Voting for Nebuchadnezzar

[This article was originally posted on my Our Long View Blog if you want to see other messages like this.]

In last week’s message, we continued a study about glory. People were created to share in the glory of God but that all changed when man rebelled against God and sought his own glory instead. The true glory of God has been substituted, replaced with a cheap, knock-off pirated type of glory. In previous weeks, we had considered the limitations of both human and national glory. Here is a summary.

1) Human Glory Is Momentary (Psa. 39:5; 103:14; 144:4; Eccl. 3:20; Isa. 40:6-8; 1 Peter 1:24; 1 Thess. 2:6). Man’s exile from the achingly beautiful presence of true glory has too often been dealt with not through seeking reconciliation with God, but by pursuing the lesser glory that comes from other people. Man’s residual glory, having been created in the Imago Dei, has been clouded and even at his best is momentary (Psa. 39:5; 103:14; 144:4; Eccl. 3:20; 1 Peter 1:24) and not something that should be sought (1 Thessalonians 2:6). We would do well to remember that our society tends to cannibalize its celebrities.  We build people up only so that we can tear them down. As Irenaeus said, humanity's true glory is to “remain permanently in God’s service.”^[1] Why is this the true glory of humanity? Because being in a relationship with the triune God is where we find our long-sought peace, our irreducible value, and our ultimate purpose as we are invited to participate in the inter-Trinitarian life of God through the Son by the Spirit.

2) National Glory Is Temporary (Genesis 11, Isaiah 37, 2 Kings 19). The Bible tells of many nations and empires rising and falling—Babel, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, etc. They might have been impressive from a human perspective, but their power and glory were not permanent. The Bible teaches that any nation raised up by God for a purpose, which fails to give God glory by functioning justly for all may serve a temporary purpose, but is soon judged and passes from the scene of history. It is a hard truth all “superpowers” must face. We should pray Daniel’s prayer of national repentance (Daniel 9).

Then last week we considered the dangerous distinctions of self-glory in a message from Acts 12:20-24.

3) Self-Glory Is Deceptive (Acts 12:23, Rev. 18:7-8) Self-glory is not only momentary but highly deceptive, promising better than it delivers and woefully understating the true cost (e.g., Acts 12:23; Revelation 16:9; 18:7), straight from the father of lies himself. 

A powerful example of this concept is found in the life of Nebuchadnezzar recorded in Daniel 3-4.

In Daniel 3, King Nebuchadnezzar (ruler of the vast Babylonian empire) tells, in his own words, what he had learned about God through the various signs and wonders that God had worked in and around his life. Daniel 3 tells the story of Nebuchadnezzar (or “Mr. Nezzar” as he is called in the VeggieTales version) throwing Daniel’s three friends into the fiery furnace for refusing to bow down and worship the huge golden statue of the king. At the end of that narrative, the king declared,

“Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king's command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Therefore I make a decree: Any people, nation, or language that speaks anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be torn limb from limb, and their houses laid in ruins, for there is no other god who is able to rescue in this way.” (Dan. 3:28-29)

This is a statement of a greatly changed worldview... even if his despotic Near-eastern proclamation against dissent doesn't match up with the steadfast love of God revealed in the Scriptures.

Then in Daniel chapter 4, the king received another dream from the Lord which he could not understand. Daniel had interpreted the first one for him and in this case, was again enabled by the Lord to interpret the dream. This time the dream functioned as a dire pronouncement of a coming humiliation for his great pride. Nebuchadnezzar was given a slim glimmer of hope, from Daniel, if he would “break off” his iniquities through...

1. By practicing righteousness, and establishing justice for all the people in the realm. It is especially contingent upon a leader to realize that the law of the land applies to themself as a ruler and to the people.
2. By showing mercy to the oppressed. He was “to show a new sensitivity to the plight of the poor in his empire, protecting them instead of allowing the rich to exploit and oppress them.” [EBC]

If he did this, then Daniel suggested that “there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity.” It might have already been too late for Mr. Nezzar. However, he seemed to have complied for a year before looking at his vast capital and all the hanging gardens it contained and taking all the credit for himself…as politicians are wont to do. At that very moment, the justice and mercy of God were declared from heaven.

Nebuchadnezzar, 
by William Blake 1794

Daniel 4:28-33 tells the story of how  Nebuchadnezzar went on a “crazy trip” that lasted perhaps as long as seven years (There is a period in his reign that contains a gap in recorded activity from 581 to 573 BC except for the siege of Tyre which might easily have been continued in his absence) before his reason returned and he blessed God instead of himself. Not only that, but he writes of his own failures and sins of pride in his own words in Daniel 4. Just one chapter earlier he would have been the least likely candidate to give glory to the God of Israel in the eyes of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. But now he declared the praise of God for all the world to hear!

Every politician is a Nebuchadnezzar, who has great power that can be used for good or for ill; who is also subject to take credit for successes while deflecting blame for failures.

I am amazed that a man who was basically the ruler of the world was humbled by the justice of God and restored by the mercy of God to the place where he could testify,

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven,

and my reason returned to me,

and I blessed the Most High,

and    praised and honored him who lives forever,

                      for his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
                    and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;
   all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing,
    and he does according to his will among the host of heaven
    and among the inhabitants of the earth;
    and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

…Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, 

praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, 

for all his works are right and his ways are just;

 and those who walk in pride he is able to humble. (Daniel 4:34-37)

Don't you wish our political leaders could say the same thing?

Nebuchadnezzar had a dark and violent past, he had taken the best and brightest of conquered nations captive to acculturate them to Babylonian ideals, and he had even enforced idolatrous worship. But he learned his lesson (after these seven years of exile), for the common good, and became a leader for whom I could vote. 

I have actively avoided campaigning for any particular candidate, but I am praying that our leaders today—Democrats, Republicans, Independents—will experience their own Nebuchadnezzar moment, lift their eyes towards heaven, humble themselves, and give glory to God so that they might rule well...with mercy and justice for all. 

---

[1] Joel C. Elowsky, ed. John 11-21 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture). Vol. IVb (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 176

"Blessed are the poor in spirit" and Psalm 26 (King David vs. Jesus?)

This post is an assigned response to Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit—Not Those with Spiritual Bravado, by Paul Louis Metzger.

Let’s start by considering two very different passages of scripture, one from the Old Testament written by a king, and the other from the New Testament proclaimed as the message of the kingdom of heaven.

Psalm 26:1-3

¹ Vindicate me, O Lord,
    for I have walked in my integrity,
    and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
² Prove me, O Lord, and try me;
    test my heart and my mind.
³ For your steadfast love is before my eyes,
    and I walk in your faithfulness.

Matthew 5:1-3

“Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain,

and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’”

How can we walk as King David claimed “in our integrity” and still be blessed as the “poor in spirit” or the “spiritually bankrupt” at the same time? Is it even possible for both to be true in us, or are these attitudes mutually exclusive? Or perhaps we just chalk it up to the differences due to progressive revelation from the mid-Old Testament to the early New Testament as is so often done and walk on by such issues.

Let’s be honest, sometimes King David’s claims in the Psalms seem almost arrogant and self-righteous at first glance…especially given our knowledge of his own personal and public failures. Certainly, he was gifted with a completely honest approach to communicating with God, and thus some of his statements may offend our more nuanced religious sensibilities. But before we are too hard on David, we need to get the log of self-promotion out of at least one of our own eyes. How often do we mentally make the same argument as David…that we deserve better? That we are not like “them”? That we have integrity in ourselves?

Let me say, in a stage-whisper aside, that it is in our corrupted nature to compare ourselves favorably with others. [Even those who despise themselves and compare themselves unfavorably to others do so with the thought that they should be better or have better in a kind of backward pride—for if they really despised themselves then they would be happy that their life is miserable.]

We often don’t really feel the deep need for God to vindicate and redeem us because we either see no need for vindication and redemption, or we are committed to vindicating ourselves. We think we are Superman rescuing our own lives from the gutters of both personal failures and religious superstitions. If God exists, then he must certainly accept us…but more often than not the spiritually confident live as though God answered to them rather than the other way around.

David’s request for God to “vindicate” him was actually a statement of humility. It demonstrates that he knew that he needed to be vindicated (to justify, maintain, support, defend, uphold, prove correct or right) and couldn't deliver himself.

In the Expositors’ Bible Commentary Vol. 5, Willem A. VanGemeren writes, “Vindication is where the act of God whereby he declares his servant to be innocent and avenges himself of the wicked (false accusers, enemies).”[1] Note that vindication here is “the act of God” not the act of self-righteous humanity.

The integrity, to which David clung, was faithfully dependent upon the steadfast love and mercy of God (v.3). His integrity is seen in the coherence between his inner life of faith and his outward walk of faithfulness. He shunned everything that smacked of a lie or deceitfulness. He chooses not to enjoy the temporal benefits of those who oppress others. He has weighed the cost of following the Lord and does so with equal parts enthusiastic abandon and steadfast endurance. So we see that to “walk in integrity” demands not perfection, but requires the honesty and humility to admit that we desperately need a gracious redeemer!

It has been said that “a life of faith” serves a dream/mission so big that it requires God to miraculously bring it to pass or it is not a life of faith. If, in our integrity, we know that we need God to vindicate and redeem us and we put our whole-hearted hope in his doing so, then perhaps we are living by faith indeed as the “poor in spirit”.

Psalm 26, from which these verses are taken, is described as a psalm of entrance…that might have been used by the worshipper entering into the temple complex seeking both the clean hands and pure heart necessary to come before the presence of the Lord. The psalmist asked God to search and test him, not because of an elevated sense of self-righteousness, but from the response of a heart captured by the steadfast love of the Lord! He wanted to be able to stand in the presence of God.

He consciously distanced himself from the oppressor and drew near to God in whom true freedom was found. For, as Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” (Matthew 6:24)  This psalm testifies that the psalmist was a “one master” kind of guy. To quote VanGemeren again, “The psalmist's concern with integrity, acts of devotion, and words of praise flows out of a heart filled with love for the Lord and for God's house. It is motivated by a zeal for the Lord.”[2] 

So can I say the same thing about myself? A couple of years ago, in commenting on this same passage, I wrote,

I hope that one day I will be able to look back and say with the psalmist that “I have trusted the Lord without wavering.” Yet I am not so sure that I want to ask the questions of God that David asked in verse two. But I wonder if it is possible to experience unwavering trust (v.1) without asking God to test us (v.2). Maybe the key is in verse 3…where I keep God’s steadfast love before my eyes (which makes it a lot easier to trust) and I live in his perfect faithfulness (not my own).

So we see that David’s integrity caused him to cry out to the Lord for redemption, vindication, and relational access to the Lord. Perhaps David is actually a pretty good case study in the blessedness of being poor in spirit.

What do you think?

---

[1] Expositors Bible Commentary Vol. 8

[2] Ibid.

For Want of a Shoe…Discalced Diplomacy

The first question that many of my readers might have is, “What does discalced mean?” It simply means “without shoes”. In Exodus 3:4-6, we see that God revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush with the command for him to take off his sandals.

When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Even today, many cultures do not wear their shoes into homes or

houses of worship because they know the street is unclean and don’t want to track the grime and gutter-grunge of their world into the presence of their hosts.

There were men and women of faith in centuries past who became convinced that the monastic orders of which they were a part had grown too worldly and were seeking their own pleasure instead of being wholehearted followers of Jesus. It seems that they irritated their own people with all their talk of reform and either chose—or were forced—to leave and start their own missional communities. One sign of their devotion was to stop wearing shoes, or later, to wear only sandals. For example, St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross started the Discalced Carmelite orders in the 16^th Century.

My discalced story has nothing to do with medieval mendicant orders, at least not directly. But they removed their shoes as a symbol of a radical commitment to follow Jesus rather than compromising their convictions to serve the status quo.

Some years ago, I had a similar experience. I was at a gathering of pastors and leaders from several churches for a three-day time of mutual encouragement and seeking the Lord together without the normal conference-style agenda. During our last time of gathered worship, I felt strongly that the Lord wanted me to take off my shoes.  I have to confess that I wasn’t very open to the idea. To my rational German/British upbringing, it made no sense, and I could discern no explanation for the prompting. The music was quite loud in a rather small space, so I moved to the back of the room to sort things out and preserve what was left of my hearing. While standing there in the midst of a time of praise, I finally made the decision to obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit and humble myself by removing my shoes…opening myself up to potential embarrassment if questioned. It was a profound moment of surrender, over a very simple request, where I had to trust that responding to the Lord was more important than any appearances. After the service ended, I put on my shoes and headed for the airport to fly home. Still, I had no explanation in my heart from the Lord about why I had been asked to take my shoes off. There was not even a hint of the “for this is holy ground” that Moses had received at the burning bush. However, I knew that at that moment I was in right relationship with the Lord and that I wasn’t holding anything back.  

On the flight to Atlanta, I was privileged to sit next to a critical care nurse headed to visit her aging mother in California. After a time of chatting about my destination in Oregon, she labeled herself as a “lapsed Catholic New Age practitioner.” Upon hearing this, I asked her to tell me about what that meant. She was surprised that I was interested, saying, “Most Christians I meet don’t want to hear anything about what I believe.” This led to a delightfully serene conversation about our core convictions while the plane was increasingly batted about by the thunderstorm raging outside.

At one point, she confessed that she could tell that I must be “a holy man” for I had “very clean energy.” That was unexpected, but I thanked her for the compliment. At that point, I realized that if I hadn’t humbled myself at the Lord’s request just a couple of hours earlier, she would probably not have noticed any “clean energy” emanating from me. It was the Holy Spirit that guided me in an unhurried, patient, and kind approach, my discalced diplomacy if you will, which created space for thoughtful and authentic interaction to occur. I consciously left my ideological shoes at the door, so as to hear her in her own words, instead of parroting all the anti-New Age authors and apologists I may have heard in the past.

I listened respectfully, asked clarifying questions when necessary, and thanked her genuinely for helping me understand her perspective, with only the admission, “That is very different from what I believe.” A few minutes later, she asked me about my beliefs and how they were different from her own.

As things grew more turbulent outside, I noticed others were listening in on our conversation. There was the woman one row in front of us who had turned her head so that she could listen through the gap between the seat-backs.  There was the middle-linebacker-looking man across the aisle, whose reddened face and bulging neck veins made me wonder if he disagreed with what I was saying or was fighting airsickness. To my surprise, once we landed, a co-worker of mine, who had been seated five or six rows away, said that everyone around us had been listening and he had been praying for hearts to be receptive to the gospel presented conversationally.

There is a verse of conventional wisdom, nearly a thousand years old, which says,

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost.
For want of a horse, the rider was lost.
For want of a rider, the message was lost.
For want of a message, the battle was lost.
For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

The proverbial lesson that every small detail matters is not lost on me. We have no excuse to be lazy or careless in our calling. Yet I also know the Lord often works in counterintuitive ways.

 

So, what if we intentionally took our metaphorical shoes off when engaging others with diverse perspectives and world-views? What would happen if we simply took off the ideological combat boots of the culture wars and the supple-to-hand designer shoes of our consumption-based economy, and went barefoot for a bit? Then, after slowing down and stepping on a rock or two, we tried to walk in the other person’s proverbial moccasins for a mile or so.

I remember having to walk down a gravel road to and from the beach many times while growing up and most often we were barefoot. The gravel was uneven and sharp which made the trip painful, slow, and a bit unsteady as we tried to pick our way through and find the best route for everyone. Perhaps we should approach our times of inter-faith and multi-ethnic diplomacy the same way…slowly and sacredly.

 

“Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.” (Col. 4:6)

[Update: I wrote this five years ago, but in recent weeks we have seen the world changed by the COVID-19 virus. Many areas are on lockdown or at least practicing social distancing. One thing that public health leaders advised early on was to not wear shoes in the house. Instead of potentially tracking the virus into our homes, let's take off our physical and metaphorical shoes out of love for others!]

Unity: A Rabbit-hole, or the Eye of a Needle?

"Regarding Jesus’ own costly engagement of going where no one else goes or even imagines going, how far will we go in order to build genuine unity?"

The following blog is a response to a post by my professor, Paul Metzger, about pursuing Jesus' call to unity entitled, Jesus and the Rabbit Hole.

I have no desire for rabbit-holes (unless they are the Beatrix Potter kind). In fact, I have to confess that the whole Alice in Wonderland motif creeps me out—right up there with clowns! While I am at it, I see no need for a Willy Wonka psychedelic-tunnel-ride into the candy factory either. Though many one-sided efforts don’t seem to add up, or factor out, unity in Christ doesn’t require us to delve into fantasy or become weird or wacky…does it?  

However, it is likely that my negative reaction to Alice is due to my not really understanding it… and not taking the time to try. Perhaps the same could be said about some efforts at unity. All sides think the others are either crazy or culpable, and it takes some kind of radical commitment to humble oneself or one’s group—to listen longer than is comfortable, to learn to use a different set of tools that feel awkward, and to love the other beyond our level of understanding.  

What is it that hinders true unity? Is it primarily sinful individuals, or oppressive systems and groups? The more we listen to each other the more we know the answer must be, “Yes.” Crazy, isn’t it?

I don’t think that true, God-honoring, unity comes when we follow a Mad Hatter down a hole because we are bored, curious, or simply overrunning our vision. In fact it is the opposite…for gravity and good intentions do not help us get where we need to go. We must humble ourselves and let the Lord break us…as individuals and as a society while time remains. “And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” (Matthew 21:44) Of the two options Jesus presents, I vote for pieces rather than powder!

Could this whole hole-thing be an “eye of the needle” experience for us? Might the path to unity lead us cultural (both dominant and minority) camels to shed some baggage? Certainly the squeeze will be tight enough that we can’t get through to the other side while packing all our customary excuses and explanations—whether white, black, or something in-between. Another thing I wonder about sometimes is what great trial might we face that forces us to stop being separate and motivates us to stand together.

I think it is very likely that the goal of relational and structural unity is impossible for us, by either method; which places it easily in realm of possibility for the Holy Spirit…if we admit that we need his help. The gate to unity takes more than one key to open. Asking for his help together may be the price that needs to be paid.

"For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it—lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'" (Luke 14:28-30)

Metzger is encouraging us to count the cost of unity, not so that we will avoid it, but so that we will take it more seriously. Jesus came to earth, humbly born, wholly living, horribly dying to make unity possible between God and man, Jew and Gentile, male and female, powerful and poor. To paraphrase, Metzger asks us, “How far are we willing to go along this journey with Jesus?” Are we hedging our bets or secretly readying our lifeboats? Perhaps this is horribly out of context, but the words which the Apostle Paul spoke to a Roman Centurion as they faced imminent shipwreck, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.” (Acts 27:31)

I once wrote an article about counting the cost of following Jesus entitled, Unfinished Towers & Broken Towel Bars, from which I quote.

Unfinished towers dot the landscape of our Christian experience like so many abandoned oil derricks rusting in the sun—structure without power, form without life, intentions without insistence. They are a stark testimony to the folly of failed ambition, exhausted emotions, and bad decisions. Some lie in ruins because divided loyalties and confused priorities siphoned off the resources allocated for their completion. Most tragic though are the mangled remains of the once great, and promising towers that were devastated by the explosions of moral and relational failures, never to be rebuilt—places visited only by the scavengers of scrap metal and hunters of urban legends.

In fact, in the context of unity, our relational failures are moral failures. Are we trying to make a name for ourselves (Babel) or choosing to die to our own glory (disciples) in order to lift up the unity of the body? When all around we hear the clash of hammers, echoes of the self-building and name-making boom, humility does appear to be madness. In truth, it is the only sanity. The problem though is systemic, sin has metastasized, no longer self-contained it works through the whole body. However, those who recognize the danger still tend to operate in “-ectomies” settling for resections instead of the costly embrace of restoration.

How does the Lord respond to the leaderless and the lost, the hopeless and the helpless, the sick and the dying? We can waffle about theologies of glory as opposed to those of the cross, but it is through the cross that we get to share in the humble glory of God who helps his people.

“When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears
    and delivers them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted
    and saves the crushed in spirit.” (Psalms 34:17-19)

I have no desire to fall down crazy rabbit-holes, but in humility I have taken up the cross to follow Christ…not through a rabbit-hole, but to a grave. However, all is not somber, for I have visited the tomb and it is empty!

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)

If we lack wisdom about the process (and we do) we need only ask… and be quick to listen and slow to speak (James 1:5, 19). 

Throne Down, or Thrown Down

This week is a guest appearance of a post from my other blog (a Bible/Devotional blog http://psalms-honest2god.blogspot.com/)

Mark 13:1-2

Then as He went out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him,

"Teacher, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!"

And Jesus answered and said to him,

"Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down."

Comments:

2001 landslide from major earthquake
in El Salvador

Jesus was quick to teach that the things that we think are impressive, solid, immovable, and permanent will be torn down if we honor them more than we honor God. Have you ever experienced an earthquake? We occasionally have earthquakes here in Oregon (I can think of two pretty big ones) but I am originally from Los Angeles  and have experienced many there. Once as a child I was thrown out of bed during one especially strong quake. My daughter is from El Salvador and experienced many terrible quakes including the one in Santa Tecla (2001) that killed 944 people and damaged 150,000 buildings. There really is something unnerving when that which you think to be solid starts moving and shaking, or rolling like the waves on the ocean!

Jesus’ disciples thought the temple was the most beautiful and stable thing in their world. Yet it had come to be a mockery to its original purpose. When Jesus entered Jerusalem he found that it was not a “house of prayer for all nations” and had to drive out the moneychangers and sacrifice vendors. It was not a place concerned with relieving the burden of the very poor, as we saw in the account of the widows offering and Jesus’ condemnation of the predatory practices of the scribes. The leaders in what was supposed to be “my Father’s house” were like wicked tenants who were plotting to kill “the heir” and would soon complete the act. Jesus was telling his followers that their hope was not in a building—or in any impressive works of man—but the work that Jesus was about to do in dying for their sins. He had already told them about this many times but they really didn’t understand. They just wanted to talk about when the temple would be destroyed. End-times fascination started early I guess.

Model of Robinson's Arch into Temple

There used to be a pedestrian walkway to enter the Temple Compound at ground level and it was supported by what we now call Robinson’s Arch. In 70 a.d. the Romans tore it all down and toppled the stones into the street below where they left a significant crater. See photo of stones below.

The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelism sponsored a consultation of “Gospel and Culture” which was published as The Willowbank Report. These diverse ministry leaders commented on the shockwaves of our conversion to Christ.

"True conversion to Christ is bound, therefore, to strike at the heart of our cultural inheritance. Jesus Christ insists on dislodging from the center of our world whatever idol previously reigned there, and occupying the throne himself. This is the radical change of allegiance which constitutes conversion, or at least its beginning."[1]

What is the anchor for our soul, the light of our life, the solid rock that we run to when all around us is sinking sand? It had better be Jesus or we are in for a rude awakening! 

Regardless of timetables, charts & graphs, and debates over symbolism...

That which can be shaken will be shaken.

God will judge every idol exalted against him. Kingdoms and buildings alike will fall.

The question is, will we stand in God's grace or will we fall in our own strength.

---

[1] Ralph D. Winter, and Steven C. Hawthorne, eds. Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader (Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2006), 495.