SOURCE:
Blackaby, Henry T.. Experiencing God (pp. 35-36). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
KEYWORDS:
Guide, guidance, mentor, way
SCRIPTURE:
"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'" -- John 14:6
THE FARMER WAS MY MAP
For twelve years, I was the pastor of a church in a city surrounded by farming communities. One day a farmer invited me to visit him at his home. His directions went something like this: “Go a quarter mile past the edge of the city, and you will see a big red barn on your left. Go to the next road, and turn to your left. Take that road for three-quarters of a mile. You'll see a large poplar tree. Go right for about four miles, and then you will see a big rock. …” I wrote all of this down, and only by God's grace did I eventually manage to find the farm!
The next time I went to the man's house, he was with me in my vehicle. Because there was more than one way to get to his house, he could have taken me any way he wanted to. This time, I didn't need the written instructions. You see, he was my map. What did I have to do? I simply had to listen to him and do what he said. Every time he said “Turn,” I did what he said. He took me a new way I would not have discovered on my own. I could never retrace that route by myself because the farmer—my map—knew the way.
Saturday, April 18, 2020
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Watergate and Easter
SOURCE: Quote by Chuck Colson
KEYWORDS: Lies, Truth, Easter
“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”
KEYWORDS: Lies, Truth, Easter
“I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world-and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. You're telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible.”
Saturday, April 11, 2020
The Chief Article of Our Faith
SOURCE: "Calvin on the Resurrection." Email of Foundation for Reformed Theology. April 8, 2020.
KEYWORDS:
As Easter approaches, let us hear again what John Calvin (1509-1564)--second generation Protestant Reformer, preacher, teacher, pastor, and theologian--has to say on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
First of all (1), in his commentary on the Gospel according to John, chapter twenty, Calvin writes:
"The resurrection of Christ is the chief article of our faith."
This is it! This is the sine qua non. Without this, we would have nothing.
Second (2), and more fully, Calvin wrote this in the Institutes, as an exposition of the Apostles' Creed:
"ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD"
"Next comes the resurrection from the dead. Without this what we have said so far would be incomplete. For since only weakness appears in the cross, death, and burial of Christ, faith must leap over all these things to attain its full strength. We have in his death the complete fulfillment of salvation, for through it we are reconciled to God, his righteous judgment is satisfied, the curse is removed, and the penalty paid in full. Nevertheless, we are said to 'have been born anew to a living hope' not through his death but 'through his resurrection.' For as he, in rising again, came forth victor over death, so the victory of our faith over death lies in his resurrection alone. Paul's words better express its nature: 'He was put to death for our sins, and raised for our justification.' This is as if he had said: 'Sin was taken away by his death; righteousness was revived and restored by his resurrection.' For how could he by dying have freed us from death if he had himself succumbed to death? How could he have acquired victory for us if he had failed in the struggle? Therefore, we divide the substance of our salvation between Christ's death and resurrection as follows: through his death, sin was wiped out and death extinguished; through his resurrection, righteousness was restored and life raised up, so that--thanks to his resurrection--his death manifested its power and efficacy in us. Wherefore, Paul states that 'Christ was declared the Son of God . . . in the resurrection itself,' because then at last he displayed his heavenly power, which is both the clear mirror of his divinity and the firm support of our faith. Elsewhere Paul similarly teaches: 'He suffered in weakness of the flesh, but rose again by the power of the Spirit.' In the same sense Paul elsewhere discusses perfection: 'That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.' Yet immediately thereafter he adds, 'The fellowship of his death.' With this Peter's statement closely agrees: 'God raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that our faith and hope might be in God.' Not that faith, supported by his death, should waver, but that the power of God, which guards us under faith, is especially revealed in the resurrection itself.
"So then, let us remember that whenever mention is made of his death alone, we are to understand at the same time what belongs to his resurrection. Also, the same synecdoche applies to the word 'resurrection': whenever it is mentioned separately from death, we are to understand it as including what has to do especially with his death. But because by rising again he obtained the victor's prize--that there might be resurrection and life--Paul rightly contends that 'faith is annulled and the gospel empty and deceiving if Christ's resurrection is not fixed in our hearts.' Accordingly, in another passage--after glorying in the death of Christ against the terrors of damnation--he adds by way of emphasis: surely 'he who was dead has risen, and appears before God as our mediator.'
"Further, as we explained above that the mortification of our flesh depends upon participation in his cross, so we must understand that we obtain a corresponding benefit from his resurrection. The apostle says: 'We were engrafted in the likeness of his death, so that sharing in his resurrection we might walk in newness of life.' Hence, in another passage, from the fact that we have died with Christ he derives proof that we must mortify our members that are upon the earth. So he also infers from our rising up with Christ that we must seek those things above, not those on the earth. By these words we are not only invited through the example of the risen Christ to strive after newness of life; but we are taught that we are reborn into righteousness through his power.
"We also receive a third benefit from his resurrection: we are assured of our own resurrection by receiving a sort of guarantee substantiated by his. Paul deals with this at greater length in 1 Corinthians 15:12-26.
"We must, by the way, note that he is said 'to have risen from the dead.' These words express the truth of his death and resurrection, as if it were said: he suffered the same death that other men naturally die; and received immortality in the same flesh that, in the mortal state, he had taken upon himself."
John Calvin, Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. from the 1559 Latin ed. by Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols., in Library of Christian Classics, ed. John T. McNeill (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Book Two, chapter sixteen, section thirteen (vol. 1, pp. 520-22).
KEYWORDS:
As Easter approaches, let us hear again what John Calvin (1509-1564)--second generation Protestant Reformer, preacher, teacher, pastor, and theologian--has to say on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
First of all (1), in his commentary on the Gospel according to John, chapter twenty, Calvin writes:
"The resurrection of Christ is the chief article of our faith."
This is it! This is the sine qua non. Without this, we would have nothing.
Second (2), and more fully, Calvin wrote this in the Institutes, as an exposition of the Apostles' Creed:
"ON THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN FROM THE DEAD"
"Next comes the resurrection from the dead. Without this what we have said so far would be incomplete. For since only weakness appears in the cross, death, and burial of Christ, faith must leap over all these things to attain its full strength. We have in his death the complete fulfillment of salvation, for through it we are reconciled to God, his righteous judgment is satisfied, the curse is removed, and the penalty paid in full. Nevertheless, we are said to 'have been born anew to a living hope' not through his death but 'through his resurrection.' For as he, in rising again, came forth victor over death, so the victory of our faith over death lies in his resurrection alone. Paul's words better express its nature: 'He was put to death for our sins, and raised for our justification.' This is as if he had said: 'Sin was taken away by his death; righteousness was revived and restored by his resurrection.' For how could he by dying have freed us from death if he had himself succumbed to death? How could he have acquired victory for us if he had failed in the struggle? Therefore, we divide the substance of our salvation between Christ's death and resurrection as follows: through his death, sin was wiped out and death extinguished; through his resurrection, righteousness was restored and life raised up, so that--thanks to his resurrection--his death manifested its power and efficacy in us. Wherefore, Paul states that 'Christ was declared the Son of God . . . in the resurrection itself,' because then at last he displayed his heavenly power, which is both the clear mirror of his divinity and the firm support of our faith. Elsewhere Paul similarly teaches: 'He suffered in weakness of the flesh, but rose again by the power of the Spirit.' In the same sense Paul elsewhere discusses perfection: 'That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.' Yet immediately thereafter he adds, 'The fellowship of his death.' With this Peter's statement closely agrees: 'God raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that our faith and hope might be in God.' Not that faith, supported by his death, should waver, but that the power of God, which guards us under faith, is especially revealed in the resurrection itself.
"So then, let us remember that whenever mention is made of his death alone, we are to understand at the same time what belongs to his resurrection. Also, the same synecdoche applies to the word 'resurrection': whenever it is mentioned separately from death, we are to understand it as including what has to do especially with his death. But because by rising again he obtained the victor's prize--that there might be resurrection and life--Paul rightly contends that 'faith is annulled and the gospel empty and deceiving if Christ's resurrection is not fixed in our hearts.' Accordingly, in another passage--after glorying in the death of Christ against the terrors of damnation--he adds by way of emphasis: surely 'he who was dead has risen, and appears before God as our mediator.'
"Further, as we explained above that the mortification of our flesh depends upon participation in his cross, so we must understand that we obtain a corresponding benefit from his resurrection. The apostle says: 'We were engrafted in the likeness of his death, so that sharing in his resurrection we might walk in newness of life.' Hence, in another passage, from the fact that we have died with Christ he derives proof that we must mortify our members that are upon the earth. So he also infers from our rising up with Christ that we must seek those things above, not those on the earth. By these words we are not only invited through the example of the risen Christ to strive after newness of life; but we are taught that we are reborn into righteousness through his power.
"We also receive a third benefit from his resurrection: we are assured of our own resurrection by receiving a sort of guarantee substantiated by his. Paul deals with this at greater length in 1 Corinthians 15:12-26.
"We must, by the way, note that he is said 'to have risen from the dead.' These words express the truth of his death and resurrection, as if it were said: he suffered the same death that other men naturally die; and received immortality in the same flesh that, in the mortal state, he had taken upon himself."
John Calvin, Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. from the 1559 Latin ed. by Ford Lewis Battles, 2 vols., in Library of Christian Classics, ed. John T. McNeill (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1960), Book Two, chapter sixteen, section thirteen (vol. 1, pp. 520-22).
See the Lord and Be Glad
SOURCE: Quoted in an email from The Foundation for Reformed Theology. April 10, 2020
KEYWORD: Witness, sight, eye, seeing,
Karl Barth (1886-1968)--preacher, teacher, pastor, theologian--preached the following as part of an Easter sermon at the Basel prison on March 29, 1964.
"On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, 'Peace be with you'. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples became glad when they saw the Lord." John 20:19-20
"Dear friends, we were not there when the risen Jesus, in spite of all the folly and mourning of his disciples, in spite of these doors shut from sheer terror, came into their midst. We cannot see him now as directly as they could, nor shall we be able to see him like that until he comes to judge the living and the dead at the end of all time. But in our way, indirectly, that is in the mirror of the narrative and so of the witness, the confession, the proclamation of the first community, we too can and may see him here and now. Many before us, a whole race of men, have seen him in this and have become glad. For this very reason we celebrate Easter, the festival in memory of that day, to join those people, to see the Lord in that mirror, and so too become glad. Without seeing the Lord nobody can be glad. Whoever sees him will become glad. Why should this not happen here to us as well, to the little Easter congregation of prisoners in Basel's Spitalstrasse with their chaplain and their organist, with all the inmates and wardens of this institution and (after all, I suppose I belong here too) with the old professor who occasionally pays a visit here? All of us can see the Lord too. So all of us may become glad too. God grant that this may happen to us. Amen."
Karl Barth, Call for God: New Sermons from Basel Prison (London: SCM Press, 1967), p. 124.
KEYWORD: Witness, sight, eye, seeing,
Karl Barth (1886-1968)--preacher, teacher, pastor, theologian--preached the following as part of an Easter sermon at the Basel prison on March 29, 1964.
"On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, 'Peace be with you'. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples became glad when they saw the Lord." John 20:19-20
"Dear friends, we were not there when the risen Jesus, in spite of all the folly and mourning of his disciples, in spite of these doors shut from sheer terror, came into their midst. We cannot see him now as directly as they could, nor shall we be able to see him like that until he comes to judge the living and the dead at the end of all time. But in our way, indirectly, that is in the mirror of the narrative and so of the witness, the confession, the proclamation of the first community, we too can and may see him here and now. Many before us, a whole race of men, have seen him in this and have become glad. For this very reason we celebrate Easter, the festival in memory of that day, to join those people, to see the Lord in that mirror, and so too become glad. Without seeing the Lord nobody can be glad. Whoever sees him will become glad. Why should this not happen here to us as well, to the little Easter congregation of prisoners in Basel's Spitalstrasse with their chaplain and their organist, with all the inmates and wardens of this institution and (after all, I suppose I belong here too) with the old professor who occasionally pays a visit here? All of us can see the Lord too. So all of us may become glad too. God grant that this may happen to us. Amen."
Karl Barth, Call for God: New Sermons from Basel Prison (London: SCM Press, 1967), p. 124.
Seven Stanzas of Easter
SOURCE: "Let Us Not Mock God With Metaphor" by Richard Burnett. Theology Matters. Email dated April 10, 2020.
KEYWORDS: butterfly, bunny, spring, body, easter
Updike, as I mentioned, was a complex individual, a man of considerable ambiguity, and one who struggled in his faith. This is reflected in his writings. "Earthy" is a word that is often applied to Updike's writing. His novels typically probe theological themes alongside more seamier topics. Updike, nevertheless, especially in his later years, is said to have become more dedicated to the faith. Apparently, he was never able to think his way around the "materiality" and "transcendence" at stake in one of the central claims of the Christian faith, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
While an undergraduate at Harvard University, Updike entered the following poem in a religious arts contest in Massachusetts. It won first prize. With the various attempts within and without the church today to celebrate Easter according to "our own convenience" or "our own sense of beauty," I invite you to reflect on this poem.
SEVEN STANZAS OF EASTER by John Updike
Make no mistake, if He rose at all
it was as His body.
if the cells disillusion did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and befuddled eyes of
the eleven apostles.
it was as His flesh: ours.
The same hinge, thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that pierced, died, withered, decayed and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded
credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not paper-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of
time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.
And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair, opaque
in the dawn light, robed in real linen,
spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, for our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed
by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.
[Written for a religious arts festival sponsored by the Clifton Lutheran Church of Marblehead, MA] Taken from John Updike, Seventy Poems, Penguin Books, 1972.
KEYWORDS: butterfly, bunny, spring, body, easter
Updike, as I mentioned, was a complex individual, a man of considerable ambiguity, and one who struggled in his faith. This is reflected in his writings. "Earthy" is a word that is often applied to Updike's writing. His novels typically probe theological themes alongside more seamier topics. Updike, nevertheless, especially in his later years, is said to have become more dedicated to the faith. Apparently, he was never able to think his way around the "materiality" and "transcendence" at stake in one of the central claims of the Christian faith, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ.
While an undergraduate at Harvard University, Updike entered the following poem in a religious arts contest in Massachusetts. It won first prize. With the various attempts within and without the church today to celebrate Easter according to "our own convenience" or "our own sense of beauty," I invite you to reflect on this poem.
SEVEN STANZAS OF EASTER by John Updike
Make no mistake, if He rose at all
it was as His body.
if the cells disillusion did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and befuddled eyes of
the eleven apostles.
it was as His flesh: ours.
The same hinge, thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that pierced, died, withered, decayed and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the faded
credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not paper-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow grinding of
time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.
And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair, opaque
in the dawn light, robed in real linen,
spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, for our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are embarrassed
by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.
[Written for a religious arts festival sponsored by the Clifton Lutheran Church of Marblehead, MA] Taken from John Updike, Seventy Poems, Penguin Books, 1972.
The Christian Hope
SOURCE: Quoted in an email from Foundation for Reformed Theology, April 11, 2020
KEYWORDS: Easter, Resurrection, Eternal Life, Heaven
Dr. John H. Leith (1919-2002)--preacher, teacher, pastor, theologian--has written the following about the Christian hope for eternal life:
"The Christian hope has been faithfully proclaimed throughout the New Testament and in every age since over against the fact of death. This Christian hope is summarized in three sentences from Paul's letter to the Philippians. Paul declares: 'Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself' (Philippians 3:20-21). 'For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better' (Philippians 1:21-23). The third statement that gives expression to the Christian hope in this letter is Paul's conviction 'that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father' (Philippians 2:12-11). In these statements Paul makes clear his conviction that at death we immediately depart to be with Christ, and yet there is something more: the coming of the Savior will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, and finally the time will come when every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. These convictions run throughout the New Testament, though they are never put together in any single, coherent form.
"The expression of the Christian hope today should begin with the recollection that eternal life has been an important part of the Christian witness from the very beginning. Eternal life, Walter Lowrie once wrote, is the core doctrine that brings all Christian doctrines into systematic coherence. '"This is the Christian faith, apart from which, without doubt, a man must perish everlastingly." These words which sound astonishing and offensive when used as an introduction of the so-called Athanasian Creed do not seem unreasonable when applied to belief in eternal life.' Christianity simply does not make sense apart from the Christian hope. . . . Austin Farrer has astutely commented that apart from the doctrine of eternal life, Christian faith does not make sense. . . .
"God, who chose us before the foundation of the world, destined us to be his children. The Nicene Creed declares: 'I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.' This is the Christian witness which the church has made in the New Testament and has continued to make in good times and bad up to the present day."
John H. Leith, Basic Christian Doctrine (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1993), pp. 294-295, 297.
KEYWORDS: Easter, Resurrection, Eternal Life, Heaven
Dr. John H. Leith (1919-2002)--preacher, teacher, pastor, theologian--has written the following about the Christian hope for eternal life:
"The Christian hope has been faithfully proclaimed throughout the New Testament and in every age since over against the fact of death. This Christian hope is summarized in three sentences from Paul's letter to the Philippians. Paul declares: 'Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself' (Philippians 3:20-21). 'For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which I prefer. I am hard pressed between the two: my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better' (Philippians 1:21-23). The third statement that gives expression to the Christian hope in this letter is Paul's conviction 'that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father' (Philippians 2:12-11). In these statements Paul makes clear his conviction that at death we immediately depart to be with Christ, and yet there is something more: the coming of the Savior will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, and finally the time will come when every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. These convictions run throughout the New Testament, though they are never put together in any single, coherent form.
"The expression of the Christian hope today should begin with the recollection that eternal life has been an important part of the Christian witness from the very beginning. Eternal life, Walter Lowrie once wrote, is the core doctrine that brings all Christian doctrines into systematic coherence. '"This is the Christian faith, apart from which, without doubt, a man must perish everlastingly." These words which sound astonishing and offensive when used as an introduction of the so-called Athanasian Creed do not seem unreasonable when applied to belief in eternal life.' Christianity simply does not make sense apart from the Christian hope. . . . Austin Farrer has astutely commented that apart from the doctrine of eternal life, Christian faith does not make sense. . . .
"God, who chose us before the foundation of the world, destined us to be his children. The Nicene Creed declares: 'I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.' This is the Christian witness which the church has made in the New Testament and has continued to make in good times and bad up to the present day."
John H. Leith, Basic Christian Doctrine (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1993), pp. 294-295, 297.
Thursday, April 09, 2020
Opportunity to be Heroic
SOURCE: "Now Is the Time for Heroes." Daily Stoic. April 6, 2020.
KEYWORDS: courage, virtue, hero
At the height of the Great Recession, Henry Rollins, musician and author, wrote,
“People are getting a little desperate. People might not show their best elements to you. You must never lower yourself to being a person you don’t like. There is no better time than now to have a moral and civic backbone. To have a moral and civic true north. This is a tremendous opportunity for you, a young person, to be heroic.”
KEYWORDS: courage, virtue, hero
At the height of the Great Recession, Henry Rollins, musician and author, wrote,
“People are getting a little desperate. People might not show their best elements to you. You must never lower yourself to being a person you don’t like. There is no better time than now to have a moral and civic backbone. To have a moral and civic true north. This is a tremendous opportunity for you, a young person, to be heroic.”
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