Grace in Witnessing

Non-christians will always automatically hear gospel presentations as just appeals to become moral and religious--unless in your preaching you use the good news of grace against legalism.  ~ Tim Keller (from his 'Preaching Syllabus')

We Love Him, BECAUSE...

He who loves may be sure he was loved first; and he who chooses God for his delight and portion may conclude confidently that God has chosen him to be one of those who shall enjoy Him and be happy in Him forever; because our love and electing of Him is but the return and repercussion of the beams of His love shining upon us.”

— Robert Leighton
A Practical Commentary upon the First Epistle of Peter


(via Of First Importance)

1 Peter 1:17-19 paraphrase, with thoughts on fear

If the one whom you call 'Daddy' is the impartial Judge of everyone's actions, your life in this distant place should be lived with fear and the knowledge that your freedom from all the emptiness that you inherited at birth has been bought, and know that it cost the treasured life-blood of the perfect Christ, not some fleeting fortune which would have vanished anyways.

   Generally, our culture has said that no one should ever have any reason to fear and that fear is bad. In a perfect world, yes; but in a broken world, all must know fear, and fear can actually be good. In 1 Peter 1:17-19, the believer is called to live with fear and knowledge of freedom. That sounds strange. The gospel says that there is a proper fear that remains with the Christian while they are 'in exile' in this land which is never fully home, but with that fear there is the knowledge that we have been ransomed from the futility of the temporary by the most precious of treasures. For those who call God 'Father', there will be a day when our exile is complete, when we are free from the emptiness from which we have been ransomed, and then we will no longer need to fear, for we will be like Him. For those who do not know God as Father, they ought to be terrified lest the impartial Judge speak of their works immediately. And even in this world, there are people who should rightly terrify the doers of evil.

There is more on this topic of Christian fear to consider... 2 Cor 5:11; Jude 23; Heb 12:18-29

Challenges from Psalm 115

THE IDOL 

He made a golden idol;

He gave it every organ.

Yet, no part of it is vital; 

So, it can't receive his corban.

Only if the God you serve truly sees, speaks, feels and does can you see, speak, feel or do.  If instead you serve a piece of wood or metal, the cravings of the depraved heart (fame/glory/ a name for yourself, superiority and prejudice), the cravings of a debased body (excess food or drink, illicit sex), the cravings of a deformed mind (ultimate knowledge and its power), you are serving idols that are senseless: blind, deaf, mute, and without feeling.   The idols we serve express their sense-lessness through us.  So, which of the GODS around you beckons you to bow?  

Does the American Dream of ultimate comfort, security and satisfaction blind your sight to what is real?  

Does the oft-sanctioned lie of being a superior people (maybe, 'a Christian nation' or 'a nation that fights for its and others' freedoms) cause you to despise the suffering of your fellow humans whom Christ loved, blinding you to the reality of your utter sameness before the throne of God?  Does the idol of Freedom demand your allegiance compelling you to attend it and exalt it and yourself above the humble service and obedience which ought to be pledged to the King of the Universe at all costs to self?  Has the God of Temporal Security slandered the Truth and said that you have been or should have been promised safety as you go about this 'mist'-y life?  Has the Deceiver of the Fountain of Youth told you that foolishness is wisdom or that this world's beauty is meant to be lasting?

Then, read Psalm 115 and meditate on the God who actually walks through the heavens, who can actually remember and bless and give gifts and help and shield.  Give Him glory, all peoples; fear and trust in His Name!

Visual Map of World Population

The World's Population Displayed Proportionally by Nation

(thanks to 22 words)

Good News, as reported in the Media

No, really it is good, positive news:

 The Woman who found Mr. Right at age 70 and was walked down the Aisle by her Dad!

 We are living in one of the most peaceful times in history, or maybe the MOST peaceful time in history!

Gender norms: violence and domesticity

This excellent article was posted today regarding "Violent Men, Working Women, and Evangelical Gender Norms." I have recently given significant thought to the issue of 'stay-at-home' moms. As a hot-button topic for American Christianity for so many years, this discussion seems to have lost much biblical and historic perspective.  This aforementioned article addresses some of those issues.

I would add a couple of thoughts regarding why it is not true that 'the ideal Christian wife is a stay-at-home mom.'  Until about two generations ago, both parents were stay-at-home parents, in most settings.  The world was far more rural which meant that family life centered on the home.  The father and mother were both at home raising the kids.  As my grandmother described her family growing up on a farm in Virginia, she said the boys grew up doing the outside farm work with her dad who worked full-time (and more), while she and her sisters grew up doing the domestic farm work with her mom who worked full-time (and more).  All this work happened to be at home.

However, at some point, many fathers not only began working outside the home, but they also began to abandon their responsibility to raise their children in godliness and responsibility.  Thus, the mothers often covered this neglect as best they could.  When mothers needed to leave the house as well in order to support their families, many homes went into free-fall.  Somehow Christian fathers and mothers must both give serious attention to raising godly and mature children, neither ceding the responsibility to the other (Deut 6; Tit 2; etc).  As the above article urges, we must give serious attention to being Biblical in our culture, not simply to defending tradition or culture or the perceived past.  Two generations have shown us that this will not be easy, but the Word of God and the Spirit of God will not fail to enable God's children to follow His path.

Jesus and the Imprecatory Psalms

 The 'Christo-centric' (RHM) preaching approach is absolutely the only way to preach or make sense of the (many!) imprecatory Psalms and passages in the Psalms. On the one hand, the 'imprecations' are simply cries for justice, and such a passion is surely right. So for example, despite the troubling, shocking ending to Psalm 137, the writer is appealing to simple justice. If any fair-minded observer is asked the question: 'what do the perpetrators deserve?' the answer would be 'the degree of suffering they imposed on others.' [...] If we 'tone down' the cry against injustice as something 'primitive' we cannot appreciate the cross--because there we see that the punishment for such cruelty is exactly what the Psalmist has called for. We see God's 'little one' being dashed to pieces. Yes, the punishment that human injustice and evil deserves is just as bad as the imprecation stated! But what the Psalmist could not see is that when God's Messiah came the first time, he came to bear the judgement on human evil, not mete it out. And the Psalmist could not see that he deserves to be condemned as well for his own life-record. At the Psalmist's 'stage in Redemptive-History' he was stating truth as far as he could see it. But we now have been both humbled by the cross (so we cannot cry for vengeance in the same way) and we have been given enormous hope by the cross. We see that God will do justice in the earth. He is so passionately against it that he experienced it himself so that he could some day end all evil without ending us. This keeps me from having to put myself in his place and become sucked up into the endless cycle of vengeance and retaliation.

  So the Imprecatory Psalms are taken very seriously by the cross--they point to the drastic action God took on the cross. Yet because of the cross, we do not cry for vengeance in the same way. We can seek out justice in society without any blood-lust (or indeed even ill-will).

  In short, there is no way to preach the imprecatory Psalms without pointing to Christ. A non- Christological reading of these Psalms will only lead to Christians being led into an anachronistic 'holy war' mentality.

~from Tim Keller's "Preaching Syllabus" (underlining mine)

a simple thought on loving God and each other

And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.

(2 Jn 5-6; 1 Jn 2:4-5a - ESV)

The essence of loving one another is to walk in God's commands. The proof of our love for Him is our obedience, and the essence of our love for each other is in that same obedience.

The Religion of Consumerism

If you care to consider this, kindly read the whole thing and think about it before commenting.  The context is the question of what do we see as the Kingdom of God which we are to desire upon this earth and, particularly, how does our consumerist model match up.  The entire section in the book is worth considering.

   In particular, they don't want us to ask, "Where does all this stuff come from?" Instead, they encourage us to accept a certain magic, the myth that the garments and equipment that circulate from the mall through our homes and into the landfill simply emerged in shops as if dropped by aliens. The processes of production and transport remain hidden and invisible, like the entrances and exits for the characters at Disney World. This invisibility is not accidental; it is necessary in order for us not to see that this way of life is unsustainable and selfishly lives off of the backs of the majority of the world. What the liturgy of the mall trains us to desire as the good life and "the American way" requires such massive consumption of natural resources and cheap (exploitive) labor that there is no possible way for this way of life to be universalized. (Though the United States comprises only 5 percent of the world's population, we consume somewhere between 23 and 26 percent of the world's energy.) The liturgy of consumption births in us a desire for a way of life that is destructive of creation itself; moreover, it births in us a desire for a way of life that we can't feasibly extend to others, creating a system of privilege and exploitation.

- James K. A. Smith, Desiring the Kingdom, pg 101. (emphasis mine)