Go to sleep, God is awake...

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones. And when you have laboriously accomplised your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake." (Victor Hugo, 1802-1885)

In the Bible, sleep is both a metaphor for, and indicator of, true faith. In Psalm 127, the LORD gives sleep (faith) to one tempted to build his house by sheer human effort. In Psalm 3, King David recounts his flight from Absalom and how, when he found himself surrounded by a murderous horde, laid himself down and took a little nap!

We are most vunerable and least "productive" when we're asleep. And yet the faithful sleep soundly, confident that the One building their houses and guarding their loved ones "never slumbers nor sleeps." In contrast, the faithless stay up way too late, and when they do finally fall into bed exhausted, they toss and turn worried about all that didn't get done during the day, revising mental lists, vowing to do better, adjusting their agendas, and fretting over how to protect their homes from harm.

Hugo is right. When it's time to work, work hard. But at the end of the day (and perhaps even for a few minutes after lunch) "...go to sleep in peace. God is awake." For, as the author of Hebrews noted, "without faith it is impossible to please Him [God]." Really. So scoot. Off you go now. And don't forget to brush your teeth...

I promise the earth will keep spinning, even without your willing it to do so! Scout's honor.

A little Christmas tune...

For a little Christmas tune click on "Have Yerself..." title in the PW JUKEBOX on the sidebar (to the right.)

Jus' plain thankful...

"O LORD my God, I will give thanks to thee forever." (King David)

I am thankful to have been raised in a multi-generational matrix of divine love and truth; for parents and siblings who love me unconditionally , and for grandparents who prayed for me, my brother and sister, my wife and children until the day each was "gathered to his/her people."

I am thankful for a wife whose inward beauty eclipses her outward beauty; who is as strong in faith and perseverance as she is tender in mercy and feminine graces.

I am thankful for sons and daughters who are also my brothers, sisters and friends. (I am required to love them, but extremely grateful that I like them as well.) They really are, individually and collectively, a hoot! I am thankful for a daughter-in-law who has brought so many blessings and graces to our family; brought so much happiness to our son, and will be bringing our first grandchild to us in January.

I am thankful for clan Helsel's love of story, books, hard work, laughter, good food, learning, four-part harmony and blue-collar wisdom/sensibility.

I am thankful for clan Boe's example of diligent labor, frugality, generosity, patriotism, service, hospitality, propriety and beauty.

I am thankful for Trinity Church's reverent worship and raucous celebrations; for a session of elders that take their work (but not themselves) seriously; for deacons who "deac" and for a community of saints who live and laugh, feast and forgive, in a manner worthy of their name.

I am thankful for the dark valleys of this last year and for the merciful passing of Ellen's mom. And thankful that Christians never have to say goodbye, rather, just "see you later." I am thankful that death is indeed swallowed up in life!

I am thankful for the motorists in our fair city whose driving tests my understanding of Christ's parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18.)

I am thankful for the various (and increasing) aches and pains to which I awake each morning and for the wonderful way that they keep me focused and longing for the final redemption and resurrection of all things.

I am thankful for the steady stream of "hard providences" that so very quickly take me to "tether's end", and force me to seek the wisdom of God's Word, the consolation of prayer, the counsel of my brethren and the supply of the Holy Spirit.

I am thankful for the ample reservoir of love that waters the various communities in which I live and move. And for the way that fervent love covers a multitude of my sins, and makes possible the forgiveness which my sinful failings all too often require.

I am thankful for the warm hum of tube-amplifiers and the rich electric sound of an American Stratocaster (three cheers for Leo Fender, wherever you are!)

I am thankful for whoever came up with the recipe for "Inversion I.P.A." at the Deschutes Brewery. (Absolutely amazing! How do they do get that little carmel zing at the end of each draught?)

I am thankful for the gentlemen who figured out how to harness and combine the various attributes of aluminum, steel, plastic, rubber and oil to create the full-suspension mountain bike. I am thankful for the gift of "leg and lung." And for the body's amazing ability to "self-repair" broken bones, sprains, bruises, contusions and abrasions.

I am thankful for the geniuses who gave us iPods, the internet and podcasts. And for the artists, pastors, teachers, authors and readers whose labors infuse our drive, work and work-out times with a wondrous supply of information, entertainment and beauty.

I am thankful for the novels of Khaled Hosseini and for his poignant pictures of grace, forgiveness, transforming love, redemption and sacrifice. And for the awesome ability of our God to draw straight lines with crooked sticks.

But most of all I am thankful to be a baptized member of a religion of GRACE. I am profoundly grateful that I do not receive what I deserve, but rather receive divine mercies and favor worthy of my savior Jesus Christ, who alone is worthy of the good that spills down from heaven and into my life each day.

Too glad to be true. But true nonetheless. O LORD, my God, I too will give thanks to you forever!

Out of the Mouths of Infants...

"Out of the mouths of infants You have ordained praise." (Psalm 8:2)

Last night Trinity Church hosted the African Childrens Choir here in Wenatchee. Wowsers! 'Twas a magical evening filled with song, dance and a couple dozen-or-so joyful incarnations of the child-like faith to which every believer in Jesus is called.

And from all reports, things only got "funner" as our families hosted choir kids and their chaperones for a night.

Truck Drivin' Man

I'm just figuring out how to add audio files to Parbar Westward. To hear "Truck Drivin' Man" click on the Title (above), click "Download", click "Open", and then play the file (it should load directly into your media player - iTunes or Windows Media Player, etc.) And finally, if you would be so kind, please click the comment button below and let me know if you were able to hear the audio file.

P.S. As you listen to "Truck Drivin' Man" please keep 2 Corinthians 11:1 in mind.

No Greater Love...

Although I do not have a bible proof-text, I'm fairly certain that an accurate guage of true love is the willingness to "move thy neighbors goods with gladness and mirth, yea verily."

This morning a gaggle of saints from Trinity put on their work-gloves, put their muscles to good use, put wise-cracks, smiles and even laughter on their lips, and doing so put the "party" into "moving-party." What a joy it is to live with these folks!

Ain't community grand?

Dan and I

On March 2, 1962 Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points as his team, the Philadelpha Warriors defeated the New York Knicks 169 to 147. One of his teammates who scored a single point that night would later remark, "Yeah, I remember the night that Wilt Chamberlain and I combined to score 101 points in a single game..."

Now, hold that thought for a moment.

Pictured above are Dan and Karen Bass. Karen is the one who, togther with my beautiful wife, envisioned and designed our new kitchen. Dan was our contractor/craftsman on the project. It was a joy to work with believers, and our love and respect for the Basses only grew during the weeks that we were working closely together.

After a few months have gone by, my plan is to casually remark to admirers of our new kitchen, "Yeah, this is the kitchen that Dan Bass and I remodeled together..."

All Things New

For my wife's birthday last May, her sister, Nina, gave Ellen a kitchen remodel. Now that the renovation is nearly complete I have concluded that there is something decidedly Christian about home-remodel projects. At the very least they are potent metaphors for God's saving and sanctifying work in the life of a believer. Viz:

Costly. Both salvation and home-renovation are costly endeavors. And in our case both could only have been accomplished through the gracious provision of another.

New and yet the same. Considered one way, the saved-sinner and the newly-remodeled kitchen are the same; the same locus, the same recognizable "shape", performing the same sorts of daily routines/duties. But considered another way, the saved sinner and the newly-remodeled kitchen are vastly different. That which was old, ugly and disfunctional has been replaced by that which is new, beautiful and useful.

Slow and hard. Unlike the "Extreme Home Makeover" show on TV, remodeling/sanctification are "slow and hard." If the changes are going to last and be a blessing for generations to come, they must be done carefully, and they must be done in a particular order (each new change dependent upon the changes that preceded it.) The renovation must be done by a Master-craftsman who knows the master-plan and the appropriate materials to use. The project must be overseen by a contractor who possesses the right tools to demolish and rebuild; a workman who can labor patiently and lovingly with raw material that will quite often resist his renovative plans and purposes.

Never quite finished in this life. Our house was built in 1921 and we have lived here for the last 16 years. Although we are only the third owner of the house, it has seen quite a few repairs, renovations and remodels over the years. And it continues to be, just like its inhabitants, a work in progress.

Expression Completes Delight

“I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.” (C.S. Lewis)

Perhaps this explains why food and drink taste so much better when taken with people you love. The expression of delight perfects, or completes, the enjoyment. How wonderful!

Only Two Options...

"The honest man takes pain, and then enjoys pleasures; the knave takes pleasure, and then suffers pains." (Benjamin Franklin)

"The wise does at once what the fool does at last." (Baltasar Gracian, 1601-1658)

'Nuff said.

The Real Test

"The community is the true sphere of human virtue. In social, active life, difficulties will be perpetually met with; restraints of many kinds will be necessary; and studying to behave right with respect to these, is a discipline of the human heart, useful to others, and improving to itself." (Samuel Johnson)

We Chrsitians are very prone to evaluate our progresss in the faith by how well we perform in the prayer-closet, or by what is happening behind our eyes and between our ears. But Mr. Johnson is right. The true measure of virtue is community, not the hermitage. The real test of our Christlikeness is not how we fare in isolation, but rather how well we love, serve, disagree with, and defer to, others in the hurly-burly of church, family and civic community.

Ouch, and Thank-you

Last weekend one of our deacons at Trinity Church informed me, in a very gracious and good-humored way, that a couple of words in last Sunday's corporate "Prayer of Confession" had sailed right over his head. To which I replied, "Ouch, and thank-you."

We preacher-types would do well to consider Binkley's frustration in the comic-strip above, and to take heart the words of J.C. Ryle (the old Bishop of Liverpool), who exhorted pastors regarding their congregations, "If we love them, our objective will not be to impress them with our learning but to help them with theirs . . ."

Ouch, and thank-you Reverend Ryle.

A Messy, Albeit Glorious Affair

(John 17:21-23) That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

This is a portion of what many have called “Christ’s priestly prayer” and hearing it, we begin to understand the perfection of Jesus’ union with the Father and his overriding desire for those he came to save.

Jesus prays that his followers would be one just as the Father and Son are one. Jesus then describes his oneness with the Father in terms of mutual-indwelling (theologians call this perichoresis.) The Father indwelling the Son and the Son indwelling the Father, simultaneously; multiple persons intimately involved with one another; each loving, deferring to and seeking the well-being and glory of the other.

There is a powerful and perennial temptation to idealize this communion (the communion of the saints.) But the truth is that covenant community is a messy, abeit glorious affair; a hurly-burly business filled and fraught with sin and strangeness, hurt and help, repentance and restoration, consternation and communion. To attempt the sort of oneness that Jesus describes is a risky business. Every opening of our souls to the brethren for edification and encouragement exposes us to the possibility of abuse, manipulation and/or neglect. Every advance, or increase, in mutual-indwelling multiplies the risk of hurt and harm. But note what it does as well: It tells, and indeed convinces the world that the Father sent the Son into the world to save the world. Perichoresis, the practice of Biblical covenant community, is a potent declaration of the Gospel, and the ultimate and efficacious antidote for unbelief. The effectiveness of tracts, crusades, concerts and street evangelism all pale in comparison to the powerful testimony of covenant community; for it is a living, walking, breathing demonstration of God’s power to make a new vibrant humanity out of the graveyard of Adam’s fallen race; a testimony of God’s ability to take cosmic rebels, rascals and recluses, and fashion them into a kingdom of royal priests who are able to live reconciled to God and to one another, inclined to serve and overflowing with the self-denying love and sublime joy present in the Holy Trinity from eternity past.

True community brings heaven down to earth; the perichoretic union of the saints displays both God’s character and His purpose to save the world. This cannot be done in the spirit of isolation, insulation or independency. Rather it must be done by diverse members joined together in the spirit of joyful interdependency; diverse members who are, as Paul taught, members of one another; covenantally ONE, even as the Father and Son are one.

So, which kind of climber are you?...

Several years ago, a wise minister once told me that the people who would be coming to me for pastoral advice would almost invariably fall neatly into one of two categories: People who wanted counsel, and people who wanted counseling. The first class of people would be genuinely interested in what God has to say about their life patterns, choices and rationales. The second class of people would simply be looking for some shred of Biblical support for the patterns, choices and rationales that they had already adopted; or, at the very least, some pastoral permission to ignore what God says about the same. A decade of pastoral counseling has proved the wise minister's prediction to be both sagely accurate and emminently helpful.

So, which kind of "climber" are you? Are you seeking wisdom or validation from the sources of wisdom that God has provided for you?

Biblical Counsel (sort of...)

Paul is perfectly (and for some, painfully) clear about a Christian's ability to forsake what is wrong and to embrace what is right. He wrote something like this to the church in Corinth, "Every temptation you encounter is common to the human race. And God who is faithful, will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to resist. In fact, with every temptation He himself will provide you a way to escape, so that you will be able to endure/avoid it."

Bob Newhart's psychologist may not have the right tone and demeanor, but he is spot-on in his message - at least for believers. Enjoy (or I'll bury you in a box.)

The Ol' CZ

I grew up riding motorcycles with my dad and brother. My dad's brother (Uncle Herb) owned a Suzuki/CZ motorcycle store down in Cottage Grove, Oregon. My first bike was a Suzuki Trail 120, followed by a Honcho 90, followed by a Duster 125 which I stripped down and raced a few times and then purchased my first (and only) factory race bike: The CZ 250. CZs were made in Czechlosovakia, weighed a ton, but had mountains of torque and a near indestructible gear box. I had my uncle Herb modify the bike pictured above giving the suspension a whopping 7 inches of travel, front and rear (today's bikes, routinely have over double that!)

There were three riders who rode/raced CZs at the Puyallup Raceways Motorcross Park in the early seventies. During the winter months, all of us would pray for the starting gate to freeze in the ground, forcing what is called a hand-on-helmet start. When the starter raised the green flag above his head, all of the riders were required to place their left (clutch) hand on their helmets. When the official dropped the flag, (non-CZ) riders would grab their clutch levers, stomp their shift levers into first gear, pop their clutches and try to outrun the other riders to the first corner. We three, we happy three, we band of CZ brothers would skip the clutch-grabbing part and with the engine screaming at 3/4 throttle, stomp the bikes directly into first gear, and accelerate noisily to the "hole-shot" in the first corner. Frozen-gate races were the only races that we were first into the corner, and we savored every opportunity we were given to out-scramble the much quicker "Jap bikes."

It's kinda fun to think about the Lord of Creation "fixing" races with a wave of His frost-bestowing hand, and thereby enabling the fat and slow ones to have their day on the track. Well, at least every once in a while...

The Excellent Joke

In C.S. Lewis' wonderful poem "Donkeys' Delight" the Oxford don likens salvation to entering into "the excellent joke" which at first glance seems a tad strange, or at the very least, a little trite. But when you consider the essence/makeup of jokes it actually makes perfect sense. Every joke has a "setup" which takes the hearer in a particular direction. The "punchline" is simply an unexpected diversion from the path established by the "setup." Here's an example:

Setup - "When I die, I want to go like my grandfather did, in his sleep..."
Punchline - "Not like all the other people in the car, screaming and yelling."

The setup establishes certain stock scenes and/or motifs. The punchline wrenches us from those scenes and takes us (quite unexpectedly) to an entirely different scene. And when it does, we laugh, giggle or guffaw.

Now, this being the case, Lewis is spot-on. Salvation is the ultimate "excellent joke."

Setup - Adamic and personal sin against a three-times holy God invoking His just and holy wrath.
Punchline - Free grace, pardon, cleansing and adoption as sons.

And so Lewis concludes:
I repented, I entered
Into the excellent joke
The absurdity. My burden
Rolled off as I broke
Into laughter; and soon after
I had found my own level;
With Balaam's Ass daily
Out at grass I revel,
Now playing, now braying
Over the meadows of light
Our soaring, creaking Gloria
Our donkeys' delight

Hmm...no wonder we Christians laugh/bray so much, and so heartily...

All Saints Sunday, 2007

(Hebrews 11:39-12:1) And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

A few years ago some friends of ours returned from a visit to Scotland, and the wife/mother of said family remarked how wonderful it was to walk to through the church’s grave-yard on the way to Sunday worship, thereby being reminded of whom they were gathering with to honor God in song, prayer and meditation.

Historically, the Church has set aside this Lord’s Day to remember and celebrate the reality that we are indeed, as the author of Hebrews notes, surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses as we run the corporate and individual races marked out for us.

Five centuries ago, as the Holy Spirit initiated what we now know as “The Protestant Reformation”, the Church of Jesus Christ was cluttered with, and distracted by, remembrances of a plethora of saints. Not content to remember a single saint per day, the Church piled saint’s day upon saint’s day until each calendar week fairly well groaned under the weight of dozens of remembrances and festal celebrations. Ironically, in many cases this resulted in less attention, honor and devotion to the One whom these several saints had faithfully revered, served and adored.

This is most certainly not the sin of our age. But we need to considered the possibility that our Reformation fathers threw out some Biblical “baby” with their Reformational “bath-water.” Yes, of course, it is true that we need to avoid the Church’s pre-Reformational excesses regarding the remembrance of saints. But we need to do so without neglecting the clear commands in scripture to be mindful of those who have finished their races in faith and now comprise the cloud of witnesses cheering us on as we strive, by faith, to finish ours.

Here are a few diagnostic questions: How well do you know Church History? Who were Augustine, Ambrose, Arius, Athanasius, Anselm and Arminius? Do you own, and have you read, a copy of Eusebius’s Church History and/or Foxe’s Book of Martyrs or even a more accessible book like Hanula’s Trial and Triumph? Do you regularly regale your children with stories of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, fathers, martyrs and saints of old? As you wrestle to be free from the various entanglements, burdens and discouragements of sin, are you mindful of the “great cloud of witnesses” surrounding you? Do you take care to draw strength, wisdom and direction from the words and deeds of those who have gone on before you in the faith? Simply put, have you avoided the sin of “saint obsession” by committing the sin of “saint neglect”?

The author of Hebrews tells us explicitly that the faithful who have preceded us in death are not complete. They await both the resurrection of their bodies and the wholeness of Christ’s entire body assembled with them at the end of time and history. And therefore, do they look forward to our weekly gatherings in heaven (just as we do) as a foretaste of the resurrection health and wholeness that is yet to come.

Each week, in the Lord's Service, directly following the “sursum corda” (the “lift up your hearts” responsive) I remind you that we are assembled here “with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, and with all the church on earth.” Take care then to remember this truth when we go to the Lord’s Table and together “discern the body of Christ.” As I have exhorted you before, your eyes should be open and scanning the faces of those seated around you. But be careful as well to turn the eye of faith to “the great cloud of witnesses” with whom you sit and sup in wonder and worship before the throne of God. They are supernaturally present with us, or more accurately, we are supernaturally present with them in heaven (as the author of Hebrews teaches us a little later on in chapter twelve.) So…

Come let us worship the Lord together “with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven”

A delightful language lesson...

Aloha (ah-LOH-hah): Aloha means hello, love, mercy, compassion, pity, or goodbye. More importantly, it is an expression of the heart. Aloha is shown in numerous ways. A person who gives a lei to a visitor is sharing aloha. Aloha is also a spiritual recognition of the physical person, and thus, is sometimes expressed through an embrace or handshake or other form of physical contact because for many, it is important to feel the other person.

Mahalo (mah-HAH-loh): Mahalo means being thankful. In Hawai`i, mahalo is more than a polite expression of appreciation. Mahalo is often expressed in action rather than words, by making a contribution, being courteous to others and respectful of the host culture. For some of Hawai`i’s cultural experts, visitors who take the time to understand and be aware of who Hawai`i’s people are, and who share that knowledge with others – that is a tremendous way of expressing mahalo.

"Way down below the ocean, that's where I wanna be..."

Molokini Crater on the Horizon

Coconut Beach (on Maui)



Day Five of Gene and Ellen's Excellent Hawaiian Adventure: Today, Nina (Ellen's sister) sent us on a snorkeling cruise. We left our Hotel at 5:30 am in order to reach the boat harbor by 6:15. We cruised out to the world-renowned Molokini Crater for some snorkeling. Providentially the wind came up (you should be singing Psalm 29 here) and we had to exit the water sooner than planned. But soon we were motoring back across the strait to reach the calmer shores in the lee of Maui. As it turned out the barrier reef off of Coconut Beach was even better than the much vaunted Molokini reef. Wowsers! Myriads of tropical fish, abundant coral in almost every color of the rainbow and even a few sea-turtles, all within a couple arms' lengths. Ellen got a little chilled after the first dip and so didn't make the second swim (which kinda makes you wonder how the Vikings ever made it across the channel to plunder England, "Excuse me, Sven! I'm getting a little cold here, could we go back to the fjord?") The wind continued to rise and so the ride back to the harbor brought to mind images of those Alaskan crab boats crashing through waves, water splashing up on to the foredecks. Pretty cool actually. In defense of my little Viking, her stomach weathered the trip without a flutter, while mine was extremely grateful to pull back into the slip (it's after 5:00 pm now and the room is still swaying beneath my chair!) Aloha.

P.S. Can anyone name the song in the title to this post and the performer who made it famous?

Aquarium on Maui


Aloha y’all. Day four on Maui: Today’s highlight was our visit to the Maui Ocean Center. Wow! This aquarium rocks! Although all the exhibits were very well done, they saved the best for last: Two scuba-divers hand feeding three species of enormous rays, amidst 24 different kinds of fish, and a dozen or so sharks. Of course the obligatory placards next to the windows all assured us that what we were seeing was the result of four billion years of evolution, but the eye of faith saw nothing but evidence of God’s infinite creative genius and playful sense of humor. Soli deo gloria!

Mai-Tais at Sea

Aloha. Day three in Ka’anapali: Today’s highlight was a sunset all-you-can-eat-and-drink catamaran cruise. At 4:00 pm we waded a short distance through to the surf, boarded our vessel and sailed northwest towards the island of Molokai. According to our (typically friendly/gracious) first-mate, Molokai has less than 8000 residents (compared to Maui which has about 125,000.) The historic leper colony of Father Damien is located on a remote shore of Molokai, and the island is, in general, difficult to get around on. The Molokai folk are very friendly but quite averse to any development of their pristine island. A few years ago, a cruise ship line obtained the state’s permission to dock on Molokai. When the first (and only) cruise ship attempted to do so it was met with jeers, catcalls and not a few rocks. The only franchise fast-food restaurant on the island is a Subway. The main town on the island boasts two NAPA Auto stores, which for some strange reason are located across the street from one another. Hmmm. It sounds like my kind of place. Hang loose.

Everybody's Gone Surfin'...Surfin' USA!

Here are a couple of surfing pics. The reason the photographer was able to get pictures of us standing up on our boards: His camera shoots eight frames per second. A normal camera would not have been able to catch the random nano-seconds that we were upright and "surfin'."

Hang loose.

Aloha

Aloha from Kaanapali Beach just north of Lahaina on the Island of Maui! Through the extreme generosity of Ellen's father (Henning Boe) we are enjoying a week on the beach in Hawaii. We (Henning, Ellen's sister Nina, Ellen and I) are staying in the Penthouse of the Quest Resort Hotel (the pictures are the views from our balcony.) For a boy who grew up back-packing, camping and riding motor-sickles, this is quite deluxe. I am so very glad to be a card-carrying member of a religion where you don't get what you deserve. Too glad to be true, but true nonetheless. Hang loose.

Kneeling in the Assembly, Part III

Ezra 9:5-6) And at the evening sacrifice I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.

Luke 5:8) When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

John Wesley once noted that “the angle of knee determines the attitude of the heart.” This adage is surely an overstatement, but nonetheless true in large measure. We are not disembodied spirits, and we are commanded by God to worship Him with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. And to offer up to Him our bodies as living sacrifices. Therefore, in our weekly Lord’s Day Service, do we stand to offer our praises to the King of Glory, and at one point even lift our hands to bodily demonstrate our enthusiasm in worship, our eagerness to embrace God as our Father, and our readiness to receive, open-handedly, all that He would give to us. When God’s Word is preached we assume the posture of students learning from their master. And at the Table we continue to sit, not as disciples, but rather as honored guests at the Lord’s Feast.

But what is the Biblical posture of contrition? What is the angle of the knee most frequently adopted by those who are confessing their both their sinfulness and their unworthiness? You know the answer already. The knees are bent in a bodily indication of abject humility before the throne of Him who is perfectly holy. And the head is bowed in a bodily display of the heart’s remorse, anguish and sorrow over sin and wickedness.

“But I can do all of that between my two ears” the Gnostics will surely object.

“I know its in the Bible, but it’s not a part of our tradition” some Pharisees will certainly chime in.

“But kneeling is a very uncomfortable position for me to assume” some who don’t get it at all will proffer.

But some will say, “Let me take my place beside Ezra, Peter, and the myriads who have gone before me in Christ’s church, and allow me to assume their posture as I confess my sins. Sharp rocks and gravel would be preferable, but in their absence, this plush carpet will do. For regarding my transgressions, I covet the opportunity to preach to my stony heart with my buckled knees. And regarding my confession, I would have the Lord know my shame and grief.” Welcome to the court of the King pilgrim…

Kneeling in the Assembly, Part II

Psalm 146:8) The LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:

In the Kingdom of God, the way up is the way down; if you want to save your life, you must lose it; if you would be great, you must be the servant of all, and if you would receive glory, then you must humble yourself before the LORD.

As Paul taught, God delights to justify everyone whom He calls, and to glorify everyone whom He justifies. As strange as it may sound, we ought to crave the glory that God has promised to bestow upon those whom He has redeemed and is fitting for worship before His throne and service in His kingdom. We just need to be careful to crave this honor in the way, and through the means that He is pleased to give it.

And here, as always, Christ is our model and guide. For whatever God does to us, He does to us in Christ, who took the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of men, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And because the Son was pleased to humble himself, the Father was pleased to exalt him and to give him a name which is above every other name.

Therefore the true worship of Jehovah must include both an exaltation of His person and a heartfelt humbling and debasing of our own. If we insist upon clinging to our dignity, poise and self-respect, then we set ourselves against His purpose to glorify Himself by raising us up. But if we come before Him with our knees bent, our heads bowed and our hearts filled with the knowledge of our utter unworthiness, then He is pleased to glorify Himself by exalting us and adorning us with the beauty of holiness, and the comeliness of Christ’s righteousness.

According to the scriptures, fitting ways to humble ourselves in His presence include prayers of confession, bent knees, bowed heads, and a constant marvel at our invitation into the Lord’s household, expressed in the sort of hymns where we wonder aloud, “Why was I made to hear thy voice and enter while there’s room, when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve then come?”

Kneeling in the Assembly, Part I

Exodus 34:5-9) And the LORD descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the LORD. And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

This narrative in Exodus is rife with divine glory. At God’s command, Moses had prepared the second set of stone tablets, upon which God Himself would again inscribe the Ten Commandments of the Covenant. After Moses had ascended to the heights of Mount Sinai, the LORD descended to him in a cloud and stood there with him, declaring His own name, goodness, grace and justice.

Moses’ response to God’s self-revelation is worth noting. Although the greater part of God’s declaration concerned the covenant mercies that would spill down through a thousand generations, it did not induce Moses to “kick back and relax” in God’s presence. Rather, Moses “made haste” to bow his head toward the earth and worship God for His divine patience and longsuffering, and directly following to beg God’s pardon for Israel’s persistent stubbornness and sinfulness.

We who ascend weekly to the heights of Mount Zion would do well to imitate Moses’ example of reverence, humility and supplication. As God reveals Himself to us in the assembly, reminding us of His covenant law and reaffirming its attendant blessings and curses, we too, should make haste to bow ourselves before Him, confessing our sins and seeking the mercy that He has already sworn with an oath to give us in Christ.

God Takes Our Name

Exodus 3:3-6) And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

One of the incredible benefits of baptism is that we are baptized into the name our God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And as a result we are known in this world as “Christians”, the christened or anointed ones; the ones who bear the name of the Anointed One, the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously this is all to the good. God, in infinite goodness and mercy has allowed us to take His name; permitted us to be identified with Him in the once for all sign and seal of baptism and in the ongoing moniker of “Christian.”

But as wonderful as all this is (and it is truly wonderful!) there is an even a greater, more significant way that we have been identified with Jehovah, the Great I AM that I AM. At the burning bush, Jehovah revealed Himself to Moses, in part by naming Himself. But take care to note the very first name that God used to make Himself known to Moses: The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In so doing, God forever identified Himself with His people; He willingly bound up His good name and staked His reputation, as it were, with the wellbeing of the ones to whom He had pledged His love and favor.

So the next time you are tempted to doubt God’s faithfulness to His promises, remember this: He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Remember that He could no more renege on His promise to bless all the families of the earth, then He could cease being who He is and always has been. God will make Abraham’s descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky, because the only way the LORD could break this promise would be for Him to stop being who he is in His essence and who He has declared Himself to be.

Christian, always be grateful for the name that you bear; the name lovingly bestowed upon you in your baptism. But take care to rejoice as well that Your Creator and Redeemer has, for reasons entirely beyond our limited capacities to understand His sublime goodness, condescended to take the names of those He purposed to bless, and to include them in His own great name. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; and by covenant association, of John, Justin and Cicilia; of Kay, Patty and Brynn; of Rose, Ken and Kayli; of Brent, Khiree and Zachary. Too glad to be true, but true nonetheless.

Four Handed Guitar

Wow. The title says it all.

Norwegian Hip-Hop Tuba Maestro

Take the dry wit and charming accent of a Norwegian tuba maestro and blend it together with hip-hop rythmns and celtic dissonance and voila! you have this clip. Please note at the end of the video that the sheet music is available to anyone who would like to try this at home on their own personal tuba (or whatever his horn-thingy is.)

500 Years of women in art

This is a very cool little montage of images for at least two reasons. Firstly, by showing a half-millennial, chronological progression of art, the failure of modern art is neatly and adeptly exposed. And secondly, it is a wonderful ode to the "fairer sex's" ability to enthrall the "not-so-fair sex." Enjoy.

They must have buried it too deep

This clip provides good motivation to pray for our troops in Iraq. Note: I abhor foul language, but am happy to extend the judgment of charity to the soldier you will hear, given the reason for his exclamation.

The Finest Chevy Ever Made

In my humble opinion, I think the finest car Chevrolet ever made was the '66 Chevelle Malibu. My first car was a midnight blue version of the car pictured here. It had a 327 with a four-barrel carb under the hood, dual exhaust with cherry bomb mufflers and sported the classic Cragar mag wheels. It was a four-speed with a "Trooper" rear end which meant that it would do 55 mph in first gear; up and over 75 in second; up and over 100 mph in third gear; and in fourth gear...well I never had the guts to let it all the way out in fourth. Fun to drive on the highway. Not so fun on the hills of Seattle in traffic.

The '65 Malibus were too boxy, and the grill-work and tail-lights '67 Malibus got too complicated. But the '66...perfection! Clean lines from front to back, tasteful accents, a roomy interior, power to pass and an engine that you could actually work on without a master's degree in electronics and environmental science. Ah yes, the good ol' days.

I later owned a red '66 Malibu with a 283 and a four-speed. And even later, after we started having kids, in an effort to blend aesthetics with practicality, we purchased and restored a '66 Malibu station-wagon. I loved it, but my dear wife was, shall we say, a little less sanguine about the ol' wagon.

Fun or Fear in the Presence of God?

(Hebrews 12:28-29) Wherefore [since we are] receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.

Last week, as I was driving around town, I heard an advertisement for a church in town that claimed to be the ecclesiastical remedy for religious boredom, and most importantly (according to their radio spot) FUN!

As C. S. Lewis penned over fifty years ago in his wonderful book, Mere Christianity: “God is the only comfort, he is also the supreme terror; the thing we most need and the thing we most want to hide from. He is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies. Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion…We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven – a senile benevolence who, as they say “liked to see young people enjoying themselves” and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be said at the end of each day, “a good time was had by all.”

We would agree with our brothers in Christ that boredom ought not in any way to be associated with the worship of the Lord most high. But we would respectfully disagree that “fun” is the proper remedy for liturgical orthodusty.

As the author of Hebrews reminds us, we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, a kingdom whose progress cannot be halted, and whose purposes cannot be thwarted. Therefore, the only suitable response is to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, remembering that the object of our worship is a consuming fire. The word "acceptably" reminds us of the possibility of "unacceptable worship." The Greek word for “serve” is the word from which we get our English word “liturgy.” The Greek word for “reverence” is elsewhere translated “shamefacedness”, i.e. the ability to be ashamed that prevents one from being so. The Greek word for “fear” indicates great caution, circumspection and awe.

Fun? Absolutely not. Wonderful, joyful and soul- satisfying? Absolutely.

So…Come let us worship the Lord together!

Cultic Continuity

(1 Peter 2:1-5) Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

I need to begin with a definition of a word that most people only understand in its pejorative, or negative, sense. The word is “cult” and the primary meaning of this word is: a system of religious devotion directed towards a particular figure or object. The adjectival form of “cult”, being then “cultic.”

Although we are very prone, as moderns, to miss the liturgical language and cultic connections linking the worship of the Covenants Old and New, the New Testament is indeed filled with such correlations. Where we moderns see only disconnects and disunity, the authors of the New Testament saw only harmony, consonance and fulfillment in the glorious transition, nay, transformation, of Old Covenant into New Covenant worship.

In fact, you could say that if it was the intent of the New Testament authors to introduce a form of worship that was completely innovative, different and disconnected from Old Testament rites and meaning, then they did an awfully poor job of doing so. For they continued to use words and terminology that for first century audiences were absolutely loaded with cultic inference, import and instruction. Terms such as “temple”, “priests”, “offerings” and “sacrifices” under gird and suffuse New Testament descriptions of New Covenant worship.

The Spirit-inspired authors of the New Testament consistently conceived, and regularly taught, a liturgical paradigm explicitly founded upon, and expressly connected to, Old Covenant cultic rites and rituals. So welcome New Covenant priests, to the Temple of the New Covenant. As together we seek the renewal of our covenant with our covenant making and covenant keeping God, let us now offer up the sacrifices peculiar to, and prescribed for, this glorious age in redemptive history. So...Come let us worship the Lord together!

"Father, have I done something wrong?"

1 Corinthians 11:28-29) But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.

Recently, one of our church families with young children was out of town for the weekend and wound up worshipping at a church in the town where they were visiting friends. The church with whom they worshipped do not practice paedo-communion, and therefore were the small children not served the bread and wine of the Lord’s Table. The littlest saint in this family was very disturbed to see the elements pass by him and he began to cry plaintively. And after both bread and wine had passed by these dear ones who have grown wonderfully accustomed to weekly communion, one of them turned to her parents and queried pitifully, “Father, have I done something wrong?”

This little one’s question demonstrated that she understood the meaning and import of the Lord’s Table even better than the elders who had excluded her from the Table. She correctly knew herself to be a genuine member of Christ’s body with all of its attendant duties and privileges. And she also rightly understood that the only biblical ground for being excluded; in other words, ex-communionated; or excommunicated; would be serious sin in a hardened state of impentitence. And so her question, “Father, have I done something wrong?”

This little saint’s query evidenced that she was in perfect accord with Paul’s command to rightly “discern the Lord’s body.” She was recognizing the body of Christ seated all around her, and herself as a bona-fide member in good standing of that body. Hence her legitimate distress regarding her apparent severing from the body of her Savior. And hence her eagerness to know and repent of any misdeeds in order to be restored to her people, her Lord and the glad fellowship of his Table.

This covenant meal, this feast of feasts was intended to strengthen, not sap faith; to encourage belief, not erode it. So come young and old, come male and female; come red, yellow, black and white (all precious in the Savior’s sight) come healthy and come infirm; come sound of mind and struggling; come strong and come weak, so long as you…Come and welcome to the Table of the Lord.

(Matthew 28:18-20) And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

This Lord’s Day is Trinity Sunday, the Sunday that the historic church of Jesus Christ has set aside to remember and celebrate the triune nature of our God, who is one God and three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

To the extent that the Christian Church has ceased to celebrate this glorious doctrine, she has in like measure forgotten, devalued and even begun to distain the very same. Although evidence of this neglect abounds everywhere, one example will suffice. Directly after the 9/11 attacks, the leaders of our nation convened together in the national cathedral in Washington D.C. for a time of mourning, prayer and solace. This overtly religious ceremony was conducted by a Christian minister, a Jewish rabbi and a Muslim imam. Sadly, a great number of Christians watched this service and welcomed the spectacle as an indication that all religious peoples really do worship the same god after all, even though they do so in significantly different ways.

But the holy scriptures are quite clear to the contrary. To possess the Son is to possess the Father and the Spirit. The three persons of the godhead are conjoined in such a way that, as Jesus put it, “he who rejects the Son, rejects the Father who sent him.”

Realizing our proclivity to forget, we sing the Apostles’ Creed every week in the Lord’s Service, to remind ourselves of God’s triune character and nature. We begin and end our service invoking the name of God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit seeking His, and not any other god’s, blessing upon our worship. And when the three names of our one God are thus invoked, we add our heart-felt and hearty “Amen!” as we recall our baptism into this holy community of service, love and fellowship. So…Come let us worship the triune God of Scripture together!

Seeing and Hearing Jesus

(John 14:8-9) Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father;

We have assembled together this morning to worship God. And the surest way to do so truly and rightly, is to seek, apprehend, know and adore Him as revealed in His Son, Jesus Christ.

And the good news is that in faithful, Lord’s Day assemblies of the saints, revelations of Jesus Christ abound! Monday through Saturday we remain individual and diverse members of Christ’s body, but on Sunday morning, in the assembly, the many diverse members are gloriously fitted together in order to display and make knowable the goodness and glory of our Savior Jesus Christ. In the assembly we see Jesus, and seeing him we see the Father.

Jesus is the Word. He is the eternal logos of the Father. Therefore, when we hear God’s Word read, sung, preached and prayed in the assembly, we are not merely hearing about Jesus. We are hearing Jesus. And hearing Jesus, we hear the Father. This morning as the Gospel portion of God’s Word is read from amidst the congregation, we will all stand together as we recall and celebrate the Word of God (Jesus) who came to us in human form 2000 years ago, and the Spirit of Christ who dwells in our midst today. Jesus was, and is, Immanuel, God with us.

Near the close of our worship service, we will sit and sup with the Lord at His Table. According to Jesus, the bread that we eat and the wine that we drink are his body and his blood. Although we deny that Christ is physically present in the elements, we most heartily affirm that he is really and truly present. Present to bless, encourage, love and bestow nothing less than his very self. And knowing and receiving Jesus in the bread and wine, we know and receive the Father and are filled afresh and anew with the Holy Spirit.

True worship brings us before God in the face of Jesus. And face to face with God in Christ, we are transformed into his likeness by the power of the Holy Spirit. So…Come let us worship the Lord together!

Temple-esque Worship

(Hebrews 8:5) Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

A few chapters later in the book of Hebrews the author teaches us that the New Covenant church gathers to worship God, not on Mount Sinai, but rather on “Mount Zion…the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.” The whole book of Hebrews is a multifaceted declaration that the earthly types and shadows of the Old Covenant have been replaced by the heavenly realities of the New. But note the close relationship between Old and New Covenant worship. The author of Hebrews tells us that the Old Covenant patterns and forms of worship, revealed to Moses on Mount Sinai, were based upon the patterns and forms of heavenly worship; worship taking place in the immediate presence of God.

In other words, the Tabernacle and its ceremonies were earthly sketches of heavenly substance; earthly figures of heavenly actualities; earthly shadows of heavenly protocols. It was the relation of portrait to person, or sculpture to model. The earthly forms were not the heavenly realities, but in their striking similarity revealed much about heavenly worship. And that was precisely God’s intent all along: To train His people for heavenly worship via the earthly forms that closely resembled it.

Following the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, the Old Covenant earthly forms gave way to the New Covenant heavenly forms after which they were patterned. In a very important sense, New Covenant worship, because it is heavenly worship, is older than Old Covenant worship. Strange, yes? New Covenant worship dispenses with, by fulfilling the forms that Moses was given on the Mount, and embraces the heavenly realities of which the Mosaic forms were only a shadow. And that is why the historical liturgies of the church of Jesus Christ are, we might say, Tabernacle or Temple-esque. Because if Old Covenant earthly worship was patterned after heavenly worship, and New Covenant worship is heavenly worship, then New Covenant worship must needs manifest meaningful similarity to Old Covenant worship. Again, think: sketch and reality, portrait and real person.

First century Jewish Christians evidenced their distain for heavenly worship by clinging to the Old Covenant forms and patterns. Modern Christians tend to evidence their distain for heavenly worship by conceiving and clinging to liturgies that bear little or no resemblance to Old Covenant forms and patterns (which, again, were themselves based upon the heavenly forms and patterns.)

But God has a better way for His people: Simple, robust, heartfelt, un-hypocritical, joyous, reverent, submissive, active, sensate, bodily, antiphonal worship, according to the pattern revealed to us on the Mount. So…Come let us worship the Lord together!

Commencement Address for the Five Graduates of The River Academy, 2006

Five…smooth…stones. They were just five smooth stones. Nearly indistinguishable from all the other igneous material in Israel, save they were lying in a riverbed, smooth to the touch, and chosen for the day of battle by the future king of Israel.

They hadn’t always been smooth. They hadn’t always possessed the balance, beauty and well-roundedness that would assure the straight flight, the sure line, the obedient path that would topple the hope and glory of the Philistines. But years in that rambunctious river had smoothed the edges and honed the symmetry of those five stones. Sometimes it was the river itself that effected these changes as it applied its gentle but inexorable pressure to these rough-cut rocks. And other-times it was the stones themselves as they jostled and scraped against one another that effected the slow but steady erasure of jagged edge, coarse surface and unsightly crease.

But the single most distinguishing feature of those five stones was not resident in the stones themselves. For there were hundreds, nay, thousands of similar stones in the shallow streambed that day, the stories, uses and ends of which we will never know, nor for that matter care to know. No, it was the sovereign choice of Israel’s anointed one that distinguished those stones from all the rest, and appointed them to a meaningful service, a martial duty and a memorable victory.

Class of 2006, you are here today as five smooth stones about to be plucked from The River by David’s greater Son and launched into the fray as instruments of war; as God’s means of securing the victory accomplished by Jesus Christ in his death, resurrection and ascension to his father David’s throne at the right hand of God the Father.

Now, in likening you to stones, I am not saying that you are dumber than the proverbial “box of rocks.” Few things could be further from the truth. However….I still wonder to this day how on earth you wound up in the middle of that swift-flowing stream, how you managed to get “left behind” on the camping trip, and on other sundry occasions said and did things that proved beyond disputation the absolute necessity of progressive sanctification. But, I digress….

In your short time at The River Academy you have been shaped and sharpened, polished and perfected, battered and balanced, honed and whetted for the day of battle. You have been sanded and smoothened, sometimes by instructors, workloads and exams; and sometimes as you jostled and scraped against one another, forcing you to learn the sanctifying rhythm of confession, repentance and forgiveness.

You have been lovingly formed, not merely into receptacles of data, but into walking, breathing expressions of truth, goodness and beauty. But never forget that truth, like stone, is by its very nature hard and unyielding, because it is (as we have labored diligently to teach you) simply an attribute and revelation of him who is the truth, and who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. But truth without the smoothness of kindness, humility and grace is unusable truth, one might even say: untrue truth. Truth with awkward and angular edges will not fly true when released from the sling of the Great Shepherd. Your usefulness in God’s service depends most of all upon your purity. It is not great talents nor the mere accumulation of knowledge that God delights to bless so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy student is an awful weapon in the hand of God.

As noted before, the five smooth stones did not choose David. David chose them. And herein lies your protection from the ever-present temptation to the hubris and haughtiness of pride. You have been given much, but it is all of grace. You have attained much, but even that is all of grace. Great things lie in store for you this coming year, and indeed for all of eternity, but those things as well will be all of grace. As Paul taught the Corinthians, you were called to service in God’s kingdom, not because you were wise, mighty or noble, but precisely because you weren’t. The glory that God received from David’s victory over Goliath would have been greatly, if not completely, diminished had David used a grenade-launcher instead of a single smooth stone drawn from his shepherd’s purse. Never forget our Lord’s delight to confound the wisdom, grandeur and might of the world with the foolishness, simplicity and weakness of His servants. Never forget His perfect ability to subdue His enemies with unremarkable rocks drawn from babbling brooks.

As others have noted, you are in many ways, a very special assemblage of individuals; diverse and yet wonderfully knit together by your experiences in and around The River Academy. God’s blessing upon you all is visible and tangible. We, your parents and teachers, would not be at all surprised if one or two of you turned out to the next Robert E. Lee or Booker T. Washington; Lady Jane Grey or Elizabeth Elliot. But it is important to note, that although David chose five smooth stones from the riverbed, only one was immediately (and with stunning effect) put to use in the battle. Apparently the four remaining stones were called to wait. It is very likely that David had four stones in reserve for the four known brothers of Goliath, should they have sought revenge for their brother’s death. But the point is, that God’s call is very often a call to wait in reserve. And this can be most trying.

For most Christians, the patience required for waiting is infinitely more demanding and difficult than even the painful activity of the martyr’s stake. But waiting upon the Lord is the clarion call of every Christian, and according to scripture, the path to great blessing and the sine qua non of godly maturity. Class of 2006, you have been, and are being, prepared for the day of battle. But you must also learn to wait. The ability to delay immediate gratification or instant glory in exchange for future, more substantive and satisfying recompense and reward is the hallmark of true sanctification and godly transformation. God’s command to subdue the earth and to make it fruitful remains as urgent and binding as it has ever been. But, as you continue to prepare your minds and bodies for Kingdom service, you must continue, at least for a short season to wait in studious preparation. To understand the extreme folly of “not waiting” for God’s timing and direction, one has only to imagine one of the four stones held in reserve rolling itself across the field of battle and into the iron toe-piece of Goliath with a pitiful tink, and a pathetic, “Take that you brute!”

Similarly, God’s command to fill the earth with godly offspring has never been more important than it is today. We live in the context of a worldwide culture obsessed with barrenness, death and the resultant despair. The barrenness of sodomy and self-centered, self-imposed sterility; the violent death dealt by our abortion mills and the slow death murderously spread via lawless sexual activity. It is into this great darkness that our Lord calls you to be beacons of light. Against this backdrop of barrenness, death and despair, He calls you to the fruitfulness, life and hope of His everlasting kingdom and glory. But here again, He also calls you to wait, not grasping for His good gifts before their time, but rather patiently preparing yourselves, your talents and your graces to one day compliment the godly woman, and the four godly men that the Lord will very likely and very soon bring across your paths. One stone for the sling. Four in reserve. Learn to wait upon the Lord and His perfect timing.

Little smooth stones, you know my affection and respect for you. Here now the words of Your Savior, who reminds you, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.”

May the Lord keep you as you continue to discover His several callings for you, and may the Lord bless you as you fulfill them, working and resting, serving and being served, loving and being loved, laughing, feasting, singing psalms (and of course…reading good poetry) whilst the giant idols of our age topple to the ground all around you, stunned by your joyful service and gladsome songs of praise. Fly true to your marks little stones. Fly true to your marks. Soli deo Gloria. Amen, and amen.

Exhortation to Prayer (part 8)

(Hebrews 4:16) Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

This verse contains what is arguably the simplest, sweetest and yet most profound invitation in all of scripture. God has appointed a way for us to secure that which we need the most: Mercy, and help in our time of need. And that way is prayer. Bold, outspoken, confident approach to the throne of grace, coupled with simple petitions made in the name of our perfect high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without divine mercy and help, our pathetic strivings will end in nothing but horrific and complete failure. But, in principle, there is infinite grace at our disposal, and we can make it ours in practice by means of prayer. If we could only comprehend the fullness of God's grace that is ours for the asking, its height, depth, length and breadth, we would no doubt give ourselves more earnestly to the work and communion of prayer. For the measure of our apprehension of grace is determined by the measure of our prayers.

Who is there that does not feel the need for more grace? Beloved, it is yours for the asking. So ask, and be constant and persistent in your asking. Be unrelenting and untiring in your asking. God delights to have us hound Him as “shameless beggars” in this regard; for it shows our faith in Him, and nothing pleases Him so much as faith. Oh, what little streams of grace most of us know, when we might know rivers without number, swollen with mercy and support, and overflowing their banks!

So ready yourselves dear saints. The river that gushes forth from the Temple on Mt. Zion runs deep with divine favor and assistance, and prayer is the appointed means to draw them out. So pray as you approach the throne of grace in song, pray as you hear God’s Word read and preached to you, pray as you are led in prayer, pray as you approach the Table to feed on grace, and pray as you receive your weekly benediction and commissioning for service.

Simply put, fill the Lord’s Service with prayer, and the Lord will fill you with His mercy and help…Come let us worship the Lord together!

Exhortation to Prayer (part 7)

(Mark 1:35) And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
(Hebrews 7:25) Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

The words pray and prayer are used at least 25 times in connection with our Lord in the brief record of his life contained in the four Gospels. He rose up early to pray. On at least one occasion he spent the entire night in prayer. He cried out to his Father in joy as his disciples returned from preaching and healing, and he poured out his heart in agony on the eve of his passion. He prayed before meals and miracles, he prayed alone and with others, he prayed in the Temple, he prayed in the tempest and he prayed in the hour of his greatest trial. He was the consummate man of prayer.

And neither did his ministry of intercession end with his ascension to the right hand of the Father. For, as the author of Hebrews reminds us, he [Jesus] lives forever “to make intercession” for us. Jesus as the perfect man, the un-fallen Adam and the first-fruits of redeemed humanity continues steadfastly, earnestly and joyfully in prayer…for us!

This glorious truth has at least two startling implications. First of all, as John wrote in his first epistle, “Whoever claims to live in Christ, must walk as he did.” Our predestination is not mere fire-insurance. As Paul wrote to the Romans, we have been predestined to Christ-likeness, to conformity to his character and conduct. Although we will always fall short of Christ’s perfection in regards to prayer, still the aroma of Christ, and his passion for intercession should be present in us, and discernable to those around us, even as it was to those who observed our Savior in the time of his first advent.

The second implication has to do with fellowship. True fellowship is not mere association or proximity. Everyday we spend time with associates and neighbors with whom we have little or no fellowship. True koinonia fellowship is the by-product of shared beliefs and even more importantly, shared work or common activity. The deepest intimacy and the strongest bonds are forged on the anvil of common experience and communal endeavor. Therefore, if we would know intimate fellowship with our Savior; if we would know, as Paul gushed, “the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings” then we must pray as he is praying at the right hand of the Father. We must enter into his ceaseless activity on behalf of the Church and the world. It is no marvel then that the non-praying saint feels so distant from his Lord. It is no surprise that the prayerless Christian often fails to feel in his soul what his mind assures him is true. Simply put, those who fail to participate in the Lord’s work, deprive themselves of the intimacy of the Lord’s fellowship.

But God has shown us a better way. Let us turn now Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and let us learn how to mingle our prayers together with his here on Zion, so that we may do so all week long on earth…Come let us worship the Lord together!

Exhortation to Prayer (part 6)

(Acts 6:2-4) Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

This passage reminds us of the primacy of prayer. Service was the heart of Christ’s ministry and of the apostles’ ministry after their Lord’s ascension. But Peter rightly discerned the Spirit’s priorities when he insisted that service, as important as it was, should not be allowed to hinder the apostles’ ability to pray.

Peter knew what we are very inclined to forget: that service without prayer is at best wrongheaded and ineffective, and at its worst it is harmful and sometimes even dangerously so. We think, or at the very least act, as if problems are best solved by means of human effort, sweat and busyness. Peter knew that divine graces called down to earth via prayer were the key to any meaningful healing, help or victory. And that whatever service was necessary, was only necessary in the sense of laying hold of the prizes won and secured by means of prayer. As someone once quipped, “Prayer is warfare. Ministry is picking up the spoils.”

Although the apostles could not have been aptly described as men of prayer before Pentecost, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit prevailing prayer was the hallmark of true faith in the apostles and the church at large. (Could the same be said of us today?) Continual and fervent prayer was the indication that the first century Christians were indeed filled with the Spirit of Jesus Christ who himself deemed it perfectly necessary to rise up early and sometimes spend the entire night in prayer in order to secure the blessing of his heavenly Father’s upon his ministry.

It is time for us now to ascend by faith before the heavenly throne of God on the heights of Zion. And there to worship Him, to receive His revelations, mercies and enabling power; to listen intently to His commands and decrees, to sing joyfully to Him, to place our petitions and offerings before Him mingled together with thanksgiving, and finally to feast with Him, and others who love Him as we do, at His Table of delights.

And following the sermon, mid-way through the Lord’s Prayer, we will make this glorious request together, “Heavenly Father, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” In other words, “Lord, take everything that we have done in Your Service on this Your special day and spread it into our lives, our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our community and don’t stop until the whole world is wholly devoted to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to prayer and to the Eucharist, just as we are.” So come brothers and sisters, we have a gladsome task to perform this afternoon. We need to pray here now in heaven, so that we can pray this week on earth, and praying, to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of us. There is no other way, so…Come let us worship the Lord together!

Exhortation to Prayer (part 5)

(James 4:2) Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

Given the importance of prayer in our weekly and daily worship regimens, we are continuing to glean wisdom from God’s Word regarding the import, glory and necessity of prayer.

This verse in James’ epistle is striking for at least two reasons. First of all, because although the brother of our Lord mentions lust and desire he does not condemn either one. James saves his strongest reproof for the weakness of our wants. As C. S. Lewis once put it,

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased!”

Lust and strong desire are not necessarily wrong. More information is needed. Lusts and strong desires are perverse and unlawful if they are directed to things unworthy of pure affections and heartfelt devotions. But James addresses the second way that lusts and strong desires can go astray. To desire those things which are pleasing to the Lord, but to strive after them in ways other than prayer.

Note again the specific reproof that James brings, “you don’t have the things you desire because you don’t pray.” This was a favorite theme of Jesus when he walked among us during his first advent. “Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you, ask and will be given to you….If you fathers know how to give good gifts to your children, then how much more your Heavenly Father!”

Therefore it is very safe to say that we can trace every unfulfilled desire, every un-remedied situation, every financial, health or family difficulty, every want of wisdom, every weakness of the will and every failing of the flesh back to the very root of the problem: Neglect of prayer. Not praying enough. Failing to pray. Lack of prayer. Prayerlessness. Being distracted from prayer. Forgetting to pray, refusing to pray, being too busy or too tired to pray. Did I mention neglect of prayer?

We do not have, because we do not ask! And instead of starting to ask as we have been invited, indeed even commanded to, we have blustered about, battled and bloodied for that which could have been obtained by simply asking the Father in the name of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is time for us to do so now... So, come let us worship the Lord together!

Exhortation to Prayer (part 4)

(Ephesians 6:11, 18) Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil….praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,

As Paul reminded the Ephesians, we live out our lives amidst a pitched battle. A battle whose ferocity demands that we daily dress ourselves in the armor of God, determinedly take up the weapons of the Sprit and diligently pray without ceasing lest we fall under the repeated assaults of our enemy. Elsewhere Paul reminds us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual, and mighty for the pulling down of strongholds and for bringing the whole world into joyful submission to Christ and his commands. Prayer is one such weapon, and perfectly necessary if we are to “stand against the schemes of the devil.”

As we considered last week, Satan has indeed been cast out of heaven. He has been thrown down to the earth and deprived of his access to the Lord our Judge and thereby deprived of his ability to accuse us. He has been stripped of his power to deceive the nations and to delay the angelic messengers. The devil is a defeated foe, conquered, at least in principle, in the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ, or as John put it in Revelation 12, overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony.

But he is still a “roaring lion” as Peter warns us, still seeking those whom he may devour. And so, while it is true that he has been bound, or greatly curtailed in his ability to harass and deceive us, still he wields enough power to necessitate the daily donning of God’s armor, and a disciplined use of prayer. As Luther put it, “The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him.”

If we would stand, and not fall, in the midst of the fray, then we must learn to pray, and we must actually pray, there is no other way. Our enemy is fierce, but easily enough dispatched by the “one little word” offered up to God in prayer by the most insignificant saint. The church today lacks this sort of victory, not because she lacks a promise of divine protection and provision, but simply because she refuses to claim the same in prayer. We do not have because we do not ask. The devil doesn’t flee from our presence, not because we lack the wherewithal for his defeat, but simply because of our faithless refusal to “resist him” in humble prayers offered up to the Lord of armies in Jesus’ name.

It is time for us to get on our knees, to bow our heads, lift up our hands and fight. For there, in prayer, is the victory of Christ’s kingdom and the vindication of the saints. We pray because there is a devil, but we pray with a promise of victory over him and his minions surely in hand...So, come let us worship the Lord together!