Some links, with comments

Here is an article on Ted Haggard's new church in Colorado Springs. Key quote: "I over-repented." Absurd, sad, dangerous.

I also draw attention to his "proud" cussing. This is one of my least favorite things, the Christians who proudly cuss. It is really obnoxious.

Here is an interview about a band called Mosaic. I didn't read it beyond the assertion early on that the band is a Mosaic because of the different backgrounds of the six members. After checking the bands website, I found they were all white people, all from middle-class backgrounds, and mostly from the South. My favorite mosaics are monochrome! They should change their name to "The Bathroom Floor."

Thankfulness

Through Jesus let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name.

Thankfulness is independent of circumstances, because it is dependent on an already finished work.

Distant

It is just a day like any other, but I am aware, suddenly, of the unveiling work, known by the grayness of all I see. No life, no savor, no sweetness. Taste and see, the Lord says, and I remember the taste of him, but it is a memory today.

Pray, says my heart, return to him and plead for his presence, as David does. But I am slow. Other things provide a quick and easy imitation of nearness, though they fade fast and leave my mind unsettled, unable to find the rest in him it desires.

Life seems too long today, a vast expanse to be traversed, full of its own joys perhaps, but lonely, a scattered distance. When can I see him?

I know the age I live in. I know this is the great gathering, and we tarry here until it is complete. Hence my labor. But some days I tarry with no greater end, nothing lived or experienced, the world not with me, as Denise Levertov would say. It is half life, the worst of both.

Edwards would say it is a failure to improve the time, a squandering of the ten given me, and he is surely right. But grace, O God.

It is a day. Let me live, Lord!

On the Cusp

O Lord, here I am!

My son, so far I have brought you.

O Lord, I am ready, I am eager, I will work, I will labor.

My son, it is the work of my Spirit within you.

O Lord, what protects me, what guides me, what leads me?

My son, it is my Spirit alone.

O Lord, my plans, my efforts, my skills, what are they?

My son, ten talents with which you may please me.

O Lord, may I please you in this labor, in this work? How?

My son, in the manifestation of Christ in you, for he has transformed you and made you competent for it.

O Lord, may ask for more, may I seek what my heart desires but which seems presumptuous?

My son, do you limit your asking according to my power? If you do, than ask it.

O Lord, but is it not pride to ask for such increase, for such blessing?

My son, pride is mixed in all that you do. Repent of it, ask, and let me cleanse you.

O Lord, I fear your disfavor, your punishment, that you will see need to humble me before I may be used.

My son, I am pleased with you.

O Lord, will you really bless me? Dare I hope it?

My son, walk in the confidence of the peace of your justification, sealed in the Spirit. What comes, be content with. You are blessed.

O Lord, I fear that the sin that yet remains will hinder me, that my work will be spoiled, my labor fruitless.

My son, all work is cursed, even this holy work of ministry, cursed not in the ends it may produce, but in the satisfaction that may be had by it. If you seek an unspoiled work, you will be always disappointed. Seek faithfulness instead, trusting in what I will do with the talents you bring. You are my servant.

O Lord, me? Why?

My son, this is the mystery of my grace, to use such a man as you. Let me use whom I will use.

O Lord, but my sins, some so recent, still so present, yea, even today!

My son, all the men I ever used said the same, indeed you know your sin but weakly compared to some of them. But in order that I might display my mercy to the world, I use men like you, that all those you speak to will know that this mercy is for all that I call.

O Lord, then what remains?

Rest in me, take heart, and run toward the battle lines with all your strength.

Apply the Word Thoroughly

Here is the passage:

From Psalm 36,

An oracle is in my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked:
There is no fear of God before his eyes
For in his own eyes he flatters himself
too much to detect or hate his sin.

These are the words of the Scripture, the God-breathed words which must control our thinking. And it is to give us a REAL insight that these words were spoken. What are we constrained to say about the unregenerate from this passage?

Doctrine:

1. The reprobate does not fear God, and whatever regard might be present in him toward God, it is not a true fear, but some self-directed vanity of mind.

2. This is shown by the delusional self-regard that the sinner has. He imagines himself to be in a good position because he does not think of himself as all that bad.

3. The reason he does this is because of a desire to think well of himself. He flatters himself, or lies with the purpose of artificially inflating the ego. The person lied to also does the lying. His motive is to assuage his conscience and make himself comfortable in his sin.

4. This flattery prevents him from even knowing his sin as he ought. Even when the actual deeds of sin are known and admitted, the underlying cause of the sin is not admitted. The deed is a mistake, even a terrible mistake, but understood as an aberration.

5. Not being able to see his sin, he is much less able to hate it. He might not like the effects and consequences, but a true hatred of sin as sin is impossible for him.

Application:

1. Understand the world in this way. No more wishful nonsense about "good" people existing in the world. There are none. There is much flattery and self-deception which may convince a man of his righteousness, but no true regard for God.

(I met a guy yesterday who told me he was 99% righteous. Suspiciously precise, I thought.)

2. What is therefore required of us on behalf of men in the world is not to convince them that God loves them, which after all is not too difficult when a man is already convinced that he is lovable, but to open there eyes to the wretchedness of their sin. To blow away the mist of flattery that has disguised the true condition of the sinner.

3. Do not trust the good motives men give to disguise their dark actions. Show charity, be gentle, but don't believe their flattery.

4. More significantly, you must know whether you flatter yourself, since the sinful nature is still at work in you. Know that your flesh longs to think well of itself, and you can be quite ingenious in devising covers for even the most flagrant of sins. Good and thorough self-analysis, coupled with a hearty distrust of one's motives, should be a daily practice for all men.

That is what it is to thoroughly apply the Word. It means, don't let any implications of the Word move past you. It should be noted that my doctrines and applications align well with cross-referencing.

This was just an example. Do this in your daily time in the Word.

The Conscience

The secret of peace and obedience is attention to the conscience. Strengthen it with the Word, listen to it in the mornings and evenings. Allow it to convict you by the Law and comfort you with the Gospel.

It is God's voice in you. Trust so far as it aligns with Scripture.

Meditations on Song of Songs, i.1

Let him…

If we believe that God is sovereign, if we believe he is good, if we believe he is wise, then we can trust in the language he employs. Therefore, God is male, though gender is not a part of God, at least in the limited sense we consider it. God is not a man, he has no maleness about him except as he represents the fullness of all things. Yet we, in our humility, must respect the words that God himself applies to himself, knowing that the language he uses is for us, a gift to us. Since we struggle to see through our sin-dimmed eyes, he made himself clear. So God is HE, HIM, HIS, though he is not a man.

Though he is not a man, yet he shows himself to us through the eyes of gender, that we by knowing him may understand ourselves. Some may filter him back to himself through ourselves, at least, our 21st century self, the self that sees this masculinity of God as his cultural captivity, as if we alone among all the long centuries of man are free enough to determine another time’s bondage. No, in this we reveal a double fault, error and pride. For his masculinity shaped and transcended culture, interposing into cultures that had strong feminine gods, no impossibility then. Let us instead have God choose his words, and form ourselves around them.

No, women, that God is masculine exalts the male no higher than the great gift he received when he was formed, that he should be created in the image of God. This gift he shares with the female, his equal, giving her all the dignity she should have, all the dignity she will ever need claim. For the Apostle said that in Christ, these ancient partners are one and the same, for through him they must all come.

So why, we ask, should God unveil himself to our eyes as masculine? I am tempted to say, with Job, that we should cover our mouths, being unworthy, but it is a gracious God we serve, whose light may be followed wherever it leads. The questions we ask are often anticipated, in the manner of the Apostle, and so God knew that this inquiring age would search his Word to see what made it HIS not HERs.

We inquire, for God can bear the asking, fearing not nor trembling at us. Though come with patience, care, and, like the child, a pleasing openness. O Lord, whose wisdom chose the words we use, why do you represent yourself to us as a man?

Christ, he says, the one who came, his love a pattern to all the church. Let him…

kiss me kisses of his mouth—

If ever man claimed this divine masculinity in the abusing of his own strength, here an irony awaits. For we, the church, both men and women, are kissed by him whom our soul loves! This rude and broken world may dirty these words, and we who share its influence (and at least those living in my captive American culture are guilty) may be ashamed to hear of love so boldly stated. We shudder (at least the men do, though women may feel an improper thrill) for we have made of sex a constant companion, in our thoughts, our words, our entertainments. To expand on this great debasing is not the scope of my intentions, so I will let it pass. But doesn’t it make you mourn that you cannot join with God in his own Word? O for the purity of an undefiled mind!

No, speak with me to your heart until these words are clean, for Christ will kiss his bride with all the tender kisses of his loving heart, and we the beloved must know how to cry out for it! For as God is not man, so these kisses are not that shadow we see in our own pattern. No, what is this stated desire, what does the bride seek, for we are his people and those who cannot speak with me kiss me with the kisses of your mouth know not the pathways of his love. Speak the words in their true meaning, not a secret Gnostic meaning, but that which they were written for!

Desire, now, with a pure desire, that which the heart enjoins.