http://www.pfm.org/BPtemplate.cfm?Section=...ContentID=13254

Regarding Christ as Holy
The Heart of Biblical Worldview

By T.M. Moore

August 4, 2004

...but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy... - 1 Peter 3:15

It can be easy for those of us engaged in the work of Biblical worldview to approach this as primarily an intellectual endeavor. Given the conflict of worldviews that has erupted in these increasingly postmodern times, we want to “prepare our minds for action” so that we will be ready to make our defense of the Biblical worldview whenever the occasion presents itself (1 Pt. 1:13; 3:15). So we study the views of our opponents, searching out every inconsistency and contradiction; we set our minds to understand how the Biblical worldview satisfies the great questions of life more completely than any other view.

As Paul might have said, “These things ought you to have done.”

But as Peter points out the Christian life, and the Biblical worldview which must frame and guide it, are not, in the first instance, matters of the mind alone. The life of faith is first of all an affair of the heart, where the affections – what Jonathan Edwards described as the “moving springs” of all human activity – are lodged and shaped.

If, therefore, we are to be effective in living out and defending the Biblical worldview, we must devote more attention to the heart, and to what faith in Christ requires to be occurring there. Chief among those things which must characterize the heart of faith, and of the Biblical worldview, is what Peter describes as regarding Christ the Lord as holy. This is the sine qua non of authentic Christian living and effective witness for Christ.

In what follows I want us to consider why regarding Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts is so important, and how we may begin to fulfill this indispensable duty.

Why is This So Important?
There are three principal reasons why Peter’s exhortation to regard Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts is so important.

(1) First, because He is holy. Jesus Christ is holy, and we ought to regard Him as such. He is without sin, and altogether unique as the God/Man and Savior of the world. The power of His holiness is unfathomable and undeniable. The vision of His holiness emboldened Stephen, in the midst of his suffering, to hold fast to the faith for which he was being murdered (Acts 7:55, 56). The sight of His holiness transformed the foremost persecutor of the Church into its greatest apostle (Acts 9). The vision of His holiness caused the Apostle John to fall down in terror, but then lifted him up in ecstatic love (Rev. 1:9-20). Jesus Christ is holy. He has been exalted to the right hand of the Father and given a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess His sovereign Lordship (Phil. 2:5-11). For us not to regard Christ as holy would be to worship something less than this exalted King and Savior. Because He is holy, and because His holiness commands such power, we ought to make sure that we regard Him as such in the very depths of our hearts.

(2) Second, His holiness is our only hope. Believers sometimes make the mistake of thinking that their faith commends them to God, that, because they have believed in the Gospel, they find acceptance in His presence. This, however, is to misunderstand both the grace and holiness of Christ.

The blood of Jesus Christ turns away the wrath of God against us, opening the door of the throne room of grace so that we might enter. Our sins have been removed from us. Christ has cancelled the debt that was against us. Because of God’s gracious gift of faith, our sins are no longer a hindrance to our fellowshipping with the living God (Col. 2:13, 14). Yet the removal of our sins is, by itself, not enough to bring us into the presence of God. For only those who are holy may come before Him, those who not only have put off their sin but who have taken up the ways of righteousness in perfect obedience (cf. Pss. 15, 24). We are no more able to fulfill this requirement than that of the removal of our sins. Therefore, we need a righteousness not our own to bring us through (Rom. 3:21-26). This is what Christ in His holiness accomplishes for us. God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). In Him, we are “clothed in His righteousness alone/Faultless to stand before the throne.” Without the holiness of Christ, credited to us by grace through faith, we have no hope of entering into the eternal presence of the living God. Regarding Christ as holy, therefore, fills our hearts with gratitude and humility as we go forth each day to serve Him who brings us into the presence of God by His perfect and holy life.

(3) Finally, His holiness alone transforms us. This holiness of Jesus is utterly transforming. It has power to bring forth the fruit of righteousness in us and to provoke us to love and good works. As we consider the holiness of Christ we are filled with wonder and gratitude, and drawn to take up His calling to “be perfect” as God Himself is perfect (Mt. 5:48). Wonder and gratitude lead to resolution and obedience, as we see in the case of Paul and the other disciples, and has been the case with the followers of Christ throughout the ages.

How Shall we Regard Christ as Holy?
But the practical question remains as to how we may do this. What is involved in that verb, “regard as holy,” and how may we take up the duties implied there? I want briefly to suggest five simple disciplines and practices.

(1) Give yourself to contemplation of Christ in His holiness. Scripture contains many helpful stories and images of the holiness of Christ. Indeed, every text of the Bible has something to say about Him (Jn. 5:39). Therefore, if we are faithful in reading and studying the Word of God, we shall find no shortage of helpful images by which we may contemplate the holiness of Christ.

Now contemplation takes time. We must be willing, as we reflect on a story or teaching, or ponder a vision or image of the holiness of Christ, to wait for the Lord to lead us into a fuller understanding. One cannot rush contemplation; at the same time, it is not necessary to reserve contemplation of the holiness of Christ to one time of the day. By a variety of means we may be able to take the vision of Christ’s holiness with us throughout the day, pausing to reflect anew and refresh our sense of His holiness as often as we may.

(2) Worship Christ throughout the day, especially with singing. Let your contemplation of the holiness of Christ lead you to overt worship – prayer and praise, and especially, singing. Here is not the place to unpack the Biblical teaching about the importance of singing in the life of faith. However, suffice it to say, the Scriptures command us to sing, and envision us singing, far more than most of us ever do. Just the vision of Christ in His holiness can lead us to recall great hymns of the faith, that we can sing as we drive or work or whatever we do.

(3) Talk of Christ and His holiness to one another. The Bible makes much of our conversations with one another in the Body of Christ. They are to be edifying and full of grace (Eph. 4:29; Col. 4:6). Filled with Christ’s Holy Spirit, believers are described as “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph. 5:19). The holiness of Christ would appear to be a proper subject of such speech. Too often we waste our conversations on trivial, mundane, or merely facetious subjects. Using at least part of our time in Christian conversation to discuss and extol the virtues of Christ, particularly His holiness, can help us to accomplish what Peter calls us to in regarding Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts.

(4) Pursue holiness, as He is holy. Paul calls us to bring “holiness to completion” in our lives by pressing on in sanctification in the fear of the Lord (2 Cor. 7:1). We cannot truly say that we regard Christ as holy if we are not ourselves determined on a course of increasing holiness before Him. If we would take His name upon us, and follow in His way, then we must devote ourselves to growing in holiness, laying aside every sinful thought or practice and putting on the character of Christ in every area of our lives.

(5) Be ready to speak for Him. The more we regard Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts, the more clearly we will see that He is the answer to every human need. This will encourage and embolden us to speak of Christ and His holiness to the people around us. We will invite them to consider His many excellences (1 Pt. 2:9, 10) and will urge them to be saved by His holiness from this wicked generation (Acts 2:40). As His holiness becomes more beautiful and compelling to us, we will not be able to suppress bearing witness to Him. Thus shall our labor of regarding Christ the Lord as holy come full circle, from inner contemplation to outer proclamation.

The Promise of Thus Regarding Christ
Peter sets forth one simple promise in this passage to those who will regard Christ the Lord as holy in their hearts: They will become a distinctive people, a people who exude hope to the world, and a people ready to testify to that hope with reverence and respect. The life of hope, joy, confidence, and boldness issues from a life that, at its core, regards Christ the Lord as holy.

Peter’s call to regard Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts is not a mere option; nor is it intended merely for some class of “super-Christians.” His calling comes to each one of us who names the name of Jesus. This is the starting-point and foundation of our lives in Christ, and the very heart of the Biblical worldview.

For reflection
Which of the disciplines and practices described above are you presently using to help you regard Christ the Lord as holy in your heart? Which can you begin using today? Whom can you encourage in this great calling and challenge?



T. M. Moore is a Fellow of the Wilberforce Forum. He serves as Pastor of Teaching Ministries and Director of the Center for Christian Studies at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN. He is the editor of the series, Jonathan Edwards for Today’s Reader (P & R), the latest volume of which is Praying Together for True Revival. Audio messages and lectures by T. M. can be secured from WordMp.3.com. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in Concord, TN. He can be reached at nacurragh@aol.com.

http://www.pfm.org/BPtemplate.cfm?Section=...=13254Regarding Christ as Holy
The Heart of Biblical Worldview

By T.M. Moore

August 4, 2004

...but in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy... - 1 Peter 3:15

It can be easy for those of us engaged in the work of Biblical worldview to approach this as primarily an intellectual endeavor. Given the conflict of worldviews that has erupted in these increasingly postmodern times, we want to “prepare our minds for action” so that we will be ready to make our defense of the Biblical worldview whenever the occasion presents itself (1 Pt. 1:13; 3:15). So we study the views of our opponents, searching out every inconsistency and contradiction; we set our minds to understand how the Biblical worldview satisfies the great questions of life more completely than any other view.

As Paul might have said, “These things ought you to have done.”

But as Peter points out the Christian life, and the Biblical worldview which must frame and guide it, are not, in the first instance, matters of the mind alone. The life of faith is first of all an affair of the heart, where the affections – what Jonathan Edwards described as the “moving springs” of all human activity – are lodged and shaped.

If, therefore, we are to be effective in living out and defending the Biblical worldview, we must devote more attention to the heart, and to what faith in Christ requires to be occurring there. Chief among those things which must characterize the heart of faith, and of the Biblical worldview, is what Peter describes as regarding Christ the Lord as holy. This is the sine qua non of authentic Christian living and effective witness for Christ.

In what follows I want us to consider why regarding Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts is so important, and how we may begin to fulfill this indispensable duty.

Why is This So Important?
There are three principal reasons why Peter’s exhortation to regard Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts is so important.

(1) First, because He is holy. Jesus Christ is holy, and we ought to regard Him as such. He is without sin, and altogether unique as the God/Man and Savior of the world. The power of His holiness is unfathomable and undeniable. The vision of His holiness emboldened Stephen, in the midst of his suffering, to hold fast to the faith for which he was being murdered (Acts 7:55, 56). The sight of His holiness transformed the foremost persecutor of the Church into its greatest apostle (Acts 9). The vision of His holiness caused the Apostle John to fall down in terror, but then lifted him up in ecstatic love (Rev. 1:9-20). Jesus Christ is holy. He has been exalted to the right hand of the Father and given a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess His sovereign Lordship (Phil. 2:5-11). For us not to regard Christ as holy would be to worship something less than this exalted King and Savior. Because He is holy, and because His holiness commands such power, we ought to make sure that we regard Him as such in the very depths of our hearts.

(2) Second, His holiness is our only hope. Believers sometimes make the mistake of thinking that their faith commends them to God, that, because they have believed in the Gospel, they find acceptance in His presence. This, however, is to misunderstand both the grace and holiness of Christ.

The blood of Jesus Christ turns away the wrath of God against us, opening the door of the throne room of grace so that we might enter. Our sins have been removed from us. Christ has cancelled the debt that was against us. Because of God’s gracious gift of faith, our sins are no longer a hindrance to our fellowshipping with the living God (Col. 2:13, 14). Yet the removal of our sins is, by itself, not enough to bring us into the presence of God. For only those who are holy may come before Him, those who not only have put off their sin but who have taken up the ways of righteousness in perfect obedience (cf. Pss. 15, 24). We are no more able to fulfill this requirement than that of the removal of our sins. Therefore, we need a righteousness not our own to bring us through (Rom. 3:21-26). This is what Christ in His holiness accomplishes for us. God made Him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). In Him, we are “clothed in His righteousness alone/Faultless to stand before the throne.” Without the holiness of Christ, credited to us by grace through faith, we have no hope of entering into the eternal presence of the living God. Regarding Christ as holy, therefore, fills our hearts with gratitude and humility as we go forth each day to serve Him who brings us into the presence of God by His perfect and holy life.

(3) Finally, His holiness alone transforms us. This holiness of Jesus is utterly transforming. It has power to bring forth the fruit of righteousness in us and to provoke us to love and good works. As we consider the holiness of Christ we are filled with wonder and gratitude, and drawn to take up His calling to “be perfect” as God Himself is perfect (Mt. 5:48). Wonder and gratitude lead to resolution and obedience, as we see in the case of Paul and the other disciples, and has been the case with the followers of Christ throughout the ages.

How Shall we Regard Christ as Holy?
But the practical question remains as to how we may do this. What is involved in that verb, “regard as holy,” and how may we take up the duties implied there? I want briefly to suggest five simple disciplines and practices.

(1) Give yourself to contemplation of Christ in His holiness. Scripture contains many helpful stories and images of the holiness of Christ. Indeed, every text of the Bible has something to say about Him (Jn. 5:39). Therefore, if we are faithful in reading and studying the Word of God, we shall find no shortage of helpful images by which we may contemplate the holiness of Christ.

Now contemplation takes time. We must be willing, as we reflect on a story or teaching, or ponder a vision or image of the holiness of Christ, to wait for the Lord to lead us into a fuller understanding. One cannot rush contemplation; at the same time, it is not necessary to reserve contemplation of the holiness of Christ to one time of the day. By a variety of means we may be able to take the vision of Christ’s holiness with us throughout the day, pausing to reflect anew and refresh our sense of His holiness as often as we may.

(2) Worship Christ throughout the day, especially with singing. Let your contemplation of the holiness of Christ lead you to overt worship – prayer and praise, and especially, singing. Here is not the place to unpack the Biblical teaching about the importance of singing in the life of faith. However, suffice it to say, the Scriptures command us to sing, and envision us singing, far more than most of us ever do. Just the vision of Christ in His holiness can lead us to recall great hymns of the faith, that we can sing as we drive or work or whatever we do.

(3) Talk of Christ and His holiness to one another. The Bible makes much of our conversations with one another in the Body of Christ. They are to be edifying and full of grace (Eph. 4:29; Col. 4:6). Filled with Christ’s Holy Spirit, believers are described as “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph. 5:19). The holiness of Christ would appear to be a proper subject of such speech. Too often we waste our conversations on trivial, mundane, or merely facetious subjects. Using at least part of our time in Christian conversation to discuss and extol the virtues of Christ, particularly His holiness, can help us to accomplish what Peter calls us to in regarding Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts.

(4) Pursue holiness, as He is holy. Paul calls us to bring “holiness to completion” in our lives by pressing on in sanctification in the fear of the Lord (2 Cor. 7:1). We cannot truly say that we regard Christ as holy if we are not ourselves determined on a course of increasing holiness before Him. If we would take His name upon us, and follow in His way, then we must devote ourselves to growing in holiness, laying aside every sinful thought or practice and putting on the character of Christ in every area of our lives.

(5) Be ready to speak for Him. The more we regard Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts, the more clearly we will see that He is the answer to every human need. This will encourage and embolden us to speak of Christ and His holiness to the people around us. We will invite them to consider His many excellences (1 Pt. 2:9, 10) and will urge them to be saved by His holiness from this wicked generation (Acts 2:40). As His holiness becomes more beautiful and compelling to us, we will not be able to suppress bearing witness to Him. Thus shall our labor of regarding Christ the Lord as holy come full circle, from inner contemplation to outer proclamation.

The Promise of Thus Regarding Christ
Peter sets forth one simple promise in this passage to those who will regard Christ the Lord as holy in their hearts: They will become a distinctive people, a people who exude hope to the world, and a people ready to testify to that hope with reverence and respect. The life of hope, joy, confidence, and boldness issues from a life that, at its core, regards Christ the Lord as holy.

Peter’s call to regard Christ the Lord as holy in our hearts is not a mere option; nor is it intended merely for some class of “super-Christians.” His calling comes to each one of us who names the name of Jesus. This is the starting-point and foundation of our lives in Christ, and the very heart of the Biblical worldview.

For reflection
Which of the disciplines and practices described above are you presently using to help you regard Christ the Lord as holy in your heart? Which can you begin using today? Whom can you encourage in this great calling and challenge?



T. M. Moore is a Fellow of the Wilberforce Forum. He serves as Pastor of Teaching Ministries and Director of the Center for Christian Studies at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN. He is the editor of the series, Jonathan Edwards for Today’s Reader (P & R), the latest volume of which is Praying Together for True Revival. Audio messages and lectures by T. M. can be secured from WordMp.3.com. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in Concord, TN. He can be reached at nacurragh@aol.com.

http://www.pfm.org/BPtemplate.cfm?Section=...ContentID=13230

The Depth of a Moment
Poetry as a Window on Glory

By T.M. Moore

July 30, 2004

The hectic pace of most of our lives may be doing more than merely serving as a source of stress and irritation. It may be robbing us of encounters with God’s glory that can thrill and transform us, enrich our lives, and equip us to live more fully for Him. It is precisely by such encounters that the Holy Spirit works to mold us more completely into the image of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3:12-18). We are confronted by opportunities to encounter the glory of God at every moment; most of us are just too hurried to notice.

In her book, How to Read a Poem . . . and Start a Poetry Group, Molly Peacock comments on our need to slow down and learn to appreciate the moments of our lives more fully. Our lives are simply too fast-paced: as we rush from one appointment, responsibility, or diversion to the next, we miss a great deal of wonder and beauty that occurs in the moments we ignore, disregard, or simply race right past. Poetry, she suggests, can help us to overcome this problem by teaching us to slow down and appreciate the simple things of life more fully. She writes, “Poetry is the art that offers depth in a moment, using the depth of a moment.” In the short time it takes to read a poem, we can penetrate to deep levels of experience and profound truths.

This ability of poetry to teach us how to plumb the depths of the moments of our lives should be of particular interest to Christians. Since, as the Bible teaches, God is continuously, clearly, and gloriously making Himself known in creation’s lavish and infinitely varied moments (Ps. 19:1-4), believers should be interested in learning how to observe and understand that revelation. As we shall see, poetry can assist in this effort.

A Window on Glory
Christian poet Wendell Berry can help us learn how to mine the riches of the moments of our lives. He shows us that poetry can be a window to the glory of God, which is being revealed moment by moment throughout our lives. The Kentucky agrarian has an astute and wondering theological mind, a keen eye for the moments in which he lives, and a gift of art that makes his poetry particularly valuable for discerning the glory of God in creation.

Berry’s poetry can teach us about seeing into the depths and discovering the glory of a moment. His keen eye, sensitive faith, and gift for art encourage us to make use of poetry to this end. Consider this poem, an untitled Sabbath poem from 1979:

To sit and look at light-filled leaves
May let us see, or seem to see,
Far backward as through clearer eyes
To what unsighted hope believes:
That blessed conviviality
That sang Creation’s seventh sunrise,

Time when the Maker’s radiant sight
Made radiant every thing He saw,
And every thing He saw was filled
With perfect joy and life and light.
His perfect pleasure was sole law;
No pleasure had become self-willed.

For all His creatures were His pleasures
And their whole pleasure was to be
What He made them; they sought no gain
Or growth beyond their proper measures,
Nor longed for change or novelty.
The only new thing could be pain.

Berry’s verse is a “Sabbath poem,” one of a great many he composed over the years, in which some experience on the Lord’s Day became an occasion for a more far-ranging meditation. In the process of nursing his art to life, Berry exercises the kind of disciplined attention to the moment that we may learn to practice with benefit as well.

Five Disciplines
Berry employs five distinct disciplines as he looks deeply into a single moment of time. We will look at these disciplines separately, but that is not to imply that they are necessarily practiced in a logical, step-by-step manner. Rather, the skills required for each discipline are constantly in play, working together in the subconscious mind to accomplish the work of penetrating the depth of the moment. By analyzing Berry’s poem, we may enter into his experience, and his practice of these disciplines, as he transports us to the pristine beauty of that first Sabbath, and then brings us back, by a rueful irony, to the imperfect Sabbath of our not-yet-fully-restored present.

Observation. Berry’s first discipline is observation, or taking the time to look. It is his practice to spend much time amid the creatures of God’s world, making note of both familiar and new things, and examining them carefully in an attitude of meditation. Notice that he is sitting, which suggests a deliberateness that itself can be an antidote to the hectic pace of our lives. If one is to penetrate the depth of a moment for the revelation of God’s glory radiating from it, one needs to make time for such activity.

Berry observes leaves in a nearby tree, studying them carefully. The light coming through the leaves makes them somehow more than mere leaves. They become symbols of or even a passageway to a greater reality, one that exists beyond the present moment and the gaze of physical eyes. His careful observation of the light-bathed leaves engages his imagination and leads him into the next discipline (keep in mind that all these disciplines operate simultaneously).

Association. Now Berry begins to associate these leaves with the state of creation on the first Sabbath. In this moment of observing ordinary phenomena strikes a receptive chord in his theological understanding, and summons from his imagination a vision of the creation in its state of pre-fall goodness. He is bringing his understanding of Scripture into the observation of the moment, associating what he has learned there with what he is experiencing now, and allowing the leaves he is observing to serve as a kind of icon to put him in touch with his knowledge of Genesis 1 and 2. By association, he imagines everything in creation as radiant, “filled / With perfect joy and life and light.” This was a time when God’s pleasure was the only law, and every one of His creatures happily conformed to that law, thus realizing its own reason for being. Berry’s experience grows, prompted by the leaves, to become a reverie on the glory of God’s creation on the morning of the seventh day.

Integration. In the third stanza, Berry begins to integrate his observations and associations into a meaningful whole. Creation on that first Sabbath was radiant and beautiful beyond description (lines 3 and 4) because the mutuality of love and pleasure between God and His creatures was perfect, unstained with anything like creaturely self-interest. This is the world Berry longs for in all his writings, yet knows cannot be achieved in this life. Nevertheless, he has devoted himself, through his own lifestyle and through his writings, to calling people away from mere self-indulgence toward a clearer vision of the common weal, and a stewardship of creation that will allow a greater measure of its God-given beauty to rejuvenate.

The last line of the poem jerks us back to the reality of the moment – the Sabbath on which Berry is making his observation – and insinuates that only the pain inflicted by human sin robs us of a more beautiful, harmonious, and fruitful life, a life of being content as He made us (line 17), and a life of glad submission to His perfect will and law.

Celebration. Berry found this experience compelling. Art is for him the means to celebrate his experiences of encountering God. We do not know when or how this poem took shape in his mind, but the simple beauty of it both heightens the experience of the moment and honors the Lord of the Sabbath.

The poem has three stanzas, which seem to be a kind of celebration of the triune God. Each stanza has three sets of rhymes – the first line rhymes with the fourth, the second with the fifth, and the third with the sixth; again, this is a kind of paean to the beauty of the Creator God. The twinned-line rhyme scheme suggests the Creator/creature distinction of the two participants in that first Sabbath’s glory. Each line contains four iambic feet (duh-DUH), rather than the more commonly used five iambic feet. In Scripture, as Berry doubtless knows, four is the number of earth and creation – four directions, four winds, etc. He is celebrating the creation with its own number in a near-perfect arrangement of eighteen lines. For the full delight and enjoyment of Berry’s achievement, read the poem aloud.

Proclamation. Finally, Berry makes his private reverie an act of public faith by publishing his poem, first in a literary journal in 1979, and then in the volume entitled A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997 (Counterpoint, 1998). By so doing he makes his experience – and his faith – available to readers everywhere. This allows us to share in his personal encounter with God’s glory, teaches us about proper stewardship of creation, and invites us to seek our own experiences in the depth of a moment (note the “May let us” of line 2).

A Call to Attentiveness
Berry’s poem is a call to attentiveness. It offers a lesson in seeing the depth of a moment that lasts far longer than the focused moments of reading a poem. His poetry encourages and guides us in seeking the glory of God in the things He has made. Reading Berry’s poetry, and the poetry others who take their inspiration from mere moments, can equip us to live in the depths of the glory-filled moments of our own lives. Each of us can learn to use the five disciplines Berry employs in making his art. While we may practice them differently, we can expect that regularly and intentionally seeking out the glory of God in the moments of our lives will lead to new and life-changing encounters with our Maker, Savior, and King. But we must be willing to take the time, to slow down our lives so that we can revel more fully in the glory-filled moments that surround us.



T. M. Moore is a Fellow of the Wilberforce Forum. He serves as Pastor of Teaching Ministries and Director of the Center for Christian Studies at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN. He is the editor of the series, Jonathan Edwards for Today’s Reader (P & R), the latest volume of which is Praying Together for True Revival. Audio messages and lectures by T. M. can be secured from WordMp.3.com. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in Concord, TN. T. M. is a charter member of The Literary and Libation Society (Concord Branch), celebrating the works of Samuel Adams. He can be reached at nacurragh@aol.com.

http://tmatt.gospelcom.net/column/2004/07/28/

Gallup, statistics and discipleship Gallup, statistics and discipleship

George Gallup Jr. has been studying the numbers for a half century and nobody knows better than he does that they just don't add up.

Most of the familiar, comforting statistics that describe public religion remain remarkably stable from poll to poll. Somewhere around 86 percent of Americans say they believe in God and another 8 percent or so in a "higher power" of some kind. Sixty percent say faith is "very important" in daily life and another 15 percent say it's "fairly important."

In the typical poll, around 80 percent identify themselves as some brand of Christian and claim membership in a congregation. Somewhere between 41 and 46 percent of Americans say they attended church or synagogue in the previous week. Can religious faith answer all of today's problems? Six in 10 say "yes." Throughout the 1990s, nearly two in three affirmed that "God really exists and I have no doubt about it."

But there is another side of this religion equation, said Gallup, during a recent address at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary outside Boston.

"Sadly, our society continues to be wracked by domestic problems," he said. "Four in 10 American children go to bed without a father in the home. One-third of teens have been physically abused in the home. One-fourth of all Americans say that drinking is a problem in their home and half of all marriages this year will end in divorce.

"What lies ahead? Will democracy remain viable? ... How can our faith make a difference? How can it sustain us?"

That final leap of logic -- linking morality, politics and faith -- may seem strange to those who have followed his meticulous work as America's most trusted brand name in public information and the author of 16 books. But Gallup is convinced that most Americans believe that the state of the nation is closely tied to its spiritual health.

Now, the 74-year-old pollster has officially retired. But this doesn't mean Gallup will disappear. As a young man with a religion degree from Princeton University, he considered entering the Episcopal priesthood. No one expects him to stop asking questions about the role of faith in American life.

Truth is, Gallup has more questions than answers. But he said being retired will allow him even more time and freedom to discuss the strategies he thinks clergy should adopt if they want to help the faithful follow the doctrines they claim to believe.

"Surveys reveal an unprecedented desire for religious and spiritual growth among people in all walks of life and in every region of the nation," he said. "There is an intense searching for spiritual moorings, a hunger for God. It is for churches to seize the moment and to direct this often vague and free-floating spirituality into a solid and lived-out faith."

The key, he said, is that too many pastors naively assume that church members know and understand the core doctrines of their own faith.

"For example, half of all Protestants have no idea whatsoever what the word 'grace' means and what it has to do with their salvation," he said, in an interview not long after the Massachusetts address. "Now, that's pretty basic doctrine. Pastors today assume that their people know the basics. They don't."

Clergy assume that believers are familiar with the contents of those Bibles sitting on their bookshelves. They assume church members understand the teachings of other major religions and can hold thoughtful, respectful conversations about the differences between these faiths.

Many even assume their members sincerely want to repent of their sins, amend their lives and become serious Christians.

Gallup said he is constantly shocked to hear that few pastors ever ask members -- person to person, face to face -- about the status of their faith and personal lives. Many pastors no longer see the need to openly discuss the impact of sin.

"Someone has to challenge people to be true disciples of Christ," he said. "Someone has to ask the hard questions. If we don't talk about the whole dimension of sin, repentance, grace and forgiveness, what is the faith all about? What are we doing? ...

"Without true discipleship, the church can simply turn into a social services agency."

http://www.pfm.org/BPtemplate.cfm?Section=...tentDisplay.cfm

Waiting on the Lord
Biblical Worldview as Life-long Commitment

By T. M. Moore

July 20, 2004

And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. Hebrews 6:15

The Scriptures contain many exhortations to wait on the Lord. David commanded his soul to wait on the Lord as he sought to realize the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps. 27:14). Solomon counseled those who had been slighted by evildoers not to take their own revenge, but to wait on the Lord to deliver them (Prov. 20:22). Isaiah preached that waiting on the Lord was the way to renewed strength (Is. 40:31). Jeremiah asserted that God is good to those who wait on Him and seek Him in their souls (Lam. 3:25). God counseled Habakkuk to wait for the Lord to reveal His plans for the deliverance of Israel (Hab. 2:3). Jesus commanded His disciples to wait for the promise of the Father (Acts 1:4). Paul equated waiting for the promises of God with hoping earnestly to receive them (Rom. 8:25). And Abraham, our text points out, patiently waited for the Lord to bring the promises to fruition in his life.

Clearly, God intends His people to wait on Him. Whatever He has called us to do, He promises to give us success in it if we will wait on Him. This also applies to the work of Biblical worldview. Unless we cultivate the discipline of waiting on the Lord in this area, all our labors will surely come to naught.

But what, exactly, does waiting on the Lord involve? Perhaps we can uncover some insights from the example of Abraham.

Keep a Heavenly Orientation
First, it means that we must keep good communication with the Lord at all times. It is written that Abraham spent much of his 80 years of waiting on the Lord worshipping and communing with Him. He built altars wherever he went to remind himself to worship God and keep focused on His will. He developed the discipline of meeting with God, apparently on a daily basis, to meditate on His promises and plans and to receive new revelation from the Lord. Abraham prayed frequently and practiced whatever command the Lord made clear to him by revelation. Abraham seemed to understand that waiting on the Lord required a close relationship with Him, an intimate relationship that was consistently nurtured and sustained.

The same is true of our work to develop a Biblical worldview. Success in this endeavor will depend on our ability to stay close to the Lord and commune with Him through worship, meditation, prayer, and fellowship with co-laborers. If we allow Biblical worldview to become a merely intellectual undertaking, we will never realize the power and promise of God. As His image-bearers we are called to worship and serve Him with all the works of our minds and hands. It is absolutely essential that those engaged in the work of Biblical worldview be faithful to exercise spiritual disciplines and fervent in the work of worship. We must cultivate a vision of unseen things that will fill us with hope for success and will impel us to bold, new undertakings in our calling (Heb. 11:1). Nothing short of being intimate with the Lord will enable us to realize the hope of our calling.

Stay in the Arena
God commanded Abraham to go to a land He would show him, where God would then bring His promised blessings to pass (Gen. 12:1-3). Abraham dutifully obeyed, but found it difficult to stay put in God’s appointed place. He became distracted by famine and headed out to Egypt (Gen. 12:10ff.). On another occasion – perhaps to put behind him the horrible memory of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah – he took a brief sojourn into Gerar. Each time Abraham strayed from his appointed place, he compromised his morality, hedged the truth, and ended up embarrassed and ashamed, returning with his tail between his legs to the place and work God had appointed for him.

There is counsel for us here in what it means to wait on the Lord. In the work of Biblical Worldview, we can become discouraged or distracted; difficulties and opposition can tempt us to seek an easier path. At times, the hard intellectual work can be exhausting, and the lack of immediate fruit can lead us to doubt the validity of the work. But God has called us to it, and He expects us to stay in the arena to which He has appointed to us until He begins to bring forth the fruit of Biblical worldview thinking in tangible ways. Those who are called to this work must resist the temptation to stray into easier or more immediately rewarding endeavors. We must discipline ourselves to work through problems and disagreements, to rise above opposition, and to press on when things seem least likely to succeed. It takes time to bring every thought and every idea into captivity to God’s Word, making them obedient to the Kingdom purposes of Christ. Unless we stay in this arena, we shall not be able to realize the promise of God. Waiting on Him means waiting in the task He has appointed for us to do, in full confidence that He will bless us in His way and time.

Preserve and Extend Every Gain
While he was in the land of promise, Abraham was frequently on the move. God had promised him that all the land on which his foot would tread would belong to him and to his posterity. So whether he was protecting his wayward nephew (Gen. 14), providing for his illegitimate child (Gen. 16, 21), preserving his wells and the lands around them (Gen. 21), or making sure that the promises of God would be extended to his offspring, Abraham was careful to exercise good stewardship over everything the Lord had given him, preserving and extending it in every way.

In the work of Biblical worldview, we are making significant progress: many new thinkers and writers have joined the effort; conferences, books, and training materials abound; even lay men and women are becoming excited about learning how the Word of God applies to every area of human life. But while we have made significant gains, we need to work hard to keep what we have achieved and move on from here. Because the followers of Christ are prone to forgetfulness, it would be easy for us to lose sight of the excellent work in this area accomplished by our forbearers in the faith, looking instead to what is novel and contemporary. We are also given to divisiveness, focusing on the things that separate us rather than on things that bring us together. Our recent history shows that we give up on things too easily – Christians have forfeited their interest and heritage in the arts, education, and science to unbelievers for most of the past 200 years. We need to hold fast to what God has given us, and to extend what we possess to others through teaching and modeling, and by enlisting others in this glorious work. Only as we thus wait on the Lord can we expect to know the full range of His blessings on this work.

Gear Up for the Long Haul
Finally, it seems clear that waiting on the Lord requires us to nurture a vision of our work for the long haul. Abraham patiently waited on the Lord for 80 years before Isaac was born and God’s covenant promises began to bear fruit. True, he occasionally faltered in his waiting, but he never threw in the towel and moved on to other things. He held fast to the promise that God would prosper him and give him a child.

The work of developing and promulgating a Biblical worldview is long and tedious. It offers few immediate numerical results. It does not ensure the material prosperity that some in the believing camp are prone to seek. Establishing a Biblical worldview requires prayer and Scripture-searching, interacting with secular worldviews, making plans and developing strategies, and carrying out the day-to-day tasks of bringing a whole new view of life into being. And it requires that we do this in a hostile environment, where forces of unbelief and spiritual wickedness in high places are determined to block our every initiative and frustrate our progress on every hand. Unless we set our faces like flint to work at this for the long haul, we shall become easily discouraged and search out paths of less resistance for our labors of faith. God promises that His Word will not return to Him void, that the Scriptures are able to equip us for every good work; He promises that not even the very councils of hell can keep His Church from triumphing in its effort to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. But He accomplishes these things in His way and time, and He calls upon us to wait upon Him for as long as it might take.

Success in the work of Biblical worldview will require that we wait on the Lord in all these ways: we must seek His face, stay on task, preserve and extend our gains, and keep our eyes on the long haul. Nothing short of such a commitment will allow us to realize the promise of God in this important work.

For reflection
How does your own “waiting on the Lord” compare with Abraham’s example? How can you encourage others to wait on the Lord in the work of Biblical worldview?

http://www.pfm.org/BPtemplate.cfm?Section=...tentDisplay.cfm

The Path to Holiness
Biblical Worldview and the New Commandment

By T.M. Moore

June 9, 2004

...may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. - 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

It would be difficult to overstate the Biblical requirement that those who would see the Lord should pursue holiness: “For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44). “Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of the Lord” (2 Cor. 7:1). “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation...” (1 Pt. 2:9). “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).

There is simply no way around it: those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ must strive for holiness. Nothing substitutes for this ultimate objective of the life of faith. When Jesus returns with all His saints – His holy ones – then shall we want above all else to be found among that illustrious crowd. But if we are to be counted among that number at His appearing, our hearts firmly established in holiness and we, therefore, completely and finally at home, we must walk the path that leads to holiness while we may. And this is the path of love.

A Timely Reminder
The work of developing and proclaiming a Biblical worldview requires that we be reminded of the overarching goal of holiness, reached via the pathway of love. With brash and blasphemous unbelievers spouting their virulent views on every hand, it can be easy to lose sight of these twin objectives and to think that the goal of our endeavor is instead to score points or put the heathen in their place. From time to time all these may be tactically appropriate, but only when they are undertaken in the larger light of holiness realized through love.

Alternately, we may be tempted to pursue the work of Biblical worldview for the merely short-term objective of renewing hope among the faithful. Many of the followers of Christ today feel timid and helpless in the face of assaults against the redoubts of faith by academics, pundits, and garden variety atheists of every flavor. They are comforted when one of their own is able to articulate a more intelligent perspective on the life of faith and its relevance to issues of morality, culture, and society. This is as it should be. But unless those thus venturing to embolden the timid point them at the same time along the pathway of love to the end of holiness, their labors shall be incomplete.

At the same time, those who are engaged in the hard work of study, research, speaking, teaching, and writing about Biblical worldview must not be content with the mere acquisition of knowledge. The objective to which God calls us in all our undertakings in the life of faith is holiness gained by devotion to the path of love. Our work in Biblical worldview will not be properly focused without our conscious dedication to this end and our continuous renewal in what it requires of us.

Love Comes From God
The perpetual touchstone for growing in a life of love is prayer. God alone is able to give us the love we need for others, the love that guides us along the path to holiness. Moreover, as Paul indicates in this passage, we should pray for ourselves and others, not just that God would give us love, but that He would cause us to increase and abound in love, both for other believers – in fulfillment of the new commandment (Jn. 13:34) – and for everyone else as well.

It would therefore be a good idea, in all our studies of Scripture, to keep this objective in mind, and to ask ourselves, from time to time, “How does this subject or study help me to grow in love for others?” We may take up the study of a particular issue or subject in Biblical worldview as a response to some contemporary crisis or need. What is the Biblical view of bio-technology research, for instance? Or how shall we assess the justness of some war? What about issues of the environment, education, and sexual morality? Biblical worldview demands that we seek in the Scripture, and through the application of sound thinking, answers and positions on these and many, many more subjects. But not as ends in themselves. “The aim of our charge,” Paul reminds us (1 Tim. 1:5), “is love.” Whatever we are studying or teaching in the area of Biblical worldview must be ultimately focused on helping us to increase and abound in love, so that we may make progress in the direction of holiness.

Love Requires Examples
Notice that Paul, in exhorting the Thessalonians to increase and abound in love, pointed to his own selfless example for them to emulate. The preceding chapter, in fact (1 Thessalonians 2), provides a broad outline of Paul’s love, and serves as a reminder for the Thessalonians, in case any needed it. Paul says he was like comforting parents to them, gladly sharing his own life as well as the truth of the Gospel with them. He worked hard, long, and selflessly on their behalf, and was a burden to no man. He sought to please God only, and not any man (that is, he did not play favorites). His conduct was holy and righteous and blameless as he exhorted and encouraged them in the life of faith.

The Thessalonians had in Paul an excellent example of what it means to increase and abound in love. We need such examples as well. We can find them among our peers and students, as well as in the examples of saints from Scripture and Church history. What’s more, we who labor in study and teaching toward a Biblical worldview need to provide that example of love for those we teach and lead. Let them not see in us someone given to haughtiness or aloofness, someone eager to “bash the pagans” or merely to refute some secular argument. Rather, let them see our hearts broken for the lost, and aching for them to come to know the truth that is in Jesus. Let our students experience from us the kind of patience, hard work, and diligence in study and teaching that communicates love for them as our learners. Let us lead them in practical exercises of “love in action” as we reach out to lost neighbors and to church members with the Good News of God’s love in Jesus and of a world being restored by His truth and grace. Our exhortations and prayers for our learners to increase and abound in love will not avail much if we cannot point them to worthy examples of such love, beginning with ourselves.

Love Is the Need of the Hour
Today when Christians are presented by the secular media as arrogant, ignorant, and incompetent, we need to show the watching world the love of Jesus. Let us love one another, setting aside our petty differences and discovering ways to work together on the things on which we can agree. And let us speak and act lovingly toward those outside the household of faith, so that, whereas they might like to say something unkind about us, our earnest love for them will endear them to us instead.

As we grow in love we will discover our hearts more and more being firmly established in holiness. For, as Jesus reminded us, all the law and the prophets are summed up in the commands to love God and our neighbor (Mt. 22:34-40). In the conflict of worldviews that is heating up all around us, the follower of Christ will have a distinct advantage over every foe if he or she is able to stand firm in love, to increase and abound in it. For the Biblical worldview is nothing if it does not come to expression in our lives as love for God, one another, and all others besides (1 Cor. 13:1-3).

For reflection

Think of the people you know and see each week: What does love require of you toward them? Who serves as an example of the life of love for you?

T. M. Moore is a Fellow of the Wilberforce Forum. He serves as Pastor of Teaching Ministries and Director of the Center for Christian Studies at Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church in Knoxville, TN. He is the editor of the series, Jonathan Edwards for Today’s Reader (P & R), the latest volume of which is Praying Together for True Revival. Audio messages and lectures by T. M. can be secured from WordMp.3.com. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in Concord, TN. T. M. can be reached at nacurragh@aol.com. All Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version (Crossway).

http://www.pfm.org/BPtemplate.cfm?Section=...tentDisplay.cfm

Second Sight

Advice for Learners
Making Progress in the Ways of the Lord

By T.M. Moore

June 30, 2004



Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. - Psalm 25:4

Since, in our last installment of this column, I put forth some advice for those who would be stewards of the Word and teachers of Biblical worldview, it seems appropriate that I balance this with some counsel for those who are seeking to learn the ways of the Lord. Psalm 25 might be thought of as the student’s psalm, for it offers much guidance to those who are eager to know the truth of God.

This prayer of David can serve to focus our calling as students of the ways of God in three specific areas.

God Is Our Ultimate Teacher
First, David reminds us that God Himself is our ultimate teacher (Ps. 25:4, 5, 8, 12, 14). This psalm must have been in the mind of the Lord Jesus when He instructed His disciples not to be called teacher nor to call any man their teacher, for they had only one teacher, by which He meant to indicate Himself as God (Mt. 23:8). Later, He promised to send the Holy Spirit to be their teacher (Jn. 14:26; 16:13), an anointing so powerful and sufficient that the Apostle John would say that, possessing Him, we do not require human teachers at all (1 Jn. 2:27). This surely is intended as a bit of qualifying hyperbole, aimed to reinforce the teaching of David and Jesus and to keep the disciples of the Lord focused on learning from Him rather than relying on the ideas of fallible humans. If this were not hyperbole, why would the Lord have given the office of teacher and the gifts of teaching to His Church?

The important point, it seems, is that God reserves for Himself the role of teacher of His people. Learners, therefore, must take pains to receive as truth only that which He confirms by His Spirit and Word.

But how does He confirm such truth?

(1) First, by the analogy of Scripture. It was written of the ancient Bereans that they were more noble-minded than others because they received the teaching of the Apostle Paul with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily to determine whether or not his words were true (Acts 17:11). The Spirit of God teaches us the things of God as we compare Scripture with Scripture on any subject and watch the truth emerge and coalesce (1 Cor. 2:12, 13). The formal name for this learning activity is the analogy of Scripture; the mastery of this discipline is indispensable to those who desire to learn the ways of the Lord.

(2) Second, the tradition of the Church is a valuable guide to discerning the truth of God. In every generation, God has provided His Church with faithful interpreters and teachers, many of whom have left written records of their conclusions in sermons, commentaries, and books, and in the decisions of Church councils. This rich heritage of theological tradition is a valuable resource for helping us to hear the voice of our divine Teacher.

Church tradition began with the apostles, who did not write down everything they knew or believed, but left, together with their canonical writings, a tradition of instruction in preaching and teaching, which they expected their followers to know and obey (cf. 1 Cor. 15:1-3; 2 Thess. 3:6; 1 Jn 4:6). While the tradition of the Church is a secondary tool of the Spirit in teaching us the ways of God and is always subordinate to the Word of God (Mt. 15:1-9), it is an important tool nonetheless, and must be part of any earnest student’s effort to know God’s truth.

(3) Personal experience must also play a part in leading us in the paths of God. God calls on us to test Him, to try His truth and promises, and to see through our own experience that His Word is reliable and sure (cf. Ps. 34:8; Mal. 3:10; Heb. 5:14). The testimony of generations of obedient followers encourages us to lay hold of God’s truth and prove it for ourselves. Paul’s exhortation to the Philippians to think on things beautiful and true and to put them into practice in daily living (Phil. 4:9), is yet another way of expressing the truth that God’s paths are discerned through a daily walk of obedience to things studied in His Word.

By these means, the student of God’s Word applies himself to the task of discerning the pathways of the Lord, as he sits at the feet of God, his primary Teacher.

Wait on the Lord
Second, those engaged in discerning the paths of the Lord must master the disciplines involved in waiting on Him (Ps. 25:3, 5, 21). There is a sense in which all true learning reduces to waiting on the Lord. David’s use of this term throughout Psalm 25 is clarified by other ideas, to give us a fuller sense of what waiting on the Lord involves.

To wait on the Lord is to offer our souls as a sacrifice to Him, and to entrust ourselves to His care (vv. 1, 2). It is to plead with Him to make His way known to us in the midst of our studies (vv. 4, 5). Waiting on the Lord will make us more aware of our sin, and more eager and able to lay it aside (vv. 6-15). We wait on the Lord as we nurture reverent, loving fear of Him, and seek out the obligations and privileges of His covenant (vv. 9, 10, 12, 15). Training our minds to seek the Lord, and concentrating on the vision of Him exalted are also aspects of waiting on the Lord (vv. 1, 8-12). Finally, waiting on the Lord involves gaining a sense of, and becoming committed to, the paths of integrity and uprightness He makes known to us (vv. 12, 21).

Study, meditation, and prayer are thus the proper setting within which to engage in these various disciplines of waiting on the Lord. The more time we are able to devote to these and the better the quality of that time, the more we can expect to make progress in knowing the truth and paths of the Lord.

Learning for Life
Finally, all those eager to learn from the Lord by waiting on Him must have the goal of achieving life-change. As we have seen, our view in prayer and study should be to walk in the paths of the Lord, and to live daily with the purpose of following and serving Him. We are waiting on the Lord not merely to gain more information, but as a way of life (vv. 4, 5, 10, 15, 21). Learning is only complete when it results in a changed life, a life in which the priorities and practices of God come to expression in every area. We seek a Biblical worldview; this means that we seek a new way of thinking and living.

When those who are committed to such an approach to learning are brought under the tutelage of those who are true stewards of God’s Word, the possibilities are greatly enhanced for God Himself to be at work in the midst, making all things powerfully new. Let us commit to just such an approach to increasing and improving our Biblical worldview.

For reflection
Consider your own approach to learning the things of God: How many of the activities outlined above does it currently include? Where are you lacking? How could you begin to achieve a more balanced and complete approach to learning the pathways of God?

To Witness and Prophesy
The Public Face of Biblical Worldview

By T. M. Moore

September 2, 2004



“These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.” - Revelation 11:4

We must never lose sight of the fact that our calling to live the Biblical worldview is not merely a “family affair.” The Church is not a private club, where members enjoy the privileges of exclusive rites and carefully-guarded truths. Rather, we are the very Body of Christ, who is filling all things with Himself (Eph. 1:23), through His Church, on display before the watching world. Christian faith and Biblical truth hold forth the only true hope of the world; that truth, what we refer to as the Biblical worldview, is the way of righteousness, peace, and joy for all the nations.

Our Biblical worldview is only complete as it comes to public expression, when we live and declare it to be the way to peace with God and the answer to every human need. The Scriptures are very particular concerning the way we present our worldview to the unbelieving generations. As the Lord reminds us in the Book of Revelation, we have been sent into the world with our Biblical worldview as witnesses. We are called to prophesy truth to the nations. The Church is a particular people unto the Lord, and we proclaim a troubling message, but one that engenders the hope of glory in those who will hear it.

Only as we embrace our proper calling to witness and to prophesy will we be able to put the right public face on our work in Biblical worldview. Doing this means we must seek to become a certain kind of people and take up specific tasks in the public square.

To Be Witnesses
Before we can do the work of witness-bearing we must devote ourselves to the task of being witnesses to the Lord. It is significant that Jesus declared that the effect of His Spirit coming upon us in power would not be in the first instance, that we would go witnessing, but that we would be witnesses (Acts 1:8). As Revelation 11 makes clear, this task of being witnesses requires that we devote ourselves to a particular way of life.

First, it is a life of standing in the presence of God (v. 4). This is the priestly aspect of our calling as the followers of Christ (1 Pt. 2:9, 10). We are a people who worship God, who draw our strength and instruction from Him, and who serve in His name, as His ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:20). Standing in the presence of God requires that we adopt certain disciplines and put on the garments of holiness. Prayer and the disciplines of reading, studying, and meditating on God’s Word, will, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, work to our sanctification (Jn. 17:17). We must be a people who, when we engage the watching world, will be like those first disciples. It was obvious to all, by their boldness and blamelessness, that they had been in the presence of Jesus (Acts 4:13). We are called to be holy, as our Father is holy, and such holiness only comes from much standing in the presence of God.

Second, we must be a people given to repentance, and to mourning over the sins of our generation (v. 3). The witnesses of Revelation 11 are robed in sackcloth, the traditional garment of the repentant, revealing that they are aware of their own shortcomings and inadequacies, and burdened for the sins of the world. When we cultivate an attitude of repentance and sorrow, we will be less apt to condemn our contemporaries and more apt to sympathize and suffer with them. We must not go to prophesy to the world with an attitude of arrogance and superiority, but with a sense of shame and gratitude, as well as with a burden of sorrow for the lost.

Third, we are called to be a people of light and life – like lamp stands and fruitful olive trees (v. 4). Our existence demonstrates the reality of John’s claim that the darkness is passing away in the presence of the growing Light of Life (1 Jn. 2:8). Our conduct must stand out in the darkness of a sinful world as we pursue holiness in the Lord, so that it is clear to all that we serve an altogether holy and righteous God (Dt. 4:5-8). As witnesses to the Light we are called to reflect His light in every aspect of our conduct in the world, to leave the life of darkness behind and live as children of the light (Eph. 5:1-17).

Before our prophetic message to the postmodern world will be effective for the Lord’s purposes, we must give ourselves more diligently to being the kind of witnesses whose lives will back up our words with undeniable grace and integrity.

To Proclaim God’s Truth
As witnesses we are called to prophesy to the world, to proclaim the message of the Gospel without compromise. For many who hear us preach, the message of repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ will be a torment, leading them to undermine our message in every way they can (vv. 7-9). We do not seek to provoke the lost to anger; we come burdened with sorrow, as heralds of good news, that their sins can be forgiven, and the wrath of God can be averted by all who believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

No matter what area of Biblical worldview we may be working in, the ultimate message behind all we have to say is that God is Lord, Jesus is truth, and all things are to be reconciled back to Him. Every discipline, every subject, every field of study is a witness to the glory of the Lord (Ps. 19:1-4; Ps. 111). As we pursue our labors in Biblical worldview we cannot help but relate all our observations and conclusions to God’s redemptive plan in Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 10:3-5). This will be a source of irritation to many, but let us make sure that it is the message that torments them, and not our demeanor. Though we proclaim the truth, boldly, and without compromise, we do so in the garments of holiness and repentance, pleading with our unbelieving generation to put aside its false agendas and bring themselves heart, mind, and strength to the Lord of glory.

Thus, the prophets of the Lord are no longer confined to the temple or the political centers of the nations, as in Israel of old. Instead, we are to spread out throughout every nook and cranny of the culture, and engage in interlocking and overlapping networks of people who need to hear the truth, as only we can bring it. Let us, therefore, prepare ourselves as faithful prophets, speaking the truth of God as it relates to and makes claims upon every area of human life, and let us call our contemporaries to relinquish their petty claims of autonomy.

The Prospect of Our Mission
Revelation 11 is a pretty grim chapter, focusing as it does on the world’s hatred of God’s witnesses and prophets. But the promise of resurrection (v. 11) is meant to encourage us that not even the fiercest wrath of men or spirits can stop the message of truth. His Word will continue to grow, expand, and prevail against all the lies and half-truths of unbelief, be they ever so attractive and sophisticated. The collapse of Soviet atheistic Marxism, under a withering burden of prayer, and the burgeoning of the Light in the heart of “darkest Africa” remind us that those ancient prophesies of Christ ruling to the ends of the earth are even today coming to fulfillment (cf. Ps. 2). And the additional promise in Revelation 11 that some, in God’s time, will come to fear the Lord, and give Him glory (v. 13), should encourage us to press on in our calling.

The kingdom of the world is giving way to the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, just as Daniel had predicted it would (v. 15; Dan. 2:44, 45). All of heaven rejoices at the proclamation of the Gospel and the Biblical worldview, and though the nations rage with fury, yet the Kingdom of Christ continues to advance (vv. 17, 18). While many will come to judgment for neglecting the message we proclaim, some will come to fear the Lord, among both the small and great of this world, and will join us to witness and to prophesy of the truth of God and His glory (v. 18).

As followers of Christ, we need to accept our callings as witnesses and prophets and begin to prepare ourselves accordingly. Let us be much in the presence of God, practicing those disciplines that increase knowledge of Him. Let us be urgent in the pursuit of holiness, and diligent to put on the garments of righteousness. Let us be eager and disciplined to grow in our understanding of Biblical worldview, showing that we delight in the works of the Lord (Ps. 111:2). Then let us go forth humbly, and with a deep burden of sorrowing love, to proclaim the message of the Gospel and the truth of the Biblical worldview to a generation lost in sin and desperate for real meaning. Though they may hate and reject us, the Word will not return void to God; our witness and prophesying will surely accomplish His good and glorious purposes in His way and time (Is. 55:10, 11).

For Reflection
Are you growing as a witness for Christ? What is the state of your witness with respect to standing before the Lord, increasing in holiness, and walking in the Light? How consistent is your prophetic word to those around you? Where can you begin to improve?

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=13667

Render to God
The Imperative of Biblical Worldview

By T. M. Moore

September 12, 2004



What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? - Psalm 116:12

Biblical worldview is not a spectator sport. In the calling to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ (2 Cor. 10:3-5), to reconcile all things back to God (2 Cor. 5:19) and put everything under the feet of King Jesus (Eph. 1:22), and to glorify God in all we do (1 Cor. 10:31), there is a mandatory position on the team for everyone on the roster, all who call upon the name of the Lord.

Jesus said that we must render to God the things that are due to Him (Mt. 22:21). Typically we mine this passage for insight into our responsibility to civil government, without allowing it to provoke in us the question, “What, then, do we owe to the Lord? What must we render to Him?” The psalmist answers this question, and shows us that commitment to developing and living a Biblical worldview is the calling and privilege of all who know the salvation of God.

The Benefits of Salvation
This is evident in the first place as we review the benefits of our salvation. The saving work of Jesus Christ is directed toward human beings in the totality of their lives. His perfect life, saving death, powerful resurrection, and ongoing intercession bring the benefits of forgiveness and renewal to every aspect of the lives of those who believe in Him. The psalmist enumerates those benefits in a way that clearly indicates the life-and-world reach of God’s saving mercy.

First, He rescues our souls from death (vv. 3, 4). We who have been redeemed by the grace of the Lord are not bound for eternal destruction; our souls will live forever with the Lord. One day even our bodies will be renewed and joined with our glorified souls to enjoy the Lord forever. Everything that pertains to the soul benefits from the salvation of the Lord. This includes the renewing of our minds, the cleansing of our hearts, and the reinvigorating of our consciences (1 Tim. 1:5).

God’s salvation brings truth to light in our minds, and guides us in the proper use of the gift of thinking. No longer do we need to be trapped in worldly thought patterns, focusing only on secular ideas and fantasies. Our minds are free in Christ’s salvation to roam among heavenly things and think God’s thoughts after Him (Rom.12:1, 2; Eph. 4:17-24).

God’s salvation also speaks to our affections – the desires, sentiments, and inclinations of the heart – and shows us how to employ these in a manner acceptable to Him who died for them. The redeemed are called to watch over their hearts with all diligence, so that it may harmonize with their renewed minds according to the teaching of God’s Word (Prov. 4:20-27).

The redemptive work of Christ on our behalf replaces the encrusted dead works which accumulated on our consciences, skewing our values, with the holy, righteous, and good perspective of the Law of God, setting our consciences free to process thinking and affection into actions and practices that honor the Lord (Heb. 9:14; Rom. 7:12).

Our salvation gathers up every aspect of our souls, transforming and renewing us in the inner person.

Second, in His great mercy, the God who has saved us graciously provides us with all we need for our daily sustenance (vv. 5-7). His salvation, in other words, takes into account and addresses the needs of our bodies. Whether food or raiment, shelter or sleep, vocation or avocation, companionship or amusement, aesthetic or physical pleasure, the God of our salvation supplies it to us to complement His work in saving our souls. Everything that engages our bodies in this life has come under the saving effects of God’s grace.

Thus, God has an interest in whatever we put our hands to, and He brings the cleansing and renewing power of His salvation to bear on all our works. Nothing that we might do in this life is outside the scope and purview of the saving work of Christ.

Finally, God has established us in His presence, in the fullness of joy, where we partake of the true and eternal life for which He made us, and which He is pleased to give us (v. 9). This means that all our lives – from the inside out, soul and body – come under the scrutiny of His holy and truth-bound eye. By walking before Him in the land of the living, according to His design for the whole of our lives, we know the surprising truth that Asaph reported when he wrote, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Ps. 73:25).

As we walk in the presence of God, His presence, in everything we do, becomes all our delight and joy (Ps. 16:2, 11; Ps. 40:8). This thrills our heart and piques our minds to seek out new ways of understanding and laying hold on every area of life to make it pleasing to God.

Truly the cup of salvation that God has poured for us is rich and full, lacking nothing we might need. What, then, shall we do with it?

Lifting Up the Cup of Salvation
The psalmist resolves to lift up the cup of salvation as his offering to the Lord, and to perform all his vows in the presence of God’s people. These are really two ways of saying the same thing, but let’s look first at the idea of lifting up the cup of salvation. We may view this commitment in three ways.

First, to lift up the cup of salvation is to toast the Lord of salvation in every area of life. It is to raise all that He has given us, lift it up in His direction, and say, “All thanks and praise be to You, O God, for You alone are good!” To lift up the cup of salvation is to make the whole of life a drink offering to Him.

Whatever we do is to be done to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31). We cannot accomplish this calling if we do not understand the details of our lives according to the plan of God revealed in His Word. We would not think of offering to Him something which He would refuse as unacceptable. Therefore, we must give ourselves to developing a Biblical view of everything in our lives, so that we may daily offer the whole of our being and experience to the Lord. As we apply ourselves to understanding every area of our lives according to the teaching of Scripture, our developing Biblical worldview will give us the perspective and incentive we need to make an offering to God of everything we do.

Second, lifting up the cup of salvation implies that we will drink the cup of salvation to the dregs. The Apostle Paul seems to have understood this image in terms of the Spirit-filled life (1 Cor. 12:13). As we are filled with the Spirit – literally, in Ephesians 5:18-21, drunk with Him – there will be no room in our lives for sipping from ungodly founts. Drunk on the Spirit of God, not only will we know the fullness of joy and power, but out of our lives will flow blessings abundant to those around us (Jn. 7:37-39; Eph. 5:18-21). We have the privilege of drinking our salvation all the way down, as mixed and set before us by the sovereign God, who knows exactly what we need to refresh us, body and soul. But if we are to enjoy our salvation as richly as God intends, we must approach it according to the tenets of a Biblical worldview.

Finally, lifting up the cup of salvation suggests that we will want to encourage others to drink with us, even sharing of our largesse for their refreshment and renewal. We are called to pass the cup of salvation around that others might drink as well. And the more we know about that cup, and how it meets our needs, and how to enjoy the taste of it, and to offer it back to God, the better we will be able to instruct others as they join us in this high privilege and calling.

Let us lift up the cup of salvation by taking up the call to a Biblical worldview, that we might render back to God all that He has given to us, in a way that delights and honors Him.

Paying Our Vows to the Lord
Second, the psalmist resolves to pay his vows to the Lord. He will carry out what he has committed himself to, and that in the presence of the people of God, that they might be encouraged and edified (vv. 14, 18). Scripture cautions against taking vows lightly (cf. Eccl. 5:1-5). A vow is basically a promise we make to God, in the presence of others, based on some anticipated blessing He holds out for us. Vows encompass the most sacred areas of our lives; as we fulfill them there we find the resources we need to live sacramentally in the rest of our lives.

Keeping our marriage vows, for instance, can protect us from lust and adultery, from letting our love grow cold, failing to support the one closest to us in life, or compromising the witness of our Christian home. As we persevere in living “for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health” we show that we love the Lord who brought us together and we develop the strength we will need to love our neighbors as ourselves. We are to keep this and our other vows not merely in the privacy of our homes but in public, and especially before the people of God. Thus they will be encouraged to keep their vows as well, daily consecrating their lives afresh to live entirely and consistently for the Lord.

What Shall We Render?
What, then, shall we render to the Lord, in view of all His saving benefits? Let us render every area of our lives, all that He has given us, and to which we have pledged ourselves before Him. This is the challenge of Biblical worldview, a challenge that comes to each one who has benefited from the saving mercy of the Lord.

For Reflection
Do you see every area of your life as a gift of God, a part of His saving grace to you? How do you express your understanding that all of life is a gift? How well do you understand the Biblical teaching about such things as your vocation? How to love your spouse? Your children? How to reach out to others with the blessings of Christ?

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=13777

SECOND SIGHT

The Beginning of Knowledge
Biblical Worldview and the Fear of the Lord

By T. M. Moore

September 22, 2004

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge. - Proverbs 1:7

The Apostle Paul lamented concerning certain religious people of his day that they had “a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Rom. 10:2). In the work of Biblical worldview an opposite danger looms, that we will have a zeal for knowledge, but not according to God.

The work of constructing and advancing a Biblical worldview can be pretty heady stuff. Those who engage in this endeavor – and all believers must, at least to some extent – deal with a wide range of subjects and information, all of which has the potential to lead us into the path of wisdom. But this will only occur if we pursue our work in the fear of the Lord. Solomon would have us to understand that the mere accumulation of facts is not knowledge. For such to become true knowledge – the knowledge which leads to wisdom – it must be tempered by the fear of the Lord. The fear if the Lord, Solomon advised, is the beginning of knowledge. Thus, if our studies are to result in true knowledge, we must make sure that our efforts in the work of Biblical worldview take place within the context of the fear of the Lord.

The Fear of the Lord
In one sense, the fear of the Lord is exactly what it sounds like – fear, even holy terror with respect to God, who He is, and what He is capable of doing. But it is more than this as well. The fear of the Lord is a constant theme in Scripture. Both Old and New Testaments exhort us to fear the Lord, primarily because He is who He is, and we are who we are (cf. Dt. 6:13; Mt. 10:28).

We may identify four aspects of the fear of the Lord that must mark all our endeavors in the life of faith, in particular, that of constructing a Biblical worldview.

The fear of the Lord is bowing and trembling with joy before Him.
The fear of the Lord is expressed in response to the manifestation of His glory. God is constantly seeking to engage us with His glory. In His written Word (2 Cor. 3:17, 18), in the person of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 4:6), and through the things He has made (Ps. 19:1-4), the God of heaven and earth continually appeals to us to consider Him in all His splendor, majesty, and worthiness. The proper response to the manifestation of God’s glory is to rejoice with trembling (Ps. 2:11). Whenever in Scripture the people of God were suddenly confronted with a manifestation of the glory of God, their consistent response was to fall down on their faces in abject terror and excited wondering and praise (cf. 2 Chron. 7:1-3; Mt. 17:1-8). Terror must necessarily strike deep in the hearts of those who know the Lord, for they know something about what He is capable of doing, especially to sinners such as we (Dt. 6:10-15). But, at the same time, joy wells up in us, and thanksgiving, because we know that this awesome and all-powerful God has redeemed us through Jesus Christ and made us His own people; therefore, we need no longer fear the annihilating wrath of God (Rom. 8:1). However, the threat of His loving discipline ever hangs over us, who are always mindful of the fact that we need such discipline, even though it may be unpleasant when it comes (Heb. 12:7-11). Thus, the fear of the Lord in us consists in terror and dread, tempered by deep-seated relief, gratitude, and praise. In such a context, when the fear of the Lord is thus at work in us, God is pleased to reveal true knowledge to us, that we might know Him better through His Word and His works.

The fear of the Lord takes the form of hope in His steadfast love.
All who truly fear the Lord put their confidence for the future in the fact that God continuously cares for them. Hope in the steadfast love of the Lord is an essential aspect of the fear of Him (cf. Pss. 33:18; 147:11). When we hope in the steadfast love of the Lord we look expectantly toward the future, believing that God will provide all our needs through His riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19); that He will deliver for us on all His precious and very great promises (2 Pt. 1:4); that He will never fail us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5); that He knows all our needs even before we ourselves are aware of them (Mt. 6:31); and that He will perfect love in us as we abide in the fear of Him (1 Jn. 3:11-18). Thus, all our thoughts and plans concerning the days ahead are bold, confident, brimming with expectation that we will both know the steadfast love of the Lord for all our needs, and be better able to show that love to others day by day. The fear of the Lord thus at work in us as hope in God’s steadfast love banishes all anxiety and self-service, replacing them with expectancy as to how the Lord will make His love known in us each day.

The fear of the Lord is obedience to His commandments.
This, Solomon tells us, is the whole of what it means to be a human being: fear God, and keep His commandments (Eccl. 12:13). If we fear God, we will bend ourselves heart, soul and mind to walk in the way He has defined for us. Indeed, we will positively delight in the commandments of the Lord and the way of truth (Ps. 147:1). This way leads to increasing holiness, and we are called to press on toward perfection in it (2 Cor. 7:1). Our claim to know the Lord will be empty, John tells us (1 Jn. 3:19-24), unless we express the knowledge and fear of Him in obedience to His commandments. Fearing God, and knowing His zeal for righteousness, we gladly, and to our great benefit and joy, submit to following in the path of good works that He has ordained for us (Eph. 2:10). This is why we have been created. The fear of God is incomplete in us until our trembling with joy and expectancy of God’s love find expression in obedience to His good will (Rom. 7:12).

The fear of the Lord is to know Jesus Christ and to live for Him.
Solomon said that the fear of the Lord leads to life (Prov. 19:23). Jesus said that He is life itself (Jn. 14:6). Therefore, to know Jesus and to enter into the life of discipleship to which He calls us is to fear the Lord as God intends. There can be no true knowledge apart from Jesus, who is Truth itself. There can be no genuine fear of the Lord that is not directed toward the Son He has exalted to His right hand (Ps. 2:5-12). Without Jesus we cannot keep the commandments of the Lord (Jn. 15:4, 5). In Jesus we are credited with the righteousness that He alone was capable of achieving – the perfect righteousness of God’s Law, by which we are made acceptable in His presence (Rom. 3:19-26). In His indwelling power – the power of the Holy Spirit – we have the strength we need to make progress in obedience to God’s Law. Thus, fear of the Lord is cultivated only in a relationship with Jesus Christ; only in Him, as we abide in Him and follow Him, do we know the fear of the Lord that leads to knowledge. Our work in Biblical worldview must therefore be always referenced to Jesus, to who He is as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and to what He has done in redeeming us and is doing in reconciling all things back to God.

Biblical worldview apart from the fear of the Lord is just so much clever arranging of data, without any true and transforming knowledge of reality as God has made it. But with the fear of the Lord, and in it, Biblical worldview helps to increase our sense of God’s majesty, greatness and power, leading us to worship Him more fully, hope in Him more soundly, obey Him more completely, and proclaim Him more fervently. Biblical worldview thus constructed brings everything together at the feet of King Jesus, making all of life an offering to the One who commands us to fear Him if we would know true knowledge.

Attaining the Fear of the Lord
How then shall we attain this fear of the Lord? Solomon shows us in Proverbs 2:1-5. We must seek the fear of the Lord, by pursuing it through the Word of God. We must receive God’s Word, treasure it and make our ears attentive to it. We must incline our hearts to understand it, studying it deeply and meditating on it often. We must cry out to God to teach us His Word, and give us the understanding of it that leads to the fear of the Lord. We must be more eager for the Word of God than for wealth and treasure, devoting more of our attention to the study of God’s Word than anything else.

Solomon’s words suggest a regimen of disciplines in relationship to the Word of God that must include:

reading (daily, comprehensively, reflectively)
meditation (as we read, throughout the day)
study (individual and with others)
memorization (to hide the Word in our hearts)
conversation with others (to clarify our thinking and refine our views)
praying with fervency and crying out to God for understanding
Apart from such devotion as this we shall not be able to gain the fear of the Lord that leads to knowledge, and all our efforts at constructing and advancing Biblical worldview will fall short. None of our labors in any of the fields of Biblical worldview – the arts, politics, education, social justice, moral issues, business– will attain the status of true knowledge leading to genuine wisdom unless we pursue them in the fear of the Lord, learned through persistent submission to the disciplines of God’s Word.

Here is a call for every follower of Christ to renewed dedication to the Word of God. The old motto of Harvard College was “to lay Christ in the bottom” of all study and learning. History shows us what happens to a college of thinkers when that commitment is lost sight of or set aside. In the work of Biblical worldview we must make sure that Christ and His Word are placed soundly in the bottom of all we do, as the foundation and touchstone of all our and living. For only thus will we learn the fear of the Lord that leads to knowledge, the kind of knowledge that embodies Him who is the Truth, thrusting Him and His love for the world on the eyes and ears of all people through every area of human life.

For Reflection
How do your own disciplines in relationship to the Word of God match up with those outlined above? Would you say that you fear the Lord? Are there any areas of your life where the fear of the Lord needs some shoring-up?

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=14255

SECOND SIGHT

A Scepter of Uprightness
Discovering the Kingdom of God

By T.M. Moore

November 1, 2004



Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness; you have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. - Psalm 45:6, 7

The principle objective of the work of Biblical worldview is the advance of God’s Kingdom. By making disciples and building-up the church, those who preach and teach the message of Biblical worldview seek what Jesus sought, the fuller realization of God’s rule in every area of life. We will know that our work in the field of Biblical worldview is having the desired effect when we begin seeing more evidence of the Kingdom of God unfolding around us – His righteousness, peace, and joy abounding on every hand (Rom. 14:17).

But what does that look like? What, precisely, should we be aiming to achieve as we take up the work of Biblical worldview? To answer that question we must ask two others: What is the Kingdom of God? And, what is the Kingdom of God for?

The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God, to be concise, is the rule of God exerted and unfolding in space and time. But it is not a kingdom like other, earthly kingdoms (Jn. 19:36). More than simply a geographic place, or a particular political entity, the Kingdom of God is a realm, an arena of authority and power in which the will of God as expressed in His Law, has executive force. In the Kingdom of God, His rule is executed in and through His subjects, in His way and unto His ends. The righteousness, peace, and joy characteristic of the relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit in the Godhead become the standards and emblems of the community of God’s subjects in the here and now. The rule of God comes to expression on earth, as it is in heaven.

A person comes into the Kingdom of God by an act of divine initiative (Col. 1:11-14). One whose citizenship has heretofore been limited to an earthly domain and the tyranny of sin is, intercepted, regenerated, and redeployed in a sphere of existence where spiritual realities and priorities are pre-eminent. Entrance to the Kingdom of God is a work of God. No one can enter this domain of Spirit and truth unless drawn there by the Father on the credentials of the Son by means of the agency of the Spirit. The Kingdom of God is thus a gift of supreme value, held out for all to seek. However, they only will enter whom the Father fits for citizenship through the two-fold grace of repentance and faith.

Entrance to the Kingdom of God is like coming from night to day, ignorance to understanding, death to life. Those who truly experience this transfer hear the call to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and begin to fit themselves for this glorious undertaking. The Kingdom of God is a realm of power in which the Spirit of God works to accomplish the divine agenda of righteousness, peace, and joy through those who are adopted into the heavenly realm.

Those who are thus ushered into the Kingdom of God surrender completely to God’s agenda and devote themselves to discovering and obeying His will. Thus the will of God, that which is holy and righteous and good (Rom. 7:12), comes to expression in the lives of God’s subjects as they walk in obedience to His Law (Rom. 6:15-23). Then, through them, the will of God bears fruit increasingly into every area of life. In this way the Kingdom of God advances, as God works, by His Word and Spirit, through our lives into every arena of life.

What is the Kingdomof God For?
The Kingdom of God is the rule of Christ, by His Word and Spirit, in the lives of His subjects unto righteousness, peace, and joy. Its ultimate objective can be stated succinctly: uprightness. The Kingdom of God – for which Christ bears the scepter of authority – is a rule unto uprightness.

What does that mean?

Solomon tells us that God created human beings upright (Eccl. 7:29). “Upright” (Hebrew, yashar) is a term meaning “straight,” “true,” or “good.” Men and women, in their pre-fallen, created state, were upright, and so was the entire creation. God made the world, and everything in it, including human beings, upright, true, and good. The creation as God made it was altogether pleasing to Him – harmonious, richly diverse, peaceable, abounding with life, ecologically and environmentally balanced, invested with rich potential, and, above all, perfectly obedient to His Word and reflective of His character (cf. Ps. 147:14-18).

In a word, upright.

The Kingdom of God is all about the pursuit and realization of uprightness. Men and women have been adopted into the domain where the Spirit of God is working for righteousness, in order that they might work together to restore all things to a condition of uprightness, following the authority of Christ.

Toward a Vision of Uprightness
The Kingdom of God – the rule of His Word and Spirit in and through His subjects – works to restore all things, like the tray tables in airplanes, “to their original and upright positions.” The more we work at developing a vision of what that should look like, the greater will be the energy of God’s Kingdom at work in us to that end, striving to return the whole of our lives to their “original and upright” condition. Relationships will become more peaceable, mutually edifying, and fruitful. Work will take on greater meaning, beauty, efficiency, and productivity. The environment will be restored and enriched. Everything that threatens to pervert, corrupt, or destroy God’s creation in all its parts will be identified, resisted, and increasingly overcome. People around us will come to realize that we are living for transcendent realities, and that such an orientation is transforming, and they will begin to be interested in knowing how they, too, can enter into this lifestyle of meaning, purpose, uprightness, and love (cf. 1 Pt. 3:15).

But how does all this come about?

Let me suggest six disciplines which, if entered into consistently and with intense prayer, can help us to develop a clearer vision of the kind of restoration to uprightness that God is seeking through His Kingdom. These are not new disciplines. However, when we approach them in the light of our Kingdom calling, our use of them takes on more focus and can be ultimately more productive.

(1) Study God’s Word. The Word of God provides the standard of uprightness for every area of life. We must read and study the Bible with a view to understanding its teaching. Not merely in abstract doctrinal or piously personal terms, but we should study with the idea of letting the Scriptures speak to us about everything in creation. Every good work we must do in order to begin to restore our lives to that original condition of uprightness (2 Tim. 3:15-17).

(2) Meditate on God’s Law. The Law of God provides the moral core of Scripture and of the ethical, social, and cultural life of God’s image-bearers. We must begin to pay particular attention to this concise code that directs us in how we are to love God and our neighbors (1 Jn. 5:1-3). The kings of Israel were expected to prepare a copy of the Law of God in their own hands, and to read and reflect on it continuously, so that they might have wisdom in leading the people of God (Dt. 17:18-20). This is good advice for all those who desire to know the blessing of the Lord (cf. Ps. 1).

(3) Reflect on God’s World. The creation reveals the glory of God, His splendor, majesty, might, and wisdom (cf. Ps. 19:1-4). By meditating on the details and patterns of the created order we might gain the kind of wisdom for upright living that Solomon reveals in the many examples from Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. By making time for this work of creational theology, in the light of our study of Scripture, we might be able to see our way through more clearly to what a world restored might look like.

(4) Contemplate the Uprightness of Christ. Jesus shows us in every aspect of His life what a truly upright person is like. He shows us how to relate to God, and how to love others as ourselves. He helps us to see the wisdom of God and His original design for the creation around us. He teaches us that the way of self-denial is the way of self-fulfillment, and that taking up our cross to follow Him is the path of true and everlasting life. Be reading the Gospels continuously and meditating on the stories and teaching of Jesus, we can gain a more compelling sense of what the upright life should be.

(5) Learn From Our Past. Many of our forebears in the faith can teach us about the upright life. Their examples and writings are available for us to read, study, discuss, and contemplate as we seek from them wisdom for advancing God’s rule in our own time (Rom.15:4).

(6) Learn From One Another. As God teaches us, we should expect that we may encourage, edify, and guide one another along the path of uprightness in many ways. (Col. 3:16) We must not avoid this good gift of God for our edification and for the advance of His Kingdom.

The scepter that our Lord Jesus wields is a scepter of uprightness. He is ruling and advancing His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. He is working through His subjects to return everything within their reach to a condition more approximating the uprightness of the original creation than what we presently see. Our responsibility is to take up the challenge of this work of restoration and, through the disciplines outlined above, begin to work with greater intentionality and diligence for the return of all things to their original and upright condition.

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=14440

Second Sight

Holy Ambition
A Vision for the Right Things

By T. M. Moore

November 16, 2004

...thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation, but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.” - Romans 15:20, 21

Ambition is not a term much in public favor these days. To say of someone that he is ambitious is, at best, to proffer a cautionary observation, at worst, to condemn him to cold self-service. When we think of ambitious people, images of corrupt corporate executives, lying journalists, unscrupulous entrepreneurs, equivocating politicians, or amoral social climbers come to mind. We don’t want our children to be “ambitious”, or, at least, we don’t want them to make a big deal of it if they are.

This desire to guard against vain self-seeking is healthy, and acknowledges the reality of selfish ambition so often warned against in the Bible (cf. Jms. 3:14). Ambition can be a powerful force, creating compelling visions, clear priorities, and vast reserves of energy. Ambitious people tend to lead driven lives. They work harder than most. They sacrifice the good in order to achieve what they regard as the best, and have little time for frivolous, inconsequential activities. They draw other people into the slipstream of their energy. They get things done, produce results, and generate opinions toward themselves on the part of others. Ambitious people can be very powerful, and sometimes lacking in scruples. No wonder we tend to regard them with a raised eyebrow.

But the Apostle Paul was ambitious, and he even boasted about it. The difference is, his was a holy ambition, the likes of which we would do well to emulate (1 Cor. 11:1).

Aspects of Holy Ambition
We may identify four aspects of the holy ambition of which Paul boasted, and which enabled him to accomplish such a great and enduring work for the Lord. The first of these is a divine calling (Rom. 15:19).

Paul knew that he had been appointed by God to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; 22:17-21; Eph. 3:8). This was his calling, his ministry (Rom. 15:18, 19). He knew this by revelation; yet, as he must have often reflected, everything about his upbringing and preparation pointed this way. He was raised in a Hebrew context, where he was taught the Law and traditions of Israel. But his native land was Greek (Acts 22:3), and he clearly had been exposed to the philosophy and literature of the Gentile world (Acts 17:28). He spoke both Aramaic and Greek fluently (Acts 21:37, 40). He was a Roman citizen (Acts 22:28) and a Jewish rabbi (Phil. 3:5). Therefore he had the skills and intellectual reservoir of the latter and the entrée of the former. Undoubtedly, Paul did not have to reflect too long on whether the calling he received at the hands of Ananias was the one for him. God had been preparing him all his life for this mission of preaching to the Gentile world.

Second, Paul’s ambition honed in on a singular, Kingdom focus (v. 18). He was determined to see the Gentiles come to obedience of faith in Jesus Christ. This involved more than merely preaching the gospel. To see the Gentiles come to obedience required evangelism, yes, but more than that. It meant starting churches, training leaders, ordaining pastors, carefully shepherding and watching over these congregations, giving theological guidance, and assisting missions to the Gentiles on the part of others. His singular focus was on the obedience of the Gentiles, and he assessed his ministry in that light.

Third, Paul’s ambition required serious infusions of divine power (v. 19). Paul had many admirable qualities. Left on his own, in his former Hebrew-Roman setting, he no doubt would have achieved something like superstar status. But that would have engendered no lasting legacy; the way of superstars is typically one of pop and fizzle. But in the power of God’s Holy Spirit, Paul achieved a legacy doubtless far greater than even he ever imagined. His words and example have inspired and edified untold millions of those who have chosen the way of the cross. He is undoubtedly the most widely-read and best-loved writer of all time. His understanding of the Gospel, the nature of the Church and its ministry, and the centrality of mission to the life of faith are definitive for Christians everywhere. Paul would be the first to declare that all such achievements are the work of God’s Spirit within him, who alone is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ever ask or think (Eph. 3:20).

Finally, Paul’s ambition fueled and was fed by an ever-expanding vision (v. 21). He was not content just to serve the Kingdom purposes of Christ in his native country, or within the safe confines of fields already sown with the Gospel of Christ. He determined to keep reaching out to new places and people with the Good News. The Book of Romans finds him already thinking about a trip to Spain once his present mission is complete (Rom. 15:24). As he reported to the Corinthians, his desire was to “preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence” (2 Cor. 10:16). Like 80-year-old Caleb marching off to take on the giants in the Promised Land, Paul was a never-say-die visionary who was always looking for some new way in which to serve the Lord of glory.

The Impact of Holy Ambition
That such holy ambition as Paul exhibited is pleasing to God is clear from the way Paul was used in the Lord’s work of building His Church. Paul was the primary instrument of God for bringing the Gospel to the Gentile world. Through his labors churches were started throughout the Gentile lands of the Roman world, and these churches raised up missionaries who were sent to other places as well (cf. Titus 3:13; 3 Jn. 5-8). Paul’s example of courage, diligence, and deep spirituality has inspired church leaders from every generation. His enduring legacy of theological perspicuity ministers as pointedly today as it has for nearly 2,000 years of Church history. His advice to young pastors, guidance in the selection of church officers, counsel regarding dealing with sin, and practical advice for a dynamic spiritual life have ministered to saints and congregations in every culture and time. Paul’s holy ambition has paid big dividends for believers in every generation.

Acquiring Holy Ambition
So what is involved in attaining such ambition? First, to be granted the kind of holy ambition Paul had one must be completely surrendered to Jesus Christ. Only those who will allow nothing to stand in their way of following the Lord Jesus can expect to be blessed with the kind of ambition that Paul alludes to in our passage. If we’re holding back on the Lord, trying to reserve some area of our lives as a kind of personal zone of comfort and indulgence, we should not expect Him to entrust us with anything like the kind of ambition for the Kingdom of God that Paul demonstrated. Only those who have truly – and daily – taken up their cross can ever hope to be like Paul in this regard.

Second, holy ambition such as Paul enjoyed is the possession of those who have the whole of life, all the world and everything in it, in their sights for the Lord. Here is a plea for continuing to nurture a Biblical world and life view, so that we see everything in this world from the perspective of God, and labor to bring everything within our reach into that status of uprightness that reflects the pre-fall creational goodness of the Lord. Holy ambition is not for the puny-minded, for those whose sense of the scope of the life of faith does not exceed their own personal space and time. Holy ambition is for those who want to lay hold on everything Christ has promised, to reconcile everything back to God, to take every thought captive, and to make all the nations disciples. Those with such a vision and longing can expect the Lord to meet them with the kind of ambition that will enable them to persevere in their worldview calling and task.

Finally, holy ambition requires secure rooting in the Word and Spirit of God. It’s all too easy for our noble purposes and lofty projects to aggrandize ourselves. We can all name Church leaders for whom what looked like holy ambition was shown to be nothing other than selfish ambition because they regarded themselves and their own counsel above the Spirit and Word of God. The Apostle Paul was a deeply spiritual man, and those who would walk the path he has marked out along the way of holy ambition must determine that they will be such people as well.

Paul made it his ambition to pour his life out in the service of Christ his Savior and King. God honored the desires of his heart in a way that none since have ever realized. Yet Paul encourages us to try to be like him, to nurture the kind of holy ambition that dreams big dreams, cries out earnestly to the Lord, and believes God, to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we have ever asked. Oh, that God might raise up a generation of men and women with this kind of holy ambition to serve Him in the Church today!

For Reflection
What is your ambition in life? What’s the biggest thing to which you aspire? Is this holy ambition or mere self-seeking? How can you begin to have more holy ambition in your life?

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=14615

Second Sight

The Good News
The Kingdom of Peace, Happiness, and Salvation

By T.M. Moore

November 23, 2004

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” - Isaiah 52:7

One of our local television stations offers, at the end of its 6:00 newscast, an irritating bit of homiletical drivel which it calls “A Spiritual Moment.” My objection to this daily vignette is twofold. First, the one-minute homilies are uniformly awful, reinforcing the secular stereotype of Southern (and probably all conservative) Christians as fluff-brained ignoramuses, hopelessly out of touch with life in the real world. My second objection is more serious, however. I take umbrage at the idea that only certain moments of our day are to be regarded as “spiritual.” The implication is that the vast bulk of the moments of our lives are not spiritual, and those that are, function only as a kind of respite from the rat-race of normal, secular life. The Biblical teaching, of course, is that all of life, and every moment of every day, are spiritual. All of life is lived in full view of the scrutinizing eye of the living God, in the presence of whom we shall one day all give a full accounting of how we have invested the moments of our lives.

But there is one part of this daily stretch-on-the-rack with which I whole-heartedly agree. That’s when the announcer comes on at the end of the spot and says, “Isn’t it nice to hear some good news for a change?” Amid the horror of war, the uncertainties of the economy, all the political hand-wringing and blame-laying, and the daily parade of usual suspects (corporate greed, crime and punishment, starving masses, the environmental crisis, etc.), I’d have to agree: Yes, in fact, it is good to hear some good news.

And this is true for all of us, non-Christians and Christians alike.

Good News: God Reigns!
The verse above reminds us that the Good News we all most need to hear can be succinctly states: “Our God reigns!” This is truly welcome news. In a world that seems nearly out of control much of the time, it can be comforting to be reminded that God is ultimately in charge and that He is working out His good and perfect will. It is good to know that God rules all things. Nothing is outside the scope of His power. Nothing comes to pass but what He ordains and allows. He is ruling over all things, accomplishing His purposes and pleasure, putting all things under His feet for the sake of His Church, advancing His Kingdom, making all the nations disciples, and filling the earth with the knowledge of His glory. God reigns! This is good news, indeed.

But I can imagine that many people will receive the news that God reigns with something less than the enthusiasm suggested above. After all, if God reigns, then I don’t. My rules, preferences, views, and moral choices are, if God rules, open to review and revision. If God rules then it will doubtless be the case that He has established a law which will make requirements of me that I might find, well, restricting. God’s administration of the world – His plan, priorities, and protocols – might clash with mine. His view of what constitutes the good life might threaten my definition of happiness. And so on.

Of course, as we know, there are a great many people who feel just this way about the good news that God reigns. This announcement is a source of irritation for them, hurling them into paroxysms of stereotyping, alarmism, and protests regarding the violation of privacy rights or the separation of Church and state. The insistence that God reigns leads them to find all kinds of constitutional precedent, scientific evidence, and assorted public opinion polls indicating that such must not, can not be the case. Such people are of the mindset that if they just wish away the idea of God reigning, and repeat it loudly and long enough, it will at least cease to be an issue of public discussion, even if it won’t entirely go away.

Alas, for such people, the evidence is mounting that the announcement “God reigns” is no idle boast. Revivals in central Africa and China proclaim it. The resurgence of Judeo-Christian values at polling places makes a powerful statement about the ultimate allegiance of many people. And the continued growth and expansion of Christian enterprises of all sorts, all around the world, strongly recommends the truth of this glorious assertion.

Good News: Peace! Happiness! Salvation!
So, regardless of the reluctance of some to greet with joy the announcement that God reigns, those who have embraced His Lordship have found it to be so on at least three grounds.

First, they are discovering the reality of peace – peace with God, peace in their own souls, peace with their neighbors, peace with the creation. The peace of God, the Scriptures remind us, defies understanding (Phil. 4:6, 7). Just knowing that, because of Jesus Christ, all is well between us and God, and in our souls, can give us resources of contentment that not even the most unfavorable of circumstances can disrupt. Those who know the peace that comes from surrendering to the reign of God can hardly describe it. It catches them up in an assurance of well-being for the present and eternal future that nothing can shake, and leads them to joy, hope, and a life of living for God and others. It is a peace so real and so firm that it affects every area of their lives and leads them to seek even greater allegiance to the One who reigns over them unto peace.

Second, the reign of God brings happiness to those who yield to it. The happiness they experience who acknowledge the reign of God derives from their peace, and spreads into every area of their lives, affecting people and circumstances wherever they go. Inner peace bears fruit in outward joy. Not that they never know sorrow, or never slip into feelings of depression or despair. Certainly they do, as the psalmist abundantly testifies (cf. Pss. 13, 43). However, they know that joy will return after such periods have accomplished their purpose (Ps. 30:5). Sorrow, despondency, disappointment – these all may temporarily intrude on our well-being from time to time. But joy faithfully returns, the happiness that comes from knowing that the God who reigns over all things does all things well, and is working all things together for the good of those who love Him (Rom. 8:28). Since nothing can separate us from His love, we know the happiness of His rule over our lives, even in the midst of our greatest trials.

Finally, those who have embraced the reign of God over their lives are discovering more each day what it means to be in possession of the salvation of the Lord. The psalmist resolved to drink deeply from the cup of God’s salvation (Ps. 116:12, 13). He wished to become intoxicated with the glories of knowing the Lord, being forgiven of his sin, basking in His peace and happiness, and drawing on His presence and power for daily living. The salvation of God is deeper, vaster, and more powerful than we will ever be able to know, for it inheres in the infinite Spirit of God who dwells within all those who know God as King (Eph. 3:20). They can never fully unpack the mysteries and wonders of their salvation. Every day is a glorious adventure of working out more and more of that blessed condition in our daily experience (Phil. 2:12, 13). The salvation of the Lord is the fruit of His reign in our lives. Increasingly, it reconciles us soul and body, spirit and life, to the good pleasure and purposes of God, where we discover the real reason that God has made us.

Good News to Proclaim!
This truly is good news, and worth our devoting our lives to helping others come to know it as we do. Beautiful are the feet of those who make it part of their reason for being to announce the Good News of God’s reign to the people around them. Beautiful because of the peace, happiness, and salvation they exude. Beautiful because of the wondrous message they proclaim. Beautiful because of the lives transformed by their faithful telling of the only truly Good News our sad world needs to hear.

The rule of God over our lives makes every moment of our lives sacred, and fills everything about us with potential for showing and telling the Good News of His Kingdom. Not in pathetic and poorly-delivered minute-long homilies, but in lives wholly devoted to living in the peace, happiness, and salvation of the reign of God, we proclaim to the world that, in spite of their doubts and denials, our God reigns!

For Reflection
Does your life declare the reign of God to the people around you each day? Do they experience you as peaceable, happy, and brimming with salvation? Are you living “spiritual moments” or a life totally surrendered to the reign of our sovereign God?

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=14826

The Rosetta Stone of Glory
Seeking the Face of Jesus

By T.M. Moore

December 7, 2004

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. - 2 Corinthians 4:6

It is the privilege of all who love God to enter into His glory, there to delight in His many excellencies and to be transformed by His Spirit into His own image (2 Cor. 3:12-18).

The glory of God is the powerful and unmistakable experience of His presence, as He makes Himself and His will known among us. The word, “glory,” in its Hebrew form, carries the idea of heaviness, weight, or substance. The New Testament picks up on this idea as we find the Apostle Paul talking about a “weight of glory” that is reserved in eternity for all who know and love the Lord (2 Cor. 4:17). In the Scriptures, whenever people encounter the glory of God, they are overwhelmed with the simultaneous affections of fear and joy, giving rise to both trembling and praise. In the presence of God’s glory people are overcome by conviction of sin and fearful awe of the divine majesty. They break out into thanksgiving and praise at this mighty God who, although He could destroy them in an instant, yet preserves and keeps them. People who enter into the presence of God’s glory come away changed, resolved to live for Him in new and more faithful ways.

Thus, to enter into God’s glory, to be changed thereby, and then to live in such a way as to express that glory (1 Cor. 10:31) is the great privilege of all believers. But the question remains: How can we have access to it?

Sources of God’s Glory
God has not left us in the dark when it comes to seeing Him in His glory. First, we know that He reveals His glory – the heavy, weighty presence of divine majesty – in the things He has made (Ps. 19:1-6). The vast creation around us is continually sending us messages about the glory of God, inviting us to contemplate His infinite beauty, incalculable power, remarkable diversity, steadfast love, and undying faithfulness. Every aspect of the creation speaks to us about God: the common sparrow reminds us of His great care for all His creatures, especially His people. A beautiful lily assures us that God, who exercises such constancy and care for flowers, is diligent and faithful in attending to all our needs. Mighty rivers, crashing seas, towering mountains, and gently swaying trees also reveal things about God which, with a little patient contemplation, we can discern and enjoy. Great works of culture, the projects and products of human thinking and practice, also point to the wonder and mystery of the glory of God. In creation, culture, and the works of human conscience we may discern and enter into the glory of our great God.

But only in the light of His glory revealed in His Word. The Scriptures are the “greater light” in which we may interpret the “lesser light” of creation (Ps. 36:9). By discovering the character of God and the scope of His works in the Book of His Word, we may then turn to the book of creation to see illustrated those attributes and ways which we can only intellectually appreciate as we read of them in Scripture. The glory of God revealed in Scripture guides us to discover His glory in creation. Conversely, the glory of God in creation illuminates and intensifies the glory of God described in the Bible. Read together, these two books will give us a sense of what the glory of God is like. They can be for us arenas of glory, where we enter into the presence of the self-revealing God and find ourselves weighted down with delight at the discoveries of glory we make there.

The Glory of God in the Face of Jesus
But supremely, the glory of God may be seen “in the face of Jesus Christ,” as the apostle tells us. This is because Jesus is the manifestation of the glory of God par excellence (Heb. 1:1-3). He is the “focusing light” of the glory of God. The more we know about Jesus, the better we know Him personally, and commune with Him intimately, the greater will be our ability to appreciate the teaching and illumination concerning the glory of God which we find in Scripture and creation. Jesus is the Rosetta Stone of God’s glory, the key to unlocking, interpreting, appreciating, and benefiting from the revelation of the glory of God coming through all other sources.

Thus, the ultimate key to entering into the glory of God is to know Jesus as Paul did, and to delight in serving Him with every aspect of our lives.

Knowing Jesus
Knowing Jesus begins in trusting Him for salvation and the forgiveness of sins. His perfect righteousness and substitionary sacrifice make redemption and fellowship with God a reality for all who trust in Him. We cannot know the glory of God apart from faith in Jesus Christ. While we may have a sense of it – expressed as wonder, awe, or even a devout appreciation of created things – without Jesus our inclination will be to suppress whatever the creation or Scripture may be telling us about the glory of God, and to look elsewhere for deities to serve (cf. Rom. 1:18-32).

But once we come to know Jesus, and see Him as He went about doing good and fulfilling all righteousness, then the windows of glory can begin to open and let in the refreshing newness of the weighty presence of God in our lives.

But coming to Jesus is just the first step. We must also grow in Him (2 Pt. 3:18). This requires us to carve out time in our lives for the practice of those disciplines that can help us to see Jesus more clearly, know Him better, and love Him more. Thus, as we give ourselves to worshipping Him, following in His footsteps in lives of good works, talking with others about Him, and meditating on Scripture, the reality of who Jesus is becomes increasingly clear. In the focused light of our growing relationship with Jesus we come to know better what God is like, and we can then proceed to discover His glory more fully from the books of Scripture and creation.

Reading the Rosetta Stone of Glory
It behooves every follower of Christ, therefore, to make sure that he has sufficient disciplines in place, and in good working order, to allow him daily, increasingly, and continuously to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Here are some questions to ask yourself about your own practice of such disciplines:

How well-versed am I in the Bible? Have I read it in its entirety? Do I read it through consecutively, over and over again? Do I realize that Jesus is the theme of the entire Bible (Jn. 5:39), and do I make it a practice of looking for Him in every part of His Word?

How frequent and consistent are my times in the Bible? Am I faithful in reading and meditation day by day? Do I linger long enough to get a good look at the Christ who is revealed there? Am I putting together a picture of Jesus from various places in the Bible that is sufficient to help me understand what God and His glory are like?

Do I seek the help of faithful teachers and commentators in seeking the face of Jesus in His Word? Am I part of a regular Bible study group? Do I read books that can help me to discern the face of Jesus in His Word?

Do I converse with Jesus as much as I should? What is the substance of those prayers? Do I dialog lovingly with Him as I might a loved one? Am I faithful in pouring out my praise and thanks and adoration of Him? Do I resort to prayer frequently during the day, or have I isolated my time talking with Jesus to just a portion of the day?

What other disciplines am I seeking to understand and use in beholding the face of Jesus? Have I learned the value of singing? Are solitude, silence, and meditation part of my regular practice? What about fasting? How hard do I concentrate during times of public worship on seeing the face of Jesus?

If we would read the Rosetta Stone of God’s glory – the face of our Lord Jesus Christ – then we must become practiced and increasingly expert in the use of those disciplines where He is wont to meet with us. There is not substitute for submitting to the protocols of spiritual formation, the disciplines of grace. No Biblical worldview will be complete that does not place heavy emphasis on the need for seeking Jesus and making Him known in all our endeavors. But this is not possible apart from a disciplined life. The Lord has told us, “You will seek me and find me. When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you” (Jer. 29:13).

There is nothing to compare with seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus. Ask the Apostle Paul, who found such contemplations to be hugely sustaining in times of great trial. Ask Peter, who so delighted in the sight of Jesus’ glory that he was ready to camp out in its presence indefinitely. Consult the great theologians, mystics, and visionaries of Church history. Talk at length with those you know who regularly find their way into the presence of the glory of God in the face of Jesus. They will all tell you the same thing: earthly wonders sparkly for a time and fade; they never fully satisfy. But the glory of God, discovered in the face of Jesus, read in the pages of His Word, encountered throughout His creation, and experienced as a way of life is the richest, most satisfying, most exhilarating experience anyone can know.

And we can know it every day, if we will apply ourselves unto the Rosetta Stone of glory in our Lord Jesus Christ.

For Reflection
Can you say that experiencing the glory of God in the face of Jesus is a fairly common occurrence for you? Can you see any ways that you might improve in your ability to meet God in His glory?

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...tentDisplay.cfm

The Jesus We Preach at Christmas
The Truth about the Babe in the Manger

By T.M. Moore

December 2004

Each year, as the Christmas season unfolds, it becomes increasingly clear that a large number of people in our society have got it all wrong. I am not here referring to the crass commercialism and materialistic self-indulgence, which are the most prominent aspects of the American Christmas scene. My concern is not about the hijacking of God’s great gift of His Son as an excuse for lavishing perishable goods upon ourselves with reckless abandon. These are but the symptoms of a deeper problem, one with roots in the preaching of the Word of God.

What bothers me more and more each year is the way Jesus is presented to the masses. It troubles me that our contemporaries are being cheated out of the true meaning of Christmas and the whole truth about Jesus, as they enjoy Christmas carols happily intoned by people who otherwise give no indication of faith; as they and their children watch sappy TV programs designed to divert us from Christ while seeking to preserve the message of peace on earth and good will toward men; and as they participate in Christmas programs and pageants that act as though Christ’s coming on that first Christmas were the end of the story, rather than its beginning.

But most of all I’m troubled by the complicity of today’s preachers in this vast deception, as they serve up Christmas sermons that reinforce false ideas about Jesus and Christmas and what His coming means for the world. Surely there is more to the message of Christmas than a seasonal dose of peace and good will, expressed in a veritable shark feed of gifts and giving?

We are rightly disgusted with the way Christmas has been taken hostage by the powers of getting and spending and the advocates of an Abelardian Christ. Each year their message is the same: “Behold the Christ-Child, sent by God to show us the way to peace and good will! Now let us show our good will by giving gifts to loved ones, as we rest in the peace of their thusly reciprocated love.” Then, on December 26, after we have returned such of those tokens of love and good will as did not bring us precisely the peace we sought, it’s back to the grind-‘em-up, eat-‘em-up world of staying alive in uncertain times. The thought that preachers today may be aiding and abetting this false notion about Christ and His coming should trouble us all.

But, lest you mistake my intentions, I’m not here auguring for more clarity in the message of peace and good will. What I’m seeking is more balance in our preaching, more accuracy in depicting the Christ-Child of Bethlehem, more of the truth about the Jesus we preach at Christmas.

What I’d like to hear is a little more bad news in the sermons we deliver at Christmas.

The Good News is Bad News
The Good News of Jesus Christ is only good to those who find favor with God, as the angels announced on that first Christmas morn (Lk. 2:14). All those who see in the incarnate Son of God the hope of forgiveness, redemption, and a new life of obedience to God will find the peace and good will of Christmas all year ‘round. For many, many others Jesus comes like a sword, bringing conviction of sin, public exposure of unrighteousness, and condemnation (Lk. 2:34, 35). In particular, the Good News of the Christ-Child’s birth is really bad news for the devil and his troop, for those who cling to earthly relationships above all else, and for all who find in wealth and things the fulfillment of their highest hopes. For all these, Christmas should come around each year with dread, fraught with warnings of judgment and calls to repentance.

Bad news for the devil. The coming of Christ is horrible news, truly disastrous news, for the devil and those who follow in his destructive ways. As Paul explains, the coming of Christ in the manger foreshadowed the victory of Christ on the cross, where the devil and all who adhere to his deceiving ways were disarmed, openly shamed, and utterly destroyed (Col. 2:15). Anybody who prefers a lifestyle of lies and deception, taking advantage of others for personal gain, or holding grudges against others, should be troubled by the news that a Baby was born at Christmas who came to put an end to all such wickedness. That smiling, cherubic Child had a glimmer of wrath in His eyes, as John Milton reminds us in his Ode on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity. After cataloging the rout of pagan gods and false philosophies occasioned by the Savior’s birth, Miltonshows us how to preach the message of the Babe in swaddling clothes. The devil, he writes,

…feels from Juda’s land
The dreaded infant’s hand,
The rays of Bethlehem blind his dusky eyen [eyes];
Nor all the gods beside,
Longer dare abide,
Not Typhon huge ending in snaky twine;
Our Babe to show his Godhead true,
Can in his swaddling clothes control the damnéd crew.

How about a little more of this Jesus at Christmas time? The One who wrecks the plans of every deceiver, oppressor, liar, and vengeful person? The One before whose coming all who incline to such practices should be called to repentance and faith?

Bad news for those who cling to human relationships. Jesus Himself said it: “I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-law” (Lk. 12:49-53). It’s curious the way we look to Christmas to heal old wounds in the family. Just this once, for this brief space, we try to set aside our differences and cling to the ties of blood that we like to think make us one. Many Christians go along with this desperate ploy by downplaying their faith at Christmas time. They don’t want to offend unsaved family members or tear open old wounds inflicted through past attempts to win a lost relative to the faith. And preachers don’t want to offend any of those twice-a-year visitors who have come along with friends and family to hear the Good News of peace on earth and good will toward men. So they don’t dare present the Christ-Child as the one who came to divide humanity along the lines of faith, those who are uncompromisingly committed to following the Bethlehem Babe against those who are determined to be the masters of their own fates. We want people to believe that, somehow, we can all just learn to get along in this world. We can be tolerant of one another, even if our toleration means confirming people in their lostness. And we use Christmas, of all times of the year, to promote this deception.

Should we not rather say to people what Jesus did: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk. 14:26)? How about more Christmas preaching that emphasizes the exclusive claims and whole-life demands of the One who came for our salvation?

Bad news for those who hope in wealth. Finally, Christmas is bad news for all those who look to wealth for their greatest joy and purpose in life. The rich young ruler, you will recall, went away sad from Jesus at the thought that he would have to give up his wealth in order to be His disciple (Lk. 18:23). But Jesus didn’t back down. He told His disciples it would be very difficult, well nigh impossible, in fact, for those who cling to wealth to enter the Kingdom of God. If we are determined to find our happiness, satisfaction, and purpose in life in the accumulation of things, then we must resolve to leave off following Christ, for we cannot serve two masters. We may try to deceive ourselves into thinking we can, into thinking that we can invest the greatest amount of our time, energy, creativity, and interest in making a good living, with just a pittance left over for the work of the Kingdom; but this is the devil’s lie, and we are his followers, not Christ’s, if we cling to it.

And we are the devil’s spokesmen, not the Lord’s, if we allow the people of our churches in any way to think this is true. How about a little more preaching at Christmas time that calls us to abandon the ways of the world, to take up a sacrificial and simple lifestyle, and to follow the Babe of Bethlehem wherever He leads, at whatever cost?

Telling the Truth about Jesus
We will only recover the true meaning of Christmas when preachers begin proclaiming the whole message of Christ from their pulpits. We can expect the world to continue in its vain deceptions about peace on earth and good will to all. But let the line stop at the pulpits of the land. The Good News of Christmas is for those who trust in Christ and follow Him as fishers of men. For all the rest – all the liars, deceivers, oppressors, clingers, smoothers-over-of-differences, greedy, covetous, and selfish – the message of Christmas is one of shame, wrath, and judgment. Try that out for your Christmas Eve sermon.

But don’t forget the message of hope goes out to all such people, for the coming of Christ is the coming of life and forgiveness, even for wretches such as we. Remember, I’m only calling for more balance in Christmas preaching. The whole truth about Jesus must include His condemnation of sin; but it must not fail to announce the hope of everlasting life. We will be faithful to His purpose in coming if we make both the hope of Christmas and the warning of Christmas central to our preaching of Jesus.

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=15233

Mere Belief
The Source and Product of Worldview

By T.M. Moore

January 25, 2005

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you shall know the truth, and truth will set you free.” - John 8:31, 32

One of the dangers of worldview thinking is the sheer headiness of the project. When we hear the word “worldview,” many of us think in terms of philosophical concepts, belief systems, reasoned responses to contrary opinions, and the like. For such people, worldview has to do with settled convictions of our own system of beliefs against any hostile beliefs in order to vindicate our position. Worldview, in other words, is for many people a matter of apologetics.

Certainly worldview is a matter of apologetics, at least in part. But if our Biblical worldview stops with apologetics, it never makes its way down into the trenches of life, then our worldview is little more than that – a view or set of ideas. It is a viewpoint which can be reasonably demonstrated to possess a certain kind of comprehensiveness, coherency, consistency, and congruency. But if this is all we have, it can be extremely dangerous for us.

For the follower of Christ worldview is simply not enough. It is not enough merely to hold the right beliefs or even to be able to proclaim and defend those beliefs against all comers. Unless our worldview derives from real intimacy with Jesus Christ, intimacy that transforms every aspect of our everyday lives, then we are little better off than many of those who followed Him around during the days of His earthly sojourn.

Belief In or Belief Into?
In John 8:31-59 we find what is perhaps the most interesting interview in all the gospels between Jesus and some of the people who were following Him. These people are described as having “believed in” Him (v. 31). They heard Him teach, and they liked what they heard. They observed or maybe even experienced His miracles – like the feeding of the multitudes in chapter 6 – and they were convinced that He was where the real action was to be found. If asked by a neighbor why they were spending so much time following this radical rabbi around the countryside, they would doubtless have answered that they believed in Him. They agreed with His teaching, were amazed at His works, and had concluded that He was the Messiah of Israel, the one who had come to set the people free.

But merely believing in Jesus was apparently not enough, and Jesus made that point abundantly clear.

He said to those who believed in Him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples.” The Greek says, literally, “If you continue in or remain in my word.” To be truly a disciple of Jesus involves more than simply believing in Him, or even assenting to His words and teachings, even when they may be deftly arranged into an irrefutable worldview. The true disciples of Jesus are the ones who continue and remain in His Word. They literally live on every word Jesus spoke because they live in abiding intimacy with Him. They fairly inhabit the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Their daily lives seem to drip with evidence of indwelling Biblical truth, like sweat pouring off a worked-up athlete.

Previous to this interview Jesus had made the point that He wasn’t looking for people to believe in Him. What Jesus came to save was people who would believe into Him (in the Greek, eis, “into,” as opposed to en, “in”, Jn. 3:16). He wanted people whose approach to Him was to become fully immersed in Him, to cast all their hopes and longings on Him, meld with and become one with Him – in short to continue in His Word and thus to know Him.

Jesus said that those who believed into Him in this way, and who continued in His Word, would experience true freedom to be the kind of people God had created them to be. Not only would they have the right information rattling around in their brains, but they would experience an intimacy with God just as Jesus did, an intimacy described by the very personal word, “know.” They would know God, and Jesus Christ, with the kind of familiarity, tenderness, and whole-hearted affection that a man and woman know one another in the beauty of married love. Their lives would be transformed by that relationship, which would affect the way they thought about the whole of life and how they lived. They would possess an authentic Biblical worldview that issued in a dynamic life of freedom in Christ.

But these people who only believed in Jesus, who only assented to His ideas and saluted His works, these people, Jesus said, were deceived; they belonged not to God, but to the devil (v. 44). The fact that they believed in Jesus only served to make them more culpable before God, for, although they had all the right information about Jesus’ claims, teaching, and works – indeed, first-hand information – they were so corrupt as to disqualify themselves from having any claim whatsoever on the promises of God to Abraham (vv. 39, 40).

By verse 41 of this little tête-à-tête these people who held the right views about Jesus, were trying to slander Him; and by verse 59, they were ready to kill Him. So much for believing in Jesus.

To Know Him and Make Him Known
The essence of Biblical worldview is knowing Jesus Christ in the intimacy of His glorious splendor, sovereign power, redeeming grace, and unassailable truth, which issues in a life of grace and truth. Biblical worldview describes a way of life, in union with Jesus, which is able to account for the whole of reality, and which finds expression for those teachings in every area of life. Beginning in a deeply personal relationship with Jesus, worldview becomes the intellectual map with which we launch ourselves out into the world each day to live out our intimacy with Christ in every area of our lives.

In other words, Biblical worldview is only the starting-point for living as a true disciple of Jesus. That worldview must not be merely a project of our heads but a passion of our hearts, as it derives from deeply personal involvement with the One who is its principal subject, as well as the practice of our lives in all their varied and tedious details. Our worldview as the followers of Christ is only completed as we live in the freedom Christ has provided us from the lies and deceptions of unbelief. If we want to be true disciples of Christ then we must continue in His Word, in deep intimacy with Him, and live out what our worldview prescribes. If we do not cultivate a relationship with Jesus in which we grow to know Him better, and abide in His Word, then we shall surely abide in the world, or in our own selfish ambitions. In this case, whenever the words of Jesus strike us as uncomfortable or inconvenient, we will simply deny them and turn our back on Him, perhaps not consciously, but that will be the practical effect. We may not go so far as to slander Him, or want to kill Him, but the effect is still the same.

Worldview and Beyond
So let us not be content merely to acquire a Biblical worldview. Let us work hard at believing into Jesus – becoming one with Him, and abiding in His Word – and let us live out to the nth detail everything that He makes known to us from His Word. Let our lives be the supreme expression of our worldviews. When it comes time to argue in defense of them, we shall have so much more credibility than those who propose to deny the glorious truth of Jesus out of the context of a worldview based on lies, half-truths, and willful self-deceptions. The truth of Jesus is only known by abiding in His Word. That truth can set us free from every sinful thought, word, and way. It can liberate us to walk in the light as He is in the light. That truth, experienced and lived, can demonstrate the truth of our worldview far better than any mere apologetic based on that worldview can ever hope to achieve.

Let us move into Jesus, abiding in His Word; then let us move beyond worldview and through it to living as true disciples in the full freedom with which the Son has set us free.

For reflection
Would you say that you believe in Jesus or into Him? What does that look like in your life? Is your worldview a product of your intimacy with Christ or the books you have read? Do others experience your worldview as a truly transformed and liberated way of life, or do they merely hear about your worldview in conversations with you?

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=15314

Hard Words
The Calling of the Prophet

By T.M. Moore

February 2, 2005

When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. - Luke 4:28, 29

Wouldn’t it be great if, every time you talked with someone about the Gospel or the Biblical worldview, they become attentive, hanging on your every word, and just so glad, really, that you cared enough to share?

Jesus’ public ministry seems to have begun on such a note. The people who gathered in the synagogues of Galilee couldn’t get enough of this local phenomenon who had suddenly burst on the scene with His message of Good News (Lk. 4;14, 15). When finally His circuit brought Him around to His home town, the place was packed with people eager to hear Him. We read that “all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth” (v. 22).

But by verse 28 they were angry at what they heard, and one verse later they were ready to toss Him over a cliff. Jesus seems to have had a special knack of saying just the kind of thing that guaranteed He would end up on a cross.

Hard Words
What was it about His message that engendered such passionate, and violent responses? Simply this: the Gospel contains hard words for those who are looking only for an “add-on” religion. Jesus’ words were considered gracious and welcome as long as weary, oppressed people could interpret them merely as a way to relieve the stress and strain of their daily lives. But that was not the message Jesus came to proclaim.

Jesus demanded that those who would be His followers renounce their cherished prejudices and comfortable existence and join Him on the pathway of the cross. The people in Nazareth were outraged when He indicated that His message included an invitation to the Gentiles to enter into the promises of God (vv. 23-27). Why, that would mean they would have to admit that their view of themselves as privileged in the eyes of God was simply not true. Besides, He exposed their basically sensationalist and selfish motives for following Him (v. 23), indirectly accusing them of shallowness and self-indulgence in matters of religion.

Those were hard words, and these people just weren’t ready for such an in-your-face theology. No wonder the record of history shows that there have been very few prophets throughout the ages.

The Calling of the Prophet
The prophet’s calling is to proclaim the Kingdom of God. Put another way, it is the burden of the prophet to announce to every hearer, “God is Lord, and you are not.” Jesus came announcing the Kingdom of God and calling people to repent. It is a wonder that anyone ever found anything in His words to be agreeable or attractive. He commanded people to deny themselves, insisted they hate their closest loved ones in comparison to the love they must have for Him, told them they would have to die to self in order to live, and informed everyone who would listen that henceforth they must abandon all foolish notions suggesting they might know what’s best for them and, instead, must surrender without reservation to the Word of God as He understood it. It is a miracle of grace that anyone heard Him then, or hears Him now.

But let’s not miss the fact that Jesus spoke many sweet, gracious, and comforting words, words of hope, forgiveness, and new life. Those who were able to hear through the hard words He spoke found in the message of the Gospel a truth and prospect that resonated with the deep needs of their souls. The hard words bit and stung, to be sure, but the grace of God made it possible for them to endure these indictments and to find their way through conviction to contrition and regeneration.

This is always the way that the prophet’s message finds a home in human hearts. Without the wonder of God’s grace convincing us of the truth of the hard words of Christ, we would never be able to appropriate His saving message, nor even feel a need for it. Unless the hard words are present in the prophet’s message, we shall never find our way to the wonder of grace. Our natural tendency to cling tenaciously to our sinful, selfish ways will always keep us from becoming more deeply immersed in the truth of Jesus. Unless those ways are dragged out into the open, exposed in the pure light of truth, and we will not be enabled, by the wonder of grace and the work of God’s Spirit, to admit our folly and receive the Word of God.

A Word for Today’s Prophets
There is good advice for the advocates of the Biblical worldview in the example of our Lord at Nazareth. We have Good News to proclaim, news that can transform every area of life, and bring new meaning, purpose, and joy to every human pursuit. We have news of the forgiveness of sin, acceptance in the presence of God, freedom from fear, and the hope of righteousness. For a world careening from one experience to the next, hoping to discover, a life worth living and dying for, the Good News of the Gospel and the Biblical worldview is welcome news, indeed.

But it will never be received as such as long as we allow people to hold on to the idea that they can simply add the message of Jesus and the Biblical worldview to their lives as they have been living them apart from Christ. Without repentance there can be no faith, and without confronting the specific sins of a fallen generation, there will never be any repentance. The prophet who hopes to speak a lasting and transforming word for God today cannot avoid the hard words about sin. We dare not be afraid of alienating those who might be “seekers” by calling them to forsake their sinful ways. We cannot help them find real meaning and purpose in life if we do not tell them that the Gospel requires them to die to self so that they might live to God. Any attempt to lead people to Christ apart from the issue of sin will, instead, mislead them into an add-on faith that God does not recognize and they will not be able to sustain.

This is not to sanction any bullying tactics before the lost. We also must recognize the need for repentance in our own lives; thus, we must call those with whom we share the message of Christ and the Biblical worldview to join us in this humbling but ennobling quest for newness. Some of those with whom we speak will become angry and irritated, no matter how congenial our approach. Just like the people in that Nazarethsynagogue, they will resent any message, and any messenger, who seeks to persuade them that they are in need of amendment, rather than merely of addition. Such people will not take kindly to our message, and may start looking for a cliff of their own.

But we are called to bear witness to them nonetheless, because among them are some who are desperate for truth, eager to discover real purpose, and ready to admit their sin and come in faith to Jesus. Jesus traipsed up and down the land of Palestine for a period of three years, offending and alienating all kinds of people, but winning to His cause just the ones He would need in order to turn the world upside-down within a generation (Acts 17:6). We must likewise go, seeking the lost and calling them to repentance and faith.

Those who will carry the message of the Biblical worldview into the future are out there, waiting to be summoned to the task. We who have been sent to summon them must not back down from the hard words of the Gospel merely for the sake of engendering a superficial response. Instead, we must proclaim the story of Jesus and hold out the grand scenario of the Biblical worldview, at the same time calling people to face up to their sins and cast themselves on the grace of God. Only thus may we hope to reach those who will never depart from Jesus because they recognize that He alone has the words of eternal life (Jn. 6:68).

For reflection
How would you describe your approach to reaching out to the lost people around you with the message of Jesus and the Biblical worldview? What “hard words” is the Lord speaking to you these days? Are you listening? Are you sharing them with others?

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=15534

Only Fools Will Laugh
Seeing the World as Jesus Does

By T.M. Moore

March 8, 2005

And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. ~ Mark 5:39, 40

The growing interest in Biblical worldview is a healthy sign. Over the past ten years people at every level in the Church have begun to take an active interest in learning to look at all of life through the lens of Scripture. Many are seeking the mind of Christ on a wide range of subjects, everything from home and family to work and recreation, from current issues, such as biotechnology, to such practical concerns as the education of children. The continuing publication of new books on worldview subjects, coupled with the popularity of conferences and seminars on worldview themes, suggest that Christians are beginning to wake up to the fact that, as the followers of Christ, we don’t look out on the world in the same way our unbelieving contemporaries do.

Yet the growth of interest in Biblical worldview also suggests that the gap which separates us from those who do not share a faith in Christ will be growing wider in the days to come. Particularly, as Christians begin to talk more freely about worldview themes, to allow Biblical worldview to play a more formative role in their own lives, we can expect that our faith in Christ will become a subject of increasing consternation to those who insist on some variation of a secular worldview as the only viable approach to life. Unable to see the world as Jesus does, they will find our views strange, threatening, and even a subject of scorn. Indeed, we can already see certain segments of the secular press beginning to weigh in on Biblical worldview in just such ways.

But this is nothing new. The Lord Jesus encountered such opposition throughout the course of His ministry, as we see in the passage above. But it did not deter Him from holding fast to His convictions about the truth of God, or from living them out with consistency in His everyday life and ministry.

In the days to come, only fools will laugh at those who embrace Biblical worldview thinking. The rest of us will rejoice to find the Kingdom of Godunfolding with increased power and beauty all around us.

What is it about the Biblical worldview that provokes the scorn and derision of our unbelieving contemporaries?

A Challenge to Routine Perceptions
The people Jesus encountered in that house of mourning had already reached settled conclusions about the plight of the little girl: she was dead. Period. They had seen dead people and could tell one when they saw one. Dead people stop breathing. They have no pulse. Their bodies begin to grow cold and rigid, and this little girl evidently fit the description. We can already note a kind of mild irritation in their voices as they chide the child’s father for “troubling” Jesus by bringing Him to the home, for it was apparent, as they saw it, that He could do nothing to help now.

Those who hold to unbelieving worldviews cling tenaciously to certain settled conclusions that are tenets of faith rather than norms of science. Everybody knows, they insist, that matter and the world are eternal, that our present state arose out of a Big Bang billions (and billions) of years ago, and that human beings evolved from lower life forms through a process of random mutation coupled by the will to survive. Why trouble the schools, why trouble the halls of our legislatures, and why trouble our children with idiotic ideas about a Creator and human beings as something other than mere animals? Further, everybody knows, they insist, that there are no absolute, unchanging moral norms. Everybody must be free to determine his or her own worldview, and the Law of God and the Bible are matters of strictly public interest. Why trouble the courts, why trouble the schools, and why trouble us, with ridiculous claims about truth that is propositional and enduring, rooted in a God who is absolutely holy and good?

The Biblical worldview simply flies in the face of what “everybody knows” to be true – except, of course, Jesus, who sees the world through different eyes and has a larger perspective on the way things are and ought to be.

A Challenge to Accepted Authorities
The people who confronted that grieving father were depending on the authority of science and experience for their conclusions about his little girl. Undoubtedly a physician had been present and pronounced her dead. A man of science had rendered his professional opinion, backed up by what “everybody knows” about dead people.

But Jesus pointed away from all such authorities to the power of His spoken Word: “Do not fear, only believe.” Shocking! Did this wandering rabbi really intend to set His words above the opinions and conclusions of science and experience? That faith stuff may be helpful in soothing a grieving heart, but what does it have to do with matters of life and death?

The Biblical worldview, while it does not reject reason, science, and experience as important guides in the search for truth, is grounded in the plain teaching of the revealed Word of God in Scripture, supported and illuminated by the Holy Spirit speaking through the tradition of the Church. As we begin to see the world more clearly through the eyes of Jesus, and start living more consistently by His Word, we can expect others to be startled at the ease with which we set aside their pragmatic, every-man-for-himself, feel-good ethics and practice lives of self-sacrifice, seeking the good of others more than our own good.

A Challenge to the View of Reality
“Everybody knows,” a well-known theologian once wrote to me, “that dead people do not rise.” He was arguing against the bodily resurrection of Jesus, insisting that the “resurrection” discussed in Scripture was an emotional, psychological, and theological concept, but by no means did it mean to insist on the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If even theologians pursuing their careers in the name of Christ choose to live wearing the blinders of unbelief, what are we to expect of the rest of the lost world?

“‘The child is not dead but sleeping.’ And they laughed at him.” They laughed at the very idea that this child could awaken and be restored to vitality. Impossible! Can’t happen! What an absurd idea!

But Jesus proved them wrong as He resorted to power from beyond the secular confines of this sinful world to resurrect this little girl before the eyes of her astonished parents and His own disciples. Imagine the chagrin those nay-sayers must have felt when that child walked out of her room on her way to get something to eat (v. 43). They must have had a dozen ready explanations to try to defend their settled convictions about reality as they knew it. Misdiagnosis. Charlatanry. Hocus pocus. Whatever. Not for a moment did they consider that there might be a power at work in Jesus that is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that they could ever ask or think (Eph. 3:20).

It’s interesting that Jesus’ performing this amazing act of lovingkindness seems only to have hardened the hearts of those who laughed at His view of the situation. But the father believed, and he saw the glory of God and knew the joy of redeeming and restoring grace. The fools only became harder in their opposition to Christ and the worldview He embodied and proclaimed.

Getting Ready For the Fools
So as we study and pray and prepare ourselves for living more consistently according to the teaching of our Biblical worldview, let us not be surprised, nor dismayed, nor, above all, discouraged at the fact there will always be fools who will laugh in the face of the powerful Word of God and King of Life. Our views will threaten their presumed autonomy, challenge their settled conclusions, and suggest a way of life altogether contrary to what “everybody knows” is the right way to live in this dog-eat-dog world. In the face of their opposition and laughter, we must not flinch, and we must not fail to live out our convictions.

There is a power at work among those who hold to a Biblical worldview. It is a power to make all things new: marriages and morals, arts and sciences, schools and curricula, justice and politics, business and industry, pop culture and high culture – everything. And Christians are beginning to plumb the depths of Scripture on these and dozens of other areas of human life, straining to see with the eyes of Jesus how the light of truth can transform every aspect of life. To the fools it sounds ridiculous to speak of aesthetic taste as a spiritual discipline, or education under parental guidance as more to be desired than formal classroom instruction, or the Law of God as a prescription for a loving and just society and not a killjoy politics of oppression. When you see the world as Jesus does, filled with possibilities emanating from confidence in the truth of God’s Word, it simply leaves the fools among us shaking their heads and wagging their tongues.

But it might also leave some of them dumbstruck at the power of God’s truth and eager to learn how they, too, can enter into this new way of life. Let us press on to see the world as Jesus does, and, in the love of the One who raised a dead girl to life, show the way to renewal to the doubters and detractors in our midst.

For Reflection
When was the last time someone laughed at you because you expressed a view on something based on the teaching of Scripture? How will you respond when that happens to you in the future?

Keeping Love Hot
The Effects of Lawlessness

By T.M. Moore

March 1, 2005

“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” Matthew 24:12

The mark of the Christian, as Francis Schaeffer, expounding Jesus, explained, is love – love for God and love for our neighbors. This being so, it follows that the distinguishing mark of the Biblical worldview should also be love. People with whom we consort should be able to recognize that they have entered the hot zone of Biblical worldview by the love they experience in our presence. Everything about our demeanor and conversation should evidence this fundamental affection. We must not allow secondary matters – public policy issues, apologetic arguments, denominational differences – to gain the ascendancy over love as the defining factors of our lifestyle. These must be made to serve the purposes of love; they must not be allowed to override or obscure this most defining aspect of the life of faith.

We can know that our love is beginning to grow cold when secondary matters begin to be the most important foci of our worldview. When we find that we are so adamant of our own views that we have little interest in those of others, and little room in our lives for those who do not march to our drum, when we are critical of or indifferent to others, or when everything in our worldview ultimately reduces to a particular pet doctrine or cause, then we should begin to suspect that our worldview has lost its focus. We are then in danger of compromising our witness.

But these are merely symptoms of love gone cold. The root cause, as Jesus explained, lies elsewhere.

The Problem of Lawlessness
The law of God is the standard of holiness, justice, and goodness by which God intends people to live (Rom. 7:12). It is the code of ethics which the Spirit of God is working to bring to expression in our lives (Ezek. 36:27) and the outward manifestation of the New Covenant reality into which we have been born again through faith in Jesus Christ (Heb. 8:8-13). The law of God provides the path of true discipleship for all those who have taken up the cross of Jesus and are following Him (1 Jn. 2:3-5; 5:1-3). When the Spirit is working in our lives and the promises of the New Covenant are coming to expression in us, then we will be found in obedience to the law of God, and love for God and others will be in evidence in all we do.

But in our day we are witnessing the fulfillment of Psalm 2, in which the nations and peoples of the world are working overtime to throw off the law of God – what they regard as His unbearable “bonds” and “cords.” What God intended in order to ensure the rule of kindness and love in human society (Hos. 11:4), human beings today regard as unreasonable constraints on their “liberty.” So they do not want their children to be taught the commandments of the Lord. They reject their use as judicial guidelines in the courts. They guard the public square like fierce watchdogs against any appearance of the Ten Commandments under the auspices of civil authority.

And we wonder why there is so little love in evidence among our fellow citizens? Why corruption, backbiting, self-centeredness, distrust, violence, and racial division are everywhere apparent? When a society rejects the only absolute standards which can steer them into social harmony, what else should we expect to find but lawlessness?

But before we get too critical of our unbelieving neighbors, we should take a closer look at ourselves.

The Problem Begins at Home
If only we in the Christian community could point to ourselves as models of lives obedient to the commandments of God. Researchers parade report after report before us indicating that those who profess faith in Jesus Christ reflect the morality of the world more than the love-code of God’s commandments. In a recent course on the Old Testament that I was teaching, each student was required to make an in-class presentation on some aspect of the assigned reading. One student, a teacher of small children in our church, began her presentation by asking every member of the class to take out a sheet of paper and write down the Ten Commandments in order. I looked around the class as the students fumbled for paper and pen. Every face suddenly drooped and nervous smiles flitted across their lips as they exchanged uncomfortable glances at one another. Not a single student was able to record the commandments in order, and several could not even think of them all.

This is not atypical. There are even segments of the Church today who boast that they have no need for the Ten Commandments or the law of God. They claim that simply following the Spirit as He leads enables them to live in love for God and others. So where is the evidence? And, if they’re really following the Spirit, as Ezekiel reminds us, would they not be walking in the law of God, working out their salvation according to the guidelines revealed therein (Phil. 2:12, 13)?

Jesus said that, when lawlessness increases, love grows cold. If our love for Jesus, for His Father and Spirit, and our love for our neighbors are not self-denying, worship-producing, and mission-inspiring, then we are living lawless lives, playing at Christianity and misrepresenting the Biblical worldview. We neglect of the law of God where we should expect to see it most passionately embraced and obeyed, right here at home.

The problem of a lack of love in America today begins at home, among the members of the Christian community, where lawlessness in society has its roots in lawlessness among the followers of Jesus Christ. Who are the real enemies of love in our society? As the wise Pogo once observed, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

Rekindling Love
The kind of love for God and others to which we are called as the followers of Jesus Christ will only radiate from us as we pursue holiness through obedience to God’s law (2 Cor. 7:1). If you are among the vast majority of those who name Jesus as Savior and Lord and are indifferent to or neglectful of the law of God, then the place to begin in rekindling love is in repentance. Do you need a standard by which to measure the temperature of your love? Try these:

- Those who know and love the Lord delight in His Law and meditate in it day and night (Ps. 1:2).

- The righteous person has the Law of God in his heart, and all his steps follow in obedience to it (Ps. 37:31).

- The subjects of great David’s greater Son cry out, “O God, I love Thy Law!” (Ps. 119:97).

- Those who look to the Apostle Paul for guidance have, with him, established the Law as the righteous, holy, and good foundation of their morality; and they use the Law in accordance with the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Rom. 3:31; 7:12; 1 Tim. 1:8-11).

Rate yourself on each of the above statements using a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest rating. How do you fare? Are you part of the problem or part of the solution to the lack of love in our society? The place to begin in rekindling love is on our knees in repentance. We will never seek the love to which we have been called through obedience to God’s law unless tears of repentance become our daily fare because of the deplorable state of the law in our lives.

Second, memorize the Ten Commandments. Recite them to yourself daily. Turn them into a prayer that you use to call upon God for the love He has created you to know. Make a song of them and delight to sing it throughout the day. Burn the Ten Commandments into your soul until every sector of it – heart, mind, and conscience – begins to be shaped by that righteous and holy standard.

Meditate on the law of God as a part of your daily discipline of seeking the Lord. Consider ways that you might act on specific ones of the Ten Commandments with the people you will encounter throughout the day. Reflect on the various ways our society is circumventing and rebelling against the law of God, and make a point to comment on these to others. Talk to them about what our society might be like if God’s perfect standard of love were to be embraced and obeyed by all.

Ask your pastor to preach on the law of God. Call for a Sunday school class on God’s code of love. Volunteer to teach one yourself. Exhort your fellow Christians to renewed zeal for the law of God, and watch how your love for Him and for your neighbors will begin to be rekindled once again.

As strange and unlikely as it may seem, the way to restore love to our loveless society is to begin among those who know that God made us for love. The standards He has provided enable that love to flourish. Love the law of God and you will discover that love for Him and for your neighbor actually begins to grow, as the Spirit, whose first fruit is love, empowers and enables you to live in conformity to the righteous, just, and good standards of the perfect law of liberty.

For Reflection
How did you do on the little exercise above? Where will you begin to rekindle hot love for Christ and others in your life? What opportunities for delighting in God’s Law and walking in obedience to it will you be presented with today?

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=15680

Second Sight

Always the Best
What We Give to Jesus

By T.M. Moore

March 22, 2005



And while he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head… - Mark 14:3

One of the hallmarks of contemporary Christianity is our penchant for keeping the practice of our faith tidily separate from the “secular” aspects of our lives. While a hallmark, it is certainly not a reason to celebrate. Too many believers have obediently complied with the demands of the culture that we refrain from expressing our religious convictions in the public square, on the job, or in polite company. And, for the most part, we go along, not wanting to offend, and, perhaps what is just as true, not wishing to incur the displeasure of those we have to live and work with day by day.

It is doubtless the part of wisdom for us not to be running around our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces, Bibles in hand, confronting everyone we meet, wild-eyed and demanding to know whether or not they are saved. There is a time to bear witness with our words, and the best time for this would seem to be when someone, taken by what they have seen of Christian hope in our everyday lives, inquires as to the reason we seem so confident, joyful, and at peace in such troubled times (1 Pt. 3:15).

But when was the last time anyone ever asked you that?

The story of the woman with the flask of costly ointment contains principles for serving Jesus that can help us to bring the life of faith and our Biblical worldview more powerfully into play in every area of our lives. If we can learn to apply these principles, we may find that the opportunities we have for talking to others about Jesus will begin to increase. The exemplary nature of this woman’s gift is undoubtedly why the Lord determined that Mark should preserve this story for the generations to come.

We may discern at least four important principles to guide us in the things we give to Jesus.

No Time Like the Present
The first principle is that there is no time like the present for offering to Jesus the precious gifts by which we would honor Him. This woman apparently did not regard the “inconvenience” of the moment as an obstacle to presenting her gift. It was dinner time, and already Jesus and the other guests had gathered around the table. This was the time for prayers, polite conversation, and wholesome food. It was hardly the time for dramatic demonstrations pointing to the calling of Christ as God’s Anointed One, the Messiah. Yet this woman performed her deed without regard for convenience. She decided there was no time like the present for an act of sacrifice to the Lord.

Every moment of our lives is to be redeemed for serving the Lord and honoring Him (Eph. 5:15-17). Whereas fools, in the Biblical sense, may reckon that there are times and places where God should not be allowed to intrude, the true believer is one who trusts in the Lord with all his heart, leans not on his own understanding, and in all his ways and at all times acknowledges Him (Prov. 3:5, 6). Thus, whether we are at work or play, in our homes or at school, engaging in daily chores or the mundane tasks of getting and spending, we are at all times in a position to offer something to the Lord. Indeed, Paul calls us to do all things to His glory, even such mindless activities as eating and drinking, and especially the things we do for our employers (1 Cor. 10:31; Col. 3:22, 23). The attitude with which we do our daily work, together with the care, diligence, and excellence by which it is accomplished, should say something about our transcendent commitment. We do not simply “work to rule” but unto the Ruler of the universe, and everything about the way we conduct our lives, in every aspect of our lives and at all times, should signal to those around us that we are making an offering to honor His glory. Surely there can be no “inconvenient” time for us to render such gifts to the Lord.

Giving Jesus Our Best
This woman resolved to hold nothing back from the Lord. She gave her best offering, a gift of precious ointment valued at a year’s salary for a working person. Had she been saving this for some special occasion? Was it part of a dowry for her marriage? An inheritance from her deceased mother? We do not know. All we know is that it was very precious, very costly, and, had it been converted to cash, could have been used to relieve the suffering of many people.

But this woman determined that no one and nothing deserved her precious gift more than the Anointed of the Lord, whose body she – perhaps unwittingly – was preparing for death.

Her gift is a challenge to us to give the very best we have to the Lord at all times. It’s hard enough to encourage believers to give to the Lord in church – whether the requisite tithes and offerings or through some active role in the congregation’s ministry. That alone would be a good start. But more is involved than this. We are called to serve the Lord with excellence in all we do, to do our work, engage in our relationships, carry out all our responsibilities in a way designed to honor and glorify Him. What does this require of us? Do we stand out on the job as the most dedicated and uncomplaining workers? On the team as the most committed to hard work and team spirit? In school as the most eager and diligent of students? In our families as enthusiastic and devoted to spouse, children, and home? Wherever the Lord has placed us we are always in a position to offer gifts to Him; when we do, they should be the finest and most self-sacrificing gifts that we can produce.

Living So as to Make Jesus Beautiful
This woman’s gift beautified Jesus in the eyes of all present. Imagine the wondrous fragrance that filled that room for the remainder of the evening, emanating from the anointed body of Christ to please the olfaction of every guest. Jesus Himself described her offering as a “beautiful thing” (v. 6). Her gift put Jesus in the best possible light, and left a fragrant aura about Him.

Does the way we live our lives make Jesus beautiful to the people around us? At home, work, school, in the neighborhood, at the market, at church – does our conversation attract others to Him? Do our manners point others to the beauty of the Lord? Does the quality of our work suggest the excellence of Him who calls us to offer precious gifts to Him at every moment, in every situation? More often, the way we live tends to lead others to think that Jesus is condemning rather than inviting, prudish rather than filled with joy, powerless to heal rather than the very Physician of the soul, and irrelevant to the everyday issues of life rather than the Lord of all. The Westminster Confession of Faith talks about the good works that all believers are called to do in the power of the Holy Spirit as ways that we “adorn the profession of the Gospel.” All our works and conversations have the potential to manifest the beauty, goodness, and truth of the Lord and to beautify the Savior in the eyes of others. But we must devote ourselves to such a course if it is to be true of our lives.

Seeking Only the Pleasure of the Lord
Finally, this woman made her offering with one singular focus: she wanted to please the Lord in whom she perceived such goodness, truth, and love. She was scorned and ridiculed for her sacrifice by those whose minds were tuned to matters of economics and social propriety, but her offering pleased the Lord. Surely it pleased Him because it heightened the attention of all on Him, demonstrated understanding of His Lordship, and opened an opportunity for Him to discuss His passion, shortly to be realized. So pleased was Jesus with this woman that He rebuked those who seemed to be arguing for some more practical application of her lavish gift and promised that she would be forever remembered for her sacrifice.

We have grown accustomed to asking, “What would Jesus do?” in any number of situations. While this has a certain admirable aspect to it as an outlook on life, more effective would be for us to ask, “What will please Jesus?” in every situation and at every opportunity? What will bring Him to the attention of others? Declare that He is Lord of all of life? Recognize and honor His sacrifice in our own? Lead to opportunities to talk more fully about His saving mercy and love? When we lead our lives from this perspective we will discover many opportunities for pleasing Jesus by our offerings, whether in home and family, on the job, in school or community, or among our fellow believers at church. And we will find many more people beginning to ask us for a reason for the hope that is within us. What pleases Jesus is to see that we are always thinking about Him, always trying to lift Him up for others to consider, always honoring Him by the way we do things and the things we say, always looking for opportunities to tell the old, old story of His wondrous, redeeming love. If we are always worried about what others will think of us, we may refuse to say or do anything that might draw attention to Jesus. But that would be to continue ensnared in the world’s agenda of keeping Jesus at church and out of public life. Our Biblical worldview calls us to live wholly to Christ, to seek His pleasure in all we think, say, and do, and to take every opportunity to point a desperate world to the only hope that can make all things new in their lives.

So simple a story, so long ago: A lowly woman with a flask of perfume, broken open and poured out on the Anointed of the Lord. But what lessons it holds for us, and how it challenges us to make the most of every opportunity to give gifts to Jesus in ways that honor, beautify, exalt, and make Him the center of all we say and do.

For reflection
How would your life be different each day if you looked at every aspect of it – all your roles, relationships, and responsibilities – as this woman looked at her flask of ointment? What opportunities for giving gifts to Jesus are before you today?

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=15738

Second Sight

Words to Live By
A Basic Worldview Vocabulary

By T.M. Moore



As obedient children...be holy in all your conduct. - 1 Peter 1:14

Understanding all the ins and outs of the Biblical worldview can be, as Solomon called it, a “difficult task” (Eccl. 1:13, Hebrew). Biblical worldview is as large as the world and everything in it. Only God Himself can exhaustively know all that is involved in the world, its creatures, and their ways. Our attempts to penetrate His knowledge and understanding, so that we might think His thoughts after Him, is limited by our creatureliness and our sin (Eccl. 3:11). At best, we can only mirror God’s view of the world, and that in only relatively small sectors of the grand and glorious whole (1 Cor. 13:12).

Still, God has called us to this difficult task, this noble work of Biblical worldview (Eccl 1:13). But understanding Biblical worldview is not the greatest challenge facing believers in these increasingly postmodern times. Living the Biblical worldview is a much taller order. It’s one thing to gain insight into the divine order of things. Far more demanding is conducting our lives according to the laws and patterns God reveals in His Word and works.

We need all the help we can get in gaining greater consistency between the things we profess and the way we live. Trust Peter, with his simple, practical outlook, to give us a basic vocabulary of worldview living on which to build consistent lives in Christ. In the first chapter of his first epistle to a group of Christians caught up in the midst of persecution, Peter did not bother to develop the fine details of what is involved in understanding Biblical worldview. Instead, in the space of four short verses, he provided for his readers not only a concise summary of the argument of his entire letter, but also a fundamental vocabulary we can adopt for pursuing a consistent course of living Biblical worldview.

Five words make up this fundamental worldview vocabulary. They’re not the kind of words many Christians might hope for – words like “fun”, “easy”, or “neat.” Peter’s worldview vocabulary is more realistic and demanding.

Obedient
The first word in Peter’s worldview vocabulary is obedient (v. 14). Now there’s a word to chafe against. This word clearly implies that, in the Biblical worldview, there is something to obey as well as something to deny. What is to obey is the Law of God, indeed, all His Word. What is to be denied are the passions that ran us around when we were ignorant of the salvation we have in Christ (cf. 1 Pt. 4:3). We are no longer to be controlled by obedience to selfish desires, sinful lusts, covetous inclinations, angry outbursts, and the like. Instead, we are to submit to the Word of God and find there the truth that renews our minds, re-orients our hearts, fortifies our consciences, and guides us in the path of righteousness.

Obedient reminds us that living the Biblical worldview is a struggle, and involves us in a continuous conflict between the ways of the flesh and the world and those of the good and righteous standards of God’s Word. It keeps us mindful of the need to prepare for this struggle every day, to resist the draw of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and to give ourselves wholly to God and His Spirit. Peter puts this word first in his worldview vocabulary for the simple reason that if we are not willing to obey God rather than our sinful passions, it’s “game over” before we even get started.

Children
The second word is children (v. 14). Again, not exactly the way we like to think of ourselves. But Peter wants to remind us that, in this life of struggle to live out the demands of a Biblical worldview, we’ll never be the fully mature grown-ups we like to think we are. There will always be room for growth. So important was this concept to Peter that his last word in his final letter to these churches was to remind them of the need to grow in grace (2 Pt. 3:18).

When I was a child my parents frequently took me to our family doctor to check up on my health and progress toward adulthood. He would take various measurements, perform certain tests, look in my eyes, ears, and mouth, and then pronounce to my parents that I was, for my age, a normal, healthy boy. Why don’t we do the same with our spiritual growth? Why do we so seldom take the time to examine where we are with the Lord – in our vision of those unseen things in which our faith is grounded (Heb. 11:1)? Our practice of spiritual disciplines? Our fruitfulness for Him? The whole idea of assessing the state of our spiritual development probably seems so foreign to most of us that we wouldn’t know how to do so. But without knowing where we are in the life of faith, how can we ever set goals and work intentionally toward a more mature future? If we could accept the idea that we are children, who are on a growth-curve toward maturity, we might take more time to examine our progress and chart our future course more consistently, and with greater effects.

Holy
The third word is holy (v. 15). There is no getting around the idea that God expects us to make progress in holiness. As adulthood is the goal of children’s physical development, holiness must be the goal of spiritual development. Holiness is nothing other than becoming God-like in outlook and life. Happily, God gives us both His Word, a handbook on holiness, and His Holy Spirit to work in us according to His will and power so that we might be transformed into the very image of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3:12-18). Holiness is an all-pervading state, catching up our thought lives, priorities, and practices and shaping them increasingly to be like those of Jesus. Peter calls us, as obedient children, to devote ourselves to holiness in every area of our lives.

It’s time for us to get serious about being made new in Jesus (2 Cor. 5:17). The Christian life and Biblical worldview are not about being all that we can be. Rather, they are about holiness, about being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, in holiness and righteousness of the truth (Eph. 4:17-24). Day-by-day we are either consciously pursuing this holiness, or we are disobedient children suffering from “failure to thrive” syndrome.

Judgment
Ouch! Why do these words in Peter’s worldview vocabulary sting us so? Who likes to think about judgment (v. 17)? How often do we look up to God in our prayers and thank Him because one day He is going to judge us for what we have done in the flesh?

But this is the testimony of both Christ and the apostles (cf. Jn. 5:28, 29; 1 Cor. 3:12, 13). Knowing that the holy God will one day stand in judgment of our works (Ps. 62:11, 12), we should be motivated to hear “Well done” when our record is reviewed in His hearing. Our goal must be to shed as many “dead” works as possible so that our time before His judgment throne and amid the purging fires that purify us for eternal glory will be brief. Now is the time to be living as though we expect to stand before the Judge of all the earth one day and give an account of what we have done. John tells us that, if we truly expect to see Jesus face to face one day, we will devote ourselves to becoming pure, even as He is pure (1 Jn. 3:1-3). And Peter tells us that, in the light of God’s coming, all-consuming judgment, we must judge our present lives carefully and pursue holiness with all zeal (2 Pt. 3:11-13). Thus we shall confidently expect to enter the Kingdom of righteousness and live eternally with Christ in glory (2 Pt. 1:5-11).

Fear
Fear? You betcha (v. 17). Peter calls us to conduct our lives in the fear of God, mindful at all times that we are undeserving of His love, and that all He really owes us is wrath and destruction (Rom. 6:23). We need to remember what God Almighty is capable of when His power is turned against recalcitrant sinners. And, as we cultivate fear of Him, this will strengthen the love we bear Him as we realize that this all-powerful and all-holy God is nonetheless our Father and loves us with an everlasting love.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning both of knowledge and wisdom (Prov. 2:1-5; Ps. 111:10). The fear of the Lord keeps us mindful that He will discipline those He loves, and that discipline can be most unpleasant for those who require it (Heb. 12:7-11). God our Shepherd guides us with His chastening rod and loving staff (Ps. 23:4). The more we fear His rod the more readily we will be led by His staff as He guides us in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. The fear of the Lord is the final word in Peter’s worldview vocabulary. Perhaps we ought to practice up on it.

The Way of Freedom
Peter’s basic worldview vocabulary may strike some as a harsh regimen. In fact, it marks out the path of freedom, power, and joy. The alternative to taking up Peter’s worldview vocabulary is to remain slaves to sin and self, cut off from the presence and blessing of God, and without hope of ever knowing the peace that passes understanding and the joy that nothing can ever take from us. As obedient children, committed to holiness, with our eye on the coming judgment of God and conducting ourselves in the fear of the Lord, we tread a path of freedom from sin, power for following Christ, and joy in the presence of the living God.

So let us take up Peter’s worldview vocabulary. Memorize 1 Peter 1:14-17. Make a personal motto out of it. Post it where you’ll see it every day. Then build the rest of your worldview understanding around these five words, and you’ll know a freedom, power, and joy for living that you won’t find anywhere else.

For reflection
Why not take an evaluation of where you stand in relation to each of these five words? Write me and I’ll send you an instrument you can use. Or rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the highest) to see just how much these words are part of your own life at this time. Then make plans to improve around each of these terms.

http://www.pfm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section...ContentID=15783

Second Sight

Guard Your Spirit
Keeping Faith with God and Men

By T.M. Moore

April 5, 2005

So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless. - Malachi 2:16

One of the most celebrated attributes of God in all of Scripture, especially the psalms, is faithfulness. Put briefly, God keeps His Word. If the essence of sanctification is becoming godly – more God-like – then it stands to reason that what God is looking for in His people is faithfulness. God, who has brought us into His covenant through the blood of Jesus, calls us to join Him in being faithful to His Word. When we keep faith with God, our love for Him burns with an exclusive ardor, and our love for our neighbors overcomes all temptations of self-interest so that we live sacrificially for others.

But when faithlessness sets in, our spirits drift outside the promises and provisions of God’s covenant, love for both God and men is compromised, and we are in danger of His disciplining grace.

A Case of Faithlessness
In Malachi’s day, toward the end of the period of the Old Testament, Israel’s leaders were beginning once again to lead the nation down a sad, familiar path. Enamored of the deities of surrounding peoples, and charmed by the libertine practices such idolatry fostered, the priests of Israelbegan getting sloppy in the areas of worship and vows (vv. 11-13; cf. 1:6-8).

They profaned the covenant of the Lord by compromising in the area of sacrifice. God had commanded them to bring only the best of their herds and flocks to offer before Him. This was only fitting, an acknowledgement of the worthiness of God saying that no matter how much of their very best the people gave to the Lord, He would return it to them manifold.

But, in a lapse of faith, and no doubt in condescension to pressure from the people, the priests had begun to compromise on this purity, and were accepting for offerings all kinds of deficient animals. They watered down the demands of covenant worship so as to satisfy the lusts of the people. Apparently they had adopted this practice by observing the worship of pagan peoples (v. 11). The pagans were not particular about what they offered to their gods. Any old gift would do, within prescribed parameters, of course, thus allowing them to avoid the high cost of Israel’s sacrifices, keep the best for themselves, and still feel as though they had satisfied the requirements of worship. If it was good enough for their pagan neighbors, Israel decided, surely it must have been good enough for them.

Thus, faithlessness compromised their love for God by catering to love of self, under the influence of pagan practice.

But, hey, if pagan practice works in worship, why not in other areas as well?

God had given Israel strict guidelines for keeping faith with Him and loving others in the laws relating to swearing falsely, making vows, and divorce. These laws were not burdensome; they were designed to promote circumspection, care, loyalty, and faithfulness in relationships. Kept assiduously, they would train the souls of Israel to love one another from the very depths of their being.

Yet once again – most likely under the influence of pagan libertinism – the priests had eased the code on divorce and now were both practicing it freely and allowing others to do so as well (vv.13-16). Love for the very closest of neighbors was thus sacrificed on the altar of pragmatism and self-love.

God’s response to this faithlessness in Israel was to reject their worship and withhold His blessings from the land (v. 13). The people wept because they did not find fulfillment in their offerings. And already “the devourer” was at work on their vines and fields (3:11).

A Problem of the Spirit
Israel’s leaders had failed to guard their spirits against the temptations of self-love (vv. 14, 16). Rebellion against God and His covenant begins in the soul, where the interface of heart, mind, and conscience becomes polluted by ungodly influences. The priests had allowed self-love to take a dominant role in the hearts of the people. Rather than preaching against this corruption of the affections, they yielded to it, and failed to guard their minds by having “married the daughter of a foreign god” (v. 11). Believing pagan worship could be fitted within the holiness code of Israel, they opened the door to corruption in a wide range of areas. They failed to guard their consciences, where the Law of God should have been working to sort out godly thinking and faithful actions.

The result of this failure to guard their spirits was faithlessness and compromise of love for God and others, leading to chastening at the hand of the Lord.

A Warning for Today
How shall we guard ourselves against drifting outside the safe and joyful parameters of God’s covenant? Already the allure of the world and its corrupt practices have made inroads into the Church: worship that seeks to entertain more than to humble, church leaders who think like businessmen rather than shepherds, Christian morality awash with the flotsam and jetsam of secular practice, and a whole host of things – gossip, withholding tithes and offerings, refusal to put our gifts to work in ministry – that show us to be a people more in love with our comfort than the God who has redeemed us.

The faithlessness of Israel is seeping into the lifeblood of the Church. We have seen the way the world does things and have determined that we can accommodate large chunks of those corrupt practices into the life of faith without harming our relationships with God and men. But we are surely deceived. Our love for God has grown cold, driven mainly by a “what’s in it for me” mindset. And our love for those around us is similarly determined. The waters of faithlessness are rising all around us. Can the chastening of the Lord be far off?

How to be on Guard
God’s call to the people of Malachi’s day could hardly be more timely: guard your spirits! But how do we do that?

First, make sure your heart attitudes and affections derive from the teaching of God’s Word. God speaks to us about what to love and what to hate, how to deal with anger and jealousy, avoiding covetousness, nurturing faith and hope, and all the other affections that stir within our souls. He shows us which affections are legitimate, and on what occasions, thus training our hearts to focus and function as they ought. He reveals the warning signs that tell us when our hearts are beginning to yield to temptation, and He shows us how to resist the devil so that he will flee from us.

In our study of God’s Word we must pay attention to what it has to say about the heart, what Jonathan Edwards referred to as the very “wellspring” of life. Out of the heart flow all the major issues that come to expression in our daily experience. If we do not guard our hearts according to the teaching of God’s Word, we shall surely begin to drift into faithlessness.

Second, we must also guard our minds. What we think about, the ideas and notions we entertain, the thoughts that govern our conscious life – all these areas also must be brought into the light of God’s Word. We do this so that He may illuminate the darkness in our minds and help us to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:17-24; 2 Cor. 10:3-5). Paul urges us not to allow the world to call the tunes for our minds; we are to be renewed in our minds according to the plain teaching of Scripture (Rom.12:1, 2). Failure to bring our minds fully and constantly into the light of God’s demands will surely cause us to veer off the path of faithfulness.

And finally, we must reinforce our consciences with the Law of God. God has written the works of His Law on the hearts of all people. It is the basic operating system of the soul. But for those of us who have entered the New Covenant through faith in Jesus Christ, God has not only again written His Law on our hearts (Heb. 8:10-12), He has also given us His Spirit to guide us into the practice of God’s Law as the standard of holiness, justice, and goodness (Ezek. 36:37; Rom. 7:12). The more we read, study, and meditate on God’s Law, the more it can reinforce the role of conscience, as it arbitrates between heart and mind and processes the soul into actions of faithfulness to the Lord. The level of ignorance of and indifference to the Law of God among Christians today is appalling. Without continuous reflection on this most basic component of the Word of God, we shall have no means other than whim to direct our spirits into the faithful way (Ps. 119:112).

God is looking for faithful people, people who will, with Him, cling to His Word, revel in its promises, and faithfully carry out its mandates. Unless we work hard at guarding our spirits we shall not be able to resist the powerful temptations to self-love which assail us from every direction, every day. By guarding our spirits (nurturing heart, mind, and conscience according to the teaching of God’s Word), we can find the wisdom, courage, and strength we need to remain faithful in these faithless times.

For reflection
How diligent are you about guarding your heart? Your mind? Your conscience? Do you see any indication in your own life that the corrupt ways of the world have begun to compromise your love for God and others? How will you begin guarding your spirit better today?