Category Archives: Worship

Edward Taylor, When Thy Bright Beams

18 Wednesday Dec 2019

Posted by in Edward Taylor, Uncategorized, Worship, Worship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

4505646830_41ba1cffa6_o

(2009 photo contest winner for the Nature / Landscapes category. Photo by Kurt Svendsgaard/USFWS)

When thy bright beams, my Lord, do strike mine eye,

Methinks I then could truly chide out-right

My hidebound soul that stands so niggardly

That scarce a thought gets glorified by’t.

My quaintest metaphors are ragged stuff,

Making the sun seem like a mullipuff.

 

When I am struck evidence of your glory, I see how little right effect that glory works into my soul. I chide myself that I show so little effect up me. The words which I produce are of so little value.

“chide out-right”: Scold, upbraid.

“My hidebound soul”: his soul is unresponsive.

“Niggardly”: selfish, tightfisted: It is as if his soul is a miser which will pay out no praise.

“scarce a thought get glorified”: The glory of God does not translate into transformed thinking.  In Romans 12:2 Paul calls up us to be “transformed by the renewal of your mind”

“quaintest metaphors”: my most clever metaphors. The style of writing exercised by Taylor gives great emphasis to the cleverness of metaphor. He here raises his most able talent and says that it means nothing: it is “ragged stuff”.

He ends the stanza with a comic comparison: rather than raise what I know in admiration by means of comparison, I turn the very sun into a fuzzball.

 

It’s my desire, thou shouldst be glorified:

But when thy glory shine before mine eye,

I pardon crave, lest my desire be pride,

Or bed thy glory in cloudy sky.

The sun grows wan; and angels palefac’d shrink

Before thy shine, which I besmear with ink.

 

It is my aim – my desire – that you, God, should be honored by my work. But I see your already existing glory, rather than thinking of some means of providing you greater honor; I feel myself ashamed. I ask that you should forgive me (I pardon crave).

 

Rather than my writing providing something honoring to, I fear that I will dishonor you with my words. Rather than adding a luster to God’s glory, Taylor’s words will have the effect of being a “cloudy sky” to the sun. His poem will merely “besmear with ink” the glory of God.

 

This realization that (1) his soul has not responded rightly to the realization of God’s glory and (2) his complete inability to glorify God, leads to a crisis: What will I do? That crisis is set forth in the third stanza:

 

But shall the bird sign forth thy praise and shall

The little bee present her thankful hum?

But I who see thy shining glory fall

Before mine eyes, stand blockish, dull, and dumb?

Whether I speak, or speechless stand, I spy,

I fail thy glory: therefor, pardon cry.

 

Even the most simple things give glory to God: birds singing, bees humming.  This matter that all nature praises God is a theme in Scripture. For instance, Psalm 149

 

Psalm 148:7–10 (AV 1873)

7          Praise the Lord from the earth,

Ye dragons, and all deeps:

8          Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour;

Stormy wind fulfilling his word:

9          Mountains, and all hills;

Fruitful trees, and all cedars:

10         Beasts, and all cattle;

Creeping things, and flying fowl:

 

I do like “dragons”, but the contemporary translations render as something like “great sea creatures”.  All of nature praises God, “All thy works shall praise thee”. Ps. 145.10.

 

So, if all of creation praises God, then certainly Taylor – who has better reason and better ability to praise God – must do something. It is particularly wrong for Taylor to stand agape and say nothing,

 

But I who see thy shining glory fall

Before mine eyes, stand blockish, dull, and dumb?

 

So Taylor has no escape: If he praises God or he fails to praise, both will be wrong:

 

Whether I speak, or speechless stand, I spy,

I fail thy glory: therefor, pardon cry.

 

What can he possibly do but seek mercy?

 

 

 

But this I find: my rhymes do better suit

Mine own dispraise than tune forth praise to thee.

Yet being chide, whether consonant, or mute,

I force my tongue to tattle, as you see.

That I thy glorious praise my trumpet right

Be thou my song, and make Lord, me thy pipe.

 

He acknowledges that his best ability in terms of poetry is to note his own deficiency rather than God’s glory:

But this I find: my rhymes do better suit

Mine own dispraise than tune forth praise to thee.

 

And God, you also see since I deserve no matter I do (“whether consonant or mute”), but you also see that I cannot help but speak and praise you.

 

So then, Taylor prays that God will work in Taylor’s praise to remedy his defect. In making this prayer, Taylor is seeming relying upon the promise of Romans 8:27 that when we pray the Holy Spirit will intercede for us – that He will effectively correct our defective prayers.

 

He then ends with a praise to God’s great glory which shall be revealed on Judgment Day.

How to become humble

18 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in Humility, Matthew, Uncategorized, Worship, Worship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

Humility flows not from thinking badly about oneself (that is still pride that I am not better); rather it flows from not thinking of oneself. It is not obtained by looking to oneself, but is obtained by looking one greater.  True humility before God and worship are inextricably linked:

Poverty of spirit is born of the conscious meeting with God. It lives by the constant daily, hourly realisation of God. Therefore it keeps a man strong, it makes him stronger than all the self-asserting vaunters who trust in themselves, or in their brains, or their rank, or their money, or their power of making a noise—it makes him strong, because he is always feeling the true source of his strength, always in touch with his Inspirer. He is not casting about wildly to find support in other men’s appreciation of him; the sources of his strength are present to him—they are ever with him; he is and God is—and in his case the unforgotten Voice ever says, “Fear not, for I am with thee, I have called thee by thy name, and thou art Mine.” He cannot vaunt himself, he cannot push himself, he is but an instrument, and an instrument that can only work as long as it is in touch with its inward power; the ‘God within him’ is the source of his power. What can he be but poor in spirit, how can he forget, how can he call out ‘worship me,’ when he has seen the Vision and heard the Voice, and felt the Power of God? Poor in spirit, emptied of mere vain, barren conceit, deaf to mere flattery he must be, because he has seen and known; he has cried “Holy, Holy, Holy,” he knows God, and henceforth he is not a centre, not an idol, but an instrument, a vessel that needs for ever refilling, if it is to overflow and do its mission. His is the receptive attitude; not that which receives merely that it may keep, but that which receives because it must send forth. And so he accepts all merely personal conditions, not as perfect in themselves, but as capable of being transmuted by that inward power, which is his own, yet not his own—his own because God is within him, not his own because he is the receiver, not the inspirer. His cry is ever, “Nevertheless I am alway by Thee, for Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel: and after that receive me with glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee: and there is none upon earth that I desire in comparison of Thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.”

Robert Eyton, “The Benediction on the Poor in Spirit,” in The Beatitudes, Second Edition. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd., 1896), 18–19.

Richard Sibbes: God is a Relationship

16 Thursday Mar 2017

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Richard Sibbes, Sanctification, Sanctifictation, Uncategorized, Worship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

But you will say, How shall we know that this covenant belongeth to us? that we are such as we may say, God is our God?
I answer, first—to lay this for a ground—you must know that to be a God is a relation. Whosoever God is a God to, he persuadeth them by his Spirit that he is a God to. The same Spirit that persuadeth them that there is a God, that Spirit telleth them that God is their God, and works a qualification and disposition in them, as that they may know that they are in covenant with such a gracious God. The Spirit as it revealeth to them the love of God, and that he is theirs, so the Spirit enableth them to claim him for their God, to give up themselves to him as to their God.

Richard Sibbes, “The Faithful Covenanter” in The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 6 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1863), 8.

This is a profound bit of theology and needs some thought to be understood.

Consider first, “you must know that to be a God is a relation”. We too easily abstract God: God is a being with a set of attributes. Another sort of one has an idea of a celestial butler, the god of moral therapeutic deism:

As described by Smith and his team, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism consists of beliefs like these: 1. “A god exists who created and ordered the world and watches over human life on earth.” 2. “God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.” 3. “The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about ones self.” 4. “God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when God is needed to resolve a problem.” 5. “Good people go to heaven when they die.” (As Dr. Mohler summarized Smith’s findings.)

Or some other god. But consider what Sibbes is saying: The “God” part of our understanding of God is relational. For instance, Moses speaks to Pharaoh of the “LORD our God.” There is a particular person(s) who is our God. Since He is God, we have a particular relationship toward him.

The abstract God is a powerful being, but we have little relationship to him. He have created us, but he may also have forgotten us: he is not God to us. The Therapeutic god is no God at all. He is a powerful helper, but he is not a God to anyone. That is why the Christian confession is that Christ is Lord.

The remainder of Sibbes’ discussion speaks about how God himself, God the Spirit, brings the human being into a right relation to God. God is there for everyone, but not everyone is God-worshipper relationship with God (indeed, one can think of sanctification as merely the process of turning human beings into right worshipers).

Whosoever God is a God to,
1) he persuadeth them by his Spirit that he is a God to.
2) The same Spirit that persuadeth them that there is a God,
3) that Spirit telleth them that God is their God,
4) and works a qualification and disposition in them,
5) as that they may know that they are in covenant with such a gracious God.
6) The Spirit as it revealeth to them the love of God, and that he is theirs,
7) so the Spirit enableth them to claim him for their God,
8) to give up themselves to him as to their God

Each of these elements makes plain what is in the relationship of “God”. There is a God. This God stands in some sort of relationship to the human being. The human being is in a covenantal relationship to this God. The human being’s affections, thoughts, dispositions, actions are brought into a correspondence to the covenant (that is also known as sanctification: note that sanctification is not merely morally appropriate behavior, although it is not less). Counseling/preaching is the process of using the Word of God (assisted by the Spirit of God) to bring about this relational process.

The Spiritual Chymist, Preaching and Public Worship

07 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by in 2 Timothy, Preaching, Reading, Uncategorized, Worship, Worship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Meditation XLI
Upon the Benefits of a Sucking Bottle

The Word of God by which men are turned from darkness onto light sometimes compared to a seed (Mark 4:4) and sometimes onto milk (1 Peter 2:2); and the ministers of it, sometimes onto fathers (1 Thessalonians 2:11)and sometimes onto nurses (1 Thessalonians 2:7). This double relation points forth their double duty which is not only as spiritual fathers to beget men onto Christ, but as nursing mothers to give them the full breasts the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby and of newborn babes maybe come strong in the face, and filled with all knowledge and wisdom in the things of God.

But how was this done? It is by Reading only the Scriptures, without giving the sense (though it be a public ordinance of God [1 Timothy 4:13], and highly to be honored of all), or by the diligent and well digested preaching of the Scriptures, in which the truths delivered or sucked in as milk from the breast that partakes of the warmth and spirits of the nurse?

Some ministers have consulted more for their own ease than their people’s profit, and have endeavored to maintain reading to be preaching, as if that were a sufficient discharge of their duty.

But what then will become of the apostle’s question? Who is sufficient for these things? It should be rather who is not sufficient? Or of what use will be this counsel, to preach in season and out of season (2 Timothy 4:2) and to divide the word of God aright as a workman that needeth not be ashamed. (2 Timothy 2:15)

True it is, that if preaching be taken largely for any declaration or publishing of the Word of God, it cannot be denied to be preaching. But if it be taken strictly for preaching, by way of office, and for ministerial publishing of the gospel, then it is quite another thing.

Was there not a wide difference between the woman of Samaria making known of Christ (John 4:28-30), and the apostles preaching of him; or between Andrew calling his brother Peter (John 1:40-41) before he was put into his apostolical office and his preaching of Christ when commissioned by him?

And what less difference is there between a naked reading of the Scripture or some other set discourse and the powerful preaching of the Word? But if trial and experience could better evince than argument, those who justify the opinion by their practice, I could wish that such might bring forth children who lived wholly upon the singular means of reading and let their countenance be looked upon and the countenance of those who have had the Word duly preached onto them and then let others judge whether their countenance appear as fair and as fat as their brothers?

Oh how quickly would it be discerned which they are, which have received the nourishment from the breast and which from the bottle? It would soon be judged that the weak are the flocks of Laban and the strong the flock of Jacob (Genesis 30:41-42), which God has by far blessed far above the other.

Think upon it of O ye slothful ones, to whose care God has committed the welfare of many souls how you will answer your neglected to God! If the chief officer was afraid that his withholding the king’s appointed meat from Daniel and his companions might endanger his head to his lord should he see their faces worse than the children of their sort (Daniel 1:10) what cause will you have to fear the displeasure of Christ when he shall behold the wan and pale looks of those for whom he died by your detaining breast from them who should have been nourished up in the Word of faith and good doctrine?

Nor shall ye, O Christians who slight ordinances (Communion, baptism, and here most likely public worship) and turn your back upon the breast of consolation which are held forth onto you escape any better than the ministers who deny them to their people. If it be a sin to do the one, it is no less, if not greater in you, to do the other. They sin against the souls of others, and you sin against your own souls. And yet how great are the numbers upon whom the guilt of this crime may be charged?

Some think that they are past their childhood and therefore wean themselves. They know as much as their teachers can tell them, and to what end then should they still give them their attendance? To hanker after the breast is for babes, not for grown persons! But are not they who thus speak puffed up and know nothing as they ought? Is not this whole life a state of infancy in respect of perfection? Does not the apostle say, That we see but darkly and know but in part. Why then should the old be ashamed of these breasts more than the young Timothies? David professed himself a weaned child from the world but not from the Word.

Others please themselves, that though they go not to hear, yet they read good books and betters sermons at home than their ministers can make: and so take themselves not to be zealous, but only more discreet than their brothers who do not the like. And yet who can excuse such persons from the guilt both of folly and wickedness? Is it not folly to refuse the warm breast and suck the milk from the bottle when it is dispirited and has lost both its warm and lively state?

And what less difference is there between a sermon in the pulpit and in the press? Is it not also wickedness to offer sacrilege for sacrifice and to rob God of one duty to pay him another; to withhold the greater and to seem conscientious in the less? Are they not in thus thieves of their own souls, depriving themselves of the profit of both, while they are willful neglecters of each?

Be wise therefore, O Christians, in keeping up a high esteem of the Word preached, and be always babes for hunger and desire after it; though not for knowledge and understanding in it.

And remember that there is no way so dangerous to lessen your desires as to keep yourselves fasting from it. For the Word of God still creates new appetites, as it satisfies the old (it makes us more hungry at the same time that it satisfies our hunger for it); and enlarges the capacities of the soul as it fills it.

Use good books as apothecaries do their succedanea (drugs, medications), one simple to supply the want of another; when the preacher cannot be had to then make use of them [books and written sermons]; but let it rather be to stay the stomach in the absence of an ordinance than to satisfy it. And when you enjoy both, say as Aristotle sometimes did of the Rhodian and Lesbian Wines (wines of Rhodes and Lesbos), when had tasted both: the Rhodian was good, but the Lesbian was pleasanter. Holy Books are good, and relish well, but the Word Preached is more sweet. The one is as the wine the bridegroom provided at the marriage feast and the other as that which Christ made which was easily discerned by the governor (the chief of the feast) but know not whence it was, to be far better (John 2:10).

The Spiritual Chymist, Upon the Payment of a Pepper-Corn

20 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by in Glory, Praise, Uncategorized, William Spurstowe, William Spurstowe, Worship, Worship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

MEDITATION XXXVIII
Upon the Payment of a Pepper-corn

5155402560_d841a3cf67_o

(Photo courtesy of John Lodder)

Logicians have a maxim, Relations sunt minimas entitatis & maxime efficace: relations are the smallest entity, and of the greatest efficacy: the truth which may appear in the payment of a single peppercorn, that freeholders pay their landlord, they do it not with any hope or intent to enrich him; but to acknowledge that they hold all from him. To affect the one it is not have to mean about you, get a preservers the Lord’s right fully as a greater rent, and aggravates the tenant’s folly to withhold more then if the demand had been higher.

What Naaman’s servant spoke on to him, If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee, wash and be clean?

The condition which meet bounty happily has so easy had been by the same hand and power restraints to a more costly and ample homage ought it not to have been performed? How much more when nothing is required but what may how inexcusable then must the ingratitude of those men be, receiving all their blessings from God, withhold a peppercorn of praise and honor for him, which is the only thing that they can pay or that he expects? To cast the least mite into his treasury, which may add to its richest, is beyond the line if men or angels, for if it could admit to increase [if the praise could make God’s existing merit and treasure larger than it is at present], the abundance of it were not infinite: but to adore its fullness and to acknowledge that from it they derived theirs is the duty of all the partake of it.

This is the only homage that those Stars of the Morning and Sons of God who behold his face do given in heaven, and this it is which the children of men should give on earth. But alas! From how few are those sacred dues tendered to God, though all be his debtors? Does not the rich man when well flows in on him like a river forget that only the Lord gives him power to get riches? And sacrifice onto his neck, and burn incense onto his drag? Is it not the sin that God charges all Israel with, that they rejoice in the thing of nought, and say have we not taken horns to us by our own strength?

Yea, does he not expressly say that he will not get his glory onto another? Shall any man then take it onto himself? And yet what stolen bread is so sweet to any taste as the secret nimmings and purloinings of God’s glory our onto the palate of most? If any design be effected, they think that their wisdom has brought about; if any difficulties be removed, they ascribed it to their industry; if success and victory due build upon their sword, it is their own arm and right hand that has obtained it. O how great is that pride and on thankfulness which reigns in the hearts of men who affect to rob God, rather than to honor can’t, and she denied him to be the author of what they possess, than to acknowledge the tenure that they hold in capite [a holding immediately from the king; English law].

Stealing from men may be acquitted again with single or double, with fourfold or sevenfold restitution: but the filching from God’s glory can never be answered. For who can give anything to him which he has not received? Others may steal of necessity, to satisfy hungry; but such [as do not praise God] violate out of pride and wantonness the Exchequer of Heaven, and shall never escape undetected or unpunished.

Consider therefore this all you who are ready to kiss your own hands for every blessing that comes upon you, to what danger you expose yourselves, while you rob God – whose name is Jealous, who will vindicate the glory of neglected goodness in the severe triumphs of his impartial justice. It is Bernard’s expression Uti datis, ut innatis est maxima superbia, to use God’s gifts as things inbred in us is the highest arrogance. And what less merit than the very condemnation of the Devil – whose first sin (as some divines [theologians] conceive) was an affection of independent happiness, without any respect or habitude to God. I cannot wonder that the blackness of his sin and the dreadfulness of his Fall should not make all to fear the least shadow and semblance of such a crime in themselves as must bring upon them the like ruin.

Look upon him you proud ones and tremble, who are abettors of Nature against Grace, and resolve the salvation of man ultimately in to the freedom of the will rather than into the efficacy of God’s grace. [The one ] who in the work of conversion make the grace of God to have only the work of a midwife, to help the child into the world but not be the parent and sole author of it. Is not this to cross the great design of the Gospel, which is to exalt and honor God and Christ? That he that glorieth might glory in the Lord? And is not every tittle of the Gospel as dear to God as every tittle of the Law? Can then any diminish aught from it and be guiltless?

Oh fear then to take the least due from God who has threatened to take his part out of the Book of Life and out of the holy City and from the things which are written in the Book of God.

Non test devotions dedisse probe totum, sed fraudis retinuisse vel minimum, It is not devotion, says Prosper rightly against his Collator, to acknowledge almost all from God, but accursed theft to ascribe though but a very little to ourselves.

Lord, therefore, whatever others do
Keep me humble,
That as I receive all from thee,
So I may render that tribute of praise which thou expects from me
Both cheerfully and faithfully;
And though it can add nothing to thy perfection,
No more than my beholding and admiring the Sun’s light can increase it
Yet let me say, as Holy David did,
Not unto us, O Lord,
Not unto us,
But unto thy name be the glory
For thy mercy
And for thy truth’s sake.

Soren Kierkegaard: “The Rotation Method” Part One (Either/Or)

04 Wednesday Jan 2017

Posted by in Culture, Philosophy, Psychology, Uncategorized, Worship, Worship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

14797998693_65528d306d_o

This is the most entertaining essay I have ever read on boredom. It begins:

Starting from a principle is affirmed by people of experience to be a very reasonable procedure; I am willing to humor them, and so begin with the principle that all men are bores. Surely no one will prove himself to be so great a bore as to contradict me in this….Boredom is the root of all evil.

In the context of this volume, which is addressing the human being at the aesthetic level of being, this principle cannot be gainsaid. If the point of all life is simply to avoid pain and obtain pleasure, boredom is monster which lurks everywhere (as soon one has food and shelter).

Think of how much effort and treasure is poured into entertainment: movies, music, sports, video-games. Drug taking is primarily to shake off boredom by being easily amused. It is the mark of a  culture which is largely childish. Consider these two sentences and at the same time consider street crime:

In the case of children, the ruinous character of boredom is universally acknowledged. Children are always well-behaved as long as they are enjoying themselves.

Sadly I have known more than one criminal intimately. I have never met the man who stole because he was honestly going to starve after he could not find work. Violence, theft, assaults, are weirdly often a form of entertainment.

He even attributes the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) to boredom (“To divert themselves they conceived the idea of constructing a tower high enough to reach the heavens.”).

Think of politics: how much of politics is entertaining theater (I am happy here to draw out examples from all parties and candidates sufficient to gore everyone’s ox. But these facts are too well known).

Sadly, too much of the Christian church is little better than second rate theater meant to divert on in the task of “worship”. That does not mean I think that Christian worship should be boring: When it is truly worship, nothing is more riveting. Rather, diversion rather than presentation of the living God is where most “worship” settles (frankly it is easier to be diverting than meet God — it also the reason why it is so easy to forget).

 

So when we think about it: this question of boredom has profound effects: I have only briefly (and in the barest form) considered crime, culture, politics and worship. According to Kierkegaard’s formulation of the aesthetic stage the trouble is that most of world is peopled by those who cannot operate at a more matured level (that is for his later books).

Popular Contemporary Music

03 Friday Jun 2016

Posted by in Music, Uncategorized, Worship

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

,

I one time saw a popular “preacher”, a young man with more enthusiasm than wisdom , say “It’s an oxymoron, like a sad Christian.” He was apparently unfamiliar with “Blessed are those who mourn ….” Anyway, this same nonsense, the inability to realize that are not yet in the New Heavens and New Earth has infected was passes for Christian current music (I will not repeat the idiocy of “Beautiful Day”, it makes me cringe):

The upbeat lyrics of “Beautiful Day” aren’t exceptional. I took a look at the last five years of Billboard’s year-end top 50 Christian songs1 to see whether Christian pop is unrelentingly cheerful. I looked at pairs of concepts across the entire collection of lyrics2 (life and death, grace and sin, etc.)3 and calculated the ratio of positive to negative words. For every pair I checked, positive words were far more common than negative ones.

There were 2.5 times as many mentions of “grace” as “sin” in the songs’ lyrics. Other pairs were even more lopsided: There were more than eight mentions of “life” for every instance of “death,” and “love” was more than seven times as common as “fear.” (For the record, John 4:18 — “perfect love casts out fear” — is advice for spiritual formation, not lyrics writing.) Parishioners may find too much positive language dispiriting. When Christian pop songs and hymns are “excessively positive or wholly positive,” they often “come across as cotton candy and inauthentic,” said Richard Beck, a psychology professor at Abilene Christian University and the author of several books on the intersection between theology and psychology.

Read the rest

Of course Christianity has the most profound promise of call for joy. But it shouldn’t make me feel like I’m buying soap.

What the Ascension Means to the Church

09 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Ascension, Ecclesiology, Uncategorized, Worship, Worship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

22350515932_40aedba0c8_o

Jesus has taken his place at the right hand of the Father. He has vanquished all the powers. In his person he has carried human nature up into the presence of God the Father. Ascension points to the fact that the whole cosmos has been re-organized around Jesus of Nazareth. Mission is a response to this doxological reality. And so is the church’s life of worship.

Ascension means the church is the kind of institution that is simultaneously drawn upward in worship and pushed outward in mission. These are not opposing movements. Unfortunately, too many churches today see it that way. Ascension forbids such a dichotomy. The church does not have to choose whether it will be defined by the depth of its worship life or its faithfulness in mission. Both acts flow from the single reality of ascension. Both have integrity only in that they are connected to one another. Mission is the church’s response to the universal lordship of Jesus. When people respond to the gospel— whether through faith and repentance or by bringing every area of life under the lordship of Christ—worship happens. The more authentically missional a church becomes, the more profound will be its life of worship since mission always ends in worship. It flows from the place of the ascended Christ in his heavenly reign, which means mission’s success increases the amount of praise and worship of God in the world. Together the church’s life of mission and worship enact and bear witness on earth to what is already true in heaven.

Here’s the rest: THE CHURCH UPWARD AND OUTWARD: IMPLICATIONS OF THE ASCENSION

Stephen’s Speech as Legal Argument/Story Part I

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Acts, Genesis, Uncategorized, Worship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

First, the structure of Steven’s Speech in Acts 7

THE CHARGE:

Acts 6:8–15 (ESV)

8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

DETAILS:

CONCLUSORY CHARGE:
This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law,

EVIDENCE:
14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us

LOGIC STRUCTURE:

IF
Stephen said Jesus will (a) destroy the temple and (b) change Moses customs

THEN
Stephen is blaspheming.

Therefore, Ste

STEPHENS DEFENSE

Stephen anchors his defense in the promise of God to Abraham:

A. God’s appearance to Abraham

1. Acts 7:2–3 (ESV)
2 And Stephen said:
“Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’
2. God promises Abraham a homeland
It is probably safe to say that Stephen also implies the totality of the promises made to Abraham.

3. This scene is roughly paralleled by the God of glory’s appearance to Stephen at the end of the story:

Acts 7:54–60 (ESV)

54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

B. Abraham’s Obedience (v. 4)
Acts 7:4 (ESV)
4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.

 

C. God explains the delay in the promise being fulfilled/Covenant of Circumcision

1. Acts 7:5–6 (ESV)
5 Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child. 6 And God spoke to this effect—that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years.

2. Acts 7:8 (ESV)
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.

2. Genesis

Stephen’s order matches Genesis:

Genesis 17:1–14 (ESV)

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

THE SAVOIRS/REJECTIONS

At this point, Stephen a series of three saviors who are rejected: Joseph, Moses & and then Jesus. The odd movement here is between the Temple to Jesus

Jeremiah Burroughs: Twenty Observations on Leviticus 10:3

22 Thursday Oct 2015

Posted by in Jeremiah Burroughs, Leviticus, Ministry, Worship

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

14749466555_ee76034897_o

Leviticus 10:1–3 (ESV)

10 Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord has said: ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’ ” And Aaron held his peace.

First, When we worship God, we must only offer what God has commanded us to offer:

When we start using things in a way which God has not commanded, we are acting in a superstitious manner.

“We must come freely to worship God, but we must not worship God according to our wills.”

Be careful here, because perhaps all congregations have brought into their worship some-thing not in accord with God’s direction.

Second, “In the matter of worship, God stands upon little things.” Consider Nadab and Abihu: they merely offered “strange fire” which doesn’t seem that important. But God shows himself to be very particular when it comes to how he is worshipped.

Third, no one is so “important” that he worship God carelessly and then think that God will not care — not even being a relative of Moses and Aaron is enough.

Fourth, those who have more visible places and more respect in their work of ministry should expect to be held to a higher standard from God (James 3:1).

Fifth, at the very beginning of important things we should not be surprised to find particularly great difficulties.

Sixth, we should be especially carefully when we enter into public worship of God.

Seventh, we must be careful to fully understand all that God has said — even if it is difficult and takes great effort to understand.

Eighth, we should not expect that God will always give some sort of explicit warning about a coming judgment. “Therefore, learn to tremble not only at what is revealed in God’s Word against your sin, but tremble at what there is in that infinite justice, power, and wisdom of God to find out and execute upon sinners.”

Ninth, sometimes God’s judgment comes very quickly —even when it is not expected.

Tenth, just because a duty is a holy duty does not mean that God will ignore miscarriage of that duty: the holiness of the duty is no shield.

Eleventh,
Psalm 68:35 (ESV)
35  Awesome is God from his sanctuary;
the God of Israel—he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.
Blessed be God!

Twelfth, God’s judgment match men’s sins.

Thirteenth, take heed not to bring strange fire into God’s service.

Now it’s true that a carnal heart would be ready to think that when a preacher speaks out of true zeal to God, he will be ready to say that he (the preacher) is aiming at him (this often happens!). Take heed of that.

But however, this I know: it is the duty of the minister of God to be sure to bring nothing but the fire of the Spirit of God, the fire that they have from the altar, their tongues being touched with one of these coals. The should not come with their own passion to further the righteousness of God. No, the wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.

Fourteenth, It is not uncommon for a dear saint of God to suffer a great affliction in their children.

Fifthteenth, sometimes we do not see the way in which God brings his judgment — even though we see the effect of the judgment.

Sixteenth, “Though the lives of men are dear and precious to God, yet they are not so precious as His glory.”

Seventeenth, the nearer a man is to God, the more careful he should be to glorify God — and the more he should expect judgment if he fails to do so.

Eighteenth, “Do not think that God will spare you the more because you are a professing Christian or because you worship Him often.”

Nineteenth, when we see a judgment of God which is an example to us, look to the Word of God to understand what God has done.

Twentieth, Holiness is the greatest honor to God’s name.

[Now I know this is labeled 20 points — and Burroughs said he would give twenty points. But in the custom of many preachers in his time, he simply couldn’t stop when he got to his designated end and thus added two more.]

Twenty-first, “It is the part of true friendship to help friends in their distress and seek to comfort them from the Word. Though we ourselves are in afflictions, yet we should seek to comfort our friends who are in greater afflictions, and to comfort them by the Word of God.”

Twenty-second, the best way to quiet your heart when under great affliction is to know that God will “fetch out His honor by it. It may be previous to me, but God fetches out His glory and honor by it.”