This is one of those "ebenezer" moments for me. A lot of things just fell into place in my mind. In order to help myself remember, here's a recounting:

I've long loved Andrew Peterson's song Fool with a Fancy Guitar which has the line "I am a priest and a prince in the Kingdom of God". This concept comes from Rom 8:15 ("adoption as sons"), 1 Peter 2:9 ("royal priesthood"), Heb 4:16 ("throne of grace"), and Rev 1:6 ("kingdom, priests"), among many others. This is a beautiful concept for sure! My thoughts surrounding this concept seem to have centered around Paul's emphasis that we can call on God as "Abba, Father", as well as our role as witnesses for Christ to the world (aka, ambassadors, 2 Cor 5:20).

Yesterday, I read a really good article on the Rabbit Room about the "redemptive power of a pure and holy silliness". The whole article is full of amazing concepts, but one of the key thoughts is the need for adults to remember how to live life the way God designed it to be--creatively joyful. And I, for one, certainly recognize my tendency to get wrapped up in the worries of life and forget joy.

In this frame of mind, today, I was struck with an increased appreciation for Eric Peters' goofy song Waterloo about a horse that "thinks that he's a cow", forgetting that he can win the race. Very enjoyable song, to be sure, with a deeper message (I think) about how quickly I forget who I was made to be and what my purpose in life really is. Like Paul said, "run in such a way that you may win" (1 Cor 9:24)--but I forget.

Now, later this evening, I came across Ezekiel 13:4-5:

O Israel, your prophets have been like foxes among ruins. You have not gone up into the breaches, nor did you build the wall around the house of Israel to stand in the battle on the day of the LORD.

Here, God is rebuking the false prophets of Israel who proclaimed lies from their own minds, rather than "standing in the gap" (Ezek 22:30) on behalf of their own people. Like Moses who time and again pleaded before God on behalf of the Israelites, including (among others) the episode with the snakes (Num 21:7), begging God to go before them (Ex 33:16), and praying for God to show mercy to the Israelites for the sake of His own name (Num 14:13-19). Rather than building protection around the people by pointing out their sin and calling for repentance, they were simply preaching "peace" when there clearly was no peace--not with people and especially not with God.

Which brought me back to Andrew Peterson's song about us being priests and princes, begging the question--am I doing that? And here was the most striking thought--both roles (priest and prince) are full of privilege and responsibility. Both include the right to approach the Throne of Grace. While it is true that these roles include serving as ambassadors of Christ in word and deed to other people, the far more pressing responsibility is actually to come before God in prayer on behalf of other people! Consider a priest--one of his main jobs was to offer incense and sacrifices to God for the people. Similarly, a prince was one of the few people allowed to approach the king, enabling him to bring the peoples' requests to the king's attention.

That thought brings a lot of concrete clarity to what it really means to serve as a priest and prince in the kingdom of God. Intercessory prayer is not merely some "command", but a core part of the purpose of my position in Christ--to worship God through prayer on behalf of other people!

wget http://dl.maptools.org/dl/libtiff/tiff-3.8.2.tar.gz
tar fzx tiff-3.8.2.tar.gz
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local
make install

wget ftp://ftp.imagemagick.org/pub/ImageMagick/ImageMagick-6.7.0-10.tar.gz
tar fzx ImageMagick-6.7.0-10.tar.gz
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local --with-gslib --with-gs-font-dir=/usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/ --without-perl
make install

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=$HOME/local/lib/pkgconfig

wget http://pecl.php.net/get/imagick
tar fzx imagick-3.1.0b1.tgz
/usr/local/php53/bin/phpize
./configure --prefix=$HOME/local --with-imagick=$HOME/local --with-php-config=/usr/local/php53/bin/php-config
make install

cp modules/imagick.so ~/.php/5.3/
killall php53.cgi

Here’s a summary of my impressions from my recent trip to South Korea.  I spent most of the time in Seoul, centered in Gangnam-gu and visiting Jongno-gu, Dongdaemun-gu, Yeoui-dong, and Bukhansan within Seoul, and Jeonju, a smaller city, about 2 1/2 hours drive to the south.  Of course, I don’t consider these observations to be comprehensive—understanding a culture takes a lifetime—but I’ve found it a rewarding exercise to compare and contrast Korean culture to other countries that I’ve visited and those I know moderately well (America and China).

Eating Manners

1. Primary eating utensils in restaurants are stainless steel chopsticks and a large stainless steel spoon (presumably for reuse and hygienic reasons).
2. Most people prefer to eat with a spoon over using chopsticks, especially for rice.
3. Considered bad manners to lift your bowl to drink soup or eat rice (hence the need for the spoon).
4. Cold water served at meals from a tupperware-style container with small stainless steel cups (quite thin and light).
5. Restaurant patrons are free to get refills from the water filter machine themselves or ask for more.
6. Restaurant staff take orders, bring out the food, and clean up, but don’t typically check on patrons throughout the meal.
7. Many restaurants have traditional seating areas with wooden floors and mats on which you sit (some exclusively, while others have both traditional and modern seating areas).  Traditional seating areas were clearly for Koreans, because such restaurants often lacked any English menus to encourage tourists to visit.

Food

1. Kimchi (of various varieties) is served at every meal.
2. Each restaurant has its own repertoire of side dishes that are served along with the main meal (usually between 2 to 10 different kinds).
3. Kimchi is used in many dishes (e.g., rice bowls, noodles, soups/stews, dumplings).
4. People really like coffee shops.
5. Most coffee shops have large seating areas, and most of them seem to be filled at any time during the day or night.
6. There are many waffle shops.
7. Lots of Italian restaurants too.
8. Most restaurants have between 5 to 10 items to choose from.
9. Most restaurants are quite small, having fewer than 10 tables.
10. Maybe due to the small size, you’ll often see several restaurants back-to-back having nearly the same menu.
11. Within Seoul, people seem to be into organic and health-conscience food.

People

1. Few people speak English.
2. Unless someone speaks decent English, they will not greet with “Hi” or “Hello”.
3. Many restaurants have pictures of most (but probably not all) menu items.
4. Restaurants in tourist-friendly areas (e.g., in downtown Seoul) will often have English descriptions next to each menu item, in addition to pictures.
5. Although people don’t speak English, they are very friendly, and they genuinely want to help you get/find what you want.
6. I didn’t see very many westerns around.  Some in downtown Seoul (college-aged mostly), but not nearly as many as you’d see in Beijing in similar districts.
7. Buddhist temples are actively used, not mere tourist attractions.
8. The Christian influence is strong; churches with prominent crosses are everywhere in Seoul.
9. Hiking and outdoor activities in general are very popular.
10. People bow slightly on greetings and farewells much like in Japan.

Shopping

1. Supermarkets have many of the same things that you’d expect to see anywhere else in the world.
2. Only a few American brands are represented; local brands sell the same things.  For example, I didn’t see Colgate, Crest, or any other US brand of toothpaste.  Instead there were several local brands, including LG!  I hear they even make toilet paper (unconfirmed).  This is representative of Korea’s protectionist foreign trade policy.
3. Prices seem relatively high (compared to America or China), even in street markets outside Seoul. 
4. For vegetables, there doesn’t seem to be much volume or variety.  For example, cabbage, onions, and potatoes are widely sold, not so much beans, eggplant, broccoli, etc.
5. For meat, beef is especially expensive, then chicken, with pork apparently the cheapest.
6. Seoul has lots of narrow alleys lined with shops and small restaurants.

Transportation

1. The subway in Seoul is very convenient.
2. All stations have ticket machines with instructions in English along with a train map to find your destination stop.
3. Ticket machines only take cash or T-Money.
4. Taxis (and many private drivers) have GSP units with huge screens (relative to US standards).
5. On request, taxis offer free translation services by phone.
6. People obey traffic laws, so the traffic seems to move along at a decent rate (even during rush hour), despite the large number of privately-owned vehicles.
7. The roads are generally very well-maintained.
8. Cars drive on the right side, but there’s no obvious pattern for people on the sidewalk or in the subway (unlike in London which is very strict about such things).
9. Vendors sell stuff on the subway (on a rainy day, umbrellas are popular), and no one seems to mind.  Vendors are quite professional: they give a little speech, walk up and down the subway car to show off their goods (which are stored for transit in a small wheelie bag), maybe sell a few, and then move on to the next car.
10. Lots of street sellers (for food, knick-knacks, DVDs, etc) within Seoul.

The last couple weeks at work have been especially challenging, with looming deadlines and unexpected hiccups.  Knowing my tendency to worry, a few months ago, my parents gave me a silver ring with the inscription, “This too shall pass.”  This is encouraging, because it reminds me to not worry so much about the momentary troubles of life.  Yet, this week, one implication of this statement struck me with such force as I haven’t noticed before: my God does not change.  That point is far more encouraging, because it means that He will always be with me, no matter what the storms of life may bring.

He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a man, that he should change his mind."

1 Samuel 15:29

I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me.

Psalm 3:5

"I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

Malachi 3:6

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

James 1:17

Another point that has been quite useful is how praise and remembering play into enduring trouble.  Check it out from Psalm 42:

Why are you downcast, O my soul?  Why so disturbed within me?  Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.  My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon from Mount Mizar.

Psalm 42:5-6 (emphasis mine)

Those first two questions accurately describe my recent state of mind: downcast and disturbed.  What is the solution?  Hoping in God.  How?  By praising Him and remembering all that He has done.  Putting this into practice by singing songs throughout the day and by remembering how God has carried me through even more difficult circumstances has been very helpful.  Three songs in particular have been especially encouraging: Praise You In The Storm by Casting Crowns, Everlasting God by Chris Tomlin, and Enough by Chris Tomlin (and others).

A few months ago, I first heard about the Livescribe Smartpen.  Basically, this pen records everything you write and hear.  Later, you can tap on what you wrote on the physical paper, and the pen will actually play back whatever it was that you heard when you wrote that!  Plus, you can upload your writing and the audio recording to the computer, so that you can search for specific words and playback what you heard.  I imagine this sounds rather unbelievable, so check out these demo videos: promotional and third-party review.

Needless to say, I was exceedingly impressed, but I decided to wait a bit for the technology to stabilize.  After learning that it now supports full OCR via third-party software, I finally took the plunge.  Now, I’m even more impressed. :)  So far, I’m using it for my personal Bible study journal and Sunday morning sermon notes.  It has long annoyed me that I write down lots of good stuff that I learn, but a few weeks/months later, there’s no way I’m going to be able to find a particular point that I learned to refresh my memory.  When I’m home, I’ve tried typing my notes (which is distracting), but that’s not viable at Church (and a laptop has problems of its own).  This pen completely solves the problem.  I can easily write notes and search for specific words later using the computer.  The feature of matching my notes to the audio recording is especially useful for quotable quotes that I didn’t get a chance to write down verbatim.  I’m very pleased!

Lately, I’ve been contemplating purchasing a house, rather than continue renting.  The primary reason why I’ve been considering it was the theory that buying is more fiscally responsible.  As it turns out, the decision is not nearly so cut-and-dry.  Here are a couple articles that discuss the tradeoffs:

• http://www.businessinsider.com/the-housing-chart-thats-worth-1000-words-2009-2
• http://www.businessinsider.com/henry-blodget-housing-market-2009-4

In theory, the advantage of buying is the reduced per-month expense.  In practice, owning a house is likely to cost more than rent due to the combined expense of the mortgage, interest payments, HOA fees, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, and all the extra things you might buy to “fix up” the house if you owned it.  Even if the per-month cost was less, if you just go out and spend the money, then you aren’t any better off long-term.  Only if you save the difference are you really gaining anything through buying.  So the question comes down to investment, more than outgoing cost.

As the above articles point out, contrary to popular belief, buying a house is not a sure fire way to increase capital: it all depends on if you buy at a bottom and sell at a peak, just as with any investment.  As we’ve seen, buying a house is likely to cost more per month than renting.  So if you rent and you invest the difference, then you may end up better than buying, depending on a number of different factors.  Consider these basic options:

1. Rent: With this option, you spend a fair amount of “evaporated” money each month through rent.  However, if your rent is less than the cost of ownership, you could invest the difference and potentially get a better return than buying.
2. Own with 10 Year Mortgage: The advantage of a 10 year mortgage is that your total “evaporated” money (after paying off the mortgage) is much less than a 30 year mortgage, due to the reduced amount of interest.  The downside is that you have much less money left over to save/invest per month.  Assuming you can invest better than the appreciation of the house, you would have been better off renting or owning with a 30 year mortgage.  On the other hand, if you can’t invest for whatever reason, then this might be a good option.
3. Own with 30 Year Mortgage: This approach attempts to combine the best of the previous two options.  Unfortunately, you end up paying much more in interest.  However, since you’re paying less out per month, if you can invest the difference (compared to the 10 year mortgage), then you might end up better off than either of the previous two options, assuming the house actually ends up being a good investment.

Again, it really comes down to investments outside the house.  To help in figuring this out, my dad and I created this spreadsheet in an attempt to capture most of the variables.  Disclaimer: I’m not responsible for your decision!   But I hope you find it useful nonetheless.

While my brother was visiting for Christmas, we searched around the internet looking for some of the old cartoons that we watched as kids.  Since we remember watching them in Chinese and many of them were originally Japanese anime, it was quite challenging to find them with Chinese voice-over.  In most (if not all) cases, the dubbed versions weren’t published retail, so the only copies are those that people recorded from TV (possibly with a VHS copy in between).  This means the quality is usually pretty bad (with bits of commercials in the middle for good measure), and it’s very difficult (if not impossible) to find the complete series.  Fortunately, we did find some episodes of Time Trouble Tondekeman (超时空游侠) which is totally awesome!

One of the central tenants of Christianity is that God is sovereign, meaning that He’s all-knowing and all-powerful.  But what exactly does that mean?  Our finite minds simply cannot grasp this fully, but, in some small way, we can see Him working throughout history and in our own lives.  Consider, for example, the circumstances surrounding Jesus’ coming, life, death, and resurrection.  God was obviously working from the dawn of time on that one.  Or, more close to home, I believe God is the reason why I landed here in Boulder, after going to college in Kansas of all places.

So how does prayer fit into this?  Again, we cannot understand it fully, but we do know that God wants us to ask Him (John 16:24) and when we do, for some reason, He chooses to listen and answer, working in amazing ways in our hearts and our circumstances for our good and His glory.  I’m not sure why, but I haven’t had too much trouble with the idea that God works in the future, so I’ll pray for things like a safe trip or finding a new apartment.  But I have struggled with praying for things that are already past, like medical test results: isn’t the sickness, if any, already determined because it’s in the past?  So what am I praying for?  For healing, or strength to carry on, or what?  All of those are good and right, but what about actually praying for the results themselves?

This got me thinking that am I not limiting God when I assume that He can only work if there’s enough time left?  Isn’t that like saying that I need to give God advanced notice, and if I don’t give him enough time, then maybe He won’t be able to do anything about it?  Or maybe he only needs a couple seconds, but that’s still a limited view of God, isn’t it?  Jesus gave an example of a child asking for an egg from his father (Luke 11:1-13).  The child doesn’t first think, “Does my Dad have enough money to get an egg for me?”  He simply asks, and his father figures that part out.  So why do we pray as if we first need to evaluate the potential options, and only pray if the probability of success is fairly high?  And then we define “faith” as the “strength to pray when the likelihood of an answer is not very high,” when that shouldn’t even come into the picture at all?

To borrow from C.S. Lewis, God is not constrained by time at all.  Unlike us, he lives in an unbounded Now, viewing past, present, and future as all the same.  If God were constrained by time (as we are), then he wouldn’t be all-powerful.  So, if that’s the case, then not only can he work out the future (which is relatively “easy”), but even as we’re praying today, he was already aware of our needs yesterday, somehow knew that we’d pray about it the next day (or maybe we wouldn’t?), and was already working on a solution back then.  What a mind-blowing concept!

I’m reading Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper, and I just came across this rather interesting quote (p. 48):

Oh, that God would help me waken in you a single passion for a single great reality that would unleash you, and set you free from small dreams, and send you, for the glory of God, into all the spheres of secular life and to all the peoples of the earth.

I find the most fascinating part to be the phrase “set you free from small dreams”.  Small dreams.  Career goals?  Hobbies?  Vacations?  Marriage?  Retirement?

He’s really saying the very same thing as expressed by the name of my website: life with no more void can only be found in Jesus Christ by knowing and enjoying Him.

Earlier (p. 47) he has two other quotes that summarize the true meaning and purpose of life.  Quoting Louie Giglio’s “268 Declaration” (based on Isaiah 26:8):

Because I was created by God and for His glory, I will magnify Him as I respond to His great love.  My desire is to make knowing and enjoying God the passionate pursuit of my life.

And also the mission statement of the church where Piper serves:

We exist to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.

Fascinating and convicting stuff to be sure.

This weekend I’ve worked on adding some cool features to my website.  First off, I converted all the videos in my Gallery to flash format.  I reduced the quality just enough so that it can stream over a 100 Kbytes/sec downlink.  It even supports HTTP pseudo-streaming, so you can jump to anywhere in the video and it will immediately start playing there (after buffering) without needing to download everything up to that point.  Go try it out!

I’ve also been playing with Windows Live Writer.  Up until now, I’ve used BlogJet for my posts, but yesterday I found out that WLW supports plugins.  Pretty sweet!  So, I just wrote a simple plugin to better integrate support for my prayer journal that I keep using my blog (sorry, it’s private ).  This plugin allows me to set the prayer type (praise, requests, etc.) and also set some Bible verses to go with each entry.  It was amazingly simple to do this, requiring only a few dozen lines of code.  Incredible.  This makes it much easier for me to use, so I’m more likely to actively update it.

The Sunday school topic lately has been about Abraham, and God’s dealings with him.  I’ve only attended this group twice (last week and this week), with today being a review.  Interestingly, both times, the discussion ended with several people bringing up end-time teachings about Israel.  While large portions of Scripture are prophetic in nature and many include things about Israel (past, present, and future with respect to the time of the message), I find it curious that this particular topic comes up so often at even the slightly tangential reference to Israel compared to other, arguably more pertinent, subjects.  Rather than mull over this indefinitely, the following attempts to clarify the viewpoints and arguments in my own mind.

For the uninitiated, the entire discussion is centered around a single statement in Genesis 12:

 1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

 2 “I will make you into a great nation
       and I will bless you;
       I will make your name great,
       and you will be a blessing.

 3 I will bless those who bless you,
       and whoever curses you I will curse;
       and all peoples on earth
       will be blessed through you.”

Primarily, the first part of verse 3 forms the centerpiece: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse”.  This sentence is interpreted and applied as follows:

God’s statement to Abraham directly applies to the political nation of Israel today.  This means that anyone who directly seeks to undermine the welfare of Israel as a sovereign state will incur the wrath of God.  Furthermore, anyone or any nation who does not support Israel against its enemies likewise risks being cursed by God.

The extreme version of this was expressed today by someone who claimed that the United States started being less “blessed” when it restricted immigration of Jews (presumably referring to the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 that established national immigration quotas for the first time), indirectly contributing to the death of Jews who were unable to escape the Hitler regime.  Furthermore, another individual stated that the “last straw” would be if/when the United States stopped supporting the Israeli nation.

Well, let’s dig into this more closely.  First of all, what is the meaning of the word “bless” and “curse” in this passage?  Few would argue that the statement “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (v. 3b) was ultimately fulfilled when Jesus came, died, and rose again to restore mankind’s relationship with God.  In fact, no one has any ground to dispute this point, because Peter himself quotes this portion in Acts 3:25–26 and refers to a relationship with God through Jesus as the “blessing” ultimately intended by God’s promise.

Yet, the argument above interprets the term “blessed” as used in v. 3a to be material wealth.  Not only should we “bless” Israel materially through finances and by military force, but we also expect that God will “bless” us as a nation by prospering our physical endeavors.  Clearly, the interpretation of v. 3b must be correct, so can we really conclude that two different definitions of “blessed” occur in the same sentence?  In fact, the same dilemma occurs in v. 2, where the first part (“make you into a great nation and I will bless you”) might mean physical prosperity, while the second part (“you will be a blessing”) is traditionally interpreted as the parallel of v. 3b.

The same dichotomy occurs in many passages of Scripture:

• 
  
  Genesis 2–3: Adam and Eve lived in the garden in perfect comfort, but their relationship with God was even more important (3:8), as demonstrated by the fact that this was the major thing that they lost after their rebellion (3:23–24).


• 
  
  Genesis 12, 15, 17: God promised to give Abraham’s descendants the land of Canaan, but he also said “walk before me and be blameless” (17:1) and that he would “be your God and the God of your descendants after you” (17:7).


• 
  
  Leviticus 20:22-24 (and many others): God’s covenant with Israel involved them living in the beautiful land of Canaan, but it was more importantly about their relationship with God himself.  It was also conditional on their obedience to God: if they disobeyed God, the land would vomit them out (to use the colorful language of this passage).


• 
  
  Zechariah 8: God promised to restore the people of Israel, including bountiful crops.  Notice the key defining characteristic of this restoration (v. 20–23): “Let us go at once to entreat the LORD and seek the LORD Almighty.”

The significant problems with this interpretation are the assumptions that it makes and the conclusions that result:

1. 
   
   Material wealth is more important than a relationship with God.  Although few would state this in so many words, the truth is demonstrated by the intended response, both on the part of Israel (seeking to maintain a national presence) and everyone else (seeking to be “blessed” by supporting Israel).


2. 
   
   National downfall is the result of God’s curse for not helping Israel, rather than sin.  This argument has the convenient side effect of downplaying the sin, moral decay, and apathy that has crept into both the culture at large and the Church specifically by passing off judgment as a mysterious “curse”.


3. 
   
   “Blessing” Israel by supporting its political presence is more important than blessing the Jewish people by sharing the truth of Christ Jesus.  Through Abraham’s line, we have indeed been blessed beyond our wildest dreams to have a direct, personal relationship with God himself.  Would we now simply “pay off” the Jewish people by supplying their physical needs without sharing the Good News of Jesus?!

The last point is the truly disheartening result of this fallacy.  As a result of this distorted viewpoint, the United States supports Israel with over $5 billion annually, while only some $23 million is given annually to spreading the Gospel among Jews (a crude comparison given only for illustration).  In fact, the total annual giving of the entire world for spreading the Gospel is just $17 billion.  In other words, we’re financially supporting the physical “needs” of a small group of people with a disproportionate amount of money compared to how much we’re investing in the eternal welfare of the world!

As many of you know, I got into a car accident a few months ago, and eventually my 2007 Honda Civic was declared totalled.  With little desire to drive again after that rather tramatic experience, I’m back to riding my bike again.  Not only is this good exercise, but it’s also a lot of fun.  I found a really nice dirt trail that goes from Gunbarrel to my church (Calvary Bible) near 28th and Kalmia.  Most of the trail follows a tree-lined creek—very cool!

So, today, I went to get a haircut at Supercuts on 28th and Iris.  On the way back, I stopped by Starbucks and got a Caramel Frappuccino.  I got the largest size (venti), figuring that it was probably the most cost-effective, but I forgot just how big it was.   At first, I felt a bit wasteful, but my concerns were soon alleviated, however, when as I moseyed my way back on my bike, sipping my frappuccino as I went, I passed a gas station advertising at $3.85 a gallon…making the frappuccino taste that much better!   Ahh…life is good.

This week I’ve been watching the 1973 TV series Kojak using Hulu.  I think it’s a great show.  Good clean fun.  Lieutenant Theo Kojak is a classic hero character seeking to bring criminals to justice—very cool stuff.

Lately I’ve been watching TV shows using Hulu almost exclusively.  It’s very convenient to just sit down and start streaming the shows with minimal commercial interrupts.  In fact, most of the commercials are actually entertaining in their own right, like this, this, and this.

The last couple months I’ve been reading a really good book called Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald S. Whitney.  The main thrust of the book is that spiritual disciplines are for the purpose of Godliness—they are not an end unto themselves.  An extremely important precondition is that growth in Godliness is based on our relationship with God through Jesus Christ without which any notion of Godliness is meaningless.  Despite this rather clear premise, because of the word “discipline,” throughout the book the author regularly has to address the concern that some people might have that this is “legalistic.”  This becomes particularly evident in the chapter on journaling, because many champions of this discipline were incredibly serious about it.  For example, Jonathan Edwards calculated a daily score for breaches of his seventy resolutions (including time management, self-denial, and Bible study) which he then tallied weekly, monthly, and yearly as a quantitative measure of his growth in Godliness.

Legalism is any action that attempts to win God’s favor for salvation, whereas these disciplines occur in the context of our relationship with God and are based on our desire to please God out of gratitude not desperation.  The difference is in the heart attitude of the individual, because two people could be performing the same action for different reasons: one is trying to gain salvation (Eph. 2:8–9) and another is living by the Spirit (Gal. 5:16).  In this respect, spiritual disciplines are no different from more obvious commands like “do not murder,” because both may be “obeyed” for legalistic reasons.

The danger is when people develop strong ideas about certain actions and impose them on others outside of a personal relationship with God (Col. 2:20–23).  This confuses people into doing all kinds of things to gain salvation, when these disciplines are intended to strengthen our relationship with God after salvation.

Spiritual disciplines are, therefore, simply a tool for developing Godliness.  Without some structure, the natural tendency of the world (and our lives) is towards entropy (chaos), thus hindering our progression towards Godliness.  Countless heroes of the faith have demonstrated that a disciplined life promotes Godly character.  In attempting to apply these principles, the key is to always come back to relationship so that our motivation never becomes legalistic.

Reading Bible prophesy is like watching a movie trailer.  A good trailer is suppose to make you excited to watch the movie, not spoil all the fun with details.  Although there’s a lot of prophetic information in the Bible, it’s not always very clear how it fits together, particularly as it relates to time.  But the key is that it is not suppose to.  Reading about the end of time is suppose to increase our faith and help us to trust that God is going to work it all out.  This is not a script for a play: we shouldn’t try to read it to find our character, so that we know when we’re suppose to say our lines.  God is the director, and he’ll make it happen in his own mysterious way.

Plus, what difference does it make how we “interpret” prophesy?  Does our intepretation in any way affect how it will turn out?  Absolutely not!  Do the differences between explanations change how we should live?  Not likely…at least not for the better.  Sure, it should increase our faith, but the rest of Scripture makes it extremely clear how we should live:

Matthew 22:36–39

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Matthew 28:19–20

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”