Tried With Fire

He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John 16:14) The Holy Ghost Himself cannot better glorify the Lord Jesus than by showing to us Christ's own things. Jesus is His own best commendation. There is no adorning Him except with his own gold. The Comforter shows us that which He has received of our Lord Jesus. We never see anything aright till He reveals it. He has a way of opening our minds and of opening the Scriptures, and by this double process He sets forth our Lord to us. There is much art in setting forth a matter, and that art belongs in the highest degree to the Spirit of truth. He shows us the things themselves. This is a great privilege, as those know who have enjoyed the hallowed vision. Let us seek the illumination of the Spirit; not to gratify our curiosity, nor even to bring us personal comfort, so much as to glorify the Lord Jesus. Oh, to have worthy ideas of Him! Groveling notions dishonor our precious Lord. Oh, to have such...

But there the glorious LORD will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby" (Isaiah 33:21). The LORD will be to us the greatest good without any of the drawbacks which seem necessarily to attend the best earthly things. If a city is favored with broad rivers, it is liable to be attacked by galleys with oars and other ships of war. But when the LORD represents the abundance of His bounty under this figure, He takes care expressly to shut out the fear which the metaphor might suggest. Blessed be His perfect love! LORD, if Thou send me wealth like broad rivers, do not let the galley with oars come up in the shape of worldliness or pride. If Thou grant me abundant health and happy spirits, do not let "the gallant ship" of carnal ease come sailing up the flowing flood. If I have success in holy service, broad as the German Rhine, yet let me never find the galley of self-conceit and self-con...

Listening is one of those things we take for granted and think we do well. But it's more than taking in speech through our ears. The point may not even be fixing a problem that is being presented. It's actually a setting aside of one's self and taking the time to be there for another person. 1 When I realized I needed to see a counselor several years ago, I assumed that she would tell me what to do, but she didn't. She gave me a safe and neutral space to unburden things I have never told another soul. She really didn't give much advice at all, but the blessing of having someone who actually listened to me and didn't offer platitudes or advice off the cuff enabled me to see my way more clearly than before. Having a listening ear was important when working through my issues, but I think it is a basic human need. But to listen well requires patience which seems to be a lost virtue. Given our consumer mindset, we can tailor our lives to cater to our interests ...

Well it's been a few weeks since I've been an empty-nester. We had been planning and preparing for my daughter's move to grad school for a while. The living room was piled with boxes. Many orders were placed with Amazon. Friends helped us move the big things. We made trips back and forth for the remainder of her stuff, and then all of a sudden, it happened, and I'm now by myself. It's weird. I should be used to it with past visitation, but this time it's permanent. It's been an adjustment to the new normal. So here are a few things I've been learning. Take care of myself - This is one area that I could let slide. There have been some mornings where it is nearly lunchtime before I realize I haven't eaten or drunk anything. Not good. I've also put off going to the grocery store and making do with what I have in the fridge and the pantry because I don't feel like venturing out. Again not good. I now have a better inkling why elderly people...

"And a Man shall be as an hiding-place from the wind and a covert from the tempest" (Isaiah 32:2). Who this Man is we all know. Who could He be but the Second Man, the LORD from heaven, the man of sorrows, the Son of Man? What a hiding place He has been to His people! He bears the full force of the wind Himself, and so He shelters those who hide themselves in Him. We have thus escaped the wrath of God, and we shall thus escape the anger of men, the cares of this life, and the dread of death. Why do we stand in the wind when we may so readily and so surely get out of it by hiding behind our LORD? Let us this day run to Him and be at peace. Often the common wind of trouble rises in its force and becomes a tempest, sweeping everything before it. Things which looked firm and stable rock in the blast, and many and great are the falls among our carnal confidences. Our LORD Jesus, the glorious man, is a covert which is never blown down. In Him we mark the tempest sweeping by, bu...

I finished reading two important books on child abuse – Not Forsaken by Jenn Greenberg and What is a Girl Worth?   by Rachael Denhollander. Two different women. Two sisters-in-Christ. Two different stories. Equally devastating and both offering insight if we would take the time to listen and learn. And that’s the thing. Taking the time to listen and learn. Why don’t we?  Why do Christians minimize abuse? Why do Christians get upset when you bring up this issue? Why do Christians justify covering it up? (This is just one example. ) This continues to baffle me. I tried to understand this from the point of view of psychology – Melvin Lerner’s “Just World Fallacy. “ I tried to understand the fear that would drive people to do this, but after reading these two recent books, I need to bring it closer to home. What would I do if this happened in my church? I pray it never does. In fact, I pray this almost daily, but what if it did? What would I do? There are two things that wou...

What is a Girl Worth? My Story of Breaking the Silence and Exposing the Truth About Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics - Rachael Denhollander, Tyndale Momentum, 2019, 352 pages. I stayed up later than I intended last night and finished What is a Girl Worth? . I had followed the Nassar case after connecting with Jacob Denhollander on Twitter. He shared his wife’s story in the Indy Star article – a victim/survivor who had come forward to stop an evil man who had been abusing children for decades. As I read the articles and watched the news coverage, Rachael came across as so brave, strong, and capable. Her training as an attorney was evident in the clarity and power of her carefully chosen words. But her book reveals what was going on behind the scenes – Would anyone believe her and take this seriously? Was it too late to report?  The internal turmoil and re-traumatization of having to retell her abuse.  Turning her private journals over to Nassar’s defense team knowi...

Beyond Authority and Submission: Women and Men in Marriage, Church, and Society - Rachel Green Miller, P&R Publishing Company, 2019, 273 pages. Newton's third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is true in science, and unfortunately, this is true in theology. Attempts to correct a problem can create an equal and opposite problem by reacting in fear, and I've seen this take place in the gender wars. But what if it's time to get off the pendulum, stop reacting, and see what the Word of God says? This is why Beyond Authority and Submission is such an important book.  Rachel Miller first examines what the Bible says regarding authority and submission. Spoiler alert: submission is rooted in our humanity, not in a particular chromosome pair. God has sole power and authority to whom all of creation is subject, including all of mankind. Any human authority is derivative and temporal. Thus the Bible admonishes chil...

"It shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not My people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God" (Hosea 1:10). Sovereign grace can make strangers into sons, and the LORD here declares His purpose to deal thus with rebels and make them know what He has done. Beloved reader, the LORD has done this in my case; has He done the like for you? Then let us join hands and hearts in praising His adorable name. Some of us were so decidedly ungodly that the LORD's Word most truly said to our conscience and heart, "Ye are not my people." In the house of God and in our own homes, when we read the Bible, this was the voice of God's Spirit in our soul, "Ye are not my people." Truly a sad, condemning voice it was. But now, in the same places, from the same ministry and Scripture, we hear a voice, which saith, "Ye are the sons of the living God." Can we be grateful enough for this? Is it ...

My review of Not Forsaken is at Out of the Ordinary today. " Not Forsaken by Jennifer Michelle Greenberg began as series of letters to her husband to try to explain the trauma and emotional, mental, and physical aftermath of her child abuse. She also wrote those letters for her own understanding of herself and to try to make sense in the scriptures of what she endured. Those letters became this book, and I am so glad she wrote it for the rest of us..." Read the review here .

I have been nearsighted for most of my life. In fact, I can't even remember what it is like to wake up in the morning, open my eyes, and see anything in focus. Because of this condition, I wear glasses to correct my vision. In Forbearance: A Theological Ethic for a Disagreeable Church, James Calvin Davis writes about other kinds of myopia, ways in which our view of ourselves, others, and the world are out of focus. Informational: Our brains and memories are limited. Our exposure to the world around is limited as well thus limiting our knowledge. Consequently "there is a limit to what any one person can know." But this isn't only just true for individuals. It "can also be true of communities especially monolithic ones." Temporal: We live in a particular time and culture and are products of those temporal boundaries. Therefore, "we often fail to appreciate the effect that historical location (including our own) has on a person's understanding...

You've probably heard these exact words before. You might have even said it about a friend or sibling. But all it takes is a couple kids playing together. One grabs the other's toy or gets a little too close for personal space. A little pushing, a little shoving, A few snarky words are said. The volume rises, and then Mom or Dad asks what the problem is. The aggrieved response is: "He did it first!" Oftentimes the parent will tell the children that they need to work it out, not tattle on each other, and shake hands. The handshaking is all about timing because you don't want to be the first to make a move toward concession. So on cue, hands meet, apologies are mumbled, and the kids start playing again maybe a little awkwardly at first. We may be more sophisticated than a couple kids, but our relationships have their share of tension. We've also had many more years to build up our store of biases and opinions about the way things should be. We disagree. Wo...

"BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ABIDES FOREVER." And this is the word which was preached to you" (1 Peter 1:25). All human teaching and, indeed, all human beings shall pass away as the grass of the meadow; but we are here assured that the Word of the LORD is of a very different character, for it shall endure forever.  We have here a divine gospel; for what word can endure forever but that which is spoken by the eternal God?  We have here an ever-living gospel, as full of vitality as when it first came from the lips of God; as strong to convince and convert, to regenerate and console, to sustain and sanctify as ever it was in its first days of wonder-working.  We have an unchanging gospel which is not today green grass and tomorrow dry hay but always the abiding truth of the immutable Jehovah. Opinions alter, but truth certified by God can no more change than the God who uttered it.  Here, then, we have a gospel to rejoice in, a word of the LORD upon wh...