Reminders

A guest post by Matt Hartel:

Catherine spent the day with some friends at a baby shower, leaving me to take the role of mommy for a day. This is what much of our day sounded like:

"Eat your dinner, Rachel.. Just try your green beans..."
"Abby, stay close to Daddy. Don't run away Abby!"
"Rachel, don't fight with your sister. Be kind to your sister."
"Abby, hold still! Let Daddy get your diaper on."

I spent most of my day - not teaching the girls something new - but reminding them of what they already knew to be true. In many ways, they know the truth and continually need to be reminded to obey it, sometimes with a little discipline behind the reminder, much like the law presented throughout scripture.

I'm thankful for the reminders of scripture. Though I know many things in my mind about obedience to Christ, I find my heart constantly wanders away. More than ever, I realize that the laws that expose my sinfulness are not something I can fulfill on my own, no matter how hard I try. Ezekiel 36:26 reminds me of the promise that was fulfilled in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh."

I thank God for doing (and continuing to do) this to my own heart. I pray for the faith to trust in this work to my own children, should He please to do so. Knowing that He ultimately works the heart transplant - and not me - is a reminder I need every day.

Glory Robbers

A guest post by Gino Curcuruto:

It doesn’t take long living where I do (sadly, or anywhere else) to see people being devalued. So often people are seen less as image bearers of God and more as objects we can use. In our neighborhoods we see this everyday. Women whom God created in His own image are objectified and used to serve the sinful lusts of men. We have multiple establishments where women are paid quite well not to be expressions of God’s likeness but rather to be objects used for man’s sinfulness.

And when I bring this up, when I mention what goes on in a strip club, are you sitting there (like most people do) thinking, “How horrible...What’s wrong with those people... That’s just sick.” Yes, it is disturbing. But are you able to think about how despicable it is that God is being defamed when his image bearers are objectified? That is the greater horror.

Human beings are the pinnacle of God’s creation and have inherent value because we are made in God’s image; created to bring him glory. Yet, we treat God’s creation as objects for our own interest. We take what was made to bring glory to God and twist it into something that brings glory to us. And in doing so, we “steal” God’s glory. We are Glory robbers.

But you don’t have to go out to strip clubs to see people being objectified. You simply need to look inside your own heart. Have you ever dismissed someone as insignificant? Have you ever said, “Oh, I’ll be okay. I’ll just get Mary to do it.” Or, “Don’t worry about Joe, he doesn’t really matter.” You’ve thought these things, I’ve thought these things. We’ve even said them. We may not be paying women to be objects of our perverted sexual fantasies but we certainly have perverted the value of people by making them objects used for our gain. We belittle people by using them as tools to get what we want. We fail to recognize them as unique beings created in God’s image for the purpose of bringing Him glory. No, we see them as useful accessories that can help us achieve our desires and bring us glory and happiness.

Oh how wonderful it would be if we could see people the way God sees them! As broken individuals rather than objects. To see them as sheep without a shepherd or sinners in need of a savior. To the degree that the gospel has penetrated our hearts, we can begin to see people the way they really are: a broken piece of God’s good creation.

How do we know what is true?

A guest post by Jim Weidner:

I enjoy listening to Michael Smerconish on 1210 AM on my way to work. His guests and topics are timely and thought-provoking. I had been thinking about what I might write as a guest-poster for Larry’s blog, when I checked 1210 this morning (10/23/09) and heard a familiar voice – the voice of prominent evolutionist and atheist Richard Dawkins.

Dawkins is probably the most well-known and outspoken atheist in the world. To get an idea where he’s coming from, his first book was called The God Delusion. In fact, in answer to a question about miracles and the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers throughout the ages, he matter-of-factly called such experiences “hallucinations.” I kid you not. He believes that all the religious are seriously deluded people. He is happy that, in his opinion, our society is finally getting away from the “stranglehold of religion.” He states all of his opinions as “facts,” and since he also states that evolution is a “fact,” I question whether he really understands what a fact is.

Please don’t take this wrongly, but Mr. Dawkins is one of the most arrogant, condescending, and rude people that I have ever heard speak. I surmise that even non-believers who have been in his presence come to such a conclusion. Watch his interview with Ben Stein, who is Jewish, in the documentary “Expelled.” On the program today, he scoffed at Dinesh D’Souza when asked if he would debate him. He made it quite clear that he did not consider D’Souza of a theological stature worthy of his time.

After his interview on 1210 today, Smerconish remarked rather pointedly to his co-hosts that Mr. Dawkins didn’t seem impressed or even to care to be lumped in with a Nobel laureate, a former big-city US mayor, and an ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan. In mentioning these people, Smerconish was inviting Mr. Dawkins to post a comment on the radio program’s website, kind of their “Wall of Fame.”

And here was Mr. Dawkins comment, posted on the website: “How do we know what is true?”

How Pilate-like! “What is truth?”

Jesus said: “…for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Every on the side of truth listens to me.” (John 18:37)

Jesus said: “Sanctify them [his followers] by the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17)

Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

John writes of Jesus: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth….For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:14, 17)

How ironic then, that Jesus says this of the Holy Spirit’s working in the lives of believers, which Dawkins so blithely derides as delusional: “But when he, the [Holy] Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13)

Wow, Jesus talked a lot about truth!

Oh, that God would soften Richard Dawkins' arrogant, God-hating, hard heart – the same kind of heart everyone has before they come to Christ – that he might be given a heart of flesh.

And, Oh, that the Holy Spirit would open his eyes so that he might come to know this truth -- the truth revealed in Jesus Christ, who is Truth incarnated.

A Holy Longing for Christ

A guest post by Joe Crispin:

The primary reason I enjoy reading Larry’s blog is, it seems, the primary reason he writes it, namely, to encourage in his readers a holy longing for the life to come.

I don’t know about you, but even though I never lack for things that frustrate me or produce in me a longing for something more, I am O so slow to long for the right things. For Christ. For holiness. For the New Heavens and New Earth. For the glory of God to fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Not only that, but I am also so slow to respond rightly when I rightly long. That is, when I do finally recognize what I should be longing for and indeed, deep down, what I am really longing for, I am still slow to act in that moment as I ought. Sometimes I just can’t figure out what I should do. Or I might be overwhelmed with the gravity and cosmic scope of sin. Poverty is everywhere. Pain. Struggle. What can I really do?

The interesting thing about this, however, is that the two are intimately connected. For I believe that the reason I am so slow to know what to do right here and now is because I do not long consistently and/or proactively enough.

Did you catch that? Consistency and proactivity seems, at least to me, to be two central keys. Day by day, moment by moment cultivation of a holy longing for Christ and all that He values is one of the most practical things I can do for myself and the world. For it is only as I come to consistently long for that which I should long for that I can truly serve others as I ought.

If I know what I am truly longing for, I will know what I ought to do now. And if I really want what I should want, I will want to do what I ought to do.

If you understand anything I just said, you should be motivated (as I am) to read this blog more. For Larry does a great job giving us glimpses into how life ought to be, how it is now, and how we should respond in light of those two things. Though one post might not rock your world, if you listen in day by day, the way you view the world might well be changed.

All that being said, I am motivated to read much more. I hope you are as well. And I also hope Larry is even more motivated to write!

Keeping the Sabbath Wholly

A guest post by my beautiful bride, Michelle Lazarus:

As we are looking forward to our vacation, I thought it would be fitting to recommend a book that I am currently reading about the topic of rest. It is called “Keeping the Sabbath Wholly” by Marva Dawn. And though I’m not finished with it yet, the chapters that I have read have been very helpful and informative.

Being married to a very busy man and also spending my days with a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old, I very often feel like rest will just have to wait for another season of life. Larry does “have a Sabbath day” every week, when we theoretically get to enjoy the day together as a family. But for the past several months, I have felt like there is just something missing to our day of rest…something very important.

I have begun to wonder more and more about how I can serve my family more faithfully by making sure we have a day to connect with God and with each other; and to really enjoy these primary relationships in our home; and to see each other flourishing throughout the remainder of the week because of the rest we have gotten for our bodies, minds and souls on our Sabbath day.

Most importantly, I want to be pleasing to the Lord in our weekly observance of the Sabbath (for goodness’ sake, it is one of the 10 commandments! and I don’t think He means for us to just go to church on Sunday and consider ourselves ‘good’!), while not being legalistic either by just filling up another day with things to do. If the Sabbath is made for man, and not man for the Sabbath, I want to take advantage of the power and the peace that lies in this hidden practice that I really don’t know much about.

So anyway…that is some background as to why I think this is an important topic to study. And after some careful consideration of the dozen or so books that I found regarding the Sabbath, this is one of them that seemed to look really good.

In closing, here is the dedication found in the beginning of the book, which made me excited to read the rest of it. I hope I’ve enticed you to join me in my search for more wisdom and guidance in this area.

This book is dedicated to all the people who need the Sabbath—

the busiest, who need to work from a cohesive, unfragmented self;
social activists, who need a cycle of worship and action;
those who chase after fulfillment and need to understand their deepest yearnings and to hear the silence;
those who have lost their ability to play because of the materialism and technologization of our society, who need beauty and gaiety and delight;
those who have lost their passion and need to get in touch with feelings;
those who are alone and need emotional nourishment;
those who live in community and need solitude;
those who cannot find their life’s priorities and need a new perspective;
those who think the future is dictated by the present, who need hope and visions of the future to change the present order;
those who long for deeper family life and want to nurture certain values;
the poor and the oppressed, who need to mourn and to dance in the prison camp;
the rich and the oppressors, who need to learn nonviolence, stewardship, and God’s purposes in the world;
those who suffer, who need to learn how suffering can be redemptive;
professional theologians, who need to bring the heart back into theology;
those who don’t know how religion fits into the modern world, who need a relationship with God;
those who are disgusted with dry, empty, formalistic worship and want to love and adore God; those who want to be God’s instruments, enabled and empowered by the Spirit to be world changers and Sabbath healers.

Lessons at Lunch

A guest post by Gerry Deloach:

Hi everybody in blogland. My name is Gerry and I have the privilege of writing a post for Larry while he is away. I am a Middle School Band Director. Part of my daily responsibilities as a part of the Middle School Faculty is lunch duty. This is the time of the day that I get to monitor 8th grade students while they eat their lunch. Today as I was walking around the cafeteria I thought about how thankful I am for God's saving grace and the fact that for those who are saved, God will never let us go:

"...neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.' Romans 8:38,39

What does this have to do with the cafeteria? Well as I walked around I thought, if the teachers were not in the room monitoring and basically guiding the students in the right behavior, these students eventually would turn into a mob and chaos would reign. Food would be on the floor, wrappers and trash would be everywhere, possible fights and theft of others lunches would probably be the norm.

This probably would not happen right away but over time without any type of restraint the inappropriate behavior would escalate. Far fetched? Maybe...maybe not. Apart from Christ we love sin. I am so thankful though that in our lives we will never be without that monitor. We will always have the Holy Spirit guiding and directing us, if we are believers. I am also thankful for the common grace that God has poured out to all people. This common grace allows a teacher to step out of the lunch room for a minute and not have a mob scene ensue.

I'm thankful for my lunch duty and God's common grace, saving grace, and never ending grace.