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The Nashville Statement
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Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
My complete profile...
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Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well. - Marc Heinrich
His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice. - Rose Cole
[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts. - C-Train
This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day. - David Kjos
Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk. - Jonathan Moorhead
There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year. - Carla Rolfe
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The Holiest Weekend |
Today is the day that our Lord took bread and wine with His disciples in the upper room. On that evening He was betrayed by one of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, arrested, questioned, mocked, beaten, shuffled off to Pilate, then to Herod and back.
These things are so important to remember, in fact Christ commanded us to remember them. He didn't command us to invent (or celebrate for that matter) Christmas, nor are we to regard that convenient invention as something holy - it isn't. It is just a Christianized pagan thing, and anyone who says or believes otherwise has been sold a bill of goods. Don't get me wrong, I give my kids presents on Christmas, but I don't think of Christmas as anything holy. I know better, and if you are a believer, so should you.
Yet I am not writing today to bash Christmas. Here it is the passover season - what was pictured in the OT passover, and came to be on Calvary - the inauguration of the new covenant in Christ's blood - this is something that is holy, holy, holy! Something every serious believer ought to celebrate and recognize.
I wonder how many Christians will regard this weekend as holy? I mean, holier than the "lip-service" variety of "holy" (which isn't holy at all)? Consider the OT orthodox Jew, who regarded as "set apart" (i.e. as "holy") the seventh day of the week (Saturday) - the day on which God rested - and observed the day as a day devoted to the worship of God, and denial of self. This was done each and every week. A day where you maybe fasted, or devoted yourself to prayer and holy meditation. A day entirely unlike a day of work - on the Sabbath you could set aside the whole day for focused worship. Maybe you shared the Sabbath with your neighbor, or your family. Maybe you refused to open your mouth even to speak, lest you defile the day of worship with some offhand and thoughtless outburst.
I think a lot of us don't have a clue what setting a day apart actually looks like.
But if the typical Jew understood what it meant to keep the Sabbath holy - it is far more weighty a matter, in my thinking, to regard the holiest days of the year - the days in which our Lord was crucified, buried, and risen, and treat them like any other long weekend.
Will you set aside time to be with God tomorrow, or Sunday? How much? Fifteen minutes? an hour? Will you sit down to watch movies and play games this weekend, will you go out to the cabin? Will you entertain company? How are you going to spend the holiest days of the year? Will you, just this once, be holy as God is holy? I mean, seriously! What is it going to be this weekend for you?
Are you going to dress up this weekend in the standard finery of a holy appearance (or two) at church, followed by just another day and night of watching TV, playing games, and entertaining yourself? Will the thrust of your "worship" be a big old meal somewhere? Surely everyone and there dog is going to eat turkey on Sunday - is that what this is about?
I don't know why exactly I am personally so moved this year to regard this time as sacred, but I tell you I am. I look to the days ahead with a holy dread - not that I dread to think of the horrors my Lord endured for me, but that I dread to think that I will plod through this weekend with nary a care for what my Lord did. I dread to think that I will stumble along, like a drunken oaf, through a holy place, and be all the more offensive in doing so as I am oblivious to how oblivious I really am. Even as I think on it my innards quiver in the anticipation of my failure to magnify the Lord sufficiently during this time.
Brother, sister, child of God - how are you going to honor the Lord this weekend? Will you follow through on your tradition of dressing up the long weekend in holy attire, even as the days remain nothing more to you than time off from the grind? God help us all to honor Him in a way that is befitting His glory. God help us to regard this time as more holy than the holy of holies in the temple of Israel, for even the blood that was spilled there, was only the blood of animals - we remember during this season, the true altar, the true holy of holies, and that blood that opened that way for us.
Instead of merely tithing your time this weekend, why not give it all to God?Labels: The Holiest Time |
posted by Daniel @
9:25 AM
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3 Comments: |
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Good words Daniel, especially for Good Friday. The Cross is such a time for reflection of His truth. To look a little deeper into the infinite sacrifice of love our God has for us. Jesus was made a curse for us, the accursed.
I watch a portion of Gibson's Passion. The man is a bit off his rocker, yet he is gifted in the art of film making. There's a lot to sift through, but all in all, the visual is moving. Of course, reading the Word, and hearing the Word, and singing hymns like When I survey the Wondrous Cross are the ultimate for the heart of God's saints, as the Spirit moves in us, and upon us.
I truly don't set myself apart as I should. I can't imagine what John the Apostle must have felt when he was at the Cross, to see his Master dying in such a heinous and painful way. But, it was God's grace that brought John there to hear His Lord speak, and to write these things down for Christ's people. Thank You Lord for Your Word. You tell us to live by eating every Word. Grant us the grace and joy to go to Your Word, and be set apart to You. Amen.
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I am inclined, I think, by pragmatism, to suggest that people spend time in this or that, or meditate here and there on some point, and to do so in a worshipful way.
But I tell you this: I love Jesus, I love the Father and the Holy Spirit. I am overwhelmed today with the knowledge of the grace extended to me, and the beauty of my God. There is no formula - I just love my Lord, and all He has done - and this wells up in me unbidden. It's presence is a great joy, and my heart swells at the hope that God's name is magnified today in the hearts of His children.
It is a great gift given by God when His children desire His exaltation in the world. My hope is that His children are filled with such grace, such joy, such love.
Thanks for your comment Don. God bless you and your family today as you enjoy Him.
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Thank you Daniel. I am always encouraged and exhorted by your teachings.
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Good words Daniel, especially for Good Friday. The Cross is such a time for reflection of His truth. To look a little deeper into the infinite sacrifice of love our God has for us. Jesus was made a curse for us, the accursed.
I watch a portion of Gibson's Passion. The man is a bit off his rocker, yet he is gifted in the art of film making. There's a lot to sift through, but all in all, the visual is moving.
Of course, reading the Word, and hearing the Word, and singing hymns like When I survey the Wondrous Cross are the ultimate for the heart of God's saints, as the Spirit moves in us, and upon us.
I truly don't set myself apart as I should. I can't imagine what John the Apostle must have felt when he was at the Cross, to see his Master dying in such a heinous and painful way. But, it was God's grace that brought John there to hear His Lord speak, and to write these things down for Christ's people.
Thank You Lord for Your Word. You tell us to live by eating every Word. Grant us the grace and joy to go to Your Word, and be set apart to You. Amen.