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Saturday, March 1, 2014

Five Truths About the Resurrection of Jesus

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ResourcesOtherClose menuTweetFive Truths About the Resurrection of JesusFebruary 26, 2014 by Joseph ScheumannTopics: The Resurrection of Christ

The resurrection of Jesus is foundational to the Christian faith, and yet, oftentimes, we only give it real thought around the Easter season.

But the resurrection of Jesus is so important that Paul writes, “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). And later he says, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied” (verse 19).

In the hopes of gaining a deeper understanding of this glorious reality, here are five truths about the resurrection.

1) Jesus had a bodily resurrection.

When Jesus was raised from the dead, he didn’t leave his body behind. In fact, after his resurrection his scars remained (John 20:27), he ate fish (John 20:12), he bodily ascended to heaven (Acts 1:9), and will bodily come again (1 Thessalonians 4:16). The Son of God will always have a bodily existence.

The fact that Jesus still has a body testifies to the dignity of the human body — both the ones that we have and the ones we will have after our resurrection. Matthew Lee Anderson writes, “The resurrection of the body means that to be human with God is to be with him not as disembodied souls, but as people with noses, faces, arms, and legs that are similar to those we currently have” (Earthen Vessels, 60–61).

2) Jesus had a justifying resurrection.

Perhaps the clearest instance of Paul connecting Jesus’s resurrection with his justification is obscured in most English translations. Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3:16, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” The word that is translated “vindicated” is typically translated “declared righteous” or “justified” elsewhere in the New Testament.

But if Jesus was perfect, how could he be justified, since justification implies guilt (see Romans 4:5)? The answer lies in Jesus’s death and resurrection. Richard Gaffin explains, “As long as [Jesus] remained in a state of death, the righteous character of his work, the efficacy of his obedience unto death remained in question, in fact, was implicitly denied. Consequently, the eradication of death in his resurrection is nothing less than the removal of the verdict of condemnation and the effective affirmation of his righteousness” (Resurrection and Redemption, 121–122).

3) Jesus had a Trinitarian resurrection.

The pattern in the New Testament is to speak of God the Father as the one who does the raising, Jesus as the one who is being raised, and the Spirit as the means the Father used to raise Jesus. This pattern is seen in Romans 8:11: “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Here we see not only that God the Father raises Jesus through the Holy Spirit, but our resurrection will be parallel to the resurrection of Jesus — God the Father will raise us through the Spirit.

4) Jesus had a firstfruits resurrection of ours to come.

Paul describes Jesus’s resurrection as “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20). Firstfruits is an agricultural metaphor that points to the initial quality of the harvest. Gaffin explains, “Paul is saying here, the resurrection of Christ and of believers cannot be separated. Why? Because, to extend the metaphor as Paul surely intends, Christ’s resurrection is the ‘firstfruits’ of the resurrection ‘harvest’ that includes the resurrection of believers. This thought is reinforced in verse 23: ‘Each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ’” (By Faith, Not By Sight, 68).

5) In Jesus, believers are already spiritually resurrected.

The resurrection is not only a future event for believers. Those who believe in Christ have already been raised to life with him. Paul writes, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1).Christians are people who have already been raised with Christ. Gaffin explains, “[B]elievers will never be more resurrected than they already are. God has done a work in each believer, a work of nothing less than resurrection proportions, that will not be undone” (By Faith, Not by Sight, 76).

The resurrection is an already but not-yet reality for the Christian because of our union with Christ. Jesus’s resurrection means that those who have faith in him have been raised from the dead because they are in Christ, and yet we still await the full experience of the resurrection to come (Romans 8:22–23).

Monday, January 27, 2014

What About Lost Loved Ones?

Let me address this question by telling you a story from history. In the 4th century, there was a very devout Christian lady named Monica. She was married to a prominent man who did not share her Christian faith. He was often very cruel to her, causing her physical abuse. Every day she would go to the church and pray for his conversion. Later on in his life, he did in fact become a Christian.

Yet the pain and anguish her husband caused her seemingly paled into insignificance compared to that which she suffered because of her oldest son. Her mother’s heart was broken, time after time, seeing the reckless life her son was leading. He not only did not share his mother’s faith but would join himself to anti-Christian groups, using his sharp mind to seek to convince others to follow him. He lived a very immoral life. He had a mistress but left her for another and had a son born out of wedlock, named Adeodatus. Monica was not personally able to convince her son of the truth claims of Christianity, but she determined never to stop praying that he would turn to the Lord.

For two decades this went on, with Monica persisting in prayer for her son, seemingly seeing no results. Her son was later to write about all this and tells us that she wept more for his spiritual death than most mothers weep for the bodily death of their children. Distraught, she went to see the well known Bishop Ambrose of Milan to speak about her plight. Knowing her anguish of soul he said, “Go your way and God will bless you, for it is not possible that the son of these tears should perish.” She accepted the answer as though it were a word from God Himself.

Monica’s prayers for her son were answered very suddenly. One day he was in a garden experiencing much agony of soul because of his sin. God the Holy Spirit was certainly working on him. In his own writings he recalled what happened next––suddenly he heard the voice of a boy or a girl, he was not sure which, coming from the neighboring house, chanting over and over again, “Tolle Lege, Tolle Lege” a Latin phrase that meant ‘Pick it up, read it; pick it up, read it.’

Later, in his own writings, he recounted, "Immediately I ceased weeping and began most earnestly to think whether it was usual for children in some kind of game to sing such a song, but I could not remember ever having heard the like. So, damming the torrent of my tears, I got to my feet, for I could not but think that this was a divine command to open the Bible and read the first passage I should light upon….

So I quickly returned to the bench where Alypius [his friend] was sitting, for there I had put down the apostle’s book when I had left there. I snatched it up, opened it, and in silence I read the paragraph on which my eyes first fell: ‘Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof’ (Rom. 13:13). I wanted to read no further, nor did I need to. For instantly, as the sentence ended, there was infused in my heart something like the light of full certainty and all the gloom of doubt vanished away." - Augustine, ‘Confessions’, VIII.12.29

Monica’s many years of prayers were answered in a single moment. Her son experienced a dramatic, life changing conversion to Christ.

What Monica could not have known was the impact her son would have, not only on his contemporaries, but on the many generations to come. Her son became one of God’s greatest ever gifts to His Church, Augustine of Hippo (354 AD to 430 AD). There is no doubt that Augustine was the greatest theologian of the Church (outside of the New Testament) for the first thousand years, and arguably, he was the greatest theologian in Church history.

Augustine’s writings on the subject of grace would become a massive influence on both Martin Luther (who was himself an Augustinian monk) and John Calvin. God used these men to bring about the greatest move of God in the history of the Church as entire nations were brought under the influence of the gospel in the 16th century Protestant Reformation.

In the same way, as we consider the biblical story of the man who found Christ right at the end of his life, the man known as “the thief on the cross,” we should note that even up until the very last day in this man’s life, there was nothing we could observe outwardly that would indicate he was one of God’s elect. Until this time, the man had lived the life of a notorious criminal with seemingly no interest in following Christ. The fact that he was indeed one of God’s elect only became clear when he came to Christ so shortly before death.

While hanging on a cross next to Jesus, he turned to Him and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” (Luke 23:42).

Immediately, upon speaking these words, this man was given the unique and unspeakably gracious privilege of being told by Jesus Himself that he would be with Him in Paradise that very day (v. 43). What clear words of assurance! If ever a man could be certain of his election, it was this man.

Yet, using our sanctified minds, perhaps we could imagine his mother as a Christian and praying for him as a wayward son. This is complete speculation of course––but let us for a moment suppose that his mother was still alive, a follower of Christ, and was witnessing the events of that day. There would have been nothing that she could have observed with her senses that would have indicated that the last hour of his life would mean his conversion. It looked like it was going to be a tragic end to a tragic life. I certainly could imagine her bitterly intense sorrow in seeing her son walk the same hill as the Savior, the difference being that her son was walking up the hill because he deserved it… and then, out of nowhere it would seem, God the Holy Spirit moved in invisible but irresistible grace and took out the spiritual heart of stone and gave him a new heart, with new affections so unlike the old ones. Immediately, her son trusted in the work of the One dying next to him. And in no time at all, ultimate assurance was given to him that the day would not be over before he would be with Christ in Paradise.

As I say, this is all speculation concerning his mother and her anguish of heart, but what is indeed certain is that the man was converted with just hours to go before he died. Absolutely no one is beyond God’s reach, even to the last moment of a person’s life. Praise the Lord!

The Scripture tells us, “The Lord knows those who are his…” (2 Tim. 2:19).The identity of the elect is known only to God, not to us. Only upon seeing someone defy God until their very last breath in this world should we assume someone is non-elect. Though the salvation of our children or loved ones is always in God’s hands, it should be an immense comfort to us knowing that if an individual’s conversion is so much upon our hearts, this in itself is a very strong indication that it is God Himself who is behind the whole thing and has laid this burden upon us, in order that He would use this (our burden to pray) as a means to accomplish His ends (the conversion of one of His elect sheep).

Just as the Lord opened up the heart of Lydia to respond to the things spoken by Paul (Acts 16:13,14), so our only hope is that the God who can open any heart will do so for the ones we love and care for. Salvation (and the timing of conversion) is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9).

(From Chapter 15 of the book "Twelve What Abouts - Answering Common Objections Concerning God's Sovereignty in Election" by John Samson)

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

This Is Not Worth Quacking About

Did A&E know what would happen when it suspended Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson? Whether it was intentional or not, they are cashing in on trillions worth of free advertising.

Perhaps it’s really about LGBT rights at the cable and satellite television channel, half owned by Disney-ABC. But then there’s also the almighty dollar. Conceding to the LGBT agenda is increasingly what’s most profitable, what saves most face, and what brings least financial repercussion. And even more profitable is a firestorm that mobilizes the nation’s mass media and social media into doing more free promotion for the show and the network than anyone could ever pay for.

If it is a calculated move, we’re falling for it, hook, line, and sinker. And in trying to raise the question, even this post must slide halfway into the same trap. I’ll try not to mention the show and network by name again and lend any more help to the campaign.

Dear Christian, this is not something worth getting exercised about. As much as it may seem like “reality television,” it doesn’t take much of an eye to see how much this show is scripted and how much this is not the reality worth fighting for.

This is not our time to cry fowl about Christian civil liberties. The network never owed us this show, never owed us how many times they haven’t censored the name of Jesus from Phil’s end-of-episode prayers, and never deserved that we get this upset and in the meantime litter the Internet with their name and boost their profile. Think the numbers were impressive on the Christmas episode? Now, you watch and see.

Here’s a call for sheep in the midst of wolves to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16). Wisdom isn’t picking a fight whenever we can, but picking the right fight. Yes, we must beware: “they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake” (Matthew 10:17–18), but this is not that day. This is not the issue.

There will be real battles to fight — real courts and real judges and real presidents, governors, and legislatures that will continue riding the societal wave of the LGBT agenda. As the seemingly unstoppable train barrels down the tracks at us, we will continue to face excruciatingly tough decisions about when and how to hold our ground and when and if to dive out of the way and live to fight another day.

But this is not it. This is cable television. This is a silly show that, while genuinely entertaining, is doing just as much to marginalize Christians as backwater as it does to get the name of Jesus on television — as if that was ever the tip of the spear for the Great Commission, anyway.

Let’s lay down the weapons on this one. There will be other ducks to shoot. Pass on the decoy. There are so many good outlets into which to pour our righteous energy. It’s time to change the channel.

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Five Truths About the Incarnation

Christmas is about the incarnation of Jesus. Strip away the season’s hustle and bustle, the trees, the cookies, the extra pounds, and what remains is a humble birth story and a simultaneously stunning reality — the incarnation of the eternal Son of God.

This incarnation, God himself becoming human, is a glorious fact that is too often neglected, or forgotten, amidst all the gifts, get-togethers, pageants, and presents. Therefore, we would do well to think deeply about the incarnation, especially on this day.

Here are five biblical truths of the incarnation.

The virgin conception and birth in Bethlehem does not mark the beginning of the Son of God. Rather, it marks the eternal Son entering physically into our world and becoming one of us. John Murray writes, “The doctrine of the incarnation is vitiated if it is conceived of as the beginning to be of the person of Christ. The incarnation means that he who never began to be in his specific identity as Son of God, began to be what he eternally was not” (quoted in John Frame, Systematic Theology, 883).

Jesus is no typical king. Jesus didn’t come to be served. Instead, Jesus came to serve (Mark 10:45). His humility was on full display from the beginning to the end, from Bethlehem to Golgotha. Paul glories in the humility of Christ when he writes that, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6–8).

The incarnation wasn’t random or accidental. It was predicted in the Old Testament and in accordance with God’s eternal plan. Perhaps the clearest text predicting the Messiah would be both human and God is Isaiah 9:6: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

In this verse, Isaiah sees a son that is to be born, and yet he is no ordinary son. His extraordinary names — Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace — point to his deity. And taken together — the son being born and his names — point to him being the God-man, Jesus Christ.

The Scriptures do not give us answers to all of our questions. Some things remain mysterious. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God,” Moses wrote, “but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Answering how it could be that one person could be both fully God and fully man is not a question that the Scriptures focus on. The early church fathers preserved this mystery at the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) when they wrote that Jesus is “recognized in two natures [God and man], without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ.”

The incarnation of Jesus does not save by itself, but it is an essential link in God’s plan of redemption. John Murray explains: “[T]he blood of Jesus is blood that has the requisite efficacy and virtue only by reason of the fact that he who is the Son, the effulgence of the Father’s glory and the express image of his substance, became himself also partaker of flesh and blood and thus was able by one sacrifice to perfect all those who are sanctified” (Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 14).

And the author to the Hebrews likewise writes that Jesus “had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17).

The incarnation displays the greatness of God. Our God is the eternal God who was born in a stable, not a distant, withdrawn God; our God is a humble, giving God, not a selfish, grabbing God; our God is a purposeful, planning God, not a random, reactionary God; our God is a God who is far above us and whose ways are not our ways, not a God we can put in a box and control; and our God is a God who redeems us by his blood, not a God who leaves us in our sin. Our God is great indeed!

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Five Truths About Christian Suffering

All Christians suffer. Either you have, you are, or you will — “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22).

This reality is a stark reminder that we have not reached the new heavens and new earth. The new Jerusalem of no tears and no pain, of no mourning and no death, hasn’t arrived yet (Revelation 21:1, 4).

But just because we experience suffering as we await the redemption of our bodies, it doesn’t mean that our suffering is random or without purpose. And neither does it mean that Scripture doesn’t tell us how to think about our suffering now.

Here are five important biblical truths about suffering every Christian should have ready:

Suffering has many faces. The Bible doesn’t whitewash our experience of suffering by saying that it’s all of one stripe. Rather, it recognizes the multifaceted ways that suffering can come upon us. The apostle Paul wrote, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8–9).

In these two verses, Paul lists several types of suffering — mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. Each of these are different ways that we can suffer, and when suffering comes, often several of these types of suffering are involved.

The church is not meant to be a loosely bound association of functional Lone Rangers. Paul confronts that type of thinking when he writes, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).

The church is meant to be a refuge for those suffering. When a member is hurting, the church applies the bandages; when a member is down, the church encourages; when a member is in need, the church comes alongside to help.

Firsthand experience in suffering is essential in equipping us for ministry. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 1:4 that God “comforts us in all afflictions, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

But how? And what is the link between experiencing suffering and equipping for ministry? David Powlison answers this way:

When you’ve passed through your own fiery trials, and found God to be true to what he says, you have real help to offer. You have firsthand experience of both his sustaining grace and his purposeful design. He has kept you through pain; he has reshaped you more into his image. . . . What you are experiencing from God, you can give away in increasing measure to others. You are learning both the tenderness and the clarity necessary to help sanctify another person’s deepest distress. (Suffering and the Sovereignty of God, 166)

Wherever there is suffering, there is a battle — a battle for your soul. The book of Job shows us there can be two ways to respond to suffering, one that curses God because of suffering and one that praises God, even in the midst of suffering (Job 2:9–10).

One of the counter-intuitive truths about suffering is that it prepares Christians for more glory. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:17–18, “This light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”

These verses are like sandpaper on our modern sentiments about suffering. We naturally try to avoid suffering at all costs but God brings suffering in our lives for the sake of our eternal joy — yes, even glory.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Five Facts About Loving God

What is the relationship between loving God and neighbor, and how can both Jesus and Paul say that loving our neighbor fulfills the law (Matthew 7:12; Romans 13:8; Galatians 5:14)? Isn’t love for God an even higher priority?

Moses helps us answer these questions in Deuteronomy 10:16–19, where he portrays a radical love of neighbor as the key test to measure whether we are loving God with all.

With an echo of the call to love God with all, Moses opens Deuteronomy 10 by calling Israel to maintain radical God-centeredness (Deuteronomy 10:12–13). Yahweh is always to be the blazing center in his people’s solar system. He then notes that such wholehearted, life-encompassing allegiance to God was warranted from Israel because he created them and because he rescued them from Egyptian slavery (Deuteronomy 10:14–15). In light of these truths, Moses then applies the call to radical love for God into Israel’s everyday lives, and in the process, he reveals how far they were from God’s ideal. I see five significant points regarding love for God in these verses.

Moses first charges Israel to “circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn” (Deuteronomy 10:16). Israel was hardhearted, and hardhearted people cannot love God. Indeed, their hardness went deep, controlling the core of their very identities. As Moses said in the previous chapter, “You are a stubborn people. . . . From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD” (Deuteronomy 9:6–7). Until their hearts got fixed, love would not be evident.

The reason why hardheartedness is such a problem is because God rightfully demands all our allegiance, and any hardness toward him is an idolatry problem. “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God” (Deuteronomy 10:17). Yahweh is the only God in the pantheon of heaven (Deuteronomy 5:7; 6:4), and therefore he alone holds the right to our absolute surrender (Deuteronomy 5:8–10; 6:5). He alone is the preeminent savior, sovereign, and satisfier, and therefore misplaced affections are foolish and suicidal. God is to be the sun in our solar system, not one of the planets circling us. Idolatry separates us from love.

It is at this point in Moses’s sermon that we begin to see more clearly how intimately he tied the call to love our neighbor with the call to love God. Indeed, implied in the text is that those who have hearts of love toward God will ultimately begin to resemble God himself, who “is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing” (Deuteronomy 10:17–18).

Idolatry of the heart is seen in a failure to love as God loves. Love for God is displayed in whether we are willing to love our neighbor, even those who are most difficult to love –– to sacrifice our time, treasures, and talents for the sake of those whom God loves.

In my own life, I feel that only recently have I begun to understand what it means to love God in this radical neighbor-love way. Over the last five years, my family has journeyed the road of trans-racial, international adoption, seeing the curse of orphan status broken in the lives of three little treasures. By faith the saints of old “were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, . . . were tortured . . . suffered mocking . . . of whom the world was not worthy” (Hebrews 11:34–38).

Radical neighbor-love magnifies the worth of God, regardless of the cost, and displays the type of love God himself has shown. “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant . . . even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve” (Matthew 20:26, 28). “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:12–13). May God help us love this way.

Having identified the hardness, idolatry, and godlessness of his hearers, Moses now urges them to love the broken –– to see their hearts surrendered wholly to Yahweh’s supremacy, manifest in care for the needy: “Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:19). Loving God with all is about loving others as we ourselves have been loved. Israel knew what neglect, abuse, emptiness, hunger, and poverty were like; they had experienced all these in their past. They knew what it meant to be dirty, and they knew what it meant to be redeemed. Believers today have experienced an even greater redemption through the victorious work of Christ Jesus. Sins are forgiven, and righteousness is won. And “if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11).

Radical neighbor-love is birthed in the soul of one who has tasted the sin-overcoming, mercy-saturating, joy-filling love of God, now manifest in the person of Christ. “We love because he first loved us” (4:19). Loving the broken is overflow from the life that has been filled with love from God. “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).

Many recognize how difficult it is to pour out our own resources in love for the hurting, the weak, and the marginalized. Love for the broken is messy and wearying and unattractive, apart from the amazing grace of God. In the end, this kind of radical neighbor-love is impossible without God’s help (Deuteronomy 29:4), and therefore it becomes a key test for knowing whether we are connected to the source of love.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Teach Children the Bible Is Not About Them

When I go into churches and speak to children I ask them two questions:

First, how many people here sometimes think you have to be good for God to love you?

They tentatively raise their hands. I raise my hand along with them.

And second, how many people here sometimes think that if you aren’t good, God will stop loving you?

They look around and again raise their hands.

These are children in Sunday schools who know the Bible stories. These are children who probably also know all the right answers — and yet they have somehow missed the most important thing of all.

They have missed what the Bible is all about.

They are children like I once was.

As a child, even though I was a Christian, I grew up thinking the Bible was filled with rules you had to keep (or God wouldn’t love you) and with heroes setting examples you had to follow (or God wouldn’t love you).

I tried to be good. I really did. I was quite good at being good. But however hard I tried, I couldn’t keep the rules all the time so I knew God must not be pleased with me.

And I certainly couldn’t ever be as brave as Daniel. I remember being tormented by that Sunday school chorus, “Dare to be a Daniel” because, hard as I tried to imagine myself daring to be a Daniel, being thrown to lions and not minding... who was I kidding? I knew I’d be terrified out of my skull. I knew I would just say: “OK yes whatever you say! Just don’t throw me to the lions! Don’t pull out my fingernails! Make it stop!”

I knew I wasn’t nearly brave enough. Or faithful enough. Or good enough.

How could God ever love me?

I was sure he couldn’t.

One Sunday, not long ago, I was reading the story of Daniel and the Scary Sleepover from The Jesus Storybook Bible to some 6 year olds during a Sunday school lesson. One little girl in particular was sitting so close to me she was almost in my lap. Her face was bright and eager as she listened to the story, utterly captivated. She could hardly keep on the ground and kept kneeling up to get closer to the story.

At the end of the story there were no other teachers around and I panicked and went into automatic pilot and heard myself — to my horror — asking, “And so what can we learn from Daniel about how God wants us to live?”

And as I said those words it was as if I had literally laid a huge load on that little girl. Like I broke some spell. She crumpled right in front of me, physically slumping and bowing her head. I will never forget it.

It is a picture of what happens to a child when we turn a story into a moral lesson.

When we drill a Bible story down into a moral lesson, we make it all about us. But the Bible isn’t mainly about us, and what we are supposed to be doing — it’s about God, and what he has done!

When we tie up the story in a nice neat, little package, and answer all the questions, we leave no room for mystery. Or discovery. We leave no room for the child. No room for God.

When we say, “Now what that story is all about is…”, or “The point of that story is…” we are in fact totally missing the point. The power of the story isn’t in summing it up, or drilling it down, or reducing it into an abstract idea.

Because the power of the story isn’t in the lesson.

The power of the story is the story.

And that’s why I wrote The Jesus Storybook Bible. So children could know what I didn’t:

That the Bible isn’t mainly about me, and what I should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done.

That the Bible is most of all a story — the story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.

That — in spite of everything, no matter what, whatever it cost him — God won’t ever stop loving his children… with a wonderful, Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love.

That the Bible, in short, is a Story — not a Rule Book — and there is only one Hero in the Story.

I wrote The Jesus Storybook Bible so children could meet the Hero in its pages. And become part of his Magnificent Story.

Because rules don’t change you.

But a Story — God’s Story — can.

Friday, June 22, 2012

What Every Husband Should Know About Stay-at-Home Moms

A leadership guru aired his podcast online on how to increase productivity in your work.

He said that one of the keys to productivity is to know when to stop working. He said that if you’re working more than 55 hours per week then you’re probably losing effectiveness. After this point of working past maximum effectiveness, your work will start to unravel. The demands of a long workweek can even devolve into chaos!

Being a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) is far more than a long workweek. It’s life; we can’t just clock out after 55 hours of work.

Every husband should know that stay-at-home moms wage epic battles against chaos.

Epic battles against chaos can come in the form of sibling squabbles, maintenance emergencies, drama at school, competing budget items, scheduling hiccups, relational tension, and more. But these things are easily dealt with.

SAHMs are resourceful, creative problem-solvers. We have the capacity to dominate over even the most harrowing multitasking nightmare. When a SAHM's hope is in the God who raises the dead then she smiles at the future. She knows her Redeemer lives and she is working joyfully for his glory even in the midst of outer chaos.

But there is another other kind of chaos — inner chaos. No SAHM should dare to deal with inner chaos on her own.

She needs to be surrounded by other godly women whose hope is in the Lord. And she needs your help, too!

The harrowing, inner chaos in the soul of a SAHM can drive a woman to do things she never wanted to do. A woman driven by inner chaos will do things like give her children the silent treatment, manipulate her friends, get an ulcer over the budget, or belittle her husband’s hard work.

The manageable outer chaos is aggravated by the inner chaos in our soul. Outer chaos all of a sudden becomes unmanageable. Competent, confident homemakers lose their nerves of steel. Even though it’s “just” a hiccup in the schedule, or a setback with a child’s discipline, or a burned piece of garlic bread, it becomes so much bigger in our hearts.

Then the elusive “peace like a river” is more like a category five hurricane of anxiety, bitterness, discouragement, or discontent.

Husbands, when you can, please step into the outer chaos and help your wife put out a few fires. Then, when the smoke has cleared (or even as it is still lingering), let the Spirit lead you to step into her inner chaos as well.

Husbands, encourage your wife!

Ask your wife good questions to gain understanding. Identify with her; empathize.

With Spirit-led timing, speak the truth in love. Remind her that there is an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for her. Point out how in Christ God is reconciling the world to himself. In Christ he will not count her sins against her. If God doesn’t count her sins against her she can begin boasting in her weaknesses for Christ’s sake.

The most durable hope you can give your wife is glorying in the one Mediator between God and man. Your wife needs your help to remember the future grace that is guaranteed her by the precious blood of Jesus.

Glory in the love that covers a multitude of sins and redeems all of our inner chaos.

Marveling together at how Jesus died to make you holy will lift her soul higher than your praise for the meal she made (but don’t forget to compliment the garlic bread).

Gospel, garlic bread, then more gospel.

Monday, June 11, 2012

What Every Husband Should Know About Stay-at-Home Moms

A leadership guru aired his podcast online on how to increase productivity in your work.

Being a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) is far more than a long workweek. It’s life; we can’t just clock out after 55 hours of work.

Every husband should know that stay-at-home moms wage epic battles against chaos.

But there is another other kind of chaos — inner chaos. No SAHM should dare to deal with inner chaos on her own.

She needs to be surrounded by other godly women whose hope is in the Lord. And she needs your help, too!

Then the elusive “peace like a river” is more like a category five hurricane of anxiety, bitterness, discouragement, or discontent.

Husbands, encourage your wife!

Ask your wife good questions to gain understanding. Identify with her; empathize.

Glory in the love that covers a multitude of sins and redeems all of our inner chaos.

Marveling together at how Jesus died to make you holy will lift her soul higher than your praise for the meal she made (but don’t forget to compliment the garlic bread).

Gospel, garlic bread, then more gospel.

____________

Friday, September 2, 2011

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#935

“A successful pastor will also develop the power of prayer among his members. He will teach them and lead them to adopt the best methods in this respect. The duty of secret and family prayer will be enjoined. Each will be encouraged and exhorted to unite in the prayer meetings of the church and personally to engage publicly in prayer upon all suitable occasions. Only through such attainments will the church be spiritually developed; only through such prayers of his people will he himself be able most successfully to discharge all his duties among them.” – James P. Boyce

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#936

“An assembly of public worship is not merely a gathering of God’s children with each other, but is, before all else, a meeting of the triune God with his covenant people. In the covenant, God promises his chosen ones that he will dwell among them as their God and they will be his people… The triune God is present in public worship, not only by virtue of the divine omnipresence, but, much more intimately, as the faithful covenant Savior. Through Christ, God’s people have access by one Spirit to the Father.” – The Directory for the Public Worship of God

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#937

“The metaphor of the church as an organism – at least two distinctive uses of ‘body,’ for instance, not to mention pictures of the church as a unit being the bride of Christ – makes one wonder if one is doing full justice to the word ‘church’ if it can be said to refer to two or three Christians who happen to meet at a bus stop and happily exchange a biblical verse or two. No doubt Christ is with them, but does this small collective of Christians function the way the church does in the New Testament?” – D.A. Carson

Thursday, September 1, 2011

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#938

“As a church, we must explain the main point of the Bible; it is the only way to engender real interest in it, and it is the only way to be honest. True, the main point of Christianity may be offensive to some, but Paul warns us about this in his first letter to the church of Corinth: ‘For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God’” – Jay Lemke

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#939

“Worship assemblies for Christians are to be characterized by good order, not confusion (1 Cor. 14:26, 33, 40). Thus New Testament congregational worship is led and governed by the overseers (elders who “take care of the Church of God,” 1 Tim. 3:-45). That this is the rule for New Testament worship is illustrated by the fact that Paul wrote to deliver instructions for the life of the church, including its corporate worship services, to pastors like Timothy (e.g. 1 Tim. 2:1, 8,11; 4:13; 2 Tim. 4:2).” – Greg Bahnsen