The faculty and board wait for the graduates to march in
Left: Trans-world Radio missionary Mike Sabin receives his Master of Arts in Religion degree; Right: Mayson Red and Liann Stae receive their Bachelor degrees
The venue looked great. I heard things went well. Good job guys!
So after the chemotherapy I will have my week of Prednisone and recovering from the chemo. The last day of Prednisone is Friday the 12th and that is also the day we will head down to Stanford for the PET Scan. We get the PET Scan Friday afternoon and then the doctor will see us and explain everything to us the next Monday. In the meantime, we plan to spend the in-between Saturday and Sunday in Scotts Valley and, if all goes well with health and edema, to go to Gateway Church on Sunday morning. It would be a minor miracle if I'm able to do that. But I would love to see people in Scotts Valley area either way. We'll head back up to Stanford on Monday, and then back up to El Dorado late Monday afternoon. This is going to be a lot more “out and about” than I've done since February so I appreciate your prayers for that too.
Figure you're tired of seeing pictures of me. So I thought I'd post a picture of my oldest granddaughter in her rugby uniform. Go get ‘em Courage.
Wisdom literature provides instruction about how a person can live life skillfully in this confusing world. It provides general principles for living successfully within God's creation. Proverbs focuses on the way things usually work, while Job and Ecclesiastes focus more on the exceptions. In general wise people do what is appropriate because they have trained their minds through observation, advice and paying close attention to what is going on around them. They have a balanced view of life and know how to discern and take the best from the cultures around them. This is all based on a God-centered focus on life.
In the Wisdom Literature of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes the term wisdom refers to developing the expertise to negotiate the complexities of life. Wisdom occupies itself with discovering God’s order in life and then learning to fit into that order successfully, all the while keeping in mind the boundaries and limits of humanity. 29
Proverbs 1-9 is a series of 15 instructional poems from parents to a son. In 5 of the poems wisdom is personified as a woman. The parents warn of the three great dangers to a wise successful life that their child will face: greed for money, peer pressure, and sexual temptation. A bad decision here could ruin a young person for the rest of their life or, at the least, cause unnecessary problems.
The wisdom poems serve as powerful metaphors of two lifestyles: wisdom and life on the one hand, folly and death on the other. These contrasting metaphors depict the moral boundaries or limits in which humans are to operate. To venture outside the boundaries is folly and death. To stay within the bounds is wisdom and life. Proverbs 1-9, 50
The first chapter introduces the good and bad influences, with the good ones framing the bad one. The introduction (1-9) urges the youth to listen to godly parents who will instruct them in the "fear of the LORD." The last section of the chapter (20-33) urges the youth to live a life seeking wisdom because she will save them from a world of trouble. In between, the youth is warned about the peer pressure of the "gang" that promises easy money, fun and companionship, but really leads only to self-destruction.
In the book of Proverbs, the fear of the LORD does not primarily refer to the reverent worship of Yahweh. The subject of worship is seldom addressed in the book. Rather it refers to the total life commitment of a person to God...This text defines the fear of God as the dedication of one’s whole life to the devotion of the LORD. It is not simply the display of awe and reverence in public worship. Instead, it is the demonstration of daily response to God’s will in one’s decisions and actions. Proverbs 1.1-7, 54
The parents exhort the son to stay away from the gang for two reasons. For one, their actions are evil (v. 16). For another, their vision is shortsighted (vv. 17–19). They only desire instant gratification. However, the primary basis upon which the father appeals to the son is not on rational arguments but on the basis of the father’s credibility with the son. The father describes the enticement of the gang’s lifestyle and responds by saying, my son do not go along with them (v. 15). It is an appeal to the relationship the father has with the son. Proverbs 1.9-19, 59
In 1:20–33, Wisdom assumes the role of a teacher. She is concerned with a class of students who lack motivation. She has lost patience with her inattentive students (1:24–27). She pulls out all stops to convince them of the seriousness of the subject matter. Her instruction deals with matters of life and death. Proverbs 1:20–33, 63
Chapter 2 is an acrostic poem urging the student to work hard and patiently to acquire wisdom. It is not easy to get, but the benefits of the hard work are worth it. Wisdom leads to godly character which will protect students from the destruction evil brings and make them productive members of the community. Chapter 3 urges the young to honor YHWH by trusting Him above all, listening to godly parents, submitting one's possessions to God and accepting His discipline. Wisdom is pictured as a faithful wife who brings blessing and wealth to her husband (13-20). The chapter closes with a description of how the wise person behaves in community (21-35) and the blessings this provides.
As youths begin to seek wisdom, they will find the pursuit wearisome. Wisdom is a quality that humans do not necessarily have a natural inclination to possess. They must acquire a taste for it. If youths can work through the initial struggles and maintain openness and patience, they will find it. Proverbs 2.1-11, 65
Fundamental to the goal of education is instilling in the heart of the student an intense desire to learn. Wisdom involves more than understanding; it includes an attitude...The primary focus of this instruction is on the formation of godly character. This concern for character focuses on internal qualities, which in turn manifest themselves in the way in which the learner activates righteousness, justice, and fairness in the community. Proverbs 2, 67
To trust in the LORD with all your heart refers to the total surrender of self. The admonition is the theological foundation upon which all the proverbs rest...When the disciple learns to trust completely in Yahweh, then the promise is that he will make straight your paths. This does not mean that Yahweh promises a life free from difficulties. Rather it means that one’s life has clear direction and purpose. Proverbs 3.5-6, 70
Chapter 4 continues the instruction from father to son with three more speeches. He urges his son to make the sacrifices necessary to gain wisdom (1-9). This will keep him away from the wrong life path of the wicked and on the right one (10-19). The student must discipline his body to make the right and wise choice. Wisdom is gained by self-denial, discipline and, sometimes, suffering. Chapter 5 is a warning to avoid the adulteress. There is nothing that can destroy a young person's life as quickly and as thoroughly as bad decisions in relationships. But a good marriage relationship is a tremendous blessing and a major factor in a successful life.
The disciple is to exert every ounce of “body” strength to the task of staying on the right path. When each part of the body is properly functioning, the whole body is morally healthy. In addition, when every part of a person’s body is under control, he or she incarnates the principles of wisdom. Proverbs 4, 79
The wife is also a source of protection from the adulteress. The best way for the husband to resist sexual temptation is to have a loving relationship with his wife. Proverbs 5, 84
In chapters 6-7 the sage offers practical advice about how to live life successfully and wisely. He advises the young man to avoid several pitfalls including offering collateral for the loans of others, laziness, being a "scoundrel" who lives by deception and violence, and adultery. Chapter 7 pictures the adulterous woman as a huntress who kills the soul of the young man.
The ant, which has no overseer or ruler, is self-motivated (v. 7). She acts autonomously, without the need for supervision or direction from others. She manifests self-discipline, an important quality in sapiential wisdom. She fulfills her responsibilities because she sees the larger picture of life (v. 8). The point is, if the little does this, then how much more should humans take the initiative to fulfill responsibilities? Proverbs 6.6-11, 88
Adultery is representative of how sin destroys human relationships. It also symbolizes living outside the boundaries of wisdom. Because of the enticing and destructive consequences of adolescent lust, the sage uses powerful rhetorical images and even scare tactics to discourage youth from acting out their sexual drives in adultery. Proverbs 6.20-35, 91
Many have been the victims of the adulteress. To follow in her steps leads the youth to an early grave. This instruction calls on youth to be constantly alert to temptation. The adulteress is ever present, lurking at every corner (vv. 11–12). No man can avoid her. For youth to resist her requires constant vigilance. Proverbs 7, 97
In 8-9 wisdom is personified calling out to the young man and inviting him to pursue the wise life. This is contrasted with "woman folly" who invites the young man to cast off all restraint and be "free." The way of folly is the way of death while the way of wisdom provides life, real joy and a stable, happy life.
Wisdom’s father is God; he raised and trained her (v. 30). So her instruction is trustworthy. Whoever finds me finds life and receives favor from the LORD (v. 35). Wisdom is described not simply as an intellectual component but as an attitude, a desire. Wisdom’s function is to generate a passion for doing good and for building a wall of protection from temptation. Proverbs 8, 102
The bottom line is that wisdom grows only in the context of a relationship with God (v. 10; cf. 1:7). True education begins with the affirmation of God’s active work in the daily affairs of life. Proverbs 9.7-12, Bland, 104
The two women depicted in chapter 9 represent the two choices set before youth: life and death. If one chooses the banquet of Wisdom, then one follows the path of learning and growing and moral development. It is a nutritious meal that leads to a healthy life. If one chooses Folly’s banquet then one has chosen a feast that by all appearances looks good. However, it is a meal loaded with sweets and containing little nutrition. In fact, the meal is toxic. Proverbs 9, 105
Last Saturday we had two special visitors come by. Two old friends, Louis Mann and Harry Olsen. Louis was my history teacher in high school and then my principal when I first became a a teacher myself. He was also involved with the youth group of my church when I was in the high school and college group. I have not seen him since the Baymonte Christian School reunion in 2014. Harry was the associate pastor at my church in Scotts Valley when Joyce and I first got married. He and his wife Carol helped Joyce and I quite a bit through our first year of marriage. I hope I don't have to go 30-plus years without seeing him again. Both of these guys had tremendous influence on my life and are important reasons why I'm in ministry today. It was really good to see both of them. I especially appreciated that they prayed over me for healing and anointed me with oil before they left. Both of them are now involved in training church planters so I also enjoyed sharing ministry stories and teaching ideas with them. Thank you Louis and Harry for dropping by.
In chapter 3 Packer urges us to take "Christian Unity Seriously." The unity he is talking about is not ecclesiastical, but it is a unity built on the truth of scripture and the shared indwelling of Christ through the Spirit. It is the one faith, one hope, one baptism, one body expression of the church. The universal church is made up of many local bodies who all share the same LORD and thus the same mission. This should be expressed in shared ministry, mutual help, inter-church fellowship and an open communion table. We do not compromise the truth for unity, but we do recognize that no Christian denomination has the truth perfectly, and we listen to one another. Jesus said the mark of the church is unity expressed through love. We do need to take this more seriously.
This, then, is the Christian unity—unity, that is, of Christians—for which Jesus prayed: a common loyalty to him first and foremost, expressed in clearheaded adherence to his teaching, wholehearted appreciation of his gift of eternal life, holy love as a style of living, and a primary commitment to the missional task of spreading the gospel worldwide. 55
Christian love is unconditional in the sense of accepting, respecting, and showing goodwill to people just as they are, but it is not unconcerned or undiscerning about being beneficent as distinct from merely indulgent. True Christian love holds to Christian standards all the way. 63
Christian unity starts with the authority of Scripture and the truth about Jesus Christ, as the Bible teaches it and as the Patristic creeds and Reformation confessions, echoing Scripture, define it; that the reimagining of God and the gospel by today’s revisionists shatters that unity; and that only a reembracing of biblical doctrine as transcultural truth and of biblical behavior standards as abidingly authoritative will restore it. 67
In chapter 4, Taking Repentance Seriously, Packer decries the lack of emphasis on repentance in the modern church. We have deemphasized sin and holiness in our preaching and teaching and thus, see no urgent need for personal and corporate repentance. He urges that we get back into the internal battle with sin with regular, personal, Spirit-led self-examination and specific, daily repentance. He sees Jesus speaking through Revelation 2-3 to the modern church to turn away from its acquiescence to the standards of the pagan world and really follow and imitate Christ as we meet Him in the Gospels.
Repentance, in the broadest sense, signifies that change of mind, purpose, attitude, and behavior whereby we embrace God’s agenda of mercy toward us and turn back from the old life of fighting God by playing God to live the new life of humbly and thankfully serving him. Repentance is thus a whole-person business in which a pattern of self-centered self-service is replaced by a God-centered habit of seeking others’ welfare, and pride and willfulness give way to prayer and worship. 74
Countermeasures must take the form of thought, prayer, meditating on the Scriptures, keeping close and becoming transparent to fellow-believers, and making a point of repenting—formally, frankly, and fully, in an explicit transaction with God—the moment we realize that we have in any way gone wrong. 79
So begin your repenting with your mind, practice intellectual repentance for uncritically accepting fashionable intellectual folly, confess the mental mistakes that you picked up from the pagan world around you and forsake them; and follow me into renewed faithfulness to the true truth of God. 85
In chapter 5, Taking the Church Seriously, Packer sees the church as a gift of God's grace in which God saves individuals and binds them together into a unified whole. This is pictured as a temple (the dwelling place of God, in the people, not a building), the body of Christ (a diverse, but unified, entity that carries out the mission of Jesus) and the bride (the object of Jesus' love and care). It is one (unified), holy (consecrated to worship in word and action), catholic (has a global presence and mission), and apostolic (holds to the foundation of the apostle's teaching). It is a global entity with local outposts.
When we become Christians, we are not alone and must never think of ourselves as being alone. We are saved individually, one by one, but not for a life of solitary and still self-centered individualism. None of us is the only pebble on God’s beach! On the contrary, we have been brought into a new solidarity: that of being, first, adopted children in the Father’s family and, then, linked units in God’s new creation through union with the risen Christ by the Holy Spirit. This new creation is the reality that is called the church. 89
The local church is called to be a miniature presentation of what the universal church is called to be. It is to be an outcrop, microcosm, sample, and specimen of the larger reality. It must see itself that way and act accordingly. Each local congregation must understand itself as a subset of the one global fellowship, a small-scale embodiment of that fellowship’s life for all to see. 93
The local church is a group of believers who band together to meet on a regular basis and do all the things that, according to the New Testament, the church does—praise and pray together, maintain ministry of the Word and sacraments, practice pastoral care and pastoral discipline toward each other, give and help where there is need, and reach out with the gospel to the neighborhood and beyond. Packer, 93–94
Now the only one who has the knowledge to defend God, YHWH Himself, weighs in. First, he challenges Job with the scope of creation and his ability to govern it with all its diversity. Creation operates for God's glory and at His direction and its purpose is much larger than that of any one person or humanity in general. Creation is a beautiful, yet dangerous, place which we cannot understand or control. To presume we have the answers to our life in the face of God who controls it all is presumptuous.
The lament of Job at the loss of all his property and family was understandable. His assumption that this somehow was an indication of a flaw in divine providence was presumptuous. Creation is bigger than Job and his concerns. It is not that the concerns of Job were unimportant to God, for it is evident that God had heard his complaint. However, God’s plans for Job within this vast universe extend beyond his ideas of what constituted a proper and good life. Job 38, 221–222
It may seem strange that God should speak about his creation in such a manner, but violence and the peculiar beauty of violence are the very point of what God has to say to Job. The animal realm is non-moral, and its sharp paradoxes make us see the inadequacy of human moral calculus. Violence in the natural world does not conform to the explanations that Job’s friends give for suffering, but neither does it fit Job’s protesting his integrity in the face of his anguish and loss...In this strange manner, divine providence cares for all of these esoteric creatures. Fecundity and violent destruction are twin forces working together in the imponderable mysteries of how God cares for his world. Job 39, 226
Job's first response is to recognize his limited knowledge, repent of his presumptuous challenge to God and submit to His rule.
The questions forced Job to confess his exceedingly limited knowledge. This is a surprising turn in the function of wisdom, since the purpose of wisdom is to increase knowledge. In this case, the increase of knowledge comes in knowing which things one cannot know. This is a great gain, for there is nothing so damaging as presumptuousness, as the friends have amply demonstrated. The most dangerous situation of all is to not know that one does not know. Job had been demanding answers but came to recognize that he must live within the confines of what he did know. Job 40.1-5, 228
From the beginning, the primary problem of humans has been their inability to accept dependence on God while, at the same time, having the status of representing God. Being representatives of the divine rule does not grant humans the status of determining that rule. The representative of God does not have the power to determine justice in this world...the point is clear: it is man’s place to submit to God rather than the other way around. Job 40.6-14, 230
God then challenges Job with His ability to control the "power and beauty" of the hippopotamus and the "danger and beauty" of the great crocodile. If Job cannot control these small examples of the powerful and chaotic forces of creation, how can he challenge the Creator who made and controls them?
The world is an immense arena of power and beauty amidst awesome, warring forces. This world is permeated with the order of divine providence, but it presents to humans a “welter of contradictions, dizzying variety, energies, and entities that man cannot take in.”...The grandeur of creation is the place where mortals meet God. The home of humans displays the face of a foreign and fascinating divinity. They cannot understand his creation, much less his divine nature. Rather than challenge what they do not know about themselves in their world, they are invited to live in its mystery and to know they stand before its Creator. Job 41, 237
The epilogue ties the themes of the book of Job together. God defends the integrity of Job as the three friends must submit to him for their approach to God. God graciously restores the fortunes of Job, doubly. Job has gained a greater perspective on God from his submission to Him. God does not run the universe based on retribution, but on grace and his love and care for all creation.
Job had now found wisdom, which led him to repentance and submission before God. He now understood that he could not dictate to the Creator what is just and right for his life. Neither could Job determine what is right for his life—in comparison to what happens in the lives of other people. All his comparisons and points of reference were finite and inadequate in his attempt to understand justice. Job 42, 39
In light of God’s speeches, the restoration cannot be understood as a matter of divine blessing for righteousness. Rather, it shows that God provides for those who submit themselves to him. More importantly, the blessing is an expression of God’s grace toward those who trust him; it is not a reward on the basis of ethical obligation...Divine grace in human affairs cannot be predicted or controlled, but it will end favorably for those who have found favor with God. Everything under the whole heaven belongs to God, and, by his grace, he gives it as he wills. Job 42.11-17, 241
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We had another visit from an old friend yesterday. Brad Boydston stopped by and we talked for a couple hours. Brad taught at PIU for three years, back a few years ago. Brad continues to teach for us as an online teacher and makes regular visits out to the islands to work with students. Again, it was good to have a stimulating conversation and get caught up on what's going on in Brad's life.We have long appreciated Brad's Ministry at PIU. So basically, a week that started very bad for me and caused a lot of concern, turned out to be pretty good at the end. Thank God.
