Monday Morning Music Ministry

2-14-22

Many regular church-goers, pious people, folks who study their Bibles and do devotions, who might belong to prayer circles and church fellowships… a lot of us do not fully understand everything in the Bible.

This is not bad, necessarily. At least regarding theology – literally, the study of God – we can study but not know everything… otherwise we would be as God. Even the angels do not know all, see all, nor can be present everywhere. God is God.

But beyond our comprehension and even spiritual and intellectual curiosity, I think we all accept some sentiments and words and traditions without fully understanding them. We find solace in some things as a result. Sort of spiritual security blankets, or comfort foods of the soul.

I am among such folks. Imagery, allegories, symbols… in some things I let the mystery be, because I trust the meanings of passages and the ways of the Lord. If there are texts whose precise meanings elude me… or prophecies that are “seen through a glass darkly…” well, God has made His will known so often and in so many ways, that I surrender to those occasional things God wants to keep wrapped in His poetry.

Yet we should not always exercise sweet surrender. Surely the Lord wants us to understand as much as possible, especially since every word has been imparted, inspired – literally, “breathed” by the Holy Spirit – for our instruction and for reproof. So… we can always try a little harder. That bread cast upon the waters never comes back void.

I was thinking about such things recently when singing the old hymn Holy, Holy, Holy, which has some verses that we sing perhaps automatically without fully understanding them: and the same for Bible passages from which the lyrics are drawn, in Revelation chapter 4.

The hymn:

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. Cherubim and seraphim are falling down before Thee, Which wert and art and evermore shalt be!

Verses from Revelation 4:

Immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne… And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold….And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne…

The four and twenty elders fell down before Him that sat on the throne, and worship Him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.

For our attention here I have left out descriptions of beasts and wings and lightning and thunder and lamps, all wondrous – and mysterious – enough. We can study and profit from signs and symbols, and especially numerology and types, in the Bible; particularly in Revelation. And we can discern lessons from these passages, more-than-allusions and symbols as they are.

First, we must realize that, no matter how mysterious they seem, they are descriptions of the Heaven that is, and the Heaven that will be as we see it.

Second, the hymnologist’s use of “Holy” three times is citing the praises of God quoted throughout Scripture: Three always represents holiness. We know that numbers like seven and 40 are repeated in God’s story, all with consistent significance. We will join the angels in singing “Holy, holy, holy…”

Then, I believe the “glassy sea” is to tell us that, contrary to many examples of troubled waters and stormy seas throughout the Bible and in life, before the Throne of God the waters shall be not roiled. Untroubled, placid. A miraculous calm, in His presence. Like a mirror.

The Elders we might correctly assume are the prophets and apostles in Scripture; and perhaps saints and martyrs of the Church. Crowns? The Elders who wear them are worthy – in our eyes, and honored of God – for their service… but are we not told that the least among believers shall be the first? That (conversely, to be sure) that the smallest sin grieves God as much as what we might deem the grossest?

Do we understand that “Elders” earn crowns? Are those the (again) mysterious “treasures” we might store up in Heaven?

I believe the answer is what happens to those crowns at the moment this scene was revealed by Christ to St John. They were thrown down at the feet of God Almighty, the Elders declaring that He is worthy to receive Glory and Honor and Power. In other words, just like our own “robes of righteousness” in which we might cover ourselves, even the treasures and crowns of the most exalted saints are to be cast at the feet of God.

A picture of Heaven? Clearer, to me.

What else will Heaven be like? We have other imagery of shining stones and beauty and mansions and singing and… praising. We will join the angels in forever singing and praising His name. We will not think it boring, even for eternity; for He is worthy. Will we see loved ones? Will our bodies be made whole? Will there be “joy unspeakable and full of glory?”

Yes… but let us remember the “unspeakable” part! Beyond our current ability to understand.

For all the good intentions of believers here, when I hear speculation about how “old” we will be, or being reunited with pets… I find myself wishing that people would be as concerned with getting to Heaven as with what it will be like “over there.”

We can be sure of one thing as we look toward joining that throng of angels – the cherubim and seraphim – before the Throne. The joy we will have cannot be known by them, for they were never graced with life on earth, never able to experience the gifts of repentance and forgiveness, redemption and salvation. Those things are ours!

Holy! Holy! Holy!

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Click: Holy, Holy, Holy

7-26-21

I do love mysteries. Books, stories, movies, real-life events. I think we all do; but there is a difference in our next steps. Some people, and I think humankind in general particularly in the past few centuries, love mysteries because there is a passion – almost an obsession – to solve them.

Is this a good thing, a natural impulse? Not necessarily. Mysteries, the unknown, deep challenges, dare us in many ways; and we accept the challenges. Answering the call, thus have diseases been conquered, new lands discovered, and faraway planets visited. Not bad things, and an aspect of humankind’s DNA that grows when exercised.

I regret some negative aspects that inevitably follow. We have been deluded into thinking that we can solve any mystery, in time; which is of course ridiculous. We lose sight of the fact that life often substitutes new challenges when some mysteries (diseases, plagues, natural disasters) are met; for nature and human nature seem immutable. And we tend to equate the passage of time with real progress. Some mysteries merely deepen: we solve mysterious sicknesses but insist on inventing better ways to kill each other. How’s that for a mystery?

No, I love mysteries because they are mysteries. We cannot know everything, or else we would be as God – and I admit my credentials are lacking. But I do not merely settle for being very human; I embrace the mysteries that place me apart from God; that is, subordinate.

His mysteries are wonderful, just as His ways are inscrutable. That leads me to the basis, the definition, of faith. There are things I don’t have to know, because God knows. There are things I don’t have to worry about, because He cares for me. If things seem out of control… I know He is in control. Martin Luther said that Reason is the enemy of Faith. Hmmm.

I embrace mysteries like birth, and the formed fingers and joyful smiles of babies. Of flowers that return after seeming to die; of seedlings that push through rocks. Forgiveness is a mystery. Salvation is a mystery I don’t understand, but I accept. And when all is said and done, love is a mystery.

If we dissect a butterfly to see how it can fly, we kill it in the process. Therefore, many of the mysteries of life – of God – I simply accept and embrace.

Parts of the Bible we need to understand; but parts of it present the mysteries of God without explaining them. That’s fine. “We will understand it better bye and bye.”

For instance, in the Book of Revelations – surely a book that reveals as many mysteries as matters of clarity – we read of the “24 Elders” who fall down before the Throne of God in Heaven, and cast down their crowns before Him. We read of treasures in Heaven. We read in two passages about this scene, the “glassy sea” before the Throne of God.

Crowns and treasures that some might have? The rest of us will not? Aren’t we all to be equal, once saved? Maybe the Elders represent churches, or dispensations, or saints of the ages…?

It is true that forgiven and blood-bought Believers are no more, and no less, “saved,” or Children of God, which is confirmed many times in Scripture. In the same way as the vilest sinner on earth might gain Heaven by confessing Christ at the end of his or her life. Or the most generous charity worker might go to hell if he or she never believe and confess Christ. These things fight against our own logic, but are not mysteries. They are God’s honest truth.

About those treasures and crowns, I have always thought that in God’s plan there have been saints or martyrs, perhaps, who have a place of distinction, not greater favor, in His sight… but before the Throne of God, nothing else will matter except bowing before Him, praising Him forever, gathering with other saints around the river and the beautiful, calm, glassy sea; and placing at God’s feet whatever honors there might be.

Greater service, greater perseverance, greater love will seem like nothing when we behold Him. In proper perspective, we will lay everything before Him.

Heaven – we try to imagine. Do you want to see loved ones again? You probably will. Children want to see their pets? If that thought pleases them here, it might happen there. But our minds cannot for a moment imagine the riches that await us in glory. The words of a great hymn attempt a picture:

Holy, holy, holy! All the saints adore Thee, Casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea; Cherubim and seraphim falling down before Thee, Who were and are and evermore shall be.

Does this make sense? No matter; let the mystery be. We will see these things.

Some “emergent” churches claim to embrace mystery, but in my experience they embrace candles and incense instead.

For now we see through a glass darkly; but then, face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know (I Corinthians 13:12)…

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This hymn of church was a poem by Reginald Heber later set to music by John Bacchus Dykes. The “Holy, Holy, Holy” from Revelation reminds us that the Bible’s frequent use of numbers is significant – three for perfection; seven for completion, etc. Not clues for lotteries, but lessons to learn from. Here, worship with the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir:

Click: “Holy, Holy, Holy” sung by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

( If you are reading the blog on a mobile device and have problems downloading, please copy and paste this link — https://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=MFdObQIE4tA — into your browser. )

4-26-21

That is the title of a Vietnam-era movie. About World War II-era Italy. It was the time when the early symptoms of Vietnam-war opposition manifested themselves in movies and books and TV shows that mocked war in general, denigrated the Vietnam war, and led to varieties of pacifism through American society.

In one way or another, the disaffection with things military has persisted, sometimes flagrant, sometimes dormant. The abolition of the draft, now 50 years ago, has insulated the majority of Americans from the most negative aspects of military life – interrupted careers and personal dangers, for instance; but also from service, discipline, sacrifice, and patriotic fulfillment.

The United States is not the only country without mandatory universal service. However, there are many nations that do require military conscription, training, and service. That list includes Brazil, Denmark, Iran, Mexico, North and South Korea, and Russia.

Famously, Switzerland requires that young people serve in the army for several years, and maintain weapons back in civilian life. Only a few years ago there was a referendum about abolishing this requirement, and it was defeated, including by three-fourths of young people. Famously also, little Switzerland, surrounded by many hostile and often expansionary neighbors, has not been invaded in more than 500 years. (Citizens are required to bear arms.)

Israel too is noted for its drafting of men and women into its military service. Without those men and women in uniform, one wonders whether modern Israel would only be a memory now, as of the ancient Israelites.

Whether viewed as good genii or evil spirits, there is no reentry to the bottle. It is hard to imagine America returning to a situation where its entirety of young men and women would be efficient in uniform, trained for combat and facing danger. No time… no ready resources… and, I regretfully believe, no physical competence nor emotional will.

A sad effect of the prosperity and “progress” in Western societies has been the loss of those virtues that once insured national safety and independence. Human nature does not change, and America’s false sense of security is built on several premises that all live somewhere between the naïve and suicidal – We trust in a monstrous military force. We believe that smart guys who invent things will protect us. We assume our political leaders make the right choices in diplomacy and military strategy. (HUH?)

We also, as a society, have an almost superstitious belief that countries that can challenge and defeat us… but, well, they just won’t, right? Or that countries that covet our land, our resources, our power, our riches… well, would not ever threaten or try a takeover, right? Nations that hate our history, our religion, our traditions… well, they’ll just leave them alone, right? They will pass over you and me and our neighborhoods, right?

All the times in history that every empire has fallen, it has been from internal decay and outside aggression beginning around the fringes. But… it will be different with us???

These are what we call rhetorical questions. For the here-and-now – this discussion – I want rather to bring it not to global matters or the sweep of history, but to you and me, and the people we see in our mirrors, and the families we care about. I return to that movie title, What Did You Do In the War?

Because in the drift we have charted (no, none of us are wholly innocent) we all will be combatants.

In the war to redeem Western Civilization, to salvage American institutions, and to defend the God’s church… there can be no draft-dodgers.

We can not rely on that modern version of a slave economy, the “volunteer military”… they are not slaves, but they are considered that, functionally, to many citizens who are not in uniform.

In the deadly (yes) battles to come, we will be required to go beyond the acts we think sufficient today… voting “correctly,” signing petitions and attending rallies, boycotting TV channels, and such.

We must think hard, and imagine the worst scenarios, because things are closer than you think. You must stop imagining “where things will lead,” and realize we are already in the middle of crises. You must stop trusting to the future, and see that the future is here – a dystopian future, the ugly opposite of Utopia.

Read ahead to the Book of Revelation. Revisit the lines in church songs like Onward Christian Soldiers. Realize: The Battle Hymn of the Republic is not a museum-piece but remains an inspirational call to action.

And Keep On the Firing Line – do you know it? – is not a Sunday School song from Rally summer camps.

What will you do in the war, Daddy? Mommy? Young man? Young lady?

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If you’re in the battle for the Lord and right,
Keep on the firing line;
If you win, my brother, surely you must fight,
Keep on the firing line.
There are many dangers that we all must face,
If we die still fighting it is no disgrace;
Cowards in the service will not find a place,
So keep on the firing line.

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Click: Keep On the Firing Line
Wally Varner and Calvin Newton – Keep On the Firing Line

8-1-16

Tim LaHaye died this week. Many people know him from – indeed, were mightily affected by – his books, the famous Left Behind series.

I never met Tim, but had mutual friends across the landscape. I attended the church he pastored, Scott memorial, later Shadow Mountain, in California. A magazine I edited, Rare Jewel, promoted Beverly LaHaye’s organization Concerned Women for America, and we interviewed him. Likewise we profiled the Institute for Creation Research in El Cajon, which spun off the college Tim founded, now known as san Diego Christian College. My friend Stacy Hollenbeck from girlhood was a friend of the LaHayes, and Tim married Stacy and my buddy Mike Atkinson (I mean… he officiated at the ceremony). Finally, my agent, Greg Johnson, was Tim’s literary rep on many of his books.

It sounds amazing, actually, that we never met. In my San Diego years, I did get to know quite well some Christian luminaries (of different camps, truth be told): Mike Yaconelli; Wayne Rice; Jim Garlow; David Jeremiah; Miles McPherson;
Josh McDowell – forgive me for name-dropping, one of my cardinal sins. Which
reminds me, I saw a cardinal in my back yard yesterday…) Maybe I was just Left Behind.

The Left Behind books were a publishing sensation. Co-authored (actually written) by Jerry B Jenkins, they numbered more than a dozen titles and sequels; movies; and uncountable debates. They brought the Tribulation (the awful events at the end of history, foretold in many Bible prophecies), the Rapture (the physical disappearance of believers before the end of the world), and the apocalypse of Daniel and Revelation (and many other places in scripture), into mainstream discussion.

LaHaye’s views and books formed a sort of Second Blessing of Eschatology (study of End Times), following upon the wave of interest generated by Hal Lindsey’s Late Great Planet Earth and other books in the 1970s. My wife was one of the followers of the Left Behind series, and followed the news with informed interest, finding Biblical parallels that LaHaye’s books made more evident.

The phenomenon peaked about a dozen years ago, and will, if the End Times do not come first and subsume humanity and rapture the faithful in the meantime, assert itself again.

Just as with the “other end” of the Bible’s timeline – Biblical archaeology – modern science is explaining things to us that once seemed like fantasy or even nonsense. Ancient cities and rulers once described by “experts” to be of mythology or legend… are appearing in diverse places like desert plains shorelines, and under Jerusalem’s streets. Likewise, coins and amulets with faces and names and dates, are now confirmed as real, not fictional. (Just wait – I have had a glimpse – until you see the National Center of the Bible, opening soon on the National Mall in Washington DC. It will open many eyes.) (Need I say? NOT sponsored by the Federal Government…)

It is remarkable, just as science is explaining, if not confirming, many of the “mysterious” events and occurrences of Bible prophecy. Thank you, God, for Your timing. Some of us have waited patiently (sometimes impatiently) for scientists to catch up with you. Our next chuckle is when some chucklehead with a degree realizes that the Big Bang is just tech-language for Genesis.

Having asserted all this wise-guy stuff, however – and no offense to the late Dr LaHaye – there are some things about End Times that pastors, theologians, fiction writers, and scientists will never explain. And I hope they never do.

The Book of Revelation – Jesus’s dictation to John on the Isle of Patmos – even specific letters to specific churches, are shrouded in the type of mystery that leaves us ever conflicted. Literal words? Imagery? Poetry? Warnings? Fearfulness? Hope? Of course, Bible prophecy is a bit of all these… but in what mixture, with what emphasis here, or there, I believe God means to be ambiguous.

The mysterious aspects of the End Times, to the extent they are mysterious, are intended to KEEP US ON OUR SPIRITUAL TOES.

It is a sin that eschatological questions often are the basis of angry disputes among believers. They can claim to be well-intentioned, but Christians think they can improve on God – who always has been quite clear when He wanted to be. Let us speculate: that is useful. But let us not obsess.

We’ll find out… maybe sooner than we think.

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Click: Midnight Cry

2-10-14

All through the Bible are examples of gifts, sacrifices, and responses that God’s children lay before Him. Tithes, ten per cent of income. First fruits. Rams without blemish. Spotless sheep. Burnt offerings. Service. Penance. Repentance.

Looking ahead to visions in the Book of Revelation, we have the mysterious questions of crowns awarded to certain saints – not salvation or eternal life, but some rewards in Heaven – no longer a mystery when we are given the picture of those saints laying down the crowns before the throne of God. From Chapter 4: “The four and twenty elders fall down before Him who sat on the throne, and worship Him who liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created.”

The beautiful picture of a perfect gift rendered into a perfect offering.

Indeed, all the instructions to gives thanks and tribute to a Holy God, and the inclinations of our hearts, should be to bring the purest and holiest things we can – including our souls and our confessions and our best efforts here on earth – because Holiness demands holiness. It is meet and right so to do.

But God tolerates one thing that is broken, not whole, and even is soiled. No, He does more than tolerate: He welcomes… the broken heart.

“You can have my heart, though it isn’t new,
It’s been used and broken, and only comes in blue,
It’s been down a long road, and it got dirty along the way,
If I give it to you, will you make it clean and wash the shame away?”

Psalm 51:17 says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”

Continuing wonderful lines from Julie Miller’s “Broken Things”:

“You can have my heart, if you don’t mind broken things,
You can have my life; you don’t mind these tears,
Well, I heard that you make old things new, so I give these pieces all to you,
If you want it, you can have my heart.”

Life is a road with many speed bumps and pot-holes; and, as we read recently in this space, from “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” many detours and pitfalls. God encourages us to make the journey, to press on, to acquit ourselves well, to have integrity as Christians. As witnesses we should be modest servants, confident soldiers, and shining “Imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1).

Yet, even wearing white robes, we can be holding shattered, broken, and even soiled hearts in the cup of our hands. God is a Potter; Jesus was a carpenter; the Holy Spirit is the Comforter. A broken heart God will not despise.

Our Heavenly Father can see the band-aids and paper clips. That we bring broken hearts and even messed-up lives before Him (which we resist doing, in our natures, too often) does not mean we are faulty Christians. We are just… Christians. Who “have heard that You make old things new.”

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The lines quoted here are from Julie Miller’s amazing song, “Broken Things.” Here she sings with her husband Buddy Miller. Graphics by the great beanscot.

Click: Broken Things