The Nowness of Obedience

Have you ever noticed that obedience is actually only possible in the present?

I’m not trying to be overly philosophical here — because to be perfectly honest, philosophy class bored me out of my mind. I have no interest in speculating about the nature of time, or the reality of the future, or whether it’s all an illusion, or anything silly like that.

I only mean to point out that it’s flatly impossible to obey God in any other moment than the present. The past is done, and can’t be changed (although it can be forgiven, thank God). The future is only applicable, and obedience is only possible in it, once it’s been turned into the present. Fairly obvious, right? “Why does this matter?” you may be asking. “What is she blathering on about?”

I think this is a decently important point to make, because as it turns out, we may all frequently trip up on this very point. It’s very easy for us to do a quick “pea and thimble” trick in our minds in order to deceive ourselves into believing that we’re being obedient when in actual fact we’re doing nothing of the sort.

For instance, have you ever found yourself thinking something like this: “Once I get that promotion, I’ll be able to start tithing,” or, “When we get that bigger house, I’ll be able to be much more patient with the kids,” or, “After I lose the weight, I’ll be sexually responsive to my husband.”

And then, after having thought something like this, have you noticed how perilously easy it is to then congratulate yourself on your obedience? After we imagine ourselves being righteous in the future, we then think of ourselves as actually being righteous. We pat ourselves on the back as if that obedience was a reality, when in actual fact, we’ve not done any such thing. And if we’re perfectly frank, we’re actually stinking it up a bit.

This is how it’s possible to actually be selfishly greedy and think of yourself as open-handed; to have a wicked temper and think of yourself as patient; to be coldly frigid but think of yourself as sexually generous.

We somehow manage to console ourselves for our past and present failures by imagining up brilliant future successes. Hopefully the problem with this is self evident. Imaginary future obedience can’t atone for real live, present-tense sin; only the blood of Christ can do that. But sometimes we’re so busy with our pretend obedience that we forget to notice that we should actually be on our knees asking for forgiveness. And of course, while we’re at it, we should also repent of our self-deception.

I think this is why the Bible always emphasizes the “now” of obedience. “Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 3:7–8). “Choose you this day whom you will serve” (Joshua 24:15). Because, as it turns out, obedience is always in the present tense.

 

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.

 

What the Psalms Do

If you read the Psalms only for doctrine, you’re not reading them for what they are. They are psalms, songs, poetry. They’re musical, and the reason human beings express truth with music and poetry is to awaken and express emotions that fit the truth.

One of the reasons the Psalms are deeply loved by so many Christians is that they give expression to an amazing array of emotions. Listen to this list of emotions I pulled together:

Loneliness: “I am lonely and afflicted” (Psalms 25:16).Love: “I love you, O Lord, my strength” (Psalms 18:1).
Awe: “Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him” (Psalms 33:8).
Sorrow: “My life is spent with sorrow” (Psalms 31:10).
Regret: “I am sorry for my sin” (Psalms 38:18).
Contrition: “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalms 51:17).
Discouragement and turmoil: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me” (Psalms 42:5)?
Shame: “Shame has covered my face” (Psalms 44:15).
Exultation: “In your salvation how greatly he exults” (Psalms 21:1).
Marveling: “This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalms 118:23).
Delight: “His delight is in the law of the Lord” (Psalms 1:2).
Joy: “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound” (Psalms 4:7).
Gladness: “I will be glad and exult in you” (Psalms 9:2).
Fear: “Serve the Lord with fear” (Psalms 2:11).
Anger: “Be angry, and do not sin” (Psalms 4:4).
Peace: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep” (Psalms 4:8).
Grief: “My eye wastes away because of grief” (Psalms 6:7).
Desire: “O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted” (Psalms 10:17).
Hope: “Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you” (Psalms 33:22).
Brokenheartedness: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Psalms 34:18).
Gratitude: “I will thank you in the great congregation” (Psalms 35:18).
Zeal: “Zeal for your house has consumed me” (Psalms 69:9).
Pain: “I am afflicted and in pain” (Psalms 69:29).
Confidence: “Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident” (Psalms 27:3).

More explicitly than all the other books in the Bible, the Psalms are designed to awaken and shape our emotions in line with the instruction they give. What happens when you read and sing the Psalms the way they are intended to be read and sung is that your emotions and your mind are shaped by these psalms.

What’s At Stake in the Homosexuality Debate

The stakes could not be higher in the homosexuality debate, because — to put it rather bluntly — homosexual activity is a sin that parallels idolatry. The Apostle Paul seems to draw this connection in Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5, and he certainly does in Romans 1:18–27.

Robert Gagnon, a leading scholar on sexuality in Scripture, says these themes are closely related for Paul because both idolatry and same-sex intercourse equally oppose the designs of the Creator. He sees several strong connections that link Romans 1 to the creation account in Genesis 1–2. In his acclaimed book The Bible and Homosexual Practice, Gagnon writes, "Idolatry and homosexual behavior are in some measure parallel (not just successive) phenomena since both are presented as willful suppression of the obvious truth about God and God's design in the natural world."1

Pagan idolatry is twisted because it is the act of rejecting the Creator and replacing worship of him with the worship of what he has made. Similarly, homosexual acts are twisted because they reject God's natural design for human sexuality.2 Thus, homosexuality and idolatry are related. Both are evidence of a twisted distortion of God's design for men and women, both dehumanize men and women, both are rooted in a rejection of the Creator. That is to say, the distortions of idolatry and same-sex intercourse are foremost rooted in a worship disorder (Romans 1:21, 24–25).

And there isn't a disorder more serious than a worship disorder. The stakes could not be higher for sinners who refuse to honor and thank God for his created design. And when worship disorders spread, and souls hang in the balance, loving Christians speak up, not with voices of spite or hatred but with voices of love and compassion.

This is a point Gagnon makes:

Without taking into account God's will for holy living, love turns into affirmation of self-degrading and other-degrading conduct. This means that true love of one's neighbor does not embrace every form of consensual behavior. What constitutes an expression of love to one's neighbor depends significantly on how one assesses the benefit or harm of the neighbor's behavior. If indeed homosexual behavior is sin and an obstacle to the fullness of life available in Christ, then the church has an obligation both to protect the church from the debilitating effect of sanctioned immorality and to protect the homosexual for whom more is at stake than the satisfaction of sensual impulses.[3]

Yes. That last sentence is critical.

Homosexual intercourse is an obstacle to fullness in Christ, in fact it is an empty faux-replacement for the good design of the Creator. To seek happiness in homosexual activity is a replacement god, it kicks against the Creator, it is a rejection of the Creator just like idolatry.

John Piper is right when he says, "God's judgment on homosexual and lesbian relationships is not because he is a killjoy, but because he is opposed to what kills joy."4 Fullness of joy in Christ is at stake. And fullness of joy will never be found in crossing the wires of God's created intentions.

Heterosexual sin and homosexual sin alike are ultimately rooted in a worship disorder, a worship disorder that robs the soul of joy now and robs the soul of joy eternally. The fullness of joy we all long for is reserved for those sinners who, by God's grace alone, have been healed from this worship disorder, who are rightly oriented with the Creator, and who turn away from selfishness that kicks against the created order.

The gospel of Jesus Christ offers us victory in our worship disorders. By Christ's death and resurrection and through our union with him, we turn away from the wisdom of our own eyes, we turn from idols, and we turn from what contradicts God's beautiful design. We continue to battle sinful sexual impulses and all sin, and we fight sin together as brothers and sisters in Christ who look forward to a day when all temptations will be gone and we will enjoy eternal pleasures forever in the presence of our Creator (Psalm 16:11). That is why this topic matters, because eternal happiness is ultimately what's at stake in the homosexuality debate.

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2"In effect, Paul is saying: Start with the obvious fittedness of human anatomy; when done with that, consider procreative design as a clue; then move to a broad range of interpersonal differences that define maleness and femaleness. These are much better clues to God's will for human sexuality than preexisting, controlling passions — which can be warped by the fall and shaped by socialization factors." [Robert A. J. Gagnon, "Sexuality," in Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible (Baker Academic, 2005), 745–746.]

When God's Wrath Is Your Comfort

God is so great that he sees every detail of our planet all the time. And God is so just that there is not a single injustice which doesn't infuriate him. So if he knows everything and hates all that's wrong, of course he "feels indignation everyday" (Psalm 7:11).

And this is not meant for terror — not if we treasure Jesus (Romans 5:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 5:9). Rather, it's actually meant for our comfort. That's what Paul is getting at in Romans 12:19, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.'"

John Piper explains,

All of you have been wronged at one time or another. Most of you, probably, have been wronged seriously by someone who has never apologized or done anything sufficient to make it right. And one of the deep hindrances to your letting that hurt and bitterness go is the conviction — the justified conviction — that justice should be done, that the fabric of the universe will unravel if people can just get away with horrible wrongs and deceive everyone. That is one of the hindrances to forgiveness and letting grudges go. It’s not the only one. We have our own sin to deal with. But it is a real one. We feel that just to let it go would be to admit that justice simply won’t be done. And we can’t do it. So we hold on to anger, and play the story over and over again with the feelings: It shouldn’t have happened; it shouldn’t have happened; it was wrong; it was wrong. How can he be so happy now when I am so miserable? It is so wrong. It is so wrong!

This word in Romans 12:19 is given to you today by God to lift that burden from you. “Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.” What does this mean for you? Laying down the burden of anger, laying down the practice of nursing your hurt with feelings of being wronged — laying that down — does not mean there was no great wrong against you. It does not mean there is no justice. It does not mean you will not be vindicated. It does not mean they just got away with it. No.

It means, when you lay down the burden of vengeance, God will pick it up.

This is not a subtle way of getting revenge. This is a way of giving vengeance to the one to whom it belongs. It is taking a deep breath, perhaps for the first time in decades, and feeling like now at last you may be free to love. I long so much for you to know the freedom to love.

Excerpted from Do Not Avenge Yourselves, But Give Place to Wrath, paragraphing and italics added.

Where Same-Sex Attraction Originates; and Where It Ends

Same-sex desires and same-sex orientation are part of our broken and disordered sexuality owing to the God’s subjection of the created order to futility because of man’s sin.

In Genesis 2 we read about the catastrophic moment when the first man and woman rebelled against God. The effects on them and on the world are described in chapters 2 and 3, and then illustrated in the sin-soaked and death-ridden history of the Old Testament, indeed all of history.

The apostle Paul gives the key interpretation of what happened there and its effect on us. Here's his key word from Romans 8:20–21: “The creation was subjected to futility [this is God's response to human rebellion], not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope [so this is God who did this. The devil didn't subject it to hope. God cursed creation. We read that in Genesis 3] 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God."

And then, maybe one of the most important verses in the Bible for my understanding of almost everything I deal with in the brokenness of my life, my marriage, my children, this church, this world. Romans 8:23, goes like this. . . , and the point is that Paul is looking at the Romans in the face, as it were, who are about to say back to him, "Oh yes, the curse fell on the world and the whole creation was subjected, but we have been redeemed!" And here's his response to that:

And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23)

And I am arguing that same-sex desires and same-sex orientation are in that category of groaning — waiting for the redemption of our bodies. Which means they are in the same broad category with all kinds of disordered bodies and minds and emotions.

If we tried to make a list of the emotional and mental and physical brokenness of the human family the list would be unending. And all of us are broken and disordered in different ways. All of you, without exception, are bent towards desiring what you ought not to desire. I could document mine. Desires. We have not gotten to behavior yet. We are all disordered in our emotions, or minds, our bodies. We groan. We groan! And the damage we do waiting. Waiting for our final, full, complete adoption — the redemption of our whole bodies, brains, emotion, will.

This is a call for careful distinctions lest you hurt people — or yourself — unnecessarily. All our disorders — all our brokenness — is rooted in sin, original sin and our sinful nature. All of it. But, to be caused by a sinful nature, and rooted in sin, doesn't make a disorder equal to sinning.

Let me say it a little differently, because our language here just has to be so careful. It is not wrong, but I think proper to say, all of our disordered desires that are going after things we shouldn't go after are sinful desires — sinful meaning they are rooted in sin, and they are contaminated and disorderd, they're bent.

Why Rooting Joy in Ministry Success Is Disastrous

Is there a greater thrill than to know someone's life has been permanently transformed because you reached out to them?

It is sweet to know your sister was saved through your series of conversations, or that you helped to disciple a struggling couple whose marriage was headed toward an inevitable divorce, or that you preached a sermon that God was kind enough to use in someone's spiritual awakening.

Each of those things are treasured experiences — but none of them are intended to sustain our joy.

Jesus’ chose 72 of his followers and sent them out in his name. And they found incredible success in healing the sick and in watching demonically sabotaged lives get radically and immediately repaired. The experience must have been intoxicatingly fun.

But ministry success wasn't the most stunning thing, and Jesus warned his followers of that when they returned. He told them to look beyond the fruit and see an eternal foundation: "do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20).

Written in heaven. That’s what he wanted them to see and us to see. Our highest joy is to know that our names are written in heaven. Knowing we are heirs to the bliss of God's eternal presence is the foundation for our greatest joys.

And knowing that means:

Pastoring is not the most important fact about the pastor.Missions is not the most important fact about the missionary.The spiritual gift is not the most important fact about the Christian.

But Jesus’ words apply to ministry “sag” just as much as they apply to revival.

By unplugging the disciples’ joy from their ministry effectiveness, Jesus likewise protects them (and us) from depression during seasons of seeming fruitlessness. Seasons of what appears to be effectiveness and ineffectiveness come and go. Seasons of revival are replaced by seasons of stagnation.

Perhaps we can include all of the fluctuations of life. Marriage, parenting, work, school — all areas of life where we are called by God to bear fruit. Our joy is not rooted in our successes, and it's not extinguished by our failures. Our joy is rooted in the unalterable fact that in Christ our names are written on heaven's roll-call.

Paul reminded his ministry associates of this point (Philippians 4:3). And I need that reminder every morning. Because whether ministry is flourishing or not, we need to remind ourselves, and remind each other, that our names are written in heaven. And it is in heaven, in the presence of God forever, where our joy is rooted. May God protect us now, in the bustle of life and the wins and losses in ministry, from losing the sweetness of that truth.

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