I know it’s been a while.  A lot of times I get a burst of blogging enthusiasm that begins to wane.  As I feel this waning I begin to wonder which post will be that one that sits there for 3-4 weeks.  This time it was “30 minutes after swimming.”  Could have been worse I guess.  OK.  So here’s what’s going on:

1. Harry was in the hospital again with severe respiratory difficulties.  He came home a week ago and is doing well.  I’m finding that having a kid in the hospital for days at a time becomes all about management.  I have to manage time, “Who’s doing what and when?”  I have to manage Lucy, “Who’s got her now?  Where’s she going next?” We really have to work at managing the emotions.  Mornings are better because you feel a little fresher. Evenings are the worst, especially when he’s in ICU and we have to leave him there at night.  It’s also important to keep making time to pray and meditate on scripture.  Sometimes I start to go on auto-pilot and it’s easy to start to just coast through.   

Speaking of the ICU, what a great group of people.  We love all the nurses up there.  One thing to be thankful for is that we get to see all of our friends there.  Not that we wouldn’t be happy not to see them and they us.  But they love Harry and take great care of him.  We always can feel confidant that he’s in excellent hands.

2. Two days after Harry came home I left for West Virginia for summer camp.  Erika and the kids were supposed to come but Harry’s condition prevented it.  I missed them a lot but it was a great camp.  Alpine Ministrieson the campus of Appalachian Bible College provided us with lodging and daily adventures.  We went white-water rafting and did all kinds of ropes things (Well, they did.  I’m not much for rope events so I sat and read Atlas Shrugged.  More on this later).  Any camp where 14 year olds are asking if they can go to bed at 9 is a great camp in my opinion.

There’s really nothing better than the feeling I get after leading a good camp.  It’s hard work.  There are late nights and early mornings.  My room looked like a disaster area within 3 minutes of setting our stuff down in there.  It was like the guys walked in, opened their suit cases, dumped them on the floor and said, “There, now I’m unpacked.”  The second night they ordered pizza which caused the room to smell like an Italian pig pen.  But it’s really a lot of fun.  And there’s nothing like spending a week together to really get to know one-another.

3.  Next up: our niece comes to visit and out friend Kim is coming from Hungary.  Then I’m off to children’s camp.  July is a big month.

It is becoming apparent that I wasted countless summer hours in my youth waiting for my food to adequately digest so that I could go back in swimming.  An easy google search produces ample evidence that this is a conspiracy that has been perpetrated by parents throughout the centuries.   Plus, on Friday night after consuming a hot dog, a hamburger and an ice cream sandwich, I went in swimming after probably 15 minutes and have felt great ever since.

Studying to teach James 4:7-10 on Sunday morning (10 am in the youth house – you’re invited) and I came across this:

“The devil, unlike the Christian, takes pride seriously, knowing that as long as he can control human pride he can frustrate God’s purposes, if but temporarily.  There may be many kinds of pride but for the devil’s purpose a proud Christian is of much more use than an atheist or a pagan.”

James Adamson, The Epsitle of Jamesin the NICNT

I like to think of myself as a punctual person.  I normally leave for my appointments with plenty of extra time to spare.  I thought that I gave myself plenty of time when I left home yesterday afternoon to preach the evening service at Rocky Ford Baptist Church in Rocky Ford, GA.  The first evidence of miscalculation should have been when I realized I needed to get gas.  Then I had to stop and tap on my air-conditioner with a screw driver to get it working again (I don’t know why this works but it does.)  So far so good.  I’m leaving for an hour drive with an hour and a half to go.

It was about 5:45 that I started to get nervous.  I knew I was close but I wasn’t feeling good about my surroundings.  There was nothing but trees and fields for miles and to make matters worse I had no cell-phone reception and my GPS wasn’t finding any baptist church at all much less Rocky Ford Baptist Church.  At 6 PM when the service was to begin panic set in.  At 6:05, having entered the town of Rocky Ford a few minutes before, I realized that I was in a different town.  I turned around, made it back to Rocky Ford and in God’s providence passed the church on my left after turning down the only street I could find that seemed to have structures on it.

At 6:15 I entered through the back of the church putting on my coat and noticing that my tie was about 2 inches too short.  The crowd laughed politely as I made my way up the center aisle. Thankfully, the pastor looked as relieved to see me as I was relieved to be there.  Some much for being proud about my punctuality.

What is the source of all the conflict and quarreling among you?  That’s the question James asks as he begins chapter 4.  At first glance this may seem to be a more complicated question than it really is.  That we have conflict in our lives is beyond dispute.  But is it possible that all of our conflicts come from the same source?  Surely James is being overly simplistic here.  How could he possibly understand the struggles of living in our post-modern age?  There are just so many things to blame.  Some blame their parents.  Some blame their circumstances.  Some blame their physique.  And if all else fails one can always claim, “The Devil made me do it.” 

James is on a roll here when it comes to making things simple.  At the end of chapter 3 we learned that the wisdom from above leads to peace and the wisdom from below leads to disorder and every evil thing.  So what is the source of the conflict and quarreling?  “Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?”  James is making the radical assertion that the reason we have conflict with other people (and with God) is because of our own tendency to lust after things we don’t have.  In verses 1-4 of chapter 4 James slices to the heart of every conflict we have in this life.  It turns out that in spite of all my elaborate efforts to the contrary the real problem is me.

When we give ourselves over to bitter jealousy and selfish ambition we have at that moment committed to following the wisdom of the world which says, “Do what you want, when you want and don’t put up with anyone (even God) who tries to stop you.”  This, as we saw in chapter 3, leads to disorder and every evil thing.  The only answer, according to James 4:4 is to stop loving the world and start loving God.  To choose to be a friend of the world is to put oneself at enmity with God not because God hates us but because a friend of the world must hate God.  Love for God and love for the world cannot coexist (see Matthew 6:24).

Is your life mired in all manner of quarrels and conflicts today?  Playing the blame game can only lead you further into chaos and disorder.  Recognize that your own sinful desires are the source of your struggles, repent of loving the world rather than God, and believe that Jesus Christ died and rose again, enduring the wrath you deserve so that you can be forgiven for having lived according to the wisdom that is earthly, natural and demonic.

 

I’m real excited about our recent jalapeno harvest.  I think they’re the most beautiful jalapenos I’ve ever seen in my whole life.  My experience with these little peppers has provided me with a treasure trove of sermon illustrations.

Yesterday Lucy started swimming lessons at the Habersham YMCA.  Needless to say she LOVED it.  She kicked, splashed and put her face under the water (a first).  She had a super cool lifeguard/instructor named Dan whose orange hair indicated that he may have overused the “Sun-in.” I think it’s a special person who takes a summer job herding 3 year olds in and out of a pool every day.  Also of note, none of the girls in the class of 3-5 year olds cried…only boys.  I’m not sure what that means.

You need to know that the best show on TV that you’re not watching is The Next Food Network Star. For the fourth time (that I’ve watched) a new set of contestants have descended upon New York City in hopes of taking a spot among the pantheon of Food Network stars.  I’m not kidding.  I love this show. 

Each week, guided by a Food Network luminary, the contestants must complete a strenuous culinary task that tests their skills both as a cook and as an entertainer.  At the end of the night both the food and the performance are judged and one contestant is cast aside.  In the judging room there’s almost always crying.

I’m thinking about holding my own competition tentatively titled, “Dave Cleland’s Next Personal Chef” in which ten hopefuls will perform various culinary tests in hopes of becoming my personal chef.  Erika, Bobby Flay and I will judge. Serving fish or anything raw will lead to immediate disqualification. One contestant will be cast off each week until only one remains.   That chef will then live with the knowledge that if I had enough money I would have hired him to be my personal chef.

Just FYI, Guy Fieri won the first time we watched.  Now he’s got two shows on Food Network and he’s doing commercials for TGIFriday’s.

I’ve been meaning all week to post about our most recent passage in James.  I’ve been trying to think of some interesting way of framing it so that it really packs a punch.  But I keep coming back to the fact that this passage just speaks for itself.

 James 3:13-18 speaks of two kinds of wisdom.  Verses 14 and 15 speak of the wisdom from below.  It is characterized by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition.  It is earthly, natural and demonic.  James tells us in verse 16 that the wisdom of the world leads to disorder and every evil thing.

 Verses 17 and 18 speak of wisdom from above.  This wisdom is characterized by purity, peacemaking, gentleness, reasonableness, mercy and good fruits, single-mindedness, and being free from hypocrisy.  Verse 18 says that the wisdom from above leads to peace.

 James is continuing a theme that goes all the way back to the first chapters of Genesis.  God said to Adam, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die” A few verses later the serpent says to Eve, “You surely will not die!”  Once again we have two kinds of wisdom: one from above leading to life and peace and one from below leading to disorder and every evil thing.

 How would you characterize your life today?  Would you say that your life is filled with peace that is the fruit of righteousness? Or is your life filled with conflict and disorder?  We can know the “peace that passes understanding” if we repent of following the wisdom of this world and set our minds on things above.

It is entirely possible that any astute reader of this blog will immediately recognize that I am out of my depth on this one.  But here is my promised follow-up to my thoughts on the movie Angels and Demons posted a week ago here.  My goal is to demonstrate that is worth questioning popularly held notions like this aleged battle between science and religion.  If you’re interested in reading more on this subject The Soul of Science,  which I reference below by Nancy Pearcey and Charles Thaxton is an excellent starting point.

There is no age-old battle between science and religion. This battle that is supposed to have raged from the dawn of time is actually a fairly recent development.  It is also a development that originated very intentionally from the side of the scientist.  Men like Thomas Huxley set out to undermine the Christian view of the world by aggressively promoting their secular agenda.  Their view of the world is simply: what you can see is all there is. In the 19^th century Andrew Dickens White published a book that is still being quoted today titled, A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology.  In it White states, “In all modern history, interference with science in the supposed interest of religion, no matter how conscientious such interference may have been, has resulted in the direst evils both to religion and to science.”

The truth is science as we know it today first took root in the minds of men who had a thoroughly Christian worldview.  Christians believe there is One God who created and sustains the world so that it functions in an orderly and predictable way. There can be no scientific method in a world of chaos. Christians also believe that God’s glory is actually revealed by creation in such a way that one must actively suppress the truth in their hearts if they refuse to see it.  For the Christian, the study of all that is created is just one more way of seeing the glory of God. Other religions start from worldviews that actually discourage the study of the world around us. In her book, The Soul of Science, Nancy Pearcey points out that while cultures like the Arabs and the Chinese produced much more in the way of practical knowledge through the ages it was Christian Europe that gave birth to what we today would call modern science. 

The objection will no doubt be raised, “But didn’t the Catholic Church persecute as heretics those who promoted scientific views that were opposed to church teaching?”  It is true that men cloaked in religion have often tried to manipulate the scriptures to promote their own agendas and carry out gross atrocities under the banner of faith. Incidents such as these should serve as a warning to the church in every century lest we fall into the same abuse of authority.  But the truth is that sinful men in every discipline, science included, have always found ways to abuse their positions of authority so that they can carry out their wicked intentions.  There is no doubt that today many in the sacred halls of science are using their “authority” to condone and carry out great wickedness against their fellow man.   

The Christian who engages in scientific study actually enjoys a great advantage over the scientist who is not a follower of Christ.  Having put his faith in Christ, he will join the redeemed of all ages in exploring the glories of God in creation for all eternity.  There will be no end to the fantastic discoveries that await the believer after this life.   Also, understanding the fear of the Lord to be the beginning of wisdom, he will know the right starting place when he comes to the study of the world.  The scientist who chooses to suppress the truth of God as seen in creation will be unable to see the world as it really is.