Think Wink.

Yesterday, Captain America #34 hit comic book stands all across the land. I was one of those lucky few who spent the $3.00+ to purchase a copy. And to my delight, it was a good read. If you didn’t know already, Winter Soldier, a.k.a. Steve Rogers’ (formerly Captain America) partner Bucky Barnes, agreed in Captain America #33 to take up Rogers’ place as Captain America, donning the Red, White, and Blue and taking up the Shield. In this issue, Bucky goes out on his first mission. So it is just Captain America layin’ the smack down on A.I.M. soldiers. I loved it. I must say, I like the new attitude that Barnes brings to the Shield: a gun. On one page, Barnes throws his shield, seemingly missing his targets, only to pull out, what looks like, a German Luger and guns down the soldiers–it looks as if they took the bullets in the knees and weren’t actually killed. I loved it. I am also curious about the ending of the book with the scene at the White House and the Red Skull’s plans for America, especially now that Cap’s back.

He’s Coming…

Yeah, Kinda Sad

Captain America vs. Captain America???

Has past since my grandfather passed away. I spoke of it the day after he passed (click here to read it) here on the blog. It hit me the Sunday before last that it has been a whole year. He died on a Friday and we had the funeral on Tuesday. As I remember that sorrowful weekend, Friday to Tuesday, I am drawn back to the funeral. However, I can still see my grandpa’s face as he slipped out of life and into death. It isn’t so much burned into my memory in a painful way, rather it is stitched in my memory seeing him at peace for the first time in years.

But I remember the funeral. It will always be a special time for me. My grandfather always loved to hear me preach God’s Word, but due to his ailments, he could never come to hear me. So the only thing that I could think of to honor his memory was to speak at the funeral. When I pondered on what I could speak of, only one thing came to mind: the resurrection. What better time to speak of our blessed expectation than at a time where death is so prominent. So I took 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 as my text and probably made every dispensational, pre-trib, pre-mil Christian everywhere upset when I said that the resurrection and rapture are the same event. But that was the hope I wanted and still want my family to cling to: we will be raised to eternal life to enjoy Christ face to face.

Then I did something that connected me to my aunts and uncles in a way that has never happened before or since. For a moment, all thirteen of us connected on a very personal level that really opens up the soul and really grieve. My mother had this great idea. She is one of twelve siblings, eight girls and four boys. Sibling rivalry in among her brothers and sisters never really went away (but when does it ever?). So my mother wanted to help them see that their father loved them uniquely yet equally. Some of my aunts were really versed in the medical field and so were around him more during his last days than others. Other aunts lived or worked very close by to be there a lot in his last days. So we set out to remind to think of ways to show how unique and special and individual was grandpa’s love for each of this twelve kids.

But what really made that ten minute space of talking was not so much what was said, but how I said it. I personalized it to drive it home, and the Holy Spirit really honored that and moved mightily to help them grieve. I spoke to each of the twelve children (my aunts and uncles). It was difficult to get through, especially when speaking of my mother’s relationship with grandpa because…well it was my mother and I love her dearly. There are aunts or uncles that I don’t see hardly at all. But in that moment, I was more than a nephew or pastor. I don’t know how to describe it. But it was the sweetest of times for me. I thank God for that moment every day I think of my grandpa, which is most days.

I so miss my grandpa that I now have to eat bread with almost everything. From mashed potatoes and gravy to chicken or turkey cooked with noodles to chili. I just love to eat bread now. I really do miss my grandfather a lot. But more than that, I am envious for if he is in heaven, and I really do believe he is, he is experiencing raw, pure, perfect joy and beauty that can only be experienced in the presence of God, for he is that beauty and joy (Psalm 16:11). I remember doing so much with grandpa and wish there was more I could do with him, but oh well. The Lord did not will for me to and I embrace that will whole heartedly and joyfully. I hope my reminiscings bless you as much as they bless me.

This Time Next Year…

Fixing the BCS?

NFL Draft Talk

Earlier this week I argued that we should not see a distinction in the way God operated in the Old Covenant and the New the way many people tend to do. The distinction usually falls like this, “In the Old Testament, God was wrath. In the New, God is love and mercy and grace.” In that previous post, I looked at Revelation 14 and the wrath of God depicted there being more intense than the wrath seen in the Old Testament. I want to do the same thing today, only this is looking at God’s love being cranked up and more intense than in the Old Testament.
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No related posts

Denny Burk highlights a response by Dr. John Piper to the Islamic document A Common Word Between Us and You published last October (2007) and the Christian response published in November. You can click here to get all of the links and a summary of which Christian leaders endorsed the response (You can also find Al Mohler’s response that shares Piper’s concern), but I just want everyone to watch this video and note Piper’s response. We need to come to Muslims not with a false notion of God and Jesus in order to create common ground, we need to come with Christ and him crucified for the sins of all who will believe upon him for their salvation from the wrath of God. I really enjoyed it and I am always deeply pressed on how necessary the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for every day living. Enjoy.

Everyone Loses It At Some Point

What is the “Age” of the Disciples?

One of the many ways people try to break down the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament is that the Old Testament is where God is the God of wrath and the New Testament is where God is the God of love. And let us think about it for a second. Yahweh orders the mass genocide of Canaanite peoples under Joshua’s campaign to seize Palestine. Every time Israel would violate the Law of Moses, plagues and famines and wars would break out against the people of God. Read what Yahweh says in Ezekiel 5:8-10, “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: I – even I – am against you, and I will execute judgment among you while the nations watch. I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again because of all your abominable practices. Therefore fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors to the winds.” God’s punishment for Jerusalem is so terrible that God has never done anything like it and will never do it again. There will be such harsh famine (I’m guessing) that there will be cannibalism. And that is for the idolatrous and syncrotistic ways of Judah and Israel.

But in the New Testament, we have Jesus and texts like John 3:16, “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” Or consider 1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16, “God is love.” And all of this talk of mercy and grace in the New Testament. God surely is a God of love and forgiveness in the New Testament.

However, I don’t think people fully grasp the New Testament’s idea of God’s hatred for sin and his wrath waiting for the day of judgment. For one thing, no one speaks more of hell than Jesus himself. Listen to how Jesus describes the rich man’s suffering in Luke 16:24, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in anguish in this fire.” This man is “in anguish in [the] fire.” Jesus also calls hell outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. The New Testament has a word for hell, γέεννα. It is a Greek transliteration of the Valley of Hinnom outside of Jerusalem. This valley is where all the trash and garbage and the unclean things were thrown out and burned. Jesus uses this term 11 times and James uses it once. It is a horrible thing to imagine being burned.

Or consider what John the Seer says in Revelation 14:9-11,

9 A third angel followed the first two, declaring in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and takes the mark on his forehead or his hand, 10 that person will also drink of the wine of God’s anger that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of his wrath, and he will be tortured with fire and sulfur in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke from their torture will go up forever and ever, and those who worship the beast and his image will have no rest day or night, along with anyone who receives the mark of his name.”

The Revelator records the declaration of the third angel to say that if anyone worships the beast and takes his mark on their forehead or hand the will “drink of the wine of God’s anger that has been mixed undiluted in the cup of his wrath.” The symbolism of wine is very interesting. In ancient Israel, the Jews would drink their wine diluted with water, somewhere between 3 parts to 10 parts water to 1 part wine. It was very much diluted. But the angel declares that God will not dilute his wrath. But this implies that it had been diluted! That what was seen Ezekiel 5 or in the campaigns of Joshua and the genocide there were diluted forms of God’s wrath. But now, in the end when Christ reveals himself to defeat the beast and the false prophet, God’s wrath that is poured out on those who worship that beast is no longer diluted down. It is now ratcheted up! It is increased! It is so much more violent than what Ezekiel foretold.

Keep reading Revelation 14. The one who worships that beast and takes his mark “will be tortured with fire and sulfur in front of the holy angels and in front of the Lamb.” That person will be before Jesus tortured by fire and sulfur for taking that mark and worshiping that beast’s image. It is torture, βασανισθήσεται. It will be like one being tortured, tormented with flames of fire and sulfur and brimstone. That is God’s wrath against sin! And if the thought of God doing that to one who does not repent and come to Christ for mercy, think of the duration of this torture. “And the smoke from their torture will go up forever and ever, and those who worship the beast and his image will have no rest day or night, along with anyone who receives the mark of his name” (Revelation 14:11). The smoke of that torture by fire and sulfur (14:10–βασανισθήσεται; 14:11–βασανισμοῦ) will rise forever and ever. It will never end! God’s wrath is no longer temporal, but eternal! The siege of Jerusalem ended, the ensuing exile ended. The fall of Jerusalem in AD 70 ended. These things ended. But John says that the undiluted wine of God’s anger in the cup of wrath is eternal torture by fire and sulfur lasts forever. My question for someone to ponder: is the God seen in the New Testament just a God of love, mercy and grace? God is a God of wrath and his wrath is more severe than anything the Old Testament could dream up.

But my next post will show us something else in the relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament: as God’s wrath is ratcheted up from Old to New, so is God’s love, mercy, and grace. Please check back here later, most likely Thursday or Friday.

V-Tech Massacre

BW3 and The Seer’s Tower

How Many, How Many?

I don’t know if I can say this any more than this clip does. Do be careful, the images are graphic.

H/T: Denny Burk

Star Wars: Legacy of the Force: Inferno

Morning Workout: Dr. Meredith Kline

Pop Culture and Humanity

Okay, I lied about being done with Mark 1:14-15. I want to look at one more aspect in the text. Mark writes for us,

14 Now after John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. 15 He said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!”

I want to come back to the phrase: ἤγγικεν ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ. The verb ἤγγικεν signifies to me something I did not see in the previous post, namely that Jesus Christ has declared war on the kingdom of Satan and has invaded Satan’s dominion!
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He’s Coming…

Behind the Scenes of the Incredible Hulk

If I Were a General in the US Civil War…

Yesterday, I missed one of the best sermons I have heard in a long time. I was in C-MO going to church with my family at the Crossing Church. My pastor, Tim Juhnke, preached a sermon on Golgotha and reminds us of the great paradox of the cross: grace//wrath; justice//mercy; love//hate; heaven//hell; divine sovereignty//human free will and responsibility. It is all seen at the hideous, yet glorious cross of Jesus Christ. Click here to listen and hopefully be as blessed as I am.

The Gospel of the Glory of Christ pt 2

I come back to Mark 1:14-15 for one last meditation before moving on to something else. Again we read from the Gospel work,

Now after John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. He said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!”

Now I want to focus upon Jesus’ actions in this text. We have seen in this series how Mark is about Jesus preaching good news and we looked at the message he preached. In this post we will come back to the idea of this book being about the gospel Jesus preached.
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Truth, Salvation, and “euaggelion”

No Doctrine But Love?

A New Way of Doing Devotions for this Year?

Today we come again to Mark 1:14-15. I think I might have one more meditation on this passage and then I will bring this series to a close. Mark writes for us,

Now after John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. He said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!”

Having made his announcement that the times of old have been fulfilled, all that the Old Covenant was supposed be and do has come to be realized by Jesus Christ; and that Jesus, the King of Kings, has come with the full authority of God’s kingdom, Jesus gives two commands: repent, believe the gospel. What do these commands look like in light that the king has come with and in his kingdom? In what way was Jesus/Mark wanting his hearers/readers to repent and believe in the gospel?
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The Jesus Christ Gospel part 2

Writing Scripture out

Mark’s King Jesus