Seeznak

God the Borrower Repays As Is Fitting

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord. - Proverbs 19:17

A humbling notion, this! That our God, to whom we cannot give a gift worth paying back, considers our gifts to each other as a loan to Himself! Everything we have was made by God and given to us; what a weighty consideration is here put before us, that we can lend to God (and that with relative ease) as we give to the hungry and the needy and the neglected!

Be in awe of the awesome power we hold, by God’s grace alone, to choose to do evil, or to choose to do good.

Babytalk, PCtalk

Babytalk is the sort of magazine that one reads while sitting in a pediatrician’s office waiting for the two-week-old appointment of one’s two-week-old. That is to say, it is a magazine distractedly and flippantly read by thousands of average people every day. Or: That is to say, it is a potential outlet for winds-of-the-day indoctrination for thousands of average people every day. So a minor note should be made for the August 2008 issue’s surprisingly honest article (at least for these peecey days) by Anita Sethi, Ph.D, concerning gender differences in babies:

As a good postfeminist-era mom, I certainly didn’t push my son toward trucks and my daughter toward tutus. If anything, I went out of my way to avoid giving them gender-stereotyped toys, offering glittery finger paint to my son and trains to my daughter. But it didn’t matter: My son turned his doll’s crib into a race car and my daughter was obsessed with shoes.

It turns out, as Dr. Sethi discovered, that there appears to be a surprising amount of scientific evidence pointing to what may seem fairly obvious to many of us: boys and girls are different.

Boys like action, Dr. Sethi says, and lots of it. They are more adept at tracking motion than girls, hit the major motor skills before girls, would rather look at a mobile than a human face, and express fear less than their feminine counterparts. Girls, on the other hand, learn to mimic far faster than the little guys, manipulate small objects sooner, are more attuned to the sound of the human voice and may actually prefer it to other sounds, are more likely to establish eye contact (especially with other women!) and talk sooner than boys of the same developmental stages.

Man’s condition without Woman, according to God Himself in Genesis 2:18, was an eternally resounding “Not Good.” Man needed an Other, a Compliment, the missing Bone and Flesh in order to be complete, and thus, Woman was created. As Christians, we celebrate the brilliance of God’s plan in bringing opposites together to make a whole (Genesis 2:24), and we celebrate God’s glory displayed in males along with the incredible reality that males have no glory apart from females (I Corinthians 11:7).

The article in Babytalk touched the surface of this, briefly exulting in the abilities and inclinations (what we Christians often call ‘gifts’) unique to each sex, and I commend Dr. Sethi for it. But the editors of Babytalk felt the need to ensure that no one mistook this little article for a cloud, and added their own silver lining in an additional box that (thankfully) is only seen in the printed version, titled, “It’s Not All Pink and Blue”:

Before you run out and buy a Tonka for your son, recognize that this research is about the average baby, not your little guy or gal. Here are some key points to keep in mind about the wide range of normal behaviors:

All is well thus far, and most of their subsequent points aren’t too bad (but neither are they too great; do our TV’s not preach well enough about how individual everybody is?). The first point, however, flatly contradicts the preceding article while offering no grounds for its assumption:

A baby is herself first, and a girl second. Your child’s individuality plays a much more influential role than sex. So encourage all of your baby’s interests, even if they seem stereotyped or at odds with what’s “normal.”

It’s a funny brand of logic- the article consistently points to the differences between male and female, yet the editors feel the need to immediately play the trump card ensuring that every child is defined by their “individuality” (”preference”? “orientation”? “choice”?) rather than how they have been made. Every child has the potential to incline towards gender confusion, and the editors have made sure that the reader’s mind is assured that this is what is truly normal.

Normal was identified in the article: boys behave in certain ways, girls behave in certain differing ways. Yet the point is made to ensure a new kind of normalcy, apart from any law or code or morals: the parent must encourage all their child’s interests, while refraining from altering that child’s behavior to fit any stereotyped mould.

If this is what many-a-parent who waits in a pediatrician’s office nonchalantly soaks in, it is a frightening prospect for the future of this generation.

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him. - Proverbs 22:15

A Puritan’s Thoughts on Movie-Watching

Amusement must never become an end in life. It
must always be a means, a help on the way–just
as sleep is, just as rest is. An hour’s amusement,
should be to you, just what a night’s sleeping is. It
should make you stronger, clearer-headed, braver,
calmer-souled, more hopeful, more earnest, more
enthusiastic–inspiring you for godly living.

Anything which leaves a taint of impurity upon the
life, or starts a thought of impurity in the mind,
anything which degrades or debases the soul–is
an unfit and unworthy amusement for a Christian.
Christian amusements must be such, as do not
harm spiritual life; they must be means of grace.

- J. R. Miller, In Green Pastures

On Being A Mommy

Was I foolish to ask God to place such a precious little person into my care? To allow me to so poorly show His love to one completely loved by Him? Is He big enough to make me soft and patient and loving? To make me into a mother that can raise this wee little lass to know and love Him even more than I do?
The happy and scared and trembling feeling of holding the new little baby makes me pray for God’s hand to be on me so I can love and care for her as I should.
The midnight feedings and fussy evenings make me contemplate God’s patience with us when we so often try it. I want to show as much of that patience as possible to our kids so they never have to feel that God isn’t patient with them because I am not patient with them.
It is a wonderful and challenging and exciting thing to try to show Jesus to Micaiah.
It gets hard sometimes to not be able to calm her crying or satisfy her longings…whatever they may be…and then she makes a cute face or calms down in my arms and I melt.
Other times I just stare at her face because she is crafted and designed by our Father and I could watch her for hours…The little faces she makes and the way she studies things. (Mostly walls and lamps. )
I cannot begin to describe exactly how it feels to be in this new adventure, but I know that I am different because she is here and that I love her, and that I think I see more of how Jesus sees us because of how I see her.

My Sin Does Not Deserve This:

“That Christ should come from the eternal bosom of his Father, to a region of sorrow and death, John i. 18; that God should be manifested in the flesh, the Creator made a creature, Isa. liii. 4; that he that was clothed with glory, should be wrapped with rags of flesh, 1 Tim. iii. 16; that he that filled heaven, should be cradled in a manger, John xvii. 5; that the God of Israel should fly into Egypt, Mat. ii. 14; that the God of strength should be weary; that the judge of all flesh should be condemned; that the God of life should be put to death, John xix. 41; that he that is one with his Father, should cry out of misery, ‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!’ Mat. xxvi. 39: that he that had the keys of hell and death, Rev. i. 18, should lie imprisoned in the sepulchre of another, having, in his lifetime, nowhere to lay his head; nor after death, to lay his body, John xix. 41, 42; and all this for man, for fallen man, for miserable man, for worthless man, is beyond the thoughts of created natures.

The sharp, the universal and continual sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, from the cradle to the cross, does above all other things speak out the transcendent love of Jesus Christ to poor sinners.

That wrath, that great wrath, that fierce wrath, that pure wrath, that infinite wrath, that matchless wrath of an angry God, that was so terribly impressed upon the soul of Christ, quickly spent his natural strength, and turned his moisture into the drought of summer, Ps. xxxii. 4; and yet all this wrath he patiently underwent, that sinners might be saved, and that ‘he might bring many sons unto glory,’ Heb. ii. 10.”

-Thomas Brooks, 1608-1680

O, what great foolishness to treat sin so lightly! O what greater foolishness to think so little of the grace of God in Christ as I do! May I live repentantly, humbly, thankfully, and joyfully in the wake of such a Redeemer.

A Guarantee to Abound

God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.   -II Corinthians 9:8

First, a statement about God’s uncontainable power: God is able.

Next, the details of this abiblity: to make all grace abound.

Then, the object: to you.

Last, the consequence or end: so that…

Thus, because of God’s immutable sovereignty, we therefore have all sufficiency in all things at all times. God’s ability (which has no end) gives us all sufficiency (which therefore also has no end). It is by this sufficiency (in all things, at all times, secured by the All in All Himself) that we can and shall move forward to do good works; and not just to accompish some things, but to abound in every good work. What a promise, what a hope.

Cowper Is a Good Friend to Those of Us Who Forget How to Pray

God of my life, to Thee I call;
Afflicted, at Thy feet I fall;
When the great water-floods prevail,
Leave not my trembling heart to fall.

Friend of the friendless and the faint,
Where should I lodge my deep complaint?
Where but with Thee, whose open door
Invites the helpless and the poor?

Did ever mourner plead with Thee
And Thou refuse that moumer’s plea?
Does not the word still fixed remain
That none shall seek Thy face in vain?

Fair is the lot that’s cast for me;
I have an Advocate with Thee.
They whom the world caresses most
Have no such privilege to boast.
 
Poor though I be, despised, forgot,
Yet God, my God, forgets me not;
And he is safe and must succeed
For whom the Lord vouchsafes to plead.
 
Then hear, 0 Lord, my humble cry
And bend on me Thy pitying eye.
To Thee their prayer Thy people make:
Hear us for our Redeemer’s sake

-William Cowper, Olney Hymns

Listen to a great version by Red Mountain Church here.

We Would Be Poets; Or, Wondering Why Psalm 114 Exists

Psalm 114

When Israel went out from Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became his sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.

3 The sea looked and fled;
Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs.

5 What ails you, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?

7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water,
the flint into a spring of water.

Have you ever wondered why a particular passage is in the Bible? When I read Psalm 114 a few days ago, I had to wonder why it even exists. It’s ‘plot’ is simply another retelling of the exodus, which has already been versified in previous Psalms (take 78, 105, 106, and others) and that more thoroughly. The Psalm’s only exhortation is for the earth to ‘tremble’ in verse 8, which, again, has been amply covered elsewhere. So Psalm 114 does not exist to tell us history we didn’t know, and it doesn’t exist to tell us to do something we don’t already know we should do.

So why this little song? I can see two attributes of Psalm 114 that I think may point us to an answer:

1. The Psalm is telling us about what God has done, and

2. It is telling us about what God has done in the form of poetry.

From the first point, I conclude that theology (the study of who God is and what He has done) is application.That is to say, to learn about God is to glory in who God is. So when we read and learn and talk about what God has done, that is enough; He is pleased. And this is exactly why the second point is important: reading and learning and talking about God is not the stuff of dusty textbooks and pretentious classrooms and the recitation of rote words and phrases. It (that is to say, theologizing) is the stuff of poets. Learning about God should make me think about skipping mountains and how the ocean might look if it was terrified and, more importantly, why the ocean might be terrified. I should wonder why such a big God would choose to display His might by bringing the water of life out of a dead, dry rock. I should think about God in terms of an exuberant song. I should learn to be a poet.

A Borrowed Praise

The Lord is King! lift up thy voice,
O earth; and all ye heavens, rejoice!
From world to world the joy shall ring,
The Lord omnipotent is King.

The Lord is King! who then shall dare
resist his will, distrust his care,
or murmur at his wise decrees,
or doubt his royal promises?

The Lord is King! bow down you must,
the Judge of the all the earth is just;
holy and true are all his ways;
let every creature speak his praise.

He reigns! ye saints, exalt your strains;
your God is King, your Father reigns;
and he is at the Father’s side,
the Man of love, the Crucified.

Come, make your wants, your burdens known;
he will present them at the throne;
and angel bands are waiting there
his messages of love to bear.

The Lord is King! lift up thy voice,
O earth; and all ye heavens, rejoice!
From world to world the joy shall ring,
The Lord omnipotent is King.

- Josiah Conder (1789-1855)

Check out this version, by Nathan Partain. My attention was first caught by this incredible line: The Lord is King, bow down you must. Sit on that awhile…

Then take a second look at the second verse. If the Lord is indeed King, the writer asserts, there is no way, no option, no cause, no justification, and no possibility that we should resist, distrust, or doubt His perfect decrees and promises. If we could slow down and meditate on the Lord’s Kingship as Josiah Conder has done in composing this hymn, we just might begin to contribute to the ringing joy of Christ’s praise.

Pretty, But Not Insignificant