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Hebrews 9:9–10

According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, [10] but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. (ESV)

If I dress a cat in a pirate costume, it may be awesome but it’s still a cat. Likewise, we can change our behavior but unless our hearts are transformed, we remain the same. We will not love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength and we will not love our neighbor as ourselves. Rules cannot transform us. But Jesus can.

Evidence of the Grace of God

Hebrews 6:9–10

[9] Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation. [10] For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do. (ESV)

One way all of us need to grow is in our ability to recognize when God is at work in our lives. The Christian life is not like a movie in which we’re the Grinch in the beginning and an hour and a half later we have a heart of gold. Change may not be dramatic or immediate.

One of the brothers was sharing how before this year he had assumed that he was ok. He considered himself to be a nice and loving person, but he found out he was wrong. And so he’s learning how to love even when he doesn’t want to. So after a year, is he now perfect at loving? No, but his awareness, his desire, and his attempts at love are all evidence of the grace of God at work in his life.

It’s Time to Grow Up

Hebrews 5:12–13

[12] For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, [13] for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child.

Here the author of Hebrews insults us. He tells us, “By now you should be teachers of truth but you are still children. You need milk and can’t handle solid food.” Children start eating solids around 6 months so he’s actually saying you’re not just children, you’re babies.

A few months ago, a couple in New York sued their own son in order to force him to leave the house. He was 30 and unemployed. They tried multiple times to tell him to leave and offered to help him find a new place but he refused. Eventually they decided to sue him to get him out of the house. They were saying, it’s time to grow up!

That is what this passage is telling us. All of us have things in our lives that we have been putting off – sins we have delayed fighting, wounds we have delayed trying to resolve. We have weaknesses but just laugh about them rather than feel urgency to ask God to transform us or work in our lives.

Now, God is not simply saying try harder as He knows we cannot change our own hearts. But do we pray, seek help, or fight at all? Some of our weaknesses remain weaknesses because we don’t fight them. We don’t make progress in the faith because we don’t really care to. And God is saying, “It’s time. You may not care about your freedom but I do. You may be fine with lukewarm faith – just enough faith to ruin your fun but not enough faith to truly enjoy my goodness – but I’m not fine with it.”

Not Only

For the Love of God
D.A. Carson

Micah 6:8

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

Genuine salvation not only forgives us but transforms us.

Link: Complete Blog Post

For He Will Hear and Respond (Judah Part 3)

After Judah marries Shua, the Canaanite woman, he has three sons with her: Er, Onan, and Shelah. Judah is more or less an absentee father. When Shelah is born, Judah isn’t even in the same city. Judah’s first son, Er, marries a woman named Tamar. Apparently Er was so unbelievably wicked that God puts him to death. According to the customs of the Ancient Near East, it is the responsibility of Onan, Judah’s second son, to marry Tamar and try to have a son with her to carry on Er’s line. A son would also support the widow as she ages.

Onan does not care about Er or Tamar. So he uses Tamar for sex but is very careful to not get her pregnant. The Lord responds to this wickedness as well and puts Onan to death too. So now Judah has one son left. In Genesis 38:11, Judah blames Tamar for the deaths of his sons. He seems to be blind to their wickedness, or perhaps he doesn’t care. So Judah lies to Tamar. He does not intend to give her his third and final son and he sends her back to her father’s home. After losing her first husband and being sexually abused by the second, Tamar is thrown out by Judah. She is unloved, abused, and rejected by Judah and his sons.

Children often resemble their parents and more than just in physical appearance. My son is like me. He likes books and he cannot see or hear anything when the TV is on. My daughters are like my wife, talkative and full of personality. Now even though Judah hates his father, he becomes just like him. Jacob was a liar and a sad excuse for a father and Judah becomes the same. Jacob rejects those he is meant to love and is willing to hurt and sacrifice others to protect his favorites and Judah does the same.

Tamar realizes that Judah is a liar. So she veils her face and meets him on the road. Judah thinks she is a prostitute and gives her his signet, cord, and staff as a pledge to send her payment later. Tamar becomes pregnant from the encounter and when Judah is told, he calls for her to brought out and burned alive (Genesis 38:24). Suddenly he has become intensely passionate about holiness. But as Tamar is being led to her death, she shows Judah his own signet, cord, and staff. And when he realizes that she was the woman on the road, he says “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.”

Listen to what Judah is saying. He declares, “I deserve to die by fire, not her.” Judah is not only comparing Tamar’s sin with his own. He is realizing, perhaps for the first time, the depth of his own sin. He is no better than Jacob. Judah has spent his entire life blaming Jacob and making excuses for his own betrayals and wickedness. He believed it was Jacob’s fault that he turned out this way. That Joseph deserved what he got. That Tamar is cursed so he has to protect Shelah from her.

But now, he says enough. No more anger. No more excuses. No more lies. Judah is tired of his hatred and he wants to be free. He is sick of the cycle of lying and using people. He wants to learn to forgive and be made new. And the Lord responds. He forgives Judah. He restores him. He heals him. Judah, not Reuben or Benjamin or Levi or even Joseph, is the Christ figure in Genesis. He is the one willing to lay down his life for another. Judah is set free. Judah is made new.

In this world, families are far from perfect. Nearly everyone has experienced some form of rejection from the people who are supposed to love them the most. Some of us have experienced unspeakable pain that refuses to leave us. We might try to ignore it, deny it, or assert control over it through anger and self-righteousness, but this only leads to even more death. But there is hope in Jesus Christ.

May we grow so weary of the cycles of sin and suffering, anger and despair that get passed down generation after generation that we turn to the Lord to make all things new. For He will hear and respond.

How is This Possible? (Judah Part 2)

In Genesis 38, Judah abandons his family and their God. In Genesis 42 when the brothers meet Joseph again in Egypt, Judah is with them. He has come back home. But he is not the same man he once was.

At this time, Joseph is no longer a slave or a prisoner but he has become the second most powerful person in all of Egypt. His brothers come to Egypt to buy food because there is a great famine in the land. They do not recognize Joseph but he recognizes them. Joseph demands that they bring their youngest brother, Benjamin, to him. In order to secure their compliance, he binds one brother, Simeon, before their eyes and sends the rest away.

When the brothers tell their father, Jacob, what has happened he refuses to let them take Benjamin with them. Jacob, who only loved Joseph, now only loves Benjamin, the second and final son of Rachel. In response, it is Judah who honors his father and acts for the good of the whole family.

The stories of Cinderella and Matilda are about wonderful girls whose families are terrible. These young ladies overcome the odds. Cinderella finds her prince with the help of some rats and a fairy godmother. Matilda develops telekinesis. Both of them triumphantly leave their families in the dust.

This is not that story. In this story, Judah, the son who was finished with his family, unites them and leads them. Joseph puts a silver cup in Benjamin’s bag and accuses him of theft. Joseph then tells the brothers that only Benjamin must remain as a slave while the rest are free to go. All of the brothers tear their clothes in mourning. But it is Judah who says,

[30] “Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, [31] as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die…[32] For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father…[33] Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. [34] For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.” (Genesis 44:30-34)

Do you hear what he is saying? Judah is offering to sacrifice his life for Benjamin’s. Judah is willing to lose his life for his brother and not only for his brother, but for Jacob. Jacob, who hated his mother Leah. Jacob, who only loved Joseph. Jacob, who has not changed! He only loves Benjamin. Jacob still has 11 sons but only one matters to him. Yet Judah loves his father and cannot bear to see him mourn again. He is willing to lay down his life for this man who has not loved him as a father should.

How is this possible? Why would anyone do this, let alone Judah? Remember, it was Judah who persuaded his brothers to sell Joseph into slavery. It was Judah who turned his back on his family and his God. What in the world has happened to him?

Prayer Softened Me

A Praying Life
Paul Miller

One of the first things I noticed as a I prayed for Emily was that I became more aware of her as a person. It also took the steam out of my tendency to fix her with quick comments. Because I was speaking to my heavenly Father about the potential drift of her heart, I could relax in the face of sin. Prayer softened me…

My prayers for Emily exposed my own heart. I began to see that I, too, loved the world and the things in the world. Even my frugality was a form of the love of money. The obsession of saving small amounts of money isn’t that different from the obsession of gaining large amounts of it. In both, money is the center…

It is surprising how seldom books on parenting talk about prayer. We instinctively believe that if we have the right biblical principles and apply them consistently, our kids will turn out right. But that didn’t work for God in the Garden of Eden. Perfect environment. Perfect relationships. And still God’s two children went bad. Many parents, including myself, are initially confident we can change our child. We don’t surrender to our child’s will (which is good), but we try to dominate the child with our own (which is bad). Without realizing it, we become demanding. We are driven by the hope of real change, but the change occurs because we make the right moves. Until we become convinced we can’t change our child’s heart, we will not take prayer seriously.

Some People Learn Nothing in Twenty Years

For the Love of God
D.A. Carson

Genesis 32:9–12

[9] And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ [10] I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. [11] Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. [12] But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’” (ESV)

Twenty years or so have passed since Jacob’s outward-bound journey. Some people learn nothing in twenty years. Jacob has learned humility, tenacity, godly fear, reliance upon God’s covenantal promises, and how to pray.

Link: Complete Blog Post

Grace Will Win the Day

A Praying Life
Paul Miller

Seldom do we pray seriously and thoughtfully for those we love as they deal with their besetting sins. I’m going to pick on husbands for a minute because most men don’t pray thoughtfully for their wives; they just whine or withdraw. When they do pray, they often simply want their own lives to be pain free. Men will work at making money, keeping the yard neat, or helping the kids in sports, but many don’t work or think about things that last.For example, a husband will rarely ask God for his wife to become more like Jesus. Let’s say she is critical of him. When he tries to talk to her about it, she says, “I wouldn’t be so critical of you if you didn’t have so many problems.” By raising the issue, he just got more criticism, so his heart quietly shuts down. He just doesn’t care anymore. She is who she is. So he moves on with life and flips on the television. 

Without realizing it, he has become cynical about the possibility of real change in his wife. A childlike spirit seems naïve, like a distant memory. He is wise as a serpent, but he’s not harmless as a dove. He is surrounded by idiots, and his only choice, like the Greek stoics, is to tough it out. Low-level evil has worn him down. 

To engage God in prayer about his wife’s attitude feels like opening up an old wound. Just telling this to God is frustrating because it feels so hopeless, the spiritual version of banging your head against the wall. It is simply easier not even to think about it. Mixed in with his frustration is guilt. Some of what she says is true. He isn’t sure where her sin ends and his begins. 

The husband also hesitates to pray because he’s been told that he shouldn’t try to control his wife. But the point of prayer is shifting control from you to God. Moreover, doesn’t the Father want all of us to become more like his Son? 

Where should the husband begin? Like a little child, he should ask God for what he wants. It might help to write down in a prayer notebook or on a card what he wants changed in his wife and to find a scripture that describes Christ in her. Then he could start praying that scripture for her every day and also invite God to work in his own heart. 

This prayer request will become a twenty-year adventure. The adventure begins with asking God, Do I have a critical spirit too? Do I respond to my wife’s critical spirit with my own critical spirit? Usually what bugs us most about other people is true of us as well. By first taking the beam out of his own eye (see Matthew 7:1-5), the husband releases in his wife’s life the unseen energy of the Spirit. The kingdom is beginning to come. 

The husband can let God use his wife’s criticism to make him more like Jesus. Instead of fighting what she says, if at all possible he can do it. We can’t do battle with evil without letting God destroy the evil in us as well. The world is far too intertwined…

The husband can’t leave a vacuum in his heart either. He must replace his critical spirit with a thankful spirit. One of the best ways of doing that is writing out on a card or in a prayer notebook short phrases of how he is thankful for her. By thanking God for specific things about his wife, he will begin to see her for who she is–a gift. 

At first glance this feels like the husband is whitewashing reality. Life feels uneven, unfair. After all, the wife is the one with the critical spirit; not only is he putting energy into reflecting on his tendency to be critical (which isn’t half as bad as hers), but he’s also working at being thankful for her. The only thing he has going for him is his pitiful little prayer. 

A thankful heart is constantly extending grace because it has received grace. Love and grace are uneven. God poured out on his own Son the criticism that I deserve. Now he invites me to pour out undeserving grace on someone who has hurt me.  Grace begets grace. This husband is taking a journey into the heart of God. 

Welcome to the life of God!  That’s what a life of grace feels like, especially in the beginning. That pitiful little prayer is tapping into the power center of the universe. If the husband hangs in there, he will be amazed at the creative energy of God. Grace will win the day.

The Means Faith Demands

The Church’s Great Malfunctions
Miroslav Volf  

Too many Christians embrace the ends mandated by their faith (for instance, maintaining the sanctity of unborn life or just social arrangements), but not the means by which faith demands that these ends be reached (persuasion rather than violence). The cure for religiously induced violence is not less faith but more faith—faith in its full scope, faith enacted with integrity and courage by its holy men and women, faith pondered responsibly by its great theologians.

Link: Complete Article