Union Church

The Story of God: Daniel

Listen along as we see how to engage exile well.

Notes/Quotes:

Daniel 1:8-21
Daniel Chiasm Picture

Daniel 3:16-18
Daniel 7:13-14

We would like a church that again asserts that God, not nations, rules the world, that the boundaries of God's kingdom transcend those of Caesar, and that the main task of the church is the formation of people who see clearly the cost of discipleship and are willing to pay the price. - Stanley Hauerwas, Resident Aliens

1 Peter 2:9-12 

A father disciplines his own kids, not someone else’s. It’s the same in the spiritual realm. God’s discipline always begins with those he calls his own. It was true of Israel and it’s true of Christians today. Yet for many of us that can be confusing. At times, those who mock him, deny him, or high-handedly sin seem to do so with impunity. We assume God’s judgment should begin with those who do the greatest evil. But it doesn’t. It never has. It begins with us. And that’s been perplexing to God’s people throughout the ages. - Larry Osbourne

1. To form a resilient identity, experience intimacy with Jesus.
2. In a complex and anxious age, develop the muscles of cultural discernment.
3. When isolation and mistrust are the norms, forge meaningful, intergenerational relationships.
4. To ground and motivate an ambitious generation, train for vocational discipleship.
5. Curb entitlement and self-centered tendencies by engaging in countercultural mission. 
David Kinnamen, Faith for Exiles, Forming Resilient Disciples

Self sufficiency to dependency
Absence to presence
Isolation to community
Fear to love
Fragility to strength
Apathy to courage 
Fatalism to hope

The way of trust is a movement into obscurity, into the undefined, into ambiguity, not into some predetermined, clearly delineated plan for the future. The next step discloses itself only out of a discernment of God acting in the desert of the present moment. The reality of naked trust is the life of the pilgrim who leaves what is nailed down, obvious, and secure, and walks into the unknown without any rational explanation to justify the decision or guarantee the future. Why? Because God has signaled the movement and offered it his presence and his promise. - Brennan Manning

The Story of God: Ezekiel

Listen along as we see the prophetic vision of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel 37:1-14 

“Ezekiel is piling up one Old Testament allusion after another to tell you what it is he sees—the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. He’s seeing the kavod of the Lord! The Hebrew term kavod means “heavy.” It can be used metaphorically like, “that’s so heavy,” meaning weighty or significant. It can also be used to describe the physical manifestation of someone’s significance. Someone’s presence can be so important, so radiant, so significant that we would describe it as their kavod. That’s how it’s used throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. It was God’s kavod that rested over the ark of the covenant and filled the Holy of Holies. It was God’s kavod that showed up on Sinai. And now, in Ezekiel, it’s his kavod that’s riding into Babylon on this royal, wheeled throne. Yahweh himself, in all his radiant glory, has just arrived in Babylon on the “God-Mobile!” Whitney Woollard

“He promises to bring Israel out of anarchy (Ezek 34), into the land (Ezek 35:1-36:15), back from disgrace (Ezek 36:16-38), up from the grave (Ezek 37:1-14) and together out of brokenness (Ezek 37:15-28). It is, in modern jargon, a truly holistic gospel. Ezekiel was ministering to a people who were broken and battered in every conceivable way. There were political, economic, agricultural, social, judicial, religious, personal, relational and spiritual dimensions to their sin and suffering. And God intended to tackle every aspect of that need. Such is the breadth and depth of the biblical gospel." – Chris Wright

“I am neither optimist nor a pessimist, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.” Lesslie Newbigin

“Jesus’ enduring relevance is based on his historically proven ability to speak to, to heal and empower, the individual human condition. He matters because of what he brought and what he still brings to ordinary human beings, living their ordinary lives and coping daily with their surroundings. He promises wholeness for their lives. In sharing our weakness he gives us strength and imparts through his companionship a life that has the quality of eternity.” - Dallas Willard 

The Story of God: Jeremiah

Listen along as we continue our series through the Bible.

Jeremiah
Jeremiah 1:4-10 - Jeff Reading

Prophets: A real encounter with the presence of God, leading to speaking the truth of God to the people of God.
Accusation
Repentance
Consequence

“We underestimate God and we overestimate evil. We don’t see what God is doing and conclude that he is doing nothing. We see everything that evil is doing and think it is in control of everyone.” - Eugene Peterson

Jeremiah 13:17 - 
Jeremiah 29:11

Before Jeremiah knew God, God knew Jeremiah. This turns everything we ever thought about God around. We think that God is an object about which we have questions. We are curious about God. We make inquiries about God. We read books about God. We get into late-night bull sessions about God. We drop into church from time to time to see what is going on with God. We indulge in an occasional sunset or symphony to cultivate a feeling of reverence for God. But that is not the reality of our lives with God. Long before we ever got around to asking questions about God, God had been questioning us. Long before we got interested in the subject of God, God subjected us to the most intensive and searching knowledge. Before it ever crossed our minds that God might be important, God singled us out as important. Before we were formed in the womb, God knew us. We are known before we know. This realization has a practical result: no longer do we run here and there, panicked and anxious, searching for the answers to life. Our lives are not puzzles to be figured out. Rather, we come to God, who knows us and reveals to us the truth of our lives. The fundamental mistake is to begin with ourselves and not God. God is the center from which all life develops. If we use our ego as the center from which to plot the geometry of our lives, we will live eccentrically. - Eugene Peterson

Jeremiah x image/file

3:6-11

7:5-7

Jeremiah (like other prophets) exposed the idolatry that underlay the spiritual, political, economic and social disintegration of his society. The issue in the Bible is not just “Do you believe in God or not?” Everybody believed in gods of some sort. The question was, “Who is truly the only living God?” And if that God is indeed Yahweh the God of Israel, then there are consequences in real life – as shown in the Torah. Yahweh demanded justice for the poor, compassion and equality for foreigners and refugees, systemic redress for poverty, structural mechanisms to protect the homeless and family-less from abuse and destitution, fair and equitable distribution of land, integrity in the judicial system, humility, simplicity and morality in the government (as opposed to wealth, women and weapons) - Chris Wright

25:11

31:31-34

52:31-34

If we forget that the newspapers are footnotes to Scripture and not the other way around, we will finally be afraid to get out of bed in the morning. Too many of us spend far too much time with the editorial page and not nearly enough with the prophetic vision. We get our interpretation of politics and economics and morals from journalists when we should be getting only information; the meaning of the world is most accurately given to us by God’s Word. - Eugene Peterson

The Story of God: Lamentations

Listen along as we look at the book of Lamentations.

Text: Lamentations 
Title: Difficulty, Direction, & Deliverance
Reading: Lamentations 1:1-5

“In her book Journey through the Psalms, Denise Hopkins examines the use of lament in the major liturgical denominations in America. The study found that in the Lutheran Book of Worship, the Episcopalian Book of Common Prayer, The Catholic Lectionary for Mass, The Hymnal for the United Church of Christ, and in the United Methodist Hymnal, the majority of the Psalms omitted from liturgical use are the laments.”
- Soong-Chan Rah

“This trend is not only in the mainline traditions but in the less liturgical as well. In Hurting with God, Glenn Pemberton notes that lament constitutes 40 percent of the Psalms, but only 13 percent of the hymnal for the Churches of Christ, 19 percent of the Presbyterian hymnal, and 13 percent of the Baptist hymnal emphasize lament. Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI) licenses local churches in the use of contemporary worship songs and tracks the songs that are most frequently sung in local churches. CCLI’s list of the top 100 worship songs  in August of 2012 reveals that only 5 of the songs would qualify as lament. Most of the songs reflect themes of praise.”
- Soong-Chan Rah 

“Lament is the space between brokenness and God’s mercy where the song is sung. Think of it as the transition between pain and promise. It is the path from heartbreak to hope.” —Mark Vroegop

“These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.” ….“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.”(Jeremiah 29:1 & 4-9)

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:43-45)

“do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your fortune-tellers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.” (Jeremiah 27: 9)

“He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.” 
(Lamentations 3:16)

“My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”
(Lamentations 3:20-26)

“God is immutable in His essence. His nature and being are infinite, and so, subject to no mutations. There never was a time when He was not; there never will come a time when He shall cease to be. God has neither evolved, grown, nor improved. All that He is today, He has ever been, and ever will be. “I am the Lord, I change not” (Mal. 3:6) is His own unqualified affirmation. He cannot change for the better, for He is already perfect; and being perfect, He cannot change for the worse. Altogether unaffected by anything outside Himself, improvement or deterioration is impossible. He is perpetually the same. He only can say “I am that I am” (Ex. 3:14). He is altogether uninfluenced by the flight of time. There is no wrinkle upon the brow of eternity. Therefore His power can never diminish nor His glory ever fade.”
- A.W. Pink

 

 

The Story of God: Isaiah

Listen along as Dr. Mike Goheen leads us through Isaiah.

The Story of God: Habakkuk

Mike Gaston leads us through Habakkuk.

The Story of God: Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

“Ecclesiastes determines to show us how to find our way amid the broken sacred of the world. Ecclesiastes shows us more of God than perhaps we knew or are comfortable with. The same God who inspired the Psalms and the Gospels speaks here too. These inspired words which disturb us reveal aspects of God too often neglected by us. If one has only driven a car with automatic transmission, driving manually will take some getting used to. Because of the safe, clean-cut, pristine, sentimental, or naive approaches to Christianity and church that have mentored many of us, we may cherish a mistaken notion that God resembles a more G-rated approach to life. Ecclesiastes reminds us, however, that wherever there is, whatever the conversation, whatever the question or unsettling situation, God is able and willing to go there.” - Zach Eswine

“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.”

 “A wisp of vapor, a puff of wind, a mere breath—Nothing you could get your hands on; the nearest thing to zero. That is the vanity this book is about” - Derek Kidner

Ecclesiastes 12:1

“To remember is not a purely mental act, it is to drop our pretense of self sufficiency and commit ourselves to him.” - Derek Kidner

To remember your Creator is more than to recall that there is a Creator, more also than to think about him from time to time. To remember your Creator means to bring to mind daily what your Creator has done for you and to act on this knowledge. To remember your Creator is to make God central in your life and to focus your life on doing his will. - Sidney Greidanus

12:13-14

We face the appalling inference that nothing has meaning, nothing matters under the sun. it is then that we can hear, as the good news which it is, that everything matters—‘for God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.’ That is how the book ends. On this rock we can be destroyed: but it is rock, not quicksand. There  is the chance to build.” - Derek Kidner

1 Cor 15:57-28

The Story of God: Proverbs

Listen along as we look at how the words of wisdom lead to the way of wisdom.

Proverbs 1:1-7 - Denise

“The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.” Proverbs 29:25

“When your culture is hedonistic, your religion therapeutic, and your goal a feeling of personal well-being, fear will be the ever-present headache.” - Michael Reeves

Proverbs 3:5-6

Proverbs 26:4-5

“Proverbs do not teach a universally valid truth. On the contrary, proverbs are true only if stated at the right time and in the right circumstance. This explains the apparently contradictory proverbs in 26:4-5. They describe what is generally true rather than what is always true.” - Tremper Longman

Proverbs 18:22
Proverbs 25:24

Prov 22:6
Prov 22:15
Proverbs 16:3
Galatians 2:20

“The best way to know how to get on in the world is to become acquainted with the One so intimately involved in its creation.” - Tremper Longman

“Light has a way of welcoming in the truth and letting it put its feet up, which in turns means that everything not like it, though it may invite itself over, can’t get comfortable enough to stay.” - Jackie Hill Perry

Prov 3:9-10

“Worship God and use money, or worship money and use God. There is no third choice.” Jeremy Treat

Colossians  2:1-3

The Story of God:Psalms

Listen along as we cover the Psalms. See the reign of God. Live under the rule of God. Experience deeper roots for life.

Notes/Quotes:

Psalm 1:1-6 

“Psalms are companions - They are the closest friends, wisest advisors, and faithful discerners. They understand your heart and provide words when we don’t have any.” Anthony Garcia

“People who pray the Psalms will be worshiping the God who made them, and one of the basic spiritual laws is that you become like what you worship. More particularly, however, it will happen because people who pray the Psalms will be learning (whether they necessarily think it out like this or not) to live in God’s time as well as in their own, in God’s space as well as in their own, and even in and as God’s “matter”—the stuff of which we’re made—as well as in and as our own.”  - NT Wright

Book 1 - 1-41 - Distress//Confidence
Book 2 - 42-72 - Lament//Hope
Book 3 - 73-89 - Darkest of all (88)
Book 4 - 90-106 - Doubts in Light of the Lord’s reign
Book 5 - 107-150 - Declaration//Ascent//Ps119

“The introduction to the Psalter is anything but an invitation to pedantry, legalism, or self-righteousness, on the contrary, it is an invitation to be open to God’s instruction and to the reality of God’s reign in the world.” - Clinton McCann

Ps 2:1-12

John 15:1-5

Prayer is the way that all the things we believe in and that Christ has won for us actually become our strength. Prayer is the way that truth is worked into your heart to create new instincts, reflexes, and dispositions. - Tim Keller

Instead of rules to keep, there’s a path to follow
Instead of instant, bigger, amazing everything, we practice patience, seasonal, and mostly ordinary living
Instead of obsessed or overwhelmed with the future and control, we look to delight in present surrender 

 

“Almost anything in life that truly matters will require you to do small, mostly overlooked things, over a long period of time with Him.” - Zach Eswine

It is less important to ask a Christian what he or she believes about the Bible than it is to inquire what he or she does with it. Lesslie Newbigin

The very thing we are holding onto (control) is, ironically, the thing we most need to let go. As you and I come to understand that our God isn’t ruling as a tyrant but is lovingly guiding and instructing as a Father, we can loosen the tight grip on our lives that produces the bad fruit of fear. This isn’t “Let go and let God.” It’s “Let go, run hard toward your Savior, and learn to trust God - Trillia Newbell

Paul speaks at one point of Christians as “God’s poem,” God’s “artwork.” We are his “workmanship,” say some of the translations of Ephesians 2.10. The Greek word Paul uses there is poiēma, the very word from which the English word “poem” is derived. God gives us these poems, the Psalms, as a gift, in order that through our praying and singing of them he may give us as a gift to his world. We are called to be living, breathing, praying, singing poems. - NT Wright.

The Story of God: Job

Listen as we continue our series through the Bible. This week Anthony and Jon cover the book of Job.

Notes//Quotes:

Job 42:1-6

Job 1:1-6

“Within this honorable cosmic cabinet, we are introduced to someone who is, or will become, the least honorable character in the Bible—the “Satan.” “Satan” (Hb. satan) could be translated “adversary,” but he seems to function here not as a direct enemy but as an opposing ally.” Douglas O’Donnell

This word is not a proper name, like our modern translations that use the capital letter (“Satan”) might lead us to conclude. The Hebrew word satan is a descriptive noun, describing any person that stands “opposed to” or as “an adversary” to someone else. For example, King Solomon faced multiple invading enemies near the end of his reign, Hadad the Edomite and Rezon, son of Eliada (1 Kings 11:14, 11:23 Both of these men are called in Hebrew “a satan,” that is, an adversary. King David himself is called “a satan” by the Philistines (1 Sam 29:4 The word “satan” can be used to describe an accusing attorney in a courtroom (see Ps 109:6-7) And pay attention to this one, “the angel of the Lord” is described as “a satan,” who opposes the infamous Balaam (see Num 22:22, 32) So even the angelic messenger who represents the will and authority of God himself can take on the function of a satan. One conclusion from this short Hebrew word study is that a variety of people or heavenly beings can be described by the word satan. This means that the satan who appears in Job 1-2 is not necessarily identical with the full-orbed evil being called by that same title in the New Testament (see, for example, Mark 1:13) Tim Mackie

…this Satan in Job as functioning something like a prosecuting attorney or the political party in the British parliament known as the monarch’s “loyal opposition.” Just as the prosecuting attorney is not an opponent of the judge and the loyal opposition is not set against the government, so Satan’s role in “Yahweh’s cabinet” (so to speak) is to serve Yahweh by making sure that his rule and law is properly upheld.” John Goldingay

“As I have taught Job to students over the years, the question frequently arises, “What sort of God is this who uses his faithful ones as pawns in bets with the devil?” I would suggest that this question is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the prologue. The scene in heaven, like the speeches of Job’s friends, is part of the literary design of a thought experiment to generate discussion about how God runs the cosmos. The prologue is not trying to teach us how Job got into such a difficult situation, or what angelic beings do or do not have access to God’s presence. The message of the book is offered at the end, in the speeches of God, not in the opening scenario, which only sets up the thought experiment. The book is focusing on how God works in the world, not teaching us about how things work in heaven.” John Walton

Job 1:13-22

Job 8:4-6

“Job’s untidy realities were threatening their tidy notions, and they transferred their anxieties to Job as their scapegoat.  After all, if God could body-slam Job for no visible reason, what might that imply for them too?  But if they could successfully find fault with Job, then their glib moralism could continue undisturbed, they could go on feeling good about themselves, feeling in control, and they wouldn’t need to trust God with some extremely difficult mysteries in life. These three men needed Job to be in the wrong somehow, in order to justify themselves.” Ray Ortlund

Growing Discernment in Discipleship:
Biblical Theology - Develop It
Perspective - Widen It
Assumptions - Slow It
Relationships - Commit to it

Job 38:4-11 
Job 39:1-4

“All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries
Bring us farther from GOD and nearer to the Dust.” - T.S. Elliot

“We are disciples. Not disciples of an illusion, but disciples of Christ. Which means our hope is not in an illusion. Our rescue is not in an illusion. Our peace is not in an illusion. And our joy is not in an illusion….To be a disciple of Jesus is to profess that it is the Truth, not an illusion that sets us free, and this conviction is what distinguishes us as the people of God. As Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann once put it, the prophetic task of the church is to tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion.” - Shannon Hodde Miller