Reform

Justin Taylor post:  Sanctified Terms for Our Drifts from Holiness

D.A. Carson, For the Love of God, volume 2, Jan. 23 entry:

One of the most striking evidences of sinful human nature lies in the universal propensity for downward drift.

In other words, it takes thought, resolve, energy, and effort to bring about reform.

In the grace of God, sometimes human beings display such virtues. But where such virtues are absent, the drift is invariably toward compromise, comfort, indiscipline, sliding disobedience and decay that advances, sometimes at a crawl and sometimes at a gallop, across generations.

People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, and obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.

We drift toward compromise and call it tolerance;

we drift toward disobedience and call it freedom;

we drift toward superstition and call it faith.

We cherish the indiscipline of lost self-control and call it relaxation;

we slouch toward prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped legalism;

we slide toward godlessness and convince ourselves we have been liberated.

Chosen

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional:

PREDOMINANTLY GENTILE
 
For we know, brothers loved by God, that He has chosen you.  I Thess. 1:4

                One of Paul's themes in I and II Thessalonians is that the believer is chosen by God for salvation.  Many read verses about being chosen and say under their breath, "Right!  Doctrine of election."  What an intellectual response to something highly emotional.

                The problem is, the news that we are chosen by God can fail to have the same ring in our ears as it did in the ears of the predominantly Gentile church who read his letter.  The Gentiles were pinching themselves that God was offering His covenant love outside of the Jewish race.  Where they had once been mostly disqualified, now they were declared worthy.  Paul is so gracious as to reinforce what must be so unbelievable to them.

                This subject had to be one of their tender spots; a place where they might be tempted to disbelieve the good news of the Gospel.  When something appears to be too good to be true, we often write it off and believe that it is.  Paul, their spiritual father, gently drives this point home lest they review the grounds of their salvation and begin to doubt God's favor because of their Gentile origin.  I wonder if, each time they read Paul's words, they breathed out new sighs of relief.

                Each of us has our tender spots; those repeated themes of our story lines that trip us up.  If we've known abandonment, we struggle with God's promise of companionship.  If we've had to take care of ourselves, we distrust God's promise of provision.  If we've suffered a string of broken relationships, we can't relax in God's love.  There is nothing more meaningful than a mentor who comes alongside to reinforce the beautiful messages of Christ in the very area in which we struggle.  Paul is that messenger of mercy; the one who assures this Gentile church that they are God's elect.

                For any of us who were made to feel unworthy of love, undeserving of anything good, we must lift our hands from our sides and reach up to receive this good news today.  Though we may never have been chosen by anyone in this world, God chose us before we were ever rejected.  He chose us before our birth and still chooses us today.  May Paul's paternal words of comfort pour warm oil over the tears in our souls.
 

Chosen.  A word that brings tears.  I will praise Your love forever.  Amen

Honor - Bear - Filter

Excerpt from Ray Ortlund post:  Brothers together in Christ

One, “Outdo one another in showing honor” (Romans 12:10).  No flippant put-downs.  No undercutting.  Not even waiting for the next guy to make the first move.  But me getting out of my self-concern to lift the next man up with high honor.  Doing this verbally, unashamedly.

Two, “Bear with one another” (Colossians 3:13).  Not trying to change one another.  Who appointed us to that role?  Our privilege is to bear with one another’s “weaknesses and oddities, which are such a trial to our patience, . . . to break through to the point where we take joy in [the other man’s quirkiness]” (Bonhoeffer, Life Together, page 101).

Three, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths but only such as is good for building up” (Ephesians 4:29).  Nothing could be more unAmerican than denying ourselves our right of free speech.  Men of God filter every word by a higher standard.  Even if the words wanting to come out of my mouth are factually true, the real question is, Are my words positively helping the man listening?

With Thanksgiving

The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Philippians 4:5b-6a

Disappointment

Mark Batterson post:  Do Not Lose Heart

I love the phrase that is repeated several times in II Corinthians 4: "do not lose heart." It has sustained me the last few days.

I still can't believe the Alcatraz Swim was canceled. We had trained for months. It took quite a bit of time and money to get out to San Fran. And we were emotionally amped. The adrenaline was pumping through our veins as we got ready to jump into the water. Then, without warning, they pulled the plug. It was like a sucker punch that knocks the wind out of you because you didn't see it coming. I had no clue that was even a possibility.

Swimming Alcatraz was more than a life goal. It was a rite of passage for Summer. I wanted to show her that she was capable of more than she realized. I wanted her to do something that would test her mental and physical limits. I wanted that shared experience. We certainly redeemed the time. And the goal wasn't as important as the time we shared as Father and Daughter. But there is still that feeling of an unresolved chord in our hearts.

I feel like I'm taking a graduate course in disappointment. This is one of those things that was simply out of my control. And something like this can't not get you down if you really had your heart set on it. There is no way not to feel a letdown. But too often we let these kinds of things keep us down. That's the issue. If you stay down, you fail the test. The way you pass the test is simply by getting back up. We will return to Alcatraz! I'm not sure when. But that goal stays on the list. I have an even greater resolve. And we'll train even harder the next time. I believe that disappointment is a form of preparation. It pulls out new levels of resolve, new levels of persistence, new levels of desire. Honestly, this helps me appreciate the goals already accomplished even more. And it steels my resolve to go after the goals remaining.

Do not lose heart!

Faith-Full

Jon Bloom post:  Faith that Made Jesus Marvel

Jesus, the “founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2), once marveled at the great faith he found in a man. And it’s the only instance recorded in the gospels when Jesus responded that way (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10).

Who was this man? A rabbi? No. A disciple? Nope. A Roman soldier.

*          *          *

Jesus had walked down from the brow of the low mountain outside of Capernaum, his adopted home (Matthew 4:12-16). He had just delivered what would become the most famous sermon in history.

When he entered the town, he was met by a small delegation of Jewish elders. They had an urgent request. There was this Roman centurion whose servant was so sick that he was expected to die shortly. The centurion had asked these elders to go to Jesus on his behalf to see if Jesus might be willing to heal his servant.

Now, this was very unusual. Jewish leaders were not in the habit of being fond of Roman soldiers.

Feeling the obvious oddness of the request, one of the elders quickly added, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.”

This was also unusual. Roman soldiers were not in the habit of being fond of Jews.

Jesus discerned the Father’s hand in this and so he set off with them to the centurion’s home. He had also just preached a couple hours earlier on the importance of loving one’s enemies. This was something to encourage.

As they neared the house another group of friends intercepted them. There was a brief huddled conference with the confused elders. There were hushed earnest voices. Some observers thought the servant must have died.

Then a representative of the interceptors stepped over to Jesus and said respectfully, “Teacher, I have a message for you from my Roman friend. He says,

Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, “Go” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.

Jesus’ expression turned thoughtful. He pondered the words, “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof” and “I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me.” He nodded his head slightly and there was just a hint of a chuckle. This from a Roman soldier; a representative of Israel’s enemy. And yet he understood what even these Jewish elders didn’t yet grasp. It was a marvel.

He looked back at the friend and then to the elders. Then he turned and scanned his eyes over his disciples and the small crowd of people who had followed him down the mountain.

Then he said, loud enough for everyone to hear, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith” (Luke 7:9).

*          *          *

Both Luke (Luke 7:9) and Matthew (Matthew 8:10) use the Greek word thaumazo (thou-mad'-zo) which we translate “marveled” or “amazed” to describe Jesus’ response to the centurion’s faith. The only time this word is used to describe Jesus’ response to others’ faith is in Mark 6:6, when he marvels at the lack of faith in the people of Nazareth, where he grew up.

The centurion was one of the most unlikely persons to amaze Jesus. He was a Gentile. Doubtless he had a pagan upbringing. He was a Roman, stationed in Palestine to subject the Jews to the Emperor’s rule. He was a man of war. He achieved the rank of centurion by distinguishing himself above others in the brutal Roman martial arts. Not exactly the résumé you’d expect for becoming one of the Bible’s great heroes of faith.

So what in the world had happened to this man? We don’t know. But there he is in Capernaum; a miracle of God’s marvelous grace. And he’s a firstfruit and a foreshadow of what Jesus had come to bring about. He was a living illustration that “many [would] come from the east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 8:11).

This centurion is also a reminder to us that “man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). I think we will be surprised someday when Jesus doles out rewards. Most of the great ones among us will probably have lived in obscurity. Jesus is not as impressed with titles, degrees, and achievements as we are. He is impressed with those who really do humbly believe him.

John Piper once quoted Billy Graham, saying, “God will not reward fruitfulness, he will reward faithfulness.” The centurion was faith-full. I want to be like him when I grow up. 

Summing It All Up

Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse.

Philippians 4:8 [The Message]

My Fuel

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional:

HIDE OR BEAR DOWN?
 
We give thanks to God for you, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.  I Thess. 1:2-3

    What do you do when you're persecuted?  Run and hide?  Engage in all out self-preservation?  What would you do if your life were in danger because your witness for Christ had reached the desks of someone powerful in authority?  Would you lay low until you were sure they had forgotten you?  It would be tempting, wouldn't it?

    What would your expectation be of a brand new believer?  If you led your neighbor to Christ, bought her a Bible, and knew she was reading the book of I John everyday for 15 minutes, how much would you worry about her if you knew something traumatic had happened to her?  Probably a lot.  You might fear that she will cave under the pressure and second guess her decision to trust Christ.  

    Paul's words in his letter to the Thessalonians are pretty mind blowing.  They rehearse the fact that these Christians are new converts.  And, the letter validates that these people, precious to Paul, are in danger.  They are enduring the same persecution Paul faces because they have aligned themselves with Jesus Christ.  But Paul does not hear that they have retreated in fear, nor are they discouraged.  Amazing!  What are they doing?  1.) Performing acts of faith  2.) Laboring in love  3.) Holding fast to Christ, who is their hope.

    Someone close to me wrote this morning and said, "It's a new day.  Tighten up!"  Well said.  When dusk comes, may I look back and know that I took God up on His offer of grace to labor in love and stand fast in my faith.  May it be said that I clung to the hope of Christ's return instead of some empty platitude.  "It'll be okay" accompanied by a pat on the shoulder does nothing to make me feel better when it's offered outside of scripture.  Never has Jesus appearing seemed to be so close on the horizon.  Hope is rock solid.

Loving others, even in my storm, proves that my faith in You is real.  Knowing You're coming back, Jesus, and that you love me is my fuel.  Amen

Humbling Truth

Miscellanies post:  Humbling Orthodoxy

The doctrine of God’s divine election of unworthy sinners is a humbling truth. Or to use Spurgeon’s words, “a sense of election causes a low opinion of self.” That is the bullet point under which the following quote from Spurgeon comes to us, as recorded in a sermon delivered on July 1, 1888:

Brother, if any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be. If he charges you falsely on some point, yet be satisfied, for if he knew you better he might change the accusation, and you would be no gainer by the correction. If you have your moral portrait painted, and it is ugly, be satisfied; for it only needs a few blacker touches, and it would be still nearer the truth.

Gospel

Ray Ortlund post:  #7 Centered on one or the other

“. . . a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”  Luke 7:34

What does it mean for a church to be gospel-centered?  That’s a popular concept these days.  Good.  What if we were scrambling to be law-centered?  But the difference is not so easy in real terms.

A gospel-centered church holds together two things.  One, a gospel-centered church preaches a bold message of grace — so bold that it becomes the end of the law for all who believe.  Not our performance but Christ’s performance for us.  Not our sacrifices but his sacrifice for us.  Not our superiority but only his worth and prestige.  The good news of substitution.  The good news that our okayness is not in us but exterior to us in Christ alone.  Climbing down from the high moral ground, because only Christ belongs up there.  That message, that awareness, that clarity.  Every Sunday.

Two, a gospel-centered church translates that theology into its sociology.  The good news of God’s grace beautifies how we treat one another.  In fact, the horizontal reveals the vertical.  How we treat one another reveals what we really believe as opposed to what we think we believe.  It is possible to say, “We are a gospel-centered church,” and sincerely mean it, while we make our church into a law-centered social environment.  We see God above lowering his gun, and we breathe a sigh of relief.  But if we are trigger-happy toward one another, we don’t really get it yet.

A gospel-centered church looks something like this album cover — my all-time favorite.  A gospel-centered church is a variegated collection of sinners.  They come together and stick together because they have nothing to fear from their message or their culture.  The theology creates the sociology, and the sociology incarnates the theology.

The one deal-breaker in a gospel-centered church: anyone for any reason turning it into a culture of legal demandingness and negative scrutiny.  Few would do that in the theology, of course.  But still, a church with a message of grace can stop being gospel-centered in real terms.

A major part of pastoral ministry is preaching the doctrines of grace and managing an environment of grace.  The latter is harder to accomplish than the former.  It is more intuitive.  It requires more humility and self-awareness.

May the Friend of sinners grant beautiful gospel-centricity in all our churches.

All Day, Every Day

Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that you're on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! 

Philippians 4:4-5 [The Message]

Motive and Language

Excerpts from Ed Stetzer post:  Involving All of God's People in all of God's Mission, Part 2

Words have meaning. Well, unless you are into the verbal gymnastics of the postmodern extreme. Dirt does not mean water, chalk does not mean cheese, and alkaline battery does not mean maple tree. It is because words have meaning that we should take care in how we use them when speaking on the mission of God, and it is because words have meaning that we should use intentional language to involve all of God's people in all of God's mission.

Words build and words destroy. Words cast vision and words halt progress. And words have the ability to lead toward a preferred future.

In church life, some words have become so codified that they may as well form a second Decalogue. Come forward, Bow your heads and close your eyes and the like are pregnant with both intended and unintended meaning. If we are to involve all of God's people in all of God's mission, we need to ensure that our articulations match our intentions.

...


As we do this, I believe a church seeking to involve each member in God's mission--a component of any missional church--will intentionally include the motive of God's glory to be expressed among the nations. It is impossible to separate the mission of God from the glory of God since His glory is the goal of His mission. God's glory among every tongue tribe and nation can and should be a theme for every church. Habakkuk reminds us, "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the LORD's glory, as the waters cover the sea" (2:14, HCSB).

So emphatic is God about His glory being displayed throughout the earth, that I don't think a church should call itself missional unless it is seeking to serve locally, plant nationally, and engage an unreached people group globally. Without a global vision, there will always be a missing focus resulting in a church out of balance. Rather than saying "all Christians are missionaries," I prefer to say, "All Christians ought to be on God's global mission." 

For Jesus' Sake

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional:

RESPONDERS TO THE CREATOR
 
Let my soul live and praise you, and let your rules help me.  Psalm 119:175

            Don't you wish that you were good enough to love God on your own?  I do.  I often think about the fact that if God had not loved me first and demonstrated it through the death of His Son, I would never have had the kind of heart that would have initiated a relationship with Him.  I was His enemy and the status would have remained unchanged if He hadn't made the first move.  "We love Him because He first loved us."  I Jn.4:19 Mankind is built to be a responder, not an initiator.

            The fact that I can easily love people who love me is no achievement to be celebrated.  There is a greater test.  Once I am my Father's child, do I become enough like him to love those who are also my enemies?  Do I become an initiator instead of a responder?  Am I willing to reach out and change the status quo even though I may be poorly received?  Just as Jesus kept knocking on my door, amidst much resistance, He kept knocking and was not put off by my rejection.  How much am I like that?  Or, do I reach out once, experience a rebuff, then throw up my hands and say, "Who needs this!.  Forget it!"

            I was born to love God, to glorify God, but doing that would have been impossible without being loved first.  One extravagant demonstration after another, by God, of undeserved favor builds the intensity of my response to Him.  Daily, I am loved.  Daily, in response, I praise.

            When I widen the circle beyond my own relationship with God, I quickly become aware that God has shown this extravagant love to others around me and some still spit in His face.  Every day, He shows them His grace.  Every day, they reject Him.  One day, their heart may break, the eyes of their heart will open to see His beautiful face, and their response will change.  But until then, in this closing age of grace, He woos them.  I am to be like Him.  Though mankind rejects who reject them, my Father does not.  So I must not.

             To whom can I initiate an act of love today for Jesus' sake and not allow their response to take me off my axis?  Will I have enough maturity to do it repeatedly, as God leads me, to show them a picture of how God loves?  Perhaps my persistence will lead them to the arms of Jesus.  Each of us needs a picture of Christ in human skin.

With Your Spirit inside of me, I have the strength to do what You did for me.  Help me grow up!  Amen

Love

Ray Ortlund post:  Withheld love vs. expressed love

“Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.”  Proverbs 3:27

The alternative translation in the ESV margin is “Do not withhold good from its owners.”  If I have good I can do for somebody, then legally I own it but morally they own it.  The state has no right to force me to be generous.  And no one can walk into my house and start taking my things and say, “The Bible says I own it.”  What the Bible says to them is “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15).  But what the Bible says to me is “You shall not withhold.”

A church is a culture of life is where people love each other openly and eagerly, with a sense of responsibility to God.

Listen to a New Master

All your lives you've let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you've started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom! 

Romans 6:17-18 [The Message]

God's Grace

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional

SEEN IT ALL
 
I long for your salvation, O LORD, and your law is my delight.  Psalm 119:174

When a young saint sits down with an old saint, the difference in their reactions to the stuff of life is apparent.  The young one can be all spun up about some injustice, railing about how unfair it is.  The old saint listens, nods with understanding, but is not rocked off his axis with shock or surprise.  He has lived long enough to see it all.

David has lived through childhood.  He has known the favor of heaven's anointing at twelve years of age.  He learned early the savage jealousy of a king who was threatened by David's blessing.  He experienced betrayal and ran for his life.  He assumed the throne and enjoyed prosperity but also the pitfalls of heightened temptation.  He has seen it all as well.  At the end, he longs for the salvation of God when, beyond the curtain of death, sin and suffering are no more.

In 1997, after the greatest betrayal of my life in ministry, I was standing backstage with Evelyn Christensen, the incredible lady who is known for her writings on prayer.  We were both about to speak to a group in Minneapolis.  I was hurting badly and she had heard my story.  Before walking out, she took me by the shoulders and proclaimed words that have proven to be true, though at the time I couldn't conceive such wisdom.  She said, "Years down the road, when all is said and done, this betrayal will prove just to be a tiny glitch in a story of God's glory."  Already, I can see that she was right.

What arrests us today into painful inertia is survivable with God's grace, and is even praise worthy years down the road.  Ministries are built on the healings of our deepest wounds.  And though we heal, with scars, we long for the day when God's salvation appears on the horizon and takes all of His children out of this sin-riddled world into the perfection of the kingdom.

I long for your salvation.  I praise You for every taste of it now.  Amen

Two Realities

Life Today Weekly Devotional

Emotional Whiplash
by Pete Wilson

“Whiplash” often describes the emotions I go through as a pastor. Recently, I experienced a whiplash day.  Let me give a little back-story to help you understand.

Over the course of the past two years, Brandi and I have had two sets of friends who experienced the loss of a baby. Todd and Angie Smith, who lost their baby after two hours of life, and Mike and Holly Phelps, who lost their baby late in their first pregnancy.

I can’t even begin to imagine the heavy heartache and deep loss they felt. And while getting pregnant again doesn’t take a way that pain, you can imagine how excited I was to hear that both couples were once again pregnant. While each couple faced their own unique challenges, they were both on track to have healthy babies. I couldn’t help but think of what a bittersweet experience it would be for both of them – a glimmer of hope in the midst of the darkness.

In the early morning hours, in hospitals just two blocks away from each other, both couples had a pre-term delivery. That morning I walked into two different hospital rooms. Both scenes could not have been more similar and yet more different. Both rooms had moms who were laying in hospital beds. Both rooms had dads who were right by the bed holding and rocking a tiny infant. However, the similarities end there.

One baby was breathing and the other was not.

Todd and Angie’s room was full of prayers, crying and pure joy. There was life. Mike and Holly’s room was full of prayers and crying, but no joy.  No life.

The whole way to the Phelps’ room I cried. I knew the situation I was walking into. I cried out to God, “How could this happen to them again? Why God, would you allow this family to endure this pain yet again? Haven’t they been through enough? Why God?”

As long as we live on this earth, we may walk around with some huge unanswered questions. God simply doesn’t answer many of these questions for us. What we come up with are basically guesses, attempts to get our minds around the unanswerable, and efforts to reach out and help each other.

If you are a Christian, you may already know all this. If you’re a Christian, you’re accustomed to holding two seemingly contradictory realities together in your mind and heart. Some days you may hold them together more easily than others.

One reality is God’s love and care for us in every aspect of our lives, which we know is real from scripture and from our own personal experience. You can probably recount times when God showed his love to you through his faithfulness and kindness. I know I can.

But the second reality we must balance is disappointment, heartache and pain. You’ve experienced this in your own life, seen it in the lives of friends and witnessed national and global disasters.

Hardly a day goes by without a collision between these two realities. How can we reconcile these two unmixable components: a God of love who is all-powerful and the universal experience of tragedy and suffering?

This, my friends is an enormous puzzle, and I can’t solve it for you. I can’t solve it for myself, either. I can’t fully answer this question because I don’t believe God fully answers that question.  He provides lots of evidence, but no definitive answers. I’m not sure our finite minds could comprehend the real answer to that question.

Instead of an answer, God offers something better. He offers us a solution. He offers us the cross.

Ever since the fall, we’ve had this problem with sin and evil. This world is broken and stained with sin and not the way it’s supposed to be. Bad things happen to good people. Good people do bad things. Lots of people suffer in ways far out of proportion to what they have done. But immediately after the fall, God went to work on a plan to bring redemption to each of us. He gathered a people and taught them about himself. He showed them his faithfulness and mercy, punished and forgave them, taught them who he is and how to live together. And then, when the time was right, he sent his Son, Jesus, who conquered the sin and death that originated through the fall.

Because of Jesus, suffering is never the last word. If we will put our trust in him, we are promised a day when he “will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes, and there will be no more death, sadness, crying, or pain, because all the old ways are gone.” (Rev. 21:4)

There’s a big difference between trust and understanding. They say trust is what we need when we don’t have understanding. Today, I’m praying for trust. A big, huge, helping of trust.

I’m also asking you to trust that one day faith will win over doubt, that light will win over darkness, love will win over hate, and all things will one day be redeemed. I’m asking you, right in the middle of your pain, to trust this process that is going on in your life.



Pete Wilson is a pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville and author of Plan B: What Do You Do When God Doesn't Show Up the Way You Thought He Would? His blog is at withoutwax.tv.

Not In Control

Mike Pohlman post:  The Gospel of Technology

An interesting article in the New York Times considers American’s faith in technology and the surprise we have when technology can’t immediately fix our problems. The occasion for the article is the oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. As most of you know, efforts to stop the oil from gushing into the Gulf have failed.

Enter Elisabeth Rosenthal’s article, “Our Fix-It Faith and the Oil Spill.” With the mood in America becoming increasingly restless (and for many people nothing short of outrage exists), Rosenthal observes,

Americans have long had an unswerving belief that technology will save us — it is the cavalry coming over the hill, just as we are about to lose the battle. And yet, as Americans watched scientists struggle to plug the undersea well over the past month, it became apparent that our great belief in technology was perhaps misplaced.

This is not to say this crisis has been perfectly managed or that more could not be done. That’s not the point of this post or of Rosenthal’s piece. I’ll leave that debate to the politicos and experts on the ground (or in the water). What this disaster is revealing, however, is just how much faith we put in technology to solve all of our problems. Rosenthal is uncovering American’s “misplaced” faith — something Christians should be very interested in.

Later in the article Rosenthal reminds us of the similar reaction to the recent grounding of planes due to volcanic ash over parts of Europe,

Indeed, think of all the planes grounded for nearly a week in northern Europe last month, as a volcano poured ash in the atmosphere. There was no technological fix, and many passengers couldn’t believe it. Said Mr. Kohut, of Pew Research, “The reaction was: ‘Fix this. Fix this. This is outrageous.’ ”

Humans don’t do well when not in control.

While there is much to learn from the oil crisis in the Gulf, one lesson is coming home clearly to Rosenthal and others: technology is not God.

Among other things, this catastrophe can remind us of where our faith ultimately needs to be: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7).

Adoration

Ray Ortlund post:  The awakened capacity to adore

“Suddenly the Mole felt a great Awe fall upon him, an awe that turned his muscles to water, bowed his head, and rooted his feet to the ground.  It was no panic terror – indeed, he felt wonderfully at peace and happy. . . . ‘Rat!’ he found breath to whisper, shaking.  ‘Are you afraid?’  ‘Afraid?’ murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love.  ‘Afraid!  Of Him?  O, never, never!  And yet – and yet – O, Mole, I am afraid!’  Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.”

Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows (New York, 1916), pages 180-182.  Italics his.

“Anyone who has experienced what Grahame describes carries in his bosom the embers of a precious fire, praying those embers will never, never be put out, valuing more than all earth’s treasures . . . the awakened capacity to adore.”

John White, The Golden Cow: Materialism in the Twentieth-Century Church (Downers Grove, 1979), pages 127-128.

In Us

Mark Batterson post: Great Commandment vs. Great Commission

I can't quantify this, but I think there are lots of churches that focus on the Great Commission more than the Great Commandment. And I'm all for the Great Commission. But I'm more concerned about the Great Commandment, which is one reason I wrote Primal.

Here's my logic: if you take care of the Great Commandment then the Great Commission will take care of itself. How? Well, you can't love God heart, soul, mind, and strength and not be sold out to the mission he's called you to. But if you're missional without the relational component, it won't sustain itself. I'm concerned that some of us are more missional than relational and it actually short-circuits what God wants to do in us and through. Why? Precisely because we're more focused on what God wants to do thru us than in us. It's the difference between ministering for and ministering to the Lord.

Sure hope that makes sense. In a nutshell: we've got to be great at the Great Commandment.