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“In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun.” Psalm 19:4b HCSB This statement in Psalm 19 is often just read and then goes unmarked and unnoticed. Within this small statement is a huge truth.

The God of all creation provided a specific place for a specific created body. The sun has a job to do: to bring all the elements of light to our tiny globe so there can be life. Obvious. However, when we stop and think we realize everything the Lord created is set in its place and there is a provision for that thing — large or small. The sun was not just created and hurled into space to be wherever. It was designed and created for its place.

He pitched or created a tent or canopy for it. The sun does not do its job part of the time, it is a continuous expression — just the right orbit to accomplish what is just right for us. It has a tabernacle in which to live — it is not free to go where it might — it is assigned a space to fill for a purpose from the heart of the Father. It has full provision for its purpose.

How wonderful this is. Now, when we realize that such purpose was present and is continuing to be present in the creation, it will awe us to realize our lives are also pregnant with His purpose. He did not create me or you to just live and do the best we can. The Bible says that was done in His mind before the foundation of the world. (Eph. 2:4) So it was with great and tender purpose He put me (and you) on this globe at this time.

That “tent” or tabernacle or canopy contains the sun’s provision. No child of the Father is left to wander about wherever and perhaps stumble upon purpose and design, and grope for provision. We all come from Him and are cared for in Him. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) We are to trust Him and to allow Him to reveal His provision for us.

So let us with firm confidence, relax in His hand and allow our worries to float away in His embrace. With such love we were formed, and in such love we live. His great faithfulness will continue for each of us throughout eternity. It is beyond our understanding, nonetheless, it is.

Come to Jesus He will give us rest — in His great faithfulness!

Tyler F. Williams, Chair, Religion & Theology Department, Assistant Professor of Old Testament, University College, Edmonton, AB Canada has graciously allowed me to copy his post of August 9 on mannaword. Please go to his blog; http://biblical-studies.ca/blog and read his other posts. He is a thinker and has some very good posts and links to Bible material. The following is his post in its entirety. I have not put it in quotes, as there are quotes within his text — this makes it a bit simpler. Everything in black is his writing.

I believe that one of the greatest hindrances to the proper interpretation of the Bible is a false sense of familiarity. There are a number of things that contribute to this false sense of familiarity, including Bible translations that mistakenly modernize idioms and contexts (A translation should not make its readers think that they understand the Bible better than they actually do). While this may sound counter-productive, one of the first steps to properly in- terpreting the Bible is to create some historical distance between our world and (to echo Barth) the “strange new world within the Bible.” If we don’t take care to create this historical distance, then we will read our modern presuppositions into the biblical text. Gadamer notes: “If we fail to transpose ourselves into the historical horizon from which the traditionary text speaks, we will misunderstand the significance of what it has to say to us” (Truth and Method, 303). Similarly, “it is constantly necessary to guard against overhasily assimilating the past to our own expectations of meaning. Ony then can we listen to tradition in a way that permits it to make its own meaning heard” (Truth and Method, 305).

One example will suffice for now (I have some ideas about further posts): the impact of the industrial revolution on our understanding of the world around us. This was brought home to me recently as I was reading Bruce J. Malina and Richard L. Rohrbaugh’s excellent Social-Science Commentary on the Synoptic Gospels (2nd ed; Fortress Press, 2002; Buy from www.Amazon.ca or www.Amazon.com. Malin highlights some of the vast differences between our industrial world and the agrarian world of the Bible in order to remind us how great the transformation really was — here is a list of examples from Malina (pp. 6-8):

• In agrarian societies more than 90 percent of the population was rural. In industrial societies more than 90 percent is urban.
• In agrarian societies 90-95 percent of the population was engaged in what sociologists call the “primary” industries (farming and extracting raw materials). In the United States today it is 4.9 percent.
• In agrarian societies 2-4 percent of the population was literate. In industrial societies 2-4 percent are not.
• The birthrate in most agrarian societies was about forty per thousand per year. In the United States, as in most industrial societies, it is less than half that. Yet death rates have dropped even more dramatically than birthrates. We thus have the curious phenomenon of far fewer births and rapidly rising population.
• Life expectancy in the city of Rome in the first century BCE was about twenty years at birth. If the perilous years of infancy were survived, it rose to about forty, one-half our present expectations.
• In contrast to the huge cities we know today, the largest city in Europe in the fourteenth century, Venice, had a population of 78,000. London had 35,000. Vienna had 3,800. Though population figures for antiquity are notoriously difficult to come by, recent estimates for Jerusalem are about 35,000. For Capernaum, 1,500. For Nazareth about 200.
• The Department of Labor currently lists in excess of 20,000 occupations in the United States and hundreds more are added to the list annually. By contrast , the tax rolls for Paris (pop. 59,000) in the year 1313 list only 157.
• Unlike modern world, in agrarian societies 1-3 percent of the population usually owns one-to-two thirds of the arable land. Since 90 percent or more were peasants, the vast majority owned subsistence plots at best.
• The size of the federal bureaucracy in the United States in 1816 was 5,000 employees. In 1971 it was 2,852,000 and growing rapidly. While there was a political, administrative, and military apparatus in antiquity, nothing remotely comparable to the modern governmental bureaucracy ever existed. Instead, goods and services were mediated by patrons who operated largely outside governmental control.
• More than one-half of all families in agrarian societies were broken during the childbearing and child-rearing years by the death of one or both parents. In India at the turn of the twentieth century the figure was 71 percent. Thus widows and orphans were everywhere.
• In agrarian societies the family was the unity of both production and consumption. Since the industrial revolution, family production or enterprise has nearly disappeared and the unity of production has become the individual worker. Nowadays the family is only a unit of consumption.
• The largest “factories” in Roman antiquity did not exceed fifty workers. In the records of the medieval craft guilds from London, the largest employed eighteen. The industrial corporation, a modern invention, did not exist.
• In 1850, the “prime movers” in the United States (i.e., steam engines in factories, sailing vessels, work animals, etc.) had a combined capacity of 8.5 million horsepower. By 1970 this had risen to 20 billion.
• The cost of moving one ton of goods one mile (measured in U.S. dollars in China at the beginning of the industrial revolution) was: Steamboat 2.4; Wheelbarrow 20.0; Rail 2.7; Pack donkey 24.9; Junk 12.0; Packhorse 30.0; Animal-drawn cart 13.0; Carrying by pole 48.0; Pack mule 17.0. It is little wonder that overland trade at any distance was insubstantial in antiquity.
• Productive capacity in industrial societies exceeds that in most advanced agrarian societies known by more than one hundredfold.
• Given the shock and consternation caused by the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the forced resignation of Richard M. Nixon, we sometimes forget that this sort of internal political upheaval is nothing like it was in the agrarian world. Of the 79 Roman emperors, 31 were murdered, 6 driven to suicide, and 4 were deposed by force. Moreover, such upheavals in antiquity were frequently accompanied by civil war and the enslavement of thousands.

This somewhat random list should remind us of the massive changes that occurred as the result of the industrial revolution. To quote Malina; “it [the industrial revolution] has been a watershed unlike any the world has ever seen. Should we be surprised if major changes in our perception of the world have occurred as well? And should we be surprised if that in turn has had a fundamental impact on our ability to read and understand the Bible?”

We need to do as much as we can as readers and interpreters to recognize the gulf between our world and the “strange new world within the Bible” so as to ensure we properly read and interpret and understand the biblical text.

My, my, my — here it is Friday already, and it has been far too long since I posted something on this blog. My apologies to those of you who so diligently check to see what I have written.

Our Summer Event went very well last Saturday and the day was rich in our Lord’s presence. My teachings were on prayer, and I will save that data for further posts — later. Pictures of the day are posted on www.psalm19ministries.org.

However, right now I want to address an interesting (at least to me) fact. I have been reading many blogs recently and I do enjoy them. The ones I am referring to here are all by people much younger than I, who are really flexing their “spiritual muscles” to try to convince others they are the ones with the right take on such theological questions as: are the gifts of the Holy Spirit for today or not; do the Scriptures forbid women to teach men or not; must the 5 points of Calvinism be believed or is there some middle ground — a more balanced ground; is the movement know as “the emerging church” a plus or a minus in the overall scheme of things; is the church doing what it should or has it lost its voice, and on and on.

What I find interesting, is that for the most part, these are the same and same type of questions we were asking in our church discussions over 40 years ago. I was getting impatient with my young brothers and sisters, and then I remembered some of my own journey. We must each make our own journeys in the things of our Lord. We must make our own discoveries in the working of the Holy Spirit. We must dig and dig in the Scriptures for the truth we love. We must journey — not just swallow what we have been taught, or have read. We must read more and pray and listen.

How I praise our Lord for His grace that flows and holds, leads and guides. Not everyone will end up with the same conclusions — but all who are walking with Him will end up with Him! I think that is marvelous. He knows we will come to differing conclusions and that does not disturb Him at all.

I find it a bit curious that our Heavenly Father would leave so much interpretation up to us. I think He smiles a lot as we search and grope for truth. The journey blesses Him — so keep searching in His Word and allowing Him to show up in the pages.

These wonderful words from our Heavenly Father to us are so very comforting. He tells us that if we will call to Him, He will answer and will tell us great and wonderful things we do not know. (Jeremiah 33:3 HCSB)

This verse lets us know there is more to prayer than form, or even my asking, seeking, or knocking. There is more to time with Him than what I know. There is more, always more. In this verse, He is very clear about His willingness to tell us things we do not know. In other words, more than the text, beyond the text, and into the person Jesus Christ. There is an essence of life that He so willingly longs to share with us as we commune with Him.

I love Scripture, and everything is through, in, and out of Scripture. I am reminded of a hymn from my childhood, “Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee Lord.” The desire for fellowship will lead the believer to Him through the Word. The word can never be just a mental exercise — not for the converted. For the curious, maybe. But for the fervent believer in Jesus Christ, even a casual reading of Scripture becomes an encounter with Him.

John 14: 21 The one who has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. And the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father. I also will love him and will reveal Myself to him.” WOW — He will reveal Himself — not just data — not just information, but Himself. The action of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer, is the interactive agent who empowers all the revealing.

As we call to Him, He does answer, and He does tell us things we do not know. What an absolutely wonderful reason to spend time in prayer with Him.

Among the blogs I have visited during the past few weeks, there has been much discussion and debate about the role of Scripture in the life of a believer, as well as the extent of inspiration and one and on. Some of those posts were helpful, many were a bit “nit-picky.” Our attitudes toward others who differ is not always filled with thankfulness. That is sad. However, that is not really the topic I want to write about today.

Scripture is alive! It is not dead letters on paper. When it enters a life, it has full potential to deliver the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ into the one who has entered. It is awesome! In my study and in my relationship with the Lord, I have been shown a truth that I think might be helpful to many. So I will attempt to write it out in an understandable way.

We are dimensional creatures. We have relationships along dimensional lines. I have a closeness with my husband that I do not have with others. My relationship with my grown daughter is different in dimension than my relationship with my friends. So on and on it goes. This is easy to understand. Our Lord is dimensional as well, and our relationship with Him is dimensional. Paul prayed for the Ephesians (and all who would read that letter) “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.” Ephesians 1:17 HCSB This was to people who were already believers. Paul knew that the Lord wanted to unfold Himself further to them, and so he prayed that would occur. This was not something all had — not an automatic result of salvation, but rather a dimension of revelation they could have if they so sought.

My present understanding has five (5) dimensions of relationship in the Lord Jesus possible in and through the Word. (There are proably many, many more, but this is all I understand right now). Notice I said “in and through the Word.” This is all in relationship with the Word. If Scripture does not become experientially, then it becomes legalism and that will not work love in our hearts toward Him. If I have chosen Jesus Christ, then I have chosen the Word! It is not one or the other.

These dimensions are not like a ladder with steps, so when you climb, you are more mature than those who do not, instead it is a circle of activity in His heart with the Word. We always are faced with #1 even while we fly in #5.

First dimension: Believe the Word. This seems obvious, but it is never ending. We are always being faced with more to believe, more to receive in faith, more to grasp. It is never ending, and thus something to receive with relish. I wish I always just believed what I read in Scripture, but I confess, there are many things I need to constantly bow in faith to receive and believe. All of us work here.

Second dimension: Apply the Word to my life. Again, this seems a bit obvious. This is hard work. It is also never ending. We work very hard to learn how to do this. Most of our Bible studies are developed along these lines. However, this is just #2. It is only the way to something far more rewarding. If this is all we ever do with the word, then obedience becomes a constant chore and a constant failure. Unfortunately a vast number of believers never go further. However, there is more — praise our Lord.

Third dimension: Apply my life to the Word. This may seem a bit confusing to some, and it seems as if I am just saying the same thing a different way. Not so! There is a huge difference between #2 and #3. In this dimension, we stop working and lay it all down in faith on the Word. Our Lord has never been unfaithful. Indeed, I am not important enough for Him to stop being Himself. Therefore, He will be faithful to me — according to His Word. I lay me down on His Word, and begin to rest. I call this “slipping into Sabbath.” He is the reality of the OT Sabbath, and I can slip into that dimension of His love as I rest my life on and in and through His Word. Obedience here becomes a joy in the heart of the Lord. Oh it doesn’t I mean I won’t struggle again, but I know there is a way to enter another dimension where I can rest it all. Then my troubles become opportunities to enter — calls to enter and rest and watch what He will do. He is so much more—.

Fourth dimension: Life interchange and interaction-place of revelation in the Word. As the love between husband and wife produce life, so the life exchange in the “rest” produces a life within the relationship. In a marriage, there is not only the life of each of the partners, but there is the life of the relationship — a life (the fusion of two lives) produced by the togetherness. There is a great power in this sharing and an unfolding of each partner in ways never known before. Now the Lord can begin to unfold Himself in ways of life not experienced before. The Word becomes alive with meaning, and leaps off the page in meaning never before seen in the mind or heart. This does not eliminate study, but study changes and moves into areas never known before in and through the Word. It is exciting, and life giving. Old things become new, and obedience becomes empowered on a new dimension. (I hesitate to use the term “level,” for that might insinuate some are above and some below, but this has nothing to do with anyone except the two in the relationship. It does not enter the arena of human competition or superiority which is really arrogrance in disguise).

Fifth dimension: Live in the power of the unfolding (revelation) in the Word. I am beginning to lose vocabulary to share what happens here. We have Scriptures that talk about our Lord causing us to “ride on the high places,” and “rising up on eagle wings,” and so forth. This is here. We begin to see our Lord from a here-to-fore unknown perspective and begin to see as He does and what He does, and begin to understand Him, our life, and eternal matters differently. He said it would happen: 2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:3 — when we see Him we become like Him — we understand so much differently. Therefore, life is different for us.

Now, the circle continues, for we are always challenged to believe and enter. Remember the Scriptures that seem impossible to obey — you know the ones about rejoicing in trouble and tribulations — now we can begin to see there is a place (dimension of relationship) in Him through the Word that empowers just such a way of being.

He is so much more than we have ever dreamed!

The Christian Scriptures are the primary text for Christian spirituality.
Christian spirituality is, in its entirety, rooted in and shaped by the
scriptural text. We don’t form our personal spiritual lives out of a random
assemblage of favorite texts in combination with individual circumstances;
we are formed by the Holy Spirit in accordance with the text of Holy
Scripture. God does not put us in charge of forming our personal
spirituality. We grow in accordance with the revealed Word implanted in us
by the Spirit. Eugene Peterson, Eat This Book,
p. 15

I am presently reading this book and finding it wonderful. I have read several of Dr. Peterson’s books in the past, and am finding this one superb. It hits a real chord in my spirit. Our present lack in the church of effective reading of Scripture, the placing the Scriptures on the “answers for my need” shelf, and such attitudes alarm me.

It is a matter of urgency that interest in our souls be matched by an interest
in our Scriptures — and for the same reason: they, Scripture and souls, are the
primary fields of operation of the Holy Spirit. p.17

How deeply we need to realize that our lives must be immersed into the Word, and not just use the Word as a little whipped cream on the top of our lives. The Word must define our lives, not our lives define the Word.

“Do you know the Lord?” That is a question that will be answered with a “yes” in many of our churches. Yet, if we begin to work with the Word, many have trouble knowing where to even find the book we are reading from. The current trend to get people and keep people by answering their needs has a limited ability to grow them in Him. We must use any honorable means to bring people to Him, and we must, by all means, use the Word to find answers in His love. However, at some point we must also be drawn to Him in Word — not just in feeling and in concept. I believe the Lord weeps over His people, when they think they know Him, but never read or study the Word by themselves. We say we love Him, yet have never bothered to discover the dimensions of His love for us through His revealed Word. It is like receiving a love letter from my husband, but never bothering to read it. It just made me feel good to receive it. We would all say “How sad.”

Beloved people of the Lord, let us truly love Him in deed — being purposefully discipled by His Word.

It is Father’s Day in the USA and I am very aware of my Godly heritage through my Mom and Dad. Both have been with the Lord now for many years, and both loved Him and served Him throughout their lives. Dad preached the Word, and Mom read it through every year as she lived it out.

However, this morning, I am supremely thankful for Joe. Joe is my husband of almost 45 years. We have four grown children. His patience, love, provision, support, and on and on, have been one of the greatest pleasures of my heart as I watched him work with our children. He loved completely, counseled, supported, corrected with gentleness, and provided for in a consistent Godly way through-out their years at home. Even beyond that, he remains their most supportive fan.

When we were just friends in college, I saw His gentleness, and thought he would make a wonderful Dad. Indeed, I was right.

I never worried when the children were with him. I remember his gentle patience with both adopted sons, not to just discipline them, but he would spend hours at a time counseling them to help them change the way they were thinking. Later, when as teens they rejected his counsel, he was still there for them. Both natural born children received the same, and have followed in his footsteps in music unto our Lord Jesus Christ.

So Joe, know that your wife is so very thankful you were the father of her children.

“Now I urge you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing, that there be no divisions among you, and that you be united with the same understanding and the same conviction. For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers, by members of Chloe’s household, that there are quarrels among you. What I am saying is this: each of you says, ‘I ‘m with Paul,’ or ‘I’m with Apollos,’ or ‘I’m with Cephas,’ or ‘I’m with Christ.’ Is Christ divided? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were you baptized in Paul’s name? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one can say you had been baptized in my name. …For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel–not with clever words, so that the cross of Christ will not be emptied of its effect.” (1 Corinthians 1:10-15, 17 HCSB)

These words written thousand of years ago, certainly could be said our our Lord’s Body today. It seems to me we are much more interested in being known for our doctrine than for the love of the Lord who has bled for us. We will argue over every little item, yet, seem powerless to put these matters aside and include one another in His love.

The bottom line of Scripture: “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God–God remains in him and he in God.” (1 John 4:15 HCSB)

That is really broad and hard on us. Yet, the way we deal with those who differ in doctrine is a huge indicator of how much we really believe He is Lord over His Body. I sometimes hear and feel the attitude, “Well they may be saved, but they are in error.” How sad that we would say such a thing. That is such a “I’m superior” way of thinking, and will have its consequences in my walk with my beloved Lord who has received them in grace, just has he has received me in that same grace.

I am learning here, but it seems that we really do need to get the heart of the gospel in our hearts — not just the “right” part of doctrine our lives would prefer to feel.

May we all come to a deeper understanding of His marvelous grace and allow our hearts to include.