Were all my days written before?

I decided to title this blog as Psalm 139 - NVI due to verse 16:

Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

When I read it, I understood that all my days were written in the book of the Lord. A friend of mine explained that "days" are not in Hebrew. In King James, we see "members" instead of "days" which is closer to the original in Hebrew, although "members" are not written too.

16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

My friend understood that this divine book is the DNA code which encodes how the members and the whole body will be created. He believes in Free Will so he advocates that the Lord has not written all our days in a book. If a man sins because his will is totally separated from the Lord's will, how would the Lord has written all our days?
Well, now I am somehow convinced that the King James translation is better than NVI, but I still believe that the Lord knows every detail of my future, my decisions and my sins included, that is, the meaning of NVI translation is also correct.
The Lord is outside this finite universe, this finite space and time; and for me, He knows everything, every quantum particle, every electron location of this universe. He knows all my thoughts, all my sins and all my future sins because as a writer outside his own book, He may see things in which time He desires.
He even designed me before creates the Universe, as in Ephesians 1. How? I do not know. Why? He wanted me to have some grasp of  who He is and in doing so, adore Him.

Critique

The Diana's critique about my last sermon (last week) lasted in my head despite I have written my last post.

I am really used to receive criticism, so what did last week critique so disturbing? 

I concluded that what really offended me was something like: "your message was very confusing, wordy, and the congregation was not apt to digest it". 

So, why this critique really offended me?

Because, I take myself as a great professor that can clarify the Bible to the congregation. Surely, I see myself as much better prepared than other teachers and I really mean it.

However, am I responsible to make the audience understand the Bible?

The Bible is not simple. I make some effort to clarify it, but am I doing right? 

The book of Mark is full of mysteries and ends with a great question: what happened to Jesus body? (the resurrection was added to Mark).

The gospel says that Jesus was talking to parables so that they hear and do not understand; so that they do not convert. Very strange a statement like that in the gospel...

It is in Matthew 13:14-15:

 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
    you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
    they hardly hear with their ears,
    and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’

If it is all true to Jesus, why on earth should I teach about the Bible in a clear way so that all congregation listens, repents and has a new life? I would like to, but I am not responsible to it. I do not see Jesus thinking like that. 

Jesus attracts some people and repels other people, He saves and He condemns.

In conclusion, I am not so responsible to convert people and, I am not so responsible to clarify the message. Perhaps, a great human effort to clarify the sermon may damage the gospel and take away its beauty. There are a lot of mysteries in God's Word. Perhaps, if only I could motivate the congregation to search for answers in the Bible, to dig in its mysteries... then I would have preached well.

Preaching

I have been a fierce critic of many preachers that do not focus on the gospel.
I am preaching at my local church although I did not study at any seminary. Today I preached Matthew 8:5-13 about the centurion's faith. I tried to focus that he saw a divine authority in Jesus to the point that he did not consider himself worth of receiving Jesus at home, even though he believed in Jesus cure.
I spent some time talking about hierarchy, authority and responsibility: an error from a obedient son is covered by his father, while an error from a rebellious son, not. In the same way, my error are covered when I submit myself to Jesus.
After preaching, Diana criticized me for being too verbose, too wordy making the congregation sleeps.
I know I have to limit my preaching time. Today it was around one hour. I must preach for 30 minutes at maximum. Generally, I have been preaching for 50 minutes. I will make some effort to improve it.
The Lord is above everything and above my life. He has been watching me from heaven. I think that He sent me this critique to humble me. Certainly I need some humility in my life.

Fear and prudence

The prudent measures the risks and understands how his decisions may impact his life. For instance: the prudent uses a safe belt because he has nothing to lose and a life to gain. The prudent fears a foolish death in a car accident. A fool does not acknowledge the consequences of his bad decisions. He even can not understand what is going on.
Proverbs attaches fear of the Lord to wisdom.
In proverbs 9:10:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
    and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.


Today, there is some kind of false message where punishment is evil and, as the Lord is good, he behaves as Santa Claus. How may some god like that be feared?
The Lord is good and just. Certainly, He punishes evil. The fear of the Lord brings me to repentance, to turn to Him. The knowledge of his holiness and of my sinful condition brings me fear and at the same time, rest in Jesus.

Children are like arrows

In Psalm 127: 3-4, we read:
Children are a heritage from the Lord,
    offspring a reward from him.
4 Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
    are children born in one’s youth.

Are my children like arrows in my hand? 
Nowadays, families work in a very different way than in old times. Today, children go to school, enjoy their friends, watch their movies, play their video games and hardly obey orders; simply because, we, as parents, do not give orders and do not teach anything about our daily routine to children.
I realized that I should give more orders to my children. For instance: the younger boy do not show initiative to study, work; anything. In the morning, I like to eat a banana with oats, but we ran out of bananas. So, I will ask the younger boy to buy some bananas tomorrow morning when I will need it to my oat porridge.  Isnt't it as an arrow in the hand of a warrior? I can go further using my children to go further. In fact, I understand that it is a divine obligation as a father to make use of them. I also understand that the Lord is blessing me when I command them.

My church future

Today is Sunday, Mummy's day.
I spent this afternoon chatting with a young guy, 20 years old.
He is studying "The purpose driven church" from Rick Warren.
I have some objections to Saddleback church (the Rick Warren's church) and his book; anyway, after some chatting, I noticed he was trying to diagnose the problems in our church.
Our church is targeted to nikkeis - japanese descendants; it is not growing and the elders are dying. I said many things to my young friend:
- The temple of Jerusalem was the great church in the Bible, but it was destroyed in 70 aC. All the churches such as from Antioch, Ephesus, etc. did not last to our days. The Lord creates and destroys churches. The prophet Jeremiah preached the destruction of Jerusalem and offended many Jewish leaders. We have no basis to argue that the Lord desires our little church to go on. Christians were fleeing from Jerusalem due to persecution and in this process they spread the gospel to us, gentiles.
- Our little church needs a revival from the Spirit.
- Our little church needs to repent. We need to put off our masks and confess our sins to the Lord.
- You are worried about our church future, but sensei (pastor)'s children and siblings are not. I am not telling you the church problems, but  isn't it strange this lack of support from the closest people?
I said many things, and here at home, I concluded that my young friend should ask questions such as:
- What does the Lord expect from my life?
- How should I deal with my parents?
- Do I have Lord's peace and joy?
I really found some nobility when he considered our church's problems, but a better question is: what do the Lord expect from me now? Although, I would really appreciate that all church live the Word on a daily basis, I stopped worrying about our little church future. The thought: "Jesus in me" turns myself into a church, my family into a church, so I have closer churches to worry about. Besides, I do believe that my Lord may easily replace me to another local church. Meanwhile, I hope to be blessed and to bless this little nikkey church.

A very strange music

Every Saturday, I visit my parents. Dad is 80 years old and Mammy, 84, with Alzheimer.
Today, as soon I and my wife arrived, Dad told us:
- I do not know how it is possible that some strange music plays day and night. It is so disturbing.
- What kind of music is it?
- It must be targeted to annoy me. It says something like: You are dying, you are dying; Your son has already died, died ...
- Is there another one who can listen it?
- Your mammy can.
- But, is there someone besides mammy who can listen to it? Does my brother listen (because he and his family are supporting my parents)? I asked my brother: Do you listen this music?
- No, I can not listen anything.
I realized it must be something from his mind or from the devil, so I asked my father to read Psalm 23:

4. Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,[a]
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;

    my cup overflows.

I paraphrased to him:
- Even though I listen to this strange music, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff comfort me (because I notice you are protecting me).
But, dad was much more aggressive and upset today. Perhaps, he thought I was not in fact making anything to stop the music; that I was just saying empty words. I asked him: do you pray for deliverance? He was anger and did not want to answer me, and after he said something like: "of course!" but it was not very convincing.
Then, I told him about oppression by the devil. Jesus came to deliver the oppressed whenever this oppression were real or not real.
I remembered him about my own oppression when I was a teenager: I was bullied and alone. Who would be a friend of a bullied guy? However I had something: hope that it would be over someday. The lacking of hope leads to despair but by other hand, if we know that we will be, for sure,  delivered from oppression, then we get strength to support it. In Jesus we have hope.
Certainly, I told him, you are going to die, me too; so is the music wrong?
And yet, it is wrong because Jesus said:

John 11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

So the music is right, and it is wrong, who cares? Why pay attention to it?
I think that these last words made him rethink and be more still.