Contend Earnestly: Easter
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

The Most Prophetic Chapter in the Bible

Job chapter 9 has to be the most prophetic book in the Bible. The reason I say this is that Job is called the most righteous man to walk the earth by God himself in Chapter 1. After everything is taken away from Job he comes to the conclusion drawn in chapter 9. It is packed with wisdom from a man who knows his condition, knows God's goodness and perfection and is left to just complete bewilderment of what he can't do. The amazing thing is that there is only one person who can answer the most prominenant conclusion in chapter 9 by Job. It comes in verses 32 through 35 and it states:

For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
that we should come to trial together.
There is no arbiter between us,
who might lay his hand on us both
.
Let him take his rod away from me,
and let not dread of him terrify me.
Then I would speak without fear of him,
for I am not so in myself.
Job 9:32-35


Read Job chapter 9 and just glean from its beauty. Amazing that this came from the man that God described as, "...none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Job 1:8b


Then Job answered and said:
“Truly I know that it is so:
But how can a man be in the right before God?
If one wished to contend with him,
one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
He is wise in heart and mighty in strength
—who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—
he who removes mountains, and they know it not,
when he overturns them in his anger,
who shakes the earth out of its place,
and its pillars tremble;
who commands the sun, and it does not rise;
who seals up the stars;
who alone stretched out the heavens
and trampled the waves of the sea;
who made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
who does great things beyond searching out,
and marvelous things beyond number.
Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not;
he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back?
Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
“God will not turn back his anger;
beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.
How then can I answer him,
choosing my words with him?
Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him;
I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
If I summoned him and he answered me,
I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
For he crushes me with a tempest
and multiplies my wounds without cause;
he will not let me get my breath,
but fills me with bitterness.
If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
I am blameless; I regard not myself;
I loathe my life.
It is all one; therefore I say,
He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.
When disaster brings sudden death,
he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;
he covers the faces of its judges—
if it is not he, who then is it?
“My days are swifter than a runner;
they flee away; they see no good.
They go by like skiffs of reed,
like an eagle swooping on the prey.
If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’
I become afraid of all my suffering,
for I know you will not hold me innocent.
I shall be condemned;
why then do I labor in vain?
If I wash myself with snow
and cleanse my hands with lye,
yet you will plunge me into a pit,
and my own clothes will abhor me.
For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
that we should come to trial together.
There is no arbiter between us,
who might lay his hand on us both.
Let him take his rod away from me,
and let not dread of him terrify me.
Then I would speak without fear of him,
for I am not so in myself.
Job 9

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Thursday, April 01, 2010

Why Is the Stock Market Closed on Good Friday?


Every year as Easter comes around, for the past 11 years, I get a day off when most are going to work: Good Friday. Good Friday is the Friday before Easter and is the day that Christians all over the world celebrate something quite odd: We celebrate that Jesus died on the cross. Seems odd, but the reason we celebrate is because of what happened on that next Sunday, namely, that Jesus was raised from the dead showing his victory over death and sin for us and for our salvation.

This explains quickly what the day of Good Friday is, but why is the stock market closed on this day?

There are many answers for this seemingly oddity. For one, Good Friday is not a Federal Holiday so many places will be open on this day, including public schools. One explained it this way:

Our coountry was founded and based on "Chrisitan" standards. If you dont like it, then leave (spelling mistakes were made from the genius who posted this remark)

I'm pretty sure that isn't the reason for the closure. Here are some other reasons I have heard for the closure:

- In 1907 Irish Catholic stock brokers got scared of the sell off the last time the market was open on Good Friday because so many people didn't do business on that Friday. They coined this day "the panic of 1907". (my quick reading on this panic had nothing to do with Good Friday, so this is someone just blowing smoke)

- Wiki Answers says that it has been closed on Good Friday since the NYSE's inception (so answer number one would be wrong based on this)

- It is merely a way to observe Easter to appease Christians

- Judas sold out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver on Good Friday so Christians refused to do any business on this day in remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus

- It was an inter-confessional agreement between the Jews and Christians to celebrate Passover/Easter season

- The landlord had a disclaimer that if they were going to give the NYSE low rent that they had to close for Good Friday since it was an important Christian holiday and the landlord was a Christian.

These are the explanations I could find. Which is right? Not sure. With the high number of Jews and Christians in the New York area, I could actually see that the NYSE did some sort of interfaith day off for Passover/Good Friday. I am not sure why I get the day off, but I don't mind it.

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Saturday, April 11, 2009

Watch the Lamb

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Friday, March 20, 2009

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Who Killed God?

Last year I watched the Mars Hill Good Friday service, and have to say, it was very well done. Of course Red Letter played some amazing music as usual which made the evening that much better.

I will once again watch it this year, and interestingly enough, they have a live feed this year. I would go, but it is my youngest boy's birthday on the 10th, so I want to spend time with him.

The question I have is this: Can God die? I know that Jesus is God and he was and is the God/Man. But, is it accurate to say that God died on Calvary, or was it Christ's humanity that died that fateful day?

Here is the link to the live feed and below is the "trailer" video for the Good Friday service at Mars Hill Seattle this year. I also included under that the video from last year's service.



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Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross

This book comes out well before Easter to make sure that you are able to buy it, study it and then teach its truths to others as Easter comes about. The book is laid out to have 25 short teachings and thoughts on the cross of Christ. It has most theologians that you can think of in the Reformed and Calvinistic circles and then also includes at least one I know that wasn't a Calvinist (Adrian Rogers). Most of the chapters are about 3 to 4 pages which include many different angles to look at the cross. The topics range from Christ's humility in Gethsemane, silence among his accusers, our sin putting him on the cross, propitiation, forsaken by God, etc. I am not going to list every theologian and every topic, but I will say that this book is a very good one to help someone as they study further on the cross of Christ. This book is a book of quotable thoughts for any pastor.

Some of my favorites were Martin Luther, C.J. Mahaney, Tim Keller, Adrian Rogers and Augustine. Martin Luther is first up in the book, and in my opinion, it didn't get any better than Luther. I really enjoyed his chapter and found myself continually reading because of his start of the understanding of the "True Contemplation of the Cross." Here is an excerpt from Luther's chapter:

Take this to heart and doubt not that you are the one who killed Christ. Your sins certainly did, and when you see the nails driven through his hands, be sure that you are pounding, and when the thorns pierce his brow, know that they are your evil thoughts. Consider that if one thorn pierced Christ you deserve one hundred thousand.

The whole value of the meditation of the suffering of Christ lies in this, that man should come to the knowledge of himself and sink and tremble. If you are so hardened that you do not tremble, then you have reason to tremble. Pray to God that he may soften your heart and make fruitful your meditation upon the suffering of Christ, for we ourselves are incapable of proper reflection unless God instills it.

But if one does meditate rightly on the suffering of Christ for a day, an hour, or even a quarter of an hour, this we may confidently say is better than a whole year of fasting, days of psalm singing, yes, than even one hundred masses, because this reflection changes the whole man and makes him new…

Martin Luther, p. 12 (taken from Martin Luther's Easter Book)

Although there were some that stood out, there were also some where I couldn't wait to read and they seemed to fall a little flat. Not only tha, there were some that were just plain bizarre where I will either need to study further or just glaze over for the sake of the other chapters. The odd ones were John MacArthur's take on Christ's forgiveness on the cross. He believes that Christ was only asking for the forgiveness of those who would end up believing in Him and not everyone that was at the cross crucifying him. I believe he ends up making his theology read into this part of Scripture a little too much. The other two that I will have to study a little further were J.I. Packer's on Christ descending to hell and also Joseph "Skip" Ryan's chapter on Christ being thirsty. He takes this to mean that Christ was spiritually thirsty and not physically. My first take is that he is trying to stretch this text further than it allows.

Even with these three, the other 22 chapters far outweigh them to keep me from recommending this book. I would recommend this to any who would like a good understanding of the cross from a wide set of generations, convictions and theologians. Just know, that it doesn't get better than Luther's chapter, but that doesn't mean the rest of the book gets "worse." Highly Recommended
Buy the book:

Crossway

Westminster Books



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Thursday, April 05, 2007

Watch the Lamb

Seth sent this to me the other day, and I think it's worth sharing on the blog:

1 Cor 15:3
"For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture"

Watch the Lamb



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