ESV Study Bible Preorder

I'm so excited... last night we stopped by Mardel (we made it in there minutes before closing time) and pre-ordered my ESV Study Bible! I've been waiting for that to come out literally for years, and in just five days it will be here! I had totally forgotten about the release date coming up, but last Saturday Mikey and I were at Mardel looking around, and I took him back to the Bible section to show him how blessed we are in the U.S. to have so many choices of the Bible in our language (and to mention that there are still many many languages in the world that the Bible is not yet available in), and saw a display with some samples of the book of Luke. I picked one of the samples up, and I've been reading it ever since. I LOVE IT! It's like listening to our pastor, one of the best Bible teachers in the world PERIOD, on one of his Wednesday night detailed series on a specific book (when I first started going to Grace about ten years ago, he had just started the book of Acts. he finished over a year later, teaching every Wednesday that he was in town, which is most Wednesdays. Now THAT'S detail! Right now he's working through James... check out the services online if you like!)

Anyway... I'm pumped about having the whole ESV Study Bible to read. I had to go with the hardback for economy's sake, but it looks so thick that I doubt I would lug one to church with me anyway. I'll either keep carrying the little ESV I've had for a couple years, or get one of the nice leather ones with a center reference to carry to church. I've already got a durable metal one to carry in my bag to work every day.

Want to see what bindings the ESV Study Bible is available in? Here's my list of what they've got at CBD!

Angel Visitations

I was reading the first chapter of Luke in a sample of The ESV Study Bible that I picked up at Mardel this weekend, and I noticed something that I hadn't noticed before. Zechariah and Mary both had visitations from an angel with very similar circumstances surrounding it, but their reactions and the result were quite different:

Both were visited by the angel Gabriel.
Both were "troubled" by the visitation, but while Zecharaiah was fearful, Mary sought understanding (although it could be argued that Mary was afraid also.)
Gabriel told them not to be afraid.
Gabriel told them they would "bear a son, and you shall call his name..."
Those sons would "be great" and do amazing things.
Zechariah responded by asking for a sign (which he then received, to his chagrin). On the other hand, Mary asked for details of what would happen, but then she accepted the Lord's assignment without resistance.

Why was a priest surprised by or afraid of an angel appearing in the temple where the Presence of God was expected to be, when a little girl in her house seemed to take the appearance of the same angel almost as a matter of course? Maybe Zechariah was thinking about how priests could face death for entering God's presence unworthily (although he was not actually in the "Holy Place inside the veil" but on the other side of the veil where incense was burned) and that sometimes angels were sent to kill people. Why was the priest struck mute (and probably deaf as well) for asking for a sign? Maybe it's because he doubted the clear word of the Lord ("How shall I know this?" Because GOD said it, fool! Don't you see the angel??) Mary did not doubt, but did ask for clarification. Even then, she did not demand an answer, although she did receive one.

People in ministry are sometimes held to higher standards by God than the rank and file, and that may have been part of it, but I think Zechariah reacted to the word of the Lord in fear and doubt, while Mary reacted in submission. I think that's why Zechariah spent the next nine months in silence, while Mary got to spend it glorifying God!

Confidence

Today I was crossing the street on foot at the intersection of 21st Street and Garnett. This is a fairly busy intersection, with three lanes of traffic coming from every direction. I didn't just walk out into the street; first I pressed the button to get the "walk" signal, and then I waited until I saw the indicator light up that said that it was my turn to walk across the street. When I stepped out into the street, all the cars stopped for me. I didn't even have to raise a hand; they just stopped. Was it because they saw me coming? Nope; it wasn't my power that stopped them. It was the power of the rule that says when the light is red, you stop your car and wait. Because I was following a signal and rule as well, the "walk" sign, I was confident that I could walk safely across. I didn't have to run or be afraid of getting run over. (Of course, it's wise to be cautious and still look both ways before crossing! But for the sake of argument let's pretend that all drivers are completely competent and always paying attention.)

The Holy Spirit is our signal that we can move in the power of God. He is a deposit placed on the inside of us that tells us that when we move by His prompting, we can have confidence not only to come into the presence of God, but to do His works on the Earth. The Holy Spirit is the signal (like my "walk" sign) that lets us know that the power of God is our protection when we do something that might ordinarily be dangerous (like walking calmly out into the street at a busy intersection). If I had walked out into the street without the signal, I would have been in terrible danger. But when I walked out with the proper signal, I walked out in confidence and safety. And when I move by the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I can walk in confidence and safety, because I know that the power of God is infinitely greater than the power of a traffic light. If I can trust a traffic light to keep me safe from a couple of automobiles, how much more can I trust God to keep me safe from anything in the universe that would try to stop or harm me?

Purified for Service

In Sunday school this week the teacher was discussing the story of Isaiah's commission in Isaiah chapter 6. In a nutshell, Isaiah had a vision of the Lord in all His glory, and Isaiah immediately assumed that because of his impurity, he was going to die. An angel brought a glowing coal from the altar fire, so hot that even the angel had to hold in in tongs, and touched Isaiah's lips and purified them. God then spoke a question: "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Isaiah immediately answered, "Here am I! Send me."

The thing that struck me was how quickly Isaiah went from "Woe is me! For I am lost..." to "Here am I! Send me." From fear to boldness in one single step... the purifying power of God. What is it that purifies? What is it that the sacrifice on the altar represented? The sacrifice of Jesus, the shedding of His blood. When the power of God touches us, it immediately inspires us to service!

(By the way... I can never read that story without thinking of this song...)

Mikey Preaches

Thursday afternoon my 8-year-old, Mikey, heard my wife Cathy talking about Elizabeth leaving her position as worship leader at Grace and how hard it was to understand, and the spirit of Preach came all over Mikey! I asked him if he had anything to say on the blog, and here's his response...

We gotta stop working in our bubble. We've gotta start getting out there, we gotta start filling the gaps. First we gotta make sure that our church is ready to get out there. We gotta make sure everything is good at our church, we gotta make sure everything is right. Until we get to that point we can't do it! And if we get to that point Satan will not be able to stop us, 'cause we are undefeated! Satan will not be able to stop us. We got a new trick up our sleeve, and God is with us, and He will always be with us! We've gotta go places where people don't know Jesus, where we're not allowed to speak Jesus. God gave us our life so that we could preach, and He gave us our life because He loves us, and He gave us our life, and no matter what, we'll always go to heaven. If we risk our lives like that, you know, we're gonna go to Heaven and we're gonna be there forever. We gotta work where we're not supposed to work. We gotta do what we got to do. We gotta make sure that everyone hears this, everyone's heard the good news, everyone has able to hear God and feel God. A clock has to have all the cogs to work! We've got the cogs. They are the clock. They won't work until we put the cogs in! We've gotta make sure... like in Mama's dream, only the littler rooms were sinking. The large rooms were fine! Our church is like the large room! We're a really wealthy church, now we've got to spread it out where everyone can have it, everyone can be able to know the Lord! We gotta make sure that everyone hears it... EVERYONE. And we will not stop until we get everyone to hear it! We gotta get our of our own little bubbles and start working the gaps! We gotta get out of our shell and go out there and make sure the world knows Jesus! That's what we have to do! And if we don't do that, it won't work. We gotta have everyone doing a specific thing, but it won't work unless everyone wants to. They have to want to do it. They have to not only say, "Oh, I'll do it." They've got to say, "I want to do this! I know that God is always with me, and I want to do this!" They shouldn't just sit there... like in choir, we could do something like this: "We're not gonna do it until everyone's ready. We can't do it until everyone's ready! It won't happen if everyone's sitting down in the middle of praise and worship." Everyone's got to be standing up, everyone's got to be working, everyone's got to praise the Lord or it won't work! Just like if you've got a car and you hit a rock, you gotta get a new tire. And what about if there's a square, it doesn't have a top... it's not a square! We got the top. We got everything the other people need, and we've gotta give it to 'em! We've got to let them have what they need. Not like, the bad let's give it to 'em, but the good, let's give it to 'em, let's give Jesus to them. We've gotta make it happen. It won't do it by itself. We got to make it happen. It's a choice that we have to make, and if we're not ready yet, we're not ready yet; we can't do it. And if we're ready, we'll do it!

I actually cut Mikey off knowing that if I let him keep going he could easily preach me down for an hour and I would never have time to transcribe it all! This is VERY lightly edited from what Mikey said. The boy was on a roll!

Backyard Barbecue

I learned this weekend, to my horror, that backyard barbecues are an abomination to God, but only if you've got a fence. I learned this during Pastor Bob's message, but he didn't say it; I just saw it in the Bible verse so now I know it. Check it out in your own King James... it's in Romans 14:20!!!

(Hmm... now that I think about it, if you've got a fence maybe you could grill outside and then eat inside. That seems like it would be OK.)

Sarah Palin

Interesting video that I found via Pastor Mike Goolsbay's blog. I think it speaks for itself.