Prophecy and Refinement

For the last couple of months I’ve been leading a discussion on the book of Daniel for an adult Sunday School class.  Our focus has been on “Spiritual Living in a Secular World” and how the message of Daniel can be applied to that idea.  The first few chapters were pretty easy, everything from Daniel’s initial captivity to the lions’ den to the three boys in the furnace … blah blah blah … pretty easy to apply the concepts to modern living.  “God’s going to allow you to be in some bad circumstances, trust Him, He can protect you …”  Pretty easy to apply a nice Bible story to a difficult circumstance in life.

But it’s always the actual understanding and REAL LIFE application that’s difficult.

Then we started getting into the second half of the book, the section dealing with prophecy and those revelations that Daniel himself received.  Some of those have come to pass and for us appear as history, and some I believe are yet to come, but either way, for Daniel they were all future events.

So our class is discussing the four kingdoms and their eventual destruction and I’m thinking “so why does God tell us all of this … If Daniel knew the outcome, if he knew due to God’s prophecy that the captivity would be short lived, why does he pray so hard for deliverance for his people?  Do they/we really need to know what’s going to happen in the future?  Is it supposed to give us peace that it/suffering will come to an end?  If that’s the case, why does God allow these things to happen and continue?  Why not just allow us to absorb the lesson and move on?”

From what I can determine, the bottom line is that God allows us to go thru the trials as Daniel and the Israelites did so that we/they can be refined, developed and matured.  He doesn’t give us prophecy so that we can know what’s coming in the future.  There’s no real value in that.  He gives us prophecy so that we can prepare and so that we can see that when these things DO come to pass (and they will) that it all still is HIS plan and that He is still in control.

I guess the trick isn’t in the prophecy, it’s in the details of the fulfillment.  The prophecy is just the evidence that God DOES have a plan.

The spiritual living in the secular world part came in for our class discussion in that we were able to see that regardless of the garbage that’s going on at work, school or even church or family, that it will be used as part of God’s plan and for His purpose.  It’s pretty humbling to know that He has things planned for me … pretty humbling …

Stress Level Survey

After spending some time snapping at my family during the holidays, I decided to take an online stress test … just to see if there might be something other than an overall lack of sleep contributing to my moods.  The answers were pretty interesting …

[http://medicalcenter.osu.edu/files/survey/stress.cfm]

Fred Thompson

fred thompson announced on the tonight show last night that he has officially entered the race for the 2008 presidential election.  other current front runners, including mitt romney, rudy giuliani, and john mccain, each have different facets that are less than desirable for the current conservative base, but the question remains, “is fred thompson any different?”  if republicans are looking for the second coming of ronald reagan, which if any of these potential candidates fills the bill?  romney has struggled in consolidating his political stance on abortion and some feel he can be shown to be a kerry-like flip-flopper.  giuliani tends to be a social liberal with some early ideas on gun control.  mccain has long been closer to the left side of the republican party than most people would like to admit, especially when considering the impact of individual freedoms that have resulted from campaign finance reform. 

but is fred any different?

his campaign has stated that they intend to focus on “security, unity and prosperity.” 

national security is a concept that conservatives seem a bit more focused on than what the response (other than verbal, actions not words) has been from the left.  appeasement is not generally a conservative concept, national sovereignty is.  i believe that fred’s blog postings and public statements re: the war in iraq support this.

financial security is a conservative concept if it is a applied to the rule “teach a man to fish …” (financial sercurity is a liberal concept if it is applied to the rule “give a man a fish …”)  individual effort towards financial security appears to be a concept that fred will support based on his own willingness to work, switch career paths, public statements re: the reduction of entitlement programs, etc.  other than what he has exhibited in his personal life and his limited past votes, this is difficult to be certain on, however the evidence is encouraging.

unity is a concept that both parties are trying to claim, neither wants to be viewed as a divider of the country, however this is a concept that is difficult for someone who is a washington insider (hillary, edwards, bill, mccain …) to accomplish as their past votes and public proclamations are already impacting their ability to overcome.  bush has tried this with “no child left behind” and with immigration reform (or lack thereof) and these policies have only been viewed as either flat out failures at worst or  as disappointments by both conservatives and liberals alike at best.  fred has a chance of overcoming this as he has experience in washington, but that is not his primary “work environment.”  other than his limited involvment into the watergate afteraction (which could be seen as blind workhorse for the republican party), and his limited public condemnation of the left as the other side, he has not been involved in a significant amount of public finger pointing/wagging.

prosperity is a concept that both the left and the right would like to claim, however their methods for achieving that are vastly different, with one party doing it through individual effort and the other thru the redistribution of wealth and the consolidation of power.  this just builds off fred’s qualifications from the concept of financial security.

do i think fred is any different from the other front runners?   

yooouuuuuuu becha …

Worship Team – Part I

I recently started playing in our church worship team again (working nights for the last couple of years has prevented that).  As a hack guitar player, it was a bit awkward and humbling to step into one of the roles that needed filling and playing bass.  It’s not that playing bass is beneath me (no way), the theory is very similar, the problem being that the technique is different and my skill level is less than stellar, hence the humbling …  Having said that, this is where the need was and God has blessed me with at least a nominal level of ability … I think He expects me to trust Him for the results … I think He expects me to do it as an act of obedience and not for the show … I think He expects me to use what He put in my hands … I think He expects me to do it now.

Paul said “the one who calls you is faithful …. and HE WILL DO IT” (I Thess. 5:24)

now where’s my thunderbird …

Social Distortion – When the Angels Sing

i just found this on youtube, and while i don’t believe that mike ness provides all of the necessary foundation for theological discourse, it’s evident that even as a representative of the lost, he knows that life and death don’t mean a thing aside from God … talk about trying to live life after the curse …

Conventional Wisdom on Finances – Part I

The conventional wisdom on finances states that the average family/earner is best served by paying taxes claiming all possible deductions on your paycheck throughout the year, retaining as much of your own cash as possible and investing it, then actually compensating for unpaid taxes at the end of the year.  Dollar for dollar, the individual is further ahead with this approach.

 As an average middle-class spender and head-of-the-household, my responses to conventional wisdom are in the process of changing.  Our family has found that whatever our paycheck happens to be, we tend to spend just a bit more.  Due to a general lack of discipline, at the end of the year our credit card always seems to have a little bit more on it than I can pay off during that current month.  As a result, we have now changed our tax withholdings on our paychecks to reflect single status with no dependants.  Yes, this has given the government control of my cash for a year, but it has also actually reduced my spending (remember, we spend just a bit more than the paycheck, whatever that amount).  When tax time rolls around, we now have a refund significant enough that we’re able to pay off any consumer debt acquired during the year and we have enough left over to cover the cost of a vacation and some home improvements.  It’s working … and that’s better than going into debt …

Undiscovered Country – Either/Or

“To be or not to be?” I ask myself upon my pillow
To spend eternity at rest without the slings and arrowsI want to be with you
A sea of trouble spread between us
To bid adieu to bid adieu to this world

And so I’ll sail away across the sea
To the undiscovered country
Truly alive and truly free
And if I leave tomo9rrow
It gives me hope to know
That there’s no place I’d rather be
Set me free.

I’ll leave it all behind
This bag of bones with Yorick’s skull
For ‘tis nobler in the mind for me to suffer pain and sorrow
I shall not bear the bodkin
I’ll bear my fortune waiting for you
To bid adieu to bid adieu to this world

To fall asleep
Perchance to dream
Until the day the dead shall rise
For we see but a poor reflection
But the day the sky splits open
I’m face to face with my Creator

And while I still have breath
I’ll run until I pith the marrow
If I succumb to death
It gives me hope to know what follows
I shall not blunt my purpose
The toils of life won’t leave me fallow
And when I’m through I’ll bid adieu to this world!

And so I’ll sail away across the sea
To the undiscovered country
Truly alive and truly free
And if I leave tomo9rrow
It gives me hope to know
That there’s no place I’d rather be
Set me free.