1 – Job 11:1 (ESV) Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
RAF: Zophar’s first answer: The truth is, you haven’t suffered nearly what you deserve. Repent.
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1 – Esther 4:12-14 (ESV) 12 And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. 13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
RAF: Note Mordecai’s careful balance here between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.
a. If Esther does not act, she will suffer consequences.
b. God has other means for deliverance, but she is square in the middle of this – and she needs to act according to her responsibility. Yes, God has other means, but she is His means now.
c. She is to seize the time as ordained by God.
God’s sovereignty is never an excuse for inaction.
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1 – Nehemiah 7:1-2 (ESV) Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, 2 I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many.
RAF: Those who do not fear God, certainly will not fear man. Thus trustworthiness is tied to the fear of God. If they are not honest and reliable because they understand the relationship of such things to their God, then there is nothing to prevent them from being unreliable at all. Fear of the Law sure won’t do it. And as our society demonstrates day after day, the further men move away from any sense of personal responsibility before God, the more violent, dishonest and anti-social their behavior becomes. This is not about living in some cowering fear that doubts God’s love and goodness. It is knowing that God is righteous, that He cannot tolerate sin and must judge it – no matter how deeply He loves anyone. And that to be living in sin will ultimately bring us before the judgment bar of God, irrespective of our sins being found out by men in this life.
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1 – Ezra 3:6 (ESV) 6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
RAF: In days of restoration, as these were for the exiles, priorities are sometimes more clearly defined. While there had been no work on restoring the Temple proper yet, the altar was restored first and rightly so. When we have gone through seasons of estrangment from God, perhaps the distance that has followed a fall into sin, we know where to go first – to the cross. We go to God’s altar. Where the one true Lamb that was offered for sin was slain. We go back there and renew ourselves in the knowledge of what our sin deserved, how the Father sent His Son to take our punishment in our place, and how He is the only sin offering we can bring. And isn’t He our fellowship offering too? And our thank offering? Everything is restored to focus on this one place – Christ Jesus, and His death for us.
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1 – 2 Chronicles 32:18-19 (ESV) 18 And they shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, in order that they might take the city. 19 And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as they spoke of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands. RAF: The Devil knows our language. He knows how to communicate to us in ways we will hear clearly – and always with the aim of undermining our trust in God. He knows how to play on our fears to make us think God is somehow not able to keep us, not willing to keep us, or corrupt in some way. These are Satan’s devices, and he uses them skillfully. But our ears must be tuned to God’s voice. To remember Who and What He is. To stand firm in the knowledge of God’s perfections, promises and the holy character of His person. Then, we can stand strong. Only then.
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1 – 1 Chronicles 13:1 (ESV) David consulted with the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, with every leader. RAF: Good leadership knows the value of the opinions, experiences and insights of others. Being unchallengable as though we have all the answers is a sure way not to lead others, but rather to drive them. Perhaps even to drive them away.
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Un-SHACK-led
A Review of the popular new book
The Shack
by
William P. Young
My first temptation in reflecting upon my reading of The Shack is just to trash it. It wouldn’t be hard to do. Un-biblical notions abound in it. Indeed anti-biblical notions ooze from nearly every page. And, casting stones is a relatively low-skill-set activity. Its easy. Pick’em up and throw. Doesn’t make much thought or depth of analysis.But I don’t want to do that.
I don’t want to just indulge in literary vivisection because the very presence of the book and its theme are still important. And because as you read it, the auto-biographical nature of it screams to be addressed. All three of these account (I believe) for the book’s overwhelming popularity among Christians. All that being said – “Theological fiction” – as The Shack’s genre is called, is tricky business. Tricky and dangerous. How dangerous, we’ll unpack below.
The Shack’s author, William P. Young “was born a Canadian and raised among a stone-age tribe by his missionary parents in the highlands of what was New Guinea. He suffered great loss as a child and young adult, and now enjoys the ‘wastefulness of grace’ with his family in the Pacific Northwest.”[1]
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1 – 1 Chronicles 5:20 (ESV) 20 And when they prevailed over them, the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hands, for they cried out to God in the battle, and he granted their urgent plea because they trusted in him. RAF: This is both so simple and so profound. A powerful impetus to pray. Note four simple things.
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Un-SHACK-led
A Review of the popular new book
The Shack
by
William P. Young
My first temptation in reflecting upon my reading of The Shack is just to trash it. It wouldn’t be hard to do. Un-biblical notions abound in it. Indeed anti-biblical notions ooze from nearly every page. And, casting stones is a relatively low-skill-set activity. Its easy. Pick’em up and throw. Doesn’t make much thought or depth of analysis.
But I don’t want to do that.
I don’t want to just indulge in literary vivisection because the very presence of the book and its theme are still important. And because as you read it, the auto-biographical nature of it screams to be addressed. All three of these account (I believe) for the book’s overwhelming popularity among Christians. All that being said – “Theological fiction” – as The Shack’s genre is called, is tricky business. Tricky and dangerous. How dangerous, we’ll unpack below.
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1 – 2 Kings 18:4 (ESV) 4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).
RAF: Even symbols of God’s goodness to us can become idols. In this case it was the bronze serpent that was raised up on a pole to stop the plague among the Israelites in Numbers 21. The transferrance is from God Himself, to a “thing.” Loving or focusing upon the gift above the Giver. Heavenly Father, this is so easy for us to do. Please keep us from it. Please keep our eyes on you.
ResponsiveReiding 