|
| The Fasting God DesiresThe Scripture is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword. The Spirit of God makes its relevance felt in every time and circumstance. As I read Isaiah 58 again recently it struck me that this passage is quite relevant to our contemporary situation. So much of American evangelical religiosity is designed toward our own convenience and fancy, and it is excessively individualistic. The fasting, if you will, the religious exercises that we engage in are so often aimed almost exclusively at our own individual felt needs, and designed toward our entertainment (vs. 3b). We pick the time and length of service, the style of music, and the content of the preaching, according to our taste, whim, and expedience. We choose churches according to which one has the programs that we think will satisfy us, and make us feel full spiritually. And then we wonder why God seems so distant (vs 3a).
The passage gives a particular example of this misguided fasting that also happens to be very relevant to today. We make the Christian Sabbaths, the Lord's Days, weekend days for our entertainment, and in doing so we turn a community day of rest into a day for non-Christians and even our own brethren to serve us in the market places, at golf courses, in the movie theaters, and at restraunts. When the Holy commandment requires both our rest and the rest of our "man servant and (our) maid servant", we make it a day for our own pleasure and for employing man servants and maid servants to serve and entertain us. And how often do the few hours in the morning that we take to "go to church" become occasions to quarrel about a style of music that bothers us, or the preacher that isn't addressing our felt needs? To borrow a New Testament example, when we come together is it really for the Lord's Supper? (1 Corinthians 11). Do we "fast only to quarrel and to fight, and to hit with a wicked fist" or do we come together to edify, to lift up, and to submit to one another in the fear of the Lord.
Even when considering the most apparently pious expressions of American evangelicalism it seems that our contemporary situation fits in all too nicely with the contrast that made in verses 5 through 12, between a fast of mourning and putting on sackcloth and ashes, and a fast of spreading the light and power of the gospel. We can get very good at making all our fasts, all our religious exercises, those of personal sorrow and repentance over sin, of going to confession as it were, of tending to our own felt needs of guilt relief and a good dose of individual spirituality, and never turn outward to service, to acts of mercy, to sharing the gospel with others and celebrating the reality of the gospel in our own lives and our collective corporate life as a church body. The fasting that God requires is not our individualistic fasts of endless introspective guilt trips, or of thrill seeking exploitations or of bickering amongst ourselves over personal preferences. The fasting God desires is that we should turn and do justice and mercy to the poor and oppressed. That we should inconvenience ourselves for the relief of the less fortunate. That we should put aside our own pleasures and free up our servants as well to "call the Sabbath delight, and the holy day of the LORD honorable". We are in desperate need, and our nation and our world is in desperate need of this kind of fasting.
| | |
| A Chance to Win Free Puritan and Reformed Titles If you enter my referal code, you increase my chances of winning. I'd appreciate it.
My code is: 61314 | | |
| Reading Christian ClassicsI have begun reading "The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross" by A.W. Pink along with folks on Tim Challie's (author of "The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment") blog. We read the introduction and began discussion yesterday. It's not too late to start. I have linked to an online copy of the book. So far, I find Pink's study very insightful and edifying. How great is the love of our Saviour! Here were my thoughts on the introduction, as I posted them on Tim Challies' blog: I am excited to read this Christian Classic with you, and to join in the discussions. May God open His Word to each one of us, as together we “study prayerfully” what A. W. Pink has labored to bring forth from “the scripture of truth”. Pink’s reflections on how often we can pass over the reality of Christ’s death being a natural, human death as “simple and commonplace” really stood out to me as well. Pink is right, this is an amazing truth that should grab the Christian heart. You write that, “The fact that this can seem so unremarkable to us proves that we do not have a sufficient apprehension of just who Jesus was. That God Himself could suffer and face a very human death is far more remarkable than we are accustomed to thinking.” I agree, Tim. I was very edified and challenged by how well Pink seems to grasp, and keep in mind, Jesus’ Divine nature, as he looks at the narratives of our Saviour’s sufferings. I think we can often get too comfortable thinking of Jesus only as the suffering, down trodden human on the cross, or the meek little baby in the manger, and forget that He is the eternal Son of God, and He has been made King to reign forever. As I read through Pink’s thoughts on the evidences of the supernatural nature of Christ’s death, I was just really struck with the majesty and power of Jesus on the cross, willingly, actively laying down His life for His sheep. This is not to take away from the unimaginable sufferings that our Lord underwent in His body and soul, it is only to recognize that it was truly He in whom the fullness of the godhead dwells bodily who suffered willingly for us. | | |
| I've often felt that so many of us in the church, or at any rate the Christian religion, are trying to practice our faith without a real awareness of its history or self consciousness about our particular expression of the Christian faith. It seems like so many of us are not only ignorant of the church's history, but of the beliefs and historic practices of our own Christian traditions or denominational branches of the church of Jesus Christ. In the trend to identify oneself as "just a Christian" -- I suppose to promote "mere Christianity" -- people seem to think ignorance of your church's confession and history is a virtue. I see it differently. I think before we are to get anywhere together as one in the future, before we are to come to a common confession or understanding or anything on the order of a united "mere Christianity" that is actually Christian, we ought to be self-consciously aware of our church's creeds and practices and the historical moorings of our Christian tradition along with the over arching creeds, practices, and history of orthodox Christianity as a whole. Perhaps some of the present dissatisfaction with evangelical Christianity today stems from this non-denominational, anti-confessional, anti-doctrinal, historically ignorant stance. At any rate, I wonder.
I like these words from Dr. James A. Hughes on the message of historic Christianity, and the relevance of the past to the present
"This message, which is totally up-to-date and
gives meaning to life, is of course grounded in the past. But
many people today believe that the past has nothing to say to them.
They’re living only for the present. But the present has no meaning
apart from the past. A present not grounded in the past is an empty
present. And an empty present brings emptiness and uncertainty to people’s
lives. So it’s not surprising that there’s a search for certainty and
meaning in life... The great illusion of our day is that we are so different from those
who went before... There’s a continuity between the past and the present. We can’t
throw out the past and still live meaningfully in the present. The past
is speaking to us, and we need to listen." From: http://www.reformed.com/publications/flowofideas.php
| | |
| Happy Birthday Saint AugustineIf we live good lives, the times are also good. As we are, such are the times. Saint Augustine
If you believe what you like in the gospels, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.
Saint Augustine Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.
Saint Augustine The desire is thy prayers; and if thy desire is without ceasing, thy prayer will also be without ceasing. The continuance of your longing is the continuance of your prayer.
Saint Augustine
Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.
Saint Augustine What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like.
Saint Augustine Will is to grace as the horse is to the rider.
Saint Augustine Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
Saint Augustine God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.
Saint Augustine He that is kind is free, though he is a slave; he that is evil is a slave, though he be a king.
Saint Augustine These quote from Saint Augustine and more can be found at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/s/saint_augustine.html | | |
|
