Sunday Bonus - Jonah and God's will

The last 4 weeks at Corona After Hours the sermon was on Jonah. Spoiler alert! As Bryan noted, it's very ironic that Jonah had prayed for God's mercy, and then was super-ticked that God had shown mercy to Nineveh.

God says:

Jonah 4:11 (NASB) "Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right and left hand, as well as many animals?"

First off, pretty cool that God even cared about the animals in Nineveh.

Second, Jonah was likely proud because he was one of God's chosen people. But Bryan said (and I reckon he was right) that Jonah was also trusting in his own righteousness. Which is interesting considering that God literally spoke to Jonah right at the start of the book:

Jonah 1:1-2 (NASB) The word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai saying,

"Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and cry against it, for their wickedness has come up before Me."

And what did Jonah do? He RAN AWAY. He basically said to himself, "Nah, I'm not going to do what God told me to do." Later, he as much as says, "God, You're wrong. Just shoot me now."

Do you ever do that? I've never asked God to take my life from me like Jonah did, and I pray I never will. And as awesome as ships are, I've never got on a boat to try to flee from God.

But at times I sure have said, "No, I don't want to do this...." And more often I delay obedience until God presses on my heart that yes, really I'd better do this. (I've heard it said that "obedience delayed is disobedience.")

I'm trying to get better at just acting when I feel the Spirit lead, but it's something I sometimes struggle with.

Confessions aside, my point was, which do you think is worse? Disobeying God's direct call, like Jonah did, or not knowing right from wrong, like Nineveh?

Luke 12:47-48 (NASB) "And that slave who knew his master's will and did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will receive many lashes, but the one who did not know it, and committed deeds worthy of a flogging, will receive but few. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more.

Ouch for Jonah. Ouch for us. Thank God for His grace through Jesus' sacrifice, and I pray I more readily do our Master's will.

Sunday Bonus - What is "Meek"?

Yesterday's question got me wondering if the definition of "meek" has really changed so much over the years. I'm not a huge fan of Webster's 1828 dictionary, per se, but a lot of Evangelicals love it. Personally, I need to get a good concordance, and/or find a trustworthy one on the Internet. Unfortunately, there is a lot of bad/disturbing/worrisome Bible commentary on the Internet, even though there is also some excellent commentary. So I usually don't attempt searches on things subject to so much interpretation, like the definition of "meek."

But from the dictionary definitions

1828 Webster's:

MEEK, a. [L. mucus; Eng. mucilage; Heb. to melt.]

1. Mild of temper; soft; gentle; not easily provoked or irritated; yielding; given to forbearance under injuries.

Now the man Moses was very meek, above all men. Num.12.

2. Appropriately,(sic?) humble, in an evangelical sense; submissive to the divine will; not proud, self-sufficient or refractory; not peevish and apt to complain of divine dispensations. Christ says, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls." Matt.11.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matt.5.



1913 Webster's (same page):

[Compar. Meeker (-1913 webster dictionaryr); superl. Meekest.] [OE. mek, meoc; akin to Icel. mj(?)kr mild, soft, Sw. mjuk, Dan. myg, D. muik, Goth. mukam[u

1. Mild of temper; not easily provoked or orritated (sic?); patient under injuries; not vain, or haughty, or resentful; forbearing; submissive.

Now the man Moses was very meek. Num. xii. 3.

2. Evincing mildness of temper, or patience; characterized by mildness or patience; as, a meek answer; a meek face.
"Her meek prayer." Chaucer.

Syn. -- Gentle; mild; soft; yielding; pacific; unassuming; humble. See Gentle.



Modern Miriam-Webster Dictionary:

Definition of MEEK
1: enduring injury with patience and without resentment : mild
2: deficient in spirit and courage : submissive
3: not violent or strong : moderate


So it does look like there has been a shift in the worldly definition of "meek."

That said, I'm not sure it's quite right to provide two different definitions in 1828, one for Moses and one for Christ. Granted, the Old Testament was Hebrew and the New Testament was originally Greek, right? But does that really mean that "meek" had two significantly different meanings Biblically? I don't know about that.

Either way, I think a man could possibly accept 1828 definition 2 in a hero (though "not...self-sufficient" is pushing it). Definition 1, maybe not; "soft" and "yielding" are not really something one expects a hero to be.

1913 would be less popular with heroes, I think ("submissive," "mildness," "soft").

I think the modern definition, with the possible exception of definition 1, is just disastrous for male heroes. Definition 1 actually more or less matches how some Bible sites I saw online defined "meek." Other definitions included "submission to God's will." That sort of submission is super-hard, granted (at least, I struggle with it). But to me it sounds much easier than both submitting to God's direct commands and ALSO being humble and gentle to other people. One page mentioned that meekness to people will come easily if you're completely submissive to God. Could be; I've just never gotten there.

Saturday Bonus - Meek Heroes

Friday night I went to Corona After Hours (a.k.a. "loud church," or at least I call it that because of the rock music, which I like, but I always have to put in earplugs, even at concert!). Pastor Mike preached on the Beatitudes, and specifically:

Matthew 5:5: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (NIV)

Pastor Mike noted (correctly, IMO) that in today's society, it's especially hard for men to be meek and gentle, as it's not a quality valued in men. But that made me think of Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games" (a kind of post-apocalyptic book--incredibly compelling, rather dark and not from a Christian worldview at all). Nadine has a pretty good review of it--though she was a bit more positive toward its morality than I am.

I think you could argue that Peeta, the male lead, embodies many of the Beatitudes, while Katniss, the female lead, rather does not. And I adored Peeta in that book (haven't read the sequels and don't plan to). While I found Katniss fascinating, I can't say I actually LIKED her as a person, exactly. It could be that she's too human, fair enough, but I really wanted to shake some sense into her...

That said, Peeta's gentleness makes me wonder if guys actually like Peeta, or if he's just a woman's fantasy. Thoughts? Can men enjoy reading a "meek" hero?

(EDIT: I answer a great question in the next post.)

See Christmas through the eyes of Simeon

So at church this morning, Pastor Steve mentioned that this Christmas we should see through the eyes of Simeon:

Luke 2:25-35

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”

33 The child’s father and mother marveled at what was said about him. 34 Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, 35 so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

New International Version, ©2010 (NIV)

There are certainly a lot of people who get irate about any mention of Christmas (never mind that the Wal-Mart Christmas allegations I heard about earlier today were apparently untrue).

But I think Christmas is the one time of year when the vast majority of people are relatively open to hearing the Gospel message. How many people who don't have any interest in Christ sing songs like "Joy to the World?" And for goodness' sake, have you even seen "A Charlie Brown Christmas"?

A lot of people like to package up the entire Gospel message as a sweet little baby in a manger, but Simeon appears to have seen the whole picture.


Speaking of Christmas! As of this moment, http://www.amazon.com/The-Incredible-Singing-Christmas-Tree/dp/B001232ODA/ref=pd_sim_dmusic_a_5 has a Veggie Tales Christmas album for free! It does have some pretty strict DRM restrictions, I found out (when trying to play it in my car's ghetto MP3 player--you know, the kind that you get when your CD changer dies, incidentally, holding 5 CDs hostage? The kind that plugs into your lighter and takes an SD card and transmits via radio and gets staticky when you're under high-voltage wires?). It would only play the first 5 or 10 seconds, then skip to the next song. I am all for copyright holders controlling their content (within reason), but I wish I could play that "free" album in my car! Anyway, it's cute for an adult with a healthy inner-child, probably excellent for kids, and certainly worth the price at "free." It even has a few songs that are serious and better than any of the free Christmas songs I downloaded last year.

Last year I purchased Relient K's "Let it Snow, Baby, Let it Reindeer" for something around the current price ($5.99): http://www.amazon.com/Let-Snow-Baby-Let-Reindeer/dp/B001KW8QNK/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291592078&sr=301-1 I think it's a great value and has a lot of really good and/or fun songs. Some of my favorites are the ones that they wrote themselves, or wrote interludes for, like "I Celebrate the Day" (think "Mary Did You Know" sung to Baby Jesus instead), "Silver Bells," and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Definitely worth it!

Both albums have a nice mix of real Christmas songs and secular ones. Enjoy! I'll try not to ramble so much next time.