my burg

Bible reading for weekend Dec 12-13.  2 Chronicles 13-14. "And Asa cried to the LORD his God, 'O LORD, there is none like you to help, between the mighty and the weak. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. O LORD, you are our God; let not man prevail against you.'" (14:11) NEXT TWO KINGS. There were other accounts of the history of Israel and Judah which have not survived (1 Chron 29:29; 2 Chron 9:29; 12:15). The Lord has ordained that Samuel, Kings and Chronicles be the inspired record of these events. Focusing on the kingdom of Judah, the temple, and the priesthood in Jerusalem, Chronicles gives a different emphasis on the events of that time.  These chapters record the reigns of Abijah and Asa (cf 1 Kings 15). The Chronicler shines a light on a positive accomplishment of Abijah (who was not "wholly devoted" to the Lord), as well as all the good that King Asa did.  One recurrent theme here is th...

Bible reading for September 8.  2 Samuel 2. "Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months." (2 Samuel 2:10-11)  KING OF JUDAH.   With Saul and his sons buried, David sends a word of blessing and encouragement to the leaders of the northern tribes. But he is again rejected, and one of Saul's sons is chosen to be king. Without a united monarchy (God's choice of a single king) Israelite soldiers end up fighting each other. What began as a contest for entertainment turns into a heated battle, and many men die. (Some of these animosities will continue.) How much time elapsed between Samuel's anointing David as king over Israel (1 Sam 9) and the nation (in united agreement) anointing David as king (2 Sam 5)? It was between ten and fifteen years that David wait...

Today's Bible reading: Genesis 13; Matthew 12.  The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, "Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever." (Gen 13:14-15 ESV) Our homestead.   God's ultimate plan for humanity, as reflected here in God's promise to Abram, includes providing a good world to live in .  We are not ethereal beings created to float about the clouds.  As seen from the earliest chapters of Genesis we were created to be earth-dwelling, garden-cultivating, animal-raising, gem-mining, tool-shaping, music-making, walking-about beings who love God and keep his commandments. All through the OT the land promise to Israel is a major theme .  "A land flowing with milk and honey..." (Deut 27:3)   One of the judgments God used in disciplining the nation of Israel was periods of exile from the l...

"Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory ."  (Matthew 24:30 ESV)  "But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."  (2 Peter 3:13 ESV) History has a purpose.  History has a beginning and it has an end.  Christ, who is Alpha and Omega, shall come again.  His return shall be personal, visible, and glorious (underlined above in Matthew 24:30).  His coming, as Carl Henry notes below, is not primarily a catastrophic cosmic event, but rather it is the fulfillment of our deepest longings (and highest hopes) for a just and beautiful world.   "But, unlike current secular projections of the end, the final thrust of biblical eschatology is never catastrophe: what the Bible affirms is that the end of this age marks also the coming of a...

"The Gospel is a joyful tiding, not only for  the individual  person but also for humanity,  for the family, for society,  for the state,  for art  and science, for the entire cosmos,  for the whole groaning creation."   ~ Herman Bavinck  From "The Catholicity of Christianity and the Church"  Calvin Theological Journal. 27 (2): 220–251 (1992).

"By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he  was going.  By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same  promise.  For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God."    (Hebrews 11:8-10 ESV)  We are at that time of the year in our town, a university community, that folks begin moving away.  Perhaps everyone in transition can identify  with these words about Abraham: "and he went out, not knowing where he was going" (11:8).   There are new living arrangements to make, new situations to learn, new  friends to make, and new challenges to master.  The vital thing that sustained Abraham, as he packed up to move out in faith and obedience, was that he was "looking forward to the city that ...

"When Jesus Christ came to Earth, one of the names given to Him was Immanuel, which means 'God with us.' The Incarnation means that God became man and lived with us. And when Jesus ascended to Heaven in His resurrected body, it demonstrated that the Incarnation wasn’t temporary but permanent. This has great bearing on where God might choose for us and Him to dwell together. The New Earth will be Heaven incarnate, just as Jesus Christ is God incarnate."  ~ Randy Alcorn, Seeing the Unseen .

My wife and I are enjoying Randy Alcorn's updated book of "Seeing the Unseen" devotions.  It's wonderful to find books that we both like reading together.  It's a great way to start the day, reading aloud to each other.   Here's one highlight from Day 63, "Homesick for Eden's Happiness" When we separate God from happiness and from our longing for happiness, we undermine the Christian worldview... Were we merely the product of natural selection and survival of the fittest, we’d have no grounds for believing any ancient happiness existed. But even those who have never been taught about the Fall and the Curse intuitively know that something has gone seriously wrong. Why else would we long for happiness and sense what a utopian society should look like if we’ve never seen one? We are nostalgic for an Eden we’ve only heard echoes of. What if God made us for happiness, and therefore our desire to be happy is inseparable from our longing for God? ...

"These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.  If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city."  (Hebrews 11:13-16 ESV) "A continual looking forward to the eternal world is not (as some modern people think) a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The Apostles themselves, who set on foot ...