Tag: Scripture

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Fight the Drift

God is the sun around which our lives orbit.

Most of the time we just drift out of the lane. We must fight the drift.

Sin pulls us away from Him. Disobedience draws us in the direction of the evil one, whether or not we see it so clearly. When we get further out of the correct orbit, our hearts get cold, our minds get dark, our paths get lost.

Scripture is like little rocket boosters that push us back into place. Scripture is like gravity guardrails that keep us from going over the side. Scripture is light to our understanding and heat for our loves.

Knowledge and love do not need to compete, they should complement. You cannot love what/Whom you do not know as much as knowing increases loving, and loving increases want for more knowing. Ignorant love is floating love, not rooted. Knowledge without love is endless map reading, never actually getting anywhere.

We need to know the truth, and the truth will make us fruitful. We need to crave the milk like newborn babes so that by it we will grow up into salvation (1 Peter 2:2).

Truth is food, eat it! Conviction is your friend, embrace it! Understanding is a gift, receive it! Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another, singing with thankfulness. No matter how much your life seems to be spinning, let the Bible keep you revolving around our God.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

For the Throat

God’s Word is “the sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17). We think to use it as a weapon in the spiritual battle. So we should.

God’s Word is also pointed and powerful to deal with the one you see in the mirror. It goes for the throat of our own souls.

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12–13 ESV)

The word “exposed” (ESV), “laid bare” (NAS), “opened” (KJV) comes from the verb τραχηλίζω (trachelizo), “lay bare (the throat/neck –  trachelos)” for the first slash of a sacrificial animal. It’s as if God tips back our chin, there’s the windpipe, all unprotected.

God’s Word is the “two-edged sword” (verse 12), and so we go “under the knife.” It judges our thinking processes and the content of our thinking.

The Word exposes us for our own sake. God knows. “No creature is hidden from His sight.” We’re already laid bare before Him. But we can get an idea what He sees.

Maybe you’re the kind that doesn’t want to get on the scale. But that doesn’t change the facts, it just means you’re hiding from what you’ve been putting on your plate. So, come to the Word and let it do its work. Remember “Him with whom we have to do.”

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Good in More Places Than the Dictionary

Men can become truth-tubes. That’s a derogatory label for those who limit themselves to two-dimensions, who live as if sentences are their greatest purpose and prize. Bible people can get stuck on the page, stuck in their heads, stuck thinking that the Lord is good but never tasting so. They do need to close their Bibles sometimes and have a piece of pie with their people.

The Bible informs us about what is good so that we’ll receive (or reject what isn’t) and do what is good. Good is found in more places than the dictionary.

And also, good is the right word. So, the bread and the wine are good. Jesus is good. The gospel is good news. Singing and joy around the Table is good. Heads bowed and heads looking around, both can be good. Eating and drinking together is good, we do it regularly, we do it with great rejoicing.

Communion is a sort of ritual, a routine. And what keeps it good and from becoming a meaningless repetition is God’s Spirit stimulating our faith to remember the Word. This short meditation isn’t enough, and, this short meditation is edifying, that is, it builds us up with truth for receiving the love of God in Christ and reflecting it toward one another.

The Book distinguishes this Table, it defines the Lord of our affections and it defines our anticipation until He comes.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Sustainability by Scripture

If we want to have steadfast success then we have to start with Scripture and take it seriously. If we want to raise our kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord then the Scripture must be and remain our standard. We want them to know it and delight in it. If we want fruitfulness, in our souls and in our city, then we must meditate on the law of the Lord day and night. The sustainability of our Christian living and our discipleship of the next generations depends on our living by the Book.

There are a veritable cornucopia of great resources, great books, great men in church history, and all of them are ours. They are ours as we are Christ’s and as we test them all according to Christ’s Word. The word of the Lord sets the standard, the word of the Lord judges the good from the seems-good, the word of the Lord tells us what doors are open to us and which ones to close, quickly.

Councils and top men have erred, they often contradict each other. We can still learn from those disagreements, including the most basic lesson of all: what does the Bible say? What a privilege to have liberty and access to ask such a question.

We pray for authorities that will allow us to live to honor Christ, even that they would also honor Christ, and we do it because of and according to the Bible. We pray for our kids and grandkids that they would do better than us, building and battling, and they must see us searching and submitting to and singing the Bible.

Ignorance is not the mother of devotion. Your faith includes the “knowledge of the truth” (Titus 1:1), your faith is reasonable as your reason is informed by God’s revelation.

And the Word can handle the attention. The Word will be around when we are gone; it endures forever (1 Peter 1:25).

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Lord's Day Liturgy

The Word of Protest

Jesus told His disciples, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Matthew 25:34). He had just finished giving some signs of His coming, and said that the generation who sees the signs will see all of them. His words are true, firm, inerrant, infallible, indestructible, and eternal.

The Word is living and abiding, and this is the word that was preached in the first century, it is the word that was recovered in the 16th century, it is the word that continues to regenerate and reform.

Sola scriptura was the material cause of the Protest. We Protestants are made by this Word. Scripture is the thread and pattern of our worship and worldview. Obviously it’s possible for men to have it and twist it and turn it for their own advantage; such is the work of Medieval Popes and Cardinals and modern televangelists and so-called critical scholars. But when plough-boys and milk maids get their own copies, and when the Spirit opens the eyes of our hearts, Christians are born and churches are built.

When God gives men understanding of the Word they summarize it into creeds and confessions. Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion is a systematic theology that helps us in ways that complement his commentaries. Luther’s recovery of justification by faith alone was the instrumental cause of the 16th Century Reformation, and needed particular definition and defense. And while we thank God for those who sacrificed to translate and preserve and teach us God’s Word through their words, we honor their work best by reading and hearing and preaching and memorizing the Word most.

Let the pastors boldly dare all things by the word of God. Let them constrain all the power, glory, and excellence of the world to give place to the divine majesty of the word. (—John Calvin)

When we suffer, Scripture gives us hope. When we walk in darkness, Scripture is a light. When we groan, we learn from God’s Word our lines.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. (Romans 15:4 ESV)

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A Shot of Encouragement

Sweeter Than Honey

Over the last month, a few bloggers I follow have posted this video of the Kimyal tribe receiving their very own copies of God’s Word for the first time, and I finally watched it. With tears.

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Lord's Day Liturgy

Ruined Appetites

We won’t receive the food of His holy Word if we are full of sin. We must acknowledge and abandon sin before we’re free to feed on Scripture, and feeding on Scripture is necessary if we hope to grow in salvation.

Therefore, putting aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation– (1 Peter 1:1-2, NAS)

Numerous translations (such as the ESV, NIV, NRSV) read as if there were two commands but, really, Peter provides one prerequisite and then one command. We could play up the grammatical structure: “having put aside sin…long for Scripture,” or “Crave the pure after getting rid of the putrid.”

Peter mentions five sins and, though not an exhaustive list, these five are sufficient to inhibit spiritual growth. “Malice” or viciousness exalts oneself as judge over others and rather than positioning oneself under the judgment of the Word. “Guile” or deceit honors false words rather than the Word of truth. “Hypocrisy” allows division of soul rather than bring one wholeheartedly before the Word. “Envy” promotes pursuit of competing satisfactions rather than promoting the Word that is more to be desired than gold. “Slander” likewise ruins a tongue’s taste for true goodness.

Any and all of these sins will cripple our spiritual growth. But which sin in this passage is the worst? The greatest sin here is not longing for the Word. The other sins ruin our appetite for that which will nourish our souls. Sin burns our tongues, it leaves a bitter taste. All sins must be confessed and put away so that we will hunger for the good Word and grow.

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Preach the Word

Inspiration

Creation begins to make the case for the giving essence of God’s authority. The incarnation of His Son also demonstrates willing exposure of His sovereign Self. In both creation and the incarnation, God shows not only who He is, but also what His goal is with us: fellowship. The revelation of His Word is the third aspect that demonstrates the purpose of disclosed truth and the inviting nature of true authority.

Inspiration

The Scriptures reveal God’s righteousness and our unrighteousness. The law stops every mouth and makes every man accountable to God (Romans 3:19). None are righteous, no one understands, no one seeks God, there is no fear of God before our eyes (Romans 3:10-11, 18). The Bible exposes our weakness, our ungodliness, our rebellion, and our deadness (Romans 5:6, 10; Ephesians 2:1-3).

But the Word doesn’t see our deadness and mock us. It sees us dead and raises us to life. We “have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God, for ‘All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you'” (1 Peter 1:23-25). The Word wields authority for our life.

David wrote about the potency of special revelation to change us for good.

The law of the Lord is perfect, > reviving the soul; > the testimony of the Lord is sure, > making wise the simple; > the precepts of the Lord are right, > rejoicing the heart; > the commandment of the Lord is pure, > enlightening the eyes; > the fear of the Lord is clean, > enduring forever; > the rules of the Lord are true, > and righteous altogether. > More to be desired are they than gold, > even much fine gold; > sweeter also than honey > and drippings of the honeycomb. > Moreover, by them is your servant warned; > in keeping them there is great reward. > Psalm 19:7-11

Paul wrote about the efficacy of “the word of His grace” to protect and establish us.

I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (Acts 20:29-32)

The Word saves, the Word sanctifies, the Word builds. Authoritative truth seeks our good. Paul loved the truth, he wanted the Ephesians to be alert for the truth, and he gave himself ceaselessly and affectionately so that they might have the truth. Why? Because truth invites life. Revelation invites relationship with God (and with each other). Carl Henry’s second thesis was:

Divine revelation is given for human benefit, offering us privileged communion with our Creator in the kingdom of God. (God, Revelation, and Authority, Vol 2, 30)

That’s the authoritative Word at work for us, not against us or in spite of us or at a distance from us. Truth works and wins us. God uses truth to bring us into His true joy.