Minister, Rejoice, and Pray

In our small group this week, we considered 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18. On first reading, this passage appears to be a laundry list of isolated commands, but as John Piper argues in When I Don’t Desire God, there is an underlying logic that ties them all together. Here is the passage, followed by an extended paraphrase that elaborates on each command and draws out the logic of Paul’s thought. Meditate on these verses – and minister as God’s agent by His power for His glory.

1 Thessalonians 5:14-18 And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

We strongly exhort you, brothers and sisters, to be involved in each other’s lives, responding as each person needs. Here are three examples: (more…)

A Late Night Encounter

I boarded the plane in the Portland airport weary after a long day. “11pm. That’s 2am at home. No wonder I’m beat!” I put my pack in the overhead compartment, my computer bag under the seat in front of me, pulled out my earplugs and eyemask, and prepared for some much-needed sleep on the cross-country flight.

I glanced at the thirtyish man sharing the row of three seats with me. “Hi, my name is Coty.” He smiled. “I’m Jacob.” As he looked me in the eye, I quickly saw that God had other plans than sleep for this flight. After going through the normal pleasantries – Are you going home or leaving home? What’s the purpose of your trip? – Jacob began to share about his spiritual growth in the last few years. Through yoga and meditation, he had grown in his self-discipline, in his ability to deal with disappointment. He had simplified his life, eating well, cutting out TV and other distractions; in work, he now focused on flexible jobs that he greatly enjoyed. This enabled him to save enough money to travel to Sri Lanka recently and spend several months at a meditation center. He rises every morning and spends an hour doing yoga and meditating – and that time then flavors his entire day. He was happy, well-adjusted, and excited about his spiritual life – so excited he wanted to share that with others. (more…)

Ripping Away the Old Man

Do you want God’s refining? Or would you rather just clean yourself up?

On Sunday we considered Malachi 3, in which God says concerning the “messenger of the covenant”, the coming Messiah:

But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD. (Malachi 3:2-3)

Fire burns. It hurts. It may seem to be destroying. But the fire wielded by God for His purposes in His people cleanses and transforms, so that they might become what He intends them to be: those who offer themselves back to Him, those who delight in Him, those who display His glory to all of creation.

C.S. Lewis gives a marvelous picture of this refining process in the third book of the Narnian Chronicles, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. (more…)

Genocide and Forgiveness

Fourteen years ago, the genocide in Rwanda was at its height. See this link for a fascinating account – in the New York Times of all places – of the impact of the Gospel on reconciliation and forgiveness between perpetrators and relatives of victims. Here’s an excerpt: Words spoken by Jean Baptiste Ntakirutimana to the man who murdered his mother:

By the time he started explaining how he killed her I partly lost consciousness. I prayed to God to give me His spirit to revive me and give me more strength to continue, as I felt it was His mission I was on. Miraculously I felt warmth from my head to my feet, I felt like a big rock melting from my chest and my head. I felt very refreshed, cleaned up my tears and carried on the conversation tremendously relieved from my whole being. I then told him that I have personally been forgiven all my wrong from God and that it is in the same spirit that I was coming to him offering him pardon myself. Then it was like a huge veil off his face he started smiling with a lot of words of gratitude. He started holding my hands and telling me many other things I couldn’t expect about himself and the reality around the genocide. He agreed to go and see other people for whose family members he killed.”

Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!

Inner Change or White-Washed Tombs?

During Sunday’s sermon, I briefly discussed the implications of being in Christ on three different aspects of a person’s life:

  • First, the inner life: How do you think? What occupies your mind? What do you value and treasure? What do you long for?
  • Second, the personal life: How you work, how you allocate your time, how you spend money. These are decisions you make on your own that primarily affect you.
  • Third, your Life in Community with others: Your relationships in marriage, in your family, among your neighbors, among your colleagues.

Most Christians would agree that becoming a believer should change all three aspects of our lives. But how do these changes take place? Is there a correct, biblical order to the changes? (more…)

Death is Dead!

On Sunday we sang the great hymn, “Crown Him with Many Crowns” by Matthew Bridges. Here is one of the verses:

Crown Him the Lord of life,
Who triumphed over the grave,
And rose victorious in the strife
For those He came to save.
His glories now we sing,
Who died, and rose on high,
Who died eternal life to bring,
And lives that death may die.

Jesus died and now lives “that death may die.” This week I’ve meditated on that biblical theme, looking at passages throughout the history of redemption that discuss the coming of death into the world, God’s plan to overcome death, Jesus’ victory over death, and the final destruction of death. Here is a selection of key passages on that theme. Read them – and rejoice that death will die. (more…)

Is Jesus’ Death Just?

Jesus is condemned to death. Jesus is condemned to death! Is this just?

Surely on a human level, this is a travesty of justice. Jesus’ trial is a sham, violating virtually every rule regarding fair trials under both Jewish and Roman law. There was no due process exercised in this trial; Jesus was innocent of any wrongdoing.

But consider Jesus’ condemnation from God’s point of view. Was Jesus’ death justified?

Listen to these words of Scripture:

· The wages of sin is death. (Romans 6:23)

· He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. (1 Peter 2:24)

· He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people. (Hebrews 9: 26-28)

These Scriptures tell us that from God’s point of view, Jesus’ death was justified. Indeed, Jesus’ death was necessary if anyone is to be saved – for without His death, God would have to punish you and me for our sins. (more…)

Spitzer, McEwan and Atonement

When we sin, how do we put matters right? This question keeps coming to the forefront even in politics and popular culture.

The former governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer, faced that question this week after his personal sins became public knowledge. On Monday, the New York Times quoted Spitzer as saying that he had spent the last several days with his family, “atoning for his personal failings.”

Consider also Atonement, Ian McEwan’s 2001 quintessential postmodern novel (which, in its film version, was nominated for this year’s Academy Award for best picture). The story opens with the main character, Briony, as a 13-year-old. With her mind wrapped up in the fantasies of her fictional stories, she destroys a young man’s life by falsely accusing him of a crime. The novel closes with Briony at 77, Alzheimer’s on the horizon, writing alternative realities as she still tries – unsuccessfully – to atone for that sin. She writes, (more…)

The Reason for God

A review of The Reason for God by Tim Keller

Have you ever heard statements like these?

  • “How could there be just one true faith? It’s arrogant to say your religion is superior. . . . Surely all religions are equally good and valid for . . . their particular followers.”
  • “I won’t believe in a God who allows suffering.”
  • “The Christians I know don’t seem to have the freedom to think for themselves. I believe each individual must determine truth for him- or herself.”
  • “There are so many people who are not religious at all who are more kind and even more moral than many of the Christians I know.”
  • “I have . . . a problem with the doctrine of hell. The only god that is believable to me is a God of love.”
  • “My scientific training makes it difficult if not impossible to accept the teachings of Christianity.”
  • “Much of the Bible’s teaching is historically inaccurate.” “My biggest problem with the Bible is that it is culturally obsolete. Much of the Bible’s teaching (for example, about women) is socially regressive.”

How do you respond? Are there good answers to such questions? And once you’ve tried to answer such questions, how do you move the conversation away from these peripheral issues and to the Gospel itself?

Tim Keller has been a pastor in Manhattan for almost twenty years. As he reaches out to unbelievers and hosts Q and A periods after sermons, he hears such statements and questions again and again. In a new book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, Keller answers these questions, and then presents Christ as compellingly beautiful and the Gospel as rationally coherent. (more…)