The Full Number

    Numbers matter to God, from the days of creation in Genesis to the dimensions of the New Jerusalem at the end of Revelation, the Bible is full of numbers. The idea that Christ's return is waiting until the full number of Gentiles come for salvation is comforting, especially to us Gentiles. (Rom. 11:25) But there are also less comforting numbers, as in Gen. 15:16 when the Lord told Abram it was not yet time to occupy Canaan for the sin of the Amorites had not reached its full measure. But how does God measure sin? Rev. 20:12 says, The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books, so maybe God was waiting for their books to reach the last page.

   It may be hard to work up much concern for a people group dead for millennia, but Revelation 6:11 tells us about another countdown closer to our hearts--the martyrs. There are many martyrs in our own time, but this verse is about those who die during the tribulation. Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the full number of their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been. This accounting is not about Gentiles getting saved, or ancient people getting punished. This verse says God has a set number of tribulation saints who will be martyred before God's judgment comes. On one hand, it is comforting to know each of these martyrs matter to God, they count, but waiting to intervene while the body count grows seems wrong by human standards.

    Though I may not fully comprehend this part of God's plan, I do find some applications. If Christ did not return sooner to protect those dying for His name, He is not going to return so we don't have to experience suffering--our own death, losing loved ones, sickness, pain, persecution, prodigals, loss of income, home, memories, and many other hardships. Those sorrows matter deeply to God, but He loves us too much to protect us from what He is using to perfect us. One of the signs we are growing as Christians is when we stop expecting God to keep us from suffering, but to keep us through it. He uses hardships to help us become the full measure of us.

 

Heard, but No

     The verse of the day is an old concept, but in the modern age mine comes by phone. The verse that popped up recently is Heb. 5:7 "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the only one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission." As a long time student of the Bible, I have learned that chapter 5 follows chapter 4, so the context of the passage is Jesus as our high priest. Because Jesus understands the struggles of humanity, we can approach our high priest in prayer with confidence and find grace. Which is why the verse above seems a strange way to confirm that--Jesus prayed to his Father fervently for deliverance from death, was heard, but God's answer was "No." Pardon me, but that seems like a strange example for our confidence in prayer. If the answer is going to be no, what do we need confidence for? We might as well doubt God will answer, like we always do.

     And then there's Paul, he prayed three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed. While he didn't exactly strike out, and he definitely was heard, the answer was, My grace is sufficient for you. In other words, "No." Moses asked the Lord to find someone else to go to Pharaoh, and though God allowed his brother Aaron to be his plus one, His answer was another "No." Jonah didn't ask to be excused when God said go to Nineveh, but he did cut and run which is worse than a pouty prayer. The fish that swallowed Jonah conveyed the Lord's "No" and the next time God said go, he did.

     So we are to pray, we are to pray confidently, but our confidence is not in believing we will get what we ask for, it is in knowing we are heard by a God who is too wise to just give us what we ask for. And there is another benefit, one that makes us Christlike--

 

Our reverent submission will grow 

when the answer is--I heard, but No.

 

Limited Vision

    Since we have come to chapter 10, the conversion of Cornelius, in our Acts study at church, our pastor thought it would be a good time for a Bible wide overview of God's plan for the inclusion of the Gentiles with his chosen people, the Jews. This led to an explanation of reformed theology. In reformed theology, the church has replaced Israel as the recipient of God's promises, therefore the promises regarding land and territory are fulfilled spiritually, not literally. There are many genuine believers who hold this view and I know some of them personally. But I wondered as pastor preached if, since they don't believe God is faithful to his promises to Israel, do they believe he is faithful to his promises to us about salvation? The pastor said reformed theology agrees with eternal security. The problem is, at the time their beliefs were written into their creeds and confessions, Israel was not a nation. The Jews were scattered through many countries. From my research, the middle east at the time of the reformation was divvied up between France and England. Until oil was discovered, that part of the world was largely considered an ungoverned wasteland. Reformed theology was limited in its vision of prophecy by the history of the time in which it developed.

    And in my continued contemplation of the essence of salvation, I realized the same concept of limited vision may apply. We are limited because we only see salvation from human perspective.

If salvation was merely: 

•       a decision to trust Christ, changing our minds would end it
•       a commitment to follow Jesus, we could just stop following
•       a passion for the Lord, those feelings could fade away 

    Both our own salvation and that of our prodigals would be in jeopardy if it depended on those fallible human factors. But salvation from God's perspective is a spiritual reality that He provided, initiated, and completed. We are already citizens of heaven, though our vision is limited to things of the earth. One of the purposes of God giving us prophecy and its behind the scenes glimpses of God's plan, is to lift us from our limited earthly vision to the reality He sees. And if we do not believe that God is faithful to his keep his promises to us about salvation, we are the ones who need to reform our theology.

 

 

 

 

Judge Not

     One of the favorite Bible verses quoted (ironically, in a most judgmental way) by people who don't believe the Bible is Mt. 7:1 "Judge not lest you be judged." It is used as a get out of judgment jail free card, as in, You have no right to criticize me. That's true, as one sinful human being to another, we have no right to judge/condemn. That belongs to God alone. We are, however, commanded to judge/discern (1 Cor. 2:15). Judgment, applied to ourselves, is what protects us from continuing to live in the sin Jesus freed us from and enables us to represent God in a world opposed to Him. Judgment, applied to other believers, is to restore their relationship with Jesus and his church. Judgment, applied to unbelievers, is to show them their need for Christ and to protect society's powerless.

     Human government, both to our amazement and disappointment, is God's plan to keep order on the planet He created. Our judges, though far from perfect, are his assigned authorities within that government. Whether they believe it or not, they represent him. That is why it is particularly reprehensible when they rule unjustly. Though American judges are less likely to be caught taking bribes, nearly all of them are taking sides. Particularly, the left side, which is why they strongly resisted our recent legislature's attempt to make them declare their political party. Though Montanans know our judges are a liberal leaning tower of partisanship, the judges do not want to put that in writing. Throughout our country, judges are ruling in favor of their political persuasion or personal opinion regarding abortion, gender, and other matters where God DID put his ruling in writing. The good/bad news is, the judges themselves will be summoned to court to answer for every decision. There is no Judge Not appeal in God's judgment hall. But it is a sad commentary on our nation's legal system that our judges are making lawyers look like the unbiased officers of the court.

     

 

Coal & Corruption Comment

    It is very rare for me to respond to a survey, especially one that pops up on my phone, like the one from Dynata today. As it turned out, it was about Attorney General Austin Knudsen joining with other states in a lawsuit against investment firms believed to have bought coal companies simply to reduce production and marginalize them as an energy source. The main thrust seemed to be that if these companies lose the lawsuit, loss of their investment dollars may cost the coal industry even more jobs and income. There are obviously many ways to look at this issue, jobs and income are essential, but I wish the survey left room for a comment section because mine would have been this--

    It is not right to leave corruption in place just because it will cost jobs or hurt the state economy. That is how the southern states justified slavery. We can't afford to pay workers wages to pick our cotton. And that is how states like California justify leaving illegal aliens in the U.S. We can't afford to pay American citizens to mow our lawns or clean our houses and pools. There is always a price to be paid for doing the right thing, but it is less costly than continued corruption.

Letter to DOT

 

    Last week our City Council held a meeting for public comment on their proposal to improve downtown Main Street by narrowing it from four lanes to two, with a turn lane as its +1. There would still be parallel parking, but they would add wider sidewalks where the bistros we do not yet have, could offer outdoor tables so patrons could enjoy exhaust fumes with their meal during the two months the weather would be suitable for outside dining. I did not go to the meeting because they are usually just a futile formality for a decision that has already been made. Instead, I wrote an online comment to the Montana Department of Transportation in the probably naive belief that, since Main is actually Highway 93, traffic flow might be of interest to them, I wrote the following:      

 

    My name is Connie Lamb. I live in Kalispell. Please save me from the idiocy of my City Council. Since the federal funds they are eager to access cannot be used for the parking structure we actually need in downtown Kalispell, they are planning to make Main/Hwy 93 into a de facto parking lot by reverting it to one lane each way with center turn lane. Their plan includes keeping parallel parking, which means people who are inconsiderate enough to hold up traffic, will keep an even longer line waiting. And people like me who haven't parallel parked since their driver's license test, will not even try to shop downtown. The diners our Council envisions eating al fresco on the widened sidewalks, can do so while breathing in fresh exhaust from the queue of cars.

    Apparently our council members have not driven Hwy 93 through Polson in tourist season, or they would know that not only can drivers not turn left into a business they might like to patronize, they also can't turn right to get out. Some businesses even put out signs asking thru traffic to please let their customers out of their parking lot. The plan promises to help businesses, but the construction that blocked North Meridian when that road was being rebuilt caused several businesses there to close for good. The Council is probably correct that there will be fewer accidents on Main, because vehicles usually have to be moving to have a collision.

   The combination of federal funds and a foolish idea are irresistible to city government, but DOT has final authority over our highways and I hope you can prevent this impractical plan, or at least park it until we have more realistic representatives.

 

    I received a discouraging response from the DOT saying they supported the idea. Kalispell is to be the lead of a "Safe Streets for All" campaign to take advantage of free federal funds available to frustrate drivers. She referred me to the PR firm tasked with sending responses so they can pretend our comments matter. However, God must answer even snarky prayers because, even though they used the magic word safety in their proposal, last night the council voted down sending an application for the government grant. And there is no way the locals will pay extra to obstruct their own traffic. Kalispell has been saved from this particular piece of idiocy, no thanks to the DOT. My thanks is going to the GOD.

Where There's a Will

    The saying is--Where there's a will there's a way. That proved true for us last week when, by what appeared to be extremely sloppy sovereignty on God's part, our whole house carpet install coincided with Reed's fourth week of radiation therapy. Although we had already told the carpet store we might have to pause the install if Reed got too tired, I kind of wanted to see what God had in mind when He put this plan together. We are blessed to have generous and talented children who are so used to helping out, we did not even have to ask, and so used to working together, no one had to tell the other what to do. So both kids and our son-in-law stepped in to help with the initial furniture and carpet removal but, in another strange stroke of sovereignty, our daughter's family had long laid plans to visit Luke's family in Iowa starting Thursday of install week. Thus the supporting role of carpet removal fell on Will. And he was amazing.

    We asked the installers for a lighter schedule Thursday so we did not have to do much tear out after seeing our granddaughters get their Awana awards Wednesday night. Jules and Ren were Cubbies, the first group to get awards. Sparks were later, so by the time we got home from watching Brie get her award, (brag alert!) the highest Awana gives, Will had already removed furniture, carpet and part of the pad. The carpeting project finished Friday afternoon. The installers, who by that time felt like family, offered to return and put furniture back if Will could not come, no charge. But, of course, he did come. With Reed midway through radiation treatment and some of our family unavailable, it seemed like there was no way to make this happen. But then, where there's a Will, there's a way.