The Sojourner

You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.  Ezek 47:22 (ESV)

We tend to think of Christmas as family time and indeed much joy is derived by close relatives anticipating getting together for dinner and gift-giving.  The biblical story that inspires this holiday tells us of a God who comes into a world as a sojourner, sometimes referred to as a stranger or an alien depending upon your Bible translation.  The Savior of the world comes to a human-inhabited planet in human garb, but is not welcomed by his own (John 1:11).   Jesus repeats this theme of being on the outside in the parable of the sheep and goats.  The true Israel found a stranger, naked, hungry and thirsty and welcomed him (Mat. 25:35).  The banished ones were those who could not see the sojourner as worthy of their time, their hospitality and a seat at their tables.  

On a crowded plane returning home to Alabama from Chicago, strangers held fast to their seats and with diverting eyes made it difficult for me and Lauren to find a seat (as we returned from visiting Wheaton College). A small inconvenience on a flight is nothing compared to the refusal to welcome and make space for Mary and Joseph as they sought a place for rest on their journey home.   Finally, they find a place among the common livestock of a sleepy village.  It was there in a small and forgotten corner of Bethlehem, that the Savior of the world came as a child, born of a woman, yet son of the Eternal God.  People still refuse to welcome him and to make room for the sojourner who comes to us, more often than not as an inconvenience to our schedules, or an unexpected guest, as Savior and Redeemer.  Even in the season of Christmas, if we are not careful we can ignore him once again.  If we do, then we forget that the stranger who came to Israel is the sojourner who comes to us not to disrupt our Christmas but to give it meaning and restore it to the biblical fulfillment that Ezekiel envisioned as when the stranger is treated as a native-born and the Kingdom is a river that runs to the sea and gives life to all.   

Finally, the sojourner of the Christmas story is the Savior King that awaits us on our journey home.   This season before Christmas has traditionally been a time to focus on what we long for and anticipate.  Not presents under a tree, but the final and blessed home with Jesus, who gave himself on a tree.  J.I. Packer said heaven is “an unknown country with a well-known inhabitant.”  Until then, we all are sojourners on this planet, and from time to time we find welcome among those who realize they are looking toward another home as sons and daughters of Abraham living in a foreign land but looking forward to a city and a home whose “designer” is God (Heb. 11:9-10).   

Justified by Faith for Love's Sake

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. (Galatians 2:15-16 ESV)

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:20-21 ESV)

We make a decision every morning when we wake up.  It is a choice between two kinds of living and thinking.  One option is to believe that hard work, diligence and seeking to do our best will cause God to love us.   The other option, affirmed by Paul, is to live in light of the cross of Jesus.  It is a grace filled life that enters into whatever a day’s work may bring with the assurance of God’s love.  This is the only option for living in the freedom that came as a gift through the death of Jesus Christ.  How many of us chose the former?   We are bent on the need to perform and somehow we get deluded into thinking there is something we can do to get God to love us more. 

The Gospel breaks through this illusion of work’s value and brings us the promise that the starting point is a grace we do not deserve and lays the foundation for living and working in ways more productive, more rewarding and freeing than under the servitude of our sinful attempts at doing our best.   The life we now live “is by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”   Grace motivates us to be good, not “for goodness sake” as the popular Christmas song puts it, but for love’s sake. 

The puritan Thomas Watson describes this goodness without the gospel this way, “Morality is insufficient for salvation. Though the life is moralized, the lust may be unmortified. The heart may be full of pride and atheism. Under the fair leaves of a tree, there may be a worm... If morality were sufficient to salvation, Christ need not have died. The moral man has a fair lamp—but it lacks the oil of grace."

The Jesus of Testimony

The Jesus of Testimony

The Problem of Hypo-Calvinism

We often hear about the dangers of hyper-Calvinism in our Reformed churches, and without a doubt, too much emphasis on divine election without the twin truth of human responsibility can indeed lead to a dreadful view of God’s love that is nothing short of fatalism.  Such a distortion of election is a joy robbing and mission killing heresy that has nothing in common with true Calvinism. 
  
But there is another danger lurking around and yet seldom addressed and it is hypo-Calvinism.  In medical terminology, hypo is the opposite of hyper (too much),  so hypo-Calvinism is the problem of not enough of Calvin.   This is the diagnosis often over looked in the PCA today.    If we would read more Calvin and follow his teachings, as he reflected on the Scriptures, we would be more catholic, more liturgical, more sacramental, more Gospel focused, more confessional, more evangelistic and more engaged in our culture than we are in our current state.   Hypo-Calvinism is our biggest problem.   We need the balance and wisdom of Calvin in our churches, which claim him, but rarely read him.  

We should be more catholic than we often are, meaning we should reclaim the truth that the Reformers were both evangelical and catholic and that the two blend quite well together as an expression that the true apostolic Church which is founded and renewed by the Gospel.  Papal supremacy and its abuse of power and the Anabaptist impulse for autonomy are two great threats to the Church.   

Calvin restored biblical liturgy to the Lord’s Day service.  He got rid of the “bells and smells” of medieval appropriation of religious window dressings and went for the simple beauty of the true and the biblical.  Regulative worship is not being more “spontaneous than thou” or one historical frozen form.   Calvin’s theology of the sacraments was expressed in a strong connection of these sacred actions to the normal or “ordinary” routine of worship.  Many traditions that are heavy on sacraments end up being light or fuzzy on the Gospel of free grace.  Why that happens is a puzzle, except in my experience when a Reformed Church gets it “right” on this balance it is a beautiful thing, and so I believe we are in the best position to foster this kind of middle way between extremes.   

Finally, a robust confessional body of believers who take their confessional life seriously will provide an intellectually vacuous culture slipping into relativistic goop a place to stand, or as Captain Ahab cried out “something a person can hold onto in a slippery world.”  This is the kind of faith that can engage our culture, where we know where we stand and upon shoulders of faithful forbearers we can speak words of sanity.   

Forty Days (or More)

Jesus was in the wilderness forty days fasting and communing with his Father in prayer without anyone else to distract him.  And yet, distractions did come his way.  During this time of being alone with God, we find that Satan came to distract, tempt and discredit everything Jesus was about to do.  While we are not bound by traditions of men, the practice of seeking solitude with God and looking unto our Savior as the model and captain of the well fought fight against temptation is surely a worthy calling.   Perhaps you will take forty days (or more) to become more intentional in your faith to spend daily time in God’s Word, to mediate on it and to quietly and slowly reflect on its message as it relates to your soul.  This may be a good opportunity for you to reflect on the words and actions of Jesus Christ during his temptations in the wilderness and how he fought against the enemy.  

The focus is not on what we can do or give up to be more like Christ, but on allowing God’s Word through the work of the Spirit to “renew our minds” and change us more into the image of the Son (Rom. 8:29; Eph. 4:24).    Matthew 4:1-11 can be a rich text to ponder and reflect on as we look to Jesus as our only hope.  For endless praise, we do not have a Savior who “is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” Heb. 4:15.

It was in a well watered garden like paradise that Adam fell into sin and that Satan won a victory over the whole of Adam’s race.  So, it is the second Adam, Christ that goes into a desert to win back from the Tempter, by his perfect obedience, the ones that belong to him, his Church.   This is the gospel worth believing, worth trusting and worthy of our resting in!    

Abraham Kuyper - book note

Abraham Kuyper:  God’s Renaissance Man
James E. McGoldrick, Evangelical Press, 2000

The movement of Neo-Calvinism is closely associated with Abraham Kuyper and James McGoldrick’s important study of Kuyper’s life and influence is an insightful portrayal of Kuyper that is both sympathetic and critical in its analysis.  Weaving both a well researched biographical data with theological reflection, the book combines historical investigation with a balanced theological appraisal of Kuyper’s theological views and his enduring influence in America.  This is an indispensable introduction to the foundation of Neo-Calvinism as it continues to flavor the theological debates of the Reformed churches of our day.   

First, Kuyper’s life is viewed in the backdrop of the Dutch Reformed Church and the ongoing struggles it had with liberal theology and the growing influence of the Secession churches.   Kuyper was raised and educated in the tradition of the Reformed Church having all the doors of academic higher education open for his intellectual capabilities.   As the national schools were increasingly liberal and producing liberal pastors, the rank and file members were often the case, influenced by revivalism known as the Réveil and the piety of past Dutch influences of the puritans and the mystical orientation of the Brethren of the Common Life.    These influences would soon clash to produce a second wave of secessions in which Kuyper would attach his efforts and leadership.  

 

There were other influences at bay in the Dutch Reformed Church.   There was the strong influence of the school at Groningen, which while not as radically liberal like the University of Utrecht, did embrace an accommodating approach that married biblical faith to enlightenment thinking popular among European elites.   It was in many respects similar to neo-orthodoxy, with a reluctance to deny the faith, but reluctance to hold on to traditional orthodoxy.   The Ethicals were another branch of teaching that was started by Daniel Chantepie de la Saussaye, which embraced many liberal views regarding the faith and the Scriptures but put an emphasis on the inner life of the believer.   Finally, a third group is mentioned, the Moderns.  Founded primarily at the University of Leiden and associated with Scholten, they were importing much of the liberal higher critical thinking of the German schools, which rejected all traces of supernaturalism and made natural religion the key to all assertions about God.   

This strange mix of toxic elements was the stew in which Kuyper came to see would result in the death of the Reformed camp.  The church therefore needed the salt of truth and the work of the Spirit to renew it and bring it to a place of life altering vibrancy.   It was Kuyper that God had to shape and redirect for this great task and God opened his heart when at his first congregation, Pietje Baltus, who had the gumption to confront Kuyper, challenged him to read Calvin’s Institutes.  This proved to be pivotal and the occasion of conversion for Kuyper and he would from then on keep a picture of Baltus on his desk.   It was Kuyper’s move to Utrecht that would in many respects move him right into the mouth of a den of lions.   His academic record and background gave him the position at a notable cathedral, perhaps one of the most important churches in Holland.   Expecting the famed church to be a stronghold of orthodoxy, Kuyper discovered to the contrary that the first work he would face would be to bring the work of renewal to his own flock.   Facing the challenges of renewing the national church put Kuyper at odds with those in charge.  Eventually moving to Amsterdam and gaining the platform of a key pulpit, Kuyper would use his talents in leadership, writing and tireless efforts at seeking to reform the national church.   While for many years a critic of the Secessionists, it was only a matter of time that Kuyper would come to see that the only way forward was to work outside of the National Church.   For Kuyper, fighting the effects of heresy was a many headed hydra, which required not simply a pietistic reaction that withdrew into solitude, but a full engagement with all of society through establishment of schools, working in politics and applying God’s truth to all of life.  Because of the influence of the French invasion, and King William’s reluctance to move the schools towards the Reformed faith, Kuyper saw the need to establish Christian Schools committed to the Confessions of the Church.   He promoted a view that would seek to establish a “free model” of education not controlled by the State, yet fully accredited.  This required work in politics to change laws so that his dream of Christian education could become a reality.  Eventually going into politics and working as a journalist, Kuyper would put his greatest effort at laying a foundation in which he believed would establish future generations of Christian leaders who could face the challenges of modernism with a capable and informed, educated mind.   

In 1880, the Free University of Amsterdam would open, much to the credit of its founder Kuyper.  He would serve also as a professor for about ten years when he would step down in order to work in the political realm, becoming eventually the Prime Minister of the Netherlands.  An observer of Kuyper’s achievements and prodigious work will rightly conclude that Kuyper made a significant impact on the Reformed world.  McGoldrick takes the second half of the book to review the theology of Kuyper and consider the legacy he has through his teachings.   Here it is harder to discern whether this legacy has been all together positive.   

Chapter 9 looks at Kuyper’s theology of God and Revelation.   In the area of defending Christian orthodoxy as it was attacked by liberalism’s explicit denial of Scripture’s truthfulness and a robust Trinitarian theology, Kuyper did a masterful job and was a defender of traditional orthodoxy (pg. 110).    Innovation in his theology came in the area of Justification, where he taught an eternal justification removing it from an order of salvation on the application of the believer upon faith and putting in the eternal non historical realm of God’s decree.   This would lead to a strong supralapsarian tendency, as well as his view that the sacrament of baptism was given to children of the covenant because of an “assumed regeneration.”   These rather novel and idiosyncratic views would have a lasting impact on those who later follow Kuyper in a direction of confusion about the application of these doctrines.   McGoldrick does point out that not all the inconsistencies in the thought of Kuyper are ones that we see him pursuing to logical ends to the degree that his followers did.  Kuyper still held to the orthodox views of conversion and the importance of faith.  He valued the distinction of the Church and the unbelieving world. 

 

 He has a lasting legacy when it comes to affirming Common Grace and the discussion about Spheres.   Kuyper held a strong view that truth is known only through Christ and his Word, this truth stands in contrast or is the antithesis to the knowledge of the world because of the extent of sin upon fallen humanity.  This important concept is a key counterpoint to his view of Common Grace.   One cannot see Kuyper’s work; to bring all of life in obedient to Christ, and not see that he had a strong advocacy for common grace, where God is at work in his created world.   This positive affirmation of the Christian engagement in the world, however, is tempered with Kuyper’s appreciation for the devastating impact of sin.  When evaluating the lasting legacy of Kuyper, I agree with McGoldrick that one can appreciate his work and tireless effort to fight Modernism and his affirmation of the Lordship of Christ over all the earth, but there are hints of theological novelty that are troublesome to Reformed orthodoxy.  When considering his mysticism and his full engagement with politics and the reforming of the culture, one has to be cautious to be whole heartedly a “Kuyperian” in outlook.  It would be best, in my view to be thoroughly Biblical instead.  

Time & Eternity

Ecclesiastes 3: 11
“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.”

 “I know what time is until someone asks me to define it.” St. Augustine


We are told in Ecclesiastes that God is at work in time bringing about His good purpose in our lives (see also Rom. 8:28).  While we are confined to time, as creatures in time, we have been given an inward sense of eternity.  This means that time has significance for the Christian in light of eternal reality.  Here are a couple of things to note about what the Bible teaches us about time.

Time is always experienced as now.  Time is just the successive events of what we experience as now.  Right now as you read this, wherever you are, you are in the now of time.  When we look back at what has just happened, it now belongs to the past.  The future is still to come.  For Christians the future is anticipated as a glorious hope.  We have hope because we know that God has all time in His hand, and we have the promise of His salvation, which entails, the past, the present and the future.  As Paul states in Titus: “a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time.” (Titus 2).  Therefore time is a gift and not a right.  C.S. Lewis wrote in the Screwtape Letters about the man who thought “time was his own,” and was very distraught over those “interruptions” that “stole” his time away.  Looking forward to a quiet evening at home and then interrupted by an unexpected visitor.  Feeling that his time was stolen, this is thought as an intrusion into his rights.  For the believer, God has given us time as a gift and there are no claims to our time.  It is God’s time.  Where you are now, and whatever interruptions or the persons who needs you now, is not a violation of your rights, but an invitation to live in God’s now -present time.

There are two Greek words for time used in the New Testament.  One is the word Kronos, which means measured time, or calendar time.  It is where we get the word chronology.  The second word is Kairos; it is not measured time, but momentous time.  It is the time not measured or predictable, but the opportunities God gives us to obey, to respond to Christ, to say yes to God.  It is the word most used in the New Testament.


The pop rock group, Chicago in one of their songs asked the question, “does anyone really know what time it is?”  For the Christian, that is not the primary question.  What is important is what you are doing with “your” time.  Right now is God’s time and it belongs to Him.

A Prayer for Distressing Times

 O LORD, be gracious to us;
    we long for you.
  Be our strength every morning,
    our salvation in time of distress.  Isa. 33:2


The nation of Judah had faced the onslaught of political bullying and acts of terrorism by the Assyrians.  They lived under the threat of national survival, just as their northern brothers were toppled and exploited.   But things were going from bad to worse.   Isaiah’s prophetic ministry was constantly to remind God’s people of a coming kingdom – when nations would gather in Zion and the rivers of righteousness would fill the barren lands.  Babylon and its great empire was yet to come and bring its terror, but this was not end of the matter. A righteous King will come to Zion.  If, the book of Isaiah could be divided into two parts, then chapter 33 is right in the middle.   Like the Bible, Isaiah has 66 books or chapters.   So, smack in the center of this great book is a little prayer that is good for believers living in distressing times.

Fast forward many centuries and life is about the same.   Distress and anxiety does not always come by way of sword and spear or earthly rulers.   God’s people look forward to the time when the righteous King will destroy all his enemies.  We are reminded on every side of the struggles, the pain and the disappointments of this frail life.  But, we can still sing the songs of Zion in a strange land.  We pray realizing our dependence is not upon our outward security but upon the gracious deliverance of God.    We pray with the certainty of being a redeemed people that our strength for living each day is found in Christ.  It is a prayer for God to grant us the unmerited favor of his love for undeserving sinners.  It means we acknowledge that our righteousness is not the basis of God’s goodness – it never is.   Yes God desires obedience and blesses it, but never think we earn God’s blessings.  At times we think our resources will be enough and that the strong arm of our abilities and talents are what will decide the day.  This prayer understands that like small children we need the strong arm of a mighty Father to pick us up in life.  Distress comes as a blessing in disguise, because it is then we run to the arms of our Father.   “O Yahweh, be gracious to us; we long for you.  Be our arm of strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress.” Amen.

The Reign of Jesus

Another great quote from Lesslie Newbigin I used in my sermon last Sunday.   From his book, "The Sign of the Kingdom."

"The question about which everyone has to enquire is the question: am I living in total faithfulness, trust and loving obedience to him who is the sovereign?  The sharp words of Jesus have to be heeded in every situation- whether the temptation is to a worldly optimism or to a worldly pessimism.  Our attention is directed to God himself.  He alone is king.  What is called for in us is a total trust which-whether in success or in failure -simply places all its hope in him; which accepts the promise:  Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."  

The great need today is to live in obedience to this King and for the people of God to depend upon the provisions of our Sovereign promised to us.

Momentary Compassion - Jonah Series

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/20036692/Momentary%20Compassion%20-%20Jonah%20Series.MP3

Sermon preached at First Presbyterian Enterprise on Dec. 14, 2013 by Todd D. Baucum

Great Quotes about the love of Books

 “A room without books is like a body without a soul.”   Cicero 

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” 

― C.S. Lewis

“You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children.” 

― Madeleine L'Engle

“Some books should be tasted, some devoured, but only a few should be chewed and digested thoroughly.” 

― Francis Bacon

“When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.” 

― Desiderius Erasmus 

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” 

― Augustine of Hippo

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” 

― Mortimer J. Adler

“If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.” 

― Cicero

“The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.” 

― Joseph Joubert

“It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.” 

― C.S. Lewis

“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new after all.” 

― Abraham Lincoln

“We are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating, far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read.” 

― Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth

“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.” 

― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Ask for books this Christmas, and then take time to read them.  Enrich your spirit with good literature!   

Muggeridge on Evolution

“I myself am convinced that the theory of evolution, especially the extent to which it’s been applied, will be one of the great jokes in the history books in the future.  Posterity will marvel that so very flimsy and dubious an hypothesis could be accepted with the incredible credulity that it has.  I think I spoke to you before about this age as one of the most credulous in history, and I would include evolution as an example.”  In a Q & A  by Malcom Muggeridge at the Pascal Lectures on Christianity at the University of Waterloo in 1978.  

Muggeridge was a journalist most of his life and like C.S. Lewis came to faith later as an adult after a period of atheism.  I highly recommend his little book, "The End of Christendom".    Like Chesterton's work, his writings are always thought provoking, while one might not always agree.   His view of evolution is in my opinion one of the best and succinct statements that could be made.  It says more about us as a nonthinking and idolatrous generation, than it says about the nature of true science.  

When Anger is Love

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. 6 Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Mark 3:5-6


Is it right for a Christian to be angry?  Is holiness compatible with anger?  Not if we think of being angry as blowing your top or turning red in the face while you let out some steam.  Those too often human responses to anger tend to be self-centered reactions to our own inflated egos.  But there is a more godly response to violations of goodness and truth that can rightly be described as anger.  We may even use the word hate towards things that are sinful.   The problem is maintaining the distinction between what violates God’s laws, and our own personal agendas.   When I get angry because someone took a long time at a stop light and made me sit at the light an extra three minutes, I cannot call that righteous anger.  Paul said, "In your anger do not sin" : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold” (Eph. 4:26-27).  
Most often my sense of anger can lead to giving the enemy an upper hand.  That is why when Jesus was angry at the hardheartedness of the Pharisees he was not guilty of blowing his stack.  The Bible says that Jesus was both angry and deeply distressed (a better word is grieved).  In other words, Jesus could be angry at their sin and what it was doing to them, and at the same time feel nothing but deep pity for them.  He hated what the sin was doing to them.   C.S. Lewis said that he once thought it was silly to distinguish between hating the sin and loving the sinner, until he realized something.  “But years later it occurred to me that there was one man to whom I had been doing this all my life- namely myself.  However much I might dislike my cowardice or conceit or greed, I went on loving myself…In fact the very reason I hated the things was that I loved the man.” (Mere Christianity)   Jesus had the capacity to love us infinitely more than anyone else, it is why his anger at sin was so great.  He did not blow his top in some emotional venting, but in infinite grace went to the cross to pay for the sins that we all have committed.  His hatred of sin was all the more because of his awesome love for us.  
There is great sin in the world and we must hate it.  The reason we hate it is because our love for the people around us is so great it causes us pain to see them doing things that will only hurt them.  So next time you get angry, just check to see if it is an anger rooted in love..


Prayer of Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)

Most merciful and gracious Father,
I bless and magnify your Name that you have adopted me into the inheritance of sons, and have given me a portion with my elder Brother.  God of patience and consolation, strengthen me that I may bear the yoke of the Lord without murmur or ineffective unwillingness.  Lord, I cannot stand under the Cross by myself, unless you strengthen my spirit, so that I may be strongest when I am weakest and able to do everything that pleases You, through Christ who give me strength.  Amen. (adapted)

Always Hope

We are praying that our local crisis-pregnancy center will be able to stay open after it has struggled financially for several months.  Mary has been a volunteer this past year and was able to see first hand the difference it makes in our community.  I was proud in a good sense, of the way God used Mary to connect with some young women who needed compassion and grace along with sound guidance.   The guidance was always centered in the Gospel.   Recently, the lead singer from Kansas wrote a song about a young girl facing the decision to abort her unborn child.  The video is a realistic portrayal and done artistically to present a pro-life and pro adoption message.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdYPjpl5pI0&feature=player_embedded

A Marriage Desired - Suzanne and Daniel Wedded on Saturday

A wedding was celebrated this past weekend where I preached and handed over my daughter to a fine Christian young man.  Families from both sides came from across the country to witness the event, and Mary and I had the great privilege of hosting, and rejoicing with our families.   What a flood of emotions over these days, as a range of feelings mixed with the amazing mystery of marriage drenched with the overwhelming truth of Gospel reality.    It is a near heaven experience, to say the least.

Here's a snippet of my remarks - (and what a joy in sharing the officiating with my brother, Tory -even if he dropped the ring!).  

I read two passages from the Old and New Testament, which is about marriage in this ultimate sense – the fulfilling of a desire that will not be satisfied in this world, because we were made for an infinite love that we never deserve, nor could ever imagine possible.

This is why Jesus described the Kingdom God – the way he rules over human hearts, like a King who held wedding feast (Matt.22)- that was a no expense spared event – not because the King needed to impress anyone, but to show the heart of his love for his son. 

Yet, this parable is full of the unexpected.   The wedding guest wouldn't come.  The greatest bounty of food, wine and provisions are extended.  

Two groups miss out on this glorious celebration.   First, those who were preoccupied with their own lives – self-absorbed in the inflated importance of themselves they reject the grace of their King and kill his servants.  

The other is the guest that shows up without the wedding garment.   The invitation is open to all to come to the wedding banquet -  and it may sound strange that one who is simply without proper attire is thrown out.     Why?   Because this is a picture of God’s grace.    The wedding feast is about receiving what we don’t deserve.  Even the garments are provided.  

The first group insulted the King, by their refusal for his offer to come and enjoy the feast.  The second man, is a picture of those who think all they need to do is come with their best efforts, clothe themselves with best they have.   Yet, the king who gave everything, gave the garments of redemption to all who came.   

There are two ways to reject the gift.    Outright rejection and then just to believe we can add one thing to the gracious offer.  

Truth of the matter – what makes God’s grace so lovely and beyond imagining is that throughout the Bible, grace is about God pursuing a bride that wants nothing else than to run away from this divine love.   People falsely imagine that the electing grace of God, is God saying, “Ok I take this one and that one, and not that one.”  Like getting picked for  a Junior High sports team.  

Grace pursues a world running from God.   It is the undeserved and unilateral rescue of a bride seeking love everywhere except in the One who can really give it.  

Suzanne and Dan, this wonderful marriage that unites your hearts and lives in a sacred covenant is temporary and earthly and by God’s blessing it is a glimpse into the Greatest of all Love Stories –  A Divine Romance –  the Mystery of marriage as the Apostle Paul said, Ephes. 5:31-32 (ESV) 

    "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."  [32] This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”  

August Break

This August is busy with wedding plans and short trip to Kansas to see family and some study leave at Puritan Reformed Seminary in Grand Rapids. My writing efforts will be aimed at my required work. I am grateful to my elders who are sharing the load for extra teaching while I am away. Thank you brothers! By the way, right now I am reading about Abraham Kuyper and contemplating writing a paper on him. Look for new blogs in September.

Memphis Respite

Our family took a few days over the holiday weekend to explore the sights, sounds and tastes of Memphis. The key point of the trip was to immerse Dan into the heart of our family roots. Yes, I am from Kansas City, but Memphis is my adopted home and I put their BBQ right up there with KC's lip smacking tasty ribs. We had a great time and filled those few days with much walking, eating and most of all listening to the sounds of blues, and the great singing that is all around Memphis. The zoo and baseball at the Autozone Park were great fun with the family. Mary and I never go without stopping by our favorite bookstore to browse through stacks of good quality used books and found a few to purchase. Burke's Bookstore is a Memphis tradition that goes back 138 years.It is a sign of civilization, when people read for pleasure. To top things off, we worshipped at All Saints, a Presbyterian church in Midtown reaching a wide range of people and preaching the Gospel of reconciliation, so needed and so wonderfully demonstrated in their life. It was refreshing and delighted our spirits.

Coming back to Enterprise, we are looking at what God has in store for the Fall - yes a wedding, but also more ways to serve Christ and exalt his Gospel in the Wiregrass area.

Engagement!

Mary and I are thrilled to announce that our daughter Suzanne has been proposed to by a very fine Christian young man, Dan Dorman.  Those in our church will not be that surprised because they have seen Dan and Suzanne in the courtship phase.  Dan is a member of our church and came here two years ago to work at Fort Rucker after college (He is a biomedical engineer).  He is originally from Maine and comes from a long line of godly Presbyterian believers.   All this to say, we have been praying for this for many years.  From infancy, we have asked the Lord to guide our daughters and direct their hearts to godly young men - and the specific one the Lord had chosen.   We just never thought God would import one from Maine!   Dan grew up in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and Suzanne flew to Maine with Dan to meet family and friends and it was there in the lovely natural beauty of God's creation that she was offered a ring and she accepted.    Now we have wedding plans.... May the Lord be praised.  So, news later on dates and specifics! 

No Ordinary Work

No Ordinary Work

    The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.  Genesis 2:15

    Six days work shall be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord. Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death.  Exodus 35:2 (ESV)

In the Bible work is not drudgery or something to fill our time.  It is a God given task for the glory of man who in return is glorifying God.  Your work does not define you.  Only your relationship with God in Christ, defines you as a person.  That is why we have the Sabbath day, to cease from work and activity that defines us in ways that deny our fundamental identity as children of God.  So, the way you work and how you work during the week ought to reflect your relationship with God.

Therefore, work is not the result of the Fall, but a part of God’s intention for man in the garden.  After sin came into the picture, the curse resulted in that toil and work would be frustrated. (Gen. 3:23; 4: 12)  Humanity is separated from God, from other humans, and frustrated in our work.   Yet, by God’s grace, work is still a source of great blessing, even as it also brings challenges and frustrations.

Do you like your work? Is everything you do a source of joy and fulfillment?

When does your work bring you the greatest joy?

The Shaker philosophy of furniture making was to make each chair fit for an angel to sit on.  “Make every product better than it’s ever been done before.  Make the parts you cannot see as well as the parts you can see.  Use only the best of materials, even for the most everyday items.  Give the same attention to the smallest detail as you do the largest. Design every item you make to last forever.”  (Os Guinness, The Call, pg.198-199)

I remember seeing this type of work philosophy in the Czech organ builders who were at work in the church I served in West Virginia.  We employed a European company so that all the parts were made and manufactured in the Czech Republic.  It was built there and then taken apart, bit by bit and rebuilt in this country right in our sanctuary.  What astounded me was the craftsmanship, attention to detail, and the use of solid white oak used not just on the outside, but in the backside of the organ works.  There was not one piece of inferior wood or plywood used.  The men themselves were fine artisans.  They worked with a sense that the work was worthy of quality.  These men were not simply collecting paychecks.

It seems to me that is the Christian view of work.  Whatever you are doing to pass your time, whether it is a paying job, a profession or retirement, are you reflecting the glory of God in what you are doing?

Renewing the Christian Mind

Renewing the Christian Mind

A sermon by Pastor Todd D. Baucum

Preached Sunday, May 19, 2013

Romans 12:1-2 (ESV) 

    “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind..” 

1.      The Encouraging Appeal.

Chapter 12 is  set apart from the previous section, where Paul has affirmed our justification by Christ’s death and resurrection, and his righteousness applied to our deficit.    It is established that our standing before God is based on God’s prior electing grace and mercy on undeserving sinners.   He has expounded at length of the mystery of the Gospel -that sinners who deserve wrath and judgment are recipients of the manifold riches of God’s grace.   

Now he takes this to the practical application of this truth.    Truth is in order to goodness.   Theory comes before application.   Thinking comes before action.  

Notice however, how Paul makes his appeal for the Christians at Rome to live a sacrificial life of radical obedience to Christ.    He says, in the Greek – (l iterally),  “I am along with you calling you to live in light of this extravagant Mercy of God”.   He is not pontificating from his seat of authority and saying “you ingrates shape up or ship out”.    He counts himself as one whom taking the call of obedience along side of fellow believers.  Paul is always the humble Apostle, understanding that he is the chief of sinners.    What is the appeal?    The allusion is to the OT sacrificial system.   Now Christ has fulfilled the law, there is no need for any further sacrifice.   Our obedience is not filling up anything that is lacking in our account.   That is not the purpose of obedience.  We don’t need to win favor with God, if Christ is our savior.    The reason for obedience is gratitude.   Thomas Watson, the Puritan divine said,  “Gratitude is the rent we owe to God.”    God redeems us fully, gloriously rescues us from bondage to sin.   Our response is therefore to show mercy, show love and that love is revealed by a desire to please, - in a word, to obey him.

John 14:15 (ESV)  "If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 

In the Old Testament, the worshipper would bring in an animal, a goat or a ox, for example.  It was unblemished, the best of the pick.  It was costly, and the animal would be sacrificed and its life taken.   The picture was to show the high price of perfection – of obedience – which we can never rise to – so something has to pay the price.    In Christ, we have a perfect, unblemished Lamb of God – who paid the price for our imperfect obedience.  Yet, Paul is saying under God’s grace – in the new covenant – we have a spiritual altar that requires a sacrifice of love and gratitude.   We give our whole selves, our bodies and our souls – with a dedication of living  and daily obedience.    There is no altar in our church.   We miss out on the biblical sense of daily obedience when we resort to outward religious activity and ceremony.    Biblical worship is about daily obedience.    It is about living daily in the awesome realization of what God has done for you.    Any other kind of worship is a mockery and religious show.    Worship has to connect to life.    

“…offer yourselves as a living sacrifice…which is your spiritual (logical) worship.”

2.      Our Rational Response to Mercy.

Spiritual worship is Rational Worship, in that it begins with thinking and reasoning rightly about God.   The word Paul uses is “logical”.   Because of God’s mercy the logical response is one of worship, which is literally giving ourselves wholeheartedly, body and soul to Christ on a daily basis.    It is logical because it requires us to think upon the mercy and goodness of God.  Christianity is a rational faith.  It may at time require a trust that goes beyond sensory explanation, but it never, ever requires what some call blind faith – or just irrational leap.   The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard and the early Church Father, Tertullian both said “faith is believing what is absurd”.  

It is true that the world thinks the message of the Gospel -  of our redemption by the folly of the Cross of Christ – as just plain absurdity.    The Greeks in Athens – at the Areopagus, thought Paul was smoking something strange – and could not hold to the reality of a resurrection.     They were all about trying to transcend this bodily earthy life.   Christ is all about trying to put reality into this life.    Paul’s main emphasis in the rest of Romans is chiefly about – how the Gospel transforms all of life.   In the rest of this chapter it is about the transformation of our relationships at church.   In Chapter 13 about our relationships with the civil government.   It will continue to be fleshed out, how the transformed life of a redeemed person – changes the way they think and from there it changes everything.   

My first church experience was an environment that was very ant-intellectual -  many would highlight that the first disciples were uneducated.  That intellectual questions and pursuits were a waste of time.  All one needed was faith and obedience to God’s Word.  

I would then read passages like,  Isaiah 1:18 (ESV) 

    "Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:

    though your sins are like scarlet,

        they shall be as white as snow;

    though they are red like crimson,

        they shall become like wool.

And all through the book of Acts, Paul reasoned out the message of the Gospel in his outreach to both Jews and Greeks.  

Of course, Paul was exceptional – but then most of the NT was written by him. 

3.      The Renewing of our Minds.

Whether one is influenced by the anti-intellectual elements of fundamentalism or the average Christian experience in the church – which is the influence of the world’s thinking – both lead to minds that are not renewed by the Holy Spirit applying God’s eternal truth to your thinking.

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind..” 

Our minds need to be reformatted, like the software in a computer - our old ways of thinking were dominated by sin and therefore are distorted.    This renewal of the mind is life – long.   It does not happen overnight. It is also related to transformed living in direct proportion to the time we spend in having our minds renewed by biblical truth.  

Consider the new evidence – by US census – growing number of NONES -  no religious affiliation.      Belief – or non belief – is reflected in our current moral laxity.  Fifty years ago, only 3 percent of the population would check no religious affiliation, in the recent census the number has jumped to 20 percent who have no religious affiliation of any kind.      

The more trash we take into our minds, from what we read, study, or by entertainment – the more trash will come from our decisions and actions.   Jesus said,  “as a man thinks, so is he”.   Corruption of life comes from the heart – mind. 

We need a transformed way of living that takes Christian truth and displays it before a world that is increasingly becoming illogical, mean, and ugly.   The Christian world view offers the only true esthetics, standard of beauty that brings truth and meaning to the world.  We live in a world, that promotes pornography and a counterfeit beauty -  half-truths wrapped in academic respectability as knowledge.  

Philip. 4:8 (ESV) 

    Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 

How can one know what the Good is – what God’s will is , without any way of discerning it in a world of competing claims of truth?   What has influenced your mind – just by doing the simple math of what you take into your mind?   Do not our lives bear the result?     Remember, how Paul began.   I beseech you brothers and sisters – I come along side you – with the same need.    By God’s grace and help let us have our minds renewed and our lives transformed as we think – mediate and reflect on the mercy of God – who did what was beyond logic to save sinners like me.