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Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Howitzer Rants Has Moved
We are still working out the bugs but we are hosting this blog in another place.. come check out our new home at
Friday, March 27, 2009
Letters to Joshua- Ten Commandments: Overview
Dear Josh,
One of the interesting things that seem to be going on in our country is a desire to keep the things of God separate from the government. You have probably heard people talk about the separation of Church and State. This idea was spawned way back even before the United States was even started. In European countries many times there was such a strong National Church that the government was not allowed to govern but was in subjection to the Church. This caused some serious problems. When America began to govern itself the founding fathers desired to set up a system that would have government free to do it’s job without being subject to a National Church. I don’t think the founding fathers wanted a government that was free from the influence of the Church, just not controlled by the Church.
Several thousand years earlier, Moses stood on a mountain receiving a set of laws that would give direction to the nation of Israel. Most people call these the Ten Commandments. He received other more specific rules and direction from God to help govern the nation but the guiding principles of how to live were captured in the top ten. Many of the laws of our land have as an inspiration the Ten Commandments Moses brought down the mountain. In fact many of the countries of the world are influenced by these basic foundational guidelines. Your life and mine are subject to their authority.
I want you to be familiar with these because over time you will find that these are connected with the Big Picture of how we should live. Over the next few weeks I am going to break these down for you and give you a feel for what these mean. There is no separation of our lives and the Word of God.
Love,
Dad
Photo by thisRobot
Letters to Josh is a series of letters written from a dad to his son Josh trying to capture some of the important life lessons he wanted to pass on. These letters are a bit random in nature but each is written to address a key issue in the development of a young man. These letters are written from a very imperfect father whose love knows no bounds for his son. These letters are shared with you (the reader) only because we hope that the things we are learning and thinking through will help you and your sons.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Big Hermeneuticals: Romans 7:14-25
21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. [1]
The Big Hermeneuticals posts are designed for discussion. I am posting some key passages from the Bible hoping that you will chime in with your observations, interpretation, questions and applications. Just add you thoughts to the comment section. You can subscribe to the comments and be involved in the ongoing discussion of the study, as Blogger will send you all the new comments via email. Comments welcome!
b Or my flesh
[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Ro 7:14). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Photo by jtloweryphotography
Monday, March 23, 2009
Letters to Joshua: Sometimes You Win Sometimes You Lose
Dear Josh,Do you remember how you felt when we won the cake-decorating contest at the Cub Scout Banquet? Boy, there is nothing like winning. Very little compares to trying to do your best and coming out on top. The blue ribbon is something to be cherished. In this life you will not win every time so when you do have fun in the victory. But, be humble in the process. Winning is tricky because we have a tendency to think that we are pretty special because we have achieved some goal that we have set for ourselves and not only did we achieve our goal but we beat everybody else in the process. Watch out for pride. It seems to lurk behind every championship trophy or gold medal or blue ribbon you win. There is an old saying that says that “pride comes before the downfall”. What I think that means is if you think too much of yourself you will begin to do thing that will alienate you from the people around you and you begin to live in such a way that causes you to fall down on your face. When you win, I want you to enjoy it but it is important to be a humble, gracious winner. Don’t gloat! Don’t think too highly of yourself. But, enjoy every victory. Savor the smell of success. Remember the hard work it took to get to your goal and continue to get better.
Unfortunately, though sometimes you do not win the ribbon. Sometimes you do your best and it is just not good enough. There is always someone who is more talented than you, someone who worked harder than you, someone who picked up the ball faster than you. That doesn’t make you are less of a person it just means you lost the contest. YOUR VALUE AS A PERSON IS NOT DETERMINED BY YOUR WIN/LOSS RECORD. YOUR VALUE AS A PERSON IS MANY TIMES DETERMINED BY HOW YOU RESPOND TO YOUR WIN/LOSS RECORD. I can’t tell you how many things I have tried to do something and lost. Most of the sports teams I have played on had losing records. We were good but not good enough. But, for me the fun is in the trying. I love to compete and put myself up against someone who is better and see how I do. I learn something every time I do that. I remember playing a guy in tennis one time that was the number one tennis player on his team in college. He smoked my butt really good. I only won one game in the whole set. But, the thing I remember is “I beat a guy who was the best tennis player on his college tennis team. Winners see the good, accept the bad and move forward to try to improve. It took me a long time to separate losing a game and being a loser. Losing a game is something we all experience, being a loser is a mindset that says, “I can’t cut it”. There is a huge difference. I have lost many times, I have very rarely thought of myself as a loser. Sometimes our greatest lessons in life are learned when we lose. Honestly, I have figured out how much of a winner I was more after a key loss than after winning a championship. A friend of mine says, “losers make excuses, winners make plays.” That’s pretty good. When you lose don’t make excuses, just vow to continue to get better.
Sometimes you win; sometimes you lose. Being a winner is more than being ahead on the scoreboard after the final horn sounds. Being a winner is a mindset that says, “I will always try to do my best and let the chips fall where they may.” Be a winner Josh, even if you lose every game!
Love,
Dad
President of the Josh Fan Club
Photo by Dad
Letters to Josh is a series of letters written from a dad to his son Josh trying to capture some of the important life lessons he wanted to pass on. These letters are a bit random in nature but each is written to address a key issue in the development of a young man. These letters are written from a very imperfect father whose love knows no bounds for his son. These letters are shared with you (the reader) only because we hope that the things we are learning and thinking through will help you and your sons.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Are you Master of Your Domain?
I have to admit that I am a big Seinfeld fan. I wasn’t crazy about it before reruns. At first I didn’t get the significance of a show about nothing. I didn’t really know the characters so I didn’t watch it much. Once they put it in the dinner rerun slot we found ourselves watching it every night. Once you have been exposed to a lot of the episodes you find that Seinfeld is not about nothing it is actually about everything. Hardly a day goes by that you don’t have a Seinfeld moment. Seinfeld Junkies like myself are easy to spot because as they are living life they find Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer humor everywhere. One of the most vulgar and yet hilarious shows was about our four beloved friends engaging in a contest to see who could remain master of their domain for the longest. For those of you who are not familiar with that episode you can scan our picture above to get the jest of the contest. I don’t remember who won the contest but I do remember laughing my guts out. Pray for me, will you?
I was continuing my study in Romans and ran across an interesting passage
Romans 6:11-14 (NIV) 11 in the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14 for sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. [1]
The phrase that stuck out to me was in verse 14, “For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.” I live in a relatively free society that is mastered by everything. We are controlled by our lusts. We lust for food, we lust for drink, we lust for sex, we lust for power, we lust for positions and we lust for possessions. We are jack of all lusts, master of none. Well maybe you are and if so I apologize but most of us are struggling and admittedly not struggling all that well. Most of us are mastered by the sin we struggle with. Sins of omission (things we don’t do that we should) or sins of commission (things we do that we shouldn’t) makes no difference we are shackled by the weight of its proverbial ball and chain.
Paul says that sin shall not be your master because we are not under law but under grace. Before you blow right by that you have to ask the question, “How does being under grace keep us from being mastered by sin.” It seems to me that being under grace would actually lead to a more lax approach toward sin. It seems to me that being restricted by a series of laws would be more effective. Is this a classic case of reverse psychology?
Let me take an example from everyday life. When you see a speed limit sign does it make you want to go faster or go slower? I love this picture, can you imagine the constraint that the horse rider had to possess not to break out in a trot. See it doesn’t really matter what the rule is, there is something about a rule that makes you want to break it. Why is that? I guess it is just human nature. Parents hate rules but they are always laying down another line to be crossed and we wonder why our children are out of control at times. From time to time I will send my son to his room for a disciplinary reason. He has the hardest time getting all the way into the room. Sometimes, he will be mostly in but wants to stick some part of himself out across the threshold to show me he is mostly in compliance but he is still in control. When he is in serious rebellion he will put his toe in the room and lay out in the hallway. I am just like him related to sin in my life. I feel like God has given me rules that in effect send me to my room. Very rarely do I just go in and do what I am told. Most times I want to push the limits.
But I am not under law but am under grace. Grace is supposed to motivate me to not be mastered by my sin. But I am not sure how that works. Do you have any input for me?
________________________________________________________
Photo #1 by Aaron_M
Photo #2 by CarbonNYC
[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (Ro 6:11). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
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