The Necessity of Reprobation: without it, God would not be God

This is from page 44 of What's So Great About the Doctrines of Grace? by Richard D. Phillips:

Were no one ever condemned--were there no display of God's judgment and wrath--there would be no knowledge of the glories of God's grace. In that case, the true God would be unknown to His creatures, and His purpose in creation--to display the fullness of His glory--would be unrealized. Having failed in this purpose, God would no longer be God. For this reason, God's decree of reprobation is necessary. God being perfect in every attribute, it is necessary for His every attribute to be exercised: goodness in creation, power in triumph, mercy in grace, and justice in wrath.

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The End for Which God Created the World

What follows is from a message from the 2003 Desiring God Conference that I was listening to on the way to work. John Piper quotes from Edwards' book, The End for Which God Created the World, which is one of the most important books I have ever read.

God is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things. Nothing exists without his creating it. Nothing stays in being without his sustaining word. Everything has its reason for existing from him. Therefore nothing can be understood apart from him, and all understandings of all things that leave him out are superficial understandings, since they leave out the most important reality in the universe. We can scarcely begin to feel today how God-ignoring we have become, because it is the very air we breathe.

[...]

Listen as he [Edwards] weaves together God's joy in being God and our joy in his being God:

Because [God] infinitely values his own glory, consisting in the knowledge of himself, love to himself . . . joy in himself; he therefore valued the image, communication or participation of these, in the creature. And it is because he values himself, that he delights in the knowledge, and love, and joy of the creature; as being himself the object of this knowledge, love and complacence...[Thus] God's respect to the creature's good, and his respect to himself, is not a divided respect; but both are united in one, as the happiness of the creature aimed at, is happiness in union with himself.

In other words, for God to be the holy and righteousness God that he is, he must delight infinitely in what is infinitely delightful. He must enjoy with unbounded joy what is most boundlessly enjoyable; he must take infinite pleasure in what is infinitely pleasant; he must love with infinite intensity what is infinitely lovely; he must be infinitely satisfied with what is infinitely satisfying. If he were not, he would be fraudulent. Claiming to be wise, he would be a fool, exchanging the glory of God for images. God's joy in God is part of what it means for God to be God.

- John Piper, "A God-Entranced Vision of All Things", October 10, 2003

Switchfoot on Prince Caspian

So, I didn't even know they wrote a song for the movie. We left as soon as the credits began because, having just finished the book the night before, we were not impressed at all with the filmmakers' idea of "poetic license."



I read an article online that pretty well summed up what was wrong with the movie. I think it was on World Magazine, which requires a paid subscription in order to view the articles online, so I wouldn't be able to link to it anyway (my Dad linked it to me, which is why I was able to view the article "for a limited time"). The article mentioned that Aslan was misrepresented (and therefore, so was the Gospel) in that he roared at Trumpkin rather than playing with him.

But the biggest issue I had with the movie was the "preventative measures" taking by the Narnians, who chose to attack Miraz's castle unprovoked, even going to the length of attempted murder, which is in stark contrast to the more Davidic behavior of Prince Caspian and the Pevensies in the book. I bring up King David because when he never attacked King Saul, and even when his son Absolom rose up against him, he sounded a retreat rather than risk shedding royal blood.

C. S. Lewis was a theologian more than he was a novelist. He wrote what he wrote for a reason. I wish they wouldn't have messed with the story.

Foundations of Grace

Friends have been telling me about Steven J. Lawson's book Foundations of Grace for a very long time, and I finally got it, although I must admit I'm still in John MacArthur's (wonderful) introduction. Foundations of Grace is Volume 1 of a planned 5-volume set, and the first one covers the period of time coinciding with the lives of the men whose stories are told in the Old and New Testaments.

Steven J. Lawson also has mp3s of his sermons on his website. This mp3 series goes along with the subjects of his book series, one of the purposes of which is to show that the Doctrines of Grace have been the orthodox theological understanding throughout the history of God's covenant people.

(Note: I had intended to provide a link to these mp3s sooner, but their site was down for several days.)

Giving Is a Party

Kent Hughes may be a gifted teacher, but there are things to disagree with him about.

First of all, he's a pedobaptist (or halfway, anyway), meaning that he thinks it's cool to baptize babies before they're old enough to be able to even say "Jesus". (See last year's discussion in Matt Hall's blog).

Another issue troubled me recently when I was reading his chapter on giving in Disciplines of a Godly Man. First, I'd like to say that I know that I give less than I should. But the only reason for that is that I believe it's biblically less-than-ideal for me to have credit card debt, so I am putting more than half of my income towards remedying that situation, in order that I may be more free to give in the future.

There are some points I want to make about the issue of giving, and how the modern church misuses scripture and manipulates the poor in order to keep the coffers full.

First, ancient Israel was intended to be a theocracy. Which means that the government as well as the state religion were supported by a 10% tax. The Levites, 1/12 of the tribes of Israel, were set apart for temple service, and they were supported by the other 11/12 of the nation. This was called a tithe. Numbers 18:21 says that the tithes are to support the Levites, who work in the service of the Lord, and thus don't have their own fields and herds from which to eat.

Every year, the Israelites tithed to the temple. Except in every third year. Deuteronomy 14:28 clearly states, "At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year..." (NIV). Now, maybe the NIV has it wrong, but this is the translation Hughes himself chose. But I always understood this to refer to that year's tithe, meaning that the Levites only ended up with 6.67% of Israel's income on average, and the other 3.33% went to the poor. If you count out the tribes and consider the Levites 1/13 of the nation, then giving them 6.67% of the nation's wealth is a little more fair (Joseph was split into two tribes in order to even things out in battle, since the Levites weren't soldiers).

Even though you might think of the concept of tithing as legalistic, if you look at Deuteronomy 14, you can see that God gives people immense freedom and variety in how they can give. Option 1: take your produce to the temple (verse 23). Option 2: if you live too far away from the temple and don't want to cart all your produce, you can just sell it for money, and take the money to the temple, with your family (verse 25). Option 3: every third year, you do this in your local towns so that orphans, widows, nomads, and Levites who don't live in Jerusalem can benefit.

But I think the big thing that stands out for me in Deuteronomy 14 is that it's like a huge party. Verse 23 says, "...you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock..." (ESV). Verse 26: "...spend the money for whatever you desire--oxen or sheep or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves." Hello! Did you see that? God wants his people to party like crazy animals! "And you shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice, you and your household." And every year, the party happened in the local towns, that all the disadvantaged in the area "shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do."

No wonder people have a hard time giving today. It's not as fun as it used to be! There used to be huge parties where you'd spend all of your tithe on steak and adult beverages! This doesn't really have anything to do with the way tithing is done in churches today. I see more whine than wine when the offering plate is passed!

Now that I have the groundwork laid, I want to address the problems I have with Hughes' interpretation. My chief argument with Hughes is the way he interprets the tithe for the Levites, the festal tithe, and the third-year tithe for the local poor, as three distinct tithes, all of which happened at the same time, so that it comes out to 23.3% on average. But I think it's painfully obvious that each of these references refer to three different manifestations of giving for the same 10% of your income.

The trouble with Hughes' interpretation is his resulting application. He's either trying to guilt-trip people if they give less than 23.3% of their income, or he's trying to guilt-trip them into giving at least 10% by saying, "Oh, come now, you have it easy. It could be so much worse, just look at the Israelites! They had to give much more!" We know that on average, people who call themselves Christians in America don't give any more than those who don't (and it's much less than ten percent), so we all need to give more. But if someone already feels too overwhelmed and discouraged by a 10% goal to actually take action and commit to giving, how much more overwhelmed and discouraged they are going to be when you tell them the goal is 23.3%! Furthermore, by trying to use a Biblical reference to support a 10% tithe, and yet raising the Biblical tithe to 23.3%, he thereby nullifies his application of Old Testament law to support tithing 10% in the church. If we're supposed to tithe like the Jews, then we're supposed to tithe like the Jews. If we're not, then we're not!

My second gripe comes from something he said later in the chapter. For a chapter which is intended to be about how it's bad to be materialistic, I think he shows his weakness with materialism by making it about numbers. Instead of glorying in what giving is: worship unto the Lord, giving ourselves to him in trust that he'll provide for us. He mentions the widow's mite, and how Jesus said she gave more than all the rest. Clearly, for Jesus, it's not about quantity. And you'd think Hughes understood this, otherwise he wouldn't have used the illustration. However, he then goes on to say something terrible!

And in the case of the Macedonians' grace giving, the amount must have been way over 10 percent because 10 percent of their "extreme poverty" (2 Corinthians 8:2) would not have helped anyone. (pp. 198-199)

The audacity!!! It's actually harder for poor people to give ten percent of their income than it is for rich people to, because the poor do not have anything expendible. So even if the poor Macedonians only gave 10%, that's worth so much more to God than 10% given by a rich man, because it's an act of sacrifice. Looking back at the widow's mite, in Jesus' mind, the others who gave would be doing good by giving until what they had left was the same as the widow. I believe that's what God's economy is like.

Christianity was never intended to be a state religion. It was about living in community, not supporting institutions. In the second chapter of Acts, we have the best picture of what Christian giving is supposed to look like.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. (v. 44-45, ESV)

Remember, these were all Jews living in Jerusalem, the place where the temple was, the place where everybody took their tithes. Now they were Christians. It's not that they stopped tithing to the temple and started tithing to the church. They were Jewish citizens in a land occupied by Rome. They tithed to the temple, and they paid taxes to Caesar. It was the law! But both of these became for these Christians social necessities, just as, if you live anywhere but Nevada, you have to pay taxes to the state as well as the federal government, and you give as the Lord leads you.

In the biblical New Testament form, giving will always mean there are some people who will receive more than they give, because they had "all things in common" and distributed "the proceeds to all, as any had need". The biblical New Testament form, white American Christians would give to poor African Christians until you looked at their houses and couldn't tell the difference between those who earned $8,000 a month and those who earned $80 a month. That's what a literal interpretation and application of this verse would mean.

The church was never intended to look anything like the temple, just as giving was never intended to look anything like the tithe (although if it looked more like Deuteronomy 14, with the juicy meat and the drinking, we'd be doing a lot better!).

I might add that I need never have fallen into so much debt after the dot-com bubble burst, if giving in the church today looked like it's supposed to, with those who have taking care of those who have not, rather than giving to support a new building, fancy lighting and video projection system, and a fancy new Mercedes M-class and Saab convertible for the pastor, all the while telling those who were receiving unemployment benefits that if they weren't putting 10% of it in the offering basket, they were "robbing God" just as Malachi says. However, I must point out that even in my poorest state, I was much more well-off than tons of homeless people in America and the poor around the world.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! (Matt. 23:23-24, ESV)

If the chief phrase for you in that passage is "without neglecting the others", then you're totally missing Jesus' point.

Like a quote a friend of mine likes to repeat as often as possible, "How much can I do without that I may have more to give?"

Like I said, giving in the New Testament is not about supporting institutions and building projects. It's about helping those in need. There are links on my blog to WorldVision, an organization I support because they are Christians who preach Christ whenever they can, yet they care blindly for those who need their help, because you can't preach to them if they starve to death. My parents support a bunch of missionaries. And if you need more ideas, there's also Samaritan's Purse and Gospel for Asia.

Simplifying things

Quote:

Be it for the praise of other Christians, or just to get them off your back, the desire to have people praise your progress in the faith can be just as vain as the need to be seen as a success by your peers, or society, or any of those other forms of "acceptable" ego-stroking. Since the very essence of God's grace is that He has given us unmerited mercy in return for our wickedness, ego should have nothing to do with our growth as Christians. I believe that taking pride in driving a better car or having a nicer house than your neighbor is no less a matter of pride as the desire to hear other Christians praise your so-called godliness. While it's good to encourage others by maturing in your faith, just as the spiritual maturity of those around us is encouraging, it's also easy to get off track. I'm talking about that need for a spiritual "Atta-boy!" or a better seat in church on Sunday, or the always dangerous acceptance into that inner circle of "church staff." (No, I don't think that the position of a church staff member is evil. I just know that if Christianity is treated like a social club, it often has the same entanglements as one. From someone who spent half of his life growing up in churches, I can say it happens, and more often than you might think.) - Mark Salomon, Simplicity

I am no longer on church staff. Please pray for me. As far as my heart goes, He has been preparing me for this. I can totally see his hand in it, but I was just expecting him to have things all lined up before he pulled the rug out from under me. Pray that God will return me to successful independent-contractorship and bring me some clients, and pray that he would lead me where to go from here in terms of ministry and church community, etc.

A New Agenda for our Talk

[Listening to: "You Know How It Is" - Stavesacre - Punkzilla (02:18)]

...he does according to his will among the host of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth;
and none can stay his hand
or say to him, "What have you done?" Daniel 4:35 (ESV)

"And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church" Eph. 1:22 (ESV).

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son..." Rom 8:28-29 (ESV) (emphasis mine).

I am currently reading a book by Paul David Tripp called War of Words, published by P&R. To say it's really good would be an understatement.

Chapter 5 is all about how the root of all of our communication breakdowns (complaining, arguing, manipulating, criticizing, etc.) is a fundamental lack of trust in God's sovereignty.

...a life of godly communication is rooted in a personal recognition of the sovereignty of God. Let me put it this way: Only when I submit to the rule of God, who has a perfect plan and is in complete control, will I begin to live and speak as he has purposed. Only at this level will the idolatry of heart that leads to idol [sic] words be broken. Here alone will my words be freed from being the tools of my agenda, my attempts at control, and my glory-seeking.

When my heart is more controlled by a desire for the creation (a person, possession, position, or experience) than it is by a desire for the Creator, I will seek to control my world (and the people in it) to get what I want....None rests in God's sovereignty, believing that he will give what is best. (p. 69)

...the roots of biblical communication grow in the soil of his sovereignty. If my words don't flow out of a heart that rests in his control, then they come out of a heart that seeks control, so I can get what I want. I need a better understanding of what God is doing. (p. 71)

When I know that God is in control of my life, I do not give in to panic. I do not begin thinking that life is out of control, and I do not despair when I am confused about what is going on. I know that every situation is under the careful administration of the King of Kings. (p. 72)

God is sovereign over the circumstances of our lives, but Scripture says more. It tells us that these circumstances are a principal means by which God actually produces what he predestined for our lives before the foundation of the world--that we would be transformed into the likeness of his Son, holy as he his holy.

When we complain about the problems and pressures in our lives, we are essentially grumbling in the face of God. We are complaining that we have been chosen by his love and grace, and that he is putting us in situations designed to make us his holy people! These relationships and circumstances, these problems and trials, and these times of grief and suffering come from his hand. They are tokens of God's wonderful grace, given to deliver us from the power of remaining sin! Behind the circumstances is a God of love who is relentlessly at work to make us holy. Praise that comes from hearts of worship is the only legitimate response to these circumstances. Rather than telling us that God has forgotten us, our circumstances shout to us that he has remembered us and will not leave us until his work is complete! Really understanding this will do much to alter the way we talk. (p. 77)

This is all good stuff on it's own. But Tripp takes it further with a discussion of why theology itself is so important. You can't just go to the scriptures that tell you what to do. You have to understand the whole of Scripture to see God's reason behind those commands.

God's will is that all of our speaking be done for the praise of his glory [see Eph. 1]--an exciting new agenda very different from our own. For this reason it is important to understand what the Bible teaches about God's sovereignty. It is the cornerstone for a new agenda for our words.

In talking about this doctrine, I know that I am raising thorny issues that go beyond the scope of typical communication discussions....We live in a church culture that tends to separate biblical commands and principles from the rest of Scripture. We look at specific verses about communication and seek to apply them to our lives without understanding the way they are rooted in the history and theology of Scripture. We miss the big picture--the way the rest of Scripture gives these commands their meaning and rationale. The commands and principles of Scripture flow from the theology of Scripture. More than that, they find their hope and meaning in the person and work of Christ.

For example, the only reason it makes sense to do good to your enemies is that the One who has told us to is a God of perfect justice. The call to forgive is rooted in the fact that Christ has forgiven us. The call to give sacrificially is rooted in God's promise to provide for all our needs. Every command and principle has its roots in redemptive realities--what God has done and will do for us in Christ. This is theology--but it's certainly not abstract information! Scripture is full of theology because when you undestand truth about God, you understand why and how you are to carry out the commands of Scripture. You understand how your actions connect with what God is doing, and how you can actually bring glory to his name. (pp. 70-71)

When I was a kid, whenever my parents would tell me to do something, I would always want to know why. I needed to know the reason behind it, that there was some purpose, some greater meaning to it all. Unfortunately, the answer was usually, "Because I said so." Granted, that is all that should be required of obedience. But one of the coolest things about this understanding of theology is that it shows us that God is not like the parent who says, "Because I said so." Yes, his purpose is to teach us his character--that we might know him--to get us to the place where we will stop complaining and always do what he wants without questioning, but he wants us to truly have an understanding of his goodness and faithfulness. He doesn't just want to keep us as little children; he wants to raise us up as heirs.

In Exodus 14, when the Israelites were trapped by the Red Sea, they started complaining. But God had a purpose in it. "Notice that this trial produced exactly what God had planned for his people. 'And when the Israelites saw the great power the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant' [Ex. 14:31 (NIV)]" (Tripp, p. 80).

This happened over and over again in Israel's history. Each time, God wills their being put in a situation where they complain, with his purpose being precisely to teach them not to complain the next time the same thing happens.

It's not just a problem that laypeople face. Look at Elijah--I just read 1 Kings 18 this morning. But what does Elijah say in 19:4? "It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers" (ESV). He's completely given up on God's will in his life, even after the power God evidenced through him on Mt. Carmel and the euphoria of slaughtering 450 bad guys!

Let us rest in his sovereign arms (Jason, Piña, are your reading this?). We don't have to have everything figured out, but we need to continually remember that we are not the lords of our own domain. God himself is in charge, and there's a point to what he's doing: redemption and sanctification. It's really not about what we want. It's about glorifying him while we watch him work his will in our lives and make us the men and women of God that he wants us to be.

Lord, help me to trust in you. Give me the grace to get through these times. Take control of my heart and my mind in order that you might continually intervene in my thoughts and remind me that you are in control. Help me, Lord to submit to your will for my life, and to seek your glory above all. And please forgive me, Father, for those times when I have sought to take the reigns for myself, only to wind up in the mud.

"Now I'm riding in the back seat, and I'm leaving all the driving to the Chief." - Dallas Holm

"Apprehending God"

O God, quicken to life every power within me, that I may lay hold on eternal things. Open my eyes that I may see; give me acute spiritual perception; enable me to taste Thee and know that Thou art good. Make heaven more real to me than any earthly thing has ever been. Amen. (Tozer, The Pursuit of God, 59)

But why do the very ransomed children of God themselves know so little of that habitual, conscious communion with God which Scripture offers? The answer is because of our chronic unbelief. Faith enables our spiritual sense to function. Where faith is defective the result will be inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual things. (Tozer, 52)

This faith isn't the same thing as what faith-healers keep telling us we are lacking. That "faith" is actually imagination, "positive thinking", daydreaming, usually based on what we want. No, real faith--belief that what God says is true, belief that the spiritual kingdom of heaven is real even though we can't see it--is based on the One Absolute reality, the fact that God is God, and He would be who He is apart from my recognition. It's not one of those "if a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?"-- No, God is real, and he is speaking, and if we can't hear the tree fall it's because we're spiritually deaf.

Faith lives with a conscious acknowledgment of the spiritual realities. All my life I have lived with attention to the spiritual, but unfortunately I think most of that attention has been given to the imaginary rather than the real.

For example, life is not all about me. The reality of God is so much bigger than little old me. His ways are higher, and His purpose so much more vast. Yet I think on the way to the knowledge of God as personal (and He is a personal God), and the realization that He actually cares about us, it is possible for us to develop a pattern of faith whereby our faith is based on what we want God to do for us. This type of faith is a faith that concerns itself with improving quality of life, "finding my place," being vindicated against my unjust enemies, and so on. I think my faith can so often become self-centered in this manner. I know I've prayed for God to heal my knee (and I've seen another person go forward to get prayer for 20/20 vision so he wouldn't have to wear contacts when he surfs...).

While I do believe God concerns himself with our daily lives, I think living a lifestyle where our faith seeks what we can get out of it rather than where our faith seeks to know more and more of God's character, is kind of a one-sided relationship, don't you?

The Pursuit of God is all about experiencing God personally, but we have to make sure that we're submitting our minds to Christ, so that this experience is based on Reality and not imagination.

~May 7, 2005, Brown's Hole, Chico

The High Price of Packer Pride

[Listening to: Directed Youth - The Crucified - Take Up Your Cross/Nailed (01:58)]

I just finished reading Simplicity by Mark Salomon. It only took me four days to read it, and I can't remember the last time I was so engulfed in a book. I've been a fan of Stavesacre and The Crucified since 1996, when I made it a habit of picking up anything in the Tooth & Nail catalog, and driving all over So-Cal to see Christian punk, ska, and hardcore shows from bands like the Supertones, Value Pac, MxPx, Slick Shoes, EDL... I could go on, but I think my favorite shows were always the Stavesacre shows. Mark's book was written to tear down the image that has been set up by Christian music industry in order to take advantage of the "Christian market" (the word that industry uses to refer to God's people, the Body of Christ). This task of unmasking the crooked machine requires some serious rethinking of the way things have been, and also some harsh tactics of looking reality straight in the face and admitting some serious personal failures that occurred even while Mark was hiding behind the mask of "Christian rock star" in the late eighties and early nineties. God took him through a period of serious humbling at the end of The Crucified, revealing to him just how much he was in need of Grace. Sometimes for kids who grow up in the church, knowing the Lord, the only way the Lord can remove their own self-righteousness and pride is to let them fall... hard. Since then, Mark was restored to music again with Stavesacre, and now with this book, he has a message to bring to the world: Worship the Lord with all your heart, soul, and strength, love your neighbor as yourself. Take off your masks, stop judging others, be real and pursue truth and humility in the way we live our lives towards believers and unbelievers, so that we can more effectively reflect Christ to those who are watching. I still need some time to digest it before I write a full-on review, but this excerpt will give you guys a perfect taste of what the book is all about.

I'm not the first to say it, but the book goes well with Charlie Peacock's At the Crossroads, which deconstructs the industry from a producer's perspective, and describes all the different ways that musicians can glorify God with the gifts he's given them, within the church and without (the kingdom of God is actually bigger than this universe, not a small subset of it).

"Removing the Veil"

DISCLAIMER: This blog was written before I became a 5-point Calvinist. In this blog entry I quoted A.W. Tozer saying, "it is what the cross would do to every man to set him free." Tozer is an Arminian and therefore believes that the atonement is not limited to the elect, but that the cross "would" set every man free if only they make the free-will choice to come to God.

Original entry:

John Piper says, "The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever." But the capacity for this manner of enjoyment is something impossible for man in our fallen state. Our grandfather Adam has planted in all of us a tendency to shy away from the presence of God. The flesh strives against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh.

Though it is impossible for a sinful being to survive in the Presence of God, yet it is our purpose to live in the Presence. This is the significance of Mark 15:38: "And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom" (ESV). It was God's initiative that tore the veil. And it was Christ's sacrifice which enables us to enter the Presence.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb 10:19-22, ESV)

Because Christ is our high priest, we can have "full assurance of faith." And not only that, but we have the evidence of the Spirit. "For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God" (Rom 8:15-16, ESV). What son doesn't know he has been adopted? (Moby, who doesn't think a Christian can really know he's saved, needs to read these passages.)

A.W. Tozer writes,

Everything in the New Testament accords with this Old Testament picture. Ransomed men need no longer pause in fear to enter the Holy of Holies. God wills that we should push on into His presence and live our whole life there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held; it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day. (The Pursuit of God, 36)

Is this the abundant life that Jesus came to give us? And can we really experience it for ourselves while we're still walking in this case of meat?

At the heart of the Christian message is God Himself waiting for His redeemed children to push in to conscious awareness of His presence. That type of Christianity which happens now to be the vogue knows this Presence only in theory. It fails to stress the Christian's privilege of present realization. According to its teachings we are in the presence of God positionally, and nothing is said about the need to experience that Presence actually...Ignoble contentment takes the place of burning zeal. We are satisfied to rest in our judicial possessions and, for the most part, we bother ourselves very little about the absence of personal experience. (37)

Children, if we are doubting our adoption, it's because we haven't known the Father's Presence. And the Presence is something we're supposed to know.

...the scribe tells us what he has read, and the prophet tells what he has seen. The distinction is not an imaginary one. Between the scribe who has read and the prophet who has seen there is a difference as wide as the sea. We are overrun today with orthodox scribes, but the prophets, where are they? The hard voice of the scribe sounds over evangelicalism, but the church waits for the tender voice of the saint who has penetrated the veil and has gazed with inward eye upon the wonder that is God. And yet, thus to penetrate, to push in sensitive living experience into the holy Presence, is a privilege open to every child of God. (43)

Tozer says that there is a veil in our hearts which separates us from the Presence of God today, and it is the veil of Self.

It is woven of the fine threads of the self-life, the hyphenated sins of the human spirit. They are not something we do, they are something we are, and therein lies both their subtlety and their power.

To be specific, the self-sins are self-righteousness, self-pity, self-confidence, self-sufficiency, self-admiration, self-love and a host of others like them. They dwell too deep within us and are too much a part of our natures to come to our attention till the light of God is focused upon them. The grosser manifestations of these sins--egotism, exhibitionism, self-promotion--are strangely tolerated in Christian leaders, even in circles of impeccable orthodoxy. They are so much in evidence as actually, for many people, to become identified with the gospel. (45)

But this veil is so much a part of us, that it can "be removed only in spiritual experience, never by mere instruction. We may as well try to instruct leprosy out of our system" (46). Only God can rend the veil.

In human experience that veil is made of living spiritual tissue; it is composed of the sentient, quivering stuff of which our whole beings consist, and to touch it is to touch us where we feel pain. To tear it away is to injure us, to hurt us and make us bleed. To say otherwise is to make the cross no cross and death no death at all. It is never fun to die. To rip through the dear and tender stuff of which life is made can never be anything but deeply painful. Yet that is what the cross did to Jesus and it is what the cross would do to every man to set him free.

There can be no self-surgery here. Only our Divine Physician can handle this scalpel. And as John Owen says, we must beware of using our reasoning and rationalization to produce our own peace when the Holy Spirit has not pronounced such a peace for our souls. We must let Him work in our hearts and have His way in us.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139:23-24, NIV)

Within the veil
I now would come
Within the Holy Place
To look upon Thy face
I see such Beauty there
None other can compare
I worship Thee, my Lord
Within the veil (Ruth Dryden, © 1978 Genesis Music)

Simplicity and Surrender

Oswald Chambers wrote:

There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him even small gifts of surrender, just to show how genuine our love is for Him. To be surrendered to God is of more value than our personal holiness. Concern over our personal holiness causes us to focus our eyes on ourselves, and we become overly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, out of fear of offending God. ". . . but perfect love casts out fear . . ." once we are surrendered to God ( 1 John 4:18 ). We should quit asking ourselves, "Am I of any use?" and accept the truth that we really are not of much use to Him. The issue is never of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. Once we are totally surrendered to God, He will work through us all the time. (My Utmost for His Highest, Feb. 21)

This is a book I'm really looking forward to reading. It's by Mark Salomon, the lead singer of the classic and influential Christian punk band The Crucified, who set the stage for other bands like The Blamed and Officer Negative, and 90 Pound Wuss. In the mid 90s, he started the Christian rock band Stavesacre, which was originally signed to Tooth and Nail, but now they're on Nitro records (as in The Offspring).

This is a guy I admire. He shaves his head, and he has a tattoo in Hebrew on his bicep. The first time I ever saw him--it must have been in 1995--Stavesacre was playing a show in Orange County, and they started out with a beautiful, feedback-driven song called "Minus", which is called that because only three members of the band participate (it is an instrumental and Mark is just a singer). Normally, you'd think the guy would either be waiting backstage, or dancing around like a drunken lunatic, but Mark was standing there in the middle of the stage, with his back to the audience, his arms raised in worship, and his eyes on the cross on the front wall of the church fellowship hall. The sight definitely made a lasting impression on me.

The other day, Relevant Magazine e-mailed me a chapter from the book, and I think it ties in directly with what Chambers was saying about the difference between visible holiness (to be seen by men) and extravagant devotion. Here's a teaser:

Be it for the praise of other Christians, or just to get them off your back, the desire to have people praise your progress in the faith can be just as vain as the need to be seen as a success by your peers, or society, or any of those other forms of "acceptable" ego-stroking. Since the very essence of God's grace is that He has given us unmerited mercy in return for our wickedness, ego should have nothing to do with our growth as Christians. I believe that taking pride in driving a better car or having a nicer house than your neighbor is no less a matter of pride as the desire to hear other Christians praise your so-called godliness. While it's good to encourage others by maturing in your faith, just as the spiritual maturity of those around us is encouraging, it's also easy to get off track. I'm talking about that need for a spiritual "Atta-boy!" or a better seat in church on Sunday, or the always dangerous acceptance into that inner circle of "church staff." (No, I don't think that the position of a church staff member is evil. I just know that if Christianity is treated like a social club, it often has the same entanglements as one. From someone who spent half of his life growing up in churches, I can say it happens, and more often than you might think.)

"The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing"

"Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him." 2 Tim. 2:3-4 (ESV)

"Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.'" Matt. 16:24-25 (ESV)

This week I went to a worship conference with Sam and Kevin. One recurring theme at the conference was the need for worship leaders to recognize that we don't bring anything to the table, that God does not need us, and that when God calls us, we need to leave all of our past accomplishments as well as future ambitions behind.

On Thursday night, before I went to sleep, I read chapter 2 in The Pursuit of God, "The Blessedness of Possessing Nothing." At first glance, the chapter appears to be about materialism, but when you go deeper, you find it is more about the sin of putting anything other than God on the throne of your heart, whether that be material things, people, abilities, ambitions, ideas, desires, dreams, whatever.

At first, as I read, I was thinking about a certain materialistic person whom I had known, and how correct I was in my opinion of the wrongness of this materialism, and how right I was in choosing to dissociate myself from this individual. But when we read, we cannot read for other people. Even a preacher who is reading in order to prepare a sermon that has to be made relevant to a congregation, has to first read for himself. "We preach best what we need to learn most." So a better application than strengthening my resolve against other people's materialism is to humbly recognize my own idols.

For example, the idea of getting married was an idol for me, for a very long time. I made compromises in critical areas, the way musical artists might sell out on their convictions and their friends in order to get a recording contract. This was such a bad issue for me, and even when healing is complete and I'm ready to open up my heart to make it available to somebody else in the future, I doubt that Theoretical Future Girl will be able to believe that I'm really interested in her and not just in the idea of marriage.

The core of the chapter uses Abraham's attempted sacrifice of Isaac as an illustration. By asking Abraham to kill his only son, God humbled him and took away all of his earthly security, and thus reset his priorities. In the same way I had to come to a place where I was humiliated, in order to discover in my shame that the whole wanting to get married thing was an idol for me after all. This is an area God's been dealing with in my heart for months, but right now what I'm learning is that idolatry has deeper roots than what is visible or obvious, and it has to do fundamentally with our understanding of contentment.

This week I came to a realization that the word contentment does not mean what we think it means, and I think that it is possible for us to have idols and not know it, and it is by changing our definition that these very idols will be exposed.

I once had a friendship that was so special to me, I said that I could go the rest of my life and be okay, even if I never got married, as long as I still had this friendship with this girl. And in so thinking, I thought I was being content, and therefore spiritual. But that's not contentment at all. Biblical contentment is not the same thing as being happy with the status quo and not wanting more than we already have. No, true spiritual contentment is being happy even if everything we have is taken away from us, because our treasure and our hope is internal, and it is eternal. In this way, expressions of perceived contentment can actually point out idolatry in our lives, when we are expressing satisfaction with things we hope will not be taken away, when we are satisfied with God's gifts rather than with God. Even a friendship can be an idol, when you say it's the one thing that will keep you happy as long as you get to hold onto it forever.

Everything was different for Abraham after the trial was over. As Tozer puts it,

The old man of God lifted his head to respond to the Voice, and stood there on the mount strong and pure and grand, a man marked out by the Lord for special treatment, a friend and favorite of the Most High. Now he was a man wholly surrendered, a man utterly obedient, a man who possessed nothing. He had concentrated his all in the person of his dear son, and God had taken it from him. God could have begun out on the margin of Abraham's life and worked inward to the center. He chose rather to cut quickly to the heart and have it over in one sharp act of separation...

I have said that Abraham possessed nothing. Yet was not this poor man rich? Everything he had owned before was his still to enjoy: sheep, camels, herds, and goods of every sort. He had also his wife and his friends, and best of all he had his son Isaac safe by his side. He had everything, but he possessed nothing. There is the spiritual secret. There is the sweet theology of the heart which can be learned only in the school of renunciation. (p. 27)

What God did to Abraham produced a profound change of character that affected how he looked at everything else in his life. In the same way, in terms of applying this in our own lives, we need to look to make sure that we get the full affect of what God has done to us when we go through experiences like this; that we don't just see the one particular issue he addresses as being re-ordered in our lives, but that the root of idolatry is completely eradicated!

The next morning, we led worship for the whole group gathered there and Sam spoke on Genesis 22. Lord, are you trying to tell me something?

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, No. 2

DISCLAIMER: A.W. Tozer was an Arminian. If he doesn't have a Biblical understanding of the Gospel of Grace, it's difficult to see how his teaching could be beneficial to the soul.

Original post:

This is the first installment in a planned chapter-by-chapter look at A.W. Tozer's book, The Pursuit of God. Granted, there are many who have discovered the book long before I did, who will also be much better equipped for a task such as this. But hey, this is a blog, so I'm just going to write what I think.

I think first heard about A.W. Tozer's book, The Pursuit of God, ten years ago, mentioned in a sermon from Pastor Dave Owen at the Malibu Vineyard. Each time Dave would quote Tozer, I'd write it down in my notebook and make a note that I needed to get a copy of that book! Well, I still don't have a copy, but I found one of Pastor Sam's copies sitting in a box in the upstairs hallway near my work area, so I opened it up, and it blew me away immediately.

What I wrote in my last entry--"Can you really go up on the mountain, enter the Lord's presence, and not have thoughts of any other people enter your mind as soon as you close your eyes to pray or to worship?"--is something I struggle with periodically. It doesn't just have to do with people with whom you have issues, but it has to do with your mind racing while you're trying to concentrate on the Lord, and I remember it being an issue even 10 years ago at Group at the Ferguson's house in Malibu. The introduction to Tozer's book calls this "turbulence of soul", and says that the quietness cannot be found in "cloistered retreats". Monasticism and asceticism are not going to get you there. It's an internal thing with has to do with your direct connection to God and whether you're keeping that line open, no matter how noisy your surroundings. As the writer of the introduction says, "He came upon this closer walk with God in the bustle and noise of the city of Chicago. Tozer never enjoyed the luxury of a cloistered life" (The Pursuit of God, p. 5).

Another thing that stuck out with me in the introduction is the way Tozer brought God into every aspect of his life.

[He] educated himself by years of diligent study and a constant prayerful seeking of the mind of God. With Tozer, seeking truth and seeking God were one and the same thing. For example, when he felt he needed an understanding of the great English works of Shakespeare, he read them through on his knees, asking God to help him understand their meaning. (p. 6)

That's cool!

If Tozer were alive today, I think he'd be a blogger. He has that kind of attitude in his writing that I see a lot in the blogs of those with new reformation views, those who see problems with the way we Americans practice Christianity today, and seek to change it. In his own preface, he writes about the difference between a right opinion of God and true spiritual worship. He says worship has been replaced with programs, and although strong Bible teaching is a must, it is not enough. "For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth" (p.10).

Now to make it personal. This is the reason I wanted to write this installment today: the theme of the first chapter in the book, the one that explains why we should pursue God in the first place, is the same theme of U2 had in their song, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Many Christians felt like U2 had abandoned their faith with that song and looked at it as the proof that they had turned away from following God completely. After all, if someone has truly found Jesus, what could he possibly still be looking for? I have heard this opinion expressed by individuals with my own ears, as well as read articles that confirm that this is a very widespread view among many Christians, and it's very sad.

Tozer's point in Chapter 1 is that finding Jesus is not the end, but only the beginning, and reading this chapter has caused me to seriously suspect that Bono read Tozer before he wrote the song.

I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds and you
Loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Of my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

Tozer's view is that the belief is the first step into a much larger world. There is belief, and then there is knowledge. "The doctrine of justification by faith--a biblical truth, and blessed relief from sterile legalism and unavailing self-effort--has in our time fallen into evil company and been interpreted by many in such a manner as actually to bar men from the knowledge of God."

A mark of spiritual maturity is the realization that the journey will never end, that our relationship with the Lord is something that we have to cultivate and continue to do so until our final breath.

We have almost forgotten that God is a person and, as such, can be cultivated as any person can. It is inherent in personality to be able to know other personalities, but full knowledge of one personality by another cannot be achieved in one encounter. It is only after long and loving mental intercourse that the full possibilities of both can be explored. (p. 13)

You know I believe it
But I still haven't found...

Tozer writes, "To have found God and still to pursue Him is the soul's paradox of love, scorned indeed by the too-easily-satisfied religionist, but justified in happy experience by the children of the burning heart" (p. 15). Are you willing to embark on that quest? It's a journey of individual discovery to know God for yourself, but you'll find there are others who have gone before, whose writings and reflections are like signposts to us, and there are also others today who are on the same road themselves.

"And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3, ESV).

Find Him! Seek Him with all your heart!