We got back on Saturday from a week on the Warm Spring Reservation. The team was able to share about their trip last Sunday. We also showed a video that the Sacred Road team put together of the week. Here it is for those who missed it (or just want to see it again).
You might be different, but for me prayer is hard and I never feel like I pray enough. A friend recommended A Praying Life by Paul Miller and I’m grateful he did.
Miller simply talks about what prayer is, what keeps us from prayer, why we need to pray, and has many helpful suggestions to make a prayer a more regular part of your daily life.
If you are like me and know that your prayer life needs some help. I recommend giving A Praying Life a read. There were a few points where I thought Miller overstated things. But the benefits far outweighed any concerns I had.
Sorry this is late. Here is the video we showed in Sunday School of our week at Warm Springs in June. Enjoy!
We’ve had a great few days at Warm Springs. We have two teams going. One is working on building a wheelchair ramp at a home and the other is doing clean up at a few places.
We spend the afternoons with kids doing activities, crafts and leading a Bible time.
Wednesday evening we went and watched the sunset overlooking a canyon lake.
People are often looking for ways to hear the tunes for hymns in our hymnal. There is a great little app that came out a while ago to help you with that.
iPhone
ANDROID
It’s available for both iPhones and Androids. It costs $10, but it well worth it. It has every Psalm and Hymn in the new hymnal.
It has the words for each Psalm and Hymn.
And it has a piano accompaniment for each Psalm and Hymn. That can either be played once to get the tune or once for each verse in the song.
Check it out and enjoy. You can download it from the iPhone Appstore or the Google Play Store.
Every piece of Scripture, every prayer he’d prayed
had brought him to this moment of this particular day.
(Paul Stookey, in the song, “John Henry Bosworth”)
When Vince Lombardi kicked off the Green Bay Packers training camp in 1961, he began a tradition of starting from scratch. He held out a football and said, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” He took nothing for granted. I think that—especially during “the present distress” (1 Cor. 7:26)—we should take nothing for granted. We need to go back and rehearse the basics of walking humbly with our Lord. “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him …” (Col. 2:6). Of all times, now is a time to humble ourselves before the Lord, to examine ourselves, to repent of ways we’ve compromised, to “re-form” our thoughts, attitudes, priorities, and lifestyles according to God’s Word.
The 16th century Reformation was another time of “present distress.” People needed to learn and relearn those basics. The bubonic plague was the pandemic of that day. Martin Luther wrote a pamphlet on how to respond. Christians were reacting to the plague in a variety of ways. (They sound strikingly comparable to the various ways Christians are reacting to COVID-19). Luther marshaled gospel doctrine to address these various reactions. Among other things, he said:
Use medicine. Take potions that can help you. Fumigate house, yard, and street. Shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence …. And act like someone who wants to help put out the burning city. What else is the epidemic but a fire that, instead of consuming wood and straw, devours life and body? You ought to think this way: ‘Very well, by God’s decree the enemy has sent us poison and deadly offal. Therefore, I’ll ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I’ll fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it. I’ll avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God wants to take me, he’ll surely find me. I’ve done what he’s expected of me and so I’m not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me, however, I won’t avoid his place or person. I’ll go freely, as stated above.’ See, this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash nor foolhardy and does not tempt God. (slightly edited)
The fact that Luther had to muddle on through his “present crisis” with a medieval ignorance of germs, etc. didn’t change the fact that he gave some biblically wise advice that helped the people he addressed.
Alas, now we’re called to muddle on through our own “present crisis”—and no one really knows how best to handle it. Our congregations are providentially hindered from gathering together for worship in the near future. The COVID-19 pandemic is an evil in itself. Add to that its social and economic consequences. But this “dark providence” gives us an opportunity to examine ourselves.
Let’s go back to the basics of knowing and walking humbly with the Triune God of grace. Let’s examine ourselves honestly in trust and contrition before our Lord. Let’s reassess and reorder our priorities in light of what really matters. Let’s renew our zeal for the public means of grace and for Christian fellowship. Let’s pray not only for the wisdom to see opportunities to serve our neighbors and tell them about Jesus, but also for the courage to seize them. Let’s listen humbly not only to each other but also to fellow Jesus-followers of varying stripes—for it’s only “with all the saints” that the Spirit will enable us to comprehend Christ’s love and be filled with God’s fulness (see Eph. 3:18–19). Let’s muddle on seeking the all-importance of Jesus as best as we can.
Relying step-by-step on our Father’s gracious acceptance and enabling in Christ, then, we need to keep muddling on, as best we can, concretely loving believers and building up the body of Christ. We need to keep muddling on, as best we can, concretely loving our neighbors and serving them in the name of Christ. Do we dare to hope that the Lord is answering the many prayers that he’ll revive true religion and reform his church? That he’ll discredit harmful counterfeits? I pray so. But that means that maybe we need to be asking additional searching questions before our Lord. Are we really doing the right thing? How long should we keep doing it? Is our Lord preparing us for even greater tribulation, and are we submitting to and learning the lessons he’s teaching us now? Shouldn’t we be crying out to him in humiliation and recommitment? We find it easier to think of ways the world needs to change than of ways that we need to change. If our Lord does re-form his church, then we shouldn’t expect to go back to “business as usual” on the other side of “the present crisis.” We should expect things to be different — for us as well as others. So, let’s make sure to practice the basics. “Brothers and sisters, this is a Bible.”
Larry Wilson is a retired minister.
He’s serving as stated supply at Grace OPC in Wasilla, AK.
This is the fourth and final installment of Pastor Larry Wilson’s summary of part 1 of The Marrow of Modern Divinity, which was written in 1645 by Edward Fisher. It addresses the nature of God’s law and our sinful tendencies to either seek salvation through our own obedience or to do dismiss it all together.
This means that, third, we need to get straight that when Jesus saves us, he puts us under “the law of Christ,” not “the law of works.” Jesus forever sets us free from the law as a covenant of works (see WCF 19:6). We’re never again to receive the law “from the hand of Moses.” When God converts us, we start to receive the law “from the hand of Christ our Savior.” We’re under “the law of Christ” as our rule of life.
In fact, “the law of Christ” has the same content as “the law of works.” It too consists of God’s moral law as summarized in the Ten Commandments. But here’s how it differs. Where the law of works says, “Do this so that you’ll live,” the law of Christ instead says, “Because God freely gives you life in Christ, you’ll do this” (see Eph. 2:8–10). The moral law can never justify us. And—thanks to the finished work of Christ—it can also never condemn us. Accordingly, it can no longer even command us as a covenant of works—a way to seek or maintain good standing with God. Instead, it shows us how to show love and gratitude to God for his saving love and grace. We obey God in response to his freely making and keeping us right with him through the doing and dying of Jesus Christ plus nothing. We call this “the third use of the law.”
When this fact grips our hearts, it sets us free from a “legal spirit.” This legal spirit isn’t just a doctrinal deficiency. Its solution has to be more than just adjusting our thinking. No, it stems from a deep-seated heart problem, a sin problem. We’re prone to harbor hard views of God that stubbornly resist the gospel of God’s free and full grace in Christ. We need the sovereign Spirit graciously to make the gospel truly triumph over our hearts. By his enabling, we need to repent unto God. We need to confess and forsake our legal spirit. When we do, we no longer obey God out of fear of his wrath. Instead, we know how deeply God loves us. We know how freely and fully he saves us. So now, we obey gladly, not grudgingly. We obey out of faith, hope, and love.
Ironically, this legal spirit is precisely what produces both legalism and antinomianism. These tendencies are actually two sides of the very same coin. Both treat God’s law like a covenant of works. On the one side, legalists fear punishment—thanks to God’s righteousness. So they try dutifully to obey God’s law. On the other side, antinomians no longer fear punishment—thanks to God’s grace. And so they see no point in keeping God’s law. Up and down, up and down. Without heart-repentance from a legal spirit, there’s no escaping the seesaw. But escape we must! Legalism and antinomianism are both deadly counterfeits.
Two factors make them especially dangerous. First, legalism and antinomianism don’t really come in pure form—easy to recognize. They come as subtle tendencies—hard to recognize. They’re generally taught more by what’s not said than by what is. Pastors tend to reject them both out of hand. And they really mean it when they do. But, alas, most still unwittingly preach a muddled blend of law and gospel. On the other hand, people tend to apprehend or misapprehend the preaching they hear by straining it through their own grid. They tend to pressure pastors—both by positive encouragement and by negative criticism—to preach this muddled blend of law and gospel. In this way, both pastors and people flirt with spiritual danger. J.C. Ryle illustrated the danger like this. There are three ways that pharmacists can turn good medicine into poison: (1) by adding a wrong ingredient; (2) by leaving out a right ingredient; and (3) by having all the right ingredients, but in the wrong proportions. That shows how, to the degree that we’re under the influence of a legal spirit, even the way we preach—or the way we listen to—the gospel can be dangerous.
The second factor that makes legalism and antinomianism so dangerous is that they each resemble the true gospel at points. They each ring true to aspects of actual sound doctrine. That’s why they appeal to people. But they deviate from the gospel where it really matters. The gospel insists that when Jesus saves us, not only does he cleanse us from guilt (justification), but also he cleanses us from sin—he makes us pure (sanctification). Accordingly, we won’t do good works in order to get in God’s good graces. But we will do them! We’ll do them because God forgives us, gives us new hearts with himself as our new Master, and is therefore transforming us (see Tit. 2:11–14).
We’ll do them in faith, relying on our Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Jesus plainly tells us, “apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn. 15:5).We never stop needing Jesus. The way we rely on him is by using his “means of grace”—especially the Word, sacraments, prayer, and the fellowship of God’s people. As the Good Shepherd puts it, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me’ (John 10:27). We can escape the legalism-laxness seesaw, but only in vital contact—by the Holy Spirit and through faith—with the whole Christ.
This is the third installment of Pastor Larry Wilson’s summary of part 1 of The Marrow of Modern Divinity, which was written in 1645 by Edward Fisher. It addresses the nature of God’s law and our sinful tendencies to either seek salvation through our own obedience or to do dismiss it all together.
Second, we need to get straight that “the law of faith” contrasts with “the law of works.” We call this “the covenant of grace.” (See WCF 7:3). In other words, the gospel contrasts with the law. “The law of faith” (the gospel) shows us how to get life, not by doing, but by receiving. God rigorously enforced the moral law at Sinai. One reason why was to drive his people away from any confidence in their own doing. The Sinai covenant administered God’s covenant of grace. But, in service to God’s grace, it symbolically recapped the covenant of works for God’s people in God’s land (see Gal. 3:23–25). As Thomas Boston explained, at Sinai “there is no confounding of the two covenants of grace and works. But the latter was added to the former as subservient unto it, to turn their eyes towards the promise, or covenant of grace.” We no longer live as a theocracy in the promised Land looking for the coming of Christ. That’s why the “civil” and “ceremonial” dimensions of the Old Testament law no longer apply. But God still uses the “moral” dimension of the law to make us see how much we need a Savior. We call this “the first use of the law.”
When it comes to how the holy God can accept us, the “law of faith” leaves no room for us to add our works to Christ’s. Actually, in practice, legalists don’t claim to perfectly obey God. They figure that, if they do their best and trust Jesus to make up the difference, God will count them as righteous. But, again, the fatal problem is that the holy God insists on perfect obedience. If we have to add our obedience to Christ’s for God to accept us, then our good works not only fall short in themselves. They also pollute Christ’s obedience. They bring it short of God’s standard of perfection. If we want God to justify us (declare his verdict that we’re righteous), then we need to present a perfect righteousness to him—either our own or Christ’s. To present our own is to reject Christ’s. To present Christ’s is to reject our own.
You see, if the holy God counts our obedience toward our justification, then we’ve got no hope that he’ll justify us. As Charles Spurgeon insisted, “If we have to put one stitch into the garment of our salvation, we shall ruin the whole thing.” But—thank God!—Jesus came to save sinners, not those who’ve already succeeded in getting rid of their sins. That’s why Edward Fisher contended, “Your sins should drive you to Christ rather than keep you from him.” It’s Christ’s doing and dying that saves us—without any need for help from us!
This is the second installment of Pastor Larry Wilson’s summary of part 1 of The Marrow of Modern Divinity, which was written in 1645 by Edward Fisher. It addresses the nature of God’s law and our sinful tendencies to either seek salvation through our own obedience or to do dismiss it all together.
First, we need to get straight that apart from Christ, all people are under “the law of works.” This is what we call “the covenant of works.” (See WCF 7:2). The only way to be right with God in the covenant of works is to obey God’s moral law. Its basic principle is “Do this, and you will live” (Lk. 10:28). As God’s creatures made in his image—and as fallen creatures deceived about God by Satan’s lies—we’re “wired” that way. Even as Christians in the state of grace, we still incline towards this “law of works.” We tend to think that God’s attitude toward us depends on how well or how poorly we perform. The fatal problem with that is that the holy God requires perfect obedience—inside and out. And that’s something we sinners cannot render.
But “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal. 4:4–5). Under the law as a covenant of works, Jesus perfectly did all that the law requires. He perfectly performed all our duty for us. Jesus also offered himself as the perfect sacrifice. He perfectly paid all our debt for us. That’s why God’s Word declares that “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). Through Christ’s finished work on our behalf, God sets us free from “the law of works” (see Rom. 6:14; 7:4–6). As believers in Jesus, we’re never again under the law as a covenant of works. Thanks to Jesus, God’s law can never again condemn us (see Romans 8:1).
A friend of mine, Pastor Larry Wilson, has been working on a summary of Part 1 of The Marrow of Modern Divinity, which was written in 1645 by Edward Fisher. It addresses the nature of God’s law and our sinful tendencies to either seek salvation through our own obedience or to do dismiss it all together. Over the next few days, I’m going to post Pastor Wilson’s summary in four parts.
Sometimes, after a period of laxness, believers rediscover—as if it’s new—that God is holy. They start to feel that, if God is finally to deem us righteous in his sight, we’d better obey his law. This signals the start of a renewed pursuit of holiness. But then, bit by bit, assurance of salvation starts to flag. Joy wanes. People start to feel as if God is distant and angry. Christian living sinks into forcing ourselves to do our duty out of slavish fear. But then, believers start to rediscover—as if it’s new—that God is merciful and gracious. God saves sinners because of his free grace alone and by Christ’s work alone! And it’s sinners who he saves! We don’t have to obey God in order to get right with him. He saves us through faith alone! We’re not under law but under grace. Joy bursts out! But then, bit by bit, laxness starts to prevail once again.
We call the first tendency “legalism.” We call the second “antinomianism.” Alas, both tendencies are built into our sinful flesh. We believers keep trying to cure antinomianism with legalism, and legalism with antinomianism. This pattern keeps seesawing up and down, up and down, trapping us. That’s why it’s so refreshing to hear Sinclair Ferguson cut through the knot that binds us: “Antinomianism and legalism are not so much antithetical to each other as they are both antithetical to grace. This is why Scripture never prescribes one as the antidote for the other. Rather grace, God’s grace in Christ in our union with Christ, is the antidote to both” (The Whole Christ [Wheaton: Crossway, 2016], p. 156).
God says, “The law is good, if one uses it lawfully … in accordance with the glorious gospel” (1 Tim. 1:8‑11). But how do we do that? An old book, The Marrow of Modern Divinity (1645), shows how we need to make three vital distinctions in order to rightly use God’s law. Thomas Boston borrowed terms from the Apostle Paul to sum it up like this:
“All [people] by nature are under ‘the law of works’ [see Rom. 3:27–28]. But taking the benefit of ‘the law of faith’ [see Rom. 3:27–28] by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are set free from the law of works and brought under ‘the law of Christ’ [see 1 Cor. 9:21].”
To rightly use God’s law in accordance with the gospel—and thus get off the legalism-laxness seesaw—we need to get these three things straight. Therefore, our pastors need to explicate them clearly. And our people need to embrace them heartily.
The recent synagogue shooting in San Diego has made national headlines. Once again our nation has been shaken by tragedy and grief. But for us, this tragedy strikes closer to home. John Earnest, the shooter, is a member of a church in our denomination. His pastor, was quick and clear that this hatred of Jewish people is antithetical to what the church believes and preaches. Our denomination has posted a statement condemning the act and disavowing any such ideology. Such statements are necessary and important.
However, a few other articles have probed deeper questions. Carl Trueman has written a heart-searching article for Christianity Today asking how our current culture of dismissive debate has contributed to our current environment of polarization and shootings. The Washington Post had a recent article where pastors ask how theology has been weaponized and used to sanction such acts of violence. These, I think, are the important questions for us to be asking right now. There is a vein of thinking out there that goes something like this—“Jesus came to the Jews and they murdered him. They are enemies of God. We must destroy them.” As with all lies, there is a faint kernel of truth here. Jesus did come to the house of Israel. He was rejected and put to death. But that is where the truth ends and Satan’s lies take flight.
Jesus was not executed without the help of Gentile leaders in Israel. But more to to the point—as Christians, our deepest confession is that it was our sins that put Jesus on the cross. I remember a story I heard in my youth. It went something like this. An older Christian found a young man, new in his faith, weeping. “What’s wrong?” he asked. The young man said, “I just realized that if I was the only person on earth, Jesus still would have come to die in my place.” “That’s right!” the older man replied, “Isn’t that wonderful?” But the young man just dropped his head and said, “Don’t you understand? That means I would have had to be the one to pound the nails!”
What this story drives home is that if you are a Christian—if you trust in Jesus for your salvation—you have no one to blame for the death of Jesus but yourself. His life was not stolen from him, he laid it down of his own accord (John 10:17-18), according to the foreordained will of the Father (Acts 2:23). He did this because there was no other way to save you. To deny that it was your sin that put him on the cross is to say that he did not die for you. Such arrogance leaves you without any hope of salvation.
At the heart of all such arguments is the tendency we as sinners have to use theology as a cloak for our own evil desires. Throughout history, people have tried to use God’s word to promote their own sinful ends. They sound pious. They sound like they love God’s word. This is but a thin veneer covering over a darkness that knows nothing of the gospel of God’s grace. While there are many ways sinners have done this, one way that shows up over and over is the attempt to pin all of life’s problems on a certain group of people rather than accepting that our greatest problem is the sin within our own hearts.
Sadly, it is the Jewish people who have been the object of such hatred more than any other group. The Bible clearly and explicitly condemns all such antagonism. God gives priority to the Jews. This goes back to Noah’s prophecy over his three sons (Genesis 9:26-27). The blessings would come first to Shem, the father of the Jews (thus shemitic or semitic peoples). But Japheth was told that these blessing would one day include his descendants (the Gentiles) when they came to dwell in peace with the children of Shem. This is why the New Testament says that we Gentiles have been made members of the commonwealth of Israel (Ephesians 2:12) and that we are being built together into a spiritual house, the previous hostility being replaced with peace (vv. 14-22). Paul writes to his readers in Rome that Gods has not rejected the Jews, but has plans for their future blessing (Romans 11:2, 11-12).
But it’s what he says next that should catch our attention. Turning to the Gentiles, Paul says that we are not to be arrogant toward the Jews, remembering that they are the root of the tree to which we have been added, upon whom we find our support (v. 18). The Bible specifically calls us to deference, love, and, yes, gratitude toward the Jews. This doesn’t mean that all Jews are saved by virtue of their ethnic lineage. It doesn’t mean that anyone is exempt from God’s judgment because of their family lineage (Romans 2:9). It does mean that we Gentiles have been invited to live in the house of Israel as the younger siblings. The blessings of God are for the Jews first and then the Gentiles (Romans 1:16; 2:10). The warning for the arrogant Gentile in this regard is that he will be broken off and cast out (Romans 11:19).
Anti-semitism is a great evil that should never have existed, but continues to find a place in the hearts of angry sinners. It is an attempt to blame others for the pain in life, rather than to fall down before the God of glory and say, “Lord have mercy on me a sinner.” It should never find a safe place in Jesus’ church. If discovered it should be quickly and decisively disciplined as an offense against our God. More to the point, each of us should regularly take stock of the sinful lies that reside within our hearts and how we use God’s word of life for our own destructive ends. You might not deal with anti-semitism, but we are all far too quick to make judgments about others because they are different than us. May God enable each of us to take every thought captive to the word of Christ!
Pastor Brett
Increasingly today, it seems like people struggle to find meaning. It is something we all long for, but few find. We live in a time of unprecedented peace, economic prosperity, technological advancement, and global connectedness. Yet we feel turmoil. We feel poor and alone.
Perhaps this is because we look for meaning in the wrong places… and this is not new. The quest for meaning has always been a part of what it means to be human. So too is the tendency to look for it in the wrong place. More and more we fill our lives with distractions, afraid to face life's biggest and hardest questions.
On January 13th, we will be starting a new sermon series on the book of Ecclesiastes, which is a breath of fresh air with its honest questions and sober answers. It is not afraid to ask the big questions… confess the big failures… and announce the way of meaning, peace, and hope.
I look forward to working through this book with you.
I am excited to let you know that Pastor Stephen Roberts will be teaching an 8-part Sunday School series starting January 6th. Here is what Stephen has to say…
Our culture is changing… quickly. The greatest difficulty for us as Christians is not that the culture is changing, but that we don't understand how it's changing. We often talk past our non-Christian friends and answer questions that none of them are asking. We are now cross-cultural missionaries to our culture and communities, which means we need to learn how they think, how they speak, and how we can most faithfully engage them. This series will explore what's happening in our culture, where we can engage our culture, and how we can do so faithfully.
Pastor Roberts serves as a Chaplain at JBLM and is exceptionally gifted in identifying the issues and concerns of our age and engaging them in a loving and caring way with the hope of the gospel. I hope that you will take the opportunity to be a part of this class.
At the recommendation of Tim Draper, I am currently reading a book by Eugene Peterson called Eat This Book (A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading). In it, Peterson calls the Believer to what he calls a “Trinitarian Reading” of the Bible, which he describes this way:
We read in order to get in on the revelation of God, who is so emphatically personal; we read the Bible the way it comes to us, not in the way we come to it; we submit ourselves to the various and complementary operations of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; we receive these words so that we can be formed now and for eternity to the glory of God.
In other words we come to the Bible to be shaped by the God of the Bible, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Anything less is to miss the point of reading scripture.
In Peterson’s characteristically astute way, however, he identifies a false trinity that has shaped how we often read scripture. I realize that this a bit lengthy, but worth the time of a careful read.
A new twist on non-Trinitarian ways of reading the Bible has emerged in our times. It has reached the scale of an epidemic and requires special attention. It can be understood best, I think, as a replacement Trinity… this way is very personal and also very Trinitarian, but also totally at odds with what is achieved while reading in submission to the authority of the Holy Trinity.
Trinitarian thinking praying before Holy Scripture cultivates a stance and attitude that submits to being comprehensively formed by God in the way God comprehensively and personally reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Holy Scriptures. The alternative to that is taking charge of our own formation. The most popular way of conceiving this self these days is by understanding the self in a Trinitarian way. This way of self-understanding is not as an intellectual interested in ideas or as a moral being seeking a good life or as a soul looking for solitary solace, but as a divine self in charge of my self. And this divine self is understood as a Holy Trinity.
Here's how it works. It is important to observe that in the formulation of this new Trinity that defines the self as the sovereign text for living, the Bible is neither ignored nor banned; it holds, in fact, an honored place. But the three-personal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is replaced placed by a very individualized personal Trinity of my Holy Wants, my Holy Needs, and my Holy Feelings.
We live in an age in which we have all been trained from the cradle to choose for ourselves what is best for us. We have a few years of apprenticeship at this before we are sent out on our own, but the training begins early. By the time we can hold a spoon we choose between half a dozen cereals for breakfast, ranging from Cheerios to Corn Flakes. Our tastes, inclinations, and appetites are consulted endlessly. We are soon deciding what clothes we will wear and in what style we will have our hair cut. The options proliferate: what TV channels we will view, what courses we will take in school, what college we will attend, what courses we will sign up for, what model and color of car we will buy, what church we will join. We learn early, with multiple confirmations as we grow older, that we have a say in the formation of our lives and, within certain bounds, the decisive say. If the culture does a thorough job on us—and it turns out to be mighty effective with most of us—we enter adulthood with the working assumption that whatever we need and want and feel forms the divine control center of our lives.
The new Holy Trinity. The sovereign self expresses itself in Holy Needs, Holy Wants, and Holy Feelings. The time and intelligence that our ancestors spent on understanding the sovereignty revealed in Father, the, Son, and Holy Spirit are directed by our contemporaries in affirming and validating the sovereignty of our needs, wants, and feelings.
My needs are non-negotiable. My so-called rights, defined individually, are fundamental to my identity. My need for fulfillment, for expression, for affirmation, for sexual satisfaction, for respect, my need to get my own way—all these provide a foundation to the centrality of me and fortify my self against diminution.
My wants are evidence of my expanding sense of kingdom. I train myself to think big because I am big, important, significant. I am larger than life and so require more and more goods and services, more things and more power. Consumption and acquisition are the new fruits of the spirit.
My feelings are the truth of who I am. Any thing or person who can provide me with ecstasy, with excitement, with joy, with stimulus, with spiritual connection validates my sovereignty. This, of course, involves employing quite a large cast of therapists, travel agents, gadgets and machines, recreations and entertainments to cast out the devils of boredom or loss or discontent—all the feelings that undermine or challenge my self-sovereignty.
Well there you have it. Do you see hints… echos… shadows of your own tendencies in what Peterson has said? Do you come to the Bible to shape it your ends or to be shaped by God’s? Is He there to serve you or are you there to serve Him?
Let us always draw near to God’s word in order that He might increase and we might decrease.
Pastor Brett
This Spring we are doing a short six-part Sunday School series on Discipleship. Discipleship is one of those subjects that the church often talks about, but seldom defines. We began last week as defining discipleship as the restoration and perfection of the image of God in us. Or to put it even more simply—discipleship is about becoming more like Jesus (Luke 6:40).
This is what the church is called to do—make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20). But what that looks like and how it is done is not always easy to answer. That is what we will be talking about for the next five weeks before our Summer break.
This Sunday we will look at who is responsible for discipleship (whose job is it?). After that, we will spend on three weeks on the major focuses of discipleship—your mind, your heart, and your life. Then we will conclude the series with a look to your calling and responsibility toward helping others grow in their faith.
I encourage you to come and be a part of the study. See you Sunday at 10am!
Monday is New Years and, as is often the case, people’s minds turn toward things they’d like to do in the new year. Whether that is eating better, exercising, or spending more time in God’s word, the new year is a time for pausing and thinking about goals for the next leg of the journey.
Read MoreJudy Garland’s performance in Frank Baum’s the Wizard of Oz will forever be a classic. It is one of those movies that has successfully crossed barriers and renewed its place in the hearts of each new generation for many decades.
In the movie, Dorothy and Toto are accompanied on the road to Oz by three companions—the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion. Each feels frustrated by the lack of something. For the Scarecrow, he longs to have a brain so that he can think deep thoughts. The Tin Man wishes he had a heart so that he can love. And the Lion wishes that he could be brave. What is interesting is how each of these corresponds to what we have been learning in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3.
Read MoreThis morning our youth group, partnering with the youth from Timberline Baptist Church, worked on a mobile home with City Gates Ministries. City Gates works with less fortunate families who are trying to make a new start. One of their projects is mobile home renovations.
Read MoreWorship can sometimes feel like a chore, that’s why so many of us don’t show up on Sundays to church. But worship is not like taking out the garbage. Our feelings are too fickle to be the basis for going to worship. They change with a drop of a hat. They are always in flux according to what kind of day we’ve been having. Depending on the day, we either feel high or low when it comes to praising God. What we need is a bigger picture of worship to sustain us when our feelings are betraying us.
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