Let the one who think he stands…
April 20, 2010
Good post from Nic Batzig over at Feeding on Christ:
If Abraham could hand his wife over to other men–two times!; if Isaac could show partiality to Esau; if Jacob could deceive his brother and steal the birthright; if Gideon, Barak, and Jephthah could doubt the promises of God; If Samson could give his strength to pagan women–twice!; if David could commit adultery and premeditated murder, and in pride count the number of Israelites over whom he ruled; if Solomon could be led astray by many women to worship foreign gods; if Baruch could seek accolades for helping Jeremiah write his book; if Peter could deny the Gospel by trying to stop Jesus from going to the cross, by telling Jesus not to wash his feet, by rejecting the vision of the unclean animals–twice!, and by not sitting with Gentile Christians; if James and John could try to use Jesus to get to the top, and desire to call fire down from heaven on those who would not believe the Gospel; and if the apostle John could fall down to worship Angels–twice!…so could I! Let the one who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
Cross and criticism
March 23, 2010
Few things in life are more difficult to handle rightly than criticism. How hard it is to speak and to respond in a gospel-centered way. As a pastor, I am a frequent recipient of criticism–the constructive and the destructive, the accurate, the half-true, and the utterly false, the well-timed and the ill-timed, the gracious and the malicious–I have learned that how I respond reveals a lot about me. What do I do with my critics? Do I shrink them in my field of vision so that I no longer acknowledge them, regard them, pay any attention to them, share with them, or regard them as part of the family? Or do I inflate them in my field of vision so that I brood over their words and think about them constantly, see them as larger than they really are, give them control over my feelings and decisions, or allow them to lead me around like a bull with a ring in his nose?
I commend to you Alfred J. Poirier’s “The Cross and Criticism,” which appeared in the Spring, 1999, issue of The Journal of Biblical Counseling. Here’s an excerpt:
In light of God’s judgment and justification of the sinner in the cross of Christ, we can begin to discover how to deal with any and all criticism. By agreeing with God’s criticism of me in Christ’s cross, I can face any criticism man may lay against me. In other words, no one can criticize me more than the cross has. And the most devastating criticism turns out to be the finest mercy. If you thus know yourself as having been crucified with Christ, then you can respond to any criticism, even mistaken or hostile criticism, without bitterness, defensiveness, or blameshifting. Such responses typically exacerbate and intensify conflict, and lead to the rupture of relationships. You can learn to hear criticism as constructive and not condemnatory because God has justified you.
Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? (Rom. 8:33-34a).
Let a righteous man strike me—it is a kindness; let him rebuke me—it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it (Ps. 141:5).
Tattoos, submission, and growing up
January 26, 2010
At his blog Moore to the Point, Russell D. Moore answers a question from a 19-year-old about his desire to get a Christian tattoo and his desire to honor his parents. Moore deals with all the right questions in his response. Most helpful to me is the way he speaks to an issue that has come up from time to time in my ministry to families. Teens, especially those in the midst of rebellion, cling to a cherished belief that once they turn 18, then they are adults and no longer have to submit to parents. This is one of the most ridiculous statements ever made, and yes, I know all the things that most states in the U.S. say an 18-year-old can legally do. Moore handles it biblically (and more thoughtfully than I often do):
When does your obedience to parents end or, better put, when are you responsible for making your own decisions?
It isn’t at eighteen. The Bible never puts eighteen or twenty-one as some arbitrary mark between childhood and maturity. Instead, in Scripture, maturity is less a chronological or biological matter than an economic one. When are you able to establish a household, a household for which you are responsible? The creation pattern is that a man is equipped to provide for his household (Gen. 2:15). He then “leaves father and mother” as he cleaves to his wife and forms (within the larger tribe) a new household (Gen. 2:24).
Between childhood and maturity, your parents are working to prepare you for this responsibility, handing over more and more of it to you as you prepare to give yourself over for the provision and protection of a wife and family (Eph. 5) or for the sake of the mission (1 Cor. 7).
Confession 101
October 21, 2009
So you sinned against someone this week? Tell me something I don’t know. Sinners have this remarkable tendency to sin. I can think of a couple of occasions when I have heard otherwise mature Christians “apologize” and have felt compelled to say, “If one of my children apologized like that, I would take him back to the nearest bedroom and spank him.”
Instead of being surprised by our sin or the sins of others, we should learn how to deal with it rightly. In a recent article prompted by a major league baseball players public apology for using human growth hormones banned by the league, C. J. Mahaney writes about wrong and right ways to deal with your sin. Wrong ways include using the word “if” (e.g., “I’m sorry if you were offended”), providing lengthy explanations of why you sinned, seeking understanding for your sin, being indignant about being caught. Here’s Mahaney’s description of a right way to confess sin:
A confession that is sincere and pleasing to God will be specific and brief. I have learned to be suspicious of my confession if it’s general and lengthy. A sincere confession of sin should be specific (“I was arrogant and angry when I made that statement; will you please forgive me for sinning against you in this way?”) and brief (this shouldn’t take long). When I find myself adding an explanation to my confession, I’m not asking forgiveness but instead appealing for understanding….Genuine conviction of sin is evidenced by a sincere, specific, and brief confession of sin, without any reference to circumstances or the participation of anyone else. When I sin, I am responsible for my sin, and the cause of my sin is always within my heart and never lies outside my heart.
Such honest, humble and responsible confession is liberating, because there is One who is able to provide full and complete forgiveness of sin–any sin. Because of the death of Jesus Christ the righteous one, sin may be completely forgiven. How foolish we are to run to self-justifying and deflecting strategies in view of the depth of mercy we can experience through the substitutionary sacrifice of his Son for my sins on the cross. May our confession of sin be sincere and specific confession, sorrowful about sin and amazed at the rich provision of God’s grace.
Help me to judge rightly
September 22, 2009
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” [Matthew 7:1-5, ESV]
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explained this type of judgment that Jesus forbids as:
- Criticizing others in matter which do not concern us at all.
- Rushing to conclusions before we know the facts.
- Being unwilling to consider mitigating circumstances or to extend mercy.
- Being quick to impute motives.
- Substituting preference and prejudice for principle.
- Pronouncing final judgment on people.
Below is a fitting prayer (courtesy of Justin Taylor, whose blog has now moved to the Gospel Coalition site):
Help Me to Judge Rightly
Lord, help me to judge others
as I want them to judge me:
Charitably, not critically,
Privately, not publicly,
Gently, not harshly,
In humility, not pride.
Help me to believe the best about others,
until facts prove otherwise—
To assume nothing,
to seek all sides of the story,
And to judge no one until I’ve removed
the log from my own eye.May I never bring only the Law,
to find fault and condemn.
Help me always to bring the Gospel,
to give hope and deliverance,
As you, my Judge and Friend,
have so graciously done for me.
Piper on greatness, humility and servanthood
September 2, 2009
From a new sermon by John Piper on Mark 10:32-45, entitled “Greatness, Humility, and Servanthood,” summarizing what humility is and does:
- Humility is glad that God gets all the credit for choosing us so that we boast only in him and not man.
- Humility happily admits that everything we have is a free gift from God, so that we can’t boast in it.
- Humility is glad to affirm that God sovereignly governs our heartbeats and safe arrivals, or non-arrivals.
- The root of Christian humility is the gospel that Christ died for our sins. That’s how sinful I was. That’s how dependent I am.
- Humility gives itself away in serving everyone, rather than seeking to be served.
- And humility is glad to affirm that this service is true greatness.
He also answers three worldly objections to humility:
- Humility makes a person gloomy, dismal, downcast, unhappy
- Humility makes you fearful and timid
- Humility makes you passive and removes the driving motor of achievement
A choice quote:
Gospel humility frees you from the need to posture and pose and calculate what others think, so that you are free to laugh at what is really funny with the biggest belly laugh. Proud people don’t really let themselves go in laughter. They don’t get red in the face and fall off chairs and twist their faces into the contortions of real free laughter. Proud people need to keep their dignity. The humble are free to howl with laughter.
