B-Quad begins today. That means I’m adding 2 more classes to my schedule. While my eagerness to learn and to study has not waned, I am a little overwhelmed at the prospect of adding more assignments, more research, more writing, more translating than I’m already doing. God’s grace will remain sufficient.
That (probably) means less blogging.
In our church plant meetings, we are often praying for boldness, and our pastor consistently exhorts us to continue to pray for boldness, motivated by the description in Acts 4 of the believers praying for boldness and then immediately after being recognized by others because of their boldness. But I wonder how well we really understand just what boldness is. What exactly were the apostles praying for? And what are we praying for?
In thinking about this, I decided to check out what the book of Acts has to say about boldness, and I was actually surprised to find how frequently the word is actually used throughout the book. The Greek noun parresia is used 5 times and the verb parresiazomai 7 times. What struck me, at first, was that the word is already used of the apostles before Acts 4:29, where the believers pray together for boldness. It’s used again of Peter and John in Acts 4:13, as the Jewish council recognizes their boldness because “they had been with Jesus.” In Acts 4:29, the believers are all together praying to continue speaking with boldness, and we see in Acts 4:31 that God grants their request. Through the rest of the book, Paul’s boldness is focused on. He was not among the believers in Acts 4, but his conversion is narrated in Acts 9. And, soon after his conversion, Barnabas testifies about him that he has been preaching boldly in the name of Jesus (Acts 9:27). And Paul continued to preach boldly as Acts 9:28 records. Paul and Barnabas together are characterized as speaking boldly in Acts 13:46 and 14:3. In Acts 18:26, we meet Apollos who spoke boldly in the synagogue in Ephesus, but, apparently, even in his boldness, he did not have the message quite right, for Priscilla and Aquila had to take him aside and explain to him “the way of God more accurately.” Apollos was then sent on his way over to Achaia, which is the region where Corinth is. Paul follows shortly behind and enters Ephesus apparently soon after Apollos has departed, and he spoke boldly in the synagogue of Ephesus for three months (Acts 19:8). In Paul’s defense before Festus, he is characterized as speaking boldly to try to persuade Festus of the significance of the events of Jesus’ death and resurrection which Festus already knew about (Acts 26:26). Finally, it is very interesting to note that the final verse of the book highlights Paul’s boldness in preaching, as he is settled into house arrest in Rome, having freedom to receive guests and preach the gospel unhindered (Acts 28:31). So, clearly, boldness could be identified as a unifying thread that runs throughout the book of Acts.
Now, typically, I think, when we think of “boldness,” we think simply of confidence to stand up for the truth in the face of opposition. But, while this is truly one aspect of parresia, boldness, as it is used in the Bible, I think we are actually missing the primary meaning of the word, the meaning which supports or grounds or undergirds our ability to stand up to opposition and to proclaim the truth unashamedly. This aspect is revealed more clearly in the first occurrence of the word parresia in the book of Acts, found in Peter’s first sermon at Pentecost in Acts 2:29. Peter says, “Brothers, I may say to you with confidence (parresia) about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.” Our English translations, even the most consistently literal translations such as ESV or NASB, translate parresia here as “confidence” or “confidently” rather than with “boldness,” as in every other occurrence of the word in the book of Acts. It would be more helpful, perhaps, if the translators would be a little more consistent, but I can see why they feel that “confidence” is more appropriate in this context, and, in fact, it helps us see more clearly the fullness of the meaning of parresia. Peter claims to have confidence/boldness about the historical fact that David has died and is in his grave. Of course, as he develops this, he is making a contrast with the Son of David, Jesus, who has not remained in his grave! But, Peter is claiming confidence/boldness here because he is absolutely certain of the truthfulness of what he is preaching. This, I think, is the aspect of boldness that we are not thinking enough about. In order for us to have the kind of boldness that enables us to speak clearly and unashamedly in the face of skeptics or unbelievers, we must have a settled certainty about the events that comprise the gospel message.
Therefore, not only ought we be praying for boldness, but we must also be working to increase our confidence, our certainty about the events narrated for us in the Bible and about the significance of those events as fleshed out by the apostles in the rest of the New Testament, including and especially how those events fulfilled every hope and promise which are set forth in the Old Testament. Simply put, we must learn how to understand and proclaim “the whole counsel of God” as Paul indicates he did to the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20:27). In other words, we must be working diligently to increase our knowledge of the Scriptures. Peter’s certainty concerning the truth about Jesus’ resurrection in contrast with the great David’s death and how those two facts relate in the scope of redemptive history is why he was able to preach with boldness. So, we should not necessarily expect that God will grant our request for increased boldness if we are not actively pursuing an increased knowledge of God through studying his revelation to us. This is not to say that God’s granting our requests is dependent on our behavior or our preparedness; rather, it is to acknowledge that God often (if not always) uses means to answer our prayers. In fact, the fact that God uses means in this world to accomplish his purposes is one of the primary reasons we pray in the first place. Scripture bears out time and time again (even and especially in the book of Acts) that God uses the prayers of his people as the means by which he brings things to pass in our world. Thus, we ought to expect that God would give us boldness through or in response to our prayers for boldness. However, by virtue of the very nature of boldness, which, I think, includes and is founded on a growing confidence in the truth of the gospel in accordance with our increased understanding of the gospel, we must realize that God will probably grant our prayer through the means of increased study and discussion and thinking about the Scriptures.
This is probably one of the reasons that Paul prayed so frequently, as recorded in his letters even, that believers would grow in their knowledge of God (read: in their theology!).
Birthdays are always contemplative days for me. I enjoy reviewing what God has done for me over the past year and begin to think through hopes and dreams for the coming year.
This 24th full year of life has been filled with all kinds of change, growth, and suffering. I left Texas for the first time as a permanent move to begin graduate school. In the midst of preparing to move, our house in Texas was flooded, and my wife and celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. Change, growth, and suffering all wrapped up into these events.
Now, I sit excited about a snowy men’s retreat with a group of men whom I’ve only known for a few weeks. These men have given me the community I have desired. God uses these men to help me grow, and, hopefully, God will use me in their lives as well.
Next year, I begin graduate school full time. This excites me and makes me nervous. I won’t be working at the same time. This presents a multiplicity of new opportunities for temptation, being home alone more often. Mostly, I find myself tempted to remain lethargic, sleeping or watching movies when I ought to be reading, writing, and researching. I pray the Lord will fortify the weapons of my warfare and solidify the armor of God in my life.
I have already begun a massive research project, completely independent of school or any other responsibilities. I have begun to attempt to develop a biblical theology of sin. The question, “How does sin affect my relationship with God as a believer?” still weighs heavily on my heart and mind. I am in the beginning stages of collating the data from the Scriptures, reading all the passages that use the Greek terms for sin in the LXX and the NT. I have already traced the usages in the ancient world up to the time of the LXX, and I have had difficutly ascertaining when or how ἁμαρτία, for example, began to be used for offenses in a moral sense. In many Greek historical sources from the 3rd through 5th centuries B.C., it is used in military contexts in which some general or army made a strategical mistake on the battlefield. In English translations of these works, the most common translation of the term is “blunder.” At any rate, I am eager to pursue this further. So far, all that I have concluded is that preachers need to cease speaking of ἁμαρτία as “missing the mark.” Granted, this word did have that meaning, in contexts of archery and other similar contexts, in Homer, for example. But after the 8th century B.C., with Homer, I have not found a single attestation of that meaning again. It is deceptive and unhelpful to state in sermons that, “To miss the mark is the fundamental meaning of ’sin.’”
Mostly I have great hopes for next year because I see my friends pursuing abundant life in Christ. Also, I enjoy watching romance bloom in the midst of pursuing obedience to the Lord. What great joy the Lord has granted to me!
Once again, music has accomplished its God ordained function of aiding the expression of my emotions. Of late, for several reasons, my emotions have been somewhat flat…I feel as though I haven’t really been feeling much of anything.
But now, the playing of and listening to music has stirred my heart to a more healthy place. As I sit listening to Fernando Ortega sing “Let All Mortal Flesh” (a song I played on my violin a few days ago under the title “Coventry Carol”), I am moved to gratitude and love for my Savior. My heart begins to beat slightly faster; warmth overcomes me; a slight smile curls my lips; I can sense my eyes brighten and my affections rise.
Moreover, I have been able to express a number of emotions over the past few days that I have experienced over the past several months, but have previously not been able to express. Unexpressed emotions damage my heart. I have been able to articulate love to my wife more clearly. I have also been steady and gentle with a needed rebuke for which she thanked me most genuinely.
And I have felt hot anger. This I do not enjoy like the others, but the expression, the exhaustion of it has been refreshing. Hopefully, it is well-received.
God has seen fit to use various means to bring happiness to people.
Today, several things have led me to rejoice.
My violin brings me joy. Specifically, that my fingers remember what to do with a violin brings me joy.
Eating meat with men brings me joy.
Studying the Scriptures with men (the same ones with whom I ate the meat…plus one) brings me joy.
Praying with and for brothers and sisters in Christ brings me great joy. I find praying for the absentee junior high pastor tonight to be most joyful.
My wife brings me joy…on many levels. Tonight, similar to above, I find praying for my wife to be most joyful.
I am more excited right now than I have been in a long time, perhaps since my wedding day.
I have never experienced such dreams, such hope for the future.
I am realizing that there are two things for which and in which God gives me passion: 1) preaching the Scriptures (which is equal, in my understanding, to preaching Christ) and 2) writing about the Gospel (which is equal, in my understanding, to writing about Christ).
Thanks be to God for giving such passions to men!
Yes, this is my arm. And, yes, this is a very real, very permanent tattoo.
Colossians 3:9-11 says, “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Paul is here highlighting the behavior that ought to characterize followers of Jesus and the behavior that ought not to characterize followers of Jesus. The point of Colossians 3 seems to be that people ought to be able to tell the difference between believers and non-believers. The life of the Christian is to be distinct from the life of the non-Christian. Followers of Christ are not just adherents to a particular religions; rather, followers of Christ are completely new creations who are progressively being molded into the image of Jesus Christ himself. At the close of this verse, Paul reminds his readers that former racial/ethnic distinctions, social distinctions, cultural distinctions all mean absolutely nothing in God’s economy. Christ is all that matters. My arm now bears this statement, permanently etched into my skin as a testimony (more to myself than to anyone else, though it has already served as a springboard for sharing with others) that Jesus Christ is the only thing that matters. The words are in the Greek of Paul’s original writing to the Colossians, though I have altered the word order slightly. Literally, it could be rendered, “Christ is all things,” in order to emphasize that the second word, “panta,” is plural. It is a reminder to me that the only thing that matters is Christ. Paul was eager to remind many of his readers, not just in the letter to the Colossian church, of the centrality of Christ. First Corinthians 15:3, for example, refers to Paul’s perception of the very heart of the gospel when he says, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.” The person and work of Christ on our behalf is the heart of the gospel that cannot be omitted, sidelined, or brushed over. For Paul, (and I think all believers ought to imitate Paul here), to live was Christ (Phil. 1:21). Christ is truly all that matters; we must live in such a way that the world knows that Christ is all to us. He is our treasure, he is the one we cannot stop speaking about, he is the one that dominates our thoughts and our conduct. Indeed, in Colossians 3, Paul commands believers to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth” (Col. 3:2-3). We must “take every thought captive to obey Christ,” and this means that we must work hard to train our minds to bring Christ and his word to bear on everything that comes in our lives (2 Cor. 10:5). This text in 2 Corinthians deals particularly with protecting our minds from being deceived by false teachings, but I think it has a broader application and relates to the thought expressed in Colossians 3. Our minds, naturally, have a tendency to wander and are drawn to vain things, useless things, even harmful things. We must, by the power of the Holy Spirit living in each of us as believers, train our minds to focus on Christ. Even as our minds do wander to think of all kinds of things, we must be quick to bring Christ to bear on whatever comes to our minds. As we are able to do that with our minds, our life becomes more oriented toward Christ and what would be pleasing to him. No more vanity; no more wasting our lives thinking of things that don’t matter at all. Instead, let our minds be intent on worshiping our great High Priest who sits at the right hand of God as our Advocate, ever and always interceding for us as we continue to struggle with sin in this life (see 1 John 2:1-2).
So, I have a tattoo to remind me of what is important. Some may thing this foolish or childish or some other negative -ish word. However, I am quite pleased with it as a permanent reminder of the gospel which has permanently changed my life and continues to change my life. Even more irrevocable than the marks of this tattoo on my body are the irrevocable affects that Jesus Christ has on my life every day. To him be all glory!
I have spent this semester studying the book of Revelation. I just completed working through this magnificent literary masterpiece, with its every word breathed out by the Holy Spirit and penned by the apostle John, for the third time since January. I spent the better part of last week researching for and writing a paper entitled “The Blood of Jesus in the Revelation of John,” in which I attempted to show how John emphasizes the atonement of Jesus Christ in order to encourage his readers to persevere in the midst of terrible persecution. In fact, I think the book of Revelation portrays the heart of the gospel, namely the substitutionary death of Jesus Christ in place of sinners, more vividly and more centrally than it shines forth the beautiful reality of his imminent glorious return!
One passage of which I have become quite fond in recent days is:
Revelation 12:10-12–And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”
Ah, Satan has been defeated, totally conquered! John has just been shown a microcosm of the climax of redemptive history with a vision of a woman pregnant with a son. The great red dragon would have devoured the son, but he was taken up to heaven. This is a picture of Jesus Christ, the Messiah’s birth, and then the vision skips all the way ahead to his ascension to the Father. Then, John was shown that the dragon fought a great war in heaven with Michael the archangel, and the dragon was defeated and cast down to earth. But verses 10-12 reveal what truly defeated the dragon and it wasn’t Michael and his angelic army. The focus of this victory song is actually on believers, those who benefit from the victory. Note that the voice proclaims that it is the accuser of the brothers who has been cast down, so the herald here has particularly the accusing power of the devil in mind. We see this role of Satan most plainly in the account of Job in the Old Testament, but we may assume that he actually has functioned similarly toward other people throughout history. Verse 11 notes that “they” have conquered the accuser, referring to the brothers who were formerly accused. But it is not on their own strength that they have overcome the great accuser. It is, first of all, by the blood of the Lamb that the great accuser has been thrown down. This refers back to Jesus’ death on the cross, for it is that moment in history that the great accuser lost his power to accuse. The substitutionary death of Jesus accomplished redemption with the price of his blood, and as he purchased for God a people from every tribe and language and people and nation (see Rev. 5:9), the accuser lost his accusatory power against those purchased. Indeed, this is how the second part of verse 11 shows its function, for the word of testimony mentioned is nothing other than the gospel believed and proclaimed. These in particular have clung to the gospel so tightly that they have not seen their very lives as worth keeping. One may recall Jesus’ words, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matt. 10:39, 16:25). Or perhaps Paul’s words: “‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:36-37).
I shall include some relevant thoughts for current events.
I’m not certain where I am going in life. I’m not certain of whether my wife will find joy in her work…ever. I’m not certain of whether or not she will be able to get a job soon enough for us to be “financially stable” as I begin graduate school. I’m not certain that we will be able to pay the bills that are coming. I’m not certain that I am cut out for graduate school. I’m not certain that I will live through this night, for even this is not guaranteed and should not be taken for granted (see Luke 12:16-21).
Of one thing I AM CERTAIN: “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3). Good news. What else do I need to be certain about? If this is true, I should not even shrink from death itself, for it has no claim on me, since he has died in my place. The beauty of atonement, the beauty of the gospel. In that one man’s death, the devil was conquered, death itself was conquered, sin was conquered, and reconciliation with God was effected for rebellious sinners like me.
“The Gospel” by Jimmy Needham
The Gospel, the Gospel
Fragrance in words
The sea of my soul
Is calmed when it’s heard
Peace to the broken
The captives set free
May the Gospel of Jesus
Wash over meThe Gospel, the Gospel
My freedom explained
No more shall these garments
I’m wearing be stained
The old man is missing
The new man is free
May the Gospel of Jesus
Wash over meWash over me
Wash over me
Come make me clean
WashThe Gospel, the Gospel
She’s good and she’s true
She cost quite a fortune
To make all things new
So breathe in with faith
And out with his peace
May the Gospel of Jesus
Wash over me
In recent days, I have been selling books. Not just any books, like I used to do when I worked for LifeWay Christian Store (oh, how good the past tense verb in that clause feels!); rather, I have been selling my own books. If someone asked me why I am selling books, I would probably be able to conjure up some answers about needing some extra cash or lightening the load if I am commanded to move in the near future. But as I ask myself the question, I am uncertain that those are the real, bottom-line answers. Perhaps, there is a more fundamental reason why the Lord would have me to be selling books, right now, at this particular time in my life. Everyone who knows me well could characterize me as a bibliophile, and rightfully so. My living room walls are quite literally covered with books. Maybe the Lord is pleased when I redecorate…
This week has been a trying week for Tamara and me. My beloved wife expresses her frustrations as we have stepped forward, ever so feebly by faith, making contact with a hospital in Wheaton. In addition, we have e-mailed someone who works at Wheaton College (2 different people, now that I think of it) to seek advice as to what the nursing landscape looks like in the area. We have received no replies as of the time of this posting. No return phone calls. No e-mail responses. While at work, she calls me to see if we have received anything in our inbox, and my negative response elicits a sigh from my wife and trepidation-filled words like, “Well, God must be closing the door.” My poor attempt at encouragement probably sounds to her like a rebuke, and perhaps it is a rebuke as I am hard-pressed to find the distinction between rebuke and encouragement sometimes. “Patience, my dear. We must be patient. Let us not draw conclusions from silence.” Is my statement full of faith or does it disclose my own insecurity about it all?
Oh, Lord, help us to wait on you. You are moving; you are never idle. And you have us exactly where you want us. And you will take us where you want us to be when you want us to be there. Take us soon…
Is it possible that in selling some of my books the Lord might be setting me free from some obsession that I have? Maybe. I must acknowledge, however, that I have been extremely selective as to which books I am selling. Only books that I now think I will never have the least desire to read, or that I have already read and feel that I can no longer glean anything from them are to be discarded. Still, perhaps the Lord is taking me somewhere in my faith but only a small step at a time. Ah, how kind he is! His goodness overflows even as he is gently tearing me apart. ‘Tis for my sanctification.
