Distracted

I've been a little busy lately. I make a habit out of not being busy - just because everyone else is. But this week there have just been too many things, none of which are meaningless or empty. I do my best to redeem the time and don't really have an interest in doing frivolous, waste-of-time kind of things. That kind of lifestyle has freed me to do the things I love to do: spend time with my family and study.

But this week I haven't had much time to study. I've studied and read my Bible, but not like I am used to doing. I've been busy helping someone on a building project the last few days, and it is consuming my time. I am glad to be able to help, because that is part of Christian service.

Ironically, I am in the section in the Gospel of John about Mary and Martha. You know the story - Mary is annointing the feet of Jesus and wiping them with her hair. It's a lovely scene of worship! And then there is Martha, busy about her chores. Distracted and pulled away from the 'one thing' she should be doing.

Sometimes I feel like Martha gets a bad rap. It seems like she is doing what any woman who is gifted in serving would do. We are called to serve, are we not? I can imagine my wife would be tidying up the house and putting some food on a plate and making sure everything is just right if the King of Kings showed up at our house. Isn't that what Martha was doing?

I am not sure I've learned the point of this account in the Bible yet, but I see in the parallel passage in Luke 10 that Martha was distracted. She was worrying and bothered. It must have been the anxiety of performance that was so wrong and not the service itself. This explanation fits so well with the gospel message - because so many people thing they can perform, and then God will smile upon them. No... no performance is good enough. Mary seemed to understand that, and was enraptured by the simplicity of worshiping Jesus.

I Surrender All

Surrender? Never. No one wants to surrender. Surrender is a sign of weakness - a sign of loss - giving up - losing the will to fight to the end and win. Right?

But the gospel message is one of complete surrender. Humbly giving up all our rights to do what Christ wants us to do. That's pretty hard for those of us who want to be able to claim even just a little bit of credit for our successes in life (and blame our failures on others).

On Sunday morning, our congregation sang the great and mighty hymn, "I Surrender All". It was different this time. Every heart and voice was lifted to a different level and the song was more meaningful than ever before. It occurred to me that God wants me - wants us - to surrender ALL. Not some, not most... but ALL. He doesn't want the half-hearted. He doesn't want the mediocre. He doesn't want the left-overs. He doesn't want the proud. He wants the ones that understand that they can't 'win' on their own. He wants the ones who have counted everything else as loss. He wants the ones who have given up trying to please Him by their filthy rags of personal righteousness. He wants the ones who have thrown up the white flag of complete surrender, fully trusting in Him to do to them only what is for their good and for His glory.

I put alot of songs and hymns and praises out on this blog. That is because music can touch the heart in ways that other means cannot. God created us to appreciate music, and biblical sound words/lyrics can provoke us to think, provoke us to worship, provoke us to self-evaluation. Music, in its proper context, helps us rejoice at times and helps us cope at other times.

I hope I can sing the words of this song and mean it:

All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

Refrain
I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessèd Savior,I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

Refrain
All to Jesus, I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

Refrain
All to Jesus, I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

Refrain
All to Jesus I surrender;
Now I feel the sacred flame.
O the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!


Mark

This Old House - Followup

High atop a bucket truck someone was running the controls of the wheels under this 400 ton brick house. Other house movers surrounded the building, manning their respective wheel, cranking hydraulic lifts when necessary over bumps and curbs.

It looks kinda strange to see a house in the middle of the street. Houses aren't supposed to be wandering down the street. But in a few hours, this old house made it to its destination. The house will sit on some makeshift supports until the permanent foundation is built underneath.

From the persepective of an untrained eye, the move appeared to be successful today. Time will tell if the move damaged the integrity of the structure. Only the owners will know about the damage inside - cracks, leaks, etc. And once the foundation is built and supporting the building, that 400 tons of brick, mortar, wood, metal and slate will be fully reliant upon a firm and steady foundation.

How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord,
Has been laid for your faith in His excellent Word.

No More, My God, I Boast No More

Isaac Watts wrote this song. This hymn writer and theologian lived between the years of 1674 and 1748, and is known for such familiar tunes as "Joy to the World", "O God Our Help in Ages Past" and "When I Survey the Wonderous Cross". Let the words of this doctrinally rich song sink in...

No more, my God,
I boast no more
Of all the duties I have done;
I quit the hopes I held before,
To trust the merits of thy Son.

Now, for the love I bear his name,
What was my gain I count my loss;
My former pride I call my shame,
And nail my glory to his cross.

Yes, and I must and will esteem
All things but loss for Jesus' sake:
O may my soul be found in him,
And of his righteousness partake!

The best obedience of my hands
Dares not appear before thy throne;
But faith can answer thy demands
By pleading what my Lord has done.

What Did He Write?

The woman was caught in the very act of adultery. The accusers brought her before Jesus and seemed very eager to get His opinion on what to do with her. The Law of Moses required that such a sinner be stoned to death. As eager as they were to throw the book at her, they were all the more eager to catch Jesus in a trap.

He stooped over and wrote something in the dirt. I have always wanted to know what he wrote there on the cracked and dry ground. There are many speculations about what He wrote – maybe he wrote the sins of the accusers. Since He stooped down to write in the dirt again, maybe he attached names to those sins. But that is pure speculation because the Bible doesn’t say what He wrote.

One thing that struck me as I read this passage in John chapter 8 this morning is that God’s Word is powerful, whether spoken or, in this case, written. Whatever Jesus wrote the first time apparently didn’t sink in quickly. But when He wrote the second time, some light bulbs went off in the accusers heads. Those hand-written words straight from the finger of God-incarnate packed some spiritual punch. It caused every one of them to turn around and hightail it out of there. Was it guilt? Conviction? A sinking realization of whose presence they were in? Whatever was going through their minds at the time, it was something prompted by the Word of God.

When I get to heaven, that is one question I’d like to ask. "Jesus, what did you write on the ground that day?" He might answer, "it was my Word, living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword… able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart".

What Makes a Father Happy?

What makes a father happy? What makes a father grateful?

Having his seven year old son sprawl out on the livingroom floor, volunteering to lead the family worship time.

"Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of God" - 2 Timothy 2:15

From the Rising of the Sun...

I love clouds, I love the sky. I love sunsets and sunrises. I have tons of photographs of that kind of stuff, none of which really do any justice to the experience of witnessing it first hand.

I camped out this past Friday night in the back yard with my boys. At 5:30am I woke up to this sunrise. I ran inside and grabbed my camera to add to my collection of clouds and sunrises. Every bump on the ground that jabbed me in the back all night, every mosquito bite, every loud cricket - was worth it to get a glimpse of God's handiwork at dawn.

The Psalmist must have enjoyed camping out. He wrote these verses: From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised (113:3) and the heavens are declaring the glory of the Lord (19:1).

Amen!

God's Sense of Humor

No one can tell me that God doesn't have a sense of humor.

Yesterday I was reading in the gospel of John and came across an interesting verse that jumped off the page. Right after Jesus had just finished feeding a gazillion people, and performed the amazing feat of walking on the water, the people were curious and approached him asking him how he got to the other side of the sea, seeing as he wasn't with the original band of people that took the boat, and there was no other boat on the shore in which he could have been in. So in response to there inquisitiveness, he tells them in John 6:26-27 that they were only after him because they got something good to eat and were hoping for more goodies:

"Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal."

My wife and I entered into a diaglogue about what this verse could mean. We came to the conclusion that, yes it's necessary to work in order to eat - that should be obvious- but that there are other things (namely doing the will of the Father) that take much more important precedence than eating. Our single passion should not be where we are going out to eat this weekend or what is for lunch today or what kind of dessert we are enjoying tonight - but rather what it is that we are doing for the 'kingdom'.

So what do I find so funny about that? God always reinforces biblical truth to us by using object lessons. Right after our discussion we went shopping to get (are you ready for this?).... some food!! A short, easy trip this time - just to get a few odds and ends. When we got home, we realized we had somehow left half of our food we had just paid for at the grocery store.

This Old House - Gospel Thoughts for the Week

There's a big old stately-looking brick house in our city. It looked rather odd though this morning as I drove past. There were alot of people standing around gawking at it. It's been vacant for years. At first glance, it looks good on the outside though. A closer look reveals that it has no foundation and it is in deplorable condition.

Apparently, the house has some history. The Troutman's built and owned the house (the builders and owners of the Troutman department stores that were once popular in Western Pennsylvania. Years of deterioration led to eventual plans to demolish the structure that would make room for a parking lot for the adjacent business. Someone who thought the place had potential bought the house for a dollar, but the real cost is in moving it a block away to its new 'home'. The costs of moving and renovating are likely going to be exceedingly more than the house will be worth when all is said and done.

Someday, this house will be resting on a firm foundation and will be restored to its intended splendor. It will be a beautiful building, bustling with activity. Someone saw that this house was worth saving, and spared no expense to accomplish it.

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

When I get to heaven, one of the people I want to have conversations with would be Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He went to heaven on March 1, 1981. I was finishing up eleventh grade at that time and had no clue who this man was back then. In the last six or seven years though, I have grown to love this man who has written many books and commentaries that have impacted my life profoundly. He was a master using the right words to convey the message that was intended in the scriptures. In some cases, he'd spend hundreds of pages expositing just one verse, mining deep and pulling out those great spiritual nuggets of gold. I try to read at least two of his commentaries every year - there are many volumes to Romans, eight on Ephesians, two on Philippians, two on the Sermon on the Mount, several on Acts and others. There is no shortage of reading material from this great Bible teacher. Below are some of my favorite quotes out of one of my recent readings from Romans 1.

What a denial of Scripture it is to say it does not matter very much what you believe as long as you call yourself a Christian in general, or to say that you need not hold on to these doctrines as absolutes.

It ought to be impossible for us to use the word ‘gospel’ without bursting forth, as it were, into a hymn of praise and thanksgiving.


The Bible is authoritative. It is the only authority. It is our only rule and standard, and we must abide by its teaching in every respect. I must not believe anything unless it is plainly stated in the Scriptures or else can be ultimately deduced from the Scriptures.


[Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ] means a surrender of ourselves, a committal of ourselves, the involvement of our whole personality. No one can be regarded as having believed the gospel who has not repented and turned from a life of sin to a life of obedience to God in Christ Jesus.

Who are the unstable? The unstable are always the unlearned. The spiritual butterflies are the people who do not know doctrine. It is the unlearned who are always unstable, and every single New Testament epistle was written in order to stabilize people, to establish them, to ground them, to root them! And it is by the doctrines, the teaching, and the exposition that it is done. It is not entertainment we need. It is truth. It is knowledge. There are no shortcuts in the spiritual life. You cannot gallop through these epistles. You cannot rush through them a chapter at a time. It is only a deep and thorough knowledge of the Word that will give us true stability.