“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
(Luke 12:4-5 ESV)
One of the many paradoxes found in Scripture is this: the very Person we are to love unreservedly is the very Person we are to fear unreservedly. In other words, the God who is love (e.g., 1 John 4:8) is also the God who is holy (e.g., Exodus 3:2-6; Joshua 5:13-15; Luke 12:4,5). Herein lies a litmus test, of sorts, for all who claim to believe in God: if you truly believe in God, then your life (thoughts, speech, and actions) will be an ever-increasing testimony of both love and fear. It is not enough to believe that God exists—even the demons believe in God and they shudder (see James 2:19).
The Bible calls this blend of apparent contradictions (fear and love) worship. And it is only through this worship that we draw near to God.
But what exactly is the fear of the Lord? Why should I fear the Lord? And how do I practice the fear of the Lord in life’s daily grind? While scholars and theologians (people with much more “smarts” than I can lay claim to) have written volumes on this question, I will attempt to provide a brief working proposition:
To fear the Lord is to acknowledge the truth of Jesus’ statement in Luke 12:4-5 that God has both the power and the authority to make the ultimate and irrevocable disposition of my eternal soul! Now if that were the only consideration, then I would be foolish not to fear the Lord. But there is much more involved in this question than mere self-preservation.
The fear of the Lord begins to grow in our hearts and minds when we come to see God as He truly is—holy and completely other than we are. There is no one like God and when we begin to see God as He truly is, then an awareness of who we truly are begins to take shape. It is only through fear of the Lord that we begin to comprehend the depths of our sinfulness, the audacity of our rebellion against a wise and loving God.
This awareness of self is in contradistinction to God; that is, the distinctions are based upon qualitative differences. God is holy—we are not. God is all powerful—we are not. God is loving—we are not (in the sense that God loves unconditionally). And the differences continue to pile up—stark testimony for the need to fear God if we are to grasp wisdom to any meaningful degree. Yet, as we acknowledge God in His various attributes, the fear of the Lord assumes a richer, more satisfying role for us. We begin to understand that the fear of the Lord includes trusting His wisdom, relying upon His judgment in every situation, resting in His never-failing love when the storms of life threaten to capsize us.
But what does this fear of the Lord look like in the real world? In other words, how do I practice the fear of the Lord in life’s daily grind, whether at work (regardless of where you do that work), at home, at school, and so forth? An important insight for me has come from making the connection between the fear of the Lord and God’s steadfast love. We fear God for who He is and, because of who He is, we have hope.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear him,
on those who hope in his steadfast love,
that he may deliver their soul from death
and keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waits for the LORD;
he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
even as we hope in you. (Psalm 33:18-22 ESV)
When I began to make the connection between the fear of the Lord, the holiness of the Lord, and the love of the Lord, my fragmented understanding of life took on purpose and meaning in a way that I had not thought possible prior to making the connection. Now, the reason that I could make such a connection had nothing to do with my intellect, but it had everything to do with God’s love! And when I saw the connection between God’s love and my hope, and between my hope and God’s holiness, the only reasonable response of my heart toward God was a reverent fear.
Thus, the fear of the Lord is expressed through offering my life unreservedly to the one Who has withheld no good thing from me. The fear of the Lord is the response elicited by God’s steadfast love directed toward me. The fear of the Lord becomes our modus operandi in life’s daily grind. The fear of the Lord is poured back into our hearts by God as joy. This is what David wrote in Psalm 33 (above)—we are glad (joyful) in the God whom we fear! To practice the fear of the Lord, then, is to acknowledge God in all your ways and trust Him to direct your steps (see Proverbs 3:6).
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6 ESV)
There are many truth claims presupposed in one’s believing in God. Here are just a few of them: (1) God is holy and we are unholy; (2) Our sinfulness has separated us from a holy God; (3) God sent His Son (Jesus Christ) to bear the punishment for our sins; (4) Jesus Christ is the bridge between a holy God and sinful mankind and the only way of salvation; (5) Our only hope of being accepted by God is to place our trust in the saving work of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross as sufficient payment for our sins; (6) God changes the ruling passion of our lives (as revealed through our thoughts, speech, and actions) to reflect the holiness of God—which is a confirmation that we do, in fact, believe in God; and, (7) We seek wisdom from God so as to learn what He expects from His children (those who place their faith in His Son) and then eagerly obey Him.
Each one of these propositions represents an aspect of wisdom. Wisdom resides only in God’s presence and the nearer we draw to God, the wiser we become. This is counter-intuitive to unregenerate people, those to whom God refers in Scripture as fools and the simple. Fools are individuals whose lives are directed by information, not wisdom.
I am using the term information as a synonym for worldly wisdom and the opposite of God’s wisdom, which can only be attained through the fear of the Lord. So, if you trust to information and reject wisdom, then you are in an eternally precarious position—unless you turn this around, embrace wisdom, and reject information as a means of securing your future welfare, God says He will give you what you’ve asked for!
Because they hated knowledge
and did not choose the fear of the LORD,
would have none of my counsel
and despised all my reproof,
therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way,
and have their fill of their own devices.
For the simple are killed by their turning away,
and the complacency of fools destroys them;
but whoever listens to me will dwell secure
and will be at ease, without dread of disaster.” (Proverbs 1:29-33 ESV)
This is a word-picture of information parading as wisdom—it is deadly for those who trust in it. And it is all the more deadly because this worldly wisdom provides a false assurance, a misguided sense of security. Furthermore, although the verdict is death, it may be many years before the sentence is actually carried out, so that the foolish and simple imbibe information and their spiritual senses become dulled and complacency leads them blindly into destruction.
Having said that, I want to emphasize again that I am not opposed to information per se. As I stated in the previous post, I am not saying that we need to shun all information. What I am saying is that we must learn to use information as a tool. Information comes at us at such a relentless pace that we need a strategy for sifting and discerning. By practicing the fear of the Lord we gain wisdom, leading to understanding and knowledge. A wise person uses knowledge. A foolish person is seduced by information masquerading as wisdom.
The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth a message that continues to be Headline News today—as urgent now as when it was first penned. It is God’s wisdom that informs us of God’s purpose and God’s perspective. And at the heart of God’s wisdom we find the cross of Christ.
For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25 ESV)
We hear an echo in these verses of God’s Word through the prophet Isaiah, when he said,
“Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7 ESV)
What this means is that, in reality, we each have only two options confronting us, two paths available to us: either we accept, embrace, and submit to God’s wisdom, which is foolishness to the world—or we reject God’s wisdom and accept, embrace, and submit to the wisdom of this world, which is foolishness to God. Either way we will look foolish to someone. (By the way, not choosing God’s wisdom is de facto rejection of God’s wisdom!) After reviewing this information given to us, information that is interpreted through the wisdom of God, the only question worth asking is: Whose fool are you? Choose God’s wisdom—which is to choose life—and you will appear foolish for a season, but you will have the assurance that you have an eternal home with God. Chose the world’s wisdom—which is to reject God’s wisdom—and you may have an easier road to travel for your brief span on this globe, but the end of that road is destruction. Or as the apostle James wrote,
Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (James 4:4 ESV)
And it’s not at all a pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by choice which is devoid of joy here-and-now. Have you ever meditated upon this fantastic statement made in Psalm 25 about the blessings that accompany the fear of the Lord?
Who is the man who fears the LORD?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.
The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant. (Psalm 25:12-14 ESV)
If you fear the Lord you will become wise and God offers you His friendship. Verse 14 in the New International Version reads, The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them. In other words, God takes them into His confidence—they can be trusted with the wisdom of God. As we approach the Lord in an attitude of love and fear (reverent worship), we begin to see our wisdom in light of God’s wisdom and we begin to value what God values. In other words, we begin to understand God’s perspective, His view of the reality He has authored. Hard on the heels of His call (see Isaiah 55:6-7 quoted above) to the wicked to forsake his way (worldly wisdom and rejection of God) and to seek God’s pardon, we read the ultimate news flash:
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9 ESV)
Thus, in the end it will not do to say, “I meant well, after all” or “His heart is in the right place.” God is in control. He has the big picture. His thoughts are the thoughts that matter in this universe of His. His ways are higher than our ways, and His means are higher (more noble and of greater effect) than our means. This is the fear of Lord leading to wisdom—that we begin to appropriate God’s perspective and this leads to the acquisition of more and more wisdom. God’s perspective gives us the understanding that there is a unified view of life and the assurance that through the fear of the Lord we can ask God to confide in us, to make us wise, to share His thoughts with us and to help us make wise use of information to serve God’s ends.
And, in the final analysis, Wisdom Trumps Information Every Time!
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. (James 1:5-6 ESV)
Soli Deo Gloria!
By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures.
(Proverbs 24:3-4 NIV)
We live in an age of tweets, nods, pokes, instant messages, and all manner of texting. When I visit my facebook page, I am amazed at the sheer amount of information that people post there. Going through the checkout line at Wal-Mart or at a supermarket or convenience store is like running a gauntlet of gossip headlines. Our senses are constantly being bombarded by visual and auditory noise, and that often clothed in the guise of information.
I confess that I am an information-aholic. Given the opportunity, I can sit for hours watching cable news programs (and everything nowadays is a headline!), listening to the incessant reporting while trying to catch every tick of the tickertape at the bottom of the screen, constantly frustrated by commercial interruptions mid-tick. I am an easy mark for information and I am in constant danger of having my worldview shaped and directed by the words of television news shows, internet news sites, or newspapers, instead of by the Word of God. Furthermore, I suspect that I am not alone is this regard!
God’s Word tells us that our spiritual house is built by wisdom and information is not wisdom. Our information streams are the chatskis that clutter our rooms, while knowledge fills our rooms with rare and beautiful treasures. Information is cheap, but wisdom and knowledge can only be gained through the fear of the Lord. Consider the following:
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever! (Psalm 111:10 ESV)
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. (Proverbs 1:7 ESV)
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (Proverbs 9:10 ESV)
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:44 ESV)
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it. (Matthew 13:45-46 ESV)
Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” (John 6:27 ESV)
Jesus warns us against setting our hearts on the wrong goal and points us instead to Himself. This “food that endures to eternal life” comes to us through the fear of the Lord leading to the acquisition of wisdom (understanding and knowledge).
Please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that we need to shun all information, but that we learn to use information as a tool. Information comes at us at such a relentless pace that we need a strategy for sifting and discerning. By practicing the fear of the Lord we gain wisdom, leading to understanding and knowledge. A wise person uses knowledge. A foolish person is manipulated by information.
The snare is that we don’t have to work at gaining information—it just blows over us like a stiff breeze through an open window. It requires little from us in the way of thinking and intellectual engagement with the content. Receiving information—as opposed to acquiring knowledge—requires no real effort, just a passive acquiescence.
On the other hand, gaining wisdom, understanding, and knowledge takes a long-range commitment, a determined effort, and intellectual exertion—a.k.a. thinking. The long-term result is that we develop the spiritual and intellectual discernment that enables us to use information as a tool to serve the purposes of God. But thinking is hard work! Thinking takes discipline—a discipline that has been undervalued in the church for generations.
In his book, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, John Piper makes the case for the importance of loving God with our minds: “If we abandon thinking, we abandon the Bible, and if we abandon the Bible we abandon God….The remedy for barren intellectualism is not anti-intellectualism, but humble, faithful, prayerful, Spirit-dependent, rigorous thinking” (p. 123).
This “Spirit-dependent, rigorous thinking” begins with the fear of the Lord which opens the door to knowledge and understanding (Psalm 111:10). But what does it mean to fear the Lord and how is that the beginning of wisdom? These questions will be considered in part two.
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)
Soli Deo Gloria!
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
I don’t know about you, but I often seem to find myself in situations where I just don’t know what to do. Case in point: every time I go to a bookstore I quickly succumb to sensory overload—there are too many good books, too many interesting topics, too many choices. On more than one occasion I have been reduced to wandering aimlessly back and forth among the same stacks, pulling out the same books, trying to decide what to do. Eventually I might find one or two interesting books only to find one or two others that also appeal to me. I agonize over which one to buy, finally decide on one or two, stand in a checkout line for a while thinking about whether this is the right choice, only to put everything back and leave the store with nothing but my indecision!
However, if I am given a list and told to go buy the things on that list (and only those things) I am decisiveness personified. I am shopping! This happens regularly when I am sent on an errand to the grocery store. With my shopping list in hand I am doing what I know to do! I am like a hot knife cutting through butter as I stride purposefully down aisle after aisle, whipping around corners, confident in my ability to do what I know to do.
More often than not, when it comes to knowing God’s will most of us seem to be more like “bookstore” me than “grocery store” me—we just don’t know what to do. We know that the prayer God always answers is the prayer that is in agreement with His will (1 John 5:14). This is true—once we apprehend God’s will we can be confident that He will answer our prayers in the affirmative. But the proving ground for our maturing prayer life is just here where we wrestle before God in our desire to know His mind and how we are to see our circumstances in order to pray according to His will.
This is not a treatise on prayer and I am not holding myself up as an authority on the will of God. But I do know a few things, truths that I’ve learned in my sojourn with Christ that I trust will be encouraging to you, things that may give you strength for the journey. The first thing I’ve learned is that there are no short cuts to knowing God’s will, no “three easy steps” for how to pray to get results. God is involved in our lives for the long haul and we must reciprocate with a commitment to developing our character along biblical lines. We learn to pray God’s will by doing what we know to do. We learn to pray God’s will by finding explicit statements of God’s will in Scripture and praying those things. We learn the vocabulary of prayer through having our minds and our hearts saturated with the Word of God—to the point of taking verses of the Bible and turning them into our own prayers to God. And we learn to pray by praying and by asking God to teach us to pray.
Here is a crucial truth that we need to be reminded of regularly—God wants us to know His will. He is not playing a game of hide-and-seek with His children. We must be on guard against the cultural stereotypes of God that continually assault us and that can wear us down and discourage us in our quest to know God’s will. For example, I still remember Sunday school lessons from my childhood that left me with the strong impression of God as an arbitrary, cranky Judge. I have no memory from those years of hearing about God as a loving Father and a mighty Advocate!
I will state it once more—God wants us to know His will. God reveals His will to those who have been born of the Holy Spirit, who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ as the only way to God, the only means of forgiveness and cleansing from sin. The Bible says about us, …if God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31b). God is for us. We are not alone in our praying. We are told in Scripture that God Himself prays for us. God the Holy Spirit is praying God’s will for us:
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27)
God the Son, Jesus Christ, is also praying God’s will for us:
Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)
Here are some things that we know. We know that God always answers prayer that is in agreement with His will. And we know that we are not left to our own devices, to stumble around, as it were, seeking ways and means to influence God to do what we ask of Him. Furthermore, we know that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are always praying God’s will to God the Father on behalf of those who love God and who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). This knowledge should be a great source of comfort to us as we seek to know God’s will in prayer for each and every circumstance of our lives on this earth. Understand, however, that if we would know God’s will we must first know God! We cannot reap a harvest if we’ve never sown seeds into the field. Knowing God and learning to hear His voice takes commitment and the hard work of devotion.
You may be reading this and thinking, “But what about the things I need answers to right now? How do I pray God’s will now when I don’t have a clue what God’s will is in my situation? In other words, there are many things I don’t know the answer to in my life. What am I to do?”
You may not be able to do what you don’t know to do, but you need to do what you know to do. When life situations threaten to overwhelm us with their seriousness, their insistent clamor for our attention, their relentless pressure upon us to the point of distraction, what can we do? Our attention must be directed to doing what we know to do. David found himself in just such a situation at a time when his fellow Israelites were in a panic and a dither. He gives this account in Psalm 11:1-4.
In the LORD I take refuge;
how can you say to my soul,
“Flee like a bird to your mountain,
for behold, the wicked bend the bow;
they have fitted their arrow to the string
to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
if the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”
The LORD is in his holy temple;
the LORD’s throne is in heaven…
Notice the quotation marks around the words of despair and hopelessness. These are the words being hurled at David and to which David responds with righteous indignation. David may or may not have known everything about the situation, but he did what he knew to do. He proclaimed God’s faithfulness, His sovereign power, His ultimate control of their situation. And as David did what he knew to do his faith was built up. When I read this psalm my faith is built up as well.
I began by quoting Paul’s words to the church at Thessalonica which I will repeat here:
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)
When you are hard pressed to know God’s will concerning special needs, don’t focus on what you don’t know, go back to what you do know and make sure you are doing what you know to be God’s will for you at all times and in all situations: rejoice always; pray without ceasing; give thanks in all circumstances. Be being sanctified—this is also God’s will for you (see 1 Thessalonians 4:3). Doing good and thus silencing the ignorance of foolish people is God’s will for you (see 1 Peter 2:15). Praying for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven is God’s will for you (see Matthew 6:9-10). These are things you know to do. Do what you know to do! This is the fertile ground of our prayer fellowship with God.
Doing what we know to do trains our hearts and mind in the things of God. Regularly reading God’s Word, hiding God’s Word in our hearts (memorizing Scripture) so that we don’t sin against God, meditating on God’s Word (learning to think biblically)—these are disciplines that train us to know God’s will. Some of the training is along the lines of the negative—we learn what not to do, what is not God’s will for us. Slowly but surely we begin to build a knowledge base of things that are God’s will, things that are pleasing to God, things that we can ask for in prayer. Slowly but surely we also begin to build a knowledge base of things that are not God’s will, which frees up our minds to focus on what we can know and what we can do.
Here is a short list of encouragements to help you do what you know to do:
- Prayer is the fruit of fellowship with God and requires us to listen more than we talk. This fruit takes time and requires cultivation in order to ripen and mature.
- Don’t wait till you have full knowledge of a situation to pray—pray now!
- Trust God to show you what you need to know (not necessarily what you want to know) in order to pray effectively.
- Ask God to show you His will as you pray.
- Do what you know to do as you wait upon God to show you the next thing to do.
- Remind yourself as you seek God’s will that God is for you!
- Pray! Pray! Pray!
Soli Deo Gloria!
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. (Matthew 22:37)
I always appreciate hearing from friends about the books that they have been reading. That being true for me, I assume it is true for you as well. So in the interest of partial disclosure, I am posting this short blurb to mention a few of the books that I’ve read this year. The Bookends are the two books with which I began the year way back in January and the two books that I am currently reading as the year 2010 draws to a close. (FYI: These are four books that I would heartily recommend for anyone’s personal library.)
The cold and snowy month of January 2010 was for me a time to curl up with several good books (“curl up” being merely a figure of speech, as I don’t curl as well as I used to!) and many steaming cups of hot chocolate. The January bookend held two books in particular that I can’t wait to read again:
Faithful God: An Exposition of the Book of Ruth by Sinclair Ferguson, Bryntirion Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-1-85049-216-0
Sample Passage:
The book of Ruth shows us in miniature form, but in considerable detail, how wise God’s sovereign purposes really are.
We are not able to detect with perfect clarity the hand of God in the circumstances of our lives, far less see where he is heading with them. But when we find his autograph in the narratives of biblical history, we begin to recognize the same or similar patterns and principles emerging in our own lives too—and so we learn to see his handwriting in our own experience. (p. 14)
Joseph: The Hidden Hand of God by Liam Goligher, Christian Focus Publications, 2008. ISBN: 978-1-84550-368-0
Sample Passage:
Genesis has been painting a portrait of God’s character. He is the true hero of the story. Presented as the creator, preserver, and saviour of His people, He is active in creation, providence, and redemption. This whole section at the end of Genesis is teaching us that history is in His hands; both the large-scale histories of peoples and nations, and the small-scale histories of individuals. This God has a plan and He is working to a script. We need to keep this in mind as we continue through this drama. For, as I pointed out in an earlier chapter, it is precisely in this area that the God of the Bible is being attacked by some from within the evangelical community today. Advocates of ‘Open Theism’ want to say that God doesn’t know the future in any meaningful sense. Certainly they don’t like the idea that He has planned it….In Joseph’s own words to his brothers, which form Moses’ own explanation of events, ‘you meant it for evil, God meant it for good.’…The free decisions of these men served His purposes after all. (p. 76)
Concurrent with the season of Advent, December’s bookend includes two books I am currently working through:
The Hidden Life of Prayer: The lifeblood of the Christian by David McIntyre, Christian Focus Publications, 2010 (first published in 1891). ISBN: 978-1-84550-586-8
Sample Passage:
But St. Luke tells us that it was his habit to withdraw himself into the wilderness and pray (Luke 5:16).
Our Authorized Version does not at all give us the force of the original in this verse. Dean Vaughan comments on it thus: ‘It was not one withdrawal, nor the wilderness, nor one prayer—all is plural in the original—the withdrawals were repeated; the wildernesses were more than one, the prayers were habitual.’ Crowds were thronging and pressing him; great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed of their infirmities; and he had not leisure so much as to eat. But he found time to pray.
…Nor are we to imagine that his prayers were merely peaceful meditations, or rapturous acts of communions. They were strenuous and warlike, from that hour in the wilderness when angels came to minister to the prostrate Man of Sorrows, on to that awful ‘agony’ in which his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood. His prayers were sacrifices, offered up with ‘strong crying and tears’. (pp. 41-42)
Completing the December bookend is a brand new addition to my library:
Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God by John Piper, Crossway, 2010. ISBN: 978-1-4335-2071-6
Sample Passage:
Thinking is indispensable on the path to passion for God. Thinking is not an end in itself. Nothing but God himself is finally an end in itself. Thinking is not the goal of life. Thinking, like non-thinking, can be the ground for boasting. Thinking, without prayer, without the Holy Spirit, without obedience, without love, will puff up and destroy (1 Cor. 8:1). But thinking under the mighty hand of God, thinking soaked in prayer, thinking carried by the Holy Spirit, thinking tethered to the Bible, thinking in pursuit of more reasons to praise and proclaim the glories of God, thinking in the service of love—such thinking is indispensable in a life of fullest praise to God.
…Too often, the church has been ambivalent about “the life of the mind.” America, in particular, has a long history of evangelical suspicion of education and intellectual labor.” (pp. 27-28)
These are my 2010 Bookends. In addition to several works of fiction that I’ve read throughout the year, I once more picked up (after a lengthy hiatus) Timothy Keller’s The Reason for God. I also have been reading through the “Men of Faith” series (a.k.a. biography-lite) from our church library (currently reading a Jonathan Edwards bio). And, I have begun to reread Oswald Chambers: His Life and Works, which I first read in 1985.
(There is still time to order any or all of these books—they make great stocking-stuffers!)
Soli Deo Gloria!
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
(Romans 12:2)
Having read many western novels over the years, I now consider myself something of an authority on the western genre. I know, for example, that in westerns when a horse is to pull a wagon or cart, the driver often says, “Giddyup, horse” or “Giddyup, boy” or just “Giddyup” when he wants the horse to start moving. But one thing I have never—and I mean never—read in a novel or heard in a western movie is a cowboy saying “Giddyup cart”. That is because the horse always pulls the cart and to say, “Giddyup cart” would be putting the cart before the horse!
Perhaps you now have a mental picture of a cart hitched to a horse, with the cart in front. It’s not very efficient and it is not something that any sane person would do. Yet how often are we guilty of the equivalent foolishness in our spiritual life? Maybe we try to discern what is the will of God, without first making the commitment to being transformed by the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2). We continue to conform to this world (“to the pattern of this world” NIV) and wonder why we cannot consistently discern the will of God. We get nowhere fast, because we have the cart before the horse. For some of us this is a fixed pattern of behavior which leaves us scratching our heads and wondering what went wrong, why we are no closer to knowing God’s will now than we were five or ten or twenty years ago? And with this cart-before-the-horse spiritual pattern one can easily predict the same results five or ten or twenty years down the road. This is a tragic illustration of the classic definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results!
I have had occasion recently to meditate on the importance of our words—speaking words that conform to the truth of Scripture versus speaking words that reflect our perspectives, our upbringing, our many words that proceed from selfish ambition or impure motives. Our words are important! I am not referring here to the formulas that would ensnare us once again by a kind of bondage that Christ has released us from (see Galatians 5:1). This is merely another form of works-righteousness.
The point I am making is that we need to consider how to please God with our words, bringing our habits and patterns of speaking into line with Jesus’ teaching about the importance of what we say and the words we speak.
The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45)
Most Christians would agree that the words we speak are important and that we should be more attentive to the kinds of things we say. But it’s not enough to resolve to speak correctly. I have made and broken this commitment so many times over the years that resolving once more to speak the “right kind” of words makes my neck and shoulders begin to chafe in anticipation of a new ill-fitting yoke being prepared for me! I get a lingering sense of unease when I hear people say that our words in some shape or form create our reality, or that we are what we speak. I seem to hear distant echoes of “Giddyup cart!”.
Attempting to change our speech patterns never seems to work for long. This is because trying to revolutionize our speech without first having a change of heart is putting the cart before the horse. It is one more version of works-righteousness, trying to gain God’s approval by what we do rather than trusting to Christ’s righteousness and to the power of the Holy Spirit to sanctify us, to change us from within so that the treasures of our hearts are good treasures and the words that are products of our hearts are good words, appropriate words, fitting words. It is not enough to conform outwardly to an arbitrary standard of what we can or cannot say. Romans 12:2 informs us that we are desperately in need of a transformation, a renewal of mind so that by testing we “may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
What we truly believe in our heart of hearts always comes out of our mouths at the most inconvenient times! So any attempt to change our speech patterns without a change of heart is about as effective as putting the cart before the horse—it just won’t work. But there is Good News in this arena, as in every realm of our existence! God is committed to our sanctification and God knows how to hitch up the horse and cart properly, so that we will arrive at His desired goal for us.
If we cry out to God for His power to transform our hearts and renew our minds, then we will see lasting fruit produced by our speech disciplines. When our hearts are right with God and our wills are submitted to His will, then we will be working with God instead of working for ourselves. When we do God’s things God’s way, being directed by His Spirit, we will have the horse before the cart. And when we say “Giddyup” we’re going to get somewhere fast and we will have a more peaceful journey!
A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.
(Proverbs 25:11)
Soli Deo Gloria!
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
(Matthew 2:1-2)
Who doesn’t love a good story? Although our tastes in stories may vary, I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t like the Christmas story…well, the Madison Avenue version anyway. I suspect that one reason for the universal appeal is that no one really feels threatened by a heartwarming tale. There is no conviction of sin implied by singing songs about a helpless baby, no admission of guilt evoked by watching The Night The Animals Talked. As long as Santa and Rudolph aren’t overshadowed, Christmas will continue to be a good season for retailers and people will continue to have a variety of stories to choose from.
There are many good stories that people have told over the years relating to Christmas and the Christmas season. Yet they all fall far short when compared to the drama, the anticipation, the joy, and the power found in God’s story. No other story could ever be as compelling.
The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)
This is a central truth of the Christmas story. Now it gets personal. In order to believe the Christmas story, we must also believe in a personal God who sent His own Son, His only Son into the world to save the world. This is known as the Incarnation—God took on human form and did what no other human being ever has or could do—He lived a sinless life.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:16-18)
This, too, is part of the Christmas story, the heart of God’s overarching story. God sent His Son into the world on a divine rescue mission—to save us from our sins, to mend a broken world. But we are accustomed to having the whole story now and this broken world will not be completely repaired until the time appointed by God (it is His story after all). We want life to be a “choose your own ending” story with every ending being characterized by love. But our choices in this life have consequences and the choice for a truly happy ending means choosing to receive God’s story in its fullness on God’s terms. Our smaller stories within God’s larger story must align with God’s goals if we want to have a happy ending characterized by love.
But here we come to a roadblock, a hitch in the story. We often understand love as an emotion; to God it is an integral part of His character and a motivating factor in His story. And please be clear on this: God’s story is the greatest love story ever told. The problem we often encounter when we read God’s story is that how we define love is not how God defines love. Here we find the power of God’s story as seen in the Christmas story:
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)
What this means is that our sins have separated us from a holy God. In the Christmas story, we have God the Son willingly becoming one of us, becoming the sin-bearer for us who could never answer to the legitimate charges lodged against us as cosmic lawbreakers. God’s justice demands an accounting for our sin. God’s mercy has provided a substitute. God’s Love bore our penalty. This is what is meant by the expression “…and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” By taking upon Himself the full penalty for our sins, Jesus Christ turned aside God’s wrath for those who place their trust in Him, who choose to enter fully into God’s story. This is the Good News found only in God’s story: The Christ-child, the sweet babe in the manger grew up to be the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)
As soon as we begin to investigate God’s story an uncomfortable fact confronts us: God’s story is about every person ever created—God’s story is my story; God’s story is your story. But it is first, last, and always supremely God’s story. We can believe God’s story or we can reject God’s story…but our response to God’s story has no bearing on its truth claims. God’s story is the universal story of mankind. If you are still reading this then you are either agreeing with me or arguing with me; but the point is that God’s story forces us to take a stance, to have an opinion.
Refusing to believe God’s story and to receive it on God’s terms does not make it impersonal or not-personal-to-me or not my story. We may receive or reject the full revelation of God’s story as summarized in the Christmas story, but opting out of God’s story is not an option for any of us.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
(Luke 2:11)
Soli Deo Gloria!
Then I said, “I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.” (Psalm 77:10)
Where do you go when there is no where to go? Where do you turn when you are boxed in? What do you do when your contingency plans disintegrate before your eyes?
One of the many great treasures of the Scriptures is that they show God’s people with all their foibles and failures. They are, in fact, just like us with the same imperfections, the same sin nature, the same hopes and fears and triumphs…the same God. And this God—our God—has a wonderful history of involvement with His people.
I am reminded of a time in Israel’s history when one of God’s servants was deeply troubled. His name was Asaph, a man who trusted God implicitly, a man who has taught me great lessons about how to express myself to God in the midst of joy and sorrow. In Psalm 77, we read about a time when Asaph was suffering extreme emotional anguish, whether about something in his life or relating to God’s people is unclear. What is clear, however, is that Asaph was experiencing physical and emotional pain because of his situation.
In the midst of his suffering, Asaph asked five penetrating questions, the kinds of questions we tend to ask God when we don’t see any tangible evidence that our prayers are getting through to Him. Asaph asked these questions in Psalm 77:7-9:
1) “Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable?”
2) “Has his steadfast love forever ceased?”
3) “Are his promises at an end for all time?”
4) “Has God forgotten to be gracious?”
5) “Has he in anger shut up his compassion?”
We can relate to these questions because they are common to our experiences with God in prayer. Throughout our days on earth we encounter one situation after another that drive us to our knees, that empty us of strength and resolve, that trouble our souls. Yet, when we cry out to God for help, it often seems as if we have been left to handle this one on our own.
If the psalmist had stopped there we would be caught up with him in a downward spiral. But by God’s grace Asaph was able to find a handhold that allowed him to interrupt his emotional freefall. He realized that the answer to all his questions were to be inextricably tied to who God is and what He has done. Asaph’s future with God was assured by God’s acts in history.
“Then I said, ‘I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.’I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.” (Psalm 77:10-12)
But what does it mean to appeal to the years of the right hand of the Most High? Asaph knew instinctively that his only hope was in the God who had demonstrated His faithfulness throughout history. So to appeal to the years of the right hand of the Most High was to recount (testify of) God’s power and rule (His right hand) over the people and events of history. God has been with countless people in desperate situations and He has delivered them; maybe not in the way they expected and maybe not immediately, but always ultimately!
As we read through the rest of Psalm 77, we find Asaph testifying about God’s faithfulness. We see the record of God’s mighty deeds piling up while Asaph’s faith is building up. Testifying of God’s faithfulness did not change Asaph’s situation, but it did change his perception of his situation and it brought emotional and physical relief, while teaching him a valuable lesson.
In the next-to-last verse in Psalm 77 (verse 19) Asaph states, “Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen.” God had led His people out of Egypt and rescued them from Pharaoh’s army when He parted the Red Sea. He went before them, yet he left no footprints.
Asaph came to the realization that God was leading him in the midst of his circumstances, whether or not he could see evidence of God’s presence and activity. And God gave Asaph a spiritual weapon: the power of testifying.
Testifying is not some gimmick we can pull out of our bag-of-tricks in order to manipulate God into giving us what we want. It is, rather, a discipline that allows us to speak truth into our minds and hearts when we are confused by trials and painful sufferings. When we find ourselves in difficult circumstances, often the way ahead with God is to look back at our history with God, at God’s history with His people, to meditate on the experiences of God’s faithful servants throughout history, such as Asaph. Testifying won’t necessarily change your circumstances, but it will change your perspective to bring your outlook into line with God.
“Then I said, ‘I will appeal to this, to the years of the right hand of the Most High.’ I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds.” (Psalm 77:10-12)
Testifying—It Does A Body Good!
Soli Deo Gloria!