My long-awaiting ESV Study Bible arrived today.  I assume many others here at LOPC who pre-ordered a copy have also received theirs.  What a treasure ... not only an excellent new translation of God's word (the English Standard Version), but also the richest one-volume collection of personal study tools I have ever seen!

If you have one, be sure to notice the flyer inside the back cover.  It gives you directions for a free download of an online version of this marvelous publication.  It includes a scratch-off box with the registration code you'll need to be able to get your copy.  Make sure you do that before you lose it.

The team of translators (the 2001 ESV Bible) and contributors (the 2008 study notes) includes many of the best-known evangelical and Reformed scholars of our day.  It has already received widespread acclaim from such men as R. C. Sproul and John Piper.  Many PCA churches have purchased pew editions for their sanctuaries and our PCA publishing house (Great Commission Publications) will be using this translation in the revisions of their Sunday School literature over the next few years.

Here at Lake Osborne, we will celebrate the arrival of this new study tool with a special 6:00 pm Sunday night program on October 26th (Reformation Sunday).  Dr. Sam Lamerson, Professor of New Testament at Knox Theological Seminary, will be our guest to take us through a summary of the history of the translation of the Bible into the English language from the time of the Reformation up to the present.

Next week, I'll add another portion about this in a blog about using Robert Murray McCheyne's excellent Bible reading calendar.  This 19th century Scottish pastor devised a plan for reading through the entire Bible.  It is the best I have ever seen.  I want to encourage many of you to do this now that you have this new ESV study version in hand.  Be sure to check back here to read about it.

In my reading today for the Wednesday evening studies in Genesis, I came across an interesting question.  "What if God turned Himself off?"  It relates to the issue of just how dependent we are on Him; just how actively involved He is in the everyday affairs of the universe; just how much His will has to do with things like stock markets and presidential campaigns and doctor's reports.

Is He just watching as a passive spectator, reaching in every now and then to fix things when they go wrong?  We don't believe that, but I'm afraid we act like it.  At least, that's what it looks like when things get rough and our feelings become dominated by fear and anxiety.

Would God "turning Himself off" be like a symphony orchestra in the midst of a concert, suddenly affected by the conductor's walking off-stage?  Would the members keep on playing from the musical scores in front of them, the music continuing, but less and less beautiful as they miss entrances and stray from the tempo?  Or would it be much more dramatic than that?

In Richard Bube's The Human Quest (Word, 1971), he defends his thesis: "The universe exists moment by moment only because of the creative and preserving power of God."  We know this as the doctrine of providence.  If God turned Himself off, would anything change?  Would natural laws keep things going, for a while at least?  Would everything just begin to slowly and gradually fade to black?  No, everything would cease to exist ... instantly!

Bube illustrates this with the analogy of a television screen.

Personalities appear on the screen and interact with one another according to the laws of the world and life.  They love, they fight; if they step off buildings, they fall (barring children's cartoons!); if they are cut, they bleed.   But what happens if the plug of the set is pulled out?  Do the laws of nature in the events on the television screen begin to fail?  Do the characters begin to be less loving and considerate?  No, when the power is removed - when the plug is pulled - the very source of existence is gone: the personalities on the screen in their life and story context simply cease to exist.  (p. 27-28)

It's just as Scripture tells us in Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live and move and have our being."

Isn't it wonderful that there is no plug to God?!

I am writing this on a Friday morning, before the US stock markets open after a disastrous Thursday sell-off, and with overnight news of dramatic overseas declines.  What should we make of all this news, as Christians?  Last Sunday morning I preached from Psalm 11:3, "When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"  That question David faced is the same question we face in the tumultuous times now facing us.

I ended the sermon with a reference to Psalm 46, one that seems even more timely today than it did last weekend.  I am thinking especially of verses 2 and 3: " ... though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling."  The mountains falling into the sea in the Psalmist's day are no more or less unsettling than stocks crashing in markets around the world today.

What is God's greatest concern in all of this?  Is it that we find a way to protect our investments so as to have more of this world's benefits to enjoy in the remaining years of our lives?  Or is it that we benefit from this opportunity to grow a faith that is stronger than steel?  Financial gurus tell us we should think about long-term gains, not short-term losses.  If that's true in the financial world, how much more true it is in the spiritual realm.

Psalm 46 begins with the words, "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear ..." regardless of what happens in the world around us.  The greatest victory available to us today will not be on Wall Street; it will be in our hearts, as we discover how the presence of the Lord, His sovereign control and His massive promises, demolishes the temptation to fear.