Being Sure . . .

I know that there are times when we simply have to make choices and we just can't hear God's voice on which direction to go. In those times I trust in Psalm 37:23 which says: The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way. That was English Standard Version. The New King James Version translates it: The steps of a [good] man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.

A lady in our church once pointed that out to me when I was struggling to make a decision and not hearing God's voice. Since then I have stood on it—I make my best decision and trust that as I have sought Him, and sought to honor Him with my life, and earnestly desired His will in my life and not my own, He promises to establish my steps. Trusting that, I just make my best decision.

With that said, I have been reminded in these last few days of the importance of seeking God's heart for decisions and hearing His voice when we are able to. It is so critical when the enemy casts doubt to be able to go back to the decision that took us where we are and say, "No! I know I am where God wants me, and I know that He is not going to leave me alone in it."

Last week I did a graveside service for a man who was part of a wonderful, long-established family in our area. As the hour approached, knowing that there would be a crowd there which would include many, many of our area's long-time natives and families, I began to feel nervous and start to doubt my notes and let all sorts of insecurities creep in. Last night I experienced the same thing when I spoke at a revival service at a church in Paso Robles and as the time to speak approached I saw five other area pastors in the crowd. Suddenly I was nervous, questioning my notes, etc.

In both cases I returned to the same place. I was able to say, "No. I will not be afraid. I sought God's heart about whether I should do this. I have sought His heart in preparing it. He is not a God that abandons His children, but an Immanuel God who is with me, colaboring with me, beside me, and in me." There was such tremendous peace in knowing I had sought His heart and will from the moment I was asked to do them all the way through the process. It gave me a place of assurance to go back to and take my anxieties captive to. My God does not sit back, arms crossed, judging me—when I seek His heart and seek His will He colabors with me as my biggest fan and friend and helper. He is, truly, a great God, and both of those services were anointed by His Holy Spirit.

Fear Not . . .

It has been a long time since I have made a post to this blog. One of these days soon I will try and put together a post that explains sort of where I have been at and why I have been so silent. I am still trying to process it all myself. But, for today, I read an article this morning that is very pertinent to our times and I felt needed to be passed along. It is one of the best I have read at firmly, but lovingly, drawing us back to proper perspective and priorities in these days and times. It was posted this morning in the Christian Post, and taken from a blog by Russell Moore. Here is the link:

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20100323/don-t-be-afraid/index.html

After you have read the article I think you will best understand and appreciate the image I have included. It is a scan of a copy of an old poster I have on my office wall which was, I believe, put up in Britian after their hero, Admiral Nelson, had died. I can only imagine that, to an island nation who relied on its navy to protect it from all of its enemies on land, the death of their naval hero was a scary moment. The poster (and I have no idea who put it up) points them back to their true protector, and reminds them to fear Him alone. Once we are right with God, all other fears fall in to proper place.

P. S. If you don't subscribe to the Christian Post e-newsletter, I recommend subscribing to the daily one. It is a good, once a day, email with links to pertinent articles and news and commentary to Christians. You can subscribe from the above link.

Velvet Mouthed Preaching

While I don't know that I would agree with all of John Piper's theology, I must say that I have been blessed by his biographies which he gives each year at his pastor's conferences. A fellow pastor turned me on to them, and I have a link to them below. I am a big fan of Christian biography and of the power of the testimony. I believe that there is tremendous power (and a Biblical mandate) in recording and passing on the hand of God in the lives of people. Testimony builds faith as we realize that the God in "their" life is the God in ours, and He does not change. It is truly awesome to study the "great cloud of witnesses" which surrounds us.

Last week Mary Ann and I listened to Piper's teaching on George Whitefield. Whitefield was an amazing 18th century evangelist/preacher, and a contemporary of Jonathan Edwards and the Wesleys. John Piper's teaching is over an hour long, and the written copy has almost 90 footnotes, so clearly I can't talk about a fraction of it here. But there was one part of it that really spoke to me above the others and I will try to capture it.

In the teaching Piper addressed the accusations that Whitefield was just an actor on stage—an accusation made because of his drama and energy and oratory. According to Piper, a fellow by the name of James Lockington was present at a sermon which Whitefield gave and he recorded the following words by Whitefield:

“I’ll tell you a story. The Archbishop of Canterbury in the year 1675 was acquainted with Mr. Butterton the [actor]. One day the Archbishop . . . said to Butterton . . . ‘pray inform me Mr. Butterton, what is the reason you actors on stage can affect your congregations with speaking of things imaginary, as if they were real, while we in church speak of things real, which our congregations only receive as if they were imaginary?’ ‘Why my Lord,’ says Butterton, ‘the reason is very plain. We actors on stage speak of things imaginary, as if they were real and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.’”

After quoting this John Piper then writes:

“Therefore,” added Whitefield, ‘I will bawl [shout loudly], I will not be a velvet-mouthed preacher.”

This means that there are three ways to speak. First, you can speak of an unreal, imaginary world as if it were real—that is what actors do in a play. Second, you can speak about a real world as if it were unreal—that is what half-hearted pastors do when they preach about glorious things in a way that says they are not as terrifying and wonderful as they are. And third is: You can speak about a real spiritual world as if it were wonderfully, terrifyingly, magnificently real (because it is).

This really spoke to my heart, probably because I often ask myself, "Erick, do you really, deeply believe what you say, because if you do your life should look a lot differently." These words of Piper and Whitefield pierce my heart the way the words of a song do which I listen to now and then which says, "I don't want to talk about You [God] like You're not in the room."

If Piper's assessment of Whitefield's heart is accurate, Whitefield did not need to drum up passion or drama—he simply expressed what burned in his soul at the level it burned in his soul. To Whitefield the reality of heaven and hell and judgment and the return of Christ and the blood of Jesus and the love and power of God were so real, so tangible, so present that he did not need to fake anything, but simply to speak truth with the passion he felt for it.

I wonder, beginning with me, where are those who are so aware of the presence of God, of the spiritual war we are in that wages around us, of the casualties of war and of the victory of Jesus' blood, of heaven and of hell, that their speaking of it, and of Him, burns with the passion of that truth at the level it deserves? After all, no one would have to fake drama or passion if they were screaming about an oncoming truck about to hit an unaware pedestrian, nor would one need to fake emotion or passion talking about someone who jumped on a grenade to save their life—the reality of those truths would naturally evoke passion when spoken of.

I long for God's Word, and God's truth, and God's love, and God's presence, and eternity, and spiritual war, and the awe and holiness of God, and the hatred of sin (not sinners), to be so real to me that I would naturally talk about them (and act on them) with a passion so deep, and a present awareness so real, that others would have to question if I was acting because only burning passion, or stage drama, could explain my body's words and cry.

Note: To listen to, or read, Piper's biographies, click here. From there you can buy the mp3 CD with them on it, or you can click on the name of the person you want and it will take you to a page where you can download the mp3 or read the text for free.

You can get to the Whitefield teaching by clicking here.

Who Says? — Part II

I read an article in the online New York Times yesterday by Op-Ed Columnist Frank Rich titled "Smoke the Bigots Out of the Closet." It is hard to capture the whole article in a few sentences, but it uses the Pentagon's move to possibly repeal the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy of the military towards gay soldiers as a platform to happily advance that the majority of Americans now see gay as an immutable identity and not a "lifestyle." He talks about the "progress" we are making on the issue (its greater acceptance) and uses words to describe those who oppose the homosexual agenda like "homophobic" and "prejudice" and makes the homosexual issue a civil rights issue.

I found the article catching my attention because of the post I had just made (2/7/10: "Says Who?," or "Who Says?") in which I asserted the need for an absolute standard for defining right and wrong. Whether it is the homosexual issue, the abortion issue, racism, prostitution, etc., unless there is a standard defining point for right and wrong there will always be arguments on both sides. In his column, using words like "bigotry," Mr. Rich talks about the court arguments about California's Proposition 8 and he attacks the arguments of those who testified of the danger to marriage of its being repealed and gays being allowed to marry.

Really, we can make all the arguments we want for how gays in the military will affect morale, or what it would do to other soldiers, or for how gay marriage will threaten the institution of marriage, and how it will advance the homosexual agenda in schools, etc., but the reality is that the supreme reason we stand against any of it (or against abortion or prostitution or . . . ) is because God's Word says it is wrong. Just like we would tell an adulterer that they are wrong, and still love them as we do it, we declare homosexuality wrong and abortion wrong—because God says it is.

Every argument we can advance will have a counter argument. Every fact will have a counter fact. Whoever has the best lawyers and the heart strings of the majority of the voters will stand the best chance of having their position ratified . . . unless, and until, Jesus is embraced by our nation as God's Son and the Bible as God's Word. In the absence of an absolute standard there is, simply, argument against argument. Who has the most believable expert witnesses? Who has the best commercials? We have lost the point, which is who has truth? If the people of America who profess to be Christians simply stood—lovingly and humbly, but firmly—on the standard of God's reality and His Word as supreme truth, this wouldn't even be an issue. Until we do we will probably lose more battles than we win.

Note: You can read Mr. Rich's complete article by clicking here.