Nostalgia, Spielberg & Human Immortality

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:26:00 -0400

Rabbit Room Conversations - June 21, 2011 Broadcast

Listen in as we discuss the film "Super-8" and reflect on the implications of human longing, nostalgia, and the reality of being souls that will never end. This is the first of our weekly "radio-show"-styled Rabbit Room Conversations.

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All Rabbit Room Broadcasts - Stream or Download

We are having great fun developing and planning for these weekly (usually Tuesdays) broadcasts. We are currently offering these discussions in a simple, radio-show-styled format. Our hope is to apply as much creativity, thought, variety, and natural brilliance as we can to grow this program into a truth-promoting, vision-inspiring instrument of God's grace.

We hope to spur your minds and even tickle your funny-bone - with increasing frankness, humor, and honest dialogue. Please tag along as we learn this craft and grow in our capability to be so clever and compelling that you are riveted from the beginning to the end of each and every episode and devastated when the closing music kicks in.

Frequently these broadcast will involve conversations with folks - both far and near - that we know can add clarity, insight, and experience into our conversations.

Battle Begun

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 20:49:00 -0400

Big, Brash Gospel Friday - April 29, 2011

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace - but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! ...Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"

Patrick Henry - March 23, 1775

___

Christians have often been at war.

Past and present there has been much talk of battle. There have been military crusades, religious wars, and even assaults of persecution - in the name of Christ - by Christians upon Christians.

Spiritual warfare has been a common theme, framed variously as being in battle with Satan and his principalities and powers, in battle with the unbelieving world, in battle against lies and error, etc.

Tragically, there has also been no shortage of warring among believers. Conflict between and within churches is nearly normative.

Here is the thing, though: Christians speak frequently and forcefully about this or that battle at hand; but it appears to me that we rarely are suiting up for the things most worthy of a fight.

Truly, we have spiritual enemies that war against our souls; but in that conflict we fight a defeated foe, who has already been crushed by Christ, and our Lord has also equipped us with Gospel-armor so that we need not fear or dread the enemy's fiery darts.

Yes, when Harold Camping declares, against clear Biblical warning and after previous false-prophecies, that Christ will definitely return on May 21, 2011 we should defend the truth and shoot down error. And again, when Rob Bell (essentially) denies the reality of eternal hell and makes the Gospel of Christ optional for eternal life and joy - we should battle for the truth and against error.

There are, in other words, a number of realities in the lives of God's people and His Church where it is fitting to speak of and engage battle, but I still believe that we often choose the wrong battles and fight these with the wrong mindset and strategy.

You see, the battle for the Gospel and our expectant, extraordinary life in the Gospel, isn't particularly the fight with our defeated enemy. It is even less a war with unoriginal, run-of-the-mill, fairly self-evident false teachers like Rob Bell or Harold Camping. And we are not at war with the people of the world. We battle against the lies that bind their souls, but we are called to engage our world-wide neighbors with compassion and kindness - offering to them the very grace to which we ourselves so happily cling.

Rarely and selectively do we read "fighting words" from Jesus or the Apostles.

They fire few if any arrows at the evil rulers of their day, they are far from preoccupied with the utterly defeated principalities and powers, they straightforwardly dismiss or dismantle the useless philosophies and religions that surrounded them, they never approach the surrounding sinners and lost souls with anything but compassion and caring offers of forgiveness and hope.

They unleash tongue-lashings and choose to square up for a fight when they are confronting those called and commissioned to proclaim God's mercy and message - when these folks - instead - rob God's children of grace, freedom, and joy.

If you want to invoke curses, judgment, mockery, and language of rottenness, doom, death, and emasculation from mouth of the Savior or Paul or John - add works or requirements to the gift of grace, constrict a Christian's freedom or liberty of conscience, call the Lord's people to pay more attention to sin than victory, to debt than reward, to guilt than glory, or to sacrifice than joy.

If we want to draw holy fire, we must only use the position or the pulpit of spiritual leadership to manipulate, control, or condescend to those in our care. We simply need to use guilt trips, selective affirmation, or spiritual authority to make folks do what we want, serve our ends, or fill our offering plates.

If the model of Christ and His representatives is our guide, there are few ways to make the godly go to war with you. It won't work to be Nero or Nietzsche or an unrepentant neighbor. You will need to take the path of narrowing grace or limiting the freedom or joy of God's people by being a Pharisee, a Galatian Judaizer, or the Apostle Peter in Galatians 2.

If you would go to battle, go to battle for the radically free grace of God, for the relentless promise of joy, and for (in the words of Steve Brown) the scandalous freedom that our Savior fully purchased and purposed for His people.

I make a habit of calling folks primarily to faith and hope and joy and an insatiable appetite for the treasure that God is and gives. Generally, I believe that we are called far more often to think and laugh and feast and sing and announce the extravagant gift of saving grace - than we are called to arms.

But here I plead for us to battle with tenacity and relentlessness:

Fight for a big, bold, unaltered Gospel and for the freedom and joy of God's people. Resist legalism in all its forms. Oppose authoritarian, controlling, or manipulative leadership. Let no one rob you or others of a free conscience, nor let them compel your service or collect your cash by guilt-trips or misuse of Scripture.

In the fight for grace and freedom it is pointless to cry, "Peace, Peace!" because the battle is already begun and Christians in many places are losing it for lack passionate voices standing and fighting on their behalf.

On the face of things, there have been in recent years a number of encouraging theological and spiritual trends in the Church. But I cannot ignore the reality that the heartening rise of grace theology, "Gospel-centeredness," and Biblical eldership structures in influential Christian circles is far too often being accompanied by rising authoritarianism, legalism (both overt and subtle), theological dogmatism, sin-preoccupation, and a kind of spiritual-correctness that regulates God's people according to artificial and human definitions of the current Christian subculture.

Increasingly, in dynamic and influential ministries, there is tightly enforced theological-correctness, educational-correctness, family-methodology-correctness, political-correctness, and much more. These forcefully (even if unofficially) hang over the heads of those who long to be fully received and respected in these Christian communities

Somehow a thoughtful recovery of much of the truth of God and His Gospel of grace has been linked and used to build and promote corporate, administrative, formulaic redefinitions of "the local Church."

In a similar way, hip, cookie-cutter church plants have widely replaced serving and growing the Lord's kingdom by recognizing, mentoring, and raising up deep souled, family-delighted, truth-hungry, impassioned teachers and preachers of God's great Word and grace.

These patterns seem intimidating and nearly invincible, with many confident, popular voices continually and inflexibly advocating for the new "right" way to do church and grow churches. It is also unsettling and unnerving to our thinking and resolve when so many methods, formulas, programs, and Christian practices or positions are grouped under "Gospel-centered"-type headings that seem to suggest a disregard for the Gospel and grace itself if you question the many attachments and add-ons of the prevailing "Gospel-centered" model and worldview

Warm, engaging, organic communities of Christian fellowship, family, and witness seem to be faltering under the pressure of strident, self-assured ministry models that are successfully gathering Christians into clone-like church plants or giant ministries with worldwide reputations. If this concerns you, please do not simply comply or assume the futility of resistance and don't be content that things have (on a certain level) gotten better than they were in quite recent decades.

Be thankful for all that the Lord has done and is doing through so many folks. Appreciate and affirm what is good, but don't let anyone hijack and reshape our rich heritage of faith in a way that leaves us standing outside, appearing to oppose the very things we value most.

As much as possible live at peace and enjoy the life of grace. Focus more on what is good than what is wrong. Live with warmth, unity, and respect among fellow-believers, even with our many different perspectives and convictions.

Do all this and then, when the grace of God or the freedom of God's people are diminished - join Paul, who without a blink or a pause saw Peter's legalistic attitude and leadership and announces, "I withstood him to his face."

What's up with the Bunny?

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 20:18:00 -0400

Big, Brash Gospel Friday - April 23, 2011 (A Special Resurrection Weekend Saturday Edition)

On a winding, other-worldly stretch of country road, not far from here, there is small, aged church and a shadowed, rickety church cemetery that look like they belong in Sleepy Hollow.

Beside the cemetery is a simple two-story structure labeled "Church Office" and in the upstairs window is a chilling sight. (Behold the photo.)

This scene returns each spring as Easter Sunday approaches, and for years now it is our family's simple tradition to mumble "What's up with the Bunny?" each time we pass.

Now, I have no habit or inclination to rail on about "the godless, pagan origins" of Christian holidays; but I must ask: am I alone when I shout, "Christ is Risen!" and hear His people respond, "He is risen indeed!" and haven't the slightest corresponding thought that I should start painting eggs and getting my reservation nailed down for the visit of a large, walking, (at-least-mildly) creepy Bunny?

What's up with the Bunny?

So, is Easter named after Eastre, the great Mother-God of pre-Christian celtic paganism or after Ishtar, the ancient Near-Eastern goddess of fertility? An odd question to have to ask, don't you think? The one thing we know is that the term Easter and much that is associated with it has no roots in Christianity or the glorious resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Both Eastre and Ishtar (like other proposed candidates for Easter's origin) are surrounded by extraordinary, fantastical stories of fertility and new life, deaths and resurrections, rabbits and eggs, and Spring equinox celebrations.

Ishtar Day was long celebrated on the first "Sunday" (or first day of the week) after the first full moon after the Spring equinox. Records describe grand celebrations filled with bunnies (fertile little critters that they are) and eggs that represented the moon - Ishtar's fertilized ovum...you get the point.

This is where I'm supposed to go ballistic about godless, pagan origins and false religion - right?

Well, I could, I suppose. Anything that distracts from the incomprehensible offering of Christ's death and the stunning glory of His resurrection should be hastily thrown out of the way. I would be content to never see nor hear of another Easter Bunny or Easter egg, but I am amazed and moved when I think of what even these inexplicable Easter additions and trappings reveal.

You see, all of the Easter-origin theories are rooted in ancient stories of death and new life. Ishtar claimed to have been conceived by an immaculate conception and the stories that surround her (like several other ancient myths and expectations) proclaim the rise of a savior or redeemer, who would die and come back to life.

Enemies of Christianity point to this with rolling-eyed mockery and declare that our faith is nothing true or original. It simply mimics countless "other myths" that were around long before. But these stories fascinate me and draw from me happy praises to our gracious Lord and His Christ - because centuries before the Savior appeared, the Hebrew prophets announced the One who would not only die and live again, but also would fulfill the "desires of all nations."

How extraordinary now to look back and read desperate tales of long past peoples who could find no hope without anticipating new life and a dying and living Redeemer. What great work of our Lord's common grace wrought this expectation and longing in tribes from pole to pole?

In my personal opinion and practice, when Resurrection Sunday rolls around, I need and want nothing more than singing, shouting, spellbound celebrations of my dying Savior and my resurrected King! Nothing will replace or supplement sharing these world-shaking memories with brothers and sisters in Christ - who like me have been given a splendid life, a breath-taking hope, and a glorious, long, new creation future through Jesus Christ alone.

The victory and power of the Resurrection is the power of our new birth, the source of our sanctification, and the substance of our future hope of resurrection and eternal life. In many Christian circles this glorious event is tragically overlooked or given little more than a token nod.

We must re-visit our New Testament friends. These folks were irrepressible people of the resurrection. I believe that I could make a solid case that the Christians of the first century - had they been into religious jewelry - would have hung more empty tombs than crosses on chains around their necks

All this to say that, for myself, I'd rather run after the living Christ than run down a creepy bunny - so I'll preserve my spiritual activist energies for other things. For example...

Today is Good Friday 2011 and in honor of this day of holy remembrance you will find a beautiful scene on your Google page recognizing...Earth Day.

This is a battle of spiritual faiths. One rests its hope in the eternal new creation of a crucified and risen Savior and one ties its hopes to a crumbling old creation - which itself groans in anticipation of a supernatural redemption that its own worshippers ignore (Romans 8:20-22).

Even the fertility mother-gods were a step closer to grace and truth than the raw materialists of our day. And they didn't have the Scriptural record and the gift of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their rearview mirror.

It could almost make a thoughtful Christian yearn for some good, old-fashioned pagans - celebrating fertility, bunnies, and all manner of other nonsensical things - because they couldn't shake a deep longing for a new and everlasting life through a dying and living Savior.

Redemption

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 16:46:00 -0400

We will discover that melancholy
Is joy.
That delight presumes contrast,
Even as melody rises above harmony.
Reflection is possible only against
A clear and rigid surface.

Minor keys are not for Time alone.
Celestial trumpets will shout from
Among the tones of saxophone praises.
Even glorified bodies wear scars.
Joy? All things unadulterated have been through fire
Or are the Fire.
Songs of redemption must have memories.

This was not always so.
When the Son reflected the Father,
And darkness was defined only by
That which was not;
Evil was theory and good unbalanced.
Until the creature sought inner reflection.

Promises were made, and all were kept.
But things will never be the same.
Before, love could not be mercy;
And grace could not be.
Now, and forever, these are glory.
Bliss will be deeper in the shade of innocent blood;
And peace will be full
Because a violent war was completely won.

dss -- 1995

Thirty Easy Ways - Number 22

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 01:54:00 -0400

One day Jacob was cooking a stew.

Esau came in from the field starved and said to Jacob,

"Give me some of that red stew-I'm starved!"

Jacob said,

"Make me a trade: my stew for your rights as the firstborn."

Esau said, "I'm starving! What good is a birthright if I'm dead?"

...That's how Esau shrugged off his rights as the firstborn.

Genesis 25:29-34

Thirty Easy Ways to Raise a Pharisee

Number 22

Teach them that their desires are their spiritual enemies.

A number of times, in various ways, the Savior simply asked:

"What do you want?"

And when folks tell Him their desires, He never (never.) tells them to want less.

"Do not lay up for yourselves treasure on earth" a good monk or Pharisee might quote, "where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break in and steal."

"But," Jesus said, "lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust corrupt and thieves don't break in and steal."

Crave the best things and don't let the brief gratification of lesser things rob you of the great stuff.

And if treasure is available, abandon your trash, with light-hearted and expectant laughter, to get your hands on the real, permanent wealth.

Jesus said:

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." - Matthew 13:44

All Gospel changes in our lives are treasure transactions. Glad, easy decisions that make us chuckle and say, "My Ford Focus for your Lamborghini - I don't know...I'd have to think long and hard about giving up my Focus!"

There are no exceptions - not one time where our Lord says, "I want you do such and such, even though in the long run you will lose something good or be less happy.

Never. Not once. No exceptions to this remarkably extravagant rule.

We've really messed this one up. I'm tempted to use stronger language.

For centuries the world has assumed that following our faith is a fool's errand designed for masochists and self-absorbed monks. Why wouldn't they, given the wonderful mix of martyrdom and moral superiority that marks most "Christian" confrontations of the world?

C.S. Lewis offers a strong antidote to this wretched thinking (he made a habit of this):

"Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desire not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because we cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

Stifle your desires or tolerate small, easily-satisfied desires and you will find yourself (and your son or daughter) easy targets for wasted lives of sinful indulgence.

Enlarge your desires and demand that your joys be both permanent and satisfying and you will find no alternative but to run hard after the King of grace and His gifts.

If you want to groom your children into self-satisfied, ultimately-impoverished Pharisees:

1. Warn them of the danger of wanting too much pleasure.

2. Teach them to sacrifice for God

These are fertile soil for both rebellion and religion - both of which are deadly.

Pharisees, legalists and religious people of all sorts are preoccupied with what God requires and expects of us instead of what God longs to give us. They assume that God needs something from us, rather than that we desperately and hungrily need everything from Him. They think that God is more honored by our hard work than by our hunger for Him. They function on the assumption that God is a kill-joy and that He wants us to avoid punishment by learning to abandon pleasure.

Rebels smell these same slanders against God's extravagant grace and simply say, "Not interested."

And why should they be?

Even our everyday parental instructions of wisdom and righteousness (when true and Godly) are rooted less in sin-management and behavior modification than they are in vision-casting and pleasure-protection.

Does your daughter crave popularity and get easily drawn into vanity (or self-pity)? Don't tell her that acceptance and beauty don't matter. Share with her the treasure of being loved and embraced by God and point her to the beauty that the Savior is crafting in her for a future unveiling. Compare cheap gawking to eternal admiration.

Is your son struggling with lust? Don't tell him to stop longing. Give him something worth longing for! Magnify the wonders of sexual intimacy and the delights of God's gift of marriage. Envision in him a future worth wanting and guarding and waiting for - then enjoy your wife deeply in his view (or your words won't ring true).

If we portray faith and faithfulness more like monastic vows of self-flagellation than as the magnificent value of wise and patient investment, our children will seek out alternatives.

Monks or heirs of heavenly wealth - which of these propels the soul toward grace? And which of these magnify the grandeur and the goodness of God?

Teach your sons and daughters the insanity of Esau.

Don't get all spiritual and tell them how fleshly and ungodly he was. (Though true.) Get right to the point and tell them that he was an idiot, a moron, a joy-crushing fool. He gave up the wealth, honor, privileges, and future of an ancient first-born son, so that he wouldn't have to be hungry and wait for dinner for a few minutes.

Healthy, strong desires drive us to the Gospel. Pray for the Lord to plant demanding desires in you and your children that can't easily be satisfied

Vigorous, not-easily-satisfied desires also propel "sanctification" or Godly change in our lives. (More on this in the next couple of weeks.)

In Galatians 5:16-17 Paul says: "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit lusts against the flesh.

Lust means "strong desire" and in Scripture (believe it or not) "lust" can either be for evil or for good.

So the flesh has strong desires that can kill the soul.

And the spirit has strong desires that can kill the flesh.

Apparently the right kind of vigorous, insatiable strong desires are exactly what we need.

With this paradigm-shift out on the table we really must explore how to encourage real spiritual growth in our children.

So please tag along for the next couple of weeks, as we consider Treasure-based transformation and how it is that we and our children will really grow and flourish in the Lord.

___

See or Return to the full list of current "Thirty Easy Ways to Raise a Pharisee" posts Here.

The Conquered City

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:52:00 -0400

Big, Brash Gospel Friday - April 15, 2011

Let's get this straight - the Lord isn't asking us to save anybody.

He is not calling on us to win souls (a Proverb taken out of context), rescue the lost, defeat the Enemy, or conquer the world.

All of this and much more, the King of Grace has already done and is unstoppably applying at every moment, whether we are awake or asleep.

We are all familiar with the anxiety associated with "doing evangelism" or "witnessing for Christ," and when we're not feeling anxious we're feeling guilty, incompetent, or heartless for the catastrophic failure that most of us would evaluate our evangelism to be.

Here's the thing: I believe that most anxiety, guilt, and failure in Christian witness is the result of a fundamental misunderstanding of what we have been called to do.

We've been given the best job in the world!

We get to spend our lives being Ty Pennington. You know, the guy from ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition who gets paid handsomely to spend none of his own money and do minimal work, yet be the one who gets to connect with thoughtful, needy people and unveil - with cheers and tears and stunned, ecstatic celebrations - the biggest, most beautiful material gift these weary folks will ever receive.

Who of us, watching that show, has not said what a fun, perfect job it would be to go around changing people's lives face to face - with somebody else's bottomless check book?

Brothers and sisters, our calling to be the Lord's ambassadors and messengers of mercy and grace has never been about statistics or methods or efficiency charts or notches in our belt - as though we actually accomplish anything.

It's all about being Ed McMahon at the front door with a $10,000,000 check he didn't write or Ty Pennington shouting, "Move that bus! And let's go look at your new house!"

The Lord does it all. He always has and He always will.

He set His heart upon His people before time began. He spoke His promises, He sent and spent His Son, He resurrects souls through His Spirit, He is unstoppably building His church, His kingdom is an everlasting and extravagant kingdom and we get the happy role of carrying his purchased, perfect gifts from the Christmas tree to the empty hands that will enjoy them.

It's never been about us rescuing people or convincing people or coercing people or doing any part of God's work for Him.

It's always been about us grasping all that God has done and planned and getting to be the ones who share the joy - on His "checkbook."

Abraham told the Lord that he and Sarah were too old to have one baby. The Lord responded that the nation He would build of their descendants would be as uncountable as the grains of sand at the beach or the stars in the galaxies.

Elijah bemoaned that he was all alone in his faithfulness to God, and the Lord said, "Get up, I've got 7000 people..."

Paul ran into strident and stiff-necked opposition as he entered Corinth with the Gospel. His message was rejected and his life was threatened, and the Lord told him, "Do not be afraid, but speak, and do not keep silent for I am with you, and...I have many people in this city." A year and a half later Paul was still there happily gathering and engaging the fruit of God's work.

In an ironic twist, Jonah announces his great confession at the end of his story. His whole fleeing God, whale-vomiting incident had been because he was miserably aware of how kind and merciful God is. The issue of his rebellion was not how hard it was to tell God's message and get a response out of people. He ran because he hated the Ninevites and knew that this God of his would save people through His announced Word whether Jonah liked it or not!

"Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm.Therefore now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!" - Jonah 4:2-3

God is showering His great grace on a vast a growing family. Being a happy part of this mission is as simple as getting wet in a rainstorm - you just step outside, walk, and talk where the rain is falling.

My Dad and Mom set off for Japan in 1950 equipped only with a love for the Lord and a confidence in the saving power and sovereign grace of God. Their "Reformed"/ "doctrines of grace" theology put them at odds with nearly every mid-20th century fellow-missionary and this same theology informed them that the Lord was on the move, His redeeming love would gather His people, and His Kingdom would grow - unchecked - exactly as He had planned.

This did not make them passive, disengaged missionaries. It made them Ty Pennington - happy, eager, expectant, stress-free missionaries, marveling that they got be the ones handing out God's priceless gifts.

To be vibrant, irrepressible, optimistic ambassadors of Christ, we must have a big, brash, God-centered, grace-defined, joy-hungry Gospel theology.

The Lord has not called us to storm the walls or conquer the land. He has routed the enemy, beheaded the oppressor, liberated a people too vast to count, and sent us in with the good news. We're the ones throwing aside the unlocked gates and announcing in German prison-camps that the Allies have landed and won the day.

The Lord's Gospel-work is not sparse and under-achieving. Jesus Christ descended to the lower parts of the earth and He is leading captivity captive. His royal victory parade is collecting prisoners and refuges and liberated slaves in every time and in every place. The assembly in His train will be too many to count - like the stars and the sand - and the day will come when the march of His invincible Gospel will "fill the earth with glory of the Lord like the waters fill the seas."

So, get to know your neighbor, be a friend to your co-worker, set sail for a distant tribe, live with happy freedom in the midst of fettered slaves, and "always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you."

The priceless gift in your hands is already bought and paid for and the people of the Lord's mercy will receive it with great joy and act like you actually had something to do with the eternal jackpot that they have been given. What could be better?

We are anxious ambassadors not because the task is hard, but because we think the task is ours. When we clear up that nonsense it gets much simpler and happier.

We are fishing in a stocked pond with top-of-the-line borrowed equipment and irresistible bait - and we are nervous to cast our line.

Cast away, my friends, and let the celebration begin.

Thirty Easy Ways - Number 21

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 04:49:00 -0400

"I wonder what Piglet is doing," thought Pooh.

"I wish I were there to be doing it, too."

Winnie the Pooh

Thirty Easy Ways to Raise a Pharisee

Number 21

Train them to "do their devotions" to make God happy with them instead of to make themselves happy in Him.

Home has been, for Lisa and me and our children - quite simply - a place of unmixed refreshment, refuge, and rest in the grace and gladness of the Lord.

When folks get a sense of the heritage of faith that has shaped our lives and see the smiling restfulness of our family fellowship, the most frequent question we receive is some form of, "How did you approach spiritual training or 'Family Worship'? Did you use a catechism? What time of day did you establish your family devotions?

I always pause after these questions. Then I tread gently into an unconventional explanation, that these were not the questions that our parents or we asked.

This and the next two "Thirty Easy Ways" posts will seek to get to the heart of equipping our children toward grace-defined, glad, and Godly living. To that end (over three posts) I will talk about devotion (today), desire, and doing good.

My childhood was indisputably marked with predictable (even if abnormal) "devotional" activities. Warm prayers that sent us off to school, lingering meals with missionaries or friends or neighbors, non-formulaic prayers of gratitude that opened most meals, hymn-sings that spontaneously erupted on the majority of car-rides of a half hour or more, and such things were a "predictable" part of life - so predictable that they weren't programmed. They were life.

There was no time of day when we would reference Scripture, engage prayer, sing songs, or dialogue through our Christian world-view - because...well...there were no times of day when these were odd or out of place.

This is not a critique of thoughtful devotional methods that faithful believers engage to build truth and faith into their children's lives. My heart aches in this post to share what can be the heart of family faith, not to declare what shouldn't be or must be the habits of family worship or personal devotions.

At it's root this is not a discussion about family devotions or worship. It's a discussion about devotion and worship. Above all we are asking what honors our Lord and magnifies our joy in Him (which is what honors Him).

Our gracious Father is not exalted or delighted by dutiful or disciplined exercises of devotional activity done to gain His approval or to prove our spirituality. Has any specific practice been more frequently shaped into a battering ram to bludgeon the souls of sincere believers than the scrutiny and evaluation of spiritual disciplines?

How much Scripture are you reading? How often and how long do you pray? Did you know that Martin Luther prayed in excess of 3 hours, even on his busiest days? Do you take in a steady diet of the Puritans, Spurgeon, or approved Gospel-centered blogs?

God's Word is a treasure chest, a satisfying feast, a shining light on the dark footing of the path before us. Personal conversation with the King of Glory is an incomprehensible gift - a life-reshaping experience of personal access to our loving Father. We never honor the Lord by meticulous duty or obligation in spiritual disciplines, when the only faithful vision of these privileges is delight and opportunity.

In the illustration of John Piper, is there any doubt what the response would be from our wives if we showed up at the front door on our anniversary with a bundle of stunning roses and a quick explanation that we were giving her these because we know it is our responsibility and that we owe her gifts to keep her happy with us?

George Mueller was a 19th century lover and servant of Christ who gave his life to sharing the Gospel and every generosity with his fellow man. He is most known for the orphanages he established and the remarkable faith with which he engaged these Christ-like enterprises.

Mr. Mueller once described the process of growing to understand what patterns of life would honor God and nurture his own spiritual joy and progress. This is what he said:

"I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished."

If we train our children to labor in spiritual disciplines...wait a minute...if we order our own lives to follow the latest devotional plan, grow our commitment to prayer, discipline our minds to proper daily behavior, so that the Lord might be pleased with us or reward us with corresponding spiritual benefits - we slander the Gospel.

We and our children need simply to know and enjoy God.

Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord has fully provided for this truest and deepest need and given us full access to the wealth of His Word, the fellowship of our Father's presence, and gifts of His boundless grace.

The Lord's pleasure in us is utterly unaffected by our daily extent of Bible reading, prayer, meditation, or sin-confession. No, really!

If our devotional habits contain a whiff of making God happy with us, they are anti-Gospel activities. They dishonor the Lord and dismiss the gift of Christ.

The adoring husband lavishes roses, gifts, attentive pleasure upon his wife to announce his pleasure and happiness in her - not to make her happy with him. This is what magnifies her value and beauty and treasure. Twist this into an obligated transaction to maintain approval and we will soon find that satisfying love has drifted far into the rearview mirror.

Our Lord has loved us and done good to us with all His heart and with all His soul. He eagerly welcomes us into His presence with freedom and soul-altering intimacy.

If we disciple our children into Pharisees who daily pay their dues and thereby lay claim to His approval and blessing, we can be sure that that we are shoving them away from the Gospel of God's love:

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, "God, I thank You that I am not like other men-extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess." - Luke 18:11

The Pharisees prayed endlessly, memorized extensively, tithed meticulously, fasted long-sufferingly, and piled up countless religious assets to which they assumed God was indebted.

Please lead your families and your children into Gospel devotions, not graded devotions.

Don't designate a spiritually diligent portion of your time to prayer, Biblical thinking, and worshipful celebration - delight your whole life in these. Don't portion out a righteous percentage of your material resources to the Kingdom of God - pour out everything to enjoy, engage, and expand that glorious Kingdom of grace and joy.

Life is about extravagant, real hope not about exceptional, religious habits or hobbies.

Follow George Mueller's warm and glad example and devote yourself daily to remind yourself of the inexpressible wealth you have in Jesus. Linger in Word and worship. Mull over the Lord's ridiculous kindness and stretch your sanctified imagination to anticipate Heaven's pleasures.

Love Christ. Marvel at grace. Anticipate blessing. Invite friends and strangers to the feast. Enjoy His world, His Word, and His wonders.

With this heart and mindset, we and our children will gain much good from praying and singing and exploring the Bible together.

Without this heart and mindset, we may well be training them to waste their time - or, worse - prove their worth.

Devote yourself to every activity, reflection, or enterprise that expands your vision of God, His grace, His gifts, and His gladness. Abandon every discipline, devotion, or duty that offers the Lord a reason to think well of you or gives you a reason to think better of yourself.

Linger with Him because He's amazing.

Do nothing to pay the Lord what you owe or make Him happy with you. Pure absurdity. Live everyday because the Lord immeasurably loves you and loudly sings over you with joy.

He wants to be with you. To be with Him is "fullness of joy."

Winnie the Pooh is not far off on friendship and fellowship. He can't imagine owing his friend time and attention. He simply says:

"I wonder what Piglet is doing,"

"I wish I were there to be doing it, too."

___

See or Return to the full list of current "Thirty Easy Ways to Raise a Pharisee" posts Here.

The Saracen's Head

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:10:00 -0400

Big, Brash Gospel Friday - April 8, 2011

I have a problem with every picture that I have ever seen of the Devil from the last 2000 years. In none that I know of does the enemy have a mutilated head.

We fight a beheaded adversary, who can do nothing without the leave of our Lord of Glory.

He is nothing more than a Saruman from The Lord of the Rings: utterly defeated, yet trashing every good thing he can find as he retreats through the lands of the King. He destroys because destruction is what he does, but he cannot do a thing that thwarts even the smallest of the Creator's good purposes.

Far too frequently we think and live as though our Lord and we are losing. Evil seems predominant and the mockery of all good things is continually thrown in our face. We hope that our Lord will make the "good" He promised out of every circumstance, but when the pain of illness, tragedy, false accusation, loss, or personal failure crush in on us we find it hard to see the one assaulting our souls as the damaged, defeated, desperate loser that he is. He is nothing more than a tool of the Master's breath-taking and unstoppable designs.

However grim daily life may sometimes look in these shadowlands, we should not be surprised to hear of the accomplished victory of our Lord and His people. It was the first recorded promise of redemption. To the dark, serpent-invader of Eden, the Lord declared:

"And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel." (Genesis 3:15)

The one who had gone to war with God and His world was guaranteed complete defeat. He was forewarned that a brief, apparent victory - damaging the Savior's heel - would become the very means of his own head-crushing destruction.

The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ fully accomplished this promise. Satan's end has never been in question and it is now accomplished and nailed to the wall. In the words of the Apostle Paul:

"[Christ] has wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." (Colossians 2:14-15)

When my Dad and Mom and all of us were spending life in Japan for many years preaching the grace of God to the people of those small, crowded islands, we raised chickens for food and to sell in the community around us.

After much experience, Dad had a masterful and merciful skill in killing, plucking, and cleaning a chicken in 45-60 seconds. During his early learning days, however, he learned the living reality of the familiar description, "running around like a chicken with it's head cut off."

A chicken in this state can make quite a mess - and so can our our enemy when allowed - but the outcome of such a scene is not in doubt. We live in the age of the desperate destruction of a defeated foe. He runs about with a pummeled head able to do nothing on his own authority or permission, and before long his utter end will come.

And though the mysterious, kind purposes of the Lord allows this wounded predator sometimes to stalk us, his impotence is revealed in the simple Biblical assurance, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you!"

Crushed by a mighty heel, the evil one is also helplessly under our trampling feet.

We who so often feel the heat of his dying gasps are glorious tools of his final end. The Apostle Paul writes his splendid letter to the Romans, unveiling the wonders of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, layer after layer. In a marvelous and telling insult to the enemy of the Savior and of our souls, Paul gives Satan only one brief, late mention:

"For your obedience is known to all, so that I rejoice over you, but I want you to be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you." (Romans 16:19-20)

In the timeless and fortifying lines of Martin Luther:

"And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
We tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo, his doom is sure;
One little word shall fell him."

Take heart, all lovers of Christ, we are raised with and we reign with the King!

Every grief or pain, heartbreak or loss, sin or failure in us, lie or attack against us, doubt or discouragement shot like a fiery dart at our souls - is a carrier of our precious Lord's gracious work in us. Even the trials that are terminal (here) and the slanders that are irreparable (on this side of the veil) are crafted by the Master-craftsman to bring redemption and rejoicing and reward into our heaven-born and invincible lives.

When haters of God plot and rage and war - "He who sits in heaven laughs!" (Psalm 2:4)

All that is His is ours. We are heirs of laughter.

Let's laugh!

Thirty Easy Ways - Number 20

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 01:08:00 -0400

He staggered and fell, grasped vainly at the stone, and slid into the abyss.
"Fly, you fools!" he cried, and was gone.

The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkein

Thirty Easy Ways to Raise a Pharisee

Number 20

Point to the physical suffering of the Cross without explaining the spiritual agony of the Savior.

Stoic calm in the face of suffering and death have been quite common in the chronicles of human history.

How many men and women have looked steadily into the eyes of an oncoming army or a grim executioner, when their lives were about to be taken for the sake of family or country or faith or even for an ignoble or dark cause.

Yes, many have broken and been undone at such crucibles - but many also have not.

Which offers a mystery worth investigating in the story of our Savior.

The opening scene of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ seeks, with a flood of raw emotion, to press upon us a glimpse of the fiercest and deepest grief felt or expressed in either time or eternity.

The setting is the garden of Gethsemane. Effectively, though - inevitably - incompletely, a skilled actor attempts to portray the paralyzing physical and emotional trauma of the Redeemer's anticipation of an incomprehensible destination. A defensive lover of Christ could be tempted to object to this undignified portrayal of human weakness, anxiety, and spiritual wrestling, in our holy Lord - if it were not for the Gospel's unflinching account of this devastating night.

Jesus collapses, weeps, pours out sweat - like dripping blood - and, with unbridled desperation, cries out for any alternative to drinking the cup He is about to drain to the bottom.

With admirable intent, the film draws us with excruciating imagery, wound by wound, in flesh-ripping clarity, through the hours of the execution of the Son of God. As I watched, I sensed the strain of a sincerely-motivated filmmaker laboring to display an unthinkable Golgotha torture - worthy of Gethsemane's agony.

Mr. Gibson, with true respect for his skillful craftsmanship and grim artistry, could not do it.

He fell short because nails, whips, spittle, thorns, and suffocation were - I believe - minor, or even missing completely, in the anticipation of the Savior's garden anguish.

Many have been tortured and killed (even on crosses), but God's beloved Son knew that on His cross He had one unimaginable cup to drink. He was willingly nailed there that He might be the singular target of the unmixed wrath of a righteous Creator against the unthinkable rebellion of an entire world.

The sinless One became sin for us, so that we might wear His righteousness as our own. To this end, the eternal communion of glad adoration between God the Father and His Beloved Son would be shattered; so that the Savior, cut off from the Father's fellowship, might receive the full and appropriate assault of a holy King against our vast and hideous crime.

The anticipation of the application of God's justice - not the execution of Roman cruelty - broke the Son's soul, in Gethsemane. Yet, in incomprehensible grace, this did not even bend the Savior's resolve to serve His Father's will and to save His beloved people.

"Not my will, but Thine be done."

If we tell our children only of the physical misery of a rugged cross, without turning their eyes toward the staggering, righteous cost of our redemption, then their view of grace will shrink as they grow up and learn of other (possibly more stoic) examples of heroic, human death.

You see - noble figures, staring with fearless calm into the face of physical agony and death are scattered across history's stories. If we are not careful and true, the incomparable sacrifice of Jesus will be diminished as our children have opportunity to reflect upon the freedom-defending boys who ran on to the the beach at Normandy or to admire the valiant end of William Wallace in Braveheart or to marvel at the victorious Christian martyrs, singing as they burned. The wonder of the Cross will fade and the grace of the Christ will appear less amazing.

If we are shy, with our children, to unveil the ugliness of our sin against God and the ferocity of God upon our Savior, we must prepare for them to be unimpressed by the agony of Christ in Gethsemane or the offer of mercy in the Gospel.

Do not mistake me; the bodily sacrifice of the Cross, like the full humanity of the Christ, is essential to our salvation. God's law and covenant require blood atonement. The author of Hebrews simply declares, "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." The prophet Isaiah records that the Servant-Redeemer, literally, was "wounded for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His stripes we are healed."

Yes, the nails profoundly mattered; but they were also primarily meant to point beyond physical death to the face of God. That final day, when we appear before our Maker, what God did to Jesus on the Cross will be what we are then spared. The Savior's heavenly Father, full of grace, will embrace us - blameless before Him in the Son's righteousness, because His Son was bludgeoned by Him for our sin.

The distinction, between the seen and unseen suffering of Christ, is neither small nor inconsequential. I will even risk appearing to belittle the significance of what could be seen on Calvary, to magnify what was being accomplished eternally. Let me say it plainly. To the Savior, the whips were nothing compared to the weight of God's judgment; and He hardly noticed the mocking of men as the full measure of the Father's wrath fell upon Him.

And if there is no hell - as many now claim - the fury He bore that day is either a devilish lie or a devastating and inexcusable waste.

Our estimation of the glory of grace, and our children's, will be as full and captivating as our comprehension of the Savior's sacrifice. Pharisees cannot easily grow where the depths and realities of the Cross even begin to be known.

It is like standing over the mangled body of a butchered soldier, and saying, "Look what they've done to his uniform! Those stains will never come out!" - to behold the torn body of our Lord, without exploring the inexplicable grace of the terrible justice to which those wounds are pointing.

___

See or Return to the full list of current "Thirty Easy Ways to Raise a Pharisee" posts Here.

Moonlight at Belbury

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 02:55:00 -0400

Big, Brash Gospel Friday - April 1, 2011

Rest.

Rest imitates God. Rest obeys God. Rest saves our souls, transforms our lives, and enjoys God's goodness. Rest is not optional - unless you want things to go very badly.

And, by the way, it's also very refreshing.

We are a restless race. Henry David Thoreau famously said that, "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them." He was soundly observant.

Augustine of Hippo stepped further (though much earlier) and discerned the source of this restlessness, praying, "You have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You."

Rest is ancient. This is no new-fangled concept like Marxism or Psychoanalysis. It goes way back and was first defined and practiced by...God.

After the Lord had made everything that is in the heavens and on Earth - He rested. This messes with our preconceptions immediately. Rest is not checking out, doing nothing, or crashing into a vegetative state. The Lord of Heaven and Earth - while being God, holding all things together, exercising providential control over every detail of everything that is - rested.

God ceased His work at a very specific endeavor and what then did He do? We're not entirely sure. This we know for sure: His rest involved the full engagement of His mind, heart, and soul in the goodness of all that He had done. He looked deeply at everything He had done, considered it, and declared, "Behold, it is very good."

When we rest we are doing something God has done. We are also doing something that He has commanded. He gave the people of Israel the non-optional gift of a weekly Sabbath rest and did not take it lightly when the gift was politely set aside.

The intensity of God's expectation and enforcement of the gift of Sabbath rest to His people in the Old Testament is disconcerting to many who read the Bible. I mean, the man in Numbers 15 was only picking up a few sticks for the family fire... The death penalty seems a bit harsh for the offense. In our discomfort with God's ways and in His explanation (not that He owes us one) we begin to drill the depths of the mammoth reality of what rest really is.

The Lord said, "Rest." The man said, "No problem, Lord, just a few sticks that I forgot to gather yesterday." And when the the people needed to hear why the consequence was so sobering, God made rest a very personal matter: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt - to be your God."

Rest is thinking deeply about the good of what God has done, keeping in focus the promises He has made for both your present and your future, and letting God be your God.

Restlessness is unbelief, skepticism, blasphemy against the capability and character of God. Restlessness declares that God is unable or unfaithful to honor His word. Restlessness is providing the Lord of Heaven and Earth reinforcements, emergency resources, and a Plan-B if His efforts go South. "Don't worry, Lord, we've got your back!"

Restlessness is hell. It is a splendid angelic warrior finding his roll in the glories of heaven too constraining to his gifts and potential. It is discontentment with the boundless pleasures and provisions of Eden, if even one desirable fruit is being withheld.

Refusing to rest is a direct affront to God. It is Moses hearing the promise of God to make fresh water flow from the rock and saying (in essence) "Here, Lord, I'll help!" as he beats the rock with a stick. It is the people of Israel surveying the land that God had promised them, and declaring, "We are not big enough to defeat the giants in this place." Neither Moses nor that generation entered the promised land of rest because they did not rest in God. In the words of Hebrews, "they could not enter His rest because of unbelief."

Rest at essence is God-entranced, God-magnifying, and God-satisfied.

Rest is a bold declaration of the over-sufficiency of the goodness and grace of God. It is treating God's promises as rock-solid and unquestionable.

Rest is a conscious relishing of God's gushing generosity and a relinquishment of our own self-sufficiency.

In short, rest is the only human response to God's engagement that honors and satisfies Him. All else is both deplorable and unacceptable.

Rest is the garden, the Sabbath, the feasts, the land, and the worship of God's people in the Old Testament.

Rest is the promise of the Gospel and the only path into its life. "Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, " says the Savior, "and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Peter the apostle sums up the Gospel simply, "Rest your hope fully upon the grace that is brought to you in the revelation of Jesus Christ."

There were two lost sons in the story of the Prodigals, one who offered to work his way back into His Father's favor and one who reminded the Father of the favor he deserved for the work that he had already done. Both offered work as a payment for the gift of the Father's fellowship, forgiveness, and feast; and to both He said, "No."

"Come in!" was the only offer of the Father. "Cease from your work and celebrate my lavish extravagance and prodigal generosity and you will have me and everything that is mine."

Rest is:

1.) a captivation with the glory, grace, gladness, and gifts of God - and

2.) a confidence that our joy, well-being, and acceptance are fully secured in our Father's loving care - arising from

3.) faith in the completed work of His Son and in His covenant guarantee that He will never stop doing us good - all resulting in

4.) a dawning realization that striving to secure for ourselves pleasure, praise, protection, or power through anything other than the Lord is now absurd, silly, and - frankly - an affront to our lavish and extravagant Father.

Rest is a gift. Rest is the Gospel. Rest is the path of growth and transformation. Rest is the godly solution to anger, anxiety, greed, or grumpiness.

What temptation, what failure, what sin is not answered by this kind of rest?

Unforgiveness or bitterness (for example) is work - striving to get what we deserve, preserve our reputation, answer injustice, etc. It is faithless, futile, and exhausting.

Forgiveness is rest...in the Father's acceptance, approval, affection, and agenda to do us great good in all things. As Pastor Tim Keller writes, "The essence of forgiveness is absorbing pain rather than inflicting pain."

Everything good starts with rest, grows through rest, and is sweetly tasted in the feast of rest.

And then comes Heaven.

Rest is not doing nothing. Rest is refusing to try to satisfy ourselves through our work or worthiness and (instead) running to explore and embrace all that the Lord has done and discovering, "Behold, it is very good!"