Donner Expedition - Chapter Three

Chapter One

Chapter Two

We grabbed the food and went into the tent to eat it. The rain got worse and worse, and even came into the tent in one place. But we just moved stuff around, made a video clip of the situation, and tried to enjoy being stuck in there. Eventually the downpour faded to sprinkling, and the rain stopped altogether. By the time the storm was over, it was completely dark and we had no fire. The rain had doused it, and we were kicking ourselves for not storing any of the firewood inside the tent or car. Ooops.

Kerry and Joy wanted to call home, and I wanted to call my grandparents in case they had been worrying about us through that storm. Unfortunately, we were too far out in the middle of nowhere to get a cell phone signal. So we got into the car and drove a couple of miles down the highway toward my grandparents' town. We got into the phone's range, pulled over, and made our calls. Then we realized that we should try to get ahold of Jason. Most of our friends were travelling, but he was still at college. We wanted to brag to him about all the things we had done so far. We tried to reach him, but he had changed rooms and there seemed to be no one in the dorm that we could ask. So we gave up and headed back to the campground.

We entered and followed the winding road to where we had left everything. It was totally dark and very misty, and the only light came from our headlights. As we rounded the last corner, we saw light - a fire to be exact. My first thought was, "Yay, we have neighbors." Then I realized that was our campsite and our fire! The fire was not only there, it was huge and blazing, overflowing the fire pit. Just then Kerry saw a shadow pass behind the fire, and she was pretty sure it was a person.

BABY!

Yesterday I found out that my brother Nathan and sister-in-law Jessica are having a baby! I get to be an aunt right around Thanksgiving. I'm very excited, though nothing like my Mom. For example, I did not scream or burst into tears. :) But I'm so glad that God is going to bless them in this way. Yay!

Why did Moses veil his face?

Have you ever read a verse or a passage and realized that it meant something different than what you had always thought? For me, that happens a lot because I grew up reading and memorizing the KJV and only in the last few years have been exposed to the NAS and the ESV. I occasionally find verses that I have understood wrongly because of awkward wording or words that now have different meanings. This also happens because I have read passages lightly but never studied them.

Anyway, the verses in 2 Corinthians about Moses veiling his face got at lot more clear and a lot more confusing for me the other night (Kerry and I actually stayed up until 2 trying to figure it out). I always thought that when Moses saw God (well, His back parts), his face shone (reflecting God's glory), and he put on a veil because people could not bear to look at it. Then, the glory eventually faded, and he could uncover his face. This is not exactly what happened.

Exodus 34 NAS
29It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses' hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him.
30So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
31Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.
32Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the LORD had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.
33When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
34But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded,
35the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.

So, it is not that the people were unable to look at his shining face. Verse 31 shows that he spoke to them with a shining, un-veiled face. He put the veil on after he was done talking to them. Apparently, the glow faded after time. Then, every time he went in to the tent outside the camp (Ex. 33:7-11), his face must have glowed again (kinda like re-chargeable batteries? Glow-in-the-dark stars?), the people saw it again, and then he would cover it up.

Now, you have to go back to this passage to understand 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 and the surrounding passages.

2 Cor. 3:12-18 NAS
12Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech,
13and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away.
14But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ.
15But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart;
16but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
17Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

This passage says (v. 13) that Moses did not want the Israelites to see the last bits of glory fade from his face. This is consistent with the Exodus account that says the Israelites did see his face for awhile, and Moses covered it as it faded. But then there is this verse just before:

1 Cor. 3:7 NAS
7But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was,
8how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory?

Here's the ESV too:

7Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end,

The "such" in the ESV leads you to think that his face was shining so much that no one could look at it. But that is the wrong sense of the word; and it can be left out. The NAS doesn't use it which is better, but the verse still seems to say that the Israelites couldn't bear to look at his bright face. Now Paul's point in verses 7-8 is that the Spirit's ministry is far superior to Moses' ministry. But he still wouldn't contradict himself...

Anyway, what I see in verses 12-18 is that the veil over Moses' face and the veil over the Old Covenant are the same. Somehow they both prevent people from seeing the truth that the OC was temporary and fading, therefore a New one was necessary.

But notice the contrast between us (posessers of the NC) and Moses. "We are bold not like Moses who veiled his face." So here's the big questions: Why did Moses veil his face? And was that right or wrong? Here's my potential conclusion, but it still has difficulties:

When God revealed Himself to Moses and made Moses' face reflect His glory, He was giving validation to both Moses and the Law. The people saw that and were in awe. However, God designed for that glory on Moses' face to fade away as a picture of what was going to happen to the law. For some reason, Moses veiled his face and prevented the people from seeing the glory fade. In the same way, there is a veil over the Old Covenant to an unbeliever who esteems the Law. He, just like most Israelites, is not able to see that the Law fades.

So that still leaves the 2 questions: Why? Was Moses embarassed that the glory was fading (hence the contrast with being bold)? Was he scared that the people would doubt his ministry if they saw the glory fade (also a timid thing to do)? Or, did he do it on purpose so the people would not see the truth that the Law was meant to fade? The answer to this question would then help answer the next: Was that right or wrong? Paul seems to call him timid and in a negative way. But maybe God wanted Moses to conceal certain things.

In spite if the confusion in this passage, the main truth shines out beautifully: Our ministry, the New Covenant that Christ purchased, is infinitely more glorious than the one Moses administered which faded away. Just as God makes clear the truth of the Old Covenant through Christ, we can clearly preach the truth of Christ trusting Him to change the dark hearts of unbelievers.

Donner Expedition - Chapter Two

Click here to read Chapter One

Well, we set off for the North Shore early Sunday morning. At around 9:30am we started driving around each little town that we passed through to see if there was a good church about to have a service. Each time either we had missed the service or there was no church that we would have felt right about attending (for example: Church of the Immaculate Conception).

Finally, we hit a town at 11:00 and decided that was our last hope. We found a tiny Baptist church that started their morning service at 11. Of course we went and were blessed by the worship, preaching and fellowship of that little church. We stopped at a park for lunch and had NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE #1.

We got into the car to leave the park, I started it, and we started to put on our seatbelts. Suddenly the engine started revving and I had no idea why. None of us knew what to do. Suddenly, it stopped, and we realized what had happened. In an attempt to reach her seatbelt, Joy had planted one foot on the floor and the other on the gas pedal. So, then we looked in front of us and tried to imagine what would have happened if the car had been in drive (I guess then I would have had my foot on the brake so we probably still would have been safe). But we would have taken off and then crashed into either a tree or a building. So, we were thankful that our lives had been spared.

We reached Silver Bay in the late afternoon. My grandparents loaned us their cell phone in case we had an emergency, and my Uncle Gary, who was staying with my grandparents, offered to show us to a nearby campground that he really liked (he grew up there so he knew where all the campgrounds were).



As we set up the tent (the picture on the top is a joke; we really did figure it out just fine), we noticed only one other person at the campground. [Note: At this point we had already broken Matt's rule, "Camp near a family," but we had no choice.] It was a guy fishing in the Baptism River which runs along that particular campground. He had a white SUV, I think it was a Jeep, and left before dark.

About an hour before dark, we finished the tent, and Joy built a fire to cook our supper. Just as the water finished cooking our noodles, it began to rain.

M & M's Commercial

Ok Kerry, this is just for you.

Today Kerry and I were talking about being analytical (for an example read "Random Pet Peeve"). I gave her another example of something incorrect that I thought was annoying, but she had never seen it. So here it is:

The M & M's Commercial from just before the Oscars were aired
(click on "Tip #1 Work those Lips")

Now I don't know much about science, but I am pretty sure that Yellow's lips would not hit the camera. It should be his back! You know, if you blow up a balloon and let it go, the part where the air is escaping will be opposite the part that hits the wall. Oh, never mind. I know, I know, who thinks of this stuff? I'm so weird...

Strange Sign

Hmmm... Kingdom Parable depicted on a highway sign?

(See Matthew 3:12)

I found this on Highway 94 in ND.

I wonder if Purgatorio would like this one...

Trip to ND

This weekend I got to visit my dear friends Nathan and Nicole at their home in North Dakota. I went to see their new baby, Mishael and to spend some quality time with them. I got to hold Mishael a lot, learn more about baptism and covenant theology, and drink lots of coffee. I loved seeing their life and ministry there, and fellowshipping in Christ with them and also with Dave (their pastor) and Katya. We all went to college together and share lots of memories. But more than that, we share our passion for God. Dave has some dreams and ideas about ministry to unreached peoples -- definitely something to start praying about.



Here's Mishael Calvin. He's so precious, and I enjoyed every minute with him. He makes so many cute faces which I tried to photograph, but by the time I turned the camera on, he was usually done. Oh well.



I brought Mishael his first pair of cowboy boots.

Just before I left, I got to be a part of Mishael's baptism. Nathan explained his reasons for doing it, and we spent some time praying for the Pitchfords - specifically for God to save Mishael in His time. Even though I do not see this issue the same way Nathan does, I was so glad to see it happen. Nathan followed his convictions from Scripture, and he did it from faith giving glory to God. Those on the other side can do no more or less, and love must abound always.

Austen Quotes

Right before the movie Pride and Prejudice came out, I bought a volume containing all 7 of Jane Austen's books. I read P&P, and then decided to read the other 4 stories that I had not read already. Austen has such insight into how people (both the sensible and the insane) think. Here's a few quality quotes for your enjoyment:

From Mansfield Park:

(Irrational female says, "I am really not tired, which I almost wonder at; for we must have walked at least a mile in this wood. Do you not think we have?")
"Not half a mile," was his sturdy answer; for he was not yet so much in love as to measure distance, or reckon time, with feminine lawlessness.

From Northanger Abbey:

(Catherine is in love and waiting for the guy to show up, but he does not. She is introduced to a new friend, "and almost forgot Mr. Tilney while she talked to Miss Thorpe.")
Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.

Man only can be aware of the insensibilty of man towards a new gown. It would be mortifying to the feelings of many ladies could they be made to understand how little the heart of man is affected by what is costly or new in their attire.

(Catherine wants to dance with Mr. Tilney, but Mr. Thorpe keeps asking her first. She is desperately trying to avoid him.)
Every young lady may feel for my heroine in this critical moment, for every young lady has at some time or other known the same agitation. All have been, or at least believed themselves to be, in danger from the pursuit of some one whom they wished to avoid; and all have been anxious for the attentions of some one whom they wished to please.

(Catherine wishes she could participate in a conversation with Mr. Tilney and others about drawing, but she knows nothing about it.)
She was heartily ashamed of her ignorance. A misplaced shame. Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid. A woman especially, if she can have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.

"I do not understand you."
"Then we are on very unequal terms, for I understand you perfectly well."
"Me? - yes; I cannot speak well enough to be unintelligible."
"Bravo! - an excellent satire on modern language."

From Persuasion:

How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!

From Pride and Prejudice:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Should Women Lead Worship?

A few weeks ago, I e-mailed Bob Kauflin, worship leader at Covenant Life, asking him what he thinks about women leading worship. I am fine with leading for kids or playing/singing on a team, but I do not feel right about being the worship leader in a mixed group of adults. My question concerned whether leading worship qualifies as having authority over men. So I asked him for his thoughts on the subject and he sent me this very helpful answer:

Christine,
Great question. At some point I'll speak to this on the blog. I appreciate your asking the question. Here's something from a CBMW pamphlet, as well as some thoughts I've put together before.

Excerpt From Women in Ministry By Randy Stinson (Pamphlet from CBMW)

"For a woman to serve as worship leader or music minister in a church is a more difficult issue. Part of the difficulty in making application here lies in the lack of uniform agreement among various church traditions regarding the role and function of one who serves in such a ministry. It is certainly possible for a woman to serve in a position in which she leads in congregational singing during a church worship service. However, it would depend on how that particular church understands the degree of authority that she holds over the assembled congregation and the extent to which she provides instruction. Is her position understood as one of authority over the congregation similar to a pastor/elder? Does she provide doctrinal commentary between songs or other doctrinal instruction to the choir or congregation? Does her leading involve the exercising of authority over others or, rather, the providing of leadership regarding timing, tempo, music, etc.? Does she direct the church to a particular song in a hymnal and invite those assembled to praise the Lord, or does she engage in more biblical exhortation like a pastor? Churches ought to take these kinds of questions into consideration when attempting to apply biblical principles to this ministry position."

Here are some of my thoughts: The question of whether or not a woman can "lead worship" is determined by two things. 1) How you understand what Scripture says about male leadership; and 2) how you understand the role of the worship leader. Our culture has worked overtime to persuade us that there is no difference between male and female leadership, or at least that men and women can lead in any situation. I think the Bible disagrees. Here are some relevant Scripture.
1 Cor 14:34-35 "women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says. 35 If 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."
1 Tim 2:11-15 "A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety."
Titus 1:6 "An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient."

The bible clearly teaches that the role of Pastor is reserved for those who meet the qualifications laid out in 1Tim 3. Since one of these requirements is to have a wife as your spouse, it is impossible for a woman to meet these qualifications. Furthermore, the bible commands women to teach other women and not to have authority over a man in the church. We believe that the role of women in the church should be as follows: 1. Teaching other women. 2.Teaching children. 3. Setting a godly example for the younger women in the Lord. 4. Any position where she is clearly under the direct authority and submission to a man.
I see the role of the worship leader as fulfilling at least four functions: leading, pastoring, teaching, and prophesying. Only prophesying is specifically a male/female gift. The others are defined as male functions in a mixed gathering. Of course, church environments exist where the leadership does not want the worship leader teaching, pastoring, etc., or at least they do not function in this way. Perhaps a pastor is more involved in that portion of the meeting, or perhaps the "worship leader" is more of a"singing leader," or perhaps the comments made by the leader are confined to more basic exhortative-type comments that differ little from the prophetic. In those situations the male/female distinctions are minimized. However, in our understanding, there would always be a tension between what a leader could do, and possible misunderstanding regarding a woman's leadership role in the church. Of course, a woman can lead worship in a women's meeting, or in children's ministry, or can be a major contributor as part of a worship leading team. It also seems possible that a woman could lead worship in a small group, where the leader is exercising directional and pastoral authority. Hope that's helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions or thoughts on this.

Bob Kauflin
Sovereign Grace Ministries
www.worshipmatters.com
www.sovgracemin.org

So, my conviction is the same. I won't do it in a mixed group of adults. That got really sticky in third grade SS last year. I was leading for the kids, but there were men (small group leaders) present. And I tried to give as much Biblical/theological teaching as the kids could understand. So I wasn't actually teaching the men, but they were there... Yeah, that was a struggle.

I guess it's not wrong for a woman to lead in the sense of being the songleader without doing any teaching, but how do you know when you cross that line? What about praying? That can come pretty close to teaching. But women can pray and prophesy... But should she cover her head? Ahhh! So much to figure out...

I'm all about women having a complementarian (helping, submitting, not leading) role on a worship team. It's hard to say "no" to leading because sometimes there is just no guy to lead. So then is it better to have no worship? Oh, if I could only play the drums; no one ever expects the drummer to lead.

Random Pet Peeve

Bad logic is annoying. Especially when it occurs in advertising. I mean, why do people buy things that are advertised with logical fallacies?

Every day I cut through Marshall Field's (like Dayton's or Macy's) to get to work. For some reason, the managers chose to put the men's department on the skyway level. That's probably because they know women will shop even if it's not convenient. They will go out of their way (to the other 4 floors of women's clothes) to shop. But men probably won't. Therefore, they put the men's stuff on the floor that gets the most traffic.

Anyway, today there was this huge advertisement for a men's cologne called "Unforgivable."

Sure, that's a risque name that implies desire, conquest, heartbreak and, well, never mind. But just under the name was this quote by the designer:

"A life without passion is unforgivable." - Sean John

Remember logical deduction, syllogisms, "if a=b and b=c then a=c," etc... ?

According to Sean John:

A life without passion = unforgivable

unforgivable = my hot, new cologne

A life without passion = my hot, new cologne

Hmmm... that doesn't sound like a winner to me. I thought the point was that a life of passion was unforgivable. I guess not.

I'm so not buying any!

Donner Expedition - Chapter One

One of my funniest memories is the attempted camping trip I took after college with two of my friends. So, I thought that I would, in a series of posts, tell that funny story.

One day, Kerry, Joy and I made a very foolish decision. We decided that, right after Kerry and I graduated, we would go camping. We planned to include our friend Heidi who has tons of camping experience, but she was not able to come. I had never been camping, and Kerry and Joy had a little experience. But we decided that we could figure it out, and planned to drive up to northern Minnesota along Lake Superior and camp for 3 days. We chose that area because it is beautiful, it has lots of places to camp, and my grandparents live there (you know, in case we needed anything). We hoped the weather would be warm by mid-May, and we stocked up on what we would need. I had been given a tent for Christmas, and Kerry and Joy's mom loaned us things like a kettle and a lantern.

During the planning stages, we received a lot of advice and opposition from some friends. Jason did not think we would make it and said to me, "You three are going camping? Could you please videotape that? I'm pretty sure it will be the funniest thing I have ever seen." Matt didn't have a whole lot of faith in us either, but he kindly provided us with a list of pointers. He included things like, "Camp near a family" and "If you don't have a hammer, you can pound your tent pegs in with a rock." Andrew told me the whole thing reminded him of the ill-fated Donner party, so I named the whole thing "The Donner Expedition."

Well, graduation came and went, and we set off in that very packed car. We all had to ride in the front because it was full of sleeping bags, other camping stuff, and lots of Kerry and Joy's stuff from college. Oh, one more important thing is that Kerry had been given a nice camera for graduation that took short videos. So we promised our friends that we would document the whole thing and show them how well we did. Little did we know what the "documentary" would really show. . .

New Covenant Theology

Yesterday I finished reading Tablets of Stone and the History of Redemption by John Reisinger. In some ways, this book is not very well written. Reisinger seems to have quite an attitude towards Covenant Theologians (Why can't they just admit they're wrong and see things my way?! I mean, anyone who reads the Bible would!), and he is incredibly repetitive (he frequently repeats things he just said).

But, overall, his book summarizes something I have been learning over the last year or so (about the nature and function of the Mosaic Law). And if he accurately represents New Covenant Theology, I guess that's my position too. I know I can't say that I am a Dispentationalist or a Covenant Theologian; both have major issues that I don't think are Biblical. But, though I had heard of NCT and thought it sounded pretty good, I never really looked into it deeply. Now, I think it is the most accurate of the 3 positions because it disagrees with the other 2 in just the right places.

I started thinking about the relationship of the law to Christians when I took a Greek class on Galatians at my church. I came to believe that Christ fulfulled and did away with everything in the Sinai Covenant, including the 10 Commandments (which make up the covenant document for the whole thing). Therefore, there is no third use of the law ("moral still applies while civil and ceremonial are over"). The law was a covenant made with Israel consisting of terms that resulted in blessing or cursing dependent on whether or not they were kept. I would even say that Christ's death accomplished something for the Jews that it did not for me. He died for the sins of all the elect, but His death also redeemed Israel from the curse of the law. (I'm still not sure what that is. At first I thought the curse of the law was simply being under it, having to obey it, being subject to all its rules and penalties, etc... Then, maybe it is simply death (physical). Of course people already died before the law, but disobeying the law could hasten that. Another possibility is that the curse is exile. The ultimate result of Israel's lawbreaking was their exile (going into captivity) from the promised land. This position would see Christ's descent into hell as taking the curse of exile, providing for Israel's future re-owning of the land.)

Anyway, I fouond this book by Reisinger and thought, "Whoa! Someone agrees with me!" That's always comforting when you start thinking you might be a heretic. Turns out, this view of the law is a major part of the NCT position. Though NCT has nowhere near the literature and support of the other 2 (well, Dispensationalism not so much), people have defined what it is. I found a NCT Confession which seems really good. I did not read everythng yet, and it may have a few problems (like under "Purpose of Marraige, #4 should definitely be #1), I think I agree with the position it defines.

So, this book helped confirm what I have been thinking, even though it does have some problems. I think he proves his point well about what the 10 Commandments are, what they did, and how they relate (or don't) to Christians today. The Scripture examples he gives are thorough, and of course it is all so clear! Now I need to read a book from the other side...