Commentary….
24:6-8.Ezekiel explained the parable through two similar statements (vv. 6-8, 9-14), each beginning with the words, This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the city of bloodshed(vv. 6, 9). These statements spoke of the city’s blood-guiltiness (cf. 22:1-16). Ezekiel said Jerusalem was like a pot now encrusted, whose deposit will not go away! “Encrusted” and “deposit” are from the Hebrew word ḥel’âh and could be translated “rusted” and “rust.” In the fire of God’s judgment Jerusalem’s “impurities” floated to the surface. Her corruption could not be hidden. She was as unappealing as rusty scum floating on the surface of a meal being cooked. Walvoord, John F. ; Zuck, Roy B. ; Dallas Theological Seminary: The Bible Knowledge Commentary : An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL : Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 1:1274

Passage…
 ⁶ “ ‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “ ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot now encrusted, whose deposit will not go away! Empty it piece by piece without casting lots for them. ⁷     “ ‘For the blood she shed is in her midst: She poured it on the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground, where the dust would cover it. ⁸     To stir up wrath and take revenge I put her blood on the bare rock, so that it would not be covered. The Holy Bible : New International Version. electronic ed. Grand Rapids : Zondervan, 1996, c1984, S. Eze 24:6-8 

There was one word that jumped out at me when I read that commentary and thought about about it’s significance…It was the word encrusted.

No offense intended to the authors of the commentary…but I wanted to look up the word for myself. Many Bible translations describe that word encrusted, as it was printed in the NIV, differently. Many English translations of that original Hebrew word ḥel’âh seem to favor the word scum over the word encrusted…I find that the Hebrew world view and intended purpose of this word ḥel’âh was somewhat more dramatic and would have weighed with greater significance on the original listeners to this message.

God could have used words like tame’ (to be or become unclean, Isa 64:6), . God could have used tsow’ah (filth, filthiness, excrement, like he did in Zech 3:3. but he didn’t. I believe God intentionally use the word ḥěl∙ʾā(h when he described the sin of the Isrealites in the passage because they would have understood that their sin was not something that they stumbled into suddenly or committed quickly. The sin of the Isrealites at this point in their history was a long slow build up of corrosion and pitted rust. Something similar to the greenish corrosion and incrustations that rendered ancient household pots useless when they were not cared for and maintained correctly.

Furthermore. In Ezekiel 11, false prophets tried to get people to forget about the coming Babalonian invation saying that Jerusalem was a safe “kettle.” God seemed to very carfully and creatively say that not only is Jerusalem and “unsafe kettle,”  but it is a “kettle” that has long been encrusted with scum, corrostion and rust. He basically goes on the say that the Isrealites are rotten meat in the pot, the scum in the pot is their fault , they will be dumped out and the pot itself, that is Jerusalem, will be burned and smelted to remove the filth. A strong and graphic message on the very day the Babylonian invation started.

It was also helpful  for me to find translations of the word ḥěl∙ʾā(h)  right out of the Hebrew dictionary…so thankful for translinear Bibles since I don’t read Hebrew.

2689 I. חֶלְאָה (ḥěl∙ʾā(h)): n.fem.; ≡ Str 2457; TWOT 649a—LN 2.60 impure deposit, encrustation of greenish corrosion, i.e., copper rust, or some other impurity on a copper pot, implying it to be an unclean substance like filth (Eze 24:6^(2×),11, 12^(2×)+) n. noun, or nouns fem. feminine Str Strong’s Lexicon TWOT Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament LN Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon ^(2×) The word defined occurs twice in this verse + I have cited every reference in regard to this lexeme discussed under this definition. Swanson, James: Dictionary of Biblical Languages With Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament). electronic ed. Oak Harbor : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997, S. DBLH 2689

or…

2457 חֶלְאָה [chel’ah /khel·aw/] n f. From 2456; TWOT 649a; GK 2689; Five occurrences; AV translates as “scum” five times. 1 rust, scum. n n: noun f f: feminine TWOT Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament GK Goodrick-Kohlenberger AV Authorized Version Strong, James: The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible : Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order. electronic ed. Ontario : Woodside Bible Fellowship., 1996, S. H2457

I took the time to look up these definitions because I wanted to get a clear picture in my mind and, in my heart, I wanted to feel the gravity of the parable that God is communicating through Ezekiel. This passage is personally convicting to me. I am such a fool. Knowing how much God loves me. Knowing that through Christ, I am a treasured child of our most high God. Knowing God personally though Christ. Experiencing all that I have experienced in relationship to Him,  I still seem to allow my heart to accumulate the same sick green, rusty corrosions that the Isrealites had on their hearts so many years ago.

I ask God to help me  follow His ways more closely, and God teaches me His ways, but do I learn?  I pray for wisdom and He grants it…but do I receive it? I ask Him to lead me and He whispers direction, but do I follow? He is so patient with me… He aims to form my heart and to place love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control in it; to display His love, justice and wisdom to a world so in need of His touch.

 Help me dear God to not be so unappealing with my life as to let the scum and rust of my sin float in and through my heart. Yes I am a fool, Yet I will continue my hope in Christ…my only hope… Christ whose power can filter out all of this corrosion…Yet again…I yield to you my God. To be clear, I do.not yield to you with the hope that I might feel better or feel justified or blessed…I am already more blessed than I deserve. My  hope is that I would not be disqualified from being a blessing to others…To be a faithful & loving husband, a wise parent & father,  a good & faithful friend, a blessing to those around me and an intimate & obedient child to You.

Perhaps I am not alone in my conviction and in the prayers above. I trust I am not…AMEN.

.

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Kongress Images…

Broadcast Control Room - Karlsruhe, Germany Kongress 2010

Band Rehearsal Karlsruhe Germany Kongress 2010

I am, of course very tired as usual after a safe but very bumpy airplane  ride from Chicago to Frankfurt. The weather when we landed was cloudy, foggy and cold, about 32F… basically just like home…

Once we got our luggage we drove for about 90 minutes through I think…the Black Forest and the foot hills of the Alps, to our Hotel…I write…I think…because it was so foggy that it was hard to see anything…or maybe that was the jet lag…I’m not sure…

After we arrived at our Hotel  and had some lunch we ran over to the venue just to take a look at our space…Our venue this year is huge…It is hard to image now, but this, what used to be huge air plane hanger turned huge venue, will be transformed into a worship center in the next couple days….

Click Image to view larger...Dm-Arena Karlsruhe, Messeallee 1 76287 RheinsteWen, Germany

After checking out the venue, everyone from the event met up at 6:30 p.m. and went out for dinner…That’s when the real catching up began… I’ll spare you the details of the evening, but let’s just say I under estimated just how much I missed my old friends in Germany…

For those who know Elias Zimmer…You will be happy to know know that he is now engaged, and he couldn’t be happier…He is doing great at work as well and life is great. It was also great to catch up with Daniel, Hartmut, Stefan, Oli and soooo many others in Germany… It was also great to see Shana and Marty, and many other Willow friends who flew in from Chicago and other parts of the States for the event.

I pray for safety, focus, wisdom and a sense of real community in Christ as we begin our week together…both in Germany and Switzerland…

Well..my work day will begin at just under 4 hours from now…when hopefully, I will be able to set up an internet connection at the venue for us to start streaning…better get some sleep…

I would like to make a shout out Kulabyte and Mankin Media for their gracious and excellent support and for donating an extra encoder license to help make this event a success. I would also like to list just a couple of the names of people who have worked very hard to make this broadcast happen.

Kaminski, Wolf, Becker, Wenzel, Baldwin, Stanger, Wettstein, Bosquet, Bosquet, O’Conner, Eldeiry, Gogarn, Cooke, Satorius…and so many more I am sure I am missing…. Thank you all for all your time and effort…I have learned so much from you.

For those who might be interested…I have posted our final technical drawings for our internet broadcast…I hope you find them helpful.

Broadcast Plans for Germany Kongress 2010

The passage I read for the Day is…

1 Peter 1:10-13

¹⁰Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, ¹¹trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. ¹²It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

Be Holy

¹³Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

To all of this I pray AMEN…. Help our team prepare our  minds for action; be self-controlled; setting our hope fully on the grace to be given us when Jesus Christ is revealed…

Thanks to help from our friends and Mankin Media, Multicast Media and Akamai’s Open Video Player, I have been able to assemble a decent, lightweight video player that should playback high quality video…I will be sending the player out directly to the team since it has been optimized for the event.

Below is a video walk through of the player along with some player images. HD viewing recommended…

I guess it figures that most of us don’t have any room for God or His Son, so I shouldn’t be surprised by the subtle poetic drama that occurred when Jesus arrived on Earth. But, as true as that platitude sounds, before I gag on the trite symbolism, I want to quickly move on.

As I think about the phrase a little more, I am struck by a much deeper truth. To be clear, it is not a deeper truth because I am a deep person, or because I have some special insight. This simple truth I discovered is only deeper for me because it cuts into a deeper flaw at the core of my character. A flaw that wraps God around me and my desires. How many times do I get upset when traffic doesn’t go my way, when my ideas are rejected at work, when I can’t  buy something when I want to buy it, when I can’t do what I want when I want to do it, when the  line I am standing in takes longer than the line the guy next to me is standing in, when I have to wait for a table, when I don’t get the seat I want on a plane or at an event, or even at church…Oh Lord…the list goes on.

I guess we all want the best seats, we all want to be on the VIP list. You would think, with his connections, if anyone would be on that list, the Son of the Most High God would be. That’s when it hit me. Make no mistake, the God of the Universe could have easily secured a room for Jesus, but I am so glad he did not. The whole Cosmos is filled with shiny stars that continue to shoot forth beams of self importance. I spend way more time than I have the courage to admit striving to be one of those shiny stars.

Thank God, He doesn’t think that way. In my infantile mind, I imagine God planning the introduction of Jesus into humanity with great intentionality, no detail left to chance. I imagine God setting the scene…a great census, a crowded  town  filled with visitors streaming in from  far and wide; rich and poor, great and small, old and young, sick and well all coming into town to register for the Census. I am sure that Jesus, Joseph and Mary were not the only family who couldn’t get a room that night. Who knows, there may have been others staying in the stall next to them or even outside whatever the meager shelter it was that housed the feeding trough he slept in during his first night on earth.

The point is, with all the power and glory at His disposal, God chose for his extraordinary Son to live an ordinary life. No platinum, “Son of God” card to pull out in a pinch when things didn’t go his way. No VIP list to help him get him the right connections of power and influence. No frequent flyer miles to get him bumped up to first class. Just the blue collar promise of hard work, a sore back and callused hands. Jesus stood in line like everyone else.

I guess that is what is so convicting and yet inspiring  for me this Christmas. Jesus is the Son of the Most High God, but he lived with the same ordinary struggles of futility that all people face everyday…and he did it from the day he was born. I have to believe that when Jesus was faced with the same petty challenges that I am faced with everyday, he them with much more love and grace that I do.

With that in mind, I pray… God…please help me remember the “legacy of the ordinary” that you brought to Earth through your Son. Change my heart with this truth God…so that in the midst of the ordinary challenges that bring out the worst in me, your extraordinary love would flow freely.

Thank you dear God…for just the way you brought Jesus into this world. He could have entered in glory and power, overwhelming us with wonder and awe. Instead you chosen to inspire us with amazing love and  good will. I pray that the love that you have intended to pour out on our world through Jesus would continue to grow and change my heart. Not just my heart, but the hearts of more and more people. So that we too can pour out extraordinary love; even in the ordinary moments of our lives.

Amen

• Ted Allen Miller will now oversee the newly combined software/web development teams for Willow Creek Community Church. This includes all church management platforms, custom software and other ancillary systems that support sub-ministry and accounting processes. Ted also oversees communications and all primary web sites for the church. Ted comes to Willow with extensive software and communications experience. We can rest assured that our software development strategies are in good hands. I am also very excited that we are combining the user experience skills of web design with the process engineering skills of software development.
  

• Rick Ciesiolka will continue to manage the software development side of things. He and his team will now report to Ted Allen Miller. It has been exciting for me to watch Rick step into a key management position running software operations for the church. Rick embodies a calm, servant leadership style. These attributes coupled with many years of hands on software development experience and an incurable optimistic spirit results in a pretty amazing guy who cares about his team and has the competence to deliver solid software solutions to the church. I am looking forward to seeing what he and his team will deliver in the future.
  

• Beth Hayes will now oversee Network Infrastructure and Technical Support. Beth has already been running most of the day-to-day operations for Information Technology at Willow Creek. Customer service, organizational management and technology insight are in her DNA. Overseeing the I.T. operations for all Willow Creek locations is the perfect next step for Beth to move to as she assumes this critical leadership role at the church. I am excited and proud to see Beth take on this expanded responsibility, and I am confident that she is up for the challenge.
  

• Vicki Dolikian will continue to oversee and manage the Computer Connection; which will also report up through Beth Hayes. Vicki has continued to add much needed faithful and consistent management and administration to the Computer Connection. She brings great administrative skill and tremendous passion for serving people in need. I am confident that Vicki is also up to the challenge of moving the Computer Connection into the future.
  

As for me…For almost 23 years now Willow Creek has been my home. I found Christ here, was baptized here, met my bride here and dedicated my children here. Every major life decision I have faced over the past 23 years has revolved around God’s work in this local church. When I was in college and my major started to conflict with my availability to be involved at Willow, I changed majors and even schools. Sounds crazy…I know…but I loved and continue to love what God is doing here at Willow, and the blessings that I have received over the years are outrageously higher than anything I may have contributed.

That said, My family and I believe that God has now called us to take a step of faith out of Willow and to bring all that He built into us over the years to a new place. My family and I are not completely clear on where we will land, however, I am confident that God will make this path clear very soon. In the mean time, while my family and I continue to seek God and His wisdom, we continue to help our friends in Chicago plant Glorious Light Church http://www.glorious-light.org and continue to stay heavily involved in our childrens’ school, Trinity Oaks Christian Academy http://www.trinity-oaks.org.

With regard to the schedule of my transition, Beth and Ted assumed the bulk of my responsibilities on Monday, November 23rd. I will continue to remain on Willow Creek staff until December 31st in a consulting role to support Beth and Ted and to finish up some projects I’ve been working on for the church and the WCA. My email address, mgold@willowcreek.org will be active until December 31st.

To keep the spam down, I’m not posting my new email address on this blog. Please feel free to email me at my current Willow Creek address over the next few weeks and I’ll be happy to send you my new address.

Earlier today I sent out an email to all our faithful volunteers who currently serve on the Willow Creek I.T. Team. However there are many other volunteers who are no longer on our email lists. There are also many other people with whom I have had the privilege of knowing and working with for many years now as well. Of course, I hope to stay connected with as many of you as possible in the future.

However, as I end a season of ministry at Willow Creek, I want to close this post by taking a moment to extend a heart felt thank you to all the faithful volunteers, staff, colleagues, ministry partners, service providers and friends for all the blessings you have added to my life over the years during my time at Willow Creek.

I have served side by side with many of you and I have countless memories of late nights in server rooms, all nighters debugging code, weekends troubleshooting computer problems, afternoons flushing out bad data from databases, whole weeks in other countries sharing ideas and implementing technology for people in need, weekdays figuring out the best ways to tackle projects and evenings prayerfully seeking the best technology strategies for Willow.

Sometimes we worked like crazy and other times we just hung out together talking about life or geeking out on some new technology. Any way you look at it…I have been so blessed to know so many of you. For many years I have had the privilege of serving along side some amazing people like you, doing some of the most amazing work on the planet. You have added a richness to my life that I will never forget.

I thank God for the privilege I  have had of  serving at Willow Creek, and I thank God for every moment I have had serving along side people like you.  As my family and I move into the future we move with sincerely grateful hearts.

Every day, starting today, through Friday, please VOTE for our VIDEO! Smarttech has some pretty cool prizes for the winners of this contest. Items that my childrens’ school could really use. Here’s what we could win:

• SMART Response system (32 pack)
• SMART Audio system
• SMART Document Camera

Here’s what you need to do to vote…:

• You can watch the video below…

• After you watch the video… click on the following link. You will be required to register. It’s a site for teachers so I think it’s pretty safe.
  http://www.teachertube.com/members/viewVideo.php?video_id=145514&title=A_Serious_Look_at_Smart_Technologies
• Once you register it should take you to the video…If it doesn’t click on the link above again.
• Now you can VOTE! You can vote by clicking on the stars at the upper right of the video page. Please give us 5 STARS!
• Feel free to click on the favorite button at the bottom as well.
• Finally…You can vote once daily…

Thank you in advance to those willing to help us out.