Comfort When Your News Feed Is Full Of Chaos

Posted on by metroupe

Last year I purchased a devotional collection of the letters of John Newton from Banner of Truth. This book is a great introduction to one of Newton’s most valuable contributions to the church. And each selection is just one page. He has a heart warming, though rambling style and a powerful way of expressing the truth.

This morning I read the entry for February 26th and felt its relevance to our current moment. He had read a book of history and was explaining how it shows God’s purposes through both good and evil. His explanation practical to our own troubled times. The news is full of chaos and disaster. What can steady our hearts? God is at work in mysterious ways.

“I have lately read Robertson‘s history of Charles V, which, like most other histories, I consider as a comment upon those passages of scripture which teach us the depravity of man, the deceitfulness of the heart, the ruinous effects of sin, and the powerful, the secret, rule of divine providence, moving, directing, controlling the designs and actions of men, with an unerring hand, to the accomplishment of his own purposes, both of mercy and judgment.

“Without the clue and the light which the word of God affords, the history of mankind, of any, of every age, only presents to view a labyrinth and chaos; a detail of wickedness and misery to make us tremble; and a confused jumble of interfering incidents, as destitute of stability, connection, or order, as the clouds which fly over our heads… But with the scripture key, all this plane, all is instructive. Then I see, verily there is a God, who governs the earth, who pours contempt upon princes, takes the wise in their own craftiness, overrules the wrath and pride of man to bring his own designs to pass, and restrains all that is not necessary to that end; blasting the best concerted enterprise is at one time, by means apparently slight, and altogether unexpected, and another times producing the most important events from instruments and circumstances which are at first thought to feeble and trivial to deserve notice… What an empty phantom do the great men of the world pursue while they wage war with the peace of mankind, and butcher (in the course of their lives) perhaps hundreds of thousands, to maintain the shadow of authority over distant nations, whom they can reach with no other influence than that of oppression and devastation! 

“But though the effects of this principle of self are more extensive and calamitous in proportion as those who are governed by it are more elevated, the principal itself is deep-rooted in every heart, and is the spring of every action, till Grace infuses a new principal, and self, like Dagon, falls before the Lord of hosts.”

Miller, Ferrie. Jewels from John Newton. 1st ed., Banner of Truth, 1992. p. 403.

Prayer for a Pastor’s Day Off

Posted on by metroupe

It is well known that pastor’s often struggle to rest. That is not an excuse but a reality. Over the years I have tried to collect my thoughts and commit these struggles to God in prayer. I offer this here for your encouragement.

God thank you for all you have done. You have sustained me through the labor and trials of the last week. You have kept me for yourself and answered my prayers. Thank you for the blessing of being your adopted son in Christ. Help me to rejoice in this freedom! Thank you for the honor of serving you and your church.  Help me to recognize all of your work as I rest from my work.

God, you have called me to yourself and invited me to rest. You have also commanded me to rest each week. You have given examples of sabbath rest in scripture for your people and the land. You have warned me not to rest in false hopes.  Fulfill all of this in me. I cannot do it on my own. Help me to rest my body, mind and spirit today in all that you are.

God I give you all of my cares and anxieties. Would you carry them? I struggle with truly resting because I worry about your people, the health of the church, the sin and sickness of our community, financial concerns, the opinions of others.  I commit all of these to your safe keeping. 

Forgive me for all of the places that my anxiety is due to sin and unbelief. Lord, I am sorry that I struggle to trust your promises. I am sorry that I struggle with something as simple as a day off because my confidence in you is so weak. I believe, help my unbelief!

Help me to trust in YOU and not in the effectiveness of my own plans or efforts.  I want my work for you to stand, but I know that only your power can make anything last.   Today, would you do everything that needs to be done while I am at rest. Show me that it is your work and not mine that brings victory.

Let every anxiety today turn my heart back to you in prayer.  

Give me the blessing of self-forgetfulness. Help me not to obsess about my successes or failures. Help me to be lost in the blessings of Your goodness, Your word, my family, and hobbies. Help me to have a day off from work, but not from you.

Merciful father, through rest give me the strength I need to work hard for you. Let my body and mind be restored and fit for more usefulness.

Lord help this day to point me toward the eternal rest that is mine in Christ. Help me not to despair when my days off are interrupted or imperfect. Help me not to fret when I can’t sleep or find myself distracted. Let these trials raise hope in me of the perfect rest that waits.

Spiritual Disease, Spiritual Cures

Posted on by metroupe

Commenting on Colossians 3:1-4, Hendriksen writes

“It was indicated that there is no material cure for a spiritual ill, that neglect of the body will never heal the soul’s sickness but will aggravate it, that heaven-born individuals cannot gain satisfaction from earth-born remedies. Christ, he alone, is the answer, Christ in all the fulness of his love and power”

 Hendriksen, William, and Simon J. Kistemaker. Exposition of Colossians and Philemon. Vol. 6. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001. Print. New Testament Commentary.

The Abortion Lie Detector

Posted on by metroupe

What do you call a failed abortion? 

A child. 

And why wouldn’t we want to protect the lives of all children? Because if we had to provide medical care for these particular children, it would be a public acknowledgement that abortion is a deliberate act to take the life of innocent and helpless human beings.

Yesterday, All but 3 Democrats in the House of Representatives voted against a bill to require medical care for babies born alive after a failed abortion. This is horrific but not surprising because this has been the track record of pro-abortion politicians for years.

Several things are worth noting. This approach challenges the sincerity of the the way abortion is typically justified. Are we really serious in our conversations about “when life begins” or about the bodily rights of women as the foundation for abortion rights? In the case of an infant born alive after an abortion procedure, the child is no longer inside the body of the pregnant woman, thus there are no bodily rights. She is no longer “hooked up to the violinist.” Further, the baby is outside the womb, alive. Under what moral principal would anyone attempt to justify denying lifesaving measures to a living human infant? The woman is no longer pregnant, wasn’t that the goal?

The response to this law shows that we are currently protecting (and funding, and celebrating) the right, not simply to avoid pregnancy, or protect the rights of women. We are protecting the right to kill distinct living human beings. Even after they are viable. Even after they are outside the woman’s body. Even after our failed attempts to kill them.

What other conclusion can we come to? The only acceptable outcome of abortion is a dead child? And the fact that numerous children have survived after failed abortions is a mirror to show what we are trying to hide behind all of the casuistry and euphemisms. 

Suffering: If We Knew What God Knows

Posted on by metroupe
William Blake engraving on the book of Job

One of the interesting lessons from reading the accounts of Joseph (Genesis 37-50) and Job in scripture come from understanding our perspective vs theirs. We are being told the story in retrospect. As the reader we are given the view point of God in his omniscience. But neither of those characters understand what is going on during the long night of suffering. They are in the dark on their most distressing questions. How long will this last? Why is this happening to me? This is not what I expected, what is God doing? Where is God?

At the conclusion they will have answers to their questions, even if they are not the answers they wanted. But they will NOT have them in the middle. They will not know during the trial what we know as readers. One of the lessons for us is to apply this to our own circumstances. In the multiplied suffering of our perplexity, we may not know “Why.” But we may know and trust the God who does know why. And his purposes are gracious towards his children. We may trust the wisdom of the one that made all things. We may rest in the power of the one who directs all things. And we may trust the heart of the one who sent his son to die for us. 

There is an important and comforting statement that has helped me in the midst of suffering. I first heard it from Tim Keller, who may have heard it from someone else. “If we knew what God knows, we would choose what God chose. Every time. ” 

James 5:10-11 “As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”

When Killing Becomes The Most Convenient Option

Posted on by metroupe

Paralympian Claims Canada Offered to euthanize her when she asked for a chair lift.

When you make killing people a legal option for difficult cases, then taking a life becomes the most convenient option. And the truth is there are times where the death of another person is more convenient for other people. You are not supposed to say that, but it is true. So once you open the door to legalized killing, then the person who doesn’t want to comply with the killing appears to be stubborn, committed to a path that is more difficult for everyone else. The history of modern assisted suicide is that it is sold as a compassionate option for the most desperate situations, and then grows into a way to remove inconvenient and suffering people from our lives so that we don’t have to be inconvenienced.

The stories coming out of Canada are shocking. Medical killing will save health care dollars. Medical killing will provide more organ donations. Doctors encouraged to offer this treatment before patients even ask about it. I have a friend that suffers from severe depression. When they reached out for help they couldn’t get a psychiatry appointment for 3 months, but were offered immediate assisted suicide as an answer. (BTW, I have changed a few details in that story to guard the identity of the friend). But the truth is the same. For government bureaucrats, providing healthcare is more trouble than killing the person.

Live Not By Lies

Posted on by metroupe

“Live Not By Lies” is an essay by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. About 7 pages. Definitely worth your time. Written in 1974 Soviet Russia, but relevant in 2022 for the rest of us. We are forging our own chains when we participate in the lies of ideology.  

“When violence bursts onto the peaceful human condition, its face is flush with self-assurance, it displays on its banner and proclaims: “I am Violence! Make way, step aside, I will crush you!” But violence ages swiftly, a few years pass—and it is no longer sure of itself. To prop itself up, to appear decent, it will without fail call forth its ally—Lies. For violence has nothing to cover itself with but lies, and lies can only persist through violence. And it is not every day and not on every shoulder that violence brings down its heavy hand: It demands of us only a submission to lies, a daily participation in deceit—and this suffices as our fealty.

“And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal nonparticipation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold not through me!“

Read it here

Cancel Culture Wants to Threaten You Into Silence. Hear Alan Dershowitz

Posted on by metroupe

Alan Dershowitz is a veritable poster child for the values of the democratic party. At least the Democratic part of the past. A long time member of the ACLU that has fought for civil rights and free speech. He has recently been excommunicated by his group of friends for daring to stand up for the rights of unapproved people. In this podcast he describes listening and mutual learning from debates with political opponents. You may not agree with his principals, but Dershowitz is admirably a man of principal. and it has cost him. 

If you want to gain a greater understanding of the current state of cancel culture listen to this brief podcast interview from First Things.    What stands out to me is that you can be cancelled not simply for advocating unapproved ideas, but for suggesting that people should be treated respectfully.   Quite a few times I have heard the victims of cancel culture say that they are contacted by numerous people that say they agree, but that they are unwilling to speak up publicly for fear of being blacklisted.  Cancel culture thrives when the rest of us stay silent and give into fear. 

All of this seems to be an expression of the idea of “Lenin think.” He views the world as a zero sum game. You are either 100% in agreement or you are a threat. If you disagree 1% with Lenin, you are siding with the enemy and must be destroyed.  Gary Saul Morson explains “Leninthink” here. 

Learning from Monsters How NOT to Think.

Posted on by metroupe

I love finding out about an author or resource that leads to the discovery of other treasures. And so, I came across an old Interview with Gary Saul Morson and was really interested in what he has learned from years of studying and teaching Russian literature. You can listen to that interview here. 

I started going down the rabbit hole of some of his interviews and articles and came across this one called Leninthink. 

You don’t have to have read Lenin to be influenced by him. This article by an expert in Russian literature and history lays out some important things for us to consider in our age of polarization and political pragmatism.  You do NOT want to think and live like Lenin.

This is a longer and rigorous essay. But it is worth reading, probably twice. It is full of original source quotes and historical context. The point is to learn from history so we do not repeat it. 

Among the most interesting elements that I found most relevant for us:

Considering life a zero sum game. Every transaction is either an act of oppression or being oppressed.

That the slightest disagreement from the party line is absolute betrayal. There is no middle ground.

Rejection of any morality or limits against the power of the party/state. They are above accountability. Viewing morality as nothing more than an expression of class (we might say race/sex/gender) struggle.

Promising to maintain the civil rights of the people as long as they do not do anything we disagree with. e.g. You have freedom of speech as long as you don’t say anything we do not like.

Arriving at conclusions on issues, opinions, and incidents without the need for facts or evidence. Having a conclusion beforehand. Insisting you don’t need to understand an opposing view before you denounce it.

Radically changing facts about history or even the position of the party while refusing to acknowledge that any change has taken place.

People eagerly confessing to crimes they have not committed to support the party.

Denouncing family members and friends as an expression of party loyalty.

Justifying any means to advance the cause, even those considered immoral, and that you would condemn others for using. 

When Friendly Fire is Revealing

Posted on by metroupe

I have been shocked by the amount of slander against Christians in the last few days that is coming from other professed Christians. The decision of the Supreme Court to overturn Roe V. Wade has brought a torrent of invective from politically progressive believers. The accusations range from the mean spirited to the fantastical. If you are a Christian and attempting to support abortion, especially in Jesus name, you should know that this is contrary to the beliefs of almost all Christians throughout history, from the very beginning until recently. It is contrary to every stream of Christian tradition in the church. Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant believers have all, practically universally, written and spoken against it. The ethical foundation of this is the fundamental virtue of the Christian faith: Love. We are to love our neighbors, and that includes infants, before and after they are born. If you are supporting abortion, you are embracing an ethical stance that is completely foreign to Christianity throughout the ages. 

The article below summarizes the content of a larger book by scholar Michael J Gorman. One of the interesting points he makes is that early Christians rumored to be doing bad things. “We are accused of observing a holy rite in which we kill a little child and then eat it.” The apologist Tertullian (160-240) wrote in response to these accusations and he explains that Christians are forbidden from such conduct.  “In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth….”

Read more here