At the end of twelve months [Nebuchadnezzar] was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” (DA 4.29-30).

As Nebuchadnezzar surveyed his city, he probably saw the hanging gardens of Babylon, one of the 7 wonders of the world, which he’d made. As he saw the sun glinting off parapets and towers, he was inflated with pride over the glorious city “…which I have built by MY power as a royal residence for the glory of MY majesty.”

As soon as he spoke, God drove Nebuchadnezzar into the wilderness where he ate grass like an ox and was drenched with the dew, “till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.”

But God had mercy had mercy on ol’ Neb, who later reports:

At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation (DA 4.34).

In his commentary on Daniel, Iain Duguid notes that before he fell, Nebuchadnezzar’s eyes were on himself and his glory; afterwards he lifted his eyes to God and his glory.

A few days ago, my fellow pastor Joe spent some time with a local pastor who’s been here 3 years and taken his church from 90 to 400. They have a beautiful new building complete with flat screen TVs everywhere. Children and teen rooms have things like Moon Bounces and Nintendo Wiis and climbing walls. Instantly, I compared myself: I’ve been here 28 years and we’ve got around 320 members. Our building’s fine, but not fancy. Half the time, when we try to project a DVD clip, it doesn’t work. Until I heard about the Wiis, I was really happy with our freshly painted children’s classrooms. Suddenly I was filled with envy and discontentment - we’re the dinkball church with the dinkball pastor from Dinkville.

What happened? I took my eyes off Christ and his glory, and became consumed with my own peewee glory and accomplishments. And when they didn’t compare to another pastor’s, in my wicked pride, I became downcast. My eyes weren’t on Jesus and his work on the cross, but on myself and my work.

If I’d kept looking at Christ and his glorious cross, I would have rejoiced for all he’s doing in my brother’s ministry and church, and ours as well.

Praise Jesus, he won’t tolerate our pride and he loves us so much he’ll do whatever it takes to get our eyes back on him. He convicted me of my evil pride and got my eyes back on his glory. And I didn’t have to eat grass or be drenched with dew.

If our eyes are on ourselves and our accomplishments, we’ll be miserable. But if we keep our eyes fixed on Christ and all he accomplished on the cross, we’ll be filled with joy. Let’s ask Jesus to help us get our eyes off ourselves and onto our great Savior.

photo by mixstar

You learn a lot when a baby enters your life (note: understatement of the century). I’ve learned that babies are cute, no matter how bad they stink. I’ve learned that “there’s always more where that came from”, if you know what I mean. I’ve learned that a baby can cause a mostly mature, grown man to dance around like a deranged clown in an effort to get his baby to laugh. I’ve learned that diapers cost more than gold…and oil. Babies are boat loads of fun.

I’ve also learned that babies give you lots of things to worry about. Sickness, safety, vaccinations. Household hazards and sleeping conditions. Spiritual health. The list never ends. There’s always something else to be worrying about. Charis isn’t crawling yet, and sometimes I worry that she’s not developing fast enough. But I know that as soon as she starts crawling, I’ll begin worrying that she isn’t walking yet. Worry is a sinful, endless, gut-twisting cycle.

And were not just talking about babies here. We’re talking about all of life. There’s always something else to worry about. Will I be laid off? Will I be able to provide for my family? Will my parents be in good health? Will my children follow the Lord? Worry doesn’t take days off. It’s relentless and ruthless.

Changing the circumstances doesn’t solve the problem either. When one worry vanishes, another quickly fills the void. Changing circumstances is a only symptomatic cure for a much deeper problem. Worry is rooted in a faulty view of God. When I’m worrying, I’m failing to see God’s good and sovereign care. In Matthew 6:25-26, 34, Jesus said:

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?…Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

God cares about birds. Think about that for a second. Ravens are semi-ugly, annoying birds (sorry if you like ravens), yet God cares about them. He feeds them, clothes them, sustains them. Not a single one dies without him knowing about it. Now, if God cares for ravens, won’t he care for me? I’m his child. He crushed his precious son to make me his precious son. He bought me with blood. In light of all this, won’t he take care of me each day? This is what I’m learning to rest in. Each day is going to have some degree of trouble. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know that God will be there, caring for me.

What are you worried about today? What does this reveal about your view of God?

I don’t like to fly.

When I do, I almost always wind up thinking of worst-case scenarios. What if I’m in the bathroom and the tail section breaks off? What would it feel like to be launched into the atmosphere? Would I pass out from the lack of oxygen at 30,000 feet? Would I suddenly wake up 30 feet above the ground and for the last 2 seconds of my life experience intense terror before the incredible pain of impact? If I die, what will happen to my wife and children? Who will provide for them? Who will teach my teenage boys about Christ and walk them through their teen years? Imagination is a gift from God, but on planes my imagination tends to go into overdrive.

We don’t have to fly to be tempted to fear. What if I never get married? What if I can’t find a job? What if my child gets a serious disease? What if my teenager continues to rebel? How will I make it when I retire?

After the Exodus, God provided manna for his people. He told them to gather each day’s amount and not store up any extra. They weren’t to worry about tomorrow’s manna, or next week’s manna, only that day’s.

In his book Running Scared, Ed Welch points out that for Christians, manna is a picture of grace. Like manna, God provides grace for each day. We don’t know what challenges we’ll face in 2 weeks or 2 years, but we know that whatever we encounter, there will be grace. We can’t get tomorrow’s grace ahead of time, but when we need it, God will provide.

Corrie Ten Boom used to say that when she was a child, her father would take her on train trips. While waiting, she’d ask her father for her ticket, but he’d say, “I’ll give you your ticket just before we get on.” And each time, when the train would arrive, he’d hand her her ticket just before boarding. Corrie’s point was that God gives us grace just when we need it. He gives us each day’s manna.

God helped me apply the manna principle the last couple times I had to fly. When tempted to fear, I was able to counter the temptation to fear by praying, then reminding myself, “No matter what happens, there will be grace. Should I be launched into the stratosphere, there will be grace. Should the plane crash, there will be grace. Should I die, there will be grace for my wife and children.” Amazingly, fear left me.

I’m seeking to apply these 4 words to every situation in which I’m tempted to fear. Be it finances or family, I’m attempting to regularly cast my cares on Jesus, then thank him that there will be grace.

May these 4 words, “there will be grace”, encourage you today.

photo by ƒreg

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

There is one massive, fundamental difference between me and Terry: the Spirit of God opened my eyes to see the truth. Apart from the work of the Spirit, the gospel appears to be a message of madness. People don’t willfully embrace madness, they scorn it. Terry hasn’t yet had his eyes opened by God, and so he sees foolishness where I see beauty.

In his book The Cross and Christian Ministry, D.A. Carson says of these verses:

Paul’s point, then, is that the possibility of knowing God and understanding his ways does not belong to any human being as an essential component of his or her being. The distance is too great; our self-centeredness is too deep. And nothing in the “wisdom of this age” can help us…What is required then is revelation.

I shouldn’t be surprised that the gospel seems ridiculous to Terry. He literally can’t see it. In fact, it’s utterly impossible for anyone to know God apart from God revealing himself. I never would have embraced the cross if the Spirit of God hadn’t first worked in me. The cross would have appeared barbaric, foolish, and stupid. But in his mercy, God gave me sight, and now the cross is a beautiful thing.

This fills me with gratefulness to God and gives me hope for sharing the gospel with Terry. I can’t convince Terry to believe in Jesus. I can’t persuade his heart with apologetics or convince him of his desperate sinfulness. But there is One who can do such a miraculous work. God himself can save Terry.

You can’t open the eyes of your mom, aunt, best friend, or college roommate. But we serve a glorious, kind, revealing, God. He can let them see the glories of the gospel shining through the foolishness.

(HT: Best of YouTube)

C.J. Mahaney recently gave a sermon (download here) on the topic of humor, which I highly recommend. In the sermon C.J. commended the use of self-deprecating humor as a means of growing in humility. I was challenged by this and want to grow in self-deprecating humor. I sinfully tend to laugh at the expense of others rather than making myself the butt of my jokes. So in light of this, I am officially declaring today “Embarrassing Moments Friday”. The goal? I want you to laugh at me and I want you to make me laugh at you. Let me share an embarrassing moment from my life with you.

* * *

Several years ago while working at a bank, I attended a department wide meeting. All the department bigwigs were present and you could almost feel the money in the air. I was a newbie at the time, having only been working full-time for a few months. The meeting was eye-watering boring, and I was greatly relieved when it was announced that we would be taking a break.

During the break I went up to a dry erase board that was fastened to the wall and began doodling on it. First I wrote my name in giant letters. Then I drew a giant megaphone around my name. This was clearly my board.

After several minutes of drawing I decided that I should probably erase it before the head haunchos returned. I grabbed the eraser and began scrubbing. Nothing happened. A sickening realization began dawning on me. I looked at the marker. It was permanent, not dry erase. My name was emblazoned on the board in ‘Sharpie’.

The rest of department soon learned of my idiotic blunder and had a grand laugh at my expense, calling into question my intelligence and the fact that I was homeschooled. It was my 15 minutes of public idiocy. The moral of the story? Check markers before use.

Your turn. Embarrassing moments? Embarrassing habits? (e.g. still sleeping with a teddy, untimely burps, etc.) Please give us all a good laugh.

+ photo by alexdecarvalho

It’s not the FACTS of our circumstances, but the INTERPRETATION we bring to them that determines whether we experience blessing or trouble from them (see my earlier post).

In Lost in the Middle, Paul Tripp describes 2 sufferers, whose interpretations of their trials have radically different consequences:

Phil, a successful managing engineer, was laid off at age 40.

“At first Phil seemed like he was doing quite well. He talked about God’s sovereignty and faithfulness. He seemed quite confident that, with his résumé and experience, he would soon be back to work. He got his résumé out and anticipated quick responses. Phil was shocked when the first batch of mailings didn’t even get one response. After a month of the same his confidence began to flag.”

“Phil’s wife Sarah noticed at first. He was spending hours alone in his office at home. He was increasingly short tempered and irritable. There were outbursts of anger that she had never experienced before. Phil became more sullen and depressed as the months dragged on…”

Eventually Phil committed adultery and rejected God.

“He couldn’t believe that a good God would let this happen to him. He couldn’t believe that after years of obeying God, this is what he got. He felt like everything he had ever worked for had been taken away from him….He saw life as unfair and unjust and God as distant and uncaring. Bitter and cynical, Phil not only forsook his family; he forsook his faith as well.”

Dean, in upper management, was physically active, loved sports and the outdoors. At 46 he suffered a series of strokes.

“Dean was very discouraged to be on disability such a young age. He had lost his physical capabilities so early in life that he could not imagine what the years to come were going to bring…. but Dean was firm in his belief that God is good, and he was humble enough to recognize that he did not deserve anything that had been taken from him. He also realized that every day he still received from the hand of the Lord everything he needed to do what God called for him to do.”

“Dean began to see disability as an opportunity and the fact that he had many years ahead of him as a real benefit. He could do things that many people yearn to do but are never able. Dean had been able to put his job behind him at a very young age and turned his focus to active Kingdom ministry…. Dean refused to give in to the discouragement that he so powerfully felt or the doubts that had hit his heart with the force of a sledgehammer…. Although living with a chronic disease was very hard, Dean lived each day with joy and expectancy, busy at the work that God had given him to do.”

How are you interpreting the facts of your life today?

I hope that whether you’re enjoying blessings or enduring pain, you see your circumstances as ordained by our sovereign, loving God for his glory and your ultimate joy.

photo by Leo Reynolds

If you haven’t yet heard about the book The Shack, you will. Written by a man named William Young, the book is making all sorts of waves, both in Christian and non-Christian circles. For the last several months it’s been hanging around the best seller charts, and it has people talking about how it has transformed their relationship with God. This weekend I decided to grab a copy of The Shack and see what all the hype was about. After reading the book I came away with two conclusions. I believe that William Young was a well intentioned guy who was trying to help people understand God better, and I don’t doubt that some people have been affected by the book. However, the book is full of blatant heresy and really does misrepresent the God of the Bible.

I’m not going to do a full review of the book here. That has already been done very well by Tim Challies. Read Tim’s review. It’s very helpful. I do want to highlight just a few reasons why The Shack is so deceptive. My hope is that when you read the book you’ll be able to think biblically about what’s written.

Intimacy vs. Holiness

Young depicts God the Father as a large, bubbly, Africa-American woman named ‘Papa’ who is always eager to give you a hug and a freshly baked scone, and who wants nothing other than to be in a loving relationship with you. Portraying God the Father at all, let alone as a woman, presents massive theological problems. But there’s something else wrong with Young’s picture of God: it’s all intimacy and no holiness. The theme that runs throughout both the Old and New Testament is that God is completely and totally holy. When Isaiah caught a glimpse of God in the temple he fell on his face and called curses down upon himself. When the apostle John saw the risen Jesus he fell on the ground as though he was dead. Because he is holy and just, God must punish sin. And yet at one point in the book ‘Papa’ says:

I don’t need to punish people for sin. Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside. It’s not my purpose to punish it; it’s my joy to cure it.

The picture of an intimate, loving God who never punishes sin is an appealing one. But the glory of the gospel is that God is both intimate and holy. On the cross God did punish sin, so that he could show mercy to wicked sinners like me. Now I can call God, the holy one, ‘Father’. That’s the beauty of the gospel, and it’s clearly lacking in The Shack.

Rules vs. Relationship

Throughout the book Young creates a false dilemma between the rules of God and a relationship with God. For example, Sarayu, who represents the Holy Spirit, says at one point:

The Bible doesn’t teach you to follow rules. It is a picture of Jesus.

Well, yes and no. The Bible is all about Jesus, that much is true. But part of following Jesus is making every effort to obey him, empowered by the Spirit and in light of the gospel. 1 John 5:2-3 says:

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.

The Bible never drives a wedge between obedience to Jesus and a relationship with Jesus. Psalm 119 is a beautiful testimony to the freedom that comes from obeying the laws of God. Yet the theme of freedom versus rules is repeated over and over again in The Shack.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Sarah would have been 12 years old at the time.

We had the privilege of watching her one week a month to help her single mom, Kathie, home school Sarah. Sarah and my daughter Beth had a love/hate relationship, being best friends yet mortal enemies at the same time. While Sarah and Beth quarreled over whatever 12 year old girls quarrel about, my son David, a pimply-faced 14 year old, was developing a pimply-faced 14 year old crush on Sarah. So one day he prayed that Jesus would someday let him marry Sarah.

On Saturday God answered the prayer of that pimply-faced 14 year old. And I had the privilege of marrying them. Sarah’s father walked her down the aisle. She looked beautiful and radiant, and was crying tears of joy. My son, David, now 23, was beaming as her dad gave Sarah’s arm to him. I thought, “David, you are one blessed guy. How did you ever get this beautiful girl to agree to be your wife?”

It was the prayer a 14 year old prayed 9 years ago. And the kindness of a gracious, faithful God who hears our every desire, our every sigh, and our every whispered request.

God may take 9 years or 49 years to answer our prayers. He may answer them in ways we don’t expect. He may not give us what we ask for, but give us something infinitely better. But he hears our every prayer and he won’t forget a single one.

So, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (PHP 4.6-7).

photo by Lydia Jane Photography

If you’d like to see a video of the first kiss visit Evidences of Grace

I have long feared that my sins would return to visit me, and the cost would be more than I could bear. - Benjamin Martin, The Patriot

It’s a terrible thing to be suffocated by a guilty conscience. There was a period in my life between the ages of 16 and 18 when I felt guilty all the time. Nonstop, conscience-inflicted misery. I was painfully aware of my sin and couldn’t shake the feeling that God was unhappy with me. But in his mercy, God led me to a book called Transforming Grace which helped me to truly grasp the guilt-breaking grace of God.

But there are still many times when I’m far more aware of my sin than I am of God’s grace. It seems like my sins are doing a dog pile before my very eyes. The time I got angry on the basketball court. The harsh word I spoke to my brother. My perpetual failure to evangelize. My monstrous selfish ambition. I feel like David did when he wrote in Psalm 51:3-4

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

David understood guilt. He wrote Psalm 51 after committing adultery and homicide. He felt the sickening weight of a guilty conscience. But David also understood something else. He knew that God overflows with grace and mercy and is able to forgive even the most heinous sins. And so he writes:

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Whiter than snow. Ponder those words for a moment. This is what God has done for me! My sins are great, but there is something far greater. The crimson blood of Christ really has washed me white as snow in God’s eyes. He doesn’t see my guilt. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. God sees me as clean, righteous, perfect, acceptable, guilt-free. The sickening weight of guilt is lifted by the mighty blood of Christ. The holy God embraces me, a wicked sinner, as his son. Glorious.

Are you more aware of your sin or grace right now? How do we move from being more aware of our sin to being more aware of God’s grace in Christ?

+photo by Nagy David