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| www.jeantetfamily.com is online!
While still very rough, it will be the new home on the web of Kim and I. Effectively immediately, I will be blogging on our family page rather than here. In addition, there are pictures (only a few at present, but many more as soon as we get the chance to upload them) and even a video.
So go check out jeantetfamily.com by clicking here, here, here, here, here or even here.
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| Just read this quote from Dick Averbeck, and Old Testament scholar...
"When I approach the Bible, I always begin with the question: What is wrong with my understanding of this text? What is wrong with me that this text wants to reveal?"
Similar to Bryan Chapell's "Fallen Condition Focus," that question does two things: 1) it assumes that the reader of the Bible is a sinner and 2) every text in the Bible will reveal that sinful and the grace of God that conquers sin. I like it. It's much more honest than most attitudes with which we approach that Bible that essentially denies the noetic effect of sin that says that even our minds ability to think properly was destroyed with the fall. We can't even think rightly, much less interpret God's holy word properly on our own. Rather, we come as servants of the text, knowing that it is only through God's power that is revealed in the text that we can be saved from our sin.
**Not sure where this quote is from...just read it in another book and he only attributes it to hearing it in lectures.
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| 1 Timothy 3:1 applauds the pursuit of leadership saying, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer (elder), he desires a noble task.” Compare that with the words of James 3:1 where it warns that “Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” Leadership is a sticky issue. On the one side, it is a noble task and those who desire to lead should be commended. Yet leaders are held to a higher standard and judged accordingly.
As such, those who would consider being leaders should do so thoughtfully and humbly, because the cost is very high. This is the first in a series (assuming I ever get around to writing down others) of reflections on Biblical leadership and its cost.
Last night in our devotionals, Kim and I read 2 Samuel 24. This chapter is the retelling of a story where David authorizes Joab and the army commanders to go throughout all the land of Israel and count the fighting men (all males of age to fight in the army). Upon returning from a nearly 10 month trip around Israel, they returned to King David with their report.
Then verse 10 states, “David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.’” See, while the Lord commanded David to take a census, it was a very different thing to take a census of just the fighting men. That count was driven by David’s pride in the greatness of his kingdom and desire to take satisfaction in the security of the strength of his army, not by obedience to a command of the Lord.
David confesses his sin, but still must pay the consequences. The Lord sends Gad, the prophet, to David with the choice of three punishments. “So God went to David and said to him, ‘Shall there come upon you three years of famine in your land? Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? Or three days of plague in your land? Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me’” (verse 13).
Now, you may be thinking, those are all really terrible punishments for something as seemingly miniscule as taking a census of the fighting men. But even if David must be punished for his sin, all three of these punishments are not just directed against David, but against all of Israel. How is that fair of God to punish all Israel for David’s sin?
Yet that is exactly the leadership lesson to be learned. Just as Israel was punished for the sin of David, so also when leaders fail, all those under the leader pay the price. Like I said at the beginning, leaders should take inventory of the costs associated with their leadership to decide whether or not this is something they are interested in. Because if and when you screw up, confess though you might, those under you will suffer.
As Uncle Ben told Peter Parker in Spiderman (and then the line was repeated several times), “With great power comes great responsibility.” Leaders are responsible for those under them. When they fail, all pay the price.
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| What a welcome change of pace in the Psalms. Agony, anguish, sorrow and heartache dominate many of the psalms we have seen so far. But here David is sitting at the feet of his Lord, encompassed in his gracious love. His delight is in his God.
“Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body will also rest secure because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay. You have made known to me the path of life; you fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand” (vs 9-11).
David reaped the benefits and blessings of God’s right hand (“sure I have a delightful inheritance” and “with eternal pleasures at your right hand”). He treasured those blessings, but they are not the psalmist’s obsession. It is the One who gives those blessings. Listen to these phrases throughout the psalm.
“Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge” (16:1) - he honors God for keeping him safe.
“You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing” (16:2) - he knows all the good things he has received are intended to point him to the gift-giver.
“You have made my lot secure” (16:5) - his safety and security are from God.
“I will praise the Lord who counsels me” (16:7) - even his wisdom comes from the Lord and for that he praises YHWH.
“I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken” (16:8) - again, he knows he is safe and his foundation is sure because the Lord is with him.
David knows that in YHWH is his safety. In YHWH is the path that leads to life (16:11). In YHWH he trusts that he will not be abandoned to the grave (16:10). The blessings go on and on and on. He has received the blessings of God’s right hand. But all of those blessings are intended for one end: to point to the Giver of those blessings.
I wonder in my own life, how many of the good things I have received have I attributed to my own hard work or that I deserved it or earned it or even to dumb luck? When there, right before me, is the Lord, with his arms of grace open before me. Though I take the gifts, do I ever lift my eyes to the see the face of him who gives them?
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| Lord, who may dwell in your sanctuary
Who may live on your holy hill?
He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous,
who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue,
who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman,
who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the Lord,
who keeps his oath even when it hurts,
who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent
He who does these things will never be shaken.
Blameless? Nope. Righteous? Not on my own. Speaks the truth from his heart? Not usually. No slander on his tongue? Not me. And I could go on like this with each phrase of Psalm 15.
I’m none of those things. I’m more like the guy from Psalm 14, “there is no one who does good, not even one.” But the very power of the gospel is that what I am not in myself, I have been made by Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 declares that I am the “righteousness of God” because Christ took my blame and guilt upon himself. Christ was the truth in a world of lives. He loved his neighbor when those around him were reaching for stones. He kept his oath in a world of broken promises. And in him, I am each of these. Praise God for his love that welcomes me into his sanctuary and allows me to live on his holy hill.
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