Two Songs of Grace
September 29, 2009 at 9:01 am | In God's Love, Theology, Worship | Leave a CommentHere are some links Stephen Pegler (http://peglermusings.blogspot.com) sent me with some videos of hymns that I didn’t know. These are powerful, amazing songs of grace. The first is an older hymn; in the video it is sung by the Stoneleigh Band, led by Stewart Townend — co-author of my all-time favorite “In Christ Alone” and author of “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us.” This is a song as powerful as those.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_GB_N_79-Q
The words were written in 1863 by Charitie Bancroft. I love the second verse, since we all face the temptation to despair and the “guilt within.”
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in Heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
My perfect spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace,
One in Himself I cannot die.
My soul is purchased by His blood,
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ my Savior and my God!
The second song is a newer one called “The Power of the Cross.” In the video, it is sung by Kristyn Getty. Her husband Keith is the other co-author of “In Christ Alone” and, I believe, is playing the piano. This is also a song he wrote. Their ministry is to introduce the modern church to new hymns with great theological depth. Most of their words are amazing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ms-gxEOtLA&feature=related
The words can be found on the Getty’s site: http://www.gettymusic.com/hymns.aspx
Speaking of Keith and Kristyn Getty, here is their version of “In Christ Alone.” I love her Irish accent and the way they present the third verse.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZuIyrwSqHY&feature=related
Happy listening! Thanks Stephen!
The Depths of Depravity
June 2, 2009 at 5:42 pm | In God's Love, Theology | Leave a CommentIt seems to me that there are three levels of sinfulness we must deal with in our lives. First there is the matter of not doing what God says (or not doing what we believe God is leading us to do, or doing what God says not to do). This is the most obvious matter of sin, and we are all aware of it. This is what most Christians think of when we talk about sin. But sin goes much much deeper than that. On a second level, there are those times when we don’t even want to do what we know is right. “I didn’t obey God and I didn’t want to obey God.” It’s not uncommon for Christians to recognize this level of sin in their lives, because every Christian has been there and done that. At times we confess to God our sinful attitudes; so we admit that we did wrong because we wanted to do wrong.
However, there is even a third level of sin where we don’t want to change the desire to do wrong. “I sinned; I sinned because I wanted to sin; I don’t want to give up the desire to sin; and given the same circumstances I would sin again, even knowing what I know now! The last two statements are examples of level three. This level is ugly. When we recognize it, we get a picture of the depths of our depravity that can utterly scare us. At this level, we hold on to self tenaciously, even when we see how ugly we are, we hold on. Trouble is that these depth levels can go on at infinitum: “I don’t even want to want to change!” I’ve seen this level in my own life in the fact that I treasure my reputation more than God’s glory, so I hold on while saying “no” when God leads in a direction I don’t want to go and I will not go.
The good news is that Jesus died for all my sin – that, in Christ, God has graciously forgiven all my sin. It is easy for me to apply that truth to the first level of sin and often to the second. But I really struggle to apply that truth to the third level, because at that level I know I deserve condemnation, and I’m willing to listen to the voices that condemn me. But even the ugliest depths of my depravity are already forgiven in Christ!
This is probably, in part, what Paul was getting at when he said, “I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man.” (Romans 7:21 – 8:3)
God change me at the deepest level, so that I want to want to do what’s right. Gently draw me to the place of willingness, even in the depths of my being. Thank you that all of my sin is forgiven in Christ, even the ugly sins of the third and deeper levels.
The Shack
April 23, 2009 at 4:45 pm | In Books, God's Love, It's All About God, Theology | Leave a CommentI recently completed reading William Paul Young’s poignant novel The Shack. I read it because many people had asked me my opinion of it. Though this best-selling novel is fiction, it clearly was written to present a theological message. Before I read it I heard everything from “this is the greatest book since the Bible,” to “this book is outright heresy.” I tend to take a skeptical approach to such things, and I read this book with that same skepticism, but, at the same time, I tried to read carefully the theology presented without prejudging the book. After seeing some harsh criticisms and high praises, I decided to read it for myself, and then determined to read very little about it, so I could make up my own mind on the matter.
I’ll say right up front that there’s nothing in this book I find objectionable enough to call heresy and some that is very good theology, but I still have concerns about it. There are even some people to whom I’d like to give the book because I think its moving presentation would touch them with what they need to hear. I’ll start this review with the positive and then share my concerns in the end.
The entire reveiw is more lengthy than I normally post on this blog. You can read it here.
Sorrow and Repentance
March 10, 2009 at 11:40 am | In Devotional thoughts, God's Love | Leave a Comment2 Corinthians 7:8-10. Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it – I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while – yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
I was pondering these words about sorrow and repentance after reading them in my devotions last week. It is easy for us as Christ’s followers to beat ourselves up over our own sin. When we do wrong, we feel guilty about it. That guilt is God’s working in our lives. Many unbelievers don’t feel any guilty about sin, especially the more subtle kinds like self-righteous pride or lust; believers do because the Spirit is in their lives. When those guilt feelings come, we have a couple of possible responses. Sometimes we beat ourselves up over it, thinking that we are not worthy of God’s grace. We think that we don’t deserve to be Christians, and therefore believe we aren’t very good ones. That response is believing a lie. It is true that we don’t deserve to be Christians and aren’t worthy of God’s grace, but that’s exactly why salvation is by grace. The other possible response is to realize our sorrow comes because we’ve wronged God and we don’t deserve to be Christians, but then tell ourselves that is the point of grace. Christ died for the very sin I’m feeling guilty over, not because I am a good Christian most of the time, but because I am totally unworthy all the time. Those guilty feelings should make me realize I can never live the Christian life on my own and cause me to fall back on the grace of God. That seems to be the point of Paul’s words in the above passage. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation. Repentance is a change of mind and direction; it means we quit trusting in ourselves as good Christians and trust in the grace of God. That is saving faith.
The other day, Cathy told me something she’d written down in Dr. Pegler’s class on the Atonement. He said the same thing I’m trying to say here. “When struggling with sin issues, instead of punishing yourself or trying to do better or trying to fix it, meditate on the grace of God. It will take you further in your walk with God than anything else.” Good words. Remember the grace of God.
Love and Fathfulness — part 1
February 10, 2009 at 10:26 am | In Devotional thoughts, God's Love | Leave a CommentMy family took an extra day off to spend some time in the mountains cross country skiing and had a great outing. I pondered a few psalms over the mini vacation, including Psalm 89. In recent months, I have been fascinated by the number of times God’s love and faithfulness appear together in the psalms (over eighty!) and hope to write more about that in the future. But I saw that connection in seven different places in this chapter alone! The first two were in the first two verses: “I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known through all generations.” And “I will declare that your love stands firm forever, that you established your faithfulness in heaven itself.” Then in verse 14 the psalmist says to God, “love and faithfulness go before you.” In verses 24, 28 and 33 God says of David (and presumably his heirs), “My faithful love will be with him;” “I will maintain my love to him forever, and my covenant with him will never fail;” and “I will not take my love from him, nor will I betray my faithfulness.” Finally, in the psalmist’s closing prayer, he asks, “O LORD, where is your former great love, which in your faithfulness you swore to David?”
When Ethan the Ezrahite, who wrote this poem, was feeling rejected by God (38) and the utter futility of life (47), the thing he fell back on was the character of God – especially God’s love and faithfulness. The same was true of Jeremiah, whose whole world seemed to collapse when his home town and native country were destroyed. He too remembered God’s love and faithfulness (Lamentations 3:21-24). When we feel like God isn’t there, when we see life as utterly futile, when our personal worlds seem to fall apart, the thing we can fall back on is God’s love and faithfulness. No matter how we feel, God is love and God is faithful. Nothing can change those two truths!
Two Profound Thoughts
January 28, 2009 at 5:59 pm | In Devotional thoughts, God's Love, Theology | 1 CommentHere are two profound thoughts – not my thoughts, but Paul’s thoughts as inspired by God!
Romans 5:8 These words are so common in Christian circles that we loose sight of just how profound they really are. “God demonstrates his own love toward us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” God loved us so much that he gave life for life. That would not be so profound if our lives were worth something to God (so the meaning of verse 7). But the point of the earlier chapters of this book called Romans is that our lives are worth nothing to God, apart from his creation and love. God gave a life of inestimable value for lives that had almost no value at all. We denied his creation of us, and we trashed our lives to the point where they were worthless; yet he still loved, and he still gave. Our lives have value now only because of this fact; our lives are of inestimable value because of this fact!
So also the words of Romans 5:9-10 are common, and we miss how profound they are too. “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” It is natural to think that, if we have been justified by the judge, we shall not suffer the punishment that judge might dole out. But that’s just it, the punishment we miss is the wrath of that same judge – the Judge of the Universe! His wrath must be incredible wrath – the very epitome of the word, yet he justifies us, so we don’t experience it. In fact, he poured that wrath out on his own Son! Wow, when God demonstrates love, he demonstrates an incredible love!
Thoughts and Prayers from Romans
November 4, 2008 at 9:20 am | In Devotional thoughts, God's Love, It's All About God, Worship | Leave a CommentSome miscellaneous thoughts and prayers from yesterday’s devotions in the latter chapters of Romans:
9:25-26 “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people; and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one.” I can praise God because, even though I am separated from the promises of God by birth, and even though I am separated from the righteousness of God by sin, I can still be called one of God’s children by grace. “So then, the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, . . . ‘Rejoice you Gentiles with his people.’ And again, ‘Praise the Lord all you Gentiles; let all the peoples of the earth extol him.’” (15:9-11)
13:1 “There is no authority except that which God has established.” With the election tomorrow, and the poles not looking very good for Christian values, we look to God to direct minds and hearts to sway this election as he desires. At the same time, I know that he has used evil regimes and rulers in his kingdom work as well as good ones, so I assume whatever happens, God will use it to advance the eternal things of his kingdom. As Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come; Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
15:13 This blessing of Paul to the Roman Christians is what I prayed today for my own life and ministry. May the God of hope fill me with all joy and peace as I trust in him, so that I may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. God, touch other lives through my faith in you. Just as Paul’s faith was visible to others in times of trouble and overflowed to them, may my faith be evident to those around me who do not know you.
Finally 11:33-35, another prayer I offered back to God this day: “Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!” Lord, you are beyond my knowledge, wisdom and understanding. I could never know you, except that you, in your grace, have chosen to reveal yourself to me. Help me grow in the knowledge and wisdom of you. “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.” God, everything that is, or ever was, is, or was, because of you; it came from you and through you, and it is to you – to your glory and praise. Everything is about your glory. May I know you as you desire, and may I glorify you in my life. Amen.
E-mail Rumors and God’s Sovereignty
September 29, 2008 at 11:55 am | In God's Love, It's All About God, Wisdom | 2 Comments
The following is a copy (minus names) of an e-mail I got this morning. The letter was followed by a forwarded message giving “facts” about some people who cursed God in one way or another and died an unusual death shortly thereafter. The obvious point of the message is that God is real and his enemies will die. Since many have the same questions about these kind of e-mails as this writer, I thought my response was worth posting today.
Dear Glenn,
I’m unable to check it out, so I wanted to ask you whether the stories about these people are true. I don’t want to send out lies.
Dear . . .
Thanks for asking, I appreciate anyone who is trying to find out truth, rather than just pass along the latest sensationalism. However, I couldn’t find anything on the truth of this one way or the other. My advice is don’t put too much stock in reports like this for numerous reasons:
First, even if it’s true, it proves nothing. Someone who knows how to do the research could come up with just as many people who cursed God for years and died of old age; I’ve known some of those myself. The two simply are not related. I could probably find some people who died strange and untimely deaths after they switched from Coke to Pepsi too! But that wouldn’t prove anything about the evils of Pepsi.
Second, this kind of thing denies the love and heart of God. God loves people; his desire, as spelled out in the Bible, is for those people to come to him in repentance. “God is not slow about his promises as some understand slowness, but is patient toward you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9)
Third, this denies God’s grace. Even those who curse God repetitively are candidates for his forgiveness in Jesus. Such is the incredible nature of the what Jesus did on the cross. Some people try to tie this sort of cursing God with the unforgivable sin of “blaspheming the Holy Spirit.” But that sin is a continual and stubborn rejection of who Jesus is (the context in which Jesus said it is instructive in this matter). Those who embellish that sin to be anything else simply ignore both the context of the passage and the overall biblical data on forgiveness. Even Jesus’ words about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit begin with this promise, “I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them!” (Mark 3:28-29)
Fourth, this kind of propaganda denies the sovereignty of God. Death and Life are in his hands. How that works with issues like cursing God I cannot tell. But I do know the answer to this question: When has a person cursed God to the point of no return? Really, we all have! Our deepest sin is not a matter of what we say or do; it’s a matter of being in rebellion against God. Whether we live that rebellion out in cursing him, indulging our base nature, or religious self-pride, it’s still a grievous sin that brings God’s condemnation on us – all of us. It’s only because of his grace, given to us on the cross, that any of us can have life at all. This was exactly the point of my message yesterday. “Once you were alienated from God and enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation!” (Colossians 1:21-22) Now that’s the message we need to pass on to others!
Postscript: I am usually not a big fan of e-mail stories that go around. Many of them many be true, but so many are just sensational rumor that gets embellished and passed around for years. I believe that Christians should never pass along lies when they have the opportunity to verify their truth. I have found three websites that research e-mail rumors and report on their truth, and there may be others out there. All three have search engines to help one find specific rumors. The three I use are: www.truthorfiction.com, www.snopes.com, and www.breakthechain.org. Make use of these great resources before you pass on more untrue rumors.
Micah’s Amazing Conclusion
September 3, 2008 at 10:25 am | In Devotional thoughts, God's Love | Leave a CommentMicah concludes his prophecy with some amazing words. They are amazing because Micah seems so negative. The section headings in the book include things like “Judgment Against Samaria and Jerusalem,” “Weeping and Mourning,” “Leaders and Prophets Rebuked,” and “The LORD’s Case Against Israel.” The last of those is a section using a colorful metaphor of the courtroom to tell of Israel’s sin and coming punishment. Over a century later, Micah was still known for his promised destruction of Jerusalem. When Jeremiah was arrested and threatened with death because of his prophecies against Jerusalem, some of the elders stepped up and basically said, “Micah of Moresheth prophesied the same thing, and King Hezekiah didn’t put him to death.” (See Jeremiah 26)
Yet not everything in Micah is negative. There is the promise of the Messiah to be born in Bethlehem (probably what Micah is most famous for today – See 5:1-4). There are great words like “He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (6:8) But the conclusion is what stands out to me as such an amazing statement of God’s character. Listen to these incredible words of God’s love and mercy:
“Who is a God like you? You take away guilt; you forgive the sins of the remnant of your people. You do not let your anger rage forever, for to be merciful is your true delight! Once more you will show us your compassion and wash away our guilt, casting our sins into the depth of the sea.” (Micah 7:18-19) WOW that is a great statement of our incredible God! May you too experience his incredible mercy and forgiveness.
Hosea
August 26, 2008 at 2:48 pm | In Devotional thoughts, God's Love, Theology | Leave a CommentAt various times in my life, I’ve heard people make reference to the god of the Old Testament as a god of holiness and wrath in comparison with the god of the New Testament, who is a god of love and mercy, as though there were two different gods. Apparently the people who make that comparison have never read the scores of times the one God is praised for his love and mercy in Psalms, and apparently they’ve never read Hosea. In this book, God expresses his incredible love for his people by using the wedding metaphor. In chapter one God tells Hosea to marry an adulterous woman because the people are guilty of spiritual adultery – going after other gods. As Hosea tries to love his wayward wife, so God loves his wayward people. “Go show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites.” (3:1)
And though this book has numerous references to God’s wrath on unfaithfulness, still his heart of love rings through loud and clear. Hosea’s child was to be named “Not my people,” because, as God says, “You are not my people, and I am not your God.” (1:8-9) That quote is a reference to the ancient Jewish wedding vows, where a groom would say, “You are my wife and I am your husband.” But God doesn’t end the story there; he goes on to say, “Where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’” And again in the end of chapter two, he says, “I will say to those called “Not my people,’ ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
In that second chapter, where God continually refers to the unfaithfulness and adultery of Israel, he also says he will “allure her” and “will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.” (2:14) Then to Israel he says, “I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.” (2:19)
Finally chapter eleven is a great testament of God’s love. God pours out his heart with expressions like “How can I give you up?” and “My compassion is aroused.” All of this is the language of love. God has a great love for his people. It is expressed in the Old Testament as well as in the New. Of course, in the New Testament, the picture of that love is fulfilled in God sending his Son to a world that has rejected him, yet a world he so dearly loves.
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