Mr. By-Ends and the American "Christian"

It's comforting to know that weaknesses currently plaguing American "Christianity" are not unique to our age. Over 300 years ago, in his classic tale The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan described a character eerily similar to many modern evangelicals. Note carefully the words of Mr. By-Ends, his interaction with the faithful men Christian and Hopeful, and the twisted reasoning of his friends Mr. Hold-the-World, Mr. Money-Love, and Mr. Save-All. I've italicized portions which seem to me most typical of American "Christianity."

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So I saw that, quickly after they were got out of the fair, they overtook one that was going before them, whose name was BY-ENDS; So they said to him, "What countryman, sir? and how far go you this way?" He told them that he came from the town of Fairspeech; and he was going to the Celestial City (but told them not his name).

Chr. "From Fairspeech!" said CHRISTIAN; "is there any that be good live there?"

By-ends. "Yes," said BY-ENDS, "I hope."

Chr. "Pray, sir, what may I call you?" said CHRISTIAN.

By-ends. I am a stranger to you, and you to me: if you be going this way, I shall be glad of your company: if not, I must be content.

Chr. "This town of Fairspeech," said CHRISTIAN, "I have heard of; and, as I remember, they say it is a wealthy place."

By-ends. Yes, I will assure you that it is; and I have very many rich kindred there.

Chr. Pray who are your kindred there, if a man may be so bold?

By-ends. Almost the whole town: and in particular, my Lord TURN-ABOUT; my Lord TIME-SERVER; my Lord FAIRSPEECH (from whose ancestors that town first took its name); also Mr. SMOOTH-MAN; Mr. FACING-BOTH-WAYS; Mr. ANY-THING; and the parson of our parish, Mr. TWO-TONGUES, was my mother's own brother by father's side. And to tell you the truth, I am become a gentleman of good quality; yet my great-grandfather was but a waterman, looking one way and rowing another-- and I got most of my estate by the same occupation.

Chr. Are you a married man?

By-ends. Yes; and my wife is a very virtuous woman--the daughter of a virtuous woman. She is my Lady FEIGNING'S daughter; therefore she came of a very honourable family, and is arrived to such a pitch of breeding, that she knows how to carry it to all, even to prince and peasant. 'Tis true, we somewhat differ in religion from those of the stricter sort; yet but in two small points: First, we never strive against wind and tide; secondly, we are always most zealous when religion goes in his silver slippers--we love much to walk with him in the street if the sun shines, and the people applaud it.

Then CHRISTIAN stepped a little aside to his fellow HOPEFUL, saying, "It runs in my mind that this is one BY-ENDS, of Fairspeech and if it be he, we have as very a knave in our company as dwells in all these parts." Then said HOPEFUL, "Ask him; methinks he should not be ashamed of his name." So CHRISTIAN came up with him again, and said, "Sir, you talk as if you knew something more than all the world doth; and if I take not my mark amiss, I deem I have half a guess of you: Is not your name Mr. BY-ENDS, of Fairspeech?"

By-ends. That is not my name: but indeed it is a nickname that is given me by some that cannot abide me: and I must be content to bear it as a reproach, as other good men have borne theirs before me.

Chr. But did you never give an occasion to men to call you by this name?

By-ends. Never, never! the worst that ever I did to give them an occasion to give me this name was, that I had always the luck to jump in my judgment with the present way of the times, whatever it was, and my chance was to gain thereby; but if things are thus cast upon me, let me count them a blessing, but let not the malicious load me therefore with reproach.

Chr. I thought indeed that you were the man that I had heard of; and to tell you what I think, I fear this name belongs to you more properly than you are willing we should think it doth.

By-ends. Well, if you will thus imagine, I cannot help it. You shall find me a fair company-keeper, if you will still admit me your associate.

Chr. If you will go with us, you must go against wind and tide, the which, I perceive, is against your opinion; you must also own religion in his rags as well as when in his silver slippers; and stand by him too when bound in irons, as well as when he walks the streets with applause.

By-ends. You must not impose nor lord it over my faith; leave me to my liberty, and let me go with you.

Chr. Not a step farther, unless you will do, in what I propound, as we.

By-ends. Then said BY-ENDS, "I shall never desert my old principles, since they are harmless and profitable. If I may not go with you, I must do as I did before you overtook me: even go by myself, until some overtake me that will be glad of my company."

Now I saw in my dream that CHRISTIAN and HOPEFUL forsook him, and kept their distance before him; but one of them looking back, saw three men following Mr. BY-ENDS; and behold, as they came up with him, he made them a very low bow, and they also gave him a compliment. The men's names were, Mr. HOLD-THE-WORLD, Mr. MONEY-LOVE, and Mr. SAVE-ALL--men that Mr. BY-ENDS had formerly been acquainted with; for in their minority they were schoolfellows, and were taught by one Mr. GRIPEMAN, a schoolmaster in Love-gain, which is a market town in the county of Coveting, in the north. This schoolmaster taught them the art of getting, either by violence, fraud, flattery, lying, or by putting on a guise of religion; and these four gentlemen had attained much of the art of their master, so that they could each of them have kept such a school themselves.

Well, when they had, as I said, thus saluted each other, Mr. MONEY-LOVE said to Mr. BY-ENDS, "Who are they upon the road before us?" For CHRISTIAN and HOPEFUL were yet within view.

By-ends. They are a couple of far countrymen, that, their mode, are going on pilgrimage.

Money-love. Alas! why did they not stay, that we might have had their good company; for they, and we, and you, sir, I hope, are all going on a pilgrimage?

By-ends. We are so, indeed; but the men before us are so rigid, and love so much their own notions, and do also so lightly esteem the opinions of others, that even if a man be never so godly, yet, if he jumps not with them in all things, they thrust him quite out of their company.

Mr. Save-all. That's bad; but we read of some that are righteous overmuch, and such men's rigidness prevails with them to judge and condemn all but themselves. But, I pray, what and how many were the things wherein you differed?

By-ends. Why, they, after their headstrong manner, conclude that it is their duty to rush on their journey all weathers; and I am for waiting for wind and tide. They are for hazarding all for God at a clap; and I am for taking all advantages to secure my life and estate. They are for holding their notions, though all other men be against them; but I am for religion in and so far as the times and my safety will bear it. They are for religion when in rags and contempt; but I am for him when he walks in his golden slippers in the sunshine, and with applause.

Mr. Hold-the-World. Aye, and hold you there still, good Mr. BY-ENDS; for, for my part, I can count him but a fool, that, having the liberty to keep what he has, shall be so unwise as to lose it. Let us be wise as serpents; 'tis best to make hay when the sun shines: you see how the bee lies still all winter, and bestirs her only when she can have profit with pleasure. God sends sometimes rain, and sometimes sunshine; if they be such fools to go through the first, yet let us be content to take fair weather along with us. For my part, I like that religion best that will stand with the security of God's good blessings unto us; for who can imagine, that is ruled by his reason, since God has bestowed upon us the good things of this life, but that he would have us keep them for his sake? Abraham and Solomon grew rich in religion. And Job says, "That a good man shall lay up gold as dust." But he must not be such as the men before us, if they be as you have described them.

Mr. Save-all. I think that we are all agreed in this matter; and therefore there need be no more words about it.

Mr. Money-love. No, there need be no more words about this matter indeed; for he that believes neither Scripture nor reason (and you see we have both on our side), neither knows his own liberty nor seeks his own safety.

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Friends, don't be surprised or shaken by modern compromises; truly there is nothing new under the sun. Let us guard our hearts against anything that would steal our love for Christ. And let us hope anew in the gospel, which was the answer for 1678 England and is still the answer for 2012 America.

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Wisdom for the Modern Church from the Not-So-Distant Past

“I trust I am not given to finding fault where there is not fault. But I cannot open my eyes without seeing things done in our Churches which thirty years ago were not so much as dreamed of. In the matter of amusements, professors have gone far in the way of laxity. What is worse, the Churches have now conceived the idea that it is their duty to amuse the people…. What folly has been left untried? What absurdity has not been too great for the consciences of those who profess to be the children of God—who are not of the world but called to walk with God in a separated life?  The world regards the high pretensions of such men as hypocrisy. And truly I do not know another name for them….

Surely there is a sobriety of behavior which is consistent with a work of Divine Grace in the heart and there is a levity which betokens that the spirit of evil is supreme…. We have gone from liberty to libertinism. We have passed beyond the dubious into the dangerous and none can prophesy where we shall stop. Where is the holiness of the Church of God today? …Now she is dim as smoking flax and rather the object of ridicule than of reverence.

May not the measure of the influence of a Church be estimated by its holiness? If the great host of professing Christians were in domestic life and in business life sanctified by the Spirit, the Church would become a great power in the world. God’s saints may well mourn with Jerusalem when they see spirituality and holiness at so low an ebb! Others may regard this as a matter of no consequence. But we view it as the breaking forth of a leprosy.”

          - Charles Spurgeon, 1889 (“A Dirge for the Down-Grade, and A Song for Faith”)

 

“Pragmatic philosophy...asks no embarrassing questions about the wisdom of what we are doing or even about the morality of it. it accepts our chosen ends as right and good and casts about for efficient means and ways to get them accomplished.  When it discovers something that works it soon finds a text to justify it, "consecrates" it to the Lord and plunges ahead.  Next a magazine article is written about it, then a book, and finally the inventor is granted an honorary degree.  After that any question about the scripturalness of things or even the moral validity of them is completely swept away.  You cannot argue with success.  The method works; ergo, it must be good.

The weakness of all this is its tragic shortsightedness.  It never takes the long view of religious activity, indeed it dare not do so, but goes cheerfully on believing that because it works it is both good and true.  It is satisfied with present success and shakes off any suggestion that its works may go up in smoke in the day of Christ.

As one fairly familiar with the contemporary religious scene, I say without hesitation that a part, a very large part, of the activities carried on today in evangelical circles are not only influenced by pragmatism but almost completely controlled by it.  Religious methodology is geared to it; it appears large in our youth meetings; magazines and books constantly glorify it; conventions are dominated by it; and the whole religious atmosphere is alive with it.

What shall we do to break its power over us?  The answer is simple.  We must acknowledge the right of Jesus Christ to control the activities of His church.  The New Testament contains full instructions, not only about what we are to believe but what we are to do and how we are to go about doing it.  Any deviation from those instructions is a denial of the Lordship of Christ.”

          - A. W. Tozer, 1970 (God Tells the Man Who Cares)

 

“According to God's grace that was given to me, I have laid a foundation as a skilled master builder, and another builds on it. But each one must be careful how he builds on it. For no one can lay any other foundation than what has been laid down. That foundation is Jesus Christ.

If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, each one's work will become obvious, for the day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire; the fire will test the quality of each one's work. If anyone's work that he has built survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, it will be lost, but he will be saved; yet it will be like an escape through fire....

If anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, he must become foolish so that he can become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness; and again, The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are meaningless....

A person should consider us in this way: as servants of Christ and managers of God's mysteries. In this regard, it is expected of managers that each one of them be found faithful.”

          - The Apostle Paul, 55 (1 Corinthians 3:10-15, 18-20; 4:1-2)

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Unutterable Depths of Wondrous Woe

"One day, in my wanderings, I heard a cry, a groan; methought ‘twas not a cry such as came from mortal lip, it had in it such unutterable depths of wondrous woe. I turned aside, expecting to see some great sight; and it was indeed a great sight that I saw.

"Lo, there, upon a tree, all bleeding, hung a man. I marked the misery that made his flesh all quiver on his bones; I beheld the dark clouds come rolling down from heaven; I saw them clothe his brow with blackness, and I perceived that his heart was as full of the gloom and horror of grief as the sky was full of blackness. Then I seemed to look into his soul, and I saw there torrents of unutterable anguish, wells of torment of such an awful character that mortal lip dare not sip, lest it should be burned with scalding heat.

"I said, ‘Who is this mighty sufferer? Why doth he suffer thus? Hath he been the greatest of all sinners, the basest of all blasphemers?’

"But a voice came forth from the excellent glory, and it said, ‘This is my beloved Son; but he took the sinner’s sin upon himself, and he must bear its penalty.’

"O God! I thought, I never saw sin till that hour, when I saw it tear Christ’s glories from his head, when I saw him covered with his own blood, and plunged into the uttermost depths of oceans of grief."

- Charles Spurgeon

HT: Of First Importance

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None Can Ever Ask Too Much

It's prayer week at Harvest! The Lord has given us big dreams for this summer. We want God to be glorified and people to be changed forever through our gospel efforts!

This morning I came across a hymn written by John Newton. It expresses some wonderful encouragement for the kind of big, bold requests we are praying this week for ourselves and for our community:

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare:
Jesus loves to answer prayer;
He Himself has bid thee pray,
Therefore will not say thee nay.

Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much.

With my burden I begin:
Lord, remove this load of sin;
Let Thy blood, for sinners spilt,
Set my conscience free from guilt.

Lord, I come to Thee for rest,
Take possession of my breast;
There Thy blood bought right maintain,
And without a rival reign.

As the image in the glass
Answers the beholder's face;
Thus unto my heart appear,
Print Thine own resemblance there.

While I am a pilgrim here,
Let Thy love my spirit cheer;
As my Guide, my Guard, my Friend,
Lead me to my journey's end.

Show me what I have to do,
Every hour my strength renew:
Let me live a life of faith,
Let me die Thy people's death.

The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit. (James 5:16-18)

HT: Desiring God Blog

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Man's Great End

I have found the little book, The Valley of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions to be a tremendous blessing in my walk with God. I believe it is a must for every believer's library. I would like to share one of those prayers with you and trust that it would encourage your heart and would daily be your prayer also.

There is one thing that deserves my greatest care,

that calls forth my ardent desires,

That is, that I may answer the great end for which

I am made-

to glorify thee who hast given me being,

and to do all the good I can for my fellow men;

Verily, life is not worth having

if it be not improved for this noble purpose.

Yet, Lord, how little is this the thought of mankind!

Most men seem to live for themselves,

without much or any regard for thy glory,

or for the good of others;

They earnestly desire and eagerly pursue

the riches, honours, pleasures of this life,

as if they supposed that wealth, greatness,

merriment,

could make their immortal souls happy;

But, alas, what false delusive dreams are these!

And how miserable ere long will those be that

sleep in them,

for all our happiness consists in loving thee,

and being holy as thou art holy.

O may I never fall into tempers and vanities,

the sensuality and folly of the present world!

It is a place of inexpressible sorrow, a vast empty

nothingness;

Time is a moment, a vapour,

and all its enjoyments are empty bubbles,

fleeting blasts of wind,

from which nothing satisfactory can be derived;

Give me grace always to keep in covenant with thee,

and to reject as delusion a great name here

or hereafter,

together with all sinful pleasures or profits.

Help me to know continually

that there can be no true happiness,

no fulfilling of thy purpose for me,

apart from a life lived in and for

the Son of thy love.

The Valley of Vision, pp. 22-23

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Battling the Unbelief of Anxiety

John Piper, in Future Grace (p. 59-61):

We should battle the unbelief of anxiety with the promises of future grace.

When I am anxious about some risky new venture or meeting, I battle unbelief with one of my most often-used promises, Isaiah 41:10. “Fear not for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you, with My victorious right hand."

When I am anxious about my ministry being useless and empty, I fight unbelief with the promise of Isaiah 55:11. “So shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

When I am anxious about being too weak to do my work, I battle unbelief with the promise of Christ, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).

When I am anxious about decisions I have to make about the future, I battle unbelief with the promise, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you” (Psalm 32:8).

When I am anxious about facing opponents, I battle unbelief with the promise, “If God is for us, who is against us!” (Romans 8:31).

When I am anxious about the welfare of those I love, I battle unbelief with the promise that if I, being evil, know how to give good things to my children, how much more will the “Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11). And I fight to maintain my spiritual equilibrium with the reminder that everyone who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for Christ’s sake “shall receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life” (Mark 10:29-30).

When I am anxious about being sick, I battle unbelief with the promise, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord delivers him out of them all” (Psalm 34:19). And I take the promise with trembling: “Tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:3-5).

When I am anxious about getting old, I battle unbelief with the promise, “Even to your old age, I shall be the same, and even to your graying years I shall bear you! I have done it, and I shall carry you; and I shall bear you, and I shall deliver you” (Isaiah 46:4).

When I am anxious about dying, I battle unbelief with the promise that “not one of us lives for himself and not one of us dies for himself; for if we live, we live for the Lord, or if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living” (Romans 14:7-9).

When I am anxious that I may make shipwreck of faith and fall away from God, I battle unbelief with the promises, “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:6); and, “He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

Let us make war...with our own unbelief. It is the root of anxiety, which, in turn, is the root of so many other sins. So let us...keep our eyes fixed on the precious and very great promises of God.

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Preach Christ, and You Will Have Morality

"I believe that as people's confidence in Christ grows, they do, ordinarily and inevitably, bear fruit that accords with faith. Thus, there is no need for some trade-off here, or some alleged dichotomy suggesting that we need to preach morality if we are to have morality. No; preach Christ, and you will have morality. Fill the sails of your hearers' souls with the wind of confidence in the Redeemer, and they will trust him as their Sanctifier, and long to see his fruit in their lives. Fill their minds and imaginations with a vision of the loveliness and perfection of Christ in his person, and the flock will long to be like him. Impress upon their weak and wavering hearts the utter competence of the mediation of the One who ever lives to make intercession for them, and they will long to serve and comfort others, even as Christ has served and comforted them."

- T. David Gordon (Why Johnny Can't Preach [Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2009], p. 78)

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The Prosperity Gospel: "A Ponzi Scheme"

The 3-minute audio below is a clip from a panel discussion during the 2010 Together for the Gospel conference. Mark Dever poses a question to John MacArthur regarding the prosperity gospel.

MacArthur compares the prosperity gospel to "a Ponzi scheme: the guys at the top get rich and everybody else is left in shredded rags, in the name of Jesus Christ."

MacArthur's comments also include an interesting comparison to Luke 21:1-6: "Any religious system that takes the last two pennies from a widow is coming down."



Metro Detroit does not need more gospel; Metro Detroit needs the right gospel.

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The Message of the Bible in 240 Words

D. A. Carson:

"God is the sovereign, transcendent and personal God who has made the universe, including us, his image-bearers. Our misery lies in our rebellion, our alienation from God, which, despite his forbearance, attracts his implacable wrath.

"But God, precisely because love is of the very essence of his character, takes the initiative and prepared for the coming of his own Son by raising up a people who, by covenantal stipulations, temple worship, systems of sacrifice and of priesthood, by kings and by prophets, are taught something of what God is planning and what he expects.

"In the fullness of time his Son comes and takes on human nature. He comes not, in the first instance, to judge but to save: he dies the death of his people, rises from the grave and, in returning to his heavenly Father, bequeaths the Holy Spirit as the down payment and guarantee of the ultimate gift he has secured for them—an eternity of bliss in the presence of God himself, in a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

"The only alternative is to be shut out from the presence of this God forever, in the torments of hell. What men and women must do, before it is too late, is repent and trust Christ; the alternative is to disobey the gospel (Romans 10:16; 2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17)."

"The Biblical Gospel" in For Such a Time as This: Perspectives on Evangelicalism, Past, Present and Future, ed. Steve Brady and Harold Rowdon (London: Evangelical Alliance, 1986), p. 80.

HT: Of First Importance

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Of Whom the World Was Not Worthy

"In the late Seventeenth Century in...southern France, a girl named Marie Durant was brought before the authorities, charged with the Huguenot heresy. She was fourteen years old, bright, attractive, marriageable. She was asked to abjure the Huguenot faith. She was not asked to commit an immoral act, to become a criminal, or even to change the day-to-day quality of her behavior. She was only asked to say, "J'abjure." No more, no less. She did not comply. Together with thirty other Huguenot women she was put into a tower by the sea.... For thirty-eight years she continued.... And instead of the hated word J'abjure she, together with her fellow martyrs, scratched on the wall of the prison tower the single word Resistez, resist!

"The word is still seen and gaped at by tourists on the stone wall at Aigues-Mortes.... We do not understand the terrifying simplicity of a religious commitment which asks nothing of time and gets nothing from time. We can understand a religion which enhances time.... but we cannot understand a faith which is not nourished by the temporal hope that tomorrow things will be better. To sit in a prison room with thirty others and to see the day change into night and summer into autumn, to feel the slow systemic changes within one's flesh: the drying and wrinkling of the skin, the loss of muscle tone, the stiffening of the joints, the slow stupefaction of the senses—to feel all this and still to persevere seems almost idiotic to a generation which has no capacity to wait and to endure."

–Karl Olsson (Passion [New York: Harper and Row Publishers, 1963], 116-117)

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Why Do Young People Leave the Faith?

The latest issue of Christianity Today includes an interesting article by Drew Dyck called "The Leavers: Young Doubters Exit the Church." According to the article, "the crisis of people leaving the faith has taken on new gravity.... Young adults today are dropping religion at a greater rate [five to six times] than young adults of yesteryear."

The entire article is an worthwhile read, but I want to draw your attention to a few sections that I found particularly intriguing (my emphases in bold):

A teenage girl goes off to college and starts to party. A young man moves in with his girlfriend. Soon the conflict between belief and behavior becomes unbearable. Tired of dealing with a guilty conscience and unwilling to abandon their sinful lifestyles, they drop their Christian commitment. They may cite intellectual skepticism or disappointments with the church, but these are smokescreens designed to hide the reason. "They change their creed to match their deeds," as my parents would say. I think there's some truth to this—more than most young leavers would care to admit. The Christian life is hard to sustain in the face of so many temptations. Over the past year, I've conducted in-depth interviews with scores of ex-Christians. Only two were honest enough to cite moral compromise as the primary reason for their departures. Many experienced intellectual crises that seemed to conveniently coincide with the adoption of a lifestyle that fell outside the bounds of Christian morality.

Many de-conversions were precipitated by what happened inside rather than outside the church. Even those who adopted materialist worldviews or voguish spiritualities traced their departures back to what happened in church. What pushed them out? Again, the reasons for departing in each case were unique, but I realized that most leavers had been exposed to a superficial form of Christianity that effectively inoculated them against authentic faith. When sociologist Christian Smith and his fellow researchers examined the spiritual lives of American teenagers, they found most teens practicing a religion best called "Moralistic Therapeutic Deism," which casts God as a distant Creator who blesses people who are "good, nice, and fair." Its central goal is to help believers "be happy and feel good about oneself." Where did teenagers learn this faith? Unfortunately, it's one taught, implicitly and sometimes explicitly, at every age level in many churches. It's in the air that many churchgoers breathe, from seeker-friendly worship services to low-commitment small groups. When this naive and coldly utilitarian view of God crashes on the hard rocks of reality, we shouldn't be surprised to see people of any age walk away.

The answer, of course, lies in more than offering another program. Nor should we overestimate the efficacy of slicker services or edgy outreach. Only with prayer and thoughtful engagement will at least some of the current exodus be stemmed. One place to begin is by rethinking how we minister to those from youth to old age. There's nothing wrong with pizza and video games, nor with seeker-sensitive services, nor with low-commitment small groups that introduce people to the Christian faith. But these cannot replace serious programs of discipleship and catechism. The temptation to wander from the faith is not a new one. The apostle Paul exhorted the church at Ephesus to strive to mature every believer, so that "we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes" (Eph. 4:14). Ultimately we will have to undertake the slow but fruitful work of building relationships with those who have left the faith.

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These Inward Trials

"Prayer Answered by Crosses"

I asked the Lord that I might grow in faith and love and every grace,
Might more of His salvation know, and seek more earnestly His face.

‘Twas He who taught me thus to pray; and He, I trust, has answered prayer;
But it has been in such a way as almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that, in some favoured hour, at once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel the hidden evils of my heart,
And let the angry powers of hell assault my soul in every part.

Yea, more, with His own hand he seemed intent to aggravate my woe,
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed, blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

"Lord, why is this?" I trembling cried; "Wilt thou pursue this worm to death?"
"This is the way," the Lord replied, "I answer prayer for grace and faith.

"These inward trials I now employ from self and pride to set thee free,
And break thy schemes of earthly joy, that thou may’st seek thy all in Me."

- John Newton

The Father disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Heb. 12:10-11)

HT: Desiring God blog

See also: "These Inward Trials," chapter 21 in Knowing God by J. I. Packer

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A Sovereign and Personal God

If you have been a believer for at least a few years, at some point along the way you have likely entered into a conversation (er, debate) over the seeming contradiction between God's sovereignty and human responsibility. I've had countless interactions of this nature over the past 10 years of my life. Typically the end result is that the well-meaning Christian, attempting to defend God, actually presents a caricature of God. (I'm not just pointing fingers here; I've been there and done that myself.) Some Christians attempt to defend God's sovereign authority by undermining Bible passages which emphasize human responsibility and choice. Other Christians attempt to defend God's sinless nature by undermining Bible passages which emphasize God's sovereignty over all things.

There is a third group of Christians: those who attempt to balance these two Scriptural truths. While I applaud this effort, it seems to me that there is both a right way and a wrong way to harmonize God's sovereignty and human responsibility.

The wrong way is to postulate that God is somewhat sovereign and that humans are somewhat responsible (50-50). Or to postulate that God is mostly sovereign and that humans are a little bit responsible (80-20); or vice-versa. Here's the problem: can you imagine if we reasoned the same way about other seemingly contradictory truths in Scripture? It is heresy to argue that Jesus is 50% God and 50% man. It is wrong to argue that the Bible is 80% the Word of God and 20% the product of man. To "resolve" the tension of God's sovereignty and human responsibility in this way is actually to deny both truths.

Jesus is 100% God and 100% man. The Bible is 100% the Word of God and 100% penned by man. Similarly, an investigation of the whole of Scripture must lead us to believe that God is 100% sovereign over all things, and that humans are 100% responsible for the choices they make. I cannot explain the divine-human confluence in the nature of Christ or the nature of Scripture. Nor can I explain the divine-human confluence in human activity. We must accept by faith that there are certain truths that cannot be fathomed by merely human minds: "The secret things belong to the LORD our God" (Deut. 29:29a). I cannot promise you that even in heaven we will have the ability to fully comprehend these mysteries. However, we are accountable for the truths contained in Scripture: "but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law" (Deut. 29:29b).

D.A. Carson has written the best Scriptural summary of this topic that I am aware of in his book A Call to Spiritual Reformation. In chapter 9 of this book, titled "A Sovereign and Personal God," Carson explores numerous Bible passages which present both divine sovereignty and human responsibility side-by-side. Carson's summary of these passages and his concluding thoughts are worth the price of the book. Here is a sample of Carson's introduction:

(1) God is absolutely sovereign, but his sovereignty never functions in Scripture to reduce human responsibility. (2) Human beings are responsible creatures - that is, they choose, they believe, they disobey, they respond, and there is moral significance in their choices; but human responsibility never functions in Scripture to diminish God's sovereignty or to make God absolutely contingent. My argument is that both propositions are taught and exemplified in the Bible. Part of our problem is believing that both are true. We tend to use one to diminish the other; we tend to emphasize one at the expense of the other. But responsible reading of the Scripture prohibits such reductionism. (p. 148)

After surveying Genesis 50:19-20; 2 Samuel 24; Isaiah 10:5-19; John 6:37-40; Philippians 2:12-13; Acts 18:9-10; and Acts 4:23-30. Carson concludes:

Our two propositions concerning God's sovereignty and human responsibility are directly tied to the nature of God. If God were sovereign and nothing more, we might all become Christian fatalists, but it would be hard to carve out a place for human interaction with Deity, a place for human responsibility. If God were personal and more - talking with us, responding to us, asking and answering questions - it would be easy to understand how human beings are responsible to him, but it would be harder to grasp just how this sort of God could be transcendent, sovereign, omnipotent. The wonderful truth is that God is both transcendent and personal. He is transcendent: he exists above or beyond time and space, since he existed before the universe was created. From this exalted and scarcely imaginable reach he sovereignly rules over the works of his hands. Yet he is personal: he presents himself to us not as raw power or irresistible force, but as Father, as Lord. When he speaks and issues a command, if I obey I am obeying him; if I disobey, I am disobeying him. All of my most meaningful relationships with God are bound up with the fact that God has disclosed himself to be a person. (p. 159)

"Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen." (Romans 11:33, 36)

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"Do It Again!"

"A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life.

"Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.

"But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony.

"It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun: and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon.

"It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them.

"It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

"The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical encore."

-G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

HT: Justin Taylor

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And You Thought You Were Feeling Bad About Yourself Today...

There are moments in the Christian life when we are acutely aware of the depth of our sinfulness. Perhaps you are at a place in your walk with God where you can relate to this man's feelings:

Often...I have had very affecting views of my own sinfulness and vileness; very frequently to such a degree as to hold me in a kind of loud weeping, sometimes for a considerable time together; so that I have often been forced to shut myself up. I have had a vastly greater sense of my own wickedness, and the badness of my heart, than ever I had before my conversion. It has often appeared to me, that if God should mark iniquity against me, I should appear the very worst of all mankind; of all that have been, since the beginning of the world to this time; and that I should have by far the lowest place in hell. When others [have said] that they were as bad as the devil himself, I thought their expressions seemed exceeding faint and feeble, to represent my wickedness. My wickedness, as I am in myself, has long appeared to me perfectly ineffable, and swallowing up all thought and imagination; like an infinite deluge, or mountain over my head. I know not how to express better what my sins appear to me to be, than by heaping infinite upon infinite, and multiplying infinite by infinite. Very often, for these many years, these expressions are in my mind, and in my mouth, "Infinite upon infinite...infinite upon infinite!" When I look into my heart, and take a view of my wickedness, it looks like an abyss infinitely deeper than hell....

Who was it that could have such a horribly negative view of himself? A murderer? An adulterer? A believer who did not understand the nature of justification and union with Christ? In fact, the author of these words was one of the greatest pastors and theologians in American church history: Jonathan Edwards.

Thankfully, his musings continued:

...And it appears to me, that were it not for free grace, exalted and raised up to the infinite height of all the fulness and glory of the great Jehovah, and the arm of his power and grace stretched forth in all the majesty of his power, and in all the glory of his sovereignty, I should appear sunk down in my sins below hell itself; far beyond the sight of every thing, but the eye of sovereign grace, that can pierce even down to such a depth.

Here's the reality: the closer a believer grows in his relationship with God, the more his own failings are exposed by the light of God's perfections. This keeps us humble and dependent on grace until the end of our lives, regardless of how much we grow in holiness. Reminds me of the words of another great pastor and theologian, the apostle Paul:

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! ... There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 7:24-8:1)

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Pray Until You Pray

I really need to do more of this:

"Christians should pray long enough and honestly enough, at a single session, to get past the feeling of formalism and unreality that attends not a little praying. We are especially prone to such feelings when we pray for only a few minutes, rushing to be done with a mere duty. To enter the spirit of prayer, we must stick to it for a while. If we 'pray until we pray,' eventually we come to delight in God's presence, to rest in his love, to cherish his will. Even in dark or agonized praying, we somehow know we are doing business with God. In short, we discover a little of what Jude means when he exhorts his readers to 'pray in the Holy Spirit' (Jude 20) - which presumably means it is treacherously possible to pray not in the Spirit.

"The Puritans...exhorted one another to 'pray until you pray.' Such advice is not to become an excuse for a new legalism: there are startling examples of very short, rapid prayers in the Bible. But in the Western world we urgently need this advice, for many of us in our praying are like nasty little boys who ring front door bells and run away before anyone answers."

-D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, pp. 36-37

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Medicine for Anxious Souls

"No anxiety ought to be found in a believer, because we have a Father in heaven who is almighty, who loves His children as He loves His only begotten Son." –George Mueller

"Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." -Jesus (Matt. 6:31-33)

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Deadly Substitutes for God

"The greatest enemy of hunger for God is not poison but apple pie. It is not the banquet of the wicked that dulls our appetite for heaven, but endless nibbling at the table of the world. It is not the X-rated video, but the prime-time dribble of triviality we drink in every night. For all the ill that Satan can do, when God describes what keeps us from the banquet table of his love, it is a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, and a wife (Luke 14:18-20). The greatest adversary of love to God is not his enemies but his gifts. And the most deadly appetites are not for the poison of evil, but for the simple pleasures of earth. For when these replace an appetite for God himself, the idolatry is scarcely recognizable, and almost incurable.

"Jesus said some people hear the word of God, and a desire is awakened in their hearts. But then, 'as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life' (Luke 8:14). In another place he said, 'The desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful' (Mark 4:19). 'The pleasures of this life' and 'the desires for other things' - these are not evil in themselves. These are not vices. These are gifts from God. They are your basic meat and potatoes and coffee and gardening and reading and decorating and traveling and investing and TV-watching and Internet-surfing and shopping and exercising and collecting and talking. And all of them can become deadly substitutes for God."

–John Piper (A Hunger for God, pp. 14-15)

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On Missing Pointers to God

"You will have noticed that most dogs cannot understand pointing. You point to a bit of food on the floor; the dog, instead of looking at the floor, sniffs at your finger. A finger is a finger to him, and that is all. His world is all fact and no meaning. And in a period when factual realism is dominant we shall find people deliberately inducing upon themselves this doglike mind."

-C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (reprint: New York: HarperOne, 2001), p. 114.

HT: Justin Taylor

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Anchored to Him by the Message of the Cross

“We ought never to set present communion with Christ, as so many are doing, in opposition to the gospel; we ought never to say that we are interested in what Christ does for us now, but are not so much interested in what He did long ago.

"Do you know what soon happens when men talk that way? They soon lose all contact with the real Christ; their religion would really remain essentially the same if Jesus never lived.

"That danger should be avoided by the Christian man with all his might and main. God has given us an anchor for our souls; He has anchored himself to us by the message of the Cross. Let us never cast that anchor off; let us never weaken our connection with the events upon which our faith is based.

"Such dependence upon the past will never prevent us from having present communion with Christ. Unlike the communion of the mystics it will be communion not with the imaginings of our own hearts, but with the real Saviour Jesus Christ.

"The gospel of redemption through the Cross and resurrection of Christ is not a barrier between us and Christ, but it is the blessed tie by which He has bound us for ever to Him.”

-J. Gresham Machen, What Is Faith? (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1991), 153-54

HT: Of First Importance

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