Date: 22 January 2009 Deployment-19
Bible (NT/OT):
Matt 17:1-24
The Transfiguration
17 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear." 8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead." 10 And the disciples asked him, "Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?" 11 He answered, "Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. 12 But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands." 13 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.
Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Boy
14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said,"Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him." 17 And Jesus answered, "O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me." 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" 20 He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."
Jesus Again Foretells Death, Resurrection
22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, 23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day." And they were greatly distressed.
The Temple Tax
24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the half-shekel tax went up to Peter and said, "Does your teacher not pay the tax?" 25 He said, "Yes." And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?" 26 And when he said, "From others," Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free. 27 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself."
Ps 18:6-12
“To my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. 7 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.8 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.9 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. 10 He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water. 12 Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
Sun Tzu:
“Use humility to make them haughty.”
“Appear to be lowly and weak, so as to make them arrogant-then they will not worry about you, and you can attack them as they relax”
The Intellectual Devotion (Kidder, D. & Oppenheim N. The Intellectual Devotion, Rodale. NY, NY 2006):
Cain and Abel were the first two son’s of Adam and Eve. Cain (the elder) was the first human to be born naturally as Adam and Eve were both created. God asked both to make sacrifice to him and for reasons far deeper than the intellectual devotion imply, Abel’s sacrifice was better accepted. Cain then killed Abel out of jealousy and was condemned by God to wander the earth for the rest of his life. Adam and Eve later had Seth to fulfill the promise that one of Adam’s “seed” (Christ) would crush the head of the serpent.
Events:
Woke up early yesterday morning and did my reading and writing before leaving for Fort Hood. It’s always a great drive and it was an especially beautiful morning yesterday. I made my scheduled stops at Starbucks in San Antonio and Super Taco (sooooo awesome) in Marble Fall and listened to the most recent John Piper and White Horse Inn podcasts which I highly recommend. Arrived at Ft. Hood and spent the remainder of the day seeing patients and trying to schedule appointments. I stole one of my fellow provider’s patients yesterday because I thought her case was very interesting. Last week, the provider asked me for a second opinion on a 40’ish year old female who was recently hospitalized (December) for a kidney infection that returned for persistent fever, chills and severe thoracic (trunk) pain that was exquisitely sensitive to the touch from her mid-back around to her mid chest leading to shortness of breath. Very odd case sounds like a developing shingles though the pain had been present for >1 month at her first visit (by that time should have had a rash). The woman also had some weakness in her right hand and at that point my best guess was a spinal epidural abscess but we knew that we first needed to rule out a blood clot in her lungs. In the end (last week) we decided to send her to the ER as we both felt that she needed advanced imaging. I followed up on the case yesterday but I guess the ED deemed her “crazy” and discharged her without a work up. I am very thankful to have the experience of a referring provider that has spent a long time with a patient and is legitimately concerned about a patient just to have the ED write her off as “crazy”. When I work in the ED there are two things that I never diagnose (I call them the 2 C’s) , 1) “Crazy” (to include anxiety, panic attack, acute psychotic break etc…) and 2) Constipation. I feel that these diagnoses end up pissing people off and when they do truly have an emergent condition (as a percentage will), now you’re the jerk doctor who told them they were “crazy” or “constipated.” So, yesterday, when I found out that no workup was done on the patient I called her back and sent her for a CT Chest to leg to rule out a blood clot in her chest or leg in addition to giving me a good evaluation of her anatomy ( which was effectively normal) and I scheduled an MRI of her spine to rule out an abscess. I’m very interested to see what comes up. Great learning case for multiple reasons! Last night drank a few beers while putting together my Body Armor (in preparation for the shooting range this morning). Amazingly the armor seems to have come together correctly. See the attached pic’s.
Thoughts:
The Transfiguration
17 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear." 8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead." 10 And the disciples asked him, "Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?" 11 He answered, "Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. 12 But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands." 13 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.
Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Boy
14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said,"Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him." 17 And Jesus answered, "O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me." 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" 20 He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."
Jesus Again Foretells Death, Resurrection
22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, 23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day." And they were greatly distressed.
The Temple Tax
24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the half-shekel tax went up to Peter and said, "Does your teacher not pay the tax?" 25 He said, "Yes." And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, "What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?" 26 And when he said, "From others," Jesus said to him, "Then the sons are free. 27 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself."
Ps 18:6-12
“To my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. 7 Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry.8 Smoke went up from his nostrils, and devouring fire from his mouth; glowing coals flamed forth from him.9 He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under his feet. 10 He rode on a cherub and flew; he came swiftly on the wings of the wind. 11 He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him, thick clouds dark with water. 12 Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.
Sun Tzu:
“Use humility to make them haughty.”
“Appear to be lowly and weak, so as to make them arrogant-then they will not worry about you, and you can attack them as they relax”
The Intellectual Devotion (Kidder, D. & Oppenheim N. The Intellectual Devotion, Rodale. NY, NY 2006):
Cain and Abel were the first two son’s of Adam and Eve. Cain (the elder) was the first human to be born naturally as Adam and Eve were both created. God asked both to make sacrifice to him and for reasons far deeper than the intellectual devotion imply, Abel’s sacrifice was better accepted. Cain then killed Abel out of jealousy and was condemned by God to wander the earth for the rest of his life. Adam and Eve later had Seth to fulfill the promise that one of Adam’s “seed” (Christ) would crush the head of the serpent.
Events:
Woke up early yesterday morning and did my reading and writing before leaving for Fort Hood. It’s always a great drive and it was an especially beautiful morning yesterday. I made my scheduled stops at Starbucks in San Antonio and Super Taco (sooooo awesome) in Marble Fall and listened to the most recent John Piper and White Horse Inn podcasts which I highly recommend. Arrived at Ft. Hood and spent the remainder of the day seeing patients and trying to schedule appointments. I stole one of my fellow provider’s patients yesterday because I thought her case was very interesting. Last week, the provider asked me for a second opinion on a 40’ish year old female who was recently hospitalized (December) for a kidney infection that returned for persistent fever, chills and severe thoracic (trunk) pain that was exquisitely sensitive to the touch from her mid-back around to her mid chest leading to shortness of breath. Very odd case sounds like a developing shingles though the pain had been present for >1 month at her first visit (by that time should have had a rash). The woman also had some weakness in her right hand and at that point my best guess was a spinal epidural abscess but we knew that we first needed to rule out a blood clot in her lungs. In the end (last week) we decided to send her to the ER as we both felt that she needed advanced imaging. I followed up on the case yesterday but I guess the ED deemed her “crazy” and discharged her without a work up. I am very thankful to have the experience of a referring provider that has spent a long time with a patient and is legitimately concerned about a patient just to have the ED write her off as “crazy”. When I work in the ED there are two things that I never diagnose (I call them the 2 C’s) , 1) “Crazy” (to include anxiety, panic attack, acute psychotic break etc…) and 2) Constipation. I feel that these diagnoses end up pissing people off and when they do truly have an emergent condition (as a percentage will), now you’re the jerk doctor who told them they were “crazy” or “constipated.” So, yesterday, when I found out that no workup was done on the patient I called her back and sent her for a CT Chest to leg to rule out a blood clot in her chest or leg in addition to giving me a good evaluation of her anatomy ( which was effectively normal) and I scheduled an MRI of her spine to rule out an abscess. I’m very interested to see what comes up. Great learning case for multiple reasons! Last night drank a few beers while putting together my Body Armor (in preparation for the shooting range this morning). Amazingly the armor seems to have come together correctly. See the attached pic’s.
Thoughts:
1) 1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. This verse reminds me of a conversation that Marla and I had 2 days ago. We were discussing Matt 11:11 “Truly, I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist. Yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he,” in addition to countless other verses in the Bible that describe different levels/rewards in heaven. It is clear in the bible that these exist but my point was that there are no come from behind victories, there are no “carnal (baby)” Christians that get an amazing surprise that the seat at Jesus left or right has been prepared for them. No, our relationship in heaven will simply be a natural extension of our relationship on earth. A wise man (cause I don’t remember who) once said, “We all get what we want.” Unbelievers who denied Christ and did their best to avoid him will not have to suffer him in eternity; they will be separated from God’s grace and Christ’s love forever. Likewise if we were believers but never really took the time to live and walk with Christ, then we will inherit a more separated position in heaven, If however, in our time on earth we enjoyed a rich, full, true relationship as Moses, Elijah, Peter, James and John did then we will be rewarded with the closest presence of the Lord for eternity. There are thrones in heaven designated for the saints and where yours sits depends on inner relationship on earth…no surprises, no come from behind victories.
2) 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him… when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." Jesus enjoyed fellowship with Moses, Elijah and Father God in heaven before he chose to come to earth, John 8:58, “Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." As opposed to created beings whose existence begins at conception, Christ the creator has been from the beginning. John 1:1-4 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
3) 22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, 23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day." And they were greatly distressed. The disciples were distressed just as Peter was in Matthew 16 after hearing his Master Prophesize his own death. If you recall, in yesterdays reading Peter said, “May it never be,” and Christ harshly responded, “get behind me Satan.” As demonstrated above by the disciples inability to cast out the demon, they still were victim a weak faith. Their faith was rooted in only partial knowledge of the ultimate plan for redemption. They had come to love Jesus as their master, friend and even miracle worker but not as a messiah in the Isaiah 53 (sacrificial) sense of the word. When confronted with the reality of Jesus purpose on earth they exhibit their lack of faith in Christ as Chist by repeatedly doubting his ability to overcome death and accomplish the mission that he has now told them multiple times…to redeem his people. We, of course, can’t look down on the disciples though as we have all been the vitium of such doubt and the beauty of the story is that even with a faith smaller than a mustard seed his disciples were in Christ’s death still rescued.
4) "Does your teacher not pay the tax?" I’ve been giving Christian interaction with Secular (worldly) authority a lot of thought lately. Christians throughout the ages have held radically different opinions on how the Church and State should interact. The historic radical Anabaptists (examples from the present day are the Amish and Mennonites) feel that Christians must be separated from society as society (the secular) is inherently evil. On the other side of the argument are those who fight for a “Christendom,” a Christian theocracy won not by heaven’s armies (as in Revelation) but by humans political and military struggles. Some have even gone so far as to say that only Christians have the correct worldview and values to hold political office. As far as I can discern from the bible, the answer is not at either extreme but somewhere in the middle. I am not one who believes everything “spiritual” is good (especially the way the world currently defines “spiritual”) and everything “secular” is evil. Terrible things have been done in the name of the “spiritual,” wars, genocide, witch hunts just to name a few and, to the contrary, wonderful things have been done by the secular for example, think of democracy and the marine who jumped onto a grenades to save his buddies lives. While there is no such thing as a truly good deed (that is, motivated by God’s Glory) by secular man, there is such a thing as Calvin would call “civic righteousness”, wherein there is good in all people (that is, in action not motive) as people help their neighbor and love their family. The secular world with this “civic righteousness” is perfectly capable of governing justly. I can think of multiple reasons that we as Christians should not separate from the culture, here are a few:
a. First, separating from the world would directly contradict Jesus’ example and teaching throughout the gospels
b. Secondly, how then could we witness to our unbelieving neighbor?
c. Third, in removing the “common grace” that is present as God indirectly blesses the world through blessing his children the remaining “secular” world would quickly spiral out of control.
Likewise, a Christendom won by human force is equally as dangerous. As the old saying goes, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” As long as we are human, we will be subject to sin and evil. As we discussed above, all fallen humans will inevitably rule from their depravity and when they are governing “In the name of Christ” the only possible outcome is Christ’s name being blasphemed.
No, it is clear from the bible that we are to be, “in the world, not of the world.” We are to live as Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego did in Babylon (Daniel 3). By following the examples of these giants of the faith we learn how we can maintain our spiritual practice all the while staying in the good graces of the secular government. Follow me on this:
a. When the law of God and the Law of the Culture agree, we must follow both,
b. When the Law of the Culture demands what the bible is silent about, we must comply,
c. It is only when the Law of the Culture demands what the bible specifically prohibits that we must civilly, respectfully disobey.
The good news is that in America; rarely does any such explicit conflict occur.
2) 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him… when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." Jesus enjoyed fellowship with Moses, Elijah and Father God in heaven before he chose to come to earth, John 8:58, “Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." As opposed to created beings whose existence begins at conception, Christ the creator has been from the beginning. John 1:1-4 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.”
3) 22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, "The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, 23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day." And they were greatly distressed. The disciples were distressed just as Peter was in Matthew 16 after hearing his Master Prophesize his own death. If you recall, in yesterdays reading Peter said, “May it never be,” and Christ harshly responded, “get behind me Satan.” As demonstrated above by the disciples inability to cast out the demon, they still were victim a weak faith. Their faith was rooted in only partial knowledge of the ultimate plan for redemption. They had come to love Jesus as their master, friend and even miracle worker but not as a messiah in the Isaiah 53 (sacrificial) sense of the word. When confronted with the reality of Jesus purpose on earth they exhibit their lack of faith in Christ as Chist by repeatedly doubting his ability to overcome death and accomplish the mission that he has now told them multiple times…to redeem his people. We, of course, can’t look down on the disciples though as we have all been the vitium of such doubt and the beauty of the story is that even with a faith smaller than a mustard seed his disciples were in Christ’s death still rescued.
4) "Does your teacher not pay the tax?" I’ve been giving Christian interaction with Secular (worldly) authority a lot of thought lately. Christians throughout the ages have held radically different opinions on how the Church and State should interact. The historic radical Anabaptists (examples from the present day are the Amish and Mennonites) feel that Christians must be separated from society as society (the secular) is inherently evil. On the other side of the argument are those who fight for a “Christendom,” a Christian theocracy won not by heaven’s armies (as in Revelation) but by humans political and military struggles. Some have even gone so far as to say that only Christians have the correct worldview and values to hold political office. As far as I can discern from the bible, the answer is not at either extreme but somewhere in the middle. I am not one who believes everything “spiritual” is good (especially the way the world currently defines “spiritual”) and everything “secular” is evil. Terrible things have been done in the name of the “spiritual,” wars, genocide, witch hunts just to name a few and, to the contrary, wonderful things have been done by the secular for example, think of democracy and the marine who jumped onto a grenades to save his buddies lives. While there is no such thing as a truly good deed (that is, motivated by God’s Glory) by secular man, there is such a thing as Calvin would call “civic righteousness”, wherein there is good in all people (that is, in action not motive) as people help their neighbor and love their family. The secular world with this “civic righteousness” is perfectly capable of governing justly. I can think of multiple reasons that we as Christians should not separate from the culture, here are a few:
a. First, separating from the world would directly contradict Jesus’ example and teaching throughout the gospels
b. Secondly, how then could we witness to our unbelieving neighbor?
c. Third, in removing the “common grace” that is present as God indirectly blesses the world through blessing his children the remaining “secular” world would quickly spiral out of control.
Likewise, a Christendom won by human force is equally as dangerous. As the old saying goes, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” As long as we are human, we will be subject to sin and evil. As we discussed above, all fallen humans will inevitably rule from their depravity and when they are governing “In the name of Christ” the only possible outcome is Christ’s name being blasphemed.
No, it is clear from the bible that we are to be, “in the world, not of the world.” We are to live as Daniel, Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego did in Babylon (Daniel 3). By following the examples of these giants of the faith we learn how we can maintain our spiritual practice all the while staying in the good graces of the secular government. Follow me on this:
a. When the law of God and the Law of the Culture agree, we must follow both,
b. When the Law of the Culture demands what the bible is silent about, we must comply,
c. It is only when the Law of the Culture demands what the bible specifically prohibits that we must civilly, respectfully disobey.
The good news is that in America; rarely does any such explicit conflict occur.
