Preview of class December 20, 2009

Our text in Hebrews presents the somewhat surprising admonition to make every effort to enter God's rest.  Now, this statement would raise no eyebrows were it not that certain theological systems want to preempt it to mean something its author never intended.  You would understand perfectly well if I said to you "Try to get a good night's sleep."  You might take a relaxing bath or drink milk before bedtime, avoid eating spicy foods, and probably keep the lights down low, all as necessary preparation for the desired end of sweet repose.

Of course the Christian life involves striving to enter in at the narrow gate.  It has from the very beginning:

Jacob found this out quite early, and was never quite the same afterward.  Many Biblical texts instruct us to strive, seek, work out, make every effort, and so forth, and none of them contradict the idea of justification by faith, or the fact of the absolute sovereignty of God in the matter of man's salvation or damnation.  If some people handled tax forms as loosely as they do Biblical texts, the IRS would be all over them.

We hope to move on this week to discuss the Word of God (Hebrews 4:12).  I have a nice graphic organizer ready for you to help you understand the interconnections of the material here.

Well, OK, maybe it is not that complicated.  However, I will strive to introduce at least one surprising twist for everyone.  My home and mind are full of treasures and curiosities some of you do not even suspect.

Preview of class December 6, 2009

TIME

The author of Hebrews sweeps across a remarkable span of time in the fourth chapter.  We will start our class this week reviewing the chronology that serves as a backdrop for the exhortation (urgent pleading) in the passage.  Along the way, we will step back to consider the subjects of time and history from a distinctly Christian point of view.  Of course, every good session needs some personal application.  Prepare for a bit of surprise when I apply this subject to you.

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Sometimes popular culture can help us appreciate Biblical truth all the more.  Are any of us surprised to learn that a prominent "role-model" athlete has been accused of multiple adulteries?  I won't name names.  The vultures are circling.  Apparently, in the minds of some, the apparent hypocrisy is the real sin, while the adultery is simply an accepted fact of life and manhood.  What evolving man would pass up the Darwinian opportunity to spread his genetic material a bit more widely, thereby increasing his reproductive fitness?

When I see this sort of thing (whatever the real truth might turn out to be), my mind reverts to an underlying Biblical reality that we need to hear over and over again, and that is sorely neglected today.  Do not envy those who are rich!  Very few of the wealthy in this world will inherit eternal life (Luke 18:24)!  Thank God that you are not rich, and be certain that you do not want to be so!  Possession of riches, with all the attendant temptations, may be an indication that God has marked out a person for damnation.

"The Rich Young Ruler"

Artist: Heinrich Hoffman

Thanksgiving Day and Preview of class November 29, 2009

Dear Friends -
    How much thankfulness ought we to express to our great God and Savior, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Jesus Christ!  This time has been an especially poignant Thanksgiving season for me because of the events with my son following on his medical emergency, and his return to my home.
     One of the many spiritual blessings we share together is the fellowship of the saints at Clarkson Community Church, as we devote ourselves to the Apostle's teaching, breaking of bread, and prayer.  As we learn together in God's word, we are reminded that we are a group of pilgrims travelling together to a celestial city from God, where we will dwell together in perfect harmony, love, and joy, and will glory in the unsearchable riches of Christ.
     This week, in our Sunday School class, we will dive back into our current Bible passage in Hebrews 4:1-13 and continue wrestling with this rather difficult text.  Some of our small groups will need a bit more time to finish their presentations from this text, so the rest of us will begin immersing ourselves in it.  Our goal will be to try to enter the author's mind and to think his thoughts after him.  After all, they are the thoughts placed there by the inspiring Spirit of God, and we are seeking to understand them.
     Immersing oneself into a text can become a messy endeavor.  We might end up with unexpected results.

This fellow was certainly immersed in his work!

As we study the text carefully, we will see that it contains a most remarkable chronology as well as some very sobering statements.  I am looking forward to digging in with you.

Open Discussion Forum - The Flow of Logic in Hebrews Chapter Four

Dear Friends -
            The homework assignment this week is that we all read Hebrews 4:1-13 daily in an all-out attempt to understand the flow of logic and what the writer was trying to communicate in this text.  The writer speaks of various ideas: rest, the Sabbath, a new day ("Today"), the failure of Joshua to give rest, and paradoxical striving after rest.  I admit freely to being rather befuddled trying to pick out the logical flow of thought, and badly need help.  The individual sentences and thoughts are simple enough, but how do they hang together?  What reasoning animated the writer?  For example, what does the seventh-day rest of God have to do with anything here?  Left to my own devices, you all may not like what you get.
           As you (hopefully) grow in your understanding as the week progresses, post comments on this blog entry to share with our learning community.  Feel free to respectfully interact with each others' thoughts.

           Now it is well known that some of you do not exactly relish the thought of homework.

YOU

Well, then I have the opportunity to be Mr. Bad Guy and expect you to do it anyway.

ME

Preview of class November 1, 2009

Here is this week's "anticipation question", as we hope (and expect) to break into chapter FOUR of the Epistle to the Hebrews:

What does this solar system body tell us about how we must relate to God?

In this chapter, the writer seeks to improve upon his warning exhortations to his readers, and to draw the example of the Exodus generation close to their present-day consciousnesses.  After all, essentially the same invitation into the life of faith had been given to his audience as that with which the Exodusi (the members of the Exodus generation -- I invented this term) had been graced.

What went wrong was their lack of faith - the writer has been saying the same thing over and over again.  The author provides an important weapon against encroaching unbelief at the beginning of chapter four.  However, this weapon has fallen upon unpopular times these days.  We will try to diagnose the situation.

Also this week, I plan to assign homework that will involve reading and blog-work.  Gird up your loins, folks, things are going to heat up in our class this week, and we need to do a good job.  It will take effort to enter into God's rest!

Partakers of Christ - Preview of class October 25, 2009

[My home remodeling project continues apace, leading to abbreviated blog entries.  Kindly bear with me.]


Brethren - We are partakers of Christ - we share in all that is his and all that he is - if we hold our confidence firm to the end.  We have been speaking of the need for perseverance for many weeks, but what about the rewards of perseverance?  They are nothing less than the unsearchable riches of who Christ is and what he provides for us.  In light of all this treasure, perhaps the struggle of faith will not seem quite so laborious or daunting.  To what lengths will men go to receive treasures that will soon fade away or even prove to cause their own destruction?

No - our treasure is not that kind of treasure.

For one activity this week, we will step back and remind ourselves exactly what riches of grace belong to us in Christ, as we persevere in him.


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Our discussion last week about exhorting one another (Heb. 3:13) brought up a good bit of smoke and friction (kind of like my coal fires so far) but not as much light as I had hoped.  I want to start this Sunday with a brief encore on the subject, employing a little metacognition (which is a fancy educational term meaning 'thinking about thinking').  Our discussion last week might help us to gain a bit of unexpected insight into ourselves.

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Last week I posted two paintings of noted apostates and asked for you to identify them.  Here are the answers.  You can easily look up the two persons on Wikipedia.

Answer: Julian the Apostate

Answer: Robert the Pious.  This painting truly captured my imagination at the Musee D'Orsay in Paris.

Preview of class October 18, 2009

The main focus of our class this week will be our responsibility to exhort one another so that one of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

Have you ever been grieved by the large numbers of people you have known who had once professed the Christian faith, and are now apostate?  People seem to blow in the door of the church only to blow back out after a while.  Many are perhaps rotating through different churches, but not a few fall away from the faith.

Can anyone identify this famous apostate?

How about this one?

Our text in Hebrews gives us some insight into why this might be so.  Our security and continuance in the faith very much depends on the help of the brethren in our committed relationship to our local church.  Hillary Clinton famously wrote that it takes a village to raise a child; might we not say that it takes a church to keep a Christian safe?  The writer to the Hebrews seemed to think so.

I apologize for having missed a post last week.  I have been furiously working on some home renovations that are needed before my son can return home.  Add in pressures in the M. Education program, and time in schools, and I have more than I can easily handle.  However, I have been better about posting than you have been faithful to participate in our discussion forum.  We will work at these tasks together!