Believing the Resurrection

From N.T. Wright's "Surprised by Hope" (pg. 53)...

"Surface discrepancies do not mean that nothing happened. Indeed, they are a remarkable indication that something remarkable happened, so remarkable that the first witnesses were bewildered into telling different stories about it."

Critics often come to Scripture asking historical accuracy questions -- finding minute discrepancies in the account of the Resurrection: well was Christ raised on the 2nd day or the 3rd day? Did Mary go to the tomb alone, or was she with someone? Etc.

I like the way N.T. Wright puts it -- comparing it to the way we think about the flood. There are so many myths, or stories, that exist from antiquity that chronicle the idea that there was at one time a great flood. These accounts diverge in perspective. But scholars often take this as evidence, not that a flood didn't happen, but that something big actually DID happen. We may not have the ability to know PRECISELY how it all went down, but there was almost certainly a great flood that had a massive impact on the cradle of civilization. Likewise, the Gospel stories are close enough in substance that it would be foolish to discount them all based on variant details...

SOMETHING happened.

These Little Wonders

• I'm amazed at the difference paint can make. Paint can really transform a dilapidated-looking room into something impressive. We've been repainting the interior of our church building in the last week, and I was genuinely wow'd by how good new paint makes our building look.

• I'm amazed at the positive power the Word of God can have over the human heart. Given the on-going transformation of our new building, I thought it appropriate to preach on transformation on Sunday. And since it was 4th of July weekend, I wanted to say some words about sacrifice also. Let's see, sacrifice... transformation... how about Romans 12:1-2! ;) So I ended up preaching probably one of the most simple, non-dressed-up expository sermons I've delivered this year. But I really fleshed out the application. Based on the participation at our Sunday night fellowship, and the response of one gentleman in particular during the invitation, the sermon had an immediate impact. Its really a fun thing to see the Word of God perform & do its work in people's lives.

• I'm amazed at how selfish we can all be sometimes. I know I can be selfish. And in being able to recognize my own selfishness, I can see it in other folks around me. I remember sitting around with some of my Mormon male cousins one time soon before one of them was about to be married. My oldest cousin, Barry, shared some wisdom when he spoke up and said, "You know... I never knew how selfish I was until I got married." Being single, I think that there must be ways that I am selfish that I'm not even aware of. But in general, it is truly a marvel to me at how myopic & self-centered we can all be from time to time.

• I'm amazed at a group of young teens who spent a week of their summer vacation serving others. A youth group from the Jenks Avenue Church here in Panama City & another youth group from the Lascasas Church up in Tennessee spent last week serving the community in a work camp here in town. They did a bunch of the work in helping my church, the Lynn Haven Church, remodel the interior of our building by putting on a couple coats of paint in about half of our building. What a wonderful, selfless thing to do: to spend their precious free time serving others.

• I'm amazed at how little we know of one another in church. We're supposed to be family, but we're more like familiar strangers. We are so skilled at concealing the possibly embarrassing details of our real selves around these people. Being a minister, I've come to sense this very well: I can sense the fear in fringe members when they don't want to tell me too many details about their own lives. I think they fear confession, and the necessary-but-uncomfortable change that would come along with repentance. And I suppose that we'd all rather be cold & distant with one another than go to all THAT trouble. Amazing...

• I'm amazed at how frustrated fantasy baseball can make me. I simply care about my team's standing too much. The last three weeks, I've lost points in the very final game of the week on Sunday night. There are usually over a hundred games during a week; and in the last three weeks, the very last game of the week affected the outcome (in a bad way... for me) in my fantasy baseball matchup. The last three weeks, I've gone to bed unsettled & stewing at the ball not bouncing my way in that Sunday night game. How can such an insignificant little diversion like fantasy baseball have such an influence over my emotional state? This should not be...

• I'm amazed at how captivating a woman can be to a man's eye. That females can virtually transfix a man's thoughts and completely dominate a man's focus. I don't believe that most women truly understand the level of influence they hold.

• I'm amazed that God listens to prayer. I think there's a sense in which I really just "don't get it" yet in terms of understanding how deep & wide God's love is for us. I think it is why I don't pray often enough -- that I don't understand His love. I don't understand how God could intently listen to numberless millions of his creatures yammer on about what are ultimately the insignificant details of their lives. The reach of God's ability & the depth of His sympathy are something that I do not yet understand.

Favorite Quotes About Heaven

I like to collect quotes. I used to be more deliberate about filing & organizing my favorite quotes, but I still enjoy finding good ones. So, the following are quotes from song lyrics, Scriptures, movie quotes, or other sources that say something interesting about Heaven -- what the world thinks, or what I find profound.

We all wonder about Heaven. For something that seems to be such a big part of our future, the Bible spends very little of its text trying to describe Heaven. So I like to listen to how others imagine Heaven. If you have any good ones to add, leave it in the comments section.

(From the movie "The Green Mile")

Arlen Bitterbuck: Do you believe that if a man repents enough for what he done wrong, than he'll get to go back to the time that was happiest for him and live there forever? Could that be what heaven's like?

Paul Edgecomb: I just about believe that very thing.

Arlen Bitterbuck: I had a young wife when I was eighteen. We spent the summer in the mountains, made love every night. After we would talk sometimes till the sun came up, and she'd lay there, bare breasted in the fire light... that was my best time.

(From the movie "Field of Dreams")

John Kinsella: Is this heaven?

Ray Kinsella: It's Iowa.

John Kinsella: Iowa? I could have sworn this was heaven.

[John starts to walk away]

Ray Kinsella: Is there a heaven?

John Kinsella: Oh yeah. It's the place where dreams come true.

[Ray looks around, seeing his wife playing with their daughter on the porch]

Ray Kinsella: Maybe this is heaven.

(From Mercy Me's song, "I Can Only Imagine")

Surrounded by Your glory
What will my heart feel?
Will I dance for You Jesus?
Or in awe of You be still?
Will I stand in Your presence?
Or to my knees will I fall?
Will I sing hallelujah?
Will I be able to speak at all?
I can only imagine.

(From Romans 8:18-25 [NIV])

¹⁸I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

(From 1st Thessalonians 4:17b)

And so we will be with the Lord forever.

(From Bebo Norman's song, "Rita")

But the finest moment that no man can measure
Is to look your Savior in the eyes

So take her tender to Your table
Take her from this killing floor
To taste the water that is forever
Let her be thirsty no more

[...]

And the God that sometimes can't be found
Will wrap Himself around you

(From Jennifer Knapp's song, "Visions")

They're looking for the peace that passes all understanding,
In a world crazed with fear.
They say that I am much too demanding
To want a better place than here.

So I'll go unto visions
The prophets gave to me
And I'll dream of Heaven
The promise in which I believe.

(From U2's song, "Where the Streets Have No Name")

I want to feel, sunlight on my face
See that dust cloud disappear without a trace
I want to take shelter from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name

(From Ephesians 3:20 [NIV])

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us

(From Revelation 21:4 [NIV])

There shall be no more pain

(From John 14:1-3 [NKJV]... my personal favorite...)

¹ “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. ² In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

A Day to be Remembered

¹⁶And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on His name.

Acts 22:16 will always hold a special place in my heart from now on.

Lately, things have been going well with my sister, Katie. She was invited to be a part of a church softball team at the Jenks Avenue Church of Christ, and has loved it. She's made a lot of good friends, primary among those being Rachael C. She had started coming just to Wednesday night Bible Studies... then expanded to coming to bi-monthly Young Adult Bible Study Devotionals... then found out about the Tuesday morning Ladies Bible Study... and has even started coming on Sunday's. She'd even started talking about baptism.

Well, Tuesday, she was sitting in the Ladies Bible Study, and the Lord spoke to her through Scripture. As she read Acts 22:16 with the group, she posed the question to herself. "What AM I waiting for?" So tonight, with Mom able to drive down for the occasion, she came forward during the invitation extended by Daniel C. I made some personal comments before the church before I took her confession, saying that among many testimonies that Katie's baptism was a testimony to prayer & perseverance. (And for those of you reading with fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, spouses, or children who haven't yet put on Christ, don't give up hope.) I then took her confession, she went back to change & I put on those hip-looking waders, and I immersed her into Christ.

Luke shares Paul's conversion account 3 times in the book of Acts. I'm so appreciative now that he included verse 16 when he was penning chapter 22.

Lesser Known Text of the Week

How do we know what we know? This is the quesion of epistemology, which seeks to investigate our bases of knowledge.

The root of knowledge for science is observation: that which you can measure by sight, smell, taste, touch, or sound. Another root of knowledge for the religion/philosophy of Buddhism is intuition: that which is realized in one's everyday walk of life and, perhaps more importantly, that which is learned via meditation.

The root of Christian knowledge, however, is not achieved 1st hand. It is an external form of knowledge: revelation. Paul talks about it in Ephesians 3:2-5:

²Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, ³that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. ⁴In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, ⁵which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.

Not that other roots of knowledge are unimportant. There is a sense in which we can know about God through those other ways of learning. Ecclesiastes 3:11b seems to indicate that there is an intuitive way that we can know about God. Romans 1 and Psalms 19 teach us that there is also an observational sense in which we may learn about God. But none of these are as important as that which we can gain by revelation.

Paul is very clear in this passage about how revelation works. It is, first & foremost, a gift from God ("the administration of God's grace ..."). It is to be shared rather than hoarded ("... that was given to me for you."). Contrary to popular belief in some circles of historical-critical philosophy, we can understand what God revealed by reading and comprehending what Paul & other inspired writers have recorded ("In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight ..."). And God revealed his message to a select few individuals by the Spirit.

I believe that it is imperative that we very carefully & deliberately consider what it is that we rely on as our base of knowledge. What do we draw upon for wisdom? I hope that it isn't merely intuition & observation. While those are good, we have a source of knowledge that transcends those. Let us not ignore it, nor be ignorant of it.

I've heard other people say this before, and I am finding it to be true myself. The older I get, the more respect I have for the Word of God.

Treats

It's good to see old friends. I spent tonight at the Burleson's with, among others, Jeannie P., Kimberly C., and Kathy C. What a treat.

I'm not sure how to describe this sensation. It's not accurate for me to say, "I love preaching." I've heard Rick Warren talk about how he doesn't like to hear people say that. A person might simply be in love with being the center of attention, and that's why they love preaching. So it's not that, but I love preaching a sermon that really connects with people -- a sermon that speaks to a person's need, felt or not, so that the Word of God reaches down and pricks someone's heart. An old friend was at service today, and he came up to me afterward & thanked me for the sermon. Not your typical pleasantry. It's good to know that God uses my preaching to encourage & challenge his people in a deep way. I love that feeling.