The Question Every 4 Year-Old Asks

Why?  Why is grass green?  Why is water wet?  Why does daddy have no hair?  And why does Word Pictures exist?  I can’t answer any of these questions well, but I can attempt to give a less than adequate answer to the final one.  I have added a new page that explains the struggling existence of this blog.  I realize that this should have been done back in the beginning.  But get off my back!

I Remember

I take pause today to remember those who died for the freedom that we possess and too often take for granted in the United States of America.  Memorial Day was not begun so that we could have a three-day weekend and watch the Indy 500.  This 24-hour period was set aside for the free citizens of the United States to connect with the turmultuous past of this nation and the reality that men and women died to secure our liberty.  So I will choose to remember.  I will deliberately make it a point to think about fallen soldiers and explain to my children the purpose of their sacrifice.  I will walk through the cemetary near my house and let the flowers placed on the grave markers of the war-dead serve as memory aids.  I will pray for our active military personnel and their families.

It is impossible for me to consider the freedom-buying sacrifices of American soldiers without giving thought to the ultimate liberation from sin made available to me through the death of Jesus Christ.  We who were held captive by our sins were liberated through the war that was won at Calvary.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did:  sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. – Rom. 8:1-5

May we not take either freedom for granted, but intentionally recall, with great sorrow and abounding joy, the sacrifices made to secure them.

Swim Class

Here are the other two at their swim lessons. Carson would be the one hanging out on the steps where it’s nice and safe. Cali would be the only girl in the picture.

Yummy Peas!

My wife just helped me set up a flickr account.  I am actually quite technologically challenged, so she helps me out a lot with my computer issues.  Anywho, I thought I would do a practice post to see how it works.  So here you have it.

We just started our baby girl on peas this week. She’s not quite sure what to think about it.

Weed It and Reap

About six weeks ago, we planted a small vegetable garden in our backyard.  I tilled up a small section, mixed in some compost that I had been working on for a couple of years, and planted seven rows of seed.  What a wonderful experience it has been to see those little seedlings emerge and soon to be able to eat and enjoy the fruits of our labor.  It has also proven to be an excellent teaching opportunity in our family.  The kids have been “helping” me along the way—planting, weeding, watering, and harvesting.  It has been a great occasion to instill in them the truth that though we work the garden, it is “God who provides the growth” (1 Cor. 3:7).

One of my few other experiences in gardening was during my high school days.  My mom and I decided to plant a vegetable garden behind our house so we prepared the area and planted the seed.  However, we neglected one of the most important aspects of gardening—pulling weeds.  Before we knew it, the wild plants were out of control.  Sure, there were vegetables growing in the garden, but they were weak, sickly, and essentially useless.  The weeds were choking them and robbing them of all they needed to thrive.

Weeding is one of the least pleasurable but most profitable aspects of gardening.  You can water, mulch, fertilize and spray for insects, but if you neglect to deal with the wild flowers and grasses that invade that garden soil, you will end up growing the healthiest weeds and sorriest vegetables in the state.  However, if a person takes great care to keep the weeds out of his garden, the reward is great.  Those planted crops get full advantage of the sunlight, soil nutrients, and water so they can grow deep, strong roots that generate an abundance of tasty produce.

The Christian life can be compared to a garden.  One can work hard to amend the soil of his heart with Scripture, prayer, and Christian fellowship so that the seeds of the Spirit’s graces are given the right soil in which to flourish and grow in.  But woe to the man who lets the weeds of sin go unpicked.  A Christian cannot pride himself in his knowledge of the Bible or consistent church attendance while ignoring the parasitic wild flowers of sin that are sprouting in his heart.  Eventually those seemingly tame weeds will grow deep roots and multiply, spreading throughout his heart.  His life will eventually be overrun by lusts so that the fruit of the Spirit produced in his life is minimal and relatively tasteless.

John Owen uses this garden analogy in his book on the, “Mortification of Sin in Believers.”  He writes, “The (unmortified) heart is like the sluggard’s field—so overgrown with weeds that you can scarce see the good corn. Such a man may search for faith, love, and zeal, and scarce be able to find any; and if he does discover that these graces are there yet alive and sincere, yet they are so weak, so clogged with lusts, that they are of very little use; they remain, indeed, but are ready to die. But now let the heart be cleansed by mortification, the weeds of lust constantly and daily rooted up (as they spring daily, nature being their proper soil), let room be made for grace to thrive and flourish—how will every grace act its part, and be ready for every use and purpose!”

How are we to tend the gardens of our hearts?  We should pluck the weeds of sin out as soon as they appear.  We must maintain an aggressive dissatisfaction with sin that in no way and at no time grows complacent with residing evil in our hearts.  Romans 8:13 gives us insight into this heart-weeding work.  “If by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”  May each of us take seriously the responsibility we have to dig up and eliminate the big and small weeds of sin in our hearts so that we will be able to bear healthy fruit and multiply.

Sweet Georgia Brown!

The painting is complete!  What color, you may ask (Though you won’t ask and don’t even care because you will likely never see it)?  Sweet Georgia Brown.  That’s a good name for paint.  It’s also the name of the Harlem Globetrotter’s theme song, a classic jazz standard.  I might just incorporate this phrase into my regular vocabulary.  For instance, when our baby girl takes her first step, I might happily exclaim to my wife, “Sweet Georgia Brown, honey.  She walks!”

My books are still in the relocation process.  Currently, about half of them are sitting like displaced refugees in the hallway outside my door.  But they will be home soon and everything will be better.

Before I lose all two of my readers (one being my wife) on account of the lameness of these last two posts, let me assure you that I will post nothing else about the improvement of my church study.  Thank you for your patience.

Like You Care

According to the Centurion, you don’t care where I am or what I’m doing now.  But I am going to go against good blogging sense and tell you anyway.  I am painting my study at the church today and will hopefully have everything put back together by tomorrow.  In the meantime, my computer will be powered down and my weblog will be silent.  But I will be back . . .

The reason I am painting now is that I have completed building new housing for some close friends–my books.  I have built two new sets of bookshelves that are ready to make these buddies feel right at home.  No more double-parked books.  No more horizontally stacked books on top of the vertically lined-up ones.  No more over-crowding.  They are my friends and deserve a nice place to live.  They have given me so much and it’s time they receive something back from me.

I will be back online hopefully tomorrow after everyone is comfortable and at home in my study again.  But now, I must paint on.

Friday Fires

I must warn you now:  Many of the titles and topics on this blog site will have something to do with fire.  I am a pyromaniac.  By that, I do not mean that I am a verbal arsonist like my good friends (actually they have no idea who I am) over at Team Pyro.  I just like burning things.  In fact, I have been in mourning for three weeks now due to the summer-long burn ban that went into effect on April 30, 2006.  The matches must now stay locked up until October 1–wife’s rule.  That’s 154 days without smoke and flames (aka fun)–at least legally.

In God’s mercy, he providentially saw fit to ignite a series of fires in my soul on Friday.  Here are the fuel sources:

(1) Patrick Work, a good friend of mine and summer intern at our church, loned me one of John Piper’s sermon cds.  “Doing World Missions When Dying Is Gain” was the title, and it was preached on the campus of Wheaton College during a missions conference.  It was vintage Piper, but for some reason even the “same old” messages he preaches have a fresh force each time I hear them.  The crux of the message:  Love Christ more than comfort and therefore be willing to take risks and and even be a martyr for Him.  Light and fluffy preaching, right?  At one time, he addressed the older folks in the assembly (I guess professors, alumni, parents, etc.) and told them not to waste their retirement.  You waste your retirement when you move to Florida and collect sea shells and play golf.  Rather, he challenged them to live more risky in their final years than ever.  You are going to die anyway, why not die preaching Christ in Indonesia or some place?

Then he made pointed application to those living in my sitz im leben.  Do we value personal safety more than Christ and the gospel?  Why have we all moved to the suburbs and out of downtown areas?  Is the first question we ask when seeking God’s guidance in a possible move (to the mission field or otherwise), “Will my children be safe?”  When did Jesus ever promise safety?  But, If God is for us, what can man do to us?  Man can kill us.  And he will.  “We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered” (Rom. 8:36b).  Lots of bad stuff can and will happen to us as we take risks for the propogation of the gospel.  But the promise of Romans 8 gives us confidence that no matter what happens, “nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus.” 

(2) Our church had a men’s night out on Friday evening.  I thought about live-blogging the event.  Thank you Pastor Dial for instigating the event and the Hatton’s for pulling it off–the food was outstanding.  After a meal consisting of pork loin, tortellini alfredo, green beans, bread, and dessert (did I mention the food was excellent), we watched the classic film, “Chariots of Fire.”  I know that many of you have seen the film or know the story, so I am not going to bore you with a recap.  Although the “gospel” of the movie is often fuzzy at best and somewhat individualistic (“the truth is in each of us”), the punch of the movie still hit me.  Eric Liddell had a willingness to give up gold for his convictions.  Then he gave up his athletic career to return to the Chinese mission field.  He gave up his personal interests for the spread of the gospel.

(3) I have been studying this week to preach on Philippians 2:17-30–”Three Portraits of Humble Service.”  Of those examples of self-sacrificing service (Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus), the description of Timothy particularly resonated with me.  As Paul is imprisoned in Rome and concerned for the welfare of this beloved Philippian church, he decides to send a personal messenger to the church for their encouragement.  He checks his PDA and starts calling his contact list (or the something like that).  As he goes down the list person by person he has to keep scratching names off.  He could not find any one willing to leave Rome for little Rome–Philippi.  Sure, they had their “reasons” for not agreeing to go–family issues, financial concerns, prior commitments, physical ailments, etc.  What was Paul’s evaluation of their “reasons?”  “They all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.”  What a sad statement for the church in Rome.  This is the same church that, five years earlier, Paul wrote so many glowing commendations of (Romans 16).  Where had all these loyal saints gone?  What were they doing?  Were they “too good” for the Philippians?  Did they think, “I’ve done my duty and served my time, let someone else take care of it?”  But not Timothy.  There was “no one like him, who was genuinely concerned for your (the Philippians) welfare.”  He cared more for the interests of Christ and the well-being of others than his own personal interests.  He was a man seized by the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5-8).

The combined effect of each of these Spirit-initiated match strikes in me this week has yet to be fully realized.  I am still attempting to process how I can weave their applications into my life.  One thing is certain, my zeal for evangelism and missions has been bolstered.  Fires have been re-kindled in my soul.  Not necessarily to go to the African bush, but to live less for personal safety and more for the spread of Christ’s gospel and God’s glory.  It has certainly caused me to examine myself and see if the idol factory of my heart has produced any gods of personal ambition, safety, comfort, or security.  I pray that I will be like Epaphroditus and willingly risk my life for the sake of the gospel (Phil. 2:30).  Have I really risked anything for Christ lately?  How about you?

Here I Am to Warship.

 

This photo was recently e-mailed to me and provided me with a good chuckle on an afternoon when I was quite drowsy. The humor of the sign communicates an important message: Don’t over-emphasize the lesser need while making light of the most important one. Yes, the sign may have sharp edges and one could get cut by sliding his or her hand along the edge. But compared to the possibility of driving one’s car into a lake, a lacerated hand seems rather insignificant. The slight hazard is elevated to the neglect of the “real” danger.

The humorous message of this sign is a good illustration of much of the discussion regarding worship music in the church today. The so-called worship wars continue to pop up on new fronts. Debates rage and churches divide over song choices, music styles, instrumentation, volume, leadership, liturgy, and technology. The lines are often quickly drawn between false dichotomies: Stale hymns or silly choruses; Boring traditional or charismatic contemporary; Dry and wooden liturgy or sloppy sentimentalism. There are as many different views of worship music as there are people in the church. Everyone has their preferences and are glad to voice their opinions and “constructive criticisms” when it comes to music.

I certainly do not want to imply that discussion about song lyrics, instruments, and music styles is unimportant or unnecessary. There needs to be “caution” taken lest we get cut by the “sharp edge” of worldliness on one side or by ritualism on the other. We must be very intentional in what we do as corporate worshippers so that we are not being drug along by the culture or stuck in the rut of tradition. So “sharp edges” are real dangers that need to be warned against and avoided.

However, there are more weighty matters with regard to our worship of God—I am speaking particularly of our corporate worship in song, as this is the main battlefield of the worship wars. There are caution signs in Scripture that alert us to serious dangers: “THE BRIDGE IS OUT AHEAD!” One such sign is found in the context of Jesus’ interaction with the immoral woman of Samaria. One of the many twists and turns in their dialogue leads to a question about worship: Were God’s people supposed to worship Him at Shechem or in Jerusalem? Jesus saw no reason to discuss locations since both places would soon be obsolete and would play no role in the lives of those who genuinely worship God. Rather, He turned the conversation to what was most important about worship. “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshippers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24).

What is the crux of worship? That it is done in “spirit and truth.” “Spirit” does not refer to the Holy Spirit, but to the human spirit. We are to worship God inwardly with a proper heart attitude. William Barclay wrote on this point, “The true, the genuine worship is when man, through his spirit, attains to friendship and intimacy with God. True and genuine worship is not to come to a certain place; it is not to go through a certain ritual or liturgy; it is not even to bring certain gifts. True worship is when the spirit, the immortal and invisible part of man, speaks to and meets with God, who is immortal and invisible.”

Our spiritual worship is to be wed with truth. To worship in truth means a number of things: (1) We must approach God truthfully. We come before Him wholeheartedly and with sincerity; (2) We must worship Him on the basis of revealed truth. “Thy Word is truth” (John 17:17). The Bible is our worship manual; (3) We must approach God through Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). God’s way for us to approach Him is in Christ.

The Samaritan woman hastily wanted to focus on the “sharp edges” of worship. She asked, “On what mountain are we supposed to worship on?” Jesus quickly steered their dialogue from the peripheral to the central: “Worship in spirit and truth.” We also need constant correction regarding our focus in worship. Volume, instruments, and song choices matter, but they are not the ultimate tests of genuine worship. When you gather each Lord’s Day to corporately praise the Lord (and I hope you do), resolve to be a truth-rich and affectionate worshipper. Work hard to engage mentally and emotionally into all aspects of worship—songs of celebration, prayers of confession, or offerings of gratefulness. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!”

Give me some help.

Do you have any practical suggestions on ways you fold the habit of Bible reading into your busy life?  I write not as someone who has mastered this discipline, but as one who is struggling day by day to expose myself to the life-transforming Word of God.  Please pass on your wisdom and advice. One book that God has used to renew my vigor in Bible reading is, How Readest Thou? by J.C. Ryle.  I know that the title sounds quite stale, but I assure you that this short work is anything but boring (only 62 pages).  Here is a brief sampling of the punch that is packed in his words:

“I am well aware that there are more Bibles in Great Britain (or America) at this moment than there ever were since the world began.  There is more Bible buying and Bible selling, more Bible printing and Bible distributing, than ever was since England was a nation.  We see Bibles in every bookseller’s shop–Bibles of every size, price, and style–Bibles great, and Bibles small–Bibles for the rich, and Bibles for the poor.  But all this time I fear we are in danger of forgetting that to have the Bible is one thing, and to read it quite another.”

We’re not off the hook yet . . .

“In one house it lies in a corner, stiff, cold, glossy, and fresh as it was when it came from the bookseller’s shop.  In another it lies on a table, with its owner’s name written in it–a silent witness against him day after day.  In another it lies on some high shelf, neglected and dusty, to be brought down only on grand occasions, such as a birth in the family, like a heathen idol at its yearly festival.  In another it lies deep down at the bottom of some box or drawer, among the things not wanted, and is never dragged forth into the light of day, until the arrival of sickness, the doctor, and death.”

And it’s not only that we read, but how we read.  We must read the Bible rightly . . .

“One man looks over a chapter on Sunday evening–but that is all.  Another reads a chapter every day to his (children) at family prayers–but that is all.  A third goes a step further and hastily reads a verse or two in private every morning, before he goes out of his house.  A fourth goes further still and reads as much as a chapter or two every day, though he does it in a great hurry, and omits it on the smallest pretext.  But each and every one of these men does what he does in a heartless, scrambling, formal kind of way.  He does it coldly as a duty.  He does not do it with appetite and pleasure.  He is glad when the task is over.  He forgets it all when the book is shut.  Oh! what a sad picture is this!  But in multitudes of cases, oh! how true.”

Now I am going to stop typing and go read my Bible . . . the right way.