Knowing God and Ourselves

I don't keep up with sports like I used to.  If it's not play-off time, I hardly know anything that's happened.  My only hope is the highlight reel.  Every now and then I do get a glimpse of ESPN's Sports Center to catch the critical stats and scores.

Last week, I attended the National Conference that Ligonier Ministries hosts annually.  There are so many things worthy of making the highlight reel from that ministry event.  But rather than try to give you a highlight reel, I'm giving you the moment  that arrested my attention but also encapsulates the essence of Ligonier Ministries.

A man submitted a query for one of the famous Q&A sessions that all attendees look forward.  A father was explaining to the panel how his faith had been rocked by the death of his son.  He went further to state that he experienced severe bouts of anger against God.  This father simply could not reconcile his faith in a good God Who would take his son away.  My own initial instincts on how to answer this question might be the subject of another blog.  But I want to share with you the answer given by Dr. R.C. Sproul.  This answer, I believe, sets him--not just apart but above--the thousands and thousands of so-called Bible teachers.  Cutting to the core, his answer was quick and it ultimately came in one word:

"Repent."

He went on to say, "Repent in dust and ashes.  Crawl over glass in your repentance,  if you're angry at God.  "There's never been anything that's happened to you in your whole life, including this great tragedy and most painful experience that could ever possibly justify being angry at God.  There are ten million reasons why He should be angry at you."

My heart was thumping and my mind was racing.  Between my ears was a flood of possible answers more likely to be heard in church pulpits and Sunday School classes across the world.  "It's okay, God can handle your anger."  "It's natural, you're only human."  "God didn't take your son, that was the devil."  "Death is part of God's plan for life, you have to learn to accept it."  "You need the love of family, lean on people who will help see you through."

From a biblical perspective, the kinds of answers usually given in light of a difficult question like this range from the ridiculous, to the reductionistic, to the repugnant.  We either say things that are so stupid it's embarrassing, so simplistic it's insulting, or so evil we prove to be reprobate.  Sometimes we see the pain in the face of the questioner that we rush to bring relief.  But we fail to understand that by failing to correct their false accusation of God is a sin that hurts them far worse than their loss ever would.

Why?  Because that man's loss robbed him of experiencing his son on earth.  But a response that fails to correct his view of God could be used to rob him of enjoying God in heaven.  Not only that, but even on earth, the only true comforter is God Himself.  Disconnection from "the judge of all the earth who does no wrong" is a prelude to hell.

I've been listening to the ministry of Dr. Sproul since 1996.  If I had to pick the central theme of the ministry it's this: The Holiness of God.  If I've learned anything by listening to Dr. Sproul and putting on my best imitation of a Berean, I've discovered that God is good and I am not.  Any failure to understand and be convinced of that fact is only proof that I'm a sinful and fallen creature who, without the sacrifice of Christ to avert God's wrath and the merits of Christ applied to my account, have nothing good to hope for from the hand of a holy God.  While I haven't stopped sinning altogether, I have a far greater awe and appreciation for God's amazing grace towards me as the Holy Spirit enables me to sin less and less in this vale of tears.

There's more to be said on the topic, but this suffices for the day.  I am so grateful for the faithful presentation of God and His gospel by Dr. Sproul and Ligonier Ministries.  If you haven't explored their website, I say to you in the famous words of another man I admire: Don't Waste Your Life.  Tolle Lege!

P.S.  The drawing/sketch above is not mine, it's from monergism.com at this page:  http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/bio/rcsproul.html   If anybody's mad, I'll take it down- just ask!

Three Reasons To Give Thanks for the Verdict of the Zimmerman Trial

"In everything, give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus, concerning you."  

1st. Thessalonians 5:18

Looking for God's will in the whole matter?  There it is- at least in part- give thanks.  It's a great verse of scripture, it's clarity can't be surpassed, and it's also one of the best modern gospel songs I've heard.  But if it doesn't apply in a verdict that has broken so many of our hearts, then it doesn't apply at all.  If God's word is truly a lamp to our feet and a light to our path, then it why do so many claiming this truth fail to flip the switch when in the darkness brought on by dismay and disillusionment?  But the light still shines in the darkness... let's look at three reasons to offer gratitude to God for this verdict.

1.  The reminder that ultimate truth and justice is not found in fallen humanity or its systems.  This one should be obvious but it is still worthy of meditation.   Being made in the image of God, all humans have a kind of correspondence, albeit a broken one, with eternity and transcendent truths.  That is to say, we understand that there is such a thing as justice though we can't weigh it on a scale, measure it with rulers, or find it in a microscope.  The source of justice is the immortal, invisible, only-wise God.  We are as separate from it as we are from Him.  This verdict humbles us because the truth is, when all the physical evidence that humans can muster up and all the best human reasoning is accounted for, God is the only One Who really knows the true intentions in both Mr. Martin and Mr. Zimmerman.  Because we lack true certainty of what was in either of their hearts, we recognize our need for a divine perspective, holy justice and God Who is the source of both.  Remembering this also gives us hope because we know that the "Judge of all the Earth" will bring true justice to all and for all in His time regarding every case and question.

2.  The verdict highlights the amazing grace of the God Who justifies the wicked.  Don't take this and run with it.  I am talking about a very specific and narrow slice of this case and am in no way agreeing, excusing, or white-washing the decision of the jury.  But this is what I am saying-

If you're like me, your heart sank when the verdict was read.  I'm no legal expert and I didn't follow the trial with supreme precision, but I was profoundly confused that a man with no badge kill another and be found "not guilty".  Call it what you want, but I struggle mightily to get passed that.  What's more difficult is this: that so many of us have a strong sense of what is just in the case of Trayvon Martin (where we have no absolute truth of all intentions and actions) but can't see God's right to demand full punishment for sins that we know we commit against Him!

The Bible is clear: God was never obligated to forgive sin, but that the wages of sin is death.  The only thing God had to do was to exact justice on each soul for every sin until He was satisfied.  And that would take quite a while because an infinitely holy God is infinitely offended by even ONE sin.  God Almighty, Who had every right to demand justice and had the power to perform it, chose to extend mercy and grace to those who would believe on the Lord Jesus.  Think about the anger and rage that unjust persons like you and me had about this case.  Crying out for justice on behalf of Trayvon is one thing, but God had the right to carry out justice on a vile sinners like us... and He didn't.  Consider how hard it is to get over the verdict despite our own lack of perfection.  Now consider what God did in Christ on your behalf when He absorbed the punishment for the sins of His people.

Are you grateful yet?

3.  The power of radical, racial reconciliation is found at the Cross of Christ.  It is true that this verdict has once again opened up some old wounds that were still puss-filled and bloody.  Racial issues in the U.S. are complex, scary, and wearisome.  And yet, the Christian has this assurance: the sacrifice that reconciled man with God and made Jews and Gentiles one; that same sacrifice can and certainly will bridge the gap and heal the scars from the rift between blacks and the Anglo-Saxon controlled SuperPower that they helped create but feel so alienated from.  For it is written,

"And they sang a new song saying, 'Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.  You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.'"

Revelation 5:9-10

That's a future worth leaning into.  Christ's sacrifice to reconcile us to God not only makes racial reconciliation possible but guarantees it.  God's future promise is worth honoring today by working towards honest and humble forgiveness towards all as Christ forgave us.  We are blessed to serve a God Who made man diverse, but knows how to make us unified for righteousness and not for vanity like in the days of the Tower.  All of our blessings and hopes are rooted in the work of Christ at the cross.  To be sure, the path of the cross instructs us perfectly because we see that the Perfect Man's most perfect work involved the submission of His will for the sake of His Father's will.  We are challenged, but grateful for His example and encouraged by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to live as Jesus did.

Meditations on the Cross of Christ are crucial for this hour.  Anyone care to add to my list?

Grown-Up Prayer Requests, Part 2: K Street Christians and Reverse-Lobbying

The history of lobbying is an interesting one.  As Ellen Arnold explains it, President Grant liked taking walks to get away from the stressful environment of the White House.  Looking for a change of venue/scenery, the retired Union general would make his way to the Williard Hotel (still in existence today) and smoke a cigar in lobby there.  Being a creature of habit, others began to take note of his routine and preferences.  Individuals with their ear to the street began to approach him in the lobby with his favorite kind of cigar and segue or transition into the particular legislative item they sought to influence him with.  President Grant called them lobbyists... and the name stuck.

Of course in our day, there are some other names that come to mind when someone mentions the topic of lobbying or lobbyists.  But this is to be expected since even on a good day, lobbying involves the use of education, influence, and yes, manipulation to "encourage" those with power to act on behalf of one and not the other.  Sinful and flawed humans seek to gain leverage and access to the clout and control of other sinful and flawed humans who enjoy positions of power.  The result is inevitable: sinful and flawed means will necessarily lead to sinful and flawed ends.  No matter how well-meaning, the best laws and intentions of mankind ultimately lead to yet more abuse and disorder by those willing to twist even what is good.

But lobbying the Lord through prayer is altogether different.  First of all, it is for sure that God is absolutely holy and beyond corruption.  Secondly, the Lord is the source of all truth and knowledge.  Therefore, any time we take to tell Him about our situation, requests, or condition is merely for the sake of our own need to confess our sins or to express our need for His gracious and mighty acts on our behalf.  Thirdly (yes, even in blog-posts, there's always three) and most important, the lobbying effect is reversed.  Instead of us seeking to influence God to work on our behalf, lobbying the Lord leads to a completely different goal.

We do not expect God to bow to our rights and privileges as Kingdom Citizens.  Instead, spiritual maturity leads us to submit our will to His in an effort that we might serve His purposes in the earth with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength.  It's reverse-lobbying; He does not come under our sway, but with transformed hearts and His grace which enables, we get a glimpse of His glory and see our plans as poor and pathetic in comparison.  Then it makes all the sense in the world to lay down our agendas, putting our hand to the plow to join His.  In summary, where the typical lobbyist looks to use a politician, the Lord's lobbyists offer themselves to be used by Him for His glory.

So hopefully I've set this up well enough to start a more intense look at the scriptures.  My next blog entry, Lord willing, will begin a five-part series on Bible passages highlighting the Lord's Lobbyists and their grown-up prayer requests.  Stay tuned...

Grown-up Prayer Requests, Part 1

The last few months of fatherhood have been exciting and rewarding.  As my wife and I count down to our daughter Jael's 2nd birthday next Wednesday, its only natural to reflect on the milestones we've seen over the last 51 weeks.  One of the many milestones is the beginning of clear speech.

For sure, Jael has learned ways of getting her point across before she discovered words.  But its exciting to witness how she makes the connection between words/names and the objects and persons they describe or refer to.  I have also taken note of the first word that I have heard her use with extreme emphasis and intentional regularity.  That word?

EEEEEAT!

She knows what shoes are and if I ask her to go get her shoes, she'll gladly get them.  But she won't say "shoe".  She knows what brushing her teeth means, but she won't say "brush" or "teeth".  She's aware of other words too, but she hardly uses them.  But when it comes to food and eating, she's got that locked.

It makes sense, of course, because it's an immediate need.  It's also a legitimate need.  Not to mention the fact that it also brings her great pleasure to eat just about anything that her mother lovingly provides.   Since hunger comes suddenly and is both imperative and pleasurable to address, it is all important to learn how to attain the answer for all three.  We can see then, how a child is motivated to learn how to communicate with the goal of satisfying these three things.

All this was coming to mind during the month of June for me since our church was in the midst of a month-long prayer vigil that coincides with weekly guest preachers each Wednesday to create what we call "June Jubilee", a month-long revival at the year's mid-point.  We gather every morning at 6AM to corporately embrace God's invitation to "come boldly to the throne of grace" with a unified theme each day from a provided devotional thought.  The hour-long session goes something like this: 3-4 individuals lead in prayer for the first 30 minutes, then we break up into groups of three (triads) where each person takes a few moments to pray for the other two triad members, then one big circle with a final prayer given by one person.

I learned a lot about prayer as I listened to different persons lead.  Without being overly critical of any particular style, approach, pattern, or even choice of wording, I was at times amused, appalled and even convicted by a kind of prayer that reminded me of Jael's limited verbal expression/interests. In other words, how many prayers are only concerned with the immediate, self-indulgent needs of the individual praying?

So here are the questions I'm asking:

Do my prayers reflect or gauge my spiritual maturity?

Does my praying mindset reflect a growing biblical perspective of God, myself, and my world?

Is God waiting for me to grow up in prayer with requests that go beyond immediate needs in the same way that I can't wait for Jael to start telling me about something other than her cravings?

What would my prayers sound like if they reflected the priorities of someone OTHER than myself... like maybe God's priorities?

Hmm... sounds like a good blog series coming up.

Spinach and Spirituality

In light of recent events in Boston, MA- moments before I wrote this post- I pray that all readers will pray especially for pastors and church leaders to be appropriately sympathetic and empathetic in prayer for the victims while remaining vigilant regarding the desperate need to proclaim Christ with clarity and conviction; knowing that the gospel takes precedence over sentimentality.  

At the risk of dating myself, my first memorable knowledge of spinach comes from re-runs of the old Popeye cartoons.  Much love to all my people born between the mid 70's and early 80's who can remember cartoons that weren't imported from Japan!  Yes, Popeye was corny, but was apparently a part of an elaborate conspiracy to induce love of spinach among children via animated propaganda.  After all, if you had some spinach, you could beat up a bad guy twice your size and land yourself a date with with the ever-so-fine and shapely Olive Oyl.

The problem was, when I tried spinach, I hated it.  It was slimy, stinky, and while I was born on St. Patrick's Day, I had a real problem with the greenness of spinach.  I really did.  It was a scary food for me and how I wish I had a dog for those days when my mom (who is a great cook under normal circumstances) subjected us to the evils of frozen spinach- the off brand from KeyFood or worse, CTown.  But I probably would have loved my dog too much for that. 

And so for years, I hated spinach... almost as much as Seinfeld's Newman hated broccoli.  

Until I got married.  My wife, a budding culinary genius, heard my complaints about spinach and had the answer for me: eat it raw.  Of course, I initially scoffed at the very idea.  After all, I was a married man now--I was entitled to cooking; eating food raw was for bachelors.  Fast forward a few weeks from the first mention of it and naturally, I discovered that I loved raw spinach!  These days, it's extremely rare for me to go grocery shopping without looking for the freshest organic baby spinach I can find.  I eat it with almost anything and lately, Mrs. Dolce has even had me eating it sauteed in omelets and such.  Who would have imagined that an old childhood enemy would be so agreeable to me as an adult?

As  I mused on this reality, a passage in scripture suddenly made sense to me on an experiential level:

"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn.  In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again.  You need milk, not solid food.  Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.  But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil."

-Hebrews 5:11-14 (NIV)

I have found a maxim to be quite true: in the same way that children often despise needful vegetables, immature Christians have virtually no appetite for the soul-sustaining meat of biblical doctrine.  Happily content to snack on spiritual fast-foods that cannot sustain them in the long run, so many of our brothers and sisters are just looking for a sugar-high that comes from the syrup-laden, honey-roasted cracker-jack "truths" that excites the taste buds but cannot nourish them.  Like eating a .5lb brownie but only a sliver of turkey breast, they're easily excitable in the short-term but cannot find the spiritual muscle to fight the good fight of faith.  What do we do?  How can we help?

1.  Pray.  Pray for your Senior Pastor and those who preach and teach God's word in your church.  Pray that God would give them the boldness to switch up the spiritual diet of the congregation from time to time.  Pray that the Holy Spirit would empower them with creativity to preach/teach the Word with power and accuracy.  Pray that your preachers and teachers would endure the blank stares, yawning, the apparent failure to "connect" with the class or congregation.  Pray that they long for the approval of Christ rather than the "encouragement" that comes from men who don't even miss what they are desperately lacking. 

2.  Active Encouragement.  Do you simply expect biblically sound preaching and teaching every time you are in church or Sunday School?  If so, do you think it comes from the ether?  Your preachers and teachers are hopefully working for a heavenly reward... but does that mean you shouldn't express your support for their efforts to honor God here on earth?  When was the last time that you personally and directly thanked your pastor for his determination to honor Christ by preaching the truth-- whether it tickled your ears or not?

Your spiritual diet is infinitely more important than your natural diet for food and drink.  Take care not to settle for the empty calories of trite phrases, cliches, smooth words, and the like.  Seek the Lord's blessing for a well-rounded, spiritual meal that you can sink your teeth into.  Ask for help from a "chef" in your circle who knows a little more than you.  And to all my preaching and teaching friends- when you can't find a good story/analogy; when the alliteration scheme isn't working out, when 3 points and a poem just won't do: eat the scroll yourself and give it to them raw.  

"And he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel."  So I opened my mouth and he gave me the scroll to eat.  Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it"  So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth."

Ezekiel 3:1-3 (NIV)

Looking for Lions

To set the scene, you have to envision the throngs that came bursting forth to celebrate the Jewish Passover. The feast is a few days yet, but everyone is in place, crowding Jerusalem and the surrounding areas... like Bethany.  Only 1.5 miles from Jerusalem, Bethany was still buzzing from the obvious and undeniable resuscitation of one resident named Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, who had been dead and buried 4 days.  The Man responsible for this tremendous outbreak of divine power was Jesus of Nazareth.  This Man, accredited to all Israel by miracles, signs, and wonders was now headed to Jerusalem.

The Passover, as a feast hearkening back to God's deliverance of the Israelites from Egyptian Pharoah, has both a spiritual and cultural element to it.  Spiritually, it represented God's faithfulness to His promises concerning the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to provide their descendants with a land of their own.  But culturally, the Passover in those days was colored with nationalistic fervor and expectation for a renewal of Israel's glory days.  These people were in the moment and feeling like God's deliverance was at hand.  They were looking for a glorious King, Lion of the Tribe of Judah.  But ironically, it's the Greeks and not the Jews, according to John 12:20 who are looking for Jesus.  And this is how Jesus spoke to them,

"The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.  My father will honor the one who serves me.  Now my heart is trouble, and what shall I say? 'Father, save me from this hour'?  No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour.  Father, glorify your name! 

John 12:23-28 (NIV)

On the one hand, Jesus speaks of glory for the Son of Man and yet his words plainly depict pictures of death.  Not a student of Madison Avenue, Jesus makes no apology as He gives His servants a straightforward invitation to die with Him.  What else could He be saying when he says "whoever serves me just follow me"?  Make no mistake, Jesus is headed for the cross and is convinced that the cross is where both He and the Father will be glorified.

But who wants to serve a King with a death-wish? 

The favorite verse of every minister of music is John 12:32: "But I, when I am lifted up form the earth, will draw all men to myself."  Then the music gets loud and boisterous because we want to "lift him up" with glorious sounds befitting a king.  Of course, we glory in the wrong things because  seldom do we connect that verse with the one following it which says, "He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die."  Jesus is the speaker and is again promoting His death, not as the end, but as the beginning of the revelation of His glory.  When you think of John 12:32, do you glory in the cross so that you die to yourself?  Or do you get excited because the music just got hype?

John's gospel stays with this theme of mind-bending glory when in verse 41 John refers to Isaiah 6:10 to say that Isaiah saw the glory of Jesus.  But we know that there was only one vision in Isaiah 6 and that vision was of the LORD Himself.  In essence, John is telling us that the glorious vision of Isaiah was in fact a vision of Jesus.  That vision is glorious, but it doesn't add up in the human mind how that Being and His glory is the same as this Jesus and the "glory" of dying.

But what is glorious to God is not glorious to men.  To the eternal God, it is a glorious thing for men to renounce what is temporal for what will never end.  To Him, a man is glorious if he loves faithfulness to God more than he loves gratifying his failing flesh.  To Him, the man laying down his life for his friends is glorious.  God will glorify those who live and look like the Son of Man.  And as I heard in Pastor Walker's wonderful sermon today, "We have to live for Christ in order to look like Christ."  Truly, the glory of the Father is bestowed on the man who overcomes himself by the power of the Holy Spirit.  That one is crucified with Christ in the likeness of His death so that he/she will be raised to life in the likeness of Christ's resurrection.

But just like the throngs in Jesus' day, if you look for the kingly lion on this earth, you will miss the lamb.  If you miss the lamb, you will miss the sacrifice.  If you miss the sacrifice, you will miss the Christ of the sacrifice.  No cross, no crown. 

In his vision on the Isle of Patmos, John saw a scroll in the right hand of God Most High.  The scroll had seven seals on it and no one anywhere could open it.  John wept because no one was worthy to open the scroll.  But at that moment, an elder said to him, "Do not weep!  See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David has triumphed.  He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals".  But when John looks for the Lion, he sees a Lamb that looked like it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne.  It's an amazing vision because who would expect a lamb when a lion has been announced?  Who would have guessed that they were one and the same?  So it is on earth as it is in heaven.

Certified Forgiveness, Part 1: Extreme Measures

Whatever your philosophy or faith tradition may be, every human alive has to answer this question, "How do I handle my own guilt?  When I know I have done evil, what do I do with these guilty feelings I have?"  While there are dozens and even scores of common methods to deal with guilt, they fall under a handful of categories.  Let's look at one of them:

Method #1: Even out the scales by a deed or deeds I commit.  This is often expressed in terms like, "try to make sure your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds".  In Islam, we find passages in the Koran/Quran (I'm using Sahih International) that some Muslims believe justify the actions of the few who choose to become suicide bombers according to their understanding of what pleases Allah.  One of the less inflammatory passages that is sometimes used to support that idea is found in the following verses or ayat as the most clear rendering of that perspective from chapter or Sura 61:10-13:

"O you who have believed shall I guide you to a transaction that will save you from a painful punishment?  [It is that] you believe in Allah and His Messenger and strive in the cause of Allah with your wealth and your lives.  That is best for you if you should know.  He will forgive you your sins and admit you to gardens beneath which rivers flow and pleasant dwellings in gardens of perpetual residence.  And [you will obtain] another [favor] that you love- victory for Allah and an imminent conquest; and give good tidings to the believers."

Note the word "transaction" in ayat 10.  In trade and financial terms, a transaction implies an exchange that is agreed to between two parties because the value appears comparable and favorable to both sides.  So here, I don't mean to highlight suicide bombings so much as I mean to discuss the concept of "works righteousness".  For the Christian who is faithful to biblical teaching, the idea that a mere human could do enough things to earn a status of righteousness in God's eyes is repulsive.  But consider this: if a man believed he had no assurance of forgiveness apart from dying in a struggle on behalf of his god, is it really extreme for him to do just that?  Or, is it the logical conclusion once one has considered the current temporary life and the eternal state to come?  If by cutting in half your 70 year life expectancy to 35, you could guarantee the eternal rewards of your god... what would you do?

3T3QEJYS76RX 

Here's the main point to consider: the so-called suicide bomber goes to extreme lengths to secure forgiveness believing that he has power to please his god by what he does.  But the gospel of Jesus Christ teachings something even more radical:  It is not man, but God Himself Who takes on flesh and human nature to die on behalf of believers.  God is the extremist: extremely holy, extremely just, and extremely gracious.  He takes extreme action because no mere human can, by their own ability, be counted holy enough or righteous enough in the sight of a perfect and transcendent God.  So in doing this, Jesus, the Perfect Man fulfills the unyielding demands of the only True God.  Not only that, the same Jesus absorbs the wrath of God against sin.  In this way, God and God alone is glorified for there is no boasting of our works before Him for it is written,

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law, rather through the law, we become conscious of sin.  But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known to which the Law and Prophets testify.  This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified freely by his grace through  the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.  God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood....

Romans 3:20-25

Love, Dying, and Life

(I'm grateful to Melissa Fredericks and Marie-Marthe Samuels whose FaceBook statuses alerted me to the existence of this video, and of course, to Todd Friel and the good people over at Wretched TV)

Did you watch the video?  It's a very touching depiction of a husband's undying devotion to his wife.  If you watched just the first 40 seconds of it, you already know what you need to grasp what I'm trying to say in this post.  What struck me was that this man didn't simply deny any burden associated with the care of his wife.  He went on to positively describe the daily, meticulous caring for every need of his wife as "a great privilege".   I'm thinking, "sacred duty"--yes... "because I love her"-- yes... but privilege?  Great privilege?  Well, I guess that's the difference between a man going on 5 years of marriage and a man going on 50, huh?  I have hope that, because of the Lord's mercy, I'll get there.

Once I saw the video, my first thought was to my church's Young Adult Bible Study page on Facebook.  My purpose was to encourage the group to consider the reality of grueling love, consistent self-sacrifice, and perfecting patience that marriage calls for in the long run.  I was also trying to make a statement that this kind of love is not likely to be found in some night club or other places/crowds where the aforementioned character traits are not exalted and openly praised.

But then I thought about this video again and I began to wonder just how much this man really loved his wife.  I mean, she has Alzheimer's and is apparently at a stage where she doesn't know or can't perform normal functions for self-care.  That's tough, but she seemed pretty agreeable and appreciative towards her husband.  I guess that doesn't really minimize his efforts for and love towards her, but it does help when your spouse is at least happy about their treatment.

What if, however, she was not pleasant?  What if she wasn't thankful?  What if she didn't cooperate with him when he's bathing her?  What if she spit out half of the food that he fed her?  What if, despite her weakened condition, expressed disdain and attempted to refuse his choice of clothing and efforts to dress her?  Again, I don't want to take anything away from this man, but I wonder how he would handle a wife whose attitude was totally contrary to the way his is portrayed in the video.

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

-Romans 5:6-8

This is Holy Week, also referred to as Passion Week.  It is a sacred time in the life of the Church when we recall the depth of Christ's devotion to do God's will and redeem His own from their enslavement to sin.  And while we can and ought to affirm this husband's love for his wife, we must recognize that even this great human expression of love is impoverished and impotent by comparison with the love of Christ, the True Husband.  We are supernaturally blessed to have such a Spouse considering we were utterly contentious and at enmity with Him at first and even now we are often faithless despite His faithfulness.

If you think that I've turned an "inspirational" story into one that robs you of your self-esteem or fails to affirm you, I'm not apologizing.  But consider this: a high view of what Christ did on Good Friday depends on a low view of man.  If you think too highly of yourself, you will inevitably think too lowly of the awesome love of God the Father, in Christ, for those who trust in Him by the Holy Spirit's work of regeneration.