Month: January 2010

Genesis 29:31-30:24 & From Sludge to Soil

If Jacobs’s home life growing up in his parents’ home would have made Dr. Phil, the home under his own authority would have made Jerry Springer.

I grew up with two sisters, that was painful enough (love you Kim and Kris); I cannot imagine being married to two sisters.  Here a war rages between the two of them and they use their children as the ammunition.  What an excellent picture of motherhood.  Have you ever heard a Mother’s Day sermon from our text?  They have their idols and they are worshipping them.  Babies function as just false saviors to save them from their false hell and deliver them to their false heaven.  But the gods are angry, they do not satisfy, they don’t deliver, they don’t save. 

Leah’s problem is not that she desires the wrong thing, but that she desires wrongly.  She doesn’t simply desire her husband’s love, she worships it.  Babies and God himself are just stepping stones to her true desire.

Rachel, like Jacob, as the younger wants to trump the older sibling.  She gives us the classic phrase for idolatry diagnostics, “Give me ______ or I shall die!”  She doesn’t have a pure desire for children, she just hates being in second place.

The issue here is not even the intensity of the desire.  Sorrow and joy are not exclusive of one another (2 Corinthians 6:10).  If you would counsel Rachel and Leah simply by saying, “rejoice in the Lord”, this is too simplistic.  Sometimes the more joyful you are in the Lord the deeper your sorrow.  For instance, the more satisfying I find God to be the more burdened I will become for the unreached peoples of the earth.  Today if Leah could read Ephesians and see what marriage is supposed to portray it would not decrease her desire for her husband, it would heighten and sanctify it.  Her desire for her husband is not tempered and purified by a white hot, holy, and greater desire for the only water that can satisfy.

Jacob’s character fairs no better in this passage.  The women speak and know of Yahweh so evidently some spiritual leadership is being exercised, but he fails pathetically in resolving and squelching this conflict.  The one time he speaks is in anger, and, as typical with dudes, it’s not so much what he says but how he says it.  Ultimately Jacob is dismally reduced to the status of a stud.  No, not stud in a juvenile cool sense.  He is pimped out by one wife to another for some “love apples”.  Jacob has simply become a male used for mating and breeding purposes.

And yet, from all this mess we discover that God again is working behind the curtain of this Jerry Springer drama to bless them and bring about His covenant purposes.  As Dale Ralph Davis wrote, “The chemistry of divine providence takes the crud and confusion of our doings and makes it the soil that produces the fruit of His faithfulness.”  Their sins don’t thwart His plans they accomplish them.  For two generations the family that is to become a nation has only been multiplying by one, but now, in the mist of this chaos, a nation is being formed.  Sound familiar, holy blessed creation out of chaos, blessing over curse?  God at the same time is disciplining them and forming the nation.  Blessing and discipline surely are not antonyms, but synonyms.

Tolle Lege: The Gospel-Driven Life

Readability: 3

Length: 266 pgs

Author: Michael Horton

In Christless Christianity Michael Horton wrote concerning the alternative gospel of the American church, in his sequel, The Gospel Driven-Life, he writes concerning the true gospel, the gospel by which we live – every day.  The first concerns the crisis, the second the solution.

Christianity lives in proportion to its understanding of the gospel.  Block out the light of the gospel and the plant withers.  American Christianity may seem like a mighty oak from the outside, but with the Son eclipsed she rots from the inside out.   The gospel is not simply how we begin the Christian life, it is not a jumpstart.  As Tullian Tchividjian said in his endorsement of this book, “the gospel doesn’t just ignite the Christian life; it’s the fuel that keeps Christians going every day.”

This book is full of life-giving light, the light of the gospel, the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).  We have no other message, why would you want one?

The book is divided into two sections.  In the first Horton reminds us in vivid language of the best good news.   The gospel comes to us as news, it is not about what we do; it’s about what has been done for us.  In the next section he describes the kind of community that the gospel creates.

Preparing this post has made me want to reread the book very soon.  I hope you will be intrigued such that you wish to read the book twice before having read it once.

The Bible is not a collection of timeless principles offering a gentle thought for the day.  It is not a resource for our self-improvement.  Rather, it is a dramatic story that unfolds from promise to fulfillment, with Christ at the center.  Its focus is God and his action.  God is not a supporting actor in our drama; it is the other way around.  God does not exist to make sure that we are happy and fulfilled.  Rather, we exist to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.  God is not a facilitator of our ‘life transformation’ projects.  He is not a life coach.  Rather, he is our Creator, Lawgiver, Judge, and Covenant Lord.

Our real crisis is the righteousness of God, but the solution is the righteousness from God that is a free gift.

God outloves our hatred!

We not only have to get the gospel out; we have to get it right.

The riches of this estate that believers inherit are so vast that the will must be proclaimed every week. Christ’s attorney must read and expound the will in sections over a lifetime. Not just once, but every day we must renounce our trust in other would-be lords, saviors, providers and promise makers. We must let go of our anxious grip on our own lives, our sense of being in control, our own integrity and confidence in our religious experience. We must renounce the contracts we have entered that promised to make our life meaningful and say ‘Amen!’ to the will as it is read to us.

It is often said that we must apply the Scriptures to daily living. But this is to invoke the Bible too late, as if we already knew what ‘life’ or ‘daily living’ meant. The problem is not merely that we lack the right answers, but that we don’t even have the right questions until God introduces us to his interpretation of reality.

The more we hear and understand concerning the gospel, the more our faith grows and strengthens. Nevertheless, the weakest faith clings to a sufficient Savior. Faith itself does not save us from judgment any more than the quality of one’s confidence in the lifeguard is responsible for being rescued from drowning. It is the rescuer not the one rescued, who saves. In fact, it is in the very act of rescuing that a victim finds himself or herself clinging to the rescuer in confidence. I have yet to see a headline like, “Drowning Victim Rescued by Superior Clinging.” It is always the lifeguard who is credited with the rescue. It is on account of Christ that we are justified, through faith, and not on account of our faith itself.

In that wonderful yet often painful process of becoming part of Christ’s body we still want to make the news ourselves, but instead find ourselves being incorporated into the news of Christ’s doing, dying, rising, and ruling.  As we suffer the death of our cherished inmost self – that little devil – we become alive really for the first time.

When it comes to our standing before God we need a report not a resource.

The Doctor: God Does Not Need Our Defense

How pathetic and hopeless is the position of people who think that they safeguard the love of God by denying the substitutionary theory of the atonement, who say that our Lord did not cry out in an agony, and who imagine that the measure of the love of God is that God says, ‘Though you have killed my only Son, I still love you, and am still ready to forgive you’!  They believe that they safeguard and magnify the love of God by denying the truth concerning the wrath of God, and that God must and does punish sin.  I hope I have shown what they actually do is to detract from the love of God.  The love of God is only truly seen when we realize that ‘He spared not his own son”…  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans Vol. 8, p. 396

Genesis 29:1-30 & Covenant over Circumstances

Because of sin our ears are broken such that we more easily hear a whispered lie than shouted truth.  We look to circumstances and not covenant as the gauge of God’s love.   Our car rather than the cross tells us of God’s love.  The car breaks down , the whisper “He doesn’t love you” is heard, and our heart cries, “why?” 

The “biggest” word in this whole narrative is the first one, “Then…”.  This takes us back to the divine encounter in chapter 28.  “Then” has not only chronological, but also theological significance for God has just promised to be with Jacob and keep him wherever he goes (Genesis 28:15).  This means that everything in this narrative, both halves of it, are expressions of God’s love and covenant faithfulness; both the first half in which everything delightfully seems to be falling into place, and the second half where everything in God’s discipline is seemingly falling apart.  In fact the second half is saturated with more of God’s love than the second.  God will sovereignly use a sinner to sanctify His saint, and He is loving in doing so.

If you are in Christ, God’s only stance towards you is love.  It is wild, radical, uncompromising, unfailing love, but it is love.  It will tolerate no toxic sin in you.  His discipline is an expression of His love, not His wrath.  Do not despise His discipline, esteem it (Hebrews 12:5-11).  It is not pleasant in itself, but one day the night of chastening will end, and the morning will dawn with you discovering that you look a little more like God for He disciplines us unto holiness, and holiness is the greater happiness.  Oh how good it is for us to be afflicted (Psalm 119:67, 71, 75)!

How is it that nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:31-39)?  Jesus also, more than Jacob, relentlessly and joyfully pursued a bride.  In His quest for her he deals not simply with some wily Laban.  Sure Satan is the accuser of our souls, but he is not the owner.  He will be defeated, not paid in this transaction.  If Jesus simply had to pay Satan the cost might be cheap.  Oh, what Christ would pay for His bride!  God must purchase us… from Himself.  We stand under His wrath, and He would have us stand under His love and He will compromise none of Himself in order to transport us (Romans 3:24-26).  Justice must be satisfied, His glory manifested, His name honored.  No mere 7 years of labor, but the wrath of God was suffered on the cross for this bride.

May you hear the shouts of God’s covenant love over the whispers of circumstances.

Hymns I’m Angry I Didn’t Learn as a Child (13)

Here is a hymn to go with our upcomming study of 2 Timothy at The Still.  Read 2 Timothy a couple of times and then read the hymn again.  Convicted?  I was.

Am I a Soldier of the Cross?

By Isaac Watts

Am I a soldier of the cross,

A follower of the Lamb,

And shall I fear to own His cause,

Or blush to speak His Name?

Must I be carried to the skies

On flowery beds of ease,

While others fought to win the prize,

And sailed through bloody seas?

Are there no foes for me to face?

Must I not stem the flood?

Is this vile world a friend to grace,

To help me on to God?

Sure I must fight if I would reign;

Increase my courage, Lord.

I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,

Supported by Thy Word.

Thy saints in all this glorious war

Shall conquer, though they die;

They see the triumph from afar,

By faith’s discerning eye.

When that illustrious day shall rise,

And all Thy armies shine

In robes of victory through the skies,

The glory shall be Thine

False Catagories

Positive/negative and optimism/pesimissim are not Biblical catagories, faith/unbelief and hope/despair are.

Oh how much impotence results from confusing the two!

The Doctor: The Reason for My Salvation Is the Basis of My Assurance

We must not only think of it [salvation] in terms of ourselves, but we must realize that God’s ultimate object in ever planning and introducing the scheme of salvation is to glorify His Son. … We must realize – there is nothing so comforting as this, nothing so assuring – that the very honor and glory of the blessed Holy Trinity is involved in our ultimate complete salvation.  – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Romans vol. 8, p. 229

Genesis 28:10-22 & Sleeping and Smoking

I too was sleeping when God “found” me.  Church was presented to me as an option that morning, “Josh do you want to go to church?”  Why would an eleven year old boy say, “yes”?  God was dealing with my father. There was not a spiritual blip on my radar.  My thoughts likely consisted of sleep, Nintendo, and G.I. Joe.  I’m not sure what my motivation was.  I don’t think it was because I thought church might be “fun”, or that girls would be there. If anything it was simply to please my dad.  I was not seeking God, God was seeking me.  Though I was not converted in this moment, a series of events then began that would lead to my salvation.

C.J. Mahaney was not simply sleeping, he was smoking – weed! No, he was not simply a weed-smoker when he heard the gospel, he was smoking weed when he heard the gospel.

I was smoking pot the first time I heard the gospel.

I am a Christian not because I was worthy or wanting to be saved. No, I wasn’t searching for God.

God came looking for me.

It was 1972.  I was sitting in my bedroom when my friend Bob began sharing with me the simple story of Jesus dying for my sins, a story I had never heard despite growing up in church.

But that night, as I listened, God revealed himself and regenerated my heart. I believed and repented. The cross was for me. Jesus was my Savior.  – In Living the Cross Centered Life

I’ve heard C.J. say that he was not only smoking hash, he was happy doing it.  He was not at that time a miserable sinner.  He loved sin and was enjoying it.

This is the major false premise that ruins “seeker-sensitive” logic. We don’t seek God; God seeks us.

I wasn’t just asleep when God found me, I was dead (Ephesians 2:4-5).

God is the ravenous predator, we are the lucky prey – gloriously and blessedly devoured.

Tolle Lege: Don’t Stop Believing

Readability: 1

Length: 179 pgs

Author: Michael Wittmer

If you ride the pendulum this book will likely make you mad and that is exactly why I liked it.  While I did not always agree with Wittmer’s analysis or his advice, I agree completely with his overall thesis – that orthodoxy and orthopraxy are not competing alternatives.  While some conservatives so emphasize belief that it doesn’t matter how you live, post-modern innovators often so stress ethics that it doesn’t matter what you believe.  The pendulum swings.  Wittmer calls for us to learn from each and stand our middle ground.  He shows the relation of right practice to right belief by tackling 10 tough questions that often divide the extreme camps.  The questions are:

  • Must you believe something to be saved?
  • Do right beliefs get in the way of good works?
  • Are people generally good or basically bad?
  • Which is worse: homosexuals or the bigots who persecute them?
  • Is the cross divine child abuse?
  • Can you belong before you believe?
  • Does the kingdom of God include non-Christians?
  • Is hell real and forever?
  • Is it possible to know anything?
  • Is the Bible God’s Word?

 If you are attracted to postmodern innovators I would recommend this book to you.  If you are appalled by them thinking they have no valid critiques of evangelicalism I would also recommend this book to you.  I give you a couple of my favorite quotes and the conclusion of the chapter dealing with homosexuality.

Christians believe that the true God is not one person, as Jews and Muslims suppose, but that he is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – three persons who share a single essence.  These monotheistic religions agree that God is one, and so he is to be feared and praised above all gods.  But only the Christian faith, which adds that God is also three, best explains why God is love.

We will always bear the image of God which is why our sin is a tragedy.  Girls Gone Wild is sadder than When Animals Attack, for, spring break evidence to the contrary, the girls in these videos – and the guys who watch – are corrupting a higher good.

One of Jerry Falwell’s close associates left Lynchburg in 1987 to pastor a church in Grand Rapids.  Ed Dobson decided that his church would balance their conviction that homosexual acts are wrong with compassion for those suffering from its effects.  So he called an AIDS hotline, which put him in contact with the pastor of a pro-homosexual church in the community.  Dobson told the pastor that while they never would agree on the morality of homosexual practice, they could agree to work together to help those who were struggling with AIDS. …

Dobson’s greatest criticism came from his congregation, many of whom feared that their church would be overrun with homosexuals.  Dobson replied “that will be terrific.  They can take their place in the pews right next to the liars, gossips, materialist, and all the rest of us who entertain sin in their lives.”  He added, “When I die, if someone stands up and says, ‘Ed Dobson loved homosexuals,’ then I will have accomplished something with my life.”

Dobson’s ministry is evidence that we need not compromise our moral code to reach out to those who have violated it.  Homosexuals are guilty of illicit sex.  We are often guilty of not caring about them or their plight.  Our sin is greater, and it isn’t even close?

http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=glo-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=0310281164&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr

Amen! + Brokeness

I read two great posts today.  One made me joyfully shout amen, the other sweetly broken. 

A Wordless Gospel Is Like a Digitless Phone Number

Saying “Preach the gospel; if necessary use words” is like saying “Tell me your phone number; if necessary use digits.”  – J.D. Greear

HT: Justin Taylor

I’m afraid I have more faith and interest in the internet than in God. How about you?

I tried for hours this morning to access the internet, though it wasn’t responding.

I don’t do that with God.  Do you?  – Abraham Piper