Safe Paths
A little forethought can go a long way in making our futures secure. We buy insurances of all types to give ourselves peace of mind. Insurance companies can guarantee financial help in the event of an accident, disaster, or misfortune. While they can’t stop those things from happening, they can afford us some peace of mind for ourselves and our loved ones. When it comes to our spiritual and ultimate well-being, well, that is quite out of our hands. God (who controls all things) has given us his wisdom for obtaining peace of mind about the ups and downs the future may hold for us:
Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,
but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.
-Proverbs 10:9
Living an honest life is a safeguard in its own right, for it gives us peace of mind. And that is no small ingredient in a life confidently lived. On the contrary, walking in crookedness—secretly doing evil—fills us with worry. It’s only a matter of time; we will be found out. But if we walk honestly before God, we know that bad things still can (and probably will) happen, but we can face them with inner peace, knowing that they are God’s portion for us and not the consequences of our secret sin. Integrity is the safe path through the wilderness of this world.
The Vibe of Heaven
What will heaven be like? I’ve wondered that since I was a child. If you’re like me, you assumed it would be like your church: the sights, the sounds, and the feels (for me that was pictures of the sky or flowers on the bulletin, organ music, and uncomfortable clothes). A similar feeling must have inspired the Biggie Smalls lyrics:
It don't make sense, going to heaven with the goodie-goodies/
Dressed in white, I like black Timbs and black hoodies
Depending on what churches Mr. Smalls was familiar with, he may have a point. But heaven will make sense for everyone who is there. It will be all the vibes for all the peoples. It will transcend our individual preferences and yet, it will contain all that we desire.
Heaven will be peaceful and tranquil, but also rugged and raw and not without its primal aspects. You may not enjoy heaven as the hymns of yesteryear sung in vibrato, but I assure you there are plenty of grandmothers who will. On the other hand, they may be surprised to find there the drums of “bang bang music,” as my late grandmother put it. I’m quite convinced the bass lines will be funky. In any case, it will have all the vibes; and more importantly, we will dig them all to the glory of Christ.
The Reformed Doctrine of Pondering the Orbs
Wizards are in (thanks Gandalf), and so are their orbs. So, no time like the present for Christians to catch some mage vibes and gaze upon orbs of another sort than the palaníri (that is for another blog). And why not? Didn’t our dear brothers, the righteous magi, come to worship Christ by pondering the orbs? Maybe we can too.
God’s orbs, sun, moon, and star, have brightened the sky for a long time. When you peer up into that firmament, you see ancient celestial bodies in an ancient heavenly rhythm. Everything that’s ever happened on earth took place under those same lights. So next time you look up, remember what the Lord Jesus says about it all:
“When he established the heavens, I was there.” (Prov 8:27)
Do we have the foggiest idea Who we are dealing with?
Darwin’s New Clothes
Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick, who discovered the structure of DNA, issued the following warning to his colleagues:
Biologists must constantly keep in mind that what they see was not designed, but rather evolved.
Why the need to constantly remind oneself of this? Because the temptation to believe that some Intelligence made everything is powerfully attractive while examining the evidence. DNA apparently screams design, and even the most staunchly Darwinian biologist must diligently remind himself that what he is seeing was not, in fact, fashioned by a living God.
They say if you’re taking an exam and you’re unsure of the answer, go with your gut. Our brains are smarter than we realize. The same applies here. Your instincts tell you there is a Creator: your instincts are right. To deny this is “The Emperor’s New Clothes” all over again. Try to think yourself out of it all you like; sooner or later you’ll end up right back where you started, acknowledging the glorious Maker with every instinct of your being.
The Now
If you’re anything like me, you’re filled with worries about the future. An endless stream of “what about?”s tugs the mind away from the present moment and the task at hand. How can we break through the constant onslaught of anxiety? There is one remedy: let God be God. He will take care of us tomorrow, so we can focus on today. C.S. Lewis puts it well by comparing life to a play:
How can the characters in a play guess the plot? We are not the playwright, we are not the producer, we are not even the audience. We are on the stage. To play well the scenes in which we are “on” concerns us much more than to guess about the scenes that follow it.
It is not up to us to know what happens next. It is up to us to live each moment as best we can. And we can’t do that if our minds are splintered into a million moments at once. Combatting worrisome thoughts really doesn’t get much simpler than looking to our caring God for help:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Snowy Deo Gloria
No question about it, Old Man Winter can be formidable. He is literally cold as ice. And the snow! It covers your car, it slows everything down, it’s just not fun.
When you live somewhere cold, it is almost an unspoken rule that you complain about the weather. It’s like a social sacrament. We utter our quick Hi, how are you? and Fine, yourself? and proceed to drop our pinches of incense before the god of warmie-placie.
Well, if we really have a problem with it, we’ll have to take it up with the Boss, for:
He gives snow like wool;
he scatters frost like ashes.
He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
who can stand before his cold?Psalm 147:16-17
If there’s snow on the ground (and on the houses, cars, basketball hoops, and bushes) where you live today, God sent that snow. Sure, it’s a royal pain to deal with. And if you work in the open air, or on the road, it cannot be easy. But snow is still so cool. C.S. Lewis puts it well in That Hideous Strength:
“I don’t think I should ever learn to like rain and snow” [said Jane].
“It’s the other way round,” said Denniston. “Everyone begins as a child by liking Weather. You learn the art of disliking it as you grow up. Haven’t you ever noticed it on a snowy day? The grown-ups are all going about with long faces, but look at the children—and the dogs? They know what snow’s made for.”
After the shoveling is done and the cars are cleared, steal a few moments to cozy up with a hoody and a hot drink and look out the window. Gaze upon the wondrous visage and ponder the delicate loveliness of the snow. Or better yet, bundle up and go for a walk in it. But careful now! A spirit of childlike wonder may come upon you suddenly and lead you to do the unthinkable: to see God’s glory in the snow and thank him for it.
The Little Sprout That Will
This time of year, we think of the little Baby in the manger. “Unto us,” says Isaiah, “a child is born.” But Isaiah said something else about that Little One; he said he’s like a little sprout growing up out of the ground. “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit” (Isaiah 11:1).
Our father Adam may have been supernaturally created as a full-grown man in the Garden, but the life and reign of the Lord Jesus Christ took on a more natural order. He grew by degrees: “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). The apostles erred in expecting his kingdom to appear immediately in its full splendor. “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). Boy, were they in for a surprise! Long years of their sufferings would become centuries and even millennia as the church still awaits the fulfillment of these promises. And yet we wait eagerly.
Let us also be patient with our own growth as believers. His kingdom grows like a tree, slowly and imperceptibly, but also surely. Even so, we grow in Christ. God is patient with us; let us be patient with ourselves (and with each other!). As we take in the nourishment of the water of the word, and the bright, shining smile of the gospel-sun, let us rest in the knowledge that our King is working.
We Wish You a Marrow Christmas
It’s Christmastime, and I’d like to share a brief passage from The Marrow of Modern Divinity by Edward Fisher. It speaks of the wonders of the incarnation of God the Son for us. It’s rich, so enjoy slowly and thoughtfully:
True it is, that we are all of us, indeed, too unclean to touch God in immediate unity; but yet there is a pure counterpart of our natures, and that pure humanity is immediately knit to the purest Deity; and by that immediate union you may come to a mediate union; for the Deity and that humanity being united, make one Saviour… And so…you come also to be one with God: he one by a personal union, and you one by a mystical. Clear up then your eye, and fix it on him, as on the fairest of men, the perfection of a spiritual beauty, the treasure of heavenly joy, the true object of most fervent love. Let your spirits look, and long, and seek after this Lord: let your souls cleave to him, let them hang about him, and never leave him, till he be brought into the chambers of your souls; yea, tell him resolutely, you will not leave him, till you hear his voice in your souls, saying, "My well-beloved is mine, and I am his"; yea, and tell him, you are "sick [with] love." Let your souls go, as it were, out of your bodies and out of the world, by heavenly contemplations; and treading upon the earth with the bottom of your feet, stretch your souls up, to look over the world, into that upper world, where [your] treasure is, and where [your] beloved dwelleth.
It’s the perfect time to contemplate the goodness and beauty of our Lord and all that he has done for us in his incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and soon-to-be return to reign. Merry Christmas!
Anxiety & Piety
We all deal with it. Our achievement-oriented American culture fosters it. The information superhighway delivers 24/7 on-demand fodder to feed it. Not that we need it though; our personal problems are in no short supply. Anxiety: tale as old as time. The ancient wise man Solomon knew a lot about it. For example, he says:
It is in vain that you rise up early
and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
for he gives to his beloved sleep.Psalm 127:2
Sound familiar? Could it be that at the end of the day we simply are not trusting God? Here is a remedy for our worries: our Father has got everything covered. Spurgeon says it beautifully, “The Sovereignty of God is the pillow upon which the child of God rests his head at night, giving perfect peace.” If he wants it done, it shall be done. If not, nothing I do can possibly accomplish it. And so what? His purposes for me shall stand; his love for me shall be accomplished in full. Everything else is a footnote.
That’s a death knell for anxiety of all sorts. My Creator loves me and will do what he wishes with me, and what he does will be best by far. Just as the world offers us endless things to be anxious about, so too the good news of God’s fatherly care for us in Jesus offers wondrous truth for our faith to feed upon. Soon enough anxiety’s proud head begins to nod, and presently it goes to sleep. And now we can too, because God’s gospel goodness to us in Christ soothes all our worries with the sweetness of eternal, divine love.
Feelings vs. Faith
Sometimes we feel God’s presence, sometimes we don’t. That’s part of the normal Christian life. But does that make our relationship with God a matter of he loves me, he loves me not? Never! He doesn’t change, even when our feelings do. It is not our feelings that take hold of the unchanging God, it’s our faith.
The good old Puritan William Perkins has this to say on the subject:
Religion does not stand in feeling but in faith, which faith we must have in Christ, though we have no feeling at all; for God oftentimes does withdraw His grace and favor from His children that He may teach them to believe in His mercy in Christ then, when they feel nothing less than His mercy. And faith and feeling cannot always stand together, because faith is a subsisting of things which are not seen and the ground of things hoped for; and we must live by faith and not by feeling. Though feeling of God’s mercy be a good thing, yet God does not always vouchsafe to give it unto His children. And therefore in the extremity of afflictions and temptations we must always trust and rely on God by faith in Christ.
Our feelings often leave us in the dark. Our faith in God never does.