God made us for hard work

There is a lazy strain in all of us. I think we shy away from encouraging others to work hard because we're always afraid that it will sound like we're exhorting to "works-based-righteousness." Some Christians are so concerned that we will obey in this mindset that they see "works" under every rock and leaf. I think it's more so that we wait until we feel a certain way before we think it's right to obey. I'm afraid we're too sensitive to buffer our laziness with the excuse that "just working harder" will encourage someone to obey out of "duty" and not "grace".. As though duty and grace are really separate, 'cause they're not. Too much theology-speak these days tries to divide those.

James calls the law the perfect law of liberty. Obedience makes for freedom.

And so, instead of the simple message that we need to exert ourselves in greater diligence we get lost trying to step-toe around what we really need to hear.

Teaching children for instance.. As a man with five children I know how hard it is to teach them something sometimes. Instead of doing the harder thing, the more loving thing of giving each child the attention they need I am tempted to a herd mentality. I am tempted to a zone-defense reactionism instead of being a more pro-active father. For example, I might think that my son will learn how to memorize Scripture or learn to sing if he just comes along for the ride as I teach all my children as a group. But no, nothing can replace the individual attention that each child needs. Group devotions are wonderful but not as a replacement for personal interaction with a child.

I need to work harder. I think we all need to work harder. Sometimes the answer is more simple than we want it to be.

And as we do this from being clothed in God's grace ourselves, we will discover that our exertion is duty, love, and yes, grace to us and to the child.

Texas Rangers

Why is it so cool that the Rangers are going to the World Series? "What's the big deal you might say?"

Well, this team more than any other so far, has take the longest to get to the World Series. The team has basically been around for fifty years though 39 in Texas. The Rangers have never even won an American League Division Series, let alone an American League Championship Series.

And... they beat Goliath. The Yankees were the perfect match for this epic victory.

Here's hoping for the world championship!

R.E.M.."Losing My Religion" lyrics and my note

"Life is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no I've said too much
I haven't said enough
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper
Of every waking hour I'm
Choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt lost and blinded fool
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up

Consider this
The hint of the century
Consider this
The slip that brought me
To my knees failed
What if all these fantasies
Come flailing around
Now I've said too much
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
That was just a dream"

I have always found this song chilling. It is well-written, poetic and very sad. Regardless of his particular aim the song seems plain that it is a memoir of failed parenting in my mind. It stands as a great warning to those parents that lose their children's religion. "I thought that I heard you laughing I thought that I heard you sing I think I thought I saw you try But that was just a dream...

GOD'S HOSPITALITY

The hospitality of the Lord Jesus for us is a home filled with the aroma of freshly baked bread and a feast for all senses. He makes a fuss over us. Consider this for a moment: God’s hospitality in all of life to us. He gives us everything to enjoy in what we see. What we behold. Color. Pristine definition of contrast and shape. The arrangement of a well-dressed meal on a white plate. The comeliness of a person’s happy face…Consider how God puts attention in pleasing us through the sensation of touch. That strange feeling in your palms when you just hit a line drive past the shortstop from the sweet part of the bat…just the feeling itsef makes you want to run to first base like a dog with your tongue hanging out. He loves to delight us in the trifles... The feeling of a cup of hot chocolate around the crest of your hand, or even better the waterfall of chocolatey goodness coating your insides like a happy engine. What about that feeling of a fleece blanket on a sleepy Sun afternoon?
Hearing…Why do certain people’s laughs just make you smile? Could sound waves not be so enjoyable? Yes, but that’s not God’s original intention with them. I like the sound of a not—too-close F-15 with full afterburners ignited. (It’s when you see that orange glow appearing from the backside of the turbines.) It just makes you want to shout—YEAH!! Just the sound makes you feel like a man.

It’s a guy thing.

What about music that stops you cold in your tracks, seizes your entire being and takes you to another dimension. The sound of a campfire crackling. Coffee brewing…a toddler’s attempt to communicate……. Glory.
Could you ever have imagined how much good sensation comes from little things called taste buds? Why do we get enjoyment from chewing food? The ungrateful and inhospitable just think of the science of the glory of food something called, "Mastication." "Mastication is the process by which food is crushed and ground by teeth. It is the first step of digestion and it increases the surface area of foods to allow more efficient break down by enzymes. During the mastication process, the food is positioned between the teeth for grinding by the cheek and tongue. As chewing continues, the food is made softer and warmer, and the enzymes in saliva begin to break down carbohydrates in the food. After chewing, the food (now called a bolus) is swallowed. (Just reading this descrip is laborious!) It enters the esophagus and via peristalsis continues on to the stomach, where the next step of digestion occurs.” Eeeehh. Have we forgotten the irony and fun of life? What happens when we lose the wonder and delight of life? We’re like the trolls in heaven in Lewis’ Last Battle who can’t believe and so they spit out the five star meal in front of them because it has become manure for them. They’ve lost thankfulness.
We can take all this for granted. But all of it is a gift, God’s hospitality to us.

Supremely, we know the Lord’s hospitality by the forgiveness we have received from him. God’s hospitality is realized in the incarnation and eventual death of the Lord Jesus. He came with us in our five senses, the sensation of pain in particular. He invited us in. He took our sins upon Himself and bore them on the cross. Ultimate hospitality. And now, through his death and life, He welcomes you in His presence by the Holy Spirit. He is truly present with us and He is our host. He eats a meal with you in peace, and invites us all to that Meal of all Meals—the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

Chicago Marathon

I ran it thirteen years ago today. HHmmm. Should I run another one? Anybody want to do that with me? Chicago? New York? If I run in NY I will wear a rangers shirt.

What kind of "Calvinists" are we? How are we different from various stripes of American calvinism? We are sacramental calvinists. We are high church puritans...

Communion Meditation for
Oct 10, 2010 Christ Church Spokane

I desire for a man-centered, feelings based Christianity to be eradicated from our midst. A feelings based Christian life is riddled with doubt and instability. We are sacramental Calvinists… It means our foundation is covenant renewal worship. Christ Himself is the foundation for our life of course. But the way we appropriate this is evident with His Word. And His Word is most concrete when given to us by His ministers in the Lord’s Day Service. The foundation for our Christian walk is not our regular quiet time. It is not our ability to walk victoriously by the Spirit more than another does. No, it is what the Lord does for us every Sunday. He forgives our sins, speaks to us with His Word in Scripture, creeds, prayers, and songs. That is our ballast. These are sure words that allow us to live in confidence throughout the week. The grounding of our Christian life is centered in the objective signs and seals of His favor towards us, namely the Lord’s Supper and baptism. Our feelings and emotions follow the truth of covenant union with Christ, not the other way around. Feelings and emotions are inescapable and important in our obedience, but not as the engine.

This is a sacrament. Meaning that this is a glorious mystery, the union of Christ and His Church through the action of a meal together. The Lord’s Supper is precisely not subjective, that is, something that I muster up from my own head. This is why traditions that reject the sacrament of God make for themselves rival sacraments to feel close to God….. i.e.- The invitation system, speaking in tongues, singing songs that massage your emotions, or sermons that make you feel just right.. The apex is in your feelings about God, helped by whatever external manipulation does the trick. This is why not a few evangelical churches are constantly spinning out some new paradigm or program because the ballast of the Bible is missing---the objectivity of the covenant. The foundation for the maintenance of our joy, for our assurance, for everything, is Christ in worship and in The Lord’s Supper. Why? Because it is God’s Word to us, applied effectually. We look away from our deceptive and flaky hearts to Christ and His work. It is not healthy to muster up emotions within us for the preservation of our faith, we look away from our squirrely hearts to objective words… “This is My body for You,” believe it, eat it, drink it, and have joy in My authoritative Words, not your words, not your thoughts, and not your feelings, says the LORD. We just believe..Joy of joys. Believe by eating and drinking.

For too long Christians that treasure the doctrines of grace still have a feelings based Christianity. For years Christians have embraced as the center of their Christian life their experience or their knowledge. I would call this the predominant norm in American Calvinistc Christianity, a Pietism-laden Calvinism. This is not much more than a step away from modern evangelical Christianity, which is based on your decision, not on God’s promise to you and your children.
Even Jonathan Edwards brethren, for all his great work, had a very subjective focus in his writings. Presbyterianism in his time was far more rationalistic. Many in the 1700’s and esp. afterwards, overreacted against the rationalism and became what’s called pietistic. Pietism can be dangerous because it puts undue emphasis on the experience of the believer and not enough on Christ himself. It is His signs and seals, His and ours covenant renewal. This is why we have a covenant renewal worship service every Sunday. God calls us, forgives us, consecrates us, communes with us, and commissions us. God renews covenant with us not because we fall out of it every week, but because it is the practice of renewal and recreation.
Why does God give us a rainbow with water and refracted light frequently? He didn’t give one rainbow to Noah and then we are to meditate holy thoughts about that one rainbow long ago. No, He gives the covenant signs, and we remember, and He remembers, and our union with Him is strengthened. Like a family that sups together every night, their union with each other is strengthened bodily and spiritually each night. A covenant is renewed, as it were, between them. As a man and wife commune with each other, their union is strengthened. The world is filled with symbol and sacrament, mystery and ritual. And we practice renewal and tradition all the time. In our circles we are trying to recover the older Calvinistic Christianity, a more covenantal Christianity. The grounding of our religious experience in Christ is His objective words and signs—His claim over me in the binding ritual of baptism and the nourishment of covenantal words—“This is My body for you, do this in remembrance of Me.” I fear for many Christians in America that we are overly influenced by an individualistic emphasis of the faith, a vague existential pietism. This points people downward to their own hearts and feelings for assurance rather than away from me, to the One whose Word assures… That’s what I need. I need to look at Him and not myself. I desire for my sheep to be protected from the rampant doubt and depression that creeps into our lives. The antidote for it is not mustering up your feelings just right, it is submitting to and believing his Word. This is why some of the Puritans wrote such long tomes trying to encourage people with what true saving faith looks like…because so many were plagued with doubt that they didn’t have the right religious conversion experience. In other words, for all the great doctrine, there still was too much emphasis on people’s impression and experience, at the expense of the objectivity of God’s covenant, and covenant theology itself, expressed today in covenant renewal worship.

God is not capricious. Are you baptized? Do you believe? Then cast aside your sin and doubt, and receive objective love through his covenant seal now.

Ordination Service

Hey! It looks like my ordination service will be on either Fri Dec 3rd or Sun Dec 5th. I'll post the precise date whenever we figure it out. It will be an evening service and it looks like I'm going to get exhorted from hopefully 5 pastors--Pastors Wilson, Lawyer, Nixon, Bryan, and Spratt. Would love to see you there.

A dose of reality

Gal. 6:3,4 "For if anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another."

It reminds me of the preacher in Eccl. who says that at the end of the day we ought to just be thankful and content, and enjoy the work that God has wrought through us.

We must be careful how we view ourselves, for it will bleed through our actions.

Just be a servant, don't take yourself too seriously. Don't stand up for your own cause. Don't fight for respect and honor, show by action that you are more interested in God's honor and He will exalt you.

Then, you will be effective...