Year in Review

2007 has been a pretty good year filled with blessings from the LORD. The biggest of course being our move to Dublin. Its funny to think of how bad I wanted to move here and what I thought I would learn. Living overseas I thought I would be able to soberly assess American culture as well as my own faith- is my Christianity American Christianity or biblical Christianity? I think Europe in some ways is too similar to the US to see clearly on these topics. In other ways it is so different. The fact of the matter is I am impatient and it is too early to tell. But one thing I do know is that God is so faithful and has been with me every step of the way, providing all that we need.

Another big blessing this year was leaving my job at UAPD. It was bittersweet having been there 8 years, making many friends and experiencing so much in the last three years as a police officer and detective. I had so many good times there and was blessed with wonderful fellow officers, corporals, sergeants, commanders and a fantastic chief. As a patrol officer I loved pulling traffic stops and as a detective- oh where would I even begin with all the neat things I got to do?! 

Working as a police officer or detective is a stressful and demanding job but I think there are few that can compare with it's greatness. It is an especially good job to hold as a Christian because you have so many opportunities to share Christ with the endless amount of people you come in contact with, whether they be fellow officers, criminals, victims, or others. But I am not cut out for a job that owns my life as the job of a detective does and I am quite happy to be home now spending my days working on my theology classes, cooking, and taking care of the home and husband.

Well, tomorrow Matt and I leave for Rome, a place I have longed to see for quite some time. I can only think of one other city in the world I want to see more. I can't believe I will actually be there tomorrow- may it not be too overwhelming! 

A happy and safe New Year to you all with many blessings in Christ Jesus!!!

Idolatry

The other night Matt and I went to the city center to do some shopping and see the Christmas lights. One of the main shopping districts, called Grafton Street, always has performers of all kinds dotted up and down the street. At the top of Grafton is a large Christmas tree for the Christmas season. In front of the tree on this night were 4 Native Americans, dressed in costume, playing music, and burning incense. Many people were gathered around them watching. My initial reaction was surprise to see Indians in Ireland and I immediately thought of where I grew up. As I continued to watch I realized what these Native Americans were doing- worshiping. If you look closely in the picture you will see an idol on a stand under the man who has the feathered head dress on, just over the dream catcher. I watched as the man in the middle would dance up to the idol and wave the incense all around it. I was disgusted and thought, how can they do this in front of a Christmas tree, three days before Christmas?! What an abomination! And I began to pray. And I longed for Christ to return because I cannot stand for Him to be so dishonored and I want to the world to know who the true God is. And then I thought of Isaiah the prophet who said:

"This is what the Lord says-- Israel's King and Redeemer, the Lord Almighty: I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God. Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and lay out before me what has happened since I established my ancient people, and what is yet to come-- yes, let him foretell what will come. Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one."
All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind; they are ignorant, to their own shame. Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing? He and his kind will be put to shame; craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand; they will be brought down to terror and infamy. The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is man's fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, "Ah! I am warm; I see the fire." From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, "Save me; you are my god." They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, "Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?" He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, "Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?" -Isaiah 44:6-20

As I write this now I also think of the book of Romans where Paul talks about why man rejects the knowledge of God and instead embraces idolatry.

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen." -Roms. 1:18-25

Worshiping anyone or anything other than the one true God is called idolatry and it is a LIE. The truth of God is PLAIN and men are WITHOUT EXCUSE. May God be so gracious as to open blind eyes and deaf ears, and give heart transplants which lead to repentance and saving faith in the one true God, Jesus Christ.

God is Loyal, God is Redeemer

GOD IS LOYAL

Once Yahweh entered into the covenant with Israel, He was characterized by steadfast loyalty to that covenant. His loyalty in reference to both the created order and the covenant with Israel is praised in Psalm 136. The term was translated "mercy" in the King James version and rendered "lovingkindness" by the New American Standard Bible. The New International Version renders the word "love." While it is true that love, kindness, mercy all result from Yahweh's covenant with Israel (among other things; see Deut. 7), it should be recognized that the driving force behind all these qualities was his loyalty to His elect people and the agreement that He made with them.

GOD IS REDEEMER
Finally, one of the most significant attributes to surface as a result of Yahweh's election of Israel is His deliverance of them. As His revelatory people, they witnessed His salvation.

"You are My witnesses," declares the LORD,
"and My servant whom I have chosen,
so that you may know and believe Me
and understand that I am He.
Before Me no god was formed,
nor will there be one after Me.
I, even I, am the LORD,
and apart from Me there is no savior.
I have revealed and saved and proclaimed-
I, and not some foreign god among you.
"You are My witnesses," declares the LORD, "that I am God."
-Isaiah 43:10-12

One of the best Old Testament summary statements serves as a fitting conclusion:

"For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome... Fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name. He is your praise; He is your God," -Deuteronomy 10:17,20-21

God is a Covenant Making God

GOD IS A COVENANT MAKING GOD

The election of Israel as God's chosen people was an act of grace, not of justice. God was under no obligation to choose anyone, and there was nothing Abraham or Israel did to deserve being chosen. Once they accepted their elect status (signified by circumcision), however, they also accepted God's expectations for them.

And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD'S commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the LORD set His affection on your forefathers and loved them, and He chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today.
-Deuteronomy 10:12-15

God is Righteous and Just, God is Compassionate and Gracious

GOD IS RIGHTEOUS AND JUST

The fact that God is holy and transcendent does not mean that He has made himself unaccountable. It is God's nature to be righteous and just, and therefore He reflects those attributes consistently. When at times it may appear that He is not being righteous or just, we cannot assume that He defines those terms arbitrarily to suit His own whims. Rather, such instances reflect our inability to see the larger picture. Righteousness and justice can only be absolute in the company of sovereignty. Our only boast is in the firsthand experience and knowledge of this God:

"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength
or the rich man boast of his riches,
but let him who boast boast about this:
that he understands and knows Me,
that I am the LORD, who exercised kindness,
justice and righteousness on the earth
for in these I delight,"
declares the LORD.
-Jeremiah 9:23-34


GOD IS COMPASSIONATE AND GRACIOUS

God's righteousness and justice have at times been viewed as negative attributes because they lead to the judgement of the wicked. Since no one but God can claim absolute righteousness, that puts all of humanity in jeopardy. It is therefore essential to balance God's righteousness and justice with His attributes of compassion and grace. These are the attributes that lead Him to act upon behalf of humanity by forgiving and by giving second chances, rather than imposing immediate punishment. They are evident in Nehemiah's prayer of confession on behalf of his forefathers.

"But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they put Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them in order to turn them back to you; they committed awful blasphemies. So You handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to You. From heaven You heard them, and in Your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.
"But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in Your sight. Then You abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they cried out to You again, You heard from heaven, and in Your compassion You delivered them time after time.
"You warned them to return to Your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed Your commands. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on You, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. For many years You were patient with them. By Your Spirit You admonished them through Your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so You handed them over to neighboring peoples. But in Your great mercy You did not put an end to them, or abandon them, for You are a gracious and merciful God."
-Nehemiah 9:26-31

God is Holy, God is Transcendent

GOD IS HOLY

As sole God, Yahweh is distinct and separate from every other being. He is Creator, not creature. This separateness is expressed in His attribute of holiness. The holiness of God is much emphasized in the Pentateuch as laws are given concerning how God is to be approached. His holiness is the standard that is to be considered the normative basis for human conduct: "Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy" (Lev. 19:2). His holiness is evident in situations in which it is violated (Lev. 10:1-2; 1 Sam. 6:19; 2 Sam. 6:6-10) and is proclaimed continually by the seraphim in Isaiah's vision (Isa. 6:3).

GOD IS TRANSCENDENT

Am attribute similar to God's holiness is His transcendence. This focuses not so much on His distinctiveness as on the fact that He is beyond us. One might say that transcendence defines the direction of His holiness. This means that we cannot always expect to understand His purposes:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts
neither are your ways My ways,"
declares the LORD.
"As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways
and My thoughts than your thoughts."
-Isaiah 55:8-9

God warns against underestimating Him:

"Am I only a God nearby,"
declares the LORD.
"And not a God far away?
Can anyone hide in secret places
so that I cannot see him?"
declares the LORD.
"Do I not fill heaven and earth?"
declares the LORD.
-Jeremiah 23:23-24

God is Creator, God is Wise

At the end of my OT Survey text book is a chapter that does a beautiful job of declaring the beauty and majesty of God in a short series of statements on His attributes. Reading it my heart was bursting forth in praise to the one, true, living, and most glorious God. I am going to do a series of posts on what was in the book so your heart can praise Him too!


GOD IS CREATOR

He who forms the mountains,
creates the wind,
and reveals His thoughts to man,
He who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads the high places of the earth-
The LORD God Almighty is His name.
-Amos 4:13

There is nothing that God did not create. As discussed in the chapter in Genesis, the point of establishing God as Creator is to establish Him as the Sovereign. There is a straight line of logic from Creation to Covenant to History to Eschatology.
Since God created everything, He is sovereign over everything. Nothing is beyond his power or knowledge; He is accountable or subordinate to no one; He shares His position with no other being. This is affirmed in the testimony of Job: "I know that You can do all things; no plan of Yours can be thwarted" (Job 42:2). It is also foremost in God's own presentation of His credentials.

Remember the former things, those of long ago;
I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like Me.
I make known the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, what is still to come.
I say: My purpose will stand,
and I will do all that I please...
What I have said, that I will bring about;
what I have planned, that I will do.
-Isaiah 46:9-11

GOD IS WISE

Creation was not accomplished in a haphazard or arbitrary way. The Old Testament affirms on numerous occasions that God's wisdom is evident throughout creation. Wisdom personified speaks in Proverbs:

The LORD brought me forth as the first of His works,
before His deeds of old;
I was appointed form eternity,
from the beginning, before the world began.
When there were no oceans, I was given birth,
when there was no springs abounding with water;
before the mountains were settled in place,
before the hills, I was given birth,
before He made the earth or its fields
or any of the dust of the world.
I was there when He set the heavens in place,
when He marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when He established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep,
when He gave the sea its boundary
so the waters would not overstep His command,
and when He marked out the foundations of the earth.
Then I was the craftsman at His side.
I was filled with delight day after day,
rejoicing always in His presence,
rejoicing in His whole world
and delighting in mankind.
-Proverbs 8:22-31

Further expression of this is found in the great hymn to wisdom in Job:

Where then does wisdom come from?...
God understands the way to it
and He alone knows where it dwells,
for He views the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
When he established the force of the wind
and measured out the waters,
when He made a decree for the rain
and a path for the thunderstorm
then He looked at wisdom and appraised it;
He confirmed and tested it.
-Job 28:20, 23-27

Quote from Upward Call

There is a blog I read regularly from a very wise and godly woman who lives up in Canada. She loves Christ, theology, and books and is my kind of woman. If we lived near each other I would most certainly ask her to mentor me! Anyway I really liked what she said in a recent post and wanted to quote it. You can read the whole post (from 12/12) and check out her blog at http://www.theupwardcall.blogspot.com/

"I have been married for twenty years. Not long in comparison to some, but long enough to have learned some very valuable lessons. Here is the most valuable one I have learned: I have become a better wife and mother the more I have sought to understand doctrine. The more I have sought to understand things like the deity of Christ, the humanity of Christ, the attributes of God, regeneration, justification, salvation, etc., the more content I have become in my role of wife and mother and whatever other role God assigns me. I have learned less from those studies that comment directly on my relationships. Why is that?

It is because the Word of God is not just a book of ethical stories. It is a living revelation. It is the mind of God. How can I but change when I expose myself to that on a daily basis? The more I live in the light of His truth, the more my choices and decisions will be spirit-led."

WELL SAID!

Letter from Hell

Christmas Season Ramblings...

I love the Christmas season with all the Christmas music, lights, and goodies! A few nights ago I attended the Carols by Candlelight service at my church. Our choir is quite good and they did a beautiful rendition of one of my favorite Christmas songs, O Holy Night. I love Christmas music that is about Christ. My favorite song is probably O Come, O Come Emanuel. Yesterday God blessed me with a truly sunny day here. I am talking blue, blue sky and not a cloud to be seen! It was a treat as the weather is getting continually more dismal with more rain, wind and clouds. Tonight Matt and I made some Christmas cookies- Mexican wedding cookies, blooming peanut butter cookies, and snickerdoodles. I'm not sure if any of those really count as Christmas cookies but I never make them any other time of year. The only thing that could make them better is some eggnog!

Things I Miss in Ireland

As I attempted to make one of my favorite bread recipes today and realized I did not have the key ingredient I began to think of all the things I miss in Ireland besides the given (family, friends, and cats) and thought I should get it off my chest in a blog. So, in no particular order...

wheat bread
wheat flour to make wheat bread
non-stick pan spray that works
marshmallows incase I want to make rice crispy bars
Honey Bunches of Oats with almonds
refried beans
black beans
tortillas that are good
tortillas chips that are good
salsa that is good
ice cream that is good
fritos & doritos
chips that are good
lemonade
peanutbutter chips and chocolate chips for cookies
creamy peanutbutter
Folgers french vanilla coffee
Bruggers hazelnut coffee
any good coffee
Bruggers whole wheat bagels
American bacon
American sausage
Brueggers breakfast bagel with sausage, egg, and cheese on whole wheat bagel
Little Caesars $5 hot and ready large pepperoni pizza
Macayos Mexican food
Jason's Deli meatball po'boy on whole wheat french bread roll with strawberries and fruit dip
Petes Wicked Ale Strawberry Blond Beer
chai tea powder from Trader Joes
the smell of rain
warm breezes
mountain sunsets
driving in the car while rocking out to my ipod
Fry's Grocery Store
Fry's Grocery Store Prices
Ross & Old Navy
being able to buy books without worrying about how I was going to take them home (on plane)
watching the local news
watching Fox News
watching Samantha Brown's Passport to Europe
watching Chief Chuck forecast the weather
listening to Christian radio
peanutbutter chocolate ice cream
Baskin Robins 32 flavors
ice cream that is good
cheap fruit for making delicious desserts
graham crackers
pudding in a box
whole wheat pasta
grilling
multiple flavors of cheese blocks
velveeta cheese for grilled cheese
ranch dressing
cool whip
premade pie crusts
fridge biscuits for monkey bread
galons of milk
a two sided sink deeper tha 6 inches
dish soap that actually cuts grease
immediate hot water
businesses that run with common sense
ice cream that is good

Ok, that is enough for now. I'd better stop before I get homesick!

Mere Christianity

I recently finished reading the famous work by CS Lewis, Mere Christianity. I have a love/hate relationship with Lewis who was so brilliant in many areas and dead wrong in others. I enjoyed most of this book and could post tons of insightful quotes from it but I will limit myself to the two quotes below taken from the chapter on hope.

"Hope is one of the Theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the Slave Trade, all left their mark on Earth, precisely because their minds were occupied with Heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you will earth "thrown in": aim at earth and you will get neither."

The Christian says, "Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exist. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or to be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistaken them for something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same."

I think this book is a must read for any serious thinker or reader, Christian or not.