Arrangements God Is Making

Don Carson post: 2 Samuel 22; Galatians 2; Ezekiel 29; Psalm 78:1-39

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One of the most intriguing “behind-the-scenes” reasonings is found in Ezekiel 29:17-20. Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is going to succeed against Tyre, but it will be a hard campaign and with little profit. So God will give Egypt to Babylon, in part to pay off Babylon for its long and costly years against Tyre. “I have given him Egypt as a reward for his efforts because he and his army did it for me, declares the Sovereign LORD” (Ezek. 29:20). Not for a moment should one think that any of the nations acted out of conscious obedience to the Lord (cf. Isa. 10:5ff!). But the Lord is no one’s debtor, and these are the arrangements that Almighty God is making.

We would not know these things apart from revelation, of course. But they warn us against pontificating too loudly about what is going on in our day, when we see so little of the big picture as to what God himself is doing.

Praiseworthiness of God

John Piper:  Why Are You on the Earth?

George Herbert’s poem called “Praise” contains a verse that has been taped to my computer monitor since I first read it years ago.

Of all the creatures both in sea and land
Only to man Thou has made known Thy ways,
And put the pen alone into his hand,
And made him secretary of Thy praise.

This is the answer to our question. Why is man on the earth? He is here to be the secretary of the praise of God.

To which our querying minds say, But do not “the heavens tell the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1), and not just man? Are not “the things that have been made” the secretary of his divine attributes (Romans 1:20)? Do not the “the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord” (Psalm 96:12), and “the rivers clap their hands” (Psalm 98:8)? Do not “the mountains and the hills break forth into singing” (Isaiah 55:12)?

Yes. They do.

But “there is no speech, nor are there words. Their voice is not heard” (Psalms 19:3). This is not the work of the secretary. The work of the secretary is to transcribe the song of the mountains, the clapping of the rivers, and the singing of the forest, and the telling of the heavens.

Man is here to interpret and transcribe the praises of God.

The singing trees are not the secretary. The psalmist who told us what the trees are saying is the secretary. The blog writer who quotes the psalmist is the secretary. The mother who points her child to the tree and speaks of God is the secretary.

“Man is here to interpret and transcribe the praises of God.”Tweet

For this, every human being was created. Being in the image of God does not mean being a dumb image (Genesis 1:27). We are talking images. We are images who write. And if the point of being an image is to image (which I consider self-evident), then we are to image in all the ways we are gifted to image.

And what we are to image is the original. Images are images of something. We are images of God. He is the original. And our imaging is to be true and clear. That is, every person is meant to image the praiseworthiness of God. We are to be the secretaries of his praise.

And if we fail in this secretarial calling, Herbert says, in this same poem,

He that to praise and laud Thee doth refrain
Doth not refrain unto himself alone,
But robs a thousand who would praise Thee fain,
And doth commit a world of sin in one.

Therefore, let us open our mouths and take up our pens and point the whole world to the praiseworthiness of God. This is why we are here.

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More Constant Than Our Circumstances

Bethany at 843 Acres: A Timeless Riddle

M’Cheyne: Eze 26 (txt | aud, 3:47 min)
Ps 74 (txt | aud, 2:29 min)
Highlighted: Ps 74

Riddle: Epicureanism denied the existence of an omnipotent and loving God based on the existence of evil in the world. The Riddle of Epicurus was this: “God either wants to eliminate bad things and cannot, or can but does not want to, or neither wishes to nor can, or both wants to and can. If he wants to and cannot, then he is weak—and this does not apply to god. If he can but does not want to, then he is spiteful—which is equally foreign to god’s nature. If he neither wants to nor can, he is both weak and spiteful, and so not a god. If he wants to and can, which is the only thing fitting for a god, where then do bad things come from? Or why does he not eliminate them?” [1]

Confusion: When Asaph looked upon the ruins of Jerusalem, he had similar questions. He knew the character of God and his covenant promises, but he could not understand how God could abandon his people and allow Jerusalem and its temple to be destroyed: “We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet … Why do you hold back your hand, your right hand?” [2].

Person: It is not necessarily sinful to ask such questions. The heart can trust God and still be confused when it looks at the world. Yet we understand what Asaph could not—that the center of worship is not in a place, but in a person. Ultimately, his prayer was not answered by philosophical reasoning, but by Jesus Christ. The cross says to the Riddle of Epicurus, “The greatest ‘bad thing’ in history was the brutal crucifixion of my innocent Son. Yet I allowed it to happen—not because I am spiteful, but because I am love. You may not always know the reasons behind all I do or allow, but I promise this:  ‘For those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.’” [3]

Prayer: Lord, When we look at the world around us, we often question how your promises can be true. Yet we stake our lives on them for you are more constant than our circumstances. We confess that, like Asaph, we have incomplete information. Let us not judge you with feeble sense, but instead trust you at your word with eyes of faith. Amen.

Dogwood Winter: Weathering Cancer with Hope

A book written from my mother's blog about her struggle with cancer and her faith in God.

“Dogwood winter,” a southern phrase, describes a brief period in spring when icy weather returns and coincides with the dogwood blooms.
Beverly Grayson struggled for eight years with cancer. Midway, she began journaling online where candid posts revealed thoughts about illness, family, Tennessee, and even recipes. She dreamed of whittling her posts to book length to encourage others that God sees, God knows, and God comforts.
With conviction, wisdom, and humor, she shares personal stories and 365 Bible verses that comforted her. Beverly left a legacy of insights for sufferers and families who face the upheaval of cancer. She will help you—no matter the outcome—live from faith to faith, from scan to scan, with hope intact.

http://www.amazon.com/Dogwood-Winter-Weathering-Cancer-Hope-ebook/dp/B00NPNNGZ0/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-6&qid=1411383918

We Believe

God Is Faithful

You’re all I want in heaven!
    You’re all I want on earth!
When my skin sags and my bones get brittle,
    God is rock-firm and faithful.
Look! Those who left you are falling apart!
    Deserters, they’ll never be heard from again.
But I’m in the very presence of God—
    oh, how refreshing it is!
I’ve made Lord God my home.
    God, I’m telling the world what you do!

Ps 73: 25-28

The Need to See

Jonathan Parnell post: Don't You Know Jesus Is Real

The apostle John shows us a vision in Revelation 5.

There is a Lamb standing as though it has been slain. It has seven horns and seven eyes — eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. It goes forward and takes a scroll from the right hand of him who is seated on the throne. And when this happens, in that moment, four living creatures and twenty-four elders fall down before the Lamb. They are each holding harps, and also bowls of incense that represent the prayers of the saints. They all fall down, and then they begin to sing,

Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:9–10)

Then, from around the throne and the sound of these voices comes the sound of other voices. Angels start singing. Myriads and myriads of angels. Thousands of thousands of angels. They are all singing now, loudly, powerfully, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” (Revelation 5:12).

And then, beyond the four creatures and the elders and the angels, every single creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea exclaims, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13).

Two Questions

The scene is too much for us. It is so holy, so deep, that it feels almost strange to imagine such through the black ink of English letters on paper. But we do. We can.

We can read John’s vision. He wrote it down for us so that we would read it. He wants us to see what he saw. And when we do, when we read these words, there are two central questions we must face. There are two things we must encounter before we turn to the next chapter.

1. Did you see what this says about Jesus?
2. Do you believe that he is real?

The Need to See

Did you see it? I don’t mean whether you read the words, or even if you imagined the scene. Did you see what it says about Jesus? That there is one worthy — the Lion of Judah, the Root of David (Revelation 5:5). That he was slain, and that by his blood he ransomed a people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9). That the one who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood has also made us a kingdom and priests to our God (Revelation 5:10; 1:5). Do you see the honor given him? That he is worthy to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing (Revelation 5:12). That to him belongs blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever (Revelation 5:13). Did you see that?

Maybe you did. I hope you did. But now there is the second question. Do you believe it? Do you believe that the Jesus described in these wonderful words isreal?

Very Real

Apocalyptic genre aside, incredible vision put on hold, do you believe that the Jesus here referred to is a real person? Do you think that one so worthy of worship and glory is as real as the realest object you can put your hands on? Can you picture, as a possible scenario, you putting your arms around the shoulders of this man? Can you feel what it would be like to hug him like you would hug your dad? That you could embrace him? That with these arms, our arms, my arms, I might pull him close to me and press my ear next to his? Do you believe that you could, with your fingers, trace the blistered scars on his hands, and then, as clear as you’ve ever heard anything before, listen as he speaks to you? He says something to you. He looks at you with his eyes, and he speaks to you. He says your name. He does. He says that he loves you. He says that he has all authority in heaven and earth and that he’ll never, ever leave you.

Do you believe he is real like that?

Because if you do — if you see the way Jesus is described in Revelation 5, and if you believe that this Jesus is real — then what is there that we would not do for him?

Fearless in Him

I am convinced that if we could see him here, if we could grasp a fraction of what it means to have all power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing, and if we believe that he is real, so real that we could touch him, hear him, sit next to him, eat a meal with him — if we’d know him and believe him like this — then there is no endeavor for his sake for which we’d be too afraid.

So there are nearly 7,000 unreached peoples on the earth — Jesus is real. Let’s go.

So the secularized West needs the revival of a multiplying church planting movement — Jesus is real. Come with us.

Spend three afternoons a week to mentor troubled youth in the inner-city — Jesus is real. Sign me up.

Pastor a small church in rural America that has terrible internet bandwidth — Jesus is real. Bury me in the parish cemetery.

Sacrifice time and resources so that strangers might hear the gospel — Jesus is real. Show me where.

Do you see what these verses say about Jesus? Don’t you know that he is real?