bierkergaard

Joshua 7:1 But the children of Israel committed a trespass in the devoted thing; for Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the devoted thing: and the anger of Jehovah was kindled against the children of Israel. People talk a lot about the need for community but often don't address the dark side. One of the reasons the suburbs developed was to escape the oppressively crowded conditions of cities or the rural small town meddlings of people being in each others business. The suburbs became a place to create space and distance. We want to not be in the camp of community because of the danger of contagion of others' bad choices. Sin management in suburbia, but we take our own sin with us. Like a virus within. With community comes conflict. Like young to-be marrieds, we long for companionship. Yet, once the couple settles down in the day-to-day, conflict typically surfaces soon, making the companionship...

1 Samuel 17:47 And that all this assembly may know that Jehovah saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is Jehovah's, and he will give you into our hand. Goliath is mocking the Israelites, King Saul on down, to come and have a fight to the death with him. No one on Israel's side is willing.  King Saul trembles...  40 days go by of the Philistine's taunting; David steps up and says enough. Goliath may be a giant, but He is a flea compared to God. David is ridiculed by everyone for his willingness to go to war, particularly his older brothers, but his brothers are unwilling to meet Goliath head to head. So, shut your traps or step up man. David sees Goliath as defying God and confidently states that "The Battle is the Lord's." King Saul, who trusts in the arm of the flesh, puts his armor on David. It does not fit and it is not necessary. A comical scene. A few small stones later, Goliath is on the ground a...

John 6:68 Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. The other night, I headed out to Mechanicsburg with a friend to get the best Thai in Central Pa. He likes Thai and had not been to the Bangkok Wok. We headed out with the GPS on my iPhone. Up around Harrisburg, I went to check the instructions versus the map and somehow the GPS reset the destination and it wound up sending us back towards Lancaster to my house. Heading east, we knew we were off track pretty quickly. To be safe, we used his GPS the rest of the way. I was embarrassed. I don't know the other guy all that well. We used to go to the same church. We are friends on Facebook. He likes Thai. We didn't go to summer camp together as kids or anything. So, I was apologetic. I don't try to defend my lack of sense of direction and my total dependence on GPS.  When it goes wrong, I have no other recourse. Guilty as charged, I th...

Jude 1:22 And on some have mercy, who are in doubt Most of the time in the Bible, doubt is not a good condition when its reference is to God and His work. It is good to be doubtful about the schemes of man, yet when we treat God as a mere man where doubt is the default, then we are in some dangerous terrain. Often such doubt arises from wickedness, not genuine wonder. However, is there a place for doubt in our faith that can be at least understandable? Rather than process it as rebellion, it is possible that doubt can be ultimately a good process. Like the grounds in a coffee percolator, the heat of adversity, draws out of our being internal questions that remain latent in our souls until provoked by troubles and circumstances. The grounds of our faith do not mature unless provoked. Doubts not expressed erode faith from within. This percolator analogy to doubt being like coffee brewing comes from the band The Lost Dogs. The other...

Isaiah 53:3 He was despised and rejected--a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Boy, I thought this might just be a Facebook spoof on evangelical goofiness by skeptics but it is for real. It had a ton of likes by the faithful. While it is true that Jesus brings joy, peace, meaning, and salvation, having him wink, point, and giving a thumb's up "It's Party Time,"  is truly pathetic, like Jesus is some mascot or religious cartoonish Barney. Life as a Christian ain't no cartoon...more like a documentary. A work of fact not fiction, in all of the gritty reality of life. A Party? Not quite. Raw footage. When Christians cast Jesus in this light, we need to be aware of how this looks to those that we are supposed to witness to; it makes Jesus look unreal and unrelated to the world we live in. There is danger in portraying Jesus beyond what the Scriptures do,...

Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. My back was getting better from the couch slumbering. I found the softness of the cushions and laying long-wise was bad for the spine and sent my poor back into spasm. So, I have spent time in the rocking chair. Fitting for the old man I am. A couple of days ago though, my back once again started to hurt. Then I got to thinking: I have abandoned the lifting of weights. Initially it was the vacation to Chicago for a week but then in the last two weeks, upon return, I have avoided lifting, in an attempt to heal the back. It has me speculation that the avoidance is actually the source of the ache. It seems as if God is teaching  me that I need to raise the weights in order to exercise my back out of its maladies; that neglecting the exercise is causing my back to inter...

1 Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? Even so run; that ye may attain. To be truly great, one must give it all up to the cause. Everything must be dedicated to the Gold. Eating, drinking, sleeping, thinking, subservient. In this sense, Olympians are a true inspiration. We are watching a lifetime of effort compacted into a few performances. What pressure. A woman trampoline contestant from China fell yesterday. I don't know if she still has a chance for Gold or not but by the look on her face, it looked like it was over. It will probably be the defining moment of her life. Truly, so sad. Perhaps such defeats inform us about how unwise it is to place such much weight on worldly achievement. Wearing the Gold medal around one's neck does not protect the wearer from mortality in the flesh. How much wiser would it be to labor in an endeavor where the prize is not lost when we pass. In fact, we receive the prize on...