This is taken from today's Desiring God blog. John Piper's daughter-in-law was close to term when they lost the baby on Saturday....
My heart is always lifted God-ward by Piper's ministry, no less during times of grief. May I so love and trust our Savior!

(Author: Tyler)
After my first day of work at DG, Abraham and Molly had me over for dinner. I remember asking then--since Molly was already showing--what their daughter's name would be. Their reply was a gentle rejection. They had resolved to tell no one until she was born.
We have learned your name, Felicity Margaret Piper, too soon. But your life shall not have been in vain. Our hearts now mourn and hope.
Felicity

Felicity, that happy name
was hidden with your forming frame
next to the heart of mom and dad
until the day you came.

You did not come as we presumed—
a place upstairs at home was groomed.
Yet other plans our Sovereign had
and took you from the womb.

Life is never ill-conceived.
He willed through you to make us grieved;
and though our hearts now linger sad,
we know whom we've believed.

The God who numbers all our days
no less deserves our endless praise.
He means the loss that now bodes bad
to highlight heaven's rays.

He's teaching us to trust his grace
while yet we cannot see his face
like you, in righteousness now clad,
and Fatherly embrace.

Felicity, your name will hence
accomplish mom and dad's intents
and make the saints of Jesus glad
for every providence.

Heart.

I am wrestling some right now with the appropriate place for emotions in religion. I am involved in a study right now that says that "Feelings are involuntary. They are caused indirectly, not directly. Feelings are not willed into being. They are indicators, not instigators. Feelings, in and of themselves, are not sin. How do we know that feelings are not sin and that God does not hold us responsible for changing our feelings? We are never commanded anywhere in the Scriptures to change them. God only commands us to change our deeds."

I did a concordance search - on feelings in the Bible directly linked to the heart - ie. 2 Sam 6:16 "...and she despised him in her heart." The heart expresses no less than 60 different feelings in the NIV version of the Bible - pain, rejoicing, yearning, guilt, anguish, cheerfulness, delight, sincerity... Some of the feelings are commanded "Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord" Philippians 3:1. "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." Psalm 51:17

I guess I am confused on what the heart is, if not feelings? This study suggests that it refers to "one's character or inner life with its desires and purpose for living." It also says that it includes "the mind, intentions, and motives." I do not understand how we can possibly separate this from feelings. It seems to be alot of hair-splitting. When does a feeling (I am jealous of how close you are to my sister) become a thought to repent of?

Feelings can clearly be sin - I think at the root of this study's teaching is the word "involuntary". Feelings are these things that just happen to you - like a sneeze or a hiccup. Since we cannot control them, we are clearly not responsible for them. This flies in the face of the gospel - and is even contradictory to passages the study itself leads to. James 3:14 "But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth." or Matthew 5:28 "But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already commited adultery with her in his heart."

What may be missing is the working of the Holy Spirit. As the psalmist says in Psalm 119:36 "Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!" This psalm especially is full of how dependant we are on God's grace to love Him:
Do not utterly forsake me! v4.
Teach me statutes! v12.
Open my eyes v18.
Hide not Your commandments from me! v19.
Make me understand the way of Your precepts v27
Put false ways far from me, and graciously teach me Your law! v29
Lead me in the path of Your commandments v36
Uphold me according to Your promise v116
Hold me up, that I may be safe v117
Keep steady my steps according to Your promise v133
I have gone astray like a lost sheep, seek Your servant v176

Some days we just wake up grumpy. Repent. Some days we hear something that makes us unrighteously angry. Repent. And, beg of the Holy Spirit to incline our hearts towards Him! We can not will our feelings to change. But we may, we Must, beg of the Spirit to work in our hearts - to produce the fruit of the Spirit, to sanctify us, as we diligently seek God's face and glory - in humble, delightful obedience.

just for judah!

Rainbows and presents

It was my son's birthday yesterday. He turned five. And shortly before bedtime, out came a glorious rainbow. He was SO excited. And commented that rainbows are special from God. And, that this was God's birthday present for him. My heart did a flip, and I rejoice at the simple faith of my child. Faith that the thunder stops for him when he prays. Faith to not even wake me up when he has a nightmare, but to tell me the next morning that he prayed when he woke up afraid, and fell back asleep feeling safer. Faith to not let me drop him off at school until we have prayed in the van; because he knows his day will be better because of it.

Oh! The faith of a child! It is no wonder the Lord says we must come to Him with child-like faith. I see God at work in the heart of my little boy, and wonder why I can not be so trusting.

A birthday present from God..... what a delightful thought!

okay....is the wording here just a little misleading??

"Taking vitamin D supplements cuts one's overall risk of death, " - CBC health news, sept. 11-07

....because as far as i know,

"it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgement, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many." heb 9:27-28

 okay, so perhaps i'm being a little silly and sarcastic in my use of this article, but don't worry i have a point.

I do believe that the sun has great benefit to our health, most definitely, however, we need to consider the great need of the Son as well.....and as much as the sun may prolong life, this article is wrong to say it cuts one's risk of death. Death is definite. 100% of us will die. only the Son can change the way in which we die: do we die to the Glory of God or condemned by our own sin?

So don't be fooled, no matter what doctors and drug specialists tell you: vitamin D does not make you immortal! 

just a little silly pondering from me this morning.

my first post, not my own words...but good ones

"Christians are living too much in the present now. And the pleasurable anticipation of better things to come is almost died out of the church of Christ because now, "We don't need any tomorrows, Heaven, we're too well situated now. We don't need to hope, we have it now." That's the emphasis in our day, and I think it is a wretched emphasis. . . . But the true Christian is one who's kind of sick of this world. If I find anybody who is settled down too snugly into this world, I'm made to doubt his spiritual regenesis--whether he's ever truly been born again. He can live here and work here and serve here. But if I find he fits down into the world like a hand into an old and familiar glove, I worry a little bit about the man. Because all the Christians I meet who are amounting to anything are Christians that are very much out of key with their age--very, very much out of tune with their generation. Jesus called it a 'wicked and adulterous generation,' and that generation has not improved any--we're still the same wicked and adulterous generation that were in the days of Jesus. And if you can live in it too comfortably I am being made to wonder if the miracle has ever been wrought in your life or not. . . . The Christian has a homeland, and the fact that we're not anticipating it or looking forward to it with any pleasure is a serious mark that something is wrong with us."

--A.W. Tozer

What's wrong with Wright? Part Deux.

Alright - I finished the book. And I have to admit I was surprised at what I read. I guess I am naive as to what doctrines are out there....

Wright has a few unusual definitions, thought I might share a couple of them....

Evil and Sin -

Wright:"Evil is the force of anti-creation, anti-life, the force which opposes and seeks to deface and destroy God's good world of space, time and matter, and above all else God's image-bearing human creatures." pg 89

"Sin is the rebellion of humankind against the vocation to reflect God's image into the world, the refusal to worship God the Creator, and the replacement of that worship and that vocation with the worship of elements of the created order." pg 109

"Evil is then the moral and spiritual equivalent of a black hole." pg 113

Compared this with Piper's definition: "Everything which is not from faith is sin." Anything, absolutely any act or attitude which is owing to a lack of trust in God is sin, no matter how moral it may appear to men. God looks on the heart." August 24, 1980

Atonement -
Wright: "the victory of Jesus Christ over all the powers of evil and darkness, as the central theme in atonement theology" pg 114

Piper: "The atonement is the work of God in Christ, by his obedience and death, by which he cancelled the debt of our sin, appeased his holy wrath against us, and won for us all the benefits of salvation." April 1, 1999

Idolatry -

Wright: When we humans commit idolatry - worshipping that which is not God as if it were - we thereby give to other creatures and beings in the cosmos a power, a prestige, an authority over us which we, under God, were supposed to have over them." pg 112, emphasis his

Piper: "The first dark exchange is the exchange of the glory of God for the glory of images of man and animals. Call it idolatry." October 4, 1998 regarding Romans 1:21-23

God's Ultimate Purpose -

Wright: "God's ultimate purpose, which is to rid the world of evil altogether and to establish his new creation of justice, beauty and peace." pg 102

Piper: God's Passion for His Glory (most life-changing book to be read, save the Bible)

"His ultimate purpose – in all his wrath and all his power and all his mercy – is this: "to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory." February 23, 2003 regarding Romans 9:23-24

I have read so much Piper lately, that I find myself caught offguard by any man-centered theology. This book is full of it - and while God is on the pages of Wright's book, He is there in some making-everything-right-for-man-and-the-rest-of-creation facilitative sort of role. Wright refers to creation as "the project of God" pg 109; evil as a "Negative Force" pg 112 and God and His plan and His Gospel as "ambiguous" and "mysterious" pgs 113, 83, 119, 74 to list a few.

One of my biggest concerns came only a few pages after I stopped with my blog yesterday. I do not understand what Wright's thoughts are on eternal punishment, only that it does not seem to exist. Consider the following: "It is not enough to say that God will eventually make a new world in which there will be no more pain and crying, that does scant justice to all the evil that has gone before." pg 96 And then, he moves on - to talk about personal forgiveness. "What right has God to say that this evil can somehow be wiped away so that it appears to not exist anymore? Is this not simply another way of belittling evil, making it appear that it isn't really as important as all that?" pg 142 He missed the point! God has done justice to all the evil! There is ETERNAL punishment for those who do not glorify God in this life, who do not know Christ Jesus in a salvific way. There is the work of Christ on the cross - that paid for the penalty of the sins of those who were called, chosen, elected, predestined.... Christ is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12) because the work He set out to do on the cross, He accomplished!

Wright's answer is instead: "this is really the central point of this book, the ultimate answer to this aspect at least of the problem of evil - is not only that in the new world God Himself will be beyond the reach of the moral blackmail of unresolved evil, but that we shall be as well." pg 143

He also states "What right has God to say that He forgives the offender when it is Joe Smith, not God, who has been really hurt?" pg 142 Again, he has missed a crucial point. King David, upon having his eyes opened to the extent of his sin - in murdering Uriah, in taking Bethsheba, says in Psalm 51:4 "against You, You only have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight".

My one other major concern, before I close, pertains to Wright's understanding of the human heart. "This is the point at which the recognition that the line between good and evil runs right through the middle of me, and of everyone of us, is met by the gospel proclamation that the death of Jesus is "for me," in my place and on my behalf." pg 95. also pg 38, 39.

Psalm 53:3 "there is none who does good, not even one." There is no line within us - we are either dead in sins, or made alive in Christ, because His blood has covered our sin.

What's wrong with Wright? Part One

"The other book is a response to N. T. Wright on the doctrine of justification. I have no immediate plan to publish it until I get the feedback from critical readers. My motivation in writing it is that I think his understanding of Paul is wrong and his view of justification is harmful to the church and to the human soul. Few things are more precious than the truth of justification by faith alone because of Christ alone. As a shepherd of a flock of God’s blood-bought church, I feel responsible to lead the sheep to life-giving pastures. That is not what the sheep find in Wright’s view of Paul on justification. He is an eloquent and influential writer and is, I believe, misleading many people on the doctrine of justification. I will keep you posted on what becomes of this manuscript."

John Piper - August 2, 2006.

Ah - time to reflect. I am livid, to be sure, and while I know that will come through, I am not sure that is a bad thing. We shall see.

I bought a few books this week, one of which I thought was the book Piper was referring to in the above quote. I found, upon re-reading his article, that it is not, however the book by N.T. Wright that I did pick up Evil and the Justice of God is, I am sure, equally disturbing. I say disturbing because, from everything I have seen at local bookstores (Christian or secular - 6 of which I have visited locally in recent months) Wright is one of the most accessable, and I daresay influential Christian authors. I say influential, not just because Piper has, but because his books make it into top sellers... and because I was first introduced to him as the author of the only document of substance on Rob Bell's church's website.

I am half way through the book, but it was not until the middle chapters that I found myself ready to weep over his teachings.

The early chapters seem to point to a God that really does not know what He is doing. Reading Wright, you kind of feel sorry for Him... "God's anxiety that Adam might now take fruit from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever in his fallen state leads to His equal anxiety that arrogant humankind would be able to plot ever greatr and greater folly...." pg 52 The next page Wright talks about God's loneliness, grief, exasperation that He knows He will continue to experience. Page 76 Wright suggests that "God (the Creator God, please note)... has undertaken a plan: it is a daring and risky plan, involving God in so much ambiguity... that He begins to look like a double agent, becoming compromised at many points in order to pull of the solution." That Wright can even use the word "sovereignty" at all baffles me, because he clearly does not mean a God that does whatever He pleases.

"all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” " Daniel 4:35 See also Job 23:13, Psalms 115:3 and 135:6.

That Jesus did not really know what was going on when He first showed up on earth is evidenced in a couple of places:

"Jesus CAME TO BELIEVE... he had to take its full force upon Himself so that everyone else could be spared." pg 87 and "Why did Jesus die?... Jesus Himself believed, in some sense, that it was His vocation." pg 75.

Again - where is the sovereignty of God?

There were a number of other teachings I found either uncomfortable, bizarre, or just plain not-in-the-Word. Among them - a vague sense of maximizing the concept of "evil", but minimizing "everyday sin" (which might reduce the Gospel to "a farce" pg 87); referring to Christ as "prophet"; and a downplay of both Satan and Hell.

It was not until I got to page 94 though, that I felt the need to write, and weep, and pray... oh, how my heart burns for those that begin to believe this!

"The Gospels thus tell the story, centrally and crucially, which stands unique in the world's great literature, the world's religious theories and visions: the story of the Creator God taking responsibility for what has happened to creation, bearing the weight of its problems on His own shoulders. As Sydney Carter put it in one of his finest songs, "It's God they ought to crucify, instead of you and me." Or, as one old evangelistic tract put it, the nations of the world got together to pronounce judgment on God for all the evils in the world, only to realize with a shock that GOD HAD ALREADY SERVED HIS SENTENCE."

So - we, according to Wright, have a God who messed up, and realises He did, so He sent His Son to fix His big mistake.... I do not know yet how this plays out in the rest of the book, I only know that this is not the God that I know....

You are not your own.

You are not your own,

you were bought with a price.

So glorify God in your body.

I Corinthians 6:20

I have been reading in Ezekial the last few days, and his life, much like Hosea's strikes me... God gets ahold of him, and tells him how things are going to be. For Ezekial, that means he will symbolize the punishment of Isreal by laying on his side 390 days. More than a year; doing something that seems, to our human minds, totally futile. Is there no other way for God to make His point?

I could not imagine being in Ezekial's position. It is no wonder he sat overwhelmed for a week. Maybe it is a wonder he did not feel overwhelmed for longer.

I think my first thoughts are very, very earthly focused. We only have a few decades here, it does not seem "fair" that God use a man like this.... but such thinking is naive, and does not honour God. I need to not only be willing to be used like Ezekial was, should the Lord so choose; but I am sinning when I think that this life I live is my own.

Consider how often Paul refers to himself as a bondservant to Christ. Consider 1 Cor. 6:20 - this life I live, is God's!

This is not the modern gospel. Tell a man he is loved. Tell him he will experience joy, and peace, at the foot of the cross. But do not tell him he may have to lie on his side for a year. Do not tell him that God may choose to glorify His great name, by making an example of the man. Was God working for Ezekial's good when He told him to prophesy? (Romans 8:28) He must have been. It is just not the sort of good we expect. Nor is it always good in this life....

May I be humbled, to say with the Apostle Paul that this is not my life. May I live to glorify Him that bought me, with my every word and deed! Oh, that the great fire might burn, that God might use me, however He may, to glorify His great name!