Some Thoughts for Teenagers-- and All the Rest of Us-- on Trusting God

                Why does the Bible command Christians to trust in the Lord with all our hearts?  (Proverbs 3:5).  That command means the Lord wants you to trust totally the goodness of his plan for your future marriage (or future singleness).  He wants you to trust totally the wisdom of his plan for where you should go to college.  He wants you to trust totally the love of his plan, set out in Scripture, for the way you use your body and your mind.

 

                We might ask, however, why the Lord is worthy of such absolute trust as Proverbs 3:5 describes.  After all, none of the human begins around us are trustworthy all the time.  Our friends lie to us, and even our parents fail us from time to time.  What makes the Lord so different from human begins?

 

                The answer is that just about everything about the Lord makes him different from human beings.  You can trust God with all your heart because unlike human beings, he knows all things perfectly, including all future things (Job 37:16; 1 John 3:20; Isaiah 44:6-8), and he will thus never lack the information necessary to make the best possible plans for your life.  You can trust God with all your heart because he loves you with infinite and perfect love (John 17:23), as most clearly seen in the death of Jesus Christ the Son on the cross for your sins (1 John 3:16).  If God’s love for you is so great that he did not spare even his beloved Son for your sake, then surely you can trust the Lord to give you everything else you really need (Romans 8:32).  Moreover, you can trust God with all your heart because he is good (Psalm 136:1), and all his plans for your life are therefore “good and acceptable and prefect” (Romans 12:2).  Finally, you can trust God with all your heart because he has all power to carry out his sovereign will for your life (Genesis 18:17; Jeremiah 32:17; Romans 11:36), and no one will ever be able to thwart his good and loving plans for you (Daniel 4:35).

 

                Think about where in your life right now you are wavering in trusting God.  Are you failing to trust him for some future supply of wisdom you know you need, or do you fear he will fail you when it comes to providing for your financial needs in the future?  Consider that in order for God to break your trust, he would, in the words of one of my seminary professors, have to de-God himself!  And the Lord cannot ever de-God himself.  He cannot fail you.  So like the father at the foot of the mountain of Transfiguration, ask the Lord to build your trust in him.  Say with that father to the Lord, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).    

 

Some Reflections on the Biblical Virtue of Humility

Isaiah 66:2b (ESV): “But this is the one to whom I will look:

he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

 

 

Jonathan Edwards, dairy entry for March 2, 1723: “How much better do I feel when I am truly humbling myself, than when I am pleasing myself with my own perfections!  Oh how much pleasanter is humility than pride!  O that God would fill me with exceeding great humility, and that he would ever more keep me from all pride!  The pleasures of humility are really the most refined, inward, and exquisite delights in the world.”  Excerpt from The Works of Jonathan Edwards, reprinted ed. (Carlisle, Penn.: Banner of Truth, 1990), 1: xxvii. 

 

 

A. proposed definition for humility: “honestly assessing ourselves in light of God’s holiness and our sinfulness.” C.J. Mahaney, Humility: True Greatness (Sisters, Oreg.: Multnomah, 2005), 22.

 

 

B. how to seek to grow in humility, by the grace of God

1. Take the gospel deeply into your soul, for that good news reminds us 1) that we are Christians by the grace of God alone (Ephesians 2:8-9); 2) that any natural or spiritual talent or blessing we possess is ours by the grace of God (1 Corinthians 4:7); and 3) that our position in the world is also ours by the grace of God (1 Corinthians 15:10).

2. Meditate daily on the humility Jesus displayed in his life (e.g., John 13:1-11).

3. Meditate daily on the massive reality that Jesus Christ, though he was the eternal Son of God, “humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8).

4. Tremble at the word of God (Isaiah 66:2b).

5. “Begin your day by acknowledging your dependence upon God and your need for God.” (Numbers 5-10 herein are taken from Mahaney, Humility, 171-72.)

6. “Study the attributes of God.”

7. “Laugh often, and laugh at yourself.”

8. “Identify evidences of grace in others.”

9. “Encourage and serve others each and every day.”

10. “Play golf as much as possible.”

 

 

The Glorious Gospel of a Happy God

 

                The good news that is the Christian gospel includes the good news that the God of the Bible is an eternally and infinitely happy God.  That is not to say God is happy with everything that goes on in the universe he created.  After, by our sin we disciples of Jesus grieve the heart of God (Ephesians 4:30).  The Lord certainly does not enjoy either sin or the effects of sin in the world, like illness, brokenness, and death.  What the Lord does delight in, eternally and infinitely, is himself.  Within the Godhead, the Father has delighted from all eternity in the Son and the Spirit; the Son has delighted from all eternity in the Father and the Spirit; and the Spirit has delighted from all eternity in the Father and the Son.  We catch just a glimpse of this intratrinitarian delight in the baptism and Transfiguration of Jesus, at both of which occasions the Father spoke from heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; 17:5).  Luke 10:21 also reports that Jesus the Son “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” over the plan of the Father for his earthly ministry.

                Jonathan Edwards, the great early American pastor and writer, summed up this intratrinitarian delight in “An Unpublished Essay on the Trinity” in these words: “It is common when speaking of the Divine happiness to say that God is infinitely happy in the enjoyment of Himself, in perfectly beholding and infinitely loving, and rejoicing in, His own essence and perfection.”  Contemporary Christian writer and Pastor John Piper insightfully adds:

 

No one would want to spend eternity with an unhappy God.  If God is unhappy then the goal of the gospel is not a happy goal, and that means it would be no gospel at all.  But, in fact, Jesus invites us to spend eternity with a happy God when he says, “Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23).  Jesus lived and died that his joy-- God’s joy—might be in us and our joy might be full (John 15:11; 17:13).  Therefore the gospel is “the gospel of the glory of the happy God [1 Timothy 1:11].

 

(John Piper, The Pleasures of God, revised ed. (Sisters, Oreg.: Multnomah, 2006), 26, emphasis in original).  The gospel is good news, among many other reasons, because it is the news of how in Jesus Christ, sinful human beings can come into right relationship with the God who is infinitely and eternally happy!  

The Grace of God in the Life of Boaz

 

                Reading the biblical Book of Judges can sometimes be more than a little bit discouraging.  The Lord had faithfully brought his people the Jews into the Promised Land, just as he said he would do.  However, consistently during the approximately 325 years the judges led the people of Israel, the Jews turned away from the Lord again and again and again.  Though they had witnessed incredible miracles Yahweh had performed on their behalves, the people of God turned away from the Lord to the worship of the false gods worshiped by the people groups around them.  The refrain that closes the Book of Judges sums up the seriously tragic spiritual declension of the day: “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25; cf. Judges 17:6; 18:1; and 19:1).

 

                The last five chapters of the book of Judges show especially clearly an Israel that has fallen into spiritual and moral degradation of the basest kinds.  The land is full of violence, disrespect for women, sexual immorality, and abuse of neighbor.  We wonder whether there was any Israelite at all living in the day of the judges who was full of the grace of God and of noble character.  The we turn to the pages of the short Book of Ruth, which introduce us to a Jewish man by the name of Boaz.  This man does prove to be full of the grace of God, manifested in his exercise of steadfast love toward his workers and toward his extended family.  Boaz’s love for the Lord and utter integrity and faithfulness toward his workers and family shine through in this book, and they shine especially righty when we see that Boaz lived during the otherwise degraded time of the judges (Ruth 1:1). 

 

                There is even more to Boaz, however, than his godly character.  The Book of Ruth stresses that Boaz is the kinsman-redeemer of Ruth, the woman of Moab who has been converted to the worship of the Lord (Ruth 3-4).  As Ruth’s kinsman-redeemer, Boaz purchases Ruth, by payment of a ransom price, out of difficult circumstances into a situation of blessing.  In this respect Boaz foreshadows his direct descendant (Matthew 1:3-6) Jesus Christ who would be the great Kinsman-Redeemer.  Jesus became our kinsman by becoming a real human being—God the Son became one of us! (John 1:14).  Christ redeemed sinners by dying to pay the penalty for their sins on the cross of Calvary (Romans 3:21-26), so that whoever trusts in Jesus alone for salvation has eternal life (John 3:16).  Jesus did not redeem his people’s souls through payment of money, as Boaz redeemed Ruth, but he paid our ransom price to the father with his own infinitely precious blood (Mark 10:45; 1 Peter 1:19).

 

                The other morning after I had re-read the story of Boaz from the Book of Ruth, I prayed that God in his grace would make me a man of noble character—of steadfast love and faithfulness—like Boaz.  However, I also pray with thanksgiving that Boaz points to an infinitely greater Kinsman-Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who shed his blood on the cross to obtain an eternal redemption for the people of God.  “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” (2 Corinthians 9:15).

A Word about the 2012 Elections from the Book of Judges

 

                Old Testament scholars believe that the Book of Judges may have been written, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, around the time of King David.  The reason they draw this conclusion is that the Book of Judges seems in some ways to be an apologetic for the establishment of the Israelite kingship.  Scholars see this apologetic in the last sentence of the book: “In those days there was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).  Similar statements are made by the inspired writer in Judges 17:6; 18:1, and 19:1.  The idea seems to be that the time of the judges was a period of such great evil in Israel because there was not a righteous king like David ruling over the people and leading them to follow the Lord. 

 

                That certainly seems to be part of the reading of Judges 21:25.  But surely there is more to this verse.  Surely the inspired writer means not only that Israel declined into great evil because it lacked a human king, but even more the point of Judges 21:25 is that at the time of the judges, the Jewish people were not serving the Lord as their ultimate King.  To be sure God was still ruling over his people; no human action can dispossess God of his universal supremacy.  However, the Israelites at the time of the judges were living in practical ways as if the Lord were not the supreme King of their nation.  Because the people were living as if God really were not their ultimate King, the Book of Judges is for the most part a discouraging account of serious spiritual decline and the violence and degradation that flow from such decline.

 

                Here is where I think Judges 21:25 speaks to American Christians in an election year.  On the one hand, it is right that we should pray every day that God in his mercy would raise up to political leadership in our land men and women who love righteousness and justice.  We desperately need leaders full of God’s love and biblical wisdom.  At a deeper level, however, Christians need to pray that Americans would recognize that the God of the Bible is our supreme King—and to live under that reality.  Even more than godly leaders, the United States needs the Lord himself to come with reviving mercies, beginning with a spiritual cleansing of the church and moving outward from there.  Until the day Americans recognize God as our supreme King, the men and women of this country will continue simply to do what is right in their own eyes.  As the Book of Judges demonstrates, doing right in our own eyes can only lead to violence, degradation, and destruction.

Reflections on Three Passages of Scripture

 

1. Deuteronomy 30:6: the circumcision that really matters

 

            The Lord gave to the Old Testament people of God the rite of circumcision of the flesh as “a sign of the covenant” between the Lord and Israel (Genesis 17:11).  However, God also made it clear that this outward act of cutting the flesh of males was not the kind of circumcision that really matters.  The deeper circumcision that counts most is not physical but spiritual; the deeper circumcision that matters most is of the heart and not of the body.  And whereas a father was to circumcise the flesh of his newborn son, only God can circumcise the human heart.  This is precisely what the Lord promised to do for his people in Deuteronomy 30:6: “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” 

            Let us marvel and rejoice in the reality that as Christians, God has circumcised our hearts!  Let us marvel and rejoice that even as God commands us to love him with all our hearts (Deuteronomy 6:5), so he in his wonderful grace gives us the ability to do so, by circumcising our hearts!  This circumcision of the heart is a work of the Lord’s grace that makes us part of the people of God, for “circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter” (Romans 2:28-29). 

But what exactly does it mean that God has circumcised the hearts of Christians?  I think we find the answer to that question in the prophecy of Ezekiel 36:26-27, where the Lord foresees the day when he would take out the hearts of stone of his people and replace them with hearts of flesh.  “And I will put my Spirit in you,” the Lord adds, in a promise that we know God fulfilled in believers beginning with the Day of Pentecost.  In other words, just as physical circumcision of the body involves a cutting open of the skin, so the spiritual circumcision of the heart involves God’s cutting open of the heart, in order to put the Holy Spirit into the hearts of believers.  It should astound us that God himself, in the Person of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9), has come to live spiritually in us through the circumcision of the heart!  What a gracious and loving and mighty and glorious God we serve!

 

 

2. Colossians 3:22-24: the case of the rotten boss

 

            I realize Colossians 3:22-24 deals on its face with slaves and masters, but for many reasons I believe we can draw principles from it for application to the Christian’s life in the workplace.  I have in mind in particular those of you who work for bosses like the pointy-haired boss in the comic strip Dilbert.  The pointy-haired boss in Dilbert is a fool who constantly frustrates the employees by managing and leading poorly.  The pointy-haired boss really only cares about himself and his advancement up the corporate ladder, and so he sees the people who work under him only as a means to the ends he desires for himself.  What if the pointy-haired boss is your boss?  How can you as a Christian glorify God in circumstances under which you spend most of your day frustrated, because you have a fool for a boss?  Consider two principles from Colossians 3:22-24.  First, your ultimate boss is not the pointy-haired manager or any other human being; your ultimate boss is always the Lord.  God loves you infinitely, and his plan for your life, including your work life, is infinitely wise.  That is not to say that God in his mercy might not move you to a new position under a far better boss.  But as long as you are working under the pointy-haired manager, work hard and do your best.  God is a hard worker who always does his best too (Genesis 1:31), and when we work that way, acknowledging the Lord as our ultimate boss, not only does God get great glory, but we find peace, even if we are working for a human boss who is a fool.  When God gets glory, joy and peace for us always follow.

            Then second, understand from Colossians 3:22-24 that even if your company does not reward you adequately for your good and faithful work, you have an eternal reward that the Lord is storing up for you in heaven.  Again, that truth does not mean that the Lord is forbidding you from looking for another job where you might be better paid.  What it does mean as that as long as the Lord keeps you where you are, your ultimate reward does not come from your next raise or promotion but from knowing that God has reserved in heaven a great spiritual reward for those who work by his grace and for his glory.

 

 

3. Jeremiah 23:29: God’s word a hammer

 

            Jeremiah 23:9-40 contains a section of prophecy in which the Lord condemns the false prophets living in the day of Jeremiah.  In v. 29 God says the following about the true word that he speaks through men who are his genuine prophets, men like Jeremiah: “’Is not my word like fire?’ declares the Lord, ‘and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?’”  In the context, this statement by God means that his word is like a hammer in that it means judgment for the false prophets in Judah.  The Lord is going to fulfill his word against those false prophets by bringing down the hammer of his judgment against those who speak from their own imaginations, to the great detriment of the people, rather than from the Lord.

            As I read Jeremiah 23:29, however, I also wonder if in the lives of Christians, the word of God as a hammer might not be a positive metaphor?  For example, I can use a hammer for a negative purpose like destroying a clay pot in anger, or I can use a hammer for a positive purpose, like helping my son to build a pine car for the Awana Grand Prix this coming Sunday evening.  In the same way, I think, God’s word was destructive to the false prophets, but it is like a hammer in the souls of Christians in that God uses the Bible to build something very good—Christ-likeness—in our hearts.  The Lord also uses the hammer of his word to “knock away” the sin that weighs us down and keeps us from running the spiritual race he has set before us (Hebrews 12:1-2).  Let us therefore rejoice in the Lord for great gift his word is to us, and knowing that Scripture is a good hammer in our souls, let us take up God’s word and read and meditate on it.