Rebuke, Truth, Confession, Forgiveness

I don't know how carefully Tyndale (the folks who publish the One Year Bible) try to make each day's readings fit together, but days like today make me think it's not just coincidence:

Proverbs 28.23: He who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than he who flatters with the tongue

1 John 1.7-9: If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Well, maybe it is. The proverbs do talk a lot about wise living - about doing what's right rather than what's simply expedient (note that favor comes "afterward" - the NIV has "in the end": it's what's good in the long run). And 1 John talks a lot about the truth. When I was in college, over 30 years ago now, someone told me that the Greek word for "truth" was the same word translated "reality". So John is talking about living according to the truth - that is, living according to reality. And if that's not wise living, I don't know what is.

Anyway, this passage from 1 John is a great one to live by. If I want to be cleansed from all sin, from all unrighteousness, then it looks like the thing to do is

• walk in the light
• not deny that I have sin
• confess my sins

What does it mean to walk in the light? For one thing, when information comes my way, do I welcome it, or do I get mad and defensive? Do I take it as an opportunity to change my thinking, my habits and practices, or do I make it out to be an insult or a personal attack?

If I walk in the light and accept new information - in particular if I accept reproof graciously, that will help others to feel safe in giving me the rebukes that I need.

Then I can confess my sins and find forgiveness.

The temptation, of course, is to seek excuses rather than forgiveness. Of course forgiveness is better, because in my heart of hearts I know I'm actually guilty.

I wanted to mention one other temptation: sometimes when I remember this verse, I somehow think it means "if we feel bad enough about our sins for long enough, he will forgive...." This of course is nonsense. It's good to recognize sin for what it is, but the truth is that forgiveness (and cleansing) come when I confess.

And wouldn't that be nice - to be both forgiven and made clean!

The end of the world is coming... so what?

Peter tells us in his second letter that the heavens and the earth will be destroyed by fire. He warns us about scoffers who will come in the last days.

But let's say that we do get some detailed information about what's coming up next; so what? Peter tells us about that, too:

The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

from 2 Peter 3.10-13

In other words, the "So what?" is this:

• Live holy and godly lives
• Look forward to the day of God
• speed its coming (whatever that means)
• Look forward to a new heaven and a new earth (the home of righteousness)

. That last one reminds me of something we read a few weeks ago, about people longing for a better country, and about God's feeling toward them: he's proud to be called their God.

Why is that? Why is he so excited by people longing for the heavenly country, the heavenly kingdom? I think it's something to do with faith. When we believe him (about the new heavens, a heavenly country, rewards for the righteous, etc.) it gives him glory and honor. So if I look forward to that heavenly country, if I obey God because I believe what he says, if I give to the poor because I figure I'm lending to the Lord, if I dream kingdom dreams, heavenly dreams, rather than dreaming only of a bigger house or a fancier car... then I honor him in my heart and bring pleasure to him. And how cool is that?

Drinking while Babylon's Invaded

I guess the original phrase was "fiddling while Rome burned" but this happened some centuries before that. Belshazzar, the last king of the Babylonian Empire, threw a big party - there were a thousand guests - on the last evening of his life. You may remember the story: a hand appears, mysterious words appear on the wall, Daniel interprets them. And

That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom at the age of sixty-two.

Daniel 5.30-31

The really surprising thing here, to me at least, is that this guy was having a banquet as his kingdom was slipping away. What was that about? Were his communications and control systems so broken-down that he had no idea about the invaders already well inside his territory?

Or did he realize that he was "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic" so to speak -- knew he was sunk and decided to have a party so as to go out with a bang?

The text doesn't tell us. To me, Belshazzar's party looks like irresponsible arrogance: either he's overconfident and disastrously so, or he doesn't care enough about his life and his kingdom.

But it occurs to me, as I read this passage thousands of years later, that maybe the kingdom was already lost, and maybe Belshazzar already knew that his cause was hopeless. Maybe the force was so overwhelming that fighting would have been useless anyway.

And maybe he knew exactly how far away Darius's forces were, and when they'd arrive -- but threw a party anyway. He rewarded Daniel for decoding the mysterious message on the wall (the short version being: "You blew it, and now you're losing the kingdom") without further comment; that's consistent with this idea.

The day will come for each one of us -- the "last square" as Lewis Smedes calls the last day of his life. I hope that for you and for me, the assessment will be better than "weighed on the scales and found wanting."

What must we do to avoid that? The text doesn't tell us that either, though we might glean a few hints from it. Belshazzar apparently reigned over two years (8.1 refers to "the third year of King Belshazzar's reign") but there is nothing about any of his accomplishments. He apparently didn't keep very close track of his staff, as the queen had to introduce Daniel to him (5.10).

I'm going to guess that Belshazzar was found wanting because he basically didn't do anything -- didn't like staff meetings so didn't hold them, didn't like travel so he didn't keep track of the border defenses, and so on. He shirked his responsibilities, in other words. So to avoid his judgment, the word that comes to mind is "diligence." Or as we read in Hebrews a few weeks back,

And we want each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Hebrews 6.11-12

posted 11/29

Make every effort...

Today's New Testament reading includes this exhortation from 2 Peter 1:

[M]ake every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.

2 Peter 1.5-7

Peter is telling us here to practice goodness, to grow in knowledge, and so on. Paul prays some of these things for us, but Peter is saying that we don't just pray for these and forget it; rather, we should make every effort to move in the direction that God wants us to grow in.

The phrase "make every effort" sounded familiar, and sure enough there are several other places in the New Testament where we're told to "make every effort...":

• ... to be found spotless, blameless, and at peace with him (2 Peter 3.14)
• ... to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord (Hebrews 12.14)
• ... to enter that rest, so that no one will fail by following their example of disobedience (Hebrews 4.11)
• ... to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Ephesians 4.3)
• ... to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification (Romans 14.19)
• ... to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. (Luke 13.24)

Well, I'm not sure how useful that was. But back to today's passage. Right after this exhortation to add knowledge to faith and so on, Peter tells us that if we're growing in these qualities, we'll be useful and fruitful. Recently I heard in a sermon the idea that our job now is to go along with what the Spirit is doing in our lives -- basically to cooperate with, rather than resist, the Holy Spirit. I think this is part of how we grow in all those qualities. Yes, we can study the Scriptures, but we must also ask the Spirit to reveal to us their true meaning. As for goodness, self-control, and so on... those sound to me like fruit of the Spirit.

So cooperate with the Spirit. And become fruitful and useful.

Sounds like a plan!

A perfect turkey - and next year's plan

The kids do not like stuffing, and we probably shouldn't eat it, so...

So I saw something in the paper ... no, it was instructions I heard on NPR for roasting a turkey. I've brined and butterflied a chicken before, for a recipe involving chicken and potatoes.

1. Dissolve:
   • 1 c kosher salt
   • ½ c sugar
   in 2 qts water. Immerse bird and refrigerate about an hour.
2. Preheat oven to 500°F with rack in lower middle position.
3. Take a broiler pan, and line the bottom with foil. Spray with PAM™ or similar.
4. Remove chicken from brine; rinse thoroughly
5. Butterfly the chicken. Flatten breastbone. Position it on broiler-pan top and pat dry
6. Peel
   • about 1kg potatoes
   and slice 3-5mm thick.
7. Toss sliced potatoes with
   • 1 T olive oil
   • ½ t salt
   • a little pepper
   in a medium bowl
8. Spread the potatoes evenly in the broiler-pan bottom
9. Rub the chicken with
   • ½ T olive oil
   • pepper
10. Place chicken, on broiler-top, atop the broiler-pan bottom (and potatoes)
11. Roast chicken about 20 minutes, 'til spotty brown.
12. Rotate pan. When an instant-read thermometer shows 160°F in thickest part of breast, and skin is deep brown (another 20-25 minutes maybe) you're done roasting
13. Remove chicken to cutting board
14. Remove broiler-pan top and blot excess oil from potatoes. Invert on (another!) board and peel the foil off the potatoes carefully.

The original recipe had some stuff about seasoned butter, which I never use.

What I did this year was... took a 23# (!) turkey, removed the backbone, and tried to flatten it onto the broiler pan. But I ran into two problems:

• No mallet, and I hadn't thought of (or read about) using a rolling pin to flatten the bird. So it didn't get flattened.
• The bird was too big for the broiler-pan! It dripped onto the oven floor.

Skipped brining the bird (too big!) and also skipped the dressing/stuffing.

I ended up roasting it about 4½ hours, starting at 450°F and immediately dropping the temp to about 350°F. I don't have an instant-read thermometer but pulled the bird out when the thickest part of the breast read a shade under 170°F. I did cover the breast with foil for about half the roasting time.

The bird came out just about perfect.

The plan for next year

Let's get about a 14# bird. I'll brine it (it'll actually fit in a pot that fits in the fridge) and actually flatten it. Maybe I'll run the oven at 450°F the whole time like the NPR recipe said, not dropping the temp to 350° at all.

And I'll make a quart of gravy instead of just two cups.

And I think I'll double the green bean casserole recipe too. For the uninitiated:

Combine in a casserole:

• 2 (15-oz) cans French style sliced green beans
• 1 can (10 oz?) cream of mushroom soup undiluted
• half a small can of French fried onions

and bake at 350°F for a while, covered or not.

About 15 minutes before serving, remove cover (if you covered it in the first place) and sprinkle the rest of the fried onions atop the bean/soup mixture.

Remove from oven and serve hot

Like I said, I probably want to double that casserole recipe.

What Does God Want?

Today's New Testament reading includes 1 Peter 5, which has this great verse in it:

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time

1 Peter 5.6

There's stuff before and after this verse, and many Sunday School students memorize them: clothe yourself with humility - that's good, and cast your care upon him because he cares for you - that's also good.

But the part I'm excited about here is the little phrase I have highlighted above (in an awful color, I admit) -- that God wants to exalt us (the NIV says "lift you up in due time"); he does not want to crush or humiliate us.

Isn't that cool? The idea that God wants to lift us up, that he wants to exalt us -- that sounds like good news to me. And something to be thankful for.

Because there are lots of people who want to put you down. Sometimes the "lots of people" even includes yourself, doesn't it? But not God. He wants to lift you up.

It reminds me of when Jesus said, "Don't take the best place at the table; take a lower position, and then the host will say to you, 'Friend, move up to a better place.'" (Luke 14.10) I don't think Jesus was talking only about parties here on earth.

Ha! I'm back!

I sent my article in to Linux Journal almost two hours ago, so I'm back! It was three weeks ago that I took a short(?) break from these daily essays so I could write that article, and it's now done. I'll tell you all about it if it's accepted for publication.

Well, today's reading covers chapter 1 and about half of chapter 2 of the book of Daniel. Some years ago, when I decided that my former employer, particularly the boss, was behaving immorally and unethically, I contemplated leaving that company. I mentioned this to my friend Randy, who pointed out that Daniel worked for a corrupt boss, too. Good point, that.

King Nebuchadnezzar was egotistical, violent, and an idolater, but Daniel served him faithfully. It's interesting to note where Daniel draws the line, and where he doesn't. The Israelites are given food and wine from the king's table (1.5), and Daniel doesn't want to eat the rich stuff which he feels would defile him.

But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.

Daniel 1.8

What exactly was the defilement Daniel was trying to avoid? Perhaps he was a Nazirite, sworn to avoid drinking wine? Did the food include bacon or prawns? The text doesn't say. Perhaps Daniel wanted to distance himself from Jehoiachin, a king of Judah who ate regularly at the table of the king of Babylon (2 Kings 25.29)?

Whatever the reason, Daniel drew a line there. But the text doesn't tell us anything about the matter of the astrologers. Daniel is numbered among the "wise men" (2.13), that is, among the magicians, enchanters, astrologers (2.10). In tomorrow's reading, it appears that Daniel is made head over all these "wise men" - the astrologers, magicians, enchangers, diviners all report to him! And nothing in the text suggests that Daniel tries to reform the curriculum of instruction, engage the astrologers in debate about the true nature of events, or anything like this.

Well, my wife and daughter are back from their evening out, and it's about my bedtime. More tomorrow!