Thesis 39 We must model for our children how to be hard-resting and joyful.
It is something of a yuppie cliché, that we ought to work hard and play hard. Like many clichés, this one latches on to at least a kernel of truth. God did not merely command us to work six days, but He in turn commanded us to rest one day. Both work and rest are part and parcel of what it means to reflect the image of God. Both are essential to living healthy, God-honoring lives. While playing “hard” may not be the exact equivalent of the biblical notion of resting, it gets at something we often miss. Resting is not merely the cessation of labor, but is the celebration of labor, and of the grace of God.
In the church we have this common struggle. We either do not enter into the reality of our sin, the command of God to be perfect, and our constant failure, or, on the other side of the coin, when we do grasp the depth of our sin, too often we don’t sufficiently rejoice in the grace of God. We sometimes seem to think that if we stay glum enough, that our sorrow will help atone for our sins. In both instances we miss out on the depth, the scope and the glory of the grace of God.
We have sinned much, but we have been forgiven much. When the prodigal son returns to his father, the father does not merely declare his son not guilty, and move on. No, the best robe is brought forth, the ring is put on the son’s finger, and the fatted calf is slaughtered that there might be a feast. In like manner we need to learn to celebrate the grace of God in our lives. When we rest, we must rest, remembering that it is not the depth of our sorrow that covers our sins. It is not the depth of understanding of our sins. It is not our fidelity in this spiritual exercise or that. We have peace with God, are adopted into His family because of the work of His Son, brought to us by a faith wrought in us by His Spirit.
Do your children see you rejoicing in this reality? Do they witness you weeping in joy for the beauty of the gospel? Do they see you sinning, repenting, and then laughing for the prodigal love and forgiveness of our heavenly Father? Do they see you, at the end of a hard-working day, looking at the feast set before you on the dinner table, stunned at the overflowing grace of God, that He does not give us bread daily, but mashed potatoes and gravy, steaming bowls of homemade vegetable soup and bread, salads sprinkled with dainties from all across the globe? Do your children see you rejoicing before the Lord? God commands that we do so, (see Deuteronomy 14:22-27) not in the end for our well-being. Nor does He call us to do this for the sake of our children. He calls us to this feasting before Him for His sake. Our Father delights to see His children delight in His grace.
Friends,
I’m sorry that we will be unable to meet tonight for our regular study. Lisa and I are busy working on arrangements for funeral services for her mother who recently passed on to her reward. Prayers are appreciated, and we look forward to meeting next week, Lord willing.
Of course. Truth be told, I’m far more concerned about the spiritual state of the person asking the question than I am about the spiritual state of the person inside the question. This, despite the truth that over the course of the past 36 years I could count the number of times I voted for a Democrat on one hand, even if that hand had no fingers. This despite the truth that it never crossed my mind to consider voting for a Democrat, that the choices I find myself making are all on the right side of the aisle. This despite the truth that I am unashamedly a one issue voter whose position on that issue is diametrically opposed to the Democratic party’s position.
The question, please note, is not about whether a Christian should vote for a Democrat. It’s not a question about the ethics of the matter. I have for multiple election cycles made my position clear- no man will receive my vote if he is not committed to doing everything in his power to protect with the full force of the law all unborn children. Everyone to the left of that standard is pro-abortion with exceptions. I know, however, that Christians can vote for Democrats because Christians do things they ought not to do all the time. Acknowledging that truth is how we become Christians in the first place- we confess that we are sinners. Christians vote for Democrats. Christians vote for Republicans that promise to protect the “right” of some parents to murder some babies. Christians hire assassins to murder their own unborn children, or their unborn grandchildren. That happens every day in every state in the union. Some of you have done it.
Christians, real born-again, Spirit born, Spirit indwelt, will spend eternity with their Father who loves them infinitely and immutably Christians do all sorts of horrible things all the time. They, even at least one who was eyewitness of the resurrection and the leader of the early church, have been guilty of the grievous sin of racism. They have seduced women of lower stations, and then committed murder to cover their sin. One fellow, after building the most glorious house of worship of the living God ever built, later built houses of worship for false gods.
This is what we do. It is a bad thing to vote for Democrats. It is a worse thing to think you as a believer can not and do not do even worse things. The Christian faith is that place where we confess that we sin, and sin grievously. It is the place where we celebrate and rest in the grace of God that forgives a wretch like me. That place where redeemed men who were blind to their own sins of treating other men as property find grace. That place where beloved children of the living God who in their folly treat the sins of others as unforgivable whole overlooking their own, are encouraged to repent of their pride. And that place where repentance is always met with both forgiveness and joy on every side.
There are any number of dangers of a steady pop culture diet. To catch our attention Hollywood must increase the tension. The struggle must get more and more dramatic; the stakes must increase. We don’t merely hope the good guys catch the bank robber. Now they are chasing down a serial killer. It is no longer the cavalry taking on a rogue band of Indians. Now cowboys do battle with aliens intent on world conquest. In order for our heroes to be more heroic than the last hero he must face a nemesis more evil, more deadly, more grasping than the old nemesis.
Some fear that as we watch these increasingly global battles that we are increasingly desensitized to mayhem. A constant stream of explosions and stabbings and gun battles, some say, will make us blind to the horror of violence. They may be right.
My fear, however, is rather different. I’m afraid all our celluloid enemies will cause us to miss the genuine evil in our midst. I’m afraid that the monsters that are all too real miss how monstrous we are, because we so little resemble the monsters on our screens. Universe colonizing aliens are not real. Serial killers are exceedingly rare. If we looked at the world through the lens of the Bible we would know how to spot real monsters- we’d look in the mirror. One all too common form of evil is men who leave their wives and children, wives who leave their husbands and children. Real heroes put their pants on one leg at a time. Real villains take their pants off one leg at a time.
I’ve been to the crime scenes. I’ve seen the tear stained faces of their victims. I have listened to the heaving sobs of the abandoned. Those who are called to the role of hero here are not white-hatted cowboys. They are not grizzled detectives. They are not spandex wearing supers. They are the shepherds of the local church. And I have watched countless such men of Ephraim turn back in the day of battle. At best they ring their hands, wishing there were something they could do. At worst they baptize the evil in their midst with blasphemous talk of a “grace” that is not at the expense of Christ, but the expense of the spouse and children left behind.
Christ has given the church the power of the keys not because it is less potent than the sword, but because it is more potent. Virtually every “church” in America refuses to wield this great weapon, while those that will wield it all too often are clumsy or intentionally ignorant, firing at random and washing their hands. This isn’t mere theological folly. It isn’t merely another alarming trend toward worldliness to write learned articles about. It is silence in the face of evil, which is evil in itself. Boys were made to protect girls, and shepherds were made to protect families.
Rise up men of God. The day of battle is here. Selfish evil people, who know all the right answers to all the trendy theological debates of the day, are dropping bombs on their own homes. Spouses and children are being torn to pieces. Man your stations. Play the man. No army, not even the Lord’s, can survive without discipline.
My mother-in-law passed away this week. She was in no way the quintessential mother-in-law of pop culture. She was gracious, loving and gentle. She had faced many challenges in her life, but did so with grace. She was always loved by her daughter and son. She in turn, always loved them. As those who knew her consider her passing it is understandable that so many would find the same silver lining in death’s dark cloud- that she is no longer suffering from any of the ailments that afflicted her. That is good news indeed, and something to be celebrated, something to give thanks to Jesus for. It is not, however, the first thing I will be grateful for when my time comes, nor the second.
The greatest thing, of course, about passing on to glory is the glory. That is, when a believer dies he receives the beatific vision, the blessed sight of beholding the glory of God. That joy will expose every earthly joy for what it was, a pale shadow, a faint whisper of the true Source. This is His exceedingly great reward, given to us by His grace.
Relief from physical sufferings might come in third on my list, especially when I’m in the grip of a kidney stone attack. But even then, something far more important, far more shocking would be second on the list- a whole other kind of healing. Sharon, beloved mother of my beloved Lisa, has been healed in her soul. Every internal pain, every internal weakness, every internal blemish, every festering sore in her spirit is now gone. She’s not going to know sin any more. Though the stone of sin’s guilt fell from her back the moment He gifted her with faith, the phantom weight of guilt that she, like the rest of us, felt while walking in this sin weary world, disappeared. Though sin’s power was broken when the Spirit entered her body, sin’s presence ended when her spirit left her body. “Free at last,” Sharon cried that morning she beheld the dawning of the Son, “free at last. Thank God almighty, I’m free at last.” She now stands straight and tall, even as she bows in humility before the throne of her King.
We do not take death seriously enough. We wrongly scold mourners, reminding them when we gather that we are there to “celebrate a life.” We gloss over the destruction wrought by sin, when we ought to enter in. When we have done so, however, then we may enter into the victory. One of the blessings of death is that the sorrow it brings to we the living drives us to count the blessings of the gospel, to yearn for all His promises. Sharon walked through her days like Isaiah, a woman of unclean lips dwelling in a land of unclean lips. She, however, was cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. Declared righteous then she has now been made righteous. Declared His daughter then she is now held in His arms. I give thanks for her life, and dwell daily with her precious daughter, one of the two great blessings she left behind. She gives thanks for her death, for it brought her to life.
If you desire to be a help with Sharon’s end of life expenses you can do so here.
What should I do when feeling completely overwhelmed, with a “to do” list as long as the Matterhorn is high, while wanting only to pull the bed covers over my head?
Three things. The first is to give thanks. Like most clichés, this one became a cliché because it is a powerful and pithy truth- I cried for having no shoes, until I met a man with no legs. This does not mean that all of us should find one person who is having a harder time than we are, and all of us, save one, the winner of the Job of the Moment award, would perk up. And when the winner loses his title for some other Job, he can begin to cheer up. Rather it reminds us that we all have much for which we should be grateful. Being joyful for what we have doesn’t tempt us to rest on our laurels, but motivates us to act, to get up and fulfill our calling. If we are in Christ and are ungrateful, we are being blinded.
Which brings us to the second thing we ought to do- repent and believe the gospel. We should in fact be ashamed when we are overcome with that “pull the sheets over our head” feeling. Jesus told us that His yoke is easy, His burden light. When we are feeling overwhelmed we are calling Him a liar. Having faced our failure, having entered into our shame, however, we move quickly to believing the gospel. Jesus died for our shameful feelings, the ones we all struggle against. He died for our calling Him a liar. And He not only forgives us, but loves us with an everlasting love. He knows everything there is to know about us, including those sins we can’t even face ourselves, and still, He loves us. This, of course, brings us back to step one. That is, as we believe the gospel, we once again must give thanks.
The last step is as simple and easy as the first two-I must do the first thing on my list. When it is done, I must do the next thing on my list. Of course, when we give thanks, when we repent and believe the gospel, we notice a few things about our list. It begins to shrink. What we discover is that the more we are persuaded that we have all that we could ever want or imagine in Christ Jesus we discover we don’t need to do this or do that to try to satisfy our souls.
All that ought to remain on our list is loving our neighbors. That may mean doing dishes, or folding laundry, but when we do these chores we are actually loving our neighbors. We are serving them. In serving them, we are reminded we are not men without shoes looking at others without legs. We are instead the richest people in the world, because we have been given the Pearl of Great Price, and are joint heirs with Him. Give thanks. Repent. Believe the gospel. And get to work.
