Preach The Cross

Preach the cross then, as God's all sufficient answer to men's perpetual question, 'how can i win salvation?' 'How can i achieve self conquest?' There are people in our congregations today who are asking that question, just as Saul of Tarsus asked it in the lecture theatre of Gamaliel, just as Luther asked it in the monastery of Erfurt, just as John Wesley asked it in the holy club at Oxford. laboriously these men hewed out (to use Jeremiah's figure) their own broken cisterns, toiling to store up their creditable achievements, their charities, austerities and penances. But for Saul, Luther and Wesley the day came when the answer to their question, 'how can i win salvation?' was answered from the throne of God. The answer was 'you can't! Take it at the cross for nothing, or not at all.' 

James S. Stewart, Heralds of God. P 85

Fighting Sin with Truth and Beauty

James was writing to help Christians fight a deadly infection. These Jewish Christians, far from home in the dispersion were slipping far from Christ. They were favouring the rich, they were growing lazy in their love, they were trying to mix Jesus with the world.

We know that our faith, or our love, for the Lord is growing cold when the fight against sin becomes weak. We no longer fight sin with the intensity that is willing to cut off our right hand, we make our peace with it instead. James wants his readers, and us, to fight sin with truth and beauty.

Fight sin with truth. Remember that sin leads to death. This is message in verse 14. First we're lured away by our own desire. Something or someone looks good, are desire is inflamed. Desire leads to sin. We go and get want we want. We gossip. We lust. We covet. And these things, when they're grown, bring forth death. Gossip kills. Lust kills. Coveting kills. Why? Because sin kills. James pleads with his hearers to remember this truth and to know that sin is not something to play with, not something to laugh about, not something to imitate, but something to flee from. We sin because we believe the lie that sin is harmless, so remember the truth that sin will lead to death.

And we sin because we think it will make us happy, something that James fights in the next paragraph. He wants us to know that every good gift, and every perfect gift comes from above. God is committed to our happiness, there is no shadow of turning with Him. He made us for Him, He made us for this happy holiness, and will never turn away from this plan. So what makes you happy? Not sin. Not sin! But God. The Bible never says 'just say no,' it says 'say yes to what is better.' Say yes to Jesus. He is the holder of all the good in the universe, He has pleasures forever at His right hand. Not just fleeting, sickly happiness, but joy, beautiful joy, forever. We sin because we think it will make us happy, so remember that every good thing comes from God, and from His hand alone.

Fight sin today with truth and beauty.

To Worship

To worship is to quicken the conscience with the holiness of God, to feed the mind with the truth of God, to purge the imagination with the beauty of God, to open the heart to the love of God, to devote the will to the purpose of God.

James S. Stewart, Heralds of God, P73

Jesus is the Barley Harvest

How can you not love the book of Ruth? This is the small package good things come in. It has everything. Romance, intrigue, drama, history, a possibly loopy mother-in-law.

But perhaps one of the reasons we love Ruth so much is that the characters are so human. Boaz is passed the first flush or youth, and so doesn't approach Ruth when he perhaps would have as a younger man. Ruth is an outsider, who grows from timid farm help to a proposing lover. Perhaps no one's humanity is so raw as Naomi's in the first six verses.

There's no food in Bethlehem, no crops coming though. The city is filled with sin. It's not a place to bring up two young boys. She trusts Elimelech, she loves him. Our God is King, he's always telling her, so maybe the move to Moab won't be that bad. She pushes the worries about where they'll worship, and who the boys will marry to the back of her minds and they pack up and leave the Promised Land.

But it didn't work out. There's food in Moab sure, but not much else. The people are wicked here, in a different way to her friends in Bethlehem. Sure, their religion was pretty empty, but it had a heart. She doesn't know what to make of chemosh, or his rituals or his followers.

And then, Elimelech is sick, and there's no one to help. He dies in her arms as she wipes his brow. There's no going home now, better to make a life of it here, and let the boys marry those Moabite girls they've been talking to. It seemed like things were going to turn out ok, but now she'll never forget that day. The noise, the blood, the screams of the Moabite widows, bent over the broken bodies of their lifeless husbands.

We need Naomi in the Bible because she knows life as we know it. Sometimes life is brutal for no good reason. But more than that, we need Naomi, because of what she hears in verse 6. The rebellion at home is over, the Lord has visited His people and given them food. The rains have come, and crop is growing. There will be a barley harvest, she can glean, she can eat. She's bitter, but she has hope, more than she knows.

And we, like her, have more hope than we know. Jesus is the barley harvest. Jesus is the sweet good news from a far country. Jesus is our hope. Jesus who was plunged into a brutality more focused and less deserved than we'll ever know, and came out the other side. Jesus is the hope humming along in the background while the noise of the world tries to drown Him out. Because Jesus lives, so will we, because Jesus lives, we can face tomorrow. Jesus is the anvil, His enemies the hammer, smashing themselves to ruin.

Jesus is the promise of good, and the promise of better to come.
Jesus is the good. Jesus is the better to come.
Jesus is the barley harvest who draws us home. Come to Him.

Prayer for a New (School) Year

Today is the first day of school at TCS, this gem, from the Valley of Vision, seemed appropriate.

O Lord

Length of days does not profit me

Except the days are passed in thy presence,

In thy service, to thy glory.

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides,

sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour

that I may not be a moment apart from thee,

but may rely on thy Spirit

to supply every thought,

speak in every word,

direct every step,

prosper every work,

build up every mote of faith,

and give me a desire

to show forth thy praise;

testify thy love

Advance thy kingdom.

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,

with thee, O Father, as my harbour,

thee, O Son, as my helm,

thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

Guide me to heaven with my loins girt,

my lamp burning,

my ear open to thy call,

my heart full of love,

my soul free.

Give me thy grace to sanctify me,

thy comforts to cheer,

thy wisdom to teach,

thy right hand to guide,

thy counsel to instruct,

thy law to judge,

thy presence to stabilize.

May thy fear be my awe

Thy triumphs my joy

Amen

Paul and Sennacherib

Jesus commands us to pray for those who persecute you. I'm not very good at that. Jesus also tells us to pray for those in prison as if you were in prison yourself. I'm trying to get better at that.

For the last several weeks, i've been praying for the Christian minorities in northern iraq, who have been subjected to a brutal program of ethnic cleansing by the terrorist group IS. But, recently, i've also been praying for the men on the other side, and i think there are two different people we need to remember when we're praying for them.

We need to remember Saul on the road to Damascus. This Hebrew of Hebrews, this leader of the Christian killers was on assignment to round up the members of the Nazarene sect. Convert them, arrest them, kill them, whatever you need to do to bring them back to orthodoxy. Sound familiar? Saul was happy to take on this task, serving the God of his fathers. And then? Knocked off His horse by the glory of the Happy God. Blinded by a light brighter than the sun. And what happened? All the brothers who he'd been trying to kill heard he was now preaching the faith that he was trying to destroy and praised God for him.

Wouldn't it be an extraordinary thing if members of the IS, those rounding up Christians were so moved by their faith, so convicted by their calmness in the storm that they see the glory of God, and are saved? We should pray for that.

But i think we need to remember Sennacherib at the walls of Jerusalem as well. 'Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Serphavain, Henna and Ivvah?' he cried. Well where indeed? This king and his army had swept through the wilderness, wiped out idol worshippers and their false gods, and now had Jerusalem in his sights. No other provincial god had stood in his way, why should this one? But Jerusalem is The City, and their God is The God. And despite the best efforts of man, the plan of this God will not abort. Sennacherib was miraculously defeated, returned home, and was betrayed and killed by his sons.

So pray for the defeat of the IS. Whatever means this takes, whether by US airstrikes, the Kurdish army, internal strife,  or mass conversion to Christ, we know it will come from the hand of the Lord.

Pray their purposes would be defeated, their hubris punished. Pray their feet will slide in time. Pray the time is soon.

On Reading

There are bad reasons to turn to other writers besides the Bible. And there are good ones. One of the bad reasons to turn to other writers is that we find the Bible tame and tasteless. It is anything but tame and tasteless. One of the good reasons to turn to other writers besides the Bible is that we savour the taste of God, not only in the Bible, but also in the way others savour Him. The best writers intensify our taste for the Bible, and especially for God Himself.

Taste and See, John Piper, P11

Amen and amen. If you're finding the Bible 'tame and tasteless,' then other books are not the answers. Prayer is the answer! The Bible is the answer. pray for amazement if you find the Bible dull. Keep laying down the dry wood of the Bible and pray that fire would fall from Heaven. Don't quit! The drama of the Bible is incomparable. Read the Gospels, read the prophets, read the history books, and pray for help.

And if you're thrilled with the Bible, keep reading other books to. Kevin DeYoung's 'Taking God at His Word,' is a great recent example of a book that increased my appetite for the Bible. How do i know? Because i put it down to read the Bible! Invest in Edwards, make your way through the tiny, columned print and hear your heart sing. Invest in a Bible that makes the act of reading a joy. Go get the Valley of Vision.

Find a book that will help you that will teach you to taste flavours in the Bible that you didn't know existed before, and then put it down, open your Bible, and taste and see that the Lord is good.