Doug Van Pelt

I Am Snakekiller

So I went out for lunch with my wife yesterday, and on the way home I was chatting on my cell, talking to Paul Q-Pek, when I saw it -- a snake. I ran over it in my car. No, it didn't flip around and land in the back seat (I don't have a convertible, by the way). I backed up (over it again) to take a look. I stayed parked there for a while and watched it writhe. It's mouth kept opening as if to scream. I thought a snake could handle being run over (as long as you weren't braking when riding over it), but this guy died. On my way home he was curled up in the same spot, but upside-down. Lots of rain last night and this morning washed him away (unless some cowboy or road kill kleaner came by for a trophy or a pick-up. Perhaps an angel will knock on my door with the stuffed snake mounted as a trophy for me...?
hehe

Tim and Frances did a wonderful thing for HM's website. They deleted the thousands of robot-dung comments left in many of these online features. Now you can read other people's comments and not have your eyes spoiled by the calloused, idiotic pitches for poker, viagara, or other such nonsense. Much thanks go out to those two. They were great interns.

Jeremiah 23 gets into some interesting stuff. God is not too pleased with the false prophets who proudly proclaim, "I had a dream! I had a dream." God clearly states that they are "speaking visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord."

I wonder about prophecy today. How much is really the Word of the Lord, and how much is just man's mind? We are crafty little creatures and can come up with some imaginative things.

"They keep saying to those who despise me,
'The Lord says: You will have peace.'
And to all who follow the stubborness of their hearts they say,
'No harm will come to you.'
But which of them has stood in the council of the Lord
to see or to hear His Word?
Who has listened and heard His Word?'"

In this context, God is really speaking about war and death, not peace and safety. I think some people use this as some sort of "formula" and think that their prophecy is true because it speaks judgment. If this isn't a real "fresh from the Lord's mouth" prophecy, then it's false just like the "peace, peace" idiots in Jeremiah's day.

Another thing that's great about our God is that He gave us minds, hearts, and even the Person and Presence of His Holy Spirit to help us judge prophecy. We don't have to take some man's word as if it were the Lord's. We can doubt it, we can test it, we can mull over it. Apparently one of the great by-products of living in the "age of grace" is that false prophets aren't stoned to death anymore!

God is good. "Do not despise prophecy." The Bible makes it clear. It also goes out of its way to forbid us from hating the body of Christ (or parts of it). And that goes as truth -- even if a member or members go out of their way to make it a temptation for you. The Church is the Bride of Christ. Remember that. Remember that the Bride is made up of people. People fail. People sin. But our Bridegroom (Jesus) does not abandon us in our failures. Neither should we. In fact, failure (big, fat, open failure) is a great place to learn and experience (and give) love. Those are probably times when we have God's very acute attention. He's probably ignoring (does He do that?) any prayers of "Bring judgment down on so and so, please," and instead focusing on how His people will respond under duress and trouble.

Does that mean we can go out and willingly utter false prophecy? Well, that's a really stupid thing to do, but yes. We are allowed to fail. Afterwards, we are to get up and look up.

On a side side note, I got this new album by a (secular) new group, World Leader Pretend (Punches), which accomanied lots of hype and critical praise (in the bio and press clippings material). But wow! It really is good. Reminds me a ton of the popular pop rock sound of the day (U2, Radiohead, Coldplay), but just really solid songs, sonics, and vocals. That's always nice to hear something new and good...

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at August 5, 2005 09:20 AM