Study, Study, Study

D.A. Carson in today’s “For the Love of God” post…

“There is no long-range effective teaching of the Bible that is not accompanied by long hours of ongoing study of the Bible. Effectiveness in teaching the Bible is purchased at the price of much study, some of it lonely, all of it tiring. If you are not a student of the Word, you are not called to be a teacher of the Word.”

Painted Nothings

Of the Boy and the Butterfly by John Bunyan

Behold, how eager this our little boy
Is for a butterfly, as if all joy,
All profits, honours, yea, and lasting pleasures,
Were wrapped up in her, or the richest treasures
Found in her would be bundled up together,
When all her all is lighter than a feather.

He halloos, runs, and cris out, “Here, boys, here!”
Nor doth he brambles or the nettles fear:
He stumbles at the molehills, up he gets,
And runs again, as one bereft of wits;
And all his labour and his large outcry
Is only for a silly butterfly.

Comparison

This little boy an emblem is of those
Whose hearts are wholly at the world’s dispose.
The butterfly doth represent to me
The world’s best things at best but fading be.”
All are but painted nothings and false joys,
Like this poor butterfly to these our boys.

His running through nettles, thorns, and briers,
To gratify his boyish found desires,
His tumbling over molehills to attain
His end, namely, his butterfly to gain,
Doth plainly show what hazards some men run
To get what will be lost as soon as won.

John Bunyan

I Will Bear It

Excerpt from Spurgeon’s For the Sick and Afflicted:

No affliction from which we suffer has come to us by chance. We are not left to the misery of believing that things happen of themselves, and are independent of a divinely controlling power. We know that not a drop of bitter ever falls into our cup unless the wisdom of our heavenly Father has placed it there. We are not even left in a world governed by angels, or ruled by cherubim; we dwell where everything is ordered by God himself. Shall we rebel against the Most High? Shall we not let him do as seemeth good in his sight? Shall we not cover our lip in silence when we know that the evil is of the Lord? Shame upon us, if we be his children, if this be not the prevalent spirit of our mind-”It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.” Moreover, we should not only bear all things because the Lord ordains them, but because he orders all things for a wise, kind, beneficent purpose. He doth not afflict willingly. He takes no delight in the sufferings of his children. Whenever adversity must come it is always with a purpose; and, if a purpose of God is to be subserved by my suffering, would I wish to escape from it? If his glory will come of it, shall I not even crave the honor of being the agent of his glory, even though it be by lying passive and enduring in anguish. Yes, beloved, since we know that God can only grieve his regenerated creatures for some purpose of love, we should willingly accept whatever sorrow he pleases to put upon us. And we have his assurance, besides, that all things work together for our good. Our trials are not merely sent with a good object, but with an object good towards ourselves, a design which is being answered by every twig of our heavenly father’s rod. “The cup which our Father hath given us, shall we not drink it?” It is healing medicine and not deadly poison, therefore let us put it to our lips without a murmur, ay, quaff it to its very dregs, and say, “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

Cherishing the Cross

Need of Jesus (from the Valley of Vision collection of prayers)

Lord Jesus,
I am blind, be thou my light,
ignorant, be thou my wisdom,
self-willed, be thou my mind.

Open my ear to grasp quickly thy Spirit’s voice,
and delightfully run after his beckoning hand;
Melt my conscience that no hardness remain,
make it alive to evil’s slightest touch;
When Satan approaches may I flee to thy wounds,
and there cease to tremble at all alarms.

Be my good shepard to lead me into the green pastures of thy Word,
and cause me to lie down beside the rivers of its comforts.

Fill me with peace, that no disquieting worldly worldly gales
may ruffle the calm surfaces of my soul.

Thy cross was upraised to be my refuge,
Thy blood streamed forth to wash me clean,
Thy death occurred to give me a surety,
Thy name is my property to save me,
By thee all heaven is poured into my heart,
but it is too narrow to comprehend thy love.

I was a stranger, an outcast, a slave, a rebel,
but they cross has brought me near,
has softened my heart,
has made me thy Fathers’ child,
has admitted me to thy family,
has made me joint-heir with thyself.

O that I may love thee as thou lovest me,
that I may walk worthy of thee, my Lord,
that I may reflect the image of heaven’s first-born.

May I always see thy beauty with the clear eye of faith, and feel the power of thy Spirit in my heart,
for unless he move mightily in me
no inward fire will be kindled.

The Power of the Cross

Oh, to see the dawn
Of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men,
Torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood.

CHORUS:
This, the pow’r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath-
We stand forgiven at the cross.

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev’ry bitter thought,
Ev’ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

Now the daylight flees;
Now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two,
Dead are raised to life;
“Finished!” the vict’ry cry.

Oh, to see my name
Written in the wounds,
For through Your suffering I am free.
Death is crushed to death;
Life is mine to live,
Won through Your selfless love.

The Power of the Cross by Keith Getty & Stuart Townend

Gorgeous Flip

Bad Shepherds

Cornerstone’s elders spend a lot of time talking about shepherding.  I’m not claiming to be good at it, but we’re passionate about it.  We want to shepherd well, and we want to equip lots of people to shepherd well.

When the Bible talks about leadership, it often uses the image of shepherding.  A shepherd with his flock implies all the things we normally associate with leadership (like management, authority, and so on), but it also implies something about relationships (provision, protection, and intensely personal care).

One of the major problems in ancient Israel was bad leadership.  Ezekiel 34 is one of the classic texts against bad shepherds in ancient Israel.  I scanned the prophets for God’s criticism of leadership and then developed these categories of emphasis:

The Hound of Heaven

The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson (1859-1907)

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbéd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat-and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet-
“All things betray thee, who betrayest Me.”

Humble Orthodoxy

When denominations change their doctrinal statements, the changes usually move away from what previous generations would have recognized as true.  In contrast, the Evangelical Free Church of America recently revised its Statement of Faith to simply reaffirm what the 1950 framers believed, but in a modern context.

For example, the revision strengthens our statement about the Bible’s reliability by adding the lines, “The Bible is…the ultimate authority by which every realm of human knowledge and endeavor should be judged.”  Also, ”[The Bible] is to be believed in all that it teachers, obeyed in all that it requires, and trusted in all that it promises.”

The Bible “without error” has always been essential to evangelicalism.  But the hot philosophical questions today relate to epistemology (how do we know what we know?).  Many people question the Bible’s clarity in ways that the 1950 framers did not anticipate.

People today say, “Since God is incomprehensible and we are only human, we cannot claim to have any firm understanding of Him or His truth.” This attitude is characteristic of America’s growing relativism.  In the EFCA we’re concerned about the slippery slope of questioning God’s ability to communicate clearly.  Inevitably, having lost confidence in the Bible, people begin to disregard whatever they don’t like about the Bible, regardless of how clear it is.  This impacts sexuality, God’s attributes, and even the Gospel itself.

We believe that God is incomprehensible and glorious beyond our full comprehension.  In Isaiah 55:8 God says, “My thoughts are not your thoughts.”  However, we also believe that God is our all-powerful Creator who can communicate very clearly about whatever He wants us to understand.  Therefore, I can have confidence in what God teaches in His Word, even though so much of it remains mysterious.

I know my friend Dan pretty well.  I’m confident he exists.  I’m confident about where he works, his favorite movies, what makes him laugh, and what it’s like to spend time with him.  But other people know Dan better.  I certainly don’t know Dan fully.  Something similar is at work in my relationship with God.

This approach to Bible interpretation gives a preacher something substantive to say.  Of course the very word “preach” sounds bizarre today, mainly because it implies the duty to listen and respond, as to an authority.  Modern American individualism bristles at this.

If the sermon is a dumb lecture about the preacher’s opinions and prejudices, then we should reject it.  But if the preacher works hard and humbly to bridge the gap between what the Bible says and what we currently understand, then the sermon has clarity and Authority that cannot be rejected without harm.  It is God’s Word.

Christians welcome God’s right to speak truth into our confusion.  True to form, the Bible nails our predicament with these hopeful words: “Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face” (1 Cor. 13:12).

See this link for more re: the EFCA Statement of Faith revisions.

Guilt Is Good

Remember the classic Gordon Gekko line, “Greed is good!”  I’ve got a new one: “Guilt is good.”

Why is guilt good?

Answer: Because it protects us from harm.

Fear works the same way.  Fear is good because when we see danger, like an angry German Shepherd, we run.  The only reason I wear a seat belt is because I’m afraid of what will happen if I don’t.  Fear is good.  God gave us fear to protect us from harm.

Same thing with guilt.  Guilt is a negative emotion that God gave us to protect us from harm.  Guilt is designed to make us run to God for safety.  But guilt, like fear, can be overwhelming and unhealthy, so let’s explore how to keep guilt in its place…

Reading to Ripen Marriage

The short list of my favorite books on marriage:

The Godly Home by Richard Baxter

What Did You Expect? by Paul Tripp

When Sinners Say I Do by Dave Harvey

Sex, Romance and the Glory of God by C.J. Mahaney

Sexual Intimacy in Marriage by William Cutler and Sandra Glahn

God, Marriage, and Family by Andreas Kostenberger

Sex and the Supremacy of Christ by Piper/Taylor

This Momentary Marriage by John Piper

Leadership and Family Vacations by C.J. Mahaney (online article)

Reforming Marriage by Douglas Wilson (book).  Wilson is a know-it-all, but if you can handle him speaking down to you, you’ll find a few nuggets worth the price.

See also this longer list.