Read This Book!

I haven't yet mentioned the book of the month for May & June here on the blog. Shame on me! It is really good! Read it in the morning and you will be sitting down to breakfast better than Hank's Place. Read it in the evening and you can skip dessert!

There are a lot of choice morsels to share, but I'll just whet your appetite with this one (pp 159-160, emphasis added):

If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the fear of man is the beginning of folly. Let's all admit, that is a real problem among us. We are always performing, hoping for applause. Then we can consider ourselves successful; then we can feel good about our lives. We even perform in front of ourselves, in the theater of our own minds. We are constantly going onstage to guild emotional capital from human applause and attention. But it's all false. What if people find out what frauds we really are? Here's our manmade religion. Our god is human approval. Our heaven is the spotlight. Our hell is bad reviews. Our ritual of worship is keeping up appearances. We have the wrong fear. And that wrong fear is the beginning, the entry point, the thin edge of the wedge for folly. Living a lie hollows us out. We end up so insecure, we flee when no one is even pursuing us--always fugitives, never settled and at peace.

To fear the Lord means his opinion is the only one that finally matters to our hearts. And he promises his approval through Christ. The gospel puts Christ onstage and says to us, "His performance is your review. You can stop posing. You can stop fearing exposure. You can stop looking back over your shoulder and worrying about the sins of yesterday. You can know for certain today that goodness and mercy will follow you all the days of your life, because of Christ." If you fear the Lord enough to let that gospel satisfy you, you will be bold and confident and valiant as a lion, like Christ himself. 

Read Eat this book!

If you want to digest it together with some others, you can join the Proverbs Sunday School class (at 9am in room 152) that Greg Baumann and Vito DeMaio are team-teaching for the summer. If you are a woman, read up now and plan to join other Bethel ladies on Thursday evening, August 9, to discuss the book.

How Big Is Communion With God?

J. I. Packer (by way of JT):

. . . whereas to the Puritans communion with God was a great thing, to evangelicals today it is a comparatively small thing.

The Puritans were concerned about communion with God in a way that we are not.

The measure of our unconcern is the little that we say about it.

When Christians meet, they talk to each other about their Christian work and Christian interests, their Christian acquaintances, the state of the churches, and the problems of theology—but rarely of their daily experience of God.

Modern Christian books and magazines contain much about Christian doctrine, Christian standards, problems of Christian conduct, techniques of Christian service—but little about the inner realities of fellowship with God.

Our sermons contain much sound doctrine—but little relating to the converse between the soul and the Saviour.

We do not spend much time, alone or together, in dwelling on the wonder of the fact that God and sinners have communion at all; no, we just take that for granted, and give our minds to other matters.

Thus we make it plain that communion with God is a small thing to us.

But how different were the Puritans! The whole aim of their ‘practical and experimental’ preaching and writing was to explore the reaches of the doctrine and practice of man’s communion with God.

—J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (reprint ed., Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), p. 215 (chapter 12).

He Is ABLE!

The book of Hebrews has a message for you: Jesus is ABLE! Good news for us weak and failing sinners. Listen to this music for the ears of the unable:

Hebrews 2:17-18:

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 4:14-16

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Hebrews 7:25

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

In addition, by reminding us what is NOT ABLE, we are directed once again to the One who IS ABLE.

Hebrews 9:9

...gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot (lit. "are not able to" - same word as "able" in 2:18; 4:15; 7:25) perfect the conscience of the worshiper, (but Jesus is ABLE!)

Hebrews 10:1

For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never ("it is never able"), by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. (but Jesus is ABLE!)

Hebrews 10:11

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never ("are never able to") take away sins. (but Jesus is ABLE!)

Gifts and sacrifices couldn't do it. The law couldn't do it. The same sacrifices, offered over and over by the priests, couldn't do it. But Jesus did it!

Hebrews 10:12-14

But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Are Mormons Christians?

Quick answer: No.

But this post contains a simple and helpful primer for understanding the differences between Christian orthodoxy and the beliefs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

You Are What You Hate, What You Cherish

Ray Ortlund, Jr.:

...here is how you can know right now where you stand with God:

The difference between an unconverted man and a converted man is not that one has sins and the other has none; but that the one takes part with his cherished sins against a dreaded God, and the other takes part with a reconciled God against his hated sins.

From the present Book of the Month: Proverbs: Wisdom that Works, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), p. 108, quoting William Arnot, Laws from Heaven for Life on Earth: Illustrations of the Book of Proverbs (London: T. Nelson and Sons, 1884), p. 311.

A Shameless Request For Prayer

The Apostle Paul asked for people to pray for him. For instance, Ephesians 6:18-20:

...keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

So, I'm going to ask you to pray for me (and for the other pastors and future pastors you know). Justin Taylor excerpted the following from the biographical message on John Newton (slave trader turned pastor who wrote Amazing Grace) that John Piper delivered at the 2001 Bethlehem Conference for Pastors.

Please pray that I would be a Christian man and pastor who increasingly reflects Christlike toughness and Christlike tenderness: 

"It seems to me that we are always falling off the horse on one side or the other in this matter of being tough and tender—

wimping out on truth when we ought to be lion-hearted, or
wrangling with anger when we ought to be weeping. . . .

Oh how rare are the pastors who speak with a tender heart and have a theological backbone of steel. I dream of such pastors. I would like to be one someday.

A pastor

whose might in the truth is matched by his meekness.
Whose theological acumen is matched by his manifest contrition.
Whose heights of intellect are matched by his depths of humility.

Yes, and the other way around!

A pastor

whose relational warmth is matched by his rigor of study,
whose bent toward mercy is matched by the vigilance of his biblical discernment, and
whose sense of humor is exceeded by the seriousness of his calling.

I dream of great defenders of true doctrine who are mainly known for the delight they have in God and the joy in God that they bring to the people of God—who enter controversy, when necessary, not because they love ideas and arguments, but because they love Christ and the church. . . .

[Acts 15:1-3] is my vision: The great debaters on their way to a life-and-death show down of doctrinal controversy, so thrilled by the mercy and power of God in the gospel, that they are spreading joy everywhere they go.

Oh how many there are today who tell us that controversy only kills joy and ruins the church;

and oh how many others there are who, on their way to the controversy, feel no joy and spread no joy in the preciousness of Christ and his salvation."

The Gospel and Racism

Racism is ugly. We know it. And yet it's more present in our hearts than we know.

Racism is a gospel issue. Do you know that? How deeply has the gospel saturated your own self-identity? How much does it own your heart and your eyes as you see all around you the diverse tribes and languages and peoples and nations for whom Jesus was slain and from which he ransomed people for God by his blood (Rev. 5:9-10)?

John Piper has written this book to help us. And Crossway produced this short documentary to go along with the book. He helps connect the dots between racism and the gospel, with transparent confession from his own upbringing in the segregated South. Thanks, Rachel Metzger, for bringing this video to my attention (awhile ago!).


Bloodlines Documentary with John Piper from Crossway on Vimeo.

Collapse Under Our Own Weight

Ray Ortlund, Jr.:

Why do our own lives spiral down into contradiction, frustration, and just plain boredom? Here is why. We take our favorite aspect of the creation, and we make it into an idol. We pin our hopes on some good thing that lets us down because it cannot bear us up. We fixate on family or money or success or ministry with an excessive emotional expectation. Then when it leaves us empty, we fall into despair. We can even project our personal despair onto the cosmos philosophically, as if reality were mocking our hearts. (Proverbs, 114, emphasis added)

Preach (Or Sing) To Yourself

Check out this great song inspired by Psalm 42. The words (albeit with a few mistakes) can be read here, where I found it.

Remember Martyn Lloyd-Jones' quote from the Psalm 42 message a couple months back? It comes from his book Spiritual Depression (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1965, 20-21).

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in this psalm] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.’

The main art in the matter of spiritual living is to know how to handle yourself. You have to take yourself in hand, you have to address yourself, preach to yourself, question yourself.

…And then you must go on to remind yourself of God, who God is, and what God is and what God has done, and what God has pledged Himself to do. Then having done that, end on this great note: defy yourself, and defy other people, and defy the devil and the whole world, and say with this man: ‘I shall yet praise Him for the help of his countenance, who is also the health of my countenance and my God’.

…Do not listen to him; turn on him; speak to him; condemn him…exhort him; encourage him; remind him of what you know, instead of listening placidly to him and allowing him to drag you down and depress you. For that is what he will always do if you allow him to be in control.

One other thing... The recent memory verses in the Fight Verses Program were Proverbs 6:20-23. Consider them in light of this quote and the example of the psalmist in Psalm 42-43.

My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching. Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you. For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life... (ESV, emphasis added)

Preach to yourself, don't listen to yourself. And now, this song can help you sing to yourself, instead of listening to yourself.

Our Women Are Too Submissive!

Back at the Together for the Gospel, I attended this seminar and heard Russell Moore say,

"Our women are too submissive."

It obviously caught my attention. And I think he's right. In fact, every woman (just like every man) is going to submit to someone. So, Christian women, who are you submitting to?

Are you submitting to men and women in the Photoshopping advertising industry that literally paint the picture all around us of a false, unattainable ideal of body size and "beauty." Should they be the ones to tell you what to do with your bodies?

Are you submitting to the men and women in Hollywood who splash the paint of those same ideals all over the screen, adding to their pictures (since they are moving) the epitomes of seduction, pettiness, manipulation, deceit, envy, and revenge? Should they be the ones telling you how to act?

Are you submitting to boys around you at school or the men around you at work that have bought the lies of those false ideals? Is it really their heads you want to turn? Do you want to be prey for a predatory male? Are these the males you should be submitting to?

Have you noticed how young this training in submissiveness is starting? There are 10 year girls obsessing about their weight and starving themselves, dressing seductively and flirting on social media.

In the Christian church, we need a little more healthy rebellion. A little more refusal to submit. Someone's got to tear off the disguise and blow the whistle on dame Folly. She's not a beauty. She's an ugly wench. She's loud and obnoxious. Like her, and you'll become like her. Is that what you want?

We need to draw attention to Lady Wisdom. She's stunning. She's REAL. She's wise. She's beautiful. She's worth listening to and imitating. Like her, and you'll become like her. Isn't that what you want?

Even more than Lady Wisdom, Jesus Christ is Reality and Wisdom and beauty personified. He can turn your head away from the lies of this world. He will empower you to refuse to submit to the world around you; to refuse to be ruled by objectification and faux ideals. He IS The Truth and The Life. Follow him on His Way. Submit to him. You'll never regret it.

He is the perfect Man. The perfect Love. He loved you perfectly. He will never use and abuse you. He will never disappoint you. He only wants to serve you, purify you, give you life, make you whole and radiantly beautiful. Shouldn't he be the one telling you how to act and what to do with your body? Shouldn't he be the one to whom you submit?