Get away from my view, Scripture!

Another fascinating observation from ordination exam studying: “Defend your view from Scripture” could mean two very opposite things.

Not buyin’ it. Literally.

McDonald’s has Premium Salads with “warm chicken.” Starbucks has some breakfast sandwiches that are “served warm all day.”

I confess to being snobby about food, but I also know the difference between “warm” and “fresh.”

Abortion: Pray and Do Not Faint

Manasseh was one of the most wicked kings in Judah’s history. Some of the highlights of his reign, according to 2 Chronicles 33:

• Rebuilt the pagan altars his father had torn down.
• Built new altars to the false gods Baal and Asherah, and “the host of heaven.”
• Profaned the Temple by erecting pagan altars there.
• Killed his sons by sacrificing them as a burnt offering.

The Chronicler sums up his regime in 33:9:

Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.

But that wasn’t the end of the story. After Manasseh and the people ignored the warnings of the prophets, God allowed the Assyrian army to capture the king and take him to Babylon. Picking up in 2 Chron 33:12:

And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

When he returned to Jerusalem, Manasseh set about undoing all the evils he had instituted. He removed the pagan altars from the Temple, and reinstituted proper worship. He commanded the people to once again serve the true God. The epitaph for his reign emphasizes his change of heart.

And his prayer, and how God was moved by his entreaty, and all his sin and his faithlessness, and the sites on which he built high places and set up the Asherim and the images, before he humbled himself, behold, they are written in the Chronicles of the Seers. So Manasseh slept with his fathers, and they buried him in his house, and Amon his son reigned in his place. (2 Chron 33:18-20)

If God can change the heart of a king who instituted the worst kind of idolatry, a king who sacrificed his own children to a false god, then he can change the heart of a President who sees the killing of unborn children as a basic human right. “The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will” (Prov 21:1).

Come on, ESV Study Bible, help a brother out.

If I have a master’s degree in this stuff, and I have to stop and think about what “late second millennium BC” means, you probably should have plugged in a number.

The Wood Brothers, 05/13/09, Visulite Theatre

The Wood Brothers, who you may never have heard of, have been my favorite band for over a year now. Chris Wood, who plays bass for the jazz trio Medeski Martin & Wood, joins up with his brother Oliver, guitar player for the Atlanta blues band King Johnson. With Chris on standup bass and Oliver on guitar, they bring a unique vibe that I’ve described as what Van Morrison might have sounded like if he grew up in Mississippi.

These guys are two of the tastiest players I’ve heard– every note is exactly what belongs in its place. The simplicity of the instrumentation, the perfect blend of the brothers’ voices, the weighty ease of the lyrics– everything combines to make you just close your eyes and smile.

Melissa and I saw them for the first time in Atlanta last fall and it was pretty magical. Last week Tyler and I caught them at the Visulite to celebrate my birthday, and they didn’t disappoint. (Some college kids who sat next to us for a while did, but whatever.)

If you like this taste, both of their studio albums are well worth the purchase: the 2006 debut Ways Not to Lose and last year’s Loaded. They also have a new covers EP, Up Above My Head, coming out in June that’s currently available at their shows (and at the link). I picked it up at the show last week and have loved it– the best surprise is a fresh rendition of the Allman Brothers Band’s “Midnight Rider.”

If you’re looking for something new, and especially if you’re in a music rut, pour a glass of wine and check these guys out. They’ll bring some color to your world.

Why we should object when preachers say theologically stupid things.

A preacher at a famous megachurch I recently visited:

I’ve never yet met anyone with an obedient heart who was living under some sort of curse.

Gee, that’s too bad for the young single female missionary friend of ours, heading to a closed Muslim country, who was just diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer. If only she’d had an obedient heart, this wouldn’t have happened.

Now someone might object when I criticize things like this, when preachers casually say things that are just plain wrong. “They didn’t mean it like that,” someone might say.

I have two responses to this.

First, preachers have a responsibility to carefully consider their words. People will assume they are true at the most obvious level of meaning, not the closest theologically accurate one. I guarantee you most of the thousands of people in the room when this guy spouted this nonsense did not put it through a filter and come up with a passable, nuanced interpretation. Most of them just nodded or wrote it down in their fancy moleskine journal.

Second, in Matthew 12:36 Jesus says, “On the day of judgment men will give account for every careless word they speak.” How much more, do you think, will ministers of the Word give an account for what they said while they claimed to be preaching the gospel?

Back in the Saddle

Things that have happened since my last post:

• We spent 3 weeks at a missions training center in Colorado. It was awesome.
• We had our 20-week ultrasound, where we could have found out the gender. We chose not to.
• I told Sam he couldn’t do something. He said “Why?” and I answered “Because I said so.”
• I realized that reading about news and politics makes me angry, so maybe I shouldn’t do it as much.
• I unsubscribed to about half the blogs in my reader.
• I didn’t miss my own blog any more than I did the others.

But I’m going back at it, I think. We’ll see.