Tried With Fire

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 ...

I started Body Broken yesterday and finished it this morning. I ordered a used physical copy because there are too many good passages that need to be underlined, passages like this one: "If the crucified and risen Messiah cannot hold Democrats and Republicans together under the same roof, if he cannot enable them to work through their differences, then he is not much of a Savior - he certainly is not the Messiah of the world. Stories like Woodland Hills 1 "prove" that in the final analysis, we are a social organization just like any other social organization - united by the same sort of bonds that unite other human groups, and apt to dissolve for the same reasons that other human groups dissolve. This is more than unfortunate. It is disobedient, a betrayal of our Saviour, the cause of which he has called us, and the purpose for which he died. It proves that we have allowed our vision of America to capture our hearts more deeply than God's vision for us as his amba...

I normally don't read from my Kindle so I forget what books I've downloaded, usually ones that were free. As I was skimming the index, I found this book - Body Broken: Can Republicans and Democrats Sit in the Same Pew? by Charles Drew. I am not looking forward to the upcoming election cycle. If we are already this polarized, can it get any worse? So I started reading. Those who bemoan the moral and social disintegration of American culture are often right. But when they speak to us in such a way as to stir up fear and panic in our hearts, they are wrong. God reigns, and therefore we need not - we must not - be afraid as we exercise our civic responsibilities no matter what seems to be going on around us. Consider the damage panic can bring. First of all, panic impairs judgment. If we give in to the voice that cries "Act now, or our great country will the forever lost!" we will find ourselves demanding easy and quick solutions to our nation's problems, when in...

Commitment to the truth is a sign of personal integrity and ethics, but it is also obedience to the 9th commandment. It's easy to think that it only pertains to telling outright whoppers, but what about slander? What about passing on information that is unverified? Social media certainly provides plenty of opportunity to share hoaxes, fake news, and false cures with just a click. What about choosing to ignore or deny the truth because it does not conform to our narratives or implicates our idols? In light of that, I think these quotes from All That's Good are worth considering. "Facts are not the sum total of all that is true, but truth is not a set of privately held beliefs that cannot be tested by other people. The information that we use to come to our decisions must be available to them, and we must be prepared for our decisions and opinions to come under scrutiny. We must not be offended when people ask us to prove them. We must not expect people to accept them s...

These quotes are from All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment by Hannah Anderson. Lord willing, I will finish my work for today so I can write a review for Out of the Ordinary  tomorrow. In the meantime, I think these few quotes are worth pondering. "Broadly speaking, discernment is the ability to sort between a host of options and pick what is good. It carries the idea of judging the merits of something, being able to distinguish between good and bad and what is best... In other words, discernment does not change the challenges we face; it changes our ability to face them."  (pg. 25) "But tips and tricks are not skill and expertise. Information and data are not wisdom and knowledge. And knowing something is not the same as knowing how to do it or whether you even should." (pg. 26) "[T]here are no hacks to discernment. No easy steps to follow, no lists or tricks or tips to ensure that you'll be able to make good decision when y...

The following is a quote from How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age by Jonathan Leeman (pg. 133-135). "Here's the larger point: Christians should listen to what Republicans and Democrats have to say on welfare policy, tax policy, racial reconciliation, the refugee crisis, and growing suicide rates. But our thinking shouldn't start or stop there. Our thinking should be more expansive, more complicated, more personal, more human. Our political instincts should develop by living inside the loving and difficult relationships that comprise a church. You might even say our political thinking should be pastoral..." "Inside the local church is where a Christian politics becomes complicated, authentic, credible, not ideologically enslaved, real. It's in these real-life situations where you're forced to think about what righteousness truly is, what justice truly requires, what obligations you possess toward your fellow God-imag...

When people talk about the "good old days," when was that? What made them good and for whom? I haven't asked those questions out loud when people wax nostalgic, although I am thinking them in my head. Maybe I should start voicing my questions. With respect, of course, but consider yourself forewarned. The following are several quotes by three historians on the problem of substituting nostalgia for an honest evaluation of the past. Nostalgia evokes warm emotions for times gone by. Depending on the data available, the basis of these feelings may or may not be historically accurate. But no matter how you spin it, a false narrative is still false. Even if it makes us feel good. I would also venture to guess that the power of nostalgia is indirectly proportional to our knowledge base. The more we know, the less there is to imagine and less opportunity for ourselves and others to fill in the blanks with what satisfies our emotions. Nostalgia then becomes less of a too...

I can so relate to this excerpt by Michael Horton. Been there. Done that. Bought the t-shirt. Lived with this fear, and carried its heavy weight. I am so glad for the freedom of the gospel. Not the freedom of license to sin, but the freedom that comes from trusting God, who will complete what He has started. "According to the Reformation position, regeneration inevitably results in a changed life. Anyone who is truly born again by grace alone will be a "new creature," and therefore will be eager to love and obey God even when he or she ends of falling short of the mark constantly, as we all do. Looking back at those calls to "higher life," realizing that there is no such thing as a Christian who wants to be simply carnal, I can see how the call to enter into the "victorious Christian life" was appealing to all of us. We wanted it desperately. We would do anything for it. And, as [Zane] Hodges puts it, discipleship is not free in this system. It ...

I'm rereading Humble Roots by Hannah Anderson with a group of women in the church. This excerpt is from the chapter we will be discussing tonight. As often is the case with providence, I needed to read these words again because a stray thought and unanswered question brought a wave of anxiousness. I am the planner who tries to calculate all possible outcomes. My mind works like a decision tree. But it's not all up to me. I am a child of a Father who knows exactly what I need, not the Little Red Hen who has to do it all herself. Part of humility means trusting God with our plans and submitting to the possibility that they will not be fulfilled. We pursue certain ends, but we can't know the future. But part of humility also means trusting God with our plans and submitting to the possibility that they will be fulfilled in ways we cannot imagine.... If we limit ourselves to working only when the signs are promising, if we only plant when everything is perfect, we limit ou...

How we measure a person's worth determines how we treat them but also how we see ourselves. The messages we hear from the culture and from our closest influences feed into that understanding. Am I worth something based on my education or salary? Am I worth something because I am married and have children? Am I worth something because of physical abilities or beauty? Am I worth something because my kids have turned out okay and I am set for retirement? These things, which are not bad in themselves, are temporal and can change in a heartbeat. What are we left with when an incurable disease is chipping away at our ability to function at the most basic level? One of the saddest things I have heard from a person with memory loss is, "I can't do what I used to anymore. What is the point of living?" Is that true or is there another source of value that goes deeper? I think there is. We have to go back to imago dei - being made in the image of God. dementia is a threat ...

These are quotes from people directly involved in the crisis when Prince Edward County (PEC) closed their public school system to avoid compliance with Brown v. Board of Education. Helen Carter was a black staff member of the American Friends Service Committee. This is Quaker community service group who came to PEC to assist the black community in finding education alternatives for their children but also to try to bring reconciliation. John Hurt and Gary Smith were two of the children who lost 5 years of their education. I can't help but ponder their words in the light of events this week. "How can we in our tragedy act in such a way as not to allow the hatred which is all about us to consume us and become a part of ourselves?"  Helen Carter, 1961 1 "I wouldn't say the wound has been healed, but it's been dressed well enough that no one wants to take the bandage off it." John Hurt, 1992. 2 "I think that the Southern thing is be nice about ...

The following quotes are from  Heal Us, Emmanuel: A Call for Racial Reconciliation, Representation, and Unity in the Church , which contains contributions from various pastors in the PCA. I started reading this in earnest over the weekend and could not put it down. I don't agree with everything, but there is much that I do. Regardless, this book is thought-provoking and uncovers assumptions and unconscious privilege that the Christian majority culture  (white culture)   may be bringing to the table. There is more that I could write particularly in how those assumptions trickle down in application for women, but it will have to wait. My day job is calling me. You may disagree completely that there is any privilege whatsoever in play. Fair enough. My intent is not to point the finger but to  encourage you to listen to a side you may not have considered before. Above all, my motive is for the peace and healing of the Bride of Christ. I told them I was an elder o...

"Experience without doctrine is an unstable, often mystical, and wholly inadequate tool by which to define a movement. "To repent of sins," "to trust in Jesus for salvation," "to be born again" - the expressions used by evangelicals to describe conversion imply doctrinal content. But if there is no consensus about what constitutes sin or a sinful nature, about who Jesus was and is, about what Jesus did and does, and about what terms like "born again" mean, then the problem of a lack of doctrinal coherence stubbornly remains. Experience without content - or experience about which there is no agreement on the meaning of the words used to describe it - remains incapable of providing any clear identity for evangelicalism." The Real Scandal of the Evangelical Mind , Carl Trueman, Moody Publishers, 2011, pp. 18-19. [Updated 10:34 for missing word in quote. Corrected book title, too.  Sorry, Dr. Trueman.]

... but understand at this point that wearing spiritual armor is an essential element of putting on Christ and apply the new life of grace in Him; it is not something separate. Putting on God's armor is taking what God has so richly supplied in His Son and appropriating it personally each day. When we put on God's armor, we are doing more than applying a technique or method. We are doing something personal; we are putting on Christ Himself. Since Christ is all-sufficient, everything that we need to be covered is found in Him. All truth is connected to Him (John 14:6). All righteousness has its source in Him (1 Cor. 1:30). He is the central subject of the gospel of peace , for He is our peace (Eph. 2:14) - and so on through the list (Eph. 6:14-17). Clinton Arnold explains that,  therefore, "knowing the truth of who we are in union with Christ, cultivating the virtues of this new identity, and using the resources available through this new relationship are at the heart of w...

The Lord reveal himself more and more to us in the face of his Son Jesus Christ and magnify the power of his grace in cherishing those beginnings of grace in the midst of our corruptions, and sanctify the consideration of our own infirmities to humble us, and of his tender mercy to encourage us. And may he persuade us that, since he has taken us into the covenant of grace, he will not cast us off for those corruptions which, as they grieve his Spirit, so they make us vile in our own eyes. And because Satan labors to obscure the glory of his mercy and hinder our comfort by discouragements, the Lord add this to the rest of his mercies, that, since he is so gracious to those that yield to his government, we may make the right use of this grace, and not lose any portion of comfort that is laid up for us in Christ. And may he grant that the prevailing power of his Spirit in us should be an evidence of the truth of grace begun, and a pledge of final victory, at that time when he will be all ...

I n conclusion and as a general application to ourselves of all that has been said, we see the conflicting, but yet sure and hopeful, state of God's people. The victory lies not with us, but with Christ, who has taken on him both to conquer for us and to conquer in us. The victory lies neither in our own strength to get it, nor in our enemies' strength to defeat it. If it lay with us, we might justly fear. But Christ will maintain his own government in us and take our part against our corruptions. They are his enemies as well as ours. Let us therefore be `strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might' (Eph. 6:10). Let us not look so much at who our enemies are as at who our judge and captain is, nor at what they threaten, but at what he promises. We have more for us than against us. What coward would not fight when he is sure of victory? None is here overcome but he that will not fight. Therefore, when any base fainting seizes on us, let us lay the blame where it ought ...

The eyes of our souls cannot be towards him unless he has cast a gracious look upon us first. The least love we have to him is but a reflection of his love first shining upon us. As Christ did, in his example to us, whatever he charges us to do, so he suffered in his own person whatever he calls us to suffer, so that he might the better learn to relieve and pity us in our sufferings. In his desertion in the garden and on the cross he was content to be without that unspeakable solace which the presence of his Father gave, both to bear the wrath of the Lord for a time for us, and likewise to know the better how to comfort us in our greatest extremities. God sees fit that we should taste of that cup of which his Son drank so deep, that we might feel a little what sin is, and what his Son's love was. But our comfort is that Christ drank the dregs of the cup for us, and will succor us, so that our spirits may not utterly fail under that little taste of his displeasure which we may feel....

There is never a holy sigh, never a tear we shed, which is lost. And as every grace increases by exercise of itself, so does the grace of prayer. By prayer we learn to pray. So, likewise, we should take heed of a spirit of discouragement in all other holy duties, since we have so gracious a Saviour. Pray as we are able, hear as we are able, strive as we are able, do as we are able, according to the measure of grace received. God in Christ will cast a gracious eye upon that which is his own. Would Paul do nothing because he could not do the good that he would? No, he `pressed toward the mark'. Let us not be cruel to ourselves when Christ is thus gracious. There is a certain meekness of spirit whereby we yield thanks to God for any ability at all, and rest quiet with the measure of grace received, seeing it is God's good pleasure it should be so, who gives the will and the deed, yet not so as to rest from further endeavors. But when, with faithful endeavor, we come short of w...

Look inside, examine it against the Bible (just cited verses don't count), and then see whether it is worth reading or not. Many Christians do not distinguish between a likable personality and the content of that person's teaching... A vital skill for becoming a competent woman is learning how to read well.  We need to be alert and equipped, because Christian bookstores don't have genre labels like "fluff" and "I may look like I have my life together more than you, but I am about to wreck your theology." You would be troubled to hear that women in your congregation were uncritically going on dates with random guys they had met, wouldn't you? What would you do in that situation? You would want to spend some time helping them distinguish between attractive traits and harmful ones. This is what we want to do with the books they are reading as well. No Little Women: Equipping All Women in the Household of God , Aimee Byrd, P&R Publishing, ...

The expression "first-born" does not in clude Christ in the realm of the creatures, but ex cludes him from that realm. Being the firstborn and only begotten Son and Logos, and the adequate image of God, he from eternity sustained a very unique relation to the Father. And although as Mediator Christ is represented as dependent upon and subordinate to the Father; so that he is the servant sent to complete the Father's work, obedient unto death, and delivering his kingdom unto the Father; in essence and being he remains, nevertheless, co-equal with the Father. Accordingly, when in John 14:28 Jesus says that his going to the Father is for the disciples and occasion for rejoicing, "for the Father is greater than I," he does not mean that the Father is greater in power - for John 10:28-30 teaches differently - but he refers to himself in his humiliation . The Father in his glory is greater than the Son in his humiliation. But when Jesus goes to the Father this infer...