An anniversary

   Tomorrow would have been my parents' 62 anniversary.  They met in England while my Dad was stationed there during the build-up for the Normandy invasion.  He was in the US Army Corp of Engineers that was at work building camps all over England for the soldiers that would take part in the D-Day attack.

   Mom and Dad met at a dance in my Mom's little hometown of Wilmslow.  She worked in a nearby aircraft factory assembling Lancaster bombers, like "Rosie the Riveter," except she did electrical installations instead.  They hit it off, and saw more of each other while he was in the area, but soon he was off to France with thousands like him.  Promises were made to write, but who could know what the future would hold…

   After the war Dad sent for her, and they were married in "The Wee Kirk of the Heather" (a replica of Robert Burn's Annie Laurie's chapel) at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale on March 1, 1947.

   This was the photograph that was published in the local newspaper.  The press played up the "war bride" angle.

Thank you, Lord God, for loving, caring parents.  I honor their memory.

Duty a Delight

Past masters of the Christian life stressed that it is not lived on the basis of our feelings but in fulfilling duties.  Sanctification is not a mood condition, but the submission of our wills to the will of God.

In recent decades, evangelicalism has become so sensitive to the heresy of "Boy Scout Christianity" ("I promise to do my best, to do my duty…") that it has truncated the Christian gospel to a half-Christ (Savior, but not Lord) and a half-salvation (blessings, but not duties).  How foolish we have been, when so much of the New Testament catalogs the specific duties that arise out of our relationship to Jesus Christ and therefore are in fact among our blessings.

A survey of a few passages in the Epistles will exorcise the demon of thinking that duty is alien to Christian living or to Christian love.  Just look at Romans 12:1-15; Galatians 5:13-6:10; Ephesians 4:1-6:20; Philippians 4:2-9; Colossians 3:1-4:6; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-5:28; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-15; James 1:19-5:20; and 1 Peter 1:13-5:11.  Doubtless some scholar somewhere has counted the number of imperatives ("Do so-and-so") in the New Testament.  Everyone of them matters; everyone of them grows out of God's grace; everyone of them was written to be obeyed.

Are we frightened that fulfilling our duties will overturn the grace of God?  Look at the busy housewife whose entire life is governed by her multifaceted responsibilities.  While her husband enters his own world (often exciting and challenging), she makes the lunches, drives the children to school, shops, cleans, washes, irons, mends, prepares the meals, cleans up, and gets the children to bed.  Why?  Duty.  These are the duties of love, devotion, and commitment.

Love for God and duty are two parts of the same thing.  How foolish we have been to separate them and to regard duty as a bad word.  It nourishes Christlikeness (John 4:34).  Therefore, know your Christian duties and fulfill them. 

— Sinclair B. Ferguson, In Christ Alone, pp. 160f

You know you grew up in the OPC if…

This is great…  There's a Facebook group called "You know you grew up in the OPC if…" created by Nancy McHargue.  Check it out.  Here's some of the good stuff.  (I took the liberty of correcting the spelling of "millennial" in its various forms.  Knowing the differences and being able to get all the "ls" and "ns" in millennium, -ial, -ialism is not as easy as it looks.  One of the many important and valuable theological lessons I learned from Norman Shepherd — "Two ls and two ns.")

You know you grew up in the OPC if....

• You recognize the book in the picture [the “blue” Trinity Hymnal].

• You know the difference between the Westminster and Heidelberg Catechisms.

• You know the difference between a Larger Catechism, Shorter Catechism, and Catechism for Young Children.

• You can spell catechism.

• You find yourself remembering random catechism answers at the most bizarre times.

• You often wondered as a child, "If this is a shorter catechism, I wonder what the long one is like!!"

• You know the difference between the "Blue Hymnal" and the "Red Hymnal."

• You that a Psalter is not something you use to flavor food.

• You have attended more than 10 camps during your childhood.

• You've had to explain infant baptism to someone.

• You know that Calvin's Institutes are not a group of schools.

• Your dilemma as a senior in high school was to go to the PCA, CRC, or RPCNA college because the OPC didn't have one. (I went to an Assemblies of God College!!!)

• You can readily recite what PCA, CRC, URC, RPCNA, and RCUS stand for.

• You know there is some conflict between those who favor Vos and those who favor Van Til. (Note: you don't have to know what it is, but simply be aware of the conflict)

• You know the Joke that the OPC stands for "The Only Perfect Church!"

• You had to explain Amillennialism, Historic Premillennialism, or Post Millennialism to someone.

• You know what Theonomy and Historical Redemptive mean, well, sort of…

• You know that #633 in the Blue Trinity Hymnal is "Jesus Loves Me."

• You know what TULIP stands for.

• You know what someone's talking about when they refer to the "Lord's Day."

• You eat dinner for lunch on Sundays and a snack for dinner on Sunday nights after church.

• Your church had an evening service that wasn't a repeat of the morning service.

• You can use the word ecumenical in a sentence.

• You've seen a pastor smoke a cigar and finding a beer in the fridge of an Elder, Deacon or Pastor would not shock you.

• Your church actually had all sorts of offices: deacons, teaching elders, ruling elders, etc. and the actual number of these offices was viewed as a very good debate topic.

We don't need no stinking human rights

More from China Aid on Secretary of State Clinton’s abominable indifference regarding the place of human rights in US-China relations:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressmen Chris Smith (NJ-4th), Frank Wolf (VA-10th) and Joe Pitts (PA-16), leading human rights advocates in Congress, today openly questioned U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s controversial remarks over the past several days that the U.S.-Sino relationship will be less focused on human rights and more focused on economic cooperation, global warming and other issues.

At a press conference Tuesday in the Capitol Building, the Members said Clinton has set the tone for the Obama Administration foreign policy priorities.

“In a shocking display of pandering, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made it clear in Beijing, that the Obama Administration has chosen to peddle U.S. debt to the largest dictatorship in the world over combating torture, forced abortion, forced labor, religious persecution, human sex trafficking, gendercide, and genocide,” Smith said. “Secretary Clinton said concern for the protection of human rights of the Chinese people can’t ‘interfere’ with the economic crisis, climate change, and security — as if human rights were somehow disconnected and irrelevant to those issues.”

*  *  *

Smith and Wolf travelled to China together last July to assess human right conditions as the Bejing Olympics were about to begin. The drastic enforcement of the one-child-per-couple policy via forced abortion and rampant sex-selection abortion. The Chinese Government violates Chinese women with a state policy of mandatory monitoring of all Chinese women’s reproductive cycles, mandatory birth permits, mandatory contraception or sterilization, and extreme fines, up to 10 times the annual salary of both husband and wife if they don’t comply with the one child per couple policy. This policy has imposed pain, violence and humiliation and degradation on hundreds of millions of women, many of whom suffer lifelong depression; more women commit suicide in China than anywhere else in the world.

You can find the full story here.

One of the greatest (free) shows on earth

"From the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised!"  — Psalm 113:3

Shot out my back window last evening.  Stupendous!

King Jesus is risen from the dead!

   Every Sunday, we begin our worship service proper with the words, "King Jesus is risen from the dead!  He is risen indeed!"  Like anything else we say over and over, these statements — gloriously true as they are — run the risk of losing their power to amaze and transform us.  So sometimes it's good to think about them when we're not saying them.

   Bishop Wright mentioned once that a friend of his, the missionary to India and author Lesslie Newbigin, was asked if he was optimistic or pessimistic about some issue.  Newbigin’s answer was, “I’m neither an optimist nor a pessimist.  Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.”  That says it all.  Because Jesus lives, we are a new creation.  Because he lives, we are being made new day by day.  Because he lives, the glory that will one day be revealed is already evident in us and in our community.  Praise his holy Name!!

   You want a goosebump?  Check out this little video "Because He Lives."  Thanks to my friends over at "The Rabbit Room" for putting me on to it (as to so much other good stuff).

A timely reminder to the Secretary of State

From China Aid Association — On February 23, 2009, Congressman Frank R. Wolf (R-VA, 10th District) sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton regarding her remarks indicating that human rights would not be a priority for her visit to China.  Among other things, Congressman Wolf reminded the new Secretary of State:

Certainly there is a place for pragmatism in diplomacy. It may be that the Chinese government, when confronted with its gross human rights violations, would dismiss U.S. concerns and tell us not to interfere in their "internal matters." But we need look no further than the Sharanskys and Solzhenitsyns of recent history to know that it is equally pragmatic to believe that bold, public proclamations on the importance of liberty, freedom, and the absence of repression are cause for great hope to those political prisoners who languish behind bars.

In short, words have power. They have the power to inspire, or deflate; they have the power to give vision or to stifle hope. But for words to inspire the hope for a day when the Chinese people can worship freely, where the press is not censored, where political dissent is permitted — they must first be spoken.

Silence is itself a message. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." America has always been a friend to the oppressed, the persecuted, the forgotten. Has our allegiance changed?

You can read the letter here.  Pray that it will have its intended effect.

Pray for Dr Laura's speaking trip to the Philippines

   As you locals know, Dr Laura is off to the Philippines tomorrow for an intensive speaking trip (through March 3).  As you can see from her itinerary below, she has some wonderful opportunities to teach on the subject of biblical counseling.  Please pray for travel mercies and good health, as well as grace to communicate (cross-culturally) the wonder of the Bible's clear and relevant answers to the personal issues that cause so many of life's hurts.  You can follow Dr Laura day by day with your prayers according to the following schedule:

Feb 26-27 — Child sexual abuse training at a Reformed Baptist orphanage in the Metro Manila area
Feb 28 — Women's conference at Higher Rock Church in Manila — "Feelings, Something More than Feelings"
Mar 1 — Conference at Cornerstone Community Baptist Church in Metro Manila — "Will Medicine Stop the Pain?"
Mar 2 — Biblical Counseling conference for Christian secular mental health professionals.  Location??
Mar 3 — Depart 7:45 AM, arrive home 8:10 AM, crossing the International Date Line again to get back the day lost going out.

Praying in the light

"Even if darkness seems to be overtaking you, even in your fear and confusion, even when you wish that God was opening the right doors for you, remember to walk in the light of Christ by looking only to him. Yes, perhaps the doors he opens won't be the ones you expected, and, yes, perhaps confusion, fear and darkness will seem to close in on you; but when you turn to Christ and pray in alignment with God, saying; 'Your will be done,' then you are walking in the light."

— Rev. Paul Devries (from this week's "Back to God Hour" message)

As we assemble for worship…

Jesu, my love, my joy, my rest,

Thy perfect love close in my breast

That I thee love and never rest;

And make me love thee of all thinge best,

And wounde my heart in thy love free,

That I may reign in joy evermore with thee.

—15th century English

Happy Valentines Day! — What Wondrous Love Is This?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.     — John 3:16

God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.     — Romans 5:8

He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?  Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.  Who is to condemn?   Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  …No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.     — Romans 8:32-39

God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.     — Romans 5:5

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.  Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.     — 1 John 4:7-8

Unaffected by the Stock Market

(I wrote this last October, when the stock market first began to drop)

The Dow plunged

below 900 this week

(not a “crash” but a “correction” —

still, enough to put a dent

in your retirement account).

And yet…

An authentic October day—

with its banking clouds,

softened sunlight,

blue sky, and bracing winds—

managed to shoulder its way

into the eternal SoCal summer.

And when my wife

left the house this morning

she gave me a smile—

with lips and eyes—

that still fills my heart

with thrilling joy

after all these years.

(This is not sentimentality;

I speak the truth.)

God be praised—

these are unaffected by the stock market.

My Valentine…since 1964

You didn't have to be so nice

I would have liked you anyway

If you had just looked once or twice

And gone upon your quiet way

Today I said the time was right for me to follow you

I knew I'd find you in a day or two

And it's true

You came upon a quiet day

You simply seemed to take your place

I knew that it would be that way

The minute that I saw your face

And when we've had a few more days

I wonder if I'll get to say

You didn't have to be so nice

I would have liked you anyway…

— The Lovin' Spoonful, 1965

Hindrances to prayer

   Why do we not pray?  What are the hindrances to prayer?  This is not a curious nor trivial question.  It goes not only to the whole matter of our praying, but to the whole matter of our religion.  Religion is bound to decline when praying is hindered.  That which hinders praying, hinders religion.  He who is too busy to pray will be too busy to live a holy life.

   Other duties become pressing and absorbing and crowd out prayer.  “Choked to death,” would be the coroner's verdict in many cases of dead praying, if an inquest could be secured on this dire, spiritual calamity.  This way of hindering prayer becomes so natural, so easy, so innocent that it comes on us all unawares.  If we will allow our praying to be crowded out, it will always be done.  Satan had rather we let the grass grow on the path to our prayer-chamber than anything else.  A closed chamber of prayer means “gone out of business” religiously or what is worse…carrying on our religion in some other name than God's and to somebody else's glory.  God's glory is only secured in the business of religion by carrying that religion on with a large capital of prayer.  The apostles understood this when they declared that their time must not be employed in even the sacred duties of alms-giving; they must give themselves, they said, “continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word,” prayer being put first with them and the ministry of the Word having its efficiency and life from prayer.

   The process of hindering prayer by crowding out is simple and goes by advancing stages.  First, prayer is hurried through.  Unrest and agitation, fatal to all devout exercises, come in.  Then the time is shortened, relish for the exercise palls.  Then it is crowded into a corner and depends on the fragments of time for its exercise.  Its value depreciates.  The duty has lots its importance.  It no longer commands respect nor brings benefit. It has fallen out of estimate, out of heart, out of the habits, out of the life.  We cease to pray and cease to live spiritually.

 — E. M. Bounds, Purpose in Prayer, ch. 10  

Teaching our children by example

   Last Sunday we had the privilege of administering baptism to one of our covenant children.  As the parents took their vows, we were all reminded again that we are called upon by our covenant Father “to set an example of piety and godliness before” our children.

   The hymn we sang at the close of the service, “Shine Thou Upon Us, Lord” (THR.411), has much to say about how we are to discharge that responsibility to be examples to our children.  We cannot pass on to them what we do not experience ourselves.

   Since we sometimes don’t pay as close attention to what we sing as we should (especially the last hymn of the service when our minds may already be out the door!), I thought I’d reprise that hymn for you here:

Shine thou upon us, Lord,

True Light of men, today,

And through the written Word

Thy very self display,

That so from hearts which burn

With gazing on thy face

Thy little ones may learn

The wonders of thy grace.

   God is the “True Light of men,” and he reveals himself through the Holy Scriptures.  As we read and meditate upon the written Word, we gaze upon God’s face and our hearts burn with holy fire.  It is not enough for us to teach our children God’s Word.  They must see us undergoing a personal “transfiguration” under the powerful influence of the Word — only then will they learn the wonders of God’s grace.

Breathe thou upon us, Lord,

Thy Spirit's living flame,

That so with one accord

Our lips may tell thy name.

Give thou the hearing ear,

Fix thou the wandering thought,

That those we teach may hear

The great things thou hast wrought.

   Only as the Spirit himself breathes upon us “living flame” — thereby giving us ears eager to receive, and stay focused on, his message in Scripture — will we have any hope of communicating that message effectively to our children.

Speak thou for us, O Lord,

In all we say of thee;

According to thy Word

Let all our teaching be,

That so thy lambs may know

Their own true Shepherd's voice,

Where'er he leads them go,

And in his love rejoice.

   As parents we want to be mediators of the teaching voice of God himself.  After all, what wisdom can we impart to our children that has its sole source in ourselves?  We can only be such mediators as we let Scripture shape and fill all our instruction.  As we do, the lambs will hear their true Shepherd’s voice, and they will follow him in the paths of love and joy.

Live thou within us, Lord;

Thy mind and will be ours;

Be thou belov'd, adored,

And served with all our powers,

That so our lives may teach

Thy children what thou art,

And plead, by more than speech,

For thee with ev'ry heart.

   Only as God lives within us — possessing our mind and will, our whole being — and our children see it so — only as they see us sold-out wholeheartedly to the service of God as “living sacrifices” (Rom. 12:1) — will they learn — from our lives even more compellingly than from our words — that they too may and must devote themselves from the heart to love and serve the covenant Lord, Jesus.

News flash just in time for Valentines Day

According to this morning’s news, researchers at Oregon State have just published a report that suggests that kissing is pleasurable.  They have found that kissing causes the release of hormones that give a feeling of relaxation and excitement.  Don’t you just love the cutting-edge progress of modern science?  And since this research was probably funded by a federal grant, it is gratifying to see our tax dollars hard at work in such a useful and informative way.

Oh…I almost forgot…one more thing the researchers discovered…it appears that kissing has a stronger effect upon men.  That explains a lot.

Faith-lessons from Hannah

   I mentioned last evening — during out consideration of Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2 — that Dr Laura ends her recent book, Finding Your Child's Way on the Autism Spectrum, by drawing out some faith-lessons for us from the experiences of Hannah and Samuel.  Here's a little taste:

Hannah's story inspires me because of her faithful response to her suffering.  The Bible tells us that when Hannah delivered Samuel to the tabernacle in Shiloh, it was a time of rejoicing, not of grief.  Isn't that remarkable?  Can you imagine how you would feel if you were about to leave your baby with strangers, far away from your home?  How could you face knowing that you'd only see him once a year after that?  You certainly wouldn't feel like throwing a party, but that's just what Hannah did.  She worshiped the Lord by sacrificing a bull, which was a very expensive offering for one family to make, and then she brought Samuel to Eli, and gave him to the priest.  Hannah said, “For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him.  Therefore I have lent him to the Lord.  As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord” (1 Samuel 1:27-28).

*  *  *

Do you see what Hannah learned through her suffering?  She learned that we can't get what we long for by our own strength, but God delights to exalt the weak and make them strong.  Hannah could have become bitter because of the lot the Lord ordained for her life.  It could have seemed unfair to Hannah, first to be infertile, and then to be set free from the shame of her infertility only through the sacrifice of her precious son.  I know that I often struggled with this same sense of unfairness in the early days after Eric's diagnosis.  But instead Hannah chose to glorify the Lord for the way He exalts the godly and punishes the wicked.  She chose to believe that God was doing something good in her suffering, and to praise Him for it, even though she didn't yet understand why He had ordained the events that He had.  (pp. 105-106)

Tomorrow's service

We’ll be thinking about baptism and our covenant children tomorrow as we administer the sacrament of covenantal initiation to Sophia Faith Johnson.  The message will be based upon the two texts — one from the old covenant and one from the new covenant — that promise covenant mercy to us and to our children:

   “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.” (Gen. 17:7)

   “For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” (Acts 2:39)

   Our Confession of Faith summarizes the biblical teaching regarding baptism as follows (ch. 28):

   Baptism is a sacrament of the new testament, ordained by Jesus Christ, not only for the solemn admission of the party baptized into the visible church; but also, to be unto him a sign and seal of the covenant of grace, of his ingrafting into Christ, of regeneration, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God, through Jesus Christ, to walk in newness of life. Which sacrament is, by Christ's own appointment, to be continued in his church until the end of the world. (sect. 1)

Not only those that do actually profess faith in and obedience unto Christ, but also the infants of one, or both, believing parents, are to be baptized. (sect 4)

Propinquity

Why am I making such a fuss about us sitting as close together as possible when we meet together for prayer on the first Sunday evening of the month?  Am I just trying to be ornery or irritating?  Do I usually insist on insignificant things?  Then maybe (whether you can see it or not) there is something important at stake in my request.

Consider some other questions about physical nearness:

Why, when you child is hurt and crying, are you not content to simply say from across the room, “I’m sorry, honey.  I hope you will feel better real soon.  I love you?”  Why, for that matter, when they need comfort, do they run to your arms?  Love wants to express itself in nearness.

Why, when you “fall in love,” are you no longer content to keep your distance as an observer?  Why do you want to be physically close to the one you love?  Love wants to express itself in nearness.

Why, when you want to have an intimate conversation, do you not simply shout across the room?  After all, the other person would be able to hear you.  Love wants to express itself in nearness.

Private prayer is an intimate conversation with God — “a drawing near to God.”  And God responds by drawing near to us.  “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you” (James 4:8).  Because the Spirit of Christ has no problem with spacial limitations, he can bring you near to God anytime, anywhere.  But even at that, we usually seek out a place to be “alone with God” — where the desired intimacy is reflected in our solitude.  Jesus speaks of praying to God “in secret” — “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret” (Matt. 6:6).

Not all of our corporate prayer can partake of that sense of intimacy.  Logistical considerations make it difficult for prayer within the context of our ordinary public worship services to have that intimate flavor.  We are assembled for more than prayer, and other factors dictate where we sit and how we pray.

But the kind of corporate prayer we are trying to encourage during the monthly evening congregational prayer meeting is different — we are trying (as much as possible) to promote a shared intimate conversation with our Father.  That is the main purpose of our assembly.  That being the case, I’ve tried to arrange the seating accordingly, and I’ve urged you sit as close as possible to one another.

Now I understand that some, for legitimate reasons (e.g., having to do with infants and small children) may have to sit farther back, and that’s OK, though I think most of the children are more fully-engaged when they are in the middle of things (I wonder, for example, if James would have entered into the prayer time the other evening if he had been sitting in the back of the auditorium looking at the backs and bowed heads of all the others who were praying).  

But for most of us, I think its more a matter of feeling a bit awkward — after all Americans “need their personal space.”  We are too often willing to remain distant “spectators” rather than full participants — and we choose our seating accordingly.

I understand, it will take a little self-sacrifice (in the form of moving outside your “comfort zone”), and the effort will have to be sustained long enough to make sitting closer together begin to feel natural, as it should.  But I think you will find it a blessing in the end.

We don’t use the word “propinquity” anymore (though it is a lovely quirky little word).  According to the dictionary it means “physical proximity; nearness.”  That’s what I’ve been talking about here — sitting close to one another in prayer is “intercessional propinquity.”

But the dictionary mentions two secondary meanings which are significant in light of my point in this post:

“Kinship” — As believers we are not only members of one body, one family; we are “members one of another” (Rom. 12:5; Eph. 4:25).  Our members function in close proximity to one another.  So should we — in prayer especially.

“Similarity in nature” — We have individually “put on Christ” (Gal. 3:17).  We have been given a new nature in him.  So ours is a “similarity in nature” given by one Spirit.  That similarity should make it easy for us to “draw near” to one another physically when we approach the throne of grace.

Together — close together — “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebr. 4:16).

Think about it…