Medicine To Heal To Heal A Ruined Race

Creator of the Stars of Night
J.M. Neale (1818-1868) 

Creator of the stars of night, 

Thy people’s everlasting light; 

Jesu, Redeemer, save us all, 

And hear Thy servants when they call. 

Thou, grieving that the ancient curse 

Should doom to death an universe, 

Hast found the med’cine, full of grace, 

To save and heal a ruin’d race. 

At whose dread Name, majestic now, 

All knees must bend, all hearts must bow 

And things celestial Thee shall own, 

And things terrestrial, Lord alone. 

To Him, who comes the world to free, 

To God the Son, all glory be; 

To God the Father, as is meet, 

To God the blessed Paraclete. Amen."

 Quoted from  A Guide for Advent: The Arrival of King Jesus.

The Merciful Gift of Ignorance

I've often thought it was a mercy from the Lord that he does not reveal to us our futures in advance. Check out God is Merciful Not to tell Us Everything by Jon Bloom

When God chooses not to tell us everything, he shows us more mercy than we realize.

On the Mount of Olives with Jesus, just before his ascension to the Father, one of the disciples asked a question that must have been on everyone’s mind: “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6).

It had been a long wait. Two thousand years had passed since God promised to give Abraham a seed that would bless all the families of the earth; 1,500 years had passed since God told Moses that a great prophet would arise to lead the people, and a thousand years had passed since God promised to place an eternal heir of David upon the throne. Now, after Jesus’s triumphal resurrection, they finally understood why the King had to suffer and die before the kingdom could really come. Jesus was the sacrificial Lamb of God whose death would atone for all the sins of all his people for all time.

It all made glorious sense.

So the stage looked set. Having conquered death, this King was invincible. What threat was the Sanhedrin or Herod or Pilate or Caesar? Surely the time had come for the long-awaited King to assume his earthly reign, right?
“It Is Not for You to Know”

Jesus’s answer: “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:7–8).

In other words, “Now is not the time. And you don’t need to know when it will be. But for now, I have work for you to do.”

Can you imagine how the disciples might have felt if at that point the Lord had explained to them that he would not assume his earthly reign for another two-thousand-plus years, during which the church would face delay and struggle and sacrifice as it spread around the world? Two thousand years?

God is merciful not to tell us everything. He tells us enough to sustain us if we trust him, but often that does not feel like enough. We really think we would like to know more.

Some Knowledge Is Too Heavy for You

In her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom recalled a time when, as a young girl, she was returning home on the train with her father after accompanying him to purchase parts for his watchmaking business. Having heard the term “sexsin” in a poem at school, she asked her father what it meant. After thinking for a bit, her father stood up and took down his suitcase from the rack. And this is how Corrie remembers their conversation:

“Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?” he said.

I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning. “It’s too heavy,” I said.

“Yes,” he said. “And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It’s the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.”

God is also a wise Father who knows when knowledge is too heavy for us. He is not being deceptive when he does not give us the full explanation. He is carrying our burdens (1 Peter 5:7). If we think our burdens are heavy, we should see the ones he’s carrying. The burdens he gives to us to carry are light (Matthew 11:30).

God is very patient and merciful with us. Someday, when we are older and stronger, he will let us carry more of the weight of knowledge. But until then let us trust him to carry our burdens and thank him.

Thanks for the Hymns

 At Christmas time I am reminded that Charles Wesley (brother of John) was probably the greatest writer of hymns and carols of all time. Here's just a sample of his songs:

Christmas Carols:

Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus

Hymns:

O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing
Jesus, Lover Of My Soul
Love Dvine, All Lives Excelling
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Come, Sinners to the Gospel Feast

Thank God for Charles Wesley!

Come To The Feast

"Come, Sinners, to the Gospel Feast 

Charles Wesley (1707-1788 ) 

Come, sinners, to the gospel feast; 

let every soul be Jesus' guest. 

Ye need not one be left behind, 

for God hath bid all humankind. 

Sent by my Lord, on you I call; 

the invitation is to all. 

Come, all the world! Come, sinner, thou! 

All things in Christ are ready now. 

Come, all ye souls by sin oppressed, 

ye restless wanderers after rest; 

ye poor, and maimed, and halt, and blind, 

in Christ a hearty welcome find. 

My message as from God receive; 

ye all may come to Christ and live. 

O let his love your hearts constrain, 

nor suffer him to die in vain."

Quoted from  A Guide for Advent: The Arrival of King Jesus.

Love Made Manifest

“If you reject him, he answers you with tears; if you wound him, he bleeds out cleansing; if you kill him, he dies to redeem; if you bury him, he rises again to bring resurrection. Jesus is love made manifest.” 

     – C. H. Spurgeon

Hark!

Most of us know the words to this Christmas hymn. But do you know all the words? I suspect there is more gospel doctrine and proclamation in these stanzas than there will be in most of the sermons to be preached in Sunday, December 25, 2016! Please read (or sing) these words thoughtfully and prayerfully.

HARK, THE HERALD ANGLES SING 

Charles Wesley (1707-1788 ) 

Hark! the herald angels sing, 

Glory to the new-born King; 

Peace on earth, and mercy mild; 

God and sinners reconciled.

Joyful, all ye nations, rise, 

Join the triumph of the skies; 

With angelic hosts proclaim, 

“Christ is born in Bethlehem.” 

Hail the heav’n-born Prince of Peace! 

Hail the Sun of righteousness! 

Light and life to all He brings, 

Ris’n with healing in His wings: 

Mild He lays His glory by, 

Born that man no more may die; 

Born to raise the sons of earth; 

Born to give them second birth. 

Come, Desire of nations, come! 

Fix in us Thy humble home: 

Rise, the woman’s conqu’ring seed,

Bruise in us the serpent's head;

Adam's Likeness now efface,

Stamp Thine image in it's place:

Final Adam from above,

Reinstate us in Thy love.

Quoted from  A Guide for Advent: The Arrival of King Jesus.

The Election is Over: Now What?

I meant to post this earlier, but c'est la vie. Here are some thoughts from Dr. Russell Moore on the recent election. 

The 2016 presidential election is now over, and, in what very few could ever have imagined, Donald Trump is elected President of the United States. No matter what our differences politically or religiously, surely we can all agree that this campaign has been demoralizing and even traumatizing for most of the country. So what should evangelical Christians do now?

The first thing, of course, is to pray for our soon-to-be President Trump. The Bible commands us to pray for “all who are in high positions” (1 Tim. 2:1-2). Moreover, the Scripture tells us to give “honor to whom honor is due” (Rom. 13:7). Many of us have deep differences with our new president, and would have no matter which candidate had been elected, but we must pray that he will succeed in leading our country with wisdom and justice.

The sort of conservatism that many of us had hoped for—a multiethnic, constitutionally-anchored, forward-looking conservatism—has been replaced in the Republican Party by something else. On the one hand, there’s a European-style ethno-nationalist populism, opposed by an increasingly leftward progressive movement within the Democratic Party.

In both of these movements, moral concerns—certainly personal character and family stability questions—are marginalized. We now have a politics of sexual revolution across the board. This means that conservative evangelicals are politically homeless—whether they know it or not.

That is not the worst situation we could be in. Political power—or the illusion of it—has not always been good for us. Such influence has led us to conform our minds to that of the world about what matters, and who matters, in the long-run of history. We should, as missionary Jim Elliot put it a generation ago, own our “strangerhood.”

What can we do now? We can, first of all, maintain a prophetic clarity that is willing to call to repentance everything that is unjust and anti-Christ, whether that is the abortion culture, the divorce culture, or the racism/nativism culture. We can be the people who tell the truth, whether it helps or hurts our so-called “allies” or our so-called “enemies.”

Moreover, no matter what the racial and ethnic divisions in America, we can be churches that demonstrate and embody the reconciliation of the kingdom of God. After all, we are not just part of a coalition but part of a Body—a Body that is white and black and Latino and Asian, male and female, rich and poor. We are part of a Body joined to a Head who is an Aramaic-speaking Middle-easterner. What affects black and Hispanic and Asian Christians ought to affect white Christians. And the sorts of poverty and social unraveling among the white working class ought to affect black and Hispanic and Asian Christians. We belong to each other because we belong to Christ.

The most important lesson we should learn is that the church must stand against the way politics has become a religion, and religion has become politics. We can hear this idolatrous pull even in the apocalyptic language used by many in this election—as we have seen in every election in recent years—that this election is our “last chance.” And we can hear it in those who assume that the sort of global upending we see happening in the world—in Europe, in the Middle East, and now in the United States—mean a cataclysm before which we should panic.

Such talk is not worthy of a church that is already triumphant in heaven, and is marching on earth toward the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ. Will we face difficult days ahead? Yes. The religious liberty concerns will continue. The cultural decline we have warned against is now part of every ideological coalition in the country. But the question we must ask is who “we” are.

We are not, first, Republicans or Democrats, conservatives or progressives. We are not even, first of all, the United States of America. We are the church of the resurrected and triumphant Lord Jesus Christ. We have survived everything from the rage of Nero to that of Middle Eastern terrorist cells. We have, in fact, often done best when we are, what one historian calls, the “patient ferment” of a church alive with the gospel.

The church must be, as Martin Luther King Jr. taught us—the conscience of the state. But we do that from a place of gospel power, not a place of cowering fear. That means that we—all of us—should see this election as important for our country, but not ultimate for our cosmos.

We should be ready to pray and preach, to promote the common good and to resist injustice. We will pledge allegiance to the flag, but we will pledge a higher allegiance to the cross. We can pray and honor our leaders, work with them when we can, while preparing to oppose them when needed. We do not need the influence that comes from being a political bloc. We have more than influence; we have power—the power that comes through the weakness of the crucified.

Our rallying cry is not “Hail to the Chief” but “Jesus is Lord.” Perhaps this electoral shakeup means that President Trump will lead America to be great again. I hope so. But regardless, whatever happens to America, we must seek the Kingdom first again.

Time For A Belief Check Up

Are you believing any of these?  7 Unbiblical Statements Christians Believe by Shane Pruitt at Relevant

We don’t often stop to consider the magnitude of what the Bible represents. It is literally God revealing Himself and communicating Himself to mankind in written word.

Orthodox Christianity teaches that the Bible was inspired and authored by the Holy Spirit of God using human instruments. And many Christians believe that—in its original languages of Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic—it is without error and fault.

However, there are many things that Jesus-following, Church-going, Bible-believing Christians believe that are completely unbiblical. How does this happen? Often, we’ll hear someone quote a statement that sounds nice to us, and we’ll begin repeating it as though it’s biblical truth without ever researching it in Scripture.

Several of these unbiblical statements have gained enough traction that many people believe they’re actually Bible verses. Not only are the statements unbiblical; some of them teach the opposite of what the Bible teaches.

Here are some popular unbiblical statements that Bible-loving Christians tend to believe:

1. God Helps Those Who Help Themselves
This statement is actually anti-Gospel. Obviously God gave us gifts and talents that we’re supposed to use, but self-reliance and self-righteousness, or the attitude of trying harder and doing better actually gets in the way of the work of God.

In reality, Jesus saves those who die to themselves: “Then Jesus told His disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me'” (Matthew 16:24).

2. God Wants Me to Be Happy

It’s a common belief that God exists to be our “personal genie” waiting to give us our every wish. It’s amazing how we will justify our sinful actions by saying, “God just wants me to be happy.”

Happiness is tied to feelings and emotions that are often based on circumstances, and those change all the time. God wants us to be obedient to Him, trust Him and know that everything He does is for our good, even if it doesn’t make us feel “happy” in that moment.

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).

3. We’re All God’s Children

Although God has created everyone, not everyone relationally belongs to Him. Only those who have repented of sin, placed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and possess the Holy Spirit of God inside of them can claim Him as their Father:

“But you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:15-16).

"So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ ... If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:26-29, emphasis mine in both verses).

4. Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness

The people around you may appreciate you staying clean, but this is not Scripture. Parents may use this to motivate their kids to clean their rooms. However, I’d suggest using an actual biblical statement: “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). (I can’t guarantee that will make your children want to clean up either, though).

5. God Won’t Give You More Than You Can Handle

Actually, all of life is more than we can handle. The point of living in a fallen world is not for us to try really hard to carry our heavy burden, but rather realize we can’t do it alone and surrender to God instead. That’s what faith is all about.

Everything is more than I can handle, but not more than Jesus can handle: “For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself” (2 Corinthians 1:8).

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

6. Bad Things Happen to Good People

The sentiment of this makes sense, but if we follow it all the way through, the idea of a good person is very subjective. Often, we place ourselves in the judgment seat of what is good and bad, or who is good and bad.

The most popular way to make that judgment is by comparison. For example, Bob is a good guy, because he is not as bad as Sam. However, according to the Bible we’re all on equal ground because none of us is inherently good: “as it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one’” (Romans 3:10).

7. When You Die, God Gains Another Angel
Plain and simple. Humans are humans, and angels are angels. This remains so even in eternity. In fact, angels are intrigued by the interaction between God and His “image-bearing” humans: “It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look” (1 Peter 1:12).

The fact that many Christians believe these unbiblical statements shows our unfortunate overall biblical illiteracy. Instead of swallowing popular statements hook-line-and-sinker, may we be like the Bereans in the Book of Acts. When they heard Paul preach, they wanted to research the Scriptures themselves to authenticate what he was saying: “They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:10-11).

O Come Divine Messiah

Another excerpt from A Guide for Advent: The Arrival of King Jesus. 

"O COME, DIVINE MESSIAH! 

Abbé Simon J. Pellegrin (1663-1745) 

O come, divine Messiah! 

The world in silence waits the day 

When hope shall sing its triumph, 

And sadness flee away. 

Dear Savior haste; 

Come, come to earth, 

Dispel the night and show your face, A

nd bid us hail the dawn of grace. 

O come, divine Messiah! 

The world in silence waits the day 

When hope shall sing its triumph, 

And sadness flee away. 

O Christ, whom nations sigh for, 

Whom priest and prophet long foretold, 

Come break the captive fetters; 

Redeem the long-lost fold. 

O come, divine Messiah! 

The world in silence waits the day 

When hope shall sing its triumph, 

And sadness flee away.

Awake My Soul

I will be posting some hymns and poems from the Advent devotional I'm reading this year entitled A Guide for Advent: The Arrival of King Jesus.  This is the first one.

Awake My Soul, Awake My Tongue 
Anne Steele (1717-1778)

Awake my soul, awake my tongue, 
My God demands the grateful song; 
Let all my inmost pow'rs record 
The wond'rous mercy of the Lord. 

Divinely free, his mercy flows, 
Forgives my crimes, allays my woes, 
And bids approaching death remove, 
And crowns me with indulgent love. 

In him the poor opprest shall find 
A friend almighty, just and kind; 
His glorious acts, his wond'rous ways, 
By Moses taught, proclaim his praise. 

While all his works his praise proclaim, 
And men and angels bless his name; 
O Let my heart, my life, my tongue, 
Attend and join the blissful song.