Love Before Time

Sometimes the Biblical doctrine of election is viewed as something austere, cold, capricious, or impersonal. In fact, this could not be further from the truth. The Bible teaches us that we are elect “according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (I Pet. 1:1-2), and it is very important for us to see that for God to foreknow involves more than His bare intellect, omniscience, knowledge of the future, or awareness of who will believe; rather, it is a term speaking of knowledge, yes--but knowledge that involves deep, intimate affection--essentially, to fore love. It is God loving His people, knowing them affectionately before time, indeed from eternity--setting His love upon them and choosing them to belong to Him and to rescue them from their sin. In an excellent book I have been reading and enjoying, it is put this way:

God’s election of His people is His seal that He loves them. Because He elects them, He will cherish them in their Savior, Jesus Christ, who is so in love with them that He calls them His bride. Moreover, having gone to the cross to die for His bride, Jesus takes all of their liabilities upon Himself. God’s foreknowledge of His people, then, is like a man’s love for his wife. God’s foreknowledge means that He is so passionately and intimately in love with His people that He offers His own Son to go to Calvary for them.

Thus, God the Father elects His people on the basis of His eternal, overwhelming, sovereign affection for them. Why did He love them? Because He chose to do so. Sovereign, unchangeable love is the ultimate joy and reality of the universe. It is the rock of God’s redeeming grace. We cannot get beyond that sovereign love to something else. Love is the ultimate reality of God Himself. God is love.

God’s foreknowledge means that God has always been in love with His people. He has loved the elect from all eternity. Just as a Bible-believing Christian cannot conceive of God not existing, not being eternal, or not being triune, so he cannot conceive of God not being in love with His people and not exercising that love through His gracious plan of salvation. Henry Law says, ‘Eternal love devised the plan; eternal wisdom drew the model; eternal grace comes down to build it’.

God’s love is voluntary, discriminatory, and gracious. But oh, what glory to realize that this is the way God has always been! He has always loved His bride, the church, and has always been intensely passionate about her salvation. Dear believer, let this amazing truth sink deeply into your soul: God chose us because He has always foreknown us, meaning He has always loved us. (Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism, Joel R. Beeke, Reformation Trust, 2008, pgs. 63-64)

In subsequent posts I would like us to see several specific ways in which the Biblical teaching concerning God’s gracious and sovereign electing of His people should affect our hearts and lives. In the meantime, I’d love to hear how this truth is affecting your heart even now. It is truly breathtaking, is it not? Should it not truly sweep us off our feet?

Retreating in Order to Advance

I have only a moment or two to post a thought for the day, so here it is: I'm going to pull away from the normal routine for the next two days in order to pray, read, plan, and care for my flock through a personal, pastoral retreat.

I'm retreating in order to advance. I'll be avoiding the phone, staying away from the internet (so there will be no blog posts over the next couple days), breaking loose from pressing details and plans and administrative work, avoiding food, and more, in order to go before God in your behalf. In other words I'll be in retreat in order to help us advance.

Please pray for me as I pray and plan for you all. As I enter this retreat I do so with a heart aching for the spiritual strength and joy of all those I know and love and pastor. Very much aware of the ways the enemy is attacking souls and families and our world, I long for the joy and holy growth of all of us and our families. I am pulling away that I might serve you in a quiet place.

And I pray that I will see many of you Friday evening at 7:00, as we gather together to pray that God would dazzle our hearts, our church, our families, and our world with His glory.

Please prepare. Please pray. Please come.
God bless.

It's Time for More of God

Sunday morning I was sensing the need for spiritual renewal--and for a new brokenness, and a fresh filling of the life of God. The Lord convinced me of my need in the following ways.

The service began with the Lord's Table. Tim made an appeal to "walk worthy of the Gospel." While reminding us to thank God that, by His grace, we are not "what we could be," Tim pointed out that it is also right to consider, "are we where we should be?"

Brothers and sisters, what I am about to confess showed me that I am not where I should be. It shames me to tell this, but this blog is a good place for honesty. In the celebration of the Lord's Table, when the bread was distributed, there was a brief moment of silence. It was very peaceful... too peaceful. I suddenly woke to the realization that the congregation had just eaten the matzo. I then lifted my bread and also partook... a couple of seonds late. The Apostle Peter was gently rebuked by our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane because he was unable to watch with the Master for 1 hour... and here I was, not able to stay alert for just a few moments! I need "more of God."

The morning scripture texts were from the life of Abraham. In Genesis 15:1 the Lord declares to Abram: "I am your shield, and your exceeding great reward." "But Abram said, O Lord God, what will you give me...?" Am I not like Abram? God offers Himself to me... Himself, the great gift. Why do I not simply take Him, enjoy Him, love Him? He is the supreme gift. Why do I allow myself in countless ways to be distracted from Him? I need "more of God."

After the service, a dear brother began to talk with me about what was being planned in the way of summer evangelism. There were to be a few Saturday car washes, and Friday night Boardwalk Evangelism was also being planned. Once again my conscience was pricked. As I listened I realized that it's been a long time since I've considered spending my Fridays and Saturdays in this way. I was reminded that, before these kinds of Kingdom activities are going to be a joy to me, (as they are for the brother who was sharing these opportunities with me), I will need "more of God."

How about you? Is there anything in your experience telling you that you need more of God? Let's come to this Friday evening "More of God" service with expectancy, humility, and hope!

Justification by Faith Alone (3)

In this final post on the theme of justification by faith alone I would like to do a little historical and confessional reconnaissance, and leave you with a selection of statements to reflect on, affect your heart, preach the gospel to yourself, and shout for joy over concerning the importance, meaning and significance of this glorious provision from God for our salvation:

“And to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: ‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin” (The Holy Spirit through Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ)

“We, therefore, who have been called by His will in Christ Jesus, are not justified by ourselves, neither by our wisdom or understanding or piety, nor by the works we have wrought in holiness of heart, but by the faith by which almighty God has justified all men from the beginning, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.” (Clement of Rome)

“God has decreed that a person who believes in Christ can be saved without works. By faith alone he receives the forgiveness of sins” (Ambrosiaster)

“This doctrine is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the church of God; and without it the church of God cannot exist for one hour. . . .Whoever departs from the article of justification does not know God and is an idolater.... If the article of justification is lost, all Christian doctrine is lost at the same time. . . . When the article of justification has fallen, everything has fallen.... Of this article nothing may be yielded or conceded” (Martin Luther).

“The article of justification is the master and prince, the lord and ruler, and the judge over all kinds of doctrines; it preserves and governs all church doctrine and raises up our conscience before God. Without this article the world is utter death and darkness. No error is so mean, so clumsy, and so outworn as not to be supremely pleasing to human reason and to seduce us if we are without the knowledge and the contemplation of this article” (Martin Luther).

"…if this article stands, the Church stands; if it falls, the Church falls" (Martin Luther).

Justification is “the main hinge on which religion turns” (John Calvin).

“Justification is the very hinge and pillar of Christianity. An error about justification is dangerous, like a defect in a foundation. Justification by Christ is a spring of the water of life” (Thomas Watson).

“Justification by faith is like an Atlas: it bears a world on its shoulders, the entire evangelical knowledge of saving grace” (J.I. Packer).

“There is nothing in us or done by us, at any stage of our earthly development, because of which we are acceptable to God. We must always be accepted for Christ’s sake, or we cannot ever be accepted at all. This is not true of us only when we believe. It is just as true after we have believed. It will continue to be true as long as we live……. It is always on His ‘blood and righteousness’ alone that we can rest” (B.B. Warfield).

“Those whom God effectually calleth, he also freely justifieth: not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone; nor by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing the obedience and satisfaction of Christ unto them, they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness, by faith; which faith they have not of themselves, it is the gift of God”.

“Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification: yet is it not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but worketh by love”. (Westminster Confession of Faith)

Q. How are you right with God?

A. Only by true faith in Jesus Christ.

Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God’s commandments and of never having kept any of them, and even though I am still inclined toward all evil, nevertheless without my deserving it at all, out of sheer grace, God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. All I need do is to accept this gift of God with a believing heart. (Heidelberg Catechism)

“The glory of the gospel is that God has declared Christians to be rightly related to Him in spite of their sin. But our greatest temptation and mistake is to try to smuggle character into His work of grace. How easily we fall into the trap of assuming that we only remain justified so long as there are grounds in our character for justification. But Paul’s’ teaching is that nothing we do ever contributes to our justification” (Sinclair Ferguson)

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (The Holy Spirit through Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ)

Soli Deo Gloria!

Fasting to Feasting

In past times fasting involved great sorrow and despair. And there may be occasions still--especially when a person is facing a battle with sin over which he/she has had little victory--in which a fast may be one of repentance with cries for mercy and grace. But there is a distinct difference in the starting point of fasting for the Christian today.

Whereas in the past fasting emerged from a posture of desperate need and perhaps even overwhelming grief, today we can fast from a place of great joy and overwhelming confidence. The believer need never be in despair. He need never be in a place of wailing hopeless sorrow. He need never be in a place of emptiness.

For the believer does not fast as a have-not, but as a have. She fasts, not from a position of longing for love or grace or favor that she does not have, but from a position of knowing that He who did not spare His Son but delivered Him up for us all, will also graciously give us all things (Romans 8:32).

Here's what the fasting believer carries with him/her into each season of abstinence:
1. Confidence that the fast will not make God love him/her more, though it will help us to love God more. God cannot love us any more than He already does. Fasting (or not) does not affect the love of God for us; it affects only the love we have for God.

2. Confidence that our standing before God is not dependent on the frequency or quality of one's fasts. Our standing before God rests on the finished work of Christ in our behalf, and the perfect life and obedience (which includes flawless fastings) which Jesus performed while on earth and credits to our account upon our faith in Him.

3. Confidence that our fasting is inspired, sustained and made fruitful by the Spirit of Grace within us. We need not fast in our own strength, but as with all works we do, we may fast in the strength of Christ through His Spirit.

4. Confidence that as we draw near to God through Christ in fasting and prayer, God is going to prepare a feast of grace for us as we linger in less distracted fellowship in His presence.

Have you ever been so hurried and harried that when some good news or circumstaces arrived you had to stop what you were doing, pause in mid-activity, put things down, take a deep breath, and then pay attention to take it all in?

That's something of what Christian fasting is. It's stopping the mad rush and frantic pace to pause, stop what you're doing, put things down, take a deep breath, get focused, and enjoy the news of all that God is and has for us in Christ! Try that out this coming week and see if maybe it transforms your abstinence from fast to feast!

I close with another Piperian moment:

"What’s new about the fasting is that it rests on...[the] finished work of the Bridegroom. The yearning that we feel for revival or awakening or deliverance from corruption or the mere presence of the Bridegroom is not merely longing and aching... We have tasted the manifestation of Christ’s glory, and our fasting is not because we are hungry for something we have not tasted, but because the new wine of Christ’s presence is so real and so satisfying.

"We have tasted the powers of the age to come...and because the new wine of Christ's presence is so real and so satisfying...because we have tasted it so wonderfully by his Spirit...[we] cannot now be satisfied until the consummation of joy arrives...[w]e must have all he promised" (John Piper, Hunger for God).

Fasting, Sin, and Going Hard after God

In his comment on my May 19th post, Gregory asked about whether fasting should ever include abstinence from things other than food. His point is well taken and is worthy of a post all its own.

Remember that Dr. Piper says that it is not the poison of evil so much as the simple pleasures of earth that most often distract us from devotion to God. These we have to renounce. That doesn't mean that we can never enjoy these things (unless they are sinful in themselves) but it does mean that if any of these are impeding our walk with God in any way, they need to go.

You might remember the words of John Wesley's mom, Susannah, who answered her son's question, "What is sin?" with these words:

Whatever impairs the tenderness of your conscience, weakens your reason, obscures your sense of God, or dulls your deep desire for spiritual things; whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind and will, that thing to you is sin.

This wise woman knew that Christians need to guard their souls from anything and everything that distracts them from God.

I've noted elsewhere that in a recent conversation someone asked me what my greatest pastoral concern is at this moment. It's an easy question to answer: My greatest concern is the fact that so few believers practice the spiritual disciplines which are meant to increase their devotion to God. And if someone were to ask me why this is so, I'd have to suggest that it is largely because so many people are distracted by so many lesser things.

If people are having a hard time finding time for daily, focused, and beneficial prayer, Bible reading, private worship, and communion with God, then they need to proclaim a fast from whatever it is that is keeping them from these delightful duties of the soul. It may well be that a prolonged period of abstinence from TV, sports, internet, movies and other forms of amusement needs to be considered.

This cannot be done as an end in itself; it must be done for the purpose of prayer and devotion. It must be done so that time and mind and heart can be dedicated to Christ, His Word and His love without the normal dulling distractions of other things.

Does this seem radical to you? If it does, then you need to ask God to give you a greater passion for Him.

If it doesn't and you find your heart connecting, how's this for a suggestion: (If you're a part of TFC) Why don't you do a fast starting right now through next Friday PM (when we gather for our time of prayer and singing at the close of our More of God season)? Why don't you reduce or even better, curtail all TV-watching, internet for entertainment purposes use, movie viewing, novel reading, non-Christian music listening, sports following, and/or any other amusements?

Then fill the time by reading the Word and good books on Christian faith and life, and by spending time in prayer.

If you don't think you could handle that, you've got a pretty good indicator that the world's got too strong of a hold on you. Are you up for it? If so, seize the moment and go hard after God!

Full, Forgetful, and the Grace of Fasting

I'm back with a few more thoughts on prayer and fasting. My plan is to employ some material from John Piper's simply marvelous book entitled: A Hunger for God: Desiring God through Prayer and Fasting. This book is packed with simple but deep thoughts about God and our needed hunger for Him. It's been a joy-giver in my life, so I'm not hesitant to share some of its choicer fruits with you.

As the sub-title indicates, the chief purpose of fasting--and really all spiritual disciplines and (now that I think of it, the purpose of all of life)--is to desire and delight in God.There are many things that can interfere with such delight in God. For some it is legalistic religion and religiosity. You know what I mean: formalistic prayers, ascetic attitudes that we ought to abstain from certain foods or drinks or enjoyments because they are bad.

Such fasting and self-flagellation have certainly been practiced as a way of trying to atone for sins and win the favor of God. But I'm not guessing that that is a clear and present danger for many, if any, of us. I'm guessing that it is not abstinence that is dulling our affections for God, but indulgence. Dr. Piper says:

The discipline of self-denial is fraught with dangers--perhaps only surpassed by the dangers of indulgence (p. 9).

Let's face it: indulgence has killed a lot more grace in our lives than abstinence has. If our affections for God are going to go cold on us, it's not likely going to be because we've been too hard on our bodies but because we've been too soft. It's going to be because we've enjoyed the gifts of God more than we've enjoyed the Giver. We're full and forgetful.

Piper adds:

For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife. (Luke 14:18-20) The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable (p. 14).

Food is among those wonderful gifts which God gives which can steal our hearts away from God. One value of fasting from time to time is that it reminds us of that for which we should really hunger: God. It subdues for a time the appetite of the body (whether for one meal or one month of meals) in order to give freer reign to the appetite of the soul.

By fasting from time to time we are able to say to our souls: "I love God more than food." This is what Dr. Piper has in mind (at least in part) when he writes:

Therefore when I say that the root of Christian fasting is the hunger of homesickness for God, I mean that we will do anything and go without anything if, by any means, we might protect ourselves from the deadening effects of innocent delights and preserve the sweet longings of our homesickness for God (p. 15).

Are you hungry for God? If you fast occasionally you might find that you get even hungrier. If you are not hungry for God it could be that the very thing you need is a time in which you pull back from your normal appetites and give space and time and thought to the One Who alone can fill your heart.

Things to think about.

Full and Forgetful

We've been announcing recently our upcoming quarterly More of God fast and prayer season (May 28, 29). If past history is an indicator it's likely that many have hardly given this event a second thought. So far the commitment we've made to corporate fasting and prayer has not caught on much, and it sets me to wondering why.

The reasons may be many:

1. People somehow have had (by an almost unbelievable series of providential circumstances) other unavoidable commitments every time we've scheduled one of these (I'm not suggesting that there not valid occasional scheduling conflicts; there are).
2. People forget to put it on the calendar (just to remind: with few exceptions, we plan these every time there is a fifth Friday in a month; go ahead and mark the calendar now for July 30, 31; Oct. 29, 30).
3. People really aren't that interested.
4. People have decided that they don't need these times despite the leadership of their pastors who have determined from Scripture that such events are important.
5. People prefer a more traditional approach to prayer meetings (by the way, one reason we have not gone the traditional route is precisely because we do not want more of the same; we want more).
6. People are full and forgetful.

Here's what I mean by suggestion #6. Hosea 13:4-6 is one of many Bible texts which warn us of the danger of becoming full and forgetful. Among other passages are Deuteronomy 8:11-19 and Proverbs 30:8,9. When people are experiencing material, physical, and I'd suggest even doctrinal fullness, they tend to forget their need for God and their desperate dependance on Him for more.

This was the Israel experience time and again. And it is ours too. One reason we do not pray more, and fast more, and then more often combine our prayers and fastings in corporate events is because we've lost our sense that we need more.

Ours is the complacency that comes from living in a culture that feeds us well physically and in a church that feeds us well spiritually. One reason why fasting is a good spiritual discipline is because it reminds us of what hunger feels like, and in so doing it reminds us to hunger more for God and for more of God.

Are you hungry? If so, please tune in in coming days as I review some thoughts on fasting. If not, may I ask you why you think that is? Do you really have all you want of God, or is it possible that you have been nibbling on so much of the stuff of this world that you've lost your appetite for God Himself? I leave you with a few thoughts from John Piper:

If we don't feel strong desires for the manifestation of the glory of God, it is not because we have drunk deeply and are satisfied. It is because we have nibbled so long at the table of the world. Our soul is stuffed with small things, and there is no room for the great (John Piper, Hunger for God).

On Losing... and Winning

Last month there were a number of posts under the label "culture war." Some recent news has me thinking about this topic again. Brothers and sisters, it isn't good news, and it does not seem like the "war" is going our way. Consider these 3 items:

1. The Times of London recently reported on the views of one, Jonathon Porritt, who chairs the British government's "Commission on Sustainable Growth." He's been called the U.K.'s "Green Guru." Here is what he said:

"I think we will work our way to a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. Curbing population growth through contraception and abortion must be at the heart of policies to fight global warming. I am unapologetic about asking people to connect up their own responsibility for their total environmental footprint and how they decide to procreate..."

"How they decide to procreate"? Last I knew, there was still only one way to do this... but perhaps I miss his meaning. Folks, this is the U.K., and culturally much "closer to home" than China which has had a strict birth control policy in place for years.

To lend credibility to the "Green Guru's" ideas, the article goes on to point out that "every baby born in Britain will, in his or her lifetime, burn carbon roughly equivalent to 2 1/2 acres of old-growth oak woodland." Horrible to imagine wasting over 2 acres of woodland just so a little baby could come into the world, live, thrive, and yes, eventually pro-create more carbon footprint villains!

2. Yesterday, President Obama offered the commencement address to the graduating class at Notre Dame. America's foremost Catholic University invites one of America's foremost abortion supporters. This is the man who opposed the ban on partial birth abortion, and promised that one of his first acts as President would be to pass the Freedom of Choice Act? And for this he is honored with a speaking invitation, and an honorary degree from a Catholic University. Folks, this is insane-- They even gave him a standing ovation! It doesn't make any sense. The old categories are getting blown apart!

3. A friend of mine, one of the bloggers here in "FreeTruth", Ok, the original blogger... Ok, Tim Shorey... This friend and pastor sends in a well-written letter to the editors of the Asbury Park Press. The letter addresses what used to be a hot political topic, abortion. Tim sends in a thoughtful, well-written letter discussing the cultural "conscience plunge" since Roe v. Wade, and asks the public "is anyone awake?" Well, the editors turn it down. Friends, this is an opinion letter for the Opinion page of the public newspaper. If you want to gripe about the School Superintendent's compensation package they are happy to share your gripe (over money) with the public... but please, don't bring up life and death issues, or anything of eternal importance.

Brothers and sisters, these 3 stories are recent reminders that the culture war is not going "our way." Of course, the battle isn't over, and we know that the King, when he returns, will be victorious.

Even now there are signs of life, signs of a future for our Faith, and a reason to hope...

Yesterday, after the preaching of the Word (Psalm 78), an invitation was given. My 15 year old son felt a pounding in his chest, and obediently went forward for prayer, and, well, for "more of God." Not an easy thing to do. Praise God, the Spirit of God is active, he can still make the heart of a young man pound. The "generations to come" are getting it. And this is victory...

Justification by Faith Alone (2)

When we think about the doctrine of justification by faith alone apart from obedience or works of law as the meritorious ground of our acceptance before God, it would be unbalanced and unfaithful to the full-orbed historic Biblical teaching if we neglected to stress the necessity of obedience or works as a neccesary evidence of the possession of saving faith. When we talk about works we tend to confuse necessary works (i.e. works that are the fruit or evidence of true faith in the Savior) with meritorious works (i.e. works that serve as the basis, or ground of acceptance before God). To be sure, there are meritorious works that serve as the basis or ground of our acceptance before God; the only thing is that they are never, never, never our works--rather they are Christ’s, in our place, on our behalf. But, just because our works are never meritorious so as to earn our salvation, it does not Biblically follow that obedience and a changed life are optional. The reality is we cannot genuinely claim to truly believe in Jesus Christ as He is offered to us in the gospel, and at the same time not seek to follow Him as Lord.

In the book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied that I mentioned in my previous post, Professor Murray has this to say regarding objections that justification by faith alone teaches or implies that we can theoretically live any way we want and still claim to be right with God, with heaven as our destiny:

It is an old and time-worn objection that this doctrine ministers to license and looseness. Only those who know not the power of the gospel will plead such misconception. Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. Justification is not all that is embraced in the gospel of redeeming grace. Christ is a complete Savior and it is not justification alone that the believing sinner possesses in him. And faith is not the only response in the heart of him who has entrusted himself to Christ for salvation. Faith alone justifies but a justified person with faith alone would be a monstrosity which never exists in the kingdom of grace. Faith works itself out through love (c.f. Gal. 5:6). And faith without works is dead (c.f. James 2:17-20). It is living faith that justifies and living faith unites to Christ both in the virtue of his death and in the power of his resurrection. No one has entrusted himself to Christ for deliverance from the guilt of sin who has not also entrusted himself to him for deliverance from the power of sin. "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"

It is not the mere profession of faith that saves, but rather the possession of genuine faith--a faith that works--and this faith itself is the gift of God, the out-flowing of new spiritual life given by the sovereign and gracious work of God in the new birth. Yes, faith alone justifies, but as Professor Murray so powerfully states--“a justified person with faith alone would be a monstrosity which never exists in the kingdom of grace.”

Of Pageants, Purity, Marriage, and Moral Incongruities (2)

Just a follow up to my recent post with this same basic title. Since the Miss California brouhaha began some weeks ago, I'm afraid that my concerns about moral incongruities in the Christian community have been provided more (frankly unwanted) support.

This young lady has had more embarassing details emerge about her moral inconsistencies, but that is the lesser of my concerns (while this woman's moral issues are a serious matter between her and God, I feel in my bones no sense of self-righteous indignation or condemnation toward this woman. After all, I realize that any of us can become a mass and mess of spiritual inconsistencies).

What is more to my point is the ongoing confusing outrage over the abuse this woman has received from the liberal/gay world, with no corresponding outrage over the immorality of brazen immodesty and the mental and spiritual adultery it causes. My concern is mostly with the way that the Church has defined "bad sins" in terms of what others are doing (to paraphrase Jerry Bridges) rather than in terms of what God calls bad.

Somehow we have decided that homosexual marriage is really bad, while all the other ways that marriage has been wrongly defined and violated are not quite so bad. Christians scream out against gay marriage but then violate and dishonor marriage in a hundred other ways themselves. Ask yourself: Am I as opposed to other forms of unbiblical marriage as I am to gay marriage?

Let me state my thoughts in this way. As one commenter on this blog put it, rightly tweaking/improving a phrase I had used in my post, we're straining out camels while swallowing camels. Let us beware how we fight against one false view of marriage (gay marriage) while we tolerate with hardly a whisper of outrage other false views of, and attitudes toward marriage that have done far more damage to the sacred institution than gay marriage ever will do.

What is marriage? As I read various conservative family focused statements defining marriage here's the kind of phrasing I find: "Marriage is a social unit bringing together male and female." Or, marriage is "a union of one man and one woman".

Folks: that is not an adequate understanding of marriage. Marriage is not just a union of one man and one woman; it is a covenanted relationship between the same man and the same woman for life. The failure to define marriage in this fully biblical way has contributed far more to the breakdown of this sacred instituion than gay marriage has ever done or ever will do.

When the same man and the same woman do not covenant to stay emotionally, mentally, and physically faithful in impassioned, affectionate, spiritually invigorated and kingdom-committed union with each other so long as both shall live, marriage has been redefined and desecrated. The damage done by infidelity to this God-ordained marriage ideal by straight people far surpasses any damage ever done by gays.

Yet I have been around long enough to know that Christians consistently fail to live by this ideal, and seem to accept without much sorrow or criticism those who do the same, and yet rise up in indignation when they perceive that "the gays want to destroy marriage."

Think of it this way: Are we as concerned when people who have been unbiblically divorced and remarried (a social evil far more common and destructive to marriage than gay unions will ever be) receive special legal privileges (like tax breaks because they're married) as we are when gays want to be married so they can receive those same privileges and breaks? I think not.

Is my question valid? And is my assessment accurate? What am I missing?

O that we could see our glaring inconsistencies as well as the world does! May all who are married or ever hope to be, settle for nothing less than doing their part to pursue a passionate, faithful, mentally and physically pure, life-long covenanted union. Then we will at least be consistent as we have to oppose gay marriage (which we do).

One hundred Christian couples passionately committed to Christian marriage as biblically defined will do far more for the cause of marriage in our society than one thousand Christian couples who protest gay unions while simultaneously falling far short of that ideal.

At least that's my take on it for now. I'm open to input.

Finishing Well (6): Eat Well and Stay Moving

The way I see it--keeping in mind the secret and oft' surprising purposes of God that determine everything right down to the number of my days (Psalm 139:14; Psalm 90:12), and in no way presuming on anything--I have to figure that the possibilities are pretty good that I'm going to live to be eighty. That's the family history as far back as I can recall. Unless God has a different plan for me (which I gladly submit to in faith) I have to plan on living about four-score years.

Gayline (whose family history suggests more like a four-score and ten scenario) and I were talking about this some time ago and its implications for our lives today. What it means, we realized, is that each of us has a stewardship of a body for eight to nine decades, and it's our task to get the very most out of it that is possible for the glory of God. It means that we've got to treat the body in such a way as to maximize its usefulness for the kingdom for the duration.

If at all possible, as much as lies in me, I have to care for this body adequately so that I will be able to stay as active and vibrant as I can right up to the end. I don't want to mistreat my body in such a way that the final ten years are slowed down and inactive due to my neglect. It's possible that God will slow me down and keep me from full activity right up to the end for reasons known only to Him, but I want to make sure that if I'm slowed, it's not due to my poor stewardship of the body entrusted to me.

I'd love to be like Caleb (Joshua 14:6, 7, 10-12) and Moses (Deuteronomy 34:7) who were going strong even in their old age. I said yesterday that I'd love to die with my Bible in one hand. I'd also love to die with my other hand still on the plow.

For this reason I'm trying to follow the model of guys around me who are taking care to eat well and keep moving. One of my friends who's pushing 60 tells me that he just has to "keep moving". Exercise, running, marathons, all which keep the blood flowing and the body moving are important to him--and it's not because he's got an idolatrous love of life in this world and simply wants to live long. He's deliberately aiming to finish well, and he realizes that that's harder to do if you haven't run well in the care of your body all along the race.

We've got to eat well (not too much, not all the wrong things) and keep moving. As I say, I've benefited immensely from brothers just ahead of me in the journey who've inspired me to take care along the way. So I do my version of my friend's marathon: 12-16 miles per week of hard walking, constant attention to eat less than I want and as close to only what I need as possible, and a daily sufficient amount of sleep.

This way if I live to be eighty, I'll have a much greater chance of being Caleb-like, still taking territory for God and tearing down enemy strongholds in my old age; God-willing of course.

One final thought on all this: those who are fruitful and green in their old age are not those who rely on self or savings or strenuous diet and exercise. They are those who rely on God, pure and simple. Everything else is vanity. God alone keeps us going and keeps us green. Let's always keep it in mind as Jeremiah 17:5-8 and Psalm 92:12-15 tell us to do.

Living and Finishing Well (5)

You'll remember that I started a series on finishing well a few days back, and it all began with a look at King Uzziah. Uzziah was a man who started well, but then failed to cross the finish line in good form. He fizzled out in his later years, and so we've been trying to think about how we may do better than he.

Along with the other things we've mentioned, I'd like to suggest that in order to finish well we need to go hard after God through instruction from and meditation on His Word. In 2 Chronicles 26:4, 5 we see that Uzziah set his heart to seek God by submitting to instruction in the fear of God and he was blessed as a result. However in later years, in the pride of his heart he became unfaithful (2 Chronicles 26:16)--presumably giving up these very patterns of going hard after God through instruction and godly fear--and all went south from there.

How does one keep on keeping on in the race of faith? It is by staying strong in the Word; by yielding to its instruction every day. The thought reminds of Psalm 1:1-3. There we see that the one who stays in the Word day and night will have unwithering leaves and will prosper all his days.

I was asked recently what my greatest present tense pastoral concern is. I think it is this: I am deeply burdened beyond words with how many of God's people do not have a regular and meaningful devotional life in which they are being instructed in the fear and love of God through the Word of God in consistent quiet times with God. It cannot go well with God's people when they do not get with God daily and hear His Word that teaches them how to fear and love Him more. We pastors talk to people just about every day (it seems) who do not have consistent devotional times with God--and their stunted spiritual growth and and frustrated relational, moral, and ministry lives are the result.

I'm guessing it was 10-15 years ago now when this lesson came home to me with sufficient force to change me (God enabling) for good. My devotional life was okay, but not great. I was in the Word in quiet times with God perhaps 3-4 days out of 7. But the times were brief and superficial. As I considered this, the following words came to mind with life-altering power: "Tim, you can survive on 15 minutes of Bible reading and prayer per day, but you cannot thrive. And you need to thrive."

So by the help of God and the conviction and faith work of the Spirit, I radically altered my course of life. From that point on I knew I had to fundamentally change how I started my days. I cleared my early morning (7:00AM or so) schedule of sermon study and church tasks, started my day even earlier and committed myself to what has normally consisted of a 60-75 minutes long daily early morning season with God in which I simply read God's Word and mingle it with prayer.

I knew I needed to do this consistently and devotionally and worshipfully if my soul was going to thrive. By this means I have been able to read devotionally and personally (with no thoughts about developing preaching material from it) through the whole Bible at least a dozen times, and the New Testament twice that many times, allowing it to instruct me in the love and fear of my God. It shouldn't surprise me that this has been the most joyful and spiritually prosperous time of my life!

I must do this until the day I die. I want to die with a Bible in my hands. I must never stop going hard after God and being instructed in how to fear and love Him more. As soon as I stop, I will stop running well, and I will not finish well.

Psalm 1 makes it clear that as long as I continue to delight in God and His Word daily my leaf will not wither, and I will bear fruit and prosper in soul, even in my old age. I don't know about all of you, but I know this: I have no interest in simply surviving; I want to thrive. To do it I have to set my heart to seek the Lord through His Word. Nothing less will do.

The God Who Dazzles!

Yesterday was a wonderful day for several reasons. I am especially grateful for the way Sunday's pulpit message captured the attention of our boys. When we met at the end of the day to discuss Tim's sermon, My wife and I were surprised and delighted at how our oldest 5 sons had processed the sermon.

Something I needed to ask them was this: Did they see God as this "dazzling" figure who does wondrous things, thereby making Himself worthy first of their notice and then of their praise?
Through the years we have shared stories with them, but have largely failed in this area. They see God's amazing provision for this large family, and other "signs" that there is a God, and that He is at work in our lives, and in this world. The category is there, but it is somewhat sparse, with few illustrations to prove it out.

May I share briefly how God dazzled me many years ago? I was reminded of this story last night as we talked.

When I was single and living in Chicago, there was a time when I had a prolonged battle with a certain sin. I struggled to get past this thing, but kept returning to it. I would repent, telling God that I was done with this sin, only to fall again a few days later. This struggle eventually came to the place where I felt that I could not return to God even one more time; that my bluff was over, and that I had exhausted His patience and grace.

As I lay in bed one particular morning, after yet another fall, having determined that I could not impose any longer on the patience and forgiveness of God-- wondering what next? How does one live, having caved in to sin because of a strange kind of "integrity" that must now keep me from returning to my Father for yet another forgiveness?

As I lay there, in this waking and wondering state, my phone rang. It was my mother from New Jersey. This was strange, she doesn't call at this hour of the day. Well, she had listened to Charles Stanley's broadcast that morning, and the Spirit of God clearly told her to phone me, and to insist that I hear today's "In Touch" broadcast. This was most unusual!

My mother did not know what I was dealing with, much less that my situation had come to a head that very morning, and that I was bordering on despair because of this besetting sin. Well, that morning's broadcast could not have been more directed my situation. Clearly God Himself had spoken into my life, and convinced me, at this critical juncture, that He was still for me... ready to receive me, and continue on with me! Wow! I was "dazzled" at His grace and by His timing! I knew that morning He was in no way ready to abandon me, and that I had quite mistaken His character. Praise the Lord-- my soul is blessed even now as I remember His awesome deeds!

And I will be sure to relate this story for years to come, and to the generations that follow!

Justification by Faith Alone

Tim has graciously invited me to contribute to his blog on a weekly basis, and I thought that what I would like to generally do with my contributions is allow you to "look over my shoulder" so to speak and view along me some of what is affecting my mind and heart in my reading. And so I would like to share with you particular excerpts that have impacted me, and hopefully will serve to impact you as well.

This past weekend I attended the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology at Tenth Presbyterian Church, in Philadelphia. I have participated in this conference every year, save one, since 1978. It would be difficult to find adequate words to express the formative influence and effect that this conference, along with the ministry of Tenth Presbyterian Church, has had on my theological convictions and spiritual growth in the Faith over the years. The conference theme this year was "Right With God: The Doctrine of Justification", and having been taught well at the conference concerning the meaning of this vital area of Biblical truth, and having been reminded again of it's crucial foundational importance regarding our relationship to God, and having it press upon my heart afresh, it seemed good to me to share with you some helpful comments on this glorious reality that flows to us from the work of Christ.

In the classic book Redemption Accomplished and Applied, by professor John Murray, the following observations are made concerning the free forgiveness of our sins through the justifying work of the Savior, received by faith alone. Hear them well--

...justification by faith and faith alone exemplifies the freeness and richness of the gospel of grace. If we were to be justified by works, in any degree or to any extent, then there would be no gospel at all. For what works of righteousness can a condemned , guilty, and depraved sinner offer to God? That we are justified by faith advertises the grand article of the gospel of grace that we are not justified by works of law. Faith stands in antithesis to works; there can be no amalgam of these two (cf. Gal. 5:4). That we are justified by faith is what engenders hope in a convicted sinner's heart. He knows he has nothing to offer. And this truth assures him that he needs nothing to offer, yea, it assures him that it is an abomination to God to presume to offer. We are justified by faith and therefore simply by entrustment of ourselves, in all our dismal hopelessness, to the Savior whose righteousness is undefiled and undefilable. Justification by faith alone lies at the heart of the gospel and it is the article that makes the lame man leap as an hart and the tongue of the dumb sing. Justification is that by which grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life; it is for the believer alone and it is for the believer by faith alone. It is the righteousness of God from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17; c.f. 3:22)

In subsequent weeks I would like to follow-up with some additional thoughts on this great doctrinal truth. But for now, as we prepare our hearts for corporate worship tomorrow, I would like encourage us all to reflect on the staggering reality of what Christ has done for His people in justification--our sin imputed to him, and His righteousness imputed to us--all of it--and with the result that we are now forgiven before the holy God! There is not a single moment in this life when our fellowship with God is not dependent utterly upon this free forgiveness of sins grounded in the work of justification. Only upon this basis may we come before God with a truly pacified conscience. So, as we worship tomorrow may this affect us to the core, and may we find ourselves looking away from ourselves, and gazing upon Christ. May we cry out in praise with Zinzendorf--"Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress.... this shall be all my plea--Jesus has lived, has died for me!"

Finishing Well (4)

A few more thoughts on finishing well are in order. The next concept that has been working on me a bit as I try to avoid obsolescence and old fogie status is this: Invest much in the younger generation.

This is of course a command from the Lord as texts like Psalm 78:1-8 and 2 Timothy 2:2 and 2 Timothy 3:14-16 would make pretty clear. But that said, I would add that it is this very investment of time, energy, and love that I believe keeps us fresh and connected and able to finish well.

It's energizing being around those who are younger and who are vibrant in faith and in the fear of God. And it's invigorating to be able to pass on to others what God has entrusted to us. We're going to be hearing a lot about this over the next few Sundays, so I'll not add much here.

I'll say only this: By the grace of God I want to be always investing in those younger than me. It'll keep me sharp. It'll keep me fresh. It'll keep me focused. It'll keep me aware that what it is all about is way bigger than, and will be around long after, me.

Folks: find someone youunger than you and (as we're going to hear Sunday) dazzle them with the glory of God. In the process you'll be dazzled and invigorated and thrilled all over again!

Your leaf won't wither and your faith won't fade.


P.S.-as for Peter's question yesterday regarding who the younger leaders are today from which we older guys can learn, I have begun to find them among my children (and other young blood in the church here), in my family of churches (younger guys like Jeff Purswell, Pete Greasley, Jarrod Mellinger, Chris Patton, Steve Cassarino, and others), along with guys like Mark Driscoll. I'm sure there are others that I haven't yet tapped into, but these guys are already having an effect. I'm learning from their models, their passions, their skills, their zeal.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

Finishing Well (3)

Continuing the thoughts of the past couple of days, let me suggest that to finish the race of life well, we also need to think about, and then act on, the following:

We need to plan and prepare not to become obsolete, but to stay intentionally and irresistably relevant. We cannot allow ourselves to get stuck in our old ways or to resist legitimate change. Certainly, we need to be unwilling to compromise truth, but simultaneously we must be very willing to bend and adjust in the way that truth is packaged if we are going to finish well and stay effective in reaching our world.

To finish well, we have to stay useful. And to stay useful we have to stay current and connected. This requires not just a willingness to change, but an actual pursuit of change as a happy way of life. Otherwise we'll become obsolete and will lose our effectiveness to connect to others in our later years. And believe me (I've seen it happen), this obsolescence will lead to paralyzing struggles with ineffectiveness, discouragement, and even anger, despair and unbelief. It can result in us finishing as bitter and disillusioned old fogies.

To this end (among other things that I'll mention) we need to stay close to the godly younger generation. I'm already going after what might be called spiritual prodigies: young Christians who--beyond their years--show that by virtue of study and a true fear of God they are going hard after God and are living effective lives in their generation. Psalm 119:97-104 speaks of a young man who is wiser than the aged because of his meditation on the law of God, and faithful obedience to it.

As I get older, I want to find such younger generation God-fearing and truth-driven believers who are, at least in some areas, at least as wise as me and in some ways even wiser, so that I can hang with them to learn from them and gain grace and skill to finish well.

That's why increasingly I love to listen to my adult children as they keep walking with and growing in the Lord, and I will do this more all the time. That's why I love to ask questions of my younger colleagues in ministry both in my church and in my family of churches. That's why--even though I have some real spiritual reservations about aspects of the style and way of young leaders like Mark Driscoll--I have determined to respect and learn from them, because guys like him have proven to have a wealth of wisdom from which I can glean to help me stay effective even in my old age.

Yes indeed, I must refuse obsolescence by embracing the true wisdom of the young. This will keep me connected and useful until I cross the finish line.

Enough for now.

Finishing Well (2)

Following up yesterday's post, let me suggest that it is never too early to think about and make plans for finishing well. No matter how young we are and no matter how well or poorly we may feel we're running the race right now, we can find grace to run well from here on out, and to finish the race with grace and victory in Christ.

Here's a bit of how I'm preparing to finish well:
1. I've sensed the need to consciously and firmly renounce retirement (as defined by the world today). I can have no thoughts in my mind (because I can see no hint of the idea in the Bible) of a period of time while still on earth, when I will take it easy. That cannot be a category for me.

2. I've cultivated an understanding of and hope in the Christian's real and only retirement plan: heaven. We will rest and enjoy God's World in all its beauty and glory when we get there. Until then we work for the kingdom. I'm to invest in heaven's retirement plan, and spend and be spent in the meantime in order to maximixe my investments for it.

3. I've kept in mind the biblical teaching that heaven is going to be the new heavens and the new earth--which I take to mean, this earth remade, only better. That means that I do not have to worry about saving up bundles of money and months and years of time for getting lots of travel in or seeing the world before it's too late. Why not? Because I really and truly will have eternity to see all the world in all its glory and beauty. I see little need to be world traveler in my old age, because I will have the eternal age to travel the galaxies. I'm not saying that travel is wrong or that I will do none of it, but I am suggesting that we'd all do well to relinquish any obsessive see-the-world-or-tour-the-country dreams (as any kind of strong desire) in order to free our minds to think about doing the more important things in the last stretch of life.

4. I'm preparing my heart to let go of desires that feed a clinging to this life and a craving for comfort and ease; things like typical grand-daddy desires to be near and to see my grand-children grow up. I'm readying my heart to let my precious little grand-children go with their dads and moms wherever God wants them. I believe that if for the sake of the kingdom, I forsake any claims to gathering my grand-kids around me in my old age, I will receive back one hundred-fold. Plus I will not find myself clinging to demands and expectations for family that create discontentment or distraction in my heart. Besides I am convinced that I will see them grow up from the perfect vantage of heaven when I die.

There are some rather hastily thrown together thoughts. I assure you: they are not hastily or superficially considered (they have been much in mind for a number of years), but they are hastily expressed, since time is short today. More tomorrow.

Finishing Well

A dear friend of mine (who happens to be on my blogging team, but will remain unnamed,though his name does not begin with P) is a lot older than I am (he's up there in the 53-55 range). Recently he said the following to me: "More and more I want to finish (life) well."

Finishing well is a concept that I first encountered in Scripture some 10-15 years ago. I remember preaching/teaching it a number of times. I also remember thinking as I did: "I hope that as the my years accumulate, I will indeed finish well. I do not want to be one of those who preach such things, but then cop out when it's my turn actually to live them." I was very conscious as a 35 year old of how untested and unproven in my own experience this teaching was.

I am now on the older side of 50, and nearly every day in one way or another I am reminded that I'm in the final third of life . With these added years I'm grateful to be able to report that at least to this point, God has only increased my passion to finish well. I am in fact gaining enthusiasm and faith for godly later years as I continue with God in the work of His kingdom and as I walk side by side with others who are a bit older than me and are showing me that it is possible so to live.

Uzziah was a man who did not finish well. His start was great; his finish was grief. You can read his beginning of life and "ministry" experience in 2 Chronicles 26:4,5, 7,15 and then contrast it with his end of life experience in 2 Chronicles 26:16-21. Here was a man who started well: he did what was right in the Lord's eyes; he feared God and sought God with all his heart; he fought the enemies of God. And in response God helped him and made him strong and great for the kingdom. But when he was strong he became proud. Unfaithfulness set in and the end of the story was full of sorrows.

There's a warning here that we need to hear. We are to end well. But we may be sure that the enemy will do all he can--as will our flesh--to tempt us toward a different end. We will be tempted to pride and self-sufficiency and the flat out carnality of western style retirement with all its comforts and ease and rocking chair relaxation.

Uzziah's proud complacency in 2 Chronicles 26:16 is not unlike the proud complacency of American style retirement plans and lifestyles. Proud of and secure in their accomplishments, too many retirees push the cruise control button and kick back to coast through the sunset years of life. And too many in their mid-to-late 50s are simply grinding out their last few years of labor so they can enjoy the golden years of retirement ease. This is sin.

Friends, we may never coast. Never.

Over the next couple of days I'm going to share a few thoughts that God has taught me in recent years to help me gear up for the later years of life. I hope they will help to immunize us from the ease disease that has infected the majority of 65 and older folks in today's American church, and endangers those of us in our 50s.

Hope you'll tune in.

The Spiritual Malady of the Age

Our family is fairly new to Trinity Fellowship. We have chosen to make our home at Trinity because of the preaching-- and Sunday's message by Scott is yet another confirmation of our decision. Jesus Christ was preached!

In his "Lectures on Justification" (1838), J.H. Newman includes an essay entitled "The Spiritual Malady of the Age." Consider this excerpt:

"A system of doctrine has risen up... in which faith or spiritual-mindedness is contemplated and rested on as the end of religion instead of Christ. Stress is laid rather on the believing than on the Object of belief, on the comfort and persuasiveness of the doctrine rather than on the doctrine itself. And in this way, religion is made to consist in contemplating ourselves instead of Christ."

"The true preaching of the Gospel is to preach Christ. But the fashion of the day has been, instead of this, to preach conversion; to attempt to convert by insisting on conversion; to exhort men to undergo a change; to tell them to be sure they look to Christ, instead of simply holding up Christ to them; to tell them to have faith, rather than to supply its Object; to lead them to stir up and work up their minds, instead of impressing on them the thought of Him who can savingly work in them; to bid them take care that their faith is justifying, not dead, formal, self-righteous, and merely moral, whereas the image of Christ fully delineated of itself destroys deadness, formality and self-righteousness; to rely on words, vehemence, eloquence, and the like, rather than to aim at conveying the one great evangelical idea whether in words or not."

Sunday's message was not an effort to insist, to persuade, or to cajole. Scott's goal was to reveal Christ in the text of Philippians 2:9-11. True worship can only take place where there is this kind of anchoring in the "indicatives" rather than the "imperatives" of our faith (Michael Horton: "A Better Way", 2002).

I'd like to say thank you to all of the pastors at Trinity, who work hard to keep clear doctrine before us, in a day when doctrine is being put aside in favor of more "exciting" techniques. We need God's word clearly exposited, and we need to have Jesus Christ "fully delineated." Thank you!

Loving the Lost?

This entry will be a bit longer than normal, but I would like to share with you in this post some convicting thoughts I recently encountered in a new book written by R.C. Sproul Jr.. The book is titled “Believing God: 12 Biblical Promises Christians Struggle to Accept”, and the forward to the book was written by Ray Comfort. It is in the forward that I found, and was struck by, the following comments. It begins first with a letter that Ray Comfort received from an individual who was a professed atheist, and this is what he wrote:

“You are really convinced that you’ve got all the answers. You’ve really got yourself tricked into believing that you’re 100 percent right. Well, let me tell you just one thing. Do you consider yourself to be compassionate of other humans? If you’re right, as you say you are, and you believe that, then how can you sleep at night? When you speak with me, you are speaking with someone who you believe is walking directly into eternal damnation, into an endless onslaught of horrendous pain that your “loving god” created, yet you stand by and do nothing. If you believed one bit that thousands every day were falling into an eternal and unchangeable fate, you should be running the streets mad with rage at their blindness. That’s equivalent to standing on a street corner and watching every person that passes you walk blindly directly into the path of a bus and die, yet you stand idly by and do nothing. You’re just twiddling your thumbs, happy in the knowledge that one day that “walk” signal will shine your way across the road. Think about it. Imagine the horrors hell must have in store if the Bible is true. You’re just going to allow that to happen and not care about saving anyone but yourself? If you’re right, then you’re an uncaring, unemotional, and purely selfish (expletive) that has no right to talk about subjects such as love and caring”

In response to this individual, Ray Comfort wrote back, and expressed to him that the reality was this: “I couldn’t sleep at night because I was so horrified by the thought that anyone would go to hell. Since 1982, I have risen from bed around midnight most nights of the week to cry out to God to save them”. Furthermore, he when on to say that “for more than thirty years I have been running the streets, pleading with the unsaved to turn from sin. When we read the book of Acts, we see that this is nothing special. It is our reasonable service and should be the testimony of every believer who professes to possess the love of God. Charles Spurgeon knew what it was to have a deep concern for the lost. He pleaded: ‘Save some, O Christians! By all means, save some. From yonder flames and outer darkness, and weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth, seek to save some! Let this, as in the case of the apostle, be your great, ruling object in life, that by all means you might save some’”.

So why do I share this with you? I can assure you that it is not because I love the lost anywhere near as much as Ray Comfort (and more importantly, the Bible) indicates we should. Because in fact, to my shame, I don’t. But the stark realities of judgment and the great divide that is to come, press increasingly upon me the need to cultivate and deepen my love for lost people---and to express that love in actively bearing witness to the Savior and to the free pardon that He offers.

How about you?

A Curse for Us

As promised I have a few words from another to follow up yesterday's post. Please read with astonishment and joy.

When Jesus took the curse upon himself, he so identified with our sin that he became a curse. God cut him off and justly so. This was an act of divine justice. At the moment that Christ took upon himself the sin of the world, he became the most grotesque, most obscene mass of sin in the history of the world. God is too holy to even look at iniquity. When Christ was hanging on the cross, the Father, as it were, turned his back on Christ. He removed his face. He turned out the lights. He cut off his Son. There was Jesus, who in human nature had been in a perfect, blessed relationship with God throughout his life. There was Jesus, the Son in whom the Father was well pleased. Now he hung in darkness, isolated from the Father, cut off from fellowship – fully receiving in himself the curse of God – not for his own sin but for the sin he willingly bore by imputation for our sake…I have heard many sermons about the physical pain of death by crucifixion. I’ve heard graphic descriptions of the nails and the thorns. Surely the physical agony of crucifixion was a ghastly thing. But there were thousands who died on crosses and may have had more painful deaths than that of Christ. But only one person has ever received the full measure of the curse of God while on a cross. I doubt that Jesus was even aware of the nails and the spear – he was so overwhelmed by the outer darkness. On the cross Jesus was in the reality of hell. He was totally bereft of the grace and the presence of God, utterly separated from all blessedness of the Father. He became a curse for us so that we someday will be able to see the face of God. So that the light of his countenance might fall upon us, God turned his back on his Son. No wonder Christ screamed. He screamed from the depth of his soul. How long did he have to endure it? We don’t know, but a second of it would have been of infinite value…Finally, Jesus cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). It was over. What was over? His life? The pain of the nails? No. It was the forsakenness that ended. The curse was finished (R.C. Sproul).

Friends: Behold the Lamb.