PBS-style Religion

Once again it’s PBS pledge week, which means it’s a time that PBS presents its most popular programs. Year after year that includes Wayne Dyer’s “I Can See Clearly Now” – a hodge-podge of New Age ‘spirituality’. This leads me to two conclusions: 1) people really are incurably religious – even the network noted for scientific programs like “Nova” or journalism from a secular world-view finds itself compelled to turn to the transcendent; 2) when our Constitution speaks of “freedom of religion” the common mistake we make is to think that Christians, Jews, Mormons and Muslims are “religious” but that ‘secular’ folks are not. But in the world-view of those who wrote the Constitution, “religion” essentially means one’s fundamental beliefs about the nature of reality. At the time, nearly everyone’s world-view included a deity of some kind, but in terms of what the Constitution was getting at, a deity need not be involved. To say it another way, secular naturalism, summarized in the ‘creed’ of someone like Carl Sagan (“The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be”) – is, for all intents and purposes, every bit as much a ‘religion’ as Christianity, Judaism or Islam.

The worst kind of evil is the wrong kind of love...

“The worst kind of evil is the wrong kind of love, love that clutches and possesses rather than loosening and liberating. . . . That is Lewis’ final statement on evil.  Essentially, it is the wrong kind of love. . . . What the evil man calls love is only a sort of hunger aimed at the total consumption of the emotional lives of those around him.  What he calls justice is the selfish granting of his own welfare and pleasure, whether on a personal or a universal scale.  And what he calls good is that which will benefit his own aims at the expense or despite the needs of those around him.  He is evil not because he wills to be an evil man but because he can do nothing else but will his own narrow desires.”

-- Janice Witherspoon Neulieb, reviewing Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis, in Christianity Today, 28 March 1975, page 16

HT:  Ray Ortlund, Jr..

There's a gospel app for that...

Burdened by guilt and shame? 'There's a gospel app for that'...

'Our God has forgiven us “ all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Col. 2: 13– 14).

So— That sense of condemnation you feel for things you’ve done in the past that you’ve tried as hard as you can to confess and repent of . . . That struggle you’re having right now with a sinful, frustrating habit or tendency that’s become such a natural part of the way you react to stress and insecurity . . . Those doubts you carry around, not sure you’ll ever be able to overcome the squeezing grip of this particular sin in your life, no matter how long you keep trying . . .

'Let’s just say there’s a gospel app for that. For all of that. The cancelling of your debt by the forgiving blood of the Lamb means the guilt from all your sin is gone— past, present, and future— as well as all your reasons for allowing guilt to crank itself up into angry fits and other defensive measures. You’ve been pardoned. You’re free. You’ve been given innocence. Believe it. And be changed by it.-

-- Matt Chandler and Michael Snetzer, "Recovering Redemption"

"My sin -- oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin -- not in part, but the whole, has been nailed to His cross and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul!"

--

Can you trust Him?

“Those hands that keep a million worlds from spinning into oblivion were nailed motionless to a cross— for us.  .  .  . Can you trust him?” -- Elisabeth Elliot

Repentance is lifetime learning

"Repentance is not just the beginner course; repentance is lifetime learning. The goal of Christian living is not to get past the point of needing to repent, but to realize that God has made us capable through Christ of doing repentance well— repentance that the Bible calls “godly” in nature— what the apostle Paul described as “repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2: 25)—repentance that leads to real change. At the root level. Where it can grow us up into character and consistency and confidence in Jesus’ power and strength, fully at work in our pitiful weakness."

-- Matt Chandler and Michael Snetzer, "Recovering Redemption"

What We Were to Begin With

....“'In the beginning' (Genesis 1) is where we need to start . . . because we’ll always find it hard to understand our dysfunction unless we understand what it means to function. We won’t be able to make sense of our chaos and disorders without seeing what true order with God really looks like. We can never grasp the extent of our depravity until we recognize the excellencies of our created dignity."

-- Matt Chandler and Michael Snetzer, "Recovering Redemption: A Gospel Saturated Perspective on How to Change"

"The Deepest Desire of the Christian Heart"

From John Piper (Desiring God Ministries):

Since I was 22 years old all my Bible reading, all my journaling, all my counseling and writing and preaching and thinking, has circled back to this: “Hallowed be your name.” I have come back again and again to the prayer, the longing, the pursuit, that God would make his name supremely treasured as holy — first in my life, and then in all the world.

I want you to join me in this passion.

How could I not? That is what the prayer means! “Hallowed be your name” means I am asking God to cause you (and me) to treasure his name above all else. If I pray it honestly, I must want it — for you, for everyone. (This is why Desiring God exists!)

First and Ultimate

The plea, “Hallowed be your name,” is the only petition in the Lord’s prayer where an explicit act of the human heart is named. The act of hallowing. All the other petitions serve this. The kingdom comes for this. God’s will is done for this. Daily bread is for this. Forgiveness is for this. Escape from temptation and evil is for this.

“Hallowing” involves reverencing, honoring, esteeming, admiring, valuing, and treasuring God’s name above all things. This is the first and ultimate desire of the Christian heart. (Ask him to make it so!) That’s why Jesus told us to seek it first — to pray for it. First. Foremost. It is to be our supreme passion in life.

Passions like this are awakened by hearing the voice of God — God himself, not a mere man — declare pervasively in his speech that the hallowing of his name is his main goal in history. This is why all things exist.

The Pervasive Theme

Give your ear — and your heart — to this:

• He seeks the hallowing of his name in saving us.

“Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power” (Psalms 106:8).

• He seeks the hallowing of his name in pardoning and forgiving us.

“For your name’s sake, O Lᴏʀᴅ , pardon my guilt, for it is great” (Psalms 25:11).

“I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake” (1 John 2:12).

• He seeks the hallowing of his name in restraining his anger.

“For my name’s sake I defer my anger, for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you” (Isaiah 48:9).

• He seeks the hallowing of his name in not forsaking us or spurning us.

“The Lᴏʀᴅ will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake” (1 Samuel 12:22).

“Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake; do not dishonor your glorious throne” (Jeremiah 14:21).

• He seeks the hallowing of his name in leading us in righteousness.

“He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalms 23:3; 31:3).

• He seeks the hallowing of his name in helping, delivering, atoning.

“Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name; deliver us, and atone for our sins, for your name’s sake!” (Psalms 79:9).

• He seeks the hallowing of his name in preserving our lives.

“For your name’s sake, O Lᴏʀᴅ, preserve my life! (Psalms 143:11).

• He seeks the hallowing of his name in gathering, cleansing, and renewing his people.

“I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, declares the Lord Gᴏᴅ, . . . when I gather you from all the countries . . . and sprinkle clean water on you, . . . and give you a new heart, and a new spirit” (Ezekiel 36:23–26).

That is a small sample of God’s passion for the hallowing of his name. But if you ponder this, I believe the Holy Spirit (whose mission is to move our hearts to hallow the name of Jesus, John 16:14) will give you an unshakable joy in this unshakable reality: God does all for the hallowing of his all-satisfying name.

I am praying for you (Ephesians 6:18).

-- from John Piper, Desring God Ministries

When grace is in the pulpit....

"Few practices will energize and affect your Christian life as much as sitting attentively under faithful preaching...." A great essay on the crucial importance of gathering in worship to receive God's Word.

Holding Happiness Hostage

"If there were no final Day of God’s Judgment, then those who refuse the happiness that God freely offers would endlessly be held hostage by those who refuse that blessedness, and keep choosing misery -- vandalizing shalom (the way things are supposed to be) -- for themselves and for others instead." -- Jon G. Baldwin

Moral Momentum

"Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible."
-- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Romans 12:15

The last few days (since my father's death) have reminded me of what I kind of already knew: friends are great for two reasons -- they are there (or want to be there) to weep with you when you have reason to weep, but, just as important, they are there to rejoice with you when you have reason to rejoice. And what makes a friend a true friend is that he's there for you for both. (Rom. 12:15)

Forget Not All His Benefits

'"We do not want to be like Israel and “forget” the Lord and all he’s done (e.g., Judg. 8:34; Ps. 106:21; Hos. 8:14). .... D. A. Carson is right: “Believers who spend no time reviewing and pondering in their minds what God has done, whether they are alone and reading their Bibles or joining with other believers in corporate adoration, should not be surprised if they rarely sense that God is near.'"

-- Ivan Mesa

Who can fight the Lord's battles?

“We should never come to [differences] with true Christians without regret and without tears.  Sounds simple, doesn’t it?  Believe me, evangelicals often have not shown it.  We rush in, being very, very pleased, it would seem at times, to find other men’s mistakes.  We build ourselves up by tearing other men down.  This can never show a real oneness among Christians.

There is only one kind of man who can fight the Lord’s battles in anywhere near a proper way, and that is the man who by nature is unbelligerent.  A belligerent man tends to do it because he is belligerent; at least it looks that way.  The world must observe that, when we must differ with each other as true Christians, we do it not because we love the smell of blood, the smell of the arena, the smell of the bullfight, but because we must for God’s sake.  If there are tears when we must speak, then something beautiful can be observed.”

-- Francis Schaeffer, The Mark of the Christian (Downers Grove, 1970), pages 26-27.

"Cultural Disintegration and the Revival of a Moral Imagination"

And excellent, profound post concerning what is really needed by the culture, from the church, today.

Wake Up!

“There are times when some situation or circumstance is used by God’s providence in such a compelling way that it seems as if you’ve finally been awakened from a long and drowsy sleep – and thus ‘revived’ you have a sense that you have fallen behind in what you were called and meant to do. Now, startled awake by your reinvigorated conscience and recovered spiritual perception, you pray God’s help to shake off your soul’s slumber, and get back to what you know you ought to have been doing. And so, enabled by grace and directed by God’s Word, your feet hit the floor to follow again, walking in the Spirit, in a way that is bound to impact every relationship with family and friends, neighbors and co-workers, and every aspect of one’s calling to a worthy walk.” -- Jon G. Baldwin (Eph. 5:14; 2 Cor. 5:14-17; Rom. 13:11-14)