Great Thought on Our Great God

I was reading a book this morning for my upcoming class, Empowering Church Leaders in Soul Care. The book is called False Intimacy and deals with the struggle of sexual addiction. I came across a quote by John Stott that reminded me of the worship theme we used for 2010 – Big God, Small Me. Take a look:

“If we bring God down to our level and raise ourselves to His, then of course we see no need for a radical salvation, let alone for a radical atonement to secure it. When, on the other hand, we have glimpsed the blinding glory of the holiness of God and have been so convicted of our sin by the Holy Spirit that we tremble before God and acknowledge what we are, namely, ‘hell-deserving sinners,’ then and only then does the necessity of the cross appear so obvious that we are astonished we never saw it before.”

What an interesting tension we live in, knowing of the holiness of God, the sin that resides in us and the magnificence of His mighty love for us!

The Death of a Terrorist

The world either went to sleep on Sunday to the news or woke up Monday to hear of the death of Osama bin Laden. I would imagine that there were a number of responses people had. There was jubilation in the streets, pundits weighing in. I thought that Carl Rove’s comments were interesting. He said, and I paraphrase; “I have to say, and I don’t think it is a Christian response, but I feel a sense of revenge.” He was being honest but more thoughtful than many of us when he reflected that feelings of revenge may be beneath our best Christian standards. Are we right to have a feeling of revenge or is that below us as Christian believers?

One simple passage has been on my mind. It is a passage from Ezekiel 18 (verse 23);
“Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” declares the Sovereign LORD. “Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?”

As I have been mulling over those words, I have had to temper a pure sense of the pleasure I feel at the death of such an evil person. I have asked myself how I can be more like God. “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather . . .” And then I think about how much better it would have been, at least in my mind, if this evil person had “. . . turned from his evil ways.” It would have been better for him to see that what he had done was a terrible and grevious evil. Then, even seeing that the justice of the case would have been served if he had then been subject to the death penalty through a miltary tribunal, it would have been a greater good for him to have turned. There is always a glory of sorts in turning. And there is a sense in which the evil person who dies represents a small victory for the evil that has been manifest through that person’s life.

“I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their evil ways and live.” Live with that one as you ponder the just end of the life of perhaps the most evil man of our times.

Easter Hope

What seems out of control in your life right now? A diagnosis, a child, a work situation, something in your own heart?

What if, in spite of all appearances, God was actually completely in control. Try this simple exercise. Take what feels out of control to you right now and in a moment of silence, pray this prayer. “You are in control of this God so I trust you with it.”

Last night at our Maundy Thursday service we saw that a moment in which things seemed in chaos God was actually in perfect control – the trial and death of Jesus. Do you think that if He was in control of the circumstances of the world to bring that to pass He might be in control of what is happening in your life right now?

Easier said than done. I know. But what is the alternative? Despair? Casting off a trust in the goodness of God? Discouragment? And what does this orientation of faith produce? Calmness, peace, confidence, and perhaps most importantly – a glorification of God. It tells the world that God is a wonderful trustworthy Being.

And could it be that God is using the ‘little’ tests to prepare you for the later bigger ones?

I have been thinking lately about this simple idea: If we spend our whole lives falling in love with this world, why should we expect – when trouble comes, when loss looms on the horizon – that we should be ready for the next world?

This life is getting us ready for the next. The Easter message is a message that orients our longings past the horizon of this life.

May we all learn that He was telling us the truth when He told us through the prophet Isaiah that He “will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.”

Reflections on a Disaster

Today the world awoke to the horrendous disaster that struck Japan. Everyone processes the plight of people suffering such loss in their own way. How does our understanding of God shape the way we process it?

First by way of response, the Christian is motivated out of compassion for the suffering. Jesus taught His followers to take care of the sick, the prisoner, the naked (Matthew 25) These are all corrolaries of people in any kind of trouble and Jesus tells us that when we serve them, we are serving Him. In some way we are taking care of Him when we serve the person in trouble.

While our society is not monolithically Christian by any means, the influence of Christianity is significant in the way our country and our citizens respond in compassion to those suffering in other parts of the world.

The second way our understanding of God shapes our reaction is in how we understand natural disasters. If you read the opening verses of Luke 13 you will find Jesus dealing with the question of suffering and causality. Is all suffering the result of the judgment of God? Jesus uses two stories; one dealing with human evil (a story of Pilate’s brutality), the other a natural disaster (a tower falling and killing 18 people) to make a simple point – “Do you think that the people who suffering these disasters were worse sinners than their contemporaries because they were the individuals who were caught up in these situations?” The answer to His rhetorical question was, no, they were not. But then He adds, “But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” What we can learn from Jesus here is that tragedy is not always tied to guilt (sometimes it is – Ananias and Saphira died becuase of dishonesty before God’s Spirit). So we should not look for a moral cause for all human suffering. The other thing Jesus wants us to take from our observation of such suffering in natural and human-caused pain is that apart from repentance, we will all perish. In other words, we should take such events as a wake up call that we cannot live an unrepentant lifestyle and expect to ‘get away with it.’

I was talking with someone this week about the, for lack of a better word, debauchery of modern people. This person’s comment was, “And everyone acts like it is acceptable.” The scene of distruction we are witnessing in Japan is, according to Jesus (by analogy) a wake up call to everyone who lives outside of a lifestyle of repentance. Their time is coming when, if they do not come to their senses (the core meaning of repentance), they will finally perish, in all that means.

Let’s join in praying that we will respond to suffering in a way that allows us to care for Jesus as He meets us in suffering people.
Let’s live lifestyles of repentance and avoid the perishing of which Jesus warns His listeners in Luke 13.

Summer of Love

Right now the teaching team is putting together the Summer teaching schedule. One of the themes we are considering is what we would call “The Summer of Love.” The idea is that we would spend a substantial portion of the Summer studying what the Bible teaches about love.

One of the interesting books I have been reading on this topic is Don Carson’s book, “The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God.” You might find that a provocative title - I know I did. The reason for the title becomes apparent when you look at the chapter titles; 1. On Distorting the Love of God; 2. God Is Love; 3. God’s Love and God’s Sovereignty; and 4. God’s Love and God’s Wrath. Here is a quote from the opening pages of the book – “If people believe in God at all today, the overwhelming majority hold that this God – however he, she, or it may be understood – is a loving being. But that is what makes the task of Christian witness so daunting. For this widely disseminated belief in the love of God is set with increasing frequency in some other matrix than biblical theology.”

Here is the main question we might ask ourselves about our own understanding of the love of God:

- Does my understanding of God’s love for me allow for suffering?

For many of us, me included too much of the time, we feel God’s love when things are going well, and we wonder what has happened when things begin to turn toward pain.

One place we might find help in our understanding of this conundrum is by lookinig at Paul and Jesus to see how they understood the love of God when they were under the duress of extreme difficulty.

Jesus clearly had an abiding trust in the Father. And when He was going through the agony of Gethsemane and Golgotha, He cried out three times with a request that the cup might pass from Him, and one time with a question of why He had been forsaken. Can we learn from His reaction that it is quite to be expected that we too would cry out for our suffering to be taken away, with the caveat; “But not my will but your will be done”? But as it relates to His other cry, can we not say that we will never have to cry, “Why have you forsaken me?” because we will never be forsaken since Jesus was forsaken for us.

As for Paul, his understanding of the love and sovereignty of God allowed him to see shipwrecks, beatings and imprisonments as part of the plan of God for his welfare and for the furtherance of the Gospel cause. But he too asked that his pain be taken away. Do you, like me, find it interesting that his was a thrice repeated request as well? Here is the text of 2 Cor. 12 – “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

Paul reacted like Jesus did – “Please take this away. But if you choose not to, your will be done.” And in Paul’s case, since he learned that God had the purpose of making His strength perfect through Paul’s weakness, he said – “Bring it on!”

Can you and I learn to embrace suffering and pain like this? If we don’t, we are in danger of not knowing how to understand “the difficult doctrine of the love of God.”

Miracles as the Inbreaking of God’s Normal

I have had some feedback from people who heard the message last week titled; Water into Wine.

There were three images that stayed with people:

The image of an elephant being left in one’s living room for an afternoon being like the impact of Jesus Christ on a person’s life.

The truth that the miracles of Jesus were an inbreaking of God’s normal.

And the fact that Jesus used the Greek word, ‘ergon’ to describe the miracles. The implication being that while for the gospel writers the miracles were ‘dunamis,’ acts of power (the synoptics – Matthew, Mark and Luke), or for John that they were ‘signs’ (semeion). For Jesus they were simply the ‘work’ He did. For Him it was quite natural to create or heal or effect nature.

That leads me to ask three questions for my readers to consider:

How has Jesus Christ overturned the furniture in your life? Take a moment to be grateful for all the ways your life has changed because He has come in.

What part of your current abnormal life can you thank God you will one day leave behind?

How might you worship God today knowing that the healing of the sick, the raising of the dead, the feeding of the hungry, the pouring of abundance into scarcity are simple ‘works’ for Him?

Enjoy God today. He will enjoy you.

On the passing of a friend

Roger Nicole died Saturday at the age of 95. Allow me to tell you just a little bit about him.

Dr. Nicole was the professor of Systematic Theology at Gordon-Conwell when I attended there in the 80′s. Educated at the Sorbonne, Gordon Divinity School (the predecessor of Gordon-Conwell), Harvard and Wheaton College, he spoke and read in numerous languages. J.I. Packer described him this way; “Awesome for brain power, learning and wisdom, endlessly patient and courteous in his gentle geniality, and beloved by a multitude as pastor, mentor and friend.”

I remember his salutations, in a heavy Swiss accent, “Hello, good brother!” as he would pass you on the seminary grounds. But what really made an impact on me was when he selected me to be his “Byington Fellow” or teaching assistant. When he chose me, he said, “You know, Mark, I am the senior faculty member here and as such, I have the chance to choose the finest students on campus as my teaching fellows. I am choosing you.” Just writing those words bring tears to my eyes as I recall the deep care and interest he showed in me as an emerging young student of theology.

As his teaching assistant, I graded tests, had access to his office, but perhaps more memorably, shared dinner at his home with his beloved wife. I walked with him in his basement surveying his vast (almost 30,000 volume) library which now comprises half of the library of Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando where I am enrolled in the Doctor of Ministry Program.

When I started taking classes at RTS Orlando, I got Dr. Nicole’s address at the care facility where he lived. I would make it part of my week there to go visit him on the occasion of each class. I would wake him up when I arrived, try to remind him of who I was, then we would talk theology again.

In my last visit, I asked him about women elders. He told me about a chapter he had written in a new book which I just received last week, “Why I Changed My Mind About Women in Leadership.” I believe it was my first chapel at Gordon-Conwell when Dr. Nicole stood up and announced, “Over the summer I have come to a new view on women in leadership. I am now a biblical feminist.” The audience was stunned!

I have a photo of myself with him last January.

The world has lost not only one of the greatest Christian minds, but also a man who could look into a young man’s heart and make him know he was special. I will always be grateful to my friend, Roger Nicole, for the investment he poured into my life.

Thanks Giving

I was talking with a friend who is a former professional triathlete the other day. As I was telling him about some of my aches and pains, he suggested that I consider taking a form of Omega-3 Fish Oil that he recommends to all the people he trains. He said, “Give it a couple of weeks and you will feel the difference.”

Think about that for a moment. “Give it a couple of weeks and you will feel the difference…

I was driving to work today on a route I don’t usually take; I drove through North Park. As I approached what is called Marshall Island, where people fish and feed the ducks, I pulled in and stopped for a few moments of reflection. I decided to take those moments to offer my gratitude to God for whatever came to mind. Before I left, I had the idea to practice the spiritual discipline of gratitude every day over the month of November.

I am reminded of my friends words again, “Give it a couple of weeks and you will feel the difference.” I would invite you to join me over the course of this month to spend a few moments early each day in November listing before God what you are thankful for. Let’s see if we feel the difference in a couple of weeks!

The Cycle of Gospel Love

I had an interesting conversation with four members of our staff team today. Several of us get together twice a month to discuss a class on Preaching the Gospel in a Postmodern World. When we discussed this past weekend’s message, their response was interesting to me. Though 3 out of four of them had heard the message twice, none could recall very much of the content. Each did have a ‘take-away’ from the message – all good. But they could not recall, for example, the four steps of the cycle of gospel love. They also were not very clear on what the point of the illustration of the Chilean miners was all about. That part actually was especially surprising to me.

What strikes me here is that one’s interaction with a message is often more experiential than cognitive. In other words, it may have an effect – such as to lead you to worship Jesus in that moment and even ongoingly – but its effect may not be around recalling the outline or recollecting specific content.

Having said that, allow me to post, for all of our failing memories, the cycle of gospel love that I said was the model for all marital and friendship love.

Sacrifice – He gave His life for me.
Love – Now I know that His heart toward me is good.
Obedience – The love of Christ constrains me.
Repentance – I can confess my shortcomings to Him whose heart toward me is good.

Again, this is the same cycle that will create health in marriages – It begins with Sacrifice which assures us of the goodness of our partner’s heart toward us (Love), which leads us to ‘constrain’ our behavior (Obedience) . And when we fall short, we can return to our partner for forgiveness because we trust that their heart toward us is good (Repentance).

Paul says in Ephesians 5 that the pattern of gospel love is the template for our marital love. The Apostle John writes in I John 3:16 that the sacrifice of Jesus is the model for our friendship love.

Reflect today on the engine that drives our relationship with God – it all begins with His sacrifice. And let that gracious love motivate you to love the way you have been loved.

On Landing…

My intention in my recent posts has been to convey clearly something that is quite important to me. Allow me to make it explicit.

There are issues that very sincere, informed, well-read people disagree about. And there is often the tempation to land on such issues in such a way that communicates this attitude – “I have this figured out and now I am going to convince you that I am right.”

That is not my intent in the journey I am on. My intent is to learn everything I can, stay open to opposing ideas, and then humbly communicate where I think the Bible points us.

So . . . that is where I am going. I will put out ideas that are helping me, but I will do so as one who is not hesitant to say where I have not gained any sure clarity.

That is where I find myself on neo-Calvinism and Two-Kingdoms. I have a lot of respect for people in both camps on this one. I am airing my journey in the hopes that it may be helpful to some others who are on a similar path of discovery.