Thoughts from Habakkuk

Habakkuk is an amazing view of the goodness of God in answering the questions of man; we are given a theo-centric view of history that lets us interpret all of the confusion of this life in a proper light.

"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." (2:14) - Human history does not unfold around the fact that men seek to glorify themselves and bring shame to others. Rather the goal and destiny of all this is that everyone would know the gloriousness of the Lord God, the Holy One.
For in all of this, the people on earth make for themselves gods of wood and stone and even of themselves (2:18-19; 1:11). "But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him" (2:20).
Therefore, when we look around and wonder at the world we see surrounding us, let us recall these words of the Lord: "I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told" (1:5b). Thus, in all of this, we are called to trust in the God who gives us life and breath and salvation.
"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation" (3:17-18).
Is it well with your soul? Are you resting in the Lord and His goodness and His sovereignty? Our circumstances are not the casue of our unrest; they are a manifestation of the unbelief that resides still within us. But it is not about us: "God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places" (3:19).
Remember that the righteous will live by faith (2:4). Will you and I manifest our faith by living faithfully and following Him?


All Scripture taken from the ESV.

Where'd al-Qaida come from?

The Jerusalem Post today had an interesting article on Pakistan's potential future recognition of the Jewish state. But what really caught my attention was the information about the origins of al-Quaida. It is very easy for the West to forget that we were the ones funding "al-Quaida" (actually its idealogical roots) to fight the Soviet Empire. And then when we were done using them, we abandoned them to their poverty again. Not a very nice way to put it, but it explains a few things. Read the article to see the Pakistani President's take on it.


"[Musharraf] also touched on the anti-terror fight, saying that Pakistan was largely abandoned by the West in 1989, after playing a key role in ending the Soviet occupation of neighboring Pakistan [sic.; actually, Afghanistan].
"Everyone left us high and dry" to deal with 20,000-30,000 mujahedeen fighters holed up in Afghanistan and 4 million refugees who crossed the border into Pakistan," Musharraf said.
"The mujahedeen coalesced into al-Qaida," he added.
Then came the Sept. 11 attacks, and Pakistan found itself thrust back into the spotlight as a key supporter of the U.S. invasion in Afghanistan and the war on terrorism."
(For the complete article, go here.)

Failure

Since the quote below is the third time in the last 24 hours that failure/success has come up, and since it was something that I have had to start pondering because it came up, I decided to post the quote. I got it from Miles Stanford's website, in his devotional for today. How much does failure scare you? How much does success thrill you? Does your world rise and fall; is your praise altered; does your faith weaken? These are natural responses, and thus, they are wrong, for they are responses that come from the natural (old) man.

"The Father may allow His servant to succeed when He has disciplined him to a point where he does not need to succeed to be happy. The man who is elated by success and cast down by failure is still a carnal man. At best his fruit will have a worm in it."

Brief update on the Chivalry thing

Despite getting called a feminist by someone (ZV) last time I brought this up, I am going to throw out the topic again. The discussion on chivalry is still ongoing at "the Rebelution." They have now gotten to Part 5.
I have decided what I think of the blog: I like it. I have benefited from at least 4 or 5 of their posts. I still want to know why it's called something that sounds like a cross between rebellion and revolution though, since it's a Christian blog.
Anyways, that was all random and free.

The greatness of God's orchestration

Friends,
Have you ever considered the reality of that phrase "I will build my church"? I have thought about it a fair amount before, because it gives me confidence in going to a closed country. However, it has always either been theoretical or someone else's experience that backs it up.
Last night, my grandparents were telling me about their visit back to the village where I grew up. And they were sharing a number of encouraging things that are going on in that church. It's not that it somehow became perfect, or that they aren't struggling in some areas still. But, there is a strengthened, functioning church there. In a place where 50 years ago, there was nothing; and 5 years ago, there was a church mired in problems; Christ has magnified His name by strengthening and building the church which He has called in Ricanau Moffo.

Interesting post on interesting blog

This blog was recommended to me by a friend; I'm still not sure what I think of it in general, but it is aimed at having a constructive influence on teens.

Here is an interesting article about chivalry today, makes for good reading; I haven't read Part 1 yet, but plan to. When Lancelot Comes Riding, Part 2

So, should girls always accept a guy's "chivalry" simply b/c it has been offered, or are there times when it is actually better to refuse, for everyone's sake....

Pause and Ponder

Music Discussion, Part 2: The Other Passages

Having considered some foundational passages on music, let's consider the other New Testament passages that deal with singing.

1 Corinthians 14:15 - What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
- The emphasis in this passage is that not only should praying and singing edify the individual doing it, but when done in public it should also edify the church.
- There is a somewhat mystical element to singing and prayer, which relates to worshiping God. This should be balanced with the fact that there should be a public edification and understanding of what is going on.

1 Corinthians 14:26 - How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.
- This passage indicates two things.
o All congregational activity including singing is to build up the believer. (vs. 26)
o All congregational activity should be done orderly. This is derived from the context, for this section of chapter 14 is dealing with an orderly meeting of believers (vs. 27-33, 40). (This is not referring to having “orderly music” that follows pre-arranged rhythmic patterns or so forth, rather it refers to not having an orderly service, not having different people singing different songs at the same time.)

Matthew 26:30 & Mark 14:26 - And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.
- These passages simply refers to the fact that Jesus and the disciples sang a hymn after the institution of the Lord’s Supper and before they went to Gethsemane. This may lend support to using music in the Church, but it doesn’t seem particularly significant otherwise (or maybe I’m missing something; that’s always possible).

Acts 16:25 - And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
- This passage does not refer specifically to music in the church. Rather, it applies to our discussion in that it shows the spirit which our song should exhibit. We should have a song of joy in our hearts which must praise God regardless of circumstance. And this ties in perfectly with the final passage.

James 5:13 - Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
- This passage gives us the source of our song: the joy of the Lord. Singing should be an overflow of our joy. This ties directly to the fact that singing should flow from a Word-filled, Spirit-filled, life; the intertwinedness of Scripture is fascinating.

Throughout the Old Testament, it seems that singing was used primarily as a means of ministering to the Lord by praising His name (or to heathen gods in their context). It does not appear to have the same expected purpose of horizontal ministry attached to it.  The Psalms give a vast array of instructions for how to praise God with music.

Throughout Revelation, singing is used to praise God for all He has done and is doing. In eternity, the only purpose of singing will likely be to praise God, for there will not be the same need of edification.

CONCLUSION: The dual purpose of singing appears to be that of praising and worshiping God and edifying those around us through teaching and admonishing them in truth. Thus, there should be Word- and Spirit-filling on the part of the singer, as well as understanding on the part of both the singer and the listener. Our singing should come from the joy of the Lord which has filled our hearts; often it will be a sign of our trust in God. My final thought/challenge is that if we were more fully controlled by the Spirit, we might not have so many problems with music in our churches (or homes).

Music Discussion, Part 1: The Foundation

Thoughts on Singing and Music as it relates to the Believer, Part 1

Rarely, if ever, have I heard the subject of music addressed from a Biblical standpoint, that is, with the Bible as the place from which we get our foundation for a philosophy of music (this doesn’t mean nobody does this; I just haven’t heard it.) So, over the course of the last several months I have been pondering what a Biblical philosophy of music would involve. I think that there is a difference in what music should be done in church and what could be listened to/sung at home. Most of the time if we were asked what the purpose of music is in the church, we would say “to glorify/worship God”, but that is the purpose of our lives as a whole. What does God want specifically from our ministry in song?

The discussion below is a discussion primarily concerned with proper music/singing in the church. I have attempted to find all the relevant New Testament passages and to discern what they mean in their context and how they apply to congregational worship. Four of the passages speak directly to congregational worship while the other three are more generic.

The NT only directly addresses the issue of singing in the church in two places, Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:18b-19. These two passages are roughly parallel and bear a great deal of study. Once we have laid a foundation with these two passages, we will build the other passages upon it.

In Colossians 3:16, Paul is in the middle of a small section on Christian graces. He starts verse 16 out with the words “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom”; for most of us that does not sound like the beginning of a discussion on music. However, if we look at the parallel passage in Eph. 5:18b-19, we find that there Paul begins with the words “Be filled with the Spirit.” Thus, it cannot be accidental that these concepts are thrown together. The basis of our singing must be Word- and Spirit-filling; our song must overflow from our walk with the Spirit in His Word.

In the next section of Col. 3:16, Paul explains to us what the motives of congregational singing are, “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs.” The motive of our singing is to be that of edifying our brothers in Christ through instruction and warning. The Greek word used for admonishing means "counsel about avoidance or cessation of an improper course of conduct, admonish, warn, instruct” (BDAG). Thus, our songs should have two effects on each other: we should be teaching and warning each other concerning the things of the Lord. In Eph. 5:19, it simply refers to “speaking to yourselves.” Here the details of the speech are not clearly given, but the fact that there is to be an emphasis on edifying each other is still kept in view by the “yourselves” phrase. Thus, it seems that the primary motive for singing in the church is edification.

But continue to read. The final section of Col. 3:16 says, “Singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.” The expression “with grace” could also be translated “with thanksgiving.” With grace is a fine translation, but I mention the other just to give a slightly clearly picture of what it would mean to sing “with grace” in our hearts. Thus, our singing which should be edifying the believers around us, is to flow from a heart which is thankful for and aware of the grace of God bestowed upon it. This is what might be called “praise” in the OT; we are speaking of God’s goodness and greatness to those around us. Thus, the “worship” motive of congregational singing does come into play, but it does not surpass the motive of edification, if anything it is subordinate.

This is my basic premise of singing in church: congregational singing should flow from a Word-and Spirit-filled life to edify those around while praising God from the heart.

So, a question for thought, how does the ordinary, average, pew-sitting Christian teach and admonish those around him through his singing? Choosing favorites each service? Just by sincere hearty singing?

I will plan to post Part 2 of this discussion sometime soon. That should be a discussion of all the other relevant NT passages, and a couple thoughts on the OT passages.

The Normal Christian Life - Is it Possible?

This is an oustanding post. I particularly recommend it to those of you who have read and loved Standford's Steps of Spiritual Growth or Nee's The Normal Chrisian Life.

Just as a teaser, I will tell you that my next planned post is on music. Some of my own thoughts and some questions that remain to be answered. :)

The Path of Righteousness
By Matthew – Summer 2006

A path to Heaven has been giv’n
For those whose destiny is doom:
A way to have their sins forgiv’n
By One who overcame the tomb.

A call to walk the narrow way
Appears to every man on earth.
A plea to “Come” and not to stray
Is made to fill each soul’s great dearth.

I left the wide gate at His call,
Joined the Way, the Truth, the Life.
I came and dwelt within His hall,
Forsook the road of sin’s black strife.

When Jesus brought me to the fold,
I then began to know His voice.
The Father grasps me in His hold;
And in His way, I now rejoice.

The Lord my God is leading me
In the way of His righteousness.
I hear His voice, and now I see
To follow Him through the darkness.

But how to know the path each day –
This quandary may perplex.
God will instruct and guide my way,
Daily directing all my steps.

For though the Way’s the same for all,
Each soul must walk a prepared path;
We follow Christ, go at His call
To know the special plan He has.

When I shall walk the shadowed vale,
I’ll trust Him through that way of death;
For at that end, He shall not fail;
He’ll give me life and make me rest.

So while this earthly course I steer,
His way of truth I’ll not forsake,
For steadfast love and goodness dear
Shall follow every path I take.