Live Blogging!

I’m at the Desiring God National Conference! Gorfchild is in the bathroom!

Some of you blorks may know that Tim Challies is live blogging this conference. If you haven’t ever seen his blog you should go over there and just marvel at his typing speed, if nothing else.

I thought I’d set a more modest goal. I’ll live blog Tim Challies. I can attest that at 11:04 he was on the elevator with us. If I see him go to the bathroom tomorrow, I’ll be sure to blog everything that happens while he’s gone. :-)

Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.

This morning I received an email from a guy with whom I went to seminary and did campus ministry in 1991.  Here’s what he wrote: 

Angry thugs provide opportunity for us to increase reward in heaven (Matthew 5:12)

Last week our street witnessing team decided to do some open-air preaching using a sketchboard in one of the busy harbor areas of Istanbul (something we’ve done several times before around Istanbul and also in the capital city, Ankara). After I had finished preaching about the greatest love story of all—God’s love for us through the Messiah—an angry bearded man began arguing with me, claiming the real Messiah was not Jesus, but King David (something I’d never heard before, even from Muslims!). Then another man came up and started speaking very angrily with me, and suddenly hit me on the chin as hard as he could.

This set in motion a chain of events that left most of our team (4 foreigners from 3 different sending agencies, 1 Turkish believer, and 1 Turkish seeker) with bruises (one brother got a slight cut on his leg). Thankfully, there were no serious injuries, but we did report the incident to the police, who had our wounds checked at a nearby hospital.

We can gladly report that all of us involved are rejoicing, and planning to continue our outreach activities.  We believe there were some in the crowd who—unlike the thugs—were genuinely interested in what we were saying, and that some of this “seed” we sowed fell on “good ground” (Luke 8:4-16).

<end quote>

Now, how does that make you feel?  Do you feel more intimidated to preach the gospel?  I betcha don’t.  I’ll bet you feel more inspired to risk some discomfort for the sake of the gospel.  It’s a glorious paradox, but that’s the way it works.  Paul wrote in Philippians 1:14,

Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly.

The principle is this: Hearing reports of others joyful and confident suffering for Christ emboldens our witness.  This is one more reason to keep news of the persecuted church before us. 

So we probably won’t do any open-air preaching, but how could we be a little bolder?

Philemon 6

(Note the obfuscationless concision of a title liberated from elephantine circumlocution.)

When I was in college, Philemon 6 was a verse used to encourage us to evangelism.  Here is how it reads in the NIV–

I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.

Now I hope that you are being challenged by the Lord to grow into a “missional” mindset and that you will be praying for and looking for opportunities to speak salty thrist-producing words full of grace and truth to your neighbors and co-workers. 

But I’m now convinced that Philemon 6 is not about evangelism.  Look at it in the NAS–

I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ’s sake.

The word translated “sharing” in the NIV and “fellowship” in the NAS is koinonia, sharing in common.  The verse is not about evangelism becoming active, it’s about fellowship becoming effective.

I’d like for our fellowship to be effective.  How does fellowship become effective?  Through the knowledge of every good thing we have in Christ.  It is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to make this known to us.  1 Cor 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

So Paul is praying, as he also does in Ephesians 1, that we would, by the Spirit, know the unspeakable riches that we have in Christ and that knowing this, our fellowship would be an effective means of grace for our mutual edification. 

So the application seems obvious.  When we get together for fellowship, let it truly be a sharing of Christ in common.  Let us speak of every good thing we have in Christ.  Let us share with one another the things we have in Christ to which the Holy Spirit has opened our eyes this week.

 

Plundering the Egyptians: Toward an Empirical, Pragmatic, and Non-ontological Utilization of Jungian Psychology, and a Challenge to Titular Oneupsmanship

I don’t really have that much to say about this yet, but I thought of this title on the way to the office this morning and had to get it out here before Gorfchild makes his next post.

Basically, all I want to say is that I find the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) very useful.  We know that God makes people different.  We know that scientists have always attempted to make useful classifications of the observable differences in God’s creation.  It seems plausible, therefore, that differences in the cognitive tendencies of human beings could be usefully classified.  Such classifications are reliable to the degree that they are empirically verifiable.  And they are useful, especially in understanding how to work well together and forbear with the way that others think differently than we do.

But when Type Talk starts overreaching and tries to offer answers to bigger questions like, “Who am I?”,  “What is my calling?”,  “Is change possible?”, then we need to be careful.  I hope you will get busy in the meta and help me think of other uses and limitations of the MBTI.

The Armor of God for Women: Horns on the Helmet of Salvation

If you don’t understand the title, read the first two comments on “The Searchers” tab.

Here’s a sermon excerpt on  Luke 1:68-69 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,

Aside from the horns on the creatures in the book of Revelation, this is the only time in the New Testament that the word “horn” is used.  But a study of the word in the Old Testament yields some interesting results.  The Hebrew word for “horn” is qeren, so if your name is Karen, you should find this study even more engaging as you are learning the meaning of your name.  Actually, the name Karen is Danish, not Hebrew, but now that you’re a member of the New Israel, you can have a new meaning for your name.

So what does it mean?  What is a horn?  Well, there’s at least two kinds of horns.  There’s the horn that is on an animal, like a rhinoceros, or a bull, or a wild ox.  This kind of horn serves as a symbol of strength or victory in battle.  And there is the other kind of horn that is a musical instrument.  Zechariah seems to have the first kind of horn in mind when he says that God has raised up a horn of salvation for us, because this horn saves us from our enemies in verse 71.  David praised God in Psalm 18 as “my shield and the horn of my salvation”  in other words his defense (his shield) and his offense (his horn).  David calls God the horn, Zechariah calls Jesus the horn, and we see once again that Jesus is God.  

So Jesus is the horn of salvation.  Jesus is the one who slays our enemies.  More on who our enemies are in a minute, for now let’s keep thinking about the horn.  It’s a symbol of military strength and victory because animals use their horns in battle, but I think that the other use of a horn as a musical instrument is not totally absent from the meaning here.  After all, the two kinds of horns are really one and the same.   Back then they made the musical horn out of an animal horn.  You take the ram’s horn and the marrow is hollowed out and the hard bony exterior remains and you can blow through it and make music.  And then you can use this musical horn not only in praise at the temple, but you can use it as a military weapon to rally the troops. 

And remember that when you’re in the Lord’s army, praise itself is an offensive weapon.  When the Moabites and the Ammonites came up to war against King Jehoshaphat of Judah, King Jehoshaphat told the choir to march out in front of the army singing “Give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever” and God caused the Moabites and Ammonites to turn against one another and Judah was saved.   Or more to the point, remember when Joshua fought the battle of Jericho and the walls came a tumblin’ down?  When did the walls fall down?  When the priests made a long blast on the ram’s horn. 

This has been the image that has most inspired my devotion as I think about Jesus as the horn of my salvation.  I think of Joshua’s horn and I praise Jesus as the name on whom I can call and so shall I be saved from my enemies.   And not just saved from their attack, I can go on the offensive and attack them.  I can put to death my besetting sins by praising the name of Jesus because Jesus has already conquered my enemy and set me free from slavery to sin.

Perhaps Zechariah was thinking of deliverance from the Romans when he remembered the promise of God to saved them from their enemies, but perhaps he saw further.  For in verse 78 he speaks of giving knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins.  And however much Zechariah understood, we know that the angel said to Joseph in Matthew 1:20-21  Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”  Sin is the ultimate enemy of God’s people and Jesus came not only to be our defense from it but our offense against it. 

So the application is this:  Learn to wield worship as a weapon.  There is power in praising the name of the Lord who is the horn of your salvation to put to death the misdeeds of the body.  You’re already dead to sin, Jesus has already conquered your enemy, that’s why you can now put it to death.  Become what you are.  Appropriate your spiritual blessings in the heavenly realms and walk by the Spirit here on the earth.  Put on the armor and stand and fight.  Possess the promised land that’s already yours. 

Praise and worship is a practical way of doing this.  One of my favorite verses on worship is Psalm 89:15-16  Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O LORD.  They rejoice in your name all day long; they exult in your righteousness. 

This verse tells me that learning to worship is the key to rejoicing all day long.  But now this week I notice 2 new things about this verse.  First, the very next verse says, “For you are their glory and strength, and by your favor you exalt our horn.”  And second, the Hebrew word translated acclaim in the NIV is translated this way in the ESV “Blessed are the people who know the festal shout,”  and that word for festal shout is the same word used for the loud shout given by Joshua’s army after the priests blew the ram’s horn and the walls of Jericho came a tumblin’ down.  Blessed are those who have learned the war cry.  Worship is, at least in part, a war cry.  The Lord fights for us as we praise His name, and so shall we be saved from our enemies.

 

 

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 (A Sermon Excerpt)

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

 

 

So let’s spend more time this morning meditating on verse 17 and the comparison between our light and momentary affliction and the eternal weight of glory.   There’s an awful lot of suffering in this world, and it’s hard to look at some of it and call it “light”.  I find it easier to call it momentary.  I’m able to do the math and compare time and eternity and affirm that afflictions are momentary, they last for just a very little while is the phrase from Hebrews 10.  But it seems to take a deeper faith to call our afflictions “light”.  Some of them feel pretty heavy.  But it’s really a matter of scale.  What scale are we using to measure the weight of our afflictions?  Are we comparing them one with another, or are we comparing them to the weight of glory?

Paul surely chose this phrase “weight of glory” because the Hebrew word for glory also means heavy.   Glory is substantial.  Everything else seems wispy and ephemeral compared to glory.  In comparison with glory, our afflictions are light.  

How can we get a sense of the weight of glory?  Well we should know something of it, for this glory in verse 17 is not the glory of God, but our glorification. And we are even now being inwardly renewed from one degree of glory to another. Our inward transformation day by day anticipates the great day when our lowly bodies will be transformed to be like his glorious body.

Sanctification is really stage one of glorification. That’s a statement of far-reaching implications and getting a hold of it clears up a lot of theological confusion.  For example, people are always tripping up over the distinctions between sanctification (our growth in Christlikeness) and justification (our righteous standing before God which never changes because it is based on the neverchanging righteousness of Christ credited to us)  We get confused sometimes and start behaving like our acceptance before God is based on how we’re doing in progressive sanctification.  We start thinking that our justification is somehow based on this ongoing inward transformation.  Do you see how this error might be better avoided if we started thinking of sanctification as stage one of  glorification, rather than stage two of justification?

Romans 8:30 says “those he predestined he also called, those he called, he also justified, and those he justified, he also…what?  glorified”  What happened to sanctification?  It didn’t make the list.  I’ve come to the conviction just this week that the church in the twentieth century became way too obsessed with sanctification.  It’s was a symptom of our individualism and our pragmatism.  We’ve become obsessed with how we’re doing instead of exulting in what God has done and rejoicing the hope of glory.  Those he justified he also glorified.  Look back to the cross and forward to heaven and sanctification will take care of itself.   I don’t mean that we don’t have to fight temptation and overcome sin, I mean that we fight them by looking back to the cross and forward to the hope of glory.   Sanctification comes from exulting in justification and looking forward to glorification.

Now let’s test that theology by seeing if it helps us to understand Paul’s application of it in 2 Corinthians 4:17 to our afflictions. He says our light and momentary afflictions are actually preparing for us, or the NAS says producing for us this eternal weight of glory.  How do our afflictions in this world produce our glory?  Is there some kind of extra compensation in heaven for those who have suffered more on earth?  That doesn’t sound quite right.  But if you understand sanctification as the first stage of glorification, it starts to make sense.  Glorification begins immediately upon conversion.  It’s inward effects in this world of producing Christlike holiness we call sanctification.  And we all understand that our afflictions are used by God to make us holy to make us more like Christ.  Now if we just see that as being progressively glorified, being transformed into the image of the Lord from one degree of glory to another, then we understand how our afflictions are producing for us an eternal weight of glory.  And as we see that work of the Spirit in our hearts, making us more like Christ, it creates in us a foretaste of the glory of heaven when we will be consummately transformed into the image of Christ in the twinkling of an eye.  And the more we get a taste of that, the more we feel the weight of glory, the more we’ll see our afflictions as light and momentary.

Now in verse 18 Paul makes another distinction, this time between what is seen and transient, and what is unseen and eternal.  When Paul speaks of the seen and the unseen, he’s not making a philosophical distinction between the material and the immaterial.  The unseen things for Paul are not unseen because they are immaterial.  They are unseen because they are not here yet.   Heaven will be a physical place.  It will be a new heaven and a new earth and you will walk on it in a resurrection body and you will see the real material face of Jesus with real physical glorified eyes.  Heaven is visible.  It’s just unseen to us now because it’s not here yet. 

Here’s a fun philosophical way of saying it that I read in the commentaries.  The distinction between seen and unseen is not metaphysical, but eschatological.  So fixing my eyes on what is unseen doesn’t mean contemplating abstractions.  It means thinking about substantial heavenly realities that are really coming but just aren’t here yet.

Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  The unseen things are our future hope that we will one day see with our resurrected eyes.  And, as we sing, lord haste the day when the faith shall be sight.

So Paul regards thinking about heaven as enormously practical.  It enables us to see our afflictions as light and momentary.  It is the reason we do not lose heart.  

It’s a DOG!

Son of Matt thinks it’s a cat, Blondie thinks it’s a bra, let’s settle this once for all:

Is Heavenlymindedness Practical?

Yesterday a question was asked in the meta (that’s comments for those of you not yet fluent in blorkese)  (blork = blog + dork) about how we can think on our Blessed Hope and still remember to change the air filter in the furnace.  I think this could be a very edifying conversation and I want to spur you on to keep having it.  Here’s some more verses that speak to the practicality of heavenlymindedness.

Colossians 3:2-5 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

1 Peter 1:13-14 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance,

Romans 8:23-25 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved.  Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Hebrews 11:1,9-10,13-16, 24-26 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen…. By faith [Abraham] went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God….These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city…. By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

1 John 3:2-3 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

And finally, here’s a verse to encourage you to the discipline of spiritual conversation:

Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another in the meta of their pastor’s blog*. The LORD paid attention and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and esteemed his name.

*the earliest and most reliable Hebrew manuscripts omit this phrase.

Godliness in Hope of Eternal Life

In my preaching Sunday from Romans 5:15-17, I emphasized the importance of having the full assurance of our salvation.  If we are going to reign in life (and we most certainly are) we need to understand that we are under the reign of grace and no longer under the reign of sin and death.   

This morning I read something in Titus 1:1-3 that reinforced to me the importance of continuing to emphasize this in my preaching.  Paul believed that God called him to be an apostle in order to manifest through his preaching the hope of eternal life.   

Titus 1:1-3 “Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began and at the proper time manifested in his word through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior;”

What follows is an excerpt from a sermon on this text preached in 2001.

The truth with which we are entrusted is a truth which is according to godliness.  What does that mean?  “According to” is about the vaguest preposition we have.  What kind of accord is there between truth and godliness?   The NIV translates it “truth which leads to godliness.”  And indeed we are transformed by the renewing of our mind by the truth, but that is not what Paul is saying here.

 

In this book Paul emphasizes the power of hope which leads to godliness, and of that hope I will speak in just a minute.  For now we’re focusing on the relation between truth and godliness, and what Paul is saying is simply that they must go hand in hand.  They must not be unnaturally separated.  In every generation there are teachers who drift into gnosticism by turning Christianity into a merely  intellectual faith, saying if not explicitly, at least in effect, it doesn’t matter how you live your life as long as you’ve got the right doctrine.   And Paul says, “No, truth always accords with godliness”  Notice how he makes this point in 2:1-2 and 3:8.

Titus 2:1-2  But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.

Titus 3:8  the saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

I want to say something about the word godliness.   The English word godly sounds like god-like and so we think the word means something like Christlike character, but in fact the Greek word means literally “right worship”  It has a vertical dimension to it.  It concerns our piety, not to the exclusion of our obedience, for obedience to God is also worship, but it must be a worshipful obedience if it is to be called godly.  In fact, a better word, if there were such a word, would be Godwardness.  That directs your focus toward God, urges you to do all things to the glory of God and to keep your mind on things above.  

And where does the power come from to live this godly life?  Of course it comes from the Holy Spirit, but it comes as you hope in God.  We grow in godliness in the hope of eternal life.  Compare Titus 2:12-13 where we are told that grace instructs us to “deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope”  (see also 1P 1:13-14, 2P 3:10-12a, 1J 3:3)

So if an elder is entrusted with the truth that accords with godliness and if he is to exhort the flock to live a godly life, then he must speak much of the blessed hope.  He must be a man with eternity on his mind, he must seek to be used of God to remind, remind, remind people that our hope is not in this world.  For this is the truth that weans God’s people off of the world and produces a Godward life.

Jesus on Cussing and Cursing, Part 2

Matthew 15:11, 15-20  “it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”…But Peter said to him, “Explain the parable to us.”  And he said, “Are you also still without understanding?  Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled?  But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.  For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.  These are what defile a person.

Pay special attention to verse 17, “passes into the stomach and is expelled”.  Or in the KJV “goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught”.  The draught is an old word for a latrine.  The Greek word is “aphedron”.  According to Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, this is a word of Macedonian origin that has been called by some “barbarous”.  Another lexicon, Louw-Nida, says the word means a “place of defecation” and feels the need to warn us that “In some languages, however, a reference to a toilet may seem inappropriate for the Scriptures.”  That seems an odd judgment for a translator to be making. 

The point is that the word seems to have been regarded by some as a little off-color.  I heard one preacher say in a sermon that he thought Jesus was saying something like, “Don’t you get it?  What you eat can’t defile you, it just goes into your stomach and out into the crapper.”

Was the word Jesus used that shocking?  More shocking?  Less shocking?  Who knows?  Whatever he said was in Aramaic, so we know he didn’t actually say “aphedron”, much less “crapper”.   But if this word was a word that was regarded by some as a little rough, then it is quite relevant to our oft-debated topic of cussing and cursing that Jesus would use this word while in the midst of teaching us that what comes out of our mouth defiles us. 

He is teaching against the sins of the tongue which express “evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.”  Don’t use your tongue in any of those evil ways. 

Now you go think about that next time you’re on the crapper.