I’m going to be on the road until Sept. 4th or so – so there will most likely be no Margin Notes until I return.
First, I’m attending a 2 day Leadership Summit as the point man for our local Reformation Society (under the auspices of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals) in Indianapolis.
Then, it’s down to Fort Worth, TX, to pick up my bride and drive back.
We’ll be driving “Shamoo” back (my new – 1997 Lincoln Town Car) – whoo hoo!
Yes, it has its own zip code and seats 37.
To Covet: To desire anybody, anything or any state – other than God Himself – to the degree that I refuse to be joyful or at peace without it in any proportion, or, am willing to suspend sound judgment and indulge in unwise, foolish, immoderate or overtly sinful means to obtain it.
1 – Psalm 101:1 (ESV)
1 I will sing of steadfast love and justice;
to you, O Lord, I will make music.
RAF: It is good to remember that one necessary aspect of worship is our singing “to” God. This is how David begins his thought here. I will sing of steadfast love and justice; TO YOU, O Lord. I wonder if our worship might not grow to be much more vibrant and heartfelt if we worshiped in this way. If we sang as though we were directly before Him, and singing our songs to Him. If we were asked to sing before the President of our nation, what preparation would go before. We wouldn’t be haphazard or half-hearted. We would rise to the occasion. So it ought to be with our worship. Let us approach worship, even as we approach our Lord Himself. And let us sing TO Him.
1 – Psalm 78:18-20 (ESV)
18 They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved.
19 They spoke against God, saying,
“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
20 He struck the rock so that water gushed out
and streams overflowed.
Can he also give bread
or provide meat for his people?”
RAF: Heavenly Father, this is so much how I am. No matter how often or how wondrously you prove yourself to me, at the next crisis, it is as though you have done nothing in the past. It is as though you are constantly having to prove yourself to me. Please forgive my hardness and unfaithfulness. Make my mind recall your past graces, and let me stand secure in your love that I do not repeatedly put you to the test. Let my heart be free of its sinful doubting – and truly trust you. Make my only “demand” – that I might know you more.
1 – Psalm 63:3 (ESV) 3 Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.
RAF: Heavenly Father, look and see the times this has ceased to be the case for me – and forgive. The truth of it remains ever true – to truly be loved by the Living God as His very own – what can compare? And still my peace is so easily broken at times. My faith shaken, my joy fleeting and my security seemingly threatened. I often live as though I am not the object of your great love – when all of life (if examined rightly) screams out the very opposite. How dull, and hard and cold my heart can become. At times, in an instant. One moment, rejoicing in your Word, worship and the fellowship of your people, and the next, agitated over trifles. As though your love ought not to intoxicate my being. As if it ought not color every thing I see, filter everything I hear, inform everything I say and bring within the reality of your love – everything I feel. To respond to life as though you are not both Lord over it, and my dearest, Heavenly Father in it. Forgive. And by your Spirit, tune my own heart to yours. Let not a single note of your love for your own fail to stike the accordant string in my own soul. Cause the drenching downpour of your lovingkindess to met by a rising fountain from out of my innermost being. Let me know your love more – but I beg you, give the capacity to love you rightly in return.
1 – Psalm 18:6 (ESV) 6 In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears.
RAF: It is significant that God heard the Psalmist’s voice “from His temple.” David lived with the clear sense of God’s presence with His people. He dwelt between or above the cherubim. This is in contrast to all the pagan temples which are mere monuments to their gods, but which do not claim the nearness or presence of these gods. And now, under the New Covenant this is advanced exponentially – for our God dwells WITHIN us. We are His temple. How much more does He hear us now? Oh what a God of grace!
From my very first exposure to Todd Bentley and his antics, I was heartbroken. Heartbroken that good and otherwise godly people could be swallowing what Bentley was selling. And selling is the right word – especially in view of his fund raising tactics which are well documented any number of places.
The Canadian born Bentley – revivalist/faith healer/leader of the poorly named Lakeland Revival in Florida – is a tragic figure in and of himself. But what he leaves in his wake is lamentable by all.
The problem is, for anyone who really wanted to know the scoop on Bentley – it was everywhere. The internet was replete with those who had looked at what was going on and had exposed so very much. I spent hours analyzing material from every corner. And one did not need to review skewed and negative material – they only needed to watch him, and listen to what he said. My main exposure was to video and audio clips of Bentley himself. That is sufficient.
To its credit – Charisma Magazine has begun to ask the right and necessary questions. Questions that thinking and Biblical people should have been asking all along. Many, thankfully, were asking. But far far too many were not asking at all.
I began by asking the question why are we (Christians) so gullible? And my only answer is – we WANT to be. And all I mean by that is that we know God so little, that we are constantly running after all sorts of other things to fill the remaining void. A void left by our poverty of searching out the God of the Bible both in the Bible, and in a life lived in deliberate, conscious, constant dependence upon the reality of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. We need to fill our hearts and minds at the Fountain of Life Himself – else other things will always be rushing into the vacuum. The only answer is increased, first hand knowledge of God Himself, in the person and work of His Son. Knowing Him.
The Word, Worship, Prayer and Fellowship. This is where we know Him and experience Him. This is where we get filled up.
1 – Job 11:1 (ESV) Then Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:
RAF: Zophar’s first answer: The truth is, you haven’t suffered nearly what you deserve. Repent.
1 – Esther 4:12-14 (ESV) 12 And they told Mordecai what Esther had said. 13 Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. 14 For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”
RAF: Note Mordecai’s careful balance here between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility.
a. If Esther does not act, she will suffer consequences.
b. God has other means for deliverance, but she is square in the middle of this – and she needs to act according to her responsibility. Yes, God has other means, but she is His means now.
c. She is to seize the time as ordained by God.
God’s sovereignty is never an excuse for inaction.
1 – Nehemiah 7:1-2 (ESV) Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, 2 I gave my brother Hanani and Hananiah the governor of the castle charge over Jerusalem, for he was a more faithful and God-fearing man than many.
RAF: Those who do not fear God, certainly will not fear man. Thus trustworthiness is tied to the fear of God. If they are not honest and reliable because they understand the relationship of such things to their God, then there is nothing to prevent them from being unreliable at all. Fear of the Law sure won’t do it. And as our society demonstrates day after day, the further men move away from any sense of personal responsibility before God, the more violent, dishonest and anti-social their behavior becomes. This is not about living in some cowering fear that doubts God’s love and goodness. It is knowing that God is righteous, that He cannot tolerate sin and must judge it – no matter how deeply He loves anyone. And that to be living in sin will ultimately bring us before the judgment bar of God, irrespective of our sins being found out by men in this life.
1 – Ezra 3:6 (ESV) 6 From the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord. But the foundation of the temple of the Lord was not yet laid.
RAF: In days of restoration, as these were for the exiles, priorities are sometimes more clearly defined. While there had been no work on restoring the Temple proper yet, the altar was restored first and rightly so. When we have gone through seasons of estrangment from God, perhaps the distance that has followed a fall into sin, we know where to go first – to the cross. We go to God’s altar. Where the one true Lamb that was offered for sin was slain. We go back there and renew ourselves in the knowledge of what our sin deserved, how the Father sent His Son to take our punishment in our place, and how He is the only sin offering we can bring. And isn’t He our fellowship offering too? And our thank offering? Everything is restored to focus on this one place – Christ Jesus, and His death for us.
1 – 2 Chronicles 32:18-19 (ESV) 18 And they shouted it with a loud voice in the language of Judah to the people of Jerusalem who were on the wall, to frighten and terrify them, in order that they might take the city. 19 And they spoke of the God of Jerusalem as they spoke of the gods of the peoples of the earth, which are the work of men’s hands.
RAF: The Devil knows our language. He knows how to communicate to us in ways we will hear clearly – and always with the aim of undermining our trust in God. He knows how to play on our fears to make us think God is somehow not able to keep us, not willing to keep us, or corrupt in some way. These are Satan’s devices, and he uses them skillfully. But our ears must be tuned to God’s voice. To remember Who and What He is. To stand firm in the knowledge of God’s perfections, promises and the holy character of His person. Then, we can stand strong. Only then.
1 – 1 Chronicles 13:1 (ESV) David consulted with the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, with every leader.
RAF: Good leadership knows the value of the opinions, experiences and insights of others. Being unchallengable as though we have all the answers is a sure way not to lead others, but rather to drive them. Perhaps even to drive them away.
1 – 1 Chronicles 5:20 (ESV) 20 And when they prevailed over them, the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hands, for they cried out to God in the battle, and he granted their urgent plea because they trusted in him.
RAF: This is both so simple and so profound. A powerful impetus to pray. Note four simple things.
Un-SHACK-led
A Review of the popular new book
The Shack
by
William P. Young
My first temptation in reflecting upon my reading of The Shack is just to trash it. It wouldn’t be hard to do. Un-biblical notions abound in it. Indeed anti-biblical notions ooze from nearly every page. And, casting stones is a relatively low-skill-set activity. Its easy. Pick’em up and throw. Doesn’t make much thought or depth of analysis.
But I don’t want to do that.
I don’t want to just indulge in literary vivisection because the very presence of the book and its theme are still important. And because as you read it, the auto-biographical nature of it screams to be addressed. All three of these account (I believe) for the book’s overwhelming popularity among Christians. All that being said – “Theological fiction” – as The Shack’s genre is called, is tricky business. Tricky and dangerous. How dangerous, we’ll unpack below.
1 – 2 Kings 18:4 (ESV) 4 He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).
RAF: Even symbols of God’s goodness to us can become idols. In this case it was the bronze serpent that was raised up on a pole to stop the plague among the Israelites in Numbers 21. The transferrance is from God Himself, to a “thing.” Loving or focusing upon the gift above the Giver. Heavenly Father, this is so easy for us to do. Please keep us from it. Please keep our eyes on you.
1 – 2 Kings 6:1-7 (ESV) Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us. 2 Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and let us make a place for us to dwell there.” And he answered, “Go.” 3 Then one of them said, “Be pleased to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I will go.” 4 So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. 5 But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, “Alas, my master! It was borrowed.” 6 Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. 7 And he said, “Take it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it.
RAF: All of the graces we had in Adam, were granted to us – “borrowed” from God, are were not ours inherently. This is so because we did not create ourselves nor do we sustain ourselves. (1 Corinthians 4:7 (ESV) For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?) All we had was from Him. And what little we have left is still from Him. But our righteousness, this we lost. The holiness and uprightness we were created in is gone. The very image of God in us was marred beyond recognition. We were no longer able to glorify – to reveal Him as were created to do. Lost so as to be irrecoverable by human means. It would take a miracle of grace alone to do the impossible in saving us. The very transcendence of nature and its laws. That which could only be done by God Himelf. Oh, what a glorious salvation belongs to those who believe.
1 – 1 Kings 13:33-34 (ESV) 33 After this thing Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Any who would, he ordained to be priests of the high places. 34 And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.
RAF: It is true that in the Church, we are all “a royal priesthood”. And yet, this is not to remove all distinctions in service, ministry and office. 1 Corinthains 12 for instance remainds us that “not all are teachers” (vs. 29 – etc). Even within the Levitical Priesthood there were at least three major divisions of duties, and maybe more. To obliterate these, brings confusion to the Chuch. It is the record of history that a failure of carefulness in this issue breeds destructive results. We are not to simply ordain “any who would.” Willingness is not qualification by itself.
1- 2 Samuel 12:4 (ESV) 4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
RAF: Nathan’s portrayal of lust or desire as a traveler is most useful. It is a temporary thing that has the appearance of making legitimate demands, which we then try to meet by illegitimate means.
It WILL go away.
I don’t HAVE to give it a lamb.
I have legitimate means to deal with it. But I am unwilling to use those means.
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