Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age

[In Wil’s January 28 sermon, he referred to Rosaria Butterfield’s 2023 book, Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age. The lies are: Homosexuality is Normal, Being a Spiritual Person is Kinder than being a Biblical Christian, Feminism is Good for the World and for the Church, Transgenderism is Normal, and Modesty is an Outdated Burden that Serves Male Dominance and Holds Women Back. Here are some excerpts to ponder. I found especially helpful her discussion of the difference between acceptance and approval (p. 279 and following). Page numbers are in brackets.]

What exactly does it mean to be made in God’s image? An image of yourself is what you see when you stand in front of a mirror. God is the object in the biblical creation account, and we are the reflection. Therefore, to reflect God’s image accurately, we need to look at him through the mirror of the word of God illuminated through the Holy Spirit. [28]

Homosexual orientation, a nineteenth-century Freudian invention (Sigmund Freud, 1856–1939), is an unbiblical category of personhood and an antagonist to the creation ordinance because it redefines sinful desire as something that defines who you are rather than how you feel. Lie #1 claims that the word of God doesn’t apply to homosexual orientation because homosexual orientation represents a person’s core truth…. We must ponder why God’s attribute of immutability has been embraced by the LGBTQ+ movement as an attribute of homosexual orientation…. When we hear “homosexual orientation is fixed and immutable—it never changes,” this is only imaginable in a world that has already exchanged the worship of the Creator for the worship of the creature, of God for an idol. “Gay Christians” … teach that you can’t repent of who you are, how you feel, or even what you desire. They believe that homosexual orientation is morally neutral, separate from one’s sin nature, cannot be repented of, and rarely changes over a person’s lifetime. This is a lie. [32]

“Coming out of the closet” and describing yourself by sin will never help you to repent from it, flee from it, and be delivered from it…. The idea that you should always “come out” and share with everyone your sinful desires happened because homosexual desire was transformed from sin (which demands repentance) to a morally neutral category of personhood (LGBTQ+), which demands affirmation and celebration…. All atheistic paradigms of personhood hate the very people they claim to love by denying them soul care. [44]

[After telling of how a pastor’s family invited her to dinner and shared Psalm 113 in evening devotions] And so it was that Psalm 113 changed my life. I looked into its mirror, and I saw how short I had fallen from God’s will. God used the offense of God’s word for the good of my soul…. Instead of lesbianism being who I was, I now understood it as both a lack of righteousness and a willful transgressive action. I was no victim. I was no “sexual minority” needing a voice in the church. I needed to grow in sanctification—just like everyone else in the church. I learned that we repent of sin by hating it, killing it, turning from it. But we also “add” the virtue of God’s word. It is light that changes darkness. The Bible calls us to mortify (kill) and vivify (enliven). I realized that Christians are given a new nature, yet we have sin patterns that we need to kill, to be sure. [63-64]

[In interacting with the pastor’s family, Butterfield realized that she did not know any women who were homemakers] Mothering was a fascinating job, not terribly unlike being a research professor: you must do one thing at a time well, and you must have flexibility and good humor as you carry on. [65]

[Puritan pastor] Thomas Watson say[s] that in the life of a true Christian, while we cannot “see” faith (and therefore we cannot see into the heart of others), we can see repentance. And if we don’t see repentance, we have no reason to believe that there is faith. [89]

When I sin or desire to sin, as a new creation in Christ I am now acting against my new nature. Sexual sin is a bear because of the body memories that it leaves in its wake, but body memories are part of my biography, not my new nature in Christ…. It exerts the same kind of temptation that the Israelites experienced in wanting to return to Egypt in the wilderness. [91-92]

Psalm 51 reveals that the Christian must fight even unchosen sin. [96]

Genuine Christians repent of all sin (including the sin that feels natural and good) because they trust Jesus more than they trust themselves. [104]

(Wil quoted this passage) It all comes down to this: Do you trust your feelings, or do you trust the word of God? Do you perceive your feelings through the word of God, or do you perceive the word of God through your feelings? Do your feelings know you best, or does the God who made you? [106]

[Jesus asks an invalid,] “Do you want to be healed?” (John 5:6). Let that linger for a moment. Do you want to be made well? Do you want to be made well on Jesus’s terms or your own? Does the Christian who calls himself gay want to be made well on God’s terms?… For the man to be healed, he needed to embrace the terms that Jesus was going to set. [111]

The mature Christian life is one of constant fleeing to the throne of grace for mercy, grace, and forgiveness of our sins. [114]

If the Bible is false, flawed, semitrue, or just true in the red letters, then none of it is true. If you aren’t convinced of that, then the minute the Bible crosses you, that part you will declare an ancient bias and no longer binding. [116]

[When biblical truth first appealed to her] At this point in my life, there was no room to believe it, because I already believed other things, and those other things left no room for Jesus. My complex belief system was important to me. I wasn’t a blank slate open to God’s word. I was filled to the brim with chaos and sin and anxiety and people who looked up to me…. I realized that my own feminist worldview was more than just a set of ideas. It was a religion. [147-149]

We must deal with sin at its first occurrence because the second will always be worse. [155]

[Calvin’s Institutes 1.1.2] “Because nothing appears within or around us that has not been contaminated by great immorality, what is a little less vile pleases us as a thing most pure—so long as we confine our minds within the limits of human corruption.” [157]

When feminism is the interpretative tool for reading Scripture, the powerful, supernatural word of God shrinks into an easily manipulated tool of sociology, revealing power plays and oppressors and offering no hope beyond its creation of new possibilities and new words to express one’s never-ending hurt. [178]

We need to ask the question, If the biblical account of creation cannot be trusted to teach us about what makes women distinct, where ought we to go for this insight? This is where the usefulness of feminism as a gospel frame crumbles in the foolishness that it is. It wants an essential and distinct women’s voice at the same time that it rejects a biblical origin for what makes a woman distinct. [187]

Transgenderism will be the final nail in the coffin of feminism. Why? Because you cannot defend the civil rights of a woman if you don’t know what she is. [191]

Real love confronts the lie that suffering people can’t help but envy others. Real love does not envy (1 Cor. 13:4). [202]

We live in a culture that ascribes truth to feelings and perceptions, and it fears hurting people’s feelings more than encouraging them to permanently mutilate their bodies. [213]

[Puritan pastor Jeremiah Burroughs in The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment] reminds us that the real question is not “What do I need?” but rather, “What is my duty?” Burroughs asks it like this: “What is the duty of the circumstances that God has put me in?” [244]

[Reflecting again on her first experience of sharing a meal in a Christian home] This night became for me a mirror. I looked into it and saw ugly things in myself and lovely things in God’s family. The first had to do with diversity—an important word in my lesbian community. While I proclaimed the value of diversity, the reality was that I had spent the past decade around people just like me—white, thirty-something, humanities PhDs in lesbian relationships. The mirror of this night was dramatic irony at its best. It was at my first experience of a Christian family feast, held at the straight, white, male pastor’s house, where I found myself in the most diverse crowd I had inhabited in years, maybe a lifetime. Men, women, children of every age. [251]

Our social media–saturated world encourages Christian women to replace modesty with exhibitionism.  [258]

The difference between acceptance and approval: Acceptance means living in reality and not fantasy. If your daughter calls herself a lesbian, you need to accept that. If your son Rex calls himself Mathilda, you need to accept this. He really is living in such a dangerous state of delusion and deception. That is reality right now. Acceptance is an important step in seeing the person you love in the sin pattern in which he is trapped. Acceptance, however, does not include believing his interpretation of how he got here or what it means. Acceptance does not include believing that Rex really is Mathilda. Acceptance does not include being manipulated by the therapist who asks, “Would you rather have a dead son or a living daughter?” Acceptance does not lose sight of Jesus and the cross he calls us to bear. Approval means that you give the whole situation a blessing. Approval means more than loving your daughter in her sin. It means calling her sin by another name (“grace,” “blessing,” or “illness”) and compartmentalizing and shrinking your Christian life in the process. [279]

While acceptance is not approval, acceptance is a great kindness. Acceptance means dealing protectively and gently with the person who is lost. [283]

Don’t give your prodigal reasons to run. And don’t take responsibility for your prodigal’s decision if she does run. [283]

[Speaking to parents of a prodigal child] You must get to a faithful church for the sake of your own soul. You need more help than you think. You are more vulnerable than you believe. Church is not a social club; it’s training for war. Like it or not, the theater of this spiritual war is your home and your heart and your family. [284]

Have you read Christopher Yuan and Angela Yuan (son and mother cowriting team) in their memoir of faith, Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God. A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope? If not, please do. This book is our most faithful trail guide for accepting and loving, but not approving of, your beloved prodigal. [285]

Going boldly to the throne of grace requires daily repentance of your own sin, but this means not taking on your prodigal’s sin as your own. It means repenting of the sin of self-pity. Satan wants you to feel responsible that you have a prodigal child. He wants you to think that it is all your fault, and that God is punishing you. He wants you to look at other families and covet what they have. Nothing that comes from Satan is helpful or true—even half-truths are lies. If you have fallen into sins of covetousness, repent and ask God to help you love your calling as a prayer warrior for a prodigal. [285]

It is the church that holds the keys to the kingdom, not the HR department enforcing transgender pronouns. Things have changed—and we need to discern how those changes impact our lives. But the gospel hasn’t changed. God hasn’t changed. Here at the Butterfields’, the gospel still comes with a house key. [She then tells a story of a frank but gracious interaction with her gay neighbors about the Bible, vaccines, and spheres of authority.] [293]

Advent: Of the Father’s Love Begotten

“Jesus is born!”

Every December we raise our voices in song proclaiming this event. We sing together carols written in the last few centuries; we rightly compose and sing new songs of praise.

But what songs did our brothers and sisters in Christ sing 1500 years ago?

In his introduction to a 1946 translation of Athanasius’ On the Incarnation of the Word of God,  C.S. Lewis writes:

Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need the books that will correct the characteristic mistakes of our own period. And that means the old books.

As with books, so with carols. We do well to interact with hymn texts not only from our century, not only from the previous three centuries, but also from the early years of the church. Such texts may state biblical truths in a different form from what we are used to; they may emphasize truths that we ignore; they may err in ways that are obvious to us – and so remind us that we most likely err in ways that would be obvious to believers of that era.

In our Advent services this year we have sung a carol written in Greek in the fourth century, “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence.”  Here is another text of that era that is well worth your contemplation: “Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” written by the poet Aurelius Prudentius and translated in the 19th century by John Mason Neale and Henry Baker. Emphasizing the eternal nature of God’s plan of redemption through His Son, each verse ends with the line, “Evermore and evermore” (saeculorum saeculis in Latin). Let’s consider the nine verses one by one, highlighting how each spurs our praise.

Stanza 1:

Of the Father’s love begotten,
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore!

The second person of the Trinity is begotten of the Father’s love. While we today do not often speak in those terms, consider that first line in light of Luke 3:22 and John 3:16. The author goes on to call Jesus both the source of all creation and the end for which all exists, including all humanity (Colossians 1:16).

Stanza 2:

At His Word the worlds were framèd;
He commanded; it was done:
Heaven and earth and depths of ocean
In their threefold order one;
All that grows beneath the shining
Of the moon and burning sun,
Evermore and evermore!

He speaks – and, as at the tomb of Lazarus, His word has instant life-giving power. Furthermore, He gives not only life but order, with all parts of creation harmoniously working to praise Him, as pictured in Psalm 104.

Stanza 3:

He is found in human fashion,
Death and sorrow here to know,
That the race of Adam’s children
Doomed by law to endless woe,
May not henceforth die and perish
In the dreadful gulf below,
Evermore and evermore!

The author of life becomes man to know death experientially so that we the redeemed might not face death evermore and evermore! See Hebrews 2:14-15 as well as – once again – John 3:16.

Stanza 4:

O that birth forever blessèd,
When the virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bore the Saviour of our race;
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face,
evermore and evermore!

The birth of Jesus – “conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary” as stated in the Apostles’ Creed – is both a historical event, indeed, the hinge of history, and the eternal truth through which we must understand and interpret all that we see.

Stanza 5:

O ye heights of heaven adore Him;
Angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him,
and extol our God and King!
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert sing,
Evermore and evermore!

Given what we have seen, all must praise Him – heavens, angels, powers, and all humans. Understand “concert” not as a performance, but rather as every voice perfectly harmonizing with every other. We all must praise “in concert” for Jesus to receive the praise He deserves.

Stanza 6:

This is He Whom seers in old time
Chanted of with one accord;
Whom the voices of the prophets
Promised in their faithful word;
Now He shines, the long expected,
Let creation praise its Lord,
Evermore and evermore!

Just as in the previous stanza we sing His praises differently yet harmoniously, just so the prophets foretold His coming differently yet “with one accord.” The promise to Abraham, the promise to David, the promise “unto you a child is born, unto you a son is given,” the promise “the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” – each brings out a different facet of the person and work of Jesus, yet all are in accord, and together they describe in significant detail the coming Messiah. And now, says the poet, He shines with glory, as He fulfills all those prophecies.

Stanza 7:

Righteous Judge of souls departed,
Righteous King of them that live,
On the Father’s throne exalted
None in might with Thee may strive;
Who at last in vengeance coming
Sinners from Thy face shalt drive,
Evermore and evermore!

The Creator of all things, the Baby in the manger, the dying Redeemer on the cross, will return as the almighty King and Judge, against Whom no power can stand. He will overwhelm and rightly condemn all who oppose Him. See Revelation 11:15, 19:11-21, and 20:7-10.

Stanza 8:

Thee let old men, Thee let young men,
Thee let boys in chorus sing;
Matrons, virgins, little maidens,
With glad voices answering:
Let their guileless songs re-echo,
And the heart its music bring,
Evermore and evermore!

The poet here expands on Stanza 5: Every person of whatever earthly status has a role to play in praising Jesus from the heart, so that He gets all the glory He deserves. Consider Mark 11:14, John 4:23-24, and Revelation 7:9-12 in this regard.

Stanza 9:

Christ, to Thee with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
Hymn and chant with high thanksgiving,
And unwearied praises be:
Honour, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory,
Evermore and evermore!

The hymn closes with “unwearied” praise to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Why “unwearied”? The four living creatures in Revelation 4:8 “day and night … never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy!’” We too in the eternal state will never weary of worshiping our God in spirit and truth – and thus will fulfill the purpose of our creation, the purpose of our redemption.

Thank you, Father God, for preserving such ancient texts to help us worship You this Christmas season. May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to you this season – then evermore and evermore.

(The Latin text and a second English translation of this hymn are available here. I encourage you to listen to a lovely a cappella recording of five of these verses here.)

As the Mountains Surround Jerusalem So the Lord Surrounds His People

Consider three texts:

  • Psalm 125:1-2: Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion, which cannot be moved, but abides forever. As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, from this time forth and forevermore.
  • Jude 24: [God] is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy
  • Luke 22:32 (Jesus is speaking to Peter after prophesying his denial): “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.”

To whom do these texts refer? Who can count on such promises?

We 21st-century Americans tend to see in these texts promises to ourselves and other individuals:

  • “Since I trust in the Lord, He surrounds me and protects me.”
  • “God will keep me from stumbling and present me blameless before Him.”
  • “Jesus prays for me, strengthening and securing my faith.”

Praise God – these precious promises do indeed apply to us as individuals who trust in Jesus.

But Psalm 125:2 closes with the phrase, “from this time forth and forevermore.” When is “this time”? Well, the psalm was written more than 2500 years ago.

For all these years, God has been surrounding His people, advancing His purposes, building His church, keeping her from stumbling, seeing to it that the faith “once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3) does not fail. We today stand at the end of a long line of faithful believers, all witnesses to God’s surrounding love. Through the dangers of persecution and the dangers of acceptance, despite indwelling sin and the enticements of the world, through times of renewal and times of apostasy, God has preserved, established, and spread His church century after century, continent after continent, culture after culture.

These promises apply not only to believers as individuals but also to God’s people as a whole.

Beth and I glimpsed this truth last month while in Turkey with Matthew and Kailie. We visited Cappadocia, a region of great importance in the history of the church. Three hundred years after the resurrection, theologians from this area known as the “Cappadocian Fathers” were instrumental in combatting heresy by clarifying the biblical doctrine of the Trinity. In subsequent centuries, believers created amazing churches and homes by digging through the volcanic rock. We were able to visit a number 1200-year-old cave-churches, some complete with frescoes of biblical characters. The most well-preserved of these churches are in the Goreme Open Air Museum. The Dark Church is particularly striking, with frescoes of Jesus and John the Baptist, among others.

But most stirring for us was a church far away from the tourists. We hiked down steep slopes into an ancient valley, past old grape vines and apple trees, approaching a rock face pocketed with holes – were they windows? We climbed through an opening, up some stairs carved into the rock – and came out into a massive interior space, with large columns from floor to ceiling.

No one else was there – just our family and the seeming presence of these believers from ages ago. I felt such a sense of oneness, of shared family with those who for the glory of the name of Jesus chipped away at the rock centuries ago, hour after hour, day after day, year after year.

There was a continued Christian presence in this area for centuries – until 1923 when many Christians were expelled from Turkey to Greece, and Muslims expelled from Greece to Turkey. So for the last century there has been no worship of Jesus in these rock churches.

Since our return home, I have learned more about the genuine faith of many in this era through reading The Reformation as Renewal by Matthew Barrett, who argues that the Reformation built on much of the theology and piety of the medieval church, including the writings of Anselm, Thomas, and Lombard – even when the Reformers themselves did not perceive their influence –  and that the Reformers’ arguments were focused much more against the positions taken by later Scholastics such as Ockham and Duns Scotus.

Be that as it may, as we celebrate twenty years of God’s faithfulness through Desiring God Community Church, let us also look back over twenty decades, over twenty centuries, and praise God that as empires rise and fall, as economies thrive and crash, as Christians are exiled and welcomed, God is always building His Church, spurring His people on to acts of devotion and witness, showing in Cappadocia and in Charlotte, in cave churches and in modern buildings, that Jesus is worthy of all our efforts and the source of all our joy. God’s Church is like Mt Zion – the Lord surrounds that Church, and He will present Her blameless before His presence with great joy – all of us, those who carved the Cave Churches, we who are part of Desiring God Community Church, followers of Jesus from every tribe and tongue and people and nation – and century.

Who Receives the Commendation, “Well Done”?

“Well done, good and faithful servant…. Enter into the joy of your master.” (Matthew 25:21, 23)

In Jesus’ story, so says the master to his servants who double the money he entrusted to them.  

The Apostle Paul tells us that “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” (2 Corinthians 5:10). 

So at that judgment seat, to whom will Jesus say, “Well done!” 

  • To those who see many come to faith through their witness? 
  • To those who plant churches and preach good sermons? 
  • To those who raise children “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4)? 
  • To those who work faithfully at their jobs, not just giving eye-service, knowing they are serving Jesus (Ephesians 6:5-8)? 
  • To missionaries who go to unreached peoples and spur on others to go to the unreached? 

That last category includes Elisabeth Elliot (1927-2015). Lucy Austen’s new biography details her Christian upbringing, her call to missions, her brief marriage to Jim Elliot and his death at the hands of the people group he was trying to reach, her subsequent return with their little daughter to that people group, her many books, radio broadcasts, and speaking engagements. 

Beth and I read a number of her books in the first decades of our marriage, and Beth listened regularly to Elliot’s daily radio broadcast when we had a house full of young children. Beth and our daughter Erin were privileged to hear her speak in person at Gordon College in 2002. 

In God’s providence, that was one of Elisabeth Elliot’s last speaking engagements. Surprisingly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1998 at age 71, she ended all public speaking in 2004. She lived her final eleven years with increasingly severe dementia. 

So when Elisabeth Elliot stood before the judgment seat of Jesus, what did our Lord say? “Well done”? If so, was He referring only to her life through 2004? What about those last years with Alzheimer’s?

We can only answer the question rightly if we remember what Jesus calls us to.  He calls us to be like Him, to be like the Father. He calls us to be conformed to His character (Romans 8:29). He calls us to follow Him (as Jacob will explain this Sunday). All our works are to be done in the strength that He supplies, so that He gets all the glory (1 Peter 4:11). Indeed, apart from Him we can accomplish nothing – just as a branch of a grapevine cannot produce fruit unless it stays connected to the vine (John 15:4-5). The Apostle Paul details what this conformity to the character of Jesus looks like in Galatians 5:22-23, and calls it the “fruit of the Spirit” – what God produces in His people. 

Clearly then Jesus commends at His judgment seat not our accomplishments, not our activities, not our work life, not even our family life. He proclaims, “Excellent!” (a possible translation of the Greek word – there is no word for “done”) over our active dependence on Him to become what He intends, to become like Him. 

Necessarily, for those of normal physical and mental health, this includes activities such as those listed above that are done by His power for His glory, as an outgrowth of His work inside us.  But the emphasis is not on what we do; the emphasis is on who God has made us to be. 

And who did God make Elisabeth Elliot to be? A chosen, holy, beloved child (Colossians 3:12). An unworthy servant whom He used in marvelous ways through periods of trial, periods of intense work, and a lengthy final period of suffering from Alzheimer’s. He chose those last eleven years for her. She had displayed Jesus through diligent service for decades. In her last decade, she displayed Jesus through patience in suffering, through the enduring of affliction, in some ways following Him in His final hours. And Jesus pronounced, “Excellent!” over the entirety of that divine work. 

In concluding a biography Elliot wrote in 1968, she asks whether her subject will have been:

welcomed home with a “Well done, good and faithful servant,” or will he simply have been welcomed home? The son who delights the father is not first commended for what he has done. He is loved. (From Who Shall Ascend? as quoted in Austen, p. 525)

In Jesus, you too are chosen and holy and loved. Live by faith in Jesus – as we proclaim at the end of our services, “remembering who you are and to Whom you belong.” Our God will complete the good work He has begun in you, His beloved, enabling you to fulfill the purpose for which He made you and redeemed you. And on that final day, He will proclaim over you, “Excellent! Enter into My joy!” 

Let Us Pray: Help in Prayer from D.A. Carson’s “Praying with Paul”

Praying can often be challenging in many ways. Simply finding time to pray once throughout the day can be elusive, let alone trying to find and establish a rhythm of prayer. We find our time in prayer comes in fits and starts and often looks random as opposed to regular and rhythmic. Then once we do start praying, we find that our mind tends to wonder to-and-fro to the point that we often can’t even remember what it is we’ve already prayed for or haven’t prayed for yet. What is the remedy? One very helpful and encouraging resource for building a regular rhythm of prayer in one’s life is D.A. Carson’s Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation.

The Introduction and first two chapters alone are a treasure trove of practical and biblical wisdom. First, Carson identifies the immense value of prayer. Then he offers some practical steps to help us start praying and to help us drown out the noise of everyday. And then he offers insight into building a biblical framework that helps guide our prayers. This practical wisdom helps eliminate distractions and the biblical wisdom informs and streamlines our prayers so that we pray in the Spirit, in accord with the heart of God as revealed by Scripture.

 

The Need for Prayer

We will not ever prioritize prayer or ever establish a rhythm of prayer in our lives if we do not recognize the immeasurable value of prayer. Carson notes, “The most urgent need of the church in the Western world is the need to pray.”[1] Carson acknowledges the swath of other areas the church needs to address and be prepared to respond to (Issues like overwhelming biblical illiteracy, cultural moral decay, the sexual revolution, the rise of cultural intolerance for those disagreeing with majority cultural virtues, unreached and unchurched people groups, etc.). However, he maintains “the one thing we most urgently need is a deeper knowledge of God. We need to know God better.”[2] And what is one of the primary ways in which we grow in our intimate knowledge of God? How do we know God better? We pray.

“One of the foundational steps in knowing God, and one of the basic demonstrations that we do know God is prayer—spiritual, persistent, biblically minded prayer.”[3]

So once we recognize its value, then the next natural step is to engage in the practice of prayer itself.

 

Practical Steps for Prayer

I once had a track coach who offered powerful wisdom for improving one’s running ability and speed. He could often be heard saying to us unfit, ailing, frustrated wannabe track stars, “Do you want to know how you become a better, faster runner? You run.” In chapter one, Carson makes much the same point with prayer. If we want to see improvement in our prayer lives, the first step is to pray. Or, to say it another way, we often struggle in prayer because we don’t pray regularly. Carson addresses this point specifically in this way, “Much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray.”[4] He then offers perhaps one of the simplest yet most profound pieces of wisdom with regard to prayer: “It is better to pray often with brevity than rarely but at length.”[5] The first step to improving our prayer life is to pray.

Carson then offers some simply practical steps to help eliminate distractions. Among these are: vocalizing prayers, praying through Scripture, making prayer lists to follow, journaling prayers, having a prayer partner, etc.[6] The takeaway from these suggestions is that there are practical steps we can plan to take along with good and wise practices that help focus our prayer efforts. Some will find different practices to be more beneficial than others. The key is finding what works for you.

 

Developing a Framework for Prayer

In chapter two, Carson urges us to develop a robust framework for our prayers. And as the title of his book suggests, he models this framework off of Paul’s prayers. Specifically, he models it off of Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 1:3–12. There, Carson points out that two elements make up Paul’s framework for his prayer:

  1. Thankfulness for signs of grace in the Thessalonians
  2. Confidence and hope in God’s coming reign at Christ’s return, and the justice it will bring

So, when we pray, we too should recognize the varying signs of grace that God has granted in us and our church family. And we make it a point to thank God for such gifts of grace. Such gifts could be increased faith, increased love, increased knowledge of God, growing maturity, perseverance in trials and suffering, people using their gifts to build up the body, confession and repentance, etc. When we recognize such graces, our instinct should be to thank God for them. As we develop this framework, we will likely find that we become more proficient at recognizing them. We will begin to identify God’s gifts of grace where before we might of looked right past them. So when we pray, we infuse our prayers with thankfulness for signs of divine grace.

And, when we pray, we pray with a view to and longing for the fullness of God’s kingdom that comes with the return of Jesus. We anticipate not just the joy that comes with his presence but also the justice that comes with the consummation of his kingdom. All wrongs will be made right. God will vindicate all his people, and God will exact retribution on all the enemies of him and his people. Saints have always fit their prayers into the reality that God will deliver vindication and justice for his people, whom he knows intimately. Think of David’s prayers to God in the Psalms (cf. Psalm 139, which we have recently memorized as a congregation). Therefore, when we pray, our prayers take on a tincture of hopefulness because Jesus will return. And so in our prayers we raise up this plea to heaven, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).

 

Let Us Pray

We must recognize the value and need for prayer. With Carson’s help, we can find ways to plan for prayer and develop practices to eliminate distraction. And with Carson and Paul’s helps, we too can begin to develop and build a framework for our prayers that infuses them with thanksgiving and hope. When we pray, we commune with God, grow in our knowledge of him, thank him for his varied gifts of grace in our lives, and joyfully anticipate Christ’s return when he will right all wrongs. So the only thing left for us to do is to pray. So let us pray.

[1] D. A. Carson, Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Second. (Baker Academic, 2015), xi.

[2] Carson, Praying with Paul, xiii.

[3] Carson, Praying with Paul, xiii.

[4] Carson, Praying with Paul, 1.

[5] Carson, Praying with Paul, 2.

[6] Carson, Praying with Paul, 2–20.

How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church

[In Let the Nations Be Glad, John Piper writes that worship is the fuel of missions, because “you cannot commend what you do not cherish.” A new book by Daniel Hames and Michael Reeves – God Shines Forth: How the Nature of God Shapes and Drives the Mission of the Church (Crossway, 2022) – elaborates on that idea. Here are some excerpts, with page references – Coty]

Our aim is to set before your eyes God as he truly is: God who is so full of life and goodness that he loves to be known; not as a campaign to impose himself on us or on the world but to give himself and share his own life with the world. (21)

The glory of God is personal: the Father’s radiance is the Son. It is God the Son who comes to be with his people and, in doing so, shines upon us the truth of the Father. (31)

“The love of God does not find but creates that which is pleasing to it.”[Luther] In his love, God gives to us what we need to know him and have fellowship with him. It is all by his grace and does not rely on us in any way…. God truly loves us sinners and has done everything necessary to redeem us and bring us to himself. He is not interested in our intelligence, morality, or abilities so much as our loving trust and reliance on him in his goodness. (45)

The glorious fullness of the living God revealed in Jesus sets him apart from all other gods. His innermost being is a sun of light, life, and warmth, always shining out: radiant and outgoing. Other gods, however, are always pits of grasping neediness. (66)

The human soul is like an open throat. For you to be a “living being” is to be like a newly hatched chick in the nest. Not yet able to fly or hunt for yourself, you open your beak wide and cry out for the provision of your parents. You are created to desire and crave—and to have poured into you from outside—life and sustenance, whether physical or spiritual. For this reason, the very soul of a person can “thirst for God” like a deer panting for water (Ps. 42:2) or a man in a “dry and weary land where there is no water” (Ps. 63:1). To be human is to be a thirsting and hungry throat: to rely on, receive from, and eat and drink from the living God. The Lord has made us this way to show that he alone is the source of life and that we must go to him for it. (69-70)

When we set our hearts and hopes on anything that is not the living God, we are thrown back on ourselves. Gods that cannot speak will need us to find words. Gods that cannot carry us will need us to pick ourselves up. Gods that cannot freely love will need us to make ourselves loveable. Whether our god is reputation, possessions, or relationships, we will be let down. Exhausting our own supplies, and with no supernatural help from such non-Gods as these, we will become as demanding and oppressive as they appear to us. (71)

Having turned away from the God of glorious fullness [in the Fall], [humanity] condemned themselves to chase the fullness they now lacked in created things that could never meet their needs and desires…. Eve thought that eating the fruit would make her “like God”—something more than she already was. Yet, in the eating, she and her husband became far less than they were. They had, of course, been created to be like God in the first place, but now, heeding the whisper of the serpent, they were quite unlike God…. How the mighty had fallen! This was a fall not only from moral innocence and purity but from fullness and glory (75-76)

Given all we have seen, it is no wonder that our culture is overrun with issues surrounding identity. Since the garden, we do not participate in the fullness of God’s life, his image in us has been vandalized, and we are consumed with self-love. Sinners do not know who, why, or what they are. Many people want to improve themselves but simply do not know what “mended” or whole people would look like. Sensing our brokenness, we make wild stabs at solutions: political activism, radical moral codes, mindfulness, self-improvement, dieting fads, and so on. Increasingly, self-assertion is seen as the key to real happiness, and so, in the brave quest for “authenticity,” almost anything is to be applauded and honored. We recognize that some do not consider themselves beautiful, some are compelled to lie in their job applications, and others feel ill at ease with their biological sex. The answer to all this, we are led to believe, is to look in the mirror and to reach deep within to retrieve our “true self,” increasingly accept it, and let it shine. However quirky, socially unacceptable, or controversial our actions, we are encouraged to be “true to ourselves,” and those who do so most tenaciously are lionized. “You do you,” says the world. This self-assertion is a kind of mission, but one driven by the empty self and not by the glorious God of heaven. It reaches out into the world not to give but to take. Ours is a society utterly persuaded by this lie and largely unable to see the truth: all the talk of looking within and finding “it” within yourself will never solve the problem, because that is the problem. We are simply not designed for incurvature. (85-86)

Evangelism is, by definition, the good news of Christ, not only a warning about the last day. When it comes to motivating Christians to mission, the gospel that moves the missionary must be the same one he or she expects to win the hearts of the lost. If we burden Christians with the guilt of abandoning people to hell, it will be the message of guilt and hell they will pass on, rather than the message of the Savior of sinners and conqueror of hell. Jesus Christ will not be the jewel of the gospel they tell, but only the means to escape a terrible end. Not only this, but the resulting converts will have been motivated by their preexisting instinct for self-preservation. Disciples who are won not by the glory of the Lord to repentance and faith but by an appeal to their own well-being will continue in exactly the same direction. Their newfound faith will be more about themselves than about Christ. (110)

We may find ourselves emphasizing themes of the gospel like “grace” or “heaven” but not explicitly holding out Christ as the gift and as the treasure of heaven. We may offer the world the hope of transformed lives, healed hurts, and renewed communities, but make Jesus the means to these things rather than the center of them all. These things are blessings of the gospel, but if they are elevated to become its center and our focus, they will become nothing more than substitute gods. (113)

[Quoting Luther] “It is right to call the word of the minister and preacher which he preaches God’s word, for the office is not the minister’s and the preacher’s, but God’s; and the word that he preaches is likewise not the minister’s and preacher’s, but God’s.”… This could not be more astounding. In the word of God, even when it is spoken by fallible and sinful humans, God truly gives himself. This means that in our proclamation of Christ in sermons, evangelistic messages, and even conversations about the gospel, Christ the Word is present in power. God is speaking his own Word; God is enlightening with his own light; God is offering himself to those who hear. (116-117)

If God seems to us to be empty and needy, we will serve him with empty hearts, finally taking what we need from the world rather than freely blessing it. What we truly worship and cherish will, for good or ill, be revealed in our mission. It is possible to look completely theologically orthodox while doing this kind of mission. We may doggedly cling to the inerrancy of Scripture, the uniqueness of Christ, the doctrine of hell, and substitutionary atonement while—all the while—exposing the world to an undelightful God. The God we know—or think we know—is the God we will show to the world. If we ourselves do not constantly revel in his free justification of sinners, his self-giving love, and his Son poured out to death for us while we were still his enemies, then we will be ghostly, unhappy Christians holding out a black hole of a god to people already dying. (123)

[For those who go out with the gospel today,] considering the contours of the biblical narrative of God’s mission is of great value. Knowing the history of the church’s missionary efforts is inspiring. Understanding the latest theory and literature in missiology is enriching. But beneath all these is the irreplaceable foundation of knowing and enjoying God. (131)

God’s plan for “the coming ages” is not to surprise us with a glory other than his Son’s but to take us ever deeper into “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7). In other words, in the gospel’s promised future, we will eternally enjoy the very glory that fuels our lives and mission today. (144)

Since we are sure of our future in the eternal embrace of Jesus Christ, we are people of hope. In our mission today, we invite the sinful, broken, and empty not to the hope of “heaven” as an ethereal afterlife but to the beauty, fullness, and glory of the Lamb who was slain for us. His delight is to fill his people with joy in him both now and forever. (145)

The cross is not simply the mechanism by which we receive a selection box of blessings of the new creation: the cross shows us exactly what sort of blessing this is. For the glory of God that will fill the earth at the end is the same glory we see in the death of Jesus. Specifically, the self-giving glory of the cross is the key to understanding the glory that is to come. (148-149)

The future we have to offer to our friends and neighbors is a world of unshakeable, unquenchable love. Can you imagine a life where you know, without any creeping anxiety, that you are perfectly and totally loved by God? Where you love him in return without any whisper of shame or inadequacy? A life where you are entirely secure in the love of those around you and are able to love them all without feeling exposed or vulnerable? Where you love people with such a generous freedom that you yourself only become more open and lovely? This is life in the glory of God and the light of the Lamb who was slain. (157)

The church’s mission is shaped and driven by the very nature of our God. All that we know of him, however limited by our present ignorance and sin, fills us with joy. Yet our hope of knowing him fully in the age to come can only increase our delight and anticipation, propelling us out into the world in overwhelmed gladness. How can we leave our friends, families, and colleagues in ignorance of the Lord whose purpose for all things is so good? Knowing his love that has reached out to us—and will one day reach out and fill all the world—what else can we do but reach out with that same love today? Gazing on the glory of the Lamb who was slain for us, and knowing that this is the glory that will shine in all the world, we may well sing with Wesley, ’Tis all my business here below to cry, “Behold the Lamb!” (160)

A Picture of Mao in Hell

[Sunday February 6 we consider 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11, which says in part: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” Randy Alcorn’s book Safely Home attempts to describe what this destruction looks like. The book tells the story of Ben Fielding, a high-powered corporate executive in a multinational firm with factories in China, and Li Quan, Ben’s college roommate whom he locates after twenty years and visits. Expecting Li to be a successful university professor, Ben instead finds that his Harvard-educated friend is a strong believer in Jesus, a leader in a house church, and – because of persecution – a locksmith’s apprentice. Li Quan’s faith, the persecution that he encounters, and Ben’s reaction to that persecution form the structure of the novel. Alcorn is not trying to write great literature; instead, he is trying to communicate biblical truth in a way that is engaging, interesting, and accessible. By that standard, this book is excellent. Alcorn is a reliable interpreter of the Word, and uses the medium of the novel to teach:

  • the reality of persecution today;
  • how to fight the fight of faith in the midst of suffering;
  • the reality of the spiritual world around us;
  • the nature of heaven;
  • the nature of hell

After reading the first hundred pages, I found myself praying more regularly and more fervently for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. That alone makes reading Safely Home worthwhile. I strongly recommend it.

Below find Alcorn’s picture of Mao Zedong – the founder of the People’s Republic of China – in hell. Read it – and weep – and witness – Coty]

Where is my palace? Where are my servants? Does no one know who I am?

The vast, cold darkness cut into his face. It felt like intense frostbite, burning his skin.

I was the most powerful man in Zhongguo. I created the People’s Republic. I was the revered father of my country. They worshiped me. I was god! He waited, listening to the silence. Cannot anyone hear me?

His voice disappeared into the great dark void. It did not echo, for there was nothing for it to echo off. It was immediately absorbed into infinite nothingness. His words went no farther than his blistered lips.

A parade of untold millions marched inside his mind’s eye. His sentence was to relive the suffering of each of his victims. He had been here over twenty-five years. Every minute of those years he had relived the sufferings he inflicted on others. Every torture his regime inflicted he now received, one after the next after the next. Eventually, perhaps, they would start over, so the millions he had already endured were but the first installment. The pain was unbearable, yet he had no choice but to bear it. There was no escape into unconsciousness – no drug to take, no sleeping pill, no alcohol. That which he had laid upon others was now laid upon him – endlessly, relentlessly.

He longed to pluck out his eyes, to keep from seeing what he saw, to puncture his eardrums to keep from hearing the wailing misery, to pull out his tongue to keep from tasting the awfulness he had legislated. But he had no ability to destroy himself. He had no control now over his destiny, no power over himself or others. There was no one he could command to fix the situation, no one to prepare him an eight-course meal to assuage the eternal hunger, no one to do his work, no one to punish for their errors. No one to salute him, cower at his voice, or bow heads in his presence.

Where is everyone?

Misery loves company, and he had long sought the consolation of others. But all others were still on earth, secure in heaven, or confined to their own private hells at distances immeasurable.

The aloneness was stifling. He could hear nothing but his victims’ cries, feel nothing but their pain, see nothing but their blood, taste nothing but their vomit, sense nothing but their torture. He had only himself. He could not enjoy his own company, for he saw himself as he really was. It was an ugly sight, revolting beyond comprehension.

He felt a burning. A fury welled up inside him. Anger and bitterness, unfocused hostility, frustration leading him to lash out. But there was no one to lash out at. No incompetent aide, no dissident, no Christian pastor, no helpless peasant. No one to beat or shoot or hang or starve. No one to cower in fear at the power of the great chairman, architect of the Republic. No one to shine his shoes or rub lotion upon his burning feet.

Grief and rage warred within him. His hell was a growing cancer, gnawing at him, eating away at him, devouring him. He was like a bush that burned yet was not consumed, so the burning could never stop.

He had come to death entirely unprepared – and now it was too late to prepare. If the torture was not enough, a sickening feeling of foreboding had gripped him from his first moments here. He had hoped it would subside, that he would get used to it. He hadn’t. It only got worse.

He could see now through all his rationalizations. His arguments against belief in a Creator had never been intellectual ones, as he had claimed. By rejecting a Creator he thought he could rid himself of a Judge. But it had not worked. His atheism had been the opiate of his soul and the executioner of uncalculated millions. But now his comforting atheism could no longer exist, even for a fleeting moment, for he had been forever stripped of the power to deny reality.

He had lived his short todays as if there were no long tomorrows. He had believed the lie that all were accountable to him and he was accountable to none. He had believed the lie that death would slip him into eternal unconsciousness. He knew now – how well he knew – the curse of always being awake, ever alert, unable to allay his suffering with a moment’s sleep or distraction.

The winds of hell blew upon him. On them floated sounds of laughter and joy from a place far distant. These voices were torture. Many he recognized as belonging to Christians he had persecuted, worshipers of the Carpenter he had murdered. He relived what he had done to them, this time on the other end of the cattle prod. By the time he had died, while he and all he stood for were in decline, they and all they embraced were in ascent. They had beaten him. Their King had dethroned him even in the other life – how much more in this one.

As they celebrated in their far-off realm, at first he had imagined they were cursing him, celebrating his demise. He thought of them as his eternal enemies who would forever speak of what a great foe he had been to them. But he had come to realize something far worse. They did not curse him. They did not relive his great campaigns against him. No. They simply did not think of him at all. He was unimportant. Insignificant. In the eternal scheme of things, he did not matter.

Not matter? How dare they ignore me! Don’t they know who I am?

He had said, “I want there to be no God; I want nothing to do with him.” His atheist’s prayer had been answered. The everywhere-present God had chosen to withdraw his presence from this single place, turning it into a cosmic desert. This was a ghetto of massive proportions, yet so small it could slip through a single crack in the tiles of heaven. It was located in some distant and empty place, never to be feared or even stumbled upon by the citizens of Charis. His life, with all his supposed accomplishments, was but a puff of smoke, dissipating into nothingness.

Stop what you’re doing and listen to me! Stop or I will… I will…

No power to give meaning to a threat. No reason to be listened to. And no one to hear him.

Thirst without water to quench it. Hunger without food to satisfy it. Loneliness without company to alleviate it. There was no God here. He’d gotten his wish. On earth he’d managed to reject God while still enjoying his blessings and provisions. But it was excruciatingly clear now that God was the author of good. Therefore the absence of God meant the absence of good. He could not have it both ways, not here. No God, no good. Forever.

He had wanted a world where no one else was in charge, where no order was forced upon him. He had finally gotten it. He had secretly wondered if there was something beyond death, but if he went to hell, he’d fully expected to rule there. Yet there was no king, for there were no subjects. Only one prisoner – himself – in eternal solitary confinement.

He missed the sound of laughter. There was no laughter here, nor could there be, for laughter cannot exist without joy or hope. An awful realization gripped him. There was no history here. No story line. No opening scene, no developing plot, no climax, no resolution. No character development. No travel, no movement. Only a setting of constant nothingness, going nowhere. Excruciating, eternal boredom. Nothing to distract him from the torment of the eternal now.

He had charmed his friends and cheated his enemies, but death he could not cheat, hell he could not charm. This nameless, ever-shriveling man writhed in terror. Faced with his own deeds, punished by them, he was receiving in himself the penalty for what he had done. He longed for a visit from a foreign dignitary, delivered by a courier, a request for an audience in his illustrious presence. But no. He knew now none would ever come, or even want to. He could not return to Beijing – and knew Beijing itself would soon be gone, a flower withered in a summer’s wind. Perhaps it was gone already.

No one to fear him. No one to revere him. No one to hear him. No one to think about him.

He who had claimed to be savior was forever without a Savior. Ignored and insignificant. Empty and embittered and regretful. Without a following. Without a heart. Without a hope.

Forever, time without end.

[From Safely Home by Randy Alcorn (Tyndale House, 2001), p. 327-330. The first chapter of the book is available online. Visit www.epm.org for more resources from the author, or to order the book. Note that all royalties from its sale are used to help persecuted Christians and to spread the Gospel in their countries.]

 

Grace Greater Than All Our Sins

[The Hammer of God by Bo Giertz (1905-1998) is a profound novel set in Sweden, describing how God brings to faith, sanctifies, and uses His servants. Written from a Lutheran perspective, the novel displays powerful insight into God’s work and His sovereign, loving care for His people.

In the first third of the novel, a young Lutheran curate, Savonius, serves as assistant to an elderly pastor and dean. This young man is much caught up with the world: he wants to impress the young women around him; he wants to dress well; he thinks he belongs in academia and not among the poor and unlearned. During a reception with prominent people – a reception that Savonius is much enjoying – the dean receives word that a dying man named Johannes needs a pastoral visit. Much to Savonius’ dismay, the dean tells him to leave the reception and minister to Johannes. In a powerful scene, Savonius is completely incapable of helping this man who is very conscious of his sinfulness and doubts his salvation. But a young woman comes, a strong believer, who speaks the Gospel to him. Savonius then administers the Lord’s Supper, and the dying man sees and accepts the grace of God. When Savonius departs, a peasant leaves a verse with him, Luke 22:32, Jesus’ words to Peter after prophesying his denials: “But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” The following excerpt contains Savonius’ response – Coty]

 

Two waves of feeling alternated within him. From one direction, came resentment. Did this peasant mean to imply that he was not converted? From the other came a mighty surge drowning every other feeling and filling his consciousness  to the brim. This was not the word of a man-it was the Word of God, a sternly clear statement about his condition.

Not converted, supported by the prayer of Another, and yet called to strengthen his brethren! He saw it with almost supernatural clarity, as from outside: he saw himself, slightly intoxicated, red garter rosettes at the knees, stepping into the carriage in the summer night with his head full of gavotte melodies and his heart of selfish concern for his own honor. He had not thought at all about the sick man; he had had no sympathy to spare for him, and much less, any thought for his salvation. He had completely forgotten him who had commissioned  him. But far beyond the pale sky of the summer night sat One enthroned who in limitless mercy had prayed for his unworthy servant, prayed that his wretched, bloodless faith might not die completely in the chill night air of raillery and jesting, but that it might be made to burn anew with a warm and living flame. He saw it all as a panorama: the forest road on which Henrik Samuel Savonius, God’s unworthy servant, was carried toward the abyss of humiliation, supported by the Savior’s intercession, himself forgetful of all that was holy, but remembered by the Holy One he had forgotten. And, in the same melancholy dimness, on another road that stretched before him like a white ribbon, he saw a lone woman, guided by that same great Mercy, rendering the service in which the incompetent servant of the Word had utterly failed. Unprofitable-but still not rejected. Had not God permitted  him to administer the Holy Sacrament with his unworthy hands? Had he not been allowed to turn the key that, by the authorization of the Savior, opened the gates of heaven? Had he not been privileged to be the celebrant at the heavenly joy feast at which Johannes on his death bed beheld the angels of God? And had not God now, to cap it all, sent him this message, so overwhelming in its undeserved and overflowing grace: “Strengthen thy brethren.” God wanted to use him after all!

He sank to his knees, rested his elbows on the rickety desk, and pressed his forehead against the knuckles of his folded hands.

“Lord, Lord, how canst Thou? Lord, is it thus Thou rewardest my transgressions? Dost Thou clothe me in grace because I have so deeply despised Thee? Lord, I am too insignificant. Lord, I am not fit. Thou knowest my pride. Thou knowest that I have wanted all the glory for myself. Thou knowest that I wanted to be seen and admired, but not to serve and bear Thy cross. Lord, have mercy upon me! If Thou still art not done with me, take me completely!”

He knelt in silence. He seemed to feel that his whole being flowed slowly into the hands of God, that he was lifted out of all the past and gradually poured into a new mold, a new life and a new will which took him in its strong grip. And when God took his soul in his hand, he felt the challenge, “Strengthen thy brethren,” as an all-constraining and dominating call.

“Dear Lord,” he murmured, “if Thou wilt use me, I will go at Thy bidding.”

Now he seemed to see before him the gray, malodorous crowd in homespun, these Swedish commoners, forsaken by their leaders, in danger of drinking themselves to death, and in their desperation being dished out a few miserable sermons, concocted of fine phrase…. It was to these he was now sent, and he would go forth in the power of God.

[From The Hammer of God by Bo Giertz (1941 in Swedish; English 1960, revised 2005. This edition © 2005 Augsberg Fortress. Link to Amazon page. By the way, God’s work is not done at this point: Savonius has several more failures ahead of him.]

 

What God Tells Us About Himself 6,800 Times

[From Providence by John Piper (Crossway, 2020), p.90-92. Piper is speaking of the goal of God’s providence in the history of the exodus. Join us for our study of providence Thursday evenings, 7:30-8:30 via Zoom. The preparation guide is available here (a pdf file) – Coty]

God’s name is a message. And the message is about how he intends to be known. Every time his name appears—all 6,800 times—he means to remind us of his utterly unique being. As I have pondered the meaning of the name Yahweh, built on the phrase “I am who I am” and pointing to God’s absolute being, I see at least ten dimensions to its meaning: (more…)

The Doctrine of Repentance by Thomas Watson

[John Finney recommended this book during a discussion of the April 4 sermon on Peter’s call to repentance at Pentecost (the sermon begins 33:45 into the video of the service). This excerpt contains almost all of Watson’s outline and selected paragraphs – about one-sixth of the book. The entire text is available online; you can order the Banner of Truth paperback edition here – Coty]

[Preface]…

Christians, do you have a sad resentment of other things and not of sin? Worldly tears fall to the earth, but godly tears are kept in a bottle (Ps. 56.8). Judge not holy weeping superfluous…. Either sin must drown or the soul burn. Let it not be said that repentance is difficult. Things that are excellent deserve labour. Will not a man dig for gold in the ore though it makes him sweat? It is better to go with difficulty to heaven, than with ease to hell….

The well-wisher of your soul’s happiness,

THOMAS WATSON
25 May 1668

  1. A PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE…

the first sermon that Christ preached, indeed, the first word of his sermon, was ‘Repent’ (Matt. 4:17). And his farewell that he left when he was going to ascend was that ‘repentance should be preached in his name’ (Luke 24:47)….

How is repentance wrought?…

  1. Partly by the word…
  2. By the Spirit…

Ministers are but the pipes and organs. It is the Holy Ghost breathing in them that makes their words effectual…

  1. COUNTERFEIT REPENTANCE…

To discover what true repentance is, I shall first show what it is not….

  1. The first deceit of repentance is legal terror…

(more…)