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May 15, 2008
Psalm 40
This is the second, third, next part so you may want to check below if you missed the others.
Verse six sounds like a strong shift in the Psalm.
He has been remembering the miry pit.
Then he celebrates being lifted out of the pit.
This celebratory praise is a new song of trust in the Lord.
Verse six shifts from what God has done to what God now requires.
Let’s focus in on the verse itself.
Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired;
My ears You have opened;
Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required.
Analyze it as a small stanza of poetry ABA
The two As are what we call a synthetic parallelism. The same thing is said in slightly different fashion in each half of the parallelism.
God has not desired (first A) nor has God required (second A) either meal offerings or sin offering.
So the opening and closing are about what God does not require or desire. They both describe rituals and sacrifices.
What about the middle?
This discloses what God does require, what the Lord indeed desires.
What is it that God desires?
Your attention.
He wants you ears to be open to His Word.
He asks you to listen when He speaks.
Give him the consideration of respectful attendance upon His Word.
Consider what He has said.
May 14, 2008
The £1,000,000 Bank-Note
Last night, while sitting at Rylie’s baseball practice, I finished reading The Million Pound Bank Note by Mark Twain.
I enjoyed it immensely.
A penniless man is given a million, but there is an intriguing catch.
He is given a million pound bank note that he cannot spend.
He has to live in London for a month, holding on to that bank note, but never spending any of it.
Here is my favorite line.
It is about a shop-keeper’s smile…
I handed the note to him, and said:
"Oh, very well; I apologize."
He received it with a smile, one of those large smiles which goes all around over, and has folds in it, and wrinkles, and spirals, and looks like the place where you have thrown a brick in a pond; and then in the act of his taking a glimpse of the bill this smile froze solid, and turned yellow, and looked like those wavy, wormy spreads of lava which you find hardened on little levels on the side of Vesuvius. I never before saw a smile caught like that, and perpetuated.
May 13, 2008
Invitations and Altar Calls
From time to time I am asked why we don’t always have an invitation or altar call at Racine Bible Church.
Here is a fun excercise that leads toward an answer.
Find the invitation in the first Christian evangelistic sermon.
Acts 2.
Go ahead and read it.
You will find it after the conclusion of the sermon (verse 36) in verse 37.
The invitation is initiated by the hearers. They “come forward” without being told.
They come forward, find the preacher and make him tell them more!
What ought that tell us about invitations and responses and altar calls?
What we find here in Acts is more a description not a prescription.
I am not advocating an over-literal application in our worship services today.
But one thing does stand out to me here.
It seems that the account is there to give us this assurance.
If Christ is preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, those who are called by God will come.
The preacher may give a perfectly crafted invitation.
Or he may give a shoddily done altar call.
Or he may give no invitation at all.
But those in whose heart the Spirit is moving will come.
They will come.
May 12, 2008
Decision Making
How to Make a Wise Decision
(from Grace To You)
Here is a brief guideline that I have found very helpful.
It is something to print out and hold on to.
When a friend asks for prayer upon facing a decision, give this to them. Better yet, meet with them to talk through this and let that lead to a long time of focused prayer.
How can Christians make God-honoring decisions?
Decision-making can be a daunting task for anyone, but Christians have the unique advantage of making decisions that are informed by God’s Word. To do so, there are at least three factors to consider.
First, you must obey the moral will of God as it is revealed in Scripture. If Scripture prohibits the action in question, your decision is easy: don’t do it.
Likewise, if one of the options in your choice causes you to neglect something God specifically commands you to do, you are required to make the choice that will allow you to fulfill your biblical obligation. For example, if God requires you to be an active part of a local church — Hebrews 10:25 indicates that He does — any decision that prohibits you from that is against God’s revealed will. In order to uphold God’s moral will in your decision making, ask yourself, “What does God’s Word say about it?” If it says anything, obey that (1 John 5:3). If it says nothing, you have freedom and do not need to fear missing God’s will or sinning against Him (Romans 14:2-6, 22).
Second, good decision-making requires that you exercise biblical wisdom. Such wisdom comes from a diligent study of God’s Word, coupled with God’s generous provision. James encourages those who lack wisdom to “ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). To make wise decisions, you need to gather necessary information, consider all the options carefully, seek godly counsel, and then choose the option that is most sensible (Proverbs 2:1-11).
Finally, you need to consider your own desire. If the Bible is silent about your decision, and if one choice is not clearly wiser than the other, then do what you want. You have the freedom to do so, and God sovereignly works out His plan through your desires (Psalm 37:4; Philippians 2:13).
The above process presupposes that you are submitted to Christ and filled with the Spirit. Otherwise you won’t be able to make biblical decisions, as sin blinds your ability to understand and apply God’s Word to your life. However, if you do have a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and are walking in the Spirit — as opposed to the flesh — you are free to make decisions so long as they don’t violate God’s revealed (moral) will. You shouldn’t be concerned that your decisions will somehow derail God’s sovereign will for you life, because He routinely works through your decisions to accomplish what He purposes.
May 8, 2008
Looking forward to retirement
They served ice cream sundaes last night to the Awana kids.
I walked out of prayer meeting in high hopes of acquiring one, but I was too late.
I did, however, receive something even better. It was a conversation with Judy.
I asked her how the night went.
We chatted a little about the Awana program and the kids.
Then I asked her, "How are you doing?"
Her reply was instantaneous.
“I am so excited about my retirement at work. It is coming very soon!”
At this point, I admit, I did not know what was coming next. Several possibilities:
However, none of these came out of Judy’s mouth, nor were they anywhere near her heart.
What she said next immediately brought tears of joy to the corners of my eyes.
Here are her words, the best I can remember them.
“I am so excited about my retirement at work. It is coming very soon!
I can hardly wait, because the Lord placed on my heart that as soon as I retire I can devote more time to His work here in the church. I can do more for the Awana program next year. I can help more regularly with our Sunday morning children’s ministry. I know that was His leading and I told Him that when I retire I will gladly devote myself to His service here in His body.”
Heavenly Father, bless Judy and all of her brothers and sisters here at Racine Bible Church. And Lord, as more of our members look toward retirement, direct their steps into the path of Your blessing. You have graciously told us that it is more blessed to give than receive. Give them that indescribable blessing of giving service to your body. Do this so that Jesus Christ will be glorified by His Bride becoming more beautiful for Him. Amen.
May 7, 2008
Don’t let yourself lie to yourself about yourself.
I recently read two snippets from Luther that helped me think rightly about myself.
From one of Luther’s lectures:
“I simply must learn to see myself as a creature of God and as one who receives everything from him and can thank him for everything. If you know this, you will be a greater doctor than all the doctors of the university!”
From Luther's smaller catechism:
"Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity, and also truly human, born of the virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature... so that I might be God's own child and serve him forever."
May 6, 2008
Psalm 40 (part three)
Read the first three verses and find the verbs.
I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;
How many have me as the actor? How many God?
Where does most of the action take place? On my end or God’s?
I waited patiently…
He inclined to me
He heard my cry
He brought me up
He set my feet
He established my steps
He put a new song
The action the Psalmist took was… to wait.
What does that mean?
It did not mean silence, because he wrote this Psalm (obviously).
God heard his cry (1c) so he was crying aloud to the Lord.
Waiting is praying.
Waiting is an act of faith if the waiting is filled with expectant, heart-felt prayer.
When the waiting ends and the song is finally sung (3ab), what is the theme of the song?
It is praise to our God. It has to be!
It cannot be a song about my activity in any way bringing praise to me.
All I did was wait.
It must be a song about God and His activity for we have the six-fold verbal expression of God’s actions in these three verses.
May 5, 2008
The Banquet
I had the beef. Amy had the chicken. We both enjoyed the banquet.
I want to thank all of those who worked so diligently on our building on a firm foundation campaign over the last several months.
I won’t list their names here. But they are in my heart and deserve our thanks.
Remember to pray about all that we discussed.
Pray for our spiritual growth
Pray for our unity in the faith
Pray for the fervor of our love
And pray for God’s provision in funding our expansion through the faithful giving of His people
Romans 12
Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, [let] [us] [use] [them]: if prophecy, [let] [us] [prophesy] in proportion to our faith; or ministry, [let] [us] [use] [it] in [our] ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
May 1, 2008
I finished my homework.
Can I have a treat?
My next batch of assignment for school was due today. I finished on time! One book review I wrote was on a guide to exegesis by Richard Erickson. It is not one of my favorite books (I have others I like much better which cover the same material). I did find much that was helpful in the book, however. Here are two blurbs that may help you as you seek to read Scripture more carefully…
Precisely for this reason, we must keep on listening and re-listening to the messages of the individual books of the Bible. It is far too easy to read back into them what we expect them to say (or have been told to expect them to say), based on our own ideas of what they, as Christian books, ought to say. To the contrary, our ideas of what they ought to say must be determined by what in fact they do say.
Here is a list of signals (“markers”) or textual boundaries suggested by John Beekman and John Callow.
v Repeated units (terms, phrases, clauses, sentences, syntactical structure)
v Grammatical clues (conjunctions, changes in mood, tense, aspect)
v Rhetorical questions (especially a series of them)
v Changes in time, setting (scene), participants (cast)
v Vocative forms (especially shifts from one person or group to another)
v Changes in subject, object, topic
v Announcement of a (new) theme at the head (or the end) or a paragraph or section.
April 29, 2008
I haven't yet read the book.
Amy and I watched a video on youtube where Tim Keller did a presentation followed by a Q and A with the employees of Google. We really enjoyed it.
I came across this blurb from the book and it made me want to read the whole thing.
Well said!
“The Christian gospel is that I am so flawed that Jesus had to die for me, yet I am so loved and valued that Jesus was glad to die for me. This leads to deep humility and deep confidence at the same time. It undermines both swaggering and sniveling. I cannot feel superior to anyone, and yet I have nothing to prove to anyone. I do not think more of myself nor less of myself. Instead, I think of myself less.”
- Timothy Keller, The Reason For God
April 25, 2008
Psalm 40
Consider the second verse of Psalm 40.
He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire;
He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay
He brought me out of the slimy pit, out of the miry bog
Three different translations.
I like them all.
Each one makes me feel the slipping danger, the threat of being pulled under, the desperation inherent in my inability to climb out.
What is the pit? There are a few clues in the surrounding context but they are pretty thin.
All I can surmise is that it was not a literal muddy pit.
It was a spiritual situation that felt like the pits.
It could have been many things.
Depression caused by painful events, a circumstance carved pit.
Sorrow over the consequences of my sin, a sort of self-inflicted pit.
Pain over the consequences of being sinned against, a pit dug by an enemy (or loved one who was acting temporarily as an enemy)
What do we know about the experience in the pit?
It feels horrible. It gets me all dirty and muddy.
It makes me want to cry.
Cry tears of sorrow and cry out pleas of desperation.
I need to get out.
But I cannot pull myself out.
I need to be brought out.
There is only one way.
Would You? Could You?
Enter the pit, O God.
April 24, 2008
Remember Records?
I was in seventh grade. Hanging out at my friend’s house after the school day ended.
He had just purchased a new album (yes album we didn’t have CDs yet).
It was by this band just starting to grow in popularity. U2.
He played a song for me and I immediately recognized it, though I had never heard it before.
“That is from the Bible,” I told my friend.
“Nu-uh.”
“Yes it is. Do you have a Bible? I will show you.”
He ransacked his parent’s room and found a funky, green hardback Bible.
I showed him Psalm 40 as he placed the needle on the record again.
All my friend could manage was, “Why would they use the Bible? That is weird.”
I remember trying to talk to him about God, the Bible, Jesus, sin and all the rest.
I shared with him many more times throughout Jr. High and High School. He never received the Savior while we were together. I pray he has since.
I waited patiently for the Lord; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear And will trust in the Lord.
You, O Lord, will not withhold Your compassion from me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will continually preserve me. For evils beyond number have surrounded me; My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see; They are more numerous than the hairs of my head, And my heart has failed me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me; Make haste, O Lord, to help me.
April 21, 2008
The three hardest words to say... "I was wrong"
One of my professors in my current program at Southern is Pastor Hershael York. I enjoyed his humor and profited from his wisdom in class.
Here is a part of an article he wrote recently. I sooo identify. I think you will too.
After a lifetime of offering apologies for my sins, screw-ups, stupidity, and missteps, one would think that I would have mastered the art. Even if I only counted the times I have needed to ask my wife for forgiveness, I would still be one of the most practiced penitents on the planet.
Remarkably, I find myself relearning repentance every time I need to do it. The natural tendency is to cast blame, to excuse, to express all the reasons why my actions are justified or, at the very least, aren't as bad as they seem. If the one I wronged also wronged me at some point, do I have to apologize? If my offense was unintentional must I ask forgiveness? Is repentance necessary if expressing regret will suffice? Can I downgrade it to a mistake, a misunderstanding, or an error of judgment?
But when I am pushed, when I find no alternative to an apology, when I realize that I have to say those two dreaded words, I still look to lessen my liability and minimize my misbehavior by adding a few words to my "heartfelt and sincere" apology: if you were offended. In one phrase I can doubly diminish my humiliation by making my offense merely possible and shifting the blame in case of its reality. I relieve myself of the real burden and place it squarely on the shoulders of the person who felt the offense. Cloaked in my confession is an agent of accusation. The real problem isn't mine at all. "If you weren't so sensitive," my words suggest, "there wouldn't be a problem."
Perhaps the most embarrassing fact of all is that in my decades of copping this pseudo-plea, it has never worked. The person to whom I make this unconfession inevitably catches my emotional sleight of hand and realizes that I have attempted to deftly lay it all on him or her (usually a particular "her").
Repentance, on the other hand, knows nothing of shifting blame, making excuses, or diminishing damage. True repentance is a brokenness that shatters pride into thousands of shards that cannot be pieced back together.
Jesus gave a beautiful picture of this kind of repentance in the parable of the Prodigal Son. When at his spiritual nadir, the son realizes in the pig sty that he has done a sinful and stupid thing. He even goes so far as to rehearse his apology: "I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.'"
Every time I read that I am struck by the simplicity and the beauty of the son's statement. He does not say, "Father, I made a mistake," or "I regret leaving." He certainly doesn't say, "Dad, I'm sorry if my actions offended you." He doesn't say, "Well, though it's true that I did that, I am sorry if my actions caused you pain and I promise I will not do it again."
In all my sinfulness, I have learned the marks of true repentance. Here is what I have found.
A truly penitent person doesn't depend on forgiveness. His apology is not a negotiation; it's begging. Beggars don't get to dictate terms.
A broken person understands that he doesn't get to choose other people's reaction to his sin. They may forgive him or not. He put them in that position, after all. They may hold it against him if they choose. His apology is independent of their response.
A broken person understands that forgiveness is a gift given, not a debt owed.
A broken person asks for no apology in return, even if the other person has done wrong, too.
A broken person realizes and freely admits that he does not deserve forgiveness.
A broken person accepts that it takes much longer to reestablish trust than to destroy it, and he cannot insist on a timetable.
A broken person understands that the power of the words "I'm sorry" diminish greatly when conditioned by an "if."
April 15, 2008
Kabardino Bulkaria
Hello again!
I shared about our trip to Kabardino-Bulkaria on Sunday evening. Here are a few highlights…
The believers in that region are aggressive in evangelism amidst danger and difficulty. Outreach to all sorts of persons (Muslims, drunkards, old and young)
The men in our course on hermeneutics were hungry for sound teaching. I taught and taught and taught and taught! As soon as class was over (at 5pm) some of them would take us to a special church service so that we could preach and have questions and answers with church leaders.
Here are a few pictures. The first is of the opening ranges of the Caucuses.
The second is of an evening service we attended.
The last is most of the men from our class. These men are either Pastors or deacons or men in training to be such.
__________
__________
April 02, 2008
You never know who you'll meet...
Many thanks to Wayne for preaching the Word here while I was away.
I met some very interesting people in California...
Next Sunday I will be in Kabardino-Bulkaria.
If you were to tell me you know where that is... I would immediately think that maybe you were fibbing!
I made a one page description with a map and prayer requests. You can pick it up tonight (at prayer meeting/AWANA/youth ministry) or on Sunday.
We are visiting this region for the purpose of establishing a sister church relationship with an "Antioch" type church that will plant many churches in this needy region.
You can read about the Antioch initiative at the Slavic Gospel Association site.
I will be teaching a crash course on hermeneutics and preaching.
Once again, I would thank you for your prayers.
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