Thankful Thursday

I’ve so much to be thankful for.

Tomorrow I’m flying to Vancouver to meet my newest granddaughter, Amelia. I’m thanking God she’s here and healthy and growing.  This afternoon, little Natalie stopped by and entertained me by being herself. I’m thankful for her perfect baldish head and sparkling spirit. I’m thankful for all babies in general, and my two grandaughters in particular. 

I’m thankful for the cheap flights I get just for being the mother of a flight attendant.

It was also the best day yet this year, weather-wise. I’m thankful for the sun and a breeze. I’m thankful that the trees are leafing and the yard is greening.  I’m thankful for the promise of summer. I’m thankful for the “word of power” that brings us daily weather and yearly seasons.

I received an email today from a pastor who has adopted (he used the words “ripped off”) Thankful Thursday. Every Thursday he sends an email to his churchfolk with a list of people and things he’s thankful for. I’m thankful that so many people are using each Thursday to tell others some of reasons are thankful to their heavenly Father.

I’m thankful that God is sovereign and that he is building his church. I’m thankful that he works in very flawed people to accomplish his plans. I’m thankful that a day is coming when everything wrong will be made right—and maybe better than right.

(I’ll be back to post Sunday’s hymn, but expect nothing tomorrow or Saturday.) 

Round the Sphere Again: Recommended for Watching

Here are a few videos I enjoyed watching recently.

This first one shows a panoramic view from the summit of Mount Logan, Canada’s highest mountain, located within Kluane National Park and Reserve in southwestern Yukon. (Did you know the exact height of Mount Logan was unknown until 1992? Or so says Wikipedia.)

Next up, ten thousand Japanese singers singing Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

From the video details:

The performance of “Daiku”, “The Ninth”, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with 10000 (amateur) chorus singers is a Japanese highlight every year in the end of December. Here is the last movement, recorded at the 2011 concert in Osaka, this year dedicated especially to the memory of the victims of the desastrous tsunami in March.

And then it’s my favorite bear family again, playing on a mossy hillside a few days ago.

Trading Down

Fundamental to idolatry in biblical terms is the idea of an exchange —swapping the true God for something else. Thus Jeremiah laments that ‘my people have exchanged their Glory for worthless idols’ (Jer. 2:11; cf. Ps. 106:20), and the apostle Paul comments that ‘they exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator’ (Rom. 1:25; cf. v. 21). 

That idolatrous exchange can occur in various ways. Someone might exchange the true God for an alternative ‘deity’, such as the pagan god Baal who proved so tempting for God’s people in Old Testament times. Alternatively, someone might exchange the true God who genuinely blesses for something else supposed to bring blessing, such as sex or money (Eph. 5:5). Or the exchange may amount to modifying God’s character, airbrushing out attributes we deem problematic to make a more convenient God in our image. This last kind of idolatry is hardest to spot, because we can indulge in it while retaining Christian vocabulary. We continue to speak enthusiastically of ‘God’, and even about ‘Christ’ and ‘the gospel’ while all along we are operating with an imitation forged by our own sinful imaginations. When we suppress certain truths about God (e.g. his holy wrath against sin) or distort others (e.g. his love) to produce our own designer deity, then we are guilty of false faith, and are left with a ‘counterfeit God’.

Quoting from Pierced for Our Transgressions: Rediscovering the Glory of Penal Substitution by Steve Jeffery, Michael Ovey, and Andrew Sach.