St. Mary's Lake, Glacier National Park, Montana
Summer 2004
Sunday, January 23, 2005
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Does a disaster come to a city unless the Lord has done it?
No, this is not a trick question and its not even one for which we must search out an answer. In fact, it is a rhetorical question taken straight out of Amos 3. Basically, God is behind every action and event that ever has or ever will take place. The sovereignty of God can be mysterious and hard to grasp for our human minds, considering that God is without sin, stills holds men accountable for their actions and moreover, remains a loving and compassionate God. We have seen the destruction of hundreds of thousands of people in the tsunami, the endless turmoil in Iraq, and our own local tragedies and struggles. (It is a tragedy that woke me in the wee hours of the morning that turned my meditation back to these thoughts.) And I believe that our one hope, our one reason and end must be found in a reliance in the sovereignty of God. There are two reasons I'd like to outline for now why such a belief is essential.
1.) If you deny the sovereignty of God, then you cannot have a grounded faith that God will work all events out for good. Christianity is historical, and contrary to some lines of thought, is completely based upon evidences. Faith in God is faith in the evidences of the promises fulfilled and promises hoped for. People who deny that God causes all things, even the terrible, to happen have no evidence that God will in fact be able to cause events to turn out for good. If you say that God did not cause the event then you say that he did not want it to happen. (Saying the he "allowed it to happen" is a cop out. If he allowed it to happen and did not stop it, then he either wanted it to happen or was powerless to do anything about it. The latter is a dangerous, and dare I say it heretical, position.) So if God was powerless to use events leading up to a tragedy to prevent its coming to pass, then what makes you think that he is powerful enough to make it turn out right? God calmed the sea and poured down the flood all for his glorious, although sometimes hidden, purposes.
2.) Belief in the sovereignty of God opens the door of your heart for God's refining fire. A second important result of belief in the sovereignty of God is that it humbles our own hearts and puts the world into perspective. Saying that God just allowed an event to happen or that he is not finally responsible places all ultimate blame on human actions (or natural, unavoidale phenomena, like the tsunami), a position that neither Job nor the writer of Job takes. Job said, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away (1:21)," and "shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive adversity? (2:10)" The writer of Job says that Job's brothers and sisters "showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him (42:11)." Certainly the writer of Job mentions that Satan did this work, but all final responsibility is given to God who ordained that Satan be allowed a short leash in order that God might show his name to be great by his servant's rejoicing in God's sufficiency amid hardship. By placing complete blame on human or worldly elements also hardens our own hearts to see God's purposes. In the Old Testament, God used attacks and destruction from Israel's enemies as a wakeup call so that they would give up their idols and rely upon him. He had warned them by prophets, but they still would not listen until he mercifully stripped away their strongholds. Job himself, although a righteous man, finally realized his need for further refinement by God's loving and firm hand. Sometimes God takes away our comfort so that we stop relying on his gifts and start relying on him alone for our satisfaction. So we ought to be careful not to pray for justice and wrath upon our enemies too quickly, but we ought to pray for mercy for our own souls and consider what refining work God intends to do through our situation, for Israel's experience attests to the judgment that God brings when his voice is ignored.
The agony of the cross is a call to faith that God is in control of all of history and that his purposes are true and good. Likewise, its suffering is a starting point for the transformation of men's hearts to reliance upon God's provision. Let us glory in the cross and in his sovereign will.
1.) If you deny the sovereignty of God, then you cannot have a grounded faith that God will work all events out for good. Christianity is historical, and contrary to some lines of thought, is completely based upon evidences. Faith in God is faith in the evidences of the promises fulfilled and promises hoped for. People who deny that God causes all things, even the terrible, to happen have no evidence that God will in fact be able to cause events to turn out for good. If you say that God did not cause the event then you say that he did not want it to happen. (Saying the he "allowed it to happen" is a cop out. If he allowed it to happen and did not stop it, then he either wanted it to happen or was powerless to do anything about it. The latter is a dangerous, and dare I say it heretical, position.) So if God was powerless to use events leading up to a tragedy to prevent its coming to pass, then what makes you think that he is powerful enough to make it turn out right? God calmed the sea and poured down the flood all for his glorious, although sometimes hidden, purposes.
2.) Belief in the sovereignty of God opens the door of your heart for God's refining fire. A second important result of belief in the sovereignty of God is that it humbles our own hearts and puts the world into perspective. Saying that God just allowed an event to happen or that he is not finally responsible places all ultimate blame on human actions (or natural, unavoidale phenomena, like the tsunami), a position that neither Job nor the writer of Job takes. Job said, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away (1:21)," and "shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive adversity? (2:10)" The writer of Job says that Job's brothers and sisters "showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him (42:11)." Certainly the writer of Job mentions that Satan did this work, but all final responsibility is given to God who ordained that Satan be allowed a short leash in order that God might show his name to be great by his servant's rejoicing in God's sufficiency amid hardship. By placing complete blame on human or worldly elements also hardens our own hearts to see God's purposes. In the Old Testament, God used attacks and destruction from Israel's enemies as a wakeup call so that they would give up their idols and rely upon him. He had warned them by prophets, but they still would not listen until he mercifully stripped away their strongholds. Job himself, although a righteous man, finally realized his need for further refinement by God's loving and firm hand. Sometimes God takes away our comfort so that we stop relying on his gifts and start relying on him alone for our satisfaction. So we ought to be careful not to pray for justice and wrath upon our enemies too quickly, but we ought to pray for mercy for our own souls and consider what refining work God intends to do through our situation, for Israel's experience attests to the judgment that God brings when his voice is ignored.
The agony of the cross is a call to faith that God is in control of all of history and that his purposes are true and good. Likewise, its suffering is a starting point for the transformation of men's hearts to reliance upon God's provision. Let us glory in the cross and in his sovereign will.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
"Friends are friends forever.."
Ha. So many cheesy memories of that song. Anyway...Kristen left today. She was here for about a week and we had all sorts of crazy good times, especially with Michelle, Emily Sawyer, the Mullers and Piko. Friends are awesome.
"Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!" Psalm 133:1
"Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!" Psalm 133:1
Friday, December 10, 2004
"One Thing" on Beauty
This is sort of a response to David's post on beauty a few days ago. He says, "Beauty is not a good guide to truth. For often false things may appear beautiful." Conversely, I posit that Beauty is a good guide to Truth.
God is beautiful. He is lovely. He is praiseworthy. That is the truth. God, in fact, is Beauty. Maybe what David means to say, and what I will say, is that our false conceptions of beauty are not a good guide to truth. Our failure to see real beauty for what it is, is a reflection upon ourselves and our sin, and not on beauty itself, whose content is God. To call a marriage, which is "full of rot and bile," beautiful is to lie about beauty, and to lie about God. God's beauty is not expressed in rotten marriages, but in ones that reflect his supremacy and communicate the truth about his Son to the world.
It's often the philosopher's game to say that "Beauty" or "Goodness" is some abstract thing, but in reality, God is those things, first, and the things that are beautiful or good are the things which reflect God. God revealed both truth and beauty to man in the incarnation, the death and the resurrection of Christ. Therefore, again, to call a philosophical argument, which is untrue, beautiful is to lie about beauty and God.
Now, things (like ceremonies or argument)may appeal to us, or affect our emotions or stimulate our brains, but may not be true or good. In these cases, we prefer them over something else- but wrongly. But to say these things is not to change what the things are, or if they reflect God's beauty. So the problem of truth lies in our sin. For what is sin or idolatry but to find loveliness in something other than God? (to lie about God's beauty and worthiness and sufficiency and to replace God with something of lesser worth?) Beauty is a good guide to truth, for wherever we find true Beauty, there is the handiwork of God, who is all beauty. So in order to evaluate the beauty of anything, we must first see,know and love true Beauty.
Sam Storms just put out a new book called One Thing, which talks a lot about God's beauty. It's good as far as I have gotten in the book, and I will post a review when I've finished it. But I do recommend it.
God is beautiful. He is lovely. He is praiseworthy. That is the truth. God, in fact, is Beauty. Maybe what David means to say, and what I will say, is that our false conceptions of beauty are not a good guide to truth. Our failure to see real beauty for what it is, is a reflection upon ourselves and our sin, and not on beauty itself, whose content is God. To call a marriage, which is "full of rot and bile," beautiful is to lie about beauty, and to lie about God. God's beauty is not expressed in rotten marriages, but in ones that reflect his supremacy and communicate the truth about his Son to the world.
It's often the philosopher's game to say that "Beauty" or "Goodness" is some abstract thing, but in reality, God is those things, first, and the things that are beautiful or good are the things which reflect God. God revealed both truth and beauty to man in the incarnation, the death and the resurrection of Christ. Therefore, again, to call a philosophical argument, which is untrue, beautiful is to lie about beauty and God.
Now, things (like ceremonies or argument)may appeal to us, or affect our emotions or stimulate our brains, but may not be true or good. In these cases, we prefer them over something else- but wrongly. But to say these things is not to change what the things are, or if they reflect God's beauty. So the problem of truth lies in our sin. For what is sin or idolatry but to find loveliness in something other than God? (to lie about God's beauty and worthiness and sufficiency and to replace God with something of lesser worth?) Beauty is a good guide to truth, for wherever we find true Beauty, there is the handiwork of God, who is all beauty. So in order to evaluate the beauty of anything, we must first see,know and love true Beauty.
Sam Storms just put out a new book called One Thing, which talks a lot about God's beauty. It's good as far as I have gotten in the book, and I will post a review when I've finished it. But I do recommend it.
Friday, November 05, 2004
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Hear His Word, and Tremble
"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good, He's the King, I tell you."
This familiar scene from Lewis' Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe reminds of our often silly or ignorant assumptions about God. The Word of God is dangerous and the life of the Christian is not safe. Nor indeed should be expect otherwise. Psalm 29:9 says, "The voice of the Lord twists the oals and strips the forest bare." God's Word moves the hurricanes and casts down lightning bolts, hardens the hearts of kings and pierces the hearts of sinners. At his Word, we should tremble.
Jeremiah says, "You words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart.."(Jeremiah 15:16) And yet Jeremiah became the picture of what happened to Judah and to those who do not heed his Word- destruction and despair. The Word of God is an awesome, consuming fire that sinful men should fear.
And yet, there is much hope for the Christian, because God promises that he will look upon the man "who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word." (Isaiah 66:2) God promises that he will not destroy those who hope in Him and whose faith proclaims his excellencies. But his word is still true and active and piercing. And as sinners, we still experience the refining and pain of God's probing into our hearts, or at least, we should. Let us not fear his Word and therefore keep our safe distance, but let us delve deeper and let it renew and sanctify us, though it hurts and grieves us. For the Christian, there is great joy in being made more like Christ and all the burning and cutting serves us in removing that filth that poisons us.
Many a pharoah and Belshazzar heard God's Word and balked in prideful disbelief. Let us not be counted among those whom Mrs. Beaver calls silly, but let us approach his Word with a contrite heart "that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith- that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:17-19)
I love this poem so much, because although we are expected to suffer as Christians, we have hope and there is a purpose to it, whether God is rooting out our sin or whether we are being tried in our faith:
I stood a mendicant of God before his royal throne
And begged Him for one priceless gift, which I could call my own.
I took the gift from out his hand, but as I would depart
I cried, "But, Lord, this is a thorn and it has pierced my heart.
This is a strange and hurtful gift, which though hast given me."
He said, "My child, I give good gifts and gave my best to thee."
I took it home and though at first the cruel thorn hurt sore,
As long years passed, I learned to love it more and more.
I learned He never gives a thorn without this added grace,
He takes the thorn to pin aside the veil which hides His face.
~Martha Snell Nicholson
Deo Gratias.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Why don't YOU sin?
I am in a Bible Study at Dr. Burke's and we are reading William Gurnall's The Christian in Complete Armour. You've got to love those Puritans. It's good stuff on Ephesians 6 and combatting sin. Anyway, in one of the chapters, Gurnall makes the statement: "Others wrestle with sin, but they do not hate it, and therefore they are favourable to it, and seek not the life of sin as their deadly enemy."
Think about some of the sins with which you continually struggle. Do you truly hate them? Do you sin for what it is- a lie about the sufficiency and love of God and as offensive to him? I find that often I refrain from sin simply because I know in my head that it isn't right or because I want to hold up my reputation with other people. Other times, we don't sin because it isn't convenient or we just don't find it in our particular taste or interest. But sin is more than breaking a rule, it is an attitude about God. Gurnall strikes a very human chord, because if we still find pleasure in sin, then we are still subject to it and we are not letting Christ win the victory over that sin in our lives. We must view sin with hatred and replace the pleasure of sin with the vastly infinite pleasure of knowing and loving and being loved by God, our Creator and Savior. If we don't see what the life of sin is, namely as our own moral independence decrying the overflowing nature of Christ the image of God, then we struggle in vain. Once we view sin as our "deadly enemy," then we can begin its mortification in our lives. Our fight with sin can neither be passive nor complacent.
So why don't you sin?
Think about some of the sins with which you continually struggle. Do you truly hate them? Do you sin for what it is- a lie about the sufficiency and love of God and as offensive to him? I find that often I refrain from sin simply because I know in my head that it isn't right or because I want to hold up my reputation with other people. Other times, we don't sin because it isn't convenient or we just don't find it in our particular taste or interest. But sin is more than breaking a rule, it is an attitude about God. Gurnall strikes a very human chord, because if we still find pleasure in sin, then we are still subject to it and we are not letting Christ win the victory over that sin in our lives. We must view sin with hatred and replace the pleasure of sin with the vastly infinite pleasure of knowing and loving and being loved by God, our Creator and Savior. If we don't see what the life of sin is, namely as our own moral independence decrying the overflowing nature of Christ the image of God, then we struggle in vain. Once we view sin as our "deadly enemy," then we can begin its mortification in our lives. Our fight with sin can neither be passive nor complacent.
So why don't you sin?
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