Psalm 123

Despite the sequential number of this psalm, this is no "Sesame Street" experience. This is a heavy psalm, full of anguish and honesty. Eugene Peterson's book A Long Obedience in the Same Direction has been very helpful with the other Songs of Ascents, but not this time. Peterson calls this an "instance of service." In my view this is a psalm of desperation.

Here's my translation:

A song of the festival caravans.
To You I lift my eyes--
the One dwelling in the heavens.
Now, just as the eyes of servants on the hand of their masters,
just as the eyes of a maidservant on the hand of her mistress,
in that exact same way are our eyes on the LORD our God
until He is gracious to us.
Be gracious to us, O LORD, be gracious to us,
for we have had more contempt than we can handle.
The derision of those who are at ease and the contempt of the proud
are too much for our soul.

To me this is a desperate cry. Those speaking have been bent to the point of breaking, and they cannot take any more. I really appreciate the honesty of this psalm. Robert Alter translates: 'Grant us grace, LORD, grant us grace, for we are sorely sated with scorn.' It is good to know that other faithful members of God's family have been pushed to the very edge, too. And yet, despite their dire situation, they respond by turning to the LORD. The psalmist lifts His eyes to God. And He who dwells in the heavens is there...as always. He sees all. He knows all.
And so the child of God turns to Him.

In a way, this psalm is an appeal to the character of God. You see the trouble we are in, Lord. You are good. You are able. You love us. Help us! We will not turn away until you do.

Two well known teachers, John Calvin and Charles Spurgeon, comment on this Godward look. Calvin sees this as a look of emancipation. To me, Spurgeon's description is more exact. He sees the psalmist as one who is looking reverently, obediently, attentively, continually, expectantly, singly, submissively, and imploringly.

How many times have you been desperate? Have you responded with such faithfulness? Spurgeon continues:

Blessed are those servants whom their Master shall find so doing. Waiting upon the Lord is a posture suitable for both earth and heaven: it is, indeed, in every place the right and fitting condition for a servant of the Lord. Nor may we leave the posture so long as we are by grace dwellers in the realm of mercy. It is a great mercy to be enabled to wait for mercy.

Nobody wants such mercy. Waiting in desperation is a miserable place to be, but it's somewhere that most of us will probably spend some hard time. The good news is that Jesus has been there...and abides there with us even now. I close with a quote from Amy Carmichael's book His Thoughts Said...His Father Said:

But still the son felt like a long shore on which all the waves of pain of all the world were beating. His Father drew near to him and said, 'There is only one shore long enough for that. Upon My love, that long, long shore, those waves are beating now; but you can be one with Me. And I promise you that there shall be an end, and all tears shall be wiped from off all faces.'

God is faithful. He lives to "grant us grace."

Look to Him.

Advent (3)

"I light the candle on the third Sunday in Advent to remind us that the angels said, 'We have news of great joy!'"

As my six year old son, Joshua, read these words tonight, he burped somewhere after the word "news," bringing a sudden surge of joy to him and his 3 year old sister!

As we open our hearts to welcome the love of Jesus, we are filled with joy.

I'm glad we stop to remember that the coming of Jesus brings great joy. Too often Christians live austere lives and forget to celebrate the wonders we've been given. Christmas is the D-Day in the War against sadness, suffering, and sin! A great light has shone in the darkness--the Light of life, hope, truth, love, and joy everlasting!

"When they saw the star, they were overjoyed." --Matthew 2:10

May you also see something that leads you to Jesus this Christmas...
and may you too be overjoyed!

Psalm 122

I started to do a series on the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134) quite some time ago. I have been at a crossroads of sorts throughout the past year, and I believe the Lord has impressed on me the image of our whole life as a pilgrimage. We are on a journey--a "going up," an ascent. We don't make a decision and then suddenly arrive. We walk it out. We walk with the Lord.

This is post #3 of 15. Eugene Peterson calls Psalm 120 a "Psalm of Repentance," Psalm 121 a "Psalm of Trust," and Psalm 122 a "Psalm of Worship." The delay in writing this blog entry does not reflect depth of engagement or struggle. Rather, it reflects being busy (and scattered?). In fact, the only reason I'm writing now is that I've put it off too long. As I begin, I'm not even sure I have much to say.

Well, now that you're on the edge of your seat (HA!), here's my translation of the psalm:

A song of ascents. Of David. I rejoiced with those saying to me,
“To the House of YHWH we go!”
Our feet were standing at your gates, Jerusalem.
Jerusalem, built as a city that is joined together as one whole.
There the tribes ascend, the tribes of the LORD, a reminder to Israel to praise the Name of the LORD.
For there remain the legal seats, the thrones of the House of David.
Desire the well-being of Jerusalem. May those that love you take it easy.
Wholeness be within your wall of defense, quiet unconcern within your palace.
For the sake of my relatives and my friends, I will now say, “Peace be within you!”
For the sake of the House of the LORD our God, may I seek your good.

Isn't there a wonderful sense of excitement and expectancy in this Psalm? We're going to the House of God! REJOICE! I love it! What an honor and a privilege.

Worship, and the assembly of saints, plays an important part in our journey. We are not alone. We walk as a company. We have a destination: Jerusalem, the heavenly City of God. Worship is our destiny. When we pray "Thy Kingdom come...", we're praying for heaven to become manifest now.

How many of us get reconnected through worship and through fellowship with brothers and sisters who love the Lord? In worship we become God-centered, develop a healthy God-esteem, and see things aright. We get a proper perspective. Our wounds are healed, our hope is renewed, our love is rekindled.

Peterson, commenting in A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, admits that we often don't feel like worshipping. But feelings, he says, are "great liars" and "completely unreliable in matters of faith." "Worship," explains Peterson, "is an act which develops feelings for God, not a feeling for God which is expressed in an act of worship." (All quotes are from page 50.)

So, in other words, we need worship. We need the assembly, thus Hebrews 10:25. As we meet together in Jesus' Name, He fulfills His promise to be among us. As we live in unity, God is glorified. As we love and pray for one another, we grow up in Him.

Psalm 122 is a love song for God's House, for God's City, and for meeting with Him in the company of His people. It is a beautiful thing! We, who are being built into God's House, will one day see Him there face to face. And until we do, we pray for the well being of His Kingdom and seek its good.

Worship is an essential part of the journey--a time when we regain our bearings, heal our wounds, recommit, sharpen our swords and come together as one. Worship whets our appetite for our hearts' true home.

May God bless your times of corporate worship this month. As we honor His Coming to us, may we be faithful in our going to Him as His people.

I rejoiced with those saying to me, "To the House of YHWH we go!"

"Peace be within you, Jerusalem!"

Advent (2)

This Sunday begins the second week of Advent. The candle we lit at our table this evening represents love.

Isn't that what the incarnation of God is all about? Isn't that what motivated Jesus to become one of us? Christmas is all about the amazing love of God.

We erred. We were lost. And He came...what love!

The most unlikely, amazing Rescuer ever. An embryo in the womb of a teenage girl was entrusted with saving the world.

"I light this candle on the second Sunday in Advent to remind us that Jesus came to earth to 'show and tell' us of God's love" (Celebrating the Christian Year, Zimmerman--see last week's post).

Thank You, Lord, for Your Gift of Love. May we love one another as we revel in it.

And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:5, NAS)

And may the Lord make your love to grow and overflow to each another and to everyone else, just as our love does toward you. (1 Thessalonians 3:12, TLB)

Have a great week. Make room for the Love of Christ to come anew in your hearts and homes. Continue to wait with hope and expectancy.

Spread the love!

He loves us! It's what Christmas is all about.

Advent (1)

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. During the last couple of years, my family and I have been celebrating by lighting the candles of an advent wreath and focusing on key aspects of the holiday. As a boy, I had no idea about Advent. I didn't grow up in such a church tradition. In college, however, I began attending an Episcopalian church to participate in their holiday services. Ever since, I have tried to incorporate certain church traditions into my own devotional life.

So, if you too are unaware, Advent is a season of preparation for Christmas. Just as the Old Testament believers awaited the coming Messiah, we too await the Savior's return. Throughout Jesus' teachings, He implores us to be ready. And so, as Christmas draws near and we remember His advent (or coming) among us, we also look forward to His imminent future advent.

But that is not all. We are also able to prepare our hearts and our homes for His coming now. Thus, Advent is a season of examination, humility, repentance, and of "preparing a way for the Lord." Emmanuel--God is with us. "I light this candle on the first Sunday in Advent to remind us that we must prepare our hearts for the coming of the Christ Child" (Celebrating the Christian Year by Martha Zimmerman, p. 45--a great book).

The focus of this first week--the meaning of the first candle--is that of preparation. We become watchers and waiters, people marked by hope and trust. It is a time of expectation. Naturally, this should be our mindset always, but the Advent season gives us a special opportunity to refocus on this aspect of our faith.

I don't always live in expectancy. The return of Christ doesn't have the sense of immediacy that it should. And so, with a repentant heart, I turn tonight to face the Lord who humbled Himself to become a helpless baby, and say:

O come, o come Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
Who mourns in lowly exile here
Until the Son of God appears.
Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

All Saints' (28) Catherine de Hueck Doherty

This is the last of a series of quotes from saints who have gone before us. I wanted to take the whole month to celebrate All Saints' Day, mostly as a reaction to the over-the-top emphasis on Halloween that completely overshadows this holiday.

I have enjoyed gathering and posting these quotes. It has been good to see how the same Spirit dwells in so many different holy people throughout the ages, inspiring them to a common love and devotion. It is also inspiring to know that He lives and works in me! So, here's the last quote. Glad to be a part of such a beautiful family.

"Deserts, silence, solitude.

For a soul that realizes the tremendous need of all three, opportunities present themselves in the midst of the congested trappings of all the world's immense cities. But how, really, can one achieve such solitude?

By standing still!

Stand still, and allow the strange, deadly restlessness of our tragic age to fall away like the worn-out, dusty cloak that it is--a cloak that was once considered beautiful. The restlessness was considered the magic carpet of tomorrow, but now in reality we see it for what it is: a running away from oneself, a turning from that journey inward that all men must undertake to meet God dwelling within the depths of their souls.

Stand still, and look deep into the motivations of life.

Stand still, and lifting your hearts and hands to God pray that the mighty wind of His holy Spirit may clear all the cobwebs of fears, selfishness, greed, narrow-heartedness away from the soul: that His tongues of flame may descend to give courage to begin again."

All Saints' (27) Francis de Sales

"Preparation: 1. Place yourself in the presence of God. 2. Beseech Him to inspire you. . . . After completing your prayer, go back over it for a moment and out of the considerations you have made, gather a little devotional bouquet to refresh you during the rest of the day."

--from Introduction to the Devout Life, pp. 52, 54

All Saints' (26) George Muller

"It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth...I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord."

I haven't read his biography, but what I've heard about this man's life is amazing. I'd love to learn more about him.

All Saints' (25) Basil

This sermon of Saint Basil's contains some beautiful and inspiring words on prayer...
(I know this quote is a bit long, but it's worth the read.)

"Ought we to pray without ceasing? Is it possible to obey such a command? These are questions which I see you are ready to ask. I will endeavour, to the best of my ability, to defend the charge. Prayer is a petition for good addressed by the pious to God. But we do not rigidly confine our petition to words. Nor yet do we imagine that God requires to be reminded by speech. He knows our needs even though we ask Him not. What do I say then? I say that we must not think to make our prayer complete by syllables. The strength of prayer lies rather in the purpose of our soul and in deeds of virtue reaching every part and moment of our life. ‘Whether ye eat,’ it is said, ‘or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' (1 Cor. 10:31)
As thou takest thy seat at table, pray. As thou liftest the loaf, offer thanks to the Giver. When thou sustainest thy bodily weakness with wine, remember Him Who supplies thee with this gift, to make thy heart glad and to comfort thy infirmity. Has thy need for taking food passed away? Let not the thought of thy Benefactor pass away too. As thou art putting on thy tunic, thank the Giver of it. As thou wrappest thy cloak about thee, feel yet greater love to God, Who alike in summer and in winter has given us coverings convenient for us, at once to preserve our life, and to cover what is unseemly. Is the day done? Give thanks to Him Who has given us the sun for our daily work, and has provided for us a fire to light up the night, and to serve the rest of the needs of life. Let night give the other occasions of prayer. When thou lookest up to heaven and gazest at the beauty of the stars, pray to the Lord of the visible world; pray to God the Arch-artificer of the universe, Who in wisdom hath made them all. When thou seest all nature sunk in sleep, then again worship Him Who gives us even against our wills release from the continuous strain of toil, and by a short refreshment restores us once again to the vigour of our strength. Let not night herself be all, as it were, the special and peculiar property of sleep. Let not half thy life be useless through the senselessness of slumber. Divide the time of night between sleep and prayer. Nay, let thy slumbers be themselves experiences in piety; for it is only natural that our sleeping dreams should be for the most part echoes of the anxieties of the day. As have been our conduct and pursuits, so will inevitably be our dreams. Thus wilt thought pray without ceasing; if thought prayest not only in words, but unitest thyself to God through all the course of life and so thy life be made one ceaseless and uninterrupted prayer.”

--taken from Christian Classics Ethereal Library

All Saints' (24) Karl Barth

"In the beginning it was the choice of the Father Himself to establish this covenant with man by giving up His Son for him, that He Himself might become man in the fulfillment of His grace.
In the beginning it was the choice of the Son to be obedient to grace, and therefore to offer up Himself and to become man in order that this covenant might be made a reality.
In the beginning it was the resolve of the Holy Spirit that the unity of God, of Father and Son should not be disturbed or rent by this covenant with man, but that it should be made the more glorious, the deity of God, the divinity of His love and freedom, being confirmed and demonstrated by this offering of the Father and this self-offering of the Son.
This choice was in the beginning."

(from The Doctrine of God; Church Dogmatics, vol. II, Part 2, trans. G. W. Bromiley et al.
Emphasis added.)

All Saints' (23) Athanasius, Abba Isaac

Commenting on the value, the power, and the personal nature of the Psalms:

"The one who hears (the Psalms) is deeply moved, as though he himself were speaking, and is affected by the words of the songs, as if they were his own songs. He who chants will be especially confident in speaking what is written as if it is his own and about him. For the Psalms comprehend the one who observes the commandment as well as the one who transgresses, and the action of each...these words become like a mirror to the person singing them, so that he might perceive himself and the emotions of his soul...he who hears the one reading receives the song that is recited as being about him and either, when he is convicted by his conscience, being pierced, he will repent, or hearing of the hope that resides in God, and of the succour available to believers--how this kind of grace exists for him--he exults and begins to give thanks to God."
--Athanasius (in his pastoral letter to Marcellinus)

"The truly pure and humble 'will take in to himself all the thoughts of the Psalms and will begin to sing them in such a way that he will utter them with the deepest emotion of the heart not as if they were the composition of the Psalmist, but rather as if they were his own utterances'; he will recognise that the words of the Psalms 'are fulfilled and carried out daily in his own case'."
--Abba Isaac

(quoted from a book I'm currently reading, Spes Scotorom, Hope of Scots, Saint Columba, Iona and Scotland, in an essay called "The wisdom of the scribe and the fear of the Lord in the Life of Columba" by Jennifer O'Reilly)

All Saints' (22) Saint Patrick

Though it is uncertain whether Patrick actually used this prayer, many agree that it captures his spirit.

I find it to be beautiful, powerful, and inspiring.

The Breastplate of Saint Patrick

(translation used by Philip Freeman)

I rise today
With a mighty power, calling on the Trinity,
With a belief in the threeness,
With a faith in the oneness
Of the creator of creation.

I rise today
With the power of Christ's birth and baptism,
With the power of his crucifixion and burial,
With the power of his resurrection and ascension,
with the power of his return for final judgement.

I rise today
With the power of the love of the cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection and reward,
In the prayer of the patriarchs,
In the foretelling of the prophets,
In the preaching of the apostles,
In the faith of the confessors,
In the innocence of the holy virgins,
In the deeds of righteous men.

I rise today
With the strength of the sky,
With the light of the sun,
With the splendour of the moon,
With the brilliance of fire,
With the blaze of lightening,
With the swiftness of wind,
With the depth of the ocean,
With the firmness of earth,
With the strength of rock.

I rise today
With the power of God to guide me,
With the strength of God to raise me,
With the wisdom of God to lead me,
With the vision of God to see for me,
With the ears of God to hear for me,
With the words of God to speak for me,
With the hand of God to protect me,
With the path of God before me,
With the shield of God to guard me,
With the friendship of God to keep me safe from

The contriving of demons,
The temptations of sin,
The inclinations of my nature,
and everyone who wishes me harm,
far and near,
alone and in the crowd.

I summon today all those powers to protect me
Against every cruel force which may attack my body and soul,
Against the incantations of false prophets,
Against the evil laws of unbelievers,
Against the false laws of our heretics,
Against the subtle temptations of idolatry,
Against the magic of women, blacksmiths, and druids,
Against every knowledge which corrupts body and soul.

Christ protect me today
From poison and burning,
From drowning and wounding,
So that I might gain an abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ below me, Christ above me,
Christ to the right of me, Christ to the left of me,
Christ where I lie, Christ where I sit, Christ where I stand,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye which sees me,
Christ in every ear which hears me.

I rise today
With a mighty power, calling on the Trinity,
With a belief in the threeness,
With a faith in the oneness
Of the creator of creation.

All Saints' (21) Teresa of Avila

"Let nothing disturb you;
Let nothing frighten you.
All things are passing.
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Nothing is wanting to him who possesses God.
God alone suffices. "

This thought was found after St. Teresa's death on a prayer card in her breviary.
Thus, the prayer is known as Teresa's Bookmark.

(I know a different version:
"Let nothing disturb thee, nothing affright thee. All things are passing; God never changeth. Patieint endurance attaineth to all things. Whom God possesseth in nothing is wanting; alone God sufficeth.")

All Saints' (20) Saint Francis of Assisi

"O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life."

All Saints' (19) John Chrysostom

"When we do not love a person we do not wish to be with them, no matter how great or noble that person may be. But when we love someone, we want to be with them, and we view their love for us with great honor even if they are not a person of great rank. For this reason--and not because of our great rank--God values our love. So much, in fact, that he suffered greatly on our behalf.
Let us, then, incur dangers for him, running as if for the greatest of crowns. Let us have no fear of poverty, or disease, or hardship or even death itself. For what is there to fear? Losing all of your money? If you bear it nobly, it will be as great a reward to you as if you gave it all to the poor--as long as you freely lose it because you know that you have a greater reward in heaven.
What else is there to fear? Having people revile and persecute you? If so, those people have weaved a great crown for you if you bear it meekly. Rejoice and be glad, Jesus said, when people speak evil against you falsely, for great is your reward in heaven. And even if they speak the truth against us, it is to our advantage if we bear it humbly, just as the Pharisee spoke rightly about the publican, but only the publican went home justified because he bore it in humility.
Why do we seek profit? What did Judas profit for being with Christ? Or what profit was the law to the Jews? Or paradise to Adam? Or the promised land to the Israelites? We should keep our mind fixed on one point only: how we may do what is best with the resources we have been given."

All Saints' (18) E. Stanley Jones

"Conversion is a gift and and achievement. It is the act of a moment and the work of a lifetime. You cannot attain salvation by disciplines--it is the gift of God. But you cannot retain it without disciplines. If you try to attain salvation by disciplines, you will be trying to discipline an unsurrendered self. You will be sitting on a lid. The result will be tenseness instead of trust. 'You will wrestle instead of nestle.' While salvation cannot be attained by discipline around an unsurrendered self, nevertheless when the self is surrendered to Christ and a new center formed, then you can discipline your life around that new center--Christ. Discipline is the fruit of conversion--not the root.
The passage gives the double-sidedness of conversion: 'As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith' (Col. 2:6-7 RSV). Note, 'received'--receptivity; 'so live'--activity. It appears again, 'rooted'--receptivity, 'built up in him'--activity....The alternate beats of the Christian heart are receptivity and response--receptivity from God and response from us."

"The best Man that ever lived on our planet illustrated this receptivity and response rhythm. No one was so utterly dependent on God and no one was more personally disciplined in his habits.
He did three things by habit: (1) 'He stood up to read as was his custom'--he read the Word of God by habit. (2) 'He went out into the mountain to pray as was his custom'--he prayed by habit. (3) 'He taught them again as was his custom'--he passed on to others by habit what he had and what he had found.
These simple habits were the foundation habits of his life. They are as up-to-date as tomorrow morning. No converted person can live without those habits at work vitally in his life."

-- from Conversion

All Saints' (17) Blaise Pascal

"Knowing God without knowing our own wretchedness makes for pride. Knowing our own wretchedness without knowing God makes for despair.
Knowing Jesus Christ strikes the balance because He shows us both God and our own wretchedness. Jesus is a God whom we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair."

--Blaise Pascal

All Saints' (16) John Wesley

"Beware of desiring anything other than God. Jesus said, 'If your eye remains single your whole body shall be full of light.' Do not allow the desire for tasteful food or any other pleasure of the senses, the desire of pleasing the eye or the imagination, the desire for money or praise or power, to rule you. While you have the ability to feel these desires, you are not compelled to feel them. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free!
"Be an example to all of denying yourself and taking up your cross daily. Let others see that you are not interested in any pleasure that does not bring you nearer to God, nor regard any pain which does. Let them see that you simply aim at pleasing God in everything. Let the language of your heart sing out with regard to pleasure or pain, riches or poverty, honor or dishonor, 'All's alike to me, so I in my Lord may live and die!'"

--from Christian Perfection

All Saints' (15) Dietrich Bonhoffer

"Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble. It is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it causes us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: 'ye were bought at a price,' and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us."

From The Cost of Discipleship

NT Wright on Acts

One of the best things about living in Lexington, KY is being near Asbury Seminary, where I recently finished a degree. Occasionally they will have tremendous speakers who lecture in the evening when I am able to attend. Such was the case tonight when biblical scholar N. T. Wright gave a one hour overview of Acts, followed by a 30 minute question & answer session.
Well, I mustered up the courage to ask a question, and (halting though it was) it went something like this: Would you please comment on the seeming lack of power exhibited "in Jesus' Name" in the contemporary Western church? (Or, as John Wimber asked upon visiting a church, "Where's the stuff?")

I thought Wright's answer was really good. Basically, he said that Acts covers a lot of ground and focuses primarily on the highlights. Miracles abound. It is a very honest book, though, and there seem to be long periods of time where no visible miracles occur.

Though there are apathetic and lukewarm churches today, there are many churches in the West that are vibrantly alive with love for Jesus. Just because we don't see supernatural things happening all the time is no reason to question whether God is at work. It's like the seed principle. Much of what happens to a seed when you plant it in the ground goes unseen. We must be patient.

Two examples he gave were particularly powerful to me. He compared the conversion experiences of the Philippian jailer and Lydia. The Philippian jailer's conversion was accompanied by an earthquake, near suicide, great drama, etc. Conversely, Lydia's conversion happened quietly. The Lord worked in her heart as she listened to Paul. Obviously, God's power was behind both conversion experiences.

Wright also compared Paul's years of waiting in a Roman jail with Peter's deliverance. Did some question Paul (or God) when such deliverance tarried for Paul? Why was Paul not set free as Peter had been?

Surely God's power is real, and we should expect and pray for Him to act. But, reminds Bishop Wright, His seeming "lack" of activity does not at all mean He is inactive, indifferent, or incapable.

All Saints' (14) Thomas a Kempis

"My son, patience and humility in adversities are more pleasing to Me, than much comfort and devotion when things go well."

"Be of more even mind, and gird yourself to greater endurance. All is not lost, although you feel yourself very often afflicted or grievously tempted."

"What matter is it, what or how much I suffer if I may at length attain to the haven of safety? Grant me a good end, grant me a happy passage out of this world. Remember me, O my God, and direct me in the right way to Thy kingdom."

--quotes taken from chapter 57 of Of the Imitation of Christ, entitled "When Man Falls"

All Saints' (13) Jean-Pierre de Caussade

"All we need to know is how to recognize his will in the present moment. Grace is the will of God and his order acting in the center of our hearts when we read or are occupied in other ways; theories and studies, without regard for the refreshing virtue of God's order, are merely dead letters, emptying the heart by filling the mind. This divine will flowing through the soul of a simple uneducated girl, through her suffering or some exceptionally noble act in adversity, carries out in her heart God's mysterious purpose without thought entering her head. Whereas the sophisticated man, who studies spiritual books out of mere curiosity, whose reading is not inspired by God, takes into his mind only dead letters and grows even more arid and obtuse."

--from The Sacrament of the Present Moment

All Saints' (12) Brother Lawrence

"In the way of God, thoughts count for little, love does everything. And it is not necessary to have great things to do. I turn my little omelette in the pan for the love of God; when it is finished, if I have nothing to do, I prostrate myself on the ground and adore my God, Who gave me the grace to make it, after which I arise, more content than a king. When I cannot do anything else, it is enough for me to have lifted a straw from the earth for the love of God.
"People seek for methods of learning to love God. They hope to arrive at it by I know not how many different practices; they take much trouble to remain in the presence of God in a quantity of ways. Is it not much shorter and more direct to do everything for the love of God, to make use of all the labors of one's state in life to show Him that love, and to maintain His presence within us by this communion of our hearts with His? There is no finesse about it; one has only to do it generously and simply."

--from The Practice of the Presence of God (a wonderful little book that, in my experience at least, surprisingly few have read)

All Saints' (11) Leo Tolstoy

The following is an excerpt from Resurrection, Tolstoy's final novel.
The main character, Njakyudov, is reflecting on "The Parable of the Vineyard" (aka "The Parable of the Tenants"--Matthew 21:33-44).

"The husbandmen imagined that the vineyard in which they were sent to work for their master was their own, and all that was in was made for them, and that their business was to enjoy life in this vineyard--forgetting the master and killing all those who reminded them of his existence.
'Are we not doing the same' Njakyudov thought, 'when we imagine ourselves to be masters of our lives and that life is given us for enjoyment? This, evidently, is an incongruity. We were sent here by someone's will and for some reason, and we have concluded that we live only for our own joy. And of course we feel unhappy, as laborers do when not fulfilling their master's orders. The master's will is expressed in these commandments [referring to the Sermon on the Mount]. If men will only fulfill these laws, the Kingdom of Heaven will be established on Earth, and men will receive the greatest good that they can attain to.'
'Seek ye first the Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.'"

All Saints' (10) Jonathan Edwards

The kind of religion that God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull, and lifeless "wouldings"--those weak inclinations that lack convictions--that raise us but a little above indifference. God, in his word, greatly insists that we be in good earnest, fervent in spirit, and that our hearts be engaged vigorously in our religion: "Be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord" (Rom. 12:11, modified KJV).
"And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? To fear the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul" (Deut. 10:12). This fervent, vigorous engagement of the heart is the fruit of a real circumcision of the heart that alone has the promise of life: "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your children, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live" (Deut. 30:6).

--From Religious Affections

Currently available as a free downloadable audiobook at ChristianAudio.com. (It normally costs $29!) They refer to this book as "quite possibly one of the most important books ever written by America's greatest theologian."
CCEL says of Religious Affections:

In this classic work by America's greatest theologian

and philosopher, Edwards considers the nature

of revival and the genuine work of the Holy Spirit.

Don't read this book

if you want to keep worshipping your idols.

All Saints' (9) Thomas Merton

(continuing an "All Saints" tribute by posting great quotes from various saints who have run the race and kept the faith)

"We become saints not by violently overcoming our own weakness, but by letting the Lord give us the strength and purity of his Spirit in exchange for our weakness and misery. Let us not then complicate our lives and frustrate ourselves by fixing too much attention on ourselves, thereby forgetting the power of God and grieving the Holy Ghost.
Our spiritual attitude, our way of seeking peace and perfection, depends entirely on our concept of God. If we are able to believe he is truly our loving Father, if we can really accept the truth of his infinite and compassionate concern for us, if we believe that he loves us not because we are worthy but because we need his love, then we can advance with confidence. We will not be discouraged by our inevitable weaknesses and failures. We can do anything he asks of us. But if we believe he is a stern, cold lawgiver who has no real interest in us, who is merely a ruler, a lord, a judge and not a father, we will have great difficulty in living the Christian life. We must therefore begin by believing God is our Father: otherwise we cannot face the difficulties of the Christian way of perfection. Without faith, the 'narrow way' is utterly impossible."

--from Life and Holiness

All Saints' (8) Gregory Nazianzen

"The Word recognizes three Births for us; namely, the natural birth, that of Baptism, and that of the Resurrection. Of these the first is by night, and is servile, and involves passion; but the second is by day, and is destructive of passion, cutting off all the veil that is derived from birth, and leading on to the higher life; and the third is more terrible and shorter, bringing together in a moment all mankind to stand before its Creator and to give an account of its service and conversation here; whether it has followed the flesh, or whether it has mounted up with the spirit and worshipped the grace of its new creation. My Lord Jesus Christ has showed that He honoured all these births in His own Person; the first, by that first and quickening Inbreathing; the second by His Incarnation and the Baptism wherewith He Himself was baptized; and the third by the Resurrection of which He was the Firstfruits; condescending, as He became the Firstborn among many brethren, so also to become the Firstborn from the dead.
Concerning two of these births, the first and the last, we have not to speak on the present occasion. Let us discourse upon the second, which is now necessary for us, and which gives its name to the Feast of the Lights. Illumination is the splendour of souls, the conversion of the life, the question put to the Godward conscience. It is the aid to our weakness, the renunciation of the flesh, the following of the Spirit, the fellowship of the Word, the improvement of the creature, the overwhelming of sin, the participation of light, the dissolution of darkness. It is the carriage to God, the dying with Christ, the perfecting of the mind, the bulwark of Faith, the key of the Kingdom of heaven, the change of life, the removal of slavery, the loosing of chains, the remodelling of the whole man. Why should I go into further detail? Illumination is the greatest and most magnificent of the Gifts of God. For just as we speak of the Holy of Holies, and the Song of Songs, as more comprehensive and more excellent than others, so is this called Illumination, as being more holy than any other illumination which we possess."

--from "The Oration on Holy Baptism," preached in Constantinople on January 6, 381.

All Saints' (7) Anselm

"I acknowledge, O Lord, with thanksgiving, that You have created this Your image in me, so that, remembering You, I may think of You, may love You. But this image is so effaced and worn away by my faults, it is so obscured by the smoke of my sins, that it cannot do what it was made to do, unless You renew and reform it. I am not trying, O Lord, to penetrate Your loftiness, for I cannot begin to match my understanding with it, but I desire in some measure to understand Your truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand."

All Saints' (6) Henri Nouwen

"Prayer is in many ways the criterion of Christian life. Prayer requires that we stand in God's presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. This is difficult in a climate where the predominant counsel is 'Do your best and God will do the rest.' When life is divided into 'our best' and 'God's rest,' we have turned prayer into a last resort to be used only when all our own resources are depleted. Then even the Lord has become the victim of our impatience. Discipleship does not mean to use God when we can no longer function ourselves. On the contrary, it means to recognize that we can do nothing at all, but that God can do everything through us. As disciples, we find not some but all of our strength, hope, courage, and confidence in God. Therefore, prayer must be our first concern."

--Henri Nouwen, Compassion

All Saints' (5) Julian of Norwich

"Just as our flesh is covered by clothing, and our blood is covered by our flesh, so are we, soul and body, covered and enclosed by the goodness of God. Yet, the clothing and the flesh will pass away, but the goodness of God will always remain and will remain closer to us than our own flesh.
God only desires that our soul cling to him with all of its strength, in particular, that it clings to his goodness. For of all of the things our minds can think about God, it is thinking upon his goodness that pleases him most and brings the most profit to our soul.
For we are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it. No created being can ever know how much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them. It is only with the help of his grace that we are able to persevere in spiritual contemplation with endless wonder at his high, surpassing, immeasurable love which our Lord in his goodness has for us.
Therefore we may ask from our Lover to have all of him that we desire. For it is our nature to long for him, and it is his nature to long for us. In this life we can never stop loving him."

All Saints' (4) John Howard Yoder

"The challenge to the faith community should not be to dilute or filter or translate its witness, so that the 'public' community can handle it without believing, but so to purify and clarify and exemplify it so that the world can perceive it to be good news."

From "Firstfruits: The Paradigmatic Role of God's People"

(Although I've read a book about his theology, I've never actually read a book by John Howard Yoder! I found a "simplified summary" of his most recognized book, The Politics of Jesus, online. In addition, I found an article in which Stanley Hauerwas reflects on this saintly brother soon after Yoder's death.)

All Saints' (3) William Law

"A Christ not in us is the same thing as a Christ not ours. If we are only so far with Christ as to own and receive the history of his birth, person and character, if this is all that we have of him, we are as much without him as those evil spirits which cried out 'we know thee, who thou art, thou holy one of God.' It is the language of Scripture that Christ in us is our hope of glory, that Christ formed in us, growing and raising his own life and spirit in us, is our holy salvation."

Many of William Law's works may be found at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library.

All Saints' (2) C.S. Lewis

The Christian way is different: harder, and easier.

Christ says, "Give me All.

I don't want so much of your time

and so much of your money

and so much of your work:

I want You.

I have not come to torment your natural self,

but to kill it.

No half-measures are any good.

I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there,

I want to have the whole tree down.

Hand over the whole natural self,

all the desires which you think innocent

as well as the ones you think wicked--the whole outfit.

I will give you a new self instead.

In fact, I will give you Myself:

my own will shall become yours."

Both harder and easier that what we are all trying to do.

You have noticed, I expect, that Christ Himself

sometimes describes the Christian way as very hard,

sometimes as very easy.

He says, "Take up your Cross"--in other words,

it is like going to be beaten to death

in a concentration camp.

Next minute he says,

"My yoke is easy and my burden light."

He means both.

And one can just see why both are true.

From Mere Christianity

All Saints' (1) Leonard Ravenhill

"Time was when people went to church to meet God. Now they go to hear a sermon about Him."

From Revival God's Way: A Message for the Church

(A selection of Leonard Ravenhill's audio sermons are available here.)

All Hallow's Eve

So...this is my one and only post for October. I guess it's not surprising, seeing as how I'm a creature of starts and spurts. It's not what I had intended when I began this blog, but it was bound to happen.

I plan to continue exploring the Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120-134), but who knows how long that will take.

This evening, as I write, there is a candle burning in front of my house. It burns as a witness and a commemoration. In my own small way, I wish to say that I have put on Christ. He has claimed me as His own. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

At the same time, I'd like to reclaim All Saints' Day. So, the candle burns to remember the faithful who have gone before and to announce my solidarity with them in Christ.

During the month of November, I intend to post a small quote daily from some of my favorite men and women who have loved the Lord (and others) heroically and given themselves fully to the task of loving.

Kate Tristram says:

The life of a saint is not the life of a great man or woman,
but of God's life in an ordinary man or woman.
Saints' days are not all about that saint:
but about a celebration of Christ. ...
Remembering the saints
gives us a bigger idea of the things of God.
When Elisha's servant saw the enemy chariots
(2 Kings 6:15-16), he had to have his eyes opened
so that he could see God's chariots of fire.
It was such a big view of God that Elisha had,
and now his servant could share in that.
This is exactly how the saints can help us:
if ever we feel outnumbered,
remember that we never get to see the whole church.

Thank you, God, for showing Yourself in the lives of these--Your children. May Your life flood into me, and may I too be conformed to the image of Love through the power of your Spirit.

Psalm 121

Translating this psalm helped me understand and appreciate it more. So did Eugene Peterson's insights. So, here are a few observations on this Song of Ascents (#2 of 15).

First, here's a translation--

Song of Ascents. I raise my eyes to the mountains. From where will my help come? My help is from YHWH, Maker of heavens and earth. May He not give your feet to a shaking, not fall asleep watching over you.
Now please understand. He will not doze off and will not sleep! He is the Guardian of Israel!
YHWH is protecting you. YHWH is your shade at your right hand. By day the sun will not beat on me, nor the moon by night.
YHWH will protect you from all evil. He will guard your life. YHWH will watch over your going forth and your coming, from now until eternity.

The italicized words are all from a single Hebrew root--shamar. The fact that it is used six times in eight verses seems to make it the key word in this Psalm.

I had never understood the image of the Lord being a "shade" at my right hand. The dictionary I used (Holladay) describes this shade as that of a tree, a roof, or a cloud. It is an image of shelter or protection. For someone like me with very fair skin, such shelter (especially pre-sunscreen) can hardly be overvalued. The psalmist then connects this image with an interesting location..."at my right hand." This is the place that an honored person would take. God, the Almighty, the Honored One, is my shade. He not only protects me from trials. He also provides comfort. He "shamar"s me. He watches over me.

Peterson sees three dangers in this psalm: twisting one's ankle, sunstroke, and moonstroke (lunacy). Do Christians not suffer such trials? Sure they do. But we know where to look for help--to the Lord who accompanies us every step of the way. We need not look to the hills (where the pagan shrines were set up). No, this world's remedies are vacuous. God is with us. His love is constant. He will watch over our going and coming, from now until eternity.
May our trust not be in the remedies of pop culture magazines, nor in the numbing escape of prime-time TV. May we rely on Him who guards our soul, both night and day.

I end by quoting Eugene Peterson:
"All the water in the oceans cannot sink a ship unless it gets inside. Nor can all the trouble in the world harm us unless it gets within us. That is the promise of the psalm: 'The LORD will keep you from all evil.'...None of the things that happen to you, none of the troubles you encounter, have any power to get between you and God, dilute his grace in you, divert his will from you."
(A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, pp. 38-39)
"Faith is not a precarious affair of chance escape from satanic assaults. It is the solid, massive, secure experience of God who keeps all evil from getting inside us, who keeps our life, who keeps our going out and our coming in from this time forth and forevermore." (p. 41)

Inspired by this Blog Entry

Here's something that inspired me tonight.
I need to pray like this.

Check it out...

Hesychius

Psalm 120

Psalm 120, the first of the 15 Songs of Ascents, is a song of pilgrimage. The psalmist complains because of the wickedness of his surroundings. He bemoans the lying lips, the deceitful tongues, and the bent for war that seem to assail him from every side. His lament, "Woe to me that I dwell" (among such) is a lament of pilgrimage. The author has realized that he is out of sync with the status quo. He is a stranger on this earth. Just as Jesus came to His own and was rejected by them, so too the psalmist is maligned and persecuted for his righteous stance.

This realization is the first step on the road to heaven. The psalmist perceives the sin and turns his back on the empty way of life from which he was redeemed. He is now swimming against the stream, traveling on the narrow way. It is not an easy path to travel, but the Spirit strengthens, the Father blesses and guides, and the Son walks with us along the way.

It is impossible not to be influenced by our surroundings unless we deliberately renew our minds and abide in the will of the Father. May this psalm remind us to resist conformity with the world and to turn our face toward our eternal Home. May we cry out to the Lord, for He will answer.

St. Aidan's Day

Today is St. Aidan's Day. Aidan, who died on this day in 651, was a missionary to the kingdom of Northumbria (now the northeastern part of England). He struck me because of his humility, his patience, and his perseverance. When the king sent for a monk to evangelize the region, Aidan prayed, "O Lord, give me the springs and I will water this land. I will go, Lord. I will hold this people in my heart."

He gave up the comforts of friends and familiar surroundings. He heeded the call of God. He took the people's burden upon himself. He opened his eyes to their pain, their waywardness, and their brokenness. He took up the cause of Christ. He let the wind of the Spirit blow through him, and the fire of the Lord covered the people.

He journeyed out in faith.
The Lord was with him.

God, please bless, protect, strengthen and use all who have journeyed out in faith for Your cause. May Your fire spread through them as well.

(thoughts based on Celtic Daily Prayer pp. 158-161)

Are Christians Justified in Claiming to Know that Christianity is True?

I've been too busy to blog lately, so with apologies I'm taking the lazy way out and posting something I wrote during my first semester here at seminary. I paid enough for this experience...might as well try and share some of it with anyone who'll take the time to read!

(written for Jerry Walls' Philosophy of Christian Religion class, Fall 2005)

Modernity would claim that in order for someone to say that he “knows” something he must be able to prove it. Theists cannot, in my opinion, offer empirical proof that God exists, but this limitation does not defeat their contentions. The very claim of the evidentialist that “to know something is to be able to prove it” is self-referentially incoherent. This statement cannot be proven to be true and thus, by its own standards, cannot be “known.” Beyond this difficulty, however, is the absurdity of human attempts to weigh, test, and judge God as if He were the object of a science experiment. If God does exist, is it not brazen of the created to set up their own terms for accepting the Creator?! Anyone who attempts to measure God by human, scientific methods will complain that He is not verifiable in the way other objects are. This is only to be expected (Peterson et al., Reason & Religious Belief: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion 3rd ed., 119). We should not be surprised when we sense and experience God in different ways than we sense other objects. A purely spiritual subject does not submit to physical measures.

While we cannot offer empirical proof for God’s existence, by no means should this suggest a dearth of evidence. There is ample evidence for God’s existence: the ontological, teleological, moral, cosmological, kalam and other arguments, religious experience, God’s past and present self-revelation, and more. All of these combine to form a powerful cumulative case for God. The question, however, is whether such evidence is even necessary for faith. If God exists, the fact that we believe in Him may simply be appropriate and natural. If He created us for relationship with Him, as Christianity claims, the fact that we have a sense of the divine is perfectly understandable. This “sensus divinatus” is to be expected, according to Alvin Plantinga, and our belief in God may be seen as properly “basic” as it is the rightly functioning awareness of God (Peterson et al. 122). That many do not experience such an awareness of God points to the improper conditions (motives, attitude, setting, providence of God) that accompany one’s orientation toward God. Regardless of whether a belief in God is basic (and needs no supporting facts) or is built upon accumulated evidences, faith can be seen as reasonable.

While faith in God can be shown to be entirely reasonable, one who relies on reason and proof alone to lead him to God may never get there. Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli recount Justin Martyr’s process of discovering God in the second century. First he “seeks the truth by the unaided effort of reason, and is disappointed.” Next, “it is offered to him by faith and he accepts. And, having accepted, he finds that it satisfies his reason” (Handbook of Christian Apologetics 40). A later saint, Anselm of Canterbury, said something similar in his work “Proslogion: Fides Quaerens Intellectum.” He stated, “I am not trying, O Lord, to penetrate thy loftiness, for I cannot begin to match my understanding with it, but I desire in some measure to understand thy truth, which my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand” (Hugh Kerr, ed. Readings in Christian Thought 83). Rational inquiry helps us better understand what we believe by faith.

Now that the reasonable step of faith has been taken, the question becomes “Is my faith rational?” The belief in God based on available evidence is every bit as rational as the atheist’s refusal to believe. After pondering the supports for faith, Ravi Zacharias states incredulously, “ In short, both David Hume’s own test and Bertrand Russell’s plea for evidence force one to wonder who has to have more faith. Is it the Christian who uses his mind to trust in God, or is it the one who, without any attempt to explain how his mind came to be, nevertheless uses that mind to demand a sign and disbelieves in God?” (Jesus Among Other Gods 65-66) God confirms the step of faith through experience. Through various means of grace, He reveals Himself in a more personal way. These experiences (whether they be a sense of communion with Christ, of the living Word, of the Holy Spirit’s power, or of the conviction, love or forgiveness of the Father) supply a certainty to one’s faith. Knowledge becomes more than factual certainty but relational reality. We know God intimately rather than merely knowing about God. Kreeft and Tacelli (elaborating on Aquinas’ thoughts) put it thus: “It is not our faith but its object, God, that justifies our certainty” (38).

At this point, many will say, “But what about the experiential claims of other religions? Your appeal to knowing God can be made by many other groups that claim to know Him exclusively.” The single greatest piece of evidence in the Christian’s arsenal is the person of Jesus Christ Himself. His life is without parallel. The claims He made, His teachings, His prophecies, His fulfillment of prophecy, the miracles He performed, His sinless life, His love and authority, the lives that were transformed after encountering Him, the Resurrection, His appearances to many over a forty day period, the witness and martyrdom of the apostles, the spread of the early Church in the face of persecution—these all provide powerful testimony to the truth of Christianity. Just as Christianity has to answer the challenges of other religions, so they have to answer the challenges of Christianity.

Christianity is rooted in history. It explains the nature of God, the meaning of existence, and the future of human destiny in very satisfying ways. Christians revel in God’s love and mercy and rejoice in the doctrines of Trinity, Incarnation, Atonement, and Resurrection. We have an incredible hope. “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5, NIV).

Even if one refuses to accept Christianity due to a perceived lack of evidence, the question of faith presents a “genuine option” in which belief is justified (Peterson et al. Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings 2nd ed. 86). William James asserts that if a decision is forced, living and momentous it constitutes a “genuine option.” The conclusion one comes to about who Jesus is constitutes such a decision. In the end, it comes down to a choice. Will one make the effort to investigate the claims of Christianity or will he prefer to conveniently disbelieve? If he will trust in the Light, he will find that Christianity is reasonable, rational, experiential, historical, transformational, basic (sensus divinatus), spiritual, fulfilling, communal…in a word—true. While it cannot be proven in the modern sense, too much is at stake to leave it untried. Pascal’s Wager does not make a case for Christianity as much as it points out what is at stake. If eternity is on the line, no one can afford to ignore the claims of Christ.

In summary, I believe a Christian is justified in saying that he knows Christianity to be true. In sensing the reality of God, he is led to faith. His faith is fostered and supported by the cumulative case for Christianity. Personal experience and knowledge of the Trinitarian God confirms his decision to trust God. He continues to use reason to understand his faith and engage disbelievers. The Christian worldview makes sense of the world, even with all of its problems and shortcomings. A Christian is transformed as he lives in communion with God’s Spirit and God’s people. He is renewed and forgiven. His faith, hope and love grow. He is not lost in dead-end wishful thinking. “No, the Christian’s faith is not a leap into the dark; it is a well-placed trust in the light—the Light of the World, who is Jesus” (Zacharias 63-64).

Works Cited
Anselm. “Proslogion: Fides Quaerens Intellectum.” Readings in Christian Thought. 2nd ed. Ed. Hugh T. Kerr. Nashville: Abingdon, 1990.
Kreeft, Peter and Ronald K. Tacelli. Handbook of Christian Apologetics: Hundreds of Answers to Crucial Questions. Downers Grove. InterVarsity, 1994.
Peterson, Michael, et al. Philosophy of Religion: Selected Readings 2nd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2001.
Peterson, Michael, et al. Reason & Religious Belief: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2003.
Zacharias, Ravi. Jesus Among Other Gods. W. Publishing: Nashville, 2000.

Experience the Unrivalled Russian Novel

I am writing tonight to promote another free download from Christian Audio. Fascinatingly, this month's selection is The Resurrection, by Leo Tolstoy.

If you have never read a major Russian novel, you have truly missed out. They are long. They can be somewhat tedious (especially to us Westerners who are unfamiliar with Russian culture). But my oh my are they rich. There is a depth to the writings of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy that may be unmatched.

I haven't read The Resurrection, but I know it was Tolstoy's last major novel. I have read The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Anna Karenina, and War and Peace and other Russian works. It takes commitment to get through them, but the payoff is huge. I read one of these works in Bulgarian, so don't tell me you can't do it in English!

I just want to say that I look forward to listening to this work. It's 14 separate downloads--that's 14 CDs worth of listening (and burning, if you'd like to listen on CD...which I intend to do). The book is 398 pages--almost 17 hours of listening. It will be worth listening to attentively. I am sure it will enrich my life in some way.

I just checked out a bit of Tolstoy's story. He became a Christian later on in his life after a raucous young adulthood. I've excerpted the following from his work A Confession. This writing is only about 16 pages long, and though I haven't finished it yet I loved the 9 pages or so that I did read.

This bit (the excerpt) is part of Tolstoy's description of the despair he experienced as he searched for meaning in life:

There is an Eastern fable, told long ago, of a traveller overtaken on a plain by an enraged beast. Escaping from the beast he gets into a dry well, but sees at the bottom of the well a dragon that has opened its jaws to swallow him. And the unfortunate man, not daring to climb out lest he should be destroyed by the enraged beast, and not daring to leap to the bottom of the well lest he should be eaten by the dragon, seizes s twig growing in a crack in the well and clings to it. His hands are growing weaker and he feels he will soon have to resign himself to the destruction that awaits him above or below, but still he clings on. Then he sees that two mice, a black one and a white one, go regularly round and round the stem of the twig to which he is clinging and gnaw at it. And soon the twig itself will snap and he will fall into the dragon’s jaws. The traveller sees this and knows that he will inevitably perish; but while still hanging he looks around, sees some drops of honey on the leaves of the twig, reaches them with his tongue and licks them. So I too clung to the twig of life, knowing that the dragon of death was inevitably awaiting me, ready to tear me to pieces; and I could not understand why I had fallen into such torment. I tried to lick the honey which formerly consoled me, but the honey no longer gave me pleasure, and the white and black mice of day and night gnawed at the branch by which I hung. I saw the dragon clearly and the honey no longer tasted sweet. I only saw the unescapable dragon and the mice, and I could not tear my gaze from them. and this is not a fable but the real unanswerable truth intelligible to all.

The deception of the joys of life which formerly allayed my terror of the dragon now no longer deceived me. No matter how often I may be told, “You cannot understand the meaning of life so do not think about it, but live,” I can no longer do it: I have already done it too long. I cannot now help seeing day and night going round and bringing me to death. That is all I see, for that alone is true. All else is false.

The two drops of honey which diverted my eyes from the cruel truth longer than the rest: my love of family, and of writing — art as I called it — were no longer sweet to me. “Family”. . .said I to myself. But my family — wife and children — are also human. They are placed just as I am: they must either live in a lie or see the terrible truth. Why should they live? Why should I love them, guard them, bring them up, or watch them? That they may come to the despair that I feel, or else be stupid? Loving them, I cannot hide the truth from them: each step in knowledge leads them to the truth. And the truth is death.

If this has whet your appetite, be sure to read the whole thing (as I intend to tomorrow). And do yourself a favor. Take the time and trouble to download The Resurrection. I think you'll be glad you did.

Pilgrimage Quote

July's focus in my devotional readings was "pilgrimage." Tuesday night I picked up a book I had begun to read earlier this year, and I realized it was devoted to this theme, too. So, I don't think I'm through with this yet. There's more to come!



For starters, here's a quote from the book I'm reading:

Pilgrim (parepidemos) tells us we are people who spend our lives going someplace, going to God, and whose path for getting there is the way, Jesus Christ. We realize that "this world is not my home" and set out for the "Father's house." Abraham, who "went out," is our archetype. Jesus, answering Thomas' question, "Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?" gives us directions: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me" (Jn. 14:5-6). The letter to the Hebrews defines our program: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith" (Heb. 12:1-2).

The book is A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson. (Don't you just love that title? Can you believe it is taken from a Friedrich Nietzsche quote?). I heard great things about this book and found it on Amazon.com for about a quarter. I'm sure I'll be referring to it more if I write more on pilgrimage (as I intend).

Accio Theologia Profundica!

Well, I finished the new Harry Potter book yesterday. This means I also finished the series, and I'd love to talk with someone about the story as a whole.

What Christian elements or themes did you find? What unChristian elements disturbed you? Aside from being an entertaining read, how did the story move you? What did it make you think about? What do you think the author's point was? What did you like or dislike?

I'm asking because I think this book will have a lasting impact. Our kids will read it. Grandkids, too. I think there's opportunity here to discuss important themes, to glean insights, and to probe spiritual realities. Why not begin that discussion now?

I'll be sharing some of my thoughts at a later time in the comments section of this post. I'd love to hear from anyone who's read Harry Potter at all.

Any thoughts?

All for Christ

How can you offer your life--all your life--to Christ...
in your current circumstances?

How can you give all to Him today? in the next 5 minutes?

This question is not a philosophical flight of fancy.
It is central and immensely practical.

It's the "one thing" we're called to do.

It's the meaning of life.

Give yourself anew to Him today.

The Way of a Pilgrim

My thoughts this month have been on the theme of pilgrimage. Our life is one big journey, a journey to, with, and in the Lord.

Along the way, we sometimes visit places of special significance--places that have shaped others before us, places where we have made promises or vows, places of struggle, places of joy.
But today's devotional reading focused on repentance. Repentance is an integral part of any journey. As we veer off course, we need to concede our mistakes, and make a fresh start in the right direction.

Sometimes repentance is the goal of a pilgrimage. The journey is a time to reflect on our mistakes, to take stock of our lives, to gain our bearings, to apprehend the Spirit, and to yield afresh to the Lord's ways.

Oddly enough, some thoughts have begun to come full circle for me in this area. Years ago I read The Way of a Pilgrim, the tale of a 19th century Russian peasant who wants to learn how to "pray without ceasing." He is taught the "Jesus Prayer":

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour, have mercy on me, a sinner.

And he learns to repeat the prayer again and again, again and again, until it becomes as breathing to him.

Well, I tried it...and it just felt like I was being insincere. I felt like I was trying some magic incantation or something. And yet, I think I missed the spirit of the prayer.

It's not a prayer that demeans. It's a prayer that calls us to realize our ongoing need for course correction.

The way of a pilgrim is a repentant way. We are loved. We are empowered by grace. And we are called to keep in step with the Spirit. To do so, we are constrained to come to terms with our missteps. God illumines our darkness; He wounds us with His love so that He may bring greater healing, deeper life, and fullness of love.

Psalm 19:12--Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults.
Psalm 139:24--See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

This is the way of a pilgrim.

The Profundity of Zechariah 12:10

Zechariah 12:10 (NIV) "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son."

Maybe this verse has caught your eye. Maybe it hasn’t. I heard someone talk about this verse years ago at a conference in England (Roger Forster is his name—brilliant teacher). He referred to the Hebrew in explaining the verse, and now that I’ve had a bit of training I am finally able to see if what he said checks out.

The startling turn in this verse is the abrupt change from the 1st person (me) to the 3rd person (him) in the middle of the verse. Obviously this is God talking here, but how can we explain:

• How God can be pierced?
• Why would they mourn for “him” if they pierced “me”?
• What’s this business about an “only child” and a “firstborn son”?

I checked out the Hebrew, and though not all translators have rendered it this way (NRSV?), sure enough the change is there. (Here's my translation.)

“They will gaze toward ME, upon the one WHOM they pierced, and they will sound a lament for HIM.”

The cool thing that the teacher pointed out in his lecture that day was that there is a clue as to how the change from ME to HIM occurs. (This is not a grammatical point—only a neat observation.) Between the word that means “towards ME” and the word that means “WHOM” (or “the one WHOM”) stands one little word. It is not translatable. Its function is only to signify that what follows is the direct object.

It is only two letters...but not just any two letters. They are the letters Aleph and Taw, the Hebrew equivalent of Alpha and Omega! The First and the Last!

Could it be that God placed this little, untranslatable word here just for us, so that we could make sense of the verse as we meditated on it? The link between “ME” and “HIM” is God! The Alpha and Omega are present in both.

This insight provides an answer for all the questions above. I’m not claiming this as some scholarly exegetical point, but it sure does light my fire.

Between God and the One Whom they pierced, the Alpha and Omega is found.

Another Recommendation

Over the last few months, I've been enjoying a plugin (for Windows Media Player) that displays the lyrics of the song that you're listening to. If you listen to music on your computer, it's a great tool. Imagine--understanding what you're listening to...what a concept! It sure beats those cheesy dancing lights that are the default WMP background.

If you're interested, you can download it from http://www.lyricsplugin.com/.

A Good Word from Dr. Stone

Check out the wise advice from Lawson Stone in this posting.
It's worth the read.

Irenaeus--Defender of the Faith

I recently wrote a short reflection on Irenaeus's treatment of Genesis 2:7 in Book V of his massive work Against Heresies. Imagine...he uses this verse in his refutation of those who claimed that there would be no bodily resurrection!

Genesis 2:7 -- then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

Here's my paper:
(If you want to read the pertinent sections, check out the link to "My Google Notebook.")


In order to prove that flesh can inherit eternal life, Irenaeus returns to the Creation narrative in Genesis 2. Specifically, he emphasizes the fact that God not only formed man out of the dust, but He animated him by breathing life into him. It was not until the breath of life, proceeding from God, was united to the fashioned dust that man was animated and endowed with reason. God had the power to breathe life into mere dust.

In a similar way, says Irenaeus (V.I.3), the Word and the Spirit are being united with the “ancient substance of Adam’s formation” in the last days, thus rendering man living and perfect. Irenaeus here ties Genesis 2 to 1 Corinthians 15 (“for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ”). The giving of the Spirit (“breath”) is paralleled with the animating breath of God given to Adam. Now, concerning the resurrection, Irenaeus says that if God can create life out of dust, He is surely capable of reanimating that which had once been alive and has now decomposed into earth. “If He does not vivify what is mortal, and does not bring back the corruptible to incorruption, He is not a God of power.” (V.III.2) Precisely because He did breathe life into dust, we now know He is able to reconstitute that which has decayed. Our very existence shows that God is able to confer life on flesh, so why would anyone say that “the flesh is not qualified to be a partaker of life”?

Irenaeus goes on to show that a human being was not complete before receiving the breath, and that the breath was not a living body until it entered the dust. It was incorporeal. (V.VII.1) Just as God brought physical life through the breath, He now brings spiritual life through the Spirit. The breath, says Irenaeus, is poured out on all humanity. Meanwhile, the Spirit is given only to those whom God has adopted as His children. “The breath, then, is temporal, but the Spirit eternal.” (V.XII.2) The breath enters for a certain time, then departs. The Spirit pervades and never leaves. Irenaeus says that the first Adam forfeited life when he “turned aside to what was evil,” but because of the second Adam humans may now turn back to what is good, receive the Spirit, and find life. Just as Adam received life through the breath of God, so we may receive eternal life through the Spirit. Irenaeus refers again to 1 Corinthians 15 in his argument:
45 Thus it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
46 But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual.
47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. (1 Cor 15:45-47)

In Adam, and in our turning aside from God, our bodies will die. In Christ, and in our turning back to Him, they will live again through the life-giving power of the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 16

The final chapter. The last of the Ben Witherington quotes. It was a rich class.

• It is seldom the case that there is great progress for the gospel without great opposition.
• If the Church is “Me” oriented, Satan’s happy. But when the Church gets serious about mission, there will be opposition!
• Just because you experience some opposition doesn’t mean you need to take the path of least resistance.
• Did Paul love his converts? Very much. He agonized over them. He loved his curmudgeonly Corinthians. He is deeply distressed at their misbehavior.
• Lesson: If you love them, then you will correct them.

Thanks to anyone who took the time to read these. I hope you were provoked to thought. I hope you were blessed.

1 Corinthians 15

More quotes from class...

• Orthodoxy matters. Jesus didn’t go to all the trouble of dying so we could believe whatever we want.
• Paul sees Christ’s resurrection as a form of vindication. God’s vindication of Jesus and His claims.
• If Christ is not raised, you’re still in your sins. Jesus’ atoning death for sin on the cross benefits nobody without His resurrection and His sending of the Spirit. It benefits noone without the appropriation of His death. Without the resurrection, there is no Christian faith.
• Christian perfection means full conformity to the image of Christ—inside & out.
• “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” We’re supposed to be acting like a new race of people.
• The first Adam was a living being—life breath animating flesh. The new race will also need an animating principle—the Holy Spirit.
• Christianity does not deny the reality of death, sin, and suffering. It affirms that however deep the Pit of evil, God’s love is greater. We are the undergoers of disease, decay, and death. But we are also the overcomers!
• The resurrection has ethical implications. If there’s no resurrection, do what you want. But if it’s real, God’s “Yes” to life is louder than Death’s “No.”
• Jesus is not just interested in eliminating the cause of the sin problem, he’s also interested in eliminating its effects—death.
• They say archaeologists are people whose lives are always in ruins.
• I would love to be an archaeologist and to find Lazarus’ tomb—“Died 29AD. Died 44 AD.”

1 Corinthians 14

From Ben Witherington's 1 Corinthians class:

• Pursue love. If you’re not intentional about it, it’s not gonna happen.
• Here Paul is talking about actions—not good intentions or warm feelings. Love is commanded.
• Teach on love.
• Love is appreciating someone, not regarding their deficiencies as higher than their assets.
• Jesus never called you to be a Lone Ranger for Him.
• We need to understand love. If a church only has a few gifts, but it has a lot of love, it stands a lot better chance. What counts is whether we love each other, whether we can relate to one another in Christ.
• 1 Cor. 14:2--For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. Tongues, by definition here, is prayer language.
• Worship is corporate. It’s when we all get caught up in the love, wonder, and praise of God together. If all the preaching is needs based, there’s a problem. Most of worship is God-directed.
• Worship should be a place where insiders can be convicted, and outsiders can be converted.
• (concerning 14:26) Imagine coming to a church where everybody has something to say…You’re not getting out of there in an hour!
• You don’t impress people into the kingdom of God.

1 Corinthians 13

Ben Witherington quotes prompted by a discussion of 1 Corinthians 13:

• 1 Corinthians 13 is not a text about marital love.
• It’s about agape, something all Christians should share. It’s a way to exercise EVERY gift.
• Verses 4-7 are thought to be a description of Jesus Himself. [4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.]
• The spiritual gifts are given for us now. We’re not gonna need ‘em in the kingdom.
• There is a big difference between lovingly confronting somebody and guilt-tripping them. Confront it lovingly, then trust. Otherwise, you’re a clanging gong or a noisy cymbal.
• The Internet exacerbates our impatience. “I want it now!” Over the last 25 years, the tide of impatience has risen rapidly. Those who have loved me most in life have been the ones who have stuck by me, waiting for me to come around.
• Patience is an essential quality for most kinds of ministry.
• Only love will continue unabated into eternity.

1 Corinthians 12

Yet again...more quotes:

• “Consider the source.” The devil, not being very creative, takes that which is good and just distorts it a bit. “That sounds biblical, but am I hearing it right?”Discerning of spirits is an important issue.
• Who gets what gift is decided from the top down. God is not your cosmic bellhop. There are a lot of things Christians want, but they don’t need. There are a lot of things that Christians need, but they don’t want. God is not afraid of using the “N” word. He’s not gonna give something that the Body doesn’t need.
• Different gifts for different people. No gift hogs.
• Guess who decides who gets the gifts you have. The Holy Spirit.
• You have an internal resource within you. You have everything you need in the Spirit. Just stop quenching the Spirit, and give Him more to work with.
• God has chosen to relate to us personally. He could compel us to do whatever He wants, but He chose not to.
• The Holy Spirit guides, goads, guards. He woos, wins, and operates in you as a friend. God is love, and He relates to us in love. A loving response cannot be compelled.
• We have all been given the one Spirit, from which we drink. You don’t drink involuntarily. We have been given this well of the Spirit, but we are required to drink. Are you regularly taking time to drink?
• I need more unction to function! The source is within. That’s a great relief!
• I don’t need to pray for God to shower grace down from above. God has sent us the resources. We need to pray that God get all of the obstacles out of the way and let the Spirit have free reign in us.
• There is NO Christian without the Holy Spirit. Who joins you to the Body of Christ? The Holy Spirit! The Spirit is a person. You don’t get Him in installment plans. You don’t get Him in doses. You either have Him in your life or you don’t. You don’t get more of Him. But as you are sanctified over time, the Holy Spirit gets more of you!
• God can give or take away gifts, according to the way He wants to bless the Body.

1 Corinthians 10-11

More Witherington quotes:

• Baptism alone doesn’t make you “bulletproof.”
• You are provoking Christ, testing God’s patience, by continuing in willful sin.
• Why would you think God would require less under grace? “To whom much is given, much is required.”
• Jesus is the clearest revelation of the character of God.
• No rebaptisms. You can’t enter into Christ more than once.
• God is the owner—not only of all food, but of all things. There is no such thing as private property (or public property). It’s all the Lord’s. Secular communism and secular capitalism are wrong.
• That little word “mine” needs deconstructing. It’s not yours. You may think it is, but it’s not. It’s a gift of God. Not just gifts, talents, etc. but “personal” property as well.
• One of the problems of the computer age is that you become so dependent on technology that you make the mistake that you know it. There is a difference between having ready access and knowing something.
• Store up the word of the Lord in your heart, and it will save your life, and no one can take it from you.

1 Corinthians 8-9

Continuing to quote Ben Witherington from 1 Corinthians Exegesis...
(notice that I'm not necessarily relating thoughts about the text--I've mainly chosen snippets that are more or less applicable to life in general)

• It’s one thing to persuade someone to change their mind. It’s quite another to lead someone to violate their conscience.
• Whatever you cannot do in good faith is sin for you. Even worse is when you, through pressure, force, or brow-beating, cause someone else to violate their conscience.
• There is a problem in conservative, evangelical churches of having too many scruples.
• The grace and love of God is not like a heat-seeking missile that goes to a particular target because there’s something particularly attractive about that target. God’s love is unconditional. It makes someone lovable.
• You need to take a regular reality check about your attitude concerning money. We are supposed to be the Body of Christ, and how you relate to money shows a lot about what you really believe. Where does your ultimate security lie?
• Offer the gospel freely and trust that the Holy Spirit will move their hearts to support you. The people aren’t paying for the gospel. They’re paying to support their minister.
• Paul does not believe you are eternally secure until you are secure in eternity.

Christmas in July

This phrase usually refers to an unexpected windfall--a fortuitous felicity. In this case, however, I mean to use it literally.

This month my devotional readings are focused on pilgrimage.
One of the main themes running through the readings is that our lives are meant to be a journey. As Christians, our destination is conformity to Christ, union with the Father, fellowship in the Spirit, etc.

Yesterday's reading, however, focused on Haddington, Scotland. The author evidently came upon a scene at Haddington depicting Mary. In this scene, she is presenting her baby boy to the royal visitors who have come to adore Him.

God Himself made a pilgrimage...to a teenage virgin's womb, to a humble manger, to backwater Nazareth, to the cross, and to the grave.

Back to the scene from Haddington. These magi pilgrims came to bring an offering to the newborn King of the Jews. They brought their best...but what then happened to their hearts? Did they depart from that encounter forever changed?

Christ has come into our world as well. Many of us have knelt to worship and honor the Christ child. God not only made the pilgrimage to humble Himself in a lowly stall in Bethlehem, He has now humbled Himself enough to indwell us through the Spirit.

Kneel before Him. Adore Him. Be changed as you gaze upon the Lord of glory, He who humbled Himself to endure a shameful birth and a scandalous death.

Be humbled yourself as you adore.

This is Christmas in July.

1 Corinthians 7

Ben Witherington III quotes (continued):

• Singleness is a grace gift. So is marriage. Not everybody has the grace gift of singleness. Not everyone has the gift of marriage. In Christ, you do have one or the other. But marriage is not just a giant prophylactic. It’s about gifting. It’s sacred.
• "Abstinence makes the heart go fonder. Too much abstinence makes the heart go wander."
• Sex is dirty. Save it for the one you love. [This was the mixed message that BW3 got in his introduction to the birds and the bees. Classic!]
• How about something positive? Let people know that we think sex is good.
  There are places and times in which this is a beautiful thing. Let them know the contexts in which God has blessed it. Enough with the “tourniquet mentality” about sex—it’s not our job to tell everybody, “Just say no!” Enough with the negativity.
• Stop empowering satan and his minions—he has no street cred with you, Christian!
  Make decisions out of faith, not fear. You need to name and claim that “Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world.”