Oct
19
Such a deformed slut
Filed Under Prayer, Puritans, Resources, The Church | Leave a Comment
Tony Reinke of Omaha, Nebraska, has one of the best blogs around–The Shepherd’s Scrapbook. This week he reprinted this from the original ‘Sweet Dropper’, Richard Sibbes:
No man is more ready to charge the church than she is to confess her infirmities.
She never hideth them, she never justifieth them;
she is black, she hath afflictions, she kept not her own vine,
she wants [lacks] knowledge, affection, discretion, love.
She never denies it, but confesses all freely from her heart;
she hides not her sin, but tells what she is, what she hath done,
that so she may give glory to the Lord God of Israel.
And indeed, it makes much for the honor of Christ, and commends his grace,
that he, such a king, will set his heart and his eye
upon such a deformed slut as the world deems her to be.
It makes for the comfort of her poor children, and much stayeth [sustains] them,
when they shall hear the church in all ages, and in her Abraham, David, and Paul, saying,
‘I am black,’ I have affliction, corruption, as well as others.
It makes for the silencing of all saucy [flippant] daughters that will upbraid her;
an ingenuous confession stops their mouths, and puts them all to silence.
It much quickens her to the use of the means, and maketh her cry,
‘Shew me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest.’
And to seek her comfort in Christ Jesus.
Oh it doth her good to receive the sentence of death, shame, poverty, damnation,
in herself, that so she may be found in Christ,
arrayed with the rich robes of his righteousness.
Hence her plain-hearted openness in her confession.
Let us do the like, and leave it to the harlot and whore of Babylon
to say herself is a queen, she is glorious, she cannot err.
But let us say with the church, we are black;
yea, let us see it, let us speak it with sorrow, with shame,
as the saints have done,
and be so affected with our estate that it may truly humble us, and cause us to say,
‘It is the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed.’
And let us so confess it in ourselves,
that we pity others, and bear with them, though full of sins and miseries;
so confess it, that we stir up others thereby to run, as Paul did,
and use the ordinances with all diligence,
to pray much, to read much, to hear, to confer, to advise, and be humble and sincere.
A verbal confession of frailties,
without humility, mercy, diligence, without the use of the means, is hypocrisy.
If we will speak with the church,
we must feel what we say, and so well understand ourselves and our estate,
that we may gain humility, mercy, and watchfulness by it.
- Richard Sibbes, Works 7:97-98
Oct
17
Application Driven
Filed Under Apologetics, Christian Living, The Church | Leave a Comment
David Wells has written four very poignant books (No Place For Truth, God in the Wasteland, Losing our Virtue, and Above All Earthly Powers) on the current state of the Evangelical Church. If you love deep philosophical reflection on culture and theology, you will find his works incredibly edifying. If you’re not into that kind of thing, you could still learn a good deal from Wells. One of his more profound reflections is on the growing trend for Evangelicals to value only application. By “application” he means 5 step programs to happier living, how the Bible can make your marriage happier, words of wisdom for Christian business men, and the sort. These things may not be altogether bad in and of themselves but Wells sees something deeper at work here. His conclusion, which I agree with, is that Evangelical Christians have lost the Biblical truth content that used to make up the core of our Christianity. Evangelicals simply have no time for doctrine anymore. Biblical doctrine is supposed to be the root from which the tree of Christian practice grows. Without Biblical truth at our core we are simply left with pragmatic to-do lists divorced from any kind of deep abiding relationship with our God. What is the answer? We need to challenge our inmost desires. Do we simply want to do life better or is there in us a deeper desire to know and be known by God? How we answer that question will either lead us to love the deep truths of Scripture or lead us to snack on soul junk food packaged in Evangelical fluff. I’ll conclude with a good quote from Wells:
“Being practical now substitutes for being theological, for there is little left to theology except practice. Stripped of doctrinal substance and rendered unreflective about and uncritical of the culture, theology now transforms ‘virtue’ into a set of everyday skills for finding success in a world of technology and affluence. Knowing how to be religious now means knowing how to ‘make it’ in a pragmatic Read more
Oct
16
Unmarried households top 50% in U.S.
Filed Under Evangelism, Family, Resources | Leave a Comment
I’ve kept reading and re-reading this report that appeared on my Yahoo! home page, For First Time, Unmarried Households Reign in U.S. Longevity certainly plays a significant role in skewing the data a bit, as widows and widowers in an aging population account for more and more households, so it would be a mistake to rush to the conclusion that everyone is either divorcing or shacking up. Neverthless, the Church would be foolish to ignore such data and miss the opportunities to minister to people around us. Are we reflecting the welcome of Christ and lovingly speaking the demands of Christ to unmarried households? When we say we want to minister effectively to families, what do we mean?
What are the implications? I don’t know. What do you think? At the very least, it all drives home to me again the need for authentic, biblical community among us.
Oct
13
Cold, Creation, and Redemption
Filed Under Christian Living | Leave a Comment
It was cold last night. I didn’t get an official reading off of my handy thermometer this morning but I heard we inched into the thirties. Now I know, compared to the folks in the North who are in snow right now, a forty degree morning sounds pretty toasty, but it was a bit chilly to me this morning. The coming fall and winter remind me of God’s good purpose on the thrid day of creation:
And let them [the sun and moon] be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years…
God intended seasons and cold mornings. He intended the leaves to fall from the trees in October and the flowers to burst from the ground in May. When we take simple pleasure in the first brisk morning air of the fall we proclaim like our Maker did many, many years ago, “It is good!”
But more than that, when Jesus began his ministry he said:
The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.
Here we have time announcing something altogether different from the wonder of creation. We see time announcing the arrival of redemption. There was a morning when our Lord rose from sleep and declared that it was time for him to preach the gospel.
See in this God’s good gift of time as a messenger of both creation and redemption. So, when we rise in the morning let us say “This is the day the Lord has made,” and “Your mercies are new each morning.” Let us call on our God who created us and redeemed us.
Oct
12
‘Imitation of Christ at its most naked’
Filed Under Apologetics, Ethics, Evangelism | Leave a Comment
Read this Rod Dreher editorial from the Dallas Morning News about a particular response by the Pennsylvania Amish community to the family of Charles Carl Roberts IV, the brutal murderer of five Amish children last week.
Oct
10
Christians Good Citizens?
Filed Under Apologetics, Christian Living, Puritans | Leave a Comment
This morning I had reason to reflect more on my sermon from this past Sunday evening. As is our custom in opening our staff meetings, Phillip read us a portion of Thomas Brooks’s Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. This morning’s selection was on Satan’s tactic of urging rulers to persecute Christian’s in their countries. The fourth remedy to this tactic that Brooks mentions is that rulers should consider the divine benefit of having Christians in their country interceding for their country. I include an excerpt below.
If it were not for the saints’ sake, God would quickly make the heavens to be brass and the earth as iron; God would quickly strip thee of thy robes and glory, and set thee upon the dunghill with Job. They are the props that bear the world from falling about thy ears, and that keep the iron rod from breaking of thy bones. ‘Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, lest he should destory them” (Psalm 106.23). Ah! had not the saints many a time cast themselves into the breach betwixt God’s wrath and you, you had been cut off from the land of the living, and had your portion with those whose names are written in the dust. Many a nation, many a family, is surrounded with blessings for the Josephs’ sakes that live therein, and are preserved from many calamities and miseries for the Moses’, the Daniels’, the Noahs’, and the Jobs’, sakes, that dwell amongst them.