God is Love

God's love for us is not mainly His making much of us, but His giving us the ability to enjoy making much of Him forever. In other words, God's love for us keeps God at the center. God's love for us exalts His value and our satisfaction in it. If God's love made us central and focused on our value, it would distract us from what is most precious; namely, Himself. Love labors and suffers to enthrall us with what is infinitely and eternally satisfying: God. Therefore God's love labors and suffers to break our bondage to the idol of self and focus our affections on the treasure of God.

-John Piper, "Pierced by the Word" (p. 13)

Christ's Ceaseless Love

He who has loved thee and pardoned thee, shall never cease to love and pardon. He is Alpha, and He shall be Omega also: He is first, and He shall be last.

-Charles H. Spurgeon, from "Morning & Evening", February 4

But grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ!

The devotional reading for this morning was from 2 Peter 3, the first half of verse 18:

But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There are many of these admonishments in the epistles that have often been very dear to my heart, since I find that they are filled - even in their brevity - with many Gospel truths that often escape us. This one is no exception.

Spurgeon, in commenting on this text for the morning devotional reading, says the following:

"He who does not long to know more of Christ, knows nothing of Him yet. Whoever hath sipped this wine will thirst for more, for although Christ doth satisfy, yet it is such a satisfaction, that the appetite is not cloyed, but whetted. If you know the love of Jesus - as the heart panteth for the water-brooks, so will you pant after deeper draughts of His love. If you do not desire to know Him better, then you love Him not, for love always cries, 'Nearer, nearer'. Absence from Christ is hell; but the presence of Jesus is heaven. Rest not then content without an increasing acquaintance with Jesus. [...] An increase of love to Jesus, and a more perfect apprehension of His love to us, is one of the best tests of growth in grace."

I believe that this is the flipside of the coin that I tried to look at in July (here and here). It's not an easy coin for us to examine, to be sure, but it is a necessary one. On the one side we find an exhortation to fight against sin, as in the words of John Piper:

"The distinguishing mark of saving faith is not perfection. [...] The mark of faith is that I fight. I fight anything that dims my sight of Jesus as my glorious Savior."

On the other side we find a calling to seek after Christ, to know Him more today than we did yesterday, and more tomorrow than we do today. This is why the regenerated believer should seek to fight against sin: not in an attempt to justify himself, but as a means of growing closer to his Savior. We die to ourselves daily so that, daily, we might be able to love Christ more fully.

This is absolutely essential to the Christian life! Our own human attempts at holiness will not gain us anything before the judgment seat of the Almighty God (John 6:63), for the Law was not meant to save, but to point us to a Savior (Romans 5:20-21). Our right living does not justify us before a perfectly just God, for it is impossible for man to be holy in His sight on the basis of his own righteousness. Christ is righteous; we don't have to be...

...but! This striving for holiness is a mark of true regeneration, not because we sons and daughters are holier-than-thou legalists... but because it is sin which keeps us from growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior! This is why we should strive to keep God's commandments, and to exhort others to do the same, not in an attempt to polish our rusty exterior to pass it off as a shiny one, but in order to throw off all that might keep us from from running our race (Hebrews 12:1).

And this distinguishes the sons and daughters of God, for the world can try to appear holy through means of dressing up outward appearances, but only the Spirit of God can give the desire to know the Son more fully by turning from sin, and to Himself, the One who has already paid its penalty. And this can be a great encouragement to us in times of darkness, failure, and holy conviction. We will sin, it is inevitable. But when we sin, let's embrace God's loving rebuke, mourn the sinfulness of our hearts, and turn from our ways, all the while relishing in the full knowledge that it was never our own holiness which ever justified us in the first place. And let us be grateful for the fact that, even when we sin, the desire to turn from our sin, to be made whole, to know Christ more fully, is, itself, a wonderful priceless gift from the Author and Finisher of our faith.

Blood Diamond

I just finished watching the movie "Blood Diamond" for the second time. Many people think that this movie has been too "hollywoodized" to have any artistic value, but I think it is an important movie, and appreciated it even more the second time around.

(Warning: spoiler coming up. Don't read if you haven't yet seen the film, but plan on watching it!)

There is a scene toward the end of the film which is one of the more beautifully heartbreaking moments I have experienced in cinema: an African fisherman, searching for a large diamond in the hopes of using it to free his son, who has been kidnapped by members of the Revolutionary United Front, has found the diamond, and his son.

However, the son, who has been psychologically ravished by the evils that he has been forced to both witness and perform, has a gun trained on his own father, blinded by the horrors that he has experienced, ready to pull the trigger.

The father calls to him, and reminds him of who he truly is, despite what he has done. The nearly possessive manifest evil that has invaded the child melts away upon hearing whom his father declares him to be.

The parallel to the purging of our own evil that imprisons us, as our Father calls us from the dead, even as we look upon Him with hate in our eyes, is undeniable. His proclamation to us as being righteous and unconditionally loved, despite all that we have done, is all but explicitly asserted in this scene as the father affirms his son. Read this as a son or daughter of the Most High God, as He declares His love for you and your worth in Him:

"I am your father... who loves you... and is ready to take you back as my son again."

Parents rock...

I just got a package today from my mom for Thanksgiving. It's got a bunch of really cool stuff in it, including something that she knew I'd been looking for for awhile, but hadn't been able to find!

I can't wait until I have my own kids, and I get to send them boxes of stuff that I know they'll enjoy when they're away at grad school getting their butt kicked by work. It'll be fun to know that it's making them smile in the midst of all of their stress!

Yay for parents. Thanks, mom. ILY

A Radical View of Marriage

I was hanging out last night with a family from church, sitting around a campfire, roasting hot dogs, drinking hot chocolate, and talking about whatever we wanted. Fun times.

I forgot how we got on the subject, but we started talking about marriage, and its role in creation. I mentioned the sermon series that I listened to last year by Voddie Baucham entitled "Love & Marriage" (available to download here if you would like to listen to them!). Baucham mentioned something that I've never thought of before, but I think is very important to realize. He reminded his congregation that marriage was an institution that was created by God before the fall of mankind. This means that marriage is not a result of the Fall, not a byproduct of man's weakness, not a shameful enterprise left to be pursued by only the weakest of Christians. It is holy and good at its very foundation, and the desire for marriage is not a base and creaturely drive. If the want is there, it is probably God-given.

But then Adam (I'm referring to the man whom I was talking to last night... not the "one-man-through-whom-sin-entered-the-world" guy...) brought up the point that marriage is not an eternal institution: there will be no marriage in heaven (Matthew 22:30). In light of this, many (including Voddie Baucham) have commented that marriage exists to fulfill two purposes. The first purpose is to serve as a means of procreation, that man might multiply the earth and raise up children in the fear and admonition of the LORD. The second purpose is that it might serve as an illustration for Christ's love for His Church (which is even referred to in Scripture as His spotless Bride).

So here is where things possibly start to get a bit philosophical (if you will)... but oh so amazing!

Both of these purposes of marriage are ultimately used to give God glory. Man filling the world with children who are brought up in the fear of the LORD is a way to proclaim His holy name in all the earth. And when husbands love their wives in ways that they are called to love them - namely, unconditionally and sacrificially, as Christ loved the Church - marriage serves as an illustration which God may use to turn witnesses of that marriage to the source of its love: His Son.

So, since marriage is God's idea, not some hare-brained scheme that Man came up with (being that it was established by God before sin entered the world), since its purposes are ultimately for God's glory, and since it will not exist in heaven, one view of marriage is reached by following these points out to their logical summary: God established the institution of marriage in order that He might glorify Himself on this earth.

Now let's go further with this tomorrow in looking at how this ties into an even more radical view of Creation itself... more blessings to be had here!

(I want to add that marriage also fulfills the role of giving joy to the members of its covenant, as does raising children, but I will discuss that idea more in the next post)

The Greco-Roman Myth

I'm currently picking away at the literature portion of the reading list for my M.A. exams, and I'm reading Le Misanthrope tonight in a local café. I just came across something which reminded me of a sermon series that I listened to last year:

Comment pouvoir juger s’il est vrai qu’elle l’aime ?
Son cœur de ce qu’il sent n’est pas bien sûr lui-même ;
Il aime quelquefois sans qu’il le sache bien,
Et croit aimer aussi parfois qu’il n’en est rien.

(How can we judge whether it be true that she loves him?
Her own heart is not so very sure of what it feels.
It sometimes loves, without being quite aware of it,
And at other times thinks it does, without any grounds.)

The sermon series that I listened to is called "Love & Marriage" by Voddie Baucham, Pastor of Preaching at Grace Family Baptist Church in Spring, TX (which can be downloaded here, if you want to listen to them; mind you, some of the files are split up in a weird way, so you'll have to play them through consecutively). I recommend them. Seriously. You know you want to. Go for it. Click.

Anyway, in one of the four parts of the series, Voddie confronts what he calls the "Greco-Roman myth" of romantic love. The myth wants us to believe things such as “This thing is bigger than both of us", “We don’t choose who we fall in love with", “The heart wants what it wants", and the ever-so-popular "Follow your heart."

Bull crap.

You know what the Bible says about the human heart? That it's wicked and not to be trusted! (Jeremiah 17:9)

Don't get me wrong: it's not that I believe that emotions aren't valid, or that they're not God-given. On the contrary, I believe that they are, and are, therefore, a wonderful gift. And I believe that they should play a very important part in romantic love. (I'm also not saying that we humans are as completely wicked as we could be without God's common grace on humanity, just to make that clear!) But I know a bit about my own heart, and I can at least speak for myself when I say that I would rather not make all of my decisions based on what that little untrustworthy idol factory is feeding my brain... especially not when hormones are involved.

I believe that Voddie is correct when he gives a biblical definition of love to counter this myth: "Biblical love is an act of the will, accompanied by emotion, which leads to action on behalf of its object."

Men, what Biblical model are we given for how we are to love our wives? That's right: our Lord and Redeemer Himself. We are called to love our wives as Christ loved His Church (Ephesians 5:25). Did Christ love the Church because she was physically attractive? Did Christ love the Church simply because His heart told Him to? Was His love for the Church - His spotless bride - an emotion that was beyond Him, bigger than Him, out of His control?

No. Christ chose to love His Church! Jesus chose to give Himself up for her! And He continues to choose to love her even when she doesn't act very love-worthy!

Let's stop buying into this myth that our culture is trying to feed us. Use your heart, but use first and foremost your will when you choose to love others, romantically or otherwise.

And if you don't feel like you love them anymore... stop it. Stop listening to your heart, and choose to love the object of your affection. The world will tell you to move on, to follow your heart, to trust in your emotions when things get sticky.

Boy... I'm sure glad that Jesus didn't buy into this lie when He chose to love me....

Obedient Lightnings

“Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that an abundance of water may cover you? Can you send out lightnings, that they may go, and say to you, ‘Here we are!’?” –Job 38:34-35

What a mighty God we serve!

This passage is found at the end of the book of Job, after God has allowed for Job’s life to be shaken. God’s justice has been questioned, and God responds: who is man that he should question God? Was man present when the earth was created? Did man give counsel on where the stars were to be placed in the heavens? Did man show himself worthy of praise by controlling the flow of the powerful seas?

No, man did not… but God did.

There is great beauty to be found in unraveling and contemplating the truth of these two small verses. Our Father is most powerful: He commands - by the mere release of His utterances - the often tumultuous, and seemingly random, weather of this world. He lifts His voice, and the clouds loose their rain upon the earth.

The Creator says… and the creation does.

If we look closer, though, we see not only the fact that the creation obeys, but obeys with passion! God commands the lightnings to move, and it comes to Him and says, “Here we are! We have come to hear Your word! Command us, O Creator, that we may fulfill our purpose!” For this is where all of creation finds its greatest joy: in serving the One which it was created to serve.

So when our LORD commands us, we, as part of creation, should obey not with dullness or reluctance, but with vigor and excitement!

Let’s think on another beautiful truth here: This is the same Voice which not only commands us to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33), but has also commanded the following:

“Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.” -Luke 7:50

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” -John 13:34-35

“Do not be afraid; only believe.” -Mark 5:36

“Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.” -Mark 5:19

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.” -Matthew 11:30

How matchless is our God! He is the God who calls us to righteousness, as well as to peace, love, faith, joy, and rest… all in the same compulsive breath! The same God who commands the sea and the skies commands us to be found complete in Him: how can we refuse?!