Proclaim Blog https://www.proclaimkc.org Thu, 28 Mar 2024 08:05:37 -0500 http://churchplantmedia.com/ Feasting as Holy Action https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/feast-as-holy-action https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/feast-as-holy-action#comments Tue, 19 Mar 2024 16:27:30 -0500 https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/feast-as-holy-action

“What does it mean to be a king? First in, last out, laughing loudest.”

Joe Rigney summarizes his favorite character, King Lune, from the beloved Chronicles of Narnia series in this easily digestible phrase. Maybe something in this resonates with the things you heard at the Worship As Warfare conference earlier this year. Or maybe something about the phrase rings true from the battles you have faced in your life. When God sets a battle before us, a virtuous warrior is the first into the battle and the last to leave it. But often we forget the final morsel from Rigney here. Good warriors are joyful. When it’s time for the fighting, they are fierce, but when it’s time for the feasting, they are fierce in a different way.

This is at the heart of a Sabbath Dinner. If you’ve had the opportunity to participate in one of these meals then you know that it’s much more than a meal, it’s a celebration and preparation. We want to fight the right battle and do so fiercely, but we also want to have the greatest joy in victory. We do worship the victorious King after all.

Over the past few months, the practice for many people at Proclaim has been to have our Sabbath Dinners on Saturday evening. As we prepare to renew the covenant and partake of the Lord's Table together the next morning, we do so, not with a sense of obligation, but with anticipation and celebration. This reinforces with each other and with our children that the Lord’s Day is a delight and that it is a privilege to be a part of the Family of God. It forms fellowship and joy around the family of God beyond Sunday mornings and builds identity through faithful practices in the same direction over a long time (Sabbath Dinner with the Jankovics).

But why feast? And what does a “feast” entail? First and foremost, feasting is biblical. The book of Leviticus outlines several feasts for the people of God to partake in. Each of these feasts was representative of something holy, something set apart, and something God wanted His people to remember. As the people participated in these feasts, they remembered God and what He had done for them. In fact, even the regular sacrifices themselves had festal elements where a portion of the sacrifice was shared as a meal between God and man.

“You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.” - Deut. 14:22-23

The Lord Himself required wine as a drink offering along with many sacrifices. Yes, the ceremony and sacrifice communicate man’s need for forgiveness and point to the fulfillment of that forgiveness in the person and work of King Jesus, yet they also point to the shared table where man is invited to commune with God and each other. While we celebrate this fulfilled reality in the meal that Christ gave us in Communion, we also celebrate the heart of this reality when we gather together around food and drink. When believers feast, we feast with true joy that no other group of people can experience.

Food and drink is a gift from God when used without excess. Yet they are also seen as means by which we are to celebrate and experience the joy of the Lord. Consider the people of God returned from exile in the book of Nehemiah. They’ve returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt the wall, and the Law had been read in the sight of the people.

“And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. - Nehemiah 8:9-10

Feasting is a holy action when done in the joy of the Lord. In the battle, it is not our prowess that fuels us, though the Lord makes ready our hands for war (Psalm 144). Rather, it is the joy of the Lord that is our strength. That joy is to be lived out, not simply in rhythms of work or battle and rest, but also in celebration and joyful merriment.

Like King Lune, we must be the first into battle, the last to leave, but we must celebrate the joy we have in the Lord, the very strength we are given for the battle. So when the food is good, and the wine makes you glad, relish in those moments of fellowship and celebration for truly,  the Lord is good. And when you come to Sabbath Dinner, have a second helping and delight in the bountiful blessings. Battle will come, but this is a time for laughter and feasting.

]]>

“What does it mean to be a king? First in, last out, laughing loudest.”

Joe Rigney summarizes his favorite character, King Lune, from the beloved Chronicles of Narnia series in this easily digestible phrase. Maybe something in this resonates with the things you heard at the Worship As Warfare conference earlier this year. Or maybe something about the phrase rings true from the battles you have faced in your life. When God sets a battle before us, a virtuous warrior is the first into the battle and the last to leave it. But often we forget the final morsel from Rigney here. Good warriors are joyful. When it’s time for the fighting, they are fierce, but when it’s time for the feasting, they are fierce in a different way.

This is at the heart of a Sabbath Dinner. If you’ve had the opportunity to participate in one of these meals then you know that it’s much more than a meal, it’s a celebration and preparation. We want to fight the right battle and do so fiercely, but we also want to have the greatest joy in victory. We do worship the victorious King after all.

Over the past few months, the practice for many people at Proclaim has been to have our Sabbath Dinners on Saturday evening. As we prepare to renew the covenant and partake of the Lord's Table together the next morning, we do so, not with a sense of obligation, but with anticipation and celebration. This reinforces with each other and with our children that the Lord’s Day is a delight and that it is a privilege to be a part of the Family of God. It forms fellowship and joy around the family of God beyond Sunday mornings and builds identity through faithful practices in the same direction over a long time (Sabbath Dinner with the Jankovics).

But why feast? And what does a “feast” entail? First and foremost, feasting is biblical. The book of Leviticus outlines several feasts for the people of God to partake in. Each of these feasts was representative of something holy, something set apart, and something God wanted His people to remember. As the people participated in these feasts, they remembered God and what He had done for them. In fact, even the regular sacrifices themselves had festal elements where a portion of the sacrifice was shared as a meal between God and man.

“You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year. And before the Lord your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always.” - Deut. 14:22-23

The Lord Himself required wine as a drink offering along with many sacrifices. Yes, the ceremony and sacrifice communicate man’s need for forgiveness and point to the fulfillment of that forgiveness in the person and work of King Jesus, yet they also point to the shared table where man is invited to commune with God and each other. While we celebrate this fulfilled reality in the meal that Christ gave us in Communion, we also celebrate the heart of this reality when we gather together around food and drink. When believers feast, we feast with true joy that no other group of people can experience.

Food and drink is a gift from God when used without excess. Yet they are also seen as means by which we are to celebrate and experience the joy of the Lord. Consider the people of God returned from exile in the book of Nehemiah. They’ve returned to Jerusalem, rebuilt the wall, and the Law had been read in the sight of the people.

“And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. - Nehemiah 8:9-10

Feasting is a holy action when done in the joy of the Lord. In the battle, it is not our prowess that fuels us, though the Lord makes ready our hands for war (Psalm 144). Rather, it is the joy of the Lord that is our strength. That joy is to be lived out, not simply in rhythms of work or battle and rest, but also in celebration and joyful merriment.

Like King Lune, we must be the first into battle, the last to leave, but we must celebrate the joy we have in the Lord, the very strength we are given for the battle. So when the food is good, and the wine makes you glad, relish in those moments of fellowship and celebration for truly,  the Lord is good. And when you come to Sabbath Dinner, have a second helping and delight in the bountiful blessings. Battle will come, but this is a time for laughter and feasting.

]]>
Kevin McCallister, Jesus, and Unresolved Conflict https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/kevin-mccallister-jesus-and-unresolved-conflict https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/kevin-mccallister-jesus-and-unresolved-conflict#comments Fri, 22 Dec 2023 16:03:56 -0600 https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/kevin-mccallister-jesus-and-unresolved-conflict Recently my family re-watched Home Alone, as one does this time of year. Amid the shenanigans of many memorable scenes and lines, the movie delivers a thoughtful scene. In a near-empty church, Kevin's neighbor describes his regret due to a falling out with his son that has never been repaired. After Kevin inquires as to why he doesn't just call him, the neighbor reveals that he is afraid, afraid that his worst fears might be confirmed and that his son will always keep him at a distance. Kevin encourages him that at least he'd know for sure and perhaps it might turn out better, especially "this time of year".

Essentially, Kevin argues that, hopefully, the neighbor's son will be bothered more by being separated at Christmas than by whatever caused the fight in the first place. You both did something you shouldn't have done and you both are living with the consequences of that wrongdoing, perhaps you both dislike the consequences more than you are holding onto the original wrongs. Not bad wisdom for an 8-year-old and it works in the movie. But does it work? Does Christ have better wisdom?

As we approach Christmas Day, sadly, it becomes apparent how many Christians are living in long-term, unresolved conflict with family and friends... or at least those who were such at one time. Worse yet, it is not only with unbelieving family and friends but with those who call on the Lord and who are part of one body by one Spirit, with one hope and one faith, to one Lord, God and Father of all (Eph. 4:3-5).  I think these situations persist because (1) we regret the consequences of our offense more than we regret the offense itself, and (2) we fail to recognize that our offense puts us into greater debt with God than with the person we have offended. Consider Jesus' words in Matthew 5:25-26:

Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

How often with unresolved conflicts do we look for some assurances before we move an inch? We tell ourselves that we won't admit or agree to anything unless they are willing to do this or that. I won't admit my wrong unless they admit theirs. We can't stand the thought that we might seek forgiveness for what we know we did wrong and they never admit what we believe they did wrong. So we refuse to come to terms quickly and without qualifications because we think it will give the other too much ground. If we do not demand anything from them or bring up their wrongs then we think we may lose something but we fail to realize that there is nothing inside that clinched fist of ours. We decide it is better to hold out in hopes of negotiating better terms. Perhaps, with time, the circumstances will become more favorable for us but it rarely does in this life and it never does in the next.

What we've forgotten in this whole situation is that our offense against our accuser is, foremost, an offense against a holy and perfect God who sovereignly placed us in that family, or that church, or that circle of friends and who sees all, knows all, and judges all. How sure are you that if you and the one with whom you are in conflict were to come before Jesus today, that the impartial Judge, who knows our hearts better than we know our hearts, that it will shake out well for you? That the judge will rule favorably for you? That you would not be handed over to the officer until you paid the last penny?

We are concerned with getting every last penny from the other and we forget that God requires every last penny from us! And where are more pennies owed? Is the sin debt greater between two sinful men or between a sinful man and a perfect God? It is true that if you take the log out of your own eye first (Matthew 7:1-3) they may not extend mercy to you. They may never take the speck from their own eye. But Christ DOES promise mercy for those who show mercy and forgiveness for those who humble themselves and repent.

forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:37b-38)

Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.  Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him (Joel 2:12-14)

Jesus tells us in Luke that he won't just give mercy but it presses it down so that the cup of mercy is as full as it could be and then he pours a bit more on top for good measure. The Lord tells us through Joel that he is gracious and merciful to those whose hearts are truly repentant (see also, Psalm 51). Genuine repentance starts with sorrow for doing the wrong, not regret that you are experiencing the consequences of it, and it ends with the fruit of repentance (Luke 3:8-9; Acts 26:20). Even more, he tells us that we never know but that He may turn disaster into blessing. How many of you would like a chance... just a chance... that some disastrous relational situation might be turned into a blessing? God tells us that our best chance starts with our repentance. Only our pride and lack of faith cause us to trust ourselves instead of His Word.

It may not be that you seek to make things right, even imperfectly, and the other party is unwilling to reconcile. It may not be that they ever admit their wrongs. Now you realize that this should never have been your "worst fear" for our gravest fear, according to Jesus, is to stand before God apart from the mercy of Christ. But Christ did come this time of year and you have been reconciled through faith in Him to a just God. You have sought repentance and your conscience is clear before Him. Now you can have peace, even with unresolved conflict, because you know that He will take care of the rest (Romans 12:19-21). "Merry Christmas, you filthy animal."

]]>
Recently my family re-watched Home Alone, as one does this time of year. Amid the shenanigans of many memorable scenes and lines, the movie delivers a thoughtful scene. In a near-empty church, Kevin's neighbor describes his regret due to a falling out with his son that has never been repaired. After Kevin inquires as to why he doesn't just call him, the neighbor reveals that he is afraid, afraid that his worst fears might be confirmed and that his son will always keep him at a distance. Kevin encourages him that at least he'd know for sure and perhaps it might turn out better, especially "this time of year".

Essentially, Kevin argues that, hopefully, the neighbor's son will be bothered more by being separated at Christmas than by whatever caused the fight in the first place. You both did something you shouldn't have done and you both are living with the consequences of that wrongdoing, perhaps you both dislike the consequences more than you are holding onto the original wrongs. Not bad wisdom for an 8-year-old and it works in the movie. But does it work? Does Christ have better wisdom?

As we approach Christmas Day, sadly, it becomes apparent how many Christians are living in long-term, unresolved conflict with family and friends... or at least those who were such at one time. Worse yet, it is not only with unbelieving family and friends but with those who call on the Lord and who are part of one body by one Spirit, with one hope and one faith, to one Lord, God and Father of all (Eph. 4:3-5).  I think these situations persist because (1) we regret the consequences of our offense more than we regret the offense itself, and (2) we fail to recognize that our offense puts us into greater debt with God than with the person we have offended. Consider Jesus' words in Matthew 5:25-26:

Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

How often with unresolved conflicts do we look for some assurances before we move an inch? We tell ourselves that we won't admit or agree to anything unless they are willing to do this or that. I won't admit my wrong unless they admit theirs. We can't stand the thought that we might seek forgiveness for what we know we did wrong and they never admit what we believe they did wrong. So we refuse to come to terms quickly and without qualifications because we think it will give the other too much ground. If we do not demand anything from them or bring up their wrongs then we think we may lose something but we fail to realize that there is nothing inside that clinched fist of ours. We decide it is better to hold out in hopes of negotiating better terms. Perhaps, with time, the circumstances will become more favorable for us but it rarely does in this life and it never does in the next.

What we've forgotten in this whole situation is that our offense against our accuser is, foremost, an offense against a holy and perfect God who sovereignly placed us in that family, or that church, or that circle of friends and who sees all, knows all, and judges all. How sure are you that if you and the one with whom you are in conflict were to come before Jesus today, that the impartial Judge, who knows our hearts better than we know our hearts, that it will shake out well for you? That the judge will rule favorably for you? That you would not be handed over to the officer until you paid the last penny?

We are concerned with getting every last penny from the other and we forget that God requires every last penny from us! And where are more pennies owed? Is the sin debt greater between two sinful men or between a sinful man and a perfect God? It is true that if you take the log out of your own eye first (Matthew 7:1-3) they may not extend mercy to you. They may never take the speck from their own eye. But Christ DOES promise mercy for those who show mercy and forgiveness for those who humble themselves and repent.

forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:37b-38)

Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.  Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him (Joel 2:12-14)

Jesus tells us in Luke that he won't just give mercy but it presses it down so that the cup of mercy is as full as it could be and then he pours a bit more on top for good measure. The Lord tells us through Joel that he is gracious and merciful to those whose hearts are truly repentant (see also, Psalm 51). Genuine repentance starts with sorrow for doing the wrong, not regret that you are experiencing the consequences of it, and it ends with the fruit of repentance (Luke 3:8-9; Acts 26:20). Even more, he tells us that we never know but that He may turn disaster into blessing. How many of you would like a chance... just a chance... that some disastrous relational situation might be turned into a blessing? God tells us that our best chance starts with our repentance. Only our pride and lack of faith cause us to trust ourselves instead of His Word.

It may not be that you seek to make things right, even imperfectly, and the other party is unwilling to reconcile. It may not be that they ever admit their wrongs. Now you realize that this should never have been your "worst fear" for our gravest fear, according to Jesus, is to stand before God apart from the mercy of Christ. But Christ did come this time of year and you have been reconciled through faith in Him to a just God. You have sought repentance and your conscience is clear before Him. Now you can have peace, even with unresolved conflict, because you know that He will take care of the rest (Romans 12:19-21). "Merry Christmas, you filthy animal."

]]>
Community Elected or Collected, Elected Individuals? https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/community-elected-or-collected-elected-individuals https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/community-elected-or-collected-elected-individuals#comments Wed, 29 Nov 2023 09:53:19 -0600 https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/community-elected-or-collected-elected-individuals This past Sunday our catechism question was “What is the church?”. The answer was “A community elected for eternal life and united by faith, who love, follow, learn from, and worship God together.” To be clear, I don’t believe there is any problem with this answer, however, it seemed to me there may be a problem with our understanding of it. I endeavored to briefly lay out a biblical explanation for the sake of clarity. For the sake of all who were not there or anyone who might desire to read back over what I said, I’m posting it here in basically the same form with a few slight edits.

Unfortunately, because our culture is so awash with what we might call a sort of “radical individualism” which is foreign to the Bible, this definition can be easily misunderstood and we often don’t even realize it. While the catechism defines the church as “a community elected” we tend to read that statement as “a group of elected individuals”. 

To be sure, God regenerates individuals, bringing individuals to faith, and unites individuals to Christ.  But then these individual members are connected to an organic whole… “a community elected”. The Church.

Biblically we see this in that we are grafted into the community as branches into a tree (Rom. 11:17-18), we are made citizens of the commonwealth of Israel (Eph 2:12), adopted as children in God’s household (Eph 2:19), stones in a building (1 Pet 2:5), members of one body (1 Cor. 12:12-27), and part of one connected vine (Jn 15). 

God establishes this community through covenants, the heart of which is expressed in a single phrase repeated throughout Scripture, “I will be your God and you will be MY people.” Our identity as a community and our connection as individuals to that community is defined by a covenant relationship with God. This covenant community spans all time and space. So we could say that the church is the covenant people of God in all ages. 

But someone might wonder, “How can that be since I know that not all of God’s covenant people in the Old Testament were true believers?” (Rom. 9:6) Not only this, but every covenant God makes includes offspring or households, although this natural lineage does not guarantee it. This includes the new covenant as it was prophesied, for example, in Jeremiah 32:38-39:

And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them.

But also as it was applied by the apostles in the households of Cornelius, Lydia, and the Philippian jailer, as well as expressed, in passages like Acts 2:39:

For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

This is where the difference between “a community elected” and “a group of elected individuals” is so critical. Every Christian agrees that there are and have been individuals in the church who are not believers and thus are not elect.

Historically the church has used the terms “visible church” and “invisible church”. That is, the church as WE can see it at any given moment and the church as God knows it will be for eternity.

But if we define the church as a group of elected individuals then we must say that those individuals who didn’t have faith were never actually part of the covenant community, that is, the church. The problem with this conclusion is it isn’t what the Bible presents to us.

Jesus says that some branches have a real connection to the vine but don’t abide. Paul tells us that Gentile and Jewish branches are really on the olive tree and can be removed. The writer of Hebrews repeatedly warns his readers not to break from the new covenant like the wilderness generation broke from the old covenant.

But if we rightly define the church as “a community elected” then we understand that the visible and invisible church are not two different entities but one covenant community which, at this point in history, is yet to be completed. If you came to Proclaim Church last month and then visited again last week you would see some of the same individuals and some different but we would not say it is a different church. 

The covenant, by which we enter into this covenant community, has a condition, namely, faith. Those individuals who are elect meet that condition and God promises to keep them in the covenant. Non-elect individuals do not meet that condition and God removes them. Either way, God is glorified in revealing His faithfulness to the covenant. Under the old covenant, the people of God were graphically described as an unfaithful wife (Ezek. 16; Jer. 3:1-8) but under the new covenant, the Groom is purifying His Bride (Eph. 5), a community elected for eternal life.

]]>
This past Sunday our catechism question was “What is the church?”. The answer was “A community elected for eternal life and united by faith, who love, follow, learn from, and worship God together.” To be clear, I don’t believe there is any problem with this answer, however, it seemed to me there may be a problem with our understanding of it. I endeavored to briefly lay out a biblical explanation for the sake of clarity. For the sake of all who were not there or anyone who might desire to read back over what I said, I’m posting it here in basically the same form with a few slight edits.

Unfortunately, because our culture is so awash with what we might call a sort of “radical individualism” which is foreign to the Bible, this definition can be easily misunderstood and we often don’t even realize it. While the catechism defines the church as “a community elected” we tend to read that statement as “a group of elected individuals”. 

To be sure, God regenerates individuals, bringing individuals to faith, and unites individuals to Christ.  But then these individual members are connected to an organic whole… “a community elected”. The Church.

Biblically we see this in that we are grafted into the community as branches into a tree (Rom. 11:17-18), we are made citizens of the commonwealth of Israel (Eph 2:12), adopted as children in God’s household (Eph 2:19), stones in a building (1 Pet 2:5), members of one body (1 Cor. 12:12-27), and part of one connected vine (Jn 15). 

God establishes this community through covenants, the heart of which is expressed in a single phrase repeated throughout Scripture, “I will be your God and you will be MY people.” Our identity as a community and our connection as individuals to that community is defined by a covenant relationship with God. This covenant community spans all time and space. So we could say that the church is the covenant people of God in all ages. 

But someone might wonder, “How can that be since I know that not all of God’s covenant people in the Old Testament were true believers?” (Rom. 9:6) Not only this, but every covenant God makes includes offspring or households, although this natural lineage does not guarantee it. This includes the new covenant as it was prophesied, for example, in Jeremiah 32:38-39:

And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them.

But also as it was applied by the apostles in the households of Cornelius, Lydia, and the Philippian jailer, as well as expressed, in passages like Acts 2:39:

For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.

This is where the difference between “a community elected” and “a group of elected individuals” is so critical. Every Christian agrees that there are and have been individuals in the church who are not believers and thus are not elect.

Historically the church has used the terms “visible church” and “invisible church”. That is, the church as WE can see it at any given moment and the church as God knows it will be for eternity.

But if we define the church as a group of elected individuals then we must say that those individuals who didn’t have faith were never actually part of the covenant community, that is, the church. The problem with this conclusion is it isn’t what the Bible presents to us.

Jesus says that some branches have a real connection to the vine but don’t abide. Paul tells us that Gentile and Jewish branches are really on the olive tree and can be removed. The writer of Hebrews repeatedly warns his readers not to break from the new covenant like the wilderness generation broke from the old covenant.

But if we rightly define the church as “a community elected” then we understand that the visible and invisible church are not two different entities but one covenant community which, at this point in history, is yet to be completed. If you came to Proclaim Church last month and then visited again last week you would see some of the same individuals and some different but we would not say it is a different church. 

The covenant, by which we enter into this covenant community, has a condition, namely, faith. Those individuals who are elect meet that condition and God promises to keep them in the covenant. Non-elect individuals do not meet that condition and God removes them. Either way, God is glorified in revealing His faithfulness to the covenant. Under the old covenant, the people of God were graphically described as an unfaithful wife (Ezek. 16; Jer. 3:1-8) but under the new covenant, the Groom is purifying His Bride (Eph. 5), a community elected for eternal life.

]]>
Hate Passivity https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/hate-passivity https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/hate-passivity#comments Thu, 16 Nov 2023 17:16:41 -0600 https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/hate-passivity The American church has a passive man problem. Not just that it is filled with them but that we typically applaud men for impotence and limp-wristedness. The problem with Christian men, then, is that they don’t think passivity is a big issue or a problem at all. Let me make this clear. Christian men should hate passivity. It should leave a bitter taste in our mouths wherever we see it. It should make our stomachs sick when we see it in our own lives. Instead, we tell ourselves, “Well, at least I never…” and we fill in the blank with the sins we happen NOT to struggle with. Which is, in itself, evidence of our passivity. But the problem is more than excuses and justifying, we have a misunderstanding that goes back to the Garden.

Man’s Purpose

If you ask the average Christian what God’s command was to Adam in the garden, I’d bet he will tell you that it was to not eat the fruit of the tree. That command is there. But it was at the end of the list of instructions.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Ge 2:15–17)

First, man was to “work” and “keep” the garden. The command to work is to cultivate like a gardener. Back in Genesis 1:28, man is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. He is to take the garden God has placed him in and cause it to grow. This is proactive work. It is not merely refraining from doing bad things but actually doing what nurtures the garden he is given.

The command to keep means to guard or protect. He is to protect that garden and all who are in it from anything that would endanger it. This, again, is active work. There is nothing passive about it at all. Protecting takes vigilance. Next, man is told to eat from and enjoy the fruits of his labor. The labor was a gift from God. The garden was a gift from God. The enjoyment was a gift from God. Finally, he was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

The Passive Problem

All seems just fine until a serpent comes into the garden and starts whispering to the woman. Adam was passive in protecting the garden God gave him and he was passive in cultivating God’s word and God’s order in his marriage. He takes a backseat. “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree…’” (Ge 3:17). When confronted with his failure, he does the only thing passive men are quick to do, make excuses and blame shift. “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree…” (Ge 3:12).

Yet God, in his mercy, doesn’t bring immediate death. He allows man to continue in his purpose. Plants will grow but with greater difficulty. We will eat bread but by the sweat of our faces. The marriage relationship that is designed to help us in it will be disjointed. Ultimately we will die. Man still works and keeps in whatever garden God places him in. We are to work and keep our marriage, our job, our kids, our church, and our community. We are to devote ourselves to cultivating good things and then protecting what is worthy of protection. We are to enjoy the blessings of God that He has given us and the fruit of our labor there. The substance of God’s purpose for man has not changed but there is now a curse where once only blessing flowed. But there is a promise, One who will crush the head of the serpent.

The Antithesis of Passivity

Jesus was anything but passive. 

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. (Jn 6:38–39)

It wasn’t enough to avoid creating or adding to the problem. There was once a command to fill the earth with the image and glory of God. It was God’s will for Him to proactively make sure that happened. So He came, He lived, He died, He rose, and now He reigns. Before leaving earth, He commissioned His disciples to carry on the job of working and keeping to the glory of God.  But now with a risen and reigning Savior empowering and interceding for us constantly. Even after dying for us, He still keeps after it. 

Men, our command is not merely to avoid exasperating our children but to bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Our command is not merely to refrain from unfaithfulness to our wife but to nurture a healthy, loving marriage that honors God. Our command is not merely to put in eight hours of honest work but to do all our work as unto the Lord. Our job is not merely to avoid growing sin but to see the blessings of Christ flow wherever we find the curse. As the hymn tells us:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

far as the curse is found,

far as the curse is found,

far as, far as the curse is found.

]]>
The American church has a passive man problem. Not just that it is filled with them but that we typically applaud men for impotence and limp-wristedness. The problem with Christian men, then, is that they don’t think passivity is a big issue or a problem at all. Let me make this clear. Christian men should hate passivity. It should leave a bitter taste in our mouths wherever we see it. It should make our stomachs sick when we see it in our own lives. Instead, we tell ourselves, “Well, at least I never…” and we fill in the blank with the sins we happen NOT to struggle with. Which is, in itself, evidence of our passivity. But the problem is more than excuses and justifying, we have a misunderstanding that goes back to the Garden.

Man’s Purpose

If you ask the average Christian what God’s command was to Adam in the garden, I’d bet he will tell you that it was to not eat the fruit of the tree. That command is there. But it was at the end of the list of instructions.

The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Ge 2:15–17)

First, man was to “work” and “keep” the garden. The command to work is to cultivate like a gardener. Back in Genesis 1:28, man is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. He is to take the garden God has placed him in and cause it to grow. This is proactive work. It is not merely refraining from doing bad things but actually doing what nurtures the garden he is given.

The command to keep means to guard or protect. He is to protect that garden and all who are in it from anything that would endanger it. This, again, is active work. There is nothing passive about it at all. Protecting takes vigilance. Next, man is told to eat from and enjoy the fruits of his labor. The labor was a gift from God. The garden was a gift from God. The enjoyment was a gift from God. Finally, he was not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

The Passive Problem

All seems just fine until a serpent comes into the garden and starts whispering to the woman. Adam was passive in protecting the garden God gave him and he was passive in cultivating God’s word and God’s order in his marriage. He takes a backseat. “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree…’” (Ge 3:17). When confronted with his failure, he does the only thing passive men are quick to do, make excuses and blame shift. “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree…” (Ge 3:12).

Yet God, in his mercy, doesn’t bring immediate death. He allows man to continue in his purpose. Plants will grow but with greater difficulty. We will eat bread but by the sweat of our faces. The marriage relationship that is designed to help us in it will be disjointed. Ultimately we will die. Man still works and keeps in whatever garden God places him in. We are to work and keep our marriage, our job, our kids, our church, and our community. We are to devote ourselves to cultivating good things and then protecting what is worthy of protection. We are to enjoy the blessings of God that He has given us and the fruit of our labor there. The substance of God’s purpose for man has not changed but there is now a curse where once only blessing flowed. But there is a promise, One who will crush the head of the serpent.

The Antithesis of Passivity

Jesus was anything but passive. 

For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. (Jn 6:38–39)

It wasn’t enough to avoid creating or adding to the problem. There was once a command to fill the earth with the image and glory of God. It was God’s will for Him to proactively make sure that happened. So He came, He lived, He died, He rose, and now He reigns. Before leaving earth, He commissioned His disciples to carry on the job of working and keeping to the glory of God.  But now with a risen and reigning Savior empowering and interceding for us constantly. Even after dying for us, He still keeps after it. 

Men, our command is not merely to avoid exasperating our children but to bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Our command is not merely to refrain from unfaithfulness to our wife but to nurture a healthy, loving marriage that honors God. Our command is not merely to put in eight hours of honest work but to do all our work as unto the Lord. Our job is not merely to avoid growing sin but to see the blessings of Christ flow wherever we find the curse. As the hymn tells us:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,

nor thorns infest the ground;

He comes to make His blessings flow

far as the curse is found,

far as the curse is found,

far as, far as the curse is found.

]]>
The Great Sin of Grumbling https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/the-great-sin-of-grumbling https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/the-great-sin-of-grumbling#comments Wed, 08 Nov 2023 15:39:51 -0600 https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/the-great-sin-of-grumbling Missteps and Murmurings

We all have stories of stupid injuries, at least every man does. When I consider the stupid injuries in my life, there are two that stand out above the rest. 

The first was when I was nine. My family was in the process of building a house and we went out to the worksite. I have no doubt that my mother warned me to be careful around the construction debris but when I saw a rusty nail sticking up out of a board I apparently took her instruction to mean carefully place your foot atop the nail. With all the grace of a drunken elephant, I lurked forward and the nail was thrust through my shoe and embedded deep in my foot.  

The second was, unfortunately, as a full-grown adult. I will spare you the whole story but it involves racing through a glass maze and missing the final turn. My face did not appreciate the sudden stop. I split my eyebrow open, bled considerably, and needed a few stitches. 

To the untrained eye, the second injury appeared far worse than the first. It was visibly larger and bled far more. However, to the trained eye and mind of a doctor, the first was far more dangerous. Why? Risk of infection. The doctor could easily see that my eyebrow was a clean cut with no contaminants, a simple clean and stitch and it should heal quickly. Although my foot was a small incision, the risk of contamination was high. The doctor had to cut the wound open more to ensure that everything was removed. We watched carefully for days to make sure an infection wouldn’t result.

When something unpleasant, or even painful, happens we excuse murmuring and grumbling as a minor offense or not an offense at all. But the trained eye of the Bible has a different perspective. It recognizes the hidden discontentment and sees a murmuring spirit as a potentially nasty infection.  A fight in a Christian marriage can create a large wound but God knows that the stitches of His grace and forgiveness can heal it relatively quickly, so long as there is no infection of discontented grumbling. But Satan knows this as well.

A Generational Problem

Satan’s tactic is simple. He can’t stop God’s redemptive work for His people. So he seeks to make it seem miserable and blinds them to their own sin and rebellion against God so that they complain instead. This is what happened with “the wilderness generation”.

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did… We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Co 10:1–6, 9-12)

The whole generation died in the wilderness, save two. Paul clearly tells us that the reason these stories were recorded is so we who are part of the church don’t fall short of the Promised Land as well (Romans 11:20-21; Heb. 3:12-19). We think grumbling when things don’t go well is a mild, perhaps, necessary evil so long as it isn’t too much (or about us). The Bible, however, uses it to describe people who are eternally damned. 

Burroughs, in his book The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, writes: “Oh, that we could but convince men and women that a murmuring spirit is a greater evil than any affliction [no matter] what the affliction! [It is] the evil of the evil, and the misery of the misery.” Here are three reasons why Christians should see grumbling and complaining as far worse than they likely do.

Christian, grumbling is below your station in Christ

In 1 Kings 21, Ahab, the king of Israel, wanted Naboth’s vineyard to plant a vegetable garden. When Naboth resisted because of the command of the Lord (v3), it says that “Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen” (v4). How ridiculous that a king of God’s people should sit in his palace on his plush bed overcome with discontentment because a poor man didn’t give him a little piece of land. “This is childish and certainly beneath a king of God’s people,” you say, “but my situation is different. I am simply not a king of God’s people.” Indeed, you are much more.  

God’s people leaving Egypt were to be kingly priests, all of them, but they grumbled and rebelled and died in the wilderness (Ex. 19:5-6). Eventually, God put His man on the throne, King David, from whom the One True King would descend. Ahab was a king, not of the Davidic line of Judah, but of the divided kingdom of Isreal. His kingship was not of the promised Davidic line. But we reign with Christ (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). In Christ, we are of the Davidic kingship lineage. We reign with Christ because we have been made brothers and sisters of Christ, adopted into the family of God. You are a child of the Most High God, King of kings, and Lord of lords. 

It is the difference between Edmund at the start of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and King Edmund the Just. When Jude speaks of the Lord coming with His holy ones to execute judgment on the ungodly sinners, he describes them as “grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires” (Jude 16). Grumbling is unbecoming of His kings and queens. 

Christian, grumbling swallows up your life in Christ

In Numbers 16, Korah led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, with a bunch of other knuckleheads.  Their first complaint was against Aaron as priest over the people (Num. 16:3). Then they complained about leaving the “comforts” of Egypt and questioned who God gave to lead them (Num. 16:13-14). They are even so bold as to describe slavery in Egypt in the terms God used to describe the Promised Land.

The result was that their lives were literally swallowed up by the earth. This is a picture of what discontent grumbling does. All the good things, all your life, are swallowed up by your bitterness and complaining. It kills the joy of Christ in our hearts. It blinds us to what we already have and steals away any comfort therein. It gives us nothing good in return. It undercuts our productivity in the duties God has given us. It makes what is actually bad in our lives into something much worse. You can complain and find short-lived, sinful satisfaction but when have you ever grumbled and genuinely felt better about the situation? Even worse, it brings, at best, God’s discipline on you, and at worst His wrath (Heb. 12:7-17).

It’s unthinkable to us that after being delivered from slavery in Egypt two years prior anyone would grumble in this way. Yet, how many of us were saved, or our lives and marriages were brought back from the edge of destruction by God through the preaching and work of a church? And how many a few years later are grumbling and complaining because the same church and leaders aren’t serving their family how they want or are making some decision they don’t prefer? We bite the hand that feeds us but our own life is swallowed up.

Christian, grumbling poisons the church of Christ

Grumbling poisons the church by stunting our growth in Christ and hindering our witness.

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. (Php 2:12–16)

It is neither a benefit to us as individuals nor to the church as a whole to grumble and complain.  Instead, it is the first problem mentioned that would hinder our progress in salvation and witness in the world. Again, the prime example is the “crooked and twisted” wilderness generation (see Deut. 32:5). Furthermore, it poisons our love and care for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another (1 Pe 4:8–10)

Sadly, the church has given way to culture to such a degree that, so long as it is done in the prescribed avenues, this grumbling is redefined as a sort of therapeutic catharsis. It is okay, we say, that must have been very traumatic. Imagine Moses treating Korah this way, “I know you grew up enslaved, and that must have been very scary at the Red Sea with Pharoah’s army approaching… I can understand that, although I’ve humbly obeyed God, it is sometimes hard to trust my leadership.” Our grumbling doesn’t need therapy. It is a sin, a terribly infectious sin at that. We need to repent and we need someone to come between God’s wrath and us.

And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. (Nu 16:47–49)

Two Confessions

My first confession identifies the problem and admits my need. More often than I would like to admit I struggle with grumbling. I may not always be so obvious to others but it is surely there in my heart. It keeps me from gratitude toward God and, to my great sadness, has often diminished rightful joy and celebration in the church. For that, I repent and ask forgiveness from all those who have been and are at Proclaim. Especially those to whom the plague of my sour heart and discontented murmurings have spread. I write this in hopes that it will help all of us, but especially me, remember that grumbling and complaining is truly a great evil. 

The second confession is of a different kind. It is the solution. It is He who comes between the living and the dead. It is He who atones for all our sins. It is He who is the true High Priest, not of Aaron, but One who is priest forever. In John 3:14-15, Jesus says of himself, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” His death on the cross atones for repentant grumblers.

If the fiery serpents of discontentment and grumbling have bitten you. If they have poisoned your life, damaged your relationships, and killed your joy. The answer is to look to Christ. Believe in Him. He takes dead things and brings them back to life. He can resurrect relationships and He can restore joy beyond what you imagine. He is food in the wilderness that never gets old. He brings forth water from rocks so that we never thirst. He gives us grace upon grace and restores our souls. Look to Him and you shall live.

]]>
Missteps and Murmurings

We all have stories of stupid injuries, at least every man does. When I consider the stupid injuries in my life, there are two that stand out above the rest. 

The first was when I was nine. My family was in the process of building a house and we went out to the worksite. I have no doubt that my mother warned me to be careful around the construction debris but when I saw a rusty nail sticking up out of a board I apparently took her instruction to mean carefully place your foot atop the nail. With all the grace of a drunken elephant, I lurked forward and the nail was thrust through my shoe and embedded deep in my foot.  

The second was, unfortunately, as a full-grown adult. I will spare you the whole story but it involves racing through a glass maze and missing the final turn. My face did not appreciate the sudden stop. I split my eyebrow open, bled considerably, and needed a few stitches. 

To the untrained eye, the second injury appeared far worse than the first. It was visibly larger and bled far more. However, to the trained eye and mind of a doctor, the first was far more dangerous. Why? Risk of infection. The doctor could easily see that my eyebrow was a clean cut with no contaminants, a simple clean and stitch and it should heal quickly. Although my foot was a small incision, the risk of contamination was high. The doctor had to cut the wound open more to ensure that everything was removed. We watched carefully for days to make sure an infection wouldn’t result.

When something unpleasant, or even painful, happens we excuse murmuring and grumbling as a minor offense or not an offense at all. But the trained eye of the Bible has a different perspective. It recognizes the hidden discontentment and sees a murmuring spirit as a potentially nasty infection.  A fight in a Christian marriage can create a large wound but God knows that the stitches of His grace and forgiveness can heal it relatively quickly, so long as there is no infection of discontented grumbling. But Satan knows this as well.

A Generational Problem

Satan’s tactic is simple. He can’t stop God’s redemptive work for His people. So he seeks to make it seem miserable and blinds them to their own sin and rebellion against God so that they complain instead. This is what happened with “the wilderness generation”.

For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did… We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Co 10:1–6, 9-12)

The whole generation died in the wilderness, save two. Paul clearly tells us that the reason these stories were recorded is so we who are part of the church don’t fall short of the Promised Land as well (Romans 11:20-21; Heb. 3:12-19). We think grumbling when things don’t go well is a mild, perhaps, necessary evil so long as it isn’t too much (or about us). The Bible, however, uses it to describe people who are eternally damned. 

Burroughs, in his book The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, writes: “Oh, that we could but convince men and women that a murmuring spirit is a greater evil than any affliction [no matter] what the affliction! [It is] the evil of the evil, and the misery of the misery.” Here are three reasons why Christians should see grumbling and complaining as far worse than they likely do.

Christian, grumbling is below your station in Christ

In 1 Kings 21, Ahab, the king of Israel, wanted Naboth’s vineyard to plant a vegetable garden. When Naboth resisted because of the command of the Lord (v3), it says that “Ahab went into his house vexed and sullen” (v4). How ridiculous that a king of God’s people should sit in his palace on his plush bed overcome with discontentment because a poor man didn’t give him a little piece of land. “This is childish and certainly beneath a king of God’s people,” you say, “but my situation is different. I am simply not a king of God’s people.” Indeed, you are much more.  

God’s people leaving Egypt were to be kingly priests, all of them, but they grumbled and rebelled and died in the wilderness (Ex. 19:5-6). Eventually, God put His man on the throne, King David, from whom the One True King would descend. Ahab was a king, not of the Davidic line of Judah, but of the divided kingdom of Isreal. His kingship was not of the promised Davidic line. But we reign with Christ (2 Tim. 2:12; Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). In Christ, we are of the Davidic kingship lineage. We reign with Christ because we have been made brothers and sisters of Christ, adopted into the family of God. You are a child of the Most High God, King of kings, and Lord of lords. 

It is the difference between Edmund at the start of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and King Edmund the Just. When Jude speaks of the Lord coming with His holy ones to execute judgment on the ungodly sinners, he describes them as “grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires” (Jude 16). Grumbling is unbecoming of His kings and queens. 

Christian, grumbling swallows up your life in Christ

In Numbers 16, Korah led a rebellion against Moses and Aaron, with a bunch of other knuckleheads.  Their first complaint was against Aaron as priest over the people (Num. 16:3). Then they complained about leaving the “comforts” of Egypt and questioned who God gave to lead them (Num. 16:13-14). They are even so bold as to describe slavery in Egypt in the terms God used to describe the Promised Land.

The result was that their lives were literally swallowed up by the earth. This is a picture of what discontent grumbling does. All the good things, all your life, are swallowed up by your bitterness and complaining. It kills the joy of Christ in our hearts. It blinds us to what we already have and steals away any comfort therein. It gives us nothing good in return. It undercuts our productivity in the duties God has given us. It makes what is actually bad in our lives into something much worse. You can complain and find short-lived, sinful satisfaction but when have you ever grumbled and genuinely felt better about the situation? Even worse, it brings, at best, God’s discipline on you, and at worst His wrath (Heb. 12:7-17).

It’s unthinkable to us that after being delivered from slavery in Egypt two years prior anyone would grumble in this way. Yet, how many of us were saved, or our lives and marriages were brought back from the edge of destruction by God through the preaching and work of a church? And how many a few years later are grumbling and complaining because the same church and leaders aren’t serving their family how they want or are making some decision they don’t prefer? We bite the hand that feeds us but our own life is swallowed up.

Christian, grumbling poisons the church of Christ

Grumbling poisons the church by stunting our growth in Christ and hindering our witness.

work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life. (Php 2:12–16)

It is neither a benefit to us as individuals nor to the church as a whole to grumble and complain.  Instead, it is the first problem mentioned that would hinder our progress in salvation and witness in the world. Again, the prime example is the “crooked and twisted” wilderness generation (see Deut. 32:5). Furthermore, it poisons our love and care for fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another (1 Pe 4:8–10)

Sadly, the church has given way to culture to such a degree that, so long as it is done in the prescribed avenues, this grumbling is redefined as a sort of therapeutic catharsis. It is okay, we say, that must have been very traumatic. Imagine Moses treating Korah this way, “I know you grew up enslaved, and that must have been very scary at the Red Sea with Pharoah’s army approaching… I can understand that, although I’ve humbly obeyed God, it is sometimes hard to trust my leadership.” Our grumbling doesn’t need therapy. It is a sin, a terribly infectious sin at that. We need to repent and we need someone to come between God’s wrath and us.

And he put on the incense and made atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stopped. Now those who died in the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the affair of Korah. (Nu 16:47–49)

Two Confessions

My first confession identifies the problem and admits my need. More often than I would like to admit I struggle with grumbling. I may not always be so obvious to others but it is surely there in my heart. It keeps me from gratitude toward God and, to my great sadness, has often diminished rightful joy and celebration in the church. For that, I repent and ask forgiveness from all those who have been and are at Proclaim. Especially those to whom the plague of my sour heart and discontented murmurings have spread. I write this in hopes that it will help all of us, but especially me, remember that grumbling and complaining is truly a great evil. 

The second confession is of a different kind. It is the solution. It is He who comes between the living and the dead. It is He who atones for all our sins. It is He who is the true High Priest, not of Aaron, but One who is priest forever. In John 3:14-15, Jesus says of himself, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” His death on the cross atones for repentant grumblers.

If the fiery serpents of discontentment and grumbling have bitten you. If they have poisoned your life, damaged your relationships, and killed your joy. The answer is to look to Christ. Believe in Him. He takes dead things and brings them back to life. He can resurrect relationships and He can restore joy beyond what you imagine. He is food in the wilderness that never gets old. He brings forth water from rocks so that we never thirst. He gives us grace upon grace and restores our souls. Look to Him and you shall live.

]]>
Four Rules for Prayer https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/four-rules-for-prayer https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/four-rules-for-prayer#comments Wed, 01 Nov 2023 13:44:43 -0500 https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/four-rules-for-prayer A few years ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about prayer. He confessed that his prayers had been few and far between. Thinking I might be able to offer him some encouragement, I asked him what he believed to be the reason for his lazy prayer life. His response was unexpected and profound. He said there was something deep down that recognized his unworthiness and feared to come into the presence of a holy God.  Some will immediately resonate with this reality and yet we know that God commands us to pray. We know the Bible says that prayers are eminently useful to us (see my previous blog HERE) but we feel as if we cannot bridge the gap. 

There is, however, another common response in modern Christianity that would seek to comfort my friend by claiming he is being too grave or harsh on himself. That would tell him to look to the gentle and lowly Jesus rather than the heavy-handed Father of the Old Testament. “Jesus, is our homeboy, our boyfriend, our buddy… just talk to him like a friend.” But this mindsight is actually a step farther away, and thus far WORSE, than my friend’s. It ignores that when the disciples asked Jesus to tell them how to pray, Jesus instructed them to start with, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…” It either ignores that it was Jesus who told the parable of the Pharisees and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14) or makes the parable into a man-centered illustration about how to relate to one another rather than about how we are to approach a holy and just God.

There is something of truth in both these responses. The Father does love His children and He is the King of kings. One does not nonchalantly waltz into the presence of a king yet we are invited, even commanded, into His presence. These are not conflicting or contradictory. 

But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. (Ps 5:7) 

It is our assurance of His love that gives us the confidence to come into the presence of a holy God and it is our godly fear that improves our understanding of His love and increases our affections for Him. Though we can have confidence to come before Him to pray, we ought to seek to do so with proper respect and decorum. John Calvin, in his Institutes of Christian Religion, gives four rules for prayer which I will humbly and lightly adapt.

Focus our hearts and minds

Calvin tells us that we should “have our heart and mind framed as becomes those who are entering into conversation with God”. We can do this in two ways. 

First, the attention of our hearts and minds is focused. We should not be distracted or wandering in our thoughts. These distractions typically revolve around those things that are concerning us. But that does not mean that we disengage ourselves as if we have no anxieties or concerns because those are the very things that push us to seek God more. Instead, we should eliminate any vain or petty complaints. Anyone who has worked in the service industry knows the nature of distinguishing between a customer’s petty complaints and genuine concerns. The genuine concerns that remain should then be thrust toward God by petition rather than merely bouncing around. When I begin to imagine what I might do or say in the situation that concerns me (this being distinguished from meditating on how to apply God’s Word to a situation) then I know that I’m seeking my own answers to the problem rather than seeking the One who is the answer

Second, the requests of our hearts and minds are focused. Not only should we eliminate petty complaints or problems, but we should also eliminate unbiblical requests. 

Ask only in so far as God permits. For though he bids us pour out our hearts (Ps. 62:8) he does not indiscriminately give loose reins to foolish and depraved affections; and when he promises that he will grant believers their wish, his indulgence does not proceed so far as to submit to their caprice. (Calvin, Institutes, 3.20.5)

In order to focus our hearts and minds in this proper position, it may benefit us to position our physical bodies in ways that promote focus: lifting hands, kneeling, or praying out loud.

Arouse our hearts and minds

Calvin encourages that “in asking we must always truly feel our wants, and seriously considering that we need all the things which we ask” He illustrates this rule by offering confession as an example. What would we think of the person who asks for forgiveness while either not considering himself to be a sinner or, at the least, not considering his sins? We would think that his confession is fake and hypocritical. One which God would certainly not accept. Yet this is often how we pray as if we are not actually in need of His provision or at least not considering our great need in our particular circumstance. 

Would anyone come before a King to make a request in an indiscriminate, mechanical, and inattentive manner? Would anyone come before a loved one meandering and making requests that they may or may not actually desire? When my kids make a Christmas list, they consider what they put on it. First, because they know it's in our power to make it happen. Second, because they know that it is our desire to give them good gifts. How sad it would be if when asked what they wanted for Christmas, they lazily tossed out random things that came to their mind, and then they actually received them. Why did Grandpa get me this? It is what you asked for. We are encouraged to consider our needs, that which is truly our “daily bread”, and conform the way we pray accordingly (James 5:13).

Humble our hearts and minds

As was mentioned earlier, Jesus made it clear that those who pridefully think they are worthy to come into the presence of God in prayer will be humbled. Calvin implores us to “lay aside all idea of worth…discard all self-confidence, humbly giving God the whole glory, lest…vain pride cause [God] to turn away his face”

Everywhere God’s people are commanded to enter into prayer with repentance (Ps. 25:7, 18; 51:5; James 4:3). Repentance, then, is both a critical preparation for and entrance into prayer. Our hearts ought to be humble and genuinely repentant and we ought to express that repentance through confession of sin and request of pardon. Otherwise, we run the risk of being like a patient who asks the doctor to ease his symptoms without regard for curing the root of the disease. 

For the holiest of men cannot hope to obtain anything from God until he has been freely reconciled to him. God cannot be propitious to any but those whom he pardons. Hence it is not strange that this is the key by which believers open the door of prayer. (Calvin, Institutes, 3.20.9)

Indeed, Jesus told his disciples to forgive as they have been forgiven and to ask to be delivered from the evil one, which is fundamentally a request to deal with the disease and guard against further infection. We know that if we confess our sins he will forgive and cleanse us (1 John 1:9).

Embolden our hearts and minds 

Calvin continues that, although we humble ourselves, “we should be animated to pray with the sure hope of succeeding.” That, for Christians, repentance and faith always go hand in hand.  We ought to have great confidence and hope that our prayers are heard and will be answered because it is only through God’s abundance of steadfast love that we can even enter into His house with prayer (Ps 5:7). 

This boldness is not because we’ve made our requests simple or easy. Calvin adds, “it is not easy to say how much God is irritated by our distrust, when we ask what we expect not of his goodness.” By this he means that we don’t come to God asking for what we already expect but because we expect that God, in his goodness, will act. My kids may come to me asking if we can have pizza for dinner but they never seriously ask to have dinner period. They always get dinner. Therefore, we do not trust in the natural order of things but we trust in the One who orders nature.

This boldness does not contradict the respect and humility we have already noted because it is God himself who has promised to act for His people. 

“call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”  (Ps 50:15)

“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;  he also hears their cry and saves them. (Ps 145:18–19)

“For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?” (Dt 4:7)

“But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. (Ps 31:22)

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Mt 7:7–8

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (Jas 1:5)

There is almost no end to such verses. 

It is strange that these delightful promises affect us coldly, or scarcely at all, so that the generality of men prefer to wander up and down, forsaking the fountain of living waters, and hewing out to themselves broken cisterns, rather than embrace the divine liberality voluntarily offered to them. (Calvin, Institutes, 3.20.14) 

I suspect that we don’t fully grasp that Christ himself intercedes for us, guaranteeing that our humble prayers, by faith in Him, will be heard in the throne room of God. As Spurgeon said, “I have a great need for Christ; I have a great Christ for my need.”

Forms in faith or faith in forms?

Is it then that Calvin unlocked the secret formula to prayer? The formalist is quick to make laws into cheat codes guaranteeing, even obligating, the actions of God. Let’s first remember that even Satan, when He came before God, gave respect and decorum (Job 1-2), and God even granted his request! Should this not encourage His children to pray?

Second, we quickly realize that we cannot follow these rules perfectly. This is and displays the mercy of God since God does not “reject the prayers in which he does not find perfect faith or repentance, accompanied with fervent zeal and wishes duly framed.” We cannot follow these laws perfectly or consistently but our faith is NOT in our ability to follow the rules but in a merciful, sovereign, and good God. God desires contrite hearts that seek to obey, not more formalistic sacrifices. On the other hand, to conclude that it, therefore, doesn’t matter how we enter His throne room, reveals a heart that is not trusting God and His instructions. 

So let us not pardon our failings as if they don’t matter nor pursue these rules as if they are the thing that ultimately matters. Let us flee Satan and sin and trust that a good God has given us the BEST instructions for pursuing Him. This is the obedience of faith.

]]>
A few years ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about prayer. He confessed that his prayers had been few and far between. Thinking I might be able to offer him some encouragement, I asked him what he believed to be the reason for his lazy prayer life. His response was unexpected and profound. He said there was something deep down that recognized his unworthiness and feared to come into the presence of a holy God.  Some will immediately resonate with this reality and yet we know that God commands us to pray. We know the Bible says that prayers are eminently useful to us (see my previous blog HERE) but we feel as if we cannot bridge the gap. 

There is, however, another common response in modern Christianity that would seek to comfort my friend by claiming he is being too grave or harsh on himself. That would tell him to look to the gentle and lowly Jesus rather than the heavy-handed Father of the Old Testament. “Jesus, is our homeboy, our boyfriend, our buddy… just talk to him like a friend.” But this mindsight is actually a step farther away, and thus far WORSE, than my friend’s. It ignores that when the disciples asked Jesus to tell them how to pray, Jesus instructed them to start with, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name…” It either ignores that it was Jesus who told the parable of the Pharisees and the tax collector (Luke 18:9-14) or makes the parable into a man-centered illustration about how to relate to one another rather than about how we are to approach a holy and just God.

There is something of truth in both these responses. The Father does love His children and He is the King of kings. One does not nonchalantly waltz into the presence of a king yet we are invited, even commanded, into His presence. These are not conflicting or contradictory. 

But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. (Ps 5:7) 

It is our assurance of His love that gives us the confidence to come into the presence of a holy God and it is our godly fear that improves our understanding of His love and increases our affections for Him. Though we can have confidence to come before Him to pray, we ought to seek to do so with proper respect and decorum. John Calvin, in his Institutes of Christian Religion, gives four rules for prayer which I will humbly and lightly adapt.

Focus our hearts and minds

Calvin tells us that we should “have our heart and mind framed as becomes those who are entering into conversation with God”. We can do this in two ways. 

First, the attention of our hearts and minds is focused. We should not be distracted or wandering in our thoughts. These distractions typically revolve around those things that are concerning us. But that does not mean that we disengage ourselves as if we have no anxieties or concerns because those are the very things that push us to seek God more. Instead, we should eliminate any vain or petty complaints. Anyone who has worked in the service industry knows the nature of distinguishing between a customer’s petty complaints and genuine concerns. The genuine concerns that remain should then be thrust toward God by petition rather than merely bouncing around. When I begin to imagine what I might do or say in the situation that concerns me (this being distinguished from meditating on how to apply God’s Word to a situation) then I know that I’m seeking my own answers to the problem rather than seeking the One who is the answer

Second, the requests of our hearts and minds are focused. Not only should we eliminate petty complaints or problems, but we should also eliminate unbiblical requests. 

Ask only in so far as God permits. For though he bids us pour out our hearts (Ps. 62:8) he does not indiscriminately give loose reins to foolish and depraved affections; and when he promises that he will grant believers their wish, his indulgence does not proceed so far as to submit to their caprice. (Calvin, Institutes, 3.20.5)

In order to focus our hearts and minds in this proper position, it may benefit us to position our physical bodies in ways that promote focus: lifting hands, kneeling, or praying out loud.

Arouse our hearts and minds

Calvin encourages that “in asking we must always truly feel our wants, and seriously considering that we need all the things which we ask” He illustrates this rule by offering confession as an example. What would we think of the person who asks for forgiveness while either not considering himself to be a sinner or, at the least, not considering his sins? We would think that his confession is fake and hypocritical. One which God would certainly not accept. Yet this is often how we pray as if we are not actually in need of His provision or at least not considering our great need in our particular circumstance. 

Would anyone come before a King to make a request in an indiscriminate, mechanical, and inattentive manner? Would anyone come before a loved one meandering and making requests that they may or may not actually desire? When my kids make a Christmas list, they consider what they put on it. First, because they know it's in our power to make it happen. Second, because they know that it is our desire to give them good gifts. How sad it would be if when asked what they wanted for Christmas, they lazily tossed out random things that came to their mind, and then they actually received them. Why did Grandpa get me this? It is what you asked for. We are encouraged to consider our needs, that which is truly our “daily bread”, and conform the way we pray accordingly (James 5:13).

Humble our hearts and minds

As was mentioned earlier, Jesus made it clear that those who pridefully think they are worthy to come into the presence of God in prayer will be humbled. Calvin implores us to “lay aside all idea of worth…discard all self-confidence, humbly giving God the whole glory, lest…vain pride cause [God] to turn away his face”

Everywhere God’s people are commanded to enter into prayer with repentance (Ps. 25:7, 18; 51:5; James 4:3). Repentance, then, is both a critical preparation for and entrance into prayer. Our hearts ought to be humble and genuinely repentant and we ought to express that repentance through confession of sin and request of pardon. Otherwise, we run the risk of being like a patient who asks the doctor to ease his symptoms without regard for curing the root of the disease. 

For the holiest of men cannot hope to obtain anything from God until he has been freely reconciled to him. God cannot be propitious to any but those whom he pardons. Hence it is not strange that this is the key by which believers open the door of prayer. (Calvin, Institutes, 3.20.9)

Indeed, Jesus told his disciples to forgive as they have been forgiven and to ask to be delivered from the evil one, which is fundamentally a request to deal with the disease and guard against further infection. We know that if we confess our sins he will forgive and cleanse us (1 John 1:9).

Embolden our hearts and minds 

Calvin continues that, although we humble ourselves, “we should be animated to pray with the sure hope of succeeding.” That, for Christians, repentance and faith always go hand in hand.  We ought to have great confidence and hope that our prayers are heard and will be answered because it is only through God’s abundance of steadfast love that we can even enter into His house with prayer (Ps 5:7). 

This boldness is not because we’ve made our requests simple or easy. Calvin adds, “it is not easy to say how much God is irritated by our distrust, when we ask what we expect not of his goodness.” By this he means that we don’t come to God asking for what we already expect but because we expect that God, in his goodness, will act. My kids may come to me asking if we can have pizza for dinner but they never seriously ask to have dinner period. They always get dinner. Therefore, we do not trust in the natural order of things but we trust in the One who orders nature.

This boldness does not contradict the respect and humility we have already noted because it is God himself who has promised to act for His people. 

“call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”  (Ps 50:15)

“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him;  he also hears their cry and saves them. (Ps 145:18–19)

“For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is to us, whenever we call upon him?” (Dt 4:7)

“But you heard the voice of my pleas for mercy when I cried to you for help. (Ps 31:22)

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” (Mt 7:7–8

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (Jas 1:5)

There is almost no end to such verses. 

It is strange that these delightful promises affect us coldly, or scarcely at all, so that the generality of men prefer to wander up and down, forsaking the fountain of living waters, and hewing out to themselves broken cisterns, rather than embrace the divine liberality voluntarily offered to them. (Calvin, Institutes, 3.20.14) 

I suspect that we don’t fully grasp that Christ himself intercedes for us, guaranteeing that our humble prayers, by faith in Him, will be heard in the throne room of God. As Spurgeon said, “I have a great need for Christ; I have a great Christ for my need.”

Forms in faith or faith in forms?

Is it then that Calvin unlocked the secret formula to prayer? The formalist is quick to make laws into cheat codes guaranteeing, even obligating, the actions of God. Let’s first remember that even Satan, when He came before God, gave respect and decorum (Job 1-2), and God even granted his request! Should this not encourage His children to pray?

Second, we quickly realize that we cannot follow these rules perfectly. This is and displays the mercy of God since God does not “reject the prayers in which he does not find perfect faith or repentance, accompanied with fervent zeal and wishes duly framed.” We cannot follow these laws perfectly or consistently but our faith is NOT in our ability to follow the rules but in a merciful, sovereign, and good God. God desires contrite hearts that seek to obey, not more formalistic sacrifices. On the other hand, to conclude that it, therefore, doesn’t matter how we enter His throne room, reveals a heart that is not trusting God and His instructions. 

So let us not pardon our failings as if they don’t matter nor pursue these rules as if they are the thing that ultimately matters. Let us flee Satan and sin and trust that a good God has given us the BEST instructions for pursuing Him. This is the obedience of faith.

]]>
The Usefulness of Prayer https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/the-usefulness-of-prayer https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/the-usefulness-of-prayer#comments Wed, 25 Oct 2023 11:10:25 -0500 https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/the-usefulness-of-prayer Let us imagine that you were gifted a piece of property. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, you were told that buried in the backyard was a vast store of treasure along with an account of much of the treasure that you should expect to find. Furthermore, a precise description of where the treasure lies and how to dig it up is given to you. Now, let us go on to imagine that each morning you wake up, glance into the backyard, and walk away, allowing the treasure to remain in the ground. 

John Calvin, in his Institutes of Christian Religion, devotes one of his longest chapters to prayer which he describes as “a perpetual exercise of faith”. We are completely without resource to bring about our salvation and yet the Spirit of God makes Christ known to us and by faith in Him, we receive every spiritual blessing. As Calvin describes it, in Christ “he offers all happiness for our misery, all abundance for our want, opening up the treasures of heaven to us.” Now, understanding our great need and our greater resource in Christ and knowing “God as the sovereign disposer of all good, inviting us to present our requests”, if we refuse to ask God in prayer, we are like the man who knows where the treasure is but leaves it buried. Prayer is the exercise of faith.

Exercise is a word that can be used both as a noun or as a verb and it seems that both are intended. First, prayer is an activity that springs from faith. Calvin writes, “faith unaccompanied with prayer to God cannot be genuine… As faith springs from the Gospel, so by faith our hearts are framed to call upon the name of God (Rom. 10:14).” Christ has opened up a way for us into the heavenly sanctuary of God. If any nervousness, because of our sinfulness, remains we know that Christ himself, who has always been Son and is now King, remains at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us always. Therefore, we can approach the throne of grace, asking of God that which He promised to us in His Word. Calvin concludes:

Accordingly, we see that nothing is set before us as an object of expectation from the Lord which we are not enjoined to ask of Him in prayer, so true it is that prayer digs up those treasures which the Gospel of our Lord discovers to the eye of faith.

Prayer is an exercise that comes from our faith in God but prayer is also that which God uses to exercise our faith. One might ask, if God is this “sovereign disposer” wouldn’t He already know what we want or need and doesn’t that render prayer pointless? Or is God asleep or weak? Does He need our prayers to startle Him awake or to empower Him to action? Perhaps God is petty, like the little kid in your grade school when the teacher finally gives him some authority, and now he gets pleasure from demanding everyone grovel to him. 

God certainly does desire proper honor to be given to Him for providing every good thing and He does get pleasure from our coming to Him in prayer. But not for those reasons.  Rather, as we receive from Him what we ask for in prayer we glorify Him more, and, as it always does, this glorifying God rebounds back as good to us. In the same way that it pleases an earthly father to see his children’s joy at receiving his gift and to respond with recognition and gratitude to the giver, it pleases our Heavenly Father as well. 

In what ways is prayer so useful to us that God has us pray despite knowing what we want? Calvin outlines at least five ways:

  1. Prayer fans the flame of our desire to seek, love, and serve God because we learn He is our resource in every need
  2. Prayer filters our heart's desires since we’d be ashamed to ask of God things we know it is inappropriate for us to want.
  3. Prayer prepares us to receive all His benefits with gratitude. Having prayed for it first, it reminds us that it came from His hand, not from us, and thus keeps us from pride.
  4. Prayer increases the joy of receiving because we recognize that what we ask for we’ve received. A few years ago, when my desk was under the basement stairs, all I had to sit on was an old, hard, rickety chair. Having mentioned it to a church member, the next day I received an office chair in the mail. My joy of having a better chair was multiplied by the joy of knowing this person cared enough for me to get me what I needed. 
  5. Prayer deepens our trust in God’s providence. He not only promises us but He is able to deliver on those promises. It’s not pointless to pray for what God has promised, in fact, that is precisely the kind of prayer He commands us to pray. (Ps. 145:18)

Persistent asking does not bother a Sovereign God, nor is it pointless. But perhaps it seems to you as though God is, in some way, withdrawn from you. Far from being a sign that God doesn’t care or desires to distance himself from his children, it is His very means of urging us to get off the couch, grab a shovel, and get into the backyard every day to dig. He may seem withdrawn, but He is not far off.

For these reasons, though our most merciful Father never slumbers nor sleeps, he very often seems to do so, that thus he may exercise us, when we might otherwise be listless and slothful, in asking, entreating, and earnestly beseeching him to our great good.

]]>
Let us imagine that you were gifted a piece of property. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, you were told that buried in the backyard was a vast store of treasure along with an account of much of the treasure that you should expect to find. Furthermore, a precise description of where the treasure lies and how to dig it up is given to you. Now, let us go on to imagine that each morning you wake up, glance into the backyard, and walk away, allowing the treasure to remain in the ground. 

John Calvin, in his Institutes of Christian Religion, devotes one of his longest chapters to prayer which he describes as “a perpetual exercise of faith”. We are completely without resource to bring about our salvation and yet the Spirit of God makes Christ known to us and by faith in Him, we receive every spiritual blessing. As Calvin describes it, in Christ “he offers all happiness for our misery, all abundance for our want, opening up the treasures of heaven to us.” Now, understanding our great need and our greater resource in Christ and knowing “God as the sovereign disposer of all good, inviting us to present our requests”, if we refuse to ask God in prayer, we are like the man who knows where the treasure is but leaves it buried. Prayer is the exercise of faith.

Exercise is a word that can be used both as a noun or as a verb and it seems that both are intended. First, prayer is an activity that springs from faith. Calvin writes, “faith unaccompanied with prayer to God cannot be genuine… As faith springs from the Gospel, so by faith our hearts are framed to call upon the name of God (Rom. 10:14).” Christ has opened up a way for us into the heavenly sanctuary of God. If any nervousness, because of our sinfulness, remains we know that Christ himself, who has always been Son and is now King, remains at the Father’s right hand, interceding for us always. Therefore, we can approach the throne of grace, asking of God that which He promised to us in His Word. Calvin concludes:

Accordingly, we see that nothing is set before us as an object of expectation from the Lord which we are not enjoined to ask of Him in prayer, so true it is that prayer digs up those treasures which the Gospel of our Lord discovers to the eye of faith.

Prayer is an exercise that comes from our faith in God but prayer is also that which God uses to exercise our faith. One might ask, if God is this “sovereign disposer” wouldn’t He already know what we want or need and doesn’t that render prayer pointless? Or is God asleep or weak? Does He need our prayers to startle Him awake or to empower Him to action? Perhaps God is petty, like the little kid in your grade school when the teacher finally gives him some authority, and now he gets pleasure from demanding everyone grovel to him. 

God certainly does desire proper honor to be given to Him for providing every good thing and He does get pleasure from our coming to Him in prayer. But not for those reasons.  Rather, as we receive from Him what we ask for in prayer we glorify Him more, and, as it always does, this glorifying God rebounds back as good to us. In the same way that it pleases an earthly father to see his children’s joy at receiving his gift and to respond with recognition and gratitude to the giver, it pleases our Heavenly Father as well. 

In what ways is prayer so useful to us that God has us pray despite knowing what we want? Calvin outlines at least five ways:

  1. Prayer fans the flame of our desire to seek, love, and serve God because we learn He is our resource in every need
  2. Prayer filters our heart's desires since we’d be ashamed to ask of God things we know it is inappropriate for us to want.
  3. Prayer prepares us to receive all His benefits with gratitude. Having prayed for it first, it reminds us that it came from His hand, not from us, and thus keeps us from pride.
  4. Prayer increases the joy of receiving because we recognize that what we ask for we’ve received. A few years ago, when my desk was under the basement stairs, all I had to sit on was an old, hard, rickety chair. Having mentioned it to a church member, the next day I received an office chair in the mail. My joy of having a better chair was multiplied by the joy of knowing this person cared enough for me to get me what I needed. 
  5. Prayer deepens our trust in God’s providence. He not only promises us but He is able to deliver on those promises. It’s not pointless to pray for what God has promised, in fact, that is precisely the kind of prayer He commands us to pray. (Ps. 145:18)

Persistent asking does not bother a Sovereign God, nor is it pointless. But perhaps it seems to you as though God is, in some way, withdrawn from you. Far from being a sign that God doesn’t care or desires to distance himself from his children, it is His very means of urging us to get off the couch, grab a shovel, and get into the backyard every day to dig. He may seem withdrawn, but He is not far off.

For these reasons, though our most merciful Father never slumbers nor sleeps, he very often seems to do so, that thus he may exercise us, when we might otherwise be listless and slothful, in asking, entreating, and earnestly beseeching him to our great good.

]]>
Questioning My Kid's Education https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/questioning-my-kids-education https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/questioning-my-kids-education#comments Thu, 12 Oct 2023 15:30:40 -0500 https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/questioning-my-kids-education Raising a child with special needs has forced me to stop and consider things I would have otherwise taken for granted. With our first two kids, I gave as much thought to developmental steps as I gave to how the sun would rise the next day. I didn’t know how it would happen but I never doubted that it would. And when we passed a milestone my response was similar: “Oh cool… now what are we going to eat.” Sylas is different, especially in regard to his education. 

Over the last couple of years, I’ve navigated through questions from how we should teach him, to what he should learn, and finally down to the questions about why. Questions that are relevant for all my kids, but I realized I’d never considered or answered them. I’d like to share three questions with you, along with my “working answer” and a bit of my reasoning. I don’t intend to be comprehensive in my answers. My hope is to expedite your mind and heart through the shallow waters of how and what and into a few foundational questions I believe all parents, and especially Christian parents, must consider.

Why am I educating my child?

Perhaps this seems like a silly and impractical question. “Obviously every child should be educated!” I don’t mean to imply that we should consider not educating children, rather, I had never considered the ultimate end or goal of that education. Perhaps if I had been pressed I might have answered: to finish homework, advance grades, get into college, and then get a good job.

But viewing this question through the lens of my son, Sylas, made me realize that getting into college, for instance, maybe a perfectly fine outcome… but it can’t possibly be THE ultimate goal. Is the big hope for my children that they will move out, get a “good job”, or make good money? If that’s the framework then Sylas is set up for failure. The education of my children must serve the ultimate goal that God has for their lives.  

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:36.

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19–20.

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. Revelation 4:11.

Here, then, is my working answer to this question: To teach them to love, glorify, and enjoy God and His ways in all their life. Matthew Henry says that God was pleased to twist together His glory and our true happiness in such a way that when we seek His glory we seek what is truly in our best interest. Math isn’t just about passing an algebra test. It’s about learning to love the order and structure God has embedded in all creation. History isn’t just about a college entrance exam. It’s about marveling at what God’s done and learning the benefits of righteous actions. English isn’t just about getting a high-paying job. It’s about learning ways to express the truth and worship of God. The ultimate end of everything is always the glory of something. What will our children’s education glorify?

What is the basis for educating my child?

This, again, may seem like a silly question. “Of course, we base education on truth, in the facts.” Theology was once considered the “queen of the sciences”. All other sciences flowed from its fountainhead. Somewhere along the way, we began to believe that we could have education apart from what we believe about God. But this isn’t the case because what we believe about the Creator (or that there isn’t one) changes how we view the creation.

If the world is random then how can we know anything? Even if a science experiment works the same one hundred times in a row, if the world is random rather than ordered, then how can we say it will definitively work the hundred and first time? By what standard are we determining the truth of these “facts”? 

in [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:3

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7

There is no knowledge apart from God… only inconsistent knowers. Therefore, my working answer to this question is this: Only an education that is based on God’s Word can truly educate someone in God’s world. This must include a knowledge of God’s Word but it can’t stop there. We cannot merely teach a Biblical view of creation and not a Biblical view of all the arts and sciences. God’s Word is the foundation for all these subjects and has something to say about them.

Who is responsible for educating my child?

I would imagine that most Christian parents would affirm, in principle, that they are responsible for educating their children. Like most things, however, practically speaking we outsource the responsibility to someone else. We know little about what or how they are being taught, only whether or not they’ve passed. But who will be held accountable by God for our children’s education? Parents will, specifically fathers.

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice. Genesis 18:19.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children.  Deuteronomy 6:6–7.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  Ephesians 6:4.

I don’t believe this means fathers, or even parents, must be the only teachers. It does mean that I am ultimately responsible for what my children do or do not learn and for the ultimate goal of that learning. I cannot blame someone else for teaching them falsely without placing myself in the hot seat for whether or not I corrected that false teaching. My working answer is simple: I am principally, practically, and morally responsible for educating my children.

Final Thoughts

Some may wonder whether my questions are critical of public education. That’s understandable, especially in light of the fact that my kids are no longer in public school. I do not mean to call into question the hearts and intentions of many Christians who work tirelessly as educators because of their love for children and their desire to be a light in a dark place. I would want them to consider how or whether they can promote these ends in that context. 

On the other side, we should not be so foolish as to think that just because our children are not in public education, we have solved the problem. Homeschooling and Christian schools often become public education with a bit of Jesus sprinkled in (and without unwanted posters). That is insufficient and often times worse (Matt. 23:15). Christians must, by God’s grace, move beyond the shallow waters, seeking to answer the more foundational questions and be willing to change accordingly.

O God, from my youth you have taught me, 

and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. 

So even to old age and gray hairs, 

O God, do not forsake me, 

until I proclaim your might to another generation, 

your power to all those to come.  

Psalm 71:17–18.

]]>
Raising a child with special needs has forced me to stop and consider things I would have otherwise taken for granted. With our first two kids, I gave as much thought to developmental steps as I gave to how the sun would rise the next day. I didn’t know how it would happen but I never doubted that it would. And when we passed a milestone my response was similar: “Oh cool… now what are we going to eat.” Sylas is different, especially in regard to his education. 

Over the last couple of years, I’ve navigated through questions from how we should teach him, to what he should learn, and finally down to the questions about why. Questions that are relevant for all my kids, but I realized I’d never considered or answered them. I’d like to share three questions with you, along with my “working answer” and a bit of my reasoning. I don’t intend to be comprehensive in my answers. My hope is to expedite your mind and heart through the shallow waters of how and what and into a few foundational questions I believe all parents, and especially Christian parents, must consider.

Why am I educating my child?

Perhaps this seems like a silly and impractical question. “Obviously every child should be educated!” I don’t mean to imply that we should consider not educating children, rather, I had never considered the ultimate end or goal of that education. Perhaps if I had been pressed I might have answered: to finish homework, advance grades, get into college, and then get a good job.

But viewing this question through the lens of my son, Sylas, made me realize that getting into college, for instance, maybe a perfectly fine outcome… but it can’t possibly be THE ultimate goal. Is the big hope for my children that they will move out, get a “good job”, or make good money? If that’s the framework then Sylas is set up for failure. The education of my children must serve the ultimate goal that God has for their lives.  

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. Romans 11:36.

You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19–20.

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created. Revelation 4:11.

Here, then, is my working answer to this question: To teach them to love, glorify, and enjoy God and His ways in all their life. Matthew Henry says that God was pleased to twist together His glory and our true happiness in such a way that when we seek His glory we seek what is truly in our best interest. Math isn’t just about passing an algebra test. It’s about learning to love the order and structure God has embedded in all creation. History isn’t just about a college entrance exam. It’s about marveling at what God’s done and learning the benefits of righteous actions. English isn’t just about getting a high-paying job. It’s about learning ways to express the truth and worship of God. The ultimate end of everything is always the glory of something. What will our children’s education glorify?

What is the basis for educating my child?

This, again, may seem like a silly question. “Of course, we base education on truth, in the facts.” Theology was once considered the “queen of the sciences”. All other sciences flowed from its fountainhead. Somewhere along the way, we began to believe that we could have education apart from what we believe about God. But this isn’t the case because what we believe about the Creator (or that there isn’t one) changes how we view the creation.

If the world is random then how can we know anything? Even if a science experiment works the same one hundred times in a row, if the world is random rather than ordered, then how can we say it will definitively work the hundred and first time? By what standard are we determining the truth of these “facts”? 

in [Christ] are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:3

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Proverbs 1:7

There is no knowledge apart from God… only inconsistent knowers. Therefore, my working answer to this question is this: Only an education that is based on God’s Word can truly educate someone in God’s world. This must include a knowledge of God’s Word but it can’t stop there. We cannot merely teach a Biblical view of creation and not a Biblical view of all the arts and sciences. God’s Word is the foundation for all these subjects and has something to say about them.

Who is responsible for educating my child?

I would imagine that most Christian parents would affirm, in principle, that they are responsible for educating their children. Like most things, however, practically speaking we outsource the responsibility to someone else. We know little about what or how they are being taught, only whether or not they’ve passed. But who will be held accountable by God for our children’s education? Parents will, specifically fathers.

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice. Genesis 18:19.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children.  Deuteronomy 6:6–7.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.  Ephesians 6:4.

I don’t believe this means fathers, or even parents, must be the only teachers. It does mean that I am ultimately responsible for what my children do or do not learn and for the ultimate goal of that learning. I cannot blame someone else for teaching them falsely without placing myself in the hot seat for whether or not I corrected that false teaching. My working answer is simple: I am principally, practically, and morally responsible for educating my children.

Final Thoughts

Some may wonder whether my questions are critical of public education. That’s understandable, especially in light of the fact that my kids are no longer in public school. I do not mean to call into question the hearts and intentions of many Christians who work tirelessly as educators because of their love for children and their desire to be a light in a dark place. I would want them to consider how or whether they can promote these ends in that context. 

On the other side, we should not be so foolish as to think that just because our children are not in public education, we have solved the problem. Homeschooling and Christian schools often become public education with a bit of Jesus sprinkled in (and without unwanted posters). That is insufficient and often times worse (Matt. 23:15). Christians must, by God’s grace, move beyond the shallow waters, seeking to answer the more foundational questions and be willing to change accordingly.

O God, from my youth you have taught me, 

and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. 

So even to old age and gray hairs, 

O God, do not forsake me, 

until I proclaim your might to another generation, 

your power to all those to come.  

Psalm 71:17–18.

]]>
Separate from the World or Seeking the Lost? https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/separate-from-the-world-or-seeking-the-lost https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/separate-from-the-world-or-seeking-the-lost#comments Wed, 24 May 2023 11:48:16 -0500 https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/separate-from-the-world-or-seeking-the-lost In Luke 15 Pharisees are grumbling that Jesus is eating with sinners. We are commanded to follow Christ but then we remember that we are also commanded to “keep oneself unstained from the world” (Jas 1:27). Or again, James writes, “Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jas 4:4) and yet Jesus knew His actions caused people to say that He was “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” and He didn’t seem to think He needed to correct them on it. How are we to reconcile these commands?

John Owen, in his book Duties of Christian Fellowship: A Manual for Church Members, gives us some old-school wisdom that is still relevant today because it is based on eternal truth. One of his “rules” for church members is, “Believers are to separate and keep apart from the world, and from the men of the world in all their ways of false worship, so that we are seen to be different people.” He cites such passages as: 

“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:19)

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.’” (2 Cor. 6:14-18)

“for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Eph. 5:8-11)

“having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Tim. 3:5)

Owen goes on to explain that “The world does not sympathize much with those who separate from it”. Righteous deeds make unrighteous people squeamish. When the world declares evil to be good and you refuse to go along it’s only a matter of time before the world will turn on you. Even if you do it in a “nice” way.  On the other hand, God is even more clear, as Owen states, “Someone who will not separate from the world and false worship has separated himself from Christ” (italics original). 

In other words, there is no neutrality. God has drawn a clear line. If you side with the world then you are no friend of the King. Yet, we are given marching orders to proclaim the good news of our King’s victory and His grace for repentant rebels. That takes proximity!  What is meant by separation then? The marching orders actually help us understand. 

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (Mt 28:18–20)

Jesus has all authority. He is King. We are called to make disciples. We must “go” into the world to do so. But this making of disciples includes two aspects: 1) baptizing, that is marking people as belonging to our Trinitarian God, and 2) teaching them to obey Christ’s commands. Separation from the world and to God includes both allegiance to God and acting according to that allegiance. It is about fidelity rather than proximity.

Owen explains that this separation is not a ban on friendship, neighborliness, or interaction with unbelievers nor care for the good of their souls (Rom. 9:3; 1 Cor. 5:10; 1 Thess. 4:12). The child of an unbelieving parent does not need to swear off his family but should maintain a relationship in order to obey the command to honor your parents and to promote the gospel among them. However, if their parents tell them to renounce their faith or else be disowned then they should gladly accept their expulsion (Matt. 5:12).  You don’t have to quit your job to avoid interacting with non-Christian co-workers but if your job demands that you be disobedient to Christ then you should gladly quit (Lk 18:29-30).

This separation is also not against desiring or seeking the good of those in the world or living peaceably with them (1 Tim. 2:1-2; Gal. 6:10; Rom 12:18). We ought to gladly do that which is beneficial for our neighbors or our community. In fact, we ought to be the first to do so and to do it sacrificially. But our primary motivation is to please God, not our neighbor. Therefore, enhancing our neighborly reputation is not a good reason to do what Scripture does not call good. We also should strive to be at peace with others. But we do not value peace with one person so highly that we stand by while injustice is done to others, unwilling to do what is in our power, because it might be viewed as confrontational. Peace only comes when things are submitted to Christ as King and the world won’t always see that (Lk 19:38-41).

What then is it? Owen explains that this separation includes:

  • The way we walk and behave (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:17-20) 
  • Any delight of conversation and familiarity in situations where enmity and opposition to the gospel exist (Eph. 5:3-4, 6-8, 10-11). 
  • Ways of worship and acts of fellowship (Rev. 18:14).

It ought to be visibly clear that we live differently than those who are not Christians. We live, work, parent, budget, etc as Christ would have us do. We ought to talk differently. This includes everything from not participating in speech that is inappropriate or immoral to not lying or promoting false teaching. For example, we cannot use preferred pronouns. It is lying. It promotes false teaching about human nature and the image of God. It denies our Creator. We ought not to participate in the ways of worship that the world enjoys. We do not conform our church structures, interactions, and worship services to culture but to the command of Scripture.

In Luke 15:1, it is clear that Jesus was not conforming to the sinfulness of the world but these sinners “were all drawing near to hear” the gospel of the kingdom. He made his allegiance clear when He told them that His purpose was to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32).  As our culture pulls away from Christian morality and truth, we shouldn’t look for excuses to minimize the gap but rather we should stay firmly planted in our allegiance to God and His commands, allowing the gap to be whatever it is. If God commands us to be distinct in this way AND He purposes to call sinners to repentance, now through the church, then will we believe God that this distinction promotes, rather than hinders, that mission?

]]>
In Luke 15 Pharisees are grumbling that Jesus is eating with sinners. We are commanded to follow Christ but then we remember that we are also commanded to “keep oneself unstained from the world” (Jas 1:27). Or again, James writes, “Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (Jas 4:4) and yet Jesus knew His actions caused people to say that He was “a friend of tax collectors and sinners” and He didn’t seem to think He needed to correct them on it. How are we to reconcile these commands?

John Owen, in his book Duties of Christian Fellowship: A Manual for Church Members, gives us some old-school wisdom that is still relevant today because it is based on eternal truth. One of his “rules” for church members is, “Believers are to separate and keep apart from the world, and from the men of the world in all their ways of false worship, so that we are seen to be different people.” He cites such passages as: 

“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:19)

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.’” (2 Cor. 6:14-18)

“for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light…Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.” (Eph. 5:8-11)

“having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” (2 Tim. 3:5)

Owen goes on to explain that “The world does not sympathize much with those who separate from it”. Righteous deeds make unrighteous people squeamish. When the world declares evil to be good and you refuse to go along it’s only a matter of time before the world will turn on you. Even if you do it in a “nice” way.  On the other hand, God is even more clear, as Owen states, “Someone who will not separate from the world and false worship has separated himself from Christ” (italics original). 

In other words, there is no neutrality. God has drawn a clear line. If you side with the world then you are no friend of the King. Yet, we are given marching orders to proclaim the good news of our King’s victory and His grace for repentant rebels. That takes proximity!  What is meant by separation then? The marching orders actually help us understand. 

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”  (Mt 28:18–20)

Jesus has all authority. He is King. We are called to make disciples. We must “go” into the world to do so. But this making of disciples includes two aspects: 1) baptizing, that is marking people as belonging to our Trinitarian God, and 2) teaching them to obey Christ’s commands. Separation from the world and to God includes both allegiance to God and acting according to that allegiance. It is about fidelity rather than proximity.

Owen explains that this separation is not a ban on friendship, neighborliness, or interaction with unbelievers nor care for the good of their souls (Rom. 9:3; 1 Cor. 5:10; 1 Thess. 4:12). The child of an unbelieving parent does not need to swear off his family but should maintain a relationship in order to obey the command to honor your parents and to promote the gospel among them. However, if their parents tell them to renounce their faith or else be disowned then they should gladly accept their expulsion (Matt. 5:12).  You don’t have to quit your job to avoid interacting with non-Christian co-workers but if your job demands that you be disobedient to Christ then you should gladly quit (Lk 18:29-30).

This separation is also not against desiring or seeking the good of those in the world or living peaceably with them (1 Tim. 2:1-2; Gal. 6:10; Rom 12:18). We ought to gladly do that which is beneficial for our neighbors or our community. In fact, we ought to be the first to do so and to do it sacrificially. But our primary motivation is to please God, not our neighbor. Therefore, enhancing our neighborly reputation is not a good reason to do what Scripture does not call good. We also should strive to be at peace with others. But we do not value peace with one person so highly that we stand by while injustice is done to others, unwilling to do what is in our power, because it might be viewed as confrontational. Peace only comes when things are submitted to Christ as King and the world won’t always see that (Lk 19:38-41).

What then is it? Owen explains that this separation includes:

  • The way we walk and behave (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:17-20) 
  • Any delight of conversation and familiarity in situations where enmity and opposition to the gospel exist (Eph. 5:3-4, 6-8, 10-11). 
  • Ways of worship and acts of fellowship (Rev. 18:14).

It ought to be visibly clear that we live differently than those who are not Christians. We live, work, parent, budget, etc as Christ would have us do. We ought to talk differently. This includes everything from not participating in speech that is inappropriate or immoral to not lying or promoting false teaching. For example, we cannot use preferred pronouns. It is lying. It promotes false teaching about human nature and the image of God. It denies our Creator. We ought not to participate in the ways of worship that the world enjoys. We do not conform our church structures, interactions, and worship services to culture but to the command of Scripture.

In Luke 15:1, it is clear that Jesus was not conforming to the sinfulness of the world but these sinners “were all drawing near to hear” the gospel of the kingdom. He made his allegiance clear when He told them that His purpose was to call sinners to repentance (Luke 5:32).  As our culture pulls away from Christian morality and truth, we shouldn’t look for excuses to minimize the gap but rather we should stay firmly planted in our allegiance to God and His commands, allowing the gap to be whatever it is. If God commands us to be distinct in this way AND He purposes to call sinners to repentance, now through the church, then will we believe God that this distinction promotes, rather than hinders, that mission?

]]>
Uber Eats Christianity https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/uber-eats-christianity https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/uber-eats-christianity#comments Sat, 15 Apr 2023 12:39:56 -0500 https://www.proclaimkc.org/blog/post/uber-eats-christianity Convenience is one of our culture’s highest values. 

If we are hungry, there is little concern about what we did yesterday or six months ago. No sowing the fields, feeding the animals, or canning the vegetables. The grocery store shelves are stocked and five minutes away. There doesn’t even need to be concern about time spent today. We can swing through the drive-through or, better yet, Uber Eats. 

How many of us unconsciously fall prey to Uber Eats Christianity? We will hardly get off the couch to feed ourselves yet we expect the Bread of Life hand-delivered in a brown paper sack. 

In his book, Heaven Taken By Storm, Thomas Watson (1620-1686) states it this way “Though heaven be given to us freely yet we must contend for it.” The Apostle Paul says it this way, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Php 2:12–13) 

Certainly, there are seasons when the Bread of Life showers us with manna from heaven. When everywhere we turn we gain new insight and find ourselves spiritually full and satisfied with seemingly no effort. God brought His people to a land flowing with milk and honey… and then, by faith, they were to plant vineyards, sow fields, and care for flocks and God would provide.

How might we sow the spiritual fields of our own souls? Watson gives insight into seven duties to provoke in our lives: Reading of the Word, Hearing the Word, Prayer, Meditation, Self Examination, Sanctifying the Lord’s Day, and Holy Conversation. This list does not exhaust all possible duties nor do they have mystical powers in themselves and yet God has promised to work through them. As Watson says, “Promises are made to encourage faith, not to cherish sloth.” 

Too often, when we feel the discomfort of spiritual hunger we blame someone else. “I’m not getting fed.” But how often is the real problem in us? We don’t prefer how the table is set so it keeps us from eating, or worse yet, we are unwilling to put forth the effort to bring the fork to our mouth (Prov. 26:15-16). Thus, rather than working out our salvation, we grumble and complain (Php 2:14).  Instead, should we not diligently utilize these means by faith?

Watson gives us four reasons to be forceful in these duties (something he describes as "holy violence"):

1) “The less violence for heaven you exercise, the less peace you will possess.” Walking in the fear of God and walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit go together (Luke 12:4-12).

2) “The less violent you are, the more violent [Satan] is.” We are to resist Satan and he will flee from us. There is no greater way to resist Satan than to pursue holiness (James 4:7).

3) When we are less violent, “though it may not damn you, [it] will damage you.” Quite simply, sin has consequences. Obedience brings blessing. Sitting on the couch all day may not kill you but, over time, it has consequences for our health.

4) “The more lazy a Christian’s desires are, the more lively his corruptions.” That is to say, something will take up residence in your heart. If you are not stirring up a desire for what is good then that which warps the good into evil will fill its spot.

There is much more to Watson’s little book. If this piques your interest then I encourage you to pick it up. More than anything remember that your sanctification is God’s will for you (1 Thess. 4:3) but it can’t be ordered from an app. God has intimately tied sanctifying results to sanctifying applications.

]]>
Convenience is one of our culture’s highest values. 

If we are hungry, there is little concern about what we did yesterday or six months ago. No sowing the fields, feeding the animals, or canning the vegetables. The grocery store shelves are stocked and five minutes away. There doesn’t even need to be concern about time spent today. We can swing through the drive-through or, better yet, Uber Eats. 

How many of us unconsciously fall prey to Uber Eats Christianity? We will hardly get off the couch to feed ourselves yet we expect the Bread of Life hand-delivered in a brown paper sack. 

In his book, Heaven Taken By Storm, Thomas Watson (1620-1686) states it this way “Though heaven be given to us freely yet we must contend for it.” The Apostle Paul says it this way, “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Php 2:12–13) 

Certainly, there are seasons when the Bread of Life showers us with manna from heaven. When everywhere we turn we gain new insight and find ourselves spiritually full and satisfied with seemingly no effort. God brought His people to a land flowing with milk and honey… and then, by faith, they were to plant vineyards, sow fields, and care for flocks and God would provide.

How might we sow the spiritual fields of our own souls? Watson gives insight into seven duties to provoke in our lives: Reading of the Word, Hearing the Word, Prayer, Meditation, Self Examination, Sanctifying the Lord’s Day, and Holy Conversation. This list does not exhaust all possible duties nor do they have mystical powers in themselves and yet God has promised to work through them. As Watson says, “Promises are made to encourage faith, not to cherish sloth.” 

Too often, when we feel the discomfort of spiritual hunger we blame someone else. “I’m not getting fed.” But how often is the real problem in us? We don’t prefer how the table is set so it keeps us from eating, or worse yet, we are unwilling to put forth the effort to bring the fork to our mouth (Prov. 26:15-16). Thus, rather than working out our salvation, we grumble and complain (Php 2:14).  Instead, should we not diligently utilize these means by faith?

Watson gives us four reasons to be forceful in these duties (something he describes as "holy violence"):

1) “The less violence for heaven you exercise, the less peace you will possess.” Walking in the fear of God and walking in the comfort of the Holy Spirit go together (Luke 12:4-12).

2) “The less violent you are, the more violent [Satan] is.” We are to resist Satan and he will flee from us. There is no greater way to resist Satan than to pursue holiness (James 4:7).

3) When we are less violent, “though it may not damn you, [it] will damage you.” Quite simply, sin has consequences. Obedience brings blessing. Sitting on the couch all day may not kill you but, over time, it has consequences for our health.

4) “The more lazy a Christian’s desires are, the more lively his corruptions.” That is to say, something will take up residence in your heart. If you are not stirring up a desire for what is good then that which warps the good into evil will fill its spot.

There is much more to Watson’s little book. If this piques your interest then I encourage you to pick it up. More than anything remember that your sanctification is God’s will for you (1 Thess. 4:3) but it can’t be ordered from an app. God has intimately tied sanctifying results to sanctifying applications.

]]>