51

I was reading through Psalm 51 this morning and I was struck by the absolute filth and wickedness that lies behind it. This is the song that David writes after Nathan confronts him about his affair with Bathsheba and the state-sanctioned murder of Uriah, her husband. It just doesn't get much worse than what David did to that family.

I feel weird when I read

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

   and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

   or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

   and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

I just am, like, dude, you stole this guy's wife and then you had him killed. And this guy trusted you. He paid you honor and you're over here using your power as king to take his wife as your own. God didn't take his Holy Spirit from you, you kicked the Holy Spirit out!

Bathsheba must have despised him. He destroyed her family. He killed her first love. She must have hated him. But what could she do? He was the king. What a mess!

On the other hand, these are words of desperation. It seems arrogant of David to ask God to save him from this horrendous sin, and yet I would do the same. I, too, would be on my face. At least David knew that what he had done was evil, and he was owning up to it. 

There is so much evil and corruption today for which there is no repentance. And it's not just out there in corporate America or government, it's here in my heart. We would all do well to say

Have mercy on me, O God,

   according to your unfailing love;

according to your great compassion

   blot out my transgressions.

Wash away all my iniquity

   and cleanse me from my sin.

...

You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;

   you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;

   a broken and contrite heart,

   O God, you will not despise.

46

Like many people, the recent economic turmoil has me anxious. I'm not afraid of losing everything because I don't have anything to lose--no investments, no home, etc. My only debt is on the credit card, and the amount is significantly less than the average American household's debt. But I'm terrified at the prospect of going through another Great Depression. I'm not afraid of many things, but that is one of them. A lot of that fear stems from a consistent theme in my life of unemployment and the inability to get the job. For whatever reason, I just don't get the job. It's a miracle that I have a job now! So, now that I have a family to feed, this fear has been elevated from frustration to HOLY CRAP WE'RE ALL GOING TO STARVE TO DEATH!!!

I woke up this morning thinking about the economy. I wanted someone to blame for all this, as if that would make it go away. But that's just politics. So I resigned myself to pray for the leaders of this country, which, to my shame, is something that I haven't done very often. But that resolution didn't ease the fear in my heart.

I've been reading through the Psalms lately, and yesterday I stopped reading after 45. That means that, when I came into work this morning, I opened my Bible to Psalm 46.

God is our refuge and strength,

   an ever-present help in trouble.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way

   and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,

though its waters roar and foam

   and the mountains quake with their surging.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

   the holy place where the Most High dwells.

God is within her, she will not fall;

   God will help her at break of day.

Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;

   he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

The Lord Almighty is with us;

   the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see the works of the Lord,

   the desolations he has brought on the earth.

He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;

   he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,

   he burns the shields with fire.

"Be still, and know that I am God;

   I will be exalted among the nations,

   I will be exalted in the earth."

The Lord Almighty is with us;

   the God of Jacob is our fortress.

God is our refuge. God is our strength. God is present. God is with us. Therefore, we will not fear. 

Eisley Bree

I don't blog much about my daughter, Eisley. It's not because I don't like her, because I totally do! It's really because she's 7 months, and not doing too much yet. Maybe if she were playing the piano I would post videos of her, but she's kinda slacking at this point! But she's super-duper cute, and she totally has my heart. Her smile makes everything better.

More Baby Drumming

So of course we had to get Cyrus his own drum set. He's already managed to break it, but he can still RAWK OUT!!!


2-year-old on the drums from Andy Holt on Vimeo.

Pro-Life and Advocating for Obama?

Let's imagine that you lived in the Philippines, and that you were extremely concerned about the issue of children being sold into sex-slavery. (Which, if you are a human, you should be!) Let's say that in the upcoming election (I actually don't know if the Philippines is a democratic country or not, but for the sake of argument...) there was a popular candidate who supported the child sex-slave trade. (Perhaps this appalls you.) Let's say that his record indicated that he supported the most extreme forms of this abhorrent act. Let's say that, despite laws that were passed in every other district of the country, this candidate opposed the same laws banning extreme instances of childhood sex-slavery in his district. Could you, as a Christian, possibly vote for him? Could you stand before God and say, I voted for the guy who supported the child sex-slave trade because I thought that, despite his record and his views, he would be best suited to somehow decrease the sex-slave trade? Could you do that? If you can do that, then by all means, vote for Barack Obama. 

Ohio's Hurricane

So a hurricane swept through central Ohio this week. No kidding, a real hurricane. And it knocked out power to just about everyone in town, many of whom don't have it back yet, including my church. If Ike did this much damage in Ohio, I can't imagine what it must be like in Texas right now. God be with those of you that were in the path of the storm. 

Our power came back on after about 24 hours, so we're doing great. Some areas near us, including a large commercial zone, never lost power. There's no telling when the lights will come back on for the church. Apparently, AEP sent a bunch of their crews to Texas to help out, but then they had to be recalled because we got hit so hard. Something like a quarter million customers are still without power in Columbus. Some friends of mine had a tree fall on their house, and all of the pastors are still without electricity. I guess we were some of the most fortunate.

Jesus Judges the Temple

I've been doing a lot of devotional writing at work lately, and I figured it would be nice to post a sample here. So I did. Below. Right...there. No, that's not it. Just keep reading and you'll come to it. No, on the computer. You have to look at the computer! Just scroll down! What? I don't know. What are you--what does that even mean? Just scroll down and read! Sheesh, it doesn't have to be this complicated. It's a blog. Welcome to 2008.

John 2:12-25

After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother and brothers and his disciples. There they stayed for a few days.
When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!"
His disciples remembered that it is written: "Zeal for your house will consume me."
Then the Jews demanded of him, "What miraculous sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?"
Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days."
The Jews replied, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?" But the temple he had spoken of was his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.
Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man's testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man.

Passover would have attracted Jews from all across the world who wanted to come to the Temple in Jerusalem to worship. Because of the long journey, they would not have been able to bring the appropriate sacrifices with them—hence the availability of cattle, sheep and doves, and the presence of the money changers in the Temple. These people were providing a way for Jews to make the right sacrifices to Yahweh.

But you can’t buy worship. You can’t purchase God’s favor. Jesus was upset not simply because these money changers may have been extorting their fellow Jews; no, he was upset by the whole process of buying and selling going on at the Temple. It wasn’t merely the injustice of extortion that raised Jesus’ ire, it was the commercialization of God’s House.

In fact, by clearing the Temple, Jesus is pronouncing his judgment against it. Jesus is judging the Temple and condemning its way of worship, and he is replacing it with something else—himself. The authorities asked him, “What right do you have to clear these people out? Who are you to say that all this is wrong?” Jesus responded by saying, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.” The disciples only later understood that Jesus was referring here to his own body.

By clearing the Temple, Jesus is judging the Temple and its place in Jewish life, and he is setting up an alternative Temple—himself. Jesus claims to replace the Temple as the place where heaven and earth collide. Jesus is now where we go to meet God. The Temple was destroyed less than 50 years after Jesus condemned it, and it has never been rebuilt. Jesus is the new Temple. It is through Jesus, at his cross, that we go to meet with God.

Kim Jong-Il is dead?

How fascinating would this be if it turned out to be true? Using look-alikes to rule from the grave--the new trend in despotic arrogance. "You can't kill me! I'm already dead!"

This Could Get Ugly

After jumping in the WayBack Machine, I've brought back another old Unbound video. I've got to admit, I get hypnotized by Corey's fleshly gyrations.


Unbound Dance Video from Andy Holt on Vimeo.

Is It Just?

As I'm confronted more and more with the evangelical social justice movement I find myself torn between two thoughts: 1) This is necessary, and 2) This is insincere.

What is injustice? I've heard it described as the strong taking from the weak. That, I suppose, is a good enough, albeit broad, definition of injustice. Few things break the heart of God more than injustice. God, himself the strongest of the strong, wields his power with grace and humility, both of which are supremely evident at the cross. God exercises his strength in mercy and grace, and I am forever grateful for that.

The evangelical social justice movement is right to call the strong to exercise their strength in mercy and grace. This is how we ourselves should move in any strength and power that we may possess. The world needs to be a more merciful and gracious place, and who better to lead us to this calling than those who are following Jesus Christ?

But somewhere along the line this calling has become corrupt. It has become perverted in its politics.

If injustice is the act of the strong taking from the weak, then what is the lowest act of injustice? Is it poverty? Perhaps. But at least in our American, capitalistic context, the injustice of poverty gets muddy. Is it slavery? It's hard to imagine a more unjust act than slavery. What about rape? Or murder? These are all acts of horrible injustice.

But I think there is one act that goes beyond all of these. One act in which the gap between the strong and the weak is as wide as an ocean. I submit that there is no greater act of social injustice than abortion. You cannot find a weaker human vessel than an unborn child. These cannot speak, fight back, or even be seen. We don't even call them human, though what else they could possibly be has not been satisfactorily answered.

And my criticism of the evangelical social justice movement is that it cares more about a "more equitable redistribution of wealth" than the foundations of human life. It cares more about health care than caring for the least of us. The evangelical social justice movement has forgotten about abortion, and it now runs the risk of becoming merely a politically-liberal activist group.

If you truly care about social justice than you must be concerned for the unborn. But instead the evangelical social justice movement has swept them under the rug, and has chosen the praise of the liberal men and women of the world rather than the praise of God, who is concerned for the least of us. Ask yourself: Is abortion just?

To my socially-justice minded brothers and sisters, your work is important, but you are forgetting the truly least of us. The hungry need to be fed. The naked need to be clothed. The slaves must be set free. The sick must be healed. And the unwanted must be rescued. This is what we have done for 2,000 years. Let us not give up on doing good for the sake of a fleeting political trend and the ever-shifting tide of public opinion.

Future Drumming Genius

This is my 2-year-old son Cyrus rocking the drums after church a couple months back.