Should Christians Defend Their Rights?
Kevin DeYoung tackles this question with Acts 21-22.
The Biggest Lesson for Preachers from Kids Books and Movies?
The power of story.
How to Survive a Cultural Crisis
We are in the midst of a cultural crisis. Here are wise words on how to survive the crisis.
When Pastors Lose Their Swagger
This is refreshing.
These are fun. You can use them to win bets with friends (if you are the betting sort) or you can use them to shock your kids:
Welcome to a year of reading Richard Sibbes together! The reading plan for the entire year can be accessed here. I encourage you to stick with us, allow yourself time to read, and soak in the riches of this gifted and prolific Puritan preacher. You will be edified and encouraged.
If you have trouble with how Sibbes used words, check out the Lexicons of Early Modern English for definitions from the period.
Summary/Engagement
Last night I took my wife, son, and mother in law out for dinner. We went to our favorite Thai restaurant that also has a very good sushi chef. Since Amy is pregnant she couldn’t have the raw stuff, so we had a few sushi rolls comprised of cooked ingredients. We had great Thai food and enjoyed checking out the new location. I had this spicy yet sweet shrimp dish they make, that if I in inhale at all while chewing on it I descend in to coughing fits. Something about the spices used in Thai food don’t agree with my respiratory system. I keep eating it though. So good.
I still woke up hungry this morning. My satisfaction was temporary though pleasant at the time. We eat and are filled and yet we hunger again. Our appetite is aroused, we put it to rest with food, only to have it come back again, perhaps stronger than the last time.
We eat for pleasure as well. Many, if not all of you who read this, eat not what is merely necessary but what you enjoy. We have the luxury to eat that which pleases us. I eat too much of what pleases me and carry the evidence.
This week Sibbes expounds John 6:27 and what it means for us not to labor for this food that perishes, but for the food that endures to everlasting life. We are to work for the food that satisfies, that will last as long as we will. Christ, our Passover Lamb, is the only food that endures to everlasting life. Only Christ satisfies the holy longing, the holy discontent placed in each of us, that holy appetite that we have for that which satisfies eternally.
“Only Christ and grace, and the comforts we have by him, satisfy, and that everlastingly. They are as a spring that never dies.”
Application / Further Discussion
We are a foolish bunch. We grow up in the eyes of the world yet still pursue passions and pleasures like children throwing tantrums for candy. It is indeed a burden to be rich, and hard to enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 19:23) If you’re reading this, you are rich. Rich is a comparative term and too often we compare ourselves with the wildly ridiculously rich of America. It is hard to consider one rich in comparison to them. Yet if we compare ourselves to the world, we are wildly ridiculously rich. My point is not to shame us for wealth. God gives it, after all.
We have to recognize the dangers we face, however. Our wealth enables the indulgence of our appetites for worldly things. We want that which perishes, and we work for it. Computers, smartphones, cars, houses, food, clothes, etc. All of which are not in and of themselves bad, but our desires may be.
“..We are so desperately set on earthly things, that neither faith nor experience, nor the strength of discourse, no reason, is sufficient to take us off, till God by his Spirit convince us throughly of this.”
God planted in each of us an appetite for himself. Are you working to satisfy that hunger? We can eat and drink and enjoy the things of this life, we are not called to asceticism. The enjoyment of those things is not our chief end, our reason for being. What is the chief end of man, as the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks? “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”
You were made to enjoy, to satisfy your hunger, to live with such peace and contentment that should make your soul weep for joy. What Sibbes argues, what the Bible indeed says, is that we must labor the food that endures as long as our soul does, eternally. Jesus Christ is the satisfaction of that appetite. Jesus Christ is the only food which produces eternal life and not merely the temporal physical satisfaction and sustenance of all worldly things.
We are at war with ourselves and must subjugate our fleshly appetites for our spiritual appetite. This takes work, as Sibbes notes, and we must work towards that gift of Christ, because God freely gives him. Do you hunger and thirst for Christ?
“Let us every day spend our spiritual strength in spiritual exercises, in resisting temptations, in withstanding the snares of Satan, in bearing those daily crosses that God lays upon us. Live as Christians should live, and the exercise of a Christian life will enforce us to go unto Christ to feed on him, to fetch from him spiritual strength. When in our daily exercise we shall see the continual need we have of pardon for daily sins, of comfort and strength against daily corruptions and infirmities, this will make us feed on Christ and on the promises made in him–not only on the promise of forgiveness, but on the promise of a supply of necessary grace, on that sweet promise, that ‘he will not quench the smoking flash, nor break the bruised reed,’ Matt. 12:20– feed on him as a King to subdue our corruptions, etc. The daily exercise of a Christian life will force us unto Christ.”
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Last week, I was overwhelmed and missed the post.
Next week, we read The Bride’s Longing.
Four Kinds of Church Leaders Who Won’t Lead Revitalization
This is good and helpful.
Self-Promotion and Our Fear of Obscurity
Bono recently apologized (sort of) for automatically inserting their latest album into folks iTunes libraries. Joseph Tenney uses this as a great lead in to our temptation for pastoral renown.
When Dad Doesn’t Disciple Kids
Wake up call.
Chances Are Your Turn Is Looking at Porn
Another wake up call.
This is touching. The man carrying the mace is the hero from this week’s shooting in Ottawa:
Maybe it was one of felt board lessons I heard in one of the eight to ten Sunday school lessons I endured. Or maybe I was just distracted by the talking donkey. Either way, I’ve never thought of Balaam as a bad dude. I’ve always thought he just had a dark moment where he committed the sin of donkey abuse, but for the most part he was faithful in speaking God’s Word.
Numbers 24:13 seems to back up my perception of Balaam being a faithful prophet. I mean what an awesome verse for a preacher to put on his wall:
“If Balak should give me his house full of silver and gold, I would not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will. What the LORD speaks, that will I speak…”
In other words Balaam was a prophet. And if he were to remain a prophet then no amount of money could persuade him to speak something other than God’s Word. That’s stout.
Problem is, Balaam really wanted that house full of silver and gold. But he also wanted to have the perks of being a prophet. And so this is why his story ends with him giving advice on how to destroy the Israelites without using prophetic voice (See Number 31:16). He found a way to still look like a prophet but also make bank off Balak.
Balaam was a wicked dude.
Our Balaam Hearts
If I’m being honest, I can see Balaam rear his ugly head in my heart.
In Numbers 22:12 the Lord speaks very clearly to Balaam. He tells Balaam that he’s going to do the opposite of what Balak is asking. Then Balak comes back with a little more cash and a promise of honor. In verse 19 Balaam goes back to the Lord to see if he missed anything.
Do you see it?
Being faithful to God’s Word is going to cost Balaam. And so he wonders if maybe he can convince God to tweak His Word just a bit. Not much. Just enough to get Balaam his prestige and prosperity.
Balak has stolen Balaam’s gaze. He’s the cool dude with all the cool toys that Balaam wishes he could play with. And he’s come to town promising to let a little of his cool rub off on Balaam if only the prophet will do him this little favor.
The desire to tweak God’s Word to keep ourselves in favor with our culture is a temptation that all of us likely face. We are prone to do this in distant relationships and even in the face of absolute strangers. None of us are immune from wanting the perks of a prophet without the pain of declaring uncomfortable prophecy.
Rescue From Balaam
Thankfully, the Lord is working in our hearts to boot out our Balaams.
The root cause of Balaam’s error is found in 2 Peter 2:15. There we see that Balaam was in love with shameful gain. It was his love for Balak’s life that caused him to want to change God’s Word.
The more we are enamored with Christ the less we’ll be prone to desire Balak’s shiny junk. And the more I believe that God is all I need, then the more I’ll affirm that His Word is sufficient.
If our hearts are satisfied in the Lord we won’t ask him a second time to change His Word. We’ll believe that He is enough and that He knows best. The converse is also true. The more dissatisfied I am with the Lord the more likely I’ll be to want to get Him to change His Word.
Let’s be the type of people that say with Balaam, “I’m not able to go beyond the word of the Lord”. But let us be people that say that because we are truly enthralled by the Lord.