The Parable of the Wasp

I live in a room in a fairly old house, with several large trees nearby. I've got two quite big windows, and they aren't double-glazed or anything. This means that I get quite a few wasps in here in the summer, and Wasp Season seems to have just started a few days ago.

I was woken up at about 5:30 this morning by a wasp which had somehow found its way into my room, and couldn't get out. It was continually buzzing and hitting itself against the window, rather like the persistent widow. And it was a great reminder to me of several things:

• as with the persistent widow, the importance of persistence in prayer. Not that God is like some curmugeonly old judge who can't be bothered getting out of bed (though I am) - God is far more gracious and far less sleepy than either me or the judge.
• how animals react to perceived needs. And yet do I / we seek after God like a wasp seeks after getting outside when everything is dark inside, when we know that we need him far more than a wasp needs light?
• the importance of taking opportunities when they come...

I couldn't sleep. So I got up, and opened the window for the wasp. The wasp, being stupid, did not go through the open window but continued pushing against the glass. So after a minute or so of this, I killed it. Having asked for and sought a way out of our problems, when we get one, we should take it, or our problems may just get a whole lot worse.

Assault

How come hitting someone is a criminal offence, but breaking a covenant obligation to your spouse isn't, even though the latter does far more damage and causes far more pain?

Unneccessary Modernisation

Over the last few weeks, I've sung both the old and new version of "Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus". And I can't see any reason whatsoever why it was modernised (while keeping the traditional language), except to make one of the more distinctivey-tuned (but still very singable) hymns sound the same as 90% of the contemporary songs. Which is surely a bad thing - some variety is good.

Marginalisation of the Elderly

This video just seems typical of the way society treats the elderly. It's meant to be funny because it is so close to the truth. When the government gave free TV licenses to all the over-65s, I think that said a lot. They want old people to die slowly in front of the brain-draining machine, without troubling anyone, interacting with other people, etc.

Contrast that with the Biblical view where the elderly are valued for their wisdom and experience, and where grey hairs (I've got a few) are valued for that rather than covered up by dying it and where people who don't look after their elderly relatives "have denied the faith and are worse than unbelievers".

Mind you, society is increasingly treating the young appallingly as well - stopping them from all the normal things they could be doing and then blaming them for entertaining themselves in the only way that society seems to present as a viable option (lots of alcohol).

Augustine on Miracles and Science

When such a thing happens, it appears to us as an event contrary to nature. But with God, it is not so; for him 'nature' is what he does.

Augustine of Hippo, Literal Commentary on Genesis

Jonathan Aitken - John Newton

They say one of the tips for how to do successful revision in an arts subject is to read lots of things you haven't read before... I don't think this counts, as it doesn't really touch directly on any of the topics I'm being examined on. But then again, I don't need an excuse to read good spiritual biographies like this one.

John Newton had a somewhat unusual life story, including privileged childhood, being a slave of black slave traders in Africa, running his own slave ship, a long time as minister of a church, political campaigner, key figure in English Christian history, and important figure in English social history, writer of the most famous hymn of all time - Amazing Grace.

Aitken's biography reads a little oddly for the genre of Christian biography, quite possibly because he knows a fair proportion of the British readership could well come from non-Christians interested in historical biography written by a former government minister. And actually, this might well be a good present for people like that...

For me, as a Christian, it helped to draw important connections in my head between great Christians of the 1700s like George Whitfield with great Christians of the 1800s like Charles Simeon and William Wilberforce, all of whom were friends with Newton at different stages of his life.

As a Christian biography, it isn't as mind-blowingly challenging as Steer on Hudson Taylor or Elisabeth on Jim Eliot. But it also manages to cut it as a good historical biography for non-Christians, which neither of those others really do. It can be read with significant profit by just about anyone. Recommended.

Is it Wrong to Steal a Bible?

Or, put more clearly, if someone who is used only to a life of crime becomes interested in Jesus and steals a Bible so they can find out more about him, is that wrong? I remember hearing someone speak who did just that - it may have been Tal Brooke, but I'm not sure, so I'll call the person Jimmy. Once they became a Christian, they later returned the Bible.

Argument that it is wrong

The Bible quite clearly says "Do not steal". It's in the 10 Commandments, Jesus repeated it, Paul repeated it. Stealing is wrong.

Counter-argument

Romans 2 is clear that the law applies only to those who know it, and those who don't are judged by what is seen of God's Law in their own consciences. Jimmy may honestly not have known that God didn't want him to steal the Bible. And yes, that probably means that Jimmy is guilty of stealing an awful lot of things previously, but in this case it's not actually his fault.

Furthermore, Paul says that "everything that does not come from faith is sin" (Rom 14:23). If we take that as a definition of sin, which it works well as, the stealing the Bible could actually be from a nascent faith and hence be the best thing Jimmy has yet done in his life.

Funny Link

The discussion was spawned by mention of this magnificent song, which was of course released for free download...

John Wheeler

John Wheeler has died. To my mind, he was the last of the really great physicists. Whether there will be any more is an interesting question.

Christopher Ash - Out of the Storm

It's pretty rare I read a devotional commentary-type book that's this good. It's on the book of Job, and I heard a good sermon series spinning off from it last year. What I didn't realise was that the book was much, much better. Chris Ash used to be one of the ministers at a church I went to, and he was always very good pastorally and a pretty good preacher too. In this book, he does stunningly well at both. (And he's the director of the Cornhill Training Course, and these aren't three point sermons delivered in a didactic and unemotional style). And in the unlikely event that Mr Ash is reading this, any good is because God is choosing to work through him, and the honour and glory go to God, not to Chris Ash.

Here's a quote that I read this morning:

That is the conversation of Job 1-2. What is the only sure test by which the world will know who are real worshippers of the true God and who are just pretending? Answer: loss and suffering. The only sure test is to strip from worshippers something of value, and then we shall see if they really worship the living God and bow down to him simply because he is God. Only when worship comes at a cost may we tell if it is true. Suffering is the fire that refines and reveals the heart of worship.

And the list of commentaries I recommend, including devotional sermon-type commentaries is here.

Ezra's Attitude to His Job

In Ezra 7, there's an interesting incident. Ezra the scribe is sent from Babylonia to the small and struggling community in Jerusalem. Ezra is an expert in the Law of Moses. His official remit is to offer lots of sacrifices and (real reason) to teach the Law and appoint judges, to impose the rule of law, both God's Law and the laws of the Persian empire. For this service, he's allowed to take along lots of gold and stuff.

And this is Ezra's response to his commission:

Blessed be the LORD, the God of our fathers, who put such a thing as this into the heart of the king, to beautify the house of the LORD that is in Jerusalem, and who extended to me his steadfast love before the king and his counselors, and before all the king’s mighty officers. I took courage, for the hand of the LORD my God was on me, and I gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

Ezra 7:27-28, ESV

Ezra sees his mission primarily as to beautify the house of God. That's interesting. The NIV doesn't get it - it is a bit incongruous after all, and translates it "bring honour to". But Ezra sees his mission, including the teaching and in Ezra 10 the calling the people to repentance, as beautifying the house of God. Now that's an interesting thought.