I was reading from Leviticus...

Do we interpret the New Testament by the Old Testament or is it the other way around? You can hear adamant answers for each view but most people would probably give an honest, "I do not know."

Do we have to know? Are we supposed to know? Is it one or the other? Are the OT and the NT really separate or is there a back and forth flow of understanding and insight?

I used to dread reading from Leviticus, not because of its theme of and call for holiness but because I thought it was boring and irrelevant since so much of it pertained to sacrifices which we do not do anymore. But God began to speak to me through this book a number of years ago and now I treasure it. Part of my reading this morning was from Leviticus 21 and, while reading, my head began to fill with other passages and connections that I knew were being put together in my spirit by God. It was not just making sense – it was causing me to worship.

Consider the following and how they are connected: The regulations, etc. of the priests from whom the High Priest was chosen who would go into the Holy of Holies each year and stand before God on behalf of the people; the application of blood from the sacrificed animal onto the altar and the persons seeking forgiveness; God's declaration that "the life is in the blood"; God's command for us to be holy because He is holy; the blood that was applied during the original passover; the danger of the High Priest being unholy or disobeying God while in the Holy of Holies; Jesus' revelation to His disciples during the first Lord's Supper of "this is my body, which is given for you" and "this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood"; John the Baptist's declaration of, "Look! It's the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!"; the veil that separated mankind from God in the Sanctuary and Holy of Holies that only the High Priest could go through; the tearing of the veil, from top to bottom, when Jesus died on the cross for our sins, thereby removing the barrier between God and man; that the word "for" in "this cup that is poured out for you" is the word "huper" and it means "over" which itself can have a double meaning ("onto" and "in behalf of"; and Hebrews 4:14-5:10.

I am sure there was even more but it was/is evident to me that God does not set up one testament over the other as if He has two sets of scripture and one is subordinate to the other. We do not have to understand it. It is okay. As my friend and fellow pastor, Brian Kimball, said, "In those days [Bible times] it was perfectly acceptable to say, 'It is a mystery.' Why can't we say that today?"

This I know: What I could grasp caused me to be in awe and to worship God. What was beyond my grasp did the same.

Great Trip!

The 35th Anniversary Celebration Trip finally arrived and it was great! Although it was arranged to mostly duplicate the 30th Anniversary trip, it felt like a completely different experience – not better or worse, but different. Besides that fact that we all live in different houses, go to different churches than we did in 2004, and all of us changed jobs, job titles, or employment status, there were many differences on the trip itself.
Some notable and maybe not-so-notable differences:

• We went straight to Orlando instead of to the Herrons for Thanksgiving before traveling together to Orlando.
• No blisters on my feet!
• We travelled on Sunday to go to church with Osa Marie Wittenmyer and Terry.
• Danny and I did get our haircut at the Harmony Barbershop on Main Street U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom this time.
• I did not gain 20 pounds. In fact, I did not gain any weight!
• The parks were more crowded this time.
• We went on Expedition Everest (and I almost lost my cookies).
• We went to Blizzard Beach and came away bruised (and I went on Summit Plummet twice).
• Cathy and I spent a night at the All Star Movies "Resort" (as in, we needed a place to stay for our first night and, being tight-wads, that was our final resort).
• We coughed up the bucks and went to "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party."
• We went on Toy Story Mania and LOVED IT!
• We used Disney's Photo Pass (the verdict is still out on this).
• We went on the new Finding Nemo ride which was much better than "Finding Nemo" on the submarines at Disneyland in California.
• We toured the campsites at the Fort Wilderness Campground and checked out some great Christmas displays.
• We saw the Stunt Car show at Hollywood Studios.
• We wore "Anniversary" buttons and got treated with extra perks and greetings.
• We went to the Hoop Dee Do Musical Review and Dinner Show. It was great except for the ending.
• We went to the Candlelight Processional when Steven Curtis Chapman was the narrator.
• We experienced Cirque du Soleil - La Nouba and it was great!
• We went to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral and saw a real astronaut.
• We started the cruise wearing shirts made specially for the occasion.
• We received perks on the boat for being Castaway Club members (repeat cruisers).
• We saw a beautiful rainbow at sea.
• We sailed in the Atlantic Ocean instead of just the Caribbean.
• We toured Tortola, BVI and spent 2 1/2 glorious hours at a private beach.
• We went to St. Thomas, USVI and rode the sky tram up to Paradise Point.
• Some people did not get back to the boat on time and were left on St. Thomas.
• We saw the Flying Dutchman, some stingrays, and an eel at Castaway Cay.
• It rained on us at Castaway Cay and we went back to the boat early to watch "A Christmas Carol" in 3D.
• We had a couples massage on the boat.
• Cathy "beeped" at all the airport security checks because of her new knees.
• I was able to post pictures and a total of nearly 3 hours of videos of the trip at: http://gallery.me.com/gantenbein

Now, the trip I had anticipated and planned for five years is over. It is not something I look forward to anymore. It is a memory. Well, it is a lot of memories. But it is more than that because it also helped me to rest and get refreshed. So it still has value. And that is enough to begin planning the 40th Anniversary Celebration Trip in 2014. This time our kids are invited so I hope they started saving up!

But you know what was the most special thing about the trip? It was the reason for the trip in the first place: Being with Cathy.

Time Is Relative (but it doesn't leave you any inheritance)

We had all the time in the world—five years—and no cause for concern. It was December 11, 2004, when we gathered up our luggage and headed for the airport after the most relaxing week of our lives aboard the Disney Magic. About half way through the voyage, the Herrons and Gantenbeins had determined that this "once-in-a-lifetime" trip needed to be repeated every fifth year. We even decided that we would invite all our kids and their families (Dutch treat, of course) to come along on the third trip in 2014 when we celebrated our 40th anniversaries.

When the first email went out, it announced: "257 weeks left." It seemed ridiculous to start warning ourselves to get ready when it had been less than a week since we returned home from the first trip. The other email, sent at the same time and to our kids as well, said "517 weeks left." That's nearly ten years and it was rather silly at the time.

Now my little Mickey Mouse countdown says "34 days, 8 hours, 18 minutes, 30 seconds" instead of the 1,799 days that were contained in those 257 weeks. The time may not have flown by but it is definitely gone and there are less than five weeks whether or not we are ready. (But we ARE ready!) So it will be with a new sense of urgency that I send an email out on December 16, 2009, that says: "257 weeks. Get ready!" Anyone who is not ready the day before Thanksgiving in 2014 will miss out. That would be a shame and we will miss them but they will have been warned. And we will still go to Orlando and on the cruise without them.

Jesus said, "I am coming soon" (Revelation 3:11; 22:7, 12, & 20) and "My reward is with me. and I will give to everyone according to what he has done." (22:12 NIV) Those who are prepared with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior will be rewarded with eternity in heaven. Those who are not prepared will be rewarded with eternity in hell. That would be a shame and we will miss them but they have been warned. And we will still go to heaven without them.

Of course, since the Disney Wonder's permanent home port will be Los Angeles by that time, maybe we will go to Disneyland and take the Wonder on a 7-night cruise to Mexico. But I do not think our kids will let us do that on their first trip with us so maybe we will save that for our 45th or 50th anniversary.

Potpourri

This may read as if I have ADD, and maybe I do, but that is not the cause for the disconnected topics. I just have a little bit to say about several things.

The increased frequency with which I am seeing doctors and other medical personnel bugs me. The reason was confirmed by a lower back specialist/surgeon last week. He was about half way through his review of the MRI when I stated, "So, what you are telling me is that I am getting older." His succinct and honest reply lacked any possibility for misinterpretation: "Yes". So, I shall try to maintain an attitude of grace and venerable dignity at the four different medical appointments I have this week.

"We are weak, but He is strong." So goes the line from Jesus Loves Me. "We" includes me and I need to remember that I am weak, too. Incidences are increasing in which people need help, especially financial/material help. A common refrain is, "I know God is going to provide." However, the expressed trust in God to provide is not matched by lifestyles devoted to actively pursuing His likeness in them. In other words, the reality appears to be more along the lines of "I do not need to do anything because I expect God to do everything for me." I never hear, "I have made a mess out of my life. I don't even know how to get out of this predicament. Can you help me get started?" Pastors really do experience a lot of people like this and it can easily lead to cynicism. That's when I need to be reminded that I am part of the "we" in "we are weak."

We established a garden last year, bringing in ten cubic yards of garden soil from the landscape supply business. Even with Miracle Grow it only produced a mediocre harvest of undersized vegetables. Even as we worked the garden, we began composting all of our organic material from the kitchen. This past Spring we distributed the compost over the ten raised beds. The difference that decayed waste has made is nothing short of amazing. For the first time ever, we successfully grew artichokes. [http://gallery.me.com/gantenbein#100045&bgcolor=black&view=grid] So many of the vegetables are huge! Needless to say, we will be dumping more waste on next year's garden. Maybe that is why God allows so much "waste" to be dumped on our lives: It provides a great opportunity for us to grow and produce great spiritual fruit.

What makes baseball managers wait so long? The pitcher as gone six or seven good innings and has a two or three run lead. Then the lead off batter hits a home run, he walks the next two batters and it is obvious that he is really struggling. But the manager does nothing. It's as if he's thinking, "I can't take him out until it's too late to salvage the game." Sure enough, the pitcher hits a batter and gives up a grand slam to the next. Now, the team is down by the same number of runs that it had previously been ahead. In comes the reliever who shuts down the opposition for the final innings of the game and you can't help thinking, "If the manager had put him in after the first or second walk, we would have won!" I can understand the manager wanting to give the guy a chance to work himself out of the jamb but aren't these professionals who are supposed to know when I guy has lost his edge? How do the other players really feel (not in front of the cameras and mics) about standing by helplessly as the manager allows one player to throw away what the whole team has worked so hard to gain?

Why does clear ocean water, such as in the Caribbean, cause such a longing to be in/on/by it? What makes it seem so peaceful? How fast can the next thirteen weeks go by?

Friends Don't Hurt Friends…Usually

I might have hurt a dear friend today. I did not mean to and I may not have. But the very possibility makes me sick to my stomach.

No Signal Available

When I first turn on our television and cable box, a message is displayed on the TV screen: "No Signal Available". It stays on the screen for several seconds until the cable box does its thing and we can start viewing the shows. And that is the way it works: No signal, no picture; Valid signal, clear picture.

The same principle applies to many other things, including those shows on The History Channel, Discovery, National Geographic Channel, etc. with titles like "Banned from the Bible", "The Real Jesus", and the like. The are usually full of interviews from high brows and others who have very important titles and positions but clearly no personal relationship with the God about whom they speak so authoritatively.

Why is any follower of Christ able to understand and accept the things of God so easily when these "learned" people have no clue? The answer is in the very book they intentionally or unintentionally denigrate with their "knowledge".

The secret counsel of the Lord

is for those who fear him,

and He makes known to them his covenant.

Psalm 25:14 (ESV)

Regarding Worship Music

A very dear friend whom I highly esteem asked me to write an article on worship music following another article on his blog site by Chuck Colson who sited Donald Williams, Director of the School of Arts and Sciences at Toccoa Falls College in Georgia. ( http://samshaw.wordpress.com/ ) It was a good article but something about it bugged me: It sounded like rules with an angle. Consider the following I have lifted from the article:

Williams writes, we must know “those marks of excellence that made the best of the past stand out and survive so long.”

These marks of excellence “are not arbitrary.” They “are derived from biblical teaching about the nature of worship.”

In all honesty, not only does that not bother me, I agree with it. But one of the marks of excellence—"musical beauty"—became very subjective, showing Williams' own proclivity nourished by a classical music training. Again, I do not object to that but it is, none the less, subjective and not necessarily "derived from biblical teaching about the nature of worship." Although I may also agree with Williams' statement that "more recent praise choruses seem to ignore all the rules of good composition," I must also note that this is subjective. After all, as much as I love classical music and adhere to the aforementioned rules of good composition, I have never seen any evidence that those rules, and no others, came from scripture and that anything else can not be truly worshipful.

I can not say I disagree with Williams' tastes, put I do not think that having 75% of an assertion be inspired by scriptural principles justifies tucking in an additional 25% made up of personal conviction and placing it under the same label. Most teachers would give 75% a "C" or "D" and that's not exactly what we should be aiming for.

I do like Colson's conclusion:

Surely all sides of the music wars can agree that we want to praise God by singing hymns and spiritual songs that are biblically true, theologically profound, poetically rich, and, yes, musically beautiful.