Christ Alone

The Strength in Being Broken

• AUGUST 30, 2017
• /
• JOHN TILLMAN

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:11-13To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

Reflection: The Strength in Being BrokenBy John Tillman

The Apostle Paul never took a strength-finder test. He preferred to boast, not in his strengths but his weaknesses.

Modern evaluative tests can be a helpful tool to match up serving opportunities with our temperaments, but when relied on too heavily, they can put the focus on ourselves. There is a danger of allowing our consumerism to affect even how we choose to serve in the church.

We live in a day where the popular idea behind ministry training is to focus on developing one’s gifts. Gift inventories, personality surveys, and strength indicator tests are the rage among those who want to be equipped for ministry today. But these kinds of tests set your eyes on your gifts. They put the focus on your strengths and your natural abilities. They make you the center of attention. However, the Lord is far more interested in your weaknesses than in your strengths. He’s interested in breaking you. Why? Because when there is less of you in the way, there is more room for Him to work.

As we survey church history, we discover that A. W. Tozer’s piercing observation is most accurate: “All great Christians have been wounded souls.”

Where we have been broken, we rely more heavily on Christ. And where we rely on ourselves, we are unlikely to do successful work for the kingdom.

It’s not hard to spot a Christian in ministry who isn’t broken. Unbroken people don’t know how to lay their lives down and lose. They only know how to try to win. If they’re criticized, they retaliate. If they’re attacked, they return fire. If misunderstood, they defend in anger. They are capable of doing all sorts of damage to others in order to save their own ministries and keep their reputations. On the contrary, people who have been broken by the hand of God know how to turn the other cheek. They know how to go the second mile. They know how to give their coats when asked for their shirts. They know how to speak well of those who misrepresent them. They know how to return good for evil. They know how to lose. And in so doing, they exhibit the Spirit of the Lamb and allow God to win.

What we learn through brokenness can’t be learned any other way. The strength we need to find has its source in Christ alone.

*Excerpts condensed from God’s Favorite Place on Earth by Frank Viola

Speak, Act and Love

Greg Morse:  The Monumental Problem | Hashtag Activism and Covert Racism

We all wish we could have been there. To sit on Rosa’s bus. To listen to Martin’s dream. To rally with Churchill against the Third Reich. To go to war with the women’s suffrage movement.

We imagine our voices, however small, being engulfed in the sweet harmony of the generations that sang, “Let Freedom Ring!” Our immaculate selves (the ones that we can imagine being in those eras) are so unflinching, so outspoken, so courageous. They are men and women of conviction who have no choice but to be set ablaze by the sparks of oppression and injustice.

In our imaginings, public opinion wouldn’t stop us, busy lives and daily concerns play no factor — our chief concern is, “Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” (Amos 5:24).

Yet, we do not live in those days, we are bound to our own. We do not face their horrors, we face ours. We are not there, we are here.

With the advent of social media, it is easier than ever to scold the dead for personal gain. Few things are simpler than to opportunistically spit on the graves of others to shine our own social standing.

It is easier to cry for Robert E. Lee to fall and for Confederate flags to burn (and gain a following in the process) than to decry the politically incorrect evils that are celebrated by our culture. It is easier to join the masses than to stand alone. When the need of the hour requires one to expose their back to the hose of public opinion, the masses take their signs and go home.

Historically, speaking against the spirit of the age has social costs. Past struggles were just that, struggles. Real courage and conviction were required. What was vital to them in their time is now needed of us in ours. The racial monument that must come down in our day is heavier than stone and threatens those who cannot protest. Removing it will involve more sacrifice than hashtag activism.

Throwing Stones, August 2017

Many are throwing stones. This is not an indictment against all who would do so, because some stones need to be thrown at ideological wolves.

When confronted with the historic enshrinement of Southerners who stood for causes that, among other things, furthered injustice, inequality, and oppression, many grab for smooth stones to hurl at the giant. And this uncircumcised Philistine of racism openly defies the image of God on display in all of Adam’s children. There are not enough voices in America to cry out against racial supremacy.

But when we consider the elephant in the room, the one who will throw stones back, the one who will reprimand us for our lack of political correctness, the one who, if you fight against her, will lose you Facebook friends and followers on Twitter, we too often opt for silence. We tend toward activism only when it is trending.

But the world needs a diverse people who stand side by side with one another while holding the book, decrying popular — and unpopular — evils, and pointing to the most popular — and unpopular — figure the world has ever seen: Jesus Christ.

Take This Monument Down

Without further ado, the monument that must come down is the one hoisted by Margaret Sanger years ago: abortion.

I used to roll my eyes when someone would post articles about abortion. As a black man, it seemed like a distant problem from me and the community. Then it wasn’t.

I remember feeling asphyxiated as I read and studied. The institution has millions and millions of racial skeletons in its closet. When Satan’s spell is finally broken, the abortion clinic will be held in the same infamy as lynching ropes, metal shackles, and slave ships. If not in this life, then most certainly in the next.

The blindness staggers. Cries of racism can be heard at every turn and yet a great silence ensues concerning a multimillion dollar company (Planned Parenthood) capitalizing off of dead black babies? Hmm . . .

It has roots in a racist eugenics program called The Negro Project, check. Sanger desired to limit the population of the “feeble minded” and spoke at a KKK rally, check. Most abortion clinics are in disenfranchised, minority communities, check.

And new minority skeletons are added every day.

Around 950 black children — each with ten fingers and ten toes — are devoured every single day. Forty every hour. Villainous men in hoods — or now without hoods — cannot accomplish the level of carnage that men in white coats inflict daily. No days off. No relenting in this evil institution. This historic relic, this monument to racial supremacy and eugenics, needs to fall.

And we must call for it to fall. We detest racial supremacy in all forms — especially against the most vulnerable minority population on the planet. Our Facebook statuses cannot be filled with tons of outrage over a group of whites hating blacks in Charlottesville, while never saying anything about the abortion clinic down the street that dismembers minority children.

As Ismael Hernandez rightfully said, “Past racists snatched black babies from their mother’s arms and sold them into slavery. Today they snatch them from their mother’s womb and throw them in the garbage.”

If, knowing the inconvenient truth about abortion, we bury our heads in the sand and pretend the lion isn’t devouring our children, God calls us weak and holds us accountable. Proverbs 24:10–12,

If you faint in the day of adversity,
your strength is small.
Rescue those who are being taken away to death;
hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will he not repay man according to his work?

The day of adversity is here — not the yesterday of adversity. We can’t fight their battles, but we can fight our own. We all know what is going on. He who watches our souls knows we know it, and he will hold us accountable.

This Little Light of Mine

Christians should never have to stand alone against wickedness in culture. They stand as one people.

I pray for the day when the church in the West will mobilize. I pray for the day when those who love God and know his word lead movements of righteousness. A day when jumping on the bandwagon of secular movements will be over, and Christians will stand on their own two feet before the world’s evils and call all men everywhere to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

A day when the gospel cannot be mistaken for “pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities,” caring only about the soul without regard to the body. A day when people of the text will not survey Twitter feeds to know which evil is okay to fight, but will unleash God’s word amidst Adam’s fallen children who swim in racism, prejudice, and selfishness, passing their days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another (Titus 3:3).

A day when the people of God will share Facebook posts denouncing the culture’s darling evils and extend the hope of the gospel to them afterwards. A day when we will stop hijacking the deep wickedness of our day to post things about it to prop up our own righteousness before our virtual friends, rather than bringing the ax of God’s word to bear that men might bow before the cross.

And the good news is that the church is the body of Christ. His kingdom is spreading and universal righteousness is racing towards us. A day is coming when swamps of bigotry and murder will be flooded with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).

With two eyes set fully upon that coming day, the glorious King of that day, courageously speak, act, and love as his ambassadors, for we are his body.

Glory Forever, Amen.

Doxology

33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
    How unsearchable his judgments,
    and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 “Who has known the mind of the Lord?
    Or who has been his counselor?”
35 “Who has ever given to God,
    that God should repay them?”
36 For from him and through him and for him are all things.
    To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Romans 11

Faithful

One Little Word

Damsel and Vilian

Entirely For Us

Excerpt from John Piper:  God Did Not Spare His Own Son

...

There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). God is entirely for us, and never against us. None of our sicknesses is a judgment from a condemning judge. None of our broken cars or failed appliances is a punishment from God. None of our marital strife is a sign of his wrath. None of our lost jobs is a penalty for sin. None of our wayward children is a crack of the whip of God’s retribution. If we are in Christ. No. God is for us, not against, in and through all things — all ease and all pain.

Who Is Against Us?

This means, to say it still another way, “Who is against us?” We are still in verse 31: “If God is for us, who is against us?” The answer Paul expects when he asks that question is, “No one can be against us.” To which we are prone to say, “Really?” What does that mean? Verse 35 says that there will be tribulation and distress and persecution and sword. Verse 36 says that Christians are being killed all day long, they are counted like sheep to be slaughtered. Paul said that. So what does he mean, “Who can be against us?” I think he means no one can be successfully against us.

The devil and sinful men can make you sick, can steal your car, can sow seeds of strife in your marriage, can take away your job, and rob you of your child. But verse 28 says, God works all those things together for your good if you love him. And if they finally work for your good, the designs of the adversary are thwarted and his aim to be against you is turned into a Christ-exalting, soul-sanctifying, faith-deepening, painful benefit. If God is for you, he does not spare you these things. But he designs good where the adversary designs evil (Genesis 50:20; 45:7). The things that are against you he designs to be for you. No one can be successfully against you.

....

Draw Near to Him

Josh Squires:  Where to Bring Your Broken Heart

“Help. My heart is broken.”

This is one of the most common refrains in my counseling ministry. There are many causes: love unrequited, jobs lost, dreams quashed, spouses and children taken. No matter its roots, the pain is unbearably similar for its sufferers. And the question that hangs over it all is this: “Now what?”

Weep Well

Grief is an act as well as a feeling. When hearts are broken, cheeks should be wet. I wish it weren’t true, but it is. There is something about weeping that is incredibly scary. It’s a vulnerable act that floods our thoughts and feelings, leaving us fatigued. Little wonder then that people avoid it like the plague, or feel that they need to make an excuse for it.

But Scripture itself does not take such a negative view on mourning. God does not tell his children to “dry it up!” Rather, God stores our tears in his bottle (Psalm 56:8). In an ancient, arid land where bottles were not a dime a dozen, only precious things were kept in bottles. Even more, God himself weeps and makes no apology for it (Luke 19:41–44; John 11:35). When God finds his heart hurting, his cheeks are not dry, and you should not be ashamed if yours aren’t either.

It’s not enough to merely give our emotions vent; they need to be shepherded (Psalm 120:1; 130:1). Christians are not merely those who weep, but those who weep well. It is not true that our stress, sadness, anger, and negative emotions just need an emotional outlet to release the pressure. This “hydraulic” view of the affections often does more harm than good — before we know it, we can barely put our emotional kettle on the burner before the whistle begins to wail for relief.

Instead, the key is to marry an emotional outlet with hope. This does notmean that we always, at every single moment, need to sustain a conscious feeling of hope alongside our grief — God makes room in Scripture for passages like Psalm 88 and Job 3. He does not ask the believer to take a Pollyanna view of the believing life. But Paul reminds the Thessalonians that their grief is different from a mere emotional outpour (1 Thessalonians 4:13). It is grounded in the truth of the gospel which is the spring of hope and life itself (Romans 15:13; 1 Thessalonians 4:14–17). Gospel hope is the foundation of healthy grief. We may not always see it or focus on it, but it is there, and it will rise again (Psalm 51:12).

Go to Prayer

Grief needs prayer. It is the communion of our souls with their Maker and Sustainer. The Psalter is not just a collection of ditties for believers but a living example of the prayers of the faithful. Praying isn’t about changing God’s mind but submitting the most earnest desires of our hearts to him, and trusting his stewardship with them, even when those desires are aborted.

Christ calls out through prayer in his most desperate hour (Matthew 26:36–39). And Paul tells us that even when we don’t know how to pray as we ought, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, mending our prayers on the way up (Romans 8:26). There is something about prayer, about giving unto our Lord those thoughts and feelings which are most intimate, that makes our hearts more pliable to the comfort that only the gospel brings.

God loves to hear the raw, unscripted prayers of his children’s hearts (Psalm 62:8). But prayer is more than just an emotional dump. Our prayers are prayers to a God who has revealed himself and provided for us in his word. In grief, our prayers and our souls will benefit by feeding on God’s word.

Meditating on Scripture forces our hearts to move beyond ourselves and think on the grand scope of God’s redemptive work for his people (Colossians 1:13–14). It gives hope where otherwise there may be none (John 14:27; Romans 8:31–39; Hebrews 13:6; James 1:2). It puts our grief in perspective, reminding us that our heartache is but a tiny glimpse of the pain experienced by God at the cross (Matthew 27:46) — a suffering that he entered into willingly (John 10:18), despising the cost of shame for the joy of redeeming a people (Hebrews 12:2).

Go to Rest

Grief is exhausting. Physically and emotionally, we find ourselves worn out. A persistent and terrible fog seems to descend on our minds and bodies making it hard even to breathe at times like these. Those in grief need rest. More than just physical rest (though often no less), we need spiritual rest. It is in these moments that the words of our Lord seem sweeter than honey:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)

Resting in Jesus often means intentionally disengaging from the busyness of the world. Choosing to focus what little emotional energy we have on Kingdom purposes helps provide a peace that mere logic cannot explain (Philippians 4:4–9).

Go to Friends

Grief isn’t private. It’s often difficult and humiliating to let someone in on the depths of our pain, but God loves his people too much to let your suffering begin and end with you. Keeping your grief hidden robs the church of our ability to have the unbelievable joy of Galatians 6:2: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

All people at all times do not need to be clued into the depth of the darkness in which you find yourself, but allowing others to walk beside you in your time of distress is a way of serving them, while also allowing them to serve you. It’s a reminder that the life of a pilgrim in this fallen world is far from rose-colored and, someday, when the current trial is behind you, the church will get the benefit of witnessing God’s tangible faithfulness to you.

All too often, Satan uses our grief to indulge our desire to isolate, not only personally but corporately. Gathering for worship just feels like a chore too difficult to manage. When we grieve, it may be difficult to sing, pray, or concentrate in worship. It may feel as if the Lord’s Supper is a hollow activity. But worship is the ventilator of our spirits — keeping us alive when all else seems to fail. Bit by bit, even when we don’t appreciate it, worship is consoling our grief and nurturing our souls back to health.

Weep and Draw Near

In a world where sin infects and impacts all things, it is impossible for believers to make it through without hearts that break. But we have a God who is not silent at such times. He knows, because he has walked in our shoes (Hebrews 4:15). He has felt the terrible pangs of a broken heart. And at such times, he does not tell us to shut up and go away, but rather to weep, draw near to him, and rejoice in him.

Face to Face

Imagery of Baptism

John Piper:  Raised to New Life:  The Symbol of Baptism

Audio Transcript

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:3–4)

The wider context of Romans says that it would be a mistake if you concluded from this that water baptism is the instrument or the means by which we are united to Christ. In Romans, faith is the means by which we are united to Christ and justified. “Therefore, having been justified by faith . . .” (Romans 5:1). We’re justified in union with the just one. Union with Christ in the book of Romans clearly, powerfully, essentially is wrought through faith.

When you trust Jesus, you’re united to Jesus and when you’re united to him, what he is, he is for you, and what he is is just and righteous and pure and holy. So you become just and righteous and pure and holy in him, and that’s the glory of union with Christ by faith alone. I don’t want to construe these verses in a way that would contradict the main message of the book. We show this faith and we signify it — we symbolize it — in the act of baptism.

“When you trust Jesus, your death is over. That’s the glory of the Christian gospel.”

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Here’s an analogy, because this text reads with strong words about things happening in baptism. At a wedding in the old words, we used to say things like, “With this ring, I thee wed.” What did we mean by that? When we say, “With this ring, I thee wed,” we do not mean that putting the ring on the finger makes us married. At least, I don’t mean that when I’m involved in it. No, it shows the covenant. It symbolizes the covenant. But the vows — the covenant vows — make the marriage. So it is with faith and baptism. Faith unites us to Christ. Baptism symbolizes the ring: “With this baptism, I thee wed.” “With this baptism, you are united to Christ,” Paul says.

The point we’re focusing on here is the imagery — death and burial. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism” — with baptism, with this ring. “We were buried therefore by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”

The imagery of baptism is most fundamentally death, burial, resurrection. By faith, we’re united to him, and thus, as he died, was buried, was raised, we die, are buried, are raised, and we live in him and death is behind us. That’s the glory of the Christian gospel. When you trust Jesus, your death is over.

And death — stinger removed, power removed, gateway to paradise, totally transformed — is hardly worth calling death anymore if you see it this way. We have died with Jesus. Our death died at Calvary. All the judgment of death was taken there.