The Lord Presented to the Lord

I was reading in Luke today, the first five chapters. I've noticed it before but took the time to ponder this Lukean perspective. Luke is emphatic in establishing up front the deity of Christ. This is clear from a combination of texts. In Luke 2:11 and Luke 1:43 he refers to Jesus as the Lord. Then in Luke 3:4, he says that John the Baptist prepares the way for the Lord (i.e.-Jesus), citing Isaiah 40:3-5 as referring to Christ. A quick check back to Isaiah 40 shows that the Lord referred to there is clearly Yahweh-Adonai, the glorious God of the Old Testament. There is no doubt that Luke--under divine inspiration--is identifying Jesus as being one and the same as Yahweh. Thus he is revealing the divine identity and nature of the incarnate Savior-God.

This sets up some fascinating paradoxes in these first five chapters. If you have the time go back and read Isaiah 40:6-31; it'll set this up even better. If you don't then just consider these in wonder and worship:
1. The Lord of all mothers, has a mother (Luke 1:43)
2. The Lord of eternity is born (Luke 2:11)
3. The Lord is presented to the Lord (Luke 2:22)
4. The Lord announces the Lord's birth (Luke 2:15)
5. The power of the Lord is with the Lord (Luke 5:17)
6. The Lord only worships and serves the Lord (Luke 4:8)

That'll be good enough to stagger your heart for today. Be dazzled.

Concerning Shirts, Stains, and Sin

We had another laundry blunder yesterday. I left a couple of pens in a shirt which as you have already guessed, left several pieces of clothing forever blue-stained. No amount of home remedies for stains could remove these; they were just too deep into the threads of the clothes to be erased. When ink gets into the very threads, the very fabric of clothes, piercing the surface to saturate until there is nothing left unaffected, then stains cannot be removed.

It often feels like that with my sin, and in a sense it is like that. Sin is in the very fabric--the warp and woof (as they used to say) of my soul. O "what can wash away my sin?" the old song asks. Indeed what can cleanse what has stained the soul?

"Nothing...but the blood...of Jesus."

Today I read Mark's account of the crucifixion, and was moved by the cry of dereliction and forsakenness on the cross. Mark tells us that following that cry was another cry--which the other writers tell us was: "It is finished."

The cry of dereliction was the cry of the One damned in my place pouring out His soul as an offering for sin (Isaiah 53:10), to cleanse us from every sin stain of the soul. The cry, "It is finished" was His statement that that cleansing had been completed.

It was as if Jesus was a soul-launderer, standing over the sin-stained souls of all His beloved, pouring out His blood to pierce through to the very fabric of our being, to cleanse, to whiten, to restore. And when it was done, He looked at His work and said: "It's finished! The sins are washed away, the stains are removed, My chosen are clean. Look! It is done!."

My shirts will never be stain-free again; but my soul is.

"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Drawn from Immanuel's veins,
Where sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains."

Yount, Restless, Reformed

I was encouraged by a book review I came across yesterday. "Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvanists" (Crossway Publishing, 2008). Collin Hansen is the author.

Apparently, when "the emerging church was all the rage" Hansen couldn't understand why "he didn't know anyone who was emerging." He decided to travel, and interview. What he discovered was a resurgence in reformed theology among young evangelicals. Apparently, the search is on for deeper historic roots. Postmodernism and cultural relativism have failed to produce satisfaction, and there is a growing desire for a Christianity that requires deep committment. The Puritan writers are filling a need here.

Hansen writes: "Firsthand experience with pain and brokenness has deeply ingrained disillusionment in many young Americans." The young people he interviewed say that "a culture about nothing" is not a fulfilling one to live in. One 25 year old said: "Self-focus isn't feeding our hearts." The antidote for this? Systematic theology, and a foundational understanding of the Sovereignty of God. We have become a culture "starved for transcendence." (Timothy George) And reformed theology is meeting that need.

The concluding observation of Young, Restless, Reformed is that this new interest in reformed theology is producing a new zeal for holiness and a passion for evangelism, and, "that is not a revival of Calvanism. That's a revival."

This book was reviewed in Touchstone Magazine, May 2009, by Jocelyn Mathewes.

How Not To Fight The Lord's Battles

From "The Mark of the Christian", by Francis Schaeffer:


LAMENT

Weep, weep for those
Who do the work of the Lord
With a high look
And a proud heart.
Their voice is lifted up
In the streets, and their cry is heard.
The bruised reed they break
By their great strength, and the smoking flax
They trample.

Weep not for the quenched
(For their God will hear their cry
And the Lord will come to save them)
But weep, weep for the quenchers.

For when the Day of the Lord
Is come, and the vales sing
And the hills clap their hands
And the light shines
Then their eyes shall be opened
On a waste place,
Smouldering,
The smoke of the flax bitter
In their nostrils,
Their feet pierced
By broken reed-stems.....
Wood, hay, stubble,
And no grass springing,
And all the birds flown.

Weep, weep for those
Who have made a desert
In the name of the Lord.

Evangeline Paterson

Educating Children

Few parental responsibilities carry more impact potential than their children’s education. The Bible is clear that parents in general, and fathers in particular, are to have the primary teaching role in their children’s lives. You don’t have to teach your kids math or science or physics, but you do have to instill in your children the over-all Christian theology that governs all these subjects (and theology does indeed govern all these subjects). Also you and I do have an inescapable responsibility to guard our sons and daughters from error-filled education that counters a Christian world-view.

The Law of God, recorded in Scripture, which is what we are to teach our kids, has something to say about all manner of topics. Proverbs also presents an astonishingly broad teaching curriculum for parents. This means that parents are called to lead the way in teaching their kids about a vast array of topics for all of life. Along the way they certainly may delegate some teaching roles to people they trust, but it remains the parents’ duty to guard their children vigilantly from the effects of less trustworthy teachers. Being aware of the radically anti-God philosophies (atheism, evolutionism, materialism, hedonism, feminism, egalitarianism, relativism, etc.) that saturate most public education contexts, parents who choose that option will have to commit to a consistent and thorough deprogramming of their children when they arrive home from school. This can be done, but the work is hard and long and arduous.

The education decision tilts on which of three options (home schooling, private schooling or public schooling) best meets the needs and fits the circumstances of each family. It should be obvious that the further one is removed from home schooling, the harder it becomes to fulfill at least the protecting and world-view instilling responsibilities I’ve mentioned, since an increasing amount of the teaching is delegated to others who may or may not share your Christian world view and values. Fathers, whatever option you choose, you remain responsible to oversee, review, monitor, influence, and have primary control over everything your children are taught. This is what family shepherds (parents in general and dads in particular) do for the sheep in their fold.

Friends, these are matters for which much counsel is needed. Do not make these decisions apart from the input of your wife and your pastors. Seek out the wisdom of those who have considered all the options carefully and have gone before you in the decisions you have to make. The stakes are high here; don’t gamble with your children’s future, or their souls.

Creating a Heritage

I grew up with a rich Christian heritage, receiving from my parents the treasure of Christ. Realizing that not all have had this experience, I would not want in any way to minimize either the joys of my heritage or the sorrows of other’s lives. Childhood experiences profoundly affect (for good or ill) all of us for all of life.

My particular childhood opportunities have long led me to the sobering conviction that since, indeed, I have been given a richer heritage than some, I have a greater responsibility (Luke 12:48). Please know that God will require of each of us according to what He has entrusted to us; no more and no less. God is sovereign over our times and our dwellings (Acts 17:26), and He has a reason for each.

But along with this I want to offer you both hope and challenge.

My dad was a first generation Christian. He did not come to faith until he was 23. Raised in extreme material poverty (his was the poorest family in town), Dad also suffered abject spiritual poverty. Inheriting a “futile way of life from his forefathers”, he had no Christian heritage, no rich spiritual family tree, and no knowledge of the Bible, the gospel, or the ways of God until his wonderful conversion in a tiny Massachusetts country church.

Dad married Mom when he was 26 and she 23. Mom’s childhood had been shattered by a drunken father, the tragedy of divorce (when Mom was two), and the trauma of poverty (hers too, was the poorest family in her town). Remarkably, in the midst of such massive dysfunctionality, Mom came to faith in Christ at 14.

The divine union of these two was the seed of a new spiritual family tree. They had five children who have gone on with Christ, and a sixth who, though not a believer, was a loving and devoted son until their recent passing. Of their 36 grandchildren, dozens have embraced Jesus as their Savior. Among their children and grandchildren are pastors, teachers, counselors, wonderful moms and faithful dads, dedicated nurses, defenders of their country, and second and third generation Christian families.

Here’s how their spiritual heritage developed. Dad and Mom:
1. Never made excuses based on their past; they just got down to the business of Christian living and faithful parenting.
2. Took God at His word, believing His promises and obeying His commands for Christian parents.
3. Believed children were a gift from God and always cherished us as such.
4. Spent and were spent on their children.
5. Broke the cycle of futility inherited from their parents and started a new spiritual family tree that will still be bearing fruit one thousand generations from now.
6. Would tell you (were they here today) to live in parental hope, for the same God who helped them start a new heritage of faith has promised to help you, too.

If you are a parent or one who thinks one day you will be or one who is single but wants to invest in the coming generations, I encourage you to create a heritage for the glory of God!

Becoming a Resident Theologian (2)

In Acts 17:11 and 2 Timothy 2:15, God indicates His standard for nobility and approval: diligent and daily examination of His Word of truth. I know the Timothy passage is written to a pastor, but that really doesn’t let any non-pastors off the hook. After all, we’re all pastors to someone; we've been called to shepherd at least one or two in the way of truth. Noble and approved men and women of God are those who spend much time in God’s Word, examining, studying, applying, and then teaching it to others.

To this end we will need to:
1. Redeem our time. Time seems scarce for us all; let’s use it well by scheduling it diligently. We’ll need to plan devotional and study time. It’ll surprise us how much time we have when we strategize its use (e.g.-we can redeem even commute time by listening to selected sermons or Scripture on tape).

2. Read more, and read more selectively. Based on your reading skills, plan out the books you’ll read for the next year (six per year for those just getting started, perhaps twelve for those further along, then go from there.) Ask a good theologian in your church for how-and-where-to-get-started advice.

3. Resource technology. Those who struggle hard with reading need not despair. Technology is God’s gift, providing audio resources galore for truth-hungry men. In today’s world, inability to read well is hardly an excuse for being a poor theologian. Start by listening to your pastor’s recorded weekly sermon at least one or two times each week. Then ask your pastors for recommended audio series.

4. Strive for theological accuracy and consistency. Don’t read and study smorgasbord style. Too many American Christians are listening and reading based on what’s hot on the Christian scene, what appeals to their tastes, or how a writer/speaker tells stories or makes them feel. Remember II Tim. 4:3, 4, and be warned. Friends, truth and time are too precious to be spending hours reading what may be appealing, but is less than fully nourishing. Seek theological accuracy and consistency in your reading. Read books and listen to series that reflect consistently sound doctrine and application. In our church, our bookstore selections and all recommended materials and ministries provide a consistent, balanced and carefully applied theology for life. There’s enough spiritual pastureland in these resources to feed men and their families for the rest of their lives.

5. Create a library and study area. Again, ask your pastors what basic book and audio resources would be valuable for you to collect into a theological library for you and your family. If possible create a study area set apart for you and the Word.


Well friends, this gets you pointed in a right direction. There's no time like the present to go hard after God and truth. Enjoy.

Of Teachers and Millstones

During the final week of school the librarian at my daughter's elementary school figured she'd offer the 4th grade classes a treat and give them a scary story. She chose a movie about the Jersey Devil. That night, our sweet 10 year old Susanna cried herself to sleep.

In the opening scene of the movie (before Susie asked to be dismissed to another section of the library), Mother Leeds is in the process of birthing her 13th child, which she had promised to the Devil. In the grip of despair and intense pain, as she is pushing this unfortunate creature from her womb, she curses the little devil. "Curse you! CURSE YOU!" she screams at the baby. The librarian also informed the 4th grade students that, as legend has it, the Jersey Devil once entered a home somewhere in south Jersey, and murdered an infant in her bed.

I called the school speaking first to the principal, and then to the librarian. When I questioned her judgment, she informed me, among other things, that she did not believe in censorship. Could she have given a more stupid reply? She works with elementary school kids! She then took my concerned phone call as an opportunity to lecture a backward parent. I was the only parent out of 800 (she informed me) to raise an objection to the film. When the principal had asked to see the movie (for I had previously spoken to him) she readily informed him that unfortunately she could not give him the movie since a parent had come to her asking to borrow it in order to show it to her children at home.

So, you see... I am the one with the problem. And, something is wrong with our Susanna for being so disturbed at the sight of a woman cursing her child during delivery. My wife and I have tried to portray pregnancy and childbirth as a beautiful thing... a gift from God. After this conversation with the librarian it seems we should take Susie to a psychiatrist to find out why she would cry herself to sleep after viewing the birth of the Jersey Devil.

The librarian did tell me that she had intended to shelve the movie until after the principal could review it. But, lo, on the following day there was an outcry from the 3rd graders... "YOU SHOWED IT TO THE OTHERS... WE WANT TO SEE IT." Of course, she would not deprive them of a good scary tale, and so the 3rd graders also watched it. And, I suppose, since this woman does not believe in censorship, the Chuckie series, or something X-rated will be next? Especially if the kids scream loudly enough for it?

It's not a good thing when jaded adults forget that there is an innocency about childhood that ought to be protected and left in tact for as long as possible. Public schools have their share of jaded individuals, and the devil delights in using them to do harm to these little ones. Some of these educators might do themselves a favor by trading in their teaching certificates for a millstone to wear around their neck...

Love God With All Your Mind

The Lord Jesus Christ said that “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” He said that this is “the great and first commandment” (Matt. 22:37-38). We are to be passionately committed to, and we are to pursue the Triune God with every fiber of the totality of our being. And one aspect of our being that Jesus refers to here is our mind--our intellect, our reasoning faculty. I have been thinking recently about thinking, specifically the role of thinking in our relationship to God. It seems to me that there is a serious neglect in our day of this aspect of the “great commandment” within the Christian community. Yet at the very least we must see that we cannot pick and choose what parts of God’s commands we are going to obey. We must love God with the use of our minds just as much as any other aspect of our God-given beings as His image bearers.

Connecting with Tim’s very important comments yesterday in his blog on “Becoming a Resident Theologian”, I offer some complementary thoughts taken from Essential Truths of the Christian Faith, by R.C. Sproul, that I hope will serve to reinforce in our lives what Tim is challenging us with, and exhorting us to be. In this excellent introduction to the doctrines of the Bible, Dr. Sproul begins by giving us 10 causes which work against the Christian goal of spiritual maturity. And one of these causes that he mentions is the anti-rational spirit of the age. Here’s what he says:

I believe that we are living in the most anti-intellectual era of Christian history ever known. I do not mean anti-academic, anti-technological or anti-scientific. By anti-intellectual, I mean against the mind.

We live in a period that is allergic to rationality. The influence of existential philosophy has been massive. We have become a sensuous nation. Even our language reveals it. My seminary students repeatedly write like this on their exam pages: "I feel it is wrong that..." or "I feel it is true that..." I invariably cross out their word feel and substitute the word think. There is a difference between feeling and thinking.

There is a primacy of the mind in the Christian faith. There is also a primacy of the heart in the Christian faith. Surely that paradoxical declaration sounds like a contradiction. How can there be two primacies? Something must be ultimately prime. Of course we cannot have two different primacies at the same time and in the same relationship. When I speak of two different primacies, I mean with respect to two different matters.

With respect to primacy of importance, the heart is first. If I have correct doctrine in my head but no love for Christ in my heart, I have missed the kingdom of God. It is infinitely more important that my heart be right before God than that my theology be impeccably correct.

However, for my heart to be right, there is a primacy of the intellect in terms of order. Nothing can be in my heart that is not first in my head. How can I love a God or a Jesus about whom I understand nothing? Indeed, the more I come to understand the character of God, the greater is my capacity to love Him.

God reveals Himself to us in a book. That book is written in words. It communicates concepts that must be understood by the mind. Certainly mysteries remain. But the purpose of God’s revelation is that we understand it with our minds that it might penetrate our hearts. To despise the study of theology is to despise learning the Word of God” (pg. xvi).

We must listen well to Dr. Sproul’s final point--“To despise the study of theology is to despise learning the Word of God.” While God has not gifted or called all to be intellectuals (though He has called some), He is calling all of us to use our intellects, our minds that He has gifted us with, to the fullest capacity that we each have, to love Him, and to study Him--to the proximate end that we may more clearly display Him through our lives, to the ultimate end that we may glorify Him and enjoy Him to the full, forever.

What are some specific practical implications of this for our lives that come to mind (pardon the pun)?

Becoming a Resident Theologian (1)

Some of the better theologians I know are not career pastors or seminary professors. One is an engineer, one a social worker, one a teacher, one an insurance guy, one a phone system operator, one a banker, one a computer geek, one a broker, one a musician, one a mechanic. There are more, but I hope you get the point. Theology is for everyone.

Looked at one way, we could say that all believers are, in fact, theologians. There’s no question that everyone has a view, or theology of God, life, sin, and salvation. That makes each one a theologian. The only real question is whether one is a good theologian or a bad one. The real concern is whether or not each one has developed a lifestyle of learning to ensure that his/her theology is true, Biblical, and pleasing to God. So what kind of theologian are you?

Before you beg off by copping an “I’m not the bookish type” attitude, you need to understand that whether that is true or not is irrelevant. A love of theology is not determined by bookishness; it’s determined by a love of God.

Friends, this isn’t hard to figure out. Theology is the study of God’s revealed truth, character, works, grace, salvation and glory. So if we love God we will love theology, since it is a study of who He is, what He is like, and what He does. It really is that simple. So, on to the question: how do we become better theologians?

Here are two initial suggestions:

1. Be grateful for grace. If you're reading this blog (which is an attempt at theological reflection on God’s truth, glory and love revealed to us), it means that you want to learn, and that God’s theology-teaching grace is already functioning in your life. Praise the Lord!

2. Redefine your relationship with Christ. The most common New Testament word for a Christian is disciple. A disciple is a student or learner in the school of Christ. That idea needs to be near the center of your self-understanding as a Christian. Get it there and you’ll be on your way to becoming the studying and learning theologian God wants you to be.

Cleaning Up Our Mouths (5)

To wrap up my posts on the tongue let me give you one final step toward cleaning up our mouths.

Step Five: Gratitude and Wonder

In Ephesians 5:3, 4 Paul tells us not to be crude and vulgar, profaning the sacred gift of sexuality. But that's not all he says; he also says that we should speak and think of these things with "thanksgiving". Over in 1 Timothy 4:1-5 he says something similar: we sanctify God's gifts of sex and food by thanking Him for them.

Here's how to keep your heart from profaning things holy and beautiful: be actively, consciously, insistently, reverently thankful for them. Think of them and then treat them as holy and precious gifts from God. This putting on of thankfulness will help you to put off profanity.

It's hard to treat with dishonor something that you are consciously thankful for as a gift from God. So spend time thanking God His name, for His church, for His Law, for His gift of sex, for all things holy and good and beautiful. Use your tongue to praise the holy and good, and you'll find your tongue reticent to speak flippantly about the same.

Nothing so mortifies sins of the tongue like the right use of the tongue. Nothing so lifts us up from the gutter of the profane like a love and celebration of the sacred.

God help us to tame our tongues by turning them loose with praise.

Cleaning Up Our Mouths (4)

Step Four: Trust God

I have found that the single greatest help in the restraining of my angry tongue from sinful outbursts has been a strong, sustained, conscious trust in the sovereignty of God.

Think about it: normally why do people curse? It's because we get angry. Why do we get angry? Because either people or circumstances do not treat us the way we want.

But who controls and governs the people in our lives or the circumstances that fill them? God. That means that when we curse in anger it is because in that moment we are not trusting or resting in the sovereign purposes of God for us in that moment. We're mad at what God has ordained. Cursing is anger expressed which is really unbelief at work.

A few years back I made a picnic table. It took hours of planning and labor and (as you would expect with me) sweat. Within a week or two of when I finished it--and I think even before we had a chance to use it more than once or twice, a storm hit. Heavy winds blew, knocking down a tree. Guess where it landed? Right on my table.

How do you think I responded? Believe it or not, I laughed. It was a good hearty, cheerful, full-bodied laugh of faith. For somehow in that moment, I was conscious of the fact that God rules over wind and trees and where trees trees land--and God must have had a reason for landing one on my handiwork.

Faith in a sovereign God made me laugh at that moment when at other times, when I have not been God-aware, I have not. Trust in a soveriegn God made me laugh at calamity; it never even crossed my mind to curse or even come close.

I wish it was always easy to keep from the angry outburst. What I have found is that the more I live in the shadow of God's throne, conscious that He reigns over every detail of life, including smashed tables, hammer-smashed thumbs, dents to the car, and the flat out crises of life, the less I get angry or succumb to anger's outbursts against God or others or things. The more I trust sovereignty, the less i even think about cursing the problems or people in my life.

Cleaning Up Our Mouths (3)

Step Three: Hope

Some of us may hear our speech patterns and despair that we can ever clean them up. Don't.

Just because we may be far removed from where God wants us to be does not mean that we cannot get there from here; it only means that we have a long way to go.

In all my years I've never figured out a way to get from anywhere to any other where except to take a first step. The fact that there is a long way to go need not deter us from going. Let's move!

Start today: pray that God gives you awareness of when you're about to sin with your mouth or just have. Ask Him for grace to have a vigilant mind. This will help you to have one victory here; another there. One good word choice to restrain or change the tongue will lead to another. And while you may never get to perfection, you'll sure make progress.

If you curse or use profanity one less time than you did yesterday, that's one less sin. And be sure of this: that's growth; growth that will lead to more.

Have hope in the power of grace!

Unconditional Election – The End of the Matter

Please read: Romans 9:1-26; 11:33-36; Ephesians 1:1-14.

In wrapping up this series of posts wherein hopefully something spiritually profitable was conveyed regarding the practical implications of the Biblical doctrine of God’s sovereign electing grace, that it is not a cold, abstract, ivory tower theory, but rather that which is manifold in its life affecting significance, I leave you in this concluding post an excerpt from the exceptional When Grace Comes Home: How the Doctrines of Grace Change Your Life, by Terry L. Johnson (I highly commend the entire book for your reading and strengthening in God):

Where does a true comprehension of the doctrines of grace lead us? To our knees in worship. Perhaps one reason why so few are motivated to worship God with fervor is that we have reduced God to a slightly larger version of ourselves. He can be comprehended by our logic. He works within the bounds of our rules and reasons. He is so much like us that we see no real reason to worship Him. It is pathetic but true. What is the antidote? A God who is sovereign over the souls of wicked, undeserving sinners, including me.

This is the insight that was for me so life transforming. It inaugurated a Copernican revolution in my perspective--I realized I was displaced from the center of my universe and that God was enthroned there. It is a revolution which goes on.

What practical difference does Calvinism make?... It will make you into a worshipper. When you come to realize that the God who is there is not subject to your desires, that He is sovereign over your eternity, and when you realize the greatness of His mercy and grace, you will begin to long for genuine worship, worship that prostrates you and exalts God.

Moreover, you will begin to experience a divinely given discontent with worship that is not worship. Entertainment that poses as worship will become distasteful to you. Revival meetings that pose as worship will leave your soul unsatisfied. Superficial song services, preaching services, and fellowship services which fail to finally get around to worship will leave the soul longing for worship that worships. Your soul will crave and demand worship that is God-centered, that is filled with high praise and lowly confession, and characterized by a spirit of reverence and awe for the almighty Trinity. When once you grasp the greatness of the sovereign God, your worship will be transformed because you will be transformed, hereafter to have the perspective of one who lives on his knees. (pgs 27-28)

Soli Deo Gloria!

Cleaning Up Our Mouths (2)

In the battle to clean up our words we come to another key element.

Step Two: Embrace Grace

When Isaiah came to grips with his dirty mouth he right away found grace to have it forgiven (Isiah 6:5-7). God forgives dirty mouths like he forgives everything else we've ever done wrong.

As you confess your sins, realize that God is faithful and just to forgive it (1 John 1:9). Two things to keep in mind: Jesus died for your dirty mouth, and Jesus didn't have one. Because He had a clean mouth, His cleanness is counted as yours. Your record before God--based on the imputed clean mouth of Christ--is that you have never cursed, never been profane, never been potty-mouthed at all. Infact you've always said the perfect, right, clean and pure thing!

Praise God in Christ for a blood-bought forgiveness and a perfect righteousness in which before God we stand. To be sure don't let your forgveness in Christ become a license to sin, but also don't let your battles with profanity become a battle with condemnation.

Live in the power and freedom of a clean record before God. Then go out and seek to sin no more.

Cleaning up Our Mouths

Before I go any further I want to clarify something I wrote yesterday by emphasizing it. In my first couple of paragraphs I was not endorsing the use of the s- or f- words as if they really, in today's culture and use, are valid. I tried to qualify that at the end of those comments but at least one has thought that maybe I was not strong enough in what I said.

Folks, when a word has an overwhelmingly vulgar and base sense connected to it in a given time and place--even if there is a strict literal meaning of that word that is not vulgar, it is the height of foolishness (at best) to use that word. More likely the choice to use that word even in a strict literal way would evidence a carnal desire to sound edgy, and/or a callous disregard for others and for the name and testimony of Christ. Avoid these words because even if you think you are using a valid word in a valid way, you'll be about the only one who thinks so. In such a case you may not be guilty of vulgarity, but you will be guilty of something worse: a lack of love and concern for others.

Now that said, I want to be sure to include in these posts a few helps as to how to move toward the cleaning up or sanctifying of our words. Over the next few days I'll suggest five steps toward a cleaner mouth. I hope they provoke growth and holiness in us all.

Step One: Integrity

I think the first step toward cleaning up our mouths is being honest that they are dirty. If the holy, godly, mighty prophet Isaiah admitted a dirty mouth (Isaiah 6:5), we can be pretty sure that we need to admit it too.

Let's be honest: all of us are at least tempted to curse and be profane. I'm not talking necessarily about certain four-letter words. Your curses may be words that others consider innocent. You can be cursing by saying "Phooey!!" if the word is coming out in anger; or by saying "Idiot" if your heart is defiling and denegrating another human being made in the image of God.

People often say that because words are used so frequently and mindlessly they lose their meaning so that when people use them they may not really be cursing in ther hearts at all. I suppose that it's possible, in a given moment, to use a word mindlessly, but I'm not sure that that means cursing has not happened. I still would maintain that these words are chosen at some level precisely because they carry a certain sound and cultural meaning that satisfy the flesh at that moment.

Why don't more people say "Phooey!" instead of "D**n"? I think it's because the latter feels better to an angry heart than the former does. Why do so many exclaim the "s" word instead of some other word for excrement? Folks, the words we use, we use because they sound/feel sufficiently nasty to express our anger, naughty to satisfy our flesh, edgy to sound cool, or titillating to get attention. We need the integrity to confess that we use them for these reasons, and ask God to forgive the sinful heart that produced them.

It does us no good to make believe there's no profanity or cursing in our hearts. Integrity admits it, and integrity gets us moving in a new direction. Why not start here and go to God with an honest heart?

Profanity: Nuancing the Conversation

S**t and f**k are not, in themselves, bad words. In their original meanings and still in some places they are simply synonyms for excrement and copulation respectively. Profanity is not made up of words with four letters. Profanity is a state of the heart. What makes a person profane is not the collection of letters and words he uses, but the angry or dirty or naughty or titillating intent of the heart when he uses them.

It is possible theoretically to use the "s" or "f" word without being profane at all, if one uses them as simple straight-forward terms for waste or copulation. I would not recommend doing this, since in fact cultural use has so influenced our perception of these terms that they are equated with profanity even if no profanity is intended. If at all possible, unless we have a really good reason for it, we need not risk confusing people by using words that they think are dirty just because we know a strict literal meaning that allows their use. Why bother when there are plenty of other more reputable words to use?

Apparently though, there are times when really strong words are justified. Paul seems to use a strong, even socially edgy term for excrement in Philippians 3:8. The Greek word that the ESV translates "rubbish" should more accurately be rendered dung or manure or excrement. Some argue that the term he chooses (skubalah) goes beyond a mere reference to waste; that it is a colloquial term meant to communicate the repulsiveness and filthiness of waste. They argue that it might even be equivalent to a bold, disgusted use of the word "s**t" (see Mark Driscoll/Doug Wilson, Chapter Two of Driscoll's Religion Saves). At least Mr. Driscoll, whose ministry I highly respect in many ways, seems to find in this some justification for the use of edgy, even crude terms in ministry and life.

Having read their sources and the Theological Dictionary of New Testament Words' entry on skubalah, I am not convinced that their conclusion is at all necessary or accurate. The term Paul uses clearly does speak of the righteousness produced by our good works as no better than waste. And Paul is clearly trying to communicate that we should think of our self-made righteousnes in the most vile and repulsive of categories.

But this is not to say that Paul is coming anywhere near to cursing or being profane, or justifying the use of profanity. He's simply using a strong term of revulsion in its literal sense to describe what is truly revolting in the sight of God: the dung of self-made righteousness. Friends: any attempts at creating a righteousness of our own before a holy God are as revolting and disgusting in God's sight as a pile of filthy fresh stinking dung is in ours.

Granted, there is shock in Paul's words, but there is no profanity. He is not using words about waste because he regularly thinks about waste or lingers at the bathroom level in his mind. He simply tries to find the strongest word he can think of to describe the filth of human righteousness. Paul is not speaking of the vile for profane reasons; nor is he using words that refer to holy and sacred matters irreverently. He's simply calling self-made righteousness what it is.

To conclude from this that we can freely use words about filth or sex or hell or damnation without careful regard for their vile or holy or fearsome significance is to go beyond what is allowed. In my opinion, it is to be profane.

Am I making any sense?

Profanity (3)

I've argued previously that profanity begins with a fundamental baseness of mind; a thought or word or life-style that violates the standard of loveliness, worthiness of praise , and positive virtue and excellence that is called for in such passages as Phil. 4:8. Commitment to moral excellence will entail abstinence from things base and vile.

But there is a more serious profanity of which we must be aware. It is that profanity addressed by Bruce in his comments the other day:

A basic dictionary definition of the word profane is to treat (something sacred) with abuse, irreverence, or contempt; or, to debase by a wrong, unworthy, or vulgar use. Having said that, let me take a stab towards a basic definition. We might say that profanity is expressing or reflecting in our words, attitudes that are contemptuous or irreverent toward God, or toward that which God regards as sacred or special.

It's hard to improve on that so I think I'll deal only with specifics. We are guilty of being profane whenever we treat lightly or flippantly anything that God treats seriously or sacredly. This would include the following (to mention just a few):
1. His Name (phrases such as "O my God" or their euphemistic sounds-alikes should be avoided out of reverence for the Holy Name.
2. Vows made in His Name, and then broken, profane the Name by which they are made.
3. Flippant references to "hell" or "damnation". In addition to being literal curses which only God has a right to speak in anger, the words hell and damn should never be spoken except with strict and sober attention to what they mean and how serious they are (as for me, I'll risk really sounding extreme by adding that we'd do well to avoid the euphemistic substitutes of heck and darn while we're at it; why even kid ourselves into thinking we're not sinning, or at least being careless about something serious when we use such subsitutes?). When we use such words without strict attention to what they mean, at best we water down their holy meaning; worse we are guilty of profanity and cursing.
4. All careless, flippant, irreverent references to sex, God's holy gift in marriage. It's clear from scripture that sex is a holy gift not to be treated lightly (Ephesians 5:3,4) so any reference to it that is not made in a most careful tone of gratitude and wonder, is profanity. (Along these lines I've noted how many words people choose to use that mess around with the scatological and the sexual: cr-p, s--t, f---, frick-n, p-d off, scr-wed, s-cks, SOB, A--, A--h-le; need I go on?). Let us stand guard my friends, lest we defile what is pure, and render commonplace and normal what isn't.
2. His Church or Word or Law--any time we ignore or slander the church or disobey His law or disregard His Word we treat as common that which is very holy in the sight of God.

It should go without saying, but it doesn't, that one may be profane in all these areas without ever actually using a four-letter word. As Bruce has indicated, profanity is a state of heart before it is a set of words.

The call upon all of our lives to to treat as holy all that is holy; to love what God loves, honor what God honors, elevate what is meant to be high, and while we're at it, to just plain stay out of the profanity gutter.

Worship the Three in One!

The music of Sovereign Grace Ministries has become a rich blessing in the life of our family. One CD I find myself coming back to often is the children's CD, Awesome God. This past week I had the disc in my car, and was drawn all week long to a certain song on that CD. The song was "Three in One" and it lead me into worship during my morning drives.

It's interesting to me that yesterday pastor Tim would speak of the "complementarianism" so wonderfully illustrated in the life of the Holy Trinity. It was as though the Lord was confirming the work and worship He had accomplished in my own heart that previous week!

My post today is simply the lyrics of the song I mentioned, "Three in One." See how beautifully the Holy Trinity works together to accomplish and carry out the work of redemption! And, with the words of this children's song, let your heart worship this awesome God.

THREE IN ONE
Gracious Father
It was Your love for the world
That moved You to send
Your only Son
Gracious Father
This was Your plan from all time
To have a people to call Your own
Gracious Father
Full of mercy
I sing your praise!

Precious Jesus
Though You were reigning on high
Humbly You came and were born a man
Precious Jesus
You were the servant of all
You gave Your life as the Father planned
Precious Jesus
Full of kindness
I sing Your praise!

Holy Spirit
You bring this good news to men
You open up blinded eyes to see
Holy Spirit
Come now and open my heart
Reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to me
Holy Spirit
Full of power
I sing Your praise!

CHORUS

Father, I love You
Praise You Jesus, only Son
Spirit, I adore You
Holy God, three in One!

Election – Hearts Overflowing With Joy!

In this next to last entry on the practical, heart affecting applications of the truth of God’s sovereign electing grace, I would like to share with you once again an excerpt from my reading in the very excellent book: Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism, by Joel R. Beeke. In the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism we are asked: “What is the chief end of man?”, to which we are given the succinct Biblical answer: “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” Joy in God is an essential part of what it means to glorify Him. And glorifying Him is our primary purpose for existing at all. And God’s electing grace in salvation is meant to elicit overflowing joy in response to this great sovereign, saving God. Here’s the way Living for God’s Glory puts it:

J.I. Packer calls the joy election brings to believers their "family secret." Believers have a joyful security that is incomprehensible to the world. For true believers, John Piper says, election is not "a doctrine to be argued about, but a doctrine to be enjoyed. It’s not designed for disputes; it’s designed for missions. It’s not meant to divide people (though it will); it’s meant to make them compassionate, kind, humble, meek, and forgiving," and to fill them with joy (Eph. 1:3-14).

Election glorifies God (Eph. 1:6,12). "The end of our election is that we might show forth the glory of God in every way," Calvin says. According to the Canons of Dort, the final glorification of the elect is for the demonstration of God’s mercy and for the praise of His glorious grace (I, 7). Election makes us praise God for our salvation. As Sinclair Ferguson writes, "Until we have come to the place where we can sing about election with a full heart, we have not grasped the spirit of the New Testament teaching." [italics mine] Election assures us that God is the seeker rather than the sought; thus, all the praise belongs to Him. As C.S. Lewis says: "Amiable agnostics will talk cheerfully about man’s search for God. For me, they might as well talk about the mouse’s search for a cat... God closed in on me." As Josiah Conder wrote in 1836:

"Tis not that I did choose thee, for, Lord, that could not be;
This heart would still refuse thee, hadst thou not chosen me.

Thou from the sin that stained me hast cleansed and set me free;
Of old thou hast ordained me, that I should live to thee.

Twas sov’reign mercy called me and taught my op’ning mind;
The world had else enthralled me, to heav’nly glories blind.
My own heart owns none before thee, for thy rich grace I thirst;
This knowing, if I love thee, thou must have loved me first."

Election is the Bible’s teaching, not man’s. It promotes humility, not pride; encouragement, not depression; confidence in evangelism, not paralyzing fear; holiness, not license; assurance, not presumption; God’s glory, not our own. Oh, that election would make us cry out with the apostle Paul, "For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever" (Rom. 11:36). (pgs. 71-72)

Have we come to the place where we can sing about election with a full heart, grasping the spirit of the New Testament teaching? The Bible must be our guide here, and we must bring our thinking and our affections under it’s authority as God’s very word. As we reflect on these things, may we do so in preparation for corporate worship tomorrow, and so come into God’s awesome presence with hearts overflowing with joy for His totally undeserved sovereign mercy toward us--chosen in Christ before the worlds began!

The Nature of Profanity

Bruce and Tom's comments on yesterday's post about the nature of profanity were excellent and can help us move toward a biblical understanding of this matter. We must see that we can and do have a profane heart before we ever have a profane mouth.

First of all, a profane heart is a heart that simply dwells on base, filthy, crude, vulgar, unlovely things. By the standard of Philippians 4:8, Ephesians 5:4, and 1 Corinthians 13:5 anything that is unlovely, dishonorable, crude, unworthy of praise, and/or rude (the Greek word for "rude" in 1 Cor. 13:5 speaks of that which is unbecoming or disgraceful) is simply not to occupy our minds or hearts, never mind our conversations.

In my view, this most basic form of heart profanity self-evidently rules out language that is crude or vulgar or unlovely. By this definition, it disallows scatological "potty mouthed" talk (bathroom humor, flippant references to human waste--whatever the choice of four, five, eight, ten letter words one might opt for--or crude bodily functions and sounds that everyone knows to be base, filthy, unlovely, rudely unbecoming). Every careless word we use about these should be put off so that something better can be put on.

This is not to say that bathroom functions and related matters can never be spoken of in a proper and appropriate way; they can and indeed at times must be. But it is to say that when Christians think and speak of such things commonly or crudely or flippantly, they are at least dabbling in the profane.

There are of course worse forms of profanity than this--such as when we treat and speak of holy, sacred, pure, awesome, and terrible (in a holy, fear-of-God sort of way) matters as if they are trite or trivial or base or common--about which we will think in further posts. But we can discern profanity at this starting point.

It is a sign of what John Piper calls a "minimalist ethic" when Christians argue that such bathroom humor is not really that bad; that it's morally neutral at worst. Folks, isn't that succombing to a minimalist approach to virtue; a settling for something that really isn't that bad instead of pursuing something that really is that good?

Shouldn't we be aiming at what is actually and positively pure, holy, lovely, and good? Does a Christian really want his mind and/or his mouth to live in the bathroom? I think not. In every thought, word, and deed, the Christian should be striving for what is excellent, lovely, and worthy of praise. I have my doubts that bathroom and gutter-talk qualify.

Conversation Starter: What Is Profanity?

One of my growing concerns in recent years is what I've called "the dirtying of the Christian mouth". Isaiah identified having a dirty mouth as one of the sins that made him feel undone in the presence of a holy God (Isaiah 6:3-5).

What I don't seem to sense today is a similar conviction among my Christian contemporaries. The Bible has a lot to say about the sins of the tongue; a lot! Why is it then that we seem so little concerned about what God seems so very concerned about?

There's a lot of ways we could go with this conversation, but let me start with a conversation starter: "What is profanity?" I'd really be interested to hear from you regarding how you'd define this; then I'll chime in some thougths over a few days period.

One with you in aiming for all things honorable, virtuous, good and lovely (Philippians 4:8).
Tim