Lexi Levatino

hey all,Avery and I went to visit Lexi. She is so precious! Makes me want another baby =).

Anyhoo. Here is a picture of the cutie! Hope ya'll are having a great Tuesday!

Bonnie M. Mann

Of John Piper's Father...

The following is John Piper’s journal entry narrating his father’s death on Tuesday, March 6, 2007.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007. 2 a.m.

The big hospital clock in room 4326 of Greenville Memorial Hospital said, with both hands straight up, midnight. Daddy had just taken his last breath. My watch said 12:01, March 6, 2007.

I had slept a little since his last morphine shot at ten. One ear sleeping, one on the breathing. At 11:45, I awoke. The breaths were coming more frequently and were very shallow. I will not sleep again, I thought. For ten minutes, I prayed aloud into his left ear with Bible texts and pleadings to Jesus to come and take him. I had made this case before, and this time felt an unusual sense of partnership with Daddy as I pressed on the Lord to relieve this warrior of his burden.

I finished and lay down. Good. Thank you, Lord. It will not be long. And, grace upon grace, hundreds of prayers are being answered: He is not choking. The gurgling that threatened to spill over and drown him in the afternoon had sunk deep, and now there was simple clear air, shorter and shorter. I listened from where I lay next to him on a foldout chair.

That’s it. I rose and waited. Will he breathe again? Nothing. Fifteen or twenty seconds, and then a gasp. I was told to expect these false endings. But it was not false. The gasp was the first of two. But no more breaths. I waited, watching. No facial expressions. His face had frozen in place hours before. One more jerk. That was all. Perhaps an eyebrow twitch a moment later. Nothing more.

I stroked his forehead and sang,

My gracious Master and My God
Assist me to proclaim
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of thy name.

Daddy, how many thousands awaited you because of your proclamation of the great gospel. You were faithful. You kept the faith, finished the race, fought the fight. “Make friends for yourselves with unrighteous mammon that they might receive you into eternal habitations.”

I watched, wondering if there could be other reflexes. I combed his hair. He always wore a tie. The indignities of death are many, but we tried to minimize them. Keep the covers straight. Pull the gown up around his neck so it looks like a sharp turtleneck. Tuck the gappy shoulder slits down behind so they don’t show. Use a wet washcloth to keep the secretions from crusting in the eyelashes. And by all means, keep his hair combed. So now I straightened his bedding and combed his hair and wiped his eyes and put the mouth moisturizer on his lips and tried to close his mouth. His mouth would not stay closed. It had been set in that position from hours and hours of strained breathing. But he was neat. A strong, dignified face.

I called my sister Beverly first, then Noël. Tearfully we gave thanks. Get a good night’s rest. I will take care of things here with the doctor and the nurses and the mortuary arrangements. I will gather all our things and take them back to the motel. “I wish I had been there,” Beverly lamented. Yes. That is good. But don’t let that feeling dominate now. In the days to come, you will look back with enormous gratitude for the hundreds of hours you gave serving Daddy. It is my turn to be blessed.

The nurse came to give him his scheduled morphine shot. As she walked toward me I said, “He won’t need that any more.” “Is he gone?” “Yes. And thank you so much for your ministry to him.” “I will notify the doctor so he can come and verify. I will leave you alone.” “Yes, thank you.”

The doctor in his green frock came at 12:40 and listened with his stethoscope to four different places on Daddy’s chest. Then he pulled back the sheet and said, “I must apply some pain stimuli to his nail base to see if he reacts. Then he used his flashlight to test Daddy’s eyes. “The nurse supervisor will come and get the information we need about the mortuary.” Thank you.

Alone again, I felt his cheeks. Finally cool after the fevered and flushed fight. I felt his nose, as though I were blind. Then I felt mine. I thought, very soon my nose will be like your nose. It is already like your nose.

The nurse came. No thank you, an autopsy will not be necessary. Mackey Mortuary on Century Drive. My name is John, his son. My cell phone is . . . . “You may stay as long as you like.” Thank you. I will be leaving soon.

Now I just look at him. Nothing has changed in his face here in the darkness of this dim light. Just no movement. But I have watched his chest so long—even now, was that a slight rise and fall? No, surely not. It’s like sailing on the sea for days. On the land the waves still roll.

He has four-day’s beard and dark eyes. I lift an eyelid to see him eye to eye. They are dilated.
Thank you, Daddy. Thank you for sixty-one years of faithfulness to me. I am simply looking into his face now. Thank you. You were a good father. You never put me down. Discipline, yes. Spankings, yes. But you never scorned me. You never treated me with contempt. You never spoke of my future with hopelessness in your voice. You believed God’s hand was on me. You approved of my ministry. You prayed for me. Everyday. That may be the biggest change in these new days: Daddy is no longer praying for me.

I look you in the face and promise you with all my heart: Never will I forsake your gospel. O how you believed in hell and heaven and Christ and cross and blood and righteousness and faith and salvation and the Holy Spirit and the life of holiness and love. I rededicate myself, Daddy, to serve your great and glorious Lord Jesus with all my heart and with all my strength. You have not lived in vain. Your life goes on in thousands. I am glad to be one.

I kissed him on his cold cheek and on his forehead. I love you, Daddy. Thank you.

It was 12:55 as I walked out of room 4326. Just before the elevators on the fourth floor in the lounge, a young man in his twenties was sitting alone listening to his iPod with headphones. I paused. Then I walked toward him. He stopped his music. Hello, my father just died. One of the greatest tributes I could pay to him is to ask you, Are you ready to meet God? “Yes, Sir.” That would make my father very happy. You know Jesus is the only way? “Yes, Sir.” Good. Thank you for letting me talk to you.

As I drove out of the parking lot, I stopped. The moon was a day past full. It was cold—for Greenville. I looked at this great hospital. Thank you, Lord, for this hospital. I will probably never lay eyes on it again.

Prayer Update from Josh & Alisha

Just got this email from Josh and Alisha...

ok-- josh's dad (joey) met with his dr.s this past week and they have decided to go the route of surgery.

he will have an appointment at Vanderbilt in early april. if he meets surgery will then be a "go-ahead" if he still meets all criteria (PSA level below 10 and cancer contained in the prostate -- he meets these right now) please pray that nothing will change before this appointment.

other updates -- our friend collette -- her PET scan showed cancer in multiple other locations as well as in her lungs :( however, she has made some good improvement with Occupational Therapy and passed a partial swallow test earlier this week.

please pray for Jeff, Chris, Cheryl (her kids) and their spouses as they have to make difficult decisions regarding their mother's care. also especially for cheryl who is pregnant and due in a month.

thanks, josh and alisha

The Vader Files

I hope you enjoyed last week's video offering from best of "The People's Court" :-) Man, that guy's mustache -- that was some sweet action.

Now this week's video goes out to all the Star Wars fans...or James Earl Jones fans...or pretty much anyone who likes to laugh, cause yer gonna.

Now fair warning, it's stinking funny. But also there's a tad bit of edgy humor and maybe a curse word or two. But I laughed my butt right off.

Enjoy.

...jp

Philippians and the Mustache

Hey, we had a great class Sunday introducing us to the world of Philippians, which is what we'll be digging into together over the next few weeks.

I think it'll be great to just veg on a specific book of the Bible together and see what God slaps us in the face with.

Remember, this week the challenge is for you to ask God to put you into a place where you will be more sensitive to hearing His voice. I'm talking about real, tangible promptings from the Holy Spirit. Some people experience this on a regular basis - amazing but true! And I don't know about you, but I want to.

So my prayer for you and me both this week is that God would open up any parts of our lives that could be standing in the way of hearing His voice, expose it, and draw us nearer to Him in such a way that we can begin to hear Him.

And if you can, go ahead & start working your way through Philippians in your own quiet time. It will only make our times together on Sundays that much more rich.

...jp

Ps...Here's an awesome video I just stumbled across. This has GOT to be the most awesome People's Court interview ever!

Speaking in Tongues: Deal or No-Deal?

Ok, so as you probably know by now, this Sunday we're going toe-to-toe with the gift of speaking in tongues.

We'll take a hard look at what the Bible does and doesn't have to say about it, we'll analyze various people's experiential knowledge with it, and -- as we always hope each week with our "Challenging Theology" series -- you'll know a little better what the Bible says about it, what you personally believe, and why.

Please listen to my Stephen/Sonia interview before Sunday if you can!

As promised, I've recorded an interview with my bro-in-law, Stephen Johnson, and his lovely wife Sonia.

Stephen and Sonia met in seminary together in Boston, and she persuaded him to stay (Oh yeah, they got married and stuff). So Stephen and Sonia go to a Boston-area church where speaking in tongues is as commonplace as any other "normal" prayer.

As you can imagine, Stephen's ideas on the concept of tongues have been stretched a good deal through this. He and Sonia come from very different places, and while it seems that both of their theologies have morphed a bit closer together, they still don't see completely eye to eye.

We had a fascinating, engaging conversation. I found it enlightening and eye-opening.

So to give it a listen just turn up your speakers and press the triangle-shaped "play" button below...

Press play to listen to Stephen and Sonia...

Speak to you guys soon!

...jp

Ps...This Sunday is Elian Levatino's burfday! Happy one, dude! How old are ya?

Class Notes from "Challenging Theology: Women in the Church"

Kara was kind enough to type out a great summary of what we covered in connecting point 2 Sundays ago (1/7).

So everyone please thank my wife, and here you go...

-----------------------------------------

What's God's Place for Women in the Church?

1 Corinthians 14:33-37 (NIV)

33For God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the congregations of the saints, 34women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.

Of course if you just read this verse at face value it seems pretty condemning of women having any leadership in the church. If women are literally to remain silent then they certainly can’t teach or preach. Some in class suggested that not speaking literally meant that they were being told to keep their mouth shut when in a public worship service, others thought it might mean that they weren’t to speak out in criticism in a public worship service, or speak in the sense of teach/preach.

Possible problems with this verse’s interpretation:

• It seems to directly contradict an earlier verse in 1 Cor.11:5 which talks about how a woman should go about praying and prophesying during a public worship service.
• “they must be in submission as the Law says” is problematic b/c there is nothing in the Law of Moses about women not speaking in the church and so there is no clarity as to what that is referring to. Some suggest Paul is referring to the local laws of the day but he has never before or after referenced any Law but that which is found in the OT and he always refers to a specific reference that we can look at, so this doesn’t seem like Paul
• Some scholars have suggested that these verses were not written by Paul at all and were added in later translations of the Bible based on the fact that theses verses appear in different places in different later transcripts. And it makes no sense why they would be taken out of order and reinserted somewhere else if they were in the original transcripts. (See separate notes on this)
• Some scholars suggest Paul was addressing a problem with women literally talking loudly amongst themselves and not allowing everyone to hear the person who was presenting the message and therefore would not apply to women teaching or preaching

1 Timothy 2:11-15 (NIV)

11A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15But women will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

Again this verse taken at face value seems to say that women should not teach or have authority over men because of the fact that Eve was formed after Adam and she was the one deceived. Then somehow she will be saved through childbearing.

I found it interesting that most everyone in the class immediately assumed that this verse applied only to spiritual teaching and spiritual authority even though it doesn’t make that specification in the verses. Therefore we don’t argue against women professors in public or private schools or women being in authority over men at their jobs.

When we looked at other verses like Deborah, there was the argument that she only held judicial authority and not spiritual authority and that she did not teach.

Possible problems in interpreting this verse:

• The argument for why a woman shouldn’t teach and have authority is a spiritual one that would apply to all time: present, past, and future and yet we do have contradicting examples of Deborah, Huldah, Priscilla, etc that I will go into more detail on later
• The argument about Eve being deceived and therefore unfit to teach/have authority seems strange and out of character for the rest of Scripture. Adam was punished equally with Eve and he was there with her when she decided to eat the fruit and gave him some. He didn’t exercise authority over her or speak out against the deception. So he was either deceived as well or willfully and knowingly directly sinned against God and the command that he received directly from God. How does that make him better? It seems we may be lacking some understanding here b/c it doesn’t seem to make sense at face value and the part about women being saved through childbearing is even more confusing and problematic in terms of meaning/interpretation.
• The Greek verb in "I do not permit" is a present tense verb. It can be perfect present tense, which would suggest that at that time in that situation Paul is not permitting women to teach or have authority (which would be justified by the women in that time not being equally trained in teaching/interpreting scripture and possibly they are the ones spreading heresy that Paul is helping Timothy to combat) or it is nomic present which would mean I never permit now or ever.

Luke 2:36-38 (NIV)

36There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, 37and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. 38Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.

Anna was someone who prophesied in the temple that she never left and is held up as a very godly woman. She spoke to them (Mary, Joseph, Jesus) and to all that were looking forward to the future redemption of Jerusalem. Some suggested only women heard her b/c she would have been in the women’s section but I find it interesting that it says she spoke to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. Would that be women only? Also Joseph was there and if he was there other men could have been walking through there as well.

2 Kings 22:12-16 (NIV)

12 He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king's attendant: 13 "Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD's anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us." 14 Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Acbor, Shaphan and Asaiah went to speak to the prophetess Huldah, who was the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe. She lived in Jerusalem, in the Second District. 15 She said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Tell the man who sent you to me, 16 'This is what the LORD says: I am going to bring disaster on this place and its people, according to everything written in the book the king of Judah has read…

Here we see Josiah the eight year old king asking the priests and other high ranking men who advise him to find out from God how to understand the Book of the Law (see a few verses earlier) they have found that suggests they have been in disobedience to God.

The priest and other advisors go to a woman, Huldah, a prophetess to discern God’s will for the king and the people. The previous king, Manasseh undid all the right things his father Hezekiah did and returned the people to idol worship.

They were so far from doing God’s will that it seems Josiah his son had no knowledge of the Book of the Law or what was right. Even the priest Hilkiah didn’t seem able to advise him suggesting that the priests as well had fallen away from God’s teaching.

Acts 18:18

18Paul stayed on in Corinth for some time. Then he left the brothers and sailed for Syria, accompanied by Priscilla and Aquila.

Acts 24-26

24Meanwhile a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. 25He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. 26He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately.

Ro 16:3

3Greet Priscilla[a] and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus.

Here we see something unprecedented in Scripture and that is Priscilla mentioned before her husband several times when Paul references them. It seems clear that Priscilla had some role of importance in the early church to be mentioned like that and she also taught Apollos with her husband and explained God more adequately to him. They also had a church that met in their home (1 Cor. 16:19) and Paul calls her a fellow worker.

Certainly you don’t have a sense of Priscilla not being trusted or having to keep her mouth shut in silent submission to her husband.

Some argue that Priscilla only taught a man in private with her husband there but that still seems to me to contradict our 1 Timothy passage which doesn’t allow for any woman to teach or hold authority over a man period if we take the face value interpretation of that verse.

If you look at Phoebe, Ro 16:1-3, Paul calls her a servant of the church. The Greek word used there can also be interpreted "deaconess" and says that she has ministered to many people including Paul himself.

Last but not least let us look at Deborah. Judges 4 & 5 give us her story. She was a prophetess who led Israel at one point, deciding their disputes, communicating God’s will to them, commanding them to go to war.

If you study judges and prophets and their roles with the people of Israel you see a pattern. Israel sins against God, turning from the laws and instructions he has given them for godly living, and they become involved in idol worship and all kinds of abhorrent practices of the peoples surrounding them. God’s response is to use the peoples around them to discipline them by making it unsafe for them to live in the villages, placing heavy taxes on them, causing them to lose battles and to come under the domination of a neighboring king and his army.

After cruel oppression for many years, 20 years before Deborah comes on the scene, they cry out to God for help. Then God places them under a leader who leads them in spiritual revival and they turn back to worship of God and living under His statutes.

Once again they experience freedom from oppression and peace while they remain in obedience. As soon as they loose this leader or fall under the leadership of someone ungodly, they fall back into oppression and hard times until they cry out for help again. Once again God raises up another leader and they have spiritual revival and peace for some amount of time.

So what are the roles of a prophet? We see prophets used as God’s mouthpiece, so to speak, and communicating truth to the people. We see them confronting sin in people’s lives and showing great discernment from God to see their impure motives and hidden sins as in the instance of Samuel and David. They are often sought out for wisdom in knowing how to proceed by priests, kings, etc.

So did Deborah the prophetess somehow stay outside of any spiritual guidance/teaching/leadership as judge of Israel?

I think it is pretty hard to make that argument considering that it was with her in charge the Israelites experienced spiritual revival and obedience and then 40 years of peace under her rule. You have to water down the role of Deborah as a prophetess to less than that of other prophets like Isaiah, Samuel, Jeremiah, etc and say that she only took on a limited prophet role less than that of others.

Some comments in class were that Deborah wasn’t using her own discernment or understanding when she spoke the truth to others and therefore God was teaching, not her. I would argue that I would expect that to be the case in every situation when someone is given the spiritual gift of teaching, pastoring, prophecy, etc. in the church. If we argue that Deborah was the only one not using her brain and that she was a thoughtless mouthpiece with no discernment of her own I think we are making assumptions outside of the text to make her fit in the box we see with the two passages in the New Testament.

CONCLUSION:

My conclusion was that I am still not clear on the roles of women in the church but I am not willing to base an entire theology on the two NT verses that seem extremely difficult to understand the original intent of the author and what he was trying to communicate.

There are too many inconsistencies for me to take those verses at face value and too many examples of women who are leaders in some capacity and shown in a positive light in Scripture.

I think one could argue that elders have to be men but I don’t see clear arguments against women as teachers outside of our two problematic verses. I myself obviously teach in some capacity to men but feel that I am also under the authority of my father as the minister of adult connecting points and I am consistently aware when I teach that I am not teaching anything he would disagree with. So that is how I do what I do in good conscience.