Anchored

Here’s a helpful clip that reminds us that the Christian Scriptures are basically and primarily about Jesus; secondarily the Bible is about you. If we get that turned around, then Jesus is more or less relegated to being our assistant. It’s from that “me-centered” mindset that the common maladies of anger, depression, and anxiety emerge. When you are at the center of things, you have a lot you’ve got to make or have happen since you are central to everything in your life; when those things aren’t happening the way you think they should, then all kinds of emotional turmoil ensues. The emotional struggles are simply the evidence that one’s God-self orientation has gotten flipped around. While Jesus’ main task was to solve our sin problem, one of the side benefits of knowing Christ is psychological health. Although this video is targeted at pastors to encourage them to preach Christ from the Old Testament, counselors must equally help those in their care to see the difference between a “me-centered” and a “Christ-centered” life. When you get to thinking about all that Jesus is for you it’s simply stunning…

By definition, an irony is a circumstance or result that is the opposite of what might be expected. Jesus says His kingdom is a lot like that: if you want to be first, choose to be last; if you want to be strong, choose to be weak. His kingdom is upside down and inside out. To the native eye, these truths are not self-evident.

The same thing could be said about Jesus’ Gospel. The Gospel of Christ has numerous ironies about it, and here are some more:

1.       Grace will decimate what you think of you, while it gives you a security of identity you’ve never had.

2.       Grace will expose your deepest sins of heart, while it covers every failure with the blood of Jesus.

3.       Grace will make you face how weak you are, while it blesses you with power beyond your ability to calculate.

4.       Grace will take control out of your hands, while it blesses you with the care of One whose plan is unshakable and perfect in every way.

To read a fuller explanation of these thoughts by Paul Tripp, go here.

Not everything I publish in Grace Harbor’s E-Newsletters makes it over here to the blog, but some stories demand to be told. While we very often hear the sad stories about yet another failed marriage, we need to hear that even dead marriages can resurrect to live another day. It takes a lot of time, work, and grace, but dead marriages CAN live again.

Just a couple weeks ago, I was invited to attend a ceremony in which Jay and Dianne renewed their wedding vows. It was stunning because just a year earlier many of us thought their marriage was over. In God’s mercy, Jay and Dianne kept fighting for their marriage. And at the renewal ceremony, Jay had the pastor read this statement:

Thirty-three years ago I entered into a covenant with Dianne that I did not keep.  I did not honor and cherish her, nor did I love her as “Christ loves the Church.”  I ignored her pleas for help and her pleas for us to seek counseling.  I thought that I had all the answers and that if she would simply be a loving wife our marriage would be fine!  My anger and selfishness grew until Dianne could no longer bear it. 

 

For over two years through the intense ministry of several counselors, the prayers and interventions of our dear family and friends, as well as Dianne’s dogged determination, God has brought about wonderful changes in my life.  Dianne was convinced that a life of misery was not God’s will for us.  She could not continue to “submit and suffer” and enable me in my sin.  With firmness and love she spoke truth into my life as a faithful helper.  Dianne would not settle for the crumbs I was tossing her or for the pride that kept me from laying my life down for her.

 

I am beginning to understand that my chief ministry on earth is to study my wife and know her, in order to sacrifice my life for her.  For me to be the husband Dianne needs me to be I must by God’s grace be the man God wants me to be.  When I began to lay down my pride and prioritize Dianne’s desires and needs, I began to love her with a depth that I did not know was possible. The love and acceptance that I have received from her in return have made the last several weeks the happiest of my life.  Since I have begun truly loving Dianne it has been a joy to see her blossom, to see her joy of life return, and to laugh with her as she shows her sense of humor that I had nearly forgotten she has.

                                                    

A few weeks ago I was baptized.  This month Dianne and I are seeking to become members of the church we have attended since the church met in a storefront. Today we celebrate the renewal of our wedding vows complete with new rings and a new date for our anniversary. Rejoice with us!  To God be praise and glory! 

Let this encourage you. By God’s grace, the same can be true for you.

For your encouragement, for the revitalization of your faith in Christ today, drink up this thought by Milton Vincent in his little book, A Gospel Primer for Christians: Learning to See the Glories of God’s Love (pp. 47-48),

The more absorbed I am in the gospel, the more grateful I become in the midst of my circumstances, whatever they may be.

Viewing life’s blessings as water in a drinking cup, I know that I could discontentedly focus on the half of the cup that seems empty, or I could gratefully focus on the half that is full. Certainly, the latter approach is the better of the two, yet the gospel cultivates within me a richer gratitude than this.

The gospel reminds me first that what I actually deserve from God is a full cup churning with the torments of His wrath (Revelation 14:10; Psalm 75:8). This is a cup that would be mine to drink if I were given what I deserve each day. With this understanding in mind, I see that to be handed a completely empty cup from God would be cause enough for infinite gratitude. If there were merely the tiniest drop of blessing contained in that otherwise empty cup, I should be blown away by the unbelievable kindness of God toward me. That God, in fact, has given me a cup (Psalm 116:12-13; 23:5) that is full of “every spiritual blessing in Christ,” (Ephesians 1:3) and this without the slightest admixture of wrath, leaves me truly dumbfounded with inexpressible joy. As for my specific  earthly circumstances of plenty or want, I can see them always as infinite improvements on the hell I deserve. 

The Gospel is multi-faceted; therefore, different facets can be emphasized without denying the whole. You can see this in Scripture by looking at the different ways in which the Gospel is described (cf., Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

It should be common practice among Christians to look for and find ways to illustrate the richness of the Gospel. The father-son Hoyt duo below is one of the most vivid Gospel illustrations I have ever seen. As you watch the video of this true story of the Hoyts training for and finishing the Ironman Triathalon (2.4 miles swimming, 112 miles biking, 26.2 miles running), make the connection that you are the one in the wheel chair (except that you and I are crippled by sin) and that God is the one bearing us along until at last we cross the finish line (see James 1:12).

As a parent of two sons (8th and 6th graders this year), I found this article by Tim Challies to be very encouraging. I have to admit, I can tend to be over-protective of my sons given what I see and hear going on around me most days. But earlier this year, my wife and I decided to put our boys in a public school for the very reason that Tim’s guest (William Farley, author of Gospel-Powered Parenting) states. And like Bill’s experience with his now-grown children, my wife and I are finding the same thing coming true for our boys: that in spite of the challenges of rubbing shoulders with kids who can be either unmotivated or a pain, the whole experience is clarifying and galvanizing their own faith. There’s a lot more worth thinking about in Tim’s interview with Bill, and you’ll do yourself and your children a favor by reading it. Go ahead!

I’ve recently begun reading through Elyse Fitzpatrick’s book, Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms our Daily Lives. Here’s an especially thoughtful paragraph from page 24 in the book:

It’s essential for us to think about God’s love today because it is only his love that can grant us the joy that will strengthen our hearts, the courage that will embolden us in our fight against sin, and the assurance that will enable us to open up our lives to him so that he might deal powerfully with our unbelief and idolatry. If we’re not completely convinced that his love is ours right now–fully and unalterably ours–we’ll always hide in the shadows, focusing on our performance, fearing his wrath. Prayer will be hard because we won’t want to approach him or be transparent before him. Witnessing will be a chore, for who would want to talk to others about a god who is demanding, angry, or cold? If we don’t consciously live in the light of his love, the gospel will be secondary, virtually meaningless, and Jesus Christ will fade into insignificance. Our faith will become all about us, our performance, and how we think we’re doing, and our transformation will be hindered.

In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul tells us that our Lord, Jesus Christ, willingly became poor in order to enrich us with His life and grace. Similarly, when we see ourselves as impoverished apart from God’s grace, we’ll be more inclined to help others in need since we’re keen to the fact that all we have has been given to us undeserved. Consider these Gospel-balanced thoughts by Tim Keller on the Christian’s responsibility to share our material goods with those who have less:

“In summary, many ‘conservatives’ are motivated to help the poor mainly by compassion. This may come from a belief that poverty is mainly a matter of individual irresponsibility. It misses the fact that the ‘haves’ have what they have to a great degree because of unjust distribution of opportunities and resources at birth. If we have the world’s goods, they are ultimately a gift. If we were born in other circumstances, we could easily be very poor through no fault of our own. To fail to share what you have is not just uncompassionate but unfair, unjust. On the other hand, many ‘liberals’ are motivated to help the poor mainly out of a sense of indignation and aborted justice. This misses the fact that individual responsibility and transformation has a great deal to do with escape from poverty. Poverty is seen strictly in terms of structural inequities. While the conservative ‘compassion only’ motivation leads to paternalism and patronizing, the liberal ‘justice only’ motivation leads to great anger and rancor.

“Both views, ironically, become self-righteous. One tends to blame the poor for everything, the other to blame the rich for everything. One over-emphasizes individual responsibility, the other under-emphasizes it. A balanced motivation arises from a heart touched by grace, which has lost its superiority-feelings toward any particular class of people.

“Let’s keep something very clear: it is the gospel that motivates us to act both in mercy and in justice. God tells Israel, ‘The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God’ (Lev 19:34). The Israelites had been ‘aliens’ and oppressed slaves in Egypt. They did not have the ability to free themselves—God liberated them by his grace and power. Now they are to treat all people with less power or fewer assets as neighbors, doing love and justice to them. So the basis for ‘doing justice’ is salvation by grace!

“[Keller writes] at the beginning of this section that this balance of mercy and justice—of seeing both the personal and social aspects and causes of poverty—is necessary for a church’s ministry to the poor to be wise. A conservative ideology will be far too impatient and probably harsh with a poor family and won’t be cognizant of the more invisible social-cultural factors contributing to the problems. A liberal ideology will not put enough emphasis on repentance and personal change.”

So I have to ask myself, “Do I see myself as poor before God?” One evidence that I don’t is that I’m not really doing much to help the poor that I know. And we should all know. Once again, how I use the resources that God has entrusted to me gives evidence of the condition of my heart.

(If you’d like to read the whole Keller article, go here. The article is pages 8-22 of the Themelios journal, and the portion I quoted occurs on pages 19-20.)

One of the books that my two sons are reading right now is, The Tale of Despereaux (we haven’t seen the movie yet). My wife was just reading some of it tonight, and pointed out Chapter Forty to me. It’s entitled, “Forgiveness”. I’ll share a section of it where the author breaks from the action to speak directly to the reader:

“Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love, a powerful, wonderful thing. And a ridiculous thing, too. Isn’t it ridiculous, after all, to think that a son [in this case, the mouse Despereaux] could forgive his father for beating the drum that sent [Despereaux] to his death? Isn’t it ridiculous that a mouse could ever forgive anyone for such perfidy [that is, treachery]?

“But still, here are the words Despereaux Tilling spoke to his father. He said, ‘I forgive you, Pa.’ And he said those words because he sensed that it was the only way to save his own heart, to stop it from breaking in two. Despereaux,  reader, spoke these words to save himself [from bitterness]. And then he turned from his father and spoke to the whole Mouse Council. ‘You were wrong,’ he said. ‘All of you. You asked me to renounce my sins; I ask you to renounce yours. You wronged me. Repent.’

“‘Never,’ said the Head Mouse. Despereaux stood before the Mouse Council, and he realized that he was a different mouse than he had been the last time he faced them. He had been to the dungeon and back up out of it. He knew things that they would never know; what they thought of him, he realized, did not matter, not at all. And so, without saying another word, Despereaux turned and left the room.

“After he was gone, the Head Mouse slapped his trembling paw on the table. ‘Mice of the council,’ he said, ‘we have been paid a visit by a ghost who has told us to repent. We will now take a vote. All in favor of saying that this visit did not occur, vote ‘aye.”” And from the members of the Mouse Council, there came a tiny but emphatic chorus of ‘ayes.’

“Only one mouse said nothing. That mouse was Despereaux’s father. Lester Tilling [Despereaux's father] had turned his head away from the other members of the Mouse Council; he was trying to hide his tears. He was crying, reader, because he had been forgiven.”

As a family, we are on the lookout for “Gospel moments” that we see throughout the course of the day. And stories, be they books or movies or lyrics or some incident we observe, are often the best way to capture ways to informally teach about and reinforce the Gospel message: that the Lord Jesus, as an act of grace, forgave us and set us free from the tyranny of sin; He now calls us to practice that same grace toward our offenders. Why not take The Tale of Despereaux and use it to teach your kids about the Gospel of Christ and how we’re to live it out?