Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Eternal Significance

I must take a break from Acts to write about something that has been on my mind in one form or another for several years now. A crisis of sorts—not significant, thankfully—has brought me to this point. But more about that in a moment.

For several years I have been praying off and on for God to enable me to care about the things that really matter and not to care about the things that don’t matter. I have asked Him to give me an eternal perspective and to help focus my attention on things of eternal significance.

Following are some verses I have memorized to help me become eternally minded.

Set you mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:2-3

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lost heart.
Hebrews 12:1-3

Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:19-21

Despite the fact that I have been praying about it and thinking about it for some time, I still struggle desperately in this area. I am far too easily entangled in and encumbered by the things of this world. I especially struggle with (1) being controlled by my circumstances and (2) by materialism. I also have a strong tendency to obsess over a particular interest until I wear myself out over it. Hence, the crisis that has prompted this post: THE KNITTING OBSESSION HAS GOTTEN OUT OF HAND AND SOMETHING MUST BE DONE.

I don’t want to stop knitting, but knitting and related activities (such as reading knitting blogs and magazines and looking at patterns) are taking up way too much of my time and mental energy. This evening, I ripped out a project because it wasn’t PERFECT. This is the type of crisis that usually gets my attention and enables me to adjust my perspective.

A few months ago, God revealed to me the obsessive nature of my interests, and I shared this realization with my small group. I told them that now that I understood this about myself, I wanted the Word to be what I obsessed over, not other temporal things. Once again, I have gotten off track. It reminds me of one of the verses from Come Thou Fount:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let they goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to thee.

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love.

Here's my heart. O take and seal it;
Seal it for thy courts above.

If the Spirit brings it to mind, please pray for me in my efforts to “set my mind on things above” and to “lay up for myself treasure in heaven.” I would be glad to pray the same for you.

Reflections on Acts, Part I

This spring, our small group studied Acts using Kay Arthur’s New Inductive Study Series. Being a “doctrine girl,” I was afraid I would get bored, and although there were times it dragged a little for me, the study was much more of a blessing than I anticipated. Following is the first of three planned posts highlighting some of the things that stand out from the study that I have thought about and that we discussed as a group during our last meeting.

God is Working His Plan
God has a plan, and He will carry it out, and He usually does it in ways that are completely unexpected (Isaiah 55:9). First, growth of the church and the spread of Christianity were prompted by persecution that began with the stoning of Stephen (8:1). Jesus told the disciples in 1:8, “and you shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.” Persecution was the means God used to relocate the first believers so the gospel would spread.

Persecution as a catalyst for the spread of the gospel reminds me of our recent missions conference. Carmen Hale from Elam Ministries spoke to us about their work in Iran. She told us that when the Shah was in power and there was religious freedom in Iran, no one was interested in the gospel, but since Islamist fundamentalists have been in power the church has been growing. Several Iranian pastors have been martyred in recent years, and people are now flocking to the churches. A new translation of the New Testament into Farsi (Persian) was recently completed and published. Carmen showed us a video of the clandestine arrival of the new Bibles, and you have never seen more beautiful, joyful people as those who were waiting expectantly for their new Bibles—in the knowledge that their presence at this event could cost them their lives.

A second observation about God working His plan relates to Paul and his intentions to go to Rome. Romans 1: 9-17 and Romans 15:20-33 make it clear that Paul planned to stop off in Rome en route to Spain NOT to spend several years imprisoned there. However, God in His infinite wisdom provided the circumstances for Paul to author Ephesians, Philemon, Colossians, Philippians, and II Timothy through Paul’s imprisonment. (Paul was imprisoned twice in Rome. First, from ~60 A.D. to 62 A.D. and, then, from ~63 A.D. to 64 A.D.)

God Keeps His Promises
In Genesis 12:3, God tells Abram, “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” A brief online search gives an approximate date of 2147 B.C. for God’s calling of Abram. More than 2,000 years later, we begin to see this promised fulfilled in Acts chapter 10 with the Roman Centurion Cornelius’s conversion.

This brings to mind 2 Peter 3:8-9: But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

I am someone who often FEELS (herein lies the problem) that God is not moving quickly enough for me. I would do well to remember His word and how He has worked in the past.

Next time, I will examine the first church as presented in Acts.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

I'm a "Crunchy Con"

I've finally found out that there is a demographic group out there to which I belong: "crunchy cons". Crunchy, as in granola, and con, as in conservative. The term was created by Rod Dreher, who wrote an article in National Review that received tremendous positive response, which lead to a book, Cruncy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, gun-loving organic gardeners, evangelical free-range farmers, hip homeschooling mamas, right-wing nature lovers, ... America (or at least the Republican Party). Dreher also has a blog that I have really been enjoying. In fact, it has replaced Albert Mohler's as my favortie in this genre. (I also read a few knitting blogs.)

I haven't read the book yet, but from what I've read by Dreher and reviewers, in a nutshell, you are a crunchy con if you wear Birkenstocks, shop at Whole Foods, are concerned about the environment and the poor (all generally associated with liberals) AND you are pro life, churchgoing, and tend to vote Republican.

It's always good to know you're not alone.