When Bad Stuff Happens

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

- 1 Corinthians 16:13

When the flames of affliction set fire to our best laid plans, theology look out. It’s not when things are going well that our doctrine of God is on the crucible, but when bad stuff happens. When the heat is turned up, it’s revealed that we’re not a special case in God’s kingdom. We will be tried and tested like everyone else. But how will we respond when we can’t see wisdom in His will for us?

The famous composer Beethoven lived in fear of losing his hearing. He felt that deafness would spell the end of his creative ability. His worst fears were realized, as he went on to lose his hearing completely. But unknown to him, while completely deaf he would write some of the most enduring and brilliant music the world has ever heard. With all distractions shut out, the notes and melodies flooded in, and perhaps it can be said that his deafness, a trial that would altar his life forever, turned out to be a catalyst for excellence.

Who are we howl against providence when we have trouble keeping a calendar? Who qualified us to critique the wise plans of God, who has purchased us for His own purposes and glory? Dear friends, when trials come that have your head spinning, it’s good to acknowledge that we don’t know exactly why, but whatever the reason—it’s bound to be good. You can’t see it yet, and nobody is asking you to. But our faith ought to change how we process pain.

We may not know why, but we do know whose hands our trials have passed through before reaching us. Look at those hands. Do you see the wounds from the nails? You can trust a God like that, even when the heat is turned up.

The Power of Presence

“Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” - Hebrews 10:25

There’s no substitute for old-fashioned, in-person fellowship. But the post-Covid reality among many in the Christian church is an increasingly virtual one. Meetings that would’ve been conducted in person have been relegated to the screen. In the virtual corporate world as well, the newest wave of office fashion is business casual on top, plaid pajama pants down below. Perhaps it could be said with some irony that only a part of us can truly be present over a Zoom call. Presence matters. It matters especially when our meetings aren’t merely a matter of information transfer, but of worship.

The author of Hebrews calls us to faithfully gather of believers for worship and mutual encouragement. This is an essential habit of the Christian—and not one that we begrudge, because as 1 John 2:9-10 states: “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.” What do we do when we love somebody? We pursue them. Nearness is the context where love finds its fullest expression.

The application for the Lord’s Day to meet with God’s family—the ones we love isn’t a burden, but a boon. And the command is as clear as a bell. But how else could we apply this? I would suggest that for any significant meetings between believers, we ought to make every effort to meet in-person. Why? On the one hand, when it comes to tension or conflict, it’s always easier to be cold and distant in a detached environment. Said positively, when we’re sitting next across the table, love and unity flow more naturally. All the same, in the absence of conflict, excitement and joy for God’s mission are more easily stoked in the context of presence. Even if the whole world goes virtual, this is territory that we can’t afford to surrender!

There are churches today that are opting to go completely virtual—to offer high quality streaming services. But despite the efficiency and convenience of pajama church, it’s not biblical worship. It lacks essential ingredients. The power of presence—a love and unity that can only be achieved when embodied creatures go through all the trouble of getting to church, despite screaming kids, expensive T-passes, and fluctuating gas prices. God’s program for worship isn’t virtual. It’s a powerful display of Jesus crucified and resurrected bodily, for those who have gathered together in the flesh.

What Birds Can Teach Us About Fear

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” -Luke 12:6-7

What do the birds teach us about fear? More than you probably think. On the road south to Jerusalem, as Jesus trains the Twelve for a lifetime of ministry, he hits on the price of a bird to urge them towards faith instead of fear. Sparrows aren’t worth much. Less than a penny a-piece in Jesus’ day. And yet, Jesus never forgets one. The thrust of his reference to the birds is that we who are made in His image, and for whom He goes to the cross to die, are of more value than birds.

These verses, freshly cherry-picked from their context have been featured in many popular devotionals, focusing on God’s mindfulness of us. The point is made that we are the apple of His eye, and by grace alone we dare to make that claim. But we must go further than, “God knows every detail about me” or “I’m valuable to Him” if we’re going to get the juice from this lemon.

The tone of these verses is deadly serious. In fact, the fear Jesus is urging them away from is a kind of fear that the Bible says enslaves men. Foxe wrote a little book about it, with the word Martyr in the title. The problem of the passage is that in days to come, while establishing the world-wide church, those who “kill the body” (v. 5) would be stalking the lives of Jesus’ disciples. In fact, some of the ones hearing about the market price of birds would be among the first martyrs. The temptation would be great to shrink back in fear and to tone down messaging to save their skin.

The fear of death, which touches us all in some measure is the crux of the passage, and the birds help us overcome it. How? Just before these verses, in Luke 12:5, Jesus says, “Fear Him!” referring to Himself, the One who has authority to cast sinful men into hell. But of their future persecutors, he says, “Fear them not.” The Man who wields all authority on earth and in heaven is greater. And so, if Jesus looks out for the birds, surely he’s looking out for you.

If we follow this passage to its future and logical conclusion, we will be blessed to think on this: On Day of the Lord, even as Jesus casts our persecutors into hell, we will be gathered to our reward. Until then, the Greatest Man, to whom all authority has been granted, will not allow anything to befall us that isn’t ultimately for our good and His glory. And who knows—in a grand display of His mercy, He may even save some of our persecutors.

It’s spring now, and the sweet sound of chirping birds wakes us up. Next time you hear them, be reminded that He who looks after them, looks after for you as you suffer for his Name. How could He not? For you and I are of more value than many sparrows.

Introversion & the Church

Merriam-Webster defines an introvert as, “A typically reserved or quiet person who tends to be introspective and enjoys spending time alone.” Takes on introversion and extroversion abound. Whatever we want to call it, a relevant observation, particularly for the church, is that we all have different capacities for social engagement. It matters because God has called us to life together.

Back in 2011, I was an intern with the New England Center for Expository Preaching, which was basically a pulpit supply for New England churches. Every week, we were assigned a text and early on Sunday morning, we were sent packing to preach at a church we’d never been to before. I’ll never forget meeting Donald Dacey, a seasoned pastor who invited me to preach Psalm 73 in his pulpit at Bradford Evangelical Free Church in rural—and I mean rural central Vermont. It was small, wooden church filled with light, with an entire windowed wall facing the Green Mountains.

Before the service, Dacey shared his story with me, that he was in big international business for years, but ended up back in the U.S. at Westminster Theological Seminary and then Yale Divinity to prepare for the pastorate. He spoke of himself as a painful introvert, which is quite a thing for pastor to be. He described his wife as an “off-the-charts” extrovert who loves hospitality. Perhaps there’s some truth in the saying “opposites attract” but nobody has ever claimed to my knowledge that they make good ministry partners. He then shared what continues to inspire me to this day.

When he began his ministry, preferring to be alone most of the week, he largely isolated himself. Social interaction was at times a trial for him, with preaching and short, intentional meetings being his strong suit. But he noticed that not only was his wife, who always had a crowd of friends, was withering due to his reclusive ways, but also the members of the church clearly needed his care. That’s when everything changed. Despite his strong preference to isolate, he opened up his life and his home to the congregation, and it has made all the difference.

The call to engage isn’t merely one for pastors. There are roughly 59 “one-anothers” in the New Testament that call every Christian to know and care for the members of the body. Here are several:

“Love one another” - John 13:34

Bear one another’s burdens” - Galatians 6:2

“Forgive one another” - Ephesians 4:2

“Live in harmony with one another”

“Build up one another”

“Confess your sins to one another” - James 5:16

“Stir up one another to love and good deeds” - Hebrews 10:24

A searching question for all of us is how are we to obey these and many other commands from God’s Word specific to God’s family if we’re not pursuing relationships with one another? The truth is that it’s impossible.

And so, here’s a word to those among us who are shy to jump in—who feel tempted after worship to slip out the door. Take if from a mentor of mine who often says about what he terms “relational capital” that, “whatever you have in the bank, just make sure you spend it.” Yes, and amen! Some of us may be most at home in a crowd. Others, surely not. But whatever capacity you have to do others in the church spiritual good—the call is to press in. It may be just a little. Maybe socially speaking, you’re living paycheck to paycheck. But no worries! Just give Jesus and His people your best effort, and by His grace, it will be enough.

Seven Stanzas at Easter

Make no mistake: if he rose at all
It was as His body;
If the cell’s dissolution did not reverse, the molecule reknit,
The amino acids rekindle,
The Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
Each soft spring recurrent;
It was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled eyes of the
Eleven apostles;
It was as His flesh; ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes
The same valved heart
That—pierced—died, withered, paused, and then regathered
Out of enduring Might
New strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
Analogy, sidestepping, transcendence,
Making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded
Credulity of earlier ages:
Let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
Not a stone in a story,
But the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of
Time will eclipse for each of us
The wide light of day.

And if we have an angel at the tomb,
Make it a real angel,
Weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair, opaque in
The dawn light, robed in real linen
Spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
For our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
Lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed
By the miracle,
And crushed by remonstrance.

—John Updike, “Seven Stanzas at Easter” (1960)

Listen Carefully to Jesus

We’ve all heard the phrase, “Seeing is believing,” but Christians live in the age of the ear, not the eye. Rather, hearing is believing, as Paul wrote to the Romans 10:17, So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ. It follows that the Spirit and the Word not only create faith, but sustain it to the end. For this reason, we must listen carefully to Jesus.

It’s here that we need to clarify something else. What is the Word of Christ that Paul goes on about? Isn’t it those specific words that some Bible publishers emblazon on the pages of the Gospels in bright red? Aren’t we to listen a bit more carefully to Jesus’ words in the Scripture? After all, don’t his words come with a bit more authority than Paul’s? Or John’s? Or whoever?

We must answer ‘No!’ All of the Bible is the Word of Christ! Liberal “theologians” from untold ages past have undermined the authority of God’s Word by suggesting that only Jesus’ words are Jesus’ Word. But because God is the ultimate author of Scripture, all of it is Jesus’ Word. We need to listen carefully to Jesus in Genesis and in Judges. We need to hear him in Haggai and in Hebrews. Indeed, we need to lean in whenever the Word is preached and while we sit under the lamp light with an open Bible. And that’s because listening to Jesus in His Word is the food that feeds our faith.

As we lean in as a church to hear what Christ says to us, may our prayer be a corporate one, as Paul wrote in Colossians 3:16:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

A church headed for glory together listens carefully to Jesus. How are you doing, dear friend, at listening? Ask God for the grace to listen a little more carefully to his voice today.

A Happier Prayer Life

“I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love,
    and I will meditate on your statutes.” —Psalm 119:48

What’s the key to a happier prayer life? Is it doubling down on discipline? A focus on the discipline of prayer is needful. But if we hope to have a happier prayer life, our gaze needs to fall on the One to whom we pray. This is why the key to a happier prayer life isn’t merely a calendar overhaul, but a deeper knowledge of God.

This is why Bible intake, rather than being a separate feature of the Christian life, is integrally tied to prayer. If prayer is a fire, the Bible, which reveals God, His Gospel, and His promises, is the fuel. Our prayer life will never rise higher than our contemplation of God’s Word. These two spiritual disciplines, which are often handled separately, are vitally connected.

In Psalm 119, the Psalmist is enamored with the God of the Word and so he goes on about his delight in the law, his commitment to it, and the blessing that it brings when he obeys it. In verse 48, the Psalmist vows to “lift up my hands towards your commandments, which I love…” Though there is no definitive posture of prayer in either the Old Testament or New, the lifting up of the hands in connection with prayer is profoundly emphasized in Scripture (1 Tim. 2:8). It may well be the case, that the Psalmist is modeling for us that our Word life is to be supplemented by prayer, and that our prayer life is to be supplemented by the Word!

How can we be happier in prayer? The key is to be happier in God! So it follows that the Word and prayer are the closest of friends. Or to touch on the analogy earlier mentioned, the Word lights the bonfire of prayer. And likewise, as we prayerfully pursue the God of the Word, the happy fires of prayer are stoked. No more wet wood. No more smoldering prayer. Dear friends, as we pursue a happier prayer life, remember that the key is knowing God. And we know Him as the Spirit reveals Him in His Word.

The Hands & the Heart

“For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
    you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

—Psalm 51:6-7

We’re all tempted to serve Jesus without savoring him. We neglect what Jesus calls in Luke 10:42, the “good portion.” But busy hands without a heart for Jesus is a recipe for sin and misery.

In Psalm 51, a freshly convicted David declares the vital connection between the hands and the heart. No amount of burnt offerings laid on the altar could please God. Superficial worship holds out hands to God, but holds back the heart. The problem was David’s sin-sick heart before the Lord, not a shortage of bulls and goats. One thing we can learn from David’s scandalous ordeal is that the matter of the heart is always the heart of the matter. Worship that pleases God flows from a humble heart.

Friend, are you neglecting the better portion? Have you made peace with certain sin-patterns in your life? Have you resisted church fellowship, one of God’s means of speaking into your life? Do you have busy hands, but a troubled heart? Jesus invites you to draw near to Him without delay. The image of Him on the cross, arms wide open, is an apt image for reluctant worshippers.