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~ I believe so that I may understand

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Tag Archives: Christianity

All the Ends of the Earth

03 Wednesday Mar 2021

Posted by Joshua Steely in Meditations

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Christianity, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Devotional, Encouragement, God, Grace, Hope, Mercy, Pandemic, Providence

“By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas” (Psalm 65:5, ESV).

            David continues to extol the God who answers prayer and lifts up those who call upon Him.  As he speaks of the great scope of God’s works, He reflects on the Lord’s power displayed in creation (v.6) and His providential care in the bounty of the earth (vv.9-13).  God is generous, and His common grace overflows in this world; how much more should we wonder at His special grace to those who receive His redemption.

            God’s mercy is so abundant, His grace so vast.  Reflect on the wonderful generosity of His care for you, in the ordinary things of life, in the goodness of the world He has created and continually sustains; then reflect upon the marvelous mercy of His gift of salvation in Jesus Christ our Lord.  May the mercy of God fill you with hope ever-new.

Tuesday Tea-ology, 03/02/21

02 Tuesday Mar 2021

Posted by Joshua Steely in Theology

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Beauty, Christianity, Glory, God, holiness, Righteousness, Sanctification, Scripture, Theology, Tuesday Tea-ology

On today’s Tuesday Tea-ology, we continue to contemplate the holiness of God: the Holy One calls a holy people to Himself. How wondrous is the holy-love of God!

Satisfied

25 Thursday Feb 2021

Posted by Joshua Steely in Meditations

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Christianity, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Devotional, Encouragement, God, Grace, Hope, Mercy, Pandemic, Peace, Security

“Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts!  We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!” (Psalm 65:4, ESV).

            In this psalm, David lifts up grateful praise to God, who hears the prayers of His people.  He begins by expressing the worthiness of the Lord for honor and devotion (v.1), that God hears prayer (v.2) and forgives sin (v.3).  How wonderful it is to belong to the one true God, and how gracious, that God should draw a people to Himself (v.4).

            Wonderful indeed is the unmerited grace of God Almighty.  Under the weight of guilt and sin, look to Him to lift you up; in the grip of grief, look to Him for peace and hope.  Set your heart on the presence of God, the gift of the Spirit by faith in Jesus Christ.  That is where true and abiding joy is found.

The Shadow of His Wings

24 Wednesday Feb 2021

Posted by Joshua Steely in Meditations

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Christianity, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Devotional, Encouragement, God, Hope, Love, Pandemic, Peace, Protection, Security, Strength

“for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.  My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me” (Psalm 63:7-8, ESV).

            With evocative imagery, David describes the wonderful security and support of trusting in the Lord.  His reliance on God brings an inner satisfaction (v.5), and a sense of supreme safety, as of a little bird sheltering beneath the wings of its parent (v.7).  The further image of the “right hand” emphasizes God’s strength exercised on behalf of His servant (v.8).

            Rest in God’s mighty strength.  The images in these verses should impress upon us God’s compassion for His people, and the security we can know in reliance upon Him.  The world’s rage is nothing compared to the right hand of the Lord; what can harm those who take refuge in the shadow of His wings?

Tuesday Tea-ology, 02/23/21

23 Tuesday Feb 2021

Posted by Joshua Steely in Theology

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Christianity, God, Gospel, holiness, Incarnation, Jesus Christ, Salvation, Sanctification, Theology, Tuesday Tea-ology

Further musings today on the awesome holiness of God–the Holy One in the midst of His people! Also, English breakfast tea, presumably not from Yorkshire.

Earnestly Seek

22 Monday Feb 2021

Posted by Joshua Steely in Meditations

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Christianity, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Devotional, Encouragement, Faith, God, Hope, Pandemic

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1, ESV).

            In this psalm, David reflects on spiritual longing and the God who vindicates His people.  This expression of desperate desire for the Lord heads off words of praise (vv.2-4) and a reflection on God’s faithfulness (vv.5-8) and deliverance (vv.9-11).  God is the satisfaction and vindication of those who trust in Him.

            Seek satisfaction in the Lord.  This world is passing, and all its joys and triumphs are transitory.  But God is the eternal King, the strong Savior, the Lord of glory.  Make God is your highest joy and your deepest longing, the unshakable center of your life in a chaotic world.

Max Lucado’s Problematic Apology

18 Thursday Feb 2021

Posted by Joshua Steely in Contra Mundum, Pro Ecclesia, Rhetorical Analysis

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Christianity, Culture, Culture War, Emotivism, Epistemology, Language, LGBTQ+, Max Lucado, Postmodernity, Progressive Christianity, Religious Left, Rhetoric, Truth

            The furor over Max Lucado’s remote preaching for the Washington National Cathedral has caught a fair amount of attention lately.  That Lucado met disapproval from some in the Episcopal church for holding elements of a biblical sexual ethic is as expected; that he was allowed to speak at all is rather surprising, and that those responsible have come to regret it is unsurprising.  But probably the most troubling part of the whole episode is the apology letter Lucado issued afterward.

            His opening paragraph suggests already a misapprehension about the seriousness of defying God’s design for the human person and relationships.  An orthodox Christian preaching to the Washington National Cathedral is undertaking a prophetic task.  This is, indeed, a “high honor”, but not, I think, in the sense that Lucado intends.  Prophets aren’t supposed to hear with dismay that their presence has been “a cause of consternation” to people who reject God’s Word; they’re supposed to expect it.

            Lucado identifies the source of this consternation, a sermon from 2004, and proceeds to apologize.  It is a good apology in that it owns responsibility without making excuses.  But what is he apologizing for?  The hurtfulness of his sermon.

            Here I must allow for the possibility that Lucado has something to apologize for.  I don’t know; I haven’t seen the whole sermon.  He thinks he was disrespectful, and I respect a man regretting being disrespectful.

            On the other hand, it seems far more probable to me that the consternation towards Lucado resulted not from how he communicated the truth, but from the truth itself.  Looking at the snippets of the sermon available in the various articles about this kerfuffle, one finds that Lucado, if not entirely on point with his inferences, was at least significantly less severe in his remarks about homosexuality than the Scriptures are (see Lev. 18:22; Rom. 1:26-27).  Apologizing for oneself is one thing, but we must never apologize for what God has said.

            God has said that He created mankind male and female, distinct and complementary, intended for union in this complementary distinction in covenant sexuality (Gen. 1:27; 2:23-24).  Lucado perhaps apologizes for this, certainly obfuscates it.  He refers without qualification to “the LGBTQ community”, “LGBTQ individuals”, “LGBTQ families”, and “LGBTQ people”, accepting these significations that frame homosexuality et al as a legitimate and morally neutral identity category instead of a rejection for God’s design for humanity.

            “Faithful people may disagree about what the Bible says about homosexuality,” Lucado says.  Granted that true Christians can misinterpret the Bible in all kinds of ways, his words in this context surely imply more than that.  If I said, “Faithful people may disagree about what the Bible says about theft,” would I not be suggesting that the Bible’s teaching about theft is unclear?  So also the teaching of Scripture about human sexuality; the question is not whether it is possible for a true Christian to misunderstand, but whether God has spoken clearly.

God has spoken clearly.

            To his credit, Lucado does not himself reject the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality, and he is willing to say so here—here, where it will probably nullify his apology, because that biblical teaching is the very thing that so consternates those to whom he is apologizing.  But he includes that pesky adjective “traditional”; if he had only said ‘the biblical understanding of marriage’, and left it at that!  Christians must all come to realize that framing it as the ‘traditional’ understanding of marriage is a concession, a way of putting it positively while granting legitimacy to other understandings of marriage.  If you must put an adjective before marriage, ‘real’, ‘true’, or even ‘biblical’ are all acceptable qualifiers; ‘traditional’ gives too much away.

            All this obfuscation is wedded to the basic burden of the apology, addressing the ‘hurt’ his sermon of years ago has caused.  Here it is an exquisitely contemporary apology, of the kind we are used to seeing from a variety of public figures who have said something of real or perceived offense.  Whether what Lucado said was true or not, biblical or not, appears irrelevant; it was ‘hurtful’, and that is what matters.  For a telling comparison, just look at the similarity between Lucado’s apology and Dean Hollerith’s apology for inviting him to preach.  Both have feelings firmly behind the steering wheel, and truth in the back seat—politely observing the injunction against back-seat driving.  Both suggest a therapeutic model of truth—the kind of conceptual world in which the ubiquitous contemporary sentiment ‘my truth’ is, if not coherent, at least at home.  The locus of morality is not in the voice of God coming to us from without—‘what has God said?’—but in the inward response—‘how did it make me feel?’

            Such a therapeutic model of truth is utterly opposed to the Christian faith.  Christianity has, at its center, the gospel: the wondrous message of the saving life, death, resurrection, ascension, reign, and return of Jesus Christ, and the offer of redemption to those who repent and believe.  This message comes with a conviction of the fiery holiness of God and the wickedness of our sin.  We dare not trade the clarion call of the gospel for a soothing affirmation of every man’s sense of self.

            Lucado allows for differing interpretations of the clear teaching of Scripture regarding human sexuality, adding, “but we agree that God’s holy Word must never be used as a weapon to wound others.”  We have met this before, this strange surprise that the sword of the Spirit might prove sharp and pointed.  Of course, we must not twist the Scriptures out of spite towards others.  But where the Word of God cuts truly, we must not attempt to blunt its edge.  The surgeon’s scalpel cuts to heal; the holy Scripture convicts to save. Some things ought not be apologized for.

Once Spoken, Twice Heard

18 Thursday Feb 2021

Posted by Joshua Steely in Meditations

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Christianity, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Devotional, Encouragement, Faith, God, Hope, Love, Pandemic, Salvation, Strength

“Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love” (Psalm 62:11-12, ESV).

            At the end, David underlines the twofold basis of trust in God: His power and His love.  Why wait upon the Lord (vv.1, 5)?  Why rely upon Him as your stronghold against danger (vv.2, 6, 8)?  Because God is able and willing to save.  With a little poetic crescendo, David extols God’s might and mercy.

            Trust in the Lord, who is strong beyond measure, who is abundant in steadfast love.  Make the character of God your confidence—the unchanging, uncontestable might and mercy of your heavenly Father, not the shifting circumstances of this life.  Fix your faith upon God, who is able and willing to save.

Pour out Your Heart

17 Wednesday Feb 2021

Posted by Joshua Steely in Meditations

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Christianity, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Devotional, Encouragement, Faith, Father, God, Hope, Pandemic

“Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us” (Psalm 62:8, ESV).

            David turns from a reflection on his personal confidence in God’s protection to an exhortation that all should turn to the Lord.  God can be trusted in every situation; His people should lay before Him all of the fears and concerns that fill our hearts, surrendering every burden to His Fatherly care.

            God cares for His people.  Part of faith is this continual surrender of our needs, our fears, our worries, pouring out our hearts to the Lord, and trusting that He will do what is wise and good in every circumstance.

A-woman Again

17 Wednesday Feb 2021

Posted by Joshua Steely in Contra Mundum

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Christianity, Culture, Feminism, Gender, God, Progressive Christianity, Religious Left, Sexual Revolution, Society, Theology

Representative Eric Swalwell has drawn a little attention from an incidental remark wherein he referred to God using the pronoun ‘herself.’ This sort of blasphemy is not surprising on the cultural left–and blasphemy it is, to willfully feminize God, who has always revealed Himself in masculine pronouns–but it is an instructive reminder of what lies at the bottom of the sexual revolution. This ideology is not, at the last, about freedom or love or individuality; it is about idolatry.

It’s easy to see the sort of logic that might push someone on the religious left towards feminized deity: it’s all about power dynamics, and deity is seen as the highest glass ceiling. How can any woman really get to the top if, ultimately, He is at the top? So feminist theology has, for some now, pursued the quest for a goddess. We see this in academia, in iconography, and, as in the present case, in popular culture.

This is all part of the project of self-actualization, self-centering of the sexual revolution. All obstacles to our freedom are to be abolished. With abortion, it manifests in the denial of responsibility for the life of the child which impinges on our freedom; with divorce, denial of the covenantal union which threatens to make us for-another and united-with-another instead of with and for ourselves; with promiscuity the barriers to self-centering are obvious, and so also with the whole LGBTQ+ alphabet. But feminism, remarkably enough, is what takes the project to its fullest extent.

By feminism, of course, I do not mean what feminism might have once meant (and still touches on in some ways): contending for the simple truth that women are fully human, equal in value and dignity, responsible moral agents. By feminism, I mean what mainstream feminism now is and has long been: a project of revolt against God’s good design for man and woman. In this sense, it is an arm of the sexual revolution, and plays a major role in the revolution’s cultural advance.

But a revolution revolts against some authority or power. Who is the sexual revolution in revolt against? Not ultimately, as its footsoldiers might believe, oppressive patriarchy or antiquated norms. It is in revolt against God, who created man and woman, who created human sexuality, and who has established its nature, purpose, and the good boundaries that allow for true freedom and flourishing. The sexual revolution is merely one particularly consuming aspect of mankind’s rebellion against the maker–and we see this, in stark clarity, with the feminist attempt to feminize God. For while the sexual revolution in its manifold aspects attacks the dignity and identity of men made in the image of God, this final expression of feminism goes after the God in whose image we are made.

All of this is sobering to observe. But do not lose heart. There is good news–very much, very good news.

In the first place, God is invincible. He cannot be disfigured. In His great forbearance, He permits blasphemy for awhile, but idolaters cannot tarnish the glory of the Holy One. God will vindicate His honor, in His time; at the last, every knee shall bend, every mouth declare the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

In the second place, God does forbear, and idolaters of every sort are invited to receive the amnesty of the Almighty. By faith in Jesus Christ, those who scorn God now may yet come to know Him as Father, and the wonderful privilege of adoption as His children. It is not too late.

A fundamental choice is laid before all of us, a call to repentance, with the wonderful promise of restoration, redemption, and resurrection. We may know God–not just abstractly, but personally; not just as the Father, but as our Father. But we may only know God on His terms, not on our own. We may only know Him as He has revealed Himself–as He truly is, not as we would have Him be.

Knowing Him a He truly is, we also come to know ourselves as we truly are, and in sanctification we embrace the selves that He has called, and empowered us, to be. This self is not self-centered but Christ-centered, renewed in the image of the Creator. There, unsurprisingly, lies the secret of creaturely joy.

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