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Margin notes: Being “Evangelical” Pt. 5

November 8th, 2019

This is last in this series of posts. And I trust there has been a stirring in your heart as there has in mine – to recover true Evangelicalism for our day. It is when basics like those we’ve been examining here either get assumed, and thus for all practical purposes ignored, or shoved out of the way by other important, but not equally as essential things – that the foundations erode quickly. We go off course. It is one of the features of the Old Testament prophets that they were like “master-builders” (to use Paul’s term) who were constantly calling God’s people back to the original plan. Back from distraction and compromise. Back to the foundations. Back to lives and practices commensurate with the foundations laid. Hence we need those prophetic voices in every generation. It would be in that context that I would exclaim with Paul – “For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged 1 Corinthians 14:31 (ESV). Oh for such a spirit of prophecy to fall on our generation. Calling us back consistently to be about the eternal purposes and plan of God in Christ – and not sidetracked by so many other things.

If I might summarize our writer’s points so far – Dr. Ryle has been advocating for understanding true Evangelicalism as having 5 “leading” features. As he’ll note today, these aren’t the only features, but they are the 5 leading ones in his opinion. An opinion I share.

The Supremacy of the Scriptures
The Depravity of the human heart
The Centrality of Christ
The Necessity of Regeneration

And today: The active Presence of the Holy Spirit

(e) The fifth and last leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the importance which it attaches to the outward and visible work of the Holy Ghost in the life of man.
Its theory is that the true grace of God is a thing that will always make itself manifest in the conduct, behaviour, tastes, ways, choices, and habits of him who has it. It is not a dormant thing, that can be within a man and not show itself without. The heavenly seed is “not corruptible, but incorruptible.” It is a seed which is distinctly said to “remain” in every one that is born of God. (1 Peter 1:23; 1 John 3:9.) Where the Spirit is, He will always make His presence known.

We hold that it is wrong to tell men that they are “children of God, and members of Christ, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven,” unless they really overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. We maintain that to tell a man he is “born of God,” or regenerated, while he is living in carelessness or sin, is a dangerous delusion, and calculated to do infinite mischief to his soul. We affirm confidently that “fruit” is the only certain evidence of a man’s spiritual condition; that if we would know whose he is and whom he serves, we must look first at his life. Where there is the grace of the Spirit there will be always more or less fruit of the Spirit. Grace that cannot be seen is no grace at all, and nothing better than Antinomianism. In short, we believe that where there is nothing seen, there is nothing possessed.

Such are the leading features of Evangelical Religion. Such are the main principles which characterize the teaching of the Evangelical school in the Church of England. To my eyes they seem to stand out in the theological horizon like Tabor and Hermon among the mountains, and to tower upward like cathedral spires in our English plains. It will readily be perceived that I have only sketched them in outline. I have purposely avoided much that might have been said in the way of amplification and demonstration. I have omitted many things which might have been handled as parts and portions of our system, not because they are not important, but because they are comparatively of secondary importance. But enough has probably been said to serve my present purpose. I have pointed out what I conscientiously believe are the five distinctive doctrinal marks by which the members of the Evangelical body may be discerned. Rightly or wrongly, I have laid them down plainly. I venture to think that my statement will hold water and stand the fire.

I do not for a moment deny, be it remembered, that many Churchmen who are outside the Evangelical body, are sound in the main about the five points I have named, if you take them one by one. Propound them separately, as points to be believed, and they would admit them every one. But they do not give them the prominence, position, rank, degree, priority, dignity, and precedence which we do. And this I hold to be a most important difference between us and them. It is the position which we assign to these points, which is one of the grand characteristics of Evangelical theology. We say boldly that they are first, foremost, chief, and principal things in Christianity, and that want of attention to their position mars and spoils the teaching of many well-meaning Churchmen.

J. C. Ryle, Knots Untied: Being Plain Statements on Disputed Points in Religion (London: William Hunt and Company, 1885), 7–8.
Margin notes: Being “Evangelical” Pt. 4

November 7th, 2019

Following a short essay by Bishop J. C. Ryle, a leading evangelical Anglican of the 19th century, we have seen that Evangelicalism isn’t what most would think of today when they hear that word in the public sector. In a sense, we’ve let others define that term for us rather than insisting on making it clear what WE mean by it. And to be fair, many self-professed Evangelicals have poured into the current public perception by doing what they do in the political and social realms in the name of Evangelicalism. When in fact those endeavors may have more to do with their brand, than the core features we’ve been discussing.

The great churchman of the 16th century Richard Hooker noted that when people have a cause and a particular slant in controversial issues or those they are greatly exercised over, they tend to make that issue an all-or-nothing proposition before long. And in doing that, they then pour everything into it in such a way that their very Christianity rests in the issue itself. And as a result, those who do not agree with them on this issue are suspect even in their Christianity. So for some, a representative republic as a form of government or free-market capitalism become synonymous with Biblical Christianity – and anyone holding to anything else in any way can’t even be a Christian! Thus in the process, Evangelicals end up deconstructing our own Evangelicalism.

All that to say, that we need to get back to real basics here. So far we’ve seen the first 3 leading features of Evangelical Religion – and today our writer sets forth the 4th one.

a) The first leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the absolute supremacy it assigns to Holy Scripture, as the only rule of faith and practice, the only test of truth, the only judge of controversy.

(b) The second leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the depth and prominence it assigns to the doctrine of human sinfulness and corruption.

(c) The third leading feature of Evangelical Religion is the paramount importance it attaches to the work and office of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the nature of the salvation which He has wrought out for man.

(d) The fourth leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the high place which it assigns to the inward work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of man.

Its theory is that the root and foundation of all vital Christianity in anyone, is a work of grace in the heart, and that until there is real experimental business within a man, his religion is a mere husk, and shell, and name, and form, and can neither comfort nor save. We maintain that the things which need most to be pressed on men’s attention are those mighty works of the Holy Spirit, inward repentance, inward faith, inward hope, inward hatred of sin, and inward love to God’s law. And we say that to tell men to take comfort in their baptism or Church-membership, when these all-important graces are unknown, is not merely a mistake, but positive cruelty.

We hold that, as an inward work of the Holy Ghost is a necessary thing to a man’s salvation, so also it is a thing that must be inwardly felt. We admit that feelings are often deceptive, and that a man may feel much, or weep much, or rejoice much, and yet remain dead in trespasses and sins. But we maintain firmly that there can be no real conversion to God, no new creation in Christ, no new birth of the Spirit, where there is nothing felt and experienced within. We hold that the witness of the Spirit, however much it may be abused, is a real, true thing. We deem it a solemn duty to be no less jealous about the work of the Holy Ghost, in its place and degree, than we are about the work of Christ. And we insist that where there is nothing felt within the heart of a man, there is nothing really possessed.

J. C. Ryle, Knots Untied: Being Plain Statements on Disputed Points in Religion (London: William Hunt and Company, 1885), 6–7.

To open his point a bit more, we can have a great many feelings and experiences which are nothing in terms of the Holy Spirit’s work in our souls – but at the same time, if He has and is doing a work there, it is a felt work. We experience something. For instance, if we have not been grieved over sin because it is offence against God and not just because of its ill effects; if we have no true love for Christ, having been melted by His love and sacrifice on our behalf; if there is nothing of anticipatory desire for Jesus’ return and our being gathered to Him; if there is nothing of an inward communion with God brought about by union with Him in the Holy Spirit, then we are not simply not Evangelicals, we are not born again.

People may scoff at the old idea, but Jesus’ words cannot be dismissed: John 3:3–7 (ESV) — 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

You MUST, be born again.
Margin notes: Being “Evangelical” Pt. 3

November 6th, 2019

Being Evangelical isn’t new – though some would (rightly I believe) think that we have lost our moorings. It was the 14th Century firebrand, priest and pre-Reformer who was known in his day as doctor evangelicus. Doctor of the “evangel” or the Gospel. The term gained popularity early in the Lutheran side of the Reformation and spread from therewith the awakening of the Gospel across Europe. Those men wanting to be identified with the recovery of the gospel in terms of its central doctrine of justification by faith called themselves evangelici viri – evangelical men. Luther in turn liked and used the expression in German as die Evangelischen. The direct connection in each case was the idea of the gospel – the “evangel”, or “good news.”

And “evangelical continued to gain popularity, and achieved its widespread use during the 18th century in the revival movement associated with Wesley and Whitefield. That is the heritage of Evangelicalism. A heritage all but lost today, as it was in J. C. Ryle’s day when he sought to rearticulate its foundations.

So far, we’ve looked at 2 of those foundations from Ryle’s essay: “Evangelical Religion.”

(a) The first leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the absolute supremacy it assigns to Holy Scripture, as the only rule of faith and practice, the only test of truth, the only judge of controversy.

(b) The second leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the depth and prominence it assigns to the doctrine of human sinfulness and corruption.

And now…

(c) The third leading feature of Evangelical Religion is the paramount importance it attaches to the work and office of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the nature of the salvation which He has wrought out for man.

Its theory is that the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, has by His life, death, and resurrection, as our Representative and Substitute, obtained a complete salvation for sinners, and a redemption from the guilt, power, and consequences of sin, and that all who believe on Him are, even while they live, completely forgiven and justified from all things,—are reckoned completely righteous before God,—are interested in Christ and all His benefits.
We hold that nothing whatever is needed between the soul of man the sinner and Christ the Saviour, but simple, childlike faith, and that all means, helps, ministers, and ordinances are useful just so far as they help this faith, but no further;—but that rested in and relied on as ends and not as means, they become downright poison to the soul.

We hold that an experimental knowledge of Christ crucified and interceding, is the very essence of Christianity, and that in teaching men the Christian religion we can never dwell too much on Christ Himself, and can never speak too strongly of the fulness, freeness, presentness, and simplicity of the salvation there is in Him for every one that believes.

Not least, we hold most firmly that the true doctrine about Christ is precisely that which the natural heart most dislikes. The religion which man craves after is one of sight and sense, and not of faith. An external religion, of which the essence is “doing something,”—and not an inward and spiritual one, of which the essence is “believing,” this is the religion that man naturally loves. Hence we maintain that people ought to be continually warned not to make a Christ of the Church, or of the ministry, or of the forms of worship, or of baptism, or of the Lord’s Supper. We say that life eternal is to know Christ, believe in Christ, abide in Christ, have daily heart communion with Christ, by simple personal faith,—and that everything in religion is useful so far as it helps forward that life of faith, but no further.

J. C. Ryle, Knots Untied: Being Plain Statements on Disputed Points in Religion (London: William Hunt and Company, 1885), 5–6.

Indeed, it is this Christ-centered focus that ought to inform all of what it means to be an Evangelical. Not our politics. Not our race. Not our denominational distinctives – but Christ, the eternal Son of God as our only means of reconciliation to the God the Father – through His life, death, burial and resurrection. Any religious or thought system which does not put Jesus Christ and His finished work on our behalf at the very center – isn’t simply non-evangelical – it isn’t even Christian. Christians, evangelical Christians can and do believe more than this – but cannot be in any sense Christian or Evangelical if they do not at least hold to this. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The whole of our salvation is to be found in Him.
Margin notes: Being “Evangelical” Pt. 2

November 5th, 2019

Evangelical. We hear it in the press all the time. Almost exclusively in political terms. The “Evangelical right” as a voting block. That is the way most people hear, understand and interact with the word. But it wasn’t always so.

Going back to the days before the Reformation, “evangelicals” were just what the name means – they were “gospelers” – heralds of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. Evangelicals were simply those who had heard, believed, and now spread the “good news” – the Gospel – the “evangel” that Jesus had died to make an atonement for human sin, that all who put their trust in His substitutionary death, could be, WOULD be, reconciled to God.

We’ve come a long way. And sadly we’ve let those outside of Evangelicalism reshape how that label is understood and used. And perhaps, even those who consider themselves evangelicals might be surprised to know what that has meant historically. And to that end, we are reviewing Bishop J. C. Ryle’s five leading features of Evangelical Religion.

Last time we looked at number – (a) The first leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the absolute supremacy it assigns to Holy Scripture, as the only rule of faith and practice, the only test of truth, the only judge of controversy.

Today, I submit to you number 2. Here’s Ryle: (b) The second leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the depth and prominence it assigns to the doctrine of human sinfulness and corruption.
Its theory is that in consequence of Adam’s fall, all men are as far as possible gone from original righteousness, and are of their own natures inclined to evil. They are not only in a miserable, pitiable, and bankrupt condition, but in a state of guilt, imminent danger, and condemnation before God. They are not only at enmity with their Maker, and have no title to heaven, but they have no will to serve their Maker, no love to their Maker, and no meetness for heaven.

We hold that a mighty spiritual disease like this requires a mighty spiritual medicine for its cure. We dread giving the slightest countenance to any religious system of dealing with man’s soul, which even seems to encourage the notion that his deadly wound can be easily healed. We dread fostering man’s favourite notion that a little church-going and sacrament-receiving,—a little patching, and mending, and whitewashing, and gilding, and polishing, and varnishing, and painting the outside,—is all that his case requires. Hence we protest with all our heart against formalism, sacramentalism, and every species of mere external or vicarious Christianity. We maintain that all such religion is founded on an inadequate view of man’s spiritual need. It requires far more than this to save, or satisfy, or sanctify, a soul. It requires nothing less than the blood of God the Son applied to the conscience, and the grace of God the Holy Ghost entirely renewing the heart. Man is radically diseased, and man needs a radical cure. I believe that ignorance of the extent of the fall, and of the whole doctrine of original sin, is one grand reason why many can neither understand, appreciate, nor receive Evangelical Religion. Next to the Bible, as its foundation, it is based on a clear view of original sin.”

RAF: Dare I say that if many would accept the 1st feature as a given, many others who think of themselves as Bible-believing, evangelical people in practice, if not in concept, reject this second notion. In the age of self-actualization, personal empowerment and hyper-motivationalism, the thought that any of us – with the possible exceptions of names like Adolf Hitler or maybe Ted Bundy – are not bad people at our core, but basically good. But a sound evangelical – Biblical understanding of human nature since the Fall in Eden is that of thoroughgoing and humanly irreversible corruption and enmity with God. And it is why we need to be so Gospel-centered. Why we so desperately need a divine Savior who can raise us from our spiritual death, cleanse us from our inward defilement, atone for our cosmic crimes against our Creator, and clothe us with His own righteousness that we might be reconciled to God. It is why we need Jesus Christ.

This, is absolutely central to Evangelical Religion as Ryle puts it. And he is right.
Margin notes: Being “Evangelical” Pt. 1

November 1st, 2019

Labels are funny things. Some we take to ourselves, and others are assigned to us. Of those assigned to us by others, some are complimentary, some merely descriptive, and some even derisive.

The label “Christian” for instance was not one Believers gave to themselves, but was mostly likely hung on them by those who opposed them in Antioch (Acts 11:26). Being watched from the outside, some said “these are – you know, those Christ-ians, those people who claim Jesus was the Christ and rose from the dead.” It meant you were out of step with the mainstream. Perhaps even a kook. But Believers adopted the term even though it wasn’t meant as a compliment. Even as it is no longer a compliment in our culture. It was a very similar situation with the label “Methodists.” Those who subscribed to the theology and approach of John and Charles Wesley were scorned as those “Methodists” – who thought a life given over to searching and knowing the Scriptures, and methodically approaching life in Christ was kooky. But the Methodists took the scornful term and owned it.

Now the label Evangelical wasn’t a term of derision originally – but it has become so to many in our day. Over-association with politics as well as some other factors has brought that about. Some, like myself, have wondered if the term is useful anymore because it has been so removed from its roots. Then reading recently in the works of J. C. Ryle, the 19th century, 1st Anglican Bishop to Liverpoool, my fervor for being clearly “Evangelical” was renewed. In his little book “Knots Untied” Ryle outlined what he called “the five leading features” of Evangelical religion. So for the next few days I’m going to give you those features – one a day. With hopes that many will be true Evangelicals in the days to come. And to help recover what has been lost to us recently in how the term has been hi-jacked.

This, is true Evangelicalism. And why I still call myself an Evangelical.

Here is his first feature.

Ryle writes: “(a) The first leading feature in Evangelical Religion is the absolute supremacy it assigns to Holy Scripture, as the only rule of faith and practice, the only test of truth, the only judge of controversy.

Its theory is that man is required to believe nothing, as necessary to salvation, which is not read in God’s Word written, or can be proved thereby. It totally denies that there is any other guide for man’s soul, co-equal or co-ordinate with the Bible. It refuses to listen to such arguments as “the Church says so,”—“the Fathers say so,”—“primitive antiquity says so,”—“Catholic tradition says so,”—“the Councils say so,”—“the ancient liturgies say so,”—“the Prayer-book says so,”—“the universal conscience of mankind says so,”—“the verifying light within says so,”—unless it can be shown that what is said is in harmony with Scripture.

The supreme authority of the Bible, in one word, is one of the corner-stones of our system. Show us anything plainly written in that Book, and, however trying to flesh and blood, we will receive it, believe it, and submit to it. Show us anything, as religion, which is contrary to that Book, and, however specious, plausible, beautiful, and apparently desirable, we will not have it at any price. It may come before us endorsed by Fathers, schoolmen, and catholic writers;—it may be commended by reason, philosophy, science, the inner light, the verifying faculty, the universal conscience of mankind. It signifies nothing. Give us rather a few plain texts. If the thing is not in the Bible, deducible from the Bible, or in manifest harmony with the Bible, we will have none of it. Like the forbidden fruit, we dare not touch it, lest we die. Our faith can find no resting-place except in the Bible, or in Bible arguments. Here is rock: all else is sand.”

To which I reply: Amen! But it does make me wonder how many today who might claim to be Evangelical, would take this as the foundation stone it really is?
Margin notes: Lamentations

October 30th, 2019

Lamentations 5:21 (ESV) — Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored! Renew our days as of old—

Few, if any, would say Lamentations if their favorite book in the Bible. But its 5 short chapters need to be read often. In the end, it is as hopeful as it is harrowing. But we need to be reminded over and over that God does not take sin lightly – even in His chosen ones.

Grace is not license TO sin, but freedom FROM sin.

Oh that our hearts would drink this in.

This short book with is unique acrostic arrangement was composed so as to aid the readers in memorizing it. Not that they might remain forever shameful, but that they might be forever warned. To be reminded over and over of the effects of sin. To see it in all of its destructive wretchedness.

Temptation makes sin look so attractive, but it ALWAYS ends in hideous pain and torment. No one imagines when they try to steal some fleeting but forbidden dainty that it is so full of poison as to bring destruction even into the lives of our children and grandchildren. But it is so. God does not warn us against it to rob of some joy, but to keep us from the result, and to direct us to true, lasting, divine joy. To find our joy in Christ Jesus and His redeeming grace.

Prov. 10:22 “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.” The PRETENDED blessings of the world, make us bankrupt, and are shot through and through with nothing but sorrow.
Margin notes: What’s love got to do with it?

October 29th, 2019

1 Corinthians 16:22 (ESV) — If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Our Lord, come!

Sometimes, you can read something in God’s Word which you’ve read a multitude of times, that hits you with such fresh force it takes you up short. Such was true for me as I hit upon this all-too-familiar passage today. Let the gravity of these words sink in – “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.”

This really is a most sobering and searching verse.

We are prone to talk about individual faith by that term alone – faith, or belief. So many a person claims to believe in God, believe in Christ, believe in the Bible. Believe in the Gospel etc.. But bare belief is only one side of the coin. If there is no “love for the Lord” – no desire to see Him, be with Him, delight in Him and especially to find Heaven that place where we will see and experience His unveiled glory – if that is not a motivating factor in our hearts – whatever else we may profess to “believe”, we are still accursed.

Now this is a deeply necessary consideration. Paul says it in the most stunning of terms. He does not say if one has no love for the Lord, they need help – but that they are actually accursed.

We must search ourselves in this regard.

Many if not most desire “Heaven” in the sense of an existence without the scars and plagues of sin. Or simply as the pleasant alternative to Hell. But do we desire Heaven because we love Him and want to be with Him? Yes, we groan with all of Creation for the day when the Fall’s effects will be totally reversed, but Oh, to truly love His appearing (2 Tim. 4:8). To long to see the face of the One who died for us. To so contemplate the Resurrection and Return in terms of comprehending that seeing His glory is so magnificent that everything we might have here and now or in the most perfect of imagined worlds is nothing but dung in comparison.

So I ask you, do you love Him? I know, none of us loves Him as we ought, as He deserves, nor even as much as we can. But if we have no love for Him as who and what He is and not just for what He has done, then we are still lost. Still in the gall of iniquity. Still in need of saving grace. Grace which births in our hearts a love for Him whom we have not yet seen.

O beloved – if you find a lack there, pray that you might love Him. Pray for the enlarging of your heart – for an ever-increasing capacity to see Him and cherish Him and delight in Him. And to find that love for Him the strongest of all motivations in all that you do. Holy Spirit, fill us with a renewed and ever stronger and clearer love for Christ Jesus. Fill our hearts with Him today.
Margin notes: What’s with all the names?

October 25th, 2019
Nehemiah 10:1–27 (ESV) — 1 “On the seals are the names of Nehemiah the governor, the son of Hacaliah, Zedekiah, 2 Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, 3 Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, 4 Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, 5 Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, 6 Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch…26 Ahiah, Hanan, Anan, 27 Malluch, Harim, Baanah.

Every Friday morning, a number of men from our Church under the leadership of Mike Holbein gather for an hour to do just 1 thing: read the Bible out loud to one another. We’re reading it all the way through in chronological order. It is a precious time.

This morning found us reading the 10th chapter of the book of Ezra, and the first 10 chapters of Nehemiah. And let me tell you, those seemingly endless lists of hard to pronounce names can be pretty challenging. and it is easy to ask ourselves – what is the deal here? What is with all of the nearly unpronounceable names of people thousands of years removed from us? Why are these lists even in the Word of God? And those aren’t wrong questions to ask. But let me make a couple of suggestions for when you get to those passages and are tempted to just skip over them.
1. There are more than 80 names noted in Neh. 10 alone. And God knows each one of them. None who give themselves to serve Him and His Kingdom are ever forgotten. They are not faceless and nameless, our God knows each and every one of His own. He knows you. By name. And He does not forget you. These 80+ in this chapter may mean little or nothing to us this far removed from them – they have been inscribed in the everlasting Word of God. Just as every Believer is inscribed in the wounds of the Savior. None, no matter how obscure, are without eternal remembrance. By name.
2. They were not listed because of great feats of faith or spectacular accomplishments. They are listed, because they are God’s people. Regular people. Just God’s people in that place, at that time, living for Him. They aren’t superstars. They aren’t heroes. God’s people because they are God’s people are all remembered by Him. “He keeps all of His bones, and none of them is broken.”
3. In Ch. 3 there is another list of names. People who were all involved in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. That chapter is a marvel to read. Who all were involved in restoring and rebuilding the city? Everyone. There were governors and commoners; Levites and Priests, laboring beside perfumers, goldsmiths and men whose leadership declined to join in. Women were engaged in it, along with soldiers and servants. No one too high or too low – but each put their labor into seeing the City of God restored. Their qualifications were willingness – not specified skills. And so it is we are reminded that all of us with our various gifts and abilities are engaged in building Christ’s kingdom. Wherever and whatever our context may be. Musicians, programmers, doctors, lawyers, salesmen, project managers, housewives, mechanics, floor sweepers, scientists, etc. These and thousands more are joined together in building His kingdom, not because we are “builders” by trade – but because whatever our trade – we are His – in that place. There were no vocational contractors in this crew – just willing servants of God. Like you, and like me.
4. And, there were lists of the giving that people engaged in – their offerings for the work of the Temple and support the priesthood. God remembers every 1/3 of a shekel. It is all written down, all recorded. All remembered. Every little thing each of us has contributed to the work of Christ is eternally remembered. No matter how small, it is not discounted, but celebrated and memorialized.
Don’t let these seemingly boring lists get by you Christian. For your name is written among them too – in God’s eternal book of remembrance.
Margin notes: Getting my vision back

October 24th, 2019

Psalm 73 (ESV) — A Psalm of Asaph. 1 Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. 2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. 3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. 4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. 5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. 6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. 7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. 8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. 9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. 10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. 11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” 12 Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. 13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. 14 For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. 15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,” I would have betrayed the generation of your children. 16 But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, 17 until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end. 18 Truly you set them in slippery places; you make them fall to ruin. 19 How they are destroyed in a moment, swept away utterly by terrors! 20 Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when you rouse yourself, you despise them as phantoms. 21 When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, 22 I was brutish and ignorant; I was like a beast toward you. 23 Nevertheless, I am continually with you; you hold my right hand. 24 You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me to glory. 25 Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. 26 My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. 27 For behold, those who are far from you shall perish; you put an end to everyone who is unfaithful to you. 28 But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, that I may tell of all your works.

Psalm 73 has long been one of my favorites. Asaph has walked down the same streets I have. Thought the same thoughts. And needed the same correction. Perhaps you’ve been there too. So what I would call your attention to today is to a clearer vision of things, when they seem to get distorted. And let me do it by means of a homey but I pray useful paraphrase of this powerful and much-needed reminder. It runs verse by verse.

1. God IS good to His children.

2. But I almost blew it by a stupid error.

3. I was jealous, because it seems some people can get away with anything.

4. They have no fear of future punishment.

5. They live a life of ease.

6. So they gloat! But all is not well.

7. They LOOK satisfied.

8 & 9. They talk a big game.

10. And sometimes we Christians are intimidated by that.

11. They try to sway us by what they say about God.

12. And they point to other wicked men in ease as examples to us.

13. So I started to think: “I serve God for nothing!”

14. I don’t have the easy life they have.

15. And if I cop their attitude and admit its true, other Christians would be offended.

16. The more I thought about it, the worse it got.

17. UNTIL, until – until I went to God about it. And He showed me the bottom line.

18. These guys are on really thin ice – and ARE going to fall through.

19. In a split second their world will cave in on them.

20. Like being terrifyingly startled awake from a pleasant dream – God will start to judge them.

21. It hurt to see what an idiot I’ve been.

22. How stupid! I’ve got the brain of gopher!

23. And yet Lord, you still hang on to me.

24. In fact, you’ll continue to teach me until Christ comes, or I die.

25. If my future is wrapped up in you, my present must be also.

26. Even when my body and my heart give out, you will preserve me forever.

27. But the wicked ones will be destroyed as surely as if it is already done.

28. So my life will be spent in drawing nearer to you, for I have learned to trust you completely. And in so doing, others will come to know you as I have.
Margin notes: True blessedness

October 23rd, 2019

Psalm 65:4 (ESV) — 4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!

The great object in salvation is, God’s restoring us to Himself. He chooses us to bring us near. To dwell in His courts. To enter into a full and intimate relationship.

To be “saved” and to live life apart from Him as though He is just a distant deity is to fail to enter into salvation at all. He chooses us, that He might bring us near. And not just for a one-time audience, or in certain seasons, but to dwell in His courts. And it is only as we take this up and pursue it that we can find the satisfaction our souls long for. Only in dwelling with Him, can we grow to be happiest with the goodness of His house, and the holiness of His Temple. If we are dissatisfied with God, it is not because we have found something lacking in Him. It is because we have not had enough of Him yet.

Heavenly Father, grant me an appetite that refuses to be satisfied with anything else but the goodness of your house and the holiness of your temple. Grant a holy discontent with everything and anything other than these. With anything less than You in all of your glory. For that alone is true blessedness.