Counseling is More than Correcting // Bible is More than Fixing Sin

This edition of strolling the links is brought to you by Uri Brito, pastor in Pensacola, FL.


First a snippet from a longer conversation - but this on counseling.
"Pastoral counseling habits require a re-orientation. We are too quick to offer solutions and Bible verses without listening to our counselees’ concerns and contexts. While there are occasions where direct (nouthetic) confrontation is needed, it ought not to be the paradigm for counseling. As Dr. Field notes, “Some conservative pastors get restless after ten or twenty minutes of listening.” "


And here's something I've been trying to articulate for years, now.
"The Bible is not just about solving our sin problem. It has a more foundational purpose. It begins with the creation account. Creation is the fundamental starting point of missions. In the creation, we learn to answer the questions, “Who owns this world?” and “What is our mission in it?” These questions only find an answer in the first pages of recorded revelation. If you skip this part, everything about the way you view the world will be thwarted. You can’t begin with creation fallen. You must begin with creation as it was intended and then move from there."

Superheroes // Homeschooling High School // New York Times bias

Romans Road puts out Digressio, an excellent compilation of articles.
Here's one from their 2017 issue on what's good about superheroes.


Circe Institute does a podcast on homeschooling in the Charlotte Mason stream.
Here's one on the high school years.  Helpful perspective here.


Marvin Olasky does good journalistic work.  Here's a short article detailing New York Times bias in three separate stories, on one day!

The State of Our President

It has been cliche for quite some time now to bemoan the evangelical Christian's mindless support of the Presidency of Donald Trump.  What hypocrisy to call for Clinton's impeachment, while turning a blind eye to Trump's infidelities!

There is of course some truth to the charge.  Trump historically has been (arguably) an admirable entrepreneur, but an amoral figure.  It's sad that any support of our president needs to be qualified with separating oneself from his immoral past.  I'll never forget the picture of Jerry Falwell, Jr. posing for a picture in Trump's office with a Playboy cover in the background.

This is what made the State of the Union speech so striking.  For the first hour I was mildly disappointed.  Our president said good and true things, but it was all oriented to money and jobs and our economy.  It reminded me of arguments I had with friends during the primaries when I was against him.  He might be fine as a fiscal conservative, I said, but I couldn't see him advocating for biblical morality in the public square.

I am gladly eating my words now.  So happy to be wrong.

The speech was well put together rhetorically.  Trump was restrained and mature given the current political climate against him.  He started with economic issues but he didn't stay there.

The wall and border he framed as a moral issue, rightly so.  His biggest blunder of the night was here, neglecting to qualify his position with the reality that many seeking entrance to our country are not nefarious folks.  But raising the issue of sex trafficking, and having present family of victims murdered by illegals, was rhetorically effective against the derision from his opponents who think he is just bigoted against brown people.

How do you speak against the fiscally insane policies of socialists like Bernie Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez and Kamala Harris, who are sitting in the room as you speak?  You start with the chaos those policies have wreaked on Venezuela.  Excellent.

And how do you work up to speaking against abortion to a room full of feminists?  Paid family leave and the evoking the experience of holding your new-born baby, that's how.  Trump outed the campaign against Virginia Governor Northam for what it really is: the Democrat party removing its own, when he spoke too plainly about what they really advocate regarding late-term abortion.

Now, is it weird to hear a philanderer and moral scoundrel speak to the nation about children in the mother's womb being made in the holy image of God?  Yes.  Should we work against him because of that awkwardness?  I don't think so.  It reminds me of Jesus' line to the Pharisees that the Gentiles, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God before them.

Don't get me wrong.  I don't naively assume Trump has entered the Kingdom.  But he is singing some of the songs of the Kingdom of God.

By the most cynical political calculation, Trump is pandering to his conservative base and not really believing what he says regarding abortion.  Even assuming this is true, I'll take and support it over the far more tepid Republican alternatives we could have had, who likely would have cowered at the culture war onslaught that has gone on for the last few years, and said nothing in defense of the babies, or toned it down.  No.  We are letting "doctors" kill the babies, and taking advantage of vulnerable women.  It is demonic to convince women that they are gaining freedom and more choices for their lives by ending the life inside them.  We need a warrior for this truth in the Oval Office right now, not a prudent pragmatician.  It seems perhaps that our vice-President is convincing our president of the urgency of this issue.

Whatever Trump's real motives or personal standing before His Creator, I'm giving thanks today for his stand for the unborn and against socialism before a watching world.

Genesis 30

The Text

In the middle of miserable strife between his two wives, Jacob fathers 11 sons, the last being Joseph.
He asks Laban to leave so he can start building his own savings instead of just increasing Laban's.
Laban basically says no.
Jacob once again plays shrewd to the point of deception, asking for the speckled and black livestock as his own.  Laban agrees but separates and sends them all away to hide them from Jacob!  Jacob responds with diligent cultivation of the flock that is left, and prospers anyway.
Some think with the rods he puts before the speckled sheep, that he believes a superstition.  Others that there is some scientific fact Jacob knew that we don't.  Others that he put the rods there as an act of faith, asking God to bless his work.  Whichever is right, the main point is that he is working at his vocation wisely and faithfully and God blesses that.

Christ in the Text
Jacob is a figure of Christ, seeking to bless and grow His flock while the snake Laban is trying to destroy His work and hinder the growth of His household to maintain his own.

Doctrinal application
The effects of sin are everywhere, and difficult to overcome.  Jacob has 2 wives who make the peace of his family hard to cultivate.  He has an uncle who works to prevent his financial security, and keep Jacob dependent on him.

Cultural application
The dominion mandate to fill and subdue the earth has strong opposition, but will be overcome by God's grace granting ability to His people.

Personal application

Note the parallel between our spiritual lives and our vocations.  In both there are many thorns and thistles we have to work through and overcome.  Shrewdness and sharp dealing is sometimes needed with unscrupulous people in the marketplace.  But don't cross the line to deceit and dishonor.  We cultivate our souls, our families and our vocations all by faith (or we don't do it at all), and God blesses us.

Genesis 24

The Text
Verses 1-9 - Abraham sends his servant back to Haran to get a wife for Isaac.
Verses 10-14 - the servant prays for God's provision in this mission.
Verses 15-28 - God answers as Rebekah meets him and waters his camels.
Verses 29-61 - Her family meets him and he explains.  They and she approve.
Verses 62-66 - Rebekah meets and marries Isaac.

Christ in the Text
The connection is a bit symbolic, but also a central theme of Scripture:
God arranges a marriage, providing a bride for His Son. 
Abraham is in the role of God.
Isaac in the role of Jesus.
Rebekah in the role of the Church.
This chapter is a blurry picture of Christ, though, because when God works to get Jesus' bride in history, He sends His Son Himself, not a servant.  In Genesis 24, Isaac just sits and waits.  Jesus sacrifices and lays down His life for the Church.
Ways the picture works:
Abraham like God has foresight and resources and acts according to God's promises to bless Abraham with offspring.
Isaac like Jesus is blessed and delighted to receive His bride (John 17:24).
Rebekah like the church is willing to devote the rest of her life to a Husband she has never seen, trusting God that He is blessing and fulfilling promises to His family and to herself as she becomes part of it.

Doctrinal Understanding
This is the middle and longest chapter of Genesis.  Moses could have told the story with a lot fewer words, but draws it out, both for literary drama and for emphasis on the importance of a bride to fulfill God's promises.

Cultural and Personal Application
To carry on the Christ centered metaphor, as Rebekah is willing to leave her family and identify with another one publicly, so must Christians decide to live according to different "house rules."  The church should submit to Isaac's (Christ's) headship, not to deceitful Laban's.  Rebekah and her family didn't always do this so well (Genesis 31:32; 35:2), and neither does the church - often tempted as we are to compromise with and identify with the world instead of our Savior and Bridegroom.

The Hunt for Red October

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Clancy's first Jack Ryan novel, and my first Clancy read.

One of the few times I saw the movie before reading the book, which was a good thing, believe it or not. Else I would have been lost in the technical minutiae. But it seems a compelling depiction of modern naval warfare.

Definitely a product of the Cold War, Clancy throws in side comments about American freedom and the Soviet mindset that set them in stark contrast, and show the moral inequivalence between the two. It's probably overly simplistic: the Americans are always meritocratic, while for the Russians politics and rank come before competence. But I wouldn't argue with the basic refutation of moral equivalence between the two, given the explicit godlessness of the U.S.S.R.

Still, Clancy tips the hat to the technical and tactical capabilities of the Russians, in the characters of Ramius and Tupolev.

Clancy is a deft craftsman of the modern literary device - I don't know the technical term - of shifting from one scene or location to another with increasing rapidity, heightening the pace and drama. It's a bit of a cheap trick in my view, but for this kind of story and genre it works.

A smattering of language, including the f-bomb. Probably way less than is realistic, but still a bother to me.



View all my reviews

Genesis 15

The Text
Verses 1-8
God promises Abraham he has a bright future.  Abraham objects that God hasn't even given him one child for an heir, yet.  God says they will be as countless as the stars.  Abraham believes and asks for a sign that this will be true. 
Verses 9-12, 17
God has him do a bloodpath covenant, known in the culture of the time: cut animals apart, situate them so their blood pools or flows in the middle, and walk through the blood.  The point: if I break this contract, you can treat me like these animals.  It is a self-maledictory oath.
Verses 13-16, 18
God reaffirms the promise of land and offspring, and foretells Israel's trouble in Egypt and the Exodus.

Christ in the Text
This chapter is a gold mine of Messianic promises.
1. Jesus is Abram's awaited offspring who will accomplish the fulfillment of God's promises (Galatians 3:16).
2. Jesus is the animals cut in two, whose blood ratifies God's promises.
3. Jesus is Abram, figuratively, the ultimate recipient of God's promises to inherit nations (Psalm 2:8), have numerous descendants and be blessed (Isaiah 53:10).

Doctrinal Understanding
1. Abram believes, and God justifies him by that faith alone (Galatians 3:5-9).  Faith is not a New Testament development, after Israel lived before God by works.
2. The covenant promise God made to Abraham is confirmed with a quasi-sacrament: a visual ritual to display, confirm, symbolize and seal God's promise to Abraham.

Cultural Application
God gives Abram land already occupied by others.  Just as believers need to give sovereignty of their lives to the Lord Christ, so this is the goal for all people: to conform society to at least be consonant with God's law.  This will "dispossess" people and they will object, but God's call is to "take the land" in the Great Commission sense.

Personal Application
1. Abram trusts God, but has no qualms expressing doubts and objections and asking for a sign.  I often look to Gideon as a negative example - putting out the fleece more than once was an act of unbelief.  But in the right heart, asking for a sign is an act of faith (Isaiah 7:10-11).  God wants us to seek such a sign, and gives them to us.
2. Make use of the sacraments God gives us to bolster your faith in God's promises.
3. God will bless you, even though it doesn't feel like it when you are waiting through dry times.

Acts 10

The Text
The Spirit brings a Roman Centurion and his family and friends together with the apostle Peter to hear the Gospel of Jesus.  Both have visions.  Cornelius sees and angel; Peter sees a bunch of unclean animals and hears a voice from heaven telling him to eat them.  This is both a literal overturning of the Levitical food laws (Leviticus 11) and a metaphor that he is to receive the unclean Gentile Cornelius into his home and interact with him.  When Peter preaches Christ in a Gentile-understandable way, the Spirit falls on them so that they speak in tongues, praise God and seek baptism.

Christ in the Text
Jesus is presented as Lord and judge over all (10:36, 42).  The Old Testament idea that He is God's anointed servant is present but a bit muted (10:38).  His death and resurrection remain central, and we can have healing from sickness, relief from devilish oppression (38) and forgiveness for our sins (43) through Him.

Doctrinal understanding
Parts of the Old Testament Law, mainly the ceremonial and ritual aspects, were meant to pass away with the coming of Christ.  This allowed for greater interaction and unity between Jew and Gentile, as the Jewish apostles go into all the world to bring the Gospel to every nation.

Cultural application
1. Peter asserts Jesus is Lord of all, a direct contrast for the Gentiles with Caesar.  He may be "soft-pedaling" the Old Testament context, but only to make more understandable the radical step they will need to take in putting Christ before Caesar.
2. Liberal progressives in our day wrongly apply verse 47 to LGBT people.  The argument goes that a similar wall is up between LGBT and the rest of the church that was up between Jew and Gentile, and it should come down.  The church should realize that God accepts them.  This argument confuses a ritual distinction with a moral one.  God accepts anyone when they repent of their sin and turn away from it (any sin, including homosexual practice) and trust Jesus' work at the cross for their forgiveness.

Personal application
1. While this is a unique moment in redemptive history, we should expect the Holy Spirit to continue bringing together seekers with those who are ready to explain the claims of Christ and call for a response.
2. Be ready to interact with unexpected types of people.  For Peter it was a higher-up in the Roman military.  Don't confine God or your church to a narrow slice of a demographic type.

Baptism Saves // Mortify Sin // Read Theology!

Does baptism save?  1 Peter 3:18-20 has flummoxed readers for centuries.
Sam Storms takes a detailed crack at it, from his commentary.
The gist:
The spirits in prison are the rebellious demons from Genesis 6:1-4, 2 Peter 2:4, and Jude 6.
Peter saw his readers in the same boat (pun intended) that Noah was in.
Baptism doesn't save mechanically, but is the same pattern by which God had saved His people in the Old Testament: with physical means and the heart's appeal to God.


Derek Thomas passes on John Owen's wisdom on the "Mortification of Sin."


Kevin DeYoung reviews the best Systematic Theology works available.

Back from hiatus // A Look at Ezra 7

Okay, we are moved to Michigan, and I'm setting up as pastor in a new congregation, with a folding chair and laptop for an office.  So after a hiatus of packing all our stuff in boxes, loading them on trucks, driving across country, unpacking the essential boxes, I return to writing.  Typing is a bit harder with sore forearms and hands, but I'll survive.

I'm starting a new feature today.  From my personal devotions I'll regularly pick one Bible chapter to
- summarize the text
- show Christ in the text
- describe applications in three areas:
  - culture/worldview
  - doctrine
  - personal piety

Here's an example

Ezra 7

The Text

Ezra only came to Jerusalem after building the temple was finished. (6:15)

He was a priest descended from Aaron directly (7:1-5).

It took 5 months to get there! (7:8)

He was a skilled teacher of Scripture, diligent to do what He studied in the Word, and to teach it to Israel (7:6, 10).

He carried a letter from Persian king Artaxerxes, authorizing any Israelite to return with him, and to take a specific amount of money for sacrifice to Yahweh in Jerusalem.  Temple workers were exempt from Persian taxes.

Ezra was authorized to set up a judiciary and train them if necessary.  Their decisions had authority up to and including the death penalty.

Christ in the Text

The offices of king, prophet and priest work together harmoniously as they should in Ezra 7.  Artaxerxes ruled authorizing Ezra the prophet to teach, and Ezra the priest to properly sacrifice to God.

Jesus too was sent by His Father on a mission to Israel, enabled by the resources of the King to teach and sacrifice for His people.

Culture

We Americans are quick to separate state and church, but it is a blessing from God when the king subsidizes worship of the true God.  A nation can do this without making non-Christians second-class citizens.  There is a vast difference between religious subjugation like in Muslim nations with dhimmitude, and endorsing and supporting the true religion while staying silent about the rest.  We have lost this distinction today in our civil religion.  Freedom to exercise religion does not force the government to act strictly equally toward all religions.

Doctrine

In whatever time and circumstance, God provides teachers of His Word for His people.

The proper worship of God takes resources and planning.

Note the lack of qualms Ezra has taking pagan Persian money for use in worshiping Yahweh.

Piety

Think on this chapter from the individual Israelite’s view.  What a lot of time, energy and expense your leaders put into providing you access to the Bible and to worship.  Make use of these means of fellowship with God!

Read Your Bible // Legalism

Ligonier has a list of excellent schedules to use to stay in God's Word each day of 2019.
I might try the McCheyne plan this year.


Some find Bible reading plans and schedules legalistic.  (They aren't)
Here's a great description of legalism and its miserable effects.

Biblical Counseling Lessons // Real Freedom // The Right Side of History

"How great is [God's] goodness, and how great His beauty!" - Zechariah 9:17


David Powlison describes Jay Adams' foundational work in biblical counseling, and how the movement has grown since.  Excellent principles described well.  This is a free PDF download of the editorial for the Journal of Biblical Counseling - great resource.


I picked up an old First Things issue I had never gotten around to.  R.R. Reno is great on what freedom really is.


"In post-Obergefell America, Evangelicals and other orthodox Christians will be unable to outrun our freakishness.  That is no reason for panic.  Some will suggest that a Christian sexual ethic puts the churches on the 'wrong side of history.'  Well, we've been on the wrong side of history since A.D. 33.  The 'right side of history' was the Eternal City of Rome.  And then the right side of history was the French Revolution.  And then the right side of history was scientific naturalism and state socialism.  And yet, there stands Jesus still, on the wrong side of history but at the right hand of the Father."
Russell Moore, "Evangelicals Won't Cave," First Things, Oct 2015, pg 30.

Smite This Rock

“Good Friday,” Christina Rossetti (1830–1894)

Am I a stone and not a sheep 
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath thy cross, 
To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss, 
And yet not weep?

Not so those women loved 
Who with exceeding grief lamented thee; 
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly; 
Not so the thief was moved;

Not so the sun and moon 
Which hid their faces in a starless sky, 
A horror of great darkness at broad noon— 
I, only I.

Yet give not o’er, 
But seek thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock; 
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more 
And smite a rock.

From Leland Ryken's article at Gospel Coalition

Receiving the Word of God

1 Thessalonians 2:13

"For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe."

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes."

Notice the parallel between these two texts.  Paul tells the Thessalonians He thanks God that they received the Word of God as from God.  Paul explains to the Corinthians that he received from the Lord the explanation of this sacrament.  Receiving bread and wine, eating and drinking is a picture of receiving the Word of God.  Just as Scripture is God’s very words, so this communion is partaking of Christ’s very life.  His body remains in heaven, but by the Spirit, He is really present.  By faith God really brings us into fellowship and union with our Lord Jesus here.  His body was broken for you.  His blood is the blood of the covenant that saves you.  He bled and died at the cross, paying for your sins forever.

So come and welcome to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Take hold of Him.  Rely on Him alone as You receive His grace.

10/21/18

Lament Your Sin

Lamentations 1:5

Israel's "foes have become the head;
her enemies prosper,
because Yahweh has afflicted her 
for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away,
captives before the foe."

Jeremiah laments the fall of Jerusalem here, and says God did it because of Israel’s many sins.  

Imagine the horror this conquest must have been.  

The city besieged.  

Famine, disease, starvation.  

The temple ransacked and leveled.  

Murder and rape on a wide scale.  

The whole nation conquered politically and subjugated to foreign rule.

The point here isn’t to gawk at the sensational, uniquely awful event.  Like a traffic accident you see and think, “Glad that wasn’t me.”  The point is, this IS you: your sins deserve this, too.  God would be perfectly just in the light of our national sins, to have China invade, conquer and rule us for years, like happened to Israel.  What bothers you more, really, when you think about that: having to live under communist rule, or that you have sinned against the holy God you love?  Our sins do not bother us nearly enough.  God has many ways to train us to consider them more deeply, to hate our sin more thoroughly.  One tool He used was national conquest and exile, and that was not out of proportion with the magnitude of their sins.

Let us confess our sins to God.

10/21/18