Here are some stats given to me in my Pastoral Counseling class; not exactly encouraging stuff but compelling. I guess they were taken through polling pastors in 1991 by the Fuller Institute of Church Growth. The first set is just a list of troubling stats, and the second regards issues in pastors' marriages. Thoughts?
• 90% of pastors work more than 46 hours per week
• 80% believe the ministry negatively affects their family
• 33% said that being in the ministry was outright hazardous to their health
• 75% reported a significant stress-related crisis at least once in their family
• 50% felt unable to meet the needs of the job
• 90% felt they were inadequately trained to cope with ministry demands
• 70% say they have a lower self-esteem now than when they started out
• 40% report a serious conflict with a parishioner at lest once a month
• 37% confessed to having been involved in an inappropriate sexual behavior with someone in the church
• 70% do not have someone they consider a close friend
Problems in clergy marriages
1. 81% insufficient time
2. 71% use of money
3. 71% income level
4. 64% communication
5. 63% congregational expectations
6. 57% leisure time
Monday, September 27, 2010
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
On John 21:22
Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!" I was reading the last few chapters of John this morning; a personal high point in all of God's Word. One of my all-time favorite verses is John 21:7, in which Peter while fishing recognizes that it is the resurrected Lord on the beach and immediately jumps into the water, swimming to Jesus. Following him were the other disciples rowing the boat. I love Peter's unabashed love for Christ and disregard for appearances, in that moment he's going to follow Jesus and nothing else matters, not the boat, not the fish, not the other disciples, not his appearance. Peter's gonna be with Jesus. I like that attitude and I wish I had more of it. But this morning it was the verse I quoted at the start, John 21:22 that really captured me. Countless pages have covered this verse better than I will, but I just want to throw a few thoughts out there. Here Jesus is responding to a question of Peter's, "What about my buddy John over here? You just told me I'm gonna be strung up because of following you, what about John?" And like in so many situations, Jesus' response is incredible. First of all he acknowledges that he has control over John's fate, basically saying 'hey if I want the guy to live, he'll live, and if I want him to die, he'll die, and I'll determine the timing of that'. That would be a fairly bold statement for someone who wasn't God... but for Jesus it aint no thing. See God is the one who makes men rise or fall, He is looking after everything. In line with this thought is the other aspect of Jesus' response; "Don't worry about what's going to happen to him, you follow me." It is not our duty to look at our brother and sister, to evaluate and say 'Where do I stack up next to them?' 'Is their life better than mine?' 'Will they have a greater impact, will they outlive me, will they be more successful, do I measure up to them?' None of that matters, none of that should bring out jealousy or envy. Why? Because we're commanded to follow Jesus, not other men or our own egos. We get our marching orders from God and let the chips fall where they may. Maybe the guy next to you will be more successful. Doesn't matter. We are commanded to obedience, not 'success'. After all, it is God who makes men rise and fall, live and die, our only job is to follow after Him, to love Him, to get out of the boat and swim after Him.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Inclination, Sovereignty, and Sanctification
There are many topics within the theological realm that are seen to be of a purely academic nature with little bearing on everyday Christian life. For the lay person, the distinctions between infra and supralapsarianism hold little meaning, and probably rightly so. But it might be that in simply passing over many theological topics as discussions for the impractical hermits of the ivory chapels or the bare halls of seminaries, many good-hearted Christians are depriving themselves of truths and glories of God and His creation that are of great benefit to their everyday, practical, earthy Christian life. The nature of God's sovereignty and man's responsibility, specifically in personal choice or will, is almost definitely one of those doctrines that is widely neglected by evangelicals, likely because of the sometimes too (i.e. sinful) passionate disagreements or even bitterness between those of us waving the Calvinist, Arminian, or what-have-you flag. In light of this, it is our purpose to discuss the nature of man's choice (admittedly from a Reformed perspective), and then to see how an understanding of choice might benefit our daily Christian walk in the area of sanctification- or growing in Godliness.
When discussing matters of God's sovereignty and human responsibility, there are numerous opportunities for further questions, side issues, and winding trails of logical reasoning to creep in to the discourse. Much of our time could get lost in the details of how God might create a world that allows for evil, how man might be held responsible for sinful choices and how this could be possible if God foreknew and foreordained all that has happened or will happen, why God might draw some humans to Himself and not others, and other similar matters. However these are topics beyond our scope, and so for brevity's sake our theological focus will be relatively narrow. Our task is to establish only two truths; that we do what we are most inclined to do or what we see to be of the greatest good (or agreeable), and that God clearly has a direct hand in shaping the heart that determines our choices.
Actions and Inclinations
Just one example in Scripture of people choosing to do that which their heart has inclined them to do can be found in Exodus in the building of the tabernacle. This traveling dwelling place of God came with very specific blueprints, and thus Moses needed very skilled and willing servants and givers under his care if he was to lead in this building project. Fortunately for him the LORD provided the workers and funds necessary. In his address to the people- or his fundraising speech, so-to-speak- Moses appeals to the hearts of the Israelites in casting a vision for tabernacle construction; "Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD's contribution" (Ex. 35:5 ESV). It seems that Moses understood that if people were to give to the project, then their heart needed to lead them to do so. To put it another way, their inclination to give must have superseded any challenging inclinations to not give. The story of the tabernacle building continues using similar language. "And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the LORD's contribution..." (Ex. 35:21). "So they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart..." (35:22). "All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skill spun the goat's hair" (35:26). "All the men and women... whose heart moved them to bring anything... brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD" (35:29). "And Moses called... everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work" (36:2). It is clear from this section of Scripture that our actions and choices are derived from what is in our hearts; that is we choose and do what is in accord with our greatest desires and inclinations. To be sure, this is partly why Jesus says that our greatest commandment is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mk. 12:30). If we are to actively obey the teachings of God, our hearts must be inclined to Him and His teachings.
But does this mean that we necessarily do what is in accord with our greatest inclination? Jesus himself seems to answer in the affirmative. In Luke 6:43-45, Jesus explains that just as figs and grapes cannot be picked from thornbushes and brambles, so good works cannot come from a bad heart. A thornbush will always produce thorns, and a fig tree will always produce figs. In the same way, if our hearts are evil and we desire evil, then we will not and cannot produce good. But if our hearts are inclined to good, then we will do good. Our choices are determined by our hearts. Some hold that we have libertarian free will, which is to say that in any given choice we can choose A, B, C, D, or E and so on, and if we are given again the exact same circumstances (i.e. our inclinations are just the same as in the first case) we are free to choose either A, B, C, D, or E without any constraint. According to them we do not have to and will not always choose C, for example, if all things are equal. So according to them if we are at a restaurant we are free to pick any item off the menu; we might choose chicken strips, for example. And if we were to rewind the scene and play it again, this time we might choose the club sandwich. In each completely identical scene, the outcome might be different even though the contributing factors (motivations, inclinations) are identical. But this view completely neglects the factors that play into our choices, for if we can choose the chicken strips, the club sandwich, the salad, the burger, or anything under the sun, and if in each instance the circumstances are exactly identical, then there is no factor or set of factors that truly determined any specific choice because any choice could have occurred. This is saying that our choices have no true cause or motivation, which is to say that our choices are arbitrary and pointless. However, it seems in this text that Jesus is telling us that our choices and actions (i.e. the fruit we bear) are determined by the state of our hearts. So if we are at that same restaurant and our favorite food is chicken strips, then we will always choose chicken strips. On the other hand, if someone tells us that the club sandwich is especially good, that added factor might influence our desires and we might choose the club sandwich because that is now our greatest inclination. It is easy to see how complex our choices rapidly become when multiple factors are tabulated and assessed. In the same line of thought, if our hearts hate chicken strips or we are vegetarians, then we will never choose chicken strips because our hearts will not allow us to do so. Likewise we will not do evil if our hearts are not inclined toward evil. Through a familiar passage we learn a profound truth; that the nature and character of our heart determines what we produce, or what we do.
However, a vegetarian might choose the chicken strips if that vegetarian is forced at gunpoint to do so; their will is bound by an outside factor and the choice is made for them. In this situation, they no longer have the freedom to choose according to their greatest desire of keeping a vegetarian diet. For humanity, our great constraint is sin. Because of the fall, we can only and always do evil unless God Himself intervenes, and in fact we have no desire to do good as we are slaves to sin (Rom. 3:9-12, 6:17-22). This is the doctrine of total depravity, and this is what wars against true human freedom. This is why Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26 tell us that God will put a new heart and a new spirit in his people that they may walk in His statutes, and it is why Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again if he is to enter the kingdom of God (Jn. 3:3-6). If we are to be given true freedom to choose good instead of only the freedom to do evil, we must come out from under the curse of sin. Our slavery to sin must be overcome by the coercion of God who puts in us a new heart and desire. In Christ we are set truly free, not to choose contrary to our hearts but rather we are given the freedom to choose according to our new and greatest inclination to glorify God, without the constraint and coercion of sin because Christ has conquered sin for us (Rom. 8:1-8).
God's Involvement in Choice
What is shocking in relation to our freedom to choose according to inclination is that the Bible portrays God as having a very direct hand in shaping our desires and actions. Scripture is consistent in teaching that while our choices are very much our own genuine choices, God long ago has ordained the factors that shape the choice, and is currently active in our lives affecting our will. God has exhaustive control over all factors that contribute to our choice, and our choices are genuine choices proceeding from our inclinations. There are many passages that relate this truth (Acts 2:23, 4:27-28, Gen. 50:19-20), but we will only focus on a select few.
Revelation 17 gives us a strange and gruesome picture of a great prostitute Babylon who at times is seated on many waters and at other times a scarlet beast. The text itself tells us that the waters are a multitude of peoples, while the prostitute is representative of Godless society and culture (i.e. Rome- Rev. 17:18), while the beast probably represents the antichrist. Ultimately, the interpretation of these images is not of paramount importance for our purposes. What is pertinent to this discussion is verses 16 and 17, which state that "they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose..." The text is astoundingly clear; God uses his enemies to crush another of his enemies, thus carrying out His plan by actively placing the desire to turn on the prostitute into their hearts. God directs their actions through their volition. In the end, they make a choice to rise against the prostitute, and it is clear that God was the architect behind their genuine decision to do so. This is not the first time Scripture speaks of God using His enemies to crush other enemies, as Isaiah 10:5-15 presents an even more explicit scene of God's control wherein He wields Assyria like a staff in order to do His bidding, in the end even finding them morally culpable for their actions. Both of these texts hold two compatible truths, that we make genuine choices and that God directs these choices.
Of course God wields His authority for the salvation of men as well, as indicated by another passage in Revelation. Chapter 19 depicts the marriage supper of the Lamb, in which the Bride, the universal people of God, is finally presented to the Messiah who saved her. And we know, as being part of this Bride, that we are not of pure heart and motive, and yet that is exactly how we will appear because God will someday complete His work of completely purifying His Church. This is indicated in verses 7 and 8, in which John writes that "his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure..." Two things are of note in this text. One is that the Bride has made herself ready, that is there is a work that she genuinely does of her own will. She is not an automaton with no will or volition, she takes an active part in preparing herself for the marriage supper. Second is that it was granted her to clothe herself. So who did the granting? This is what is called a divine passive, a text in which the recipient of an action is named but the active agent is unnamed and assumed as God Himself. So God gave the Bride the ability to clothe herself with purity. God directed the genuine choices of the Bride. Not only this, but it seems that God planned before creation for His people to be clothed with purity (Eph. 2:10).
Practical Considerations
Surely this whole discussion of choice and God's sovereignty is not cold-hearted intellectual speculation, as we have been dealing with matters of our hearts, and to miss this would be grave error. What all this means is that our actions spring from our hearts; we do what we most want to do. So when we sin repeatedly, when we knowingly and continually commit the same sinful act against God that is clearly taught against in Scriptures, when we keep saying the same hurtful things over and over again that we know will crush others and cause bitterness in ourselves, when we time and again think the same perverted or malicious thoughts involving other humans who are made in the image of God just as we are, when we do all these things which are precisely why the Son out of love came to die on a cross for us, in all these moments we are doing exactly what we most want to do. If we understand this then we can begin to comprehend how far we have fallen from grace, we can begin to comprehend our depravity. And once we are able to see how wicked our hearts are apart from God's grace, we can see just how desperately we need Him to work on our behalf if we are going to in any way please our gracious Creator. We can also see the wickedness of our sin and thank God that one day it will be ended. We can look forward to a time when sin is no more and therefore every inclination of our heart is pure and every action taken is right, good, life-giving, beneficial, and for the glory of God who is creating a new creation that will, with the death of sin and evil, function perfectly. We can only look to this glorious future with proper expectation when we accurately understand how sinful and broken our world and our hearts are now. With a deeper recognition of our sin we can more gratefully appreciate the unshakeable kingdom that we have received and can respond in worship and awe of God and His Son's sin-conquering work on the cross.
Furthermore, if we understand that God is truly sovereign over all things, that He has exhaustive and complete control of all of the details and factors that shape our choices and even puts affections into our hearts, then we can rightly seek Him to change us and others. If God were powerless to shape and change the hearts of men, if He were to dutifully abstain from influencing the desires and affections and we were left to muster up our own will and good natured desires, then we would have no right to plead with Him in our time of need. We would have no right to ask God to save our neighbor, for He had already done what He could in the cross and creation, and now the onus would lie on us to chase after Him. But this standoffish God is absolutely not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is involved in our affairs, He breaks into creation and gives us a new heart, disciplines us, grows our mind, shapes our affections, and manipulates our circumstances. The God of the Bible is not an absentee Father. Therefore, we can get on our knees in humility and request that He take action, we can beg Him to change us that we may grow ever more in our love for Him and for others, and we can passionately plead with Him over the souls of men. The only way we can possibly have any hope in our prayers is if we understand that God is the one who saves and causes all good things, and that He is in the business of governing the world with great intimacy. And if we are to grow in our own sanctification and Godliness, then it is absolutely critical that we ask God to change our hearts to more and more reflect His own. Because we will always do what is in accord with our greatest inclination, and because God actively changes and affects the inclinations of humans, we can plead with Him that He change our desires so that our greatest inclination is toward righteousness leading to fruitful actions and choices.
Finally, we can ourselves actively work toward affecting our own hearts so that our actions are in accord with Godliness. Commonly known as the means of grace, these are the practices of the saints that shape our hearts and minds toward affection for God and His glory. So we spend time in the Scriptures so that it takes root in our being and changes the way we think. Especially in the Old Testament, we see the miracles of God and His faithfulness toward His people, and we grow in our trust of Him. We also see the grave consequences of great sin, and just as we incline our heart toward good, when we see despicable sin and its effects we disincline our heart toward evil. For similar purposes we read the biographies of past saints so that we see the glorious works God does through feeble vessels, and we see the sins that complicate and potentially ruin the lives of good men and women. We lift God up in song and praise not only because it pleases Him but also because it stirs our hearts toward Him. We meet as gathered saints on Sunday mornings and mid-week meetings to be mutually encouraged and supported in the body of Christ, and our affections are stirred in seeing the grace of God in and through others. We serve God and people so that we see redemption worked out in a fallen world. Those of us who stand at the pulpit and teach do so not to institute regulations and morality that have no lasting effect, rather by God's grace we ruthlessly engage the heart so that our hearers are perpetually lifted to God in His glory and goodness. Only when the affections are attacked will we ever see lasting change in the members of our churches. Even 'non-Christian' activities can become affection-shaping events; good drink, food, music, rest, entertainment, and company can all be used rightly to enjoy God and His creation, and thus change our affections toward Him. In all these things we seek to see the goodness of God and His Word and to see the horrible realities and effects of evil, so that we choose to act in accordance with Godliness and in repulsion of sin. We do not do all these things in order to mark boxes on a spiritual checklist, but rather we intentionally seek to shape our will so that it is in line with God and His Word, so what in our greatest inclination we perceive to be good is actually objectively good. Then, in the freedom of our inclination we choose good, and we do all that we do to the glory of God, because He has granted us to do so.
When discussing matters of God's sovereignty and human responsibility, there are numerous opportunities for further questions, side issues, and winding trails of logical reasoning to creep in to the discourse. Much of our time could get lost in the details of how God might create a world that allows for evil, how man might be held responsible for sinful choices and how this could be possible if God foreknew and foreordained all that has happened or will happen, why God might draw some humans to Himself and not others, and other similar matters. However these are topics beyond our scope, and so for brevity's sake our theological focus will be relatively narrow. Our task is to establish only two truths; that we do what we are most inclined to do or what we see to be of the greatest good (or agreeable), and that God clearly has a direct hand in shaping the heart that determines our choices.
Actions and Inclinations
Just one example in Scripture of people choosing to do that which their heart has inclined them to do can be found in Exodus in the building of the tabernacle. This traveling dwelling place of God came with very specific blueprints, and thus Moses needed very skilled and willing servants and givers under his care if he was to lead in this building project. Fortunately for him the LORD provided the workers and funds necessary. In his address to the people- or his fundraising speech, so-to-speak- Moses appeals to the hearts of the Israelites in casting a vision for tabernacle construction; "Whoever is of a generous heart, let him bring the LORD's contribution" (Ex. 35:5 ESV). It seems that Moses understood that if people were to give to the project, then their heart needed to lead them to do so. To put it another way, their inclination to give must have superseded any challenging inclinations to not give. The story of the tabernacle building continues using similar language. "And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the LORD's contribution..." (Ex. 35:21). "So they came, both men and women. All who were of a willing heart..." (35:22). "All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skill spun the goat's hair" (35:26). "All the men and women... whose heart moved them to bring anything... brought it as a freewill offering to the LORD" (35:29). "And Moses called... everyone whose heart stirred him up to come to do the work" (36:2). It is clear from this section of Scripture that our actions and choices are derived from what is in our hearts; that is we choose and do what is in accord with our greatest desires and inclinations. To be sure, this is partly why Jesus says that our greatest commandment is to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mk. 12:30). If we are to actively obey the teachings of God, our hearts must be inclined to Him and His teachings.
But does this mean that we necessarily do what is in accord with our greatest inclination? Jesus himself seems to answer in the affirmative. In Luke 6:43-45, Jesus explains that just as figs and grapes cannot be picked from thornbushes and brambles, so good works cannot come from a bad heart. A thornbush will always produce thorns, and a fig tree will always produce figs. In the same way, if our hearts are evil and we desire evil, then we will not and cannot produce good. But if our hearts are inclined to good, then we will do good. Our choices are determined by our hearts. Some hold that we have libertarian free will, which is to say that in any given choice we can choose A, B, C, D, or E and so on, and if we are given again the exact same circumstances (i.e. our inclinations are just the same as in the first case) we are free to choose either A, B, C, D, or E without any constraint. According to them we do not have to and will not always choose C, for example, if all things are equal. So according to them if we are at a restaurant we are free to pick any item off the menu; we might choose chicken strips, for example. And if we were to rewind the scene and play it again, this time we might choose the club sandwich. In each completely identical scene, the outcome might be different even though the contributing factors (motivations, inclinations) are identical. But this view completely neglects the factors that play into our choices, for if we can choose the chicken strips, the club sandwich, the salad, the burger, or anything under the sun, and if in each instance the circumstances are exactly identical, then there is no factor or set of factors that truly determined any specific choice because any choice could have occurred. This is saying that our choices have no true cause or motivation, which is to say that our choices are arbitrary and pointless. However, it seems in this text that Jesus is telling us that our choices and actions (i.e. the fruit we bear) are determined by the state of our hearts. So if we are at that same restaurant and our favorite food is chicken strips, then we will always choose chicken strips. On the other hand, if someone tells us that the club sandwich is especially good, that added factor might influence our desires and we might choose the club sandwich because that is now our greatest inclination. It is easy to see how complex our choices rapidly become when multiple factors are tabulated and assessed. In the same line of thought, if our hearts hate chicken strips or we are vegetarians, then we will never choose chicken strips because our hearts will not allow us to do so. Likewise we will not do evil if our hearts are not inclined toward evil. Through a familiar passage we learn a profound truth; that the nature and character of our heart determines what we produce, or what we do.
However, a vegetarian might choose the chicken strips if that vegetarian is forced at gunpoint to do so; their will is bound by an outside factor and the choice is made for them. In this situation, they no longer have the freedom to choose according to their greatest desire of keeping a vegetarian diet. For humanity, our great constraint is sin. Because of the fall, we can only and always do evil unless God Himself intervenes, and in fact we have no desire to do good as we are slaves to sin (Rom. 3:9-12, 6:17-22). This is the doctrine of total depravity, and this is what wars against true human freedom. This is why Ezekiel 11:19 and 36:26 tell us that God will put a new heart and a new spirit in his people that they may walk in His statutes, and it is why Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again if he is to enter the kingdom of God (Jn. 3:3-6). If we are to be given true freedom to choose good instead of only the freedom to do evil, we must come out from under the curse of sin. Our slavery to sin must be overcome by the coercion of God who puts in us a new heart and desire. In Christ we are set truly free, not to choose contrary to our hearts but rather we are given the freedom to choose according to our new and greatest inclination to glorify God, without the constraint and coercion of sin because Christ has conquered sin for us (Rom. 8:1-8).
God's Involvement in Choice
What is shocking in relation to our freedom to choose according to inclination is that the Bible portrays God as having a very direct hand in shaping our desires and actions. Scripture is consistent in teaching that while our choices are very much our own genuine choices, God long ago has ordained the factors that shape the choice, and is currently active in our lives affecting our will. God has exhaustive control over all factors that contribute to our choice, and our choices are genuine choices proceeding from our inclinations. There are many passages that relate this truth (Acts 2:23, 4:27-28, Gen. 50:19-20), but we will only focus on a select few.
Revelation 17 gives us a strange and gruesome picture of a great prostitute Babylon who at times is seated on many waters and at other times a scarlet beast. The text itself tells us that the waters are a multitude of peoples, while the prostitute is representative of Godless society and culture (i.e. Rome- Rev. 17:18), while the beast probably represents the antichrist. Ultimately, the interpretation of these images is not of paramount importance for our purposes. What is pertinent to this discussion is verses 16 and 17, which state that "they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose..." The text is astoundingly clear; God uses his enemies to crush another of his enemies, thus carrying out His plan by actively placing the desire to turn on the prostitute into their hearts. God directs their actions through their volition. In the end, they make a choice to rise against the prostitute, and it is clear that God was the architect behind their genuine decision to do so. This is not the first time Scripture speaks of God using His enemies to crush other enemies, as Isaiah 10:5-15 presents an even more explicit scene of God's control wherein He wields Assyria like a staff in order to do His bidding, in the end even finding them morally culpable for their actions. Both of these texts hold two compatible truths, that we make genuine choices and that God directs these choices.
Of course God wields His authority for the salvation of men as well, as indicated by another passage in Revelation. Chapter 19 depicts the marriage supper of the Lamb, in which the Bride, the universal people of God, is finally presented to the Messiah who saved her. And we know, as being part of this Bride, that we are not of pure heart and motive, and yet that is exactly how we will appear because God will someday complete His work of completely purifying His Church. This is indicated in verses 7 and 8, in which John writes that "his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure..." Two things are of note in this text. One is that the Bride has made herself ready, that is there is a work that she genuinely does of her own will. She is not an automaton with no will or volition, she takes an active part in preparing herself for the marriage supper. Second is that it was granted her to clothe herself. So who did the granting? This is what is called a divine passive, a text in which the recipient of an action is named but the active agent is unnamed and assumed as God Himself. So God gave the Bride the ability to clothe herself with purity. God directed the genuine choices of the Bride. Not only this, but it seems that God planned before creation for His people to be clothed with purity (Eph. 2:10).
Practical Considerations
Surely this whole discussion of choice and God's sovereignty is not cold-hearted intellectual speculation, as we have been dealing with matters of our hearts, and to miss this would be grave error. What all this means is that our actions spring from our hearts; we do what we most want to do. So when we sin repeatedly, when we knowingly and continually commit the same sinful act against God that is clearly taught against in Scriptures, when we keep saying the same hurtful things over and over again that we know will crush others and cause bitterness in ourselves, when we time and again think the same perverted or malicious thoughts involving other humans who are made in the image of God just as we are, when we do all these things which are precisely why the Son out of love came to die on a cross for us, in all these moments we are doing exactly what we most want to do. If we understand this then we can begin to comprehend how far we have fallen from grace, we can begin to comprehend our depravity. And once we are able to see how wicked our hearts are apart from God's grace, we can see just how desperately we need Him to work on our behalf if we are going to in any way please our gracious Creator. We can also see the wickedness of our sin and thank God that one day it will be ended. We can look forward to a time when sin is no more and therefore every inclination of our heart is pure and every action taken is right, good, life-giving, beneficial, and for the glory of God who is creating a new creation that will, with the death of sin and evil, function perfectly. We can only look to this glorious future with proper expectation when we accurately understand how sinful and broken our world and our hearts are now. With a deeper recognition of our sin we can more gratefully appreciate the unshakeable kingdom that we have received and can respond in worship and awe of God and His Son's sin-conquering work on the cross.
Furthermore, if we understand that God is truly sovereign over all things, that He has exhaustive and complete control of all of the details and factors that shape our choices and even puts affections into our hearts, then we can rightly seek Him to change us and others. If God were powerless to shape and change the hearts of men, if He were to dutifully abstain from influencing the desires and affections and we were left to muster up our own will and good natured desires, then we would have no right to plead with Him in our time of need. We would have no right to ask God to save our neighbor, for He had already done what He could in the cross and creation, and now the onus would lie on us to chase after Him. But this standoffish God is absolutely not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is involved in our affairs, He breaks into creation and gives us a new heart, disciplines us, grows our mind, shapes our affections, and manipulates our circumstances. The God of the Bible is not an absentee Father. Therefore, we can get on our knees in humility and request that He take action, we can beg Him to change us that we may grow ever more in our love for Him and for others, and we can passionately plead with Him over the souls of men. The only way we can possibly have any hope in our prayers is if we understand that God is the one who saves and causes all good things, and that He is in the business of governing the world with great intimacy. And if we are to grow in our own sanctification and Godliness, then it is absolutely critical that we ask God to change our hearts to more and more reflect His own. Because we will always do what is in accord with our greatest inclination, and because God actively changes and affects the inclinations of humans, we can plead with Him that He change our desires so that our greatest inclination is toward righteousness leading to fruitful actions and choices.
Finally, we can ourselves actively work toward affecting our own hearts so that our actions are in accord with Godliness. Commonly known as the means of grace, these are the practices of the saints that shape our hearts and minds toward affection for God and His glory. So we spend time in the Scriptures so that it takes root in our being and changes the way we think. Especially in the Old Testament, we see the miracles of God and His faithfulness toward His people, and we grow in our trust of Him. We also see the grave consequences of great sin, and just as we incline our heart toward good, when we see despicable sin and its effects we disincline our heart toward evil. For similar purposes we read the biographies of past saints so that we see the glorious works God does through feeble vessels, and we see the sins that complicate and potentially ruin the lives of good men and women. We lift God up in song and praise not only because it pleases Him but also because it stirs our hearts toward Him. We meet as gathered saints on Sunday mornings and mid-week meetings to be mutually encouraged and supported in the body of Christ, and our affections are stirred in seeing the grace of God in and through others. We serve God and people so that we see redemption worked out in a fallen world. Those of us who stand at the pulpit and teach do so not to institute regulations and morality that have no lasting effect, rather by God's grace we ruthlessly engage the heart so that our hearers are perpetually lifted to God in His glory and goodness. Only when the affections are attacked will we ever see lasting change in the members of our churches. Even 'non-Christian' activities can become affection-shaping events; good drink, food, music, rest, entertainment, and company can all be used rightly to enjoy God and His creation, and thus change our affections toward Him. In all these things we seek to see the goodness of God and His Word and to see the horrible realities and effects of evil, so that we choose to act in accordance with Godliness and in repulsion of sin. We do not do all these things in order to mark boxes on a spiritual checklist, but rather we intentionally seek to shape our will so that it is in line with God and His Word, so what in our greatest inclination we perceive to be good is actually objectively good. Then, in the freedom of our inclination we choose good, and we do all that we do to the glory of God, because He has granted us to do so.
Friday, August 13, 2010
The Father's Generous Authority
So it's been a while since I posted on this thing, and that's simply because I haven't felt like it. That's the beauty of this blog. It's more for me than it is for anyone else, and I am not at all trying to gain a following, so I can feel the liberty to neglect it for a while. But I will throw this up here, it's a paper I wrote for a theology class I recently took. ...
Any parent understands that children do not always submit to authority, that there is something in them that wants to buck the natural authoritarian structure of the parent-child relationship. Police officers assuredly are reminded constantly that their position of delegating the government's authority over the general populace brings with it a palpable disapproval from those they are called to protect and serve. Generally, civilians are not too fond of the government that polices them. This pattern continues down the line; employees often resent their bosses, athletes frequently regale against their coaches, and dogs sometimes even bite their owners. We who view the world through biblical lenses should be none too surprised; our first parents in the Garden started this trend when they disobediently ate of the forbidden fruit, in the act voicing their desire to crawl out from underneath the inherent authority of their God. From this initial rebellion spring all others, and unsurprisingly our sinful tendency is to eradicate all authority and for each of us to be our own self-determined and self-serving gods. Unfortunately evangelicalism has not been free from this trend, and seemingly now more than ever there is a push to do away with even biblical expressions of authority and submission. Maybe most notable is the effort to eliminate authority and submission within the marriage union of man and wife. Of course a key factor in this outcome is the curse of the fall itself, that woman's desire would be to rule over her husband (Gen. 3:16). Surely, this is also partly due to the male gender's overall sinful abuse of his inherent authority in the context of gender relationships. It is for this reason that we look to God Himself as our example in authority and submission. Specifically, in this discussion we will look to the Father's authority over the Son, and how the practice of this authority is not only anything but detrimental to the Son, but it is through this very authority and the Son's submission to the Father that Christ is made the center of worship, praise and honor to the glory of the Father. After this we will expand on how the lesson of the Father's beneficial, just, and Christ-exalting rule might be applied to earthly expressions of authority, namely in the church and home.
The Authority of the Father
Our first priority is to establish that the Father does indeed exercise authority over the Son. It is perhaps no clearer in any book of Scripture than it is in the Gospel of John that the Son submits to the Father's authority. Even a cursory reading of the book brings this truth to mind, but only one verse need be highlighted to clearly see that Jesus marches to the orders of the Father. After Jesus' discussion with the Samaritan woman at the well, the disciples plead with him to eat, seeing that he needs food. Jesus takes the opportunity to teach a lesson; the lesson that spiritual needs and realities supersede those of the physical realm. In John 4:34 Jesus states "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." Several important truths may be gleaned from this quotation.
First, we see that Jesus was sent by the Father, to whom the pronouns clearly refer. For Jesus to be sent by the Father clearly denotes an authority structure present in the relationship in the Father and the Son. There is a sender doing the sending and one who is being sent; there is an agent from whom the command to send originates and an agent obediently carrying out the command. It is important to note that the Son does not see His incarnation as in independent act, but rather as an act that had an origination outside of Himself, namely with the Father. The Son did not independently choose to come, but rather was sent by- on behalf of or at the request of- the Father. It is also interesting to note that this decision by the Father to send the Son must have been made before the actual incarnation itself, which implies that there is an authority and submission relationship between the Father and the Son outside of the incarnation, i.e. it implies the Son's eternal submission to the Father's authority. This is implication becomes more forceful when Eph. 1:3-6 is taken into account, which states that those in Christ were chosen ''before the foundation of the world'', meaning that this plan of the Father's that was carried out by the Son to come into the world and save sinners was formulated before the created order came into existence. The sending of the Son was planned eternally, which would seem to imply that the Father eternally exercises authority over the Son, though to belabor this point would lie outside of our scope. Suffice it to say that the Father exercises authority over the Son in the incarnation.
Second, the Son not only was obedient to the Father in being sent into the world, but we learn from John 4:34 that it was the very subsistence of the Son to do the will of the Father. By Jesus' own admission he lives to carry out the desire and decree of the Father. Of course this means that Jesus has a will that is wholly his own, and that the Father has His own will as well. This does not imply discord between the two, for we clearly see that Jesus does all that the Father commands, this only means that each has a will independent of the other, though they are always in accord as it is always Jesus' greatest desire to do his Father's will. This is evidenced not only by Jesus' sinless life but also by his own perfect admission in John 5:30; "I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me." So each person of the Godhead has a will perfectly in accord with one another, and this opens the door for the possibility that one person of the Trinity may follow a command of another, which is exactly what we see in the life of the God-Man Jesus. For him, it is more important than food or drink that he do what the Father tells him to do, says what he is told to say, and walks where he is told to walk. Verses such as John 8:28, 10:19, and 12:49 all clearly state that Jesus willingly and necessarily lives all of his life under the authority of the Father.
Third, in John 4:34 Jesus states that it is his food to do the will of the Father and to accomplish his work. There are only two logical understandings of this phrase. One possibility is that everything Jesus did, so did the Father and by logical extension so did the Holy Spirit. This however is Modalism, a heresy rejected at the Council of Nicea that states the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are simply three different expressions of the same God, denying any ontological distinction between the three members of the Trinity. It follows then that for Jesus to accomplish the Father's work means that the Father has ownership of the work in that it originated from Him. All that Christ did in his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension was done at the request of the Father, and because it was by the Father's plan and decree that all these things take place it can rightly be said that Jesus accomplished his Father's work. All that Jesus faithfully accomplished and experienced, his joys and his great suffering, was ordained by the Architect who exercised perfect authority over the Son.
Of course this is only an examination of one verse in John, and already it is clear that Jesus lived in submission to the will of the Father. A brief survey of other key texts such as 1 Cor. 11:3, 15:28, John 6:38, 14:28, Phil. 2:5-8, or Heb. 1:1-3 and the evidence overwhelmingly states that the Son lived in submission to the Father at the very least in the incarnation, and there is very good reason to believe that the Father eternally exercises authority over the Son. There is perhaps no moment more indicative of this relationship than Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane ''not my will, but yours, be done'' (Lk. 22:42). And from Isaiah 53:10 we know that it was the desire of the LORD to crush him; so it was in perfect obedience to the Father's good and holy will that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world.
Authority of the Father to the Benefit of the Son
Surely the Father's authority over the Son, because of the atoning work of Christ, is invaluably beneficial to us as fallen humans. But maybe even more shocking to our commonly anti-authoritarian sensibilities is that the Father's authority brings much benefit to the perfectly submissive Son. Though he went through inestimable pain and suffering in his life and death, in his resurrection and ascension Jesus the God-Man has been exalted to a lofty state and become the center of worship, adoration, and honor for the New Covenant people of God. Throughout the Old Testament only shades of the multiple persons of the Godhead are seen; primarily God is revealed as one and there is relatively little (though substantial) evidence of the Trinity. However, the New Testament focus is clearly on Jesus, the incarnate Word, the second person of the Trinity, and it is upon his teaching and work that the Christian faith is based. The focus of the covenant people of YHWH largely moves from God the Father to the Son who glorifies the Father. Paul himself takes it as a matter of first importance, in all of God's revelation, that Christ died for sins (1 Cor. 15:3). It is Christ who is the cornerstone of the church (Eph. 2:20), and he is the one placed as head over all things (Eph. 1:22). Because of his submission to God's plan of incarnation, death, and resurrection, the Son is permanently exalted and glorified as the Savior of the world.
There are numerous passages in the New Testament that speak of the exaltation of Christ, (such as Phil. 2:9-11, Rev. 19:16, Col. 1:15-20, or Heb. 1) and one of the most dramatic is Revelation 5. This passage is also important in that it is indicative of an eternal state of affairs regarding the lifting up of Christ. In John's vision, God is seated on a throne in heaven with four living creatures and twenty-four elders around the throne, all falling down before God and worshiping Him. John then sees that a scroll is in the hand of Him seated on the throne, and no one (in fallen man or sinless heavenly being) is found worthy to open the scroll, save for one. Revelation 5:5 says that the Lion of Judah, the Root of David, is worthy to open the scroll because he has conquered. The question that may be asked is ''How and what did Jesus, the Lion of Judah, conquer that would make him so worthy?'' Verse 6 gives us our answer in which John looks to view this conquering Lion, and sees the Lamb who was slain. In Jesus' obedience to the authority of the Father he was crucified by sinful man, and in his resurrection conquered sin and death. The Christ's worthiness is expressed in his submission to the Father to the point of death, and because of this submission he is then lifted as conqueror. The rest of Revelation 5 is a scene of worship, as John then sees the Lamb take the scroll from God on the throne, after which amazingly the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders all fall before the Lamb and worship the Lamb the same way in which they honored the Father. Singing a new song, the beings heap on the Lamb all of the praises that were given to God on the throne, and do so because the Lamb was slain. "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" (Rev. 5:13). The Father does not use His authority over the Son to demean, but to ensure that the Son is lifted up to His own lofty and exalted state. Shockingly it is at the name of Jesus that every knee in all of creation will bow (Phil. 2:10).
Practical Considerations
So Scripture portrays that the exercise of proper and just authority benefits and is gain for the one who submits to that authority. Biblical authority serves and lifts up its subjects. This of course is not only seen in the relationship between Father and Son, but also in the leadership of Jesus with his disciples and over the church at large (Eph. 5:23). John 13 gives us the incredible picture of the Messiah washing his disciples feet. While fully acknowledging that he is their Lord (v.13), he uses that as a platform not to oppress but rather to show that the nature of true authority and leadership is service, leaving them with the charge that they are in the same way to serve one another. Because of this any person in authority and leadership is obligated to ask how it is they may serve or benefit those under their care.
For the elder or ministry leader, the opportunities for abuse of authority are endless. We have all seen tragic examples of men who have used their position of influence to garner more praise, honor, and power for themselves. This should not be so. If we who are in authority are to follow the example of the Father, then the same opportunities that others use to oppress we must use to lift up. We do not petition our congregations to serve in Christian ministry so that we might increase our numbers, grow our funds, enlarge our building, or broaden our power and influence. Rather, we plead with our members to serve the LORD that they too may have a hand in Kingdom work, that they may know the joy of seeing firsthand Christ bring redemption into this fallen world, and that they too may one day meet their God and hear Him say 'well done, good and faithful servant.' And we rejoice and encourage and give praise and honor when we see those under our authority responding to the Lord's call on their lives in faithful service and obedience. Also, when we preach and teach we do not do so to belittle and demean, to remind our pew-sitters of how small and insignificant they are in light of our own glorious stature. Rather, we seek to bring them face to face with the only worthy and righteous One, to bring them face to face with the living God who is deserving of all glory, honor, and praise. We preach and teach in order to, by God's grace, lift up our hearers into the very presence of God through His word. In all that we do as servant leaders, we seek first to please God and glorify Him, and then we pour out ourselves for the betterment of those in our care. This is the nature of biblical authority, and it is surely gain to submit to such authority.
This pattern of course extends into the home, where men are clearly called to play a leadership role (Eph. 5:23, 1 Pet. 3:1). As was stated earlier, this idea is not popular today, partially because of the curses of the fall, and partially because of the numerous and harmful instances of men abusing their power. It is reasonable to postulate that if husbands by and large exercised the kind of leadership that God exercises over the Son, then our culture might not have such a distinct aversion to the concept of male headship. Not that husbands send their wives out to suffer and die; there is only one Savior of the world. But husbands should do all they can to ensure that their wives are at least as recognized as they are, and to be safe should probably insist on passing off all esteem to their better half. The Godly husband should see to it that children honor, respect, and submit to the authority of the wife. We do not cling tightly to authority, seeking to undermine the leadership of the wife in the home in an effort to keep the power for ourselves. More important than the recognition of humans is the praise of the Father. As the authority and leader in the home, men are called to present the wives to God just as Christ will present the church to himself as his spotless bride (Eph. 5:27). In his relationship with his wife, the chief priority of man is not to rule over her callously but rather in all things to ensure her sanctification and benefit. He must encourage her, challenge her, rejoice in her, praise her, pray over her, and rebuke her when necessary, all so that through the washing of the Word she may grow in Christ and be presented to God in splendor. And in all this, it is benefit to the wife that she submit to the authority of her godly husband. The husband is called to exercise this authority by dying to himself in this process, making sure that in his mind her needs supersede his own, and in humility considering the other more significant than self (Phil. 2:3). We lead in the home by loving the wife.
Our fallen world has a twisted perception (and expression) of authority that equates to callous, self-serving, harsh, and crushing rule. God's Word and His own functions flip this notion on its head completely, teaching us throughout that true and just authority seeks the benefit and exaltation of those under its care, seeking to bring all in line with the greatest good- the glory of God. Just as God is the head of Christ, and Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of woman (1 Cor. 11:3), so God has exalted Christ and seated him at His right hand, and so Christ has saved the church that she may be presented as a spotless bride, and so must man seek to exercise his authority over his wife in a loving and sacrificial manner. This paradigm of just leadership extends to all expressions of authority. Whether it be in the contexts of husbands and wives, parents and children, or masters and slaves, may we all seek to exercise authority like our Father, seeking the good of the other and the glory of God.
Any parent understands that children do not always submit to authority, that there is something in them that wants to buck the natural authoritarian structure of the parent-child relationship. Police officers assuredly are reminded constantly that their position of delegating the government's authority over the general populace brings with it a palpable disapproval from those they are called to protect and serve. Generally, civilians are not too fond of the government that polices them. This pattern continues down the line; employees often resent their bosses, athletes frequently regale against their coaches, and dogs sometimes even bite their owners. We who view the world through biblical lenses should be none too surprised; our first parents in the Garden started this trend when they disobediently ate of the forbidden fruit, in the act voicing their desire to crawl out from underneath the inherent authority of their God. From this initial rebellion spring all others, and unsurprisingly our sinful tendency is to eradicate all authority and for each of us to be our own self-determined and self-serving gods. Unfortunately evangelicalism has not been free from this trend, and seemingly now more than ever there is a push to do away with even biblical expressions of authority and submission. Maybe most notable is the effort to eliminate authority and submission within the marriage union of man and wife. Of course a key factor in this outcome is the curse of the fall itself, that woman's desire would be to rule over her husband (Gen. 3:16). Surely, this is also partly due to the male gender's overall sinful abuse of his inherent authority in the context of gender relationships. It is for this reason that we look to God Himself as our example in authority and submission. Specifically, in this discussion we will look to the Father's authority over the Son, and how the practice of this authority is not only anything but detrimental to the Son, but it is through this very authority and the Son's submission to the Father that Christ is made the center of worship, praise and honor to the glory of the Father. After this we will expand on how the lesson of the Father's beneficial, just, and Christ-exalting rule might be applied to earthly expressions of authority, namely in the church and home.
The Authority of the Father
Our first priority is to establish that the Father does indeed exercise authority over the Son. It is perhaps no clearer in any book of Scripture than it is in the Gospel of John that the Son submits to the Father's authority. Even a cursory reading of the book brings this truth to mind, but only one verse need be highlighted to clearly see that Jesus marches to the orders of the Father. After Jesus' discussion with the Samaritan woman at the well, the disciples plead with him to eat, seeing that he needs food. Jesus takes the opportunity to teach a lesson; the lesson that spiritual needs and realities supersede those of the physical realm. In John 4:34 Jesus states "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work." Several important truths may be gleaned from this quotation.
First, we see that Jesus was sent by the Father, to whom the pronouns clearly refer. For Jesus to be sent by the Father clearly denotes an authority structure present in the relationship in the Father and the Son. There is a sender doing the sending and one who is being sent; there is an agent from whom the command to send originates and an agent obediently carrying out the command. It is important to note that the Son does not see His incarnation as in independent act, but rather as an act that had an origination outside of Himself, namely with the Father. The Son did not independently choose to come, but rather was sent by- on behalf of or at the request of- the Father. It is also interesting to note that this decision by the Father to send the Son must have been made before the actual incarnation itself, which implies that there is an authority and submission relationship between the Father and the Son outside of the incarnation, i.e. it implies the Son's eternal submission to the Father's authority. This is implication becomes more forceful when Eph. 1:3-6 is taken into account, which states that those in Christ were chosen ''before the foundation of the world'', meaning that this plan of the Father's that was carried out by the Son to come into the world and save sinners was formulated before the created order came into existence. The sending of the Son was planned eternally, which would seem to imply that the Father eternally exercises authority over the Son, though to belabor this point would lie outside of our scope. Suffice it to say that the Father exercises authority over the Son in the incarnation.
Second, the Son not only was obedient to the Father in being sent into the world, but we learn from John 4:34 that it was the very subsistence of the Son to do the will of the Father. By Jesus' own admission he lives to carry out the desire and decree of the Father. Of course this means that Jesus has a will that is wholly his own, and that the Father has His own will as well. This does not imply discord between the two, for we clearly see that Jesus does all that the Father commands, this only means that each has a will independent of the other, though they are always in accord as it is always Jesus' greatest desire to do his Father's will. This is evidenced not only by Jesus' sinless life but also by his own perfect admission in John 5:30; "I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me." So each person of the Godhead has a will perfectly in accord with one another, and this opens the door for the possibility that one person of the Trinity may follow a command of another, which is exactly what we see in the life of the God-Man Jesus. For him, it is more important than food or drink that he do what the Father tells him to do, says what he is told to say, and walks where he is told to walk. Verses such as John 8:28, 10:19, and 12:49 all clearly state that Jesus willingly and necessarily lives all of his life under the authority of the Father.
Third, in John 4:34 Jesus states that it is his food to do the will of the Father and to accomplish his work. There are only two logical understandings of this phrase. One possibility is that everything Jesus did, so did the Father and by logical extension so did the Holy Spirit. This however is Modalism, a heresy rejected at the Council of Nicea that states the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are simply three different expressions of the same God, denying any ontological distinction between the three members of the Trinity. It follows then that for Jesus to accomplish the Father's work means that the Father has ownership of the work in that it originated from Him. All that Christ did in his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension was done at the request of the Father, and because it was by the Father's plan and decree that all these things take place it can rightly be said that Jesus accomplished his Father's work. All that Jesus faithfully accomplished and experienced, his joys and his great suffering, was ordained by the Architect who exercised perfect authority over the Son.
Of course this is only an examination of one verse in John, and already it is clear that Jesus lived in submission to the will of the Father. A brief survey of other key texts such as 1 Cor. 11:3, 15:28, John 6:38, 14:28, Phil. 2:5-8, or Heb. 1:1-3 and the evidence overwhelmingly states that the Son lived in submission to the Father at the very least in the incarnation, and there is very good reason to believe that the Father eternally exercises authority over the Son. There is perhaps no moment more indicative of this relationship than Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane ''not my will, but yours, be done'' (Lk. 22:42). And from Isaiah 53:10 we know that it was the desire of the LORD to crush him; so it was in perfect obedience to the Father's good and holy will that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world.
Authority of the Father to the Benefit of the Son
Surely the Father's authority over the Son, because of the atoning work of Christ, is invaluably beneficial to us as fallen humans. But maybe even more shocking to our commonly anti-authoritarian sensibilities is that the Father's authority brings much benefit to the perfectly submissive Son. Though he went through inestimable pain and suffering in his life and death, in his resurrection and ascension Jesus the God-Man has been exalted to a lofty state and become the center of worship, adoration, and honor for the New Covenant people of God. Throughout the Old Testament only shades of the multiple persons of the Godhead are seen; primarily God is revealed as one and there is relatively little (though substantial) evidence of the Trinity. However, the New Testament focus is clearly on Jesus, the incarnate Word, the second person of the Trinity, and it is upon his teaching and work that the Christian faith is based. The focus of the covenant people of YHWH largely moves from God the Father to the Son who glorifies the Father. Paul himself takes it as a matter of first importance, in all of God's revelation, that Christ died for sins (1 Cor. 15:3). It is Christ who is the cornerstone of the church (Eph. 2:20), and he is the one placed as head over all things (Eph. 1:22). Because of his submission to God's plan of incarnation, death, and resurrection, the Son is permanently exalted and glorified as the Savior of the world.
There are numerous passages in the New Testament that speak of the exaltation of Christ, (such as Phil. 2:9-11, Rev. 19:16, Col. 1:15-20, or Heb. 1) and one of the most dramatic is Revelation 5. This passage is also important in that it is indicative of an eternal state of affairs regarding the lifting up of Christ. In John's vision, God is seated on a throne in heaven with four living creatures and twenty-four elders around the throne, all falling down before God and worshiping Him. John then sees that a scroll is in the hand of Him seated on the throne, and no one (in fallen man or sinless heavenly being) is found worthy to open the scroll, save for one. Revelation 5:5 says that the Lion of Judah, the Root of David, is worthy to open the scroll because he has conquered. The question that may be asked is ''How and what did Jesus, the Lion of Judah, conquer that would make him so worthy?'' Verse 6 gives us our answer in which John looks to view this conquering Lion, and sees the Lamb who was slain. In Jesus' obedience to the authority of the Father he was crucified by sinful man, and in his resurrection conquered sin and death. The Christ's worthiness is expressed in his submission to the Father to the point of death, and because of this submission he is then lifted as conqueror. The rest of Revelation 5 is a scene of worship, as John then sees the Lamb take the scroll from God on the throne, after which amazingly the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders all fall before the Lamb and worship the Lamb the same way in which they honored the Father. Singing a new song, the beings heap on the Lamb all of the praises that were given to God on the throne, and do so because the Lamb was slain. "To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!" (Rev. 5:13). The Father does not use His authority over the Son to demean, but to ensure that the Son is lifted up to His own lofty and exalted state. Shockingly it is at the name of Jesus that every knee in all of creation will bow (Phil. 2:10).
Practical Considerations
So Scripture portrays that the exercise of proper and just authority benefits and is gain for the one who submits to that authority. Biblical authority serves and lifts up its subjects. This of course is not only seen in the relationship between Father and Son, but also in the leadership of Jesus with his disciples and over the church at large (Eph. 5:23). John 13 gives us the incredible picture of the Messiah washing his disciples feet. While fully acknowledging that he is their Lord (v.13), he uses that as a platform not to oppress but rather to show that the nature of true authority and leadership is service, leaving them with the charge that they are in the same way to serve one another. Because of this any person in authority and leadership is obligated to ask how it is they may serve or benefit those under their care.
For the elder or ministry leader, the opportunities for abuse of authority are endless. We have all seen tragic examples of men who have used their position of influence to garner more praise, honor, and power for themselves. This should not be so. If we who are in authority are to follow the example of the Father, then the same opportunities that others use to oppress we must use to lift up. We do not petition our congregations to serve in Christian ministry so that we might increase our numbers, grow our funds, enlarge our building, or broaden our power and influence. Rather, we plead with our members to serve the LORD that they too may have a hand in Kingdom work, that they may know the joy of seeing firsthand Christ bring redemption into this fallen world, and that they too may one day meet their God and hear Him say 'well done, good and faithful servant.' And we rejoice and encourage and give praise and honor when we see those under our authority responding to the Lord's call on their lives in faithful service and obedience. Also, when we preach and teach we do not do so to belittle and demean, to remind our pew-sitters of how small and insignificant they are in light of our own glorious stature. Rather, we seek to bring them face to face with the only worthy and righteous One, to bring them face to face with the living God who is deserving of all glory, honor, and praise. We preach and teach in order to, by God's grace, lift up our hearers into the very presence of God through His word. In all that we do as servant leaders, we seek first to please God and glorify Him, and then we pour out ourselves for the betterment of those in our care. This is the nature of biblical authority, and it is surely gain to submit to such authority.
This pattern of course extends into the home, where men are clearly called to play a leadership role (Eph. 5:23, 1 Pet. 3:1). As was stated earlier, this idea is not popular today, partially because of the curses of the fall, and partially because of the numerous and harmful instances of men abusing their power. It is reasonable to postulate that if husbands by and large exercised the kind of leadership that God exercises over the Son, then our culture might not have such a distinct aversion to the concept of male headship. Not that husbands send their wives out to suffer and die; there is only one Savior of the world. But husbands should do all they can to ensure that their wives are at least as recognized as they are, and to be safe should probably insist on passing off all esteem to their better half. The Godly husband should see to it that children honor, respect, and submit to the authority of the wife. We do not cling tightly to authority, seeking to undermine the leadership of the wife in the home in an effort to keep the power for ourselves. More important than the recognition of humans is the praise of the Father. As the authority and leader in the home, men are called to present the wives to God just as Christ will present the church to himself as his spotless bride (Eph. 5:27). In his relationship with his wife, the chief priority of man is not to rule over her callously but rather in all things to ensure her sanctification and benefit. He must encourage her, challenge her, rejoice in her, praise her, pray over her, and rebuke her when necessary, all so that through the washing of the Word she may grow in Christ and be presented to God in splendor. And in all this, it is benefit to the wife that she submit to the authority of her godly husband. The husband is called to exercise this authority by dying to himself in this process, making sure that in his mind her needs supersede his own, and in humility considering the other more significant than self (Phil. 2:3). We lead in the home by loving the wife.
Our fallen world has a twisted perception (and expression) of authority that equates to callous, self-serving, harsh, and crushing rule. God's Word and His own functions flip this notion on its head completely, teaching us throughout that true and just authority seeks the benefit and exaltation of those under its care, seeking to bring all in line with the greatest good- the glory of God. Just as God is the head of Christ, and Christ is the head of man, and man is the head of woman (1 Cor. 11:3), so God has exalted Christ and seated him at His right hand, and so Christ has saved the church that she may be presented as a spotless bride, and so must man seek to exercise his authority over his wife in a loving and sacrificial manner. This paradigm of just leadership extends to all expressions of authority. Whether it be in the contexts of husbands and wives, parents and children, or masters and slaves, may we all seek to exercise authority like our Father, seeking the good of the other and the glory of God.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
In Israel...
I was about to put my laptop away and get some sleep, but I figured I might as well throw up a blog post. I mean, how many chances will I get to blog from Israel, especially when the country is such a focal point in the news cycle. I don't really have a lot of structure planned here, so I'll just throw out some random thoughts. First of all I'll say that I myself am fine and feel no danger; I would not have even known about the flotilla raid were it not for the news. So I have seen nothing tangible that would make me think I am in harm's way. Though I have seen a lot of tanks on the side of the road... It definitely is interesting to be here now, considering that the whole world seems to be turning against Israel, while we in the U.S. apparently are trying to do our best to not step on anyone's toes (which I think everyone knows is not really possible). Of course all of this is only further engraining a common Jewish mentality that all gentiles will always be against them, and that all they can do is be prepared for the worst. I'm starting to understand where this comes from. I am really interested to see where this whole thing goes, as many don't seem to understand that Israel has to be at a constant state of heightened security and must always be ready to defend itself. It is always at the brink of war, it appears that many people would like this country to cease to exist. That leaves a nation in a precarious state, and though tragic it is not surprising that something like what happened in Gaza a few days ago might take place. Again, I'll be interested to see how other nations view the event, and especially what kind of stance the U.S. continues to take (or not take). It seems that our support of Israel is waning. I'm not going to tell you this is a good or a bad thing, I'll let you make up your own mind on that one. As far as my study here in Israel goes, I continue to take in an unreal amount of information and experience, and am still praying that somehow God will in perpetuity use this experience to bring His Word to life for me. It's been a trip, and I have one day left in the field to study. In that day I will go visit the Mediterranean (thankfully not in Gaza!) and cross some Palestinian borders. Should be fun!
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
History...
Hey all! I wish I were posting more blogs, but it is hard to find the time. I think a part of me was expecting this whole Israel thing to be a vacation with some solid background info thrown in, but this trip really is a class. A class with tests and assignments. What I am saying is that this study in the land has been fairly mentally rigorous and has not left me much free time for reflection or musings. Still, one idea has been repeatedly popping up in my scattered mind, and that is that the Bible is history. Yes it is theological history, but history nonetheless. The people and places it describes were/are real people and places. The Bible is not full of Disney fantasies wherein you may hear about a genie and a magical carpet but you could never actually take that carpet ride. No, when the Bible speaks of Jericho it is saying that there was actually a city called Jericho which was an oasis in the desert that Joshua actually sacked. And you can go visit that oasis because it actually exists. Just as you can actually go visit the site where the temple described in the Bible once stood; you can see some of its old wall and walk on some of its steps. This is because the Bible is history. I'm no archaeologist so I'll state this in simple terms, but what has happened a lot is that people have read about sites in the Bible and thought 'Well this text describes this site as being here, so we should dig here to find the site'; and then people have found stuff. That's because the Bible is history. What this means is that it records the history of God actually visiting earth at various times- in a tent or in a vision or in a temple; even in a man. When the Bible talks about Jesus walking around and teaching and doing miracles and telling people about their sin and telling people that He is God and getting killed for it and rising from the dead, it is not telling a fairy tale. It is recording history. Jesus actually did those things. God actually in history in a real place that we can all go to became a man and died and rose again. He did things in a very particular way and this calls for a very particular response. We do not have the freedom to make up what we want about Jesus and twist and contort him to fit our own sense of religion or spirituality in the same way that I don't get to go around and tell you that Joe DiMaggio played for the Milwaukee Bucks. The Bible is a not a fairy tale but a theological history, and it records the story of God dwelling with people, and it records the story of God dying for His people. Surely this demands some kind of response beyond treating the Bible as some sort of nice story.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Devotion...
I cannot help but be in many ways amazed yet at the same time in some regard not surprised by the level of devotion shown by the orthodox Jewish people. A religion and culture with such heavy practice and ritual does not last this many years and through the trials they have faced without much devotion and even stubbornness. The dress that is so specific, praying at the same times daily, the manner in which they pray rocking back and forth, the strict adherence to Sabbath rituals, all of it paints a vivid picture of the Jewish religious culture. This was highlighted as this evening is Shavuot or Pentecost, the celebration of the giving of the Torah, in which men and women celebrate and study the Torah all night, rejoicing in the Law. The scene at the Western Wall displayed a mixture of jubilant dancing, singing, and shouting and also fervent prayer. In many ways these people are more devoted, more reverent, more religious, more ritualistic, more moral, more conservative, and more traditional than we as evangelicals in the West could ever dream of, but it is all for naught if they have not Jesus. No manner of ritual matters if Christ is rejected in it. If you don't have the Son then you don't have the Father, and you can't please the Creator while casting aside the One through Whom all things were created. Any level of admiration in my mind that is engendered by the people's religious practice is rapidly swallowed by an overwhelming pity; outside of Christ they will never know what true Spirituality is or to Whom the Law is to point us. I cannot help but wonder that they can read all of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament to us) and not understand that they have no true ability to keep Torah; they are embarking on a quest that is destined to fail. With all of our best religion we are still sinners in the end, and to think that we can somehow work ourselves to a worthiness acceptable to God is the height of arrogance and paramount of sin. It is not that I have figured something out that others could not, as I would not know God were it not for the Spirit first moving in me; I only love God because He first loved me. Under their religion I surely would have given up long ago. They are in a lot of ways better than I, but in the end depraved, unworthy, and thus doomed, just as we all are if Christ is not our bedrock.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Leaving For Israel...
Hey all, been a little while, been busy. So I got a unigue opportunity; I am leaving in the morning for Israel. I will spend three weeks there touring and studying the land of the Bible. While there I will do my best to post impressions and photos of the experience, should be one of those once-in-a-lifetime things! Peace!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Reflections On T4G...
10) The 'T4G' acronym might be improved upon my switching it to 'T4TG', as in Together For The Gospel. There are not many gospels, but only the Gospel.
9) The church is to be multiethnic but not multicultural. The implications of this thought are surprisingly far-reaching.
8) Seeing 7,000 men rejoice while singing the line "I know that it is finished" is a rapturous experience.
7) The men who spoke at T4TG are not physically impressive men, but they are formidable; not by their aesthetic grandeur but by God's empowering.
6) Sitting around a dinner while talking theology and Christian ministry with the good men of Christ Our Redeemer is exactly why listening to the lectures online doesn't compare to being at the conference.
5) Watching C.J. Mahaney worship is almost as edifying as listening to his sermons.
4) Even if given 20 free books, when presented with a bookstore the size of a soccer field you're gonna' walk away a couple Washingtons lighter.
3) The moment we feel compelled to 'save' the Gospel, to adjust it in some way to make it more palatable or effective, we run the serious risk of losing it altogether.
2) If we are to live a life of faithfulness to God, we must develop the God-given courage to stand in antithesis to false ideologies and theologies.
1) Behind the 7,000 men who came to be built up in the Lord are many more thousands of church members faithfully serving God and community. God is building His kingdom.
9) The church is to be multiethnic but not multicultural. The implications of this thought are surprisingly far-reaching.
8) Seeing 7,000 men rejoice while singing the line "I know that it is finished" is a rapturous experience.
7) The men who spoke at T4TG are not physically impressive men, but they are formidable; not by their aesthetic grandeur but by God's empowering.
6) Sitting around a dinner while talking theology and Christian ministry with the good men of Christ Our Redeemer is exactly why listening to the lectures online doesn't compare to being at the conference.
5) Watching C.J. Mahaney worship is almost as edifying as listening to his sermons.
4) Even if given 20 free books, when presented with a bookstore the size of a soccer field you're gonna' walk away a couple Washingtons lighter.
3) The moment we feel compelled to 'save' the Gospel, to adjust it in some way to make it more palatable or effective, we run the serious risk of losing it altogether.
2) If we are to live a life of faithfulness to God, we must develop the God-given courage to stand in antithesis to false ideologies and theologies.
1) Behind the 7,000 men who came to be built up in the Lord are many more thousands of church members faithfully serving God and community. God is building His kingdom.
Friday, April 16, 2010
T4G Day 3 (The Day After)...
Well I'm writing about day three of Together For The Gospel a day later, as I didn't have time to record my thoughts with all of yesterday's travels and assignments due today. Just by way of general retrospect, the whole conference was a great time of worship and focusing of the heart and mind on God. If you can make it down there in two years, do it. Anyway, day three was essentially just a morning session, but it was packed with three messages. Ligon Duncan got up first and gave a lecture on the presentation of the gospel in the church fathers' writings (the leaders of the Christian church for the first few-hundred years after the Apostles). I know this sounds dry, but it was absolutely fascinating and Duncan demonstrated what happens when intellect is fueled by passion. After this, Matt Chandler gave some personal testimony as to what God has done through suffering. After radiation treatment, he is now going through chemotherapy to treat a malignant brain cancer. Chandler is a very gifted communicator, but the real highlight of that time was just hearing his prayer; that his children and family would never grow bitter toward God no matter what happened to Him. I hope this is included in the download on the T4G site. Lastly, C.J. Mahaney gave a sermon geared at all of us normal people in the crowd who do not have the gifts of a Piper, Dever, or Duncan. With much emotion (a Mahaney trademark), he encouraged us normal men to be faithful pastors, a fitting commission as we all returned home. I would strongly, strongly encourage you all to listen to the lectures, sermons, and discussion panels from the conference; they will impact you. Here's a link, all of the video should be made available in the coming days; http://www.t4g.org/resources/. I hope to Lord willing return for T4G 2012, and would love for many of you to come along as well.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
T4G Day 2...
I'm going to keep this one short, as I am tired and feel as if my brain is about to melt. The day started off with a talk by Thabiti Anyabwile, in which he talked about the new culture that is created in Christ, and how we as Christians are called to more identify ourselves with this new culture over against our earthly culture of origin. The thought-provoking statement from his lecture was that the people of God are multiethnic but not multicultural. This talk was prededed by another great session of worship, and one moment in particular stood out to me. As we were singing "How Deep The Father's Love For Us", we came to the line 'I know that it is finished', and much of the room erupted in cheers and applause. I hope I don't soon forget the power there is in seeing scores of individuals rejoice in unison over the fact that their very real sins, the lusts of their flesh, their pride in selflessness, their mistreatment of their family... all of their sins were once and for all in one moment of time completely accounted for on the cross of Christ. It was unreal to see a group that large collectively rejoice in the once-and-for-all forgiveness of mountains of sin. This is the power of the gospel of Christ. After Anyabwile, John MacArther taught out of Mark 4 about the work of God in salvation, that as the seed-sower plants the seed and then sleeps, it is the power of God that makes the seed grow. In the afternoon I went to a break-out session, in which Brian Habig talked about the fears of the minister, and man did this one hit home. He expounded on the people-pleasing and self-doubting tendencies of the minister, how these desires to live for men and make our name known can distort true proclamation of the gospel, and how our justification in Christ alleviates this malady. I think everyone in that room went away convicted and refreshed. After dinner with the Christ Our Redeemer boys and a discussion about mentoring and the church, we came back to the auditorium for some more worship and a sermon from John Piper. I thank the Lord for that man. He preached from Luke 18 about justification by faith alone as seen in the parable of the pharisee and tax collector praying in the temple, and the implications of this doctrine. This again is one of those sermons that I highly recommend everyone listen to when it becomes available, I promise you will not regret the investment of time. The night was capped off for me by having a brew and talking theology with Chris Smith and Jason Pancheau; an excellent way to finish a day. And of course, we got more books. I think I'll be taking about 25 home with me from Louisville, and that makes me a happy boy. Well I said this would be short and I failed, but there was quite a bit packed in to the day. I'm looking forward to hearing from Ligon Duncan, Matt Chandler, and C.J. Mahaney tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
T4G Day 1...
Day one of Together for the Gospel 2010 is drawing to a close, and I think just today's events would be worth the trip. For those of you who don't know, T4G is a conference aimed at leaders in the Christian church and focused on placing the gospel at the center of Christian ministry. Here are a few of my highlights so far. First, the books- we've been given a lot of books (eight and counting). For those of you who are nerds like me, this is a very exciting thing. Second, getting to hang with guys like Brett Sweet, Jason Wakefield, Dan Morse, Chris Smith, Jason Pancheau, and my little bro is a good thing. Getting to sing praises to God with them and almost 7,000 other men is a great thing. And of course, the lectures from Mark Dever, R.C. Sproul, and Al Mohler, to understate a little, were compelling. Dever spoke on the church and its evangelistic role as the bearer of the gospel. Speaking of the universal relevancy of the gospel to a fallen world, he mentioned that "we give them the diagnosis that finally makes sense of their condition". Sproul later gave a talk that assuredly went over the heads of half of us in attendance, speaking on how we have over the years attempted to 'improve' the gospel by synthesizing it with earthly idealogies. A couple of quotes to give you an idea of what he was talking about; "..the church is to stand in the awful, awful discomfort of antithesis", "the unvarnished Word of God... doesn't need to be made more palatable with the brass of pagan philosophy", and quoting Francis Schaeffer, "The problem that is facing the church is that it has lost its sense of antithesis". This is one I'm going to want to listen to again. Finally, Mohler expounded on the ways in which the church tends to adjust the gospel, listing modern, postmodern, moral, aesthetic, therapeutic, pragmatic, emotional, and materialistic lines of thought that distort the gospel. I really recommend everyone listen to this talk, I'll have a link on my blog to where you can download it once it becomes available. And I recognize that I have used the word 'gospel' quite a bit in this post without really defining what it means. Maybe I'll succinctly define that in another post, but for now I'll recommend that you do some searching on your own and see what comes up. Also, I may put pics up here if I figure out how to post them on this here blog. Peace out, I'll try to give an update tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Reflections On Hebrews 2:9...
I often forget how absurd Christianity can sound; I forget that to the wise, to this world's adequate minds, the message we proclaim and defend often comes across as foolishness. I've been a Christian for years now and I've talked about Jesus and the Bible with a few people, some absolute strangers. Every so often during these moments of confession, in which I openly state my beliefs, I have found that I really am taking a couple leaps of faith with this whole Christian thing. It goes something like this. 'So you see God created everything; the sun, moon, stars, ocean, land, animals, etc. And He created this one dude Adam and from Adam's side made the first woman, Eve. However, one of God's created angels who rebelled against Him came in the form of a snake and tempted Adam and Eve that they may question God and eventually disobey Him by eating from the only tree that God had forbidden. Of course in this act of thinking they knew better than God, sin entered the world and man no longer lived in perfect relationship with the perfect God...' And by this time I am usually asking myself, 'Do I really believe this?' The answer is yes. Absolutely yes. I firmly believe it takes less faith to trust this creation story than it does to believe that matter and energy came into being on their own and somehow without any direction or guidance developed into incredibly complex life; even life with instinct, critical thinking, volition, emotion, memory, etc. Still, I understand why the whole Christian faith sounds silly, because it only gets more unbelievable as it leaves the Garden, and I am reminded of this as I read Hebrews 2. In a portion of Scripture that presupposes not only a belief of the existence of angels but an understanding of their hierarchical standing, maybe the most unfathomable concept is relayed in Hebrews 2:9; 'that by the grace of God he might taste death...' In what universe does a statement like this make sense? How could it be by the grace of God that someone might experience death, especially the kind of death that is in view here? In what logical realm is it tenable that it would be due to the very fact of the gracious, loving, compassionate nature of a holy God that His own Son, God become man, would be beaten to a bloody pulp, mocked, and strung on a cross by the people He created and came to serve and save? Where in the world is the grace in that? We find where the grace goes in that Jesus tasted death 'for everyone', that Jesus died where we should have. We are the recipients of the grace, only made possible by Jesus being the recipient of wrath. There certainly is no sense in this, it is in no way logical. There is only grace. Because Christ's cross work is foundational to Christianity I often forget that belief in this truth requires God-given faith, and I usually pass by such statements with no second guesses. But this time I paused... 'by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone'.... and thought, 'This is absolutely absurd'.
Monday, March 29, 2010
A Little Confession...
I'm up late writing a paper (I suspect this will not be the last post that begins this way), and I've got my paper-writing fuel operative; the ipod's on shuffle. Music helps me stay focused and motivated. Anyway, a lot of Creed songs have been popping up, and I feel compelled to say that I really dig their tunes. I know they get a lot of flack, almost all of it due to Scott Stapp's antics, and I understand the hostile sentiment. Sure, they didn't break new ground with their radio-friendly post-grunge rock, but I still dig it and admit this unabashedly. Say what you want about 'em, the dude can sing and Mark Tremonti is a wicked guitarist, though he displays this more on the Alter Bridge albums. Anyway, I just had to confess that I enjoy Creed, and all three albums to boot (as far as I'm concerned that fourth one doesn't exist).
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Jesus' Humanity...
I like what Millard Erickson has to say here on Jesus' humanity;
Our understanding of human nature has been formed by an inductive investigation of both ourselves and other humans as we find them about us. But none of us is humanity as God intended it to be or as it came from his hand. Humanity was spoiled and corrupted by the sin of Adam and Eve. Consequently, we are not true human beings, but impaired, broken-down vestiges of essential humanity, and it is difficult to imagine this kind of humanity united with deity. But when we say that in the incarnation Jesus took on humanity, we are not talking about this kind of humanity. For Jesus' humanity was not the humanity of sinful human beings, but that possessed by Adam and Eve from their creation and before their fall. The question, then, is not whether Jesus was fully human, but whether we are. He was not merely as human as we are; he was more human than we are. - Erickson, Christian Theology
Our understanding of human nature has been formed by an inductive investigation of both ourselves and other humans as we find them about us. But none of us is humanity as God intended it to be or as it came from his hand. Humanity was spoiled and corrupted by the sin of Adam and Eve. Consequently, we are not true human beings, but impaired, broken-down vestiges of essential humanity, and it is difficult to imagine this kind of humanity united with deity. But when we say that in the incarnation Jesus took on humanity, we are not talking about this kind of humanity. For Jesus' humanity was not the humanity of sinful human beings, but that possessed by Adam and Eve from their creation and before their fall. The question, then, is not whether Jesus was fully human, but whether we are. He was not merely as human as we are; he was more human than we are. - Erickson, Christian Theology
Monday, March 22, 2010
Praying For Leaders...
I don't pray for my leaders enough. A couple of sources have brought this to light. First is D.A. Carson's book 'A Call to Spiritual Reformation', which gets very high marks on my recommendometer. The book gleans principles from Paul's prayers recorded in Scripture, and the last chapter expounds on Paul's requests that his readers pray for him and his work of gospel proclamation. Carson talks about the kinds of pressures and challenges ministry leaders face, and the need of prayer in support of said leaders. Here' a snippet (this particular pericope dealing with the problem of the church's abuse of good leaders)-
"It is an enormous tragedy when there are too few faithful, anointed, visionary leaders; it is a terrible indictment on the church when those the Lord sends are treated like dirt. These things happen, and frequently. Perhaps they would not happen so often if more of us prayed that God would make the ministry of his most faithful and spiritually minded leaders widely acceptable among the saints."
The other thing that got me thinking is Matt Chandler's video blog, which you can see here- http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/. Matt's a pastor down in Texas, and is right now battling cancer. In week 5's update he recalls another pastor asking him if he had ever tangibly felt the prayers of the church, and Matt claims that he couldn't really answer a definitive yes to this question until he was afflicted with cancer. Now I want to be clear in saying that Matt is in no way complaining about this, just the opposite he is expressing his thankfulness to those who have shown their remarkable support. However, it got me thinking that it is a tragic thing that it would take a situation like this to force us to prayer in support of our pastors. They do not have easy 'jobs' by any stretch; it is a lonely, difficult, sacrificial, and in all ways taxing work that they do. I know that I am thankful for their effort, and moreso am thankful that I know leaders who genuinely love the Lord and their work in the face of all its challenges. As such I should be quicker to lift them up in prayer. So to men like Vaughn, Dan, Lex, Dave, Brian, Art, and Randy, thank you for your faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I apologize for my lack of prayer for you. My prayer right now is that you 'know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God'.
"It is an enormous tragedy when there are too few faithful, anointed, visionary leaders; it is a terrible indictment on the church when those the Lord sends are treated like dirt. These things happen, and frequently. Perhaps they would not happen so often if more of us prayed that God would make the ministry of his most faithful and spiritually minded leaders widely acceptable among the saints."
The other thing that got me thinking is Matt Chandler's video blog, which you can see here- http://fm.thevillagechurch.net/blog/pastors/. Matt's a pastor down in Texas, and is right now battling cancer. In week 5's update he recalls another pastor asking him if he had ever tangibly felt the prayers of the church, and Matt claims that he couldn't really answer a definitive yes to this question until he was afflicted with cancer. Now I want to be clear in saying that Matt is in no way complaining about this, just the opposite he is expressing his thankfulness to those who have shown their remarkable support. However, it got me thinking that it is a tragic thing that it would take a situation like this to force us to prayer in support of our pastors. They do not have easy 'jobs' by any stretch; it is a lonely, difficult, sacrificial, and in all ways taxing work that they do. I know that I am thankful for their effort, and moreso am thankful that I know leaders who genuinely love the Lord and their work in the face of all its challenges. As such I should be quicker to lift them up in prayer. So to men like Vaughn, Dan, Lex, Dave, Brian, Art, and Randy, thank you for your faithfulness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, and I apologize for my lack of prayer for you. My prayer right now is that you 'know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God'.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
If I Were Your Pastor...
Most of you who know me are aware that I desire to be a pastor some day and am training to do so. The thing is I'm still doing the preparatory work, and it will probably be a good bit before the vision becomes a reality. Thus for a while now I've been planning, dreaming, and developing convictions. I wanted to share some of those convictions with y'all, recognizing that this list is still subject to change, most likely by expansion rather than revision/deletion. So as the pastor of our hypothetical church, I promise that...
-the gospel of Jesus Christ will be the message, lifeblood, and driving purpose of the church, and we will perpetually seek to live it out.
-we will be completely dependent on God for any type of success.
-success will not necessarily be correlative to the size of the congregation.
-we will spend a lot of time studying the Scriptures together.
-we will spend a lot of time serving the body of Christ and the community.
-I will preach on Sunday morning in a hoodie, athletic shorts, and flip flops, angering half of the congregation and convincing them I have no reverence for the Lord.
-I will preach a Sunday morning service in a suit and tie and get the other half, convincing them that I see the church as all-business.
-I will never try to be cool. In fact, I will never be cool, as being a Christian precludes me from this.
-I will never ride a motorcycle into the chapel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZRoOx5L0DE
-I will never sleep with the secretary. Unless the secretary is my wife, then you best believe I'll be sleeping with that lady like all the time.
-I will make a lot of mistakes, and will learn how to ask for forgiveness from my congregation.
-we will never host an inter-faith prayer meeting.
-we will laugh a lot.
-we're Team CoCo. This is nonnegotiable.
-I will comfort you where Scripture is comforting, and offend you where Scripture is offensive.
-I will spend no time or energy needlessly bashing other churches for whom we are not responsible.
-I will unabashedly warn against and dismantle false theologies and teachings, naming names if necessary.
-I will pray for you.
-a majority of our church functions will be accompanied by food.
-we will spend considerable time in the Old Testament. Overhearing a 15-year-old utter "I love it when he preaches out of the minor prophets" is firmly ensconced in my bucket list.
-you will hear me say "I don't know".
-we will give away lots of books.
-we will not have small groups that are centered on recreational sports rather than fellowship, prayer, and the Word.
-we will passionately celebrate God's good gifts and seek to rejoice in all things. Though there are seasons of mourning and hardship, our piety will not be defined by melancholy.
-I'm not gonna say there will never be any drama or interpretive dance, but...
-we will not be a church targeting a demographic. We will proclaim the gospel to and serve anyone in our midst.
-we will exist to lovingly glorify God.
-the gospel of Jesus Christ will be the message, lifeblood, and driving purpose of the church, and we will perpetually seek to live it out.
-we will be completely dependent on God for any type of success.
-success will not necessarily be correlative to the size of the congregation.
-we will spend a lot of time studying the Scriptures together.
-we will spend a lot of time serving the body of Christ and the community.
-I will preach on Sunday morning in a hoodie, athletic shorts, and flip flops, angering half of the congregation and convincing them I have no reverence for the Lord.
-I will preach a Sunday morning service in a suit and tie and get the other half, convincing them that I see the church as all-business.
-I will never try to be cool. In fact, I will never be cool, as being a Christian precludes me from this.
-I will never ride a motorcycle into the chapel. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZRoOx5L0DE
-I will never sleep with the secretary. Unless the secretary is my wife, then you best believe I'll be sleeping with that lady like all the time.
-I will make a lot of mistakes, and will learn how to ask for forgiveness from my congregation.
-we will never host an inter-faith prayer meeting.
-we will laugh a lot.
-we're Team CoCo. This is nonnegotiable.
-I will comfort you where Scripture is comforting, and offend you where Scripture is offensive.
-I will spend no time or energy needlessly bashing other churches for whom we are not responsible.
-I will unabashedly warn against and dismantle false theologies and teachings, naming names if necessary.
-I will pray for you.
-a majority of our church functions will be accompanied by food.
-we will spend considerable time in the Old Testament. Overhearing a 15-year-old utter "I love it when he preaches out of the minor prophets" is firmly ensconced in my bucket list.
-you will hear me say "I don't know".
-we will give away lots of books.
-we will not have small groups that are centered on recreational sports rather than fellowship, prayer, and the Word.
-we will passionately celebrate God's good gifts and seek to rejoice in all things. Though there are seasons of mourning and hardship, our piety will not be defined by melancholy.
-I'm not gonna say there will never be any drama or interpretive dance, but...
-we will not be a church targeting a demographic. We will proclaim the gospel to and serve anyone in our midst.
-we will exist to lovingly glorify God.
Monday, March 15, 2010
I Believe...
I believe God has graciously revealed Himself to humanity through general and special revelation so that mankind may know Him, love Him, and have life in relationship with Him.
General Revelation
I believe God has universally revealed Himself to all humanity through creation (Rom. 1:19-20, Ps. 19:1-3) and conscience (Rom. 2:14-15). Through this general revelation mankind can know something of God's existence, moral law (Rom. 2:14-15), and character, such as His creativity (Ps. 19:1, Eph. 2:10), care and compassion (Matt. 6:26, Acts 14:17), power (Rom. 1:20), wisdom (Ps. 104:24), and glory (Ps. 19:1) .
I believe that God has revealed Himself generally so that mankind may know Him in some sense and in response seek to know Him more fully (Acts 17:26-27). However, because mankind is pervasively depraved (Rom. 3:23, Eph. 2:1-3), he rejects the truth, is unable to appropriately respond to general revelation, and still stands under sin and condemnation (Rom. 1:18-20). Thus further action by God, namely special revelation, is needed for mankind to enter into relationship with Him.
Special Revelation
I believe that God has revealed Himself to many specifically with His own words, that the recipients may receive true, though not exhaustive (Deut. 29:29), knowledge of God and find salvation therein (Rom. 10:9-13,17, 1 Pet. 1:22-23). This is special revelation, in which God has graciously spoken to humanity through personal addresses and supernatural encounters (Exod. 3-4, Lk. 1:26-38) , the OT prophets and NT apostles (Ezek. 20:47, 1 Cor. 14:37), dreams and visions (Isa. 6, Ezek. 40-48), Holy Scripture (2. Tim. 3:16-17), and most clearly through Jesus, the exact Image of God (Heb. 1:3) and Living Word (Jn. 1:14). For the Christian, God-breathed Scripture is the means, Christ Jesus is the subject, and the Holy Spirit is the enabler of special revelation.
Holy Scripture
I believe that Scripture is the inspired Word of God. Inspiration is verbal, applying to every word of Scripture, and inspiration is plenary, applying to all of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16-17). I believe God through the Holy Spirit prepared and guided men to write the words of Scripture, ensuring fully human personality, style, and speech and also the very voice of God in Scripture (2 Pet. 1:20-21, Gal. 6:11). Because Scripture is the voice of God (1 Cor. 14:37), and God is truth (Jn. 14:6) , Scripture is fully inerrant (Ps. 12:6). This means that the original manuscripts of Scripture are completely factual and without error in all they affirm as truth.
I believe that the 66 books of the Protestant Bible are all the Word of God (2 Pet. 3:15-16, Lk. 24:44-45). These books are sufficient in that they contain everything mankind needs for salvation and obedience to God (Jas. 1:18, 2 Tim. 3:16-17). Because the Bible is the Word of God, it is the only infallible authority for the believer (Matt. 15:3, 2 Tim. 3:16-17). Though sometimes difficult to understand (2 Pet. 3:15-16), the Bible is clear and can be sufficiently understood for faith and obedience by all who by God's grace and in humility seek to understand it (Ps. 19:7, Ps. 119:130). Through illumination, the Holy Spirit enables mankind to receive and comprehend the Word (Jn. 14:25-26). I believe Scripture is correctly understood when the authorial intent is the locus of study as mankind in community discerns the grammar, history, and context of the text so that it can be rightly comprehended, taught, and applied (Neh. 8:8).
General Revelation
I believe God has universally revealed Himself to all humanity through creation (Rom. 1:19-20, Ps. 19:1-3) and conscience (Rom. 2:14-15). Through this general revelation mankind can know something of God's existence, moral law (Rom. 2:14-15), and character, such as His creativity (Ps. 19:1, Eph. 2:10), care and compassion (Matt. 6:26, Acts 14:17), power (Rom. 1:20), wisdom (Ps. 104:24), and glory (Ps. 19:1) .
I believe that God has revealed Himself generally so that mankind may know Him in some sense and in response seek to know Him more fully (Acts 17:26-27). However, because mankind is pervasively depraved (Rom. 3:23, Eph. 2:1-3), he rejects the truth, is unable to appropriately respond to general revelation, and still stands under sin and condemnation (Rom. 1:18-20). Thus further action by God, namely special revelation, is needed for mankind to enter into relationship with Him.
Special Revelation
I believe that God has revealed Himself to many specifically with His own words, that the recipients may receive true, though not exhaustive (Deut. 29:29), knowledge of God and find salvation therein (Rom. 10:9-13,17, 1 Pet. 1:22-23). This is special revelation, in which God has graciously spoken to humanity through personal addresses and supernatural encounters (Exod. 3-4, Lk. 1:26-38) , the OT prophets and NT apostles (Ezek. 20:47, 1 Cor. 14:37), dreams and visions (Isa. 6, Ezek. 40-48), Holy Scripture (2. Tim. 3:16-17), and most clearly through Jesus, the exact Image of God (Heb. 1:3) and Living Word (Jn. 1:14). For the Christian, God-breathed Scripture is the means, Christ Jesus is the subject, and the Holy Spirit is the enabler of special revelation.
Holy Scripture
I believe that Scripture is the inspired Word of God. Inspiration is verbal, applying to every word of Scripture, and inspiration is plenary, applying to all of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16-17). I believe God through the Holy Spirit prepared and guided men to write the words of Scripture, ensuring fully human personality, style, and speech and also the very voice of God in Scripture (2 Pet. 1:20-21, Gal. 6:11). Because Scripture is the voice of God (1 Cor. 14:37), and God is truth (Jn. 14:6) , Scripture is fully inerrant (Ps. 12:6). This means that the original manuscripts of Scripture are completely factual and without error in all they affirm as truth.
I believe that the 66 books of the Protestant Bible are all the Word of God (2 Pet. 3:15-16, Lk. 24:44-45). These books are sufficient in that they contain everything mankind needs for salvation and obedience to God (Jas. 1:18, 2 Tim. 3:16-17). Because the Bible is the Word of God, it is the only infallible authority for the believer (Matt. 15:3, 2 Tim. 3:16-17). Though sometimes difficult to understand (2 Pet. 3:15-16), the Bible is clear and can be sufficiently understood for faith and obedience by all who by God's grace and in humility seek to understand it (Ps. 19:7, Ps. 119:130). Through illumination, the Holy Spirit enables mankind to receive and comprehend the Word (Jn. 14:25-26). I believe Scripture is correctly understood when the authorial intent is the locus of study as mankind in community discerns the grammar, history, and context of the text so that it can be rightly comprehended, taught, and applied (Neh. 8:8).
Sunday, March 7, 2010
The Happiest Little Boy In The World...
It's nearing 1:00 am and I am sitting in my apartment, giddy with excitement but with no one to talk to. So I turn to the blog. Why this heightened state? I am excited because the music world has set out to fulfill all of my hopes and desires (only a slight exaggeration). I guess this really started a couple years ago when Metallica decided that their next album would actually have guitar solos and song structure. The dominos were being set back in place. Then it was announced that Alice In Chains would release their first album in over a decade, which actually hit the shelves several months ago. It isn't quite the same without the deceased former lead singer Layne Staley, but it's still unlike anything else on the scene. Fast forward to today, and I catch wind that Sevendust is putting out a new album. They've been puttin' out tunes pretty consistently, so it wasn't too much of a surprise, but good news nonetheless. I then realized that I hadn't caught up on some of my favorite bands in a while, so I started trolling around myspace to do some research, and I found wonder upon wonder. Turns out that after Creed's recent comeback attempt flopped, the band memebers have repented, found their moral center and are once again working with singer/guitarist Myles Kennedy on a new Alter Bridge project. This made me happy, as their last project, 'Blackbird' is just sweet. Now I have this ritual of about three times a year checking the page of a band called Revis. Their first and only album, Places For Breathing, is one of my favorite all-time debut albums. There's not really anything incredibly unique that they did, it's just a good solid post-grunge rock record. Unfortunately, they called it quits after that one effort, and have left me wanting more since 2003. And what did I find when I checked their page? Not the usual tumbleweed-rolling lifelessness of a band now defunct; nay, I found that the boys are back together and working on a new project. This made me thrilled. I looked into some other artists. I had heard that Scott Weiland put out a solo album after Slash couldn't take him any longer, so I went to check out his stuff. But I found something totally unexpected; Stone Temple Pilots are coming back after a nine year absence, and their new disc drops in May. This made me overjoyed. My mind was racing, 'who else has broken up?' I thought of Cold, so I hit up their page... and turns out they're back together and in the studio. Huzzah! Now this was really all too good to be true, but I figured I'd press my luck. I was gonna' shoot the moon, and look into one of my absolute favorite bands..... and yes, it is true, after 12 years apart.... Soundgarden is back together! This made me ecstatic. Thank you oh thank you Chris Cornell for putting out your first terrible solo album that almost assuredly catalyzed this reunion. So to recap, Sevendust, Cold, Alter Bridge, Revis, Stone Temple Pilots, and Soundgarden are all back in the saddle and putting out new music. It's as if the music world said, "Hey Aaron, how can we serve you ?" Now if only A Perfect Circle would work on some new stuff and Travis Meeks would pick up his guitar...
Monday, March 1, 2010
Reflections On Psalm 33...
This Psalm is a call to shout for joy, to praise God. Surprising to some, Christianity is supposed to be a happy, joyful thing. We are to give thanks, to sing songs, to pour our hearts out to God. I confess I don't live with this type of elation as much as I'd like, and I am driven to ask why. I think it is that too often I am seeking to rejoice in things that are so unworthy of celebration. This struck me last night as I was watching the gold medal game hockey game between Canada and U.S.A. I was really rooting for the U.S. to win, but would my life have been any better if they had? Sure I could have had some gloating privileges over my Canadian friends for a little bit, but in the end a sports game is kind of a meaningless thing. And as the Canadian team was celebrating its overtime win, and as the crowd in Vancouver was shouting for joy, I was wondering how long that victory-induced joyous high would last for them. My guess is that most, if not all, are already feeling the letdown. I know from a little personal experience that no victory ever lasts or ultimately satisfies, at least not when our definition of victory is so shallow. We have the tendency to define victory as a new tv, a raise, a fun night out, a lower golf score, bigger biceps and a smaller waist, a good night at the poker table, the admiration of our peers, a little attention from a love interest, or the failure of our enemies. Why do we so desperately seek satisfaction in such trivial affairs? Why do we trust in ourselves to determine what will bring us joy? Why do we trust in our own strength, when God is telling us that kings, armies, and warhorses have not the strength to save themselves? Of course the short answer is sin. I have an incredible capacity to rejoice in things that are almost entirely without worth, and then struggle to muster any praise for God. Thankfully David gives us a reason to shout for joy. God spoke the heavens into existence, knows all people intimately, is righteous and just, and is unendingly loving and faithful. When we look to him for our strength, satisfaction, hope, love, and joy, we are standing on solid ground. He is the fountain that never runs dry, whereas every man-centered accomplishment is forgotten in an eye's blink. Like Percy Shelley this psalm of the shepherd-king David labels Ozymandias a fool. My prayer right now is that we can appropriately assess our passing victories and continually look to the Lord and shout for joy, finding our trust in Him.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Reading Old Books...
I've been reading Charles Hadden Spurgeon's 'Lectures To My Students', and I am often reminded that in these pages he is speaking to us from a different era. He can be cutting in a fashion that just simply wouldn't fly in today's overly sensitive culture (and I fully recognize that I am part of this culture). For example, here's a quote from him regarding a sermon series another pastor gave on the book of Hebrews. "I have a very lively, or rather a deadly, recollection of a certain series of discourses on the Hebrews, which made a deep impression on my mind of the most undesirable kind. I wished frequently that the Hebrews had kept the epistle to themselves, for it sadly bored one poor Gentile lad. By the time the seventh or eighth discourse had been delivered, only the very good people could stand it.... Paul, in that epistle, exhorts us to suffer the word of exhortation, and we did so." Gotta love that kind of honesty.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Reflections On Isaiah 40...
God speaks comfort to His people. Where the bulk of the prophets seem to be sending warning and speaking judgment on Israel for their transgressions, here the message is comfort. We are reminded that our God is a God of love, compassion, and forgiveness. No matter how many times we turn our backs on Him, He is astoundingly quick to forgive. In one sense, no one's favor is easier to earn than God's, in that we do not earn it but simply receive it. And yet our sin is great enough that it takes the work of God for us to turn to Him (though how that work exactly plays out is debated...). God has made every accommodation to reach out to us, he sent the last Old Covenant prophet John, crying out in the wilderness that the Messiah is coming. The Lord came to us in the flesh in Jesus, God incarnate. In humility He became one of us, in suffering He was crucified by us, in glory He rose before us, so that in love He might restore us. This great work has been written down, that God might be revealed to us. If His Word stands forever while we along with the grass wither, then where should we place ultimate authority? In our own reason, perception, understanding and conclusions? Should we trust our own assessment and set ourselves up as little gods, bowing to the almighty individual, every one doing what is right in his own eyes? Or do we submit ourselves to the Word of the Lord? We as Christians must believe that God's Word is authoritative, and I think most of us really do. But so often we do not act on this, but do what we feel is right. At least I know I often struggle in submitting to God's Word, failing to understand that His teaching is absolutely for my benefit, failing to understand that He knows what is best for all of us, that not out of indignation but out of love He has communicated to us His instruction. He knows how best to operate in this world He created, and He did not stand aloof and distant but through the pages of Holy Scripture is screaming at us, 'life is found here, life is found in me!', or at least something to that effect. Life is found in the Christ revealed in all of Scripture. It stands forever as authoritative, as comfort to a weak and sinful people. God is a God of great might, no one can measure Him, no one can weigh the creation that He spoke into existence, He sits above the earth. Yet still He tends to us, carrying us close to His heart. He knows our frame and remembers that we are dust. It is a comforting thing to be in the hands of a God who is omnipotent and at the same time the very definition of love, and to be able to affirm that God is as much aware of our own frailty as He is of His own glory and power. We should make every effort to know these truths more completely. The Almighty God, as perfectly revealed in the Suffering Servant, is our strength and comfort.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Poking Fun...
Howdy howdy! Sometimes I love Christians. We do stupid, quirky, and/or hilarious things all the time. Hit up the following two links and you'll see what I mean. I'm thinking I could make this a regular feature; posting ridiculous videos from times of Christendom past and present. There is no want of material. Here are the first submissions. (Thanks to Dan Morse for the heads-up on the first.)
http://www.aftertherapturepetcare.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuV21Wotp6s
http://www.aftertherapturepetcare.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuV21Wotp6s
Monday, January 25, 2010
Reflections On Psalm 19...
Since before the dawn of human history, the sun has been doing its thing with otherworldly regularity and consistency (save for during a skirmish between the Amorites and Israelites). Our constant rotation around this glowing orb simultaneously tells us that we are not at the lowly bottom rung of the expanse of the universe, nor are we at the center. Every evening it sets, and glowing witnesses rise up and tell us another part of the story; that this sun that sits so prominent in our sky is in no way unique. There are millions just like it reaching out to us from unfathomable distances. All this should tell us that there is something or some One very much beyond us. All this beauty came from somewhere, and every rational thought within us, should we choose to listen, will tell us that this matter had an origin. Apparently some Being can create beauty, complexity, and structures of jaw-dropping enormity, and can uphold them in some type of stable relation. This should make us feel very small, it should fill us with wonder, and it often does. It should also drive us to seek out the source of such magnificence, the Creator behind the creation. Every man is given this phenomenal sensory input, and every man will be held accountable for its explanation. In great kindness, God has seen fit to not only cry out to us via the natural realm, but also to clearly reveal His character through His Word. While all of creation tells us that a glorious Creator exists, scripture tells us His nature, and even gives us His name. The Word tells us that Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the not just a distant power but a relational God who has seen fit to give us teaching directly from Him, and it is sweet, just, pure, righteous, and to be respected and obeyed. His teaching is efficacious in that it revives us, warns us, enlightens us, preserves us, and makes us wise; it takes us out of the cave. Like David, we cannot look at the greatness of creation and the power and purity of the Word of God and hold our chin up before Him. We can only cast ourselves before Him, knowing that He is merciful, compassionate, and good. We can have full trust and assurance in our Rock and Redeemer.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
The Manliest Men Who Ever Manned...
Yep, I'm finally launching this series, and I know you've all been writhing in anticipation. Like I said before, I just want to profile men who have gone before me and shown me what it means to be a man following after God, and just being manly in general. I'll do the not-so-surprising thing and start with my dad (Phil if ya need a name). Proving his studliness at a fairly young age, he married a divorced woman with two children... while in med school. Now the first part is heroic enough. Lesser men would see the two children and run like the wind (and others I'm sure would have hang-ups with a divorced woman), but the pops aint lesser men. He saw my mother for the gem that she was (and is), saw Jeremy and Josh for the blessing they were (and are), and did what it took to seal the deal. Out of love for them he married the woman and adopted my brothers, as a manly man does, all the while putting himself through med school. And it is not an easy field in medicine that he has chosen. He is a perinatologist, which is fancy talk for someone that treats mothers having complications in pregnancy. It's a taxing line of work that sees a lot of life in the womb that never comes to term. I'll admit that the situation at home probably hasn't been a breeze for him either, as there are six of us kids in the family, and we didn't always make life easy on him. But he worked his tail off to provide for a family, even leading us through the difficulty of a mother battling with breast cancer. He'll admit he has done many things wrong, as we all have and will, but the fact of the matter is that he raised six kids, and we all get along and find joy in each other, which I believe is impressive. Most of all he has succeeded in the two paramount fatherly duties. He has loved God and he has loved his wife. He has consistently shown his five boys what it means to be madly in love with a good woman, and has shown his daughter how she should be loved. And above all, in good times and bad, in the rough patches, he has kept his faith and continually pointed his family toward Christ. This is the chief task of a father, and I am ever thankful that I was not raised by a foolish boy but one of the manliest men who ever manned.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Hodgepodge...
This will be maybe my most jumbled post yet. I'm just gonna put down some thoughts; trying to get the writing juices flowing before I journal about a Galatians passage for my theology class. The passage is Galatians 3:16-4:6. It's about God's faithfulness to His promises (i.e. Abrahamic), it's about the Mosaic covenant's preservation of the Jewish people, it's about Jews and Gentiles being one through adoption in Christ, it's about Jesus being the fulfillment of God's plan. Mostly it's about Jesus. How does that affect life and ministry? I need to turn that into I think about a half-page or so. I am listening to Flyleaf right now, noting that their new album is excellent. Gotta love a band rockin hard and giving glory to God. If you get the chance, take a listen to Circle and Arise, both are great tunes. Maybe I'll put one of em on this here page. I'm also thinking about all the good people I know. Facebook constantly reminds me that there are a lot of amazing people that I have crossed paths with, and I wish I could keep in touch with them all, but alas the days are short. I'm thinking even more specifically of the group of guys from my Bible study senior year of college. What a great group of guys, and we've gone on different paths; some starting families or careers or both or neither. To those I haven't kept in touch with- I hope God is still provoking you, I hope you are still seeking after Him. Without Him life is meaningless and empty, it is chasing after unsatisfying accomplishment after unsatisfying accomplishment. I am sorry that I did not teach and lead better at the time, but I trust God used those hours to draw us to Him. They are fond and humbling memories. I honestly don't know if I will ever sit around another table with better men; character and characters gathered on those Monday nights. To my future wife (I'm trusting God in this area), I hope I find you soon, I have no idea whether or not I've met you. I hope God is developing patience, mercy, and grace within you, you will need them. Soon I will need sleep, as I will need some strength to serve local pastors at the Spurgeon Fellowship tomorrow. But for now I write, and with minimal flair. Goodnight and good luck.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
From Class...
Here's a little nugget from Dr. Breshears in today's theology class.
Theology without piety is sterile abstraction.
Piety without theology is empty emotionalism.
Joined they are worship and truth.
Theology without piety is sterile abstraction.
Piety without theology is empty emotionalism.
Joined they are worship and truth.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Community...
Howdy! The holidays are over and school's back in session, which means I'll be getting back to some semblance of routine, which should theoretically lead to more blog posts. We'll see. But for now, I'll start with a brief rant/discussion topic for y'all (and by y'all I mean Greg and Everett). Now keep in mind, this is one of those things that I've been thinking about a little bit, but by no means have considered all angles. That to say- feel free to correct and refine my thinking. But what's been running through my head is this- I've been hearing the word 'community' a lot in churches over the last few years, and I'm not entirely sure what this always means. My impression is that when people talk about building community in a church, they're talking about the people in the church being super-close friends who can talk about deep stuff together. I also get the impression that when people talk about building community, the sentiment is that this is best done in small groups where we spend lots of time talking to each other about what's going on in our lives and what God means to us, and little time is spent studying the Bible. From what I can tell, the idea is that studying the Bible together as a group is not conducive to growing close to one another, and talking about any type of theology or doctrine is sure to spell doom if you're trying to get everyone in your church or small/care/life/connecting/growth group to be friends, and that would be bad. Thoughts?
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