May 6, 2008

• Naphtali News: Hallelujahs, Hosea, Humility, Hallowing, Hard Questions...

  I've been trying to finish up the last touches my post on "Things to Look for in a Church." I started writing it about six months ago...and had really let it sit pretty much untouched until the past couple weeks and now I'm finding things to tweak and add...I now have 26 different points. I suppose if I could stretch it out to a 30 days then I could package it as a monthly devotional about the Church.

  It wasn't like this in the "olden days" (daze?) of my portable Smith Corona typewriter. You typed once and that was pretty much that (other than getting out the typewriter eraser for minor mistakes, or swapping in the eraser cartridge or using the correction fluid for bigger mistakes). That's the only reason why what came to be known as the 24 hour senior thesis made it in on time. Otherwise, I'm suspecting I might still be revising and editing today! (How many of you out there have ever even used an actual typewriter?)

  I recently had a wonderful discussion with a sister visiting from out of town about Piper, meaty books and authors, the value of Christian biography, churches preaching an incomplete gospel (not teaching Christ as necessary for both justification and sanctification), and the necessity for the church to be solidly grounded in Biblical doctrine in order to do ministry...what a wonderful way to spend an hour on a Saturday afternoon.

  During Sunday worship, we sang Shane and Shane's "When I Think about the Lord." A reminder of God's redeeming grace! I love this song but had never sung it as part of corporate worship before:

  When I Think about the Lord
  (James Huey, ©1998 CFN Music)

  When I think about the Lord
  How He saved me, how He raised me
  How He filled me with the Holy Ghost
  How He healed me to the uttermost
  When I think about the Lord
  How He picked me up
  Turned me around
  How He set my feet
  On solid ground
  
  It makes me want to shout...
  Hallalujah! thank you, Jesus
  Lord, You're worthy
  Of all the glory, and all the honor
  And all the praise!!!
  
  Hallelujah! thank you, Jesus
  Lord, You're worthy
  Of all the glory, and all the honor
  And all the praise
  

  I shared lunch with another sister who told me how she is so blessed to have a husband who shows God's love to her...yes, I am more and more acutely aware of what a blessing it is to be married to a man who loves me as Christ loves the Church. It baffles my mind how good God is to me.

  Since I knew I'd be reading Hosea, I purchased Jeremiah Burroughs' (author of "Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment") exposition on Hosea. When I ordered it I knew it was 700 pages, but I was taken by surprise when I found the book to weigh in at over two pounds and measure about 8" x 12". And not only that but it has two columns of text on a page. I'm closing in on page 50. The book is not very handy to put in the pack to take with on a walk to the nearby park. Burroughs is really meaty and really wordy. The last portion of the book is actually commentary written by other contemporaries of Burroughs after his death since Burroughs did not live to complete his preaching on Hosea. I suspect the book will nicely fill the time we will be driving to Colorado this summer, Lord willing. (Ask me if I am excited.)

  
  

  I'm up to Hosea 1:11 in Burroughs' book. There are almost almost twenty pages on verse 11 alone: Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
  
  I'm also reading through the second book in Lloyd-Jones' "Acts" series. If you've read enough of Lloyd-Jones, you begin to anticipate some of what he's going to write, but it's all good and meaty. And besides, how many times do we need to read something before we really get it? Also, I'm still slowly progressing through his book on the sermon on the mount.

  I've had a couple screaming matches with God, but you know how those always end: "Not my will, but Yours be done."

  I am thanking God for His renewing, refreshing longsuffering mercies which rain down on us in the midst of the darkest, driest nights of doubt and rebellion. Still waters, birds chirping, flowers blooming, trees budding, sun shining...sitting, clearing my head...His Spirit reminding me I am His beloved and He is mine. His Spirit reminding me He is the one hedging me in to draw me back to Him. The One who brings me back to my senses. Reading through Hosea is so wonderful. How shall I give thee up? Our God is a God who can't forsake His own children. A God who doesn't forsake me for Christ's sake. Amen. Glorious grace.
  
  

  

  Relearning lessons about who I am in Christ. "I don't want you to be doing. I want you to be you. Rest in Me and I will do what you cannot do."

  Resting in Christ sounds simple but the flesh fights it.

  We want to be noticed and esteemed.

  We don't mind the ride into Jerusalem, but we don't want to go lower and to take up our crosses and go outside the camp to Christ. (Check out John Piper's T4G message, How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice.)

  We become so enamored with what we think we can do for God that we forget that we are not even worthy to unloose the Master's sandal strap. How hard it is for us to be humble.

  Burroughs writes:

  God the Father thus advanced Christ to be the Head, because he was willing to stoop so low, to be as a worm under foot, for he saith of himself, "I am a worm, and no man, " Psal. xxii. 6. Christ was low in his own eyes, and submitted himself to such a condition; and now, behold the Father has advanced him, God has made him "Head over all things," Eph. i. 22; has made him Head over principalities, and powers, and dominions, over angels, and over all men and all things in the church; has advanced him to this high and glorious dignity; We see somewhat of it now, and we shall see more gloriously the headship of Christ hereafter.
  
  In this God the Father shows, that as he has dealt with his Son, so he is willing to deal with the members of HIs Son. His Son, who was willing to be so low and under foot, is now advanced to such high glory that all must stoop, and yield, and submit to him. Let us be willing to lie low, thou it be under foot, to be trodden upon by the wicked and ungodly in the world; though we cannot expect to be advanced to glory and dignity.

  I am relearning lessons about God's perfect timing and sovereignty. Why did I commit that sin? Why did you allow that person to hurt me? Why did you allow me to do this (latest) stupid thing?

  Yet praise God that He reminds me (again) how He is faithful to work the good, the bad and the ugly for my good, for the good of His Church and for His glory: even my sin, my stupidity and poor judgment.

  Nothing will thwart His plan. All these things were not by accident and did not take God by surprise but are a part of His sovereign plan. ..to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

  I am learning how hard it is to go lower and walk in the downward mobility that Nouwen writes of.

  Reminders that God's discipline shows me I am not a bastard but a true child of God and God's discipline is evidence of my heavenly Father's love for me...although it doesn't seem pleasant at the time, but it is oh so necessary.

  I am only beginning to see how I have not fully given my past over to God so I do not keep holding onto the past and let neither bitter disappointments nor past blessings weigh me down so I can't run the race before me. When I keep my eyes on the past, I can't keep my eyes set on Jesus and the joy set before me. I end up stumbling and falling. But of course, God is ready and waiting to pick me up and set my feet on high places when I turn back to Him. Micah 7:7-9.

  I just finished reading Piper's "Let the Nations Be Glad!" I'm still processing...Honestly, I've never been very keen on missions until relatively recently...The book is bursting my head and heart...All part of God's work to make me more of what David Bryant calls a "world Christian."

  While studying the Lord's Prayer with a friend, I've been rereading Alan Redpath's "Victorious Praying: Studies in the Family Prayer." Redpath writes:

  As a Christian worker and as a servant of God this concern [hallowing His name] will be uppermost in everything I do for the Master's name. Whatever service you or I may undertake, our first thought in it all will be, "Is this for His glory?" Can I write "Hallowed be Thy name" over that program that I have planned for Him? Is it, in every detail, designed to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ?

  Good questions...hard questions...but ones we must be asking constantly.

  Hallalujah! thank you, Jesus
  Lord, You're worthy
  Of all the glory, and all the honor
  And all the praise!!!

  By His grace for the hallowing of His Name,
  Karen

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  • 5:09 PM
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