Did Jesus wrongly kill the fig tree?

Posted on January 29, 2012 by matt

I came across Mark 11:13-14 in my reading today,

Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

My immediate thought was something bordering on fear because I applied the passage to myself – I must always be in season! I must always be baring fruit! God can come back and any time and what if I’m not helping build the Kingdom at that exact moment!

Now, all that is true in some regard. We are to be about the Master’s business and we are to be watchful for His return, which could be at any time. But what about sleep? Rest? Time to eat? Time for relationships? Time for fun? Time for reading? Time for education and learning? All of these could be considered taking away from the ideally direct tasks of the Great Commission, but, really? Withering a fig tree because it didn’t bare fruit out of season? Something doesn’t sound right to our sense of fairness and justice…

So, I did what I always do when I have questions about the bible: I googled it. After a quick (five second) google I found tektonics.org, which I respect. I  read their article about the same passage, Did Jesus wrongly kill the fig tree? And it seems there is a much more immediate meaning to the passage. Give it a read, here’s an excerpt:

A common explanation that the fig tree in question had not produced the “pre-figs” (somewhat edible, very young figs) that it should have borne along with the leaves. Hence, it was barren and useless – and thus became a prophetic symbol and an object lesson: That which does not produce fruit will be cut down – just like a weed.

This is correct, but incomplete. Throughout the OT, and in the NT, the fig tree as a symbol is tied in with expectation — and withering is tied in with judgment…

Give it a read, and then pause, and calmly think on it.

Selah.

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Undead ACTA Still Thrashing

Posted on January 28, 2012 by matt

Check out Michael Geist’s latest update The ACTA Fight Returns: What Is at Stake and What You Can Do. Here’s an excerpt:

The reverberations from the SOPA fight continue to be felt in the U.S. (excellent analysis from Benkler and Downes) and elsewhere (mounting Canadian concern that Bill C-11 could be amended to adopt SOPA-like rules), but it is the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement that has captured increasing attention this week. Several months after the majority of ACTA participants signed the agreement, most European Union countries formally signed the agreement yesterday (notable exclusions include Germany, the Netherlands, Estonia, Cyprus and Slovakia).

This has generated a flurry of furious protest: thousands have taken to the streets in protest in Poland, nearly 250,000 people have signed a petition against the agreement, and a Member of the European Parliament has resigned his position as rapporteur to scrutinize the agreement, concluding that the entire review process is a “charade.”

It’s a democracy folks. Let’s make our voice known.

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The Rise and Fall, and Rise, of Five Iron Frenzy

Posted on January 22, 2012 by matt

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New Year’s Day 2012

Posted on January 1, 2012 by matt

Happy New Year! May your heart warm again to hope by the very sunshine shone forth only from the trust put in Jesus Christ, Saviour of your soul, God, Who knows the good plans He has for you!

Allow me to open 2012 with an old stand by, for the “old school Sanctus Real fans…”

Things were better last year. Things will be better this year.

Thank you, God, for blessing me, thank you for helping me be a blessing, thank you for changing me. You have shown your faithfulness in spite of my unfaithfulness. You have answered my prayers, you have carried me through, you have lead me and guided me according to your Will for me, revealing to me day by day your plans to bless me so incredibly. I am amazed that you care for the things that I care about. Forgive me for having such little faith. I believe, help my unbelief! Thank you for the sacrifice of Your Son on the cross for me, a sinner. May I ever more and ever better be Your servant.

Lord, you know my heart’s desire. Please bless me with opportunities to be a blessing, please bless me with courage and confidence to seize those opportunities, please bless me with Your creativity to create opportunities! I believe your best for me is yet in my future. This I know because I have seen Your great hand at work! I will wait on You, I will trust in You.

The Lord, God, He is Good. Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Selah.

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New Year’s Eve 2011

Posted on December 31, 2011 by matt

Truly, the light of the Son has shone on each day more wonderfully than the last! These words, penned New Year’s Day 2011 echo back to me from distant memory and remind me of the immediate flood of blessings I have had each day of this year!

Twenty-Eleven began with a running start. In the Fall of 2010 I made a commitment before the Lord, which I am still working through, and hope to do so for the rest of my life. As New Year’s 2011 commenced, my faith, my life, and my hopes were placed in God’s able hands. My commitment was to someone special, my aim to be a blessing to her and her family, my promise before God to remain steadfast to them, my request before God that he bless me so I could be a blessing, and my plea before God to change me – that I would be a better servant to him day by day.

The Lord has answered so many prayers. I am amazed that He hears and not only hears but answers! One of my constant prayers this past year has been that I would be able to see opportunities arising where I could be a blessing, that I would have the courage and confidence to seize those opportunities, and that I would be granted God’s own creativity to create opportunities to be a blessing. God has overflowed me with amazing opportunities and, more surprising still, He has used these opportunities to other ends than I had intended so that I ended up being more incredibly blessed than I would have thought. I am blown away by the way He works. I love His ways!

I have also been learning not simply to hope for good things but to trust God who has planned for our good, if we would only have faith and trust Him and follow Him so that he can carry out in our life something more wonderful than we could ever have dreamed up on our own!

Praise Him, all creatures here below! Praise Him above, ye Heavenly Host! The Lord God, “majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders,” this God, His hand has been on my days, His plans for me from everlasting have been revealed day by day and I am laid low that I have gripped so tightly to fantasies when God’s workings are so much better, so surprisingly delightful, so unexpected and joy abounding!

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow!

I don’t know about becoming a Cannonball this past year but the Lord has lifted my head, lead me, and carried me forward. I have continued to read His Word on my phone, now using AcroBible NIV. I have abandoned cable television and, with it, The Light, a cable radio station which broadcasts quality Christian music. I have moved to iTunes, mostly, and have found I can get most of the music I want to find. As I talked about in my New Year’s Eve 2010 post, I have stayed with my “christian” playlist and I find there is truth and wisdom and peace in immersing one’s self completely in things good, and pure, and noble.

This year I have been trying to keep a habit of reading a few key, biblical promises, that I first heard from James MacDonald’s series Always True. Listen to the audio series yourself and I think you’ll experience the same uplifting joy I felt coming to understand God’s intention for our blessing! I would read one promise per day, Monday through Friday, in the hope that I’d never forget God’s love and care for me. This year has taught me fully that God is always watching over us, waiting for us to come back to Him, that He could bless all the more being within His Will.

One of my most feared understandings of God is His sovereign Will to humble anyone He so chooses. I have often prayed that He would humble me before I needed to be humbled. One weekend, in particular, turned into such a humbling for me, but the night lasted only so long and joy came with the morning. I understand better, now, what is being said in the beautiful song, Blessed Be Your Name. God is good!

Praise God, from Whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye Heavenly Host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

God is so good!

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s ‘all as it should be’
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord, blessed be Your name

Selah.

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Merry Christmas

Posted on December 25, 2011 by matt

Merry Christmas to you and yours! May this season bring you happiness and joy in Jesus Christ and his victory over sin and death! Christmas, celebrating the birth of the Saviour, marks but the beginning of his Victory over sin and death!

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
Isaiah 9:6-7

Jesus Christ, God’s own Son, came to save sinners like you and I.

The good news is joyously simple…

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:16

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Nim’s Vintersaga (Nim’s Winter Tale)

Posted on December 22, 2011 by matt

Continuing my yearly Christmas tradition, I present Ola Schubert’s hand-crafted, beautifully scored vignette, Nim’s Winter Tale. Gather family around this Christmas Eve, lower the lights, and enjoy a brief, magical glimpse of Nim’s wintry world.

 

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In this embrace…

Posted on November 28, 2011 by matt

In this embrace, five addressed five, “If we have found favour in your sight, and if it is pleasing in your eyes, please grant our petition.” And five replied, “What is your wish? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to one-fifth of our own, it will be granted.” “If it is favourable in your sight and pleasing in your eyes, take your leisure upon us.” And because the leisure was due, five alighted with five and found the embrace was true.

In this embrace, five solicited five, “If we have found favour in your sight, and if it is pleasing in your eyes, please grant our petition.” And five replied, “What is your wish? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to two-fifths of our own, it will be granted.” “If it is favourable in your sight and pleasing in your eyes, take your leisure upon us, and let us tend to you.” And because the touch delighted, and because the leisure was due, five rested with five and found the embrace was true.

In this embrace, five beseeched five, “If we have found favour in your sight, and if it is pleasing in your eyes, please grant our petition.” And five replied, “What is your wish? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to three-fifths of our own, it will be granted.” “If it is favourable in your sight and pleasing in your eyes, take your leisure upon us, let us tend to you, and caress your beautiful face.” And because the caress was welcome, and because the touch delighted, and because the leisure was due, five lay with five and found the embrace was true.

In this embrace, five implored five, “If we have found favour in your sight, and if it is pleasing in your eyes, please grant our petition.” And five replied, “What is your wish? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even up to four-fifths of our own, it will be granted.” “If it is favourable in your sight and pleasing in your eyes, take your leisure upon us, let us tend to you, caress your beautiful face, and let us join together to be like this for always.” And because their hearts hung together, and because the caress was welcome, and because the touch delighted, and because the leisure was due, five entwined with five and found the embrace was true.

In this embrace, five entreated five, “If we have found favour in your sight, and if it is pleasing in your eyes, please grant our petition.” And five replied, “What is your wish? It will be given you. And what is your request? Even to all that we have, it will be granted.” “If it is favourable in your sight and pleasing in your eyes, take your leisure upon us, let us tend to you, caress your beautiful face, let us join together to be like this for always, and hold this embrace forever .” And because the embrace was strong, and because their hearts hung together, and because the caress was welcome, and because the touch delighted, and because the leisure was due, five nestled with five and found the embrace was true.

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There’s a hole down that road

Posted on November 27, 2011 by matt

I walk down the road. There’s a hole down that road. I don’t see the hole. I fall in the hole. It’s very deep, and at the bottom, where I lay broken, it’s cold and dark. I can’t get out.

I walk down the road. There’s a hole down that road. I see the hole as I am walking down the road. I fall in the hole. It’s familiar and strangely cosy. I can’t get out.

I walk down the road. There’s a hole down that road. I see the hole as I am walking down the road. I fall in the hole. I don’t like the hole anymore. I want to get out.

I walk down the road. There’s a hole down that road. I see the hole as I am walking down the road. I dread falling in the hole. I fall in the hole. But I look up and decide to get out.

I walk down the road. There’s a hole down that road. I see the hole as I walk down the road. I say to myself, “I will not fall in the hole again.” I fall in the hole again. I start climbing out.

I walk down the road. There’s a hole down that road. I see the hole as I walk down the road. I try not to fall down the hole. But I fall in the hole again. I get back out straight away.

I walk down the road. There’s a hole down that road. I see the hole as I walk down the road. My foot catches the edge and I fall in the hole. But I don’t hit the bottom. I cling to the edge and climb out of the hole.

I walk down the road. There’s a hole down that road. I see the hole and step over it. I don’t fall in the hole this time.

I walk down the road. There’s a hole down that road. I see the hole and step over it. But I trip. I fall in the hole. I climb out faster than before.

I walk down the road. There’s a hole down that road. But I’m not on that road. I’ve walked down a different road.

With credit to Lorna MacDonald, via James MacDonald, with some poetic license.

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Five Iron Frenzy 3: Electric Beegalee

Posted on November 23, 2011 by matt

Five Iron Frenzy is back! Via incubator Kickstarter.com you can help FIF bring their new album to life! Who’s up for a roadtrip to see their show next year?? While you’re waiting, here’s one of their new songs…

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