Category Archives: Biblical Worldview

May 7, 2025 · 10:19 pm

God in a Box: Encountering a Biblical Worldview

As usual, we’re going to take a walk through logic–only this time, we’ll look at the logic of a biblical worldview itself.

Some people, who call themselves Christians, when describing their own theology, show that they would really rather not land on anything very specific. Their beliefs may be pretty eclectic, collected from other philosophies or worldviews. They might agree that Jesus rose from the dead, or perhaps that He was just a great teacher. They might believe the Bible is only partially true, much of it symbolic or figurative language, certainly not all of it relevant. Perhaps they believe the universe could not possibly have been created in six days. Or that there are many paths to heaven.

Let’s start with the very basic, foundational belief, which allows us to walk down a logical road: the belief that Christ died on a cross and rose again from the dead. This would imply something supernatural. Indeed, it affirms that Christ is God.

If Christ is God, how did He communicate to mankind? He chose to communicate through His word, the Bible. The Gospel of John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:1-4). Of course, if you deny that the Bible is the Word of God, your train of logical thought stops there.

However, if you agree that Christ rose from the dead, you must somehow take a logical misstep to deny that the Bible, His Word, is true. It is either all true or not at all. If it is not at all true, then Christ did not rise from the dead; it’s just myth. Which do you believe?

Let’s take this logical train in reverse now. If you believe that Christ rose from the dead, but that the Bible, His word, is not completely true, then how can you believe that Christ is God? If His word is not true, then He is a liar. Then He cannot be God.

Some would like to choose which parts of the Bible they can agree with. Some of it is just too hard. That Adam and Eve story, for instance. Just myth, don’t you think? And how about the flood? Sure, it probably did flood, but not worldwide. Not really. But you see, if you decide what is true or untrue, what is or is not relevant, in the Bible, you make yourself the authority, not God.

However, nothing in God’s character would show that He is only partly true. He keeps His word; He fulfills His promises. The Old Testament is replete with prophecies, some of which came true within a generation or two, and others which took centuries to fulfill. Some will be fulfilled at the end of time. Jesus Christ, walking the earth, healing the sick and the lame, being crucified and rising again, fulfilled hundreds of prophecies to the letter. Partly true, or fully true?

Christ is not the only way to heaven? Depends on what you believe? Again, the Bible says that He is the only way to the Father. Going back down that logical train, you would indeed have to believe that Christ, who was raised from the dead, is God, and that His Word is true, in order to believe that He is the only way to heaven. The question gets begged, why would you want to go to a heaven whose God you do not believe anyway?

As for creation in six days or countless millennia, to say that God could not have created the universe in six days is to limit Him, to put Him in a box. Could He create the universe? “Yes, but not in six days.” Really? So He can create anything, but not on His terms–just on yours? I’m not willing to limit His power according to my own limited perspective. I’m willing to believe that the God who raised Christ from the dead in order to save me from the penalty of sin could create the universe and all within it, to look exactly as it does today, in the amount of days He chose. I’m willing to keep Him the authority rather than making myself the authority.

Finally, I must encourage my readers to understand that to define faith based on your own perspective is dangerous. I believe in Christ alone, through faith alone, by grace alone, communicated by His Word alone. Anything else is to create a new religion. Any single part of the Christian faith, taken alone and expanded, added to, or misshapen, is a new religion. We are warned not to trust any warping, reshaping, adding to, or redefining that pure Word of God.

I tremble at the idea of redefining my faith, my God, or His action on the cross to atone for sins. He purchased me with His blood, that I might be His own, to the glory of His name. Though I cannot fully understand it all, nor can I fathom the mind of God, I will not try to redefine it so that it is more palatable or “relevant.”

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fulness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” Colossians 2:8-9

Pick up the Bible if you haven’t read it before. A good place to start is the gospel of John. For outside reading, I recommend:

Kevin DeYoung’s Daily Doctrine, a readable collection of Christian doctrine. I read one topic each day (manageable 500-word topics).

R.C. Sproul’s Knowing Scripture.

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August 14, 2023 · 6:24 pm

Godly Grief

Sometimes a phrase will pop up in the Bible that takes me by surprise. Though I’ve read it several times through, still I find new things as if I’d never seen them before! This is the beauty of God’s Word, this living text, that inspires and convicts and breathes life into the believer.

Recently I came across the phrase “godly grief,” found in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, also called “godly sorrow” in another version.

We are familiar with grief and sorrow, and those terms are found in scripture. But what is different about godly sorrow, as it is used in the Bible?

First real grief (or sorrow). There is a deep feeling of loss in the death of a loved one, or the loss of one’s health or material goods such as income or property. This is the ache, the emptiness, the yearning, mourning, for what you’ve had.

Job, in the Bible, lost everything: his family, wealth, and health. All he had left was his life, such as it was, and his integrity. We know that he never cursed God for his losses. His quote is familiar to us: when his wife advised him to “curse God and die,” he replied, “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (NASB, Job 2:9-10).

And then there is godly sorrow—something I believe is more heart-wrenching, but it is God’s tool which produces great joy in the end.

Paul mentions godly sorrow in 2 Corinthians. In his first letter, he had chastised the church in Corinth for the way they had returned to their previous lifestyles, not displaying their new faith. He set them straight in several areas, sternly and lovingly, as a parent would a wayward teen.

In his next letter, he says that though he regrets causing them sorrow, he does not regret the “godly sorrow” that his letter produced in them. What kind of paradox is this?

Just like a parent who says, “Believe me, you’ll thank me later,” Paul knew that he needed to reprimand them so that they could make changes and become more mature in their faith. This was Paul’s method to bring them to repentance.

“As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death” (ESV, 2 Corinthians 7:9-10).

Repentance is God’s gift, one step along His way of saving us. We cannot be saved until we know we need saving. And how do we come to that knowledge? We face our sins, those myriad ways we have fallen short of God’s perfection. Suddenly we see them; the Holy Spirit has laid them all bare to us, in all their ugliness. We realize there is nothing we can do to save ourselves, to make ourselves clean from the sins we have committed.

This is not a “Gee, I’m sorry I got caught” kind of grief. That’s easy to manufacture, and it doesn’t produce true repentance leading to salvation. No, God is gracious to show us how guilty we are, and He mercifully teaches us that there’s no way we can make it better on our own.

My desire for cleanliness, for mercy when I should be declared guilty, comes about because God has granted me the godly sorrow that leads to repentance.

Peter denied Christ three times on the night of His arrest. He had no self-awareness of the fact that he had sinned so blatantly—until a rooster crowed, something Jesus had told him ahead of time: “Truly I say to you that this very night, before a rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” In self-protection mode, Peter denied Him to anyone who thought they’d seen him with Jesus, and when the rooster crowed, “…he went out and wept bitterly.” It was the remembrance of his vow never to deny Jesus, and Jesus’ prophecy that indeed he would (NASB, Matthew 26:34, 75). Peter was heartbroken that he had sinned by denying Jesus in an attempt to protect his own skin. Imagine how deeply Peter grieved.

Mercifully, upon Jesus’ resurrection, He asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?”  Three times Peter answered that yes, he did. Peter was distressed that Jesus would ask three times, but here Christ showed Peter the sweet grace of forgiveness after his deep, godly sorrow. One declaration of love for each denial Peter had made.

King David took another man’s wife and then arranged to have that man killed in battle. When the prophet Nathan pointed out David’s sin (we refuse to “see” our own sin until God reveals it to us!), David repented: “I have sinned against the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:13). For seven days he fasted, on the ground, in great grief. He penned two Psalms, Chapters 32 and 51, recounting his godly grief, repentance, and forgiveness.

“How blessed,” writes David, “is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit! When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord;’ and You forgave the guilt of my sin” (Psalm 32:1-5).

How beautiful to see one’s own sin for what it is—a crime against God—and recognize it, and experience first great grief—godly grief—and then the sweet relief of forgiveness when we have repented!

Godly grief, then, is a gift from God, the means He uses to bring us to repentance that leads to salvation.

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July 6, 2023 · 11:15 pm

Strive With Me in Prayer

God’s presence in the midst of your prayers
Part 2, Striving with Me

When writing to the early Christian church in Rome, Paul the apostle has what seems to be a strange request. “Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me…” (Romans 15:30). Sometimes the Christian life is described as hard, and here it seems even praying is hard work (striving)! What does he mean?

Paul was one of the early missionaries, having traveled throughout much of the Mediterranean region to spread the Gospel. Writing his letter to the Romans while he was in Corinth, he laid out some of his plans. Although he wanted to come to Rome to speak with Christians there, he knew he needed to bring some financial aid to Jerusalem first. Then, he told the Romans, he planned to head to Rome on his way to Spain. However, as we Christians could understand, he knew his plans might not exactly have been God’s plans! And it turns out that though he did make it to Rome, it came about through completely different circumstances.

As the book of Acts describes, when Paul got to Jerusalem, a mob attempted to kill him. The Roman soldiers in Jerusalem, seeing a riot ready to break out, took Paul, bound him in chains, and dragged him away.

Arguing that he was a Roman citizen with rights, Paul was eventually brought to Rome (with many adventures and trials along the way). He didn’t go as a free citizen, but as a prisoner. But Paul was able to preach the Gospel along the way to anyone who would listen—including the soldiers who held him. How many people heard the Gospel who might not have otherwise? How many more directions did the Gospel travel in, as a result of his detours? We will never know, but we do know that Paul didn’t resist; he used his circumstances to preach the Gospel and bring God glory.

Given the dangers he went through after he wrote that letter to the Romans, his small reference to striving in prayer has more significance. Paul knew that though he had plans, God is ultimately in control of all the details, and so he submitted himself to God’s will before all things.

Why did he ask his readers to strive with him in prayer?

Prayer is, above all things, submission to God’s will. Prayer acknowledges God’s sovereignty. Paul submitted his plans and desires to his Lord, and let his Lord take care of the details.  Essentially Paul was saying, “I’m turning my feet in this direction, but I will let You turn them aside however and whenever You want.” Ultimately, Paul says, God’s plans are more important than his own.

Imagine Paul praying. He lays out to God what he wants to do to spread the Gospel. But he knows this is not about Paul; it’s about God. So if God has detours along the way, Paul trusts that God will care for him.

Now imagine how he asked the Romans to pray: strive with me. Do the hard work of praying that nothing gets in the way of God’s plan. Pray that whatever happens, God will accomplish His will. Pray that I can come to you safely, he says, but if not, God will get the glory anyway.

Someone else prayed similarly, back in the Old Testament. In the book of Daniel, when Daniel’s three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to worship another god, their punishment was to be thrown into a fiery furnace. They said to the king, “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us from out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18). The three friends trusted God more than some handmade gods, and they were absolutely certain in their trust of Him. They didn’t back down. When they were tossed into the furnace, not only did God spare them, He allowed the onlookers to see the visible presence of another person, perhaps an angel or the pre-incarnate Christ, walking with them in the fire. Walking with them in the fire!

So strive in your prayers to God. Do the hard work of submitting your requests to Him. Be assured that He will answer your prayers, not always in the way you picture it, but His presence will be with you regardless of the outcome. And He will walk with you in the fire.

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June 23, 2023 · 7:56 pm

Striving in the Christian life

Strive With Me, Part 1 (Part 2 here)

A pastor of mine, years ago, preached that the Christian life is very difficult. That got my attention. Is Christian life impossible?

It’s hard to stand up in a culture that is so antithetical to the message of the Gospel. It’s hard to withstand temptations that bombard us from every direction. It’s hard to overcome past habits and present distractions.

Then we read verses like Luke 13:24: “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.” What are we to make of that?

That word “strive” means struggle. The Greek word for “striving” gives us the English word “agony.” Well, if that’s what it means to be a Christian, how can I ever manage it? How can I ever work so hard that my striving becomes agony?

I could give up if I were to stop right there. But the Christian was never meant to stop at striving. I could never achieve heaven by striving alone. I could never succeed in my Christian walk with endless struggling.

Late theologian RC Sproul commented on this passage from Luke: “What Jesus is saying is that there must be passion, real effort in striving, not that human effort would ever get anybody into the kingdom of God, but the person who has been quickened by the Holy Spirit, who has caught a glimpse of the reality of Jesus, must make the seeking of the kingdom of God the main business of his life” (A Walk with God: An Exposition of Luke). The element of most importance here is the Holy Spirit.

We sometimes forget that the Christian walk is not a solitary one. I mean that in two important senses.

First, and foremost, before He suffered on the cross, died, and rose again, Jesus made a promise. He would not leave His followers alone. “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you,” He says in John 14:25-27, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

The Holy Spirit is the power of the Gospel living inside each believer!

Second, the Christian walk was meant to be lived alongside other Christians. The walk was never meant to be solitary.

If you are discouraged in your faith, if you are a new Christian just trying to figure it out, if you’ve been one for a long time and find yourself running low on energy, answer these questions:

Are you part of a fellowship of Bible-believing Christians? Do you study the Word with other believers? Are you looking one another in the eye and holding one another accountable?

You can’t do that if you’re still watching church services online. You can’t if you are only reading blogs about Christian living either!

You need to be walking side by side with other believers. Praying with them. Studying with them. Worshipping with them.

Many examples from the New Testament support this. In Acts chapter 2 believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” The book of Acts describes many times the early believers—the early Church—had gathered together to hear preaching, to worship, and have fellowship with one another.

Paul tells believers in Ephesians 5:15-21, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

When you isolate, you will begin to doubt. You’ll get discouraged. You aren’t giving others the opportunity to know you, to love and encourage you, to hold you accountable to the faith that you profess. And you will miss out on the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with other believers. You have no idea of the riches you will miss out on by NOT getting involved!

So Christian, if you are discouraged by trying—striving—to be a Christian in an un-Christian world, stop striving alone! Realize that the Holy Spirit is with you to encourage you and give you peace. And know that a Bible-preaching church is where you need to have the fellowship with other believers who will help to build you up in the faith. You’ll find other people who, just like you, find life challenging, and who know that there is power in the Holy Spirit.

If you’re struggling to find a Bible-preaching church, you can start at 9marks.org for churches in your area.

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June 18, 2023 · 9:36 pm

But what about my doubts?

Faith in a world full of questions

It’s easy to know what you believe when everything is going well. When the sky is blue, and your pantry is full, and you have a job to go to tomorrow.

But then there are the dark days of doubt. When what you believed you understood last week, you’re not sure about this week. When one thing after another goes wrong. When it’s hard just to get up every morning. What about then?

The answers don’t always come easily, and they aren’t always easy to accept. But if you are a Christian, if you believe that there is a God whose truth is universal and unequivocal, then the answers are there, within your grasp.

And if you’re wondering if there is truth you can always rely on; if you’re wondering if there’s something better, something bigger than yourself, you need to ask yourself one thing: What do I know to be true?

Truth is, there is a God. He is the one true God, the all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth. Truth is, He holds the answers to every deep, philosophical, existential question ever pondered. Whether you believe Him or not, this is the truth.

Now, for those dark days. Because He is the author of life, nothing in this world surprises Him.

God knows your doubts, and where they come from. And He wants you to rehearse to yourself those truths that comprise the Gospel. (If you’re not a Christian, hang on–you might just find what you’ve been missing!)

Here they are: Sin exists. It’s real. And each of us struggles with sin every day. Sin misses the mark of what God requires. And there is a consequence of sin: eternal death, for which there is no release, no hope of a do-over.

BUT.

But there is one person who never sinned, who walked this earth, and who defeated the evil in this world. And because He never sinned, because He preached good news that had been promised from the beginning of time, his enemies put Him to death. That man is Jesus.

And that man who died, who was buried, He rose to life again, conquering death. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father.

What does that have to do with you? That essential truth is everything. Hang on to that truth, because it means eternal life to you. It means that though you die, you will be raised again to live eternally with Jesus in heaven.

And here’s that BUT: But what if I don’t feel it? What about the terrible things that are going on in my life? What about the worries I have, that are very real, that don’t seem to go away? What about that deep hole I dug for myself, that I just can’t seem to climb out of?

God has the answer:

BUT GOD.

Here’s what He says in His Word, the Bible, in the book of Ephesians, chapter 2: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

If you’ve already believed that, hang on to it. It’s the one truth that never dies. Believe that God sees what you’re going through, sees the doubts that you have, sees the darkness threatening to overtake you. What’s more, He doesn’t tell you to hang on for dear life because you might slip and fall.

Instead, He tells you this: “I give them [my own–my sheep, He calls us] eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28). His sheep are precious to Him, and He guarantees that once they believe, they will never get left behind.

But what if I don’t feel it? But what if I have too many terrible things in my past? But…?

But God.

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February 17, 2022 · 11:06 pm

Praying for rain in the midst of drought

We’ve lived in Northern California for 5 years now. When we moved here from the Midwest, the area had record rainfall, flooding, even the threat of a dam breaking. Two years later, in February, we woke to a “50-year snow,” 2 feet of it.

That came a year after we evacuated during the Carr Fire, which missed our neighborhood by a mile but destroyed hundreds of buildings and killed several.

And now we are in a drought. Welcome to the Western US! The “plenty” that rained in one or two years caused abundant grasses to grow, which became fuel for fires in the dry summers.

We’ve been faithfully praying for rain to quench the land, fill the lakes, reservoirs, and rivers. Rain and snow fell aplenty in December. And no more, thus far. Halfway into February, we haven’t seen any more.

Here’s the irony. Spring has come here, in early February. From our city we can see Mount Shasta, looming hugely to the north, covered in beautiful white. And here, our trees are in full bloom.

Bulbs are blooming, fruit trees covered in blossoms. Birds sing their praises in rapidly greening trees. And we can eat outdoors because it’s in the 70s every day!

But I’ve been so dismayed at the lack of rain, praying faithfully for rain but not wanting to look too closely at the flowers, or note the birdsong as harbingers of spring.

I’ve been so focused on imploring God for rain, that I’ve neglected to rejoice at the spring.

Here’s the thing: It’s not that God doesn’t care about what I care about. It’s that His perspective—His view—is immense—and eternal—and mine is so very narrow. Is He able, at this very moment, to bring rain? Of course. Am I okay with rain not coming at the end of each of my prayers? I have to be.

Did I pray the wrong prayer? Sometimes I worry too much about the right words to say, the right prayer to pray, when I should be concerning myself with submitting to the God who created the universe and is so capable of producing rain and snow to water the ground. He’ll cause the rain to fall in His own perfect time and not mine.

Romans chapter 11, verses 33-36 contains a doxology, which is a hymn of praise to God. The words remind me that God’s ways are superior to mine, in my finite mind and imagination.

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?
Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?
For from him and through him and for him are all things.
    To him be the glory forever! Amen.

I’m going to keep on praying for rain, because we’re told to pray. And I’m leaving the results up to God, because He is absolutely sovereign over all, and I’m not. He knows when is the right time for rain and snow, for heat and thunder. I need to trust Him.

And I have to be okay with that.

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March 5, 2021 · 8:53 pm

Resting on a Promise

For the believer, a state of rest comes not from an emotional high or low. Rest is a quieting of the mind. In the midst of a pandemic, in uncertain times, when we aren’t certain about the world around us, can “rest” be found?

 

Christian, rest comes from knowing that your future is certain. Of course we do not “know the future,” like a fortune-teller claims to do. Instead, we look beyond our present situation, beyond the uncertainty of what the next few days, months, and years will hold, to eternity. That rest is a promise, a confidence, a contentedness, for today.

 

“Rest” can be a time or place of refuge or safety, shelter in the eye of a storm, in the midst of a hectic time, or at the end of a crazy day. A mental state—the ability to remain calm while everything else around you is a jumbled mess. Peace when you’ve lost a job or a family member. A quiet heart when you feel so alone.

 

What if you can’t attain that calm place of rest? Christian, I’ve been there too. The answer isn’t to do more or try harder, as Michael Horton calls the endless striving in his book Christless Christianity.

 

First, last, and always, go back to what you know to be true.

 

Christian, the one source of truth is the Gospel. It is found in God, through His Holy Spirit, and guaranteed by the Lord Jesus Christ. I–and all believers–need to remind ourselves of the Gospel every day. Here’s the Gospel—the truth and the promise:

“Remember that you were [once] separated from Christ, … having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace…. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (ESV Ephesians 2:12-22).

 

This is the promise for rest and peace, a peace that is soul-deep. More than I rely on myself, my family, my friends, I trust the promises of God: “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; He will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed” (Deuteronomy 81:8).

 

Remember the promises of God to help you in the midst of trouble, when you’re not sure who your friends are, why you are so sick, things are going so badly, or when it will all end. Remember how Psalm 27 opens, written by someone who had seen his fair share of turmoil:

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who will stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident ” (Psalm 27:1-3).

Do not fear. Remember Who is greater than all your troubles. Rest.

 

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March 1, 2021 · 12:02 am

Pursue Peace

In 1776 the British pastor Augustus Toplady penned a familiar hymn called “Rock of Ages,” a beautiful statement of his assurance of faith.

This assurance, this confidence gives him a sense of peace, a sense of rest.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.

The world is full of trouble. Dangers lurk everywhere, as we saw especially in the year 2020. We didn’t know how bad the pandemic would become; we couldn’t believe the destruction we saw in the streets of many cities. We wondered whose business would fail next, who would lose their jobs.

We worried, we fretted. We lived day to day, week to week, in a sort of daze. What could possibly happen next? Can it get much worse? Is this the new normal?

As much as we’d like, we can’t see the answers to such questions. But there is a comfort in the midst of the heavy, haunting weight of anxiety and unrest.

Think of worries as twofold: the temporal—what is happening in the present time or the immediate future, and eternal—where this is all heading at the end of days.

To some measure, we are able to affect our temporal worries, soothe them, perhaps change them, or try to manage them. But those eternal worries—who can know? This is the question that every generation has tried to answer. Whole religions have been invented trying to answer them. How can we know for sure?

History from all over the world tells of people who claimed to have the answers to all that troubles us. They begged wise men to impart some truth, something they could hang onto. Imposters every day invent new schemes to gain followers, enriching themselves and plunging poor souls into debt and depths of despair.

The prosperity gospel, for example, promises your best life now, but it ignores the truth that regardless of how much we pray against it, hard times do come. It ignores the truth that Jesus promised: “In this life you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

The promises from man-made religions might make you feel okay for awhile, but eventually the nagging worry creeps back in.

That’s because the answers are only skin-deep, and they leave you feeling dissatisfied. Ultimately all the pretense cannot bear up under the weight of uncertainty, and you are back where you started.

But one God, the true God of Heaven, Creator of the universe, offers the only answers that hold up under scrutiny, answers that soothe the soul and offer a deep sense of peace and rest. Promises that are not empty, because Jesus has guaranteed them with His own life, which He laid down. And then, to seal the promise, He came back from the dead.

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Peace, comfort, and rest come from this assurance: the God of the universe is my shelter. Knowing that the almighty, all-powerful God cares for individual souls like mine. Knowing that there’s nothing I can do—not the labor of my hands, but simply trust.

Trust in God’s grace, given to those of us who recognize how sinful we are. Realize there is nothing we can do to save ourselves from the deadly consequences of those sins, and repent: ask for and receive the cleansing power poured out for us at the cross by Jesus Christ.

In this I have confidence, comfort, and contentment, and I know God will never leave me nor forsake me.

My worries, my doubts, my fears can plunge me into despair if I don’t stop and remind myself: What do I know to be true?

Emotions can cause me to doubt, cause me to run, and when they try to take over, I have learned to ask myself that question.

What do I know to be true?

The answer is the Rock I cling to, the Rock in whose cleft I can hide my face, my shelter in the storm. The answer is that God is the one true source of peace and rest, even when the heaviest burdens weigh me down.

What do I know to be true? What about when things are at their worse and I can’t stand on my own? I must remember—and Christian, you must also remember—that you have been saved by the grace of God, and not the work of your hands. This is what you retell yourself when everything around you seems to be crumbling.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless, look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death,
When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold Thee on Thy throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

Let me hide myself in Thee. I cannot save myself. Wash me, Savior, or I die.

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May 20, 2019 · 10:42 pm

An Attack on Pro-Life Governor Aids the Pro-Life Cause

Jim Carrey on AbortionAnti-Life actor-turned-cartoonist Jim Carrey scored a major point–for his opponents. Without meaning to, his pictorial depiction of a late-term abortion is disgustingly accurate, but it doesn’t help his cause.

He depicts the governor of Alabama being suctioned out of a womb, using a late-term-abortion technique of a powerful suction that quite literally sticks a needle into the skull of an unborn baby and sucks the brain, and all living material, out of the mother’s womb.

This could be laughable if it weren’t so heinous. Did Carrey stop to think twice about the truth behind his cartoon, or was he so bent on bloodying his opponents that he just dashed the cartoon out in a moment of creative inspiration? You be the judge: does this help or harm the pro-abortion argument?

 

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February 2, 2019 · 11:04 pm

That hideous victory

When you take away the inherent value of a human being, you can easily repress, jail, imprison, destroy him without bothering to involve your conscience.

When I was 30 weeks pregnant I went into labor. In the hospital for a week, then home on bedrest and terrible meds designed to keep my labor from progressing, my doctor worked heroically to keep my baby safely in the womb. At one of my weekly OB/GYN appointments, I sat across from a teenage girl, her boyfriend, and her mother in the waiting room. They were all nervous, but the theme of their discussion was about how it would all be over soon. That was the first time I saw the glaring hypocrisy, the horrible moral lapse, of abortion-rights advocates. My doctor, who I adored for working so hard to keep my baby safe in my womb, was also that day going to perform an abortion.

No one. Not one person can justify that moral hypocrisy.

No matter how its proponents gleefully laud the virtues of new legislation signed by New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo to legalize abortion at any point in pregnancy, this hideous new law legitimizes the murder of unborn babies for any reason, at any time. He even called for celebration using the lights of NYC’s World Trade Center building: the tower’s lights turned pink. Instead of a beacon reminding Americans of its indomitable spirit of freedom, the building was shamelessly used to herald the slaughter of the country’s most vulnerable people.

Virginia Democrats hoping to pass a similar law even stated that a mother might have the option to leave an ill, just-born infant to die if she has changed her mind. Did you catch that? Maybe, they say, a physically handicapped newborn might also be endangered if he is not wanted.*

A sickening celebratory air among abortion advocates encourages women to “Shout Your Abortion”–as if the murder of an unborn infant is cause for jubilation. And now more states promise to do the same. But this is not something new under the sun.

In 1729 author Jonathan Swift observed the huge numbers of poverty-stricken Irish families and penned his famous “Modest Proposal” to deal with the problem. Tongue in cheek, he proposed that the elite in his kingdom could buy, slaughter, and serve up the poor infants of the Irish nation as meals in the finest homes and restaurants in Great Britain. His satirical point: his fellow Britons cared more for their high society parties than they did for the poor children of the nation.

Now enter Cuomo’s Modern, Immoral Proposal. How to pander to the Left? Allow the wanton slaughter of millions of unborn children. Unfortunately, tragically, this isn’t satire. Cuomo signed the bill to serve up a bloody sacrifice to “Progressives,” calling this a moral victory for women’s rights.

Ironically, they equivocate their so-called morality. To them, it’s immoral to force women to continue an unwanted pregnancy.  To their mind, they can commiserate with a sister or friend who loses a child to miscarriage, but Shout Your Abortion to herald the end of an unborn child.

In fact, Progressives tout all sorts of causes as moral. The cause of undocumented workers and their children is moral. The cause of climate change is moral. The cause of endangered species is moral. (Here your eyes have to roll: the endangered species, they say, face destruction of their natural habitats. Sort of like unborn children in their mothers’ wombs, if the mother is intent upon aborting.)

And to prove that we are a compassionate people, we send aid in the form of water, food, medicines, and doctors to nations suffering a national disaster. We spare no expense to bring home the bodies of soldiers who died overseas. Though we don’t talk about it too openly, we work toward toppling evil, dictatorial governments so their people can be freed from the bondage of slavery and tyrants. These are all good.

Yet how can we consider ourselves a nation that is kind, and just, and moral–when the most vulnerable among us are ripped from their mothers’ wombs, their hearts stilled, with no rights, no voice, no compassion? Even worse: how can we celebrate such monstrous evil?

In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr., jailed while protesting segregation in the South, penned a masterful letter refuting a group of white religious leaders who objected to his presence in Birmingham. Those in power, he said, tend to dehumanize the people they want to oppress or annihilate. We could even say that the powerful legalize their suppression in order to justify it.

How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority. Segregation, to use the terminology of the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, substitutes an “I it” relationship for an “I thou” relationship and ends up relegating persons to the status of things. Hence segregation is not only politically, economically and sociologically unsound, it is morally wrong and sinful. Paul Tillich has said that sin is separation. Is not segregation an existential expression of man’s tragic separation, his awful estrangement, his terrible sinfulness? (Emphasis mine)

Jewish philosopher Buber’s comments were universal; they apply to the history of the Jewish people even from the time of the Bible,  relegated to the status of non-persons–killed, deprived of rights, expelled, carted away all through history. That truth also easily applies to slavery in the United States, in which even the Supreme Court declared that blacks deserved only three-fourths the status of whites, and then the 19th and 20th century, in which–though freed–blacks could not live equitably alongside whites. When you take away the inherent value of a human being, you can easily repress, jail, imprison, destroy him without bothering to involve your conscience. What has this country done today? Taken away the inherent humanity of unborn children.

Our nation, in supporting and celebrating this hideous immorality, can no longer consider itself a moral nation, a free nation. If a nation will not (NOT cannot) protect the lives of its most vulnerable people, what separates us from the most gruesome regimes in history?

*https://www.vox.com/2019/2/1/18205428/virginia-abortion-bill-kathy-tran-ralph-northam.

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