Indeed, there is much richness to meditate on regarding Christ within the first two chapters of the Bible and yet there is so much more to come.  This coming week we have the privilege to study the first gospel promise made to man.  In Genesis 3:15 God makes a glorious pledge to his sinful image bearers contained within the curse that he pronounced upon the serpent.  He promised that He would restore enmity between the serpent and mankind and that the “seed of the woman” would one day crush the head of the serpent.  This is a work that would be accomplished at a great cost to the seed of the woman, but one that would liberate his people and secure their right standing with God.  This week we will unpack this wonderful promise and see how God fulfilled it in the life, death and, resurrection of Christ.  We will also consider Christ in the story of Noah, the giver of rest.  For condensed into that narrative is the entire story of the Bible and Christ shines through it all.  I look forward to seeing you all at Hudson Valley URC tomorrow night as we continue our quest to behold the Lamb in the Law and the prophets.

How do you read the Old Testament?  Is it a collection of obscure stories? Is it a series of moral lessons? Or do you see it as the rich and multifaceted preparation for the coming of Christ?  Do you see it’s stories, characters, conflicts, and plot lines as object lessons intended to help us understand with clarity who Christ was and what He was accomplishing in His earthly ministry?  If we are to have a deep and robust understanding of the person and work of Jesus, then we must see him through the lens of the Old Testament.  This point was driven home when in Luke 24 Jesus walked alongside two men who had set their hopes in him only to have them dashed by his crucifixion.  As they walked, not recognizing him, we are told that Jesus expounded on the Scriptures, showing them from Moses and all the Prophets the things concerning himself.  That is, Jesus walked these men through the entire Old Testament and demonstrated how it was all about him.  Though they were students of God’s Word, they did not anticipate the death of their savior, revealing that they had not really understood its central message. Jesus called them foolish and slow of heart to believe.  If we are to be faithful readers of the scriptures then it is imperative that we see Christ throughout the entire scope of Scripture. 

This Winter we will be holding a class at Hudson Valley URC in New Hampton, NY on Thursdays beginning on January 25th at 7:00 pm.   In this class, we will study the progressive and unfolding revelation of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament.  We will let the categories of the Old Testament help us better understand the ministry of Christ and let the finished work of Christ help us understand the full significance of the Old Testament stories.  I look forward to seeing you there. 

In October I had the privilege to travel to Kenya to teach systematic theology at a pastor’s conference, but prior to arriving, I flew to Germany to meet up with my brother Stephen who would be heading to the conference with me. Stephen pastors in Neuenburg and he put me to work while I was in town and he scheduled me to preach; a privilege I look forward to every time I am there.   Yet, as much as I enjoy sharing God's word with my German brothers and sisters, I especially love to sing with them.  It is one of the great joys of traveling internationally when you are a pastor, namely, hearing the saints of God singing praise in their native tongue.  Especially great was when they sang a song that I knew, but in German.  Just before I stepped up to preach, the congregation rose and sang "Heilig, Heilig, Heilig," or "Holy, Holy, Holy," a hymn that many Christians will know well, if not by heart.  Knowing the tune and following their songbook I was able to sing along in very broken German a participant in praise with them.  What an awesome experience.

From there I travelled to Nairobi Kenya. As I mentioned, I was sent there primarily to speak at a pastor’s conference, but while in the country I was asked to speak at a local Bible college and teach at a local church.  As one might imagine, the experience was rich.   I knew before I left New York that the highlight of the trip would be the singing and I was not disappointed.  The day after I arrived, I was taken to the Great Commission Bible College in Nairobi where I was to give lectures on the book of Hosea and Haggai.  As I walked into the classroom the students were singing in their beautiful call and response format “Alpha and Omega, Alpha and Omega, Alpha and Omega, is our God.”  The harmonies and the sincerity were heart warming and soul exalting and I knew I was with family though I was far from home. What a joy it was to study the word of God and to sing praises with these men and women and to have them pray for me and my family and our ministry back in the states.  

After speaking at the Bible college I was taken to the house which serves as home to the orphanage that we run at Matthew 25.  There we met fifteen of the children that live at the house and that attend our Chapel Field school in Nairobi. Stephen Ndambuki is the leader of the school and orphanage and he is doing a wonderful job of training the children in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord.  He teaches them responsibility and instills in them a strong work ethic and a sense of family. The children were beautiful and courteous, welcoming us and serving us lunch.  As we ate the children sang, “We bow down and we worship you Lord, Lord of all Lords you will be.”  Later the rest of the students made their way in to join us and the singing continued as they belted out, “Jesus your the one who delivers us daily, who delivers us daily, Jesus your the one who delivers us daily, now and forever more, hallelujah, now and forever more.”  Song after song the children sang out with all their hearts, sometimes in English so that I could join in and other times in Swahili which allowed me to bask in the sounds of praise, not knowing the words, but understanding perfectly well the truth they communicated.  

As I travelled throughout Kenya, the singing continued and I did not want it to end.  As I left I came away with a fresh reminder of the global work of God in building His kingdom, filled with thanksgiving for being able to be part of it.  How easy it is to become discouraged about the decline of the faith in the West and in America in particular and for good reason.  But this makes it all the more important to lift our eyes and see what God is at work doing around the world.  On any given Sunday the saints are singing in German, Swahili, Farsi, Russian, Chinese and in every other language on Earth.  They may be invisible and inaudible to us now, but one day we will be together joining in thunderous praise and it will be overwhelming.

Here is a sample of what I got to enjoy at the Great commission Bible College: (sorry for the bouncing camera in the beginning of the video)

Satan had offered them the promise that if they ate they would be like God, an odd offer given the fact that God had created them in His image, that is, He made them “like Him.”  Satan’s temptation however, was not so much the offer of being like God per se, but of achieving that status in such a way that by-passed the hard work of obedience.  Rather than trusting his creator and growing over time into the complete and perfect image that God meant him to be, Adam chose to grasp after Satan’s offer of instant maturity.  The result was a devastating marring of the image of God and since Adam was not merely acting for himself, but as the representative of all mankind, there was no longer any hope of seeing the full and mature image of God in any of his descendants.

This is what makes Good Friday so good.  It is here in Jesus Christ, that we have a New Adam, God Himself, come as man to be the true image bearer for us.  Taking no short cuts, though Satan offered them, but rather being obedient unto death, even the shameful death of the cross, Jesus achieved full maturity as the image of the invisible God.  It is then only in Jesus that we are able to see what God truly looks like and it is in the events of Good Friday that the image of God is most revealing.  

It is no coincidence that just as man was made on the sixth day, so Jesus reached the climax of his ministry on the sixth day of the week (Ah! the poetic symmetry and beauty of the word of God).  Bloodied and beaten in our place he stood with crowds chanting, “crucify him, crucify him” and Pontius Pilate declaring, “ Behold the Man.”  Indeed! He spoke more than he knew, for here on Good Friday we see what man was always meant to be.  Here is the mature man as the perfect image of God almighty.  Here we see most clearly the love and holiness of our creator in the image of a self giving substitute. On this Good Friday may we, in the Lamb that was slain, “Behold The Man.”

For one, just after the exhilarating event of entering Jerusalem as king, according to John’s account, Jesus began to speak about his glorious moment.  “Now is the time for the Son of man to be glorified…,” He said. How this must have excited his faithful followers who had left everything because of their belief that He was the long expected deliverer of His people.  But then Jesus went on, “…and now my soul is troubled, but what shall I say, Father deliver me from this hour? No! It is for this very hour that I have come.”  What on Earth could he mean by these words?  Why, in the moments before his being glorified, would his soul be troubled even to the extent that he would suggest the idea of wanting to be delivered from it? He then went on to talk about a seed needing to fall to the ground and die if it is to bear any fruit.  What could this possibly have to do with glory or with His claiming his rightful throne?

The week became more confusing the closer it got to Good Friday.  By Thursday night it must have been clear that whatever hopes they had of a royal coronation were fading quickly and Jesus did not seem to be pursuing it.  "What was the whole Palm Sunday event about anyway?" they must have thought.  And so they sat down together for a passover meal which must have gotten weird quickly as Jesus inserted himself into the ceremony of the meal, declaring that the bread was his broken body and the wine was His spilled blood and that they must feed upon him in hope of their deliverance even as their fathers had fed upon the lamb whose blood was shed for their deliverance from Pharaoh centuries before.  

As shocking as Jesus’ revolutionary version of the Passover was however, the baffling behavior was not over, for Jesus then rose from the table, poured water into a bowl and began to wash his disciple’s feet.  For Peter this finally crossed the line and as he had done earlier at Caesarea Philippi he told Jesus “No! It shall never be!”  Peter did not understand why Jesus refused to act like a king, but he certainly was not going to play along.  He knew that servants wash the king's feet, not vice versa.  At least that is how the kings of all the other nations did it and like his fathers before him, in the days of Samuel, he wanted a king like the other nations.  Jesus of course was nothing of the sort.

Peter thought he understood what a true king looked like, but Jesus knew that his idolatrous notions of kingship and glory had to be broken if he was ever to become a partaker of the true glory of the Kingdom of God.  And so he told Peter that if he would not allow him to wash his feet, then he could have nothing to do with him.  For, if Peter could not handle the notion of his king humbling himself to wash his dirty feet, then he could never possibly handle the king suffering the humiliating death of the cross on his behalf.  And therefore, Maundy Thursday serves as a necessary prelude to Good Friday.  In order for us to understand glory as God would have us, we must see it demonstrated in the washing of dirty feet and ultimately and most clearly in the horrors of Golgatha.  

But if Peter was not prepared for this idol shattering revelation of glory, then he was certainly not prepared for the still hidden, but greater fact of Jesus’ identity.  For even more shocking and offensive than the notion of the king washing our feet and dying on a brutal cross is the reality of our God doing it.  That is, we must allow these two amazing days that bring Holy week to an end,  to reshape not only our understanding of kingship and glory, but of God Himself.  For, it was not just Peter’s king stooping to wash his feet, but Peter’s God.  And it was not just Peter’s king hanging, bloody and beaten upon a cross for us, but it was Peter’s God.  Therefore, Holy Thursday and Good Friday teach us that Just as we have a king unlike any of the other nations, so we have a God unlike any of their god’s.  As Edward Shillito writes in his poem, Jesus of the Scars,  "The other gods were strong; but Thou wast weak; They rode, but Thou didst stumble to a throne;  But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak,  And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.

On the other hand there are the “Hedgers.”  These are the conscientious folks who loathe and fear the Whittlers.  They know that the desire to whittle away God’s law is in the heart of every man and therefore they attempt to set up safe guards against it.  They build hedges, as it were, around the law to protect it from our whittling tendencies.  So instead of settling for the law’s simple prohibition against adultery, and allowing individual believers the freedom to determine how to avoid breaking it, they establish secondary and tertiary laws to “protect” the weak from disobedience.  Not only is adultery wrong then, but so is any sustained physical contact with a member of the opposite sex.  But quickly the hedger realizes that if people would whittle away at the law itself, then nothing will stop them from whittling away at the hedge law also.  And so they set up another hedge and another.  And on and on it goes.  Again, the problem is not that there is no wisdom in some of their hedges, but that eventually the hedge laws are elevated to the status of Biblical law with the distinction gradually evaporating. 

It might be that many Christians see the flaws in these two approaches, but all of us are inclined toward one or the other and generally we do so with self justifying disdain for the opposing approach.  The Whittlers view the hedgers as Pharisaical and the hedgers view the whittlers as compromisers.  Of course both assessments are actually right and therefore both extremes are to be avoided.  For, the reality is, as far apart as the two appear, at their roots they both suffer from the same two basic errors. 

First, with regards to the law, they both fixate on the letter of the law at the expense of its spirit.  The law was not given to be the focus of the Christian's attention, but rather to form the guidelines by which we are directed how to love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength and our neighbors as ourselves. Just as the white lines along the side of the highway need to be seen and may, from time to time, as in a dense fog, need to be focussed on, typical driving conditions demand that we not fix our gaze on those lines.  Rather, we are to keep them in the periphery where they subtly work to help us drive safely with our eyes out ahead of us focussed on the coming traffic. In the same way, the law is not meant to be stared at with the desire to see how close we can get without crossing it, or by trying to build artificial barriers to keep us from crossing it.  And so, both whittling and hedging ultimately keep our attention off of the very things God's law intends it to be on, namely God and our neighbor.  

Secondly, both approaches are driven by self gratification.  The Whittler has his mind on how he can have the sin he really wants in such a way that doesn't “technically” break the law.  As such he becomes a lawyer, analyzing all potential loopholes and all the time forgetting the obvious question God would have us ask; not, “What can I get away with here,” but’ “what does it mean to love God and my neighbor here?” 

The Hedger on the other hand is obsessed with keeping his hands clean and maintaining a picayune purity that he can be proud of.  Yet he often ends up straining gnats and swallowing camels. Jesus dealt with this Pharisaical mindset again and again during his ministry.  The Pharisees were highly offended, for example,  when he healed on the Sabbath not because it broke any Old Testament law, but because it violated one of their self imposed hedges to protect them from working on the day of rest.  They didn't care that a man had been healed and given liberating rest from the pain and suffering he had been enduring.  No, acts of mercy were not to be tolerated on the day of rest.  Allow them and before long you will have complete Sabbath mayhem.  It was this same destructive and unhealthy demand for self justifying purity that enabled the priest and the Levite to pass by the man in the ditch while the Samaritan exhibited love of his neighbor, thereby truly keeping the law even while risking ceremonial defilement along the way.

Ultimately both groups, the Whittlers and the Hedgers alike, are pursuing a form of self justification; one by explaining away the sin and the other by overstating the righteousness.  Therefore, we must be on guard to avoid both ends of this perilous spectrum and fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ who neither whittled the commandments of God to allow for the gratification of his temptations, nor needed artificially built hedges to protect him, for his “food and drink was to do the will of His Father who sent Him.”  Instead, Jesus was driven by a genuine love for God and for his neighbor, forgetting himself and freely obeying. 

If we then are to avoid the two errors of whittling and hedging, we must keep our eyes on him as the antidote to either tendency. With eyes firmly fixed on Christ, those with whittling tendencies will find him so beautiful that the siren song of sin which calls us to push the boundaries of God’s law will, in time, lose its potency and the law will become a liberating guide rail rather then an annoying barrier to true pleasure.  The hedgers on the other hand, will experience the relief of knowing that their justification does not depend on the cleanness of their hands, but on that of Christ’s, allowing them to use wisdom in obedience, but without fear or pride.  In either case the Christian will finally be free to obey out of a sincere love of God and his neighbor. May God give us the awareness to discern our tendencies and to cast them aside for the glory of finding our identities in Christ.

That being said, we as Christians must be careful to keep a Biblical perspective or as Harry Blamiers said, to “think Christianly” as it pertains to the election.   Paul understood our proclivities in this regard for he urged the Romans not to be conformed to the “pattern of this world,” but to "be transformed by the renewing of our minds." That is, he knew that there is a perpetual danger for us to forget the reality we live in as believers.  According to the Scriptures, we live in a reality in which the Father is on His throne and Jesus, the King of kings, is at His right hand, vested with all authority in Heaven and Earth, ruling over all things for the sake of His church.  And yet, we often live with the same anxieties as our non believing neighbors, fretting over elections as if our safety and well being ultimately depend on the individual that occupies the White House.  We come to think that maybe this time around we can get the right person in there and finally all will be well. 

But the Psalmist reminds us, “do not put your trust in princes, in human beings who cannot save” (Psalm 146:3). Our trust is to be in the Lord.  Elections are important, but they occur under sovereign control the King of kings and our well being depends ultimately upon him. Yet we so quickly become like the disciples on the Sea of Galilee with Jesus, overwhelmed by the wind and the waves, forgetting who is in our boat with us.  The times we are in may be stormy, but there is no need to panic.  We know the One who can and will bring true peace.

But even this requires some teasing out.  What does it mean not to put our trust in princes?  Are we not to care who the next president is because that would be putting our trust in presidents?   The answer is, of course we are to care.  We might say that we should not put our trust in doctors either, but that does not mean that we don't go and get check ups, or surgeries when needed and do so with the best available doctors.  After all, a belief in God’s sovereignty is never an excuse for irresponsibility.  If I am going to be healed then it will ultimately be by the grace and will of God, but that does not mean that my selection of a doctor is irrelevant.  I should still try to see the doctor most qualified and not the one known for amputating the left arm of a man with a broken right index finger. 

Therefore, in one sense I need to trust doctors and it is right to do so, and to discern which doctors are worthy of such trust.  They are after all, the gift of God’s providence and His means of healing us in many cases and if we expect God to bless us, we should be good stewards of the privileges and opportunities that he provides us with.  But to “put my trust in” doctors is to ask more of them then they can deliver; to expect that they will always be able to save me from the realities of suffering and death.  Eventually even the best doctor will run up against the limits of his abilities and ultimately fail us, for while they can deal with some penultimate causes of death, they are helpless against the reality of death itself.  Therefore not even the best doctor is worthy of our ultimate trust.  

Like doctors, politicians are a necessity in this broken age of ours and they need to be men and women we can trust.  We should vote for those which we believe will lead us best, but as Christians we must never "put our trust in them."  Even the best will fail us.  Even the best is up against realities that cannot be solved with legislation or peace treaties.  At the root of many of our American problems lies a spiritual cancer that can only be cured by the regenerating and repentance producing work of the Spirit.  At most our politicians are the means of God to bless us or to judge us ( as Doug Wilson says, “in a democracy you only ever get the leaders your culture deserves”) and none of them operates independently of God’s sovereign authority.  And therefore, the decision over which individual should become our president is one of great importance and should be made with prayer, investigation, and serious consideration.  But, let us do so with Biblical heads on our shoulders, looking at the world and the election through Biblical eyes.  Let us seek a leader to trust, but let us put our trust in the Lord our God alone.

First, David asserts that He will not want. This is not a resolution. He is not committing to something. Rather it is a statement of faith in the light of the truth that the Lord is his shepherd. David knows that if almighty God is his shepherd, then no matter what befalls him in the coming years of his life, the one thing he knows is that he will not be in want. The Lord will provide for all his needs. This is not to say that there will not be trouble or suffering, after all it is David who also wrote Psalm 22 in which he cried out, “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?” There will be times of great trouble in the life of any Christian, but with David we must affirm that God will never withhold from us the things we truly need; a comforting affirmation for 2016. 

Secondly, David affirms that he will fear no evil. This is not because he expects to be kept from all trouble. After all, he affirms this even in the “valley of the shadow of death.” No, David had experienced great enmity from those around him, but in all of it he was able to assert that God was his defender who prepares a table for him in the presence of his enemies so that he may eat in peace while God fights for him. Who knows what trouble awaits us this coming year, but whatever may befall, let us with David, assert that in the end, there is nothing to fear or with the apostle Paul whosaid, “if God is for us who can be against us?” 

Finally, in light of the comforting truth that the Lord is his shepherd, David affirms that he will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. David rejoices in the fact that he is not just a sheep, but a son and as a son has been given the right to the household. He is a member of the family of an all providing, all protecting Father and he is confident that he will be so for all eternity. In a year that promises to provide any number of challenges, may we like David, find our ultimate comfort in the fact that we have an unshakeable and eternal home in the household of God. Happy New Year.

Little did they know however, that on the top of that mountain, where God had ordered Moses, as the people’s representative, to meet with Him, their creator was fuming in Holy anger, preparing to destroy them.  The Almighty God announced to Moses that he was going to wipe them off the face of the Earth and start over with Moses.  How easy it would have been for Moses quietly to assent and finally be rid of these thorns in his side.  But rather than turning his back on his stiff necked brothers, he pled their case before God.  Moses stood on the top of that mountain and made use of the tremendous privilege he had to plead for their deliverance.  Most astonishingly, he even offered his life in exchange for theirs.  If only the people could see, as they ground their teeth at the very thought of him, that Moses was attempting to lay his life down to spare them from a judgement they didn't even know was coming.  In the end, God would not accept Moses’ offer.   Moses was not a fair trade to satisfy the Holy wrath of God, but God did relent of the immediate judgement in response to his intercession.  Moses had saved his people temporarily from God’s wrath, but In order to save them once and for all it was going to take a greater sacrificial substitute; one who like him would be despised by the very people he was saving.  Little did those who crucified Jesus know that he was, at that very instant, interceding for them and offering himself in their place to spare them from God’s terrible wrath.  Join us tonight as we consider the shadow of Christ in the work of Moses.  We will also be looking at Christ our Immanuel in the image of the tabernacle, and Christ our atoning sacrifice in the book of Leviticus.

 As Adam and Eve stood along side the serpent, ashamed and alienated form the God who made them in His image, they awaited their certain death sentence.  God had told them that the day they ate of the forbidden tree they would surely die.  For in eating they had not merely disobeyed a command, but the shame and horror of that disobedience was in the fact that they had chosen to trust Satan rather than God and to believe his blasphemous and slanderous portrayal of their creator.  How quickly and easily they were convinced that God did not have their best interest in mind and that if they only reached out and grasped for their independence they could have what God refused to give them.  Of course, not more than an instant after yielding to Satan’s temptation they had discovered that far from being gods, they were in fact shells of what God had made them to be.  Awaiting the impending sword of judgement, how they must have felt the despair and hopelessness that sin inevitably provides.  If only there were a way to make things right.  If only there were a way to mend the tear that their sin had created between them and their Lord.  And then, as they listened to God hand down their sentences, beginning with the serpent, they heard the most amazing thing.  For woven into the curse of Satan in the serpent was the first proclamation of the Gospel.  Enmity would be restored, Satan was told, between him and the woman and the Seed of the woman would ultimately crush his head.  Yes, they had heard right.  Though they, by all rights, should have died that day, they would live under God’s grace, with death delayed and have offspring, one of which, would ultimately deliver them.   In Genesis 3:15, the course of the rest of the Bible was set and Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection was its goal.  Join us tomorrow evening as we continue our look at Christ in the Old Testament and particularly at this Proto-evangel, as it is called, or “first gospel”. Tomorrow we will consider Christ the Seed of the woman, as well as Christ our Noah, our ark, and our new creation.  Hope to see you there. 

But she is a political official we are told.  Her duty is to uphold the law whether she personally likes it or not.  This is the take I heard in an interview on the Federalist Radio Hour yesterday afternoon with Jim Antle from the Washington Examiner.  It was an excellent discussion on a wide range of subjects and concluded with a conversation on Kim Davis.  Toward the end of that discussion Mr. Antle who was sympathetic toward her, but ultimately disagreed with her approach, asked those who are supporting her how they would have responded if, pre Obergefell, a pro gay marriage clerk refused to issue marriage licenses until gay marriage was recognized and made legal in this country.  Christians would have been in an uproar, demanding that she do her job regardless of her personal positions. 

But it is just at this point that we as Christians need clear thinking.  If Mrs. Davis’ stubborn refusal to grant gay marriage licenses were merely a matter of preference, then I would jump on the bandwagon and demand that she do her job as an elected official according to the laws of the land.  But as I understand it, this is not what she is doing.  Much more than being a matter of preference, this is for her a matter of conscience.  As a Christian, she believes that she does not have the Biblical authority to authorize the marriage of a gay couple; regardless of what five individuals in black robes say about it.  That is, she believes that in issuing them licenses she would be sinning.  Now I recognize that many reading this may not agree, but that is irrelevant.  Particularly as Christians, we must stand in defense of one's conscience whether we agree on the specifics or not.  This is the case whether a person is an elected official or not.  Public and private acts must both be governed by ones conscience. 

We can look to the oft cited acts of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as examples of godly men in public positions with the same responsibility as we have, to honor their governing authorities, and yet who did not obey the law of the land because it violated their conscience.  They believed that to bow to the statue was to sin against their God and therefore, it was not simply that they would not bow, but that they could not bow.   Sure we live in a pluralistic society and will have to tolerate the beliefs and actions of those we disagree with and even those we find reprehensible.  We get it.  But when it comes to demanding a person violate their conscience, we must stand in their defense.  Paul argues very clearly in 1 Corinthians 8 that to cause a brother or sister to violate their conscience is to lead them to their destruction.  For, to sin against conscience is to sin against God.  And for Paul this is the case even when the person’s conscience is misinformed.  That is, if a person’s conscience tells them not to do something, or that in doing something they will be sinning, and they go ahead and do it anyway, they are in fact sinning even if the thing they are doing is not in itself sinful.  The issue that Paul uses as his example is eating meat sacrificed to idols.  For Paul this was not inherently sinful and faithful Christians could feel free to eat the meat.  However if a person felt that it was a sin to do so and you led them to violate their conscience you were causing them to sin.  

Therefore, I am frustrated with Christians jumping on the anti Kim Davis bandwagon.  It feels as if we are wanting to say to our adversarial culture, “sure we were opposed to the SCOTUS decision, but we are not going to make any waves about it.  We certainly are not like that wacky clerk in Kentucky.  We understand that it is the law of the land and want to respect the law and we stand with you in our outrage over her obstinacy.  Please don’t judge all Christians by her embarrassing actions.”  Christian’s should be wary of turning on a woman who is willing to act according to her conscience and suffer the consequences. 

Of all people, we as Protestants should appreciate her position best.  After all, it was Luther who helped clarify the doctrine of Sola Scriptura.  He taught that our consciences can only be bound or limited by Scripture.  We must obey our governing authorities not because they have some inherent right to that obedience, but because the Bible commands it.  Their authority is not above the authority of the Scriptures and and therefore when they contradict the authority of the Bible, as we best understand it, and demand that we comply, we are compelled not to obey.  It is crucial that we begin studying up on the issue of Christian disobedience in a culture that is rapidly growing in its hostility to the word of God.  In the mean time let’s not join our voices with those who want to silence Christian conscience but rather, may we be so bold as to stand with Kim Davis regardless of whether we share her convictions.

On the one hand, I appreciate the concern.  It is important for us all to remember that people are broken and ultimately need God’s grace, that is, mothers who have had abortions and fathers who have insisted on them, as well as abortion doctors and nurses, technicians and baby part purchasers.  Until there is a Spirit wrought change in the heart, our fist pounding, legislating, blogging and protesting will have little lasting impact.  Therefore our anger must be seasoned with the salt of the gospel and with a genuine concern for lost sinners.  We must not be like James and John, the “Sons of Thunder” who immediately wanted to call down fire from heaven  upon the rebellious.  No, ultimately they need the transforming power of Jesus to heal and save them and we should long for that and pray for it.

On the other hand, there is nothing inherently wrong with moral outrage over evil, rather there is a Biblical concept of  holy indignation.  “Be angry and sin not,” said Jesus.   In fact, I believe that there are some occasions in which failure to be outraged by an offense is ultimately to hate the victim.  Not to be filled with anger over the abuse of a wife by her husband is ultimately to despise the woman.  Of course we want the man to repent of his sin and turn to Christ.  And were he to do that we would be obliged to welcome him and rejoice with heaven over a rebel come home.  But in no way would that desire keep us from doing anything and everything in our power under the law to help end the abuse, so also with every atrocity, be it Jewish death camps,  the American Slave trade, ISIS, the poaching of lions in Africa, or abortion. 

The killing of over 50 million babies in this country MUST make us angry and the videos that have been released MUST fan the flames a holy anger.  If not, then something is terribly wrong with us. To watch those who have killed unborn human beings eating and drinking and joking while they haggle over the mutilated bodies of premature babies is beyond sickening; it is infuriating.  This last video in particular is so painful to watch as the nurses poke through a pan of baby parts in which you can clearly make out a leg and an arm with a little hand and five fingers. And then to listen to politicians and pundits defend Planned Parenthood in the light of these horrors and given the clear illegality of their actions is frankly nauseating. Harry Reid    actually said on the Senate floor during the debate over defunding Planned Parenthood, that those who wish to defund them have “lost their moral compass.” 

While it is true that we must have genuine concern for these people and that they are in desperate need of grace, that must not in any way mitigate our concern for the victims of their brokenness.  While the evil is being inflicted an appropriate measure of indignation is demanded that should not subside until the evil is recognized for what it is.  This is itself a loving and gracious thing to do for the victim, but also for the offender.  For we do the guilty no service by soft pedaling such a grievous sin; one for which they will have to stand in judgement before God.  Therefore, we must not shy away from declaring the painful truth about what abortion is and from stating what God thinks about the murder of the most helpless among us.  

To be clear, this is by no means a misrepresentation of the Christ of the Bible.  Yes, he was compassionate with the broken.  A bruised reed, we are told, he would not break, but that same Jesus said that for anyone who would even cause a little child to stumble in sin, it would be better to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea.  The compassionate Jesus also demonstrates a holy anger over the evil inflicted upon children.  The God who is slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness is also a consuming fire who will by no means clear the guilty and who says, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.” We must not call down fire from heaven, but that is not to say that our God will not send the fire.  Indeed He one day will and there is nothing wrong with our declaring as much with the desire that all men might hear and repent. 

Where there are bruised reeds we must act and speak with tenderness and compassion, but where there is a hard hearted obstinate demand to call evil good and good evil, we must shout from the roof tops and call evil what it is. We must be like Moses who could smash the tablets of the law in outrage over the peoples sin and yet was willing to give his life that those same people might be spared ultimate judgement. 

I understand that this is very difficult for many who either have had abortions or encouraged them or for those with friends and loved ones who have.  I have no doubt that feelings may be hurt and that it will be hard to hear for those guilty of this sin.  Nobody hiding their sin in the darkness, whatever the sin, wants to have it exposed in the light, but ultimately it must be exposed.  Nathan had to call out David and Jesus had to expose the pharisees as sons of the devil and yet He chose just such a one to be his chief apostle to the Gentiles.  So we must be faithful in standing vehemently for the unborn and for all other victims of atrocity while at the same time recognizing that there is room for every type of sinner in the kingdom of God.

There are a couple of reactions to the release of these videos that I fear may come.  First, there may be some who believe that it is distasteful and maybe even inappropriate to show mutilated babies.  There is no question that the images are disturbing, but I would argue that they are a necessity given our relative ambivalence toward the killing of the unborn in this country.  The pain and difficulty in seeing it is not to be compared to the actual act which the baby has experienced.  If this is what it takes for us to come to grips with the horror of what is happening behind the closed doors of these clinics, by professional looking men and women in the name of women's health, then so be it.

Secondly, I fear we may get bored or desensitized.  Americans as a whole have a short attention span.  The successive release of the videos may cause some to lose interest as they think to themselves, "ok, we get it, Planned Parenthood is twisted."  But this would be an absolute travesty.  The creator of these videos, David Daleiden, in what can only be described as a heroic effort, has presented us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to undermine this embedded evil.  We must take advantage of this moment and not squander the amazing work he and his staff have done.  Like when your doctor tells you to finish the bottle of antibiotics even though you may feel a little better because if you stop and the bacteria rebounds it will be resistant to the antibiotics and exponentially more difficult to defeat.  So here, we must not get distracted but rather see this through to the end.  Tweet, share, like, blog, speak.   Here is link to the Gospel Coalition's article which can help in contacting your representatives in the government.  Whatever we can do, we must do.

While this may be slightly overstated, it has led some like Rod Dreher to push what he calls the “Benedict option,” as an approach for dealing with the cultural moment.  Named after the great Benedict of Nursia who established the structure for communal monasticism in the 6th century, it encourages Christians to establish communities to preserve the faith, batten down the hatches and ride this thing out.  All this to say, that we are not crying wolf, the situation is grim. While we still have some political capital in this country and should not fail in using what we have, there is now no question that we have lost the  political and cultural high ground.  With our government institutionalizing gay marriage it has put the orthodox teaching of Christianity in opposition to the law leaving us no legal grounds for our resistance and open to future persecution should the government will it.  This is something that Christians must not take lightly.  It is time to sit up and pay attention.  Ours is a culture so distracted by business and entertainment that we often fail to give very weighty matters like these the sustained attention and prayer they demand.

Of course many Christians have been paying attention and do not need to be told of the severity of the situation.  Many have grieved watching their nation so blessed by God, with freedom and opportunity, make conscious institutional and cultural decisions to untie itself from its Judeo-Christian moorings.  For, while this land was never a “Christian” country per se, it is beyond arguing that our culture and its values were rooted in and built upon the Christian worldview and so much of its great prosperity and success has been dependent on it.  That heritage also granted the Evangelical church great privilege over the years, which in many ways was mismanaged, and now we have watched that privilege not only disappear, but become something our culture wants to exorcise from its identity.  All this has left many Christians reeling.  Some, who too closely identify America with the Kingdom of God, think that these must be the “end times.”  Some have been down right depressed. 

But on the very important other hand, these times present the church with exciting opportunities for faithful service.  Christians are now being forced to think through what they believe and ask whether or not they actually mean it.  We are having our commitment to the teaching of the Bible challenged like never before and will no longer be able to hold to it with loose generalities.  The issues of our day demand precision of thought and sincerity of commitment because they will now cost us something.  But this is why these may in fact be the best of times.  Like a soldier that has spent much time in training, and looks forward to the time when he will be able to put his skills into real service and play for keeps, so Christians should look at our times as the opportunity to be what it once seemed only those Christians in far away places got to be. 

This is by no means to say that we should romanticize the situation. Like the naive young soldier who is excited to shoot with real bullets, we must be reminded of the real life dangers.  THIS IS GOING TO BE ROUGH and as stated above, it will cost us something.  It will cost some their jobs, others will lose friendships and/or family ties, and ministries may lose their tax status.  But it is this battle we have been called to.  Jesus said that we are not greater than He is.  If he was hated and persecuted, then so we will be.  Peter told his readers in 1 Peter 4, not to be surprised when the fiery trial comes upon them as if something strange is happening, but in as much as they suffer with Christ they were to rejoice.  

Of course, this is nothing new. The battle has always been as serious for us as it is anywhere else in the world. It is just that our adversary has taken a different approach here than in many of those of other regions.  Our enemy for the past century has generally taken the form of the seducing harlot portrayed in  the book of Revelation, wooing us to destruction by way of spiritual adultery with the idols of our culture.  The shiny prosperity of America has led many down the wide and easy way and  its relative peace with Christianity has allowed the church to let its guard down.  In fact, it might just be that the depression that many Christians feel over the current state of affairs is fed primarily by an unhealthy pining for “the good old days.”  But  we must not forget, those “good old days“ are what gave us these days.  Our current situation did not rise up out of no where.  Our times reveal that there was a cancerous seed latent in the thinking of those days.  As Jesus said, “wisdom is justified by her children.” The fruit of a tree reveals its nature in other words.  Those times were in many ways culturally comfortable for Christians, but they were also the days in which we were lulled to sleep and thought that we could make it work with the harlot.    

But now we are beginning to experience the other tactic of enmity against the church found in the book of Revelation; the beast.  Unlike the harlot, the beast does not seduce, it terrorizes and intimidates.  It demands absolute loyalty to its agenda.  We can see clear expressions of this type of attack occurring in the Middle East and in East Africa.  Here in America most sober Christians sense that the beast has got the scent of the church and is on the move.  Just ask the Kleins.  Of course I am not equating their situation to the devastating persecution of our Christian brothers and sisters in Syria or Iraq, but it is none the less the work of the beast and I believe that we can expect more to come. However, as we begin to experience the very nascent manifestations of beastly opposition, it would be incredibly foolish to pine for the harlot. Those days were just as deadly and perhaps more dangerous.  For, while the beast scares us and may cause some to apostatize out of fear,  the harlot encourages and allows us to destroy ourselves all while thinking we are being blessed by God. 

Therefore, while these times may be difficult, we would do well to consider how God is at work for the progress of His kingdom and for us in them.  For one, in these times, God will sober us and help us to recalibrate our loves and priorities. They will be smelling salts for the church. Yes we love America, but as its leadership and culture turn against us we must find our true love in the kingdom of God. This will be a difficult, but necessary adjustment for many well meaning conservative Christians who tend to confuse patriotism with Christianity. But like Augustine who watched the collapse of the Roman Empire and encouraged Christians not to put their hope in it but in the City of God, so many of us need a similar charge.  It must be the advance of God’s kingdom here and around the world that we long for, and not merely the prosperity and peace of America.  Whatever works toward that end is what we must train our hearts to desire.  

Secondly, as the darkness grows deeper, the light shines brighter. The glow of a flashlight is not noticed during the day, but as the night sets in its power and efficacy become obvious. Thus in these moments, the Lord is providing us with an amazing opportunity to shine the light of his truth and grace.  Therefore we must take our lamps out from under the bushel, set it up on the stand and let it shine within our workplaces, families, and neighborhoods.  And it is not just our pastor’s light that must shine.  The front lines of the spiritual war we are in are to be found right in our everyday lives.  It is Christian parents, bakers, photographers, school teachers, employees around the water cooler, and men, women, and children in every sphere of life that must intentionally shine.   Rather than bemoaning the darkness, let us see it as the perfect setting for the world to behold Christ more clearly than they have ever seen him. 

Thirdly and related to the second point, as the church is marginalized culturally speaking, be of good cheer.  Christ does His most effective work from the margins.  It is when the church is disenfranchised that Christ uses it to overcome the world.  Just ask the Roman Christians who saw the church being persecuted by the beastly Roman authorities, who none the less, by their faithful endurance outlasted and overcame Rome with the gospel.  After all, Jesus himself overcame the Evil one not by mighty displays of force, or by gaining the right positions of power.  No, he conquered by being led out to the margins of town and being hung on a Roman cross.  Yes, be of good cheer.  Be strong and courageous.  As Polycarp was told by the Lord in the moment of his great trial, “Play the man.”  God is on his throne and the slain lamb is standing with all authority and glory. This chapter of the story may be difficult but its ending is not in jeopardy.

                                                                                                   Charles Spurgeon

If you have not seen the video then I urge you to watch it (you can watch the edited version here, the unedited version is also available) and encourage others to do the same.  It is one thing to read the transcript and excerpts of the conversation, but it is a completely different thing to watch it. Though It is hard to watch and listen to, it will serve as smelling salts to those of us who believe that what is being discussed is not just a convenient collection of tissue and organs, but rather a human being made in the image of God.  It is important because it exposes the ugly reality behind an evil practice which many have unfortunately grown accustomed to.  Doug Wilson, in one of his blogs, said it well, “Our nation has tried to muddle through the abortion issue by means of a willful suppression of imagination. This video cuts through all of that”.  That is, we have not allowed our minds to imagine exactly what is taking place in those clinics.  The supporters of abortion have done a brilliant job in getting us to this point by establishing the vocabulary of the debate such as using benign terms like "fetus," "choice," and "reproductive health."  And we as a society have been complicit in going along with this agenda, accepting the terms and allowing the invisibility of the atrocity to distract us from its horrors. 

I must confess, that one of my first reactions when I first heard of the news was shame.  I felt shame because I wondered why it took a story like this to infuriate me about the horror of abortion.  Why wasn’t I this upset the day before?  The true horror is not that these who have no regard for the life of the unborn would also try to profit off the sale of their organs, but that they are killing the babies to begin with.  This fact had not changed with Tuesday’s news and yet it was almost as if I was thinking, “ok, now this crosses the line.” Shame on me and all who are like me. The wonderful benefit of this video is that it removes the curtain and allows us access into the horror and therefore it has the power to re-inform and correct our imaginations.  It forces us to look at it, so to speak, and having looked I believe it will be hard to ignore. 

In light of that, I strongly encourage you to talk about this with your friends, family, church family, and neighbors and to share the link to the video.   With the media giving this little attention compared to the Iran deal, the Confederate flag, and Bruce “Caitlyn” Jenner receiving the Arthur Ashe award, we need to take it upon ourselves to spread the news.  It is important that as many people as possible see the thing if we are going to help change hearts and minds on this issue.  Many of our friends and neighbors who have accepted the idea of abortion have done so only because they have fallen prey to the suppressed imagination syndrome spoken of above. That is they have not thought through the issue long and hard.  So long as they can convince themselves that it is merely a woman’s health issue and that the baby is merely a cluster of cells they will not be moved against the practice.  But this video makes those thoughts impossible.  It forces them to see what they have for so long wished not to see.  To watch the woman discussing the sale of baby body parts and the means by which she gets them is so off putting and offensive that it has the power to shift a persons sensibilities on the subject.  Therefore, if we feel compelled to do something and I believe we must, then this is a simple and effective place to start.  Help get it out there.  Let us confess and repent of our inattentiveness and allow Tuesday’s news and the experience of watching the video reinvigorate us to do whatever we can to defend the unborn.  As Russell Moore said, “It is time for the reborn to stand for the unborn.”   Yes, and so it has been for some time.  

Finally, another thought I had soon after hearing the news was how painful this would be for those that have had an abortion.  I have to believe that it is a heavy burden upon the conscience of many who have had abortions or encouraged loved ones to do so.  I can only imagine how hard it would be for those who have done so to hear an executive of the leading provider of abortions in this country speak so callously about their babies.  I have two things to say to those in such a position.  The first is hard, but necessary.  Do not let the shame keep you from calling this evil what it is. Through tears we must see this act for what it really is even if that adds to the pain of conviction.  It is only here that we can move forward unto repentance and renewal.   As David said in Psalm 32, “When I kept silent about my sin, my bones wasted away.”  I don’t say this casually or from a high and pure perch, but as a fellow sinner who recognizes the painful nature of confession. The second thing I have to say is of incomparable sweetness, namely, that there is complete forgiveness and restoration in Jesus Christ for all who will confess their sin and trust in Him.  Jesus came to die for sinners, bearing their shame and giving them in exchange his impeccable dignity.  He came to die for abortion doctors and moms who have aborted their babies just as he came to die for King David, the Apostle Paul, and every other sinner.  David understood as well as anyone the awful nature of condemnation, but also the unfathomable gift of God’s grace.  As he sings to begin Psalm 32, “How blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven.”  How blessed in deed.

The issue then is not whether we should say that those with whom we disagree are wrong, but rather how we deal with those we believe are wrong.  It is certainly possible to be arrogant and hateful about our beliefs and some are, but we, on the other hand, are commanded to disagree with respect and humility always being willing to hear the opposing position and be shown where we are wrong if in fact we are.  We are also called to make distinctions regarding the importance and priority of particular truth claims.  My disagreement with his position on baptism, for example, does not rise to a level that demands I not call him my brother in Christ. He is a wonderful Christian brother who I love working with and in whose church I would gladly worship with him.  Our disagreements with fellow Christians must not be blown out of proportion but be handled in a fraternal mode which does not break the unity that Christ demands of his church or with our non believing acquaintances in a neighborly mode that living in a pluralistic society demands.  Unfortunately, We have all known people who make mole hills into mountains and who are not edifying people to be around.  This is certainly to be avoided, but it is not to say however, that no disagreement can rise to a level that demands a break of fraternal relations.  Were a professing Christian to deny the deity of Christ or His resurrection, I would not only think that he was wrong, but I would have to insist that he is not a Christian brother.  This would not be hate, but fact, and yet even that statement can and must be made with humility and love.  Similarly, the issues of abortion and the sanctity of marriage are societal issues today that I believe demand a dogged lack of compromise even while we hold out the good news of the gospel of forgiveness to those who disagree with us.  

The necessity of making and defending truth claims is one that has fallen out of favor today and that makes many Post-Modern evangelicals and secularists uncomfortable.  This discomfort has unfortunately worked to stifle the church’s proclamation of truth in our culture making us a saltless witness and a dim reflection of the light of Christ.  We must therefore, learn to make the necessary distinctions between assertions of truth and expressions of hate.  We must learn to state what we believe to be true while reaching out in love to those we disagree with.  And finally we must learn to distinguish those issues that we can “agree to disagree” over from the ones that are “hills we must die on.”  For, Jesus has commissioned us to disciple the nations, teaching them to obey all that He has commanded us and this will require us to make and defend truth claims.  And he modeled it with his own disciples, at times patiently enduring their wrongheaded beliefs and at times sternly rebuking them, wisely choosing between the two and saturating both with love.  So, let us pray for the courage to stand for the truth and the wisdom to know when to criticize and a life of sacrificial love that keeps any accusations of hate from ever sticking.

So what do we do?  How do we respond?  While it is easy and in some ways cathartic to grumble about the culture, ultimately it is not very productive. Much more will be required of us now.  There is no doubt a great need for rational, thoughtful, and winsome responses to the recent ruling, but victory in this battle (and make no mistake about it, this is a spiritual battle that we are in) will not be won by good arguments alone. Nor will it be won by electing the right politicians (Psalm 146:3) though that is important and would possibly reap some short term benefits. No, this battle requires a long term strategy and will ultimately be won by the seemingly unimpressive acts of raising our children in the knowledge and admonition of the Lord,  sacrificially loving our neighbors, standing firm upon Biblical truth and suffering for the cause of the kingdom. First and foremost then, we must attend to our personal holiness and that of our families.  Christians must gear up for the cultural surge that is coming against them and to do so they must recommit themselves to the truth of God and a life of faithful obedience.  This will require sobering up spiritually.  For we have long lived in this country with a certain measure of privilege as Christians, and have grown used to having our worldview be acceptable, if not praised.  But those days are over and we must come to grips with it.  Therefore we must stop flirting around with ungodliness and treating our faith as a mere hobby.  Now is the time for intentional Christianity.  Mediocrity will not do.  We must strap on the full armor of God if we are to stand.  And so I offer a call to action which is not by any means novel, but is none the less necessary:

1. Pray:  These unsettling developments must not drive us to despair, but to our knees.  We must pray for our nation which appears dangerously similar to those written about in Romans 1.  We must pray for our leaders and authorities, that they might repent and lead with wisdom and righteousness as representatives of God almighty who will one day hold them accountable.  We must pray for those struggling with same sex attraction that this ruling might not insulate them from getting to the bottom of their brokenness.  We must pray for the church that it might have the courage to stand for the truth, the compassion to minister to sinners, and the wisdom to apply both.  Ultimately we must pray kingdom prayers; “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.”

2.  Consume the Bible:  If we do not commit to ingesting the Bible we will not have the fortitude to stand against the wave of cultural pressure.  This may mean making decisions to stop ingesting as much TV or internet or whatever else has been dominating our intellectual and spiritual diet.  Paul commands us not to conform to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  This will only happen as we saturate out minds and hearts with God’s word.  We must be those for whom the Bible is the ultimate and final authority and as such who let the Bible stand as judge over the American culture while the culture demands it the other way around.  We must read it personally and with our children for only with a Biblical worldview established will we find the strength to persevere.  Only then will we understand the story we are in and keep from being easily shook when troubles arise rather we will understand that we are called to suffer along with our Lord and that by that suffering the kingdom will prevail.

3. Train up our children:  We must not assume that because we are Christians and are committed to following him that our children will necessarily do the same.  To take a hands off approach in this cultural moment is to set our children up for spiritual failure.  The amount of time that they spend soaking in the secular world view of our age has a powerful and formative effect upon them and this culture is not there to help you.  There was a time when the values we set at home were for the most part repeated in the cultural institutions around us, but again, those days are gone.  Today our Christian values are instead assaulted by those same institutions.  As Christian parents and grand parents we must be diligent in training up our children in the truth of the faith and demonstrate it for them by living it in public.  Our children need to see courageous, joy filled, sacrificial, and conscientious Christian models.  As someone once said, what is assumed in one generation is lost in the next.  If we are to prepare our children for the challenges they will face we must be committed to teaching and training them in the faith.  I would therefore, also urge parents to reconsider the importance of Christian education for their children, that is placing them in an environment which will compliment rather than tear down the worldview they are being taught at home.  We must reconsider the wisdom of sending our children to the government schools in which it is actually illegal to teach the Christian worldview.  Though it is a great sacrifice to do so, I believe that it is a great gift that reaps life long benefits to have our children in Christian education.   

4. Root yourself in Christian community:  These times will require support and encouragement.  We must not try to go it alone.  We must find good churches and commit to them.  We must be faithful in attendance and service. Church attendance must not become an option that is good if we have time for it in our schedule.  Rather, it must be considered a necessity in order to ground ourselves in ultimate reality as we begin our week so that we are able to discern the tempting lies of the Evil One embedded in our culture. Ours is an age that has had the unfortunate effect of minimizing the importance of the local church, but now is the time to rediscover that importance.  Christian community provides accountability and encouragement; the sense that we are not alone in our stand for the truth.  Besides Church attendance,  we must surround ourselves with Christian friends and do the same for our children. It is so important for them to have men and women, friends, uncles and aunts as models that provide positive social pressure for them as they mature. This is not to say that we should cloister ourselves by any means, but only that we make a concerted effort to find and cultivate a strong Christian community.  

So, let the arguments and debates continue.  We need good Christian minds making a case for the truth.  And let us be diligent as to who we elect for we need wise and preferably godly leaders. However, for long term victory in America what we ultimately need is Christians who are committed to the truth, persistent in love, rooted in wisdom, abounding in courage, surrounded by community, and girded in the armor of God.  The victory may not be quick in coming, for the cultural rot that is at the root of what we are now experiencing will not be undone in an instant.  But let us be of good cheer, victory is inevitable.  Christ has promised as much.

Prayer For Ordering Life Wisely

Grant me, O merciful God, ardently to desire the things that are pleasing to Thee, prudently to study them, truthfully to acknowledge them and perfectly to carry them out to the praise and glory of thy name. Put my house in order, O Lord, and grant me to know what thou dost require me to do; grant that I may then do it for the salvation of my soul.

O Lord my God, grant that I may not fail in prosperity and adversity so as not to be inflated by the one nor depressed by the other. Let nothing gladden me or sadden me except what leads me to Thee or separates me from Thee. May I desire to please and fear to displease no one but Thee.

Let all passing, earthly things cheapen in my sight, O Lord, and all eternal things be precious. Let joy that is without Thee bore me and let me not desire anything outside of Thee. May the labor that is for Thee, O Lord, delight me; and all rest that is without Thee weary me.

Grant me, O Lord my God, to direct my heart to Thee and ever to sorrow for my sins and make amends for them.

Make me, O Lord my God, obedient without any back-talk, poor without abjection, pure without puritanism. Make me patient without repining, humble without being a fraud, happy without being fractious, mature without being a bore, keen without being frivolous; let me fear Thee without despair, be truthful without double-talk; let me do good without presumption, correcting my neighbor but not pompously, supporting him by work and example without flattery.

Give me, O Lord, a watchful heart which no curious thought can wean from Thee; a noble heart which no unworthy affection can seduce; give me a righteous heart which no sinister intention can twist away from Thee; a firm heart which no tribulation can break; a free heart which no violent affection can claim for itself.

Grant me, O Lord God, intelligence to know Thee, diligence to seek Thee, wisdom to find Thee, conversation to please Thee, perseverance faithfully to await Thee and confidence finally to embrace Thee.

Grant me, that through penance I may accept Thy punishments, through grace I may employThyblessingsandthroughgloryenjoyThyheavenlydelights. Wholivest and reignest God forever and ever. Amen