John Frame notes that the Greek word behind "sound doctrine" in 1 Tim 4:6 ("good doctrine" in the NKJ) is hygiainos, where we get our word "hygiene." Doctrine is to be "health-giving" to the soul of man. In fact, it is to be life-giving to the whole man. (see Frame, Systematic Theology, p7).
Theology is to be taught not only to give us truth about God. It is to make us more like God. It is to build us up into the new humanity that we are in in Christ.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Monday, November 4, 2013
Take Off Your Shoes
We
are given the great privilege again of ascending in to the holy of holies, into
the very presence of God in His holy temple, not made with human hands, but
made of humans, saints, you and me, the living stones of His temple in which He
dwells. As we do so, I charge you in the
name of Jesus Christ to take care. We
are walking into the temple of God and so, metaphorically speaking, we should
take off our shoes. If we do not, we
will likely track in all sorts of uncleanness.
This
is what it means to confess your sins as you enter here now. It means to put away, to take off, to remove
your transgressions. Put away your sin, confess
your disobedience. Anger, lust, envy, backbiting, private ambition, all must
go. Take off your shoes. In a short
time, you will dine with these brothers and sisters – make sure you have not
come to spoil the meal.
The
metaphor can be adapted many ways. Wipe
your feet, take off your shoes, consider where you have been walking, look down
for a moment, in all humility. We are
coming to worship God the Father. The
Lord Jesus washed the feet of His first disciples. So let Him wash yours.
Baptism: The Doorway to the Table
A
good picture that helps us understand the relationship between the sacrament of
baptism and the sacrament of the Lord’s Table is the relationship between the
door into your home and the table where your family sups. In order to come to the table, you have to
come through the door and come into the family.
Baptism
identifies a person as a covenant family member. It is the outward means by which God declares
through His church that this one is His.
His name is placed upon the one baptized along with all the privileges
and responsibilities of being a family member.
One of those privileges is the privilege of coming to the Table, the
Table of Christ, the Lord’s Table. Here
we sup with Christ and with the Father’s family. Here we enjoy the fruits of our peace with
Christ – in fact, here we partake of that peace with Christ. And so, to all who have been baptized, come
and welcome to Jesus Christ.
The Arians' God is a Moving Target
"Once the Arians implicitly introduce temporality into the Father-Son relation, they implicitly introduce temporality into the existence of the Father himself. If there is an interval between Father and Son, and yet the Son is somehow "God," then God is subject to becoming (Discourses 1.17). If the Triad emerges, then true religion is not fixed; piety is trying to hit a moving target (Discourses 1.18. For the Arians, God becomes Father only after begetting the Son (Discourses 1.24). The Arians imply in various ways that God is subject to time, that he is a God-in-process.
The point of the paradigm of sonship thus cannot be to highlight a temporal interval between Father and Son. To be sure, there is such an interval in human life, but since God is beyond time, there can be no interval." - Leithart, Athanasius, p. 51
If the Father is not eternally the Father (and He is not if there is not eternally a Son), then God the Father as we know Him now is not the same. The unchangeable has changed.
The point of the paradigm of sonship thus cannot be to highlight a temporal interval between Father and Son. To be sure, there is such an interval in human life, but since God is beyond time, there can be no interval." - Leithart, Athanasius, p. 51
If the Father is not eternally the Father (and He is not if there is not eternally a Son), then God the Father as we know Him now is not the same. The unchangeable has changed.
Chamberlain's Empathy-Listening with Hitler - not so good...
"Forces that are un-self-regulating can never be made to adapt toward the strength in a system by trying to understand or appreciate their nature. This was Chamberlain's great mistake at Munich in trying to empathize with Hitler. Priding himself on his own reasonableness and his unwavering belief in the value of achieving consensus, Chamberlain was trying to "understand Hitler's needs." He tried to project himself into, that is, fell for, Hitler's position, so that they could work out a mutual accommodation. It never seems to have occurred to him that there are forces on this planet that, because of their inability or unwillingness to self-regulate, are by nature all take and no give." - Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, p135
There is such a thing as real evil in this world. Leaders would do well to remember this.
There is such a thing as real evil in this world. Leaders would do well to remember this.
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Obey Because You Are Loved
Working on the next text for my sermon. "Therefore be imitators of God as dear children" - Eph 5:1
Some wonderful words from Bryan Chappell's commentary on the same -
Some wonderful words from Bryan Chappell's commentary on the same -
…God’s imperatives, and our obedience, rest on that loving
relationship; they do not form the relationship. We obey because we are loved; we are not
loved because we obey. The love of our
Father precedes and stimulates the obedience of his children. We are to forgive and live and love as dearly
loved children imitating the One who already is our Father, not performing to
bribe God to become our Father.
The significance of obedience based on the Father’s love
becomes more apparent when we consider where the apostle will soon head with
his imperatives. He will soon address the
sins of lust and greed. How would you
turn others from such sin? Should you
warn? Yes. Should you command to avoidance? Yes.
Should you condemn participation?
Yes. But what first? First, remind those who love God and are
grieving for their failure that they are his dearly loved children. Say to a struggler, “you are a wonderful
child, a precious child of God, dearly loved.
You are precious to him. Live as
one dearly loved. Be what you are in Christ.”
"We obey because we are loved; we are not loved because we obey." That's a keeper.
Monday, September 9, 2013
Faith and Ritual
All
who have been baptized and are able to eat and drink are welcome to this
Table. That is our understanding of the
Lord’s Supper. You do not have to grow
up in order to become big enough to eat.
You eat so that you grow up. However,
when we say this, we do not want to encourage an attitude towards a ritual like
those who were rebuked throughout the OT, those who merely went through the
rituals externally, but without faith and without obedience.
Faith is the key to the ritual, a lively faith that changes how you live, think, and talk. Faith is the key to those who are blessed in coming to the Table and those who are not. And so pause, not because you need to doubt your faith, but you need to remind yourself of the faith which has been given to you. Do you know the Father? Do you know Him through His Son? Are you in Christ by faith alone? Are you in need of Him for your salvation and in order to grow up in that faith. Then welcome – you are welcome to come and partake.
The Eternal Father-Son Relationship
"Once the Arians implicitly introduce temporality into the Father-Son relations, they implicitly introduce temporality into the existence of the Father himself. If there is an interval between Father and Son, and yet the Son is somehow "God," then God is subject to becoming (Discourses 1.17). If the Triad emerges, then true religion is not fixed; piety is trying to hit a moving target (Discourses 1.18). For the Arians, God becomes Father only after begetting the Son (Discourses 1;24). The Arians imply in various ways that God is subject to time, that he is a God-in-process.
The point of the paradigm of sonship thus cannot be to highlight a temporal interval between Father and Son. To be sure, there is such an interval in human life, but since God is beyond time, there can be no interval." - Leithart, Athanasius, p51.
Hence, the eternal Father-Son relationship and existence of God.
The point of the paradigm of sonship thus cannot be to highlight a temporal interval between Father and Son. To be sure, there is such an interval in human life, but since God is beyond time, there can be no interval." - Leithart, Athanasius, p51.
Hence, the eternal Father-Son relationship and existence of God.
When Empathy Goes Awry
"This was Chamberlain's great mistake at Munich in trying to empathize with Hitler. Priding himself on is own reasonableness and his unwavering belief in the value of achieving consensus, Chamberlain was trying to "understand Hitler's needs." He tried to project himself into, that is, feel for, Hitler's position, so that they could work out a mutual accommodation. It never seems to have occurred to him that there are forces on this planet that, because of their inability or unwillingness to self-regulate, are by nature all take and no give." - Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, p135.
Friedman is right on, except that the problem with the "forces on this planet" is not inability to self-regulate, it is that, by nature, we are sinners, in high rebellion against God and His Law.
But the Hitler-Chamberlain example may cause us to think that this only happens in extraordinary situations where nations and the world are on the brink. Really, it happens in very mundane situations in the home and in community - but when it happens, the results can be devastating to that home or community - they are just not noticed as quickly on the nightly news.
Friedman is right on, except that the problem with the "forces on this planet" is not inability to self-regulate, it is that, by nature, we are sinners, in high rebellion against God and His Law.
But the Hitler-Chamberlain example may cause us to think that this only happens in extraordinary situations where nations and the world are on the brink. Really, it happens in very mundane situations in the home and in community - but when it happens, the results can be devastating to that home or community - they are just not noticed as quickly on the nightly news.
Friday, September 6, 2013
Being And Then Doing
This
morning we will begin a series of sermons through the book of Ephesians. And as we gather to worship, let me summarize
the entire book of Ephesians for you – Chs 1-3:
What you have been freely given in Christ. Chs 4-6:
What you are able to therefore do in Christ. This is the Gospel – the gracious Gospel of
Jesus Christ. Being – and then Doing.
Now,
Christian, you think that you know the Gospel.
But you also know that you often fall into various temptations and sins. Why?
At the heart of all stumbling there is the fault of not believing this
truth. We refuse to fully believe all
that we have been given in Christ. We
fail to believe that we are fundamentally different because of Jesus
Christ. You are something you never
could be because of Jesus Christ. You
are on a life journey you could never be on if it were not for Jesus
Christ. You are in Christ and you must
come to know more and more of what that means – and your faith must be
strengthened, deepened, widened, to comprehend, apprehend, and trust these
things to be true.
All
other religious systems preach doing in order to become something. The Good News is this – you have become
something – holy, righteous, blameless, spiritually-minded, truth-filled,
Spirit-empowered – not because you did anything but because Someone did
something for you. Receive this, believe
this, and the rest becomes just filling out the details of the life that is
yours in Jesus Christ. That is why you
have been summoned to worship. Come and
worship. Come and receive. Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.
A Wordless God?
Athanasius's fourth example to prove the eternality of the Son is based on the relationship of Word and Wisdom.
"If the Son is not eternal to the Father, "proper" to his essence, then the Father at one time was powerless, wisdomless, and wordless. But that cannot be. How dare we slander God by saying that he was ever alogos?" - Leithart, Athanasius, p49.
"If the Son is not eternal to the Father, "proper" to his essence, then the Father at one time was powerless, wisdomless, and wordless. But that cannot be. How dare we slander God by saying that he was ever alogos?" - Leithart, Athanasius, p49.
Subsidizing Anxiety
"As lofty and noble as the concept of empathy may sound, and as well-intentioned as those may be who make it the linchpin idea of their theories of healing, education, or management, societal regression has too often perverted the use of empathy into a disguise for anxiety, a rationalization for the failure to define a position, and a power tool in the hands of the "sensitive"." - Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, p133.
Here Friedman takes a shot at one of the idols of modern therapy - empathetic listening. It is more important, they say, to make a person feel heard and understood than it is to solve their problem. A youtube clip went viral to make the same attack.
Here Friedman takes a shot at one of the idols of modern therapy - empathetic listening. It is more important, they say, to make a person feel heard and understood than it is to solve their problem. A youtube clip went viral to make the same attack.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Who Is This God?
Who
is this God you have come to worship?
The pagan gods worked in the world as faraway, capricious agents who
affected history for petty reasons. The
god of evolutionism is impersonal, a force that drives things by chance, by
whims, and by its own commandment – the fittest will survive. The god of secular humanism puffs up the
individual, lets him tell his own story, set his own boundaries, and in the
end, cease to exist or to exist in an eternal loneliness and dark despair.
But
you have come to worship the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This personal God of history loves sinners enough to send His only Son, to
be born of a woman, to be born under the law, and to die on a cross so that
they might be saved, so that you might be saved. Therefore, we approach God as Father and not
simply as the impersonal uncreated being or power source. His personhood, expressed to us perfectly in
the person of Jesus Christ is loving and kind, relational and compassionate,
strong and secure.
We
are invited to come to God our Father in the name of Jesus, His Son. When we come in His name, united in Him, we
are wrapped up in the loving relationship of the Father with His Son. That love is personal – in fact, that love is
a Person Himself – He is the Holy Spirit, and He dwells in those who are found
in Christ. This is too wonderful to
fully comprehend – in much the same way the love of a really great human father
for his son is hard to fully comprehend – at least it cannot be comprehended
like a math problem can be figured out.
Really, it has to be experienced, lived in, lived out – in real time, in
real relationship and communion, and over and over renewed with His, the
Father’s, kind words – come here, come to Me, come again. I am your God and you are my people.
The Eternal Father Requires an Eternal Son
Athanasius's third example to prove the eternality of the Son is the requirement of an eternal Son in order for the Father to be an eternal Father.
"Again, the sonship image is about the honor of God. Would it be honoring to God to say that he was incomplete? No. A father who has no son is not a father at all. Therefore, it is an insult to the Father to say that the Son is anything less than eternal...A son is the perfection of a father's nature" - Leithart, Athanasius, p49.
"Again, the sonship image is about the honor of God. Would it be honoring to God to say that he was incomplete? No. A father who has no son is not a father at all. Therefore, it is an insult to the Father to say that the Son is anything less than eternal...A son is the perfection of a father's nature" - Leithart, Athanasius, p49.
Only if They are Moving Toward You
"Whether you are a parent, a minister, a healer, or a CEO, your communicant's capacity to hear you depends primarily on the emotional variables of direction, distance, and anxiety. Others can only hear you when they are moving toward you, no matter how eloquently you phrase the message. In other words, as long as you are in the pursuing, rescuing, or coercive position, your message, no matter how eloquently broadcast, will never catch up." - Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, p128.
Anxiety, in particular, he mentions, works like static in the conversation, making it impossible to hear the other. Turn up the volume on the message and the static only goes up as well because anxiety increases.
Anxiety, in particular, he mentions, works like static in the conversation, making it impossible to hear the other. Turn up the volume on the message and the static only goes up as well because anxiety increases.
Wednesday, August 21, 2013
The Environment of Education
There
is no such thing as religious neutrality in anyone’s educational material,
method, or philosophy. “The fear of
the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Prov 1:7) means that you cannot go
anywhere in pursuit of knowledge without answering this fundamental question –
‘do you fear the Lord?’ If it is true
that God created the universe ex nihilo, and that ‘in Him we live and
move and have our being’, then how can we ever faithfully study anything
without acknowledging the full authority of God over the creation and
providence of that thing? As faithful
disciples, we must learn to bring every thought captive to Christ, and to ‘the
Queen of the sciences’.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Chronic Anxiety and Books on Marriage
"It is remarkable how the explosion of books in recent years about management resembles the similar explosion that occurred in the 1960s regarding premarital counseling. As society became anxious about the rising divorce rate and everyone talked about the demise of the family, the number of books being written for the clergy in this country on premarital counseling seemed to be exceeding the number of people getting married." - Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, p113.
Books and blogs and chronic anxiety. I am reminded of Solomon: "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh." There really is a way to study an issue that in the end is only wearisome. This happens when one is attempting to solve a problem out of anxiety and not from a position in faith - faith in a sovereign and good God. This occurs constantly in men (and I observe it far more in women) who constantly search the Internet for the latest studies on any issue that is causing them such anxiety.
"Be anxious for nothing..." Paul commands. If we obey this first and receive the peace of God to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (see all of Philippians 4:6-7), then it might be OK, after that, to do a little research.
Books and blogs and chronic anxiety. I am reminded of Solomon: "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh." There really is a way to study an issue that in the end is only wearisome. This happens when one is attempting to solve a problem out of anxiety and not from a position in faith - faith in a sovereign and good God. This occurs constantly in men (and I observe it far more in women) who constantly search the Internet for the latest studies on any issue that is causing them such anxiety.
"Be anxious for nothing..." Paul commands. If we obey this first and receive the peace of God to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (see all of Philippians 4:6-7), then it might be OK, after that, to do a little research.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Fountain and Stream
The second image Athanasius uses to defend the eternality of the Son is that of the fountain and the stream:
"Just as a fountain is no fountain without a stream flowing from it, so the Father is no Father without a Son." - Leithart, Athanasius, p47.
Jeremiah calls Yahweh the "fountain of living waters" (Jer 3:12) and thus the basis for Athanasius' second image.
"Just as a fountain is no fountain without a stream flowing from it, so the Father is no Father without a Son." - Leithart, Athanasius, p47.
Jeremiah calls Yahweh the "fountain of living waters" (Jer 3:12) and thus the basis for Athanasius' second image.
Mother and Mother and Child
"Parenting is no different from any other kind of "managing." The critical issues in raising children have far less to do with proper technique than with the nature of the parents' presence and the type of emotional processes they engender. I have, for example, almost never seen a mother who had a mature relationship with her own mother have trouble with her daughter. Similarly, I never saw a highly reactive or hypercritical father who was not distant from his own family of origin (and who, thereby, made the members of his new nuclear family too important to him.)" - Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, pp112-113.
Or, the sins of the fathers are passed down to the future generations. In ministering to teens and young people interested in getting married, I have made it a practice to get them to see that improving their relationship with their parents, both mom and dad, will have more impact on how well their future marriage will go than almost any other relational investment they can make. Also when seeking to get to know someone (whether they would be a good match for you or not), I have said that romantic, candle-light dinners will tell you very little; watching that person deal with their parents and siblings will tell you almost all you need to know.
Or, the sins of the fathers are passed down to the future generations. In ministering to teens and young people interested in getting married, I have made it a practice to get them to see that improving their relationship with their parents, both mom and dad, will have more impact on how well their future marriage will go than almost any other relational investment they can make. Also when seeking to get to know someone (whether they would be a good match for you or not), I have said that romantic, candle-light dinners will tell you very little; watching that person deal with their parents and siblings will tell you almost all you need to know.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Women in Combat
This
is a public gathering of worship where the Lordship of Jesus Christ is to be
declared, exposited, offered and applied by all who hear. Our triune God alone is to be worshiped and
we are to hear and proclaim His holy law and gospel openly, both here and
throughout His land, without fearing any man.
Jesus
said that the church is the light of the world and that we are not to put that
light under a basket – it is to be put on a lampstand where it gives light to
all who are in the house. We are to be
the salt of the earth, preserving the world from encroaching evil. One of the applications of these things is
that we are to speak openly as a church with regard to public darkness and
public evil as it occurs. It seems we
have no lack of opportunity of late, and so as we gather to worship, we must
again make a public declaration to our civil rulers.
As
a founding member church of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches, our
position on the latest action of the military is biblical and clear. One of our memorials reads as follows: “It is not lawful for women to be mustered
for combat service, for our Lord has declared it an abomination for women to
don the martial attire of a man (Deut 22:5).
Christian fathers must protect their daughters from being seduced or
coerced into such a circumstance, and the Church must support them as they do
so.”
In
other words, we are required by the scriptures to declare to Mr. Panetta, “Mr.
Secretary, you may not place women in combat positions as standard operating
procedures. It is an abomination to the
Lord.”
This
issue was discussed in two sermons I preached as we went through the book of
Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 14:21b we
are commanded not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk and we learned that
this passage, in light of all of Scripture, teaches us that women were created
by God to be life-givers, nurturers and sustainers of life – not dealers in
death. In Deuteronomy 22:5 we are told
that it is an abomination for women to dress in warrior-garb.
Of
course, the church is having a difficult time declaring this because we are
just as guilty blending genders where the Scriptures make clear distinctions –
for instance, ordaining women as though they could be pastors or elders. We don’t obey the clear and obvious teaching
of scripture; why should the world? Our
unisex, egalitarian culture is an abomination.
We are not to destroy mankind, with all of its masculine and feminine distinctions,
as God created us. We are instead to
cultivate and glory in these distinctions.
To mess with them is
to mess with the picture of the Gospel.
And
this is why we are so mixed up. This is
why the church does not know how to wage real warfare with her spiritual
weapons. This is why the Gospel
proclaimed to our generation is so impotent.
Our message is all mixed up, our pictures are all skewed, our
unrepentant hypocrisies are unnoticed by us but as obvious as can be to the
unbelieving world. Let judgment begin
with the household of God.
The Radiance of the Glory - per Athanasius
Leithart describes the four primary paradigms or images that Athanasius finds in Scripture to defend the eternality and full deity of the Son. Here is the first:
"The point of the radiance image (in Heb 1:3) is to emphasize that the Son is necessary to the Father's existence, as necessary as the rays of light are to the light source, and therefore the Son is just as eternal as the Father. Just as there is no light that does not radiate, so the Father is not without the radiance of his glory. When one reads of the Son as the "radiance" of the Father's glory, "who has so little sense as to doubt of the eternity of the Son? For when did man see light without the brightness of its radiance, that he may say of the Son, 'There was once, and He was not,' or 'Before His generation He was not'?" (Discourses 1.12)...The light-radiance imagery not only proves the co-eternity of the Father and the Son but also shows, in Athanasius's view, that the Arian position is nonsensical...The Father cannot create without his Son, any more than a light can illuminate without its radiance." - Leithart, Athanasius, pp44-45.
"The point of the radiance image (in Heb 1:3) is to emphasize that the Son is necessary to the Father's existence, as necessary as the rays of light are to the light source, and therefore the Son is just as eternal as the Father. Just as there is no light that does not radiate, so the Father is not without the radiance of his glory. When one reads of the Son as the "radiance" of the Father's glory, "who has so little sense as to doubt of the eternity of the Son? For when did man see light without the brightness of its radiance, that he may say of the Son, 'There was once, and He was not,' or 'Before His generation He was not'?" (Discourses 1.12)...The light-radiance imagery not only proves the co-eternity of the Father and the Son but also shows, in Athanasius's view, that the Arian position is nonsensical...The Father cannot create without his Son, any more than a light can illuminate without its radiance." - Leithart, Athanasius, pp44-45.
The Mental Health Industry has ADD
"It is as though the entire mental health profession suffered from its own form of attention deficit disorder. For example, when the family therapy movement began in the 1960s, Masters and Johnson had just published their books on sexual dysfunction. For a while every family therapy conference anywhere began to have as its keynote speaker an expert on sexual dysfunction. Families were going to be made healthy through lack of frustration. And then, suddenly, the issue receded into the background. Did everyone suddenly become sexually satisfied? The focus on sex was replaced for a while by anorexia, then attention deficit disorder, then repressed memory syndrome, and today it is either post-traumatic stress disorder or child abuse. These issues do not get cured; rather, everyone gets bored because the issue itself is a symptom. The intensity surrounding it is not due to its own nature but to the fact that it has taken center stage for a while as a focus of societal anxiety." - Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, pp109-110.
Societies which refuse to submit to and acknowledge the Savior and Healer of the world will never find themselves saved or healed. They will dab around the wound, a little here, a little there, but they will refuse to deal with the true substance of the trauma.
Societies which refuse to submit to and acknowledge the Savior and Healer of the world will never find themselves saved or healed. They will dab around the wound, a little here, a little there, but they will refuse to deal with the true substance of the trauma.
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Arianism is Pantheistic
"At several points, Athanasius argues that Arianism reduces to pantheism or polytheism. If the Son participates in the Unoriginate, just like everything else, and yet the Son is called "God," then what difference is there between the nature of the Son and the nature of all other originated things?" - Leithart, Athanasius, p24.
Sloppy Christian thinking often does not carefully defend the deity of Christ. When this happens, even those who are not Arians begin to blur the distinction between "the art of God in creation" and "God in creation."
Sloppy Christian thinking often does not carefully defend the deity of Christ. When this happens, even those who are not Arians begin to blur the distinction between "the art of God in creation" and "God in creation."
Medical Studies and a Failure of Nerve
"The propensity of such studies to induce a "failure of nerve" lies not only in their sheer volume, but also by the way a regressed civilization's focus on pathology and drive for certainty causes them to be formatted in the first place...Studies will constantly conclude that your chances of obtaining a particular disease are three or even five times greater if you eat this or do that. Even though the numbers of people involved in almost all of these studies are very small, a chronically anxious public mind concerned with certainty extrapolates that proportion out in real numbers to a very large portion of the population." - Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, p 106.
My thought: How does your relationship with Christ, or with your earthly father, figure into all of these health issues that seem to plague our culture? These may be far more critical issues with regard to health than how much sugar, coffee, wine, or butter you have consumed.
My thought: How does your relationship with Christ, or with your earthly father, figure into all of these health issues that seem to plague our culture? These may be far more critical issues with regard to health than how much sugar, coffee, wine, or butter you have consumed.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Athanasius the Man
"There is no doubt that Athanasius was a tough customer, and he employed methods to combat heresy and to shore up the Nicene settlement that would make modern bishops blanch...Without excusing his errors and sins, we should recognize that only a tough man, a man of extraordinary determination, could have so single-mindedly fought off Arian views that he regarded as dangerous blasphemies threatening the foundations of the gospel and the church. Only a very determined man could have stood against emperors and councils of bishops, endured five exiles, and fought off numerous false accusations, all in defense of the gospel." - Peter Leithart, Athanasius, p15.
What is Hindering New Leaders?
"...if a society is to evolve, or if leaders are to arise, then safety can never be allowed to become more important than adventure." - Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, p83.
Take off the bike helmets and light up your pipes (tobacco, that is - jeepers, I forget I live in Washington State).
Take off the bike helmets and light up your pipes (tobacco, that is - jeepers, I forget I live in Washington State).
Friday, August 2, 2013
It Only Takes One to Change
"Contrary to popular thinking, it does not require two people working on a marriage to change it. Rarely are both partners equally motivated. But changing a marriage fundamentally does require that someone function as a leader in the sense in which I have been using that term. Where one partner can be taught to regulate his or her own reactivity, the other will often begin to imitate that behavior, and adaptation can ultimately be reversed. But for this shift to occur a critical point of departure must be reached: the more motivated partner must also be able to stop shifting blame to the other and to look more at his or her own input. This does not mean that they should look more at their own faults, but rather at how they have been compounding the situation." - Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, p81.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Symptoms Come in Fads
"My thesis here is that the climate of contemporary America has become so chronically anxious that our society has gone into an emotional regression that is toxic to well-defined leadership. This regression, despite the plethora of self-help literature and the many well-intentioned human rights movements, is characterized principally by a devaluing and denigration of the well-differentiated self. It has lowered people's pain thresholds, with the result that comfort is valued over the rewards of facing challenge, symptoms come in fads, and cures go in and out of style like clothing fashions." - Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, p53.
Monday, July 29, 2013
King of Righteousness and then also King of Peace
Yesterday, I preached on Hebrews 7:1-2, and as I was studying, ran across a wonderful sermon by Charles Spurgeon (are there any other kinds of Spurgeon sermons?). Here is a snippet -
"All over the world, and everywhere, this is God’s way of dealing with men. Do not imagine that God will ever lay aside his righteousness for the sake of saving a sinner — that he will ever deal with men unrighteously in order that they may escape the penalty due to their transgression. He has never done so, and he never will. Glorious in holiness is he for ever and ever. That blazing throne must consume iniquity, transgression cannot stand before it; there can be no exception to this rule. The Judge of all the earth must do right. Whatever things may change, the law of God cannot alter, and the character of God cannot deteriorate. High as the great mountains, deep as the abyss, eternal as his being, is the righteousness of the Most High. Peace can never come to men from the Lord God Almighty except by righteousness. The two can never be separated without the most fearful consequences. Peace without righteousness is like the smooth surface of the stream ere it takes its awful Niagara plunge. If there is to be peace between God and man, God must still be a righteous God, and by some means or other the transgression of man must be justly put away, for God cannot wink at it, or permit it to go unpunished. Salvation must first of all provide for righteousness, or peace will never lodge within its chambers. The Lord of heaven is first King of righteousness, and then King of peace, so that Melchisedec was such a king as God is."
"All over the world, and everywhere, this is God’s way of dealing with men. Do not imagine that God will ever lay aside his righteousness for the sake of saving a sinner — that he will ever deal with men unrighteously in order that they may escape the penalty due to their transgression. He has never done so, and he never will. Glorious in holiness is he for ever and ever. That blazing throne must consume iniquity, transgression cannot stand before it; there can be no exception to this rule. The Judge of all the earth must do right. Whatever things may change, the law of God cannot alter, and the character of God cannot deteriorate. High as the great mountains, deep as the abyss, eternal as his being, is the righteousness of the Most High. Peace can never come to men from the Lord God Almighty except by righteousness. The two can never be separated without the most fearful consequences. Peace without righteousness is like the smooth surface of the stream ere it takes its awful Niagara plunge. If there is to be peace between God and man, God must still be a righteous God, and by some means or other the transgression of man must be justly put away, for God cannot wink at it, or permit it to go unpunished. Salvation must first of all provide for righteousness, or peace will never lodge within its chambers. The Lord of heaven is first King of righteousness, and then King of peace, so that Melchisedec was such a king as God is."
Friday, July 26, 2013
A Well-Differentiated Leader
"If the leader did not have to be in direct contact with every member in order to influence them, then it should follow that if a leader could learn to be a well-differentiated presence, by the very nature of his or her being he or she could promote differentiation and support creative imagination throughout the system." - Friedman, Failure of Nerve, p18.
Leaders lead by who they are and not just by their message. "Stonewall" Jackson got his name not by what he said, but by an incident in battle that displayed who he was. His followers rallied.
Leaders lead by who they are and not just by their message. "Stonewall" Jackson got his name not by what he said, but by an incident in battle that displayed who he was. His followers rallied.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
He Is Able
(From the end of my sermon of the same title)
The Scripture reference is Ephesians 3:20-21 –
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Application – How should this change my Monday?
No One Is Beyond the Power of God – Do you doubt that God can save that loved one who has steadfastly resisted your prayers and witness? Remember your own salvation; remember it in light of the story of Ephesians 1-3.
No Struggle is Beyond the Power of God – Do you doubt that God is able to make good out of your struggle, your affliction, your circumstance? Can’t imagine it? God’s Word says otherwise (Paul says otherwise while sitting in prison). Every time you come to the Table you are to see that of course He can – and will.
No Era is Beyond the Power of God – The nations will flow to the mountain of God. There are no “footnote” eras where God was not at work – where nothing happened. Often, the dark days of volume 2 in a trilogy are the necessary setup for the great eucatastrophe. Always pray this prayer watchfully.
Friday, July 5, 2013
If Imaginatively Stuck
"It certainly has not been my experience in working with imaginatively stuck marriages, families, corporations, or other institutions that an increase in information will necessarily enable a system to get unstuck. And the risk-averse are rarely emboldened by data" - Edwin H. Friedman, A Failure of Nerve, p31.
Discipleship is not primarily a work of data-transfer. It is primarily the work reviving godly imagination.
Discipleship is not primarily a work of data-transfer. It is primarily the work reviving godly imagination.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Real Cultural Engagement
"...So we should be in the market for young Christian men and women who are willing to be trained in genuine cultural engagement. They won’t be embarrassed by old-fashioned virtues, like hard work and discipline. They will respect authority and defy the authorities. They won’t get fired from jobs because of laziness, and they will get fired from them because of something they said about homosexuality. They won’t resent money and success, and they won’t be dazzled by money and success. They will laugh at the hipsters, and they will laugh at themselves laughing at the hipsters. They will loathe the enticements of corrupt entertainment, and they will love a true story. They would rather die than become one of the cool kids. They will be cool." - Douglas Wilson
Monday, February 4, 2013
Should We Ask God to Destroy our Enemies?
A friend wrote to me about my
recent sermons on the Psalms (I have been preaching through Psalm 31-40). She is struggling with the idea of praying
for the destruction of her enemies. Are
we supposed to do that? Didn’t Jesus
pray for the forgiveness of those who were putting Him to death? She had many questions surrounding this
topic. Here was my “stab” at answering,
briefly…
Destruction. Death.
Why does God do that? Why was
there a flood over the whole world and everyone, everyone died (some estimate the
world was more greatly populated than the 7 billion on earth today)? Except for Noah and his family. And was Noah really that much nicer than
everyone else? Start there when you are
wondering about God dealing out destruction.
It’s tough.
The chasm between God’s
holiness (not niceness) and our fallenness is infinite. The only way we even have life at all is
Grace – all Grace. The only way we are
redeemed is Grace, all Grace. I have no
right to think that in comparison to anyone else, I deserve to live and they
deserve to die – and that is what comes through so clear as you read the Psalms
– all the Psalms. One day, you should
take a weekend and just make yourself read all 150 Psalms and see what you come
away with – in total. It is awesome, it
is complex, it is unruly, God is not tame – but He is good.
So, am I to pray for the
destruction of my enemies? Well, as a
follower of Christ and a member of His kingdom – yes. But what do I mean by their “destruction?” I mean to turn them over to God’s holy wrath
that will glorify His name (to Whom I am ultimately loyal). It is His full right and position to decide
if He would “destroy” them in their sin by leaving them in that sin and place
them under His good and righteous judgment or whether He “destroys” their “old
man” by placing them in Christ where we die in His death and are raised to new
life by faith in Him and His perfect work accomplished for us. It certainly is a question “why does God not
save everyone?” – and it is not easily answered. It is just as much a wonderful question: “why does God create and then redeem, save,
and bring to Himself anyone? Why does
God save anyone?” When God is revealed
in all His glory, it doesn’t make sense, it is not easily answered.
Part of the reason, frankly,
that these are questions which are so hard to answer is because our god is too
small. Where were we when He placed
Jupiter where He desired? How did He do
that? He tells us that we have to
understand that (creation out of nothing, full and complete sovereignty over
the stars and galaxies and over every sub-atomic particle) before we can
understand the purpose of evil, the nature of fallen man and the salvation of
God in full. The point is that we have
to take it in faith, bow and worship and receive His good gifts – and rest in a
good Father’s wisdom that goes far beyond anything we could comprehend (Rom
11:33-36).
Our desire is for the world
to be saved, for that “bad” destruction to not come upon our enemies, God’s
enemies. Bur read the story in the Bible
– that is EXACTLY where this story is going.
Hallelujah! The world will be as
full of the glory of God (and the knowledge of the glory of God) as the waters
cover the sea. And as far as I can tell,
the waters completely cover the sea. The
descendants of Abraham (those with the faith of Abraham) will not be able to be
numbered (and we can still count to 7 billion and more) – they will be more
numerous than the sand on the beach. You
can’t count that high. Jesus did not
come to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
In the meantime, we are at
war. We do not fight against flesh and
blood, but against principalities and powers and our weapons are not carnal but
spiritual for pulling down all strongholds.
Faith – that is what overcomes the world (1 John 5). Sing the Psalms with that faith or they will
be a bummer. Sing the Psalm with that
faith and they will be used by God to bring His salvation and the praise to the
glory of His grace from the river to the ends of the earth.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Bold Sinners
One
thing a penitential Psalm like Psalm 38 should do for us, should cause us to
remember, is that we are not to come to the Lord’s Table and turn towards some
kind of morbid introspection because we are such sinners and could never really
be holy enough to come to this meal. We should
come to this Table as repentant and repenting sinners, as forgiven sinners, as
bold sinners, bold to come for mercy because this is a feast of mercy – just what
we need – just what we were summoned to come and receive.
Jesus
is our salvation. Jesus is our
holiness. Jesus is our
sanctification. We did not purchase
ourselves and now we are presenting our purchased selves to Him. He purchased us and so He has the right, not
us, to bring us to this Table, to bring us to Himself. And here is the good news – He wants to. Come and welcome to Jesus Christ.
Monday, January 28, 2013
When It's Time to be Quiet
Thoughts as I study Psalm 39. Just the first three verses -
I
said, “I will guard my ways, Lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my
mouth with a muzzle, While the wicked are before me.” 2 I was mute with silence, I held my peace even
from good; And my sorrow was stirred up. 3 My heart
was hot within me; While I was musing, the fire burned. Then I spoke
with my tongue:
There is a time when it is best, as right as you may be, to just be quiet. The Psalm-singer understood this. Certainly Jesus did as well. It is not that you don't have a good answer, a correction to the falsehoods being declared and lived out, even against you (and maybe especially in those times when it is against you).
There are times when you should not speak to men about it. However, it is important to notice then the Psalm-singer is letting God know. He is speaking to God about it. Interestingly, the Psalm seems to end (v13) with the Psalm-singer even saying that he will cease from speaking to God about it. Even here, it may be that he is ceasing to argue with the Lord and instead hoping in God and resting in that hope - resting in such a way that there is no need to speak about it anymore.
Helpful Cross-References:
V1 – “…while the wicked are before me”
Colossians 4:5 (NKJV)
5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.
5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.
V2 – “I was mute with silence”
Isaiah 53:7 (NKJV)
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He opened not His mouth; He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, And as a sheep before its shearers is silent, So He opened not His mouth.
Matthew 27:12-14 (NKJV)
12 And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. 13 Then Pilate said to Him, “Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?” 14 But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.
12 And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. 13 Then Pilate said to Him, “Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?” 14 But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.
“I held my peace even from good”
Matthew 7:6 (NKJV)
6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
6 “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
Hunger for Jesus
In
the Garden, Adam was free to eat from all the trees but one. But he was free to eat from all the other
trees. Hunger and eating things were
part of the creation order and will be part of life in the resurrection. But hunger always teaches us that we need
something – something from outside ourselves – in order to be truly satisfied,
truly full. And of course, at this
Table, we are always partaking by faith of that which truly satisfies and
nourishes our souls – and that is the body and blood of our Perfect Sacrifice,
our Savior and Lord.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Hungry for God
If
we have this right and Covenant Renewal leads to an end – here – at the Lord’s
Table – then the work of the Word preached and sung and heard and spoken and
sung more – leads us to a particular hunger – a hunger for the Word.
When our hearts are renewed by the Spirit, it is not that desire is eliminated. Instead it is rightly directed, so that our desire for fellowship leads to the eternal communion of the Trinity – and for us to enjoy that communion with the Trinity – here at the Table.
Our
hopes – all of them – are directed for the honor to go to the glory of God; our
search for knowledge is directed for that knowledge to be revealed to the glory
of God; our hunger for food is directed for food that is from heaven and that
is enjoyed to the glory of God. This is
the communion table. This is the
fellowship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit – and it is a
renewal – a renewal of our, the body of Christ, a renewal of our faith, hope
and love – and of desires satisfied again – only at one place, here – with the
Word of God.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Have Kids and Save the World
Let me begin by stating what appears to be
well understood in our congregation already – and yet bears repeating again and
again. It is a blessing, a great
blessing, for a married couple to have children.
Let
me also make a statement that is probably also well understood in our
midst. The reformation of our culture is
not going to take place over the course of a couple rounds of national and
local elections. It is going to take
generations. It has taken us many
generations to get ourselves into this mess as deep as we are in it – and it is
going to take many generations to undo the mess – and even the undoing of the
mess will be messy
Let me make one more statement that
I think we need to cultivate more and more in our midst. God commands us to have an optimistic view of
the evangelization of the world, the discipling of the nations by the church,
and the future growth and sanctification of the church and the world which
Christ purchased – over generations.
We
are not in the middle of a story, the end of which no one knows – even
God. We are not in the middle of a
cosmic crap-shoot – God’s betting on us but who knows how it will all go. We are the militant church, we are the mighty
seed of the woman who has and will crush the serpent’s head. We are that mustard seed that grows up to be
the greatest tree in the garden.
Having children, and then in the
grace of God and according to His promises, caring for, loving the little ones,
including missing much of the sermon because you have to take care of all the
squirrels sitting in your row, educating them in the fear of God in all things,
training and equipping them with knowledge, wisdom, and skill according to
their frames and giftednesses, bringing them up in the fear and admonition of
the LORD, laughing around your tables and heading off to the room in your home
where spankings are administered when necessary – these are THE MEANS God will
use to bring about the changes we are praying for in our country.
And so this is the army of God
meeting around His throne and at His Table.
Parents – and especially moms of little ones – you need to hear this and
you need to hear this with faith – the faith which Jesus gives by means of His
Holy Spirit. What you are doing, that
mundane work that most of the world tells you is worthless and a waste of a
real career you could be pursuing – is some of the most important work of world
transformation and God-glorifying missions you could ever do. So come, let us worship our God – with the
kids!
Friday, January 25, 2013
Sanctity of Human Life Sunday 2013
Today (January 20, 2013) is National Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. I want to quote from a post made by Pastor
George Grant on Wednesday of this last week –
“"If there's even one life that can be saved, then we've got
an obligation to try.... When it comes to protecting the most vulnerable among
us, we must act now.... Let's do the right thing... This is our first task as a
society, keeping our children safe. This is how we will be judged, and their voices
should compel us to change.” President Obama
Today, America's president issued an astonishing 23
Executive Actions aimed at new gun controls--ostensibly to "protect the
children of our nation." But, not one of them would have protected the
3,300 children murdered in the nation's abortion clinics today. Not one of them
would protect the 3,300 children who will be murdered tomorrow. Not one of them
would protect the 3,300 children who will be murdered the day after that. Or,
the 1,000,000 children who will be murdered here in "the land of the free
and brave" during the course of 2013.
The heights to which this hypocrisy and hubris rises is
beyond fathoming: the president is the chief champion of Planned Parenthood and
the child-killing minions of the nation's grisly abortion-industrial-complex.
Predictably, the hue and cry from most Christians has been
about governmental assault on their guns, their vaunted 2nd Amendment
rights--to be sure, no small thing. But, where are the lamentations for
Rachel's children in our modern day Ramah?
"I tell you, the only way we can change is if the
American people demand it.... We have to examine ourselves in our hearts, and
ask yourselves what is important? When we say we've suffered too much pain, and
care too much about our children to allow this to continue, then change will,
change will come. That's what it's going to take." President Obama"
Meanwhile, in WA state our new Governor gave his first
speech, committing himself to fighting for the Reproductive Parity Act. Reproductive parity is the term the abortion
industry is using for a bill that would require every insurance policy that
provides maternity care to also provide abortion care.
This outright rebellion and disregard, openly displayed, needs to continue to cause us to gasp with wonder. As we will see in Psalm 37 this morning, when the wicked are building and using instruments of harm upon the weak, we should remember how these stories go. We should remember what God does to such nations, and we should cry out for mercy before it is too late. President Obama is near correct although he doesn’t know what he is saying when he says, “This is how we will be judged, and their voices should compel us to change.” Mr. President: The blood of over 40 million cover our land and cry out to God.
The Man in the Middle
"...the citizen who owns defensive weapons, and was
trained in their use, constitutes the great barrier against centralized power
from above and decentralized criminal violence from below. It is the man in the
middle, the armed voter, who is the backbone of Western liberty." - Gary North
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Read the Word
Have
you read the Scriptures? Have you read
through the whole Bible? Have you read through the New Testament? Have you given yourself to reading and
re-reading, to meditating, to studying, to memorizing, to thinking through your
own applications of believing, changing, doing for your life?
Fathers, are you taking your children through the Scriptures? Are you modeling what it means to love the Word of God? Mothers, do your children find you reading and considering a passage of Scripture as though it was fine gold – as though it was better than fine gold?
What will 2013 have for you? Are you prepared? How will you prepare? At rock bottom, give yourself to the Word of God. If you are in Christ, it is food – food for your soul. You live in an age and in a nation where your access to the Word of God is unprecedented. It has not always been that way – it may not always be that way. Do not squander the gifts of God.
If
you do not have a Bible reading program, find one, grab one, find one on the
back Information Table or look up at our website. Use your new Smart Phone – you can probably
find an app. Or here’s one for you –
open up to Genesis and read a couple chapters.
Then open up to Matthew and read one.
Then pick up where you left off the next day – and then the next. And there you go – food for your soul,
direction for your life, and anchor for your faith. Simple as that.
What
would this congregation look like if all of us read through the Scriptures this
year? What would we look like if 20
years from now we had, all of us, read through the Scriptures 20 times? Do you think it would make a difference in
your life? Many, many brothers and
sisters could testify to you that in fact it has made an incredible and
profound impact on theirs? Are you any
different?
Saturday, January 5, 2013
Communal and Individual
The
Lord’s Table is both a communal and an individual rite. It is not to be taken normally alone, in the
way baptism is administered, one person at a time. It is a communal activity – both with the
Lord but also with one another. This is
why you are called to discern the Lord’s body as you partake. Look around you and see the body of Christ
feasting with Him at His table.
But it is also an individual rite. In order for there to be a community,
individuals of that community must come.
And so, if you have been baptized, identified in that community, and are
able, physically, to partake – then you should come. Jesus is communing with you and with you
personally as well. He has particular
nourishment and particular fellowship for you in just the situation you find
yourself in. But remember, that
individual relationship is like a member of a body – it relies and depends on
all the rest of the body as well – and God is specially feeding and equipping
those members too. Just remember this –
He is most likely equipping you to be part of that encouragement and support
for the other parts in the week ahead.
And so come, and be fed and then given away yourself – by Your good and giving
God.
Friday, January 4, 2013
Jesus and His People
“And
she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save
His people from their sins” Matt 1:21.
And
that is why this Table has been prepared for you – His brothers and sisters,
His family. Our elder brother has saved
us from our sins. His body was broken
for you. His blood was shed for
you. It is at this Table that you give your
AMEN to just such a glorious truth as this – and you are summoned to do so over
and over and over again after your baptism.
Look
around you as you prepare to partake – look around you and see that in Christ,
there are no divisions. There is neither
Jew nor Gentile, free nor slave, male nor female, rich or poor, for we are all
one in Christ Jesus. Look around you and
discern the Lord’s body. We are that
body. We are His family. We are His people. That is what it means that we are the church
of Jesus the Christ. And that is why we
partake together. Come and welcome to
Jesus Christ.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Speak Comfort at the Table
“Comfort,
yes, comfort My people!” Says your God.
“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, That her warfare is
ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD’s hand
Double for all her sins.”
If
you are God’s people, then you are called to hear this comfort, you are
summoned to come to this Table where you can see comfort, and you are called,
by faith, to taste this comfort in the bread and in the wine.
Taste
the peace, for your warfare is ended.
Christ put an end to death and enmity – you are friends with God. Taste the pardon, for your iniquity has been
dealt with. Christ paid with His own
blood for your sins and you are reconciled with God.
Come
and hear. Come and taste. Before you is the ultimate Christmas feast –
the ultimate and perfect comfort food.
Joy and the Present Love of God
Paul writes of sufferings of the Christian in Romans 8; things, none of which can separate us from the love of God. Paul does not say that conquest is found in escaping these things, nor in their removal from our lives. Conquest is found when even in the most horrible of situations, these things cannot separate us from the love of God. Of course this means that we can experience and live in the love of God in the midst of the most horrible of situations.
Jesus Himself did not cry out over the pain of the nails in His hands and feet, nor in the shame of His naked and humiliating public crucifixion. His cry of despair was over the departure of God from His presence, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?"
One man wrote, "Joy is not the absence of pain, but the presence of God."
Jesus Himself did not cry out over the pain of the nails in His hands and feet, nor in the shame of His naked and humiliating public crucifixion. His cry of despair was over the departure of God from His presence, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?"
One man wrote, "Joy is not the absence of pain, but the presence of God."
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Winnowing Fan at the Supper
In addition to the Bread and
the Cup, the Winnowing Fan of the Lord Jesus is here as well at the Table. The same fan that came when the Spirit was
given by Christ, the fan that separates the wheat from the chaff, remains at
work here at the Table as well. The
Table is a dangerous place to come.
Paul warned us that there is
a way to come to this Table in an unworthy manner – and it could be summed up
this way: proclaiming yourself to be a
follower of Jesus but refusing to act like it – especially in how you are
treating others here with you at this Table – right now. You must come with faith and with the faith
that is connected to honest repentance and a contrite heart. The Table is a dangerous place.
But the only place to escape
the danger of this place if you are a baptized member is to come and find
refuge here in faith and with that contrite heart. There is no safety in not coming and there is
no safety in coming with any hypocrisy.
But thanks be to God, through Jesus, there is the Way, the only Way, to
escape the danger of this Table and receive all its benefits.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Trust and Hope
This Table is a Table of
Trust and Hope. It is a place that we
are to come to where our trust and hope is nourished in the One who is worthy
of our undivided trust and hope. His
body and blood were given on behalf of us, to redeem us, to pay for our sin, to
set us free from the wrath that we were due.
This Table recalls and memorializes our past rescue.
But it declares our present and future rescues as well. In His providence, His perfect providence over all things, God promises to provide for us everything that we need for life and godliness in Christ Jesus. “Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His mercy.” This Table is therefore our help and shield for He is our help and shield. In which ways do you need to trust today in the LORD? In which ways do you need to hope in Christ today – this week – this time in your life? Well then, welcome to the Table of trust and hope.
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