Really Believing in God’s Sovereignty
From Paul Tripp:
Grace will take control out of your hands, while it blesses you with the care of One whose plan is unshakable and perfect in every way.
Jason had some kind of distant belief in the sovereignty of God, but it was almost completely separate from his everyday experience. He lived like he had no idea that Jesus was ruling over all things for his sake (Ephesians 1:20-23). So Jason was constantly dealing with the frustration of trying to control people and things which he had little power to control.
He spent way too much time calculating the “what ifs” and regretting the “if onlys.” He seemed like he did not know that his security and rest were not to be found in his ability to predict the future and control the present, but in the faithful love and expansive wisdom of his sovereign Savior, Jesus, so his living always was more anxious than restful.
You see, Jason didn’t need more grace. No, he needed to understand and live in light of the grace he had already been given. Jason was a grace amnesiac and so he lived like he was poor, when grace had made him exotically rich. He lived like he was weak, when grace had made him strong. He lived like life had no plan, when, in fact, he had been included in the unalterable plans of the God of redeeming grace.
Understanding the Human Heart
I like reading anything Mike Emlet writes. Mike has written, in my opinion, the best short treatment of the relationship between the human heart (you were created to worship God), physiology (your brain chemistry), relational influences (your alcoholic, absent father), and societal-cultural influences (you grew up in a poor, urban neighborhood). Mike’s diagrams (pictures) are particularly helpful. Take 20 minutes this week to work through his article: Understanding the Influences of the Human Heart.
Using a series of diagrams, Mike Emlet shows the relationship between human responsibility (the “heart”) and the impact of physiological, relational and societal-cultural influences. Mike’s goal is to help us avoid the two extremes that ultimately short circuit the process of biblical change: either ignoring the context in which we live or concluding that the context is determinative of the way we live. Either extreme truncates the transformative message of the gospel.
Truth About All Reality
Christians whose worldview–whose way of looking at the world–is decisively shaped by the Bible’s story line cannot forget that we human beings have been made in the image of God; that our first obligation is to recognize our creatureliness, and thus our joyful obligation to our Creator; that sin is nothing other than de-godding God; that our dignity as God’s image bearers is horribly marred by our rebellion; that the entire race, and all of human history, is rushing toward final accountability before this God who is no less our Judge than our Maker; that there is a new heaven and a new earth to gain and a hell to fear; that our sole hope of reconciliation with this God is by the means he himself has provided in his Son; that the people of God are made up of human beings from every language and tribe and nation, and, empowered by God’s Spirit, are growing in personal and corporate obedience and love, rejoicing to come under the reign of God in anticipation of the consummation of that reign. Meanwhile, we are enjoined to do good to all, especially–but certainly not exclusively!–to those of the household of faith. In other words, Christianity does not claim to convey merely religious truth, but truth about all reality.
-D.A. Carson
The Weaver
I returned from the Philippines to a week of great suffering for several family members, friends, and church members. As I preached Genesis 16 last night, I did so through tears.
This week, while ministering to friends in the hospital who were mourning a great loss, my suffering friend read a poem. After we’d talked a great deal, spoken Scripture together, prayed together, and wept, my friend read a poem that had always meant a lot to him, but now meant so much more. Here’s the poem. I believe it’s called “The Weaver.” I do not know who the author is.
My life is but a weaving
between my Lord and me;
I cannot choose the colors,
He worketh steadily.
Oft times He weaveth sorrow,
And I, in foolish pride,
Forget He sees the upper,
And I the under side.Not ’til the loom is silent
and the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
and explain the reason why.
The dark threads are as needful
in the Weaver’s skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
in the pattern He has planned.
He knows, He loves, He cares,
nothing this truth can dim.
He gives His very best to those
who leave the choice with Him.
Forest Fire of Joy
I believe the consistent answer of Scripture is that God is most glorified in us when our knowledge and experience of him ignite a forest fire of joy that consumes all competing pleasures and he alone becomes the treasure that we prize.
-Sam Storms. Onething, p. 12
Tim Keller on The Shack
Tim Keller offers his opinions on The Shack:
At the heart of the book is a noble effort — to help modern people understand why God allows suffering, using a narrative form. The argument Young makes at various parts of the book is this. First, this world’s evil and suffering is the result of our abuse of free will. Second, God has not prevented evil in order to accomplish some glorious, greater good that humans cannot now understand. Third, when we stay bitter at God for a particular tragedy we put ourselves in the seat of the ‘Judge of the world and God’, and we are unqualified for such a job. Fourth, we must get an ‘eternal perspective’ and see all God’s people in joy in his presence forever.
…However, sprinkled throughout the book, Young’s story undermines a number of traditional Christian doctrines. Many have gotten involved in debates about Young’s theological beliefs, and I have my own strong concerns. But here is my main problem with the book. Anyone who is strongly influenced by the imaginative world of The Shack will be totally unprepared for the far more multi-dimensional and complex God that you actually meet when you read the Bible.
Read the whole thing.
Much Higher Learning
Each time I receive a new issue of World magazine, the first thing I do is flip to the back to read Andree Seu’s column. I appreciate many of the thoughts in her most recent piece, Much Higher Learning: A Modest Proposal for a New Seminary. My favorite three paragraphs:
Build into the program safe opportunities to try things that fail, in pursuit of the glory of God. Follow the reading of edifying biographies with trips to the mall or city commons to preach, as Cornelius Van Til and Jack Miller did in Philadelphia’s business district. Read sparingly books on the history of doctrine, and very sparingly books on the history of denominations. We don’t have that kind of time.
Works on church history are profitable if written by Spirit-filled men; there is no such thing as “brute facts.” Study the Bible rather than theological systems, which are once-removed. God’s power is in His Word, not in man-made constructions superimposed on it. Verse-by-verse is most helpful. All the rest will fall into place nicely.
The advance of God’s kingdom reign does not come from scholarship but from days of continuous praise. (“You are . . . enthroned on the praises of Israel”—Psalm 22:3.) Allot enough time for a reading assignment to encourage the student to praise and pray his way through the book. The act of storing knowledge without immediate responsive worship is toxic to the soul. There is no subtler snare than intellectual pride.
Perspective on Haiti
The best biblical analysis I’ve read on Haiti comes from Al Mohler:
A faithful Christian cannot accept the claim that God is a bystander in world events. The Bible clearly claims the sovereign rule of God over all his creation, all of the time. We have no right to claim that God was surprised by the earthquake in Haiti, or to allow that God could not have prevented it from happening.
God’s rule over creation involves both direct and indirect acts, but his rule is constant. The universe, even after the consequences of the Fall, still demonstrates the character of God in all its dimensions, objects, and occurrences. And yet, we have no right to claim that we know why a disaster like the earthquake in Haiti happened at just that place and at just that moment.
The arrogance of human presumption is a real and present danger. We can trace the effects of a drunk driver to a car accident, but we cannot trace the effects of voodoo to an earthquake — at least not so directly. Will God judge Haiti for its spiritual darkness? Of course. Is the judgment of God something we can claim to understand in this sense — in the present? No, we are not given that knowledge. Jesus himself warned his disciples against this kind of presumption.
Why did no earthquake shake Nazi Germany? Why did no tsunami swallow up the killing fields of Cambodia? Why did Hurricane Katrina destroy far more evangelical churches than casinos? Why do so many murderous dictators live to old age while many missionaries die young?
…In the midst of this unspeakable tragedy, Christ would have us rush to aid the suffering people of Haiti, and rush to tell the Haitian people of his love, his cross, and salvation in his name alone.
If you have any doubts about this, take your Bible and turn to John 3:16. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. That is God’s message to Haiti.
God’s Providence
Check out this great Desiring God video about God’s Sweet & Bitter Providence. Consider buying the book.
Responsibility: My Response to His Ability
I have a good friend whose mom suddenly passed away two weeks ago. I never met his mom, but the story goes that she was an incredible woman of God. Apparently she was a woman known for her child-like faith. Apparently she was a woman who understood that the Christian faith is rooted in big, simple truths. Apparently she was full of one-liners that expressed the essence of these truths she staked her life on.
My friend tells me that one of his mom’s favorite one-liners was her definition of “responsibility” for the Christian.
Responsibility: My response to His ability
One-liners are helpful. This 5-word definition says so much. This 5-word definition captures the heart of being a disciple of Jesus and glorifying God in this world.
I’m increasingly discovering that most stress comes from a misunderstanding of responsibility. When we forget this one-liner, when we falsely believe that our responsibility is to navigate life on the basis of our own resources, then we quickly become stressed out and burned out. We carry a burden we were never meant to carry.
I don’t have a Bible verse for you that supports this definition, I have a whole Bible for you that supports this definition. Every page of the Bible sings of a mighty God who calls his people to one great responsibility: to live life in response to His ability and character.
Christian friend, you are not alone. Reassess the definition of responsibility that is driving your life. Today, start with “His ability,” then think about “My response.”
Consider a short-list of His ability:
- He spoke the universe into existence
- He invented the Swiss Alps, tropical fish, and ice storms
- He transformed Abraham from a man of fear into a man of faith
- He opened Sarah’s barren womb
- He heard the cry of his people, led them out of Egypt, and parted the Red Sea
- He stopped the mouths of lions, preserving His servant Daniel
- He knit you together in your mother’s womb
- He sent His Son to bear your sin and shame and declare you righteous
- He gave you Romans 8:31-32
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Who are you responding to today?
Responsibility: My response to His ability.
