Sunday, August 28, 2005
HURRICANES AND GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY
(The following blog entry on hurricanes and sovereignty is one I reworked a bit. At the time I wrote it, folks here in south Texas were bracing for Hurricane Emily. Please pray for the folks who are in the path of Hurricane Katrina. This appears to be one of the most powerful hurricanes ever to hit the United States.) Hurricane Katrina appears to be bearing down on those who live in the coastal region of Mississippi and Louisiana, especially the city of New Orleans (which sits below sea level). As folks are in the process of evacuating and many are bracing for a devastating hurricane, I have been reflecting on the connection between the sovereignty of God and weather.
It is clear from the Bible that nature does not have its own will but is under the control of Almighty God. Consider the biblical evidence:
"He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills.... He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He hurls down his hail like pebbles. Who can withstand his icy blast? He sends his word and melts them; he stirs up his breezes, and the waters flow."
--Psalm 147:8; 16-18
"I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things."
--Isaiah 45:7
"When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses."
--Jeremiah 10:13
"The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm and clouds are the dust of his feet."
--Nahum 1:3
"He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
--Matthew 5:45
"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."
--Hebrews 1:3
The biblical witness is clear: it is Father God (not "mother nature") who is in charge of the weather. God certainly has the power to stop hurricanes. On the other hand, God may, as part of His sovereign plan, allow hurricanes to wreak their awful havoc (which from our limited point of view may seem incomprehensible). This would be a good time to consider Isaac Watts' great hymn, I Sing the Mighty Power of God, especially the second verse: "There's not a plant or flower below, but makes Thy glories known; and clouds arise and tempests blow, by order from Thy throne; while all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care, and everywhere that man may be, Thou, God, art present there."
"When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses."
--Jeremiah 10:13
"The Lord is slow to anger and great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm and clouds are the dust of his feet."
--Nahum 1:3
"He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
--Matthew 5:45
"The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."
--Hebrews 1:3
The biblical witness is clear: it is Father God (not "mother nature") who is in charge of the weather. God certainly has the power to stop hurricanes. On the other hand, God may, as part of His sovereign plan, allow hurricanes to wreak their awful havoc (which from our limited point of view may seem incomprehensible). This would be a good time to consider Isaac Watts' great hymn, I Sing the Mighty Power of God, especially the second verse: "There's not a plant or flower below, but makes Thy glories known; and clouds arise and tempests blow, by order from Thy throne; while all that borrows life from Thee is ever in Thy care, and everywhere that man may be, Thou, God, art present there."
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
THE PREACHER AND THE BEAR
A country preacher decided to skip services one Sunday and head to the hills to do some bear hunting. As he rounded the corner on a perilous twist in the trail, he and the bear collided, sending him and his rifle tumbling down the mountainside. Before he knew it, his rifle went one way and he went the other, landing on a rock and breaking both legs.
The bad news was the ferocious bear charging at him from a distance, and the preacher couldn't move. "Oh Lord," the preacher prayed, "I'm so sorry for skipping services today to come out here and hunt. Please forgive me and grant me just one wish: please make a Christian out of that bear that's coming at me. Please, Lord!" That very instant, the bear skidded to a halt, fell to its knees and clasped its paws together and began to pray aloud right at the preacher's feet: "Dear God, bless this food I am about to receive..."Tuesday, August 23, 2005
TURNING THE TELESCOPE AROUND
The great scientist Albert Einstein had little use for organized religion. The reason why, according to one observer, was that Einstein, in his study of the universe, had seen more of God's majesty than most Christians had ever imagined. Einstein had no use for the small view of God he encountered in many religious people of his day.Perhaps many of us in Christ's church have been looking at God through the wrong end of the telescope. Our view of God has been too small! My sense is that it is time to turn the telescope around and magnify God; it is time to turn the spotlight back on God and His awesomeness. Psalm 150 can be of great help in this regard as we consider who God is and the awesome things He has done, especially His gracious acts through Jesus Christ. "Praise him for his acts of power," the psalmist said, "praise him for his surpassing greatness" (Psalm 150:2). God is a God of surpassing greatness; He is an awesome God ... an exceedingly awesome God. Now would be a great time to turn our telescopes around!
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
RISING COSTS
The cost of living in general--and the cost of gasoline in particular--continues to go up. As unsettling as rising costs are, however, I cannot help but wonder if these anxious times are an opportunity for God's people to prove that we trust God. After all, we find printed on our paper money the words, "In God We Trust." But do we really trust in God, or do we trust instead in the "almighty" dollar? Rising costs are troubling indeed, but what an opportunity Christians have to show that we really trust God! Perhaps economic uncertainty could be a blessing in disguise ... rising costs might be what God uses to shake our misplaced trust and cause us to turn wholeheartedly to Him.
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
PSALM 119:10
James White over at Alpha and Omega Ministries has some great thoughts on Psalm 119:10: "I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands." To be sure, seeking God with one's whole heart (not to mention not straying from God's commands) can be challenging. In a busy world, with no end of distractions and demands on our time, it requires diligence to be about seeking God with all one's heart. Talking about it and actually doing it are two distinct things! Anyway, check out Dr. White's August 15 thoughts at http://aomin.org/Friday, August 12, 2005
OXYMORONS
Here are some oxymorons from the book Oxymoronica: Paradoxical Wit and Wisdom from History's Greatest Wordsmiths."A life of ease is a difficult pursuit." --William Cowper
"Life begins on the other side of despair." --Jean-Paul Sartre
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." --Mark Twain
"I love mankind--it's people I can't stand." --Charles Schulz
"Marriage is lonelier than solitude." --Adrienne Rich
"I cannot bear the crying of children, but when my child cries, I don't hear."
--Anton Chekhov "Imagination and fiction make up more than three quarters of our real life."
--Simone Weil
Thursday, August 11, 2005
THE MONSTER OF SIN
At a Bible study I led the other night, the subject of sin's transmission came up. My understanding is as follows. Although Scripture does not explain precisely--or scientifically--how sin is transmitted* (see below), the biblical witness is clear that sin does not consist merely in a voluntary act (although it is that, to be sure); it springs from a heart that is itself sinful by nature.While the doctrines of original sin and total depravity may be hard for some people to accept, the Bible teaches that the sin of our first parents had far-reaching consequences. We have all been affected and infected by it. ("In Adam's fall we sinned all," the old Puritan saying goes.) In this regard, the English writer Somerset Maugham once said about himself, "If I wrote down every thought I have ever thought and every deed I have ever done, men would call me a monster of depravity."
As offensive as it may be to our belief in the innate goodness of human beings, the Bible reveals that Maugham's monster is found in every person ... and the monster's name is sin.
*The twelfth-century theologian Peter Lombard believed that semen was stained in the act of concupiscence and that this stain somehow defiled the union of soul and body. The federal theology of later theologians spoke of the imputation of Adam's guilt to those he represented as head of the covenant that God made with Adam and his posterity. The Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it this way: "The covenant being made with Adam, not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind, descending from him by ordinary generation, sinned in him, and fell with him, in his first transgression." In this regard, the authors of the catechism adduced the following Scripture proofs: Genesis 2:16, 17; Acts 17:26; Romans 5:12-20; and 1 Corinthians 15: 21, 22.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Exodus 28:36
I referred to Exodus 28:36 in my Sunday sermon and since then have given much more thought to the phrase Holy to the Lord. According to the text, these words were engraved on a plate of pure gold and fastened to a turban that Aaron and his descendants wore in their priestly roles.
All us us who have been saved by God's grace are, under the New Covenant, a priestly people (1 Peter 2:5). I think here of the Reformation's emphasis on the priesthood of all believers. Accordingly, Christians--shepherd and sheep alike--are to be characterized by holiness unto the Lord.
The inscription Holy to the Lord was worn on Aaron's forehead. This reminds me that righteous people are to think righteous thoughts! And yet all of us know that the human mind is a battleground; we are constantly assaulted by unrighteous thoughts. Thankfully, however, we are not on our own in the process of sanctification. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and our commitment to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, it is gloriously possible to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2).
Without a doubt, one of the great needs in our time is for holiness unto the Lord. For myself, I recognize how very far I have to go in the walk of holiness. While I thank God for my positional holiness in Christ, I am painfully aware that conditional holiness is often elusive. I do not always walk the talk; selfishness so often wins out in my life.
I pray for myself, even as I pray for my flock, that our lives would be marked by consecration. Indeed, may the biblical truth of Holy to the Lord characterize us in ever increasing measure ... as we make it our aim to please Him in our thoughts, words, and deeds.
Monday, August 08, 2005
QUOTABLE QUOTES
"Just the knowledge that a good book is awaiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier."--Kathleen Norris
"A room without books is like a body without a soul."--Cicero
"Book lovers never go to bed alone."--Anonymous
"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."--Francis Bacon
Saturday, August 06, 2005
DIFFICULT SOULS
I have been rereading Calvin Miller's The Empowered Leader: Ten Keys to Servant Leadership and was struck by his list of six types of difficult/challenging people. Every church leader will be able to identify with this list--and may even want to add another category or two! Here is Miller's list of difficult souls:1. The Chronically Arrogant--These are the strong-willed types who are often spiritual bullies. They are intent on getting their way and must, according to Miller, be taught that their ambition may really be their way of masking inferiorities. 2. The Congenitally Belligerent--These are people who have been upset from the womb. They differ from the chronically arrogant who wants his or her way. The belligerant folks are always agressive and verbally abusive. They love fights, thrive on conflict and always seem to be mad. 3. The Non-Negotiator--These folks, says Miller, do not want to run things, they just want the spotlight. They are characterized by silence, avoidance, evasion and absence. At business meetings they may not say a thing, but the private work done behind the scenes can quietly set agendas. In addition to silence, non-negotiators may resort to whining as well, a ploy used to avoid negotiation. 4. The Nitpicker--The name says it all! Nitpickers major on minor issues. "They eat away the noble center of every dream," says Miller. Nitpickers must be constantly challenged to focus on things that really matter. 5. The Wheedler--This is a hybrid word that combines "whiner" and "needler." These types of people whine and groan to have their way. They are similar to non-negotiators, but are more communicative. Wheedlers are aware of the psychological power of their demeanor and will invoke guilt and readily resort to emotional blackmail to get what they want. 6. The "Yes-Butter"--These folks greet every great idea by saying, "Yes, but it won't work for this reason." The word "but" always follows the word "yes" with these people. Yes-butters are characterized by negativity. So there you have it: six categories of difficult souls. Surely you, dear reader, do not fall into one of these categories, right?! It might be a good idea for each of us--beginning with me--to see if we fit in one of the aforementioned groups.
Friday, August 05, 2005
LONGHORN FOOTBALL
On a lighter note, I just saw the Coaches Poll for the 2005 football season and am thrilled that the Texas Longhorns are ranked second. If Vince Young stays healthy and the Horns can get past Ohio State and Oklahoma (the Sooners look vulnerable this year), then Bevo will be making a return trip to the Rose Bowl. In fact, I will make a prediction: the University of Texas Longhorns will be this year's national champion. Hook em!Thursday, August 04, 2005
KNOWING GOD
In his classic work Knowing God, J.I. Packer makes an excellent point when he writes, "A little knowledge about God is worth more than a great deal of knowledge about Him." That really speaks to me. If you have been keeping up with my blog entries, you know that I am greatly concerned about the poor spiritual health of the American church. Much of the church is fad-driven; sound doctrine is out and entertainment is in. Increasingly, I am hearing Christian leaders say that the contemporary church landscape is as bleak and barren as it was centuries ago on the eve of the Reformation. Worldliness and doctrinal chaos abound in much of church life today.
However, sound doctrine is not the only pressing need. One can be as orthodox as the day is long, but what does it profit without a personal relationship with the living God? How crucial it is for Christians to be in a vital relationship with God in Christ--to be able to say with Paul of old, "I want to know Christ." God is the rewarder of those who earnestly (not casually!) seek Him. It is also imperative that we hold on to and proclaim sound biblical doctrine. God's people should be characterized by spiritual ardor and biblical order. May these dangerously exciting times find many of us seeking hard after God (Hebrews 11:6), even as we watch our life and doctrine carefully (1 Timothy 4:16)!
However, sound doctrine is not the only pressing need. One can be as orthodox as the day is long, but what does it profit without a personal relationship with the living God? How crucial it is for Christians to be in a vital relationship with God in Christ--to be able to say with Paul of old, "I want to know Christ." God is the rewarder of those who earnestly (not casually!) seek Him. It is also imperative that we hold on to and proclaim sound biblical doctrine. God's people should be characterized by spiritual ardor and biblical order. May these dangerously exciting times find many of us seeking hard after God (Hebrews 11:6), even as we watch our life and doctrine carefully (1 Timothy 4:16)!
Ten Great Doctrines
In a time when much of the church is in doctrinal disarray, we would do well to recover the following teachings of Scripture:
1. The Sovereignty (and Awesomeness!) of God--Simply stated, to say that God is sovereign is to say that God, not man, is King of the universe. God is eternally self-existent and is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible. But God is not only Creator, He is also the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent One who rules and reigns over all. David emphasized the sovereignty and awesomeness of God when he prayed: "Praise be to you, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from you; you are ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks and praise your glorious name" (1 Chronicles 29:10-13). I think here of the words of the popular Christian chorus: "Our God is an awesome God, He reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love, our God is an awesome God!"
2. The Inspiration and Authority of Scripture--The Bible is the God-breathed, authoritative and self-authenticating Word of God. Although written by more than forty different authors in many different genres over a period of nearly fifteen hundred years, Scripture is, as J.I. Packer rightly points out, "a single book with a single author--God the Holy Spirit--and a single theme--God the Son, and the Father's saving purposes which all revolve around him." The Bible--the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments--is truth and requires our unreserved submission in all areas of life. According to 2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...." 3. The Trinity--What do Christians mean when speaking of the doctrine of the Trinity? The answer is succinctly and well stated by the Westminster Confession of Faith: "In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost." In other words, God not only exists but also coexists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; within God's unity there is triunity. Scriptural support for the deity of the Father is abundantly clear, as is evidence for the deity of Jesus Christ (see the next section). The Holy Spirit is also God, as attested by Acts 5:1-4 and other passages. Furthermore, the New Testament mentions the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit together more than one hundred times. See, for example, the following verses: Matthew 3:16-17, 28:19; Mark 12:36; John 3:34; Acts 10:38; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Ephesians 1:13-14; etc. The biblical doctrine of the Trinity (one God in three Persons) must not be confused with such unbiblical teachings as tritheism (belief in three gods) and modalism (a belief that denies the eternal distinctions within the Godhead). 4. The Deity of Christ--There are many passages in the New Testament that refer specifically to the deity of Jesus. For example, John 1:1 says about Christ, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Hebrews 1:3 says, "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word." Philippians 2:6 speaks of Christ "...being in very nature God." In similar fashion, Colossians 2:9 says, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form...." The New Testament also reveals in other ways that Jesus is God. He forgives sins (Mark 2:8-10); refers to the angels as His angels (Matthew 24:31); speaks of judging the world (Matthew 25:31-46); and is considered worthy of worship (Hebrews 1:6). Away with the false teaching of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Unitarians and others who deny the deity of Christ. Let us firmly embrace and trumpet the truth of the deity of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ! 5. The Virgin Birth of Christ--The Bible teaches in the first chapters of Matthew and Luke that Jesus was born of the virgin Mary. In his classic work The Virgin Birth of Christ, J. Gresham Machen underscores the importance of the virgin birth in connection to humanity's redemption: "But if we believe, as the Bible teaches, that all mankind are under an awful curse, then we shall rejoice in knowing that there entered into the sinful race from the outside One upon whom the curse did not rest save as He bore it for those whom He redeemed by His blood. How, except by the virgin birth, could our Saviour have lived a complete human life from the mother's womb, and yet have been from the very beginning no product of what had gone before, but a supernatural Person come into the world from the outside to redeem the sinful race?" 6. Original Sin--The Bible teaches that people are sinners by choice and by nature. In this regard, many theologians speak of the doctrine of original sin, which refers to the state of sin that characterizes all human beings as a result of Adam's sin. David, for instance, spoke of being sinful from the time of conception. "Surely I was sinful at birth," he said, "sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5). Likewise, in Psalm 58:3 we read, "Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward and speak lies." Jeremiah gave a stark description of the human condition when he said in Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?"
The apostle Paul spoke of the sinful human condition in Ephesians 2:1-3 when he referred to people as spiritually dead (not just sick or wounded) apart from Christ. In fact, he said sinful human beings "were by nature objects of [God's] wrath." One should not take lightly the phrase "by nature." Paul made that statement because all human beings come into the world in a state of sin, having inherited the sinful condition that characterized fallen Adam (Romans 5:12).
7. The Substitutionary Atonement--Christ died for sinners. That statement is at the very heart of the Christian faith. And of course the primary symbol of Christianity is a cross. But what exactly does it mean to say that Christ died for sinners? The biblical concept that can help us understand Christ's death is atonement. According to Romans 3:25, "God presented him [Christ] as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood...." One Bible scholar (Leon Morris) has rightly pointed out that that, "The atonement is the crucial doctrine of the faith. Unless we are right here it matters little, or it seems to me, what we are like elsewhere."
While there are many different theories of the atonement, the Bible clearly presents the atoning work of Jesus Christ in terms of substitution. All of the atoning sacrifices in the Old Testament have strong substitutionary overtones and point to Jesus Christ, who is the heart of the the Bible and the One to whom the Old Testament Law and prophets bear witness. Jesus was the perfect sacrificial victim--the Lamb of God--who died vicariously for sinners. In the words of Isaiah 53:6, "We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." Elsewhere we are told, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Corinthians 5:21). And in 1 Peter 3:18 we read, "Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God."
8. Salvation by Grace Alone through Faith Alone--Being estranged from God and condemned by our sinfulness, our salvation is wholly dependent upon the work of God's free grace. God credits His righteousness to those who put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation, thereby justifies them in His sight. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Many people believe that all roads lead to God and that those who proclaim salvation through Christ alone are narrow-minded and intolerant. But the scriptural witness is clear: Jesus Christ is the only way to God; He is the only mediator between a holy, sinless God and unholy, sinful human beings (John 14:6; 1 Timothy 2:5).
10. The Second Coming of Christ--Although there is disagreement surrounding the timing of Christ's return, Bible-believing Christians of all traditions believe that Jesus Christ will come again. He will return to earth personally, visibly and bodily to judge the living and the dead and to consummate history and the eternal plan of God. "At that time men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory" (Mark 13:26). The Lord is coming again. Are you ready for His return?!
--Deutero Q
Wednesday, August 03, 2005
PSALM 42:1
"As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God."Two things have spoken to me lately from Psalm 42:1. First, I have often passed too quickly from the deer imagery to the panting soul. The picture the psalmist paints here is of an exceedingly thirsty deer. I can't help but think of a deer that has been pursued by a predator to the point of extreme thirst and exhaustion. It is to this panting deer that the psalmist compares his own soul. He must have God more than anything else, just as the panting deer must have water. And that leads to the second thing that speaks to me about the psalm: the object of the psalmist's desire. He desired God and not merely the experience of seeking God. It can be so easy to content ourselves with spiritual experiences. I think of worship music and how easy it is to get caught up in pleasing melodies and rhythms rather than the One to whom these things point. God must be the focal point! And God Himself was certainly the psalmist's focal point. There is much to learn from the powerful imagery of the panting deer and the psalmist's intense yearning for God. The prayer of A.W. Tozer (from his The Pursuit of God) seems especially fitting in this whole regard: "O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee indeed. Begin a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, 'Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.' Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus' name. Amen."
Monday, August 01, 2005
TOP 10 AMAZING FOODS
Speaking of top 10 lists (see my earlier posting on ten dumb doctrines and be on the lookout for an upcoming list of ten great doctrines!), I recently came across this list of ten amazing, disease-fighting foods.1. Berries (especially blueberries)
2. Dairy products
3. Fatty fish (especially salmon and tuna)
4. Dark, leafy greens (especially spinach)
5. Whole grains
6. Beans and legumes
7. Nuts
8. Sweet potatoes (my two-year-old son loves these!)
9. Tomatoes
10. Eggs
