The Bruised Reed

The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Richard Sibbes was a Puritan, but the opposite of the caricature we all have of Puritans. Instead of staunch and stern, Sibbes was sensitive. Where we’d expect harshness, he deals out compassion and mercy in abundance.

The theme text is Isaiah 42:3:
“A bruised reed He will not break,
And smoking flax He will not quench;
He will bring forth justice for truth.”

Sibbes’ burning passion was to assure the faint hearted that their souls were safe with the Savior. Yes, we have failed Him often. But that doesn’t mean He will abandon us. This is the perfect antidote to discouragement that comes because of your inadequate Christian walk of sanctification.

The one quibble I’d have is that in expositing the last of the three lines of the Scripture text, Sibbes internalizes the whole thing. He does so brilliantly, but doesn’t deal with corporate, societal or political aspects of this. How will Jesus bring forth justice in our life together?



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The Ballad of the White Horse

The Ballad of the White Horse by G.K. Chesterton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Chesterton brilliantly retells King Alfred’s 9th-century wars against the pagan Danish invaders of Britain. Using the format of an epic poem matches the form and sound of the words to the story he lays out. As a master of the English language I didn’t easily understand everything to which the author alludes. Thankfully I had the Ignatius Press 2001 reprint, which includes exhaustive explanatory endnotes.

Alfred fought the Danes not just militarily but in their pagan worldview. Chesterton includes the legends that portray this. One emphasizes the dignity of the servant and the need for a ruler to serve. In another Alfred sneaks into the Danish camp with his harp. Guthrum, the Danish chief, and his lords first sing songs of their gods that end in nihilistic despair and blind stoicism. Alfred sings back:

“That though you hunt the Christian man
Like a hare on the hill-side,
The hare has still more heart to run
Than you have heart to ride” (III.335-338).

Earlier we hear:
“The men of the East may spell the stars,
And times and triumphs mark,
But the men signed of the cross of Christ
Go gaily in the dark” (I.231-234).


Alfred is a key source of the Christian happy warrior theme, found today in Tolkien's riders of Rohan, and on the pages of National Review. Gaiety abounds, even while observing and passing through dark times.

This one is best read aloud! The meter is really strong, so that you can sense the stern Danes and Alfred’s resolve. He often puts the climax in the last line, with a couple fewer syllables for emphasis. My boys ate up the battle scenes, of course.



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Antony and Cleopatra

Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Most of my knowledge of this piece of history has come from 1950s epic movies, so reading it through Shakespeare’s eyes was a delight.

Cleopatra’s seductive opportunism and Antony’s prideful strength and indulgence come out strongly. Their despair and demise at the end argue powerfully against these character traits. Their common ground was pride: they both would rather die than face defeat and submission alive.



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Shakespeare's Best // Covenant Communion // What to Do at Church?

What is Shakespeare's most popular play?
This link has some cool infographics and a unique way of answering the question...


Peter Leithart offers some provocative thoughts on paedo (infant) communion.  I find this biblically sound.  Great for Reformation Day reading!  Always reforming...
"The Protestant tendency to restrict the evangelical invitation to God's table to the spiritually accomplished has done as much to undermine the pure gospel of grace as a hundred Papal bulls and a dozen Tridentine councils."


A short encouragement toward the right goal, when you are at church.

Bad Patriarchy, or Just Biblical?

As the pastor of a church that self-identifies (!) as patriarchal, I read with interest Matt Holst’s article critiquing Patriarchy at Reformation 21.  Mr Holst’s analysis is a mixed bag, and since many Reformed folk seem quick to grind the axe against patriarchy these days, I thought I'd offer a cordial response.  Taking each of his five areas of grave concern, then...

First, yes, Patriarchy does tend to diminish and replace church authority.  Yes, and amen.  I’ve seen multiple times first-hand the patriarch playing the part of a dutiful church member until the slightest thing crosses his agenda.  Then it’s back to home church or skip to the next church that will leave me alone to my family.  The accountability tends to be one-way: patriarch holding the church accountable, and seldom the other way around.

Second, yes, Patriarchy tends to isolate families away from even the church, not to mention the world.  Again, the slightest thing to impinge on the sacred family schedule is dismissed.  Patriarchal churches and families are great for the introverted among us, but not so much for the moms who need connection and encouragement from others outside the family.  It’s fine to avoid over-scheduling so that you aren’t at a church meeting away from your family every night of the week.  It

is NOT okay to swing the other way, and not connect with your church family at all except a couple hours on Sunday for one worship service.

The third point, that patriachalists turn the roles of prophet, priest and king into church offices, is nearly the same as the first point.  I have found more use, though, from pointing parents to the roles, than abuse from those taking it too far.  The average Christian father isn’t even aware that he can or should represent Christ to his family in any way as prophet, priest and king.  Reviving an awareness of these roles without putting the father’s position in competition with the church’s is the goal.

Fourth.  Here’s where it gets really interesting.  Yes, bad patriarchy tends to pull apart the husband-wife unity, and set the man on top, isolated from his family in decision making.  I have seen this play out in very detrimental ways, first hand.  On the other end of the spectrum, in most households today mom usually proposes things verbally and then just goes ahead with them when dad doesn’t say anything against it.  This is bad matriarchy, in response to the husband’s abdication of his job.  (Funny so many Reformed are on a crusade against patriarchy, when the opposite problem is actually afflicting our main culture far more.)  Holst is absolutely right that mom should have authority in the home.  But it ought not be a self-asserted authority, separate from what the parents decide together to do.

The fifth point is off base, I think.  While a great deal of legalism does tend to crop up around patriarchy, God’s design is that the husband be the head of the wife – that he be the one individual with authority in the home, as Christ to the church (Ephesians 5:22-27).  Centering authority in one person in the home was God’s idea.  In the family structure, there is not a plurality of leadership in the same way you have in a board of elders.  It is not a singularity of leadership as with a bishop or dictator.  And yet, the woman is given as a helper IN LEADING.  That is where I part ways with bad patriarchy.  But there is an office of family leader which the man is called to fulfill.  That is where I part ways with Holst.  If this seems a contradiction to the fourth point, remember that the isolation is the problem.  Every leader needs to both be with his people, and be apart from them to lead them.  The trick for the husband is to see his wife as a co-shepherd leading him or helping him to lead others, or to see her as a sheep to be led, depending on what the situation is calling for.

As a post-script, it is also right to point out that men are not over women generally, but that this is specific to the marriage relationship.  Holst misses 1 Timothy 2:11-15 here, which does not put men as a class above women as a class.  But it does reserve offices of authority for men.  In this way, all Christians should be for patriarchy in the literal sense (“men rule”), while avoiding the excesses of bad Patriarchy.

Witness, Work and Welcome

This table points to work and witness and welcome, too.

It points to Christ’s witness that drove Him to the cross.  He was the great prophet who spoke the truth about Himself, and our hearts that reject Him.  

This table points to Christ’s work on the cross, letting His body be ripped and His blood be poured out for you.

And this table points to the welcome Jesus extends to you.  Come to Him now.

We witness at this table, too, proclaiming the Lord’s death until He comes again.

We work NOT to work.  We are resting in Christ’s work here – the opposite of work.  Maybe it takes work to not work, to focus on the Lord instead of trying to earn God’s favor ourselves.  

And we welcome – we welcome the Lord into our hearts, our thoughts, our lives.  And we welcome His people as we look around, discerning the body of Christ in one another.  We receive one another.

Receive Him, rest on Him alone today.  

10/23/16

Don't Assume Room Temperature

Revelation 3:14-16, 19-21

These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth....19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne."

The Laodicians lived between hot and cold.  The next town over one way had hot springs; the next town over the other way had cold mountain water flowing through it.  The two waters met near Laodicea and became uselessly lukewarm.  

The point, like the water, is clear.  Do good for others.  Either healing with hot springs, or cooling with refreshing hospitality.  Jesus knows your works and your heart.  

To go with a kitchen example, We need to be plugged in to the power source, to be the fridge or the oven, to give others a cold drink or a piping hot apple dumpling.  If a hurricane hits, or if we just unplug from the Lord out of apathy, we all tend to assume room temperature, and turn moldy and gross. 

Instead we are called to zeal and repentance, and Jesus will come in to us and eat with us.  We need only make room for Him.

Let us confess our sins before almighty God.

10/23/16

Posture at the Table

Psalm 23

"He makes me lie down in green pastures"

Sheep usually eat standing up, walking from one patch of grass to another.  But the host of this table is the only begotten Word of God, eternal.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever.  And He wants us resting in Him, abiding in Him.  Not hurriedly eating a meal so we can rush off to our next appointment today, on this day of rest, ironically.  

Lie down.  Recline.  

At the first supper in the upper room, John the disciple Jesus loved, reclined on Jesus, against His chest.  Lean on His everlasting arms.  I do not think at this table that we should be on the edge our seats or on our knees, partaking as supplicants.  We have already confessed our sins. Rather, we sit back in our chairs in close conversation and communion with our host and others at the table.  He has made us kings and priests in His kingdom.  Not careless or casual, but knowing our place is secure in Him.  Not standing around the table as if ready to rush off, nor refusing the grace of our offered place.  

Sit and meditate for a while on Your savior, His mercy.  He is Your life, your light, Your good shepherd.

7/24/16

Establishing Your Heart

Hebrews 13:8-9

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ⁹ Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.

Scripture tells us here, what we will also see in John 1.  Jesus is eternally the same.  Because of that, we don’t want to be chasing the latest fads in our thinking about Him.  Such fads reflect the world and the times more than the truth of who Jesus is.

One way fads show up for us is in our food.  New recipes, diets, ingredients.  Now, as with science, there are things we have learned that we didn’t know 800 years ago, and it’s a good thing.  So stay on top of good nutrition for your family, by all means.  But how is your heart established?  Heb 13:9 says by grace.  By grace.  When it goes on to say not by foods, it is talking mainly about the temple sacrifices you would eat.  Aren’t you misapplying the text, then, preacher, you might ask?  No, this is a how much more argument.  If God doesn’t want believers occupied anymore with ritual food laws He actually wrote into the Bible, how much more does He not want us distracted from the Eternal Lord Jesus by fads and foods not mentioned in the Bible at all?

Lots of things call for our attention today, many of them good, some of them harmless fun.  But the advertisement usually wants you setting your heart on their product.  Will a political election establish our nation one way or another?  Not without the grace of God moving hearts first.

Establish your heart by grace, by the eternal Jesus Christ.

Let us confess our sins together, of setting our hearts on created and lesser things, instead of on our great and good Father in heaven.

7/24/16

Secular Christians // Hell

Are you a modern secularist, except for a belief in the soul and a future and distant heaven?
You might be.
See this book review by Doug Wilson to check...


Here is an excellent article on hell by Tim Keller.  He follows CS Lewis in arguing that hell is locked first from the inside.  In one sense this is true and in another sense (from the decrees of God) it is not. But this is only part of the article - don't skip this one over that point!  Besides that controversial point, there is a LOT of gold here, on why hell is important, how to communicate it to unbelievers, etc.

Timon of Athens Review

Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


“Athens is become a forest of beasts.”

Timon of Athens is one of the most depressing Shakespeare plays I’ve read this year. Timon is a wealthy and generous nobleman of Athens who goes bankrupt from his generosity. His “friends” flee and refuse to loan him money in his need. Timon changes from a naïve optimist to a hardened cynic overnight. He hates all mankind and lives out in the woods. Even when the Athenians come and offer him dictatorship of the city, he refuses. He kills himself, and leaves an epitaph that rails against the reader to go away and curses him to be consumed by a plague.

Apart from God’s revelation, men have a hard time staying balanced in their view of man. Are people basically good and well-intentioned, to be trusted until proven otherwise? Or are they sinners who should always be suspected? The truth is in between. Because of our sinful nature inherited from Adam we do need accountability, checks and balances, or we will try to get away with anything. But God also gives common grace to all men, and His Spirit at work in believers, to pursue the good, true and beautiful. Total depravity doesn’t mean we should always suspect everyone’s motives to be malicious. Grace doesn’t mean we can expect all sweetness and roses all the time.

Timon’s quote above assumes Athens changed. But what had really changed was Timon’s situation, giving him new information about his supposed friends. God brings changes into our lives to reveal our character and teach us new things. Timon is a classic bad example of how NOT to respond. It’s true that he needed to grow in his view of others, but he learned the wrong lesson.



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Postmodern Times

Postmodern Times: A Christian Guide to Contemporary Thought and Culture by Gene Edward Veith Jr.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Veith ably observes how postmodernism has changed the cultural landscape in art, movies, literature, politics and religion. The confusion of Babel has smashed into the modern world like a wrecking ball, leaving little of the bubbling confidence that we can fix all our problems if we just try hard enough.

But postmodernism swings the other way, skeptical of believing any story that claims to explain reality. We have to construct our own reality and meaning in life, they say. Christianity rightly critiques this by pointing to the ultimate reality of God and His revealed Word, a solid foundation on which to perceive and handle truth. We can take dominion of this world to an extent, and DO things.

I enjoyed Veith’s converse point even more, I think, though. Christians should welcome postmodernism’s critique of modernism in part. Most folks have set aside a naïve trust in the abilities of man to solve man’s problems. This opens people to the gospel in a new way. They see the problem and don’t see a solution. The problem is most are now prejudiced against accepting any solution from anywhere. Our current response to Trump is a good example: “Well, there’s a better chance of things improving with him than with Hillary.” This is the ringing endorsement I hear most often. Not agreement with his policies, not repeating his plans to lead. People are overwhelmingly pessimistic about solutions today. They refuse to be impressed. The cool response to everything is now, “Meh.” Veith calls it a cultivated blandness. This is the fruit of postmodernism.

There IS an absolute truth that we can count on outside of ourselves. Humanity is capable of great things, but we cannot fix all our problems by ourselves. Our knowledge and might is fragile. We are dependent on our Creator. At the end, Veith prophetically (in 1994) says Christians will come to be targeted for holding to absolute assertions about truth regarding God, ethics, and salvation. When the foundations are destroyed (Psalm 11), what can the righteous do? There appears to be no answer, except that God is in His temple. HE is the answer to the chaos of Babel, to the refusal to accept answers to our questions and hurts in life.



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Dad's Delight // Stott v. Lloyd-Jones // Intriguing Distractions

If God had perceived that our greatest need was political stability, he would have sent us a politician. —D.A. Carson


David Mathis interviews a Sri Lankan Christian writer about how dad can set a tone of joy and delight in his home.  This is practical, spiritual gold!


John Stott once publicly contradicted Lloyd-Jones right after he spoke, at a major conference.
The question was whether to separate from "doctrinally mixed" denominations.
Learn more here.  


Here's a preaching tip I sometimes forget: the intriguing isn't always the important.

Restoration in Your Future

After a sermon on John 1:14-18, at the Lord's Table:

When we think of the Word becoming flesh, when we hear of Him coming home and us receiving Him, this is all language that leads us to a table.  All this truth is dramatized here in the Lord’s Supper.  The master of the house has returned.  He knocks on the door and we open and receive Him.  He feeds us from His immeasurable supply.  We have on the table The bread of life, because He gave up His body to death.  The wine of joy, because He suffered and bled for us.

But these are signs and seals of the covenant.  The covenant is the God-shaped relationship we have with Him, set up by Christ.  He took on our flesh to redeem us, body and soul.  Restoration is on the way, for every aspect of your life.  He heals all your diseases, restores your soul, reconciles broken friendships, replaces tension with tenderness.  Restoration is on the way, because of the redemption accomplished at the cross.

So remember your redeemer, the eternal Word.  Remember you are at the family table of Father and Son, adopted as a child of God

Tis So Sweet to trust in Jesus, just to take him at his word,

just to rest upon his promise, just to know, thus saith the Lord

Jeus, Jesus how I trust him, How I’ve proved him o’er and o’er

Jesus, Jesus, percious Jesus, O for grace to trust him more!

           

Receive Him, rest on Him alone today.  

8/1/16

Look to Him

Hebrews 12:1-2

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

These verses teach us much about us in our sin.

First, we are easily ensnared and held back.  Sin sneaks up to tempt us, quickly and often.

Second, resisting sin is a race to run with endurance.  It is not a one-time, short sprint.

Third, joy comes after resisting temptation, after enduring the cross.  We usually focus on the passing pleasure of sin and forget the long, dull ache of regret that follows. 

But the main thing to remember is that we are to look to Jesus.  Not just as a tactic to defeat sin.  We look to Him because we love Him and trust Him.  When that love fades and the siren song of sin calls, we look away from Him.  We shrink from the cross of our own self-sacrifice.  We are intimidated by its shame.  But Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God, so let us look to Him.

Let us confess our sins before almighty God.

8/1/16