Did you guys just hear those two songs right now sung on KBYI??!!

Come Thou Fount with the guitar (3:20 pm)

Be Still My Soul, men’s acapella (right after)

Listening to this music, I was ready to be translated like Enoch.  Wow.

We just finished a very important 11-week inductive, precept upon precept Covenant study last night.  I announced to the church family that we will begin a study of Hebrews next Wednesday night.

Interestingly, I found tonight this relevant material on Hebrews & JST.

HT: Sharon

On this particular Wednesday (and the next 40 days), it all begins with a right view of God . . .

Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.  Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge?  therefore have I uttered that I understand not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.  Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.  I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.  Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job 42:1-6

Well, we all know about Idaho’s Baptists who are in Haiti.  How many front line articles have there been thus far?

Today’s article in the Idaho Statesman reminds me of a verse that I read early this morning in my personal Bible reading time – Proverbs 16:20, “He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good.”  Each day, as part of my reading, I read the corresponding chapter in Proverbs (chapter 16) to the date in the month (February 16).  How desperately I need wisdom for the daily circumstances of life.  As an Independent Baptist pastor in Idaho, I can not in any way be “independent” as we might think or propose in our culture here in the intermountain West.

Proverbs 11:14 comes to mind.

So does Proverbs 15:22.

Also, Proverbs 24:6.

We need to be dependent Baptists.  We cling to you, dear Lord, to help us in our troubles.  We ask for your mercies to be granted to the ten in Haiti and to the church family of Central Valley in Meridian, Idaho.

And as I meditate . . .

these words by Horatias Bonar echo the prayers of my heart:

No, not despairingly come I to Thee;
No, not distrustingly bend I the knee:
Sin hath gone over me, yet is this still my plea,
Jesus hath died.

Ah! mine iniquity crimson hath been,
Infinite, infinite—sin upon sin:
Sin of not loving Thee, sin of not trusting Thee—
Infinite sin.

Lord, I confess to Thee sadly my sin;
All I am tell with Thee, all I have been:
Purge Thou my sin away, wash Thou my soul this day;
Lord, make me clean.

Faithful and just art Thou, forgiving all;
Loving and kind art Thou when poor ones call:
Lord, let the cleansing blood, blood of the Lamb of God,
Pass o’er my soul.

Then all is peace and light this soul within;
Thus shall I walk with Thee, the loved Unseen;
Leaning on Thee, my God, guided along the road,
Nothing between.

God is so good.

On Superbowl Sunday evening (yea, I know I am nuts), I am beginning in my home a four week lesson study (utilizing TILM materials) on gospel witnessing in Southeast Idaho.

Each study session will begin at 5:30 pm and last for an hour.  Come join us.  1671 Brenthaven Street on the west side of town.  My house has the two big crosses in the backyard.

1) Have you been able to read any believing (and scholarly) commentary by authors who do not treat Genesis with higher criticism? 

2) Are you able to see how the KJV Bible equates Yahweh as the Most High?

3) Do you believe in a literal, six-day creation account?

4) Do you see the seeds of the redemptive gospel laid out in Genesis?

5) And tell me what you think about this opening quote on Genesis by my friend, Bob Gonzales:

In the beginning, the God of gods (elohim [I am transliterating the Hebrew words in parenthesis]), creates “all things of nothing, by the word of his power, in the space of six days, and all very good” (Gen. 1:1-13).  But this “beginning” is only the beginning of King Elohim’s empire-building program because into the midst of his pristine creation, the heavenly Suzerain, also known as Yahweh (YHWH), places his image (tselem), that is, his visible resemblance and representative.  As Yahweh-Elohim’s image, man (adam) stands in covenant relationship to his Sovereign and is commissioned to subdue the earth as a loyal vassal and vice-regent to his Creator (Gen 1:26-28; 2:15-17).  That is, from the terminus a quo of Eden’s Holy Mountain garden sanctuary over the entire earth, following his Creator’s work-rest cycle (2:1-3), until the whole earth is filled with Yahweh-Elohim’s glory (Isa 43:7; Rom 11:36; I Cor 15:24-28; Rev 4:11).  Had mankind fulfilled his imperial commission in a way that accurately reflected his holy Suzerain’s character and that visibly manifested absolute submission to and dependence on the divine will (2:15-17), he would have inherited fullness of life as a royal grant and joined his Creator-King in an eternal Sabbath-rest (Heb 4:1-11).  What should have been, however, was disrupted when human sin and the divine curse entered the world (19-20, I inserted English letters for Bob’s Hebrew words lifted from the Bible text).

– Where Sin Abounds: The Spread of Sin and the Curse in Genesis with Special Focus on the Patriarchal Narratives (Eugene: WIPF & STOCK, 2009) by Robert R. Gonzales Jr.

I went to see my brother-in-law and sister at the hospital in Rexburg tonight to get my first glimpse of my beautiful, new-born niece.  Oh, she is beautiful.  Little Lilly.

But let me share a few notes before I call it a night.

1.  Why is the primary reading in the lobby of the Rexburg public hospital – Ensign magazines and Watchtower material?   This is strange.

2.  I picked up a Standard Journal and noticed this front page article in the newspaper – “Rammell apologizes for LDS elders only meetings”.

He is now inviting non-Mormons to his first meeting, 7:00 p.m., on January 19 at the Hampton Inn (Idaho Falls).  I think I might go to see what he has to say.  His controversy has gone national, even making the Drudge Report.  Does anyone want to join me in listening to Rammell?

It has been an interesting day between reading him (www.voterammell.com) and Harry Reid in the news.  Two Mormon, political lightning rods.

3.  The wraps at New York Burrito  in downtown Rexburg were awesome.  My family loved them.

1. The JST and the Hebrew Bible by David – well, there you have it – literary criticism of LDS scripture.  Do bishops allow teachers to share this during Sunday School class?

When I googled “reading the OT in 2010”, here are five of the ten entries that I saw on the opening google page of the world-wide web.

2. GMI Gospel Doctrine – Old Testament 1 by Doug

3.  How to Study the OT by Jeff.  Yes, you can spend a whole year in Isaiah.  In part 5, Jeff takes a stab at what “plain and precious things” were lost.  But I ask, “God’s Gospel lost?”  It is inconceivable.

4. Why Reading the OT is so Difficult (already mentioned in earlier post)

5.  New View Old Testament (websight) by Val Greenwood

6. Women of the OT 2010 Calendar

And click here:  two latest LDS commentaries on the OT for LDS in 2010.

1. Jim F over at “Feast upon the Word”

Why Reading the OT is Sometimes so Difficult – Jim F. is an LDS scholarly guru. He hits on some interesting Hebrew world-view angles.  I just hope that he would not like Blake O. seek “to save the heart of God’s revelations to the Hebrews from the Greek mind.”  Two OT books are of utmost importance as we discover truths in God’s Word in 2010:  Genesis and Isaiah.

2.  Todd over at “Explorations in Faith”

Bereshith – the Creation – bereshith bara elohim according to Blake Ostler, Joseph Smith, and Todd (and not necessarily according to the KJV)

The First Creation Narrative – Let’s look at Wellhausen, Armstrong, a picture of the world (I saw this in Blake’s Vol. 3 – reproduced from Gier in God, Reason, and the Evangelicals: The Case Against Evangelical Rationalism), Enuma Elish, and the Framework Interpretation.  Now, I must admit, I do find some insights interesting from the Framework Interpretation.

The Second Creation Narrative: Eve – Some more higher criticism, but then I am happy to see some discussion on the “help meet”.  Indeed, my wife does correspond to my creatureliness in every way where I am lacking.  What a gift from the Creator – the One who does not lack like we creatures!

3. Robert C. over at “Feast upon the Word”

Brother Themes in Genesis – Hmm . . . you certainly won’t find this in Genesis: Two of our brothers presented alternative plans embodying different ways of conceiving our responsibilities toward others in the pre-earth council.

4.  BrianJ, Aquinas, and Julie on Lesson #1 – I just hope lesson #1 is not the foundation for everyone in S.E. Idaho before they begin reading their Old Testaments.

As of tonight, I have finished reading up to Genesis 14.