人生行路 — The Journey of Life

I only changed the address of this blog like…two days ago?…and already I have a link from a major blog. Interesting.

The more major news on that blog, however, is the ESV Study Bible, which is said to be scheduled for an October 2008 release. Their blog has a good list of blog posts regarding the recent website launch. Unfortunately, I have to say that I’m personally more skeptical of this effort than I was about the Literary Study Bible.

I definitely relate to Richard’s comment at the Boar’s Head Tavern:

I think if you have more editorial words than actual bible text you don’t have a Bible anymore but a commentary. A commentary which (Matthew is correct) seeks to promote a Reformed perspective. Nothing wrong with that but perhaps it should be pointed out.

I’m still trying to understand the whole Calvinism / Arminianism divide. You’d definitely be able to tell that if you’ve seen my latest purchase lists from Amazon.com. For Calvinists, there’s already the Reformation Study Bible with R. C. Sproul at the conn.

What is this junk about people needing a study bible from “one’s own tradition” anyhow? Shouldn’t we be open to whatever God wants to communicate through the Word? And do such commentaries possibly take away from the Word? If I want commentary, I’ll read another book.

Meanwhile, I did finally receive an audio ESV the other day when we finally received some mail. This is also very much a blessing.

ADDITION: If they’re able to illustrate Solomon’s temple, how will they illustrate pre-Moses events which remain in theological or archaeological dispute as related to new-earth creationism vs. evolution, and variants thereof?  Are we in for illustrations of the Garden of Eden or Noah’s Ark?  (As a matter of record, I’m an evolutionist.)

I’m hearing words across numerous sources that American Idol had some sort of event when the contestants sung “Shout to the Lord.”  Something made mention of a Dolly Parton relation or something.

Do I sound like I never watch television?  Good, I’m not putting forward any false fronts.

Worship Matters and Josh Harris have put forward some very good analysis of the whole thing.  I only wanted to put in a couple of personal cents into the matter.

Seventh grade was when I really started to read the Bible.  I was entering my third year living in Hawaii, and my parents did not want to send me to a public school.  Complicating that was that my Dad was very Catholic at the time and didn’t want to send me to a Protestant school.  His priest even warned him that the school would turn me into a Protestant.  He was right.

And while overall I did learn much from the Bible, the baggage included very unhealthy views in regards to anti-Catholicism, drinking, smoking, relationships, witnessing, CCM, etc.  The vast majority of the teachers were recruited out of Bob Jones University.  Knowing that alone, I probably won’t ever send my kids there.  I still am a Protestant, mind you.

That CCM part utterly confused one of my female friends over there.  I won’t mention her name, but I do hope she reads this.   Her position was that as long as the lyrics glorify God, what’s all the opposition for?  Ultimately, the school would only permit hymns, despite that the band had been practicing secular music.  Mixing faith and “rock music” was not morally right.  I, of course, in my militaristic followership, didn’t back her up.  She would bring this up often in her justifiable utter confusion.

Accordingly, it seemed rebellious, almost wrong, when another open mic day came, and the entire student body of the campus’ intermediate (junior high) and high schools assembled in the auditorium.  They always called me “future pastor” because I was able to put out a long message on the fly.  Three of my female friends got up there and sung “Shout to the Lord” a capella.

I don’t think they got in trouble, and I didn’t really have anything against the song, but it seemed so modern. That just wasn’t what we did around there.

Fast-forward to 2007, and the World Wide Web, previously the domain dominated by Netscape 2.0, was now in full Web 2.0 mode.  I started finding many of these old friends on Facebook, hoping to reconnect.  As I typed in this particular female friend’s name, a group (not a profile) popped up.  Why is that?  I had apparently been paying to little attention to popular media to notice that someone of her name had been a finalist on American Idol.  The pictures were too small to really tell it was her.  I clicked the link over to Wikipedia, and it was definitely her.  Things have changed, certainly.

There’s no telling whether she’s following the Lord at this point in her life, and that certainly doesn’t make her alone among kids raised as Christians, but perhaps having “Shout to the Lord” on American Idol was a way of calling her and others back, at minimum to that memory.

Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens!
Praise him for his mighty deeds;
praise him according to his excellent greatness!

Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

Praise the Lord!

-Psalm 150 (ESV

Here’s a confession. I’ve been following Christ for over ten years now, and I’ve never read the entire Bible.

Earlier this year, I started off determined to read the Bible in a year. I had become a fan of the English Standard Version after having done much reading comparing it with other versions. By no means am I declaring absolute loyalty to this specific version, but it is the answer to much prayer concerning worries I had over the NIV.

I had also obtained a copy of the Literary Study Bible, which is also a godsend. I had never been able to really process the Bible in terms of entire books as opposed to individual chapters, or in particular places, individual verses. Most of us have verses that we’ve committed to memory, but how often do we really look at the whole thing? How many of us really figure out the structure of the book of Numbers? I certainly never had.

However, the most important thing that the effort taught me is that it’s bad for me to trust myself with sticking with a daily plan.

Before I elaborate on why, let’s get a certain lame excuse out of the way: “I don’t have time” doesn’t cut it. If God wants you to do it, He will allow you time. There’s twenty-four hours in a day, so figure it out. If you spend an hour a day on the Internet reading things like this article, and you’re not reading the Bible on a regular basis, stop reading this article, turn off your computer, and go pick up your Bible.

With that said, I’m here to offer you a different approach than lists that say “January 1st: read this. January 2nd: read this.” My current effort is going to focus on reading entire books. For one, it better enables the reader to process the entire book rather than series of passages. Secondly, it doesn’t have a time limit. If you take a week off, you can get back where you left off, or if you forget what happened beforehand, go back to the beginning of the book and reread.

This is not to argue that trying to read the Bible in a year isn’t a worthy goal, but for some of us it might actually be lofty. Anything is possible with God on your side, but when you’re someone like me who is constantly going in and out, not to mention waking up at “ungodly” hours for various work-related tasks, you might be better off just checking books off.

Somehow I got through the first five books of the Old Testament without a major hitch. The stumble came when I started reading Joshua, and no, that’s not Joshua’s fault; it’s mine for not relying on God to keep me going, or simply to have him direct me where I ought to be reading.

Accordingly, I’m making the switch over to Matthew, followed by possible alternation between OT and NT books. More importantly, I’ll be reading more Bible and less finance websites. That’s been swamping me over the past three weeks.

It didn’t really dawn on me that today is the last Sunday of 2007, but the chaplain mentioned it at the worship service tonight. Time to reflect, but in a different way than I usually do.

Rereading Joshua Harris’ Boy Meets Girl last night uncovered a way of thinking I’ve been stuck in ever since giving my life to Christ. Simply put, I tend not to forgive myself. Okay, let’s get more specific than that. I don’t like to forgive myself.

Harris calls my bluff, though. It’s a form of reverse pride. My refusal to forgive myself is me telling God that my standards are higher than His. Let’s face it: God’s standards are pretty darn high, which makes it even more amazing that He offered His Son to undergo anguish, torture, and death on a cross so that we could meet that standard.

With that said, here’s a very short summary of 2007.

• political blogging
• mall preachers
• reaching out
• struggling with repeated sins
• leading Midshipmen
• ship selection
• 24/7 prayer
• goodbyes
• commissioning
• MacBook
• stashed life
• more goodbyes
• legal officer school
• re-meeting an old friend
• final goodbyes
• flight
• stashed in Sasebo
• leading a flight detail to reporting aboard the ship in [location, sorry].
• adjustment
• Sasebo
• bike trips
• apartment hunt
• having to earn respect
• conning
• OOD inport
• small boat adventures
• camraderie
• personal wars
• finding a church
• first guitar
• firefighting school
• The Lighthouse
• connections
• humiliation
• underway
• diplomacy
• shore patrol
• small boat crush hazard
• more conning
• figuring out how to lead worship
• NJPs
• powers of attorney
• dirty looks
• keeping the fervor
• inport
• shore patrol
• another guitar
• The Lighthouse, again!
• Sasebo
• complacence
• screwing up
• mercy
• grace
• more leading worship
• screwing up
• leading worship solo ashore (tonight)

What a ride. I felt like my worship tonight was something of a culmination of these things and more. I don’t know what’ll happen one year, one day, or one minute after I post this. What I know is that God is there, and that His Son’s blood really makes it all worth it.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts! Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

~Isaiah 6:1-7 ESV

Wow.