What’s said here is why I love to read and is one of my favorite quotes.

It has been said that ‘the proper study of mankind is man.’ I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, ‘Behold I am wise.’ But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass’s colt; and with solemn exclamation, ‘I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.’ No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God…

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe…. The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, while humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore.

Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning…

Excerpted from “The Immutability of God,” A sermon by a 20 year old Charles H. Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark. J. I. Packer quotes from this message in the beginning of Knowing God.

Quote pasted, with a couple of original italics added (from my 1973 edition), from Eternal Perspective Ministries

John 17:3 HCSB
This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent–Jesus Christ.

Psalm 34:8-14 TNIV
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed are those who take refuge in him.
9 Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
10 The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
11 Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
12 Whoever of you loves life
and desires to see many good days,
13 keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from telling lies.
14 Turn from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

Psalm 147:10-11
His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the power of human legs;
11 the Lord delights in those
who fear him,
who put their hope
in his unfailing love.

Lamentations 3:25
The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;

Nahum 1:7
The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble;
he cares for those who take refuge in him.

See the context for the second two which isn’t as pleasant sounding as they are by themselves but I think they still stand.

Psalm 46:6-10 TNIV
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see what the LORD has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
(emphasis added)

In a blog post titled Most Misused Scriptures Doug Magnum says, “v. 10 is meant as a call to fearful awe in the face of that power, not quiet contemplation on God. … ‘Be still’ is probably better translated with the idiomatic ‘Shut up.’”

My wife had a movie on in the kitchen. It was Pollyanna, the 1960 Disney version. Pollyanna and a little boy were talking to a neighbor and the boy said something she didn’t like. She said, “Be still!” I said to my wife, Did you hear that? That’s like Psalm 46:10. My wife, who’s older than me, said she remembers her grandparents using that term as a way of saying Be quiet or Shut up.

So this is another instance where we need to learn older English usage in addition to learning how to interpret the Bible. This is an advantage of dynamic type translations where the meaning is translated into more modern English that we can better understand. But then there are advantages to the formal type translations. Thank God we have both.

This was a great example for me to see how “be still” was used in this way until not long ago. A younger generation can come along and not only take a verse out of context but misunderstand the English and come up with all sorts of alternate meanings, as I admittedly did with this verse.

According to Bruce Waltke in his commentary on Proverbs, there are ten creation motifs. I thought I’d use a feature in the WordPress RefTagger plugin where the name of the book can be listed only at the beginning (as it is in the commentary) and it will still show all the rest of the verses in a popup window. If you’d like to see a longer passage you can click More at the bottom left of the box.
Proverbs 3:19-20; 8:22-31; 14:31; 16:11; 17:5; 20:12; 22:2; 29:13; 30:2-4

Ezekiel 18:23 
Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign LORD. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live.

2 Samuel 14:14
All of us must die eventually. Our lives are like water spilled out on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. But God does not just sweep life away; instead, he devises ways to bring us back when we have been separated from him.

2 Peter 3:9
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.

Making matters simpler for the enemy is the fact that in these days of “happy talk,” pastors, biblically illiterate parishioners, and thousands of churches that are theology-free zones, are virtual modern Marcionites. Marcion was a second century heretic who (to oversimplify a bit) embraced the “good” Redeemer God of the New Testament but rejected the (presumably) wrathful Creator God of the Old. Any discomfort with the God of the Old Testament smacks of Marcion’s heresy. To view the God in the Old Testament as different from the God of the New Testament is to expose how little we understand either.

–Jim Andrews, Polishing God’s Monuments, pg. 97

Without elaborating, sometimes when I hear people say certain things, I feel like saying, “Have you read the Old Testament?”

We’ve lost the fear of God. We’ve lost the fact that God is jealous and hates sin. I see this more than ever when reading through Numbers and Leviticus. He wouldn’t let any little tiny thing defile them and couldn’t be in the presence of anything or anyone who was unclean. And when we don’t understand that, we don’t really know God and we can’t more fully appreciate his grace and love. We talk about his grace and love all the time, but by doing that to the exclusion of other aspects of God’s character we can’t appreciate them as much as we could. We’re really missing out on enjoying God and more importantly glorifying him even more. Am I right?

This is one thing I love about the Puritans. They had that balance. And there are certainly a lot of Christians now who do too. For me this is the value of reading the Old Testament, using Psalms as a model for prayer, worship, praise etc. Spending ample time confessing when praying and when noticing things throughout the day (and asking God to point them out) etc.

I wonder if many people are afraid to fear God.

I like this succinct explanation of fearing God in Eaton’s commentary on Ecclesiastes:

The way of safety is to fear God. In the wisdom tradition the ‘fear’ of God is the awe and holy caution that arises from realization of the greatness of God: ‘Splendour… terrible… majesty… power… justice… righteousness… Therefore fear him.’ (Job 37:22-24)

–Michael A. Eaton, Ecclesiastes pp. 122-123

Ecclesiastes 8:12-13
But even though a person sins a hundred times and still lives a long time, I know that those who fear God will be better off. 13 The wicked will not prosper, for they do not fear God. Their days will never grow long like the evening shadows.

and earlier he says:

…in the Lord’s Prayer … the twin truths that God is ‘Father’ but ‘in heaven’ guard against craven fear on the one hand and flippancy on the other.

pg.99

Ecclesiastes 5:7
Talk is cheap, like daydreams and other useless activities. Fear God instead.

We often hear of athletes praising God after their victories. It’s become so common (not that it’s a bad thing) that it has become cliche. It makes one wonder how many of them are genuine.

I remember quite a few years ago, in a losing locker room interview, a Christian praising God for the hope that he has and that football isn’t the most important thing in his life even though a big loss is tough.

So I came across this recent example and thought I’d pass it along.

Michigan State’s Cousins: Jesus isn’t changing
Monday, Sep 21, 2009
By Staff

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (BP)–Michigan State quarterback Kirk Cousins threw a costly interception on the Spartans’ final offensive play of the game that sealed a 33-30 win for Notre Dame Sept. 19.

After the game, while answering questions from the media, Cousins testified to his faith in Jesus Christ.

“There’s nothing I can do about it except learn from it and keep my head up,” Cousins said. “I’ve got faith. Football’s not my foundation, it’s not my identity. My faith is in Jesus Christ, and he’s not changing any time soon.”

Born Again in the U.S.A.
The Enduring Power of American Evangelicalism

This article is too long for most of you to read but some may find it interesting.

‘God’s partisans in Iran and elsewhere,’ Shah concludes by stating what he sees as ‘the deepest lessons of U.S.-style entrepreneurial religion: let god be God by freeing him from both governmental regulation and government handouts; do not lash him to the mast of a particular government or political party and in so doing make him a hostage to political fortune. God will indeed keep coming back – especially in those places where he has not been turned into a fawning palace courtier or a shackled political prisoner.’

–John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, God Is Back

HT: WorldMagBlog

Coleuses are my favorite plant.

Genesis 1:11-12
Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation– every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened. 12 The land produced vegetation– all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good.

Do you long for a closer connection to God?
To talk to Him and hear His voice?
To follow His instructions, if only you knew what He was saying?

[I]t really is possible to hear from God. In fact, God longs to talk to us. He loves us and wants to communicate with us, just as we desire to communicate with those we love.

Praise God for giving us His written word, the Bible. Anytime we wish, we can read the words of God and hear Him speak to us.

Psalm 19:7-9 HCSB
The instruction of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is trustworthy,
making the inexperienced wise.
8 The precepts of the LORD are right,
making the heart glad;
the commandment of the LORD is radiant,
making the eyes light up.
9 The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the LORD are reliable
and altogether righteous.

You can also read this book. “He is always as close as your thoughts.” It’s scary what people are teaching and how people are eating it up.

I found this tucked into an interview with Randy Alcorn on suffering and evil.

How Could A Good God Allow Suffering and Evil? (PDF Document)
A Biblical Approach To The Logical And Emotional Problems Of Evil
by Andrew David Naselli

One of my favorite parts is:

You shouldn’t say certain things to people who are suffering.
The first eight are from Feinberg, who shares what is inappropriate to say.

1. Don‘t say, “There must be some great sin you‘ve committed; otherwise this wouldn‘t be happening to you.”
2. “Another mistake is to focus on the loss of things rather than the loss of people.”
3. “Sometimes people try to comfort us by convincing us that what has happened spares us from other problems.” “Insensitive speculations about the future” are not helpful.
4. Don‘t say, “Well, everyone‘s going to die from something. You just know in advance what it is in your wife‘s case.” That‘s comfort?
5. “As we fumble for something to say that will comfort our friend or loved one, somehow it seems appropriate to say, “I know how you must feel at a time like this.” Through my experiences, I have learned how unhelpful this comment can be. One problem is that it isn‘t true, and the sufferer knows it. Hence, it sounds phony when you say it. . . . What helps is not knowing you feel like I do but knowing that you care!”
6. “My friend replied that I was too focused on various models of God and that I needed to recognize that God is bigger than all those conceptions [of God].” This “treats what is fundamentally an emotional problem as if it were an intellectual problem.”
7. Don‘t say, “When things like this happen, aren‘t you glad you‘re a Calvinist? Isn‘t it great to know that God is ultimately in control of it all, and he‘s already planned the way out of your problem?” “I am a Calvinist, and I found that comment distressing, not helpful.”
8. Don‘t say, “You aren‘t spiritually mature until you‘re happy about this.” Feinberg heard an interview on Moody radio of a couple that had just lost their daughter in an auto-accident: “They concluded that even though the loss of their daughter was hard, it was all for the best. I heard that and felt more guilt. It seemed the height of Christian maturity to take life‘s harshest blows and say that it was good that this had happened. If that was what it meant to be victorious in the midst of affliction, I knew I was far from that. I couldn‘t rejoice over the evil that had befallen and would befall my family. But I thought I was supposed to, so my sense of inadequacy increased.”

In addition to Feinberg:

9. Don‘t glibly quote Romans 8:28. Not helpful!
10. “Many verbal expressions of encouragement should not be based on the assumption that they must answer an implicit ‘Why?‘ Not everyone asks that question.”

See the document for things you can do.

“To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul’s paradox of love…”
– A. W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

According to Bryan Chapell in Praying Backwards:

1. Yes
2. No
3. Not Yet
4. Immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20 NIV)

Mystery and paradox abound in our experience, and I don’t think we as Christians should be ashamed, or too proud, or too afraid to admit that mystery exists even in the areas that confuse and scare us the most and that cause us the most doubt. Any theological answer must humbly make room for the amount of answers we don’t have.

–Damian Caruana, Castle of Nutshells

1 Corinthians

1 Corinthians 3:18
Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. (NLT)

I memorized this to give myself a reminder not to think I’m all that and a cup of tea. However, God convicted me on a deeper level.

According to what’s written in 1 Corinthians 1:17-31 and all of the first four chapters, I can become like the Corinthians in that I can read my commentaries, use my interlinear etc. and think I’m wise because of my studiousness. I’m now on a higher plain because of this. However:

1 Corinthians 4:7
For what gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?

This all came about last night. I was feeling burnt out on the studying I was doing and was afraid that my spiritual zeal was waning. I was thinking, “What now God? Take a break? Direct my focus elsewhere for a while?” This break in the action allowed God to speak to me. He let me know that all this is to get to know Him better and focus on Christ and Him crucified, which I knew, but had to slow down to really ponder it.

And also the conviction of pride as described above. Although it can be painful, I love being convicted by the Holy Spirit because it is God speaking to me.

I hope to write more about general observations and questions on 1 Corinthians 1 and 2.

This is an intensely personal post that for some reason I’m reticent to write about much less speak about because of how shy I am about what’s written later in the post. I also think the biblioblogosphere can be pretty academic and could use more passion so I better contribute some of my own. So here goes and I hope it blesses you in some way.

Isn’t it amazing that our creator and God is holy, righteous, good and perfect? Imagine what it would be like if the creator were Satan. Or one who created everything and then just let it go without caring.

Isn’t it amazing how creative God is and that He created everything first for His own enjoyment? He created things that we will never discover. And He enjoys the fact that we also enjoy His creation.

Isn’t it amazing that God prepared to send His Son to die to redeem us, even though we didn’t ask for that and even though we didn’t know we need that?

Isn’t it amazing that because Jesus rose from the dead He sent His Holy Spirit to live in us and that God lives in us? This isn’t only because we are just seen as righteous enough to be in His presence but we have “become the righteousness of God in Him”. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

Isn’t it amazing that God has not only revealed Himself through nature, but also through the Scriptures? (Psalm 19) Any time we want, we can read His letter to us and listen to Him speak to us through the aid of the Holy Spirit.

Isn’t the depth of His Word amazing? We could read the Bible for 16 hours a day for the rest of our lives and only begin to mine the depths of who God is. And that’s only a partial revelation.

Every one of these thoughts came flooding into my head a few nights ago and I had to get on my knees with my head to the ground. I cried. This was a strange and overwhelming experience because although I’ve gotten tears in the past in contemplating things of God, I’ve never cried. I’ve been on my knees like this in the past but it was because I was in pain and was asking for God’s mercy. Crying has always equaled pain.

Although this was a unique experience there is no need to analyze. It was just praise. I’ve always stressed and valued truth over experience but when the experience from God does come it’s obvious and overwhelming.

As is usual protocol on this blog, I was going to look up Scripture to back up each of the items listed above but I don’t want to do that here because it’s obvious and I don’t want this post to be like work. I wanted to record this experience so I can look back on it and remember all the points that God brought to mind.

Unfortunately, we’ve lost the true meaning of the word awesome, at least in the USA. (How about you in other countries?)

Awesome

Dictionary.com

1. inspiring awe: an awesome sight.

2. showing or characterized by awe.

3. Slang. very impressive: That new white convertible is totally awesome.

American Heritage Dictionary

1. Inspiring awe: an awesome thunderstorm.

2. Expressing awe: stood in awesome silence before the ancient ruins.

3. Slang Remarkable; outstanding: “a totally awesome arcade game” (Los Angeles Times).

I think these slang terms are even outdated. Anything anyone likes or thinks is cool can be labeled as awesome.

Awe

Dictionary.com

1. an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like: in awe of God; in awe of great political figures.

American Heritage Dictionary

1. A mixed emotion of reverence, respect, dread, and wonder inspired by authority, genius, great beauty, sublimity, or might: We felt awe when contemplating the works of Bach. The observers were in awe of the destructive power of the new weapon.

WordNet

1. an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration; “he stared over the edge with a feeling of awe”

2. a feeling of profound respect for someone or something; “the fear of God”

Exodus 15:11 “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

Psalms 66:3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.

Isaiah 64:3 When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.

We younger people sing in church “Our God is an Awesome God” or other songs and hymns mentioning the word, I wonder if they’re thinking that God is really cool or a great guy.

I have to wonder if Bible translators will feel a need to find another word for awesome to describe God.

Somewhat related to that, I think the church in general has lost the “fear of God” or awe of God in the classic sense. Mabye a future post on that.

If the false gods that people worship aren’t real, why are they even mentioned?

Psalms 96:4
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.

Of course the inspired writers of the Bible knew the gods aren’t real.

Psalms 96:5
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.

The false idols have done nothing and can do nothing because they aren’t real.

I believe a comparison could be thus: As a hypothetical situation let’s say someone named Esteban has an imaginary friend and his “friend” tells him to expect others to recognize random quotes. We know his friend isn’t real but we still mention this friend because he’s real to Esteban. (This is just hypothetical of course.) Then we can make comparisons between imaginary friends that aren’t real and God who is reality itself.

This is just a trite example I thought of while reading Psalm 96. I read Psalm 96 because it was February 6th and I’ve been reading a Psalm a day since November. This keeps me on track. When I get to Psalm 119 there will be chaos.

One caveat is unlike our hypothetical example of Esteban who fears God infinitely more than his imaginary friend, Paul (the unhypothetical one in the Bible) mentions that worshiping false gods can be participating in the demonic (1 Corinthians 10:20) and was touched on here in the third paragraph.

There are so many web sites devoted to tips for almost anything you can think of–tips for using computers, getting stains out etc. Here is a blog post with tips for spending time with God. I know that sounds trite but I believe this is a very important message for the majority of of the people in the Church.

“I was basically getting spiritual crumbs from books, podcasts and my pastor. I was living vicariously through others’ relationships with God… While it’s good to learn from others, Jesus calls us to follow Him (not follow others who are following Him).”

Use S.O.A.P. – Simple tips for spending time with God.