I have frequently thought about a passage from Philippians 1 since I was diagnosed with cancer. The apostle Paul is in a Roman prison and awaiting trial. He does not know what is going to happen to him. He could be found guilty and killed for fomenting dissension and rebellion against Rome or he could be exonerated and set free. In vv. 19-20 he asserts that he knows that by their prayers and the help given to him by the Spirit of Jesus these circumstances will result in his salvation. The reason for his confidence is that he knows he will have courage so that he will not be ashamed but that Jesus will be honored in his body, whether by life or by death.
This is such an important thing which Paul says. He knows that going on trial and being faced with imminent death could cause him to be ashamed of Christ, to not hold fast to him and thus dishonor Christ. However, he also knows that by the prayers of God's people for him and by the help which the Holy Spirit will give him he will have courage and not be ashamed but will hold fast and honor Christ whether he lives or he dies. So here is a great thing to be praying for any Christian you know that is undergoing suffering: pray that the pain and stress will not cause them to be ashamed of Christ and thus dishonor him but that he or she will have sufficient courage to glorify Christ no matter what happens.
Then Paul makes one of his most well known statements which has been the source of countless Christians' ability to withstand all manner of suffering (v.21): "For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." Then in the next couple of verses he explains what he means by this succinct declaration of Christian faith and motivation. Here is what he says in vv.22-25, "If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith..."
Paul's whole life is about Jesus: knowing him, trusting him, loving him, obeying him, proclaiming him. But he knows that what he knows of the beauty and worth of Jesus in this life is nothing compared to what it will be like in the next life. Therefore, as he wants Christ more than he wants anything else he wants to die and to be with Jesus most of all. Here is the very challenging thing he asserts: dying and being with Christ is "far better" than remaining alive here. The emotion he is reflecting here is not hard to understand. We enjoy "skyping" (is that even a word?) with our son and daughter-in-law and our 4 grandsons (with another on the way) in Kentucky. And our circumstances require that this is how we relate at this time. However, if we could choose our current situation or being with them, well...being with them is far better. We would gladly, if it were possible, go live near them. However, it is not possible for many different reasons, but mostly because our work is here.
John Piper asks a very difficult, challenging, even frightening question in view of Paul's sentiment which is to be the sentiment of every born again child of God. He asks: "If you could go to heaven and enjoy perfect health, eat your favorite foods and spend your time doing the things you most enjoy and be with all your favorite people and all this without any guilt BUT Jesus was not there, would you want to go?" He says that how you answer that question reveals whether or not you are truly a Christian. Because to the Christian, the greatest good, the highest joy is to be with the one who has saved her and who is the object of her highest affections.
Paul is confident, that in spite of the fact that his fondest wish is to be with Christ, that this imprisonment will not end in death because he knows that the Philippian church and many others still need him to preach and teach the gospel. He knows that he is still needed so that through him others will make progress and have joy in the faith. We are not told whether or not this confidence that he is going to keep on living is the result of a "special revelation" from God or simply the result of his personal reflection on the situation.
I cannot speak with the same confidence which Paul has in asserting that I am going to survive the cancer. However, it certainly does feel to me that my remaining in the flesh is more necessary for my wife and my children, especially for Jared, my grandchildren and my dear friends and brothers and sisters in Christ at River Hills Community Church. It does not feel to me that my work is done. Yet again, there are many far more faithful and fruitful Christian husbands and fathers and grandfathers and pastors who have been struck down early in life, when it appeared they had far more to do. So I guess we pray for courage to hold fast and not dishonor Christ in life and in death and we ask God to kill the cancer so that I can finish the work God has for me to do.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Talking to yourself
The other day, though I was feeling 80% "normal" physically, I was moping around the house mainly because I was thinking about the fact that I have to go back to get chemotherapy this next Monday and then I have to do it seven more times after that. My wife said to me, "You need to go read your blog." What my wife was observing is what the family members of every professing Christian knows, we don't live as well as we talk. Or, to say it another way, the members of our family know about us that we know how to live far better than we actually live.
However, there is something very true about the advice my wife gave to me. If we are going to make progress in the Christian life, if we are going to remain faithful to Christ through trials and temptation, we need to learn to talk to ourselves. In Psalm 42 the psalmist is discouraged. His soul, he says is "downcast within him". He longs for the "old days" when he was close to God and joined in the worship of God with the community of faith. But now he is far from God and from people and is very discouraged. His enemies taunt him, saying to him, "Where is your God?" Twice in the psalm he talks to himself. This is what he says (vv.5-6): "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you..."
He knows that he does not need to be discouraged because he will, one day praise and worship God again. He will be near to God again because God is his God and his salvation. So he asks himself, "Why are you downcast and in turmoil?" There is no need for discouragement. Yes things are tough now but his is not a permanent situation. This will end and I will be with God and will delight in him once again because he is the God who has saved me. I will once again join with all God's people in the fellowship of praise to God. Thus now I will hope in God, not in any human deliverance, not in my own goodness or strength, but in this God who is my salvation. Then he tells the Lord that he remembers him in the midst of his trouble. It is quite clear in the psalm that the trouble is not over, but it is by means of his talking to himself and remembering the Lord that he is able to persevere through the difficulty.
This is a very important practice for living the Christian life. We must learn to talk to ourselves, to remind ourselves of what God has done for us in Christ and what he is going to do for us in the future. As John Piper has said, we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day. By this we remember what is true for us and this strengthens us to persevere in the midst of the trouble. As Paul exhorts Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:8, "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel..." Thus my wife was correct in telling me to read my blog because as I do, I am talking to myself, reminding myself of God's promises and of the future that is mine in Christ and thus strengthening my resolve to hold fast to Christ and not be such a gloomy person.
However, there is something very true about the advice my wife gave to me. If we are going to make progress in the Christian life, if we are going to remain faithful to Christ through trials and temptation, we need to learn to talk to ourselves. In Psalm 42 the psalmist is discouraged. His soul, he says is "downcast within him". He longs for the "old days" when he was close to God and joined in the worship of God with the community of faith. But now he is far from God and from people and is very discouraged. His enemies taunt him, saying to him, "Where is your God?" Twice in the psalm he talks to himself. This is what he says (vv.5-6): "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God. My soul is cast down within me; therefore I remember you..."
He knows that he does not need to be discouraged because he will, one day praise and worship God again. He will be near to God again because God is his God and his salvation. So he asks himself, "Why are you downcast and in turmoil?" There is no need for discouragement. Yes things are tough now but his is not a permanent situation. This will end and I will be with God and will delight in him once again because he is the God who has saved me. I will once again join with all God's people in the fellowship of praise to God. Thus now I will hope in God, not in any human deliverance, not in my own goodness or strength, but in this God who is my salvation. Then he tells the Lord that he remembers him in the midst of his trouble. It is quite clear in the psalm that the trouble is not over, but it is by means of his talking to himself and remembering the Lord that he is able to persevere through the difficulty.
This is a very important practice for living the Christian life. We must learn to talk to ourselves, to remind ourselves of what God has done for us in Christ and what he is going to do for us in the future. As John Piper has said, we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day. By this we remember what is true for us and this strengthens us to persevere in the midst of the trouble. As Paul exhorts Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:8, "Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel..." Thus my wife was correct in telling me to read my blog because as I do, I am talking to myself, reminding myself of God's promises and of the future that is mine in Christ and thus strengthening my resolve to hold fast to Christ and not be such a gloomy person.
Monday, April 23, 2012
The temptations of suffering
I was thinking this morning about an essay I first read many years ago and have reviewed numerous times since then. The title of the essay is "Teach us to care, teach us not to care" and it is written by Eugene Peterson, a well known author but more importantly a now retired pastor and seminary professor. The essay is about the process of pastoral counseling. He recognizes that most of the people who come to pastors for counsel are suffering in some way. His point in the article is to remind those who counsel that this person who comes for help and who you want to help is not only the victim of suffering but also an agent, an actor. He has not only been sinned against, or had some trouble happen to him, but he also chooses and acts himself.
A main point that he makes in the essay, which I was thinking about this morning, is that all those who suffer often use the occasion of their misfortune to get their own way. While God is trying to do a work of spiritual growth through the trouble, those who are the victim of trouble are often tempted to use the trouble to get their own selfish way, rather than allow God to use the trouble to make them holy. This is a very real temptation for all of us who are suffering any sort of misfortune.
I see the problem in myself. Last week while I was feeling pretty sick, I was sitting on the couch with my 13 year old daughter. The TV show we were watching was one of her choosing and which I was not interested in watching. So I suggested to her that since I was the one with cancer and not feeling well because of chemo-therapy, she ought to let me watch what I wanted to watch. I gave in to the temptation to use my illness to get my way and in so doing I sinned. I was not in any way concerned about my daughter. I was only thinking about me. Being sick does not exempt me from my responsibility to love my daughter. I don’t have the right to manipulate her. I can ask her to change the channel. We can negotiate a mutually satisfactory solution to one TV and two different tastes. However I do not have the right to use my illness to get what I want from her.
Speaking of the TV; here is another temptation facing those who suffer; at least it seems like a temptation for this sufferer. I know that God has sent this trouble to me so that I might share his holiness, that my faith might be proved genuine and thus result in glory when Christ returns. I know that the Scripture says that the source of joy for the believer who suffers is the knowledge of Christ’s saving work and that glorious future that awaits (1 Peter 1:3-6). However, in my day to day suffering I find it far easier to sit in front of the TV and find “joy” in watching the Brewers play baseball or watch another episode of “Chopped” (That’s a cooking show for the uninitiated), or watch a movie than to actually seek God’s help to be satisfied in Christ. Now I know that there is a place for being distracted from the discomfort by watching entertainment. However, I also know that some of my TV watching is really a replacement for finding my joy in Christ. I know that I could use the energy I do have to pray and read and talk with my wife rather than vegetate in front of the TV. I am tempted and sometimes succumb to the temptation to use my sickness as an excuse to not seek God or do any other useful thing.
There are other temptations that face those who suffer which I may discuss in the future. However, one thing that strikes me as I reflect on these two temptations and their accompanying sins: those who suffer need to pray “The Lord’s Prayer” as much as those who are not at the moment suffering. I need God to make his name appear glorious to me. I need Christ to rule my heart, to be my king. I need to do God’s will today, while I am sick. I need God to provide me with the physical strength and stamina to do his will today. I need him to forgive my sins as I’ve forgiven those who have sinned against me. I need God to not lead me into temptations that will lead to me sinning but I need him to deliver me from the evil one. Pray it for me and I will pray it for you.
A main point that he makes in the essay, which I was thinking about this morning, is that all those who suffer often use the occasion of their misfortune to get their own way. While God is trying to do a work of spiritual growth through the trouble, those who are the victim of trouble are often tempted to use the trouble to get their own selfish way, rather than allow God to use the trouble to make them holy. This is a very real temptation for all of us who are suffering any sort of misfortune.
I see the problem in myself. Last week while I was feeling pretty sick, I was sitting on the couch with my 13 year old daughter. The TV show we were watching was one of her choosing and which I was not interested in watching. So I suggested to her that since I was the one with cancer and not feeling well because of chemo-therapy, she ought to let me watch what I wanted to watch. I gave in to the temptation to use my illness to get my way and in so doing I sinned. I was not in any way concerned about my daughter. I was only thinking about me. Being sick does not exempt me from my responsibility to love my daughter. I don’t have the right to manipulate her. I can ask her to change the channel. We can negotiate a mutually satisfactory solution to one TV and two different tastes. However I do not have the right to use my illness to get what I want from her.
Speaking of the TV; here is another temptation facing those who suffer; at least it seems like a temptation for this sufferer. I know that God has sent this trouble to me so that I might share his holiness, that my faith might be proved genuine and thus result in glory when Christ returns. I know that the Scripture says that the source of joy for the believer who suffers is the knowledge of Christ’s saving work and that glorious future that awaits (1 Peter 1:3-6). However, in my day to day suffering I find it far easier to sit in front of the TV and find “joy” in watching the Brewers play baseball or watch another episode of “Chopped” (That’s a cooking show for the uninitiated), or watch a movie than to actually seek God’s help to be satisfied in Christ. Now I know that there is a place for being distracted from the discomfort by watching entertainment. However, I also know that some of my TV watching is really a replacement for finding my joy in Christ. I know that I could use the energy I do have to pray and read and talk with my wife rather than vegetate in front of the TV. I am tempted and sometimes succumb to the temptation to use my sickness as an excuse to not seek God or do any other useful thing.
There are other temptations that face those who suffer which I may discuss in the future. However, one thing that strikes me as I reflect on these two temptations and their accompanying sins: those who suffer need to pray “The Lord’s Prayer” as much as those who are not at the moment suffering. I need God to make his name appear glorious to me. I need Christ to rule my heart, to be my king. I need to do God’s will today, while I am sick. I need God to provide me with the physical strength and stamina to do his will today. I need him to forgive my sins as I’ve forgiven those who have sinned against me. I need God to not lead me into temptations that will lead to me sinning but I need him to deliver me from the evil one. Pray it for me and I will pray it for you.
Saturday, April 21, 2012
The road ahead
To be honest these last three days have been discouraging. I had hoped, "expected", to do better, be better and I was not. I wasn't able to coach soccer this morning (Thanks Joe for your help) and I saw a guy out riding his bike with all his bike stuff on, same color as mine and thought, "I wonder if I'll ever be able to do that again." I have a hard time not thinking about 8 more times, 16 more weeks. Then there is the thought of what if the cancer comes back in six months. I know, bad thoughts. Need to live in the day.
In the midst of my pessimism a friend reminded me of a passage in Luke 9. After he feeds the five thousand with a few fish and loaves of bread, is transfigured before Peter, James and John on the mountain, appearing in his glory with Moses and Elijah and then heals a epileptic/demon possessed son for a father we are told about Jesus in v. 51: "When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem." The days of happy ministry were over, now was the time for our Lord to begin his journey to Jerusalem where he "would be taken up", that is, he would be betrayed, tortured, and crucified. In that crucifixion he would suffer all of God's furious wrath against all the sins of all who were to trust in him. He set his face to go to Jerusalem so he could go to hell for us.
He knew exactly what awaited him. Just before this, on the mountain of transfiguration he had told Peter, James and John (v.22), "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." He knew and yet he set his face to go there. He became resolute and determined to reach the bitter end. Again, we ask, how did Jesus, who was fully human like you and I do this? He did it for "the joy set before him" (Heb. 12:2). He did it because he knew that God would never let his "Holy One see decay" and that "in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:10-11). He did it because he knew that his Father was going to glorify him in his presence with the same glory he had prior to his coming to earth to walk down this lonely, bitter road (John 17:5). He was able to do the hardest thing that any human, any being has ever done, to suffer the wrath of God for the sins of others because of his confidence that what lay on the other side was infinitely superior to the sufferings endured to obtain it.
The same promises are held out to every suffering Christian. Here again is one of my favorites: "Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Therefore, we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen because what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal." Here is a good word for me. This is the road God has called me to walk down so I must set my face to do so. I must not lose heart. These are but light and momentary troubles (especially in comparison to what my Lord suffered) and they are, like his sufferings before me, achieving, producing an eternal glory that is far superior to this pain.
So Lord, grant that my eyes might be fixed on that coming, eternal world of glory and not on this temporary world of trouble. Forgive me for not following faithfully, resolutely in my Savior's footsteps. Thank you that my future is secure because of what he suffered and not because of my faithfulness. Amen.
In the midst of my pessimism a friend reminded me of a passage in Luke 9. After he feeds the five thousand with a few fish and loaves of bread, is transfigured before Peter, James and John on the mountain, appearing in his glory with Moses and Elijah and then heals a epileptic/demon possessed son for a father we are told about Jesus in v. 51: "When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem." The days of happy ministry were over, now was the time for our Lord to begin his journey to Jerusalem where he "would be taken up", that is, he would be betrayed, tortured, and crucified. In that crucifixion he would suffer all of God's furious wrath against all the sins of all who were to trust in him. He set his face to go to Jerusalem so he could go to hell for us.
He knew exactly what awaited him. Just before this, on the mountain of transfiguration he had told Peter, James and John (v.22), "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised." He knew and yet he set his face to go there. He became resolute and determined to reach the bitter end. Again, we ask, how did Jesus, who was fully human like you and I do this? He did it for "the joy set before him" (Heb. 12:2). He did it because he knew that God would never let his "Holy One see decay" and that "in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:10-11). He did it because he knew that his Father was going to glorify him in his presence with the same glory he had prior to his coming to earth to walk down this lonely, bitter road (John 17:5). He was able to do the hardest thing that any human, any being has ever done, to suffer the wrath of God for the sins of others because of his confidence that what lay on the other side was infinitely superior to the sufferings endured to obtain it.
The same promises are held out to every suffering Christian. Here again is one of my favorites: "Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. Therefore, we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen because what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal." Here is a good word for me. This is the road God has called me to walk down so I must set my face to do so. I must not lose heart. These are but light and momentary troubles (especially in comparison to what my Lord suffered) and they are, like his sufferings before me, achieving, producing an eternal glory that is far superior to this pain.
So Lord, grant that my eyes might be fixed on that coming, eternal world of glory and not on this temporary world of trouble. Forgive me for not following faithfully, resolutely in my Savior's footsteps. Thank you that my future is secure because of what he suffered and not because of my faithfulness. Amen.
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
A blank mind
Not feeling very well today. Low energy. Shaky and weak. Queasy. Pray for courage and endurance and hope and joy in the coming salvation and faith in the God who raises the dead and that I not be a whiner. Thanks.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Good to be afflicted
I received my fourth round of chemo-therapy today. Aside from all the strange sensations in various parts of my body, I feel OK at the moment.
The second summer after I became a Christian I read and re-read this psalm scores of times. The passion of the psalmist for God’s word and his confidence in it captured my heart and my imagination. During that summer I noted that the psalm contained a number of statements regarding the affliction that the psalmist was experiencing. At the time, as a young 21 year old, they made little impression on me. Over the years as I have read the psalm I have noted and, especially since Jared’s accident, paid more attention to these prayers of the psalmist. Here is a list of ways in which the psalmist relates his affliction to God and his word:
Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible, comprised of 176 verses. The psalm is an acrostic psalm, which means that in the original Hebrew the psalm is comprised of 22 stanzas with 8 lines in each stanza. Each of the lines in a stanza begins with one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The stanzas are arranged alphabetically, Ayin to Tav (In the English language that would be A-Z). The theme of the psalm is the wonder and beauty and truthfulness and faithfulness of God’s word, his law. It is perhaps most famous for three verses in the opening two stanzas. Verse 9 reads: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.” Verse 11 reads: “I have stored up (treasured) your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” Verse 18 reads: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”
The second summer after I became a Christian I read and re-read this psalm scores of times. The passion of the psalmist for God’s word and his confidence in it captured my heart and my imagination. During that summer I noted that the psalm contained a number of statements regarding the affliction that the psalmist was experiencing. At the time, as a young 21 year old, they made little impression on me. Over the years as I have read the psalm I have noted and, especially since Jared’s accident, paid more attention to these prayers of the psalmist. Here is a list of ways in which the psalmist relates his affliction to God and his word:
Psalm 119:50, “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.”
Psalm 119:67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.”
Psalm 119:71,”It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.”
Psalm 119:75, “I know, O LORD, that your rules are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.”
Psalm 119:92, “If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.”
Psalm 119:107, “I am severely afflicted; give me life, O LORD, according to your word!”
Psalm 119:153, “Look on my affliction and deliver me, for I do not forget your law.”
First, notice in v. 75 that the same God how has given to us a righteous word, that is, a word which arises from and corresponds to God’s good and perfect and absolutely righteous character has also, out of that same flawless, faithful character afflicted the psalmist. The afflictions that God’s people experience come from their faithful God. This is not the first time we have noted that this is what the Bible says.
Second, notice vv. 71 and 67. In 71, being afflicted is a good thing. That sounds exactly like what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12 when he boasts all the more gladly in his weaknesses (afflictions). He would agree with the Psalmist it is good for me that I was afflicted. For the psalmist, why was it good? The affliction caused him to “learn God’s word” in ways he could not have ever learned the truthfulness of that word without the affliction. But it is good not only because he learns God’s word better but also, by means of the affliction, he obeys God’s word better (v.67). He is sharing in the holiness of God in a greater way because of the trouble. I can testify in my own life that Jared’s accident and the 10 years of caring for him since it and now the cancer has caused me to pursue knowing and trusting/obeying his word. It matters more to me because, I think in part, I realize that this is no game. Life is serious business because heaven and hell hang in the balance, because the glory of God and the welfare of God’s church hang in the balance.
Third, notice vv. 50 and 92. What is the source of all the comfort in the midst of taking chemo-therapy and facing the fact I can die way sooner than I planned from cancer all the while living with my brain injured son? God’s promise in Christ gives to me life, not only eternal life but hope to live out this life as faithfully as I can. Then, anyone who knows me has heard me say something very close to v. 92. I have no question that if it were not for the fact that in the early 1990’s, as a result of God’s opening my eyes to the fact that everything is about him and the goal of life is to know and be known by this great God, I began a regular program of bible memorization and bible reading and reading good books about Christian doctrine, I would not still be a pastor and probably not a Christian. From the human point of view, if God’s word had not been my delight for the previous decade, I could not have stood in the face of Jared’s accident and now my cancer.
Finally, notice how the psalmist prays in vv.107 & 153. He is honest with God about his condition. “I am severely afflicted.” This sucks. It hurts. It is not pleasant. And then the request, “Give me life.” That is both a prayer for healing and a prayer for final salvation. This is obvious when we see the qualifying clause, “according to your word.” The life I want is the life you have promised in your word which is ultimately eternal life. The clause also is a statement of God, I want your will to be done in my case exactly as you have promised in your word. Again we should hear the prayer of Jesus in the Garden and the prayer of Paul for deliverance from the thorn. Finally, in v. 153 he pleads for deliverance because he has not forgotten God’s word. This is not an assertion of merit or that somehow because he has loved God’s word God is somehow obligated to repay him with deliverance. He is simply asserting that he is asking in accord with what God promises and trusting God to do what God has said in this word which he has hidden in his heart. So our prayers for the afflicted are most effective when they are directed by and in accord with all that God has said in his word.
My word to you is to begin today to make it your aim to “treasure this word in your heart,” by at the minimum, daily reading of it and attending a church where the Bible is being taught in its detail, not simply as a book of good quotes or as a book of inspirational thoughts.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
What not to think
What should you think when you observe or find out about the suffering of others? When tornadoes level an entire town or a tsunami overwhelms an entire coast or a person dies in a car accident or someone gets cancer or a spouse commits adultery or...., what should you think? Fortunately we are not left to our own wisdom or imagination. Jesus addresses this exact question. His answer is recorded for us in Luke 13:1-5. There is a crowd of people around and there were some in the crowd who informed Jesus about a horrific incident that had taken place in Jerusalem. Some Jewish people from Galilee had gone to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and for some reason which we are not told, the Roman governor, Pilate sent his soldiers into the temple to kill them while they were making sacrifices so that their blood mingled with the blood of their sacrifices. Here is a report of terrible suffering which has come upon a group of Jewish Galileans.
Here is what Jesus says in response to this bit of gossip: "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Do you hear what Jesus is saying? Did these people, both the Galileans who were butchered by the Roman soldiers and the 18 people who were killed when a tower collapsed, die like this because they were worse sinners than all the other people of their region or city? Jesus is confronting a persistent, self-righteous and erroneous attitude that regularly prevails among religious people. "These people are suffering because they have done terrible things, far worse than others." Implicit in this condemnation is not simply the assertion they are worse than others but that they are worse than me. Implicit in the accusation is the claim that the reason I am not suffering like that is because I'm not as bad as they are.
It is the same attitude and opinion that animated the condemnation of Jobs four friends as they insisted that the reason all the bad stuff happened to Job was because of his terrible sins. Jesus, in agreement with what the Lord says at the end of Job to his "friends" tells us that whenever we see the suffering of others we should NEVER think or say, "It must be because they are worse sinners than me and lots of other people." Pat Robertson, the famous host of "The 700 Club" and supposed Christian spokesperson asserted, following the horrible earthquake in Haiti, that the reason God sent the earthquake to Haiti is because of how prevalent voodoo was in that country. By implication he was saying the reason he has never been in an earthquake is because he is better than the Haitians. He did exactly what Jesus says we are to never do. Rather than taking the occasion to repent he took it as an occasion to boast of his goodness and judge others as worse than he.
However, the main point that Jesus wants to make is this: when we see the sufferings of others we should think: "Lord have mercy on me for I am a sinner." We should see ourselves as we truly are: hell-deserving sinners who need to turn from our sins and seek forgiveness on the basis of Christ's death and resurrection. Their are two implications in what Jesus says. First, we are all sinners who deserve to suffer and die. Perferct justice in the world would be for all of us to be killed and sent to hell forever. Second, all the sufferings in the world are the rumblings of hell. They are signs of the impending judgment that is going to come upon the whole world and so we should take every occasion of suffering that we observe to make sure that we have repented and are trusting in Jesus and fighting against our own sins. Obviously, we are also called upon to help those who suffer, like our Savior helped the suffering. But our first response to all observed suffering is to repent so we do not perish forever in hell and never think that others are suffering because they are worse than us.
Here is what Jesus says in response to this bit of gossip: "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Do you hear what Jesus is saying? Did these people, both the Galileans who were butchered by the Roman soldiers and the 18 people who were killed when a tower collapsed, die like this because they were worse sinners than all the other people of their region or city? Jesus is confronting a persistent, self-righteous and erroneous attitude that regularly prevails among religious people. "These people are suffering because they have done terrible things, far worse than others." Implicit in this condemnation is not simply the assertion they are worse than others but that they are worse than me. Implicit in the accusation is the claim that the reason I am not suffering like that is because I'm not as bad as they are.
It is the same attitude and opinion that animated the condemnation of Jobs four friends as they insisted that the reason all the bad stuff happened to Job was because of his terrible sins. Jesus, in agreement with what the Lord says at the end of Job to his "friends" tells us that whenever we see the suffering of others we should NEVER think or say, "It must be because they are worse sinners than me and lots of other people." Pat Robertson, the famous host of "The 700 Club" and supposed Christian spokesperson asserted, following the horrible earthquake in Haiti, that the reason God sent the earthquake to Haiti is because of how prevalent voodoo was in that country. By implication he was saying the reason he has never been in an earthquake is because he is better than the Haitians. He did exactly what Jesus says we are to never do. Rather than taking the occasion to repent he took it as an occasion to boast of his goodness and judge others as worse than he.
However, the main point that Jesus wants to make is this: when we see the sufferings of others we should think: "Lord have mercy on me for I am a sinner." We should see ourselves as we truly are: hell-deserving sinners who need to turn from our sins and seek forgiveness on the basis of Christ's death and resurrection. Their are two implications in what Jesus says. First, we are all sinners who deserve to suffer and die. Perferct justice in the world would be for all of us to be killed and sent to hell forever. Second, all the sufferings in the world are the rumblings of hell. They are signs of the impending judgment that is going to come upon the whole world and so we should take every occasion of suffering that we observe to make sure that we have repented and are trusting in Jesus and fighting against our own sins. Obviously, we are also called upon to help those who suffer, like our Savior helped the suffering. But our first response to all observed suffering is to repent so we do not perish forever in hell and never think that others are suffering because they are worse than us.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
More weakness
I picked up a really bad cold a couple of days ago and today it knocked me down pretty good. It feels like one of the worst colds I've ever had. I had so many plans for things I wanted to get done this week, which is supposed to be "good" week, but as a result of this cold I've had to cancel and postpone things and have not been as productive in my study and writing. I would not be truthful if I did not say I am disappointed. I am not a very cheerful person to be around today.
I have to face the fact that my having a cold and not being able to do all that I wanted is God's will for me. This too is part of his discipline for me, part of the weakness he sends so that I will discover that his grace is sufficient, so that I will share his holiness, so that the genuineness of my faith will result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus comes back. I know these things but it is still difficult to accept and embrace. As is always the case, understanding the gospel and its implications and even being able to teach the gospel or write about it is not the same thing as living it out. Living the truth of the gospel is far more difficult than understanding it and teaching it. As is the case for every Christian, my living always falls short of my knowing. What to do?
I must go to God and confess my sins (1 John 1:9), giving thanks to God that they are forgiven because of what Christ has done for me. I then must ask that he enable me to see the wonder and beauty of Christ and his saving work by the power of the Holy Spirit so that my heart truly does rejoice in him. It is only as my heart rests in Christ and rejoices in him that I will be able to accept and even boast in this additional weakness recognizing it is given to me to increase my hope in and love for Christ. Would you pray that God would mercifully enable me to find rest in him alone and to learn to boast in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ might rest on me. Thank you.
I have to face the fact that my having a cold and not being able to do all that I wanted is God's will for me. This too is part of his discipline for me, part of the weakness he sends so that I will discover that his grace is sufficient, so that I will share his holiness, so that the genuineness of my faith will result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus comes back. I know these things but it is still difficult to accept and embrace. As is always the case, understanding the gospel and its implications and even being able to teach the gospel or write about it is not the same thing as living it out. Living the truth of the gospel is far more difficult than understanding it and teaching it. As is the case for every Christian, my living always falls short of my knowing. What to do?
I must go to God and confess my sins (1 John 1:9), giving thanks to God that they are forgiven because of what Christ has done for me. I then must ask that he enable me to see the wonder and beauty of Christ and his saving work by the power of the Holy Spirit so that my heart truly does rejoice in him. It is only as my heart rests in Christ and rejoices in him that I will be able to accept and even boast in this additional weakness recognizing it is given to me to increase my hope in and love for Christ. Would you pray that God would mercifully enable me to find rest in him alone and to learn to boast in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ might rest on me. Thank you.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Jesus is better than...
This is my “good” week. Still not much energy and a few of the weird side effects linger; like my fingers and toes tingle if exposed to cold things. I coached soccer practice Tuesday night and my hands were almost burning with the tingling feeling because it was so cold out. I’ve enjoyed getting to meet with a few people while I also work on sermons and writing bible studies and other things.
I was thinking this morning that I have not commented on what has been, ever since Jared’s accident, one of the passages that has helped me the most to understand God’s purposes in suffering and to endure the difficulties and sorrows of his condition. 1 Peter 1:1-9 is that passage. I had memorized it prior to Jared’s accident and I prayed it and spoke many times during those first weeks and months. Here is what it says (ESV):
“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who are elect exiles… according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: …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, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
After giving a magnificent description of all the benefits we receive according to God the Father’s decision to love us before he made the world (foreknowledge) and his great mercy by the work of the Holy Spirit and through the resurrection of Jesus he tells us that the source and ground of all joy are all these benefits. “In this you rejoice”, means that the normal state of every believer is rejoicing in the great, gracious, sovereign, saving work of the Triune God. You can see the same thing stated in even more dramatic language in the last couple of sentences. We “rejoice with joy inexpressible and filled with glory” as a result of our faith in Christ to save us. This is the joy of God’s salvation that David asked the Lord to restore to him after his great sin (Psalm 51:12). There is to be in our lives an undercurrent of joy because we are so amazed at this love and this Christ and this salvation given to us who are so undeserving. When we are struggling to find joy in our lives we ought to turn our attention to the promises and truths which Peter has outlined for us and which are enumerated throughout the Bible. We are to ask the Lord to restore this joy as it is ours by virtue of our being born again into a living hope.
However, notice that immediately after declaring that we rejoice in all that God has done, yet at the very same time, for a little while, we “have been grieved by various trials”. So at the same time we are rejoicing in God’s salvattion, we are grieving in the various temporary but “necessary” trials. (I preached a sermon at Blackhawk Church in Madison with this title, “Joyous Grief” in March of 2003 a couple of weeks before we brought Jared home. I think the video of it is still on our website if you’d care to look at it.) This is an amazing thing that we are told here. It is possible, according to Peter to, at the same time and in the same human heart, be rejoicing and be grieving. I have experienced this during the last 10 years. Impressed deeply upon me is sitting next to Jared’s bed the second night after his accident, not knowing if he was going to live or die. I was sobbing uncontrollably, so overwhelmed with grief for my dear son. Yet at the same time I was praising the Lord Jesus that because of his great suffering my son was safe. He had an inheritance that could not perish, spoil or fade that was at that moment reserved in heaven for him. I praised God that I was following a suffering Savior. I worshipped God as I grieved the great blow that had come to Jared and to my family.
I also praised God while I grieved because I knew that God himself had sent this trial as Peter makes clear when he says that we are grieved by these trials “so that the genuineness of our faith may result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus is revealed.” It is those two little words “so that” that give me the ground for praising God that he stands behind Jared’s accident as well as my cancer. The grief producing trials have a purpose and only a person can do things with a purpose. As it is not possible that Satan would want the genuineness of my faith to result in praise when Jesus returns; it must be God who has this purpose.
What exactly does it mean that God’s purpose in our sufferings is that the genuineness of our faith will result in praise and glory and honor? Part of the answer to that lies in that parenthetical statement he inserts; “faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is refined by fire--.” All the impurities are burned out of the gold when it is subjected to the fire of the smelter. In the same way these grief producing trials burn out the impurities of our faith. The trials require us to believe that Jesus and his saving work is better than whatever loss we have experienced. To be loved by Jesus, to belong to God and be the heir of eternal life is better than not having a brain-injured son. He and his salvation is better than not having cancer. He is better than …. You fill in the blank in your own life. All the suffering is sent by God so that we will discover and believe in a more pure and clear way that Jesus is the most necessary person in the universe to us. You and I need the grief of various kinds of suffering to learn that he is better than everything. We cannot learn it without the suffering.
Monday, April 9, 2012
Why your purpose in life matters
During the first 15 years of my Christian life, during which time I was also working full time as a pastor/evangelist/teacher to college students; if you were to ask me what was the purpose of my life I would have said something like this: to glorify God by helping to reach the world for Christ by winning, building and sending college students to do the same. While I would have started with that phrase: to glorify God, I really had no idea what it meant and the real purpose of my life was to win students to Christ, build them in their faith and send them to do the same. As purposes go that was not a bad purpose. At least the purpose of my life was not to make a million dollars by selling defective products to people or to escape all pain by staying drunk. However, it is a bad purpose because it is not the ultimate purpose for which God made me.
Let me use an illustration I have often shared with people which I stole from Jonathon Edwards and just updated. Imagine that you grew up in the city and have no knowledge of farming. You meet and become friends with a farmer. One day the farmer invites you out to his farm so he can educate you on farming. When you arrive your friend pulls up into the farm yard driving a massive tractor with a disc-harrow dragging behind. He jumps off the tractor and you ask him what this machinery is and what he was doing with it. He explains that this is a disc-harrow and he just broke up a 180 acre field to prepare it for planting. So you ask him, "Planting what?" He replies, "I'm going to plant corn in that field and I needed to loosen the soil so the seeds would get into contact with the soil." "Why are you going to plant corn?", you ask. He says, "I plant corn so that it will grow up and I can harvest it in the fall. Throughout the summer I will cultivate the corn a couple of times and spray it with herbicide and insecticide." You ask, "Why do you want to harvest corn?" Your friend the farmer says, "I sell the corn. That is how I make my money so I can pay my bills and take care of my family."
So let's stop there and recognize that the ultimate purpose of the farmer is to "pay the bills and take care of his family." However, throughout the course of the year he has a number of subordinate purposes which relate to his ultimate purpose. He has the purpose of preparing the field for planting; of planting the corn; of cultivating it; etc. Here is the question: what would happen if the farmer makes one of these subordinate purposes his ultimate purpose? What if he makes breaking up the the field with his disc-harrow his ultimate purpose? He will turn the field to dust which will blow away. He will not stick with it, he will burn out and lose his motivation because of what use is a field of dust. He will lose the farm and his family because he will not make any money. In short, if you make a subordinate purpose your ultimate purpose your life will not work.
In my case, by making reaching the world for Christ my ultimate purpose a number of things happened. First, I used people instead of loving them. I would meet regularly with a college student to help him figure out how to share the gospel with all the guys in his fraternity or on his dorm floor. We would make a plan and then we would meet each week and I would ask how he was doing in his plan. Often a student would make no progress. I would get mad at the student for not doing what he said he was going to do. (I rarely let the student know I was mad.) Why was I mad? He was not helping me fulfill my "godly" purpose of reaching the world for Christ. This happened on more than one occasion.
In addition, I got bored. I wasn't made for the purpose of reaching the world for Christ, I was made to know and love and delight in God the most infinitely interesting and delightful being in the universe. Thus every created thing will ultimately lose its luster because nothing and no one can compare to the glorious Creator and Redeemer, the great Triune God. I had to have other diversions to fill up my heart and my time.
It was in the early 1990's through conversations with other Christians but mostly through the writings of Dr. John Piper ("Desiring God" should be read by everyone who professes to be a Christian.), JI Packer, Jerry White, Wayne Grudem, Jonathon Edwards, John Calvin, and others. It was in my life a "Copernican Revolution." Whereas before God was simply one of the interests in my life along with basketball and teaching the bible and leading my team of fellow campus workers and reading novels and being a good husband and father; now he was the Sun around which every other part of my life orbited. To know him and love him and grow to delight in him became the purpose of my life, not perfectly and not always, but at least I knew this is what I was meant for and this is why Christ saved me.
There were several immediate changes I noticed in myself. First, in my sharing and teaching of the gospel I became more life a Packer fan describing the exploits of our Super Bowl MVP quarterback, Aaron Rogers than like an Amway salesman trying to get people to sign up for my program. My objective became to show people the glory of God in the face of Christ, not get them to help me fulfill my purpose. Second, I discovered it easier to accept and love others because I did not need their approval to make me happy because my happiness was in knowing and enjoying God. Obviously, I did not and do not do this perfectly. I regularly must confess my sins of using others to make me happy or of preferring the approval of others to the joy of being loved by God. Third, the Bible became alive to me in a greater way as it is the means by which I grow to know the beauty of Christ and thus grow in my delight in him. I do not read it to prove I am a good Christian or so I can impress people with my knowledge of it but so that I can know God better.
Let me use an illustration I have often shared with people which I stole from Jonathon Edwards and just updated. Imagine that you grew up in the city and have no knowledge of farming. You meet and become friends with a farmer. One day the farmer invites you out to his farm so he can educate you on farming. When you arrive your friend pulls up into the farm yard driving a massive tractor with a disc-harrow dragging behind. He jumps off the tractor and you ask him what this machinery is and what he was doing with it. He explains that this is a disc-harrow and he just broke up a 180 acre field to prepare it for planting. So you ask him, "Planting what?" He replies, "I'm going to plant corn in that field and I needed to loosen the soil so the seeds would get into contact with the soil." "Why are you going to plant corn?", you ask. He says, "I plant corn so that it will grow up and I can harvest it in the fall. Throughout the summer I will cultivate the corn a couple of times and spray it with herbicide and insecticide." You ask, "Why do you want to harvest corn?" Your friend the farmer says, "I sell the corn. That is how I make my money so I can pay my bills and take care of my family."
So let's stop there and recognize that the ultimate purpose of the farmer is to "pay the bills and take care of his family." However, throughout the course of the year he has a number of subordinate purposes which relate to his ultimate purpose. He has the purpose of preparing the field for planting; of planting the corn; of cultivating it; etc. Here is the question: what would happen if the farmer makes one of these subordinate purposes his ultimate purpose? What if he makes breaking up the the field with his disc-harrow his ultimate purpose? He will turn the field to dust which will blow away. He will not stick with it, he will burn out and lose his motivation because of what use is a field of dust. He will lose the farm and his family because he will not make any money. In short, if you make a subordinate purpose your ultimate purpose your life will not work.
In my case, by making reaching the world for Christ my ultimate purpose a number of things happened. First, I used people instead of loving them. I would meet regularly with a college student to help him figure out how to share the gospel with all the guys in his fraternity or on his dorm floor. We would make a plan and then we would meet each week and I would ask how he was doing in his plan. Often a student would make no progress. I would get mad at the student for not doing what he said he was going to do. (I rarely let the student know I was mad.) Why was I mad? He was not helping me fulfill my "godly" purpose of reaching the world for Christ. This happened on more than one occasion.
In addition, I got bored. I wasn't made for the purpose of reaching the world for Christ, I was made to know and love and delight in God the most infinitely interesting and delightful being in the universe. Thus every created thing will ultimately lose its luster because nothing and no one can compare to the glorious Creator and Redeemer, the great Triune God. I had to have other diversions to fill up my heart and my time.
It was in the early 1990's through conversations with other Christians but mostly through the writings of Dr. John Piper ("Desiring God" should be read by everyone who professes to be a Christian.), JI Packer, Jerry White, Wayne Grudem, Jonathon Edwards, John Calvin, and others. It was in my life a "Copernican Revolution." Whereas before God was simply one of the interests in my life along with basketball and teaching the bible and leading my team of fellow campus workers and reading novels and being a good husband and father; now he was the Sun around which every other part of my life orbited. To know him and love him and grow to delight in him became the purpose of my life, not perfectly and not always, but at least I knew this is what I was meant for and this is why Christ saved me.
There were several immediate changes I noticed in myself. First, in my sharing and teaching of the gospel I became more life a Packer fan describing the exploits of our Super Bowl MVP quarterback, Aaron Rogers than like an Amway salesman trying to get people to sign up for my program. My objective became to show people the glory of God in the face of Christ, not get them to help me fulfill my purpose. Second, I discovered it easier to accept and love others because I did not need their approval to make me happy because my happiness was in knowing and enjoying God. Obviously, I did not and do not do this perfectly. I regularly must confess my sins of using others to make me happy or of preferring the approval of others to the joy of being loved by God. Third, the Bible became alive to me in a greater way as it is the means by which I grow to know the beauty of Christ and thus grow in my delight in him. I do not read it to prove I am a good Christian or so I can impress people with my knowledge of it but so that I can know God better.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Why did Christ come?
The title to this post may seem like a silly question, especially this Easter weekend. Christ came to forgive our sins, to give us eternal life, to raise us from the dead and dozens of other wonderful things. But how does the coming and living and dying and rising of Jesus relate to God's ultimate purpose for creating us? We saw in my last post as Paul began to explain the gospel of Christ to the idol worshipping, religiously pluralistic inhabitants of Athens, that God makes each of us and sustains our lives and gives us everything we have for this one purpose, that we would seek him. That is, that we would believe that to know God and to be known by God, to live in a relationship of love with him is the best thing that could happen to us. He made us so that our our highest joy, our greatest delight would be him, alone. All other pleasures would only be pleasures because we experience them as the fruit of his love for us and not because we love these other pleasures more than him. The Psalmist expresses this purpose in Psalm 73:25-26, "Whom have I in heaven but you? Earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."
Anyone who is paying the least attention to their own heart, to the things they desire and love will immediately recognize a problem. The first thing we see is that I cannot honestly say what the psalmist says. I have desired many things other than the God who made me. I spent over 20 years of my life hardly even thinking about God, let alone desiring him more than anything else in the world. Even now when I say that is what I want, I don't always live that way. I prefer all kinds of things to God on a regular basis.
Here is the problem that I and every other human being has. God made us to seek Him. Therefore, to not seek God with all my might is a sin of the highest proportion. It is, in fact the chief of all sins and the root from which all sin flows. (You can read Romans 1:18 through 3:20 to see Paul's extensive argument to that end.) Thus, I need to be forgiven for not loving God, glorifying God, delighting in God, desiring God, etc. But also, I need a new heart. I need new desires. I need a power that is able to overcome my resistance to seeing God as the greatest treasure in the universe so that I will love him most of all and seek him as I ought. The simple fact is, I am not able to love God.
So what Christ has done is this. He, from the womb, always loved God, sought God and desired God above all other things. He perfectly obeyed God's purpose for human beings. Then he willingly gave up his life on that cross, bearing all of God's wrath against every believing sinner for not seeking God as we ought. As Peter says in his first letter (3:18), "Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God." Christ died to make us fit for God. His death obtains pardon, forgiveness for our many and great sins and his perfect obedience is credited to our account so that we are perfectly righteous in God's sight. We are, on the basis of what Christ has done, through faith alone, justified before God, to use the Bible's words (Romans 3:21-31).
But none of this would matter to us if not for the second great fruit of Christ's work. Think with me for a moment. If a person whom you do not like, who has treated you in ways you do not like and whose personality you find offensive says to you, out of the blue, "I forgive you. I plan on spending all my time with you so we can be best friends forever." How will you feel? How will you react? You will be offended that he would "forgive you." You would have no interest in being his BFF. This is our condition apart from the work of Christ in relation to God. It is not simply that we do not love God more than everything else; we actually hate God in our natural condition. We are his enemies. The chief proof of this fact is what we did to God when he showed up in the person of Jesus Christ. We killed him.
So, the second great fruit of the work of Christ is the coming of the Holy Spirit, who gives to us a new heart, who glorifies Christ to us, that is, he causes us to see the beauty and wonder and glory of the Triune God so that we now want him, we now love him, we now seek him. Not perfectly in this life because we still have remaining sin. But, as God promises in the prophet Ezekiel, (36:26-27), "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." God's greatest commandment is that we love him supremely. This we being to do from the moment of spiritual birth and by the Spirit we will do this perfectly in the new heavens and the new earth.
Anyone who is paying the least attention to their own heart, to the things they desire and love will immediately recognize a problem. The first thing we see is that I cannot honestly say what the psalmist says. I have desired many things other than the God who made me. I spent over 20 years of my life hardly even thinking about God, let alone desiring him more than anything else in the world. Even now when I say that is what I want, I don't always live that way. I prefer all kinds of things to God on a regular basis.
Here is the problem that I and every other human being has. God made us to seek Him. Therefore, to not seek God with all my might is a sin of the highest proportion. It is, in fact the chief of all sins and the root from which all sin flows. (You can read Romans 1:18 through 3:20 to see Paul's extensive argument to that end.) Thus, I need to be forgiven for not loving God, glorifying God, delighting in God, desiring God, etc. But also, I need a new heart. I need new desires. I need a power that is able to overcome my resistance to seeing God as the greatest treasure in the universe so that I will love him most of all and seek him as I ought. The simple fact is, I am not able to love God.
So what Christ has done is this. He, from the womb, always loved God, sought God and desired God above all other things. He perfectly obeyed God's purpose for human beings. Then he willingly gave up his life on that cross, bearing all of God's wrath against every believing sinner for not seeking God as we ought. As Peter says in his first letter (3:18), "Christ died for sins, once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God." Christ died to make us fit for God. His death obtains pardon, forgiveness for our many and great sins and his perfect obedience is credited to our account so that we are perfectly righteous in God's sight. We are, on the basis of what Christ has done, through faith alone, justified before God, to use the Bible's words (Romans 3:21-31).
But none of this would matter to us if not for the second great fruit of Christ's work. Think with me for a moment. If a person whom you do not like, who has treated you in ways you do not like and whose personality you find offensive says to you, out of the blue, "I forgive you. I plan on spending all my time with you so we can be best friends forever." How will you feel? How will you react? You will be offended that he would "forgive you." You would have no interest in being his BFF. This is our condition apart from the work of Christ in relation to God. It is not simply that we do not love God more than everything else; we actually hate God in our natural condition. We are his enemies. The chief proof of this fact is what we did to God when he showed up in the person of Jesus Christ. We killed him.
So, the second great fruit of the work of Christ is the coming of the Holy Spirit, who gives to us a new heart, who glorifies Christ to us, that is, he causes us to see the beauty and wonder and glory of the Triune God so that we now want him, we now love him, we now seek him. Not perfectly in this life because we still have remaining sin. But, as God promises in the prophet Ezekiel, (36:26-27), "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." God's greatest commandment is that we love him supremely. This we being to do from the moment of spiritual birth and by the Spirit we will do this perfectly in the new heavens and the new earth.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
The purpose of life
Yesterday was a bad day. No appetite. No energy. Mercifully I have been able to sleep. Today at least I can sit up and think and write. Though you would be the better judge of that :-)
Many would feel that my title to this post is more than a little presumptuous. Many would view it as an arrogant assertion that any individual would be able to identify the purpose of life. If my title was "the purpose of my life", then all would be happy. However, it is possible to know the universal, ultimate purpose of life because the God who made the universe has spoken and told us, in plain language, the purpose of everything. (If you are really ambitious I would recommend you pick up and read Dr. John Piper's annotated publication of Jonathon Edward's classic treatment of this subject which is entitled: "The End for Which God Created the World." Piper's annotated publication is entitled: "God's Passion for His Own Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathon Edwards.")
Here is one example of the scores of biblical texts that describe the purpose for which God made everything. In Acts 17:16 Paul has been run out of Macedonia for preaching the gospel and has gone on to Athens, Greece where he is awaiting the arrival of his co-workers, Silas and Timothy. While he waits he observes that the city is "full of idols" and this fact, we are told, provokes him. He is disturbed by the "forest of idols" which litters the streets of Athens. So he begins to preach the good news about Jesus in both the Jewish synagogue and out in the marketplace to anyone who would listen. While he speaks to the people in the marketplace he attracts the attention of two groups of philosophers; the Epicureans and the Stoics. Epicureans believe the purpose of life is to minimize pain and maximize pleasure. They were pantheists, monists, believing that the divine being is made up of all things and all things make up the divine being. The Stoics were atheists and believed the purpose of life was to live a virtuous life as they defined it. Clearly, Paul was speaking to an audience who had a wide diversity of opinions about the nature and being of God and about the purpose of life.
Eventually, Paul causes such a stir that he is escorted to the Areopagus which was located on Mars Hill. This was the group of people in Athens who were in charge of both the civil and religious life in the city. So they want to find out exactly what it is that Paul is saying as it doesn't sound like anything they have ever heard before as he is preaching Christ crucified and raised from the dead. Paul begins his address by drawing attention to how religious they are. They are so concerned with the gods and being in good favor with them that they even have an altar to an "Unknown God". The are playing it safe, making sure they don't offend any god by having an altar for the god whom they do not know.
Paul takes that as his starting point as he declares to them that what they worship in ignorance he is now going to explain to them. He gives to them a masterful summary of what the OT says about the only God who exists:
"The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth and he does not live in temples built by hands and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything. For he gives all men life and breath and everything. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us."
Contrary to every man made religion's assertion, God does not need us for anything. He did not create us because of some need in him but as the overflow of his grace and power and love. He has given to every human being life. No one decides to be born. No one contributes to their birth in any way. You and I are alive because the God who made everything decided that we should have life. Not only this, but he also gives every breath to every single human being living on the face of this planet. He doesn't have to try hard to do it. God is as close to every human being as our breath. Each and every breath is a gift from God. Finally, Paul says, God gives each of us everything that is true about us. There are no details of our lives that are not directly given to us by the God who made us.
Then Paul moves from the personal to the social/cultural/political landscape. He it is who made every ethnic group on the planet from one man. He it is who decided when and where every unique cultural group should live and for how long. He is Lord of all history. Why did God make all this? Why did he do it? That is the underlined clause in the quote: He did it so that they (men, women and children of every ethnicity and culture) would seek him.
Think about this for a moment. We have all done this. Every fall since I was ten years old, except for a few years I was out of the state, I have sought to hunt and bag a white tail deer with my family. I have sought an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree. I sought to win the heart of one Jane Van Dinter so that she would marry me. Happily I was successful in the seeking! I seek to stay in touch with my family. I seek to watch Packer games and keep up to date on the exploits of the Milwaukee Brewers. Why do I seek all these things? I seek them because it makes me happy both to seek and to obtain. I treasure each of the persons and objects which I seek. No one ever seeks something they know for certain will make them unhappy. We all only seek those things we believe, we trust will make us happy.
Thus the purpose of everything is that you and I would discover and believe and act as though knowing God, being in a relationship with him is the best and highest joy in the universe. It is to live our lives as if God is the best of all beings, the treasure of delight that our hearts long for. If you are just a little honest you will immediately recognize that you have a problem, just like me. The fact of the matter is that I find a whole host of creation pleasures far more attractive than the Creator who made them. I invest large amounts of time and energy in pursuing those creation pleasures. My pursuit of God himself is significantly less enthusiastic most of the time. Tomorrow, if I am up to it, we will look at what God has done about this fact.
Many would feel that my title to this post is more than a little presumptuous. Many would view it as an arrogant assertion that any individual would be able to identify the purpose of life. If my title was "the purpose of my life", then all would be happy. However, it is possible to know the universal, ultimate purpose of life because the God who made the universe has spoken and told us, in plain language, the purpose of everything. (If you are really ambitious I would recommend you pick up and read Dr. John Piper's annotated publication of Jonathon Edward's classic treatment of this subject which is entitled: "The End for Which God Created the World." Piper's annotated publication is entitled: "God's Passion for His Own Glory: Living the Vision of Jonathon Edwards.")
Here is one example of the scores of biblical texts that describe the purpose for which God made everything. In Acts 17:16 Paul has been run out of Macedonia for preaching the gospel and has gone on to Athens, Greece where he is awaiting the arrival of his co-workers, Silas and Timothy. While he waits he observes that the city is "full of idols" and this fact, we are told, provokes him. He is disturbed by the "forest of idols" which litters the streets of Athens. So he begins to preach the good news about Jesus in both the Jewish synagogue and out in the marketplace to anyone who would listen. While he speaks to the people in the marketplace he attracts the attention of two groups of philosophers; the Epicureans and the Stoics. Epicureans believe the purpose of life is to minimize pain and maximize pleasure. They were pantheists, monists, believing that the divine being is made up of all things and all things make up the divine being. The Stoics were atheists and believed the purpose of life was to live a virtuous life as they defined it. Clearly, Paul was speaking to an audience who had a wide diversity of opinions about the nature and being of God and about the purpose of life.
Eventually, Paul causes such a stir that he is escorted to the Areopagus which was located on Mars Hill. This was the group of people in Athens who were in charge of both the civil and religious life in the city. So they want to find out exactly what it is that Paul is saying as it doesn't sound like anything they have ever heard before as he is preaching Christ crucified and raised from the dead. Paul begins his address by drawing attention to how religious they are. They are so concerned with the gods and being in good favor with them that they even have an altar to an "Unknown God". The are playing it safe, making sure they don't offend any god by having an altar for the god whom they do not know.
Paul takes that as his starting point as he declares to them that what they worship in ignorance he is now going to explain to them. He gives to them a masterful summary of what the OT says about the only God who exists:
"The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth and he does not live in temples built by hands and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything. For he gives all men life and breath and everything. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us."
Contrary to every man made religion's assertion, God does not need us for anything. He did not create us because of some need in him but as the overflow of his grace and power and love. He has given to every human being life. No one decides to be born. No one contributes to their birth in any way. You and I are alive because the God who made everything decided that we should have life. Not only this, but he also gives every breath to every single human being living on the face of this planet. He doesn't have to try hard to do it. God is as close to every human being as our breath. Each and every breath is a gift from God. Finally, Paul says, God gives each of us everything that is true about us. There are no details of our lives that are not directly given to us by the God who made us.
Then Paul moves from the personal to the social/cultural/political landscape. He it is who made every ethnic group on the planet from one man. He it is who decided when and where every unique cultural group should live and for how long. He is Lord of all history. Why did God make all this? Why did he do it? That is the underlined clause in the quote: He did it so that they (men, women and children of every ethnicity and culture) would seek him.
Think about this for a moment. We have all done this. Every fall since I was ten years old, except for a few years I was out of the state, I have sought to hunt and bag a white tail deer with my family. I have sought an undergraduate degree and a graduate degree. I sought to win the heart of one Jane Van Dinter so that she would marry me. Happily I was successful in the seeking! I seek to stay in touch with my family. I seek to watch Packer games and keep up to date on the exploits of the Milwaukee Brewers. Why do I seek all these things? I seek them because it makes me happy both to seek and to obtain. I treasure each of the persons and objects which I seek. No one ever seeks something they know for certain will make them unhappy. We all only seek those things we believe, we trust will make us happy.
Thus the purpose of everything is that you and I would discover and believe and act as though knowing God, being in a relationship with him is the best and highest joy in the universe. It is to live our lives as if God is the best of all beings, the treasure of delight that our hearts long for. If you are just a little honest you will immediately recognize that you have a problem, just like me. The fact of the matter is that I find a whole host of creation pleasures far more attractive than the Creator who made them. I invest large amounts of time and energy in pursuing those creation pleasures. My pursuit of God himself is significantly less enthusiastic most of the time. Tomorrow, if I am up to it, we will look at what God has done about this fact.
Monday, April 2, 2012
Encouraging the suffering
The idea for this post is the result of the numerous cards, emails and letters I have received since my cancer diagnosis and since beginning this blog from current friends and friends who live at a distance and family members. Your concern for us, your prayers for us and you many kind words reflecting on how God has ministered to you through us and in some cases through this blog. I have been moved to tears on many occasions, even though it hurts :-) sometimes. (My only regret is that I do not have the time and the energy to respond to each one.) Chiefly your concern and kind words encourage me to keep trusting in Jesus and to be faithful to him in the midst of the suffering; to endure with him and for his sake.
In reflecting on how your encouragement strengthens my faith I was reminded of the two great statements on encouragement in the letter to the Hebrews. I hope you know these two passages and have put yourself in a believing community where you are giving and receiving what is being commanded in them. Here they are:
Hebrews 3:12-14:
In reflecting on how your encouragement strengthens my faith I was reminded of the two great statements on encouragement in the letter to the Hebrews. I hope you know these two passages and have put yourself in a believing community where you are giving and receiving what is being commanded in them. Here they are:
Hebrews 3:12-14:
"See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called "Today," so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end."
Hebrews 10:24-25
"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
It is important to remember that these commands to "encourage one another" are writtent to a church which is going through significant suffering caused by persecution. Thus the need to be encouraged and to encourage others is greater among those who are in the midst of trial and trouble.
The first passage commands that we encourage one another because we are all in a war. We are fighting to believe for a lifetime that we are the children of God and forgiven of our many sins and going to heaven only because of what Christ has done. And we are fighting to believe for a whole lifetime that being God's children by the work of Christ is better than health and wealth and vacations and the respect of others and alchohol and drugs and TV and not being bothered by anyone else and pornography and shopping and hunting and video games and Facebook and obedient children and good parents and a loving spouse and ....name your favorite creation pleasure. Every professing Christian is always in danger of developing a hard heart that stops trusing Christ and starts believing that something is better than him and his salvation. God's antidote to a hard heart is to have Christian friends, to be in a Christian church where you are encourageing others to hold fast to Christ and you are being encouraged to hold fast to Christ.
The second passage commands us to encourage each other so that we love God and others and do things to show our love for both. Left to our own devices we are naturally inclined to pay attention to our own and the needs of those we depend upon for love and we naturally ignore the needs of others. Thus, I need other believers in my life who know me and are able to speak the truth of God's word into my life so that I am encouraged or spurred on to love God and others and show my love by deeds of love. Again, as in the first passage, notice that we need to be giving and receiving this encouragement daily, regularly. We are to intentionally seek to give it to others and receive it from others as well.
I have in the last 2 months been the recipient of much encouragement which has helped me to appreciated the glory of Christ as my friend and savior in deeper ways and has motivated me to want to keep encouraging others as much as I am able during this time. The other thought I have had is how I have experienced this kind of encouragement throughout my Christian life. I have spoken with individuals, both Christians and non-Christians on average 6 times every week for the last 35 years. I have also been in small group bible studies or meetings with Christians at least 3 times a week during that entire time. While I have been the initaiator or leader of the group in most of these meetings, yet I have always received from those I have met far more than I have given. I cannot help but thank God for how he has preserved my faith through the encouragement of so many people through all these years and especially so now. I pray, right now, that each of you who reads this blog is connected to some believers, some church where you can receive all that I have received through the years.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Killing cancer, killing sin
Today I feel the best I have felt in a month, since I started chemo-therapy. Tomorrow I go in for my third cycle of chemicals. I cannot say I am looking forward to it, though I will do it because I am trusting that this is the best way for any cancer that is in me to be killed. In thinking about that fact it occurs to me that going through chemo-therapy for the purpose of killing cancer is an excellent metaphor of how God intends to use trouble and suffering in our life to kill the sin that is in us.
The cancer, if left untreated will kill me. In the same way, sin left untreated will kill me. What I mean is this. In Romans 8:1 we are told that there is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is the gospel. We are forgiven and declared righteous in God's sight because of what Christ has done for everyone who believes. By virtue of our union with Christ by the Spirit, through faith we died with Christ to sin. The power of sin over us has been broken because we are in Christ. (This is all in Romans 6). What Paul goes on to tell us in Romans 8 after declaring that we are no longer condemned because we are in Christ is this (vv.12-14):
One of the chief ways that God assists us in our fight against our sins, in our Holy Spirit enabled work of killing our sins, is to send suffering. That is the point of the passage in Hebrews 12 which we looked at before. We were told in that passage that the reason God disciplines his children, that is, sends trouble of all kinds to them, is so that we will share his holiness. Holiness meaning that we will love and treasure God and his ways more and love our sin less. Thus, just as chemo-therapy, which in my case is not pleasant, is killing the cancer in me, so God sends trouble to kill the sin in me. I do not like chemo-therapy but gladly accept it because it is killing cancer in me. I do not like the fact that my oldest son has a traumatic brain injury nor that I have cancer but I am glad for these troubles because I know that by them God is killing the sin in me.
The cancer, if left untreated will kill me. In the same way, sin left untreated will kill me. What I mean is this. In Romans 8:1 we are told that there is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. This is the gospel. We are forgiven and declared righteous in God's sight because of what Christ has done for everyone who believes. By virtue of our union with Christ by the Spirit, through faith we died with Christ to sin. The power of sin over us has been broken because we are in Christ. (This is all in Romans 6). What Paul goes on to tell us in Romans 8 after declaring that we are no longer condemned because we are in Christ is this (vv.12-14):
"So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God."
What Paul is saying is that everyone who is united to Christ by faith and thus are no longer condemned because of what Christ has done are also people who do not live according to the "flesh." Flesh here means our fallen, sinful nature. People who profess to believe in Jesus but who live according to the desires of their sinful, fallen nature are not Christians. That is what Paul means when he says that all who live (present tense verb which means this is your habitual way of life) according to the flesh will die. Death here meaning what Paul meant in Romans 6:23 when he said, the "wages of sin is death."
No one is going to heaven on the basis of what you have done or not done. However, everyone who is going to heaven, who is justified and not condemned does not make a habit of following the desires of the remaining sin in them. Rather, every true Christian is seeking, by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit to put to death their sins, that is to kill their sins. If you are not engaged in this warfare against your sin then you are living according to the sinful nature and thus you will die. As Paul says in v. 14, "All who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God." To be led by the Spirit is the same thing as saying that we are, by the Spirit, putting to death the deeds of the body, that is the sins we commit with our body as the result of sinful desires. All who are killing their sins by the Spirit are the children of God. These two things always go together.
One of the chief ways that God assists us in our fight against our sins, in our Holy Spirit enabled work of killing our sins, is to send suffering. That is the point of the passage in Hebrews 12 which we looked at before. We were told in that passage that the reason God disciplines his children, that is, sends trouble of all kinds to them, is so that we will share his holiness. Holiness meaning that we will love and treasure God and his ways more and love our sin less. Thus, just as chemo-therapy, which in my case is not pleasant, is killing the cancer in me, so God sends trouble to kill the sin in me. I do not like chemo-therapy but gladly accept it because it is killing cancer in me. I do not like the fact that my oldest son has a traumatic brain injury nor that I have cancer but I am glad for these troubles because I know that by them God is killing the sin in me.
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