Matthew 22:34-40 / “But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

6. All sin is ultimately a defect in love – either toward God, or my neighbor. And one always includes the other. I cannot sin against God without it being bad for my neighbor, and I cannot sin against my neighbor without it also being a sin against God. Gal. 5:14-26. But it all begins with a defect in my perception of God’s love!

The human as the image bearer of God, is not a source, but only a responder.

God is love, but we are not.

Our love must and can only spring from His.

We cannot generate it on our own.

When we try, the perverse product is defective in every way.

We must and only can love as we know His love for us.

Had Adam and Eve suspected no defect in God’s love for them, they would have remained invincible against temptation and sin.

It was in their suspicion that His love kept back from them something good, some necessary or accordant blessing of love, that they then failed to love Him and one another in return.

We cannot fix our love in a vacuum or independently, for we cannot produce love – we can only reflect it.

In that we perceive anything at all defective in His love, that defect will be magnified in us as reflectors, and eclipse the whole of His love, seeing only the defect, and fearing the loss – we will angrily lash out in sin to obtain what we believe we are being deprived of.

We must study to know the love of God for us in Christ above all things.

Only by deep, rich, full, Spirit revealed beams of God’s love penetrating our hearts and minds, illumining our souls, can we ever come to love Him back, and those who too are made in His image.

Left to ourselves, love will be a tormenting fire, but never a liberating light.

Holy Spirit, make me to know Divine love.

I can pray nothing higher for myself, my wife, my daughter, my son-in-law, my grandchildren, my church or my enemies than this.

Do not leave me to myself, for my love is but a sullied and defective reflection, currently distorted by my sin.

Please send your Spirit to strengthen me/us in the inner man to – so that Christ has His manifest dwelling there.

So that we are enabled to know your love in purity and fullness.

That we might be filled with the fullness of God – for it is only found in knowing your love.

Fill me.

The faith that the just must live in – is the faith to believe God as He has revealed Himself in Christ Jesus, making an all sufficient sacrifice for sin, calling all to come and be reconciled, and overcoming in vast numbers the unwillingness that resides in us all.

Oh grand, divine, in fathomable mystery of God’s great love!

Who can know it?

Who can understand it?

Who dares to so revel and rely upon it as to live in its perpetual and limitless joy?

May I!

Without taking the time to re-establish the basis of series here (please go back to #1 if you need a full explanation) let me move on to the 5^th Principle I have found it necessary to load into my own mental RAM as a means of thinking Biblically about life.

Principle #5 – Providence limits our options.

Have you ever spent much time fretting over things you wish were different, but you have no power to actually change? I have. And I am here to tell you it is an exercise in futility. More, it is a waste of time, energy and emotion. IT is a trap which is horribly hard to extricate ourselves from. And it is a place which drives me back to reconsider this principle every time. In truth, no matter how we wish some things were different, the providential arrangement of much of our lives leaves us to cope only with what is, and does not give us all of the options we wish we had at our disposal.

No doubt, we rage against this reality at times. True, we CAN change some things. Others, we can plead with the Heavenly Father for, and He has power to change what we cannot. And then, there are those things which barring miraculous intervention cannot be changed at all. And we are forced to live within those boundaries. (See: Acts 17:26-28)

Birth defects may be tempered with science to some degree, but the victim of cerebral palsy will have limitations to his or her physical exploits. One with Down Syndrome will have different options in life than one without. One born blind may never see, and dreams of certain careers or other choices will simply be unavailable. How some wish we could reclaim that parent who was distant, or absent, or even abusive, and recreate the relationship we legitimately long for. But no amount of longing, pining, sighing, grieving or manipulating can change any of these.

In these few examples and countless more, we are forced to live within the boundaries of the providential circumstances of our lives. And the question is, will we submit to them, or will we try to move Heaven and earth in ways that are unhealthy and even dangerous? Will we dwell there? Or will we take the options we truly have?

Now let me be clear – I am not speaking of a failing resignation here. I am not advocating just giving up and languishing in our limitations. What I am advocating rather, is a faithful looking to the God and Father who loves us, and who in His infinite love and wisdom directs us for our eternal  good, by closing off certain avenues. And while the concept is simple, it is seldom easy to walk this way. This requires an unusual trust in the loving hand of our unseen Father.

Trust in God this way does not negate the reality either of evil done to us, nor of legitimate disappointment. But it is a call to refuse to frame our lives by these things – and rather to frame them in the hope of our Heavenly Father’s sovereign hand. Even when we cannot understand it.

Especially when we cannot understand it.

Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr summarized his thoughts in understanding these issues in a prayer he wrote in 1943. No, it was not invented by Alcoholics Anonymous. Niebuhr wasn’t my kind of theologian. But he got this right. He closed a sermon of his with these words:

God, give us grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,

Enjoying one moment at a time,

Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,

Taking, as Jesus did,

This sinful world as it is,

Not as I would have it,

Trusting that You will make all things right,

If I surrender to Your will,

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,

And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.

What options HAS God placed before you? Seek those in His grace. And do not waste a second more on what He hasn’t . The day will come – when in His presence, you will see His wisdom in it. And you will worship.

Some things we learn end up being major slices of the lens through which we see all of life. For me, there are certain truths which emerge from Scripture that do that same in terms of understanding the whole of the Bible and Scriptural Christianity. Some of these I’ve assembled over time and for lack of a better title, have called them “The Principles”. The list is not exhaustive, and continues to grow. But I am sharing what I have so far in hopes of them being and encouragement and as a means of perhaps bringing clarity to some things that might be a bit fuzzy.

Today’s Principle is #4 on my list, and it is: The Lord’s prayer is essential for tuning the heart in all things. It is God’s paradigm.

Every instrument needs tuned regularly. From pianos to tympani, violins to bass guitars, trumpets, tubas oboes and piccolos. Every musician tunes his or her instrument before they attempt to play anything on it. And if they do not, it isn’t long before they cannot play any melody consistently, recognizably or especially in concert with any other instrument. The tuning process is absolutely imperative. It is no less so with the human soul.

Christians are instruments. We were created to be joyfully and skillfully breathed through by the Spirit of God in producing praises of the highest order. Transcendent music of the heavenlies. Sometimes He strums us, and other times He uses the bow of circumstance to cause our heart string to resonate with the beauty of His touch. He will blow more softly or more forcefully as both the instrument and the particular passage in the piece being played requires. He will sometimes pluck strings, and other times elongate the slide, press the sustain pedal or use sticks on the snare.

Whether we are to be used as instruments of praise in a solo passage, or with the rest of the orchestra in concert – we need to be tuned. We need to have the same foundational starting note and be able to work within the same chord structure. And the 7 pronged tuning fork put before us for us to tune to – I would advance, is the Lord’s Prayer. Nothing so completely and sweetly orders the whole frame of heart and mind as to tune first and foremost to:

1. Our Father, is the God of Heaven. We are His dear children, and He has begotten us out of the depths of His eternal Triune love. He who rules and reigns over us, brought us forth to know Him who is the fountain of every blessing.
2. That He has made us to bear His image, and uniquely equipped us above every other creature in the universe to comprehend and stand in awed admiration at His revealed beauty in Christ Jesus. To hallow His name.
3. To live under His beneficent Lordship, wallowing in the lush oceans of His holiness, immensity, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient glory in mercy and grace untold. To bring the whole of our being under His loving hand, and to desire that Kingship to be extended everywhere.
4. To remain ever aware that nothing could be of higher blessing to Him and to us than for His will to be unopposed in even the slightest way in any place or by anything.
5. To look to Him in absolute confidence that our souls are to be fully sated on the Bread of Life He has sent down in the person of His Son. To feast afresh and anew on Him every day.
6. To walk in the most tender, intimate and wondrous fellowship – jealously guarding lest anything hinder or defile that closeness in any way – always keeping short accounts with Him in seeking forgiveness which is never denied for any offense.
7. And to recall that our own hearts are desperately wicked, and easily lured by the siren song of the Tempter. To look to Him then to lead us away from where our own erring feet may go, and deliver us from the snares the Wicked One has set for us.

To live always in this frame – is to be an instrument ready for the Master’s service, to delight Him and to be fitted for the song we were created to fill the universe with. And it is joy.

Continuing in our short series on The Principles, we take a moment here to consider #3 on my list. It is one which I have tried to articulate often the congregation here at ECF, and to keep at the forefront of my own thinking at all times – not always successfully.

Principle #3 The Christian life cannot be lived any other way than by conscious, constant, deliberate dependence upon the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Beloved, if you never learn anything from listening to or reading anything I have ever communicated, I pray this will drop down into the innermost recesses of your soul and find solid lodging there. So important was the giving of the Holy Spirit to us by Christ Jesus, that He raised it to the level of being a greater blessing than His incarnate presence with us before the cross.

Listen to the nature of Christ’s love for us, and the Father’s lavish giving Him to us with the Son in sending the 3^rd person of the Trinity to indwell us: John 16:7–8 “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. “Aren’t those words staggering? That it is MORE advantageous that the incarnate Christ leave and the Spirit be poured out upon us, than if He remained? It is mind boggling. Certainly we remember that in His going, He will die on the cross in our place and be raised again for our justification – but even those glories are not independent of His going SO THAT He might send the Spirit to. Salvation is not complete without The Spirit. And this He bids us to consider of such infinite value as to be looked for in His place with us. Amazing.

Now it is just because this is true, that the Apostle Paul can tell us that therein lay the secret to the Christian walk: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” Galatians 5:16. Herein is power to overcome sin; The reality of fresh, vital, real communion with our God and Savior; gifts to bless the Church; illumination of God’s Word; power in prayer and ministering the Gospel – and countless other glories.

But note how we have put in in our principle. We must be CONSCIOUSLY looking to the Spirit as God’s indwelling presence. We must be cognizant on relying upon Him. And such reliance must be CONSTANT, not simply the fallback when things get rough. We must be DELIBERATE in our dependence – truly leaning upon Him, resting our weight upon Him, and not simply giving lip service to it. Running to Him 10, 100, 1000, 10,000 times a day. And it must be DEPENDENCE upon Him. He is not spiritual power steering, just giving us a boost to so that we can still do the job – but looking to Him to work righteousness in our hearts, to change desires and goals and ambitions and mindsets, opinions, attitudes and forging in us new likes and dislikes, loves and hatreds  in accord with His own holy nature.

Consciously, constantly, deliberately depending upon Him to impart to us and work in us God’s own love. Love that manifests itself in joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, uprightness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Recognizing these are not human characteristics to be psychologically developed, but the very character of Christ to be lived.

Apart from this way of living, we will walk in constant defeat at the mercy (mercilessness) of our lusts. We will be exhausted in “trying” to be holy. We will be frustrated at every turn, living either in perpetual self-delusion that we are fine as is, or in perpetual guilt and dismay at our brokenness.

This world is toxic. Like a scuba diver who puts on his equipment so that he can operate in an environment  that would otherwise kill him in minutes – we take up the “air” supply of the Breath of God, and cling to it and try to breathe no other way so that we might live, and thrive where no life can apart from it. And then, we can even enjoy the swim.

Yesterday I began a series touching on principles I have gleaned from Scripture over time that inform my overall view of things. As I said then, some of these are overtly put before us in the Bible, and others are gathered up from surveying the broader scope of the Word. But they stand as landmarks in my own thinking, and may prove to be beneficial to you as well.

I should add here that in some cases, the ideas discussed may be a bit controversial or will goad us into thinking more deeply about areas we may have previously viewed in a more surface manner. All along, what I am hoping for things that will be joggin’ the noggin.

Today, I would like to note as Principle #2 that: Forgiveness of sins is personal – even with God, while

First, we need to remember that God does not simply sweep sin under the carpet. Forgiveness language in the Bible often employs financial images to help us understand that in all forgiveness the one doing the forgiving, willingly takes a loss and does not seek restitution. Forgiveness costs something. It is free to the forgiven, but costly to the forgiver. In the case of God providing an atonement for our sin, He absorbed the losses of the honor we were due to pay Him, the obedience and the duty to reflect His holy image. More, in Christ’s death at Calvary, He even took on the punishment due us for those sins. This is the breathtaking wonder of the Cross. In Christ, God didn’t just say “I won’t punish the guilty” – but instead, punished the innocent One, that the guilty might be truly free!

Now all of this must touch on two different spheres. In human justice, people are punished for breaking the law, their offenses are against the state – it isn’t personal. But in God’s case, His holiness IS the law. When we sin, we do not sin against a code, impersonally – we sin against Him – very personally. He fully encompasses both the “judicial” and the personal in Himself. And as such, we continue to relate to Him in both ways. We relate to Him as the eternal Judge (Gen. 18:25) and, as the eternal Father. And this is where the rub comes for some – where a bit of confusion can arise.

Some, have confounded these two aspects in God, and as such have thought that because they are “justified” – judicially declared righteous by God through faith (Rom. 3:26, 30; 4:5; Gal. 2:16 etc.) – that they then no longer need to confess sin to Him and seek ongoing forgiveness. When in fact, the judicial act which has bestowed the righteousness of Christ upon us freely, does not remove the reality that our ongoing sins are still personal offenses which must be addressed if we are to retain a close, intimate relationship with Him.

This idea is brought home to us in the Teaching of Jesus as He gave us what is called “The Lord’s Prayer.” In it, while teaching His disciples to pray (and no doubt us by extension) He instructs us to pray “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Why? Aren’t we already justified? Isn’t Christ already our righteousness? Are we in right relationship with Him or not? And of course, all of that is true. But what is ALSO true, is that our relationship with and to Him is not ONLY judicial, it is personal. And in that respect, personal closeness requires dealing with sins against Him regularly, constantly, so as to preserve the sweetness of intimacy that belongs to a close personal relationship wherein offenses are always dealt with and the air always clear.

We are justified only once. But we seek and obtain forgiveness continually.

As most of you know, I’ve been away for the last 6 months on an unplanned sabbatical due to some medical issues stemming from not managing my time and resources better. Energy takes fuel, and rest is a key component of fuel. I’ve not been very good at that, and have paid the price. Hopefully though, I have learned, or AM learning how to do better on that front. We’ll know soon enough.

My time away however has not  been completely unproductive. I did plenty of reading I would not have done (in terms of the range of topics and genres) which has been most enjoyable and profitable. Don Carson says “there is reading, and then there is reading, and then there is READING.” Some things you skim, some things you swim in, others you really concentrate on. I’ve spent a disproportionate time only doing the latter and that renders the brain a bit dull. No comments from the peanut gallery thank you!

With that, I’ve also gone back and skimmed some old notes and thoughts and stumbled back into an area of interest I’ve had for several years. The idea is that there certain principles which emerge from Scripture which may or may not be stated very overtly, but which nevertheless are extremely useful in guiding how we filter the things we think about. And I thought for the next little bit I would visit some of these as I’ve jotted them down over time. They are in no particular order, but appear simply as they strike my mind on any given day.

Today’s Principle is: We are never under any obligation to assist evil.

Now keeping this in mind will keep us from stumbling unnecessarily over certain portions of Scripture which seem (on the surface) to be antithetical to the plain teaching of Scripture. For instance: It is almost universally agreed upon that Christians are to be truth-tellers, honest, and avoiding lies and deception at all costs. The problem is, how do we square that with the Hebrew midwives deceiving Pharaoh in Exodus 1 and God’s blessing upon it? Or consider Rahab’s deception of the authorities in Joshua 1.  Think too about the 3 wise men going back on their promise to Herod to relay back to him when and where they had located the Christ-child in Matthew 2. We could cite a number of other examples as well.

So, how do we reconcile these lies and deceptions with God’s blessing on them?

We see repeatedly that we are never under any obligation to assist evil. In each of these cases, the lie and or the deception was to prevent an evil act from taking place. And with such a principle, we also see how it is that many Christians righteously deceived the Nazis in their attempt to persecute the Jews. In fact, it wouldn’t be too hard to dredge up any number of instances where to protect the innocent or otherwise thwart evil (think of a Christian undercover cop for instance – lying to infiltrate organized crime) we might find God most pleased with one willing to distort the truth so as to keep evil and harm at bay.

Now no one (I would hope) would take this as carte blanch to be untruthful whenever they feel like it, nor to escape hard realities that are simply uncomfortable, or that would allow you to continue in your own sin, keep it from being discovered or merely fall into the category of self-interest – to make yourself look good. That is clearly not the idea here. But where evil looks to enlist us in aiding its attacks on others – we are not only free to, but have an obligation to undermine its success. And that is a very liberating and God-glorifying truth.

More tomorrow!

Ephesians 6:10–11 (ESV) Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

One of the key realities of the Christian life is that sinful and troubling thoughts and impulses must be fought against, not merely lamented or relief sought for.

It does us no good to simply complain of the woe, nor to seek an emotional anesthetic.

It is under these circumstances that the Believer must begin to tackle the offensives launched against them. Panic, doubt, fear, gloom, discouragement, despair, lust, greed, sloth, suspicion of God and man, etc. – these are enemies to be fought, not conditions to be treated or corrected.

If we do not appropriate the fitting response, we will remain under the influence of these things – in effect running from them rather than gaining victory over them. But make no mistake, they can attack again at any time. And attacks may be shorter or more sustained, weaker or more violent. Heavenly Father, give us courage, wisdom and insight.

The inhabitants of Canaan have to be challenged, not hidden from, nor plugging our ears to their taunts nor closing our eyes to pretend they are not there. We must gird ourselves like men and fight.