrocity. The fact that I know Jesus intimately and yet can still lash out in anger, on occasion.

  

more post Halloween

I heard from my friend Don on my blog from yesterday. I think I have discovered a whole new topic for a blog site. Stories from growing up the child of a funeral director! Come to think of it, there probably is one already! Enjoy Don’s response.

Halloween was a cool time when we lived next to the funeral home. We had a circular driveway that went in front of our house and exited at the front of the chapel (the hearse could be loaded prior to the drive to the cemetery just beyond our front door). At any rate, the three Meyer kids would convince our doubting parents that THIS year would be different on Halloween. We assured them that we had invited all of the neighbor kids who lived in "normal" homes down the block that it was safe to come to our front door at night. We sold our parents on the notion that they should stock up on lots of candy for the Trick or Treaters.

Of course the three of us were lying through our teeth. No self respecting kid goes to the front door of the residence on the property of a funeral home at ANY time, let alone Halloween. No one came. They never came. We were left with loads of uneaten candy. And each successive year we would plead our case that kids would come on Halloween. Lies, all lies. But, our parents (bless their souls!) would relent each year and each year we put our teeth and blood sugar count in danger.

I’m just lucky I'm not a diabetic thanks to the excessive candy from Halloween!

post-Halloween musings

Is it just me or was Halloween a bit of a bust this year? It didn’t seem like nearly as many people decorated their houses or any mad advertising campaigns and such. Maybe I’m just not getting out much. I didn’t get to see “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” either (Are they still showing Charlie Brown?).

I’m not complaining, as Halloween has always been a bit bizarre for me since adults started getting into the act. When I was a child, I can’t imagine my mom and dad going to a Halloween party dressed up, let alone trying to do that myself as a teenager. Probably would have been beat up if I showed up in a costume at my high school.

The gory and scary stuff of Halloween is no longer compelling, as everything one could possibly do to a human has already been done on CSI. I do have to admit though, there are some cool things you can do with movie makeup. Our boys were eerily realistic with a skull face on one and a railroad spike sticking out of his head for the other. A friend who works for Disney did the special effects honors. It was awesome and awful. I have no idea what the symbolism all means in their case, but our family does go back to the 19th century in the funeral business. Perhaps we’re just weird. I am looking forward to Thanksgiving.

response 15

• My family is Jewish (or Moslem). They would disown me and never talk to me again if I ever became a Christian. It would break my grandma’s heart.

I do not take this lightly. Living in Los Angeles, I know Jews and Muslims who have become Christian. In normal circumstances, when you fully acknowledge Jesus as your Savior, it brings about a change in your life. This is not without hardship. Friends may shun you. Family members might think you are strange. Life goes on.

In the case of Jews and Muslims, it can bring about more than just family crisis. With some Jews and Muslims, mothers and fathers refuse to talk to their children who have come to Christ. In cases of strict Islam, Muslim immigrants from countries like Saudi Arabia or Iran may never be able to return to their homeland. It is one thing to have trust in Jesus and your friends think you are kind of weird. It is another thing to be treated as if you no longer existed. Jesus knew the stakes.

Luke 12:51-53 (NLT)  
    Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I have come to bring strife and division! [52] From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or the other way around. [53] There will be a division between father and son, mother and daughter, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law."
What is the answer? If you have been reached by Jesus you don’t have a choice. He is your Lord as well as your Savior. You follow him, paying a dear price. It is worth it because of the paid he price. You can’t control what others might think, but you can keep your eyes on him.