It has been over a month since my last post. Typing is so difficult and I do so much of it in ministry that it is difficult to motivate myself to do more voluntarily :-). The numbness in my hands and feet remains the same. I am riding my bike about 18 miles three times per week but running is not possible. I am back to full strength except for the neuropathy. I had a CT scan earlier in September and I remain cancer free at this time. I will be getting blood work done every three months to watch for some sort of cancer marker. Pray that I will not complain about my numb hands and feet ( Philippians 2:14) but that I will "boast all the more gladly" of this weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Here is a verse I have been thinking about over the past month: "You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus." (2 Timothy 2:1) There are two questions to be answered. For what does Timothy need strength ? How does a person "be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus?"
If you keep reading in 2 Timothy you will discover for what Timothy needs strength . First he needs strength to do the work of ministry, particularly for the work of faithfully passing on the gospel he was taught by Paul to "faithful men who will be able to teach others also." The successful development of faithful teachers of the gospel requires strength that no person naturally possesses. Second, Timothy needs strength to "suffer hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus." Because he is a soldier of Jesus there are things which other Christians can do and enjoy but which he must voluntarily deny to himself because they do not fit the lifestyle of a soldier who aims to please the one who enlisted him. He must embrace a life of hard work and self-denial like that of the athlete who aims to win the prize and the farmer who wants an abundant harvest. Third, he needs strength to accept the risks entailed in faithfully preaching the gospel in the midst of a hostile culture, like his mentor Paul who was in prison for his faithfulness. All these things require strength which he does not naturally possess.
What is the grace that is in Christ Jesus and how are we strengthened by it? The grace that is in Christ are all the undeserved and unearned benefits which we receive because of what Christ has done for us. To mention but a few of these gracious benefits: forgiveness of all my sins, eternal life, being declared not guilty but perfectly righteous, adopted as God's child, an heir of God and co-heir with Christ, having Christ as my friend, my brother and my Lord, the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the promise that God is working all things for my good. the certain resurrection from the dead...and many more.
All of this grace strengthens us by means of or through faith. I believe that all these benefits are surely mine on the basis of Christ's person and work and so I believe that I have nothing to fear. There is no loss, no pain, no suffering that can compare with all I have in Christ. I can forgo legitimate earthly pleasures in order to obey Christ's call on my life because all denials will be more than made up for in the new heavens and the new earth. I am able to teach this gospel with complete confidence and passion to others because of all that is mine by it. I am weak and helpless to do and be all that God calls me to be and to do. However all the grace I have in Christ will provide me with all the strength I need to be and do his will for me.
Friday, September 28, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Disciplined but not dead
We just returned from our annual 2 week vacation in Door County. We normally go in mid July but last year there were so many dead fish on the beach where we stay that it was unusable. So we moved our vacation to late in August to make sure we did not encounter rotting fish again. This worked out perfectly with my chemotherapy as my last treatment was Aug 6 and we left for Door County on Aug 11. Thanks be to God for his arranging this for us. It was a very refreshing time spent with my children and grandchildren, mainly hanging out on the beach. It was also the most spiritually refreshing vacation I've ever had. I was able to do a lot of reading of good books and the Bible. I was strongly encouraged as a Christian and as a pastor by the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer as I read a new biography written by Eric Mataxas. I would strongly encourage everyone to read it.
Although I am no longer sick and weak the neuropathy in my hands and feet have gotten worse. They are very numb. I cannot button my buttons or untie knots and typing is very difficult as I do not feel the keys with my finger tips. The doc tells me that it should gradually get better and be gone in 6-8 months. I would appreciate your prayers for God to heal this numbness as I do a lot of writing on the computer.
A passage which the Lord used to encourage me is Psalm 118:18 which reads: "The Lord has disciplined me severely but he has not given me over to death." The psalm is about Jesus as v.22 is quoted numerous times in the NT in reference to Jesus. Thus v.18 is a description of how God the Father treated his Son. He disciplined him severely by subjecting him to the miseries of this life and ultimately to his suffering and death on the cross. However, even though he was severely disciplined by the Father, even to death on the cross, yet the Father did not give him over to the power of death but raised him from the dead. Thus, I am to see my cancer and the hardships associated with its treatment as God's discipline, just like my Savior. And, because of Jesus' living and dying and rising for me I also can say with Jesus that the Father has not given me over to death either. I too will be raised to life, victorious over death by the grace of God.
As I have said before, when we read of God's discipline of his children, including his only Son, we must not think in terms of punishment but of training, instruction. It is the love of God expressed in hardship to train us to prefer Christ and obedience to him above all else. In fact, Hebrews 5:8 says exactly this about Jesus, "Although he was a son he learned obedience through what he suffered." So once again we find this fact stated in the Scripture that all of our hardships are God's loving discipline of us and a sharing with Christ in his sufferings so that we learn that the love of God for us and our love for God, our obedience to God is better than everything this life offers. No matter how severe the discipline God sends it can never compare to the severity of that discipline that our Lord suffered. No matter how severe the suffering God sends to his children he will never give them over to death but will raise us to life with Christ at his return. This is our hope and our confidence in the midst of the trouble.
Although I am no longer sick and weak the neuropathy in my hands and feet have gotten worse. They are very numb. I cannot button my buttons or untie knots and typing is very difficult as I do not feel the keys with my finger tips. The doc tells me that it should gradually get better and be gone in 6-8 months. I would appreciate your prayers for God to heal this numbness as I do a lot of writing on the computer.
A passage which the Lord used to encourage me is Psalm 118:18 which reads: "The Lord has disciplined me severely but he has not given me over to death." The psalm is about Jesus as v.22 is quoted numerous times in the NT in reference to Jesus. Thus v.18 is a description of how God the Father treated his Son. He disciplined him severely by subjecting him to the miseries of this life and ultimately to his suffering and death on the cross. However, even though he was severely disciplined by the Father, even to death on the cross, yet the Father did not give him over to the power of death but raised him from the dead. Thus, I am to see my cancer and the hardships associated with its treatment as God's discipline, just like my Savior. And, because of Jesus' living and dying and rising for me I also can say with Jesus that the Father has not given me over to death either. I too will be raised to life, victorious over death by the grace of God.
As I have said before, when we read of God's discipline of his children, including his only Son, we must not think in terms of punishment but of training, instruction. It is the love of God expressed in hardship to train us to prefer Christ and obedience to him above all else. In fact, Hebrews 5:8 says exactly this about Jesus, "Although he was a son he learned obedience through what he suffered." So once again we find this fact stated in the Scripture that all of our hardships are God's loving discipline of us and a sharing with Christ in his sufferings so that we learn that the love of God for us and our love for God, our obedience to God is better than everything this life offers. No matter how severe the discipline God sends it can never compare to the severity of that discipline that our Lord suffered. No matter how severe the suffering God sends to his children he will never give them over to death but will raise us to life with Christ at his return. This is our hope and our confidence in the midst of the trouble.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Rejoice in hope
I've been meeting with a group of men every Tuesday in the late afternoon for the last 10 years. We gather together to "shoot the breeze", pray and study the Bible together. We've been working our way slowly through Paul's letter to the Romans. By slow I mean we've been in Romans for at least 7 of those 10 years. Personally, I've been helped in my own walk with Jesus enormously by meeting and praying and talking with these men.
As an example, last week we spent 40 minutes reflecting on Paul's command in Romans 12:10, "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." Our current facilitator, leader began our discussion by asking this question: "Does God want you to be happy?" After some spirited discussion we turned our attention to the fact that in this verse God commands us to be happy, to commands that we be full of joy. Therefore, it is not simply a desire that God has for us to be happy but he actually requires that we be happy, full joy.
However, then the obvious question follows: in what way does God require us to be happy? In what are we to rejoice? Clearly God does not want us to rejoice in doing evil. In this verse he commands that we be full of joy in hope. What is hope and what is our hope in that is supposed to be the ground of our joy? In the Bible the word hope is never used the way we normally use it in our conversations when we say things like "I hope it rains today" or "I hope the Brewers win today" We use the word as a synonym for "wish". However, the Bible uses the word to mean, "a confident expectation of future good." Biblical hope is a certainty. I know that this is going to happen, without a doubt. The reason biblical hope is not a wish but a certainty is because it is rooted in the finished work of Christ and all that promises that he has secured for all of his people forever.
Paul talks a lot about hope in his letter to the Romans prior to this command. In Romans 5:1-2 we are told: "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Here Paul tells us that every person who is trusting in Jesus and thus declared not guilty but perfectly righteous is right now already rejoicing in or being happy in "the hope of the glory of God." What does that mean? All Christians have a confident expectation that one day we will fully experience, in an immediate, present, ongoing way, the wonder and beauty and majesty of the great Tribune God in all of his glory that is able to be perceived by finite creatures like us. We will know his love and grace and holiness and justice and power and creativity and mercy and kindness and every aspect of his glorious being revealed to us in the person of the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus by the mighty work of the Holy Spirit.
But Paul also says that the hope which we have is right now causing us to rejoice. So then, if we are already experiencing it, why does he command us to rejoice in it in 12:10? Before we answer that question let's think for a moment about the relationship between a future hope and present joy. All of us have experienced this connection in our normal lives. Our family takes a two week vacation each summer to Door County. At any point during the year prior to our going all I have to do is think about being in Door County with my family and my heart feels happy. In fact, it is a regular occurrence throughout the year but especially as the vacation approaches that one of our children will remind us that we going to Door County in X number of days and then will say, "I can't wait to go." Thus expressing their hope and the joy they find in that hope. We are not in Door County but we have joy now as we anticipate being there. However, are we always full of joy in the hope of Door County? No because of the reality of sin and suffering in our lives.
It is the same reason for why Paul says we already have joy in the hope of the glory of God and also commands us to rejoice in the hope. He talks like this because of the fact of sin and suffering in this world. Sin is, at its core, putting our faith and hope in created things and the promises of pleasure that created things give us, rather then putting our faith and hope in God and his promises. Thus, the process of Christian growth is the fight to turn away from placing my hope for future good in money or relationships or success or vacations or a new car or sex or health or drugs or successful children or whatever and instead fixing my hope on this one certain thing: one day, by God's grace, I am going to fully experience the glory of God. Thus the experience of present joy is directly related to my consciously and intentionally fixing my mind and heart on that future glory and turning away from the unreliable promises of glory in created things.
However, not only does sin interfere with our hope inspired joy but also the sufferings of this life interfere with it as well. This world is full of trouble and misery that comes to us not as the result or our sin but simply by virtue of the fact that we still live in this world that is under God's curse. Suffering now is always painful and distracting. It is difficult when in the throes of some great trial to look beyond the trouble to our final destiny and find our joy in it. It is difficult to feel the joy when we feel the pain so strongly.
This is why it is so important to recognize how it is that Jesus endured the greatest trouble any human has ever experienced: he a completely perfect and righteous man suffered unjustly at the hands of men and endured the wrath due to us. Yet we are told in Hebrews 12:2 that he endured this greatest of all suffering in joy. This is exactly what Peter says is the experience of the believer when in some trial in 1 Peter 1:3-6, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials."
The experience of the Christian in the midst of some trial is one of grief in the trial and, at the same time, joy in the hope of that coming salvation. This is the normal Christian life. Grief and joy in the same heart at the same time. Weeping and rejoicing is our condition until that final day when Christ returns and then it will be only joy forever. Revelation 21:1-4, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'"
As an example, last week we spent 40 minutes reflecting on Paul's command in Romans 12:10, "Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer." Our current facilitator, leader began our discussion by asking this question: "Does God want you to be happy?" After some spirited discussion we turned our attention to the fact that in this verse God commands us to be happy, to commands that we be full of joy. Therefore, it is not simply a desire that God has for us to be happy but he actually requires that we be happy, full joy.
However, then the obvious question follows: in what way does God require us to be happy? In what are we to rejoice? Clearly God does not want us to rejoice in doing evil. In this verse he commands that we be full of joy in hope. What is hope and what is our hope in that is supposed to be the ground of our joy? In the Bible the word hope is never used the way we normally use it in our conversations when we say things like "I hope it rains today" or "I hope the Brewers win today" We use the word as a synonym for "wish". However, the Bible uses the word to mean, "a confident expectation of future good." Biblical hope is a certainty. I know that this is going to happen, without a doubt. The reason biblical hope is not a wish but a certainty is because it is rooted in the finished work of Christ and all that promises that he has secured for all of his people forever.
Paul talks a lot about hope in his letter to the Romans prior to this command. In Romans 5:1-2 we are told: "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Here Paul tells us that every person who is trusting in Jesus and thus declared not guilty but perfectly righteous is right now already rejoicing in or being happy in "the hope of the glory of God." What does that mean? All Christians have a confident expectation that one day we will fully experience, in an immediate, present, ongoing way, the wonder and beauty and majesty of the great Tribune God in all of his glory that is able to be perceived by finite creatures like us. We will know his love and grace and holiness and justice and power and creativity and mercy and kindness and every aspect of his glorious being revealed to us in the person of the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus by the mighty work of the Holy Spirit.
But Paul also says that the hope which we have is right now causing us to rejoice. So then, if we are already experiencing it, why does he command us to rejoice in it in 12:10? Before we answer that question let's think for a moment about the relationship between a future hope and present joy. All of us have experienced this connection in our normal lives. Our family takes a two week vacation each summer to Door County. At any point during the year prior to our going all I have to do is think about being in Door County with my family and my heart feels happy. In fact, it is a regular occurrence throughout the year but especially as the vacation approaches that one of our children will remind us that we going to Door County in X number of days and then will say, "I can't wait to go." Thus expressing their hope and the joy they find in that hope. We are not in Door County but we have joy now as we anticipate being there. However, are we always full of joy in the hope of Door County? No because of the reality of sin and suffering in our lives.
It is the same reason for why Paul says we already have joy in the hope of the glory of God and also commands us to rejoice in the hope. He talks like this because of the fact of sin and suffering in this world. Sin is, at its core, putting our faith and hope in created things and the promises of pleasure that created things give us, rather then putting our faith and hope in God and his promises. Thus, the process of Christian growth is the fight to turn away from placing my hope for future good in money or relationships or success or vacations or a new car or sex or health or drugs or successful children or whatever and instead fixing my hope on this one certain thing: one day, by God's grace, I am going to fully experience the glory of God. Thus the experience of present joy is directly related to my consciously and intentionally fixing my mind and heart on that future glory and turning away from the unreliable promises of glory in created things.
However, not only does sin interfere with our hope inspired joy but also the sufferings of this life interfere with it as well. This world is full of trouble and misery that comes to us not as the result or our sin but simply by virtue of the fact that we still live in this world that is under God's curse. Suffering now is always painful and distracting. It is difficult when in the throes of some great trial to look beyond the trouble to our final destiny and find our joy in it. It is difficult to feel the joy when we feel the pain so strongly.
This is why it is so important to recognize how it is that Jesus endured the greatest trouble any human has ever experienced: he a completely perfect and righteous man suffered unjustly at the hands of men and endured the wrath due to us. Yet we are told in Hebrews 12:2 that he endured this greatest of all suffering in joy. This is exactly what Peter says is the experience of the believer when in some trial in 1 Peter 1:3-6, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials."
The experience of the Christian in the midst of some trial is one of grief in the trial and, at the same time, joy in the hope of that coming salvation. This is the normal Christian life. Grief and joy in the same heart at the same time. Weeping and rejoicing is our condition until that final day when Christ returns and then it will be only joy forever. Revelation 21:1-4, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.'"
Friday, July 27, 2012
Men of dust; eternal God
I have not written for the past two weeks as I've either been too sick to think or too busy working when well to take time to write. I did not get the worst of the two chemicals this past Monday and so I was not as sick on Wednesday and Thursday as the previous 10 times but I was not as well as I had hoped. However, today, Friday, I am much stronger than during any previous "chemo" week. I thank the Lord for this mercy and look forward to taking the final treatment on August 6. After that I will be tested for cancer in February of 2013.
I've given very little thought to the fact that I have/had cancer during these treatments. Mostly I've been trying to survive the treatments. However, as I have been contemplating the fact that, at least for the next five years, I will be living with the reality that a tumor could appear at any time, my thoughts have turned to my mortality which led me to a favorite psalm, Psalm 90. As with so many psalms, the first half is not really good news. The psalm is written by Moses and it has the flavor of the wilderness journey waiting for all the people who were 20 years old and up at the rebellion at Kadesh Barnea to die.
The first line asserts two realities: First, all humans, in all generations live in God, that is, we would not exist if God did not exist. He is our dwelling place. In him alone is life to be found. Second, he is eternal; he has no beginning and he has no end. He always is. The mountains and the earth itself are but as babes compared to the eternal God. Then comes the bad news and lots of it. The eternal God is the one who turns humans back to dust when he declares to us: "Return, O children of man." That last phrase is literally, in the Hebrew, "sons of Adam." Clearly Moses is thinking of God's curse given to Adam as a result of his disobedience and which is now our curse as well. Genesis 3:19, "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
God is in charge of death. He it is who determines each person's days on this earth. He decrees when we each return to the dust from which we were taken. It is by his word that each human dies and returns to the elements from which we were created. Thus our time on this earth is finite, limited, it has a definite end. However, as v. 4 declares, there is no limit to God's time. 15 lifetimes of men may pass and for God it was if yesterday had passed or the night was gone. There are no limits to this God whereas for us, we are very limited. God sweeps us away as a flood of water wipes all things from its path. We are no more permanent than dreams partially remembered and quickly forgotten. We are like grass that is fresh in the morning but after cut down by the sickle, dried up at night. There is such a great difference between us and the eternal God. Sons of dust, inconsequential and finite beings we are while he is eternal creator and Lord of all.
As if the news is not bad enough, Moses goes on. Our dying is the fruit of God's anger with our sin. As Paul says it so succinctly, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). God's wrath against us which is exhibited in our dying is the cause of much dismay. All our plans and work and ambitions are crushed under this fruit of God's wrath: death. There is no escape from God's gaze. He sees all our sins. He has placed all our iniquities before his face. All of our days are lived under the threat of death, the just curse of God's perfect anger against sin. The span of our life is but trouble and sorrow, these days are soon gone and we fly away like sparks from a campfire that quickly burn out as they float into the night sky.
What shall we do in the face of these awful realities? First, Moses recognizes that most of us pay no attention to the awful reality that we inhabit. Few take serious the power of God's anger or fear God in proportion to his wrath. We live as if our lives will not end, as if tomorrow will be like today, as if wrath will never have to be face. So we should each one ask God to us wise hearts that "number our days", that is, that take serious the fact that God could justly, at any time say "Return to dust". We should live as if we are going to die and we are going to have to face this God who is full of anger due to our sins.
Ah, but also, not only must we take serious who we are dealing with and how brief is our life but we must remember that this eternal God is a gracious God to whom we can go for relief. So before God tells you to return you should tell him to return. Do you see that in v. 13? "Return, O Yahweh! How long? Have pity on your servants." " O promise making God of Israel return to us before we return to dust. Do not wait any longer. Take pity upon poor miserable sinners like us."
What is it that Moses most desperately desires? What would the Lord do if her were to take pity? "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." This is the greatest need of every human heart: to be satisfied with the great, unfailing love of God for sinners made known in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. The only way to find true, everlasting joy is to have God graciously, contrary to what we deserve satisfy our hearts with his unfailing love made known in Jesus. There is no love of God for the sinner apart from Christ because Christ alone has taken up the wrath and anger that all who trust in him deserve. Thus we need God to show us this wonderful love and then satisfy our hearts with this love alone. Nothing can satisfy because all else is temporary pleasure. But with Jesus is eternal pleasures at God's right hand.
Moses continues: Make us glad with this unfailing love for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. We ask the God who sends the trouble to also, graciously, satisfy our hearts with his love for as long as he has troubled us so that the trouble becomes but a dim memory and forgotten in the pleasures of his love for us. Here is a psalm and a prayer for one like me who will be living with more sense, I hope, of the imminence of my death. Might God use this knowledge to give me a heart of wisdom which seeks all the more to be satisfied in the love of God for a miserable sinner like me.
I've given very little thought to the fact that I have/had cancer during these treatments. Mostly I've been trying to survive the treatments. However, as I have been contemplating the fact that, at least for the next five years, I will be living with the reality that a tumor could appear at any time, my thoughts have turned to my mortality which led me to a favorite psalm, Psalm 90. As with so many psalms, the first half is not really good news. The psalm is written by Moses and it has the flavor of the wilderness journey waiting for all the people who were 20 years old and up at the rebellion at Kadesh Barnea to die.
The first line asserts two realities: First, all humans, in all generations live in God, that is, we would not exist if God did not exist. He is our dwelling place. In him alone is life to be found. Second, he is eternal; he has no beginning and he has no end. He always is. The mountains and the earth itself are but as babes compared to the eternal God. Then comes the bad news and lots of it. The eternal God is the one who turns humans back to dust when he declares to us: "Return, O children of man." That last phrase is literally, in the Hebrew, "sons of Adam." Clearly Moses is thinking of God's curse given to Adam as a result of his disobedience and which is now our curse as well. Genesis 3:19, "By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
God is in charge of death. He it is who determines each person's days on this earth. He decrees when we each return to the dust from which we were taken. It is by his word that each human dies and returns to the elements from which we were created. Thus our time on this earth is finite, limited, it has a definite end. However, as v. 4 declares, there is no limit to God's time. 15 lifetimes of men may pass and for God it was if yesterday had passed or the night was gone. There are no limits to this God whereas for us, we are very limited. God sweeps us away as a flood of water wipes all things from its path. We are no more permanent than dreams partially remembered and quickly forgotten. We are like grass that is fresh in the morning but after cut down by the sickle, dried up at night. There is such a great difference between us and the eternal God. Sons of dust, inconsequential and finite beings we are while he is eternal creator and Lord of all.
As if the news is not bad enough, Moses goes on. Our dying is the fruit of God's anger with our sin. As Paul says it so succinctly, "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). God's wrath against us which is exhibited in our dying is the cause of much dismay. All our plans and work and ambitions are crushed under this fruit of God's wrath: death. There is no escape from God's gaze. He sees all our sins. He has placed all our iniquities before his face. All of our days are lived under the threat of death, the just curse of God's perfect anger against sin. The span of our life is but trouble and sorrow, these days are soon gone and we fly away like sparks from a campfire that quickly burn out as they float into the night sky.
What shall we do in the face of these awful realities? First, Moses recognizes that most of us pay no attention to the awful reality that we inhabit. Few take serious the power of God's anger or fear God in proportion to his wrath. We live as if our lives will not end, as if tomorrow will be like today, as if wrath will never have to be face. So we should each one ask God to us wise hearts that "number our days", that is, that take serious the fact that God could justly, at any time say "Return to dust". We should live as if we are going to die and we are going to have to face this God who is full of anger due to our sins.
Ah, but also, not only must we take serious who we are dealing with and how brief is our life but we must remember that this eternal God is a gracious God to whom we can go for relief. So before God tells you to return you should tell him to return. Do you see that in v. 13? "Return, O Yahweh! How long? Have pity on your servants." " O promise making God of Israel return to us before we return to dust. Do not wait any longer. Take pity upon poor miserable sinners like us."
What is it that Moses most desperately desires? What would the Lord do if her were to take pity? "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." This is the greatest need of every human heart: to be satisfied with the great, unfailing love of God for sinners made known in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. The only way to find true, everlasting joy is to have God graciously, contrary to what we deserve satisfy our hearts with his unfailing love made known in Jesus. There is no love of God for the sinner apart from Christ because Christ alone has taken up the wrath and anger that all who trust in him deserve. Thus we need God to show us this wonderful love and then satisfy our hearts with this love alone. Nothing can satisfy because all else is temporary pleasure. But with Jesus is eternal pleasures at God's right hand.
Moses continues: Make us glad with this unfailing love for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. We ask the God who sends the trouble to also, graciously, satisfy our hearts with his love for as long as he has troubled us so that the trouble becomes but a dim memory and forgotten in the pleasures of his love for us. Here is a psalm and a prayer for one like me who will be living with more sense, I hope, of the imminence of my death. Might God use this knowledge to give me a heart of wisdom which seeks all the more to be satisfied in the love of God for a miserable sinner like me.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Responding to grace
How do you respond when you are given a gift you know that you do not deserve? This is an important question because every Christian has been given a gift we do not deserve and thus all of us must be asking, what is the appropriate response for this gift of salvation through Christ which we do not deserve? We have in a brief story in Luke 5 a helpful look at how to respond to grace, to receiving a gift you know you don't deserve.
It is a fairly straightforward story. Jesus has been teaching and healing people near the Sea of Galilee. Enormous crowds have gathered and so he asks one of the fishermen, named Simon, who has been out fishing all night and is cleaning his nets before he goes home to sleep so he can go out fishing tonight--Jesus asks him if he could use his boat to push out from shore and teach the people. Simon obliges him, which means he has to row the boat out and keep it steady while Jesus teaches. This after having fished all night.
After Jesus finishes teaching the people, we are not told what he said, he says to Simon, "Row out a little deeper and let down your nets for a catch of fish." Simon, I'm sure in a somewhat exasperated voice, "We fished all night and caught nothing. But at your word we will let down the nets." So he and his brother Andrew and their dad row out to deeper water and let down the nets. The nets are immediately filled to overflowing with fish. There are so many fish that Simon has to yell to his partners, John and James, who are still on shore to bring the other boat out in order to hold all the fish. You can be sure these seasoned fishermen have never seen such a catch as both the boats began to sink under the weight of the catch.
It is just at this moment that Peter responds to grace, to unmerited favor, to receiving a gift he knew that he did not deserve. He falls at Jesus' feet and declares, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." He responds with profound humility. He knows he had a bad attitude. He didn't believe Jesus when he promised they would catch fish. He had heard his teaching and at least knew about his miracles; he knew this was a unique man of God whom he had treated with contempt. Thus he knows, he doesn't deserve the gift and he most certainly does not deserve to be in the presence of such a person. He knows he is a sinner who does not deserve to be treated kindly nor to have a relationship with such a person. That Jesus would have anything to do with him was the most preposterous thing of which Peter could think.
How different his attitude from so much of what passes for Christianity in the USA. We are told that God loving us is the most natural and normal thing in the world. The love of God for humans is the most expected thing in the universe. There is nothing surprising in God wanting to have a relationship with us humans in the modern church. This is not what Peter thinks. He realizes that it is an astonishing thing for God to love a sinner. He would agree with John Newton about God's grace--it is amazing and unexpected and can only be received by the humble, those who know they don't deserve it.
Notice what happens next in the story. Jesus recognizes in Peter the appropriate response of a sinner in the presence of a holy God. He tells him first, "Don't be afraid." Peter was actually responding to Jesus' gracious provision of fish the same way the Israelites responded to God showing up on Mt. Sinai. They said to Moses, if you will remember, that they did not want to hear God speak anymore because if they did, they would surely die. The stood far off and told Moses to talk to God for them. So Jesus, first of all assures Peter that he is not going to die, that God is going to deal with him according to his mercy and not according to Peter's sins. Then next he says to Peter, "From now on you will be catching men." Not only does Jesus assure Peter of his love but he appoints this sinful man to one of his chief spokespersons. From that day on Peter, Andrew, James and John left their old life behind and followed Jesus. They responded to grace with faith. They believed that belonging to Christ and being his follower was better than everything else in the universe and so they left their dad and their business and followed Christ because of his grace.
It is a fairly straightforward story. Jesus has been teaching and healing people near the Sea of Galilee. Enormous crowds have gathered and so he asks one of the fishermen, named Simon, who has been out fishing all night and is cleaning his nets before he goes home to sleep so he can go out fishing tonight--Jesus asks him if he could use his boat to push out from shore and teach the people. Simon obliges him, which means he has to row the boat out and keep it steady while Jesus teaches. This after having fished all night.
After Jesus finishes teaching the people, we are not told what he said, he says to Simon, "Row out a little deeper and let down your nets for a catch of fish." Simon, I'm sure in a somewhat exasperated voice, "We fished all night and caught nothing. But at your word we will let down the nets." So he and his brother Andrew and their dad row out to deeper water and let down the nets. The nets are immediately filled to overflowing with fish. There are so many fish that Simon has to yell to his partners, John and James, who are still on shore to bring the other boat out in order to hold all the fish. You can be sure these seasoned fishermen have never seen such a catch as both the boats began to sink under the weight of the catch.
It is just at this moment that Peter responds to grace, to unmerited favor, to receiving a gift he knew that he did not deserve. He falls at Jesus' feet and declares, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." He responds with profound humility. He knows he had a bad attitude. He didn't believe Jesus when he promised they would catch fish. He had heard his teaching and at least knew about his miracles; he knew this was a unique man of God whom he had treated with contempt. Thus he knows, he doesn't deserve the gift and he most certainly does not deserve to be in the presence of such a person. He knows he is a sinner who does not deserve to be treated kindly nor to have a relationship with such a person. That Jesus would have anything to do with him was the most preposterous thing of which Peter could think.
How different his attitude from so much of what passes for Christianity in the USA. We are told that God loving us is the most natural and normal thing in the world. The love of God for humans is the most expected thing in the universe. There is nothing surprising in God wanting to have a relationship with us humans in the modern church. This is not what Peter thinks. He realizes that it is an astonishing thing for God to love a sinner. He would agree with John Newton about God's grace--it is amazing and unexpected and can only be received by the humble, those who know they don't deserve it.
Notice what happens next in the story. Jesus recognizes in Peter the appropriate response of a sinner in the presence of a holy God. He tells him first, "Don't be afraid." Peter was actually responding to Jesus' gracious provision of fish the same way the Israelites responded to God showing up on Mt. Sinai. They said to Moses, if you will remember, that they did not want to hear God speak anymore because if they did, they would surely die. The stood far off and told Moses to talk to God for them. So Jesus, first of all assures Peter that he is not going to die, that God is going to deal with him according to his mercy and not according to Peter's sins. Then next he says to Peter, "From now on you will be catching men." Not only does Jesus assure Peter of his love but he appoints this sinful man to one of his chief spokespersons. From that day on Peter, Andrew, James and John left their old life behind and followed Jesus. They responded to grace with faith. They believed that belonging to Christ and being his follower was better than everything else in the universe and so they left their dad and their business and followed Christ because of his grace.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Enduring to the end
I did not "bounce back" very well from the last chemo treatment on June 25. I did not do well the last two weeks. I think it was a combination of things: the cumulative physical effect of 9 chemo treatments, emotional depletion due to the physical weakness and sickness and thus the radical alteration in my lifestyle and I got a cold last Sunday night. Anyway, I feel pretty good today. Monday will be the final time I have to take the worse of the two chemo drugs. Presumably these next two weeks will be the last two in which I will be really sick. I'm hoping that only getting the one drug the final two treatment cycles will enable me to feel better and be able to do more.
I am in the final lap of the race called chemo-therapy, at least for now. My attention is turned to the letter to the Hebrews and its frequent admonitions to the Hebrew Christians to endure to the end, to run the whole race that God has given to them without quitting. The entire letter is one long encouragement for Christians who are weary of following Christ due to suffering and sin to not give up, to persevere to the end. It gives reason after reason for why enduring all the trouble while remaining faithful to Jesus is better than giving up faith in Christ.
Here is one of those exhortations to endure which I think of as I contemplate enduring to the end of chemo-therapy. In Hebrews 10:35-36 we are told, "Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised." The greatest motivation for enduring to the end is that at the end God has promised a great reward. The reason to not throw away my confidence in Christ but to endure to the end of life trusting him and living as he commands is because God has promised the greatest of all possible rewards for those who endure.
What is that reward? The author describes it in a variety of ways in his letter. Perhaps my favorite description is in chapter 12:22-24, "...you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." There is a party going on in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. The party is being attended by innumerable angels, the spirits of the righteous, God the judge of all and Jesus who shed his blood so I could join that party. It is entry into the heavenly festivities which is the reward promised by God to all who hold fast their confidence in Christ to the end of their lives.
By identifying the final reward with Mt. Zion and Jerusalem the author is connecting to a myriad of rich descriptions of that joyful city from the OT. Using rich language of earthly prosperity to help us understand the glory of the new world God is creating for us Isaiah describes our reward in this way (Isaiah 65:17-25): "'For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,' says the LORD."
Meditating upon that glorious future that belongs to all who trust in Christ is what will enable us to endure through the hardships of this life without abandoning Christ. The word of God, especially the OT descriptions of God's plan for Jerusalem is the fuel for feeding our faith and hope in that future.
I am in the final lap of the race called chemo-therapy, at least for now. My attention is turned to the letter to the Hebrews and its frequent admonitions to the Hebrew Christians to endure to the end, to run the whole race that God has given to them without quitting. The entire letter is one long encouragement for Christians who are weary of following Christ due to suffering and sin to not give up, to persevere to the end. It gives reason after reason for why enduring all the trouble while remaining faithful to Jesus is better than giving up faith in Christ.
Here is one of those exhortations to endure which I think of as I contemplate enduring to the end of chemo-therapy. In Hebrews 10:35-36 we are told, "Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised." The greatest motivation for enduring to the end is that at the end God has promised a great reward. The reason to not throw away my confidence in Christ but to endure to the end of life trusting him and living as he commands is because God has promised the greatest of all possible rewards for those who endure.
What is that reward? The author describes it in a variety of ways in his letter. Perhaps my favorite description is in chapter 12:22-24, "...you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel." There is a party going on in the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. The party is being attended by innumerable angels, the spirits of the righteous, God the judge of all and Jesus who shed his blood so I could join that party. It is entry into the heavenly festivities which is the reward promised by God to all who hold fast their confidence in Christ to the end of their lives.
By identifying the final reward with Mt. Zion and Jerusalem the author is connecting to a myriad of rich descriptions of that joyful city from the OT. Using rich language of earthly prosperity to help us understand the glory of the new world God is creating for us Isaiah describes our reward in this way (Isaiah 65:17-25): "'For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem to be a joy, and her people to be a gladness. I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people; no more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not fill out his days, for the young man shall die a hundred years old, and the sinner a hundred years old shall be accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,' says the LORD."
Meditating upon that glorious future that belongs to all who trust in Christ is what will enable us to endure through the hardships of this life without abandoning Christ. The word of God, especially the OT descriptions of God's plan for Jerusalem is the fuel for feeding our faith and hope in that future.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Good news
Yesterday I went in for my chemotherapy infusion. The procedure is that I have blood drawn at 10am for lab work. Then I wait an hour for it to be completed before I see the doctor. We talk about how I am doing and he checks my labs and my lungs and my abdomen. As I told him my ongoing struggles he said that I will only have to have the really bad chemo, oxyplaten, one more time. The last two times I will just have the less toxic chemical, 5FU, which is infused through a portable IV pump I wear over 46 hours. Presumably, those last two treatments should not be accompanied by the overwhelming weakness and lack of appetite and general malaise that has been my experience the previous 9 times. I thank the Lord for this kindness while praying that he will use the chemicals as I will have received them to kill the cancer. Thank you for praying for me.
The last chemo week, when I was feeling most down, both physically and emotionally/psychologically, in my daily reading I read Psalm 86, a psalm of David. It was very helpful. It is a prayer for God to help him when he is in distress. Here is how it begins: "Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you--you are my God. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me."
Here are the things he asks for:
May the Lord gladden your soul and mine with a sensible knowledge of his love for us in Christ.
The last chemo week, when I was feeling most down, both physically and emotionally/psychologically, in my daily reading I read Psalm 86, a psalm of David. It was very helpful. It is a prayer for God to help him when he is in distress. Here is how it begins: "Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly; save your servant, who trusts in you--you are my God. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my trouble I call upon you, for you answer me."
Here are the things he asks for:
- Incline your ear and answer me
- Preserve my life
- Be gracious to me: that is, do not treat me as I deserve, but show your favor in spite of my sins.
- Gladden the soul of your servant (Personally, this is what I most earnestly asked for that week).
- Give ear to my prayer, listen to my plea for grace
- "for I am poor and needy."
- "For I am godly", by which David means, "I trust in you, you are my God." David is not saying that God should answer him because of what he has done but because of who he trusts in, relies upon, which is God himself. Here is how Hebrews 11:6 states the principal: "And without faith it is impossible to please God because everyone who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him." David here exhibits faith diligently seeking God in prayer.
- "For to you do I cry all the day"
- "For to you do I lift up my soul"
- "For you are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you."
- "for you answer me"
May the Lord gladden your soul and mine with a sensible knowledge of his love for us in Christ.
Monday, June 18, 2012
What to pray when you have cancer VI
The last petition of the Lord's prayer is particularly important for those who have cancer or are afraid of getting cancer or experiencing any kind of significant suffering. The petition is: "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil (OR "the evil one.")." Aside from being a very important thing for anyone who suffers or is afraid of suffering to pray it is also a very strange request. If I do not ask God to not lead me into temptation does that mean that God will lead me into temptation? That is what it sounds like, don't you think? How should we understand this strange request and what exactly are we asking God to do for us?
First we must be clear that God never tempts anyone to do evil. Listen to how James says this is his letter (James 1:13-15), "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." We are tempted to sin, to disobey God by our own desires.
But the petition isn't "Don't tempt us" but rather, "don't lead us into temptation." So what are asking God to do? This petition recognizes that God is sovereign over all the circumstances of my life. All that happens to me from lost keys to getting cancer is directed by God himself. God says in Isaiah 45:7, "I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things." He tells Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 4:11), "Then the LORD said to him, 'Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?'" Or again in Lamentations 3:37-38, "Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
This petition first assumes that we do not want to sin. The reason we don't want to be tempted is so that we will not sin. This is the tension in the Christian life. Every day I must confess my sins and ask God to forgive me for the sake of Christ. However, I don't want to sin and so I ask the Lord every day to not lead me into those circumstances where he knows I am weak and easily led astray. We are saying to the Lord, "You know me. You know my weaknesses and my sins and so I ask you to not bring me into those situations where you know I will succumb to temptation and so sin against you." In essence we are asking the Lord to fulfill the promise he makes in 1 Corinthians 10:13 where the apostle Paul writes, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." We are asking God to not place us in circumstances that are beyond our ability to withstand the temptation associated with that situation.
So if we are asking the Lord to not lead us into temptation then we know that whatever circumstance we find ourselves in that the Lord has brought us into it, not to harm us but to help us discover anew that Christ is better than everything else. If we are praying this prayer then we do not need to fear the future or fear what bad thing might happen to us because we know that God is not placing us in situations that are meant to bring us eternal harm but eternal good. So if I'm praying this prayer and I still sin, whose fault is it? It is my fault because the Lord has promised that he would not put in a place where I would be unable to resist. In every circumstance there is a way to resist the temptation and escape the sin.
I know that the cancer and the chemo-therapy and the brain injured son are circumstances God has placed me in, not so that I will sin and fall but so that I will trust Christ and escape the sin which I am being tempted to fall into by these circumstances. Here we see why Jesus tells us to pray the second half of this petition which is, "but deliver us from evil (OR "the evil one")." Every day I must recognize that I am in a fight to believe the promises of God rather than the promises of sin. I must recognize that my adversary, the devil, is a liar and that, just as he did with Adam and Eve, he is seeking to get me to believe that disobedience to God is a more certain way to happiness than trusting his promises and living as he wants. So I must ask each day that God himself deliver me from the lies of sin, the devil and the world. This is the fight of faith. When I pray this final petition I am joining in the battle.
First we must be clear that God never tempts anyone to do evil. Listen to how James says this is his letter (James 1:13-15), "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am being tempted by God,' for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." We are tempted to sin, to disobey God by our own desires.
But the petition isn't "Don't tempt us" but rather, "don't lead us into temptation." So what are asking God to do? This petition recognizes that God is sovereign over all the circumstances of my life. All that happens to me from lost keys to getting cancer is directed by God himself. God says in Isaiah 45:7, "I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the LORD, who does all these things." He tells Moses at the burning bush (Exodus 4:11), "Then the LORD said to him, 'Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?'" Or again in Lamentations 3:37-38, "Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?
This petition first assumes that we do not want to sin. The reason we don't want to be tempted is so that we will not sin. This is the tension in the Christian life. Every day I must confess my sins and ask God to forgive me for the sake of Christ. However, I don't want to sin and so I ask the Lord every day to not lead me into those circumstances where he knows I am weak and easily led astray. We are saying to the Lord, "You know me. You know my weaknesses and my sins and so I ask you to not bring me into those situations where you know I will succumb to temptation and so sin against you." In essence we are asking the Lord to fulfill the promise he makes in 1 Corinthians 10:13 where the apostle Paul writes, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." We are asking God to not place us in circumstances that are beyond our ability to withstand the temptation associated with that situation.
So if we are asking the Lord to not lead us into temptation then we know that whatever circumstance we find ourselves in that the Lord has brought us into it, not to harm us but to help us discover anew that Christ is better than everything else. If we are praying this prayer then we do not need to fear the future or fear what bad thing might happen to us because we know that God is not placing us in situations that are meant to bring us eternal harm but eternal good. So if I'm praying this prayer and I still sin, whose fault is it? It is my fault because the Lord has promised that he would not put in a place where I would be unable to resist. In every circumstance there is a way to resist the temptation and escape the sin.
I know that the cancer and the chemo-therapy and the brain injured son are circumstances God has placed me in, not so that I will sin and fall but so that I will trust Christ and escape the sin which I am being tempted to fall into by these circumstances. Here we see why Jesus tells us to pray the second half of this petition which is, "but deliver us from evil (OR "the evil one")." Every day I must recognize that I am in a fight to believe the promises of God rather than the promises of sin. I must recognize that my adversary, the devil, is a liar and that, just as he did with Adam and Eve, he is seeking to get me to believe that disobedience to God is a more certain way to happiness than trusting his promises and living as he wants. So I must ask each day that God himself deliver me from the lies of sin, the devil and the world. This is the fight of faith. When I pray this final petition I am joining in the battle.
Friday, June 15, 2012
What to pray when you have cancer V
I'm not sure I understand why but it is on my worst days, the Wednesday and Thursday after I receive chemo on Monday, that I feel my sinfulness most. Perhaps it is because I am so self-focused on those days but my failures to love my family and to care for others and to be honest in all my dealings with others and etc. etc. loom very large in my thinking. It is on those days I am so glad for Jesus' command to daily ask my Father in heaven to forgive me. It is on those days that I am so glad for the reassuring promise of the gospel that though once I was dead in my trespasses and sins I am now alive in Christ and forgiven of all my sins, past, present and future because all my sins were nailed once and for all to the cross of Christ. So it is very right for all who suffer cancer or any of the innumerable ways that humans suffer to daily ask their Father in heaven to forgive their sins for the sake of Christ.
However, it is the second half of this petition regarding forgiveness that causes us the most trouble. Jesus commands us, when we ask our Father to forgive us, to also tell him that we have also forgiven everyone who is in debt to us. In fact we ask him to forgive us as also we have forgiven others. This makes it sound as if God's forgiveness of us is in some way dependent on our forgiving others. Then to make the problem worse Jesus says, right after concluding the prayer, in Matthew 6:14-15, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
The promise of the gospel is that our sins are forgiven by grace alone through faith in Christ alone and not by our works. All of our sins are placed on Christ and he is killed in our place and all of his righteousness is credited to us so that we are justified completely apart from our performed obedience. Yet this appears to say something different. So how are we to understand this?
First, consider the logic that is being used if God's forgiveness of me depends upon my forgiveness of others. Imagine I owed a friend, we call him Jim, $10,000 which I've promised to repay. However, I suffer a severe financial setback which will prevent me from paying Jim back. So before I go to Jim to ask him to forgive the debt I owe him, I go to another friend, Tim, who owes me $20 and I tell him I forgive him the debt, that doesn't have to pay me back the $20. Then I go to Jim and after I ask him to forgive the $10,000 debt I tell him, by the way, I forgave Tim the $20 he owed me. In what way could my forgiving Tim $20 obligate Jim to forgive me the $10,000? That makes no sense. My forgiving others cannot obligate God to forgive me.
What Jesus is saying here is that these two things always go together, everyone who is forgiven by God forgives others. If you do not forgive those who sin against you it simply means you are not forgiven because everyone who is forgiven by God gladly forgives others. The logic is very similar to the logic of 1 John 4:19, "We love because he first loved us." Our love is the fruit of his love for us. Thus John can say, as Jesus says here, "anyone who does not love does not know God (1 John 4:8).
Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 18 to make this exact point. He tells the parable in response to Peter's question (Matthew 18:21): "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Thus Peter wants to put a limit on how many times we have to forgive people who sin against us before we have the right to make them pay for what they have done to us. Jesus tells the parable of a king who has a servant that owes him millions of dollars. He justly demands repayment. The servant, unable to pay the king back begs to be forgiven. The king, graciously, forgives all his debt. The forgiven servant leaves the throne room of the king and immediately sees a fellow servant who owes him several hundred dollars. He grabs him by the throat and demands that he repay him immediately. The fellow servant begs to be forgiven but the forgiven servant says no and throws him into debtors prison until he pays him back.
When the king finds out what the forgiven servant did he calls him into court and says to him (vv.32-34), "'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt." Jesus concludes the parable with this frightening sentence: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." Do you see the logic? Being forgiven always produces people who forgive. This is the logic of the gospel. If we refuse to forgive it simply means we do not really believe the gospel, which says that we deserve an eternal hell but have been rescued from God's wrath and forgiven all our sins by the living and dying of the dear Son of God.
If you are struggling with forgiving others you need to go back to the gospel and consider what has actually been done for you. It is only by knowing the wonder of God's forgiveness that you can forgive others. And when you know the wonder of his forgiveness you will gladly forgive others.
However, it is the second half of this petition regarding forgiveness that causes us the most trouble. Jesus commands us, when we ask our Father to forgive us, to also tell him that we have also forgiven everyone who is in debt to us. In fact we ask him to forgive us as also we have forgiven others. This makes it sound as if God's forgiveness of us is in some way dependent on our forgiving others. Then to make the problem worse Jesus says, right after concluding the prayer, in Matthew 6:14-15, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."
The promise of the gospel is that our sins are forgiven by grace alone through faith in Christ alone and not by our works. All of our sins are placed on Christ and he is killed in our place and all of his righteousness is credited to us so that we are justified completely apart from our performed obedience. Yet this appears to say something different. So how are we to understand this?
First, consider the logic that is being used if God's forgiveness of me depends upon my forgiveness of others. Imagine I owed a friend, we call him Jim, $10,000 which I've promised to repay. However, I suffer a severe financial setback which will prevent me from paying Jim back. So before I go to Jim to ask him to forgive the debt I owe him, I go to another friend, Tim, who owes me $20 and I tell him I forgive him the debt, that doesn't have to pay me back the $20. Then I go to Jim and after I ask him to forgive the $10,000 debt I tell him, by the way, I forgave Tim the $20 he owed me. In what way could my forgiving Tim $20 obligate Jim to forgive me the $10,000? That makes no sense. My forgiving others cannot obligate God to forgive me.
What Jesus is saying here is that these two things always go together, everyone who is forgiven by God forgives others. If you do not forgive those who sin against you it simply means you are not forgiven because everyone who is forgiven by God gladly forgives others. The logic is very similar to the logic of 1 John 4:19, "We love because he first loved us." Our love is the fruit of his love for us. Thus John can say, as Jesus says here, "anyone who does not love does not know God (1 John 4:8).
Jesus tells a parable in Matthew 18 to make this exact point. He tells the parable in response to Peter's question (Matthew 18:21): "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?" Thus Peter wants to put a limit on how many times we have to forgive people who sin against us before we have the right to make them pay for what they have done to us. Jesus tells the parable of a king who has a servant that owes him millions of dollars. He justly demands repayment. The servant, unable to pay the king back begs to be forgiven. The king, graciously, forgives all his debt. The forgiven servant leaves the throne room of the king and immediately sees a fellow servant who owes him several hundred dollars. He grabs him by the throat and demands that he repay him immediately. The fellow servant begs to be forgiven but the forgiven servant says no and throws him into debtors prison until he pays him back.
When the king finds out what the forgiven servant did he calls him into court and says to him (vv.32-34), "'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?' And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt." Jesus concludes the parable with this frightening sentence: "So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." Do you see the logic? Being forgiven always produces people who forgive. This is the logic of the gospel. If we refuse to forgive it simply means we do not really believe the gospel, which says that we deserve an eternal hell but have been rescued from God's wrath and forgiven all our sins by the living and dying of the dear Son of God.
If you are struggling with forgiving others you need to go back to the gospel and consider what has actually been done for you. It is only by knowing the wonder of God's forgiveness that you can forgive others. And when you know the wonder of his forgiveness you will gladly forgive others.
Monday, June 11, 2012
What to pray when you have cancer IV
Later this morning I go for my 8th cycle of chemotherapy out of 12 total. I am praying for the ability to endure the coming sickness and to not lose heart. I am also continuing to ask the Lord to kill the cancer by these means. Thank you for your prayers.
I have suggested in previous posts that what those with cancer should pray is the same thing that those without cancer should pray. What we should ask our Father in heaven to do has been told us by the Lord Jesus when he gave us what is called the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). Today I want to reflect on what is perhaps the most difficult part of the prayer to understand. The fifth petition of the prayer goes like this (ESV): "Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors." We will consider the first half of the petition today and the second half later.
Jesus commands us, each and every day (That this prayer is to be prayed every day is seen in the previous petition, "Give us today our daily bread"), to ask our Father in heaven to forgive us our debts. The way that Jesus states this petition shows that the concept of forgiveness comes out of the world of economics. Each and every day we "borrow" or "take" something from God which belongs to him and we use it for ourselves thus placing ourselves in debt to God. We are legally obligated to pay him back but we have no resources by which to pay him back, thus each day we ask him to release us from the debt, to forgive the debt.
How do we put ourselves in debt to God? It is by our sins. This can be clearly seen when Jesus repeats this prayer in abbreviated form in Luke 11:4. There Jesus states this petition like this: "and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us." Here the concepts of sin and debt are combined. So how are we to understand our sin? Everything we are and have has been given to us by God. He gave us our life so that we would love him, be delighted with him, desire him above all other things. As Jesus said, the first and greatest commandment is to love God with our whole being: heart, soul, mind, strength. Jesus also said that there is a second commandment that is like the first; we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. God aims for us to use all that he has given us to joyfully serve our neighbors. Thus every failure to love God and to love our neighbor during each day is to take the "wealth" that he gave us and to squander it on ourselves. We've not given God what we owe him, that is, we've sinned and thus we are in his debt.
Our situation with God is like the person who gets a small business loan from the bank to start a new business. However, instead of using the money to start a business the person takes the money and goes to the Ho Chunk casino in Wisconsin Dells and loses all of it gambling. He owes the bank and has no way to pay the bank back as he has no business from which to get income. In a similar way when we use all that God has given us to serve ourselves and not to love God and others we are in his debt with no way to pay him back. Thus our only hope is if God will forgive us.
This leads to another issue. Jesus commands Christians to ask their Father to forgive them each day. However, the NT makes very clear that all the sins of Christians have already been forgiven by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Consider these few NT texts, out of scores that could be cited: Colossians 2:13-14, "And you (those who have faith in Christ, see Col. 1:2-4), who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." Romans 4:5-8, "And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not account his sin.'" Hebrews 10:14-17, "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,' then he adds, 'I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.'"
If it is true that all of our sins have been forgiven by Christ's death and that God no longer remembers our sins and lawless deeds, then why does Jesus command us to ask the Father to forgive our sins each day? The answer to that question is clearly stated by the apostle John in his first letter. In 1 John 1:8-9 he writes: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." John says that if we are not daily (present tense verb: confess) confessing our sins, then we are saying that we have no sins. If we say we have no sins then we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us, we call God a liar and his word is not in us. Thus, all true Christians make it a regular practice of asking the Father to forgive them their debts. They confess, acknowledge their sins. Are we forgive because we confess, because we ask? No. We are forgiven, as John says, because God himself is faithful and just. This means we are forgiven because God placed our sins on Christ and killed him in our place and he promised, on the basis of Christ's death to forgive everyone who believes in him. Thus we are forgiven by what Christ has done and one of the evidences that this is true for us is that we regularly confess our sins, ask the Father to forgive us our sins.
I have suggested in previous posts that what those with cancer should pray is the same thing that those without cancer should pray. What we should ask our Father in heaven to do has been told us by the Lord Jesus when he gave us what is called the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). Today I want to reflect on what is perhaps the most difficult part of the prayer to understand. The fifth petition of the prayer goes like this (ESV): "Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors." We will consider the first half of the petition today and the second half later.
Jesus commands us, each and every day (That this prayer is to be prayed every day is seen in the previous petition, "Give us today our daily bread"), to ask our Father in heaven to forgive us our debts. The way that Jesus states this petition shows that the concept of forgiveness comes out of the world of economics. Each and every day we "borrow" or "take" something from God which belongs to him and we use it for ourselves thus placing ourselves in debt to God. We are legally obligated to pay him back but we have no resources by which to pay him back, thus each day we ask him to release us from the debt, to forgive the debt.
How do we put ourselves in debt to God? It is by our sins. This can be clearly seen when Jesus repeats this prayer in abbreviated form in Luke 11:4. There Jesus states this petition like this: "and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us." Here the concepts of sin and debt are combined. So how are we to understand our sin? Everything we are and have has been given to us by God. He gave us our life so that we would love him, be delighted with him, desire him above all other things. As Jesus said, the first and greatest commandment is to love God with our whole being: heart, soul, mind, strength. Jesus also said that there is a second commandment that is like the first; we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. God aims for us to use all that he has given us to joyfully serve our neighbors. Thus every failure to love God and to love our neighbor during each day is to take the "wealth" that he gave us and to squander it on ourselves. We've not given God what we owe him, that is, we've sinned and thus we are in his debt.
Our situation with God is like the person who gets a small business loan from the bank to start a new business. However, instead of using the money to start a business the person takes the money and goes to the Ho Chunk casino in Wisconsin Dells and loses all of it gambling. He owes the bank and has no way to pay the bank back as he has no business from which to get income. In a similar way when we use all that God has given us to serve ourselves and not to love God and others we are in his debt with no way to pay him back. Thus our only hope is if God will forgive us.
This leads to another issue. Jesus commands Christians to ask their Father to forgive them each day. However, the NT makes very clear that all the sins of Christians have already been forgiven by the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. Consider these few NT texts, out of scores that could be cited: Colossians 2:13-14, "And you (those who have faith in Christ, see Col. 1:2-4), who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." Romans 4:5-8, "And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: 'Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not account his sin.'" Hebrews 10:14-17, "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 'This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,' then he adds, 'I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.'"
If it is true that all of our sins have been forgiven by Christ's death and that God no longer remembers our sins and lawless deeds, then why does Jesus command us to ask the Father to forgive our sins each day? The answer to that question is clearly stated by the apostle John in his first letter. In 1 John 1:8-9 he writes: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us." John says that if we are not daily (present tense verb: confess) confessing our sins, then we are saying that we have no sins. If we say we have no sins then we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us, we call God a liar and his word is not in us. Thus, all true Christians make it a regular practice of asking the Father to forgive them their debts. They confess, acknowledge their sins. Are we forgive because we confess, because we ask? No. We are forgiven, as John says, because God himself is faithful and just. This means we are forgiven because God placed our sins on Christ and killed him in our place and he promised, on the basis of Christ's death to forgive everyone who believes in him. Thus we are forgiven by what Christ has done and one of the evidences that this is true for us is that we regularly confess our sins, ask the Father to forgive us our sins.
Monday, June 4, 2012
What to pray when you have cancer III
Due to the Memorial Day holiday last Monday I did not receive my chemotherapy treatment until last Tuesday. Amazingly (to me at least) this delay of one day radically interfered with my work and my life. I was unable to work and thus unable to preach on Sunday. Thank you to my associate Steve (and his family) who ably filled in for me. I was able to care for Jared on Saturday and Sunday but not much else.
I began last week to seek to make the point that Jesus has told us what we are to ask God to do in every circumstance of our life, even when we have cancer. He has done this by giving us what is commonly referred to as "The Lord's Prayer." I've talked about the first three petitions in previous posts. Today, the fourth petition in the Lord's Prayer is "Give us this day our daily bread." There are a number of questions that this apparently simple request pose. First, what does Jesus mean by "bread"? I love Martin Luther's description of bread in his Small Catechism. He writes: "Bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbours, and the like." Thus Jesus wants us to ask our Father in heaven to provide everything we need to sustain and maintain our physical, social, cultural, political life on this planet. Obviously this would include the request that God would be pleased to kill the cancer in my body and to heal my son of his brain injury.
The use of "bread" is also instructive in that Jesus is clearly expecting that we will evaluate our requests in terms of need vs. want. In Jesus' culture bread is the most basic of needs for sustenance.
A second question is this: if we do not ask God to supply all of our needs does that mean we will go hungry or homeless or get cancer? The Bible repeatedly says that God gives "all men life and breath and everything" (Acts 17:25. The Psalmist says, "The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing (Psalm 145:15-16)." Jesus says about his Father in heaven, "he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45)." Not only does God say that he is going to provide for all humans whether they pray or not but he also says, in particular, about us that he already knows what we need without our asking (Mattthew 6:8 & 32). So if God knows what we need and has already committed himself to giving all humans what we need then why does Jesus command that we ask God to give us what we need for life on this planet?
There are several reasons. First, what would it say about a child who never asked his or her parents for anything he or she needed? It would be an act of contempt and disdain for his or her parents. An entirely independent child is a child who has forgotten who she is and who her parents are. For a Christian to not ask God to provide is an act of unbelief in the goodness of God and an act of rebellion against him. Second, as every parent teaches his or her children when you ask for something and it is granted to you, what do you say? "Thank you" is the appropriate response for favor given in response to request. Thus we are to ask God to give us our daily bread so that we will not forget to thank him when he provides for us. Third, asking God to provide our daily bread is an act of faith in God's sovereign goodness. It is an acknowledgement that he is in control of everything that is happening on this planet. It is a confession that God is the owner and ruler and sustainer of this world. Thus, asking him to provide is an act of worship, of ascribing honor to him as the only one who has the right and the power to give this world's good gifts to us.
A third question: Why does Jesus emphasis "this day our daily bread?" Jesus aims for us to pray about our daily needs as means to combat two of our greatest sins: greed and fear. The emphasis on "daily" reminds us to not pray for the accumulation of money and possessions "for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15)." We are to ask God for what we need to live today, not for what we will need to live tomorrow. As Jesus says later in Matthew 6, the unbelieving world runs after all these things but we, in contrast, are content with having our needs for physical life met (See 1 Timothy 6:6-10). Fear is a powerful and destructive emotion which is most often associated with our future condition. Thus, concentrating on what we need today and asking our Father to provide it will be an antidote to fear of the future.
Does it mean it is wrong to pray for future concerns? Would it be wrong to ask God to provide adequate financial resources for our now 5 year-old child to go to college? Would it be wrong to ask for that same child that God would provide a faithful Christian spouse in the future? Would it be wrong for the farmer to ask God to supply the right measure of rain through the growing season as he finishes planting his crops in the spring? While I do not think it wrong to pray for future needs (Paul asks the Roman Christians to pray for a successful future visit to Jerusalem, Romans 15:30-33), yet most of our prayers regarding our needs in this world are to be focused on the near term, not the long term.
Fourth, what is it "our" daily bread? We are not to only be concerned for our own private needs but the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ are also to be regularly brought before our Father. Jesus means for us to ask our Father to meet the needs of the rest of his family, not just our needs.
Finally, does Jesus commanding us to pray this prayer mean that we will never go hungry, that we will never get cancer, that we will never be homeless? The answer is no, this is no promise of a middle class lifestyle in American. It is not promise that we will not go hungry. How can I say this? Jesus prayed this prayer and he was homeless (Matthew 8:20). Paul prayed this prayer and he was hungry and often without food and homeless (2 Corinthians 11:27). We pray this prayer and our heavenly Father promises to provide us with everything we need to live upon this earth in the circumstances that will most bring glory to him and eternal good to us for as long as he wills that we live upon this earth. He has a plan for us that includes all the sufferings and losses of this life and our asking him to provide all that we need shows that we actually believe he is in control and will do what needs to be done for us. It prepares us to gratefully accept whatever circumstances in which he places us.
I began last week to seek to make the point that Jesus has told us what we are to ask God to do in every circumstance of our life, even when we have cancer. He has done this by giving us what is commonly referred to as "The Lord's Prayer." I've talked about the first three petitions in previous posts. Today, the fourth petition in the Lord's Prayer is "Give us this day our daily bread." There are a number of questions that this apparently simple request pose. First, what does Jesus mean by "bread"? I love Martin Luther's description of bread in his Small Catechism. He writes: "Bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbours, and the like." Thus Jesus wants us to ask our Father in heaven to provide everything we need to sustain and maintain our physical, social, cultural, political life on this planet. Obviously this would include the request that God would be pleased to kill the cancer in my body and to heal my son of his brain injury.
The use of "bread" is also instructive in that Jesus is clearly expecting that we will evaluate our requests in terms of need vs. want. In Jesus' culture bread is the most basic of needs for sustenance.
A second question is this: if we do not ask God to supply all of our needs does that mean we will go hungry or homeless or get cancer? The Bible repeatedly says that God gives "all men life and breath and everything" (Acts 17:25. The Psalmist says, "The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food in due season. You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing (Psalm 145:15-16)." Jesus says about his Father in heaven, "he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Matthew 5:45)." Not only does God say that he is going to provide for all humans whether they pray or not but he also says, in particular, about us that he already knows what we need without our asking (Mattthew 6:8 & 32). So if God knows what we need and has already committed himself to giving all humans what we need then why does Jesus command that we ask God to give us what we need for life on this planet?
There are several reasons. First, what would it say about a child who never asked his or her parents for anything he or she needed? It would be an act of contempt and disdain for his or her parents. An entirely independent child is a child who has forgotten who she is and who her parents are. For a Christian to not ask God to provide is an act of unbelief in the goodness of God and an act of rebellion against him. Second, as every parent teaches his or her children when you ask for something and it is granted to you, what do you say? "Thank you" is the appropriate response for favor given in response to request. Thus we are to ask God to give us our daily bread so that we will not forget to thank him when he provides for us. Third, asking God to provide our daily bread is an act of faith in God's sovereign goodness. It is an acknowledgement that he is in control of everything that is happening on this planet. It is a confession that God is the owner and ruler and sustainer of this world. Thus, asking him to provide is an act of worship, of ascribing honor to him as the only one who has the right and the power to give this world's good gifts to us.
A third question: Why does Jesus emphasis "this day our daily bread?" Jesus aims for us to pray about our daily needs as means to combat two of our greatest sins: greed and fear. The emphasis on "daily" reminds us to not pray for the accumulation of money and possessions "for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15)." We are to ask God for what we need to live today, not for what we will need to live tomorrow. As Jesus says later in Matthew 6, the unbelieving world runs after all these things but we, in contrast, are content with having our needs for physical life met (See 1 Timothy 6:6-10). Fear is a powerful and destructive emotion which is most often associated with our future condition. Thus, concentrating on what we need today and asking our Father to provide it will be an antidote to fear of the future.
Does it mean it is wrong to pray for future concerns? Would it be wrong to ask God to provide adequate financial resources for our now 5 year-old child to go to college? Would it be wrong to ask for that same child that God would provide a faithful Christian spouse in the future? Would it be wrong for the farmer to ask God to supply the right measure of rain through the growing season as he finishes planting his crops in the spring? While I do not think it wrong to pray for future needs (Paul asks the Roman Christians to pray for a successful future visit to Jerusalem, Romans 15:30-33), yet most of our prayers regarding our needs in this world are to be focused on the near term, not the long term.
Fourth, what is it "our" daily bread? We are not to only be concerned for our own private needs but the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ are also to be regularly brought before our Father. Jesus means for us to ask our Father to meet the needs of the rest of his family, not just our needs.
Finally, does Jesus commanding us to pray this prayer mean that we will never go hungry, that we will never get cancer, that we will never be homeless? The answer is no, this is no promise of a middle class lifestyle in American. It is not promise that we will not go hungry. How can I say this? Jesus prayed this prayer and he was homeless (Matthew 8:20). Paul prayed this prayer and he was hungry and often without food and homeless (2 Corinthians 11:27). We pray this prayer and our heavenly Father promises to provide us with everything we need to live upon this earth in the circumstances that will most bring glory to him and eternal good to us for as long as he wills that we live upon this earth. He has a plan for us that includes all the sufferings and losses of this life and our asking him to provide all that we need shows that we actually believe he is in control and will do what needs to be done for us. It prepares us to gratefully accept whatever circumstances in which he places us.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
What to pray when you have cancer II
All Christians, including those who are afflicted with cancer or sons with traumatic brain injuries or who suffer lonliness or any other form of suffering must pray the Lord's Prayer on a daily basis, for this is the reason for which Jesus gave us the prayer. He has told us what God wants to do for us and then he commands us to ask God to do that which he wants to do. The first thing we pray as I pointed out in my previous post is that God would so work that his name, his reputation would be seen and delighted in and promoted by us and all other believers and throughout the whole world.
The second thing which Jesus commands us to ask God to do is this: "Let your kingdom come." The advance of God's kingdom takes place through more and more people submitting their lives to king Jesus. This is a prayer that we and all whom we know bow the knee to the rule and reign of Jesus who is the exalted king over God's kingdom due to his obedient life, willind death and glorious resurrection. HIs kingdom will one day come fully and completely and visibly to this world when he comes again. However, between now and then his kingdom comes, it grows by means of the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, the good news that Jesus has made a way for traitors like us to be forgiven and loved and made full members, citizens of God's kingdom through the regenerating work of the Spirit which produces repentatnce from sin and trust in Christ in us.
Thus we pray for God's kingdom to come when we pray that God would by his Spirit and word give new life to dead sinners thus bringing them under the gracious rule of Jesus and under his protecting power. We pray that God would establish his kingdom in the lives of our chidlren and other family members, in the lives of those who belong to our churches, in our friends, neighbors, co-workers, indeed our whole community. We pray for God's kingdom to come when we pray for the advance of the gospel among the nations through the missionaries that we know and those we don't know. We pray for God's kingdom to come when we pray, as John did at the end of his Revelation, "He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely a am coming soon.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" So it is right for us to ask the Lord Jesus to come and establish the kingdom of God upon this earth, visibily and fully and finally.
The third thing that we also pray is that God's will would be done on this earth right now as it is right now being done in heaven, where God lives. God's will is first of all his will to save a people for himself through Christ. This has been God's overarching will and purpose since before he created the world. It is his will to sum up all things in Christ. It is his will that people from every tribe and tongue and language and nation be a part of his people, joining him in that joyful fellowship of eternity. Thus, this prayer has much in common with the preceding prayer. We daily ask God to finish the work, to bring the gospel to all the nations so that his plan to save a people for himself out of all the nations of the world would be completed.
However, God's will also refers to his moral will for his chosen people. We pray that we and all believers would obey God here like the angels obey God's will in heaven. We want to obey God and we want other believers to obey God. The new covenant promise as stated in Ezekiel 36 is that when God gives us spiritual life that his Spirit comes to live in us to "cause us to obey his laws." Thus we ask God to make us willng and able to obey every command he has given to us just as he promised in the new covenant which Jesus purchased with his own blood. Whenever we hear or read a command that God makes to his people we turn it into a prayer for ourselves and for other believers. We agree with the prayer of St. Augustine who prayed: "Lord, command what you will and give what you command." This is the daily prayer of all true Christians for themselves and for the church at large. When we read or hear a command given to us by God we immediately ask God to make us willing and able to do what he commands. This is what we pray whether we have cancer or are healthy. When we pray like this we will discover that we increasingly obey God and that our fellow believers increasingly obey God's will. It is as we pray the Lord's Prayer that we begin to see God doing all that he wants to do, causing his name to be treated as holy, sending his kingdom throughout the world, causing his people to obey his commands as the angels obey him in heaven.
The second thing which Jesus commands us to ask God to do is this: "Let your kingdom come." The advance of God's kingdom takes place through more and more people submitting their lives to king Jesus. This is a prayer that we and all whom we know bow the knee to the rule and reign of Jesus who is the exalted king over God's kingdom due to his obedient life, willind death and glorious resurrection. HIs kingdom will one day come fully and completely and visibly to this world when he comes again. However, between now and then his kingdom comes, it grows by means of the proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom, the good news that Jesus has made a way for traitors like us to be forgiven and loved and made full members, citizens of God's kingdom through the regenerating work of the Spirit which produces repentatnce from sin and trust in Christ in us.
Thus we pray for God's kingdom to come when we pray that God would by his Spirit and word give new life to dead sinners thus bringing them under the gracious rule of Jesus and under his protecting power. We pray that God would establish his kingdom in the lives of our chidlren and other family members, in the lives of those who belong to our churches, in our friends, neighbors, co-workers, indeed our whole community. We pray for God's kingdom to come when we pray for the advance of the gospel among the nations through the missionaries that we know and those we don't know. We pray for God's kingdom to come when we pray, as John did at the end of his Revelation, "He who testifies to these things says, 'Surely a am coming soon.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!" So it is right for us to ask the Lord Jesus to come and establish the kingdom of God upon this earth, visibily and fully and finally.
The third thing that we also pray is that God's will would be done on this earth right now as it is right now being done in heaven, where God lives. God's will is first of all his will to save a people for himself through Christ. This has been God's overarching will and purpose since before he created the world. It is his will to sum up all things in Christ. It is his will that people from every tribe and tongue and language and nation be a part of his people, joining him in that joyful fellowship of eternity. Thus, this prayer has much in common with the preceding prayer. We daily ask God to finish the work, to bring the gospel to all the nations so that his plan to save a people for himself out of all the nations of the world would be completed.
However, God's will also refers to his moral will for his chosen people. We pray that we and all believers would obey God here like the angels obey God's will in heaven. We want to obey God and we want other believers to obey God. The new covenant promise as stated in Ezekiel 36 is that when God gives us spiritual life that his Spirit comes to live in us to "cause us to obey his laws." Thus we ask God to make us willng and able to obey every command he has given to us just as he promised in the new covenant which Jesus purchased with his own blood. Whenever we hear or read a command that God makes to his people we turn it into a prayer for ourselves and for other believers. We agree with the prayer of St. Augustine who prayed: "Lord, command what you will and give what you command." This is the daily prayer of all true Christians for themselves and for the church at large. When we read or hear a command given to us by God we immediately ask God to make us willing and able to do what he commands. This is what we pray whether we have cancer or are healthy. When we pray like this we will discover that we increasingly obey God and that our fellow believers increasingly obey God's will. It is as we pray the Lord's Prayer that we begin to see God doing all that he wants to do, causing his name to be treated as holy, sending his kingdom throughout the world, causing his people to obey his commands as the angels obey him in heaven.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
What to pray when you have cancer I
I recently led a small group bible study in which we reflected on the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). One of the things that struck me about the prayer which Jesus taught us to pray is that it does not have any qualifications attached to it. For example he doesn't say "Pray like this, except when you have cancer or except when you feel depressed or except when you have a bad spouse or except when you've lost your job or...., you fill in the blank. In this prayer Jesus is telling us the things that God wants to do for us. His word to us is this: Here is what my heavenly Father wants to do for you, so ask him to these things. A further implication is this: what this prayer teaches us is what we ought to want. We should compare the things we pray for with this prayer and whatever we want God to do that does not fit with or in any of these petitions should not be asked as whatever it is you are asking is not God's will, it does not fit with prayer offered in the name of Jesus.
Another implication of this prayer is that no one can honestly pray it unless he or she has been born again by God's Spirit. The only people who want all the things Jesus commands us to pray are those whom God has given new hearts to, taken out their hearts of stone and put his Spirit in them to cause them to love and live his will. Just think about the first petition: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name." That is a prayer that first of all assumes that the person praying is a member of the church of Jesus as the "our" refers to the church, the company of people who have been rescued from hell and for God by God's grace through faith. If a person has not been born again, saved by grace through faith, then they are the enemies of God and of God's church (Romans 3:9-18, 5:10, 8:7-8, John 15:18-21, 16:2-3). Thus they would never truly, from the heart call God "our" Father. Thus also, they would never pray that God's name be treated as holy, as glorious. Non-believers hate God and would never want his fame to grow, would never want him to be admired and respected and loved by more and more humans.
Expecting a non-believer to pray that our Father's name be treated as holy would be like expecting a family member of one of those killed in the 9/11 attacks to start a fan club for Osama bin Laden and work hard to get the US government to pardon him and welcome him into the US with a ticker tape parade and to distribute public service announcements highlighting what a good man he was and how we ought to love him and respect and put his picture in all our homes. Thus the only people who can honestly pray this prayer are those who have been given new hearts by God, contrary to what they deserve and therefore these regenerated people now trust and love God and so want what God wants and so they ask God to do the things he has told us in the Lord's prayer that he wants to do.
As I pointed out the first thing Jesus wants us to ask the Father to do is pray that his name, his person be regarded and treated as if he is the only absolutely unique, sovereign, just, gracious king of the universe. As God says repeatedly throughout the Bible, his ultimate purpose in all that he does is the glory of his own name (Isaiah 43:6-7, 48:10-11, Ezekiel 36:20-27, etc.). His aim to is to show his glory and thus be glorified by all of creation. As Dr. John Piper, following the great theologians of the church's history, demonstrates, "God is most glorified by us when we are most satisfied in him" (I would highly recommend that every Christian read Piper's two basic works, "Desiring God" and "The Pleasures of God". His other books are also very helpful.).
God's objective is to persuade us that he is all we need because he is the best being in the universe. This is what we are asking God to do in his world, to show off his greatness in such a way that more and more people see his greatness, chiefly as it is revealed in the gospel of Jesus and thus trust and love and desire and rejoice in him alone. We are also praying for ourselves and all who belong to the church to discover the sufficiency and beauty of the Triune God in deeper ways so that our lives show that he is glorious, he is all we need.
Thus a person who has cancer, or is undergoing any kind of suffering needs to pray this first petition. I need to pray that in and through this cancer Jesus would become more glorious to me and that through me others would see the greatness of Father, Son and Spirit and thus desire him for themselves. Over the next several days, as I have strength, I will write about what we are to pray in each of the other petitions so that all of us, whether we have cancer or are healthy will be asking God to do his will which he has clearly described for us in the Lord's Prayer.
Another implication of this prayer is that no one can honestly pray it unless he or she has been born again by God's Spirit. The only people who want all the things Jesus commands us to pray are those whom God has given new hearts to, taken out their hearts of stone and put his Spirit in them to cause them to love and live his will. Just think about the first petition: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed by your name." That is a prayer that first of all assumes that the person praying is a member of the church of Jesus as the "our" refers to the church, the company of people who have been rescued from hell and for God by God's grace through faith. If a person has not been born again, saved by grace through faith, then they are the enemies of God and of God's church (Romans 3:9-18, 5:10, 8:7-8, John 15:18-21, 16:2-3). Thus they would never truly, from the heart call God "our" Father. Thus also, they would never pray that God's name be treated as holy, as glorious. Non-believers hate God and would never want his fame to grow, would never want him to be admired and respected and loved by more and more humans.
Expecting a non-believer to pray that our Father's name be treated as holy would be like expecting a family member of one of those killed in the 9/11 attacks to start a fan club for Osama bin Laden and work hard to get the US government to pardon him and welcome him into the US with a ticker tape parade and to distribute public service announcements highlighting what a good man he was and how we ought to love him and respect and put his picture in all our homes. Thus the only people who can honestly pray this prayer are those who have been given new hearts by God, contrary to what they deserve and therefore these regenerated people now trust and love God and so want what God wants and so they ask God to do the things he has told us in the Lord's prayer that he wants to do.
As I pointed out the first thing Jesus wants us to ask the Father to do is pray that his name, his person be regarded and treated as if he is the only absolutely unique, sovereign, just, gracious king of the universe. As God says repeatedly throughout the Bible, his ultimate purpose in all that he does is the glory of his own name (Isaiah 43:6-7, 48:10-11, Ezekiel 36:20-27, etc.). His aim to is to show his glory and thus be glorified by all of creation. As Dr. John Piper, following the great theologians of the church's history, demonstrates, "God is most glorified by us when we are most satisfied in him" (I would highly recommend that every Christian read Piper's two basic works, "Desiring God" and "The Pleasures of God". His other books are also very helpful.).
God's objective is to persuade us that he is all we need because he is the best being in the universe. This is what we are asking God to do in his world, to show off his greatness in such a way that more and more people see his greatness, chiefly as it is revealed in the gospel of Jesus and thus trust and love and desire and rejoice in him alone. We are also praying for ourselves and all who belong to the church to discover the sufficiency and beauty of the Triune God in deeper ways so that our lives show that he is glorious, he is all we need.
Thus a person who has cancer, or is undergoing any kind of suffering needs to pray this first petition. I need to pray that in and through this cancer Jesus would become more glorious to me and that through me others would see the greatness of Father, Son and Spirit and thus desire him for themselves. Over the next several days, as I have strength, I will write about what we are to pray in each of the other petitions so that all of us, whether we have cancer or are healthy will be asking God to do his will which he has clearly described for us in the Lord's Prayer.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
God's good gifts
When I went to the cancer center on Monday to have blood drawn for lab tests I had a brief conversation with the nurse. I'm getting to know all the "chemo nurses" in the center as they each take turns giving us our treatment when we cancer patients come to the center. I told her that we had just received good news. Our second, married son and his wife are going to have our fifth grandchild (It is their fifth child as well.) in November. Also, our fifth child and second oldest daughter became engaged to be married to a fine young man the previous Friday. The nurse responded by cheerfully saying that here were some good things happening in the midst of the difficulty of cancer and its treatment. Her comment got me thinking. She is absolutely correct in that both of these events are good gifts from a good God in the midst of much trouble. This is a small example from my life of the reality that we all live in. We live in a world that is both filled with all manner of suffering and trouble and evil and we live in a world that is full of good gifts from a good God.
I've written quite a bit on this blog about God's purposes in sending the trouble. So I thought in view of these two good gifts which our family has received I would think some about God's purposes in sending us these good gifts. First of all it is important to emphasize that every good gift comes to us directly and personally from the hand of God. This is one of the most often repeated facts in the Bible. Here are just a couple of places where we see this: James 1:17, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." The apostle Paul when preaching the gospel to idol worshipping Greek people said this about the only true and living God: Acts 17:24-25, "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything."
I love the concise way that Paul sums up the sovereign and gracious glory of God. He is not served by humans. We have nothing he needs. We cannot supply anything he lacks. Rather he gives to each and every human life. Just think about it: did you do anything to contribute to your birth? You did nothing but rather God gave you life. Every human being on the planet who has ever lived God decided personally and graciously to give life, to cause to be born into the world. None of us did anything to deserve to be born. Life is a good gift from the hand of God himself. But not only does he give each of us life, he also gives each of us breath. You ever think about breathing? Do you do anything to keep yourself breathing? Eight hours out of every day you can't think about breathing because you are sleeping and yet you keep breathing. Why do you and I keep breathing? Every breath that every human takes is given personally to us by God himself. God is directly and immediately involved in the life of every human being because he is at this moment and every moment of every day deciding and then giving each and every breath to every human being. Over six billion people on this planet and God directly gives each and every breath to each and every person each and every day of the year.
Finally, God gives us everything. What does "everything" encompass? You cannot name anything in your life that God did not give to you. Your parents, your family, your ethnic heritage, your intelligence, your work ethic, your financial condition, your home, your clothes, your food, your friends, your country, the world you live in, your Xbox, and the list goes on. In another sermon to idol worshipping Greeks Paul says, Acts 14:17, "He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." He not only gives us these good gifts but fills our hearts with joy. He is repeating what King Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes that God not only gives us all things but he gives us the ability to enjoy the gifts. He fills our hearts with joy. All the pleasure we have ever experienced in this world has been given by a kind and sovereign and gracious God.
The important thing to recognize is that all this is a gift. That means we don't deserve these things. We didn't earn them. They are not a reward for good behavior but simply an expression of the goodness and kindness of God. Why does God give us good gifts? I'll mention three reasons today and possibly more in the future. First, God gives us these enormous creation gifts to demonstrate that he is a great and glorious being with whom we ought to be enormously impressed and to whom we ought to always give thanks (Romans 1:20-21, Acts 14:15-17, Acts 17:24-27). Second, he shows us such kindness so that we will repent of our sins and trust in Christ alone and find all our happiness in him and his love for us rather than in the gifts of creation (Romans 2:3-4). Third, he showers this kindness on all humans indiscriminately so that Christians will understand how to love their enemies and so imitate their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:43-48).
I've written quite a bit on this blog about God's purposes in sending the trouble. So I thought in view of these two good gifts which our family has received I would think some about God's purposes in sending us these good gifts. First of all it is important to emphasize that every good gift comes to us directly and personally from the hand of God. This is one of the most often repeated facts in the Bible. Here are just a couple of places where we see this: James 1:17, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." The apostle Paul when preaching the gospel to idol worshipping Greek people said this about the only true and living God: Acts 17:24-25, "The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything."
I love the concise way that Paul sums up the sovereign and gracious glory of God. He is not served by humans. We have nothing he needs. We cannot supply anything he lacks. Rather he gives to each and every human life. Just think about it: did you do anything to contribute to your birth? You did nothing but rather God gave you life. Every human being on the planet who has ever lived God decided personally and graciously to give life, to cause to be born into the world. None of us did anything to deserve to be born. Life is a good gift from the hand of God himself. But not only does he give each of us life, he also gives each of us breath. You ever think about breathing? Do you do anything to keep yourself breathing? Eight hours out of every day you can't think about breathing because you are sleeping and yet you keep breathing. Why do you and I keep breathing? Every breath that every human takes is given personally to us by God himself. God is directly and immediately involved in the life of every human being because he is at this moment and every moment of every day deciding and then giving each and every breath to every human being. Over six billion people on this planet and God directly gives each and every breath to each and every person each and every day of the year.
Finally, God gives us everything. What does "everything" encompass? You cannot name anything in your life that God did not give to you. Your parents, your family, your ethnic heritage, your intelligence, your work ethic, your financial condition, your home, your clothes, your food, your friends, your country, the world you live in, your Xbox, and the list goes on. In another sermon to idol worshipping Greeks Paul says, Acts 14:17, "He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." He not only gives us these good gifts but fills our hearts with joy. He is repeating what King Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes that God not only gives us all things but he gives us the ability to enjoy the gifts. He fills our hearts with joy. All the pleasure we have ever experienced in this world has been given by a kind and sovereign and gracious God.
The important thing to recognize is that all this is a gift. That means we don't deserve these things. We didn't earn them. They are not a reward for good behavior but simply an expression of the goodness and kindness of God. Why does God give us good gifts? I'll mention three reasons today and possibly more in the future. First, God gives us these enormous creation gifts to demonstrate that he is a great and glorious being with whom we ought to be enormously impressed and to whom we ought to always give thanks (Romans 1:20-21, Acts 14:15-17, Acts 17:24-27). Second, he shows us such kindness so that we will repent of our sins and trust in Christ alone and find all our happiness in him and his love for us rather than in the gifts of creation (Romans 2:3-4). Third, he showers this kindness on all humans indiscriminately so that Christians will understand how to love their enemies and so imitate their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:43-48).
Friday, May 18, 2012
Listen to this
I just listened to Pastor Ligon Duncan's sermon delivered at the 2012 "Together for the Gospel" conference in Lousiville. Whaat a wonderful exposition of God's purpose in our suffering from the life of Elijah. I would highly recommend you listen to it. It is an hour long. You will not have wasted your time. Here is the link: http://t4g.org/media/2012/04/the-underestimated-god/
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Escaping self-pity
The temptation to self-pity is very large for those who suffer. "Why me?!" is often heard on the lips of those in pain. The intensity of the cry increases as sufferers see how pain free are the lives of so many other people. Particularly if you are person who has sought to be faithful to Christ and you see people who have no concern for Jesus doing very well, while you are subjected to difficulties. Fortunately for us God knows us so well and he inserted a psalm written by a believer in exactly this situation. Psalm 73 starts well but quickly goes downhill into self pity. Here are the opening lines:
"Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind." You can see where he is going. Wicked people flourish in spite of their wickedness.
After 7 more verses of describing the prosperity and arrogance of the wicked he says this about himself: "All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning." All I have recieved for my faithfulness is trouble. I'm stricken and rebuked every day even though I have sought to faithfully follow the Lord. Does this sound familiar? I think every believer has been here on ocassion.
So where does he go from here? How do you get yourself out of the self-pity trap? First, he did a really smart thing, he did not give voice to his pity, except to the Lord. He exercised self-control and kept his mouth shut because he knew that this kind of talk will spread like wildfire. He knew that if he sowed these seeds of unbelief and grumbling he would have betrayed God's people and caused all kinds of chaos. In our voyeruristic, put it all on Facebook world, we would do well to follow his example. Being honest and authentic doesn't mean you say everything you think.
At the same time he acknowledges that understanding why it is that the wicked flourish while those who trust in God suffer is a very difficult thing to figure out. The obvious injustice that is in the world is hard to square with a sovereign, good, just God. But then he says, I went into the sanctuary. He went to the temple of God. He says that it was while in the temple that he discerned the true end of the wicked. This is what he figured out: "Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms." What he realizes is that their prosperity is temporary. There is a time coming when God will arouse himself and at that time they are destroyed in a moment, forgotten like a dream, swept away by terrors, despised as phantoms.
Now, what did he see in the temple that informed him of the end of the wicked? He doesn't specifically tell us but we do know what is going on in the temple. Animals are being sacrificed as payment for sins in the temple. He sees and smells death in the temple. Blood is everywhere and a fire burns on the altar of burnt offering continually. He is reminded that the wages of sin is death. The temple reminds us that God's wrath is real and that all sin deserves death.
His thoughts then turn from what is going to happen to the wicked, to all who do not trust in Christ, to his own situation. First he realizes that even while he was immersed in self-pity and questioning the goodness of God (He calls himself a brute beast with an embittered heart), yet God was still with him. God was holding him by the right hand and guiding him with his counsel. His sinful questioning did not cause God to abandon him. He is certain that God will hold him and in the end bring him into glory. In other words, he understands his situation is also temporary. The knowledge of that grace causes him then to see reality.
"Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. But for me it is good to abe near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." The suffering believer eventually comes to see that to belong to God, to have God himself as our refuge and portion and strength means that we can lose everything this life can give us and yet have lost nothing. Being near to God is all that matters. He is what makes heaven, heaven and he is better than everything on this earth. It was in seeing the shadow of the cross revealed in the temple that enabled him to see reality. Christ died for us so that we will know that to belong to him is the best thing in the universe. He did not die to give us an easy life on this earth, to make heaven on this earth but to bring us to glory, to that eternal home where he will be everything to us.
The fact is that without the trouble we will not learn this. We need the trouble to show us that to be near God is what matters, not to have a trouble free life on this earth.
Friday, May 11, 2012
How does God comfort us?
In my last post we saw that one of God's good purposes in our suffering is so that we might be able to comfort other Christians who are suffering with the same comfort which we received from God (2 Corinthians 1:3-10). In fact, Paul is so bold as to say about he and his fellow workers in Christ, "If we are afflicted it is for your comfort and salvation and if we are comforted it is for your comfort... (v.6)" Thus Paul views one of the reasons for his suffering and then the comfort he receives from God in the suffering the comfort and salvation of others.
The question I have and I trust you do as well, is this: how did God comfort Paul? How exactly does God comfort us in our afflictions? This is very important for us to understand so that when we are in trouble we will know what we can expect from God in the way of comfort. It is also important because we will be able to pray more wisely and specifically for others who are in trouble, rather than just praying something generic like: "Lord, please comfort my suffering brother/sister in Christ."
The passage tells us two ways that God comforts us. First, God comforts us through the presence and care and verbal encouragement of other believers. This is a basic assumption of the entire passage. God expects that Paul is going to be able to comfort the Corinthians, that is why God comforted Paul, so he can by his words in this letter and eventually by his presence with them, bring God's comfort to them. This point is confirmed because of what Paul says about himself and his traveling companions in 2 Corinthians 7:5-7 & 13. Look at what he says: "For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn--fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.... Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all."
Paul and company came to Macedonia, which is north of Greece, the country in which Corinth is a leading city. When he came to Macedonia he was being afflicted both externally and internally. He was embroiled in some kind of controversy with others and he was afflicted with emotional distress, with fear. What he feared we are not told but all of us know how troubling fear can be. While in this troubled state the God who comforts the downcast, those in trouble like Paul, comforted Paul by the coming of his fellow worker and friend and apprentice pastor, Titus. Titus had just been in Corinth. While Titus was in Corinth, he had been comforted by the Corinthians, his spirit had been refreshed by them. Thus Paul was comforted by Titus reporting how earnest the Corinthian church was to follow Jesus. Thus, it would appear that some portion of Paul's fear had to do with the church in Corinth. But God's comfort came to Paul by the presence and encouraging words of Titus who himself had been comforted/refreshed by the Corinthians.
It is very easy for those who are suffering to wonder where God is at in the midst of the trouble. We can even complain to the people around us that God doesn't care when the fact is that he is showing his concern through the people he has sent to you. We who are currently suffering need to receive the presence and encouraging words of others as if God himself were present and speaking to us because he is. By God's grace I have found great comfort in the presence and words of my wife and children and children-in-law and my extended family and by the many friends who have written and called and texted and emailed. People have been the means of God's comfort to me in great measure.
The second way God comforts us can be seen in 2 Corinthians 1:9. Paul writes about the suffering he experienced in Asia (This was prior to going to Macedonia): "Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." Paul was comforted in the midst of the most extreme suffering, he was certain he was going to die right then, by the promise of God in Christ to raise him from the dead. God comforted him by the promises of the gospel. God, by his Spirit, reminded Paul of what Paul knew to be true and this comforted him. He knew that the trouble he was in was only temporary and could not separate him from the love of God to him in Jesus, nor take away that inheritance which Christ had purchased for him.
The question I have and I trust you do as well, is this: how did God comfort Paul? How exactly does God comfort us in our afflictions? This is very important for us to understand so that when we are in trouble we will know what we can expect from God in the way of comfort. It is also important because we will be able to pray more wisely and specifically for others who are in trouble, rather than just praying something generic like: "Lord, please comfort my suffering brother/sister in Christ."
The passage tells us two ways that God comforts us. First, God comforts us through the presence and care and verbal encouragement of other believers. This is a basic assumption of the entire passage. God expects that Paul is going to be able to comfort the Corinthians, that is why God comforted Paul, so he can by his words in this letter and eventually by his presence with them, bring God's comfort to them. This point is confirmed because of what Paul says about himself and his traveling companions in 2 Corinthians 7:5-7 & 13. Look at what he says: "For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn--fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.... Therefore we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all."
Paul and company came to Macedonia, which is north of Greece, the country in which Corinth is a leading city. When he came to Macedonia he was being afflicted both externally and internally. He was embroiled in some kind of controversy with others and he was afflicted with emotional distress, with fear. What he feared we are not told but all of us know how troubling fear can be. While in this troubled state the God who comforts the downcast, those in trouble like Paul, comforted Paul by the coming of his fellow worker and friend and apprentice pastor, Titus. Titus had just been in Corinth. While Titus was in Corinth, he had been comforted by the Corinthians, his spirit had been refreshed by them. Thus Paul was comforted by Titus reporting how earnest the Corinthian church was to follow Jesus. Thus, it would appear that some portion of Paul's fear had to do with the church in Corinth. But God's comfort came to Paul by the presence and encouraging words of Titus who himself had been comforted/refreshed by the Corinthians.
It is very easy for those who are suffering to wonder where God is at in the midst of the trouble. We can even complain to the people around us that God doesn't care when the fact is that he is showing his concern through the people he has sent to you. We who are currently suffering need to receive the presence and encouraging words of others as if God himself were present and speaking to us because he is. By God's grace I have found great comfort in the presence and words of my wife and children and children-in-law and my extended family and by the many friends who have written and called and texted and emailed. People have been the means of God's comfort to me in great measure.
The second way God comforts us can be seen in 2 Corinthians 1:9. Paul writes about the suffering he experienced in Asia (This was prior to going to Macedonia): "Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." Paul was comforted in the midst of the most extreme suffering, he was certain he was going to die right then, by the promise of God in Christ to raise him from the dead. God comforted him by the promises of the gospel. God, by his Spirit, reminded Paul of what Paul knew to be true and this comforted him. He knew that the trouble he was in was only temporary and could not separate him from the love of God to him in Jesus, nor take away that inheritance which Christ had purchased for him.
God's word and the promises he has made to us in it are the chief source of God's comfort to us. This is one of the reasons it is so important for us to learn this word, to devote ourselves to reading it, memorizing it, meditating upon it. You may not ever be troubled in the ways that I and my family have been troubled but you are going to face trouble. Your ability to stand and to be comforted in the trouble will be directly connected to your knowledge of the promises of God. I have no question that I would not still be a Christian if not for the fact that I knew God's word and the promises which he has made to us in Christ when the trouble struck. God's promises are the source of my comfort and hope.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
The God of all comfort
Here is another passage that talks about God's good purposes in the suffering of his children. Let me quote the passage in full and then we'll talk about it. 2 Corinthians 1:3-9 (ESV), "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead."
First, the two titles that Paul gives to God: "Father of mercies" and "God of all comfort" mean that God is the Father of every believer who gives to us every kind of mercy that we need. He takes pity upon us and provides us with every kindness we need. And also he is the God who provides every kind of comfort that we need. Especially, as Paul continues this Father who is God provides his mercies and his comforts to us when we are afflicted. We will come back to how God comforts us in a moment but for right now we come to the first of two purposes for affliction in our lives. This first one is that God comforts us in our afflictions so that we can comfort others who are in any affliction. That word "any" is critical. Paul is not thinking about just persecution here but any affliction, any trouble that a believer finds himself or herself in, God provides comfort so that you can then comfort others in the same way that God has comforted you.
Thus, one of God's good purposes in sending various kinds of trouble to his children is so that we will learn how to help others who are afflicted know the wonder of God's love and mercy in their lives. Paul goes on to say that we, that is, all Christians share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. If you have followed this blog you will recognize here the same language we saw in Romans 8:17. The sufferings of Christ that we share in are all the sufferings, all the miseries that come as a result of living in this fallen and cursed world. Notice, as we've seen repeatedly, we share in these sufferings abundantly. But also, Paul says, we also, through Christ, share abundantly in God's comfort.
Now Paul returns to the previous point, the reason he and his companions are afflicted is for the comfort and salvation of the Christians in Corinth and if they are comforted it is for them as well. Paul recognizes that all his trouble and all his comfort from God is meant by God for the service of others. It is through the suffering and God's comfort in that suffering that he is able to help other believers be comforted in their afflictions as well. This is so helpful to know when you are suffering that God has designed the suffering and the comfort you receive from him in the midst of it so that you can be of benefit to others in their sufferings.
Now he comes to the second purpose for God's sending afflictions. He tells them that the afflictions which he and his companions experienced in Asia (modern Turkey) were so intense that they had given up hope of continued life, they were sure they were going to die. However, he says, God sent such intense, hope destroying affliction to them so that they would learn to not trust themselves, not to rely on themselves but to trust in God who raises the dead. We see it here again that God sends the trouble to make us look away from ourselves to him alone. He aims that we trust and hope in him alone because he alone has the power to raise us from the dead. So too, his purpose in the trouble is to get us to look past the comforts and pleasures of this planet and to look forward to the new heavens and the new earth. Through the trouble we feel the temporariness of this present world and look forward with greater longing to being with the Lord forever in our resurrected bodies and in this restored universe.
I'll write tomorrow about how it is that the Lord comforts us in our afflictions and thus how we comfort others who are in affliction.
First, the two titles that Paul gives to God: "Father of mercies" and "God of all comfort" mean that God is the Father of every believer who gives to us every kind of mercy that we need. He takes pity upon us and provides us with every kindness we need. And also he is the God who provides every kind of comfort that we need. Especially, as Paul continues this Father who is God provides his mercies and his comforts to us when we are afflicted. We will come back to how God comforts us in a moment but for right now we come to the first of two purposes for affliction in our lives. This first one is that God comforts us in our afflictions so that we can comfort others who are in any affliction. That word "any" is critical. Paul is not thinking about just persecution here but any affliction, any trouble that a believer finds himself or herself in, God provides comfort so that you can then comfort others in the same way that God has comforted you.
Thus, one of God's good purposes in sending various kinds of trouble to his children is so that we will learn how to help others who are afflicted know the wonder of God's love and mercy in their lives. Paul goes on to say that we, that is, all Christians share abundantly in Christ's sufferings. If you have followed this blog you will recognize here the same language we saw in Romans 8:17. The sufferings of Christ that we share in are all the sufferings, all the miseries that come as a result of living in this fallen and cursed world. Notice, as we've seen repeatedly, we share in these sufferings abundantly. But also, Paul says, we also, through Christ, share abundantly in God's comfort.
Now Paul returns to the previous point, the reason he and his companions are afflicted is for the comfort and salvation of the Christians in Corinth and if they are comforted it is for them as well. Paul recognizes that all his trouble and all his comfort from God is meant by God for the service of others. It is through the suffering and God's comfort in that suffering that he is able to help other believers be comforted in their afflictions as well. This is so helpful to know when you are suffering that God has designed the suffering and the comfort you receive from him in the midst of it so that you can be of benefit to others in their sufferings.
Now he comes to the second purpose for God's sending afflictions. He tells them that the afflictions which he and his companions experienced in Asia (modern Turkey) were so intense that they had given up hope of continued life, they were sure they were going to die. However, he says, God sent such intense, hope destroying affliction to them so that they would learn to not trust themselves, not to rely on themselves but to trust in God who raises the dead. We see it here again that God sends the trouble to make us look away from ourselves to him alone. He aims that we trust and hope in him alone because he alone has the power to raise us from the dead. So too, his purpose in the trouble is to get us to look past the comforts and pleasures of this planet and to look forward to the new heavens and the new earth. Through the trouble we feel the temporariness of this present world and look forward with greater longing to being with the Lord forever in our resurrected bodies and in this restored universe.
I'll write tomorrow about how it is that the Lord comforts us in our afflictions and thus how we comfort others who are in affliction.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Delivered from afflictions
I am not sure what proper etiquette is on a blog, even if there is such a thing as proper etiquette. I have not written a post for a week. Should I apologize? That seems rather presumptuous and perhaps even arrogant as I would then be presuming that someone might be offended or disappointed in my not writing. I was not able to write for the past week as the only energy I had was given to study and then writing of my sermon together with keeping up with emails and caring for my disabled son on Saturday and Sunday afternoon. I am not sure if it was a worse week than before. I think perhaps I'm just weary of feeling sick. Anyway today I'm at work and feeling better but still woozy and not 100%.
Yesterday, during the reading of the Scriptures at church a verse really caught my ear and my eye. We read half of one of my favorite psalms, Psalm 34. The verse that caught my ear was v. 19: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." The entire psalm reflects the reality of this statement. The psalmist, who is righteous, talks about his fears and his troubles throughout the psalm. So this is a verse that fits the reality of the psalmist: the righteous have many afflictions.
"The righteous" refers to those individuals who are in right standing with God. This is one of the most common ways in the OT of describing the people of God, those with whom God is well-pleased, who are going to spend eternity with him. God is righteous and thus to be a righteous person is to have met God's standard, to be acceptable to him. However, there is a problem in the OT use of this language because the same OT, indeed, in the same book, Psalm 143:2 we are told, "no one living is righteous before you." In Psalm 14:1 God says, "there is none who does good." Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins." There scores of verses that repeat this same theme: there are no good or obedient or righteous humans. So, how can the psalmist talk about himself or anyone being righteous?
That is where the next verse comes in which immediately caught my ear and eye after v. 19 did. Psalm 34:20 reads, "He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken." What this verse says is that God prevents all the bones of "the righteous one" to whom v.19 refers from being broken. Now the apostle John writes this in his gospel (19:31-36), "Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness--his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth--that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken."
John tells us that the reason Jesus' legs were not broken by the soldiers as they broke the legs of the other two men is because God had written, through his prophet David, in Psalm 34:20 that not one of the bones of the righteous one would be broken. Thus the person who is praying this psalm and to whom this entire psalm is referring is Jesus, David's greater son, the Messiah. Jesus is the only actual righteous human to have ever lived upon the face of this planet because he is the only human who ever perfectly obeyed God's law.
So how are we supposed to read this psalm? Jesus is the one who has fulfilled everything this psalm and every other psalm says. Thus, whenever we read these prayers, that is what the Psalms are, we must always read them first as the prayers of Jesus, the righteous one. Then, if we are united to him by the work of the Holy Spirit through faith in him, we read them as our prayers because we are righteous before God because Jesus obeyed the law in our place and suffered the death we deserve for all of our disobedience. Thus, I and every believer in Jesus can read this psalm and every psalm as the "righteous one" because we are righteous in God's eyes through our faith in Jesus. To use NT langauge, we have been justified, declared not guilty but perfectly righteous in God's sight, through our faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-31, 5:1-11, etc.).
Thus, it is true for me and for every believer that we have many afflictions. This is in perfect agreement with what the apostle Paul said in Acts 14:22, "...through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of God." We should never be surprised by the suffering and pain and trouble we experience in this life because God has told us that we should expect it. However, the key question is this: God has said that he delivers the righteous from all their afflictions; when and how does God do this? What does that mean? Does that mean I can count on not dying of cancer? Does that mean that my disabled son is going to be miraculously healed and made whole again?
That is where knowing that this psalm is first about Jesus is so important. How and when did God deliver Jesus from all his afflictions? He delivered him from his afflictions after he suffered and died and went to hell for us; when he raised him from the dead and glorified him. Thus, because I am righteous in Christ, I can know with absolute certainty that I will be delivered from my cancer at the resurrection from the dead. It may be that I will not die from this cancer and that is what I pray. However, I need not fear the cancer because whether or not I die from it, I will most certainly be delivered from it at the resurrection from the dead, just like my Savior was delivered from his afflictions at his resurrection.
Yesterday, during the reading of the Scriptures at church a verse really caught my ear and my eye. We read half of one of my favorite psalms, Psalm 34. The verse that caught my ear was v. 19: "Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all." The entire psalm reflects the reality of this statement. The psalmist, who is righteous, talks about his fears and his troubles throughout the psalm. So this is a verse that fits the reality of the psalmist: the righteous have many afflictions.
"The righteous" refers to those individuals who are in right standing with God. This is one of the most common ways in the OT of describing the people of God, those with whom God is well-pleased, who are going to spend eternity with him. God is righteous and thus to be a righteous person is to have met God's standard, to be acceptable to him. However, there is a problem in the OT use of this language because the same OT, indeed, in the same book, Psalm 143:2 we are told, "no one living is righteous before you." In Psalm 14:1 God says, "there is none who does good." Ecclesiastes 7:20 says, "Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins." There scores of verses that repeat this same theme: there are no good or obedient or righteous humans. So, how can the psalmist talk about himself or anyone being righteous?
That is where the next verse comes in which immediately caught my ear and eye after v. 19 did. Psalm 34:20 reads, "He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken." What this verse says is that God prevents all the bones of "the righteous one" to whom v.19 refers from being broken. Now the apostle John writes this in his gospel (19:31-36), "Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness--his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth--that you also may believe. For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken."
John tells us that the reason Jesus' legs were not broken by the soldiers as they broke the legs of the other two men is because God had written, through his prophet David, in Psalm 34:20 that not one of the bones of the righteous one would be broken. Thus the person who is praying this psalm and to whom this entire psalm is referring is Jesus, David's greater son, the Messiah. Jesus is the only actual righteous human to have ever lived upon the face of this planet because he is the only human who ever perfectly obeyed God's law.
So how are we supposed to read this psalm? Jesus is the one who has fulfilled everything this psalm and every other psalm says. Thus, whenever we read these prayers, that is what the Psalms are, we must always read them first as the prayers of Jesus, the righteous one. Then, if we are united to him by the work of the Holy Spirit through faith in him, we read them as our prayers because we are righteous before God because Jesus obeyed the law in our place and suffered the death we deserve for all of our disobedience. Thus, I and every believer in Jesus can read this psalm and every psalm as the "righteous one" because we are righteous in God's eyes through our faith in Jesus. To use NT langauge, we have been justified, declared not guilty but perfectly righteous in God's sight, through our faith in Jesus (Romans 3:21-31, 5:1-11, etc.).
Thus, it is true for me and for every believer that we have many afflictions. This is in perfect agreement with what the apostle Paul said in Acts 14:22, "...through many afflictions we must enter the kingdom of God." We should never be surprised by the suffering and pain and trouble we experience in this life because God has told us that we should expect it. However, the key question is this: God has said that he delivers the righteous from all their afflictions; when and how does God do this? What does that mean? Does that mean I can count on not dying of cancer? Does that mean that my disabled son is going to be miraculously healed and made whole again?
That is where knowing that this psalm is first about Jesus is so important. How and when did God deliver Jesus from all his afflictions? He delivered him from his afflictions after he suffered and died and went to hell for us; when he raised him from the dead and glorified him. Thus, because I am righteous in Christ, I can know with absolute certainty that I will be delivered from my cancer at the resurrection from the dead. It may be that I will not die from this cancer and that is what I pray. However, I need not fear the cancer because whether or not I die from it, I will most certainly be delivered from it at the resurrection from the dead, just like my Savior was delivered from his afflictions at his resurrection.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)