How Firm a Foundation - Part 3

This is the final section of David Powlison's look at the hymn, "How Firm a Foundation," found in his book, God's Grace in Your Suffering.

We have to consider if our disappointment with the Bible is because we are looking for the wrong answers from it. Powlison concludes this section of his study:

When you get to what most matters, to life-and-death issues, what more can he say than to you has said? To whom do you entrust your life? What will happen to you? Are you facing betrayal by someone you trusted? Aggressive, incurable cancer? A disfiguring disability? Your most persistent sin? These are what Scripture is about. And God's words address all the defining existential questions - questions about meaning or despair in the face of death, purpose or pointlessness, good or evil, love or hate, trust or fear, truth or lies. Can mercy untangle the knot of sin? Can justice undo oppression? What about the character of God? The dynamics of the human heart? The meaning of affliction? What more can the Lord say than to you he has said? Listen well. There is nothing more that he needs to say.

If you don't know the hymn, here is a link to the words. It's a wonderful hymn.

A Birthday Devotional

This is a special post from The Daily Bread for a special young man. Happy Birthday, Ryan!

I used to love birthdays. I can still remember standing excitedly on our front porch waiting for my friends to show up for my 5th birthday party. I wasn’t just excited about the balloons, the gifts, and the cake. I was happy that I was no longer only 4! I was growing up.

As I’ve gotten older, however, birthdays have sometimes been more discouraging than exciting. Last year when I celebrated a birthday that marked me by decades more than by years, my wife, Martie, cheered me up with the reminder that I should be grateful to be growing older. She pointed me to Psalm 71, where the psalmist talks about God’s presence throughout his life. He remembers that God “took me out of my mother’s womb” (71:6), and he proclaims with thankfulness, “O God, You have taught me from my youth; and to this day I declare Your wondrous works” (v.17). And now, when the psalmist is older, he has the honor to proclaim: “[God’s] strength to this generation, [His] power to everyone who is to come” (v.18). God had blessed the psalmist with His presence through every year of his life.

Birthdays now remind me of God’s faithfulness. And they bring me closer to being in the presence of the One who has been with me all these years!

Lord, remind me often that growing older means
I am growing nearer to You! Keep my heart
filled with gratitude for Your many blessings,
and keep my mind fixed on the joy of heaven.

How Firm a Foundation - Part 2

Continuing with David Powlison's study of the hymn, "How Firm a Foundation," we will discuss the lens through which we look at the Scriptures. Do we want more from the Bible than God wants to provide?

If we only had one more verse on each of the top ten questions we wrangle over! And think what he could have told us with an extra paragraph or chapter on a few of the tough topics! If only the Lord had shortened the genealogies, omitted a few villages in the land distribution, and condensed the spec sheet for the temple's dimensions, dishware, décor, and duties. Our Bible would be exactly the same length - even shorter - but the questions that rattle the church could have been anticipated and definitively answered. But somehow, God in his providence didn't choose to do that.

It comes down to what you are looking for as you read and listen.

What do you want from the Bible? What is most important to you? What is most important to God in providing wisdom to his people?

We'll conclude this series tomorrow.

How Firm a Foundation - Part 1

In the hymn, How Firm a Foundation, the anonymous writer includes this line: "What more can he say than to you he has said...." David Powlison in God's Grace in Your Suffering exegetes the hymn and finds deep meaning in its words. He addresses some of the questions that we all ask as believers. He notes that there is "a way to read Scriptures that leaves you wishing God had said a whole lot more":

How did Satan become evil? Why did Chronicles add zeros to the numbers in Samuel and Kings? How did Jonah avoid asphyxiation? Who wrote the book of Hebrews? And those aren't even the questions that most often divide and perplex the church. Wouldn't it have been great if the Lord had slipped in one killer verse that pins down the timetable for the return of Christ? That resolves every question about the meaning and mode of baptism and the Lord's Supper? That specifically informs us how to organize church leadership and government? That tells us exactly what sort of music to use in worship? That explains how God's sovereign purposes dovetail with human responsibility? That describes just how the Holy Spirit intends and does not intend to express his dynamic power?

Have you ever asked these questions and wondered about the answers? We'll explore more of these insights over the next couple of posts.

Enemies of Truth - Part 3

This is the last part of a devotional on enemies of truth written by Rebecca Vandoodewaard.

3. We are enemies of truth when we misrepresent the gospel. This could be to our family, our church, or those outside of it. This sort of skewed picture could come from apathy, fear of conflict, or abuse of authority. Of course, we will always represent the gospel imperfectly, often unknowingly. But a conscious decision to do and say things - or a conscious failure to do and say things - in a way that facilitates a misunderstanding of Christ's person and work places us in opposition to the truth. That is sobering indeed.

The fact that we will always sin while in the body does not diminish the seriousness of these dangers. Our mortality, our struggle with our sinful nature, does not absolve us from the responsibility to obey or from consequences when we fail. In fact, since we have the strength of the Spirit and the mind of Christ, we are able to be allies of the truth as it renews our hearts and minds.

This devotional appeared in the November edition of TableTalk.

Enemies of Truth - Part 2

Continuing with the devotional from Rebecca Vandoodewaard, we look at a second way in which believers can oppose the truth.

2. We are enemies of truth when we hide sin. Perhaps it's a besetting sin, such as anger, that we hide from people outside of our family. Perhaps we're covering up the serious sin of an older child, pastor, or friend: we're afraid of what would happen if we expose the sin, afraid that people will accuse us of not understanding grace if we do. Hiding sin could even extend to preventing biblical justice from taking its course, as in ecclesiastical or civil courts. Believers can do all of these things, and when they do, they facilitate a culture of lies.

Tomorrow, we'll conclude this devotional on enemies of truth.

Enemies of Truth - Part 1

The following is from a devotional published in TableTalk and written by Rebecca Vandoodewaard. When we look for our enemies, sometimes we don't have to look too far.

What comes to mind when you think of someone who is an enemy of the truth? Richard Dawkins? Joseph Smith? Hollywood celebrities? What about a woman at church? Your brother? You?

An older Christian once warned me, "Even Christians can be enemies of truth." We know that we battle the world, the flesh, and the devil - those are three categories that we can rattle off. But it's easy to think of ourselves in the right camp and others in the wrong one. We make reality black and white in ways that it is not. Thinking of a believer - of ourselves - as someone who can actually oppose truth is deeply sobering. Here are three ways that it can be true.

1. We are enemies of truth when we refuse to hear the truth. This tends to come in two forms: not listening to someone tell the truth or refusing to accept it. Maybe we're not will to take the time to actually hear; other priorities seem more urgent. Maybe we're afraid of what will happen if we do listen; understanding will require humility, repentance, and change. Maybe we do listen and understand, but we refuse to admit that it applies to us. Truth can be uncomfortable. It can mean that we've been wrong. Whether truth comes to us through Scripture reading, through preaching, or through the wounds of a friend, when we treat it like an enemy, we become the enemy.

We'll cove the other ways over the next two posts.