End Times Study: Is It Important?

First of all, I must say that anything in the Bible is certainly worthy of study and careful consideration. But, I have come to believe that end-times theology just isn’t worth arguing about. The Bible tells us a lot about the end times, but not everything. Many times, when people discuss and debate the passages that talk about the end times, it turns to mere speculation.

For another thing, what difference does it really make what scenario we come up with? As long as we believe the basics that are clearly laid out in the Bible, do we really need to try to figure out all the details? Will it make any difference in what we believe about God or how we live our lives? Won’t we be seeking righteousness, sharing the gospel, and worshipping God whether we call ourselves pre-trib, post-trib, or whatever?

Challenge: Spell English Words

from today's newspaper:


Don't you love the English language? The funny part of this is that spell check wouldn't have helped this guy, actually.

Clown Hair

My family went to the circus yesterday, which was a lot of fun. We got in a discussion on the way home though, about whether Bello the clown's hair was real or not. I'd heard that it's his real hair and it grows straight up naturally. Most of the rest of the family said something like, "yeah right."

So here you go guys. Although I must admit that the website only says that he says it's his natural hair.

Are You A Soldier?

I’ve been reading the book, Don’t Waste Your Life, by John Piper. It’s excellent, and has a lot of good insights in it. I’ve liked every John Piper book I’ve read, and this is no exception. The last chapter is about missions, and while he stresses that you don’t have to be a foreign missionary to keep from wasting your life, you do need to consider it and be willing to go if God sends you. He had an excellent analogy in there of comparing the church’s task of missions to a war.

In a war, certain people are rigorously trained, properly equipped, and sent out to the front lines of battle. But back at home, there are vast numbers of people building guns, planes, and tanks, sending supplies, praying for the safety of the soldiers, and excitedly receiving any news from the front.

In one sense, we should all view ourselves as soldiers in this spiritual battle, but in another sense, this is a good analogy to the way the church should function. Everyone is either sending or being sent, and every task is valuable. Also, those of us who are senders should be ready for action when it becomes clear that we’re needed on the front lines.

Is It Okay to Look for a Spouse?

This is a topic I’ve been thinking about recently, and even more so since discussing it with my family last weekend. You’ll soon see that it’s definitely still in the thinking stages. First, two disclaimers are necessary. 1. This will probably seem very disjointed, with way too many questions. But, it’s not an article. You are merely eavesdropping on a conversation I’ve been having with myself. 2. You are welcome to let me know if you think I’m nuts because it is quite possible that I am, indeed, nuts.

So, what about it then? Expect for when I dabbled with online matchmaking, I’ve generally thought that I should just contentedly wait for God to bring me a spouse: the right person at the right time. I’ve thought that if the man hasn’t shown up yet, either I’m not ready or he’s not ready, and if God wants me married he’ll bring The One along with no help from me.

But now, I’m having a fairly radical thought: what if there isn’t just one? Does God really have just one person out there somewhere who would be my ideal match? If that’s true, what if he died at birth? What if someone else married him by mistake? How does that fit with widows who remarry?

I believe that God cares about every aspect of our lives, but is it over-spiritualizing to think that God has just one person who will miraculously come across my path? Maybe it’s not true that if the man hasn’t shown up one of us isn’t ready. Maybe if everyone around me thinks I am ready, I should go find someone else who’s ready.

I also believe that it’s important to have standards and not lower them out of frustration. Better to be married to a godly man for forty years than a jerk for fifty. But what if there’s more than one person who qualifies? Or what if there’s almost nobody who qualifies and just happening across such a person is an extremely remote possibility?

Honestly, I think very few people are truly “called to singleness” and the rising numbers of single adults make me think something must be amiss. Are we holding out for perfection? Is it possible that the idea of waiting for a “soulmate” is based in selfishness? Are we looking for someone who will make us completely happy rather than looking for someone with whom we can raise a family? Why don’t we just pick somebody, make a commitment, and then stick it out, for better or for worse?

Some have said to me that if you go looking for a spouse you might be jumping ahead of God’s timing and missing something better he had for you. But isn’t there a danger with that kind of thinking that you’ll be holding out forever for something even better? As long as we don’t abandon our values and standards, I don’t think we should be that concerned with missing out on perfection, especially since perfection doesn’t exist in this world. For example, how can we expect to find someone who’s never crabby but will happily put up with us when we’re crabby?

And what about couples in the Bible? Didn't Abraham take a look at his son, decide Isaac needed a wife, and promptly send a servant out to find one? Hmmm, I wonder how other Biblical couples got together?

• Adam and Eve--this was definitely a miraculous, divine intervention, but it cost Adam a rib.
• Jacob and Leah--why I'm not advocating arranged marriage
• Jacob and Rachel--Jacob: a man obsessed with beauty; Rachel: the beautiful cousin. Ok, nevermind about that one.
• Boaz and Ruth--She asked him because he was rich. Wow.
• David and Abigail--Hot-headed future king meets intelligent beauty in a moment of drama. God conveniently kills her pathetic husband.
• David and Bathsheba--no, falling in lust with a woman and murdering her husband is not a good idea.
• Job--this might be a good case for staying single, actually.
• Hosea--God told him to marry an unfaithful woman. She was probably easy to find.
• Joseph and Mary--probably another arranged marriage. I guess it works sometimes.
• Aquila and Priscilla--an excellent example of a couple who are truly partners in every aspect of life. I wish the Bible told how they met.

Well I'm not sure what to think about all that, except that there doesn't seem to any sort of magical formula, that's for sure.

Ok, that’s all. If you made it to the end of all these disorganized thoughts, congratulations! You are now free to tell me I’m losing my mind. But you might want to do it quickly, because if this train of thought continues, I might have to recant all that stuff I said about online matchmaking.

This is what happens...

...when a banjo player goes out in public.*

Just kidding. Although, sometimes I think John wishes it were true.

*Don't worry, it's just a sticker. The only girls who ever kiss him are in his immediate family (as far as I know :-) ) and we don't wear lipstick.

Quotes on Getting After It

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up knowing it must run faster than the fastest lion or be killed. Every morning a lion awakens knowing it must outrun the slowest gazelle or starve to death. It doesn't matter if you are a lion or a gazelle, when the sun comes up, you'd better be running." Anonymous

"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle." Abraham Lincoln