i’ve really enjoyed the last three sermons. that’s why you have to keep hearing about them. we’re still in jeremiah, somewhere in the midst of chapter 46, to be exact.

“‘o jacob my servant, do not fear,’ declares the lord, ‘for i am with you. for i will make a full end of all the nations where i have driven you, yet i will not make a full end of you; but i will correct you properly and by no means leave you unpunished.’

israel is now in exile and jeremiah prophesies that, while god allowed babylon to give israel their comeuppance, he will not let babylon herself, go unpunished. and while israel actually deserved a lot worse, god will only correct them in measure. god is bigger than the messes we get ourselves into. so big, that our messes can only ever work to his ends. while babylon thought to be nasty, god mitigated it into justice. joel brought up this verse in psalms, and i can’s say if it’s properly applied, given all the translations that stem from it, but it seemed worth thinking about.

psalms 76:10 “surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.”

man’s wrath, plotting and scheming, has nothing on god. god uses man’s wrath to judge man’s sin and keep us from getting too cozy, and then he restrains the rest. not only does he restrain it, but god himself, absorbs it. he is “the lamb slain from the foundations of the world…” sin has a natural consequence, death. if god hadn’t intervened in this natural chain of events, man would have sunk himself into the ground by now (in a, no doubt, entirely disgusting way). “do not ask, ‘why did the holocaust happen’ but rather ‘why isn’t it happening?’”joel pointed out that we have not even seen what man is entirely capable of, because god is alive and well mitigating our damnation into correction. isn’t that nice?

that was the point. if you understand what christ has done for you and the penalty he has paid for you, then next time someone bashes your car, think how lightly you have gotten off. “this too is from the hand of the lord.” while it may seem bad to you, god is bigger than bad. so big, he can work all things together for good. the end of the matter? give thanks “for all things in the name of our lord jesus christ.” i think it is kind of neat to have a god, who is so much so, that he can even call us to rejoice in the bad and the icky.

(and that’s just for the grandma’s, to keep them off my back.  not necessarily bad and icky.)

what can i say?

we had a decent weekend. nice weather. boy spray painted my hamper pink and i made bread and put a blog up for my dad. i was going to try and remember the sermons notes from this week and i kept hitting myself because i forgot to bring my journal. but since you weren’t there, you won’t know the difference.

still in jeremiah, this week chapter 44 where jeremiah warns the remnant of judah not to return to egypt after the destruction of jerusalem. the people responded, “as for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the lord, we are not going to listen to you!”. while god promised to bless them if they remained in the land of promise they chose to return to the land of bondage where they hoped to no longer suffer war or famine. they were going to take their ‘peace’ into there own hands, and consequently they all died.

pastor joel pointed out that it is a love of comfort and a lack of courage that are the main enemies of faith, to living in the land of promise. it is always easier to return to the land of bondage, or so it seems at the time. but don’t be deceived, jeremiah’s last words, “escape”. have no confidence in the ability or desires of the flesh. they are never cured or reformed and maintain an uncanny liking for the sins of the past. the life in the land of promise is dependent upon a life of faith and the indwelling of the spirit. anytime we look away from christ and to our own arm, the arm tends to take on a life of it’s own. it is only by living in faithful obedience to christ’s revealed will in our lives, that we also live under his protection. when we say, “we are not going to listen to you this time!” we don’t automatically take a holiday in neutral, but our body takes us running back into old, familiar bondage. christ is the only one that keeps our flesh in line. if we ever do shape up and seem to be getting on quite nicely, it’s only because christ is in us laying the smack down. if we become a little too satisfied and begin to depend on our own goodness, we become like the man in matthew chapter 12:43-5.

“when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, but he finds none. then he says, ‘i will return to my house from which i came.’ and when he comes he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. then he goes and brings with him seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

an empty house doesn’t stay empty for long. cling to christ or all kinds of nasty will start to cling to you. in joel’s more sermon-suitable words, “what do you need to run from? i don’t know, but i know who you need to run to.” and run indeed.

i made these cookies for church last week and received a pile of compliments. which was very sly of me, considering how they are made with cake mix and the whole of three other ingredients. sneaky.

they are surprisingly good in proportion to how easy they are to make. perfect for when you need to whip up a heap of them in-between curling your hair and knocking the barnacles off your husband. however, if you want it really good, martha stewart takes betty crocker down any day. try martha’s chocolate crackle cookies. they are made with bittersweet chocolate, and have a crisp outer shell with truffle-like insides. delicious. marc and i made some up for thank-you’s when jehu was born. we tied them up in little boxes and spread them among unsuspecting nurses at the hospital, only to find that in the end, there weren’t any left for me.

that being said, here’s a flower and some chesterton i was reading last night (just to make your day more wonderful):

“a child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. they always say, “do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. for grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. it is possible that god says every morning, “do it again” to the sun and “do it again” to the moon. it may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that god makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. it may be that he has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our father is younger than we.”

cookies in hand.

and yes, that’s jehu wearing “mary kate and ashley”. it was cute, i couldn’t help it.

pastor joel has been going through the book of jeremiah this past age. to interrupt in the middle of a story, a king (of a city under siege) calls for jeremiah, and asks him the word of the lord. jeremiah tells him, “thus says the lord, the god of hosts, the god of israel, if you will surrender to the princes of the king of babylon, then your life shall be spared, and this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live…” the king’s, not too savvy, response, “i am afraid of the jews who have deserted to the chaldeans, lest i be handed over to them and they mock me.” how could a king, who had derided those who had already defected, defect himself? what would people think?

in the end, the king feared the opinion of a rag tag bunch of prisoner’s of war, more than he feared god. the point, that is dumb. “i tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. but i will show you whom you should fear: fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell.” zedekiah chose to cling to his self respect, consequently, his city was razed to the ground, everyone was killed, and then they poked out his eyes.

it is easy for us to look at this story and go, “ooo, bad call zedekiah.” at the same time, it is curiously hard for us to recognize the stupid pride in our own lives. pastor joel’s analogy: we are all walled up in our own citadels of pride and self respect, awaiting god’s judgement. and strangely, in the interim, the god of the universe himself comes to us and tells us that he will suffer our judgement, if we will just surrender. our brilliant response, “i’m sorry, i’m afraid of my cubicle mates, they might make fun of me if i get too friendly with jesus. and i’ve had that bumper sticker on my car for so long…” hmm, bumper sticker versus god’s wrath? …you’re going to be hitting yourself over that one, come the bright blue yonder.

it’s a neat exercise to try and imagine the reality of god in his fullness, and then, how we will feel when we see him face to face. when we are finally hit with the creeping, minuscule, idiocy of our lives and in a flash of clarity, wonder why we didn’t do everything for god’s glory in the first place. maybe, the initial cure for this human blindness is to just start fearing god. i suppose we can’t be expected to see through our own self-deceit, but god can. if we look to him first, he will open our eyes, and even better, he is the only one who can make us willing to see. then maybe, when the end comes, perhaps we’ll be able to shout, “hallelujah.” instead of feeling dumb.

in sabbath school they were discussing the veracity of scripture.  which is something i don’t think about much.  i’m more or less the dumb lunk when it comes to questioning the reality or competence of god.  isn’t it just obvious?  the believer will always exist in a posture of faith.  there is no other position in the face of an omnipotent, externally existent god.  i find it silly when christians feel the need to justify their faith or ‘prove’ god’s word in the search of ‘truth’ - while in reality god is truth.  there is no other source, there is no other authority to judge him by.  if you want to be truth or find truth the only option is to bow down and get good at bowing down.  even when we see him face to face we will still be bowing down.  we won’t be, “oh, now i know, thanks a lot that really helped.”  the closer we get to truth the less confident we will be in ourselves and what we know and the more humbled we will be before and almighty god.  one that we can’t even begin to understand, unless he imparts the understanding.  if you want to be truth, to fully know reality - i believe this is the highest form of it.  worshipping, believing and honoring god.

if any of your paths of knowledge propel you to put yourself against god’s word or god’s will,  know that you are already being false.  nice and simple, that’s how i like it.

“the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom.”  proverbs 1:7

bible study just came to an end so they had a bbq picnic. i was sure to carry a pie, as promised. i think there is an allotment of screwed up pies you have to make before you can have good ones though. i should have started young.

the kids had jolly fun. jehu was ecstatic about the ‘jump jump’, hopefully i don’t ever have one so he won’t break his neck. he loved to be bounced around with all the other kids running atop of him.

and gideon liked the food. all those brownies and chips and juice - he would stand by the buffet table and say “want up, want up.” i gave him some cheetos to take home and he was a very happy man. “real food, finally. this is the best day of my life.” there is some ‘germain’ in that kid, i must say.

you tuck them in, and it just gets un-tucked. no helping it.

for sabbath school the study was ‘the word in our lives’. everyone shared a favorite verse that had impacted them. it was neat how versatile the bible is and how it can so poignantly effect so many different people. good things.

“he has told you, o man, what is good; and what does the lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your god?” micah 6:8

“see that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is god’s will for you in christ jesus.” 1 thessalonians 5:24

“trust in the lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the lord and turn away from evil.” proverbs 3:5-7

“for i am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of christ jesus.” phillipians 1:6

to name just a few. it was great to be convicted again of the power of god’s word in people’s lives. sometimes i read the bible just for information and sometimes i slug through it not feeling that bright, but it’s good to know that the power of the word is not in my ham handed attempts to wrest something from it but in the word itself. i read the bible, not because i am confident in my ability to understand it or enlighten myself, but because i am confident in the god who gave his word and that it will not come back to him empty.