Paul's Poems

Here's an easier and more enjoyable way to remember one of the most famous passages in the Bible that is also among the most famous sayings in the world.

Love is very patient,
Love is very kind,
Love is never envious
Or vaunted up with pride.

Nor is she conceited,
And never is she rude,
Never does she think of self,
Or ever get annoyed.

She never is resentful,
Is never glad with sin,
But always glad to side with truth,
When 'er the truth should win.

She bears up under everything,
Believes the best in all,
There is no limit to her hope,
And never will she fall.

This is quoted from the International Standard Version (ISV) translation of the New Testament. To learn more about the power of poetry, especially in the New Testament, I would check out this essay I just finished reading by Dr. David Alan Black. He is a professor at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and also consistently updates a blog I enjoy following.

I have personally experienced several great benefits from memorizing passages of scripture, both Old and New Testament. I think the approach taken by the ISV of translating passages widely accepted as poetry into English meter and rhyme should have been thought of long ago, but I am glad a group of people finally had the idea and carried it out. Many of Paul's teachings, as well as those of Jesus, were short, easy to remember poems. Learning them as such helps me to remember them, and it also adds a touch of artistic beauty to the teachings themselves that would otherwise be lost in translation. While I know that several of my friends reject thought-for-thought translations of the Bible in favor of more "literal" word-for-word translations, I reject this practice as ignorant, and I proudly and joyfully read and study from a wider variety of translations, knowing that at least some true meaning and intent is lost in a strict word-for-word translation from Greek into English.

If you do not agree with me on this, that's ok. I, however, will enjoy trying to memorize this version of I Corinthians 13, and I hope you will all believe, accept and cherish this fact:

To this world Christ Jesus came,
Sinful people to reclaim.

- I Timothy 1:15 (ISV)

Not What I Have Done

Three instances in the past twenty four hours have served to reinforce a theme in my mind and heart. Firstly, I had a brief, unexpected conversation last night with a new friend who is a member of the Latter Day Saints (Mormon) church. He explained to me that God does not expect us to be perfect but to, essentially, do our best, and Jesus will take care of the rest. We discussed this more, but not as much as I wish we could have. What I take away from this conversation is the fact that what I believe about Jesus is radical. It is contrary to what we as humans want to believe, for whatever reason. We want to earn everything. My Mormon friend wants to earn everything. I want to earn everything. I want to say that I played some part in earning God's favor. I "merited" it. I get a merit badge. That, however, is not what God says is true.

"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Matthew 5:48

"None is righteous, no not one. No one understands, no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one."
Romans 3:10-12

"To the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. But, to the one who does not work, but trusts Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."
Romans 4:4-5


(from pe.com)

Secondly, I had the privilege this morning of telling the story of Jesus' birth to the elementary students at my church and explaining why it is such good news. I told them that even Jesus' name means something! His name is translated from Hebrew and means "God saves." When I embrace a "works mindset," believing I somehow receive blessings from God because I have done enough good things, God no longer saves. God gives me my wage, my earnings, my merit badge. That doesn't even fit with his name! I don't know how to say "God pins badge" in Hebrew, but it's not "Jesus."


(from melrosetroop68.org)

Thirdly, during the praise music at church this morning, we read the following verse out loud together:

"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.'"
Jeremiah 23:5-6

This is a prophecy about Jesus, and it tells us of another well-suited name for my Savior, a name which I very seldom hear mentioned. "The LORD is our righteousness." This is the essence of the gospel, the good news of Jesus. Because of my utter failure to conform to God's perfect law, Jesus did it for me and offers me his record.

The point is this: In thinking about my standing before God, I often want to subtly mix in one teaspoon of trust in my own efforts and achievements. Instead, I will, and I must continuously decide to accept Jesus' offer, his penalty paid in my place, and his perfect record substituted for mine. From this kind of trust flows all my freedom to love God and run in the path of his commands. When I realize how much I've been rescued from, I am grateful to God and want to love others in the same way. When I deceive myself into believing that I earned what I have, I swell up with pride, wait for others to pat me on the back, and I sit on my pompous butt.

(from frealfitness.com)

Denver, Baby

This week I finally made my final decision. I am going to Denver for two years! Six months ago I decided to move here to North Carolina, live with my brother, Andy, and learn more about the church plant he is helping to lead in Denver. Soma Church(which means body, as in the body of Christ)is going to be in Denver metro, and the vision of the church is to love God, love each other, and love the community. Doesn't that sound great? Well, the tricky thing is this... all kinds of churches have vision statements just like that. The way I have learned what Soma is really all about has been by living here with the team, praying with them, confessing sin with them, studying the Bible together, hanging out, and "doing life" together. They are all sinners! They know that and are quick and open to tell you that. However, they are genuine people whom I now trust, and I am happy, excited, and, let's be honest, a bit nervous to be heading out there with them in about a month.

Doing life together has been great, but it has not been roses and peaches the whole time.


(Picture from carolchambers.biz)

I have been learning about my idols, learning how to take responsibility for myself in a lot of new ways, learning to embrace confrontations, and learning how to cut grass! Yes, I have had the privilege of being on a landscaping crew with a few really cool guys who have patiently trained me in the art of lawn care. While it is a fun and rewarding job, I hope to be able to use my civil engineering degree eventually, and I have been putting out applications like crazy in Denver. Here is a small example of a confrontation I've faced: at one point, about three months ago, I literally said out-lout to God, "I don't want to go to Denver with Andy, I don't even like him!" We had just had an argument about me "stealing" his peanut butter, and I was pretty mad at the way he treated me. (Isn't that ridiculous?) However, and this is what I want to mark everything in my life, we applied the gospel, the good news of Jesus. God covers up all my offenses, yes, all of them, and he gives me the perfect record of Jesus the Messiah, instead. How in the world should I not forgive my brother? We admitted our selfishness, we followed Jesus in forgiving each other, and we agreed on a good peanut butter system to avoid confusion in the cupboard. That is a dumb story, I know. However, I pray that God will teach us, Soma Church, to apply the gospel to everything we do in Denver Colorado, specifically, in loving God, loving each other, and loving the city. Actually that is the vision statement of the church sending us, The Summit. Our vision is the same but we say Gospel, Community, Mission. (I guess we love the idea but want to appear original.) I want to see a gospel movement, because Jesus is worthy!

Things We Couldn't Say

I just finished an amazing book called "Things We Couldn't Say," the story of Diet Eman, a Christian woman who lived in the Netherlands during WWII and worked with the underground resistance and helped protect Jews. It is a very graphic, genuine account of her life, including her thoughts, prayers and frustrations during all of the sufferings she went through while helping others. Diet's decisions bring up very interesting moral questions that I have never had to face, since she had to decide whether to obey what the Nazis were telling her to do, whether to lie to them, who she could help and who she could trust, etc. However, the message I found most important from her story was the truth of God's promise that gave Diet hope throughout all she went through, the words of Jesus that she carved, at one point, in Dutch into her prison wall, "Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." I believe there is a reason Jesus gave these as some of his last words, knowing that we would need to remember this promise especially through the sufferings that we are privileged to go through for his sake. I recommend this book for everybody.

Quran Burnings

I have had many thoughts and questions as a result of the planned burnings of the Quran in Florida this Saturday.

The biggest question in my mind is this: What does it mean that Jesus' Kingdom is not of this world, and how then do we who love him also fight the spiritual battle we are in, specifically against the lies of Islam that enslave people we love to an oppressive life and eternal death? (Yes, it's a mouthful of a question when I actually put it into writing!)

Then part of me wonders, what if this guy is right? That possibility scares me, and it's hard to explain why.

This is my only personal conclusion: I know what I believe about Islam. I think it is a powerful, manipulative force of falsehood and evil that is sweeping the entire world. Most significantly, it keeps people from knowing and loving the real Jesus. We are in a war for the glory of God and the souls of men and women, whether we ever realize it and fight or not. I want to fight this war whole-heartedly, just as Jesus did. He gave his life to conquer sin and death and to put Satan and all evil powers to shame. All I know to do is to pray and to proclaim the gospel in word and deed. The times of killing people and burning their property is over. God's Kingdom is not of this world, so we don't use weapons of this world. I feel like this Pastor in Florida is truly zealous but ignorant and misguided. I want to and ought to love and serve my individual Muslim friends, to seek more of them, understand their world view, love them, and be prepared to well-articulate to them the truth that Jesus is our only hope. I want to pray earnestly and ask God if I should be one of the people to go to a highly Muslim populated area to be a light for Jesus.

New Rhymes

I would like to share some lines I enjoyed writing recently.

Crucified with Christ
Justified by faith
Incredibly surprised
To stand in Jesus' place

For he came down and stood
Where I deserve to stand
Nailed to a cross of wood
Blood dripping down his hands

Paying out in full
What I deserved to pay
Tragic, dark 'Place of the Skull'
Then on God's judgment day

Angels bow to you,
Kings and rulers, too,
And yet I see you do
Have so much care for who?

For anyone who will
Quite honestly confess
That he was hopeless 'til
He saw your righteousness

I see he offers us
Life so abundantly
It's metamorphosis,
He's really changing me

To follow in his steps
I'll daily reach for him.
Discovering the depths
Of mercy he has given.

I take his righteousness
And immortality,
and ne'er grow tired of this:
My God is pleased with me

And though my greatest deeds
Are just a crappy pile,
O, for a heart that beats
to see my Father smile

To know my Father well
And nothing more than this,
I trust no one can tell
Me of a greater bliss.

David Brainerd

I just started over reading The Life and Diary of David Brainerd. It is very interesting and encouraging to read and see into the heart of this man. He struggled so long and hard to try to earn God's love by being disciplined in prayer and bible study but found it so hard to meet God's Law's demands especially on our thoughts and affections. He found that every time he thought he was doing well, he was really acting out of pride and selfishness, not for God's glory. He finally found the sweet truth that we can never earn a right standing before God but must submit completely to the righteousness that Jesus offers. I love this quote from the time the gospel became so real to him...

"I wondered that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation, entirely by the righteousness of Christ."

He is one cool puritan.