Category Archives: Thankfulness

Thankfulness as a Means of Obedience

28 Saturday Mar 2020

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Thinking this through …

Eugene Peterson gave a wonderful explanation of Baalism:

Do we realize how almost exactly the Baal culture of Canaan is reproduced in American church culture? Baal religion is about what makes you feel good. Baal worship is a total immersion in what I can get out of it. And of course, it was incredibly successful. The Baal priests could gather crowds that outnumbered followers of Yahweh 20 to 1. There was sex, there was excitement, there was music, there was ecstasy, there was dance. “We got girls over here, friends. We got statues, girls, and festivals.” This was great stuff. And what did the Hebrews have to offer in response? The Word. What’s the Word? Well, Hebrews had festivals, at least!

He is quite right. But as I have been thinking of this, I see that I can easily fall into an equal and opposite trap.

In Book IX of Augustine’s On the Trinity, he makes this observation, “For no one willingly does anything which he has not first said in his heart.” (Nemo enim aliquid volens facit, quod non in corde suo prius dixerit.)

What then makes such a thing “willing”? He next says that the word which conceived “by love (amore), either of the creature or of the Creator.”

[Conceived] therefore, either by desire or by love: not that the creature ought not to be loved; but if that love [of the creature] is referred to the Creator, then it will not be desire (cupiditas), but love (caritas). For it is desire when the creature is loved for itself. And then it does not help a man through making use of it, but corrupts him in the enjoying it.

Augustine of Hippo, “On the Trinity,” in St. Augustin: On the Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Arthur West Haddan, vol. 3, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 131. We either have a desire or longing for the creature as an end in itself; or we have love toward God. (The word here for love “caritas” is used to translate agape in 1 Corinthians 13.)

There is a laying hold of the creature as an end in itself; or there is a seeing through the creature to the Creator:

Romans 1:19–25 (ESV)

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

One thing which struck me here was the implicit Gnosticism which so easily infects my understanding of the creation. John writes:

1 John 2:15–17 (ESV)

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

I find myself – and find in the ‘spiritual’ talk of others this tendency to think that fo the physical as the equivalent of “the world”. But Jesus himself expressly confirms that we “need” such things:

Matthew 6:31–32 (ESV)

31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

The trouble does not lie in the physical things per se. The trouble lies in the relationship to such things. It lies in the creature as an end-in-itself.

But to get this wrong leads to a painful and inhuman problem: on one hand there physical things in this world for which I have inclination, they are embodied, tangible, they appeal to my senses. On the other hand, there is God who is then reduced to a bare concept. And thus, God becomes less real than a sight or a sound.

But Augustine, informed by the Scripture, notes that this thing is only rightly known and used if it is known and used in the context of God. As Paul writes:

1 Timothy 4:1–5 (ESV)

4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

The creature is received with thankfulness – which is precisely what Paul condemns in the unbeliever of Romans 1. And thus, my implicit Gnosticism in thinking in reducing my relationship to God to an idea, makes me co-belligerent with the condemned man in Romans 1!

It also reduces relationship to the creation as one of sin in all cases, which then makes actual sinful relationship not that much different.

Jesus however looks at birds and flowers and sees teachers. He receives a meal and gives thanks.

This orientation of thankfulness actually permits easy interaction with the creation without sin: If I can receive this thing in holy thankfulness, then I will not sin in the use of it. But since that could easily be misunderstood as license, I will use this illustration from Bishop Ryle’s chapter on William Romaine:

He was one evening invited to a friend’s house, and, after tea, the lady of the house asked him to play cards, to which he made no objection. The cards were brought out, and when all were ready to begin playing, Romaine said, “Let us ask the blessing of God.” “Ask the blessing of God!” said the lady in great surprise; “I never heard of such a thing before a game of cards.” Romaine then inquired, “Ought we to engage in anything on which we cannot ask God’s blessing?” This reproof put an end to the card-playing.

On another occasion he was addressed by a lady, who expressed the great pleasure she had enjoyed under his preaching, and added that she could comply with his requirements, with the exception of one thing. “And what is that?” asked Romaine. “Cards, sir,” was the reply. “You think you could not be happy without them?” “No, sir, I know I could not.” “Then, madam,” said he, “cards are your God, and they must save you.” It is recorded that this pointed remark led to serious reflections, and finally to the abandonment of card playing.

Now what precisely about cards is the problem, I am not quite certain. But what I do know is that the orientation and test is correct. If I cannot ask God’s blessing upon the thing, then I cannot do the thing. God has specified what he will bless and what he will curse.

When I give heed to that instruction in thankfulness for the wisdom of God, I am freed from the sin of action and the sin of legalism (As Sinclair Ferguson helpfully explains, legalism is to take up God’s law in the absence of God’s person. It is the conduct without the relationship.)

And so, I see that I have this bent to cheat God of his glory (they did not honor him as God, nor were they thankful) – disguised as obedience! This is certainly not my only fault ….

Richard Sibbes, Sermon on Canticles 5.2(b)

11 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by in Puritan, Richard Sibbes, Song of Solomon, Thankfulness, Uncategorized

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Based upon those observations, Sibbes then turns to the application of that idea: If it true that Christians will live with two contrary principles, with desires in conflict; and yet Christians will not ultimately be overcome and lose that gracious principle which flows from the work of the Spirit of God in our lives; how then should we live? Sibbes counsels (1) thankfulness, that God will continually show mercy to us; and (2) let us use the knowledge of our frailty and persistence of temptation, to keep a close eye upon our lives.

First, thankfulness:

 Whence, for use, let us magnify the goodness of God, that will remain by his Spirit, and let it stay to preserve life in such hearts as ours are, so prone to security and sleepiness.

That is an interesting observation about human psychology: use our thankfulness, extoling the goodness of God, because that will cause us to persevere. The knowledge that God will continue to show goodness to us, will cause us to continue to persevere in the goodness of God. It is an interesting that our worship of God will cause us to continue in the experience of the goodness of God.

He then comes to specific instances of God’s goodness. First, to think of how God was willing to do us good when there was no gracious principle in us, at the time of our salvation:

Let it put us in mind of other like merciful and gracious doings of our God for us, that he gave his Spirit to us when we had nothing good in us, when it met with nothing but enmity, rebellion, and indisposedness.

And also to consider the goodness of God in the Incarnation:

Nay, consider how he debased himself and became man, in being united to our frail flesh, after an admirablenearness, and all out of mercy to save us.

Second, when we look to ourselves, let us take care and look to the Devil’s persistence in seeking to exploit our fraility:

Use. 2. If so be that Satan shall tempt us in such occasions, let us enter into our own souls, and search the truth of grace, our judgment, our wills, our constant course of obedience, and the inward principle whence it comes, that we may be able to stand in the time of temptation.

Sibbes then gives examples of this self-servicing (he calls it a “reflect act”):

What upheld the church but this reflect act, by the help of the Spirit, that she was able to judge of the good as well as of the ill? Thus David, ‘The desires of our souls are towards thee,’Ps. 38:9; and though all this have befallen us, yet have we not forgotten thy name, Ps. 44:20. This will enable us to appeal to God, as Peter, ‘Lord, thou knowest I love thee,’ John 21:15. It is an evidence of a good estate.

 

John Calvin: The World as a Theater

23 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by in Genesis, John Calvin, Romans, Thankfulness, Uncategorized

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Therefore, because God has put us in this world as in a theatre, to contemplate his glory, let us acknowledge him to be such as he declares himself to us, and because he gives us the second instruction which is even more familiar in his word, let us be more confident and stirred with a burning zeal to aspire unto him until we reach that goal, and let us be aware that this world was created for that purpose and that our Lord has placed us here and has favored us with living here and enjoying all the things he has created.

Now, the sun was not made for itself and is even a creature without feeling. The trees, the each, which produces food for us — all of that works for man. The animals, although they move and have some feeling, do not do for all that have this high capacity to understand what belongs to God, for they do not discriminate between good and evil. We also see that their life and death are for men’s use and service.

Jean Calvin, “The Triune God at Work (Gen. 1:1-2)” in Sermons On Genesis, Chapters 1:1-11:4: Forty-Nine Sermons Delivered in Geneva between 4 September 1559 and 23 January 1560, trans. Rob Roy McGregor (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, ©2009), 6.

However, we need note here that we are more than cursed and abominable if we, being masters and possessors of all the good things God has bestowed upon us, do not at least show gratitude as we worship him and confess that everything comes from.

Id., at p. 10. This is the great indictment of humanity:

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

Romans 1:21–25 (ESV)

 

Thomas Manton on Psalm 119:65, continued

04 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Discipleship, Psalms, Thankfulness, Thomas Manton

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The previous post may be found here

Doctrine 2: We should give thanks for what we have received. “We should not be always, craving, always complaining; there should be a mixture of thanksgiving.” Colossians 4:6.

A. “There is a time for all things, for confessing sin, for begging mercy, for thankful acknowledgements” “As no condition is so bad but a good man can find reason of praising God”. James 5:13, Psalms 50:15

B. “Self love will put us upon prayer, but love of God upon praise and thanksgiving”

C. “It is for the glory and honour of God that his servants should speak good of his name. When they are always complaining, they bring an ill report upon the ways of God, like the spies that went to view the promised land; but it a great invitation to others when we can tell them how good God hath been to us” Psalms 34:8

D. It is for our profit, “We do no more thrive in victory, over corruption, or the increase of divers graces, because we do no more give thanks.”

E. It prevents many sins.

1. Hardness of heart

2. Murmuring, fretting, quarelling

Use: This must urge us to be thankful in fact.

To remedy this:

A. Be thankful to God for everything we enjoy. Hosea 2:8, Isaiah 1:3

B. When we are thankful, let us be particular for each thing: not merely thankful for a generic “all” Psalms 139:17

C. Trace benefits to their fountain: God. Psalms 138:2, Hosea 13:11, Isaiah 38:17

D. When you think of what you actually possess, you will see that many would be thankful for your condition. John 14:22

E. Consider your own unworthiness to have actually received anything from God. Genesis 32:10, 2 Samuel 7:18

Doctrine 3: Thankfulness must acknowledge that good comes according to God’s promise, “according to your word“. Joshua 23:14, 1 Kings 8:56

This will bring great benefit:

A. To us:

1. It will confirm our faith

2. Seeing something which comes by way of promise, will increase its sweetness

B. To others, “you will invite, encourage, and strengthen them in believing.”

Use: “Let us look to the accomplishment of these promises, and trust God the more for the future.” Hebrews 11:13, Romans 18:21, Psalms 116:11, Psalms 31:22.

Paul Baynes, Brief Directions Unto a Godly Life, Chapter Sixteen, Thanksgiving and Fasting

16 Friday May 2014

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Esther, Fasting, Paul Baynes, Thankfulness

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The previous post in this series may be found here: http://wp.me/p1S7fR-24r

CHAPTER SIXTEEN, THE SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES OF SOLEMN THANKSGIVING AND FASTING

Extraordinary helps are two:

First, solemn thanksgiving.

And secondly, fasting with prayer more than usual.

Solemn Thanksgiving

For the first, when in some rare and unlooked for deliverance out of desperate danger, we do in most fervent manner yield praise to God for the same, rejoice heartily in the remembrance and consideration of it, tying ourselves in a renewing of our holy covenant more firmly to the Lord; testifying both by sings and unfeigned good will to our brothers. An example of this is most clearly seen in the story of Mordecai and Esther, found in Esther 9.

It is to be measured according to the nature of the occasion. When the occasion for thanksgiving belongs to the entire church, the thanksgiving should be a public event. It ought to be accompanied by the preaching of the Word, for the quickening [profit, enlivening] of the entire assembly. If the occasion be private, it is to be privately used with the singing of Psalms, praising his Name and speaking of his works, and the reading of Scripture that tends to that end.

Fasting and Prayer

The second extraordinary help is fasting: and this is a most earnest profession of deep humiliation in abstinence with confession of sins and supplication (for the great part fo the day at least) to God, to turn away some sore calamity from us or for the obtaining of some special blessing.

It must be used according to occasions – as with thanksgiving.

Remember, neither fasting nor thanksgiving should be undertaken without true repentance.

Now if we weigh the force and use of these exercises, how the one raises up a joyful recording of God’s wonderful kindness; the other brings us low for our own vileness; both the matter more especially remembered. Both of them do exceedingly draw our hearts to more love and more obedience to God. We must need confess them to be effectual means for the setting us forward in a godly life.

Anne Bradstreet: I Blessed His Name That Gave and Took

12 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by in affliction, Anne Bradstreet, Contentment, Faith, Literature, Puritan, Submission, Thankfulness

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Here follows some verse upon the burning of our house, July 10, 1666. Copyed out of a loose paper.

 

In silent night when rest I took,

For sorrow neer[1] I did not look,

I waken’d was with thundering nois[2]

And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice.

That fearful sound of fire and fire

Let no man know is my desire[3].

 

I, starting up, the light did spye

And to my God my heart did cry

To strengthen me in my distress

And not to leave me succourless[4].

Then coming out beheld a space,

The flame consume[5] my dwelling place.

 

And, when I could no longer look,

I blest his Name that gave and took[6],

That layd my good now in the dust[7]:

Yea, so it was, and so ‘twas just.

It was his own: it was not mine;

Far be it that I should repine.

 

He might of all justly bereft[8],

But yet sufficient for us left.[9]

When by the ruins oft I pass,

My sorrowing eyes aside did cast,

And here and there the places spy

Where of I sate[10], and long did lye.

 

Here stood that trunk, and there that chest;

There lay that store I counted best:

My pleasant things in ashes lye,

And them behold no more shall I.

Under thy[11] roof no guest shall sit,

Nor at thy table eat a bit.

 

No pleasant tale shall ‘ere be told,

Nor things recounted done of old.

No candle ‘ere shall shine in thee,

Nor bridgegroom’s voice ere  heard shall be.

In silence ever shall thou lye;

Adieu, adieu; all’s vanity[12].

 

The straight I gin[13] my heart to chide,

And did thy wealth[14] on earth abide?

Didst fix thy hope on mouldring dust,

The arm of flesh[15] didst make thy trust?[16]

Raise up thy thoughts above the skye

That dunghill mists away may flie.

 

Thou hast a house on high erect

Fram’d by that mighty architect[17]

With glory richly furnished,

Stands permanent tho: this be fled.

‘Its purchased and paid for too

By him who hath enough to do.

 

A prise so vast as is unknown,

Yet, by his gift, is made thine own.

Ther’s wealth enough, I need no more;

Farewell my pelf[18], farewell my store.

The world no longer let me love,

My hope and treasure lyes above.

 

 

 

[1] Near

[2] Noise

[3] Let no one think that I would desire such a thing. This point develops through the poem: Bradstreet sees God’s goodness in the loss and sets her hope upon God will bring. However, one should not see some glorying in her sorrow. The loss is real and painful, despite the good end God makes of it.

[4] Without succor, without help or aid.

[5] See at that time beheld the flaming consuming her dwelling place. The present tense is purposeful: I saw, at that time, the flame consume, et cetera.

[6] Upon hearing of the loss of his family and property, Job responds:

Job 1:20–21 (AV)

20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, 21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

 

[7] Job 21:25–26 (AV)

25 And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure. 26 They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them.

 

[8] God could rightly take everything, because all is his.

[9] 1 Timothy 6:6–8 (AV)

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

 

[10] Sat

[11] At this point she turns to address the house directly.

[12] Ecclesiastes 1:2 (AV)

2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.

 

[13] Begin

[14] Matthew 6:19–24 (AV)

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 22 The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. 23 But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! 24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

 

[15] Jeremiah 17:5 (AV)

5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

 

[16] At this point, she begins to reflect upon a common strain in Scripture:

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 (AV)

16 For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; 18 While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

 

 

[17] 2 Corinthians 5:1-10:

1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: 3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. 4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. 5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. 6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: 7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) 8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. 9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

 

John 14:1–3 (AV)

1 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many mansions [dwelling places, not the modern usage which means very large house] if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

 

 

[18] Pelf: property, money, riches. The word has a negative connotation: either the property was dishonestly gained, or it is trash and rubbish. 

Ann Bradstreet: What Shall I Render to Thy Name?

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Anne Bradstreet, Praise, Thankfulness

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In thankful remembrance for my dear husband’s safe arrival, September 3, 1662.

What shall I render to thy name,

Or how thy praises speak;

My thanks how shall I testify?

O Lord, thou know’st I’m weak.

 

I owe so much, so little can

Return onto thy name,

Confusion ceases my soul

And I am filled with shame.

 

O thou that hear’st prayers Lord,

To thee shall come all flesh;

Thou has me heard and answered

My ‘plaints have had access.

 

What did I ask for but thou gav’st?

What could I more desire?

But thankfulness, even all my days,

I humbly require.

 

Thy mercies Lord, have been so great,

In number numberless,

Impossible for to recount

Or any way express.

 

O help thy saints that sought thy face

T’return unto thee praise,

And walk before thee as they ought,

In strict and upright ways.

 

This was the last thing written in that book by my dear and hon’d mother.

I am afflicted, sore sorrowful

31 Thursday Oct 2013

Posted by in affliction, Confession, Desire, Faith, Hebrew, Humility, Joy, Praise, Prayer, Psalms, Singing, Submission, Thankfulness

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(This is a translation of Psalm 69 from the Hebrew text. The translation notes are over 20 pages long, so I decided not to post them also. )

Save me, God!

The water has come to my throat.

Down I sink, down in the miry deep.

–There is nowhere to stand.

I slip into the deep

The waters rush over me.

I grow weak from shouting

Hoarse with screams

My eyes fail

–Waiting, hoping for you my God.

I have more enemies than hairs on my head.

Without cause, mighty ones crush me;

Enemies of a lie:

What I did not steal, that I must return.

You God know my foolishness

My guilt hides not from you.

May those who wait on my Lord YHWH of Hosts

Be not disgraced for me;

May those who seek you suffer no shame

Because of me, God of Israel.

Reproach falls on me, because of you;

Shame covers my face.

A stranger I have become to my brothers,

I am unknown to my mother’s sons.

Yet zeal for your house consumes me,

The reproach of your reproach falls upon me.

Even my soul wept and fasted

Still it was reproach to me.

When I dress in sackcloth

I will be their song.

They speak of me, sitting in the gate

And sing of me sitting with their beer.

But me, my prayer is to you

            YHWH at an acceptable time

            God in the fullness of your mercy

                        Answer me in the truth of your salvation.

Rescue me from the mire

Do not let me sink;

Save me from enemies

Even from the depths of waters.

Do not let me sink beneath the flood of waters

Do not let me drown in the deep

Do not let the pit close its mouth over me.

Answer me YHWH, for your steadfast love is good

For the sake of your great mercy, turn to me.

Do not hide your face from your servant

Oh I am in distress

–Make haste to answer me.

Come near to my life, redeem;

Because of my enemies, ransom me.

You, you know my reproach

My shame, my humiliation is before you

–Even all my enemies.

Reproach has broken my heart

I am sick

I waited for pity, but there was none;

And for comforters I did not find.

They gave me poison for food;

For my thirst they gave me sour wine.

Turn their table to a trap

Let their safety be a snare.

Let darkness be their sight when seeing,

Cause their legs to always shudder

Pour your curse over them

Send to them your furious wrath

Let their camp be devastated

In their tents let no one dwell.

For him you struck

            They chased

And the sorrow of him you wound

            They wrote it down.

Lay guilt on their guilt

Keep them from your righteousness.

Erase them from the rolls of living

With the righteous, do not write them down.

But me, I am afflicted, sore sorrowful

–Yet your salvation, O God, will raise me to a save place.

I will praise the name of God in song

Making great my God in thankful song.

For it will please YHWH more than an ox

Or bull with horns and hoofs.

The afflicted will see; they will rejoice

You seeking God – let your hearts live.

For God hears the destitute

And his captives he does not despise.

Praise him heaven and earth

Waters and all that swarm in them.

For God saves Zion

And will build the cities of Judah

And they will settle there and possess it

The children of his servants will inherit

 

And those who love his name will dwell there.

Live Worthy of the Gospel.2

18 Sunday Aug 2013

Posted by in Hope, Joy, Mortification, Obedience, Philippians, Preaching, Thankfulness

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(An addition to this post: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/live-worthy-of-the-gospel/)

6. To Live Worthy of the Gospel is to See Sin Clearly and to Rejoice

I once took part in a lawsuit over a very old painting. It looked perhaps as if could be a painting from a great master which had become lost hundreds of years ago. We compared the painting to old records of paintings made by the master. Experts examined the brush work. Others tested the chemicals in the paint. If real, the painting would fetch millions upon millions.  Yet, if it did not pass each test, it would be interesting and old – but not worthy of the name artist.

The same applies here. I have laid out before you some of what it means to walk and life “worthy of the gospel of Christ.” I have shown the demands of the Lord.  If you have been truthful, if you have held up your life to this call, then you must see: I do not live truly worthy of the gospel.

You may have noticed that those who have known the Lord most plainly and deeply are those who think themselves most unworthy.  It was the end of his life that Paul wrote,

Christ Jesus came to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. 1 Timothy 1:15

John Bradford, a very godly man, would sign his letters, That wretched sinner, that miserable sinner, John Bradford.

If you honestly consider, you will see that you may here and there show signs of life – but in the detail, you see the distance between the perfection of holiness and yourself. If you tell the truth, you will be threatened with despair. In fact, the more and longer you know Christ, the brighter the beauty of his holiness shines and the greater we see our sin and corruption.

It is here that a life worthy of the gospel shows itself most plainly.

At this point, temptation comes and brings despair. The Devil himself comes and says, Did God really say you are saved by grace alone? Are you really a Christian? Look at your sins – I have seen them all. And they are such a great burden that they will weigh you down to hell. You cannot escape. You are not saved. No real Christian could ever sin like that.

And so to run off from this temptation some will seek to ease their conscience by changing the law. When they read that we must count others as more important than ourselves – we change it and qualify it and make it lighter. When we read that see that Christ tells us that we must love the unlovely, that we must sacrifice our ease and comfort to live with people who tempt us to be unhappy – we think, God wants me to be happy : and so we rewrite the demands of the King. Christ really can’t expect me to be so unhappy or to sacrifice so dearly. They will rewrite the law until they come upon a law which they can meet.

Others will say it is all grace! And so sin no longer matters.

Both of these people steal the glory from God. Neither of these people live worthy of the gospel.

To live worthy of the gospel is a matter too great for us. And it is at this very point that the gospel’s beauty becomes clear. The gospel is a proclamation of good news. It is the good news that Christ died for sinners! It is the good news that

7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, ….Ephesians 1:7–8a (ESV)

To live worthy of the gospel is to seek holiness without which no one will see the Lord  (Hebrews 12:14) – and to rejoice in the fact that the Father loves me in the Son. God the Father loves me, because he loves my King!

You see, the gospel does not make sin indistinct and less clear. It is the legalist who needs a law he can keep. It is the legalist who says, That can’t be the law. God could never expect that of anyone! The legalist writes a law he can meet.

But the gospelist looks and sin clearly  and says, I am a poor miserable sinner –But God!

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:4–10 (ESV)

I am not worthy of the least grace of God – and yet God bestows unending grace upon me.

Do not worry that you are a great sinner. Your sin cannot keep you from Christ! Confess your sin, confess and come to Christ. You Christ is a great savior.

And so here is the final element of a life worthy of the gospel of Christ: Joy! Over and again Paul writes, Rejoice.

Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Phil. 4:4.

I am so glad that our Father in heaven

Tells of his love in the book has given

Wonderful things in the Bible I see

But this is the dearest that Jesus loves me

 

I am  glad that Jesus loves

Jesus loves even me.

 

If there is only one song I can sing

When in his presence I see the great king

This will my song for eternity be

Or what a wonder that Jesus loves me.

 

Anne Bradstreet, On My Son’s Return Out of England

12 Monday Aug 2013

Posted by in Anne Bradstreet, Praise, Puritan, Thankfulness

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On My Son’s Return out of England, July 17, 1661[1]

 

All praise to him who hath not turn’d

My fear to joys, my sighs to song,

My tears to smiles, my sad to glad:

He’s come for whom I waited long.

 

Thou did’st preserve him as he went;

In raging storm did’st safely keep:

Did’st that ship bring to quiet port.

The other sank low in the deep[2].

 

From dangers great thou did’st him free

Of pirates who were near at hand;

And order’st so the adverse win,

That he before them got to land.

 

In country strange thou did’st provide,

And friends rais’d him in every place[3];

And courtesies of sundry sorts

From such as ‘fore ne’er saw his face.

 

In sickness when he lay full sore,

His help and his physician wer’t;

When royal one that time did die[4],

Thou heal’st his flesh and cheered his heart.

 

From troubles and encumbrances [5] Thou

Without (all fraud[6]) did’st set him free,

That, without scandal[7], he might come

To the land of his nativity.

 

On eagle’s wings him hither brought[8]

Through want and dangers manifold;

And thus hath granted my request,

That I thy mercies might behold.[9]

 

O help me pay my vows, O Lord![10]

That I may ever thankful be,

And may put him in mind of what

Thou’st done for him and so for me.

 

In both our hearts erect a frame

Of duty and of thankfulness,

That all thy favors great receiv’d

Our upright walking may express.

 

Comments:   Most people alive in the 21st Century (particularly in North America) cannot understand both the constant threat of death and the inability to communicate with loved ones for months (or years) at a time. While we do suffer illness, we do not face diseases which routinely strike down the young and healthy. Bradstreet’s thankfulness should not be seen as mere formality. Rather, this is the sincere love of a mother whose son survived an Atlantic crossing (storms and pirates) as well as political upheaval of England.

Thankfulness was a great theme of Puritan preaching and instruction. Consider for example the sermon of William Cooper, “How Must We in All Things Give Thanks?”:

 

It is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning Christians, that in every thing they give thanks; that they be thankful, as our word is more proper to our purpose.

For though we have nothing of our own that is good to give God but thanks, yet neither do we properly give him that, seeing both our giving and the right manner of doing it, even in thanksgiving, are of the Lord. (1 Cor. 4:7; 1 Chron. 29:14; Phil. 2:13.)

Our continual praying shows that we are always beggars, and our continual thanksgiving shows us always debtors. Our thanks, then, indeed, is the rebound of mercy heavenward, whence it came, and a holy reflection of the warm sun-beams of God’s benefits shining on us.

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Volume 1 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 416.

 

[1] He had left to England in November 1657. While in England, Charless II was restored to the English throne.

[2] The loss feared by Anne was not merely the loss of potential, but an actual loss. Two other men involved with the passage of the pair of ships mentioned the loss of commander Garrett’s ship. The exact nature of the loss was not known.

[3] God provided friends for son while traveling.

Proverbs 27:10 (ESV)

10  Do not forsake your friend and your father’s friend,

and do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity.

Better is a neighbor who is near

than a brother who is far away.

 

[4] Henry, Duke of Gloucester (brother to Charles 1) died of small pox on September 13, 1660. Their sister, Mary died of small pox on December 24.

[5] The text is unclear at this point.

[6] “All fraud” is in the original.

[7] Scandal had a broader meaning at the time: something more akin to the modern “trouble” rather than mere moral failing.

[8] An image used of God’s rescue:

4 You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Exodus 19:4 (ESV)

 

 

[9] 2 Corinthians 1:8–11 (ESV)

8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

 

[10] Ecclesiastes 5:4–5 (ESV)

4 When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow. 5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay.