Now My Eye Sees You

"I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;" Job 42:5

How much of our Christian life is spent in the first half of this verse?  Hearing about God? Knowing about salvation? Thinking about the Spirit? How content are we to be like the nation of Israel when they sent Moses up to the mountain and then stayed behind and simply watched the "fireworks"?

The call of a disciple is something different than that.The disciple, by definition, wants to know his teacher so well that he begins to imitate him unconsciously. He wants to become just like the one he is following in every way. And he commits is life to this task. But, in order to do this, he must not just hear about his master, he must see him.

"Father of glory, give us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Jesus, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that we may know what is the hope to which he has called us, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe." Eph 1:17-19

"Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ." Phil 3:8

My prayer is this reality will consume us today, and everyday, for the rest of our lives.

To God Alone be the Glory

The True Worth and Weight of Biblical Preaching.

What follows is an excerpt from a blog post about John Newton from Tony Reinke

"In a letter dated March 10, 1774, to his esteemed friend William Legge, the second Earl of Dartmouth, Newton explained that he had recently spent a six-week stretch investing several hours of each day in the hospital caring for souls. In the letter Newton recounted one meeting with a sick young woman. The memory of the hospital encounter was etched so deep into Newton's memory that he recalled it years later.

Permit me, my Lord, to relate, upon this occasion, some things which exceedingly struck me in the conversation I had with a young woman whom I visited in her last illness about two years ago.
She was a sober, prudent person, of plain sense, could read her Bible, but had read little besides. Her knowledge of the world was nearly confined to the parish; for I suppose she was seldom, if ever, twelve miles from home in her life. She had known the gospel about seven years before the Lord visited her with a lingering consumption [tuberculosis], which at length removed her to a better world. 

A few days before her death, I had been praying by her bedside, and in my prayer I thanked the Lord that he gave her now to see that she had not followed cunningly-devised fables [Ephesians 4:14]. When I had finished, she repeated that word, “No,” she said “not cunningly-devised fables; these are realities indeed. I feel their truth, I feel their comfort. Oh! tell my friends, tell my acquaintances, tell enquiring souls, tell poor sinners, tell all the daughters of Jerusalem (alluding to Song of Solomon 5:16 from which she had just before desired me to preach at her funeral), what Jesus has done for my soul. Tell them, that now in the time of need I find him my beloved and my friend, and as such I commend him to them.” 

She then fixed her eyes steadfastly upon me, and proceeded, as well as I can recollect, as follows. “Sir, you are highly favored in being called to preach the gospel. I have often heard you with pleasure; but [only when] you come into my situation, and have death and eternity full in your view, will it be possible for you to conceive the vast weight and importance of the truths you declare.”

Until we are faced with eternity it is too easy to take preaching for granted, to treat sermons lightly, to so quickly forget them like yesterday’s newspaper.

Yet it was here, beside the bed of a dying young woman in a hospital room and in other situations just like it, that Newton learned the true worth and weight of biblical preaching."

To God Alone be the Glory

Our Frail Tenure

"Let us recollect the frail tenure upon which we hold our temporal mercies." C.H. Spurgeon

"What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." Jm 4:14

There are some cliches (good cliches, mind you) about the shortness of our lives, the importance of making use of every opportunity and our complete dependence on God. "Don't waste your life" "Redeem the times" "Treat every day like its your last" There is nothing wrong with these thoughts and phrases. Each has their place and their purpose.

But my question is do we really believe it? Do we really believe our life is a mist and that we could easily be blown away by wind? Do we really believe that our true joy is not bound up in this life but is bound up with life with Christ? Do we really believe that not only is our life short, so is our neighbor's and are our friends'?

I'm asking these somewhat provocative questions because they are personally pressing on me. Would I be focusing on the same ministries if I had terminal cancer? Would I conduct myself the same way at work if I knew that my life would end next week? How would my teaching change? How would my loving change? How would my compassion change? How would my heart for God and for man change?

Unfortunately, there is no good answer, save one, at least for me. I need to work toward a heart and attitude like Paul had as he wrote Philippians. "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." "I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ "

But I hear me carefully. It is so easy to read words, even hard words, acknowledge them, swallow hard, commit to do better and move on. I do not want that to be the case for me. I am asking God to make these words stick. Allow these thoughts to penetrate below the hard packed surface and down into the soil of my heart. And, when the day (maybe its today) comes, I pray this can be said in honesty: "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God."

To God Alone be the Glory

But what if you are wrong?

Yesterday, the youth group I help facilitate watched a presentation where the speaker challenged his audience to ask 4 questions when engaging people (with an optional 5th, if the conversation moved toward the gospel). These questions are designed to disarm arguments against Christianity and can be used in various discussions. The key, of course, is to use these questions with a meek and humble heart, not just to win an argument, but to open the door for the gospel.

Here are the questions:

1. What do you mean by ____________? This question forces people to define their terms. Probably everyone sees the value in this. An example the presenter gave is when talking to someone about the gospel. If the person you are talking to says they're a Christian, the answer to this question clarifies the issue.
2. How do you know?  This question can have twin affects. One is to make a person stop and think about a position they hold. We have all had thoughts, ideas, beliefs that we ascribed to just because. Then, when confronted with the prospect of actually have to defend that belief, it crumbles in the dust. The second aspect of this question is that it introduces the concept of ultimately reality. Many people deny the existence of an ultimate reality, but this question, just in the asking, allows the concept to be gently introduced.
3. What difference does this make? Often arguments are based on preference rather than strong fundamental differences. This question exposes whether this is true.Consider someone who would say there should be no prayer in school. This question would force them to say that it is really about their preference over someone else's
4. What happens if you are wrong? This question is based on Pascal's Wager. While Pascal's Wager is intended specifically for the theism / atheism debate, the question it poses is legitimate to ask at many levels. The bottom-line with this question is that if a Christian is wrong, the worst he or she is doing is making this world a little more bearable and trying to spread hope and love, but if the non-Christian is wrong...
5. What evidence would you accept? This question would only apply if someone is pushing back and asking these same questions in return. As the speaker said, God may use these questions to push a person to the edge of their view of reality and they may begin to see the emptiness and being asking, perhaps defensively, what's difference about Christianity. This question should help us see their seriousness.

 So, I share this with two thoughts in mind.  One is that these questions can really be slid into most conversations, if and when we have them in our minds and are not afraid to actually ask them. The other is tied to the "Rob Bell - Is there really a Hell" debate. I wholeheartedly agree with much of the defense of the doctrine of hell that has been articulated in the last two weeks. However, I would want to ask Mr Bell just one question: "What if your wrong?"

To God Alone be the Glory

Crushed into Submission; Words set on Fire

From the March 10th My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

"Even the natural heart of the unsaved will serve if called upon to do so, but it takes a heart broken by conviction of sin, baptized by the Holy Spirit, and crushed into submission to God’s purpose to make a person’s life a holy example of God’s message."


"There is a difference between giving a testimony and preaching. A preacher is someone who has received the call of God and is determined to use all his energy to proclaim God’s truth. God takes us beyond our own aspirations and ideas for our lives, and molds and shapes us for His purpose, just as He worked in the disciples’ lives after Pentecost."


"Allow God to have complete liberty in your life when you speak. Before God’s message can liberate other people, His liberation must first be real in you. Gather your material carefully, and then allow God to “set your words on fire” for His glory."

I would only add: "Who is sufficient for these things?" (2 Cor 2:16)

To God Alone be the Glory

The Lord Our Righteousness

Jehovah Tsidkenu (Sid kay new)
"The Lord Our Righteousness"

The watchword of the Reformers—

I once was a stranger to grace and to God,

I knew not my danger, and felt not my load;

Though friends spoke in rapture of Christ on the tree,

Jehovah Tsidkenu was nothing to me.

I oft read with pleasure, to soothe or engage,

Isaiah's wild measure and John's simple page;

But e'en when they pictured the blood-sprinkled tree

Jehovah Tsidkenu seemed nothing to me.

Like tears from the daughters of Zion that roll,

I wept when the waters went over His soul;

Yet thought not that my sins had nailed to the tree

Jehovah Tsidkenu—'twas nothing to me.

When free grace awoke me, by light from on high,

Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to die;

No refuge, no safety in self could I see—

Jehovah Tsidkenu my Savior must be.

My terrors all vanished before the sweet name;

My guilty fears banished, with boldness I came

To drink at the fountain, life-giving and free—

Jehovah Tsidkenu is all things to me.

Jehovah Tsidkenu! my treasure and boast,

Jehovah Tsidkenu! I ne'er can be lost;

In thee I shall conquer by flood and by field—

My cable, my anchor, my breastplate and shield!

Even treading the valley, the shadow of death,

This "watchword" shall rally my faltering breath;

For while from life's fever my God sets me free,

Jehovah Tsidkenu my death-song shall be.

-- Robert Murray M'Cheyne (from DG 2011 Pastor's Conf)

Did You Preach It With Tears?

"My eyes shed streams of tears, because people do not keep your law." Ps 119:136

Periodically, I think that it is easy to gravitate to two extremes when reading, praying and processing God's Word. One extreme would be the rigid, dry, purely academic end. Jn 5:39-40 typifies this for me "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life." At the other extreme would be pure emotionalism. No rigor, no mental discipline, just "gut". 2 Tim 4:3 sums this up nicely: "For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions."

But knowing or seeing a problem is only half the battle. Yes these extremes are real. Yes they do occur in our churches and I would dare say in ourselves. What do we do with this? How do we proceed?

This may not answer the questions above, but, for me at least, it frames the question. This is a quote about Robert Murray M'Cheyne from a book by Sinclair Ferguson (thanks Justin Taylor).

"When Robert M’Cheyne met his dearest friend Andrew Bonar one Monday and inquired what Bonar had preached on the previous day, only to receive the answer “Hell,” he asked: “Did you preach it with tears?” "

Perhaps the balance is to know God's Word so well, that we begin to see things as God sees them. Then we will not get lost in the academia or the emotionalism, but rather get caught up in the holiness. Then the sin in our own lives and in the lives around us won't be simply broken rules, but heartbreaking actions. And the way back, whether for us or for others will not be some antiseptic application of truth, but rather a passionate application of grace.

In the end, as we preach the gospel to ourselves and to those the Spirit brings into our lives, I pray we "preach it with tears."

To God Alone be the Glory