Home School Commencement Address 2010

Commencement Address 2010
Elizabeth and Zachary Hurt

It is my privilege and honor to be speaking to you today. I’ve only got so many kids and so many opportunities to pontificate. My children are even conspiring against me, lumping two opportunities into one and reducing my number of captured audiences. You can thank them after the ceremony but you will still have to sit through my comments.

Bringing up children is no easy task. To do it well is harder still. This talk is not about ringing my own bell, or for trumpeting the great virtues and abilities of my lovely wife. But having demurred for a second, I do offer you the proof that we have accomplished the task that was set before us. I give you the proof, the fruit of our efforts, Elizabeth and Zachary. I commend them to you as fine examples of Christian virtue and academic excellence. At first hearing, this may seem like self-serving braggadocio. WE must be really smart. Look at our great kids!

And while we are very proud of them, bragging about ourselves is not the point at all. As I have tried to teach the members of our church, acquiring wisdom is something that is expected of all Christians and Christian parents in particular. Getting wisdom is a command from the Lord. Wisdom cries from the streets, “Come in here. I will teach you.” Wisdom is not something out there for the supper smart, the highly educated, the wonderfully advantaged. Wisdom is granted by God to all those who will seek her diligently and having found wisdom, will love her, obeying her ways.

We do have great kids. I am not afraid to say that. As parents, our greatest delight is to see our children, to see them love the Lord, to see them love books, to see them learn wisdom, to watch them grow up, and thus, to receive the fruits of our labors.

Did we expect anything less than this? No, we did not. We have received that which we hoped for. We have been given the desires of our hearts. Having got what we expected, does this make us arrogant, prideful, or even super successful? No, it does not. Remember, we have been given the desires of our heart. Given. It is a gift from God. All that we have, our marriage, our home, our children, our joy, is a gift. And these children, these good children are also a gift. Who would brag about a gift, except to laud the Giver? We did not give ourselves this gift. God gave it to us. So, our task is to thank Him, not bask in the glory of such wonder.

But how does this affect you? What is the purpose of such an address to those who hear these words? Well, wisdom cries out. Can you hear her? Wisdom wants to give you the gift. Will you take her up on it? God has given us the way to joy and to see our children walking in the blessedness of His glory. What will you do?

Please do not misunderstand me. I am not advocating a vending machine approach to God. You don’t just buy wisdom, or bribe God into keeping His promise by doing what is right. He is not obligated to be manipulated by you. Many try that route only to find great frustration in having done everything right, at least in their own minds, only to be forced to eat rotten eggs at the end of the day. How can God’s gift of wisdom be spoiled into something so rancid?

The key is faith, not works. But don’t we have to do what God told us to do in order to receive the rewards that He promised? Well, yes and no. God has made promises to you. He makes covenant with you and with your children, even to a thousand generations. He has also told you to train up your children. He has told you to bring them up in Christian nurture and admonition. So, which is it? Does God bless me because of His promises or because I train my children according to His rule. And I would want to say to you, “Yes” but there is a chicken and an egg.

The chicken came first, we all know that. And God’s Chicken is Faith. Do you believe God’s promises? Yes? How do we know? Well, if you believe Him, then you do what He tells you to do. And, having done so, you receive the promised blessings. So, is the gift then of Works? God forbid you should say such a thing. Works don’t create faith but faith works. This may sound a bit riddle-ish but it really is not that hard. If you really believe God, then you will do what He has told you to do. Granted, you will not do it perfectly but believing God includes confessing and repenting for your shortcomings and sins. He blesses those who do so.

We must believe God when it comes to raising our children. It is the central thing in giving them a Christian education. Do you love God? Do you trust in His promises? Is your home a place where trust, peace and rest are the central identifying qualities? If so, then you are already receiving the gift, the blessing of children, education, wisdom, and joy.

If not, then what is the problem? Do you need more rules? Higher expectations? A better liturgy of the school day? Are you boiling your children in their mother’s milk? Is what they ought to love a dread to them? Or is it a delight? If it is a delight, then you are accomplishing the goal of educating your children in the Lord. If it is not a delight, then you do not need to clamp down with more life straining rules. You must believe God. You must bolster your faith. You must take Him at His promises. As you do this, you will find that the rest and peace necessary to make a house a home begins to flow into or back into your household.

You cannot grasp this gift of faith. It is a gift. It must be given. But our Heavenly Father is not stingy. He gives to those who humbly ask. He gives, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing.

The bottom line in this talk, well preaching (indulge me, I’m a preacher) is that God is good. He is good and He has been very good to us.

Elizabeth and Zachary, your mother and I are very proud of you. You are young but you have accomplished a great deal. Although you are our children, we think of you as a young woman and a young man. It may be awhile before you feel comfortable with those titles, man and woman, but you have shown yourselves worthy of the honor. You have both been diligent, hard-working, self-motivated, honest, godly, cheerful, respectful, kind, gentle, patient, full of love for your God, your parents, your siblings, your church and your friends. You have already shown yourselves steadfast in the faith and I have every reason to believe that you will continue to do so. All of these things are marks of Christian maturity. God has blessed you and in doing so, He has blessed your mother and me.

You have been steady students, loving learning and learning how to learn. You seek knowledge and wisdom, acquire and maintain it. Having got this lesson, you have earned the right to be where you are today.

Where is that? It’s funny. We tend to think of commencements as endings. I suppose a good many people today even think that is what the word means. They think commencement means graduating, moving up, achieving the goal, getting to the finish line. But only a moment’s reflection makes us realize the error. As soon as we see the error, we shall commence to put it right.

Where are you? What right have your accomplishments earned you? The right to commence. You get to commence your education in earnest. You get to commence living like an adult. You commence your journey to your goals. You commence leaving our home, slowly, as you become your own person, in your own skin, on your own terms, under God’s authority. All this hard work has got you to the very wonderful place that we call the starting line. You’ve worked hard. Great! Now you are qualified to begin.

I am thankful that you are here. I have faith in God that at as He has upheld you in the past, passing on the gift of faith in Him, that you will remain ever faithful to Him. Although the world may not be ready for you, you are ready for the world. God bless you both.

Feed My Sheep- A Passionate Plea for Preaching****

Feed My Sheep- A Passionate Plea for Preaching, is a compilation of essays from various preachers. The book is published by Reformation Trust, a division of Ligonier Ministries.

The book includes essays on preaching from many prominent reformed preachers. The topics include The Primacy of Preaching by Al Mohler, Preaching to the Heart by Sinclair Ferguson, Preaching with Authority by Don Kistler, Preaching to Suffering People by John Piper, and A Reminder to Shepherds by John McArthur. There are also other essays, including chapters by RCs Sproul, Sr and Jr.

I highly recommend these essays for preachers. All the articles are excellent reminders of the purposes of preaching, before God, to the congregation and in the life of the minister.

The Day God Made- Glen Knecht****

If you want a short, concise and convincing book on the power of the Lord's Day as the Christian Sabbath, then you should read Pastor Glen Knecht's book The Day God Made. He gives a clear and sound argument for the day as continuing into the New Covenant era. Furthermore, he points out the need for the day as a day of rest, delight, worship, instruction and works of mercy.

Many of our troubles can be traced to the contempt that most Christians today show for the Lord's Day. As one day in seven that is put aside and holy, consecrated to the Lord, we have a simple way to show our allegiance to our Father in Heaven and to restore our souls for the work that He has called us to do.

The neglect of the Lord's Day is both a symptom of our spiritual emptiness as well as a cause of our further decline. We need to repent and restore the day that the Lord has given to man.

The Prodigal God- Timothy Keller****

Just finished The Prodigal God- Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Timothy Keller, pastor of Redeemer PCA Church in New York.

This was an excellent handling of the story of the two sons and the Prodigal Father. His telling of the story is very good and forces some important and very biblical paradigm changes.

God is lavish. The two brothers are both pursuing dead end courses. The Father goes out to both of them. One responds, the other rejects. While we tend to relate to the younger brother, much of the problem in our own midst and in our own churches is that we are in danger of being the older brother, the one who fails to respond to the Father. The younger brothers besetting sin is his bad deeds. The older brother's besetting sin is his good deeds. Which brother are you?

The answer is to turn to the true Elder Brother, the Lord Jesus, who fulfills His calling before the Father. He will find the profligate brother and bring him home. He will remind the cold elder brother that he must serve the Father out of love, not pursuing the self-righteousness of his own good deeds. Jesus, our true elder brother is eminently faithful. When we respond to Him in true gratitude for the great price of His serving us, we will find peace like a deep river.

Furthermore, we will be transformed by this kind of love so that our own profligate lives or our own self-righteous pride are annihilated in the deep, deep, love of Jesus. This is nothing less than walking in the New Creation, in our hearts first and in our lives and the lives around us in this world, thereafter.

Highly recommended book.

Communion Meditation- Jesus is Good

At this table, we are called to peace. Jesus has called us friends and has seated us for a special meal with Him. This should do wonders for our assurance of peace and salvation in Christ. But where does your assurance lie? I hope that no one gathered here is assured of peace and friendship with Christ based upon how well you are doing. You should not feel blessed at this table because the Lord has thought so highly of you that He invited you here.

It is not because you are so great that you are here. If you think that, then you need to be humbled. But for those of you who are weak of conscience and feel as if you are too bad to be here, there is a message of peace and hope for you. Jesus knows you. He knows what you think. He knows what you say. He knows what you do. He knows you even better than you know yourself. He knows your good deeds and He knows your many failings.

So, being at peace here is not a matter of how good you are but of how good Jesus is. He has not only invited you here. He has given you new clothes through forgiveness of sin. He has cleansed you with the fire of His Holy Spirit. He has given you a soft heart of flesh in place of a hard heart of stone. He has been very good. There is nothing that you can do to match His goodness, so your only faithful response is to simply and exuberantly give thanks.

Pluck Out Your Eyes

How do we pluck out our eyes or chop off our hands or feet? Could we even do such a thing? Why would we want to? After all, we need our eyes. We need our hands. We need our feet. But Jesus is talking about those sins that stumble you, that keep you from pressing on in obedience with Him.

We are Christians and we say that we hate sin. But the fact is, we really love some of our sins. Are you in battle against those things that keep you from adequately loving Jesus? Or have you embraced them and are you unwilling to let them go? Could you be like one of C.S. Lewis’s characters in The Great Divorce that chooses your pet sin and hell rather than choosing to repent and go to heaven? Be honest now. What keeps you from really repenting, turning away, letting go? What causes you to stumble? Is it the comfortable desire of your body? The sensual desire of your eyes? The irrational desire of accumulation?

Learn to hate every unlawful desire that competes with your love for Jesus. Turn away now, kill it, don’t look back and press on to the higher calling in Christ Jesus.

Sackett's Land- Louis L'Amour***

Stupid is as Stupid Says. Guess I didn't know any better. Like Peter, I didn't know what to say, so I spoke. Live and learn.

I just finished my first Louis L'Amour book. I think I had read a few pages in the past but never stuck with a book. I had always thought L'Amour was dime store novels of the Old American West and perhaps some of his books are just that. I should not have pronounced on a topic of which I knew little, if anything.

But I found this first of the Sackett series quite good. L'Amour is a good writer, go figure, he's only sold about 300 million books! He has obviously done a great deal of research and so there is good historical data to be gleaned from these adventure stories, as well.

I needed some true leisure reading and found this just the ticket. I am currently reading the next book in the series. It is a bit long and wordy but I am still finding it enjoyable. In my small experience with L'Amour, he likes his men to be men and in mostly the right sort of ways. I find that a welcome remedy to our effeminate minded modern culture.

The Mystery of the Lord's Supper-Robert Bruce****

The Mystery of the Lord's Supper by Robert Bruce is an excellent presentation of various aspects of the Lord's Supper.

There is a fair amount of emphasis on self-examination but it is not too introspective. He presents a good balance of simply heeding God's promises, recalling your own good experiences with God, and living in real assurance of God's goodness. While self-examination ought to occur in order that we honestly confess our sins before the Lord, there is a perverse introspection that will never see God's grace in our own fallen heart. So, we must strike a healthy and biblical balance. I think Bruce does that quite well.

The final chapter is quite good in this regard although he makes a great blunder in the end. He says that a child or a mad man cannot examine themselves, therefore they should not partake of the Lord's Supper. To which I respond, if a child or mad man is baptized and is seeking Christ, confessing sins, or not outwardly rebellious, then the Lord's Supper is just what the mad man needs to restore his sanity and what the child needs to grow in maturity.

Otherwise, though, a sound book and recommended.

Communion Meditation- Eat, Drink, Digest

We enjoy food long before it gives us nourishment.  We see it and it is a delight to the eyes. We smell it cooking and it wets the appetite.  We may even hear it, think of bacon cooking, or enjoy the texture as you peel an orange.  Finally, we taste it. We can do this with little or no nourishment. You can simply put something savory on your tongue.  Or you can chew food, receiving some of the pleasure, then spit it out, receiving little or no benefit.  In order to receive the nourishment of the food, we must take, eat, take, drink, chew, swallow, digest.   

Many people see Christ in some measure of belief.  They hear the Word of God and assent to the truth. They may taste of His benefits in the church. They may feel the love of the saints.  They may even sense the sweet aroma of the bread of God’s people.  Yet, they never really partake. They do not eat the Word of God.  It does not enter them in a meaningful or saving way, giving life and health to their body and soul.  

So, we come to this meal of thanksgiving. Let us take and eat in faith, not simply eating bread and wine, but by faith, laying hold of the Word of God, chewing on it and being transformed by its power.  Let us not simply look with approval from a distance but rather, being seated at the table of the Lord, let us be fed and nourished by His life-giving food.

Caught by My Daughter

In my sermon on Mark 9, I spent a great deal of time and preaching zeal on Mark 9:40, "for the one who is not against us is for us."

My 13 year old daughter is reading Martin Luther's The Bondage of the Will. In it, Luther lays hard claim to Matthew 12:30, "He that is not with me is against me."

What are we to make of these two sayings of Jesus?  Clearly, the statement, "He who is not against us, is for us," is a much milder statement than, "He that is not with me is against me."

The context is the key. In Mark 9, a man is casting out devils in the name of Jesus. Since it is working, we should assume that he is actually working by the power of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit.  The disciples want the man to stop because he is not expressly following or traveling with them.  Jesus says that anyone who does a miracle in his name will not then lightly speak evil of him and that the one who is not expressly against us is for us.

In Matthew, Jesus had been doing miracles, casting out demons. The Pharisees claimed that He did this work by the power of Beelzebub.  They had already declared against Jesus. In that situation, Jesus says that he who is not for us is against us.  The Pharisees had already made their position clear, they were opposed to Christ.

So, the difference in the two passages is clear. The Matthew passage is for those that have declared open hostility to Christ. The Mark passage is for those brothers and sisters that are working in the name of Jesus but are clearly not completely with us.  The former are to be rejected and judged. The latter need to be received and taught.

Things I Never Noticed in the Bible- Upgradable Blessings

Luke 6:38 38Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

Call me dense, I guess, I won't take much offense. I have always read this passage generally that if you are giving, the Lord will be giving.  If you are stingy, the Lord will be stingy towards you. And it does teach that and more.

With the measure you measure, the Lord will measure. It is not simply that the Lord will bless a generous man and will withhold blessing from a stingy man.  The Lord will repay you according to your level of generosity.  Do you dispense blessings with a teaspoon?  If so, when the Lord gets around to blessing you, it will be by the teaspoonful.  I suppose it will take a while to fill up your cup.

But do you dispense blessings by the cupful?  Or do you dispense them by the 5 gallon bucket? Or with a an ever renewable spring?  The Lord will repay accordingly.

What sorts of blessings? 

How about financial ones to start? Do you give? Do you tithe?  Do you give above the tithe? Do you look for new ways to be generous? Do you show hospitality?  Do you have friends, family and church members over for lunch?  Do you help others in times of need?

How about verbal blessings? Do you give sparingly?  Ever wonder why no one says anything good to you or about you? Do you compliment?  Do you encourage? Do you speak the truth in love?

God will bless you the way that you bless others. And He will use YOUR measuring cup.  Maybe you need to upgrade?

Things I Never Noticed in the Bible

New Wine

In Luke 5 Jesus tells the Pharisees that you must not sew new patches on old clothes. Also, that you must not put new wine into old wine skins. In the past, I have generally tried to understand these statements as sort of stand alone statements relating vaguely to the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant.

Of course, it does relate that way but it is not general. Jesus gives several specific examples of how it relates.

1. Jesus eats with tax-collectors and sinners Luke 5:29-32. Thus, the holiness code and the ceremonial law is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. This has ramifications all over the place. The Pharisees hate this. They want an easy to follow code, not the messiness of dealing with sinners and tax collectors.

2. The importance of fasting for spiritual benefit, renewal, holiness, etc. is dramatically changed. Luke 5:33-35. Jesus fed the disciples, they ate and drank. The time for fasting when Jesus is taken away is the time of His death and perhaps also the time from the Ascension to Pentecost. I do not believe it is the time between first and second coming. Jesus is with us now in the Holy Spirit.
The Pharisees cannot point to their fasting as spiritual maturity when they always neglect the weighty elements of the law.

3. Jesus gathers food and eats on the Sabbath, Luke 6:1-5. The Pharisees' view of the Sabbath was a mess. Jesus teaches them that the Sabbath was made for man to give him life. Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath and is Himself the Sabbath.

So, the new wine skins was a new way of doing things. Some of this was reformation but what Jesus really instituted was transformation. Men needed to be new and their old way of doing things, including the way that they did religion, would not work any more.

JEDfessions of a Pastor

I have been learning a few things during this process. As I mentioned last week in my exhortation, it is easy to make habits and hard to break them. I should have said, "It is easier to make new habits than it is to break old ones." That is because it is not really that easy to make habits.

In order to make a habit, one must repeat an action enough times to be able to do it automatically. Athletes and musicians know this, so they do the same actions over and over until they gain muscle memory. But athletes and musicians also know that to break a bad habit is difficult. So, when a teacher or coach points out the bad habit and the need to break it before it has long-lasting ill consequences, a battle ensues. What is that battle? While one knows that the new habit is better, trying to develop the new and better habit results in WORSE performance, not better. Change your swing and your batting average will go down before it goes up. Change your hand position and the notes will sound less clear and slower before they improve. Many musicians and athletes go back to the old way of doing things before the new habit is ever formed. They claim that the change was detrimental. But the problem was that they just did not stay with it long enough to see the improvement.

JEDfession- The new way of doing things is not habitual. The old habits were not bad but the new ones (at least the ones that I want to adopt and make permanent like praying three times a day, 30 minutes of Bible reading, resolutions of better behavior, especially speaking), are not yet formed as habits. Or, they were done at different times or in a different way. Here's the problem. Somewhere between the old habits and the new habits is total failure. Trying to form a new habit means that you are not doing the old one. Then, if you fail in the new one, you are neither doing the old nor the new one. Instead of doing one thing well or even excellent, you are failing completely. This is quite distressing and makes one think that the old way was so much better, matched my personality, or at least was not total failure.. But the main problem is simply that the new habit is not yet formed. You need a few weeks of consistent repetition to make it habitual.

Finally, I have learned that it is very difficult to deny oneself. Doing your regular habits is not self-denial. This is true, even if your regular habits appear to be very, very, disciplined. JEDish, so to speak. You may have developed good habits. Good for you. But now you are on autopilot and self-denial may even mean performing LESS admirably, as you see it (say, for a day).

While we are not ascetics, Jesus did say that if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Self-denial, in order to follow Jesus, is clearly part of the Christian calling. So, when we find ourselves in the no man's land of being in between habits, we must learn to deny ourselves and follow Christ. This will lead us not only to new habits but the RIGHT new habits.

Having failed JED at many places, perhaps you have got a glimpse into the areas that you do not really want to change and some of the areas where you really do want to change. Perhaps you can use these last 12 days to focus on one or two things, bible reading, prayer, benevolent speech, whatever important priorities you have zeroed in on, and work on making that one new good behavior habitual.

Heaven and Earth

In a previous post, I mentioned that Heaven was torn open and the Spirit descended to Earth when Jesus was baptized.

The same word is used later when Jesus is crucified and the veil of the temple is 'torn open.'

At that point, the veil is torn so that Earth can enter Heaven. We are told in Hebrews 9 that Christ has not entered into the holy place made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.

This tearing of the veil was the point at which earth tore into heaven.

The same word is used for the tearing into earth as for the tearing into heaven.

In Jesus Christ, Heaven and Earth have met.

6000 Years To Go

In my previous post, I mentioned that we should use the name Yahweh when referring to the God of the Bible. I would be just as comfortable referring to Him as the Lord, the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. That makes things clear.

But should we try for Yahweh or Yahveh? Won't that just confuse things here at the end of the ages when there are so many competing voices, denominations and even religions?

Maybe.

But would it change your view of how we work through doctrinal and practical issues if we were not in the end of the ages but in the beginning of the church era?

Think about the doctrinal fights and development of the early church councils. We look back on that era as necessary to the truths that we hold dear now. They had the Scriptures but there was a great deal of wrangling about what those Scriptures taught. That wrangling rooted out heresy and developed systematic orthodoxy.

The big fights and doctrinal development were in the first 500 years. The last great doctrinal fights were about 500 years ago. We call it the Reformation. And the key point about the reformation to keep in mind is that it was driven by a commitment and understanding of Scripture. For the most part, the Reformation was about returning to the views held by Augustine some 1100 years earlier. And this looking back enabled the church to move forward in still unprecedented ways.

We now see a prolific church in nearly every corner of the globe. But we do not yet see the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Nor do we see the great promises of Isaiah's later chapters. Partially fulfilled? Yes. Filled up to all that glory? Not even close.

So, where does all this leave us? It is my contention that the New Covenant era ought to be at least twice as glorious as the Old Covenant era. There were about 4000 years of OC history. Perhaps if the New Covenant is twice as glorious, we shall see 8000 years. Also, that adds up nicely to 12,000 years!

I am not doing numerology, per see. I readily admit that this is total speculation. But what I think is clear in the Scriptures is that Jesus will reign until all His enemies are subdued beneath His feet. When that happens, then He will deliver the Kingdom to the Father. The last enemy destroyed will be death. That is the Resurrection.

Until then, Jesus is doing the work of advancing the Kingdom of God in the Earth, His will done on Earth as in Heaven.

If we have another 6000 years of this until the Lord delivers the kingdom to the Father, then I think we can take a very different view of how we reform, develop our lives together, work on doctrinal and practical problems, view doctrinal advance, work with our brothers in other denominations.

This ought not to make us lazy but it should help us to think that doing the work now will pay off for hundreds or thousands of years. That mindsight is far preferred to the one that says that it really doesn't matter how much work we do now because things are so bad we must be at the end. If we are at the end, then why work so hard?

His name is Yahweh

You may have noticed that in some of our prayers we say Yahweh instead of LORD, all caps. Why is this? The name Yahweh is somewhat foreign to us. We are much more familiar with saying God or Lord. There is nothing wrong with those terms but they are generic terms of a deity, not proper names. In a situation where we know that everyone is tracking with us, believing in the Triune God, worshipping the Father, His Son Jesus, the Spirit sent by the Father and the Son, we can use the shorthand name God, or speak of the Lord.

But we must be clear about whom we are speaking. In America, Lord is fine. God is fine. Jesus is a problem. The next time you are somewhere where they say the pledge of allegiance, try substituting the name Jesus for One Nation Under Jesus, and see how it feels and what sort of response you get. The name of the true God is much more powerful than speaking of a higher power.

So, how does Yahweh fit into all of this? It is God’s name. It is the salvation name He gave Moses to tell the Egyptians and the enslaved Israelites. We do not know exactly how to pronounce the name because the Jews, out of so-called reverence to God, refused to pronounce the name. But God had told them to pronounce it, to declare it to unbelievers and believers alike. It is my contention that the failure to pronounce God’s name is a gross and harmful disobedience.

So, why Yahweh and not Jehovah? Well, we do have the Hebrew scriptures and the best we can do with the pronunciation now is Yahweh, or perhaps Yahveh. It takes away the generic commitment to some God and places our commitment exactly where it ought to be, in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In the God of Moses and Joshua. In the Father of the Lord Jesus. His name is Yahweh.

Tearing of Heaven

Jesus was baptized and, 'when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.'

We tend to think that the goal of our lives is to somehow tear through the heavens and get to Jesus.  Much of modern evangelical Christianity touts this very thing. This Earth and this life are just jumping off points to Heaven. The real goal is to get out of here to there.

But what happened when Jesus was baptized?  The heavens were torn open and the Spirit descended. Jesus did not leave the earthly and enter into the heavenlies. Heaven came down to Earth and empowered Jesus, the man.

Ah, you say, but Jesus did go to heaven.  He left us and went there. He got out of here, after all. Yes, but not like our modern Gnostics like to think.  He did not escape the body and go to heaven. He was resurrected and took His resurrected body to heaven. Jesus is still a man.  And will return as a man and rule on the Resurrected Earth forever.

So, if we see what is going on here in a different light, it changes everything.  This life is about getting the Spirit here to Earth, bringing Heaven to Earth, recreating that Chasm that was made in Adam and bridged in the Second Adam.  Jesus has done this. The Spirit has inaugurated the New Heavens and the New Earth. They are not completely remade yet. Only that in the final  Resurrection. But they ARE new and the Spirit is the promise that one day they shall be completely new.

But even now the heavens are torn open and come to earth.

The Work of the Pastor- William Still****

This is a tremendous little book and a must read for every pastor. It is a book that ought to be read every couple of years. It is a great encouragement to those of us who have chosen to preach 'the whole counsel of God.'  He clearly asserts and articulates that this task of preaching and teaching the Word of God is the heart and soul of the ministry of the pastor.

We need reminded of this often. In a world where there is constant pressure to conform to various popular methodologies of ministry, whether they be mostly evangelistic, or largely programmatic, Still reminds us of the work that we should be doing still. That work is knowing, studying, living, preaching and teaching the Word of God.

Perhaps every minister begins his ministry believing the Word of God is sufficient for everything but not every pastor ends up there.  Time and circumstance, sinners and saints, spirits and devils all help broil up competing priorities.

A minister of Christ must maintain a one-track mind, focused on the Word of Christ. Only then can he adequately and effectively traverse all the complex paths of the life of the people of God. Let him foremost be a shepherd, one who protects the flock by the authoritative Word of Christ so that he can lead them to green pastures and feed them there.

Devil's Work

"The devil always does a deadlier work through hardened Christians than through the unconverted and gets far more diabolical pleasure from it, too."

"There is an application of the Word of God for even the most urgent contemporary situations, but if we get all hot and bothered about it, and myopically concentrate all our ministry on that, for ever moaning from our pulpits about the evils of the day, what are the hungry sheep going to feed upon the while? The devil is a master of sidetrack."


William Still, The Work of the Pastor

John Calvin

Just finished The Expository Genius of John Calvin by Steven J. Lawson.  It is one of the Long Line of Godly Men Series. 

I'd say the book is three out of four stars but mostly because it is about Calvin.  It is a decent short introduction to Calvin and his views about preaching.  It is a bit repetitive but still exalts the great saint of Geneva.

For you Calvinists who do not know much about Calvin, I highly recommend it.  Are there better books? Sure, but this one is short and you really should read something about Calvin.

And then, after you read something about Calvin, you really need to read Calvin.  He still stands as the monumental figure of the Reformation.  His commentaries are still regularly quoted by modern writers.  He was a giant among giants and any ventures into the world of Calvin pay large dividends.

I may even name a kid after him. Wait, I already did!