Proverbs 4:23

Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.

A Life of Change

God's Word invites change. In the Bible's vivid picture, we "turn" to our Father, Savior, and Comforter. He works in us toward one goal: change. The central dynamic of the Christian life has this FROM...TO...movement. Repentance is not only how we start the Christian life; it is the Christian life. Faith does new transactions and conversations with God. Love does new actions and choices on the stage of life. When God calls, you listen. When he promises, you trust and talk back to him in your need. When he loves, you love. When he commands, you obey. You aim your life in a new direction by the power of the Holy Spirit. In every case, you turn.

The patterns, themes, and tendencies of our lives are what we see when, figuratively, we view our lives from the observation deck of the Empire State Building. From one hundred floors up, Manhattan and the Hudson River spread serenely before you. But the action and noise of life happens at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street, and when we take the Lincoln Tunnel home to Hoboken. The big stories of our lives are worked out in a running series of small scenes. This is how God has made it to be. He works for a turn-the-world-upside-down reorientation and redirection. Change takes place in the watershed moments and decisive incidents of everyday life. - David Powlison

Something Different

I was reviewing a paper I wrote a couple of years ago. Reading it again, I'm fascinated by the seismic shift in worldview that occurred in the 17th and 18th centuries. While my 21st century sensibilities struggle with the concept of the divine right of kings, I wonder if the mischief introduced by modern social contract theory has been a boon or bust for the moral disposition of our civilization. Usually not what I post on, but...food for thought.

******************

During the second half of the 17th century through the middle of the 18th century three political philosophers – Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau – revolutionized political thought through the development of treatises and essays on the social contract. These social contract theories arose in the context of a world that generally believed that rulers were entitled by virtue of birth to govern. This divine right to govern was part of a cosmic social topography that some historians have referred to as the Great Chain of Being. This metaphor refers to the order of the universe that God had ordained:

The Chain purported to place every creature and every object in the universe in its proper place. Because that place had been assigned by God himself, to attempt to change one’s place, let alone to attack the hierarchical concept overall, was to commit treason against God.

This hierarchy included the right of kings to rule and the obligation of subjects to obey. Except for ancient Greek and Roman experiments in democracy and republican governments, political rule until the middle of the 18th century largely remained in the hands of monarchs and kings as justified by the Great Chain of Being, but that was changing. Over time, especially during the Renaissance and later Reformation, the hierarchical structure – the role of the Roman Catholic Church, the authority of the Pope and priests, the authority of civic rulers and kings – began to come into question. Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau were instrumental to this transition. They fundamentally interpreted the world differently and started to turn this world upside down by deriving all social and political obligations from and in the service of the individual rights of man, not the divine rights of kings. Moreover, they theorized that contrary to the ancient view of human nature, men are not naturally citizens and not naturally obligated to one another through political life. This raises a fundamental question, “If we are not naturally citizens, we must be naturally something else.” And if we do not have a natural obligation to be citizens, how does this obligation occur? These are the fundamental questions that Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau endeavored to answer and are the subject of this paper.

Blaise Pascal - On Reason

"The supreme function of reason is to show man that some things are beyond reason." - Pensées

Confession of Sin

Every week at our church we publicly confess our sins. Today, I actually paid attention to what I was saying. I found the words to be profound and remarkable:

Almighty God, we acknowledge and confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed; we have not loved you with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength; we have not loved our neighbor as ourselves. Deepen within us our sorrow for the wrong we have done, and for the good we have left undone. Lord, you are full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy; there is always forgiveness with you! Restore to us the joy of your salvation; bind up that which is broken, give light to our minds, strength to our wills, and rest to our souls. Speak to each of us, and let your word abide within us until we are changed into your likeness. Amen.

A wonderful and humble reminder of our position before God.

Heidelberg Catechism - Q58

Q. How does the article concerning "life everlasting" comfort you?

A. Even as I already now experience in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, so after this life I will have perfect blessedness such as no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no human heart has ever imagined: a blessedness in which to praise God forever.

Heidelberg Catechism - Q21

Q. What is true faith?

A. True faith is not only a sure knowledge by which I hold as true all that God has revealed to us in Scripture; it is also a wholehearted trust, which the Holy Spirit creates in me by the gospel, that God has freely granted, not only to others but to me also, forgiveness of sins, eternal righteousness, and salvation. These are gifts of sheer grace, granted solely by Christ's merit.

Heidelberg Catechism - Q1

Q. What is your only comfort in life and death?

A. That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins
with his precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit he also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for him.

Heidelberg Catechism - Q118 and 119

Q. What did God command us to pray for?

A. Everything we need, spiritually and physically, as embraced in the prayer Christ our Lord Himself taught us.

Q. What is the prayer?

A. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Heidelberg Catechism - Q117

Q. How does God want us to pray s that He will listen to us?

A. First, we must pray from the heart to no other than the one true God, who has revealed Himself in His Word, asking for everything He has commanded us to ask for. Second, we must acknowledge our need and misery, hiding nothing, and humble ourselves in His majestic presence. Third, we must rest on this unshakable foundation: even though we do not deserve it, God will surely listen to our prayer because of Christ our Lord. This is what He promised us in His Word.

Heidelberg Catechism - Q116

Q. Why do Christians need to pray?

A. Because prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us. And also because God gives His grace and Holy Spirit only to those who pray continually and groan inwardly, asking God for these gifts and thanking Him for them.

Heidelberg Catechism - Q27 and Q28

Several years ago, I picked up a book by Kevin DeYoung on the Heidelberg Catechism that we read as a family. I picked it up again and wanted to share the richness of this catechism written some 450 years ago. The catechism is written in a question and answer format. I'll share a few this week as I am led.

Q27.What do you understand by the providence of God?

A. Providence is the almighty and ever present power of God by which He upholds, as with His hand, heaven and earth and all creatures, and so rules them that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and lean years, food and drink, health and sickness, prosperity and poverty - all things, in fact, come to us not by chance but from His fatherly hand.

Q28. How does the knowledge of God's creation and providence help us?

A. We can be patient when things go against us, thankful when things go well, and for the future we can have good confidence in our faithful God and Father that nothing will separate us from His love. All creatures are so completely in His hand that without His will they can neither move nor be moved.

The last sentence impacted me the most when I read it: We cannot move unless it is the will of God. We cannot breathe outside of his will. Nothing happens to us and we do nothing outside of His will.

Isaiah 1:18-20

“Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

The Reason for Relationships

This is the devotional from Paul Tripp and Tim Lane based on Psalm 146:

Why doesn't God just make your relationships better overnight? We often think that if God really cared for us, he would make our relationships easier. In reality, a difficult relationship is a mark of his love and care. We would prefer that God would just change the relationship, but he won't be content until the relationship changes us too. This is how God created relationships to function.

What happens in the messiness of relationships is that our hearts are revealed, our weaknesses are exposed, and we start coming to the end of ourselves. Only when this happens do we reach out for the help God alone can provide. Weak and needy people finding their hope in Christ's grace are what mark a mature relationship. The most dangerous aspect of your relationships is not your weakness, but your delusions of strength. Self-reliance is almost always a component of a bad relationship. While we would like to avoid the mess and enjoy deep and intimate community, God says that it is in the very process of working through the mess that intimacy is found.

There is a lot of wisdom in these words. The processes of life are often the things that mature us and bring us closer to God and one another.

The Reason for Relationships

I want to share a devotional from Timothy Lane and Paul David Tripp originally published in Heart of the Matter. It's based on Psalm 146. I'll quote Psalm 146 today and share the devotional tomorrow:

Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

Lamentations 3:19-33

And yet...and yet...even the weight of sin cannot keep the Lord's people from him. God reaches down to his people. He does not abandon them. His grace is overflowing. Take comfort in his promises:

I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
to the one who seeks him;
it is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke
while he is young.

Let him sit alone in silence,
for the Lord has laid it on him.
Let him bury his face in the dust—
there may yet be hope.
Let him offer his cheek to one who would strike him,
and let him be filled with disgrace.

For no one is cast off
by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to anyone.

Lamentations 1:1-4

Compare the beauty and majesty of the kingdom we read about yesterday, with the portrayal below. It shows in stark terms the devastation that sin can bring to people. In contrast, the two descriptions bring tears to my eyes. This is why God warns us so much about sin.

How deserted lies the city,
once so full of people!
How like a widow is she,
who once was great among the nations!
She who was queen among the provinces
has now become a slave.

Bitterly she weeps at night,
tears are on her cheeks.
Among all her lovers
there is no one to comfort her.
All her friends have betrayed her;
they have become her enemies.

After affliction and harsh labor,
Judah has gone into exile.
She dwells among the nations;
she finds no resting place.
All who pursue her have overtaken her
in the midst of her distress.

The roads to Zion mourn,
for no one comes to her appointed festivals.
All her gateways are desolate,
her priests groan,
her young women grieve,
and she is in bitter anguish.

1 Kings 8:1-11

I just started reading through Lamentations, a truly powerful and very sad story of the consequences of sin. But before reading Lamentations, let's look at 1 Kings 8 and the dedication of the temple. This description represents the pinnacle of ancient srael's favor with God:

Then King Solomon summoned into his presence at Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Zion, the City of David. All the Israelites came together to King Solomon at the time of the festival in the month of Ethanim, the seventh month.

When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the priests took up the ark, and they brought up the ark of the Lord and the tent of meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests and Levites carried them up, and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.

The priests then brought the ark of the Lord’s covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim. The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and overshadowed the ark and its carrying poles. These poles were so long that their ends could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today. There was nothing in the ark except the two stone tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.

When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.

From this picture of glory, we'll turn to Lamentations tomorrow.

A Matter of Faith

I was walking through our library at the university the other day and noticed that they were having a used book sale. Of course, I took a look. I found a couple that I liked and bought both for $3. One was a book published by Westminster Press in 1957: Toward a Christian Philosophy of Higher Education. This edited volume includes a chapter, "Faith and Reason," by J. Edward Dirks. It's an excellent piece. In one section, the author provides an insightful reflection on the nature of faith in human existence. I wanted to share it with you here:

Christian thinking proceeds from the fundamental principle that human living involves a commitment - one that is inescapably bent by a primary loyalty or allegiance in which all the constituent aspects of life find their focus. The question which the gospel asks in judgment is always the question of one's life perspective or world view; namely, is this view shaped by the glorification of the living God or by something else which is not worthy of ultimate trust but has perhaps been elevated to the supreme position of the divine? The Christian faith reveals that the conflict of life is between various religious perspectives, not between a religious and an irreligious one. It interprets the tension as between trust in the living God and trust in something else - a social program, human rationality, the order of nature, the authority of the Church - which may assume the center of ultimate loyalty and concern. The Bible constantly impresses upon us the struggle between the true God and the idols of man's own making, and the call of the Bible is always for a return to the true God and a leaving behind of idolatry. The tension is therefore one of opposing faiths, not one between faith and its alternatives.

The key here is that every person's understanding of his or her life and the world is ultimately based on a faith commitment. It rests on a belief: a belief in God or a belief in the supremacy of reason or nature or something else. Everyone has a starting point that cannot be proven...it must be believed. The question then becomes: Which starting point leads to conclusions that make the best sense of the world?

Remembering T.S. Eliot

"T.S. Eliot, who died today in 1965, was one of the greatest poets writing in English in the 20th century, if not the greatest. Born in America, he moved to Britain when he was 25 and became a British citizen a few years later. His work profoundly influenced the life and thought of his time and fed the spirits of countless readers....Eliot was also a committed Christian, becoming an Anglican in 1927. He said of himself that he had "a Catholic cast of mind, a Calvinist heritage, and a Puritanical temperament". Many of his poems and other writings explore themes of faith and belief" (from Christianity Today).

I don't know what made me think of him tonight, but T.S. Eliot popped into my head. I took an English course in modern literature during the summer after my sophomore year. It was hot that summer in Rochester, NY. The classroom air was always sticky, but Dr. Spenko had a way to make the time go by quickly. We read T.S. Eliot. I forgot most of what I learned, but I remember being moved by his work.

I found this quote from Choruses from the Rock:

The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.

A Potential Peril of Leadership - 4

This is my last post based on Eugene Peterson's essay, Returning to the Basics. The focus has been on how Christians must continue to love their neighbors when they move into leadership positions, particularly within the church. Peterson concludes this part of his essay with some thoughts from religious philosopher, Martin Buber:

Martin Buber, in one of the most important books of the century for people like us, I and Thou, showed how easy and common it is to treat people as It instead of Thou. He also showed how awful it is, turning what God created as a human community of men and women whose glory it is to love one another into depersonalized wasteland of important roles and efficient functions. Buber also conceded that we cannot continuously maintain the open intimacy of "I/Thou" in our relationship - it would be totally exhausting; we need to be able to escape from time to time into the less-demanding region of role and function to carry out some of our basic routines. But the moment that region becomes our permanent residence and the neighbor becomes and object, an It to be used, no matter how righteous and glorious our use, sacrilege has been committed.

In other words, the ends do not justify the means when it comes to how we engage with other human beings. St. Augustine in On Christian Teaching wrote extensively on how all things can be divided into two groups: Things to be used and things to be enjoyed: "To enjoy a thing is to rest with satisfaction in it for its own sake." Too often, perhaps, we receive joy or satisfaction from others because of what they can do for us or produce for the organization. The person becomes an object not a subject. When we lead people we need to remember that they are not tools to be used and discarded, but individuals within the church who share the image of God and are to be loved: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John 13:35).

On a related note, the Acton Institute produced an excellent video that answers the question, "What is a human being?" Here is the link.

A Potential Peril of Leadership - 3

Continuing from yesterday's post, Peterson discusses how Christians can treat others as functional resources instead of fellow image-bearers:

Love, the commanded relation, gives way to considerations of efficiency and is interpreted by the abstractions of plans and programs, goals and visions, evangelism statistics and mission strategies. After all, we are ordained to something beyond and more intense than simply "Christian" - we have work to do. These people with whom we find ourselves placed in a responsible position of leadership need to be put to kingdom work, or at least church work. Loving neighbors recedes to the background as we go about making recruits, lining up allies, arguing the opposition into compliance, motivating the lethargic, and signing up participants to insure the success of a project or program.

Something to consider. I'll conclude this tomorrow.

A Potential Peril of Leadership - 2

Continuing from yesterday's post, I want to focus on Eugene Peterson's comments regarding ordination and loving one's neighbor. While Peterson is addressing leadership within the church, I think his comments apply to Christian leadership in any context.

Peterson begins:

It is a strange thing: the first casualty on the field of ordained leadership is usually the neighbor. The men and women with whom we live and work become objectified; instead of being primarily persons whom we love, whether through natural affection (spouse, children, friends) or by Christ's command (love your neighbor as yourself) they gradually become functionalized. Under the pressure of "working for Jesus" or carrying out the church's mission" these former neighbors get treated in functional terms: they become viewed as "resources" or as "deadweight," as "assets" or as "liabilities." as "point man or woman" or as "dysfunctional."

Do these words and phrases sound familiar? Do you ever hear this language in your church or religious-affiliated organization? As a Christian, have you ever used this language when referring to employees at your workplace? When the organization's good becomes the greatest good, the good of the individual may be consistently subsumed under the organization's.

More tomorrow.

A Potential Peril of Leadership

For some reason, I started receiving a newsletter called Theology Matters a couple of years ago. It is a publication out of Greenwood, SC and appears to be from a Presbyterian perspective. I think it comes out quarterly. I don't always read each entire issue, but sometimes there is an article that catches my eye. In the Fall 2018 issue, they reprinted an essay from Eugene H. Peterson. You may know this author from his publication of The Message, a paraphrase version of the Bible written in modern English. I don't know much about Peterson except that he was a PC-USA minister and may or may not have leaned a bit left. In any case, they reprinted an essay from him entitled, "Returning to Basics," which discusses the ordination vows taken by - at least some - Presbyterian ministers. In particular, he focuses on the sixth vow: "Will you in your life seek to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, love your neighbors, and work for the reconciliation of the world?" Peterson notes that this seems quite odd to include in ordination vows. This may be something you would ask a person entering the Christian life, not a question for someone who is about to be ordained. This question seems so basic to the faith...shouldn't we assume that a minister would already be committed to this?

But Peterson notes that "[m]any a Christian has lost his or her [this is a hint a left leaning - MP comment] soul in the act of being ordained. This vow returns us to the basic vocation of being a Christian, a mere Christian." The essay goes on to discuss the vow, analyzing it according to each of the three sub-vows.

Over the next couple of posts, I want to focus on "Will you in your own life love your neighbor?" I think the subject of this vow is not only important for ministers as leaders, but for any Christian who is leading people in any context.

Confirming One's Calling and Election

As a follow-up to yesterday's passage from 2 Peter, Paul David Tripp offers the following words of encouragement from Heart of the Matter:

God "has given us everything we need for life and godliness" (2 Peter 1:3). The first few verses of the passage lay out the glories of our identity as God's children that Peter says we must not forget. God has given everything we need, not only for eternal life, but also for the God-honoring life to which we have been called until he returns. Notice the tense of the verb. Peter says God has given us everything we need. It has already happened! This is a fundamental Gospel truth. God will not call us to do anything without providing a way for it to be done. If he calls us to cross the Red Sea, he will enable us to swim, send a boat, build a bridge, or part the waters!

Don't forget who you are. You are the children of God who have inherited riches beyond your ability to conceive. You have been given everything you need to do what God has called you to do. Don't give in to discouragement. Don't quit. Don't run away from your calling. Don't settle for a little bit of faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, brotherly kindness and love. Get everything that is your inheritance as God's children.

1 Peter 1:3-9

"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins."

Happy New Year!

As the new year dawns, it's time to put the past behind us and look forward to what God will do in the new year.

The following devotional from Oswald Chambers helps us to understand this perspective:

You shall not go out with haste,…for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. —Isaiah 52:12

Security from Yesterday. “…God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

Security for Tomorrow. “…the Lord will go before you….” This is a gracious revelation— that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste….” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.