Author: bryanmcanally

Sacks of Wet Sand

It has been a long time since I’ve written here. Mostly for good reasons. Productive reasons. Been busy with good things that give me joy. Some I’ve already shared. Others I’ll share soon, and others I hope to share later. It’s been so long since I’ve been here that I couldn’t remember my logon.

I came here because I’ve been twisted by long-brewing perfect storms of tragedies that have befallen three friends in the deaths of their young adult kids in unrelated, unimaginable circumstances. In two of those, a daughter and a son each went missing (again, unrelated to each other, in states far from each other). In the third, a dear daughter and herself a young mother, passed away following a necessary procedure.

Everything is just heavy right now.

Please pray for these people whose burdens are so overwhelming.

This world is harsh.

But there is good.

There is grace.

Mercy

Healing even.

I’ve a story about that to share.

Someday soon.

But today, if you’ll just think of my friends, please ask God to be near them

give them comfort

rest

peace

hope

thanks

The best advice you’ve ever received?

hmm…

I’m fascinated by wisdom – what it is, how to acquire and accumulate it, maintain and use it, share it. I find it amazing that wisdom is something God freely and liberally offers to all people without strings attached, and that so few people take advantage of the offer.

When it comes to advice, Good adds virtue; bad, adds vice.

It seems to me that a primary medium for conveying wisdom is word of mouth. In this, there’s an abundance of advice available for acquisition and accumulation. To wit:

There’s plenty more out there…just an Internet search query away.

Likewise, there’s an ever-flowing font of marketplace wisdom, too. A sampling:

What is/would be really interesting is to juxtapose the two collections to see where there’s agreement and disparity…and to develop wisdom from it. But that’s for another day. For now, though….

As a hunter/gather of wisdom, here is some of the best advice I’ve received on my journey so far:

  • People matter most. If God so loved them, how dare you not?
  • Be biblical. God cares what we do, how we do it, and why we do it.
  • Obey the Spirit promptly.
  • You are never more like Christ than when you are being nailed to a cross by people you love.
  • Forgive as you have been forgiven.
  • Put Christ first. There’s a bigger gap between first and second and second and last.
  • Love is a discipline. Be disciplined in love.
  • Love is my commitment to your needs and best interests, no matter what it costs me.
  • Be loving and kind, all the time.
  • Seek to understand before you expect to be understood.
  • Do not strive to be spectacular; strive to be faithful.
  • God never obligates himself to bless anything you do from your own resources or initiative.
  • You aren’t God. Be glad about that. God, though, is God. Be even more glad about that!
  • If you want to be happy, take your attention off yourself, put it upon God and serve others.

And to close, consider this:

  • Do not like good advice so much that you frame it and hang it on a wall rather than putting it to good use.

What’s the best advice you’ve received?

Characteristics of a good teacher*

Everybody likes getting the gold star, amiright?

*”teacher” being a descriptor of anyone who does the work of teaching others, not just those who wear the occupational title.

An optimal learning environment requires a good teacher. A good teacher is a leader who possesses the following qualities that positively convey whatever is being taught and affect the vitality of the group’s learning, interpretation, contextualization, and application:

  • Has common sense. A good teacher knows and does what is right.
  • Has integrity. Walks securely and deals exclusively in the commodity of truth.
  • Is humble. Able to receive correction, listens, and is willing to grow.
  • Is dependable. Keeps their word.
  • Has and keeps priorities. Knows goals and works purposefully toward good.
  • Is generous. Gives selflessly to others, shows kindness.
  • Respects others. Listens to and values others.
  • Treats tasks as opportunities. Approaches all things positively.
  • Utilizes talents, skills, giftedness, and abilities daily. Searches for ways to use everything they’ve been equipped with for the opportunities before them.
  • Expecting positive outcomes daily. Believes in and operates from a mindset that noble deeds are worthwhile and will produce noble outcomes.
  • Speaks well of others. Sees every other person as valuable and worthy of their best effort, and speaks of them accordingly.
  • Is enthusiastic. Is excited about teaching and isn’t afraid to show it.
  • Is passionate about their subject. Is a student themselves and shares their own discoveries.
  • Is contagious with their subject. Their enthusiasm and passion infects learners.
  • Teaches others. Intentionally instructs, seeks to provide understanding and personalization.
  • Encourages others. Urges and motivates others to create and innovate from what they learn.
  • Loves people. Has a genuine love for all people, including strangers.

What would you add to this list?

Questions I’m asked: What about those who haven’t heard?

video image still captured by logger of previously uncontested Amazon tribesperson.

Question: If someone has not heard the Word, i.e., in a remote country, are they still going to hell?

Answer: It probably won’t surprise you that this is not an uncommon question, and it will hopefully encourage you to know that there is a good, biblically reliable answer to it. What’s important to remember first is that God is good and loving, all the time. When this question of “What about those who haven’t heard?” is asked, it almost comes with an implied conjecture that the relative ignorance of the people in question somehow indicts God for being “less good” to them than He has been to those who have, in fact, “heard.” I’m not getting the impression that you or your friend actually think that…just cautioning you to guard your thinking against that fallacy.

SO….God is good.  

The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. (Ps. 145:9)

God is love.  

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1 John 4:8)

God is truth. 

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (John 17:17)

These are fundamental realities that undergird the phenomenon that people in the world, throughout history, have had relatively different access to the Gospel.

We have a tension because we know that some people (most people) have had less access to God’s Word than what is available to us, and we have this Scripture in Romans 1 that is given in the context of judgment that is foreboding:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)

To be clear, this warning is presented negatively, and we should not disregard the cautionary message communicated here. This passage gives us valuable insight on a couple important reminders:

  • All of humanity is born alienated from God, in rebellion to him. Regardless of whether our access to the Gospel is high or non-existent, every single person is born in sin and in need of a Savior:

For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:9-12)

  • Because of this universal state of fallenness, even those who have not heard/will not hear are born in their sin, with a most serious consequence:

For the wages of sin is death, (Romans 6:23)

This Romans 1 passage is quite sobering because it shows that the problem is not that they haven’t heard, but that they have rejected God inasmuch as He has revealed Himself to them in creation. They, therefore, are guilty before God for their sin, and stand in judgment. They stand guilty apart from the Gospel the same way we who believe stood guilty in judgment before we believed. They aren’t guilty because the freedom-bringing Gospel hasn’t arrived to them. They are guilty because they have rejected God in how He has revealed Himself to them.

It is tempting for we who have had ample access to the Gospel to be inappropriately sympathetic to those who have little or no access to the Gospel. But to do so requires us to wrongly exaggerate the inherent goodness or worthiness of those people to “deserve” heaven and to grossly distort or even slander God’s holiness and goodness in His determination to withhold heaven from anyone who doesn’t trust in Jesus. It would be tragic for us to do this, because this isn’t some hypothetical question. We are dealing with real people in the world, with real souls and whose eternity is at stake. It is vital, therefore that we get our theology right about this because it absolutely shapes our sense of responsibility and purpose as Christ’s agents on earth to carry out His assigned mission. 

The biblical message of salvation is articulated clearly by Jesus and His Apostles:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (Romans 10:9-10)

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12)

In the Old Testament, we see that God specifically rescued people out of their universal unbelief by revealing Himself and/or His plan to redeem the entire world through a Messiah. We know this to be true because we have a “Hall of Faith” recorded in Hebrews 11 of the litany of Old Testament Personalities who existed long before the time of Jesus and they, too, trusted in the eternal power and divine nature of God…people like Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Gideon, Daniel, Samuel, David…they all believed God and believed in God, trusting in Him, and their faith was credited to them as righteousness:

And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, (Romans 4:5)  

It is important to understand that their faith was in the promise of looking forward and trusting in WHO God was providing for them later in history in the person of Jesus. Now that Jesus has come and been revealed as God incarnate, there is no other name by which a person can be saved.  And we know that it’s not enough to “just be godly.” Acts 10 records the story of a truly godly man named Cornelius who had not heard the name of Jesus. He would be one of the few people we might identify from Romans 1 who had believed in God as revealed in creation, and truly sought him (rather than rejecting him, as do all those who are under this indictment). Because this man truly believed and sought God, God directed Paul to him as a holy messenger with the Gospel, where he shared the message of Jesus (Acts 11:4).

In this, we see God’s goodness:

I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. (Proverbs 8L17)

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:13)

The simple reality is that there is nobody…anywhere…who will love God before or more than God loves them. There will be nobody…anywhere…who truly seeks God and not be able to find Him (as though God is hiding).

But because God is good, and loving, and true…those of us who have heard and have believed are now being commissioned to take the name of Jesus to everywhere in the world, so that all the world may have the opportunity to believe upon the name of Jesus and be saved:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

“How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14)

God’s call to share with the unreached people groups is going. What is your part in this effort?

Paul’s questions here (Romans 10:14) illustrate the importance of the work we all who believe have in front of us. To those who haven’t heard, we are being sent. May we agree to pray for each other that we will both/all be faithful to share the name of Jesus with those in our lives who we encounter who haven’t heard and haven’t believed. May we all be “preachers” who faithfully communicate the good news of reconciliation with God through faith in Jesus.

While I recognize this doesn’t answer all the questions related to the matter, I hope this is helpful to you.

I killed God.

Some 2,000 years ago, the itinerant Israelite preacher named Jesus was put to death for claiming to be God. He was whipped, scourged, beaten, and then nailed to a wooden cross until he was dead.

Today–“Good Friday”– is the traditional commemoration of the barbaric murder of this one man. While churches around the world will fill to overflowing on the Sunday upcoming as a celebration for the miraculous events that occurred on the first Sunday after the crucifixion, many of those same churches open their doors on this eve to reflect on the somber occasion of the murder that happened that day so long ago.

The doctrines of the faith that bears the moniker of Jesus claims that it is appropriate to engage on solemn reflection on this day because its teachings assert that I am (and are you, too, dear reader) complicit in the execution of this innocent (and correct in all his claims) man.

My first reaction is to object; after all, his murder took place approximately 190 centuries before I was even born.

Yet, the Bible’s historical account of Jesus’ execution reports that when Rome’s occupying governor Pontius Pilate “washed his hands” of complicity for murdering the innocent man Jesus, everyone in the crowd cried out, “Let his blood be on us and our children! (Matthew 27:25)”

The crowd’s self-incrimination was not that they were calling down a curse upon themselves, but that they had assumed responsibility for imposing this death sentence upon Jesus. They were so certain of the appropriateness of what they were doing that they willingly assigned responsibility for this decision upon all the generations that followed them.

All the same, what does that have to do with me? I’m not Jewish and I’m not Roman (or even Middle-European).

Again, I go to the Bible to try to understand the evidence presented in my indictment.

There, I find:

  • that there is no difference between Jew or Gentile. (Romans 3:22, 10:10)
  • that I offend God and rebel against him. (Romans 3:23)
  • that I don’t have anything in me on my own that loves God. (Romans 7:18)

The logical, rational, human mind reasons that this evidence reveals me to be a rebel, but my defense is argues that to be guilty of rebellion doesn’t necessarily mean that I should take the blame for killing Jesus, as if I were the one who picked up the hammer and drove the nails piercing Jesus to the cross.

However, the timeless testimony of the Bible counters my protestations with the reminders:

  • If I break one command, I am guilty of breaking the entire law. (James 1:18)
  • Because I am guilty, I deserve punishment (Nahum 1:3)

It seems rather obvious that the simple solution to this mounting case against me is to simply deny the both the claim and the claimant. I could argue, “but I’m a good person” to the former, and, “the Bible’s untrustworthy” to the latter. Yet, its word overrules both with one reply: “God’s word is living, active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It penetrates to the point that it separates the soul from the spirit and the joints from the marrow. It’s able to judge the heart’s thoughts and intentions. (Hebrews 4:12)”

And so I fall silent and I allow the Book to read me, which compels me to reflect upon my culpability in the events of Christ’s death-by-crucifixion.

I admit, I have rebelled against God. This confession is my statement of agreement with what God says about me and my conduct. More times than I can count, I have done things, thought things, said things and perceived things against, in opposition to, or contrary to God. Every time this has happened, my rebellion against him is tantamount to initiating to actions to murder God. 

You see, that’s what you have to do in order to be in control of your own life. You have to murder God. And it seems absolutely silly to suggest that such a thing is possible. But if God’s authority is absolute and his sovereignty is complete, anything you do independently of him or in defiance to him is nothing less than an attempted coup.

Today is an important day. It is the symbolic anniversary of the day that God allowed his creation to murder him. He did this voluntarily (1 John 3:16). I am part of God’s creation. I stand accused in the face of overwhelming evidence that convicts me.

I am guilty.

I did, in fact, kill God.

I deserve the punishment appropriate for these selfish, loveless thoughts, attitudes, and actions.

If all of life is simply the long delay in the passing sentence for my deeds, how sad and tragic life would be.

It is here that this same Bible that rightly judges my heart and intentions, also reveals that the innocent blood on my guilty hands for Jesus’ death is the same blood that covers my guilt for all my rebellion against God (see Romans 4:6-8; 1 Peter 4:8).

My rational mind can’t fathom it. I’m guilty. He is innocent. He willingly and willfully came, to lay down his life (John 10:17-18). He lived to die, so that the guilty could be forgiven (Phil. 2:5-11).

Good Friday.

Good God.

Questions I’m asked: Healing & Demons

3 Questions: Regarding Mark 8:22-26:

Once was blind
but now I see
  1. Why did Jesus take the man out of the village?
  2. Why did it take Jesus two efforts to give the man sight?
  3. Why did Jesus forbid the man from returning to the city?

Answers:

  1. We don’t have a clear explanation of why Jesus withdrew the man. Some assume that he did so because the people of the village didn’t believe. This is possible. It could have also been simply to remove the man from the chaos of the community.
  2. This two-stage healing is interesting, to be sure. It’s important to see that healing did actually take place in the first instance…but to a greater degree after the second. It could be a reflection of the man’s faith. It’s also been suggested that it may be a picture of the disciples’ own experience. They had a “general” understanding of Jesus in their time with him, but their vision of him as the Son of God was much clearer after the resurrection.
  3. Generally, scholarship agrees that Jesus’ forbidding a return to the town was a pronouncement of judgment against Bethsaida (see Luke 10). Because of the town’s (spiritual leaders’) unbelief, the good report was not allowed back into the city, thus keeping the city in spiritual darkness.

2 Questions: Regarding Mark 9:14-29

Jesus rebukes
the tik-tok skull breaker challenge demons
  1. Where did Jesus send the spirit that he cast out of the boy?
  2. What did Jesus mean when he answered the disciples’ question of why they were unsuccessful by saying, “This kind can only come out through prayer?”

Answers:

  1. We don’t have any clear information of where the demons were sent. It appears that where they were sent was far less important than the simple fact that they were cast out of the boy.
  2. It’s probably best to interpret these events through the lens of the dad’s experience. He was a man of a simple faith, allowing the disciples to minister to the boy. However, it was the disciples’ lack of belief (or really more of a belief in themselves than in the God who empowered them) that resulted in the failed effort to deliver the boy. That failure, understandably, likely negatively affected the dad’s faith. So, when Jesus says, “this kind can only come out through prayer,” he’s reminding the disciples that ministry (and miracles) are the fruit of what is established beforehand in prayer (given by the Spirit, and not originating in man). To this point, everything that Jesus accomplished had already been established in his preceding conversations with the Father. In this regard, miracles were simply the fruit (or the result) of what had already been established in prayer. So, ministry that precedes prayer and dares to ask God to bless what was attempted prayerlessly in the flesh is ministry that is done “out of order,” and of which God does not obligate himself to bless.

Questions I’m asked: Catholic stuff

Holy Water!

From a series of emails I’ve received this week:

Questions (set 1): Catholic Churches have “holy water” fonts for people to dip their fingers in and make the sign of the cross as they enter and leave church.  At the local Catholic Church, when a person wants to bring some holy water home, he takes a bottle of water out of a case of water, makes the sign of the cross over the bottle of water and hands the bottle to the person to take home. I don’t see anywhere in the Bible where holy water is used. Am I missing something?  Maybe the Catholic Church has a “Catholic” Bible?  Or, is  the holy water something that the Pope started on his own years ago?  Is what the Pope decrees considered to be equal to God’s authority?

Response: Holy water is water that has been blessed (as the object of a sacramental ceremony) by a spiritual leader. It is common in Catholicism and some other main line Christian denominations. Its origins are not biblical, but in extra biblical texts that date to CE 400 (c.), attributing the Apostle Matthew as one who used it. This is credible rationale, given Matthew’s Jewish heritage and interests; as the precept of holy water could have roots in Jewish ritualistic cleansing. Interestingly, while holy water is a component of baptism in these denominations, the biblical examples of baptism are consistently in rivers, ponds, and other pools of water that have no indication of being ritualistically blessed/cleansed prior to the ceremony (or would be impossible to do so because of the nature of the moving water).

Some of the practices associated with holy water are problematic, biblically. Namely, the practice of making the sign of the cross associated with fingers dipped in holy water renews baptism and forgives venial (but not mortal) sins is not biblical. Evangelicals teach that the waters of baptism (and accordingly, any holy water used in this way) are neither salvific (able to save) nor cleansing, but are symbolic of the saving and cleansing accomplished by the atoning death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

As for your final question of papal decrees, I offer a slightly complicated response. Official statements known as papal decrees (or a papal bull) are historic and today are rare. Instead, papal briefs (less formal) are more common. They can cover a range of information and are considered official statements of the Roman Catholic Pope. There is a relationship between these declarations and the dogma of papal infallibility, which asserts the pope is preserved from the possibility of error when articulating faith or morals. To be fair, this is my layman-esque defining of the dogma, and may lack nuance or refinement in how I’ve shared it. So, to your question, it could be indirectly argued that “yes,” a papal decree could be equal to God’s authority, since it is believed that the Pope is protected from the possibility of error. However, there are limits to this, as decrees must agree with established doctrine.

Ash Wednesday sign of the cross

Questions (set 2) Does your church acknowledge Ash Wednesday in any way?    The reason I ask is that I know various denominations of churches recognize it in some form.    I don’t see anything in the Bible pertaining to Ash Wednesday.    Am I wrong?

Response: Our church does not recognize Ash Wednesday. It is a practice common to Catholics and some main line denominations, but largely not evangelical ones. While the commemoration of Ash Wednesday is not biblical in its origins, neither is it unbiblical. In this, it is extrabiblical, meaning that its practices are formulated outside the Bible, even though many aspects are rooted in the Bible.  Ashes are a symbolic picture of grief or repentance. Ash Wednesday is the inaugural event of the season of Lent, culminating of course with Holy Week and Easter (comprising of approximately 40 days, commemorative of the 40 days of fasting of Jesus in the desert temptation).

Question (Set 3): Are Catholics Christians?

Response: My best response to this is, some are and some are not. That same thing is true at our church, too, and in every Christian Church across the world. The Scriptures make it clear that trust in Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God is the only means by which a person is able to truly identify as a Christian (see John 14:6 and Romans 10:9-13). Religious affiliation and denominationalism is not salvific. Catholics and Protestants tend to have disagreement of the role of works in the Christian life, as well as the role of the church (or Church) in salvation. Simply stated, a Catholic can be a Christian (just as a Protestant or Evangelical can) if that person’s faith for salvation is in Christ alone. Apart from this saving faith, though, a person’s Catholicism, Protestantism, or Evangelicalism is ineffectual to rescue a person from the judgment of their offenses against God.

I hope this helps!