Today In Blogworld 05.19.14

Nick Horton

I Long For That Church

Tim Challies shares a quote from Mack Stiles’ book on Evangelism in the new 9Marks series. I long for that church, too.

Kindle the Fire In Corporate Worship

David Mathis over at DG shares the necessity of corporate worship. There is no replacement for the gathered church. You can’t do this at home, folks.

Why Motherhood Is Only For The Faint of Heart

Gloria Furman shares why moterhood is only for the faint hearted. Ladies, if you haven’t read her, please do. Men, if you want to understand your wives better, read her.

 

A dog and bowling alley. The antics of dogs never cease to make me laugh. Watch this.

 

Sibbes and Divine Providence (YWS Week 19)

Nick Horton 2 Comments

richardsibbessmallWelcome 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

She crumpled into a heap on the floor, limp as a wet rag. Tears shook her body as she tried to comprehend the news she just heard. “Why, God?” was the constant question running through her mind. Yet, even in the shock she clung to the promises of God. She recited Romans 8:28 over and over through warm tears… “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” Other verses flashed through her mind, life rafts in an ocean of pain. Genesis 50:20. Exodus 4:11. Job 31:4. Psalm 135:6. Psalm 139:13-16. Isaiah 45:7. Ephesians 1:11.

Slowly, painfully, she rose from the floor. A tentative resolve in herself, a rock solid resolve in God. “He can be trusted,” she whispers, “and I will trust him.”

—

God’s providence is a comfort in time of trouble. A “great stay to our faith.” When times of trouble come, such as Psalm 42 in King David’s life, the soul casts about for a reason for the trouble. Some believers think they are under the wrath of God because they have lost something. Others think that God had no hand in whatever happened because they consider the outcome evil. The Bible doesn’t give a category for God not being involved.

“If God should not uphold things, they would presently fall to nothing, from whence they came. If God should not guide things, Satan’s malice, and man’s weakness, would soon bring all to a confusion. If God did not rule the great family of the world, all would break and fall to pieces.”

Sibbes holds divine providence forth as a sweet comfort to the soul and reason to both trust and hope in God. Far from being the divine watchmaker who creates and sets things in to motion, God is actively involved in his creation. However, he is not the divine puppeteer such that man is absolved of responsibility, either. God is sovereign, man is responsible. We are responsible for our actions and though we can mean it for evil, God will use it ultimately for his glory and the good of his saints. (Genesis 50:20)

After all, isn’t that the cross of Christ? God took what man meant for evil, the most evil action ever taken when man crucified his creator to a Roman cross, and through that act he superintended it for good. Through that action God made atonement for the sins of all who would believe. If God can use the tragedy of the murder of God for his good, can’t we trust him with our circumstances?

“God taketh liberty in using weak means to great purposes, and setting aside more likely and able means; yea, sometimes he altogether disableth the greatest means, and worketh often by no means at all.”

Application / Further Discussion

Human suffering is an absolute because sin is absolutely part of our nature. Cruelty, war, pain, disease, death. All have come because sin has entered the world. We are fallen creatures. In fact, without the restraining and sovereign influence of God we would descend in to such beastial behavior I think we might annihilate ourselves. Indeed, without the superintending providence of God, all would be lost.

Let it be a comfort to you that God is in control. The maker of all things has not left his post. He is not absentee and is not surprised by all that is happening. Even in the face of unspeakable evil, God will bring beauty for ashes. We see so dimly and on such short timespans that we can’t conceive all that he will do and is doing. Nor are we meant to. We are not God.

Just as we put our faith in Christ’s finished work on our behalf for our salvation so we must trust in God’s sovereignty in all things. The same God who used the murder of his own son for our salvation, can use the evil events of our lives to serve good purposes. We won’t necessarily know the reasons we suffered certain things in this life, though. If we can trust him and have faith in his promises for our salvation, can’t we trust him with the events of our life?

“God’s ways seem oft to us full of contradictions, because his course is to bring things to pass by contrary means. There is a mystery not only in God’s decree concerning man’s eternal estate, but likewise in his providence, as why he should deal unequally with men otherwise equal. His judgments are a great depth, which we cannot fathom, but they will swallow up our thoughts and understandings. Where we cannot trace him, we ought with St. Paul to admire and adore him. When we are in heaven, it will be one part of our happiness to see the harmony of those things that seem now confused unto us. All God’s dealings will appear beautiful in their due seasons, though we for the present see not the contiguity and linking together of one with another.”

We cannot fathom the depths of his work. If we try to understand God, his deeps will swallow whole our attempts. When you behold the depth and glory and beauty and majesty of God, do not immediately try to understand and turn it in to an intellectual exercise. Marvel at his glory. Worship in his majesty. Behold our God!

In those moments of despair and pain just the same as in those moments of joy and health; trust the God who providentially rules over them. Do not remember God only when things are bad and forget him when times are good. He presides over all times. If you have, it is by his hand. If you have not, it is by his hand. “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21) He works all things together for good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Do you love him? If so, remember;

“Here we may take sanctuary, that we are in covenant with him who sits at the stern and rules all, and hath committed the government of all things to his Son, our brother, our Joseph, the second person in heaven.”

–

Last week, we read chapters 14-20 of The Soul’s Conflict.

Next week, we’ll read chapters 21-27 of The Soul’s Conflict.

Today In Blogworld 05.16.14

Nick Horton

What Did Jesus Teach About Homosexuality?

Denny Burk wrote a guest post for Crossway on the above topic. Read and learn, this argument comes up a lot both from unbelievers and believers.

Pregnant Christian Woman Sentenced to Death in Sudan

Just what it says. Read it and understand what our brothers and sisters elsewhere endure and suffer for the glory of the Name above all names.

They Asked Me Whether I Was Ready To Die As A Christian WARNING: Graphic Photograph

This man was shot in front of his wife and child for not renouncing his faith and left for dead.

“Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” Hebrews 13:3 (ESV)

 Ray Ortlund Expresses Gratitude for Francis Schaeffer

A very influential figure in evangelicalism and philosophy. He was missional before missional was cool. So much of “engaging the culture” was done by decades ago and far more successfully than many do it now. He’s worth reading.

 

Baseball nerd alert. But, this is historical as well. This is apparently the only surviving footage of the 1919 World Series that was thrown by the White Sox. (Infamously called the Black Sox) Pretty neat look at history.

Missional Love

Mathew Sims 7 Comments

The most iconic verse in the Bible may be John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” I wonder how many people in America haven’t heard that verse. Not as many have heard what John says later: “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1 Jn. 4:8).

Love we see is absolutely integral to who God is, but did you notice how the the two references work backwards? Look at like this: Love is essential to who God is and it’s out of this love that he sent his Son to die. God’s love (and all true love) is not insular. It’s not looking in and loving oneself. That’s why the two greatest commandments according to Jesus are love God and love neighbor. That’s also why God as trinity is essential orthodoxy. God has been and will always be a God who overflows in his love for others. This originates with his love within the trinity and overflows onto us.

But God’s love is also missional. God loved the world so he sent his Son. When Jesus arrives on the scene, what does he do? He heals the sick. He calls sinners to repentance. He does not bruise the broken reed. (He’s loving his neighbor in a way only the God-man could) And if these were not enough to demonstrate that Jesus’ mission is an overflow of the love God, Jesus willingly and out of love submits to the Father and dies for us while we still sinners (Rom. 5:1-12).

That single, historical event was a flood of missional love and it washes over us. So when Jesus gives us our marching orders, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 28:19-20). We are marching to the beat of love.

John 3:16’s “For God so loved” is more than a nice sentiment we paste on our bumper sticker or coffee mug. It’s a missional marching order. God loved so he sent. Jesus submits and evil cannot contain the love he sheds abroad on the world. He rises up from the dead and out of this sudden turn of events he now commands us to go. Just as he was commanded to go and love. We are commanded to go and love.

But the order in which we love is important. We do not go out and love the world without first loving our families. The missional order of love is family, church, community, city, state, nation, and world. We can see this fundamental order in the way Jesus commands his disciples to go first to Jerusalem and in the way Paul tells Timothy that when selecting elders make sure they are loving and leading their homes first. This is a first principle. Love where you are. Lead where you are. Then go out.

We teach our children “to observe all that I have commanded you” then we send them out. Everything we do to disciple our families prepares them to go–whether that’s to our communities, cities, or another country. Same goes for the church. When we gather together, the purpose is to worship God through rehearsing the gospel, but the service should always end by sending the church out into the world. God’s love is a missional love. It always sends.

We experience it in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It lays siege to our hearts. We are taught about God and the gospel. We are sent out and go. For many of us the going out will be quite ordinary. The going out will be living faithfully as mothers and fathers teaching our children. For others it may be serving on a city council, or a state senate, or Congress. For others it may be opening a business and loving your neighbor through creating an excellent product or offering an excellent service. For some it may mean taking a job as an international contractor in the Middle East and partnering with a church there. Or going out as the church sent to a country with little or no gospel presence. Or visiting the sick, weary, and downtrodden in your local hospital.

The go is to teach the gospel. That’s of first importance, but the practical, daily implication of hearing and rehearsing the gospel trickles down into our lives as we learn to obey everything Jesus commands–the most important being loving God and neighbor. You cannot love your neighbor if your love isn’t constantly teaching and sending out–if it’s not a missional love. It always comes back to love because God is love.