MENU

Author

On February 9, 2020 By In Theology, Worship

Family Conversation

God is a conversationalist. He speaks. He has always been speaking. Speaking is so much a part of who God is that the second Person of the Trinity is called “the Word” (Jn 1.1, 14). The Father is the Speaker, the Son is the Word, and the Spirit is the Breath that carries the Word of the Father. God speaks within the Trinitarian family eternally.

The conversation of God was so full of love and life that, by it, he created the heavens and the earth to join in. The apex of God’s creation was his own image: man. To be the image of God means many things, but one of the primary meanings is that man is a conversationalist. Man is made to speak.

(more…)

Read more

On February 2, 2020 By In Theology, Wisdom, Worship

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

The story of the Good Samaritan is well-known in our culture, not just among Christians, but by everyone. We have Good Samaritan laws that protect those who help people in distress from being sued if the rescue doesn’t go well. Presidents and other politicians have referred to the story of the Good Samaritan in their speeches to encourage certain policies. Back in 2018, Nancy Pelosi recited the entire story in her eight-hour speech on the floor of Congress to promote “The Dream Act.” (https://www.christianpost.com/news/nancy-pelosi-recites-the-good-samaritan-parable-praises-evangelical-leaders-in-8-hour-speech-216989/) There is a Christian mercy ministry run by Franklin Graham called “Samaritan’s Purse.” Christians have a health insurance replacement called “Samaritan Ministries.” The story of the Good Samaritan is well-known, well-loved, and well-used.

When a story like this becomes such a common cultural fixture, it becomes easy to assume we understand the story. Our American culture has taken the story, for the most part, in a very simplistic way, reading it as if it were one of Aesop’s Fables: a story that promotes a moral. In this case, the moral is “Do good for hurting people.” This, of course, is true as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough. There is quite a bit more to the story.

(more…)

Read more

On January 26, 2020 By In Theology

Satan’s Fall

After his resurrection, Jesus gathered his disciples on a mountain and told them that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him. (Matt 28.18) Jesus was given rule over the nations.

It wasn’t always this way. Certainly, God is and has always been sovereign overall, but that is not the authority that Jesus is talking about. He is talking about the authority of a man to rule over creation. A man has never had this authority. To have man to rule and shape the culture of creation into the image of heaven was always God’s intention. God himself stated this intention to the man and woman at their creation (Gen 1.28). Heaven, God’s throne, would be God’s place of dominion, but he gave the earth to the sons of Adam (Ps 115.16). However, because of sin, man yielded his authority and future exaltation to greater authority to another being.

Here is the story of how the man, Jesus, became king.

(more…)

Read more

On January 19, 2020 By In Counseling/Piety, Theology

Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven, But Nobody Wants To Die

Loretta Lynn sang long ago, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” People like the promises of the good life, but if there is pain or other difficult challenges involved, they quickly lose enthusiasm and slip right back into the life with which they are comfortable even when they know that the long-term consequences are bleak.

This is happening all of this country in the form of new year resolutions to lose weight and exercise. People start like a ball of fire … until they get hungry, have to make time to exercise, and experience the pain of exercise. Those who say, “In order to reach your goals, you will have to cut back on the calories and do X amount of exercise a day” are considered dream-killers, wet blankets, the cold-water bucket brigade. Reality is a difficult thing to face, but like gravity, even though you may not like it, it is there. Jump off a roof and reality will hit you hard.

(more…)

Read more

On January 12, 2020 By In Counseling/Piety, Wisdom

Dying Well

It is better to go to the house of mourning

than to go to the house of feasting,

for this is the end of all mankind,

and the living will lay it to heart.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,

but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

(Ecclesiastes 7.2, 4)

Through my fifty-one years, I have been in the house of mourning a number of times. As a grandson, I have experienced the death of grandparents. As a son, I walked through the sadness of losing my father and mother. As a pastor, I have officiated the memorial services of still-born children, adults who have lived well into their nineties, and everything in between. I have seen death surprise families, and I have watched as the coldness of death slowly crept over families. For many deaths, I have been able to stand by the bedside of the dying, talking, praying, weeping, and rejoicing with them. At other deaths, I have witnessed people hopelessly wail at the loss of a loved one. I am privileged to have visited the house of mourning quite a bit through my years to lay to heart what is the end of every man.

Recently, I had the privilege of visiting a dying lady who is prepared to meet her Lord and Maker. She lives with her daughter and son-in-law. She has lived a full life. Her children and grandchildren love Jesus. She is at peace. Her slow but sure passing from this life is a joyful time for her and her family. No, they are not dancing. They hurt. But there is something that runs deeper than the hurt: there is a joy that springs from the hope that they have in Christ Jesus. She will die soon, but she will die having been recently surrounded by all of her children and grandchildren who share her hope. She will die well. She will die with joy.

While I was standing by her bedside praying with her, I must admit that I was overwhelmed with the beauty of it all, and I laid to heart, once again, my own end. I want to die well. When the day of my death draws close, if God grants me and my family the grace to know that it is coming, I want the fruit of my faithfulness to Christ to surround me with that sorrowful joy; that sorrow that my family and friends will truly miss my being with them, but the joyful hope that I am with Christ and will be reunited with them in the future. I want to die well.

The only way to die well is to live faithfully in the present. To live faithfully in the present, you must keep the end in mind. That is why it is wise to spend time in the house of mourning.

This is your end. What are you doing today to die well?

Read more

On December 29, 2019 By In Culture

New Kingdom. New Culture.

When Alexander the Great swept through Asia and northeast Africa creating an empire from Greece to northwestern India, military dominance was not his long-term plan to keep the empire united and subjugated. Military force for those who didn’t comply with the new empire was certainly always a threat, but it couldn’t be the only way to keep this vast empire under control. Alexander introduced a new culture. He “Greekified” the empire (properly known as “Hellenization”). Provinces would still retain some of their distinctives. However, common language, laws, customs, and even entertainment—an overarching unifying culture—bound the empire together to a great degree. There were new ways of living that attracted people to desire to be a part. The influence of Hellenization outlived Alexander and the Greek empire as it lived on through the subsequent Roman empire.

A new kingdom brings a new culture.

(more…)

Read more

On December 22, 2019 By In Theology

Ripples

The enemies were practically at the gates. Syria and Israel created an alliance against the southern kingdom of Judah and Ahaz, the king. Ahaz is a son of David, the giant killer; the one who trusts Yahweh to fight with him and for him against his enemies. However, at this moment, Ahaz was not acting like David. Ahaz and the people were gripped with fear. Their hearts were shaking like the trees of the forest when the wind blows (Isa 7.2).

In order to calm his fears, Yahweh sends his prophet Isaiah to give Ahaz the promise of victory. Yahweh invites Ahaz to ask for a sign that will seal this promise. In his unbelief, Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign. This is wearisome to God and Isaiah rebukes “the house of David” for it. Nevertheless, Yahweh promises a sign: the virgin will conceive and bear a son whose name will be called Immanuel. (Isa 7.14)

(more…)

Read more

On December 15, 2019 By In Theology, Worship

Ordinary Changes

Worship with God’s people on the Lord’s Day is not always exciting. It’s okay. You can admit it. Many times we walk out feeling encouraged. Sometimes we leave feeling refreshed. But there are those times–more often than not–that worship is … well … rather ordinary. We’ve gone to worship because we know that’s what God commands, but we don’t feel extremely different when we leave (except for exhaustion if you’ve had to wrestle with small children). We certainly don’t look any different. Nevertheless, as faithful Christians, we faithfully plod on Sunday after Sunday.

Somewhere in our hearts, there is this hankering for some excitement in worship. We want something different, something special that will thrill us and provide emotional motivation to be zealous throughout the week. Sometimes God provides this. There are times in worship when the fellowship of the saints seems particularly joyful, the sermon is especially penetrating and encouraging, and the Supper is a deeply emotional experience. Those times are special.

(more…)

Read more

On December 8, 2019 By In Counseling/Piety, Theology, Worship

Glorifying God

At the top of the Mt of Transfiguration, Jesus is glorified. The Father and the Spirit transfigure him, altering his face and making his clothes brilliantly white. This glorification is a gift from the Father through the Spirit to the Son. This gift is a responsibility, a mission, that will entail Jesus taking up his cross and be raised so as to redeem the created order. Jesus will take this gift, make it more than it is in the present—glorify it—and then return it to the Father. This sequence is basically what Paul outlines in 1Corinthians 15.20-28.

What is happening between the members of the Trinity on the Mt of Transfiguration is a glimpse into the eternal life and family culture of the Trinity. This mutual glorification, this giving-glorifying-and-returning sequence, is not unusual or something specific only to the incarnational ministry of Jesus. What we see is the revelation of the character of the Trinity. In his words and works, God reveals his eternal, immutable character.

(more…)

Read more

On December 2, 2019 By In Culture, Theology, Worship

Why the Church Year?

There was a time when time was not. God began to speak. The heavens and earth came into existence. The rhythms of life within the eternal Trinity began being imaged in the rhythms of the creation. Day one. Day two. Day three. Day four. Day five. Day six. Day seven. A steady, twenty-four-hour rhythm turns into the rhythm of the week. The rhythm of weeks turns into the rhythm of months. The rhythm of months turns into the rhythm of seasons. The rhythm of seasons turns into the rhythm of years. What started as a slow steady beat has turned into a symphony of layered rhythms; some consistent, some syncopated, but all moving the creation relentlessly forward.

In order to conduct this symphony, God put the sun, moon, and stars in the firmament-heaven. They separated the day from the night and were for signs and festival times. The heavenly lights were God’s authoritative clock to tell the world the time (Gen 1.14-19).

(more…)

Read more