Dylan Devotional: The sun keeps shinin’

It was a beautiful drive into the office this morning. I was rockin’ to Dylan and holding a cup of coffee in a styrofoam cup. I was listening to “Thunder on the Mountain” from Dylan’s Modern Times and it seemed that he was singing what I was feeling. The sun was shining bright and illuminating the steam rising from the coffee. It was cold this morning…about 25 degrees. As I was listening to this song, I continued to replay this part. This is your Dylan devotional for the day.

Thunder on the Mountain
Bob Dylan

Thunder on the mountain, rolling like a drum
Gonna sleep over there, that's where the music coming from
I don't need any guide, I already know the way
Remember this, I'm your servant both night and day

The pistols are poppin' and the power is down
I'd like to try somethin' but I'm so far from town
The sun keeps shinin' and the North Wind keeps picking up speed
Gonna forget about myself for a while, gonna go out and see what others need.

Life is here is short. One day I am going to “sleep over there,” in heaven, that is “where the (heavenly) music is coming from.” The music from heaven is dominated by a continual theme: the goodness, holiness, beauty and glory of God. I hear that music resonating in my heart.

“I don’t need any guide, I already know the way…” I don’t need philosophy, self-help books, pop psychology, religion, gurus, political pundits or spiritual leaders to show me the way to heaven. I already know the way…Jesus is the WAY…and he happens to be the truth and life too!

Today, I prayed: Lord, “I’m your servant both night and day.” As I hear your heavenly music, I will walk in time with your beat and repeat the song you are singing. I am your servant today and tomorrow. Use me…let my life count for eternity.

As I listened to this song, the sun was “shinin’” and “the North Wind” was blowing! Now I need to “forget about myself for a while”…say no to the unhealthy self, the false self…that me that wants to establishing the kingdom of self in my heart. "I am gonna to forget about myself"...that old self and let the Spirit recreate the image of Jesus in my heart…so I can live out my real self…so I can “go out and see what others need.”

---

We had a great weekend with Jimmie Bratcher, blues guitar player and evangelist from Kansas City, Missouri. We had about 80 guys show up for our multi-church men’s meeting on Saturday night, which exceeded my expectations. Jimmie also played/preached Sunday morning. He did a great job! I took notes on the sermon: I need help from the deiTY, clerGY and laiTY.

I also had a young woman come up to me after church yesterday. I had prayed for her during the worship service the week before. We believe that God was saying that he wanted to heal someone in their hands. This woman came for prayer with a skin condition on her palm. We prayed and she came back this Sunday and said the condition has cleared up. She has struggled with it for two years. It looks like God answered our prayer.

Last night, I built a fire in my woodburning stove and finished chapter four of my dissertation. It was the longest section and I am glad to have it done. I am up to page 120 and I only have one more chapter to write. I can see a light at the end of the doctoral tunnel!

“Feel like my soul is beginning to expand
Look into my heart and you will sort of understand”
--Bob Dylan

Worthless Men

I am posting another sermon outline, partially because it is good and partially because my right wrist is aching a bit today and I do not feel like hammering away at the keyboard anymore today. I have been working long hours on my dissertation at night after being on the computer off and on all day. These are the notes for a message that I will preach Saturday night at a multi-church men’s meeting hosted by our church.


Worthless Men
A Sermon by Derek Vreeland

1 Samuel 2:12 ESV Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.

Eli was a priest. He had two sons Hophni and Phinehas.

Nobody names their boys Hophni and Phinehas, because, the Bible gives them a two-word description: worthless men.

“Worthless men” – a description of men that is common today.

If you have watched family-based TV sitcoms over the last twenty years, you may have noticed that the guy who plays the father role is typically worthless, e.g. Tim “the Tool Man” Taylor from Home Improvement.

Tim wasn’t a hero…he was a joke.
He wasn’t someone to look up to….he was someone to laugh at.
He wasn’t a hopeful man…he was a worthless man.

The Bible says that Eli’s boys were WORTHLESS MEN.
They were men without honor, value, character or significance.
They were worthless.

Why? (The Bible gives five reasons)

1) They were GODLESS men
1 Samuel 2:12 ESV Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.

They were religious men…preachers’ kids, but they were completely cut off from any kind of relationship with God.

Dads if we do anything with our boys, we need to SHOW them Jesus.


2) They were VIOLENT men
I Samuel 2:16b He would say, “No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.”

They did not respect anybody else. If they did not get what they want, they took it forcefully.

There is a natural aggression that is a part of the male spirit that is good and created by God. The reason you like watching helmets clash in a football game or hunting during deer season is because God made you that way. This is also the reason you like movies like Braveheart and Gladiator because God made you that way.

When we use that aggression to hurt other people by our words or actions – like Eli’s boys – that is when we cross the line.

Jesus had natural male aggression, but was always loving...even when he turned over the moneychangers' tables.


3) They were DISRESPECTFUL men
I Samuel 2:17 ESV Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt.

“Contempt” is not a word we use often. It means disrespect.
It is the equivalence to having someone spit in your face.

Do you remember the uproar in 1997 when Bill Romanowski (LB for the Denver Broncos) spit in the face of J.J. Stokes during a game on Monday Night Football?

Hophni and Phinehas were disrespectful men.
They would spit in the face of God or anyone to get what they want.

We have to become men of respect where we respect each other no matter if you are black, white, rich, poor, educated or uneducated.


4) They were EVIL men
1 Samuel 2:22-23 ESV Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. [23] And he said to them, "Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people

Eli was calling them EVIL, because they would not treat women with respect. The true TEST of a man is how he acts around a woman.

Some men are all tough and macho until they get around their girl and then they just turn to Jello. Some men will lie, cheat, steal, forsake all their friends…for the love of a woman.

On the flip side, there are men they will act all kind and respectful in public, but on the inside there is a deep LUST that drives them to look at women merely as objects of their enjoyment.

We have to become the kind of men that value the women in our lives.

If you are married God wants you to cherish, adore and care for your wife.


5) They were DEAD men
God has enough of all this from Eli’s boys and shows up to talk to Eli.

1 Samuel 2:34 ESV And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day.

God said, “That is it. You may let your boys take advantage of women and men giving offerings at the temple, but I have had enough.”

The Bible makes it clear that you can be any kind of man you want to be, but if you continue to live a life GODLESS life, where you do your own thing and leave God out of the picture…you will ultimately die.

Romans 6:23 ESV For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.


In contrast, to Hophni and Phinehas, the Bible talks about good guys, men of courage of faith…guys like Noah.

God was ready to destroy the earth with a flood, but before doing so he picked one family that he really like. Noah was the “big daddy.”

Genesis 6:9 NIV These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

I believe that God is calling on us to become men of WORTH, men of honor and value who walk blameless in our generation.

We need to be these kinds of men for the next generation of men.

We as parents are raising the next generation of men who will either lead with honor and integrity or abandon every good thing they have inherited. They are bridges to the future. Nations that are populated largely by immature, immoral, weak-willed, cowardly, and self-indulgent men cannot and will not long endure. These types of men include those who sire and abandon their children; who cheat on their wives; who lie, steal, and covet; who hate their countrymen; and who serve not God but money. That is the direction culture is talking today’s boys.

James Dobson, Bringing Up Boys, pg. 54

Weak, pitiful, worthless men are the downfall of any society.
Being a man of strength, honor and worth begins with walking with God.

H&P were worthless men and did not know God.
Noah was a righteous man, because he walked with God.


Micah 6:8 ESV He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Do you act justly?
Do you treat people in a way that is just and fair?

Do you love mercy?
Do you extend the forgiveness that you have received from Christ to others?

Are you walking humbly with your God?
Have you acknowledged that there is only one God and you are not him!?!

The ESV Bible and my theological ramblings

It looks like Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle is also making the switch from the NIV to the ESV. I have blogged earlier that I received an ESV Bible for Christmas and I am going to be reading, studying and preaching from the ESV for the next year. I have used the NIV for the last ten years (I used the NKJV before that) and I was looking for a change.

I changed translations just to approach the text of Scripture with a fresh view. Mark has written an 18-page essay on why he has switched from the NIV to the ESV. (You can read it here.)

He has some good things to say about the history of the Bible and the art of biblical translation. He gives six theological reasons for the switch to the ESV. I wanted to respond to his reasons, because I share some of his opinions and disagree with others.

Mark Driscoll’s Theological Reasons for Choosing the ESV

1) The ESV upholds the truth that Scripture is the very words of God, not just the thoughts of God.

I do agree theologically in the verbal plenary inspiration of Scripture. This means that every (plenary) word (verbal) in the Bible was God’s idea (inspiration). Or as my Old Testament professor, Dr. Roy Hayden, said, “Inspiration is the work of God whereby he controlled the writing of Scripture so that the end result is what God wanted.” I do agree that the words and not just the thoughts where inspired.

However, what are words if they are not just containers for ideas? Words in and of themselves have to real value, they are just cultural symbols that point back to an idea. If I use the word “dog,” I am not talking about a entity that has a “d” in the front, a “g” at the end and an “o” in the middle. No I am talking about a fury, slobbery, mutt that eats a lot and leaves land mines in your yard. The point is that it is hard to separate words from the ideas that the words point to.


2) The ESV upholds that what is said must be known before what is meant can be determined.

This is an important thought to consider. The worse thing you can do if you are in a Bible study is to go around the room, have people read a verse of Scripture and then tell everybody what that verse “means to them.” Aaaaggghhhh! One of the most basic principles of faithful Bible interpretation is to first seek to understand what the text MEANT in its historical setting and in the context in which it was written and then seek to understand what it MEANS.


3) The ESV upholds the truth that words carry meaning.
This was the point I was trying to make earlier. Words are containers of ideas or meaning. The purpose for words is that we preserve them in order to preserve meaning. All that I was saying earlier is that the meaning is what we are really after. The words are just a means to this ultimate end of meaning, idea, truth.

I point this out because of the MYTH OF THE MORE LITERAL TRANSLATION. I appreciate that the ESV is not being marketed and a “more literal” translation. Whether you translate a text word for word (like the ESV) or thought for thought (like the NIV) there is still the subjectivity of the translators involved in the process. For example, when translating Greek nouns, the word can appear in the genitive, which is simply translated “of.” Tou pistou tou theo in Greek is a classic use of the genitive. It is most often translated the faith of God, but most Greek grammar will list 15+ different ways to translate the genitive beyond the simple “of.” It doesn’t matter if you translate this word for word or thought by thought. You as a translator, as a Greek exegete, have to make a choice.

Nevertheless, I agree that word of word is a preferable translation method in order to pursue what the ESV guys call “essentially literal.” I like that better than “more literal.”


4) The ESV upholds the theological nomenclature of the Scripture.

Yep. And that is why I like the ESV. The ESV is attentive to use theologically-rich terms like: grace, faith, justification, sanctification, redemption, regeneration, reconciliation, and propitiation. And I know Mark loves that word “propitiation” and I do too, because it refers to Jesus as bearing the wrath of God for us. Good stuff! Yea theological nomenclature…nomenclature is a big word for the word, words. So “theological nomenclature” is a fancy way of saying “theological words.”


5) The ESV upholds the truth that while Scripture is meant for all people, it cannot be communicated in such a way that all people receive it.

I guess this is Mark’s calvinistic colors shining through. Actually, I agree with Mark on this point. The risk that you run in “dumbing down” the text of Scripture so that everyone can understand it is that you begin to lose the richness of biblical revelation. Let’s be honest, some parts of Scripture is hard to understand that is why God has given us gifted teachers to help guide us through the Scripture.


6) The ESV upholds the complementarian nature of gender in Scripture.

In his explanation, Mark sites Madonna as a quintessential feminist who uses the phrase “mankind.” This is what I love about Mark early in his essay he quotes from Athanasius and now from Madonna. We really think a lot a like.

I agree that we should preserve the complementarian nature of gender references in the Bible. The TNIV recently tried to make a more gender neutral translation of the Scripture, but for reasons state above – I do not belive we should change the words of Scripture.

Ok this was one long post.

Enough for now.

Check out the ESV at http://www.gnpcb.org/home/esv


Currently in iTunes…

Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
Bob Dylan

Mama, take this badge off of me
I can't use it anymore.
It's gettin' dark, too dark for me to see
I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door

Sounds like a call to prayer to me….

New Seeds and the false self

Happy New Year! This post is my first of 2007. I haven’t had a chance to post since right after Christmas. At the tail end of 2006 and first week of 2007, I have been:

…working sudoku puzzles (quite addictive)

…hosting family at our house (enjoyed seeing you Kit and Katie)

…visiting family out of town (enjoyed the pulled pork Jeff!)

…reading my new ESV Bible (I love reading a Bible with nothing underlined)

…watching "Lost" Season 1 and Season 2 on DVD and now I am going to spend $12 to download the first six episodes of Season 3 in iTunes(we are hooked)

…watching my Chiefs blow it in the playoffs (I have become a temporary Chargers fan…just for the playoffs!)

…listening to Bob Dylan (I have mastered “Blowin’ in the Wind” on guitar)

…preaching on self HEALTH (see post below for more info)

…finishing reviewing interview data for my dissertation (I AM graduating in May this year!)

…battling a failing transmission in our mini van (it is still working, so I guess I am winning)

…back on a low-carb diet after packing on the poundage over the holidays (arghhhh)

Here is a wonderful quote from Thomas Merton from New Seeds of Contemplation (1972). I have added space between the sentences so you can think deeply about each statement. I will be preaching on this theme this Sunday in a message called: The false self.

All sin starts from the assumption that my false self, the self that exists only in my own egocentric desires, is the fundamental reality of life to which everything else in the universe is ordered.

Thus I use up my life in the desire for pleasures and the thirst for experiences, for power, honor, knowledge, and love to cloth this false self and construct its nothingness into something objectively real.

And I wind experiences around myself and cover myself with pleasures and glory like bandages in order to make myself perceptible to my self and to the world, as if I were an invisible body that could only become visible when something visible covered its surface.

Thomas Merton
New Seeds of Contemplation (1972)

This thought is the essence of self health. I guess it is also my new years resolution...to get my self healthy. The false self versus real self is the same concept of the old self versus real self in Paul's writings. My prayer is: Lord, would you, by the Holy Spirit cut through the layers of my false self, so that I can see the self you created me to be. In Jesus’ name. AMEN