Tune My Heart

One of my favorite hymns over the years has been "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing". As I played it for church recently, I got to thinking about its words which were penned by Robert Robinson in the 1700s. Whether or not you're familiar with these words, they bear reading again:

Come, Thou Fount of ev'ry blessing, 

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing, 

Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet,

Sung by flaming tongues above; 

Praise the mount --I'm fixed upon it--

Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise my Ebenezer-- 

Hither by Thy help I'm come; 

And I hope by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger, 

Wand'ring from the fold of God;

He to rescue me from danger,

Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,

Bind my wand'ring heart to Thee;

Prone to wander-- Lord, I feel it--

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart-- O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

Our hearts need to be "tuned" to sing of God's goodness. After all, if the only thing we had to praise God for was our salvation from sin and an eternity in His presence, we still would have enough to keep us busy praising Him every moment of our lives. 

Charles Spurgeon once said, "God is so good that every moment of His love demands a lifetime of praise."* God's goodness is what, as Robinson wrote in his hymn, binds our wandering hearts to God. We are prone to leave Him, to get distracted and wander off spiritually. But the remembrance of His goodness to us should bring us right back to His feet, hearts tuned to sing His praise. 

Romans 2:4 states that "the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance". When we consider God's goodness, we are naturally led to a deeper realization of just how far short we fall in comparison. A heart tuned to sing God's praise is a grateful heart, but also a humble heart that acknowledges just how much God has done for us, and how gracious He was to do it, considering just how unworthy we are apart from Christ.

So as you get ready for church tomorrow, consider: is your heart tuned?

"I will sing unto the Lord, because He hath dealt bountifully with me." 

Psalm 13:6

*Spurgeon, Charles. The Practice of Praise p. 43-44

What Do You Expect?

I think it's safe to say that this year hasn't gone the way any of us had expected. So many plans have been cancelled, events have been postponed or called off altogether, and our daily lives have been upended. Even as things begin to open up again, things change so suddenly and so frequently, it's hard to make any plans at all. Never before has my generation of Christians (at least in the United States) been forced into such a literal practice of James 4:13-15.

"Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that"

I don't know about you, but it's hard to hold loosely to my plans and expectations about the future, let alone my plans and expectations of what today will look like. Yet, the Bible clearly teaches that we cannot expect things to go as we planned. Honestly, we can't even expect them not to go as we planned.

So, what can we expect?

I ran across Psalm 62:5 this morning. "My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him"

We wait upon God when we keep our eyes focused on Him, waiting humbly for Him to unfold His will for our lives. It is a moment-by-moment seeking of God, looking for His hand at work, holding our plans on open palms instead of tightly-clenched fists. To wait upon God is to expect only that whatever He does will be done for our good. It is to rest in the knowledge of God's goodness.

The rest of Psalm 62:5 mentions some things we can always expect of God:

• He will be our source of salvation and deliverance v.7
• He will be the only object worthy of our glorying in v.7
  
• He will be our source of strength v.7
• He will be our refuge v.7
• He will be trustworthy v.8
• He will be attentive to our prayers v.8
• He will be omnipotent v.11
• He will be merciful v.12
• He will be just v.12
  

In a world where we don't know what will happen next, we can confidently expect that God will still be God; unchanging, good, and sovereign over all creation!

When God Thins Your Garden

God periodically takes me through seasons when He seems to remove my close friends. It may be that they get married or have kids, or move away, or simply become too busy to spend time with me. This invariably coincides with some time off, and I end up racking my brain to try to think of a friend to come over or to go on a trip with me, only to realize that there's no one left.

During those times, it can feel like I've been forgotten, left out, or left behind. But the reality is that God is doing a purposeful work.

It's a bit like a garden. You see, a good gardener plants his (or her) seeds, and then lets them grow up together until they need more room. Then, the gardener will uproot some of the plants and transplant them or discard them to give the seedlings that are left more room to grow.

That is what God does with us. He sometimes removes a friend we've been growing alongside in order to give us both more room to grow.

I can look back at those seasons when God has "thinned" my garden patch and see how God has used the absence of friends to help me grow stronger and closer to Him in ways I never would have otherwise. My friends are a help, certainly, but they can also become a distraction, and I think sometimes God wants to clear away the people I lean on so that I have no other option but to learn to lean fully on Him. 

Seasons of thinning can be lonely, and naturally so, since we were designed for fellowship. But in those lonely times, we can take comfort in the fact that God has allowed these limitations for a good purpose. Our loneliness reminds us to seek His face, to learn that His presence is enough for this season. After all Romans 8:28 applies to the seasons of  "thinning" just as much as it does to the seasons when we are surrounded by friends. As Elisabeth Elliot once stated, "God never does anything to us that isn't for us."*

We are not forgotten, we are not left out, we are not left behind. God has merely cleared some space for us to grow. The thinning is not a punishment, but a blessing, if we will only yield to God's purpose in it and look to Him for comfort and peace.

And remember, each season of life is just that: a season. We are simply to accept each one as it comes, trusting that God knows what He is doing.

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." (Jeremiah 29:11)

*Elisabeth Elliot, Be Still My Soul: Reflections on Living the Christian Life. Revell: Grand Rapids, 2003. p. 27

Step Behind the Shield

My nephew and I were playing catch in the backyard the other day. We had a fuzzy ball and two round paddles with some sort of Velcro-type material stretched across to ensure that if the ball gets anywhere near your hand, it's sure to stay. 

It's a fun game, one I myself enjoyed when I was four, but it wasn't long before my imaginative little opponent decided something else would be even more fun. 

"I know!" he cried, holding up his velcro-paddle, "Let's play shields!" 

He then proceeded to rattle off a series of simple statements which turned out to be a set of very complicated rules. --After all, when you let a four-year-old make up the rules, they are subject to frequent and unannounced change. But basically, we pretended to "blast" one another, while using our "shields" to protect us from our adversary's blast. And somehow, he always happened to win...

The next day, I came across a verse that mentioned a shield:

"Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him" (Proverbs 30:5)

As Christians, we know that God is our shield. There are lots of verses that talk about God being our refuge, our fortress, our shield, basically our protector in every sense. But what stood out to me about this verse is the first phrase. How does God's word being pure connect to the thought that God is our shield? 

Well, the first connection that springs to mind is the fact that God's Word is His Word. It is an extension of Himself. He Himself is our shield, but His Word is a part what He uses to shield us. 

I did a quick search on the word "shield" in the Bible, and found this verse:

"He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler." (Psalm 91:4)

Notice that it said that God was the One who would be giving that protective cover, but His truth would be both shield and buckler. I think we all know what a shield is: it's something that protects, that intercepts an attack that otherwise would harm. I looked up "buckler" in my 1828 Webster's dictionary and found the following definition: 

"Buckler: A kind of shield, or piece of defensive armor, anciently used in war. It was composed of wood, or wickers woven together, covered with skin or leather, fortified with plates of brass or other metal, and worn on the left arm. On the middle was an umbo, boss or prominence, very useful in causing stones and darts to glance off. The buckler was four feet long, and covered the whole body."*

I'm no Hebrew scholar, but I was intrigued by the use of these two words which appear to mean the same thing. I looked up both words in my Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, and found that, while it is appropriate to translate either word as both "shield" or "buckler", the two words are actually very different, indeed. 

The word translated "shield" meant to protect "as if guarding by prickliness", (think hedgehog) while the word translated "buckler" meant, "something surrounding the person. i.e. shield, buckler." 

The word translated "shield" in Proverbs 30:5 was yet another word for shield, but in the manner of "the scaly hide of the crocodile". 

This information gives us an even deeper look at how God's Word protects. As an extension of God our Protector, it is tough and impenetrable, like a scaly crocodile hide. Its truth protects us both by offensively "prickling" up to keep the enemy at a distance, and by defensively surrounding us with its defenses to keep the enemy's attacks from touching us, no matter which angle his forces bombard. 

This reminds me of Ephesians 6:16.

"Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."  

Now, you might not see how this is related, since it is faith that is called the shield in this passage, and because the Word of God is included in this list as "the sword of the Spirit" in the very next verse. The connection comes when we remember Romans 10:17, which says, 

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God"

The foundation of the faith which quenches the fiery darts of the wicked is the Word of God itself. According to Strongs, the Greek word used here means "a large shield (as door-shaped)." Think of yourself surrounded by a shield that is tough, prickly, and specially designed to guard the door of your heart by quenching even the most destructive dart Satan could throw. 

And as Proverbs 30:5 reminds us, the purity and truth of God's Word is the bedrock on which that foundation rests. Because God's Word is true, we can trust what it says: because we can trust what it says, we can trust in the God it proclaims. Our trust then prompts us to yield ourselves to His protection, to step behind the shield.

So, dear reader, what are you waiting for? Open your Bible. 

Step behind the shield. 

*Webster, Noah. American Dictionary of the English Language. New York: S. Converse, 1828.  

3 Ways Christians Can Help America

On this 244th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, our nation is in the midst of several kinds of turmoil. For Bible-believing Christians, it can be discouraging to look around and see our country pushing away God, His Word, and everything we stand for. 

But we are neither hopeless nor helpless. We can fight back by doing the three things God has us here on earth to do. 

1. Pray

God has instructed us to pray for our nation. The most commonly quoted verse regarding prayer for a nation is 2 Chronicles 7:14, where God tells Solomon: 

"If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

Although this verse is a promise from God to Solomon, and specifically concerning the Jewish people, that same God is our God, and we are His people. He does answer when we pray, He does want us to seek His face, and He does want to forgive sin. So, I definitely think it is appropriate to use this verse as a reminder of the heart God wants behind our prayers, and of the loving attitude He has towards His people. 

We should also pray for America because of 1 Timothy 2:1-4

"I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."

This brings us to the second way we as Christians can help our country:

2. Give the Gospel

The answer to all the turmoil we see in our nation today is the gospel. Our nation will only change if individual citizens change, and God is the only One who can change the individuals. What our nation needs is for people to accept Christ as Savior and know the peace that forgiveness brings. 

3. Live the Gospel

How are people going to see that God has the power to deliver them from their guilt, shame, anger, fear, disappointment, addiction, worry, bitterness, or anything else, if we don't show them by living in the power of the gospel ourselves? 

Romans 6:4 says, "Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life."

Because Christ is risen, we have newness of life; not just in heaven, but right here, right now. That newness of life should characterize our daily lives. --After all, we are the light of the world. Matthew 5:16 says "Let your life so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

We can help America by simply being the Christians God wants us to be, praying for our nation, and sharing the gospel. 

So, as you celebrate the founding of our nation, remember that the future of America depends on you and me and our relationships, both with God and with our fellow Americans.

Why Church is Important (even when it doesn't feel like church)

I don't know what church looks like for you these days, but likely, it looks different than it's ever looked before. As our church has begun the process of reopening, I know many of us have struggled to get back into the routine of "in-person" church. 

For some, the challenge has been to break away from the pull of comfort. Inertia can be difficult to overcome, whether we've gotten used to sleeping in on Sundays, or having a cup of coffee in our pajamas while we watch a livestreamed service. The struggle to break away from comfort is real. 

And why is it a struggle to go from couch to church service? Because comfort feeds our flesh, and Satan most definitely does not want us to break away from a habit our flesh enjoys. 

But that's not the only challenge these days. For many, the greatest challenge is that church just doesn't feel like church anymore. 

In our state, the coronavirus restrictions require us to have no more than 25 people in the same room, which necessarily limits how many people can interact with each other. We are also required to wear masks when inside the building, which, again, makes things very different. There are no hugs or handshakes, no passing of an offering plate, there's no choir, and any special music is prerecorded. 

I have heard many people say that they wonder if it's even worth going to church, if this is what church is going to be like. Perhaps we should all just stay home and watch the service on our couches.  Why put ourselves through all the effort of showing up, if it's not going to feel like church?

In thinking through this for myself, I realized there were two basic questions that needed to be answered: What is the purpose of church, and can that purpose still be fulfilled with the regulations that are in place?

To answer the first question, I checked my initial thoughts against what Ryrie had to say in his Basic Theology. I came up with three purposes for meeting as a church. 

1. Church is for the purpose of corporate worship. Honestly, I think this might be what is tripping many of us up. Satan wants us to think church is for us, when really, church is for God. Whether singing, reading from God's Word or hearing it preached, telling our friends about an answer to prayer, or even giving, every part of our church experience should be focused on God. Worshiping together is a major function of the church. 

2.Church is for the purpose of fellowship. Now, this is where most of us will get teary-eyed, thinking about all the fellowship we used to have at church before the pandemic.  And it's true, our fellowship is somewhat limited by all the rules and regulations, but I was convicted by Ryrie's description of what fellowship is all about: 

"The goal... is to increase the health, strength, commitment, and numbers of the body"*

With this in mind, think about what you're missing. Is it the opportunity to strengthen, nurture, or build a fellow Christian up in the Lord? Or are we just missing chatting with our friends about our week? 

3. Church is for the purpose of meeting physical needs through giving. There are lots of passages I could quote on this one, but I want to point out that this isn't just about weekly tithes and missions giving. This is about that one single mom who comes to church burdened because she doesn't know how she will pay her rent. She asks for prayer, and after the service, a church member puts an envelope in Pastor's hand with just the amount she needed. --That's not going to happen over livestream. 

But let's assess each of these: I'm going to use my church's situation as an example, just because that's what I'm familiar with. 

First of all, can we still worship together? You could say, the answer is "yes and no". No, we can't all of us worship together in the same room. But yes, we can worship together. In our case, each group can have up to 25 people worshiping together. But even on Wednesdays when we're only livestreaming,  and there's just three of us sitting in the sanctuary, it's still church. Remember, Jesus said, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20) 

So can we justify the effort of coming to church even if our group ends up with only two or three people? Certainly!

Next, there's fellowship. Can we still increase the health, strength, commitment, and numbers of the church? Again, the obvious answer is "yes, but not as much as usual." However, we make the most impact on those with whom we have a relationship. Much of our interaction at church tends to be with those we're familiar with. But now that we have smaller groups, and people thrown together who usually may not have interacted as much at church, we have an even greater opportunity to fulfill the purpose of fellowship. We will naturally find ways to communicate with our particular friends, but what about others in the church? This limitation (and it is a limitation) of fellowship could actually be turned into a great opportunity. The dividing up of God's people could actually lead to greater unity when we come together later on.  So, is it worth the effort to seek to strengthen and nurture those with whom we "do church" each week? Definitely! 

Finally, meeting physical needs through giving. While we don't pass a plate around at our church, there is still a way to give in person. But of course, there is still online giving, so why should we make an effort to be at church because of giving? It is because of instances like I mentioned above. In the course of fellowshipping, we often discover needs that people wouldn't have told us of otherwise. Perhaps it is a need God will prompt us to pray about, or perhaps He will prompt us to meet that need, but my point is, meeting together gives the church an opportunity to find out about needs so that God can use the church to meet them. Is this still possible in a smaller group? Of course it is! In fact, people might be more comfortable sharing needs in a smaller group. 

If you still need an answer for the question of why church is important when it doesn't feel like church, go back to the first point again. Church is about God. Church is important, because God is important. Surely honoring Him is worth the effort!  

* (Ryrie, 499)

A Sinless Response to Suffering

This week I began reading through the book of Job in my time with God, as I do at least once every year. It's amazing to me just how rich a book this is, and how often it gets overlooked by Christians who label it as one of the "hard" books, right up there with Leviticus and Ecclesiastes. I won't say it's necessarily easy to read 37 chapters of anguish of soul, but there is so much for us to learn about God and our own trials through this account of Job's experiences. 

This time, as I read through the first two chapters, I was struck by what God said about Job's response to suffering. 

God allowed Satan to test Job's faithfulness by taking away all he had: livestock, servants, wealth, and, worst of all, his children. He was left with just his wife and the three servants who had escaped to bring Job word of what had happened.

Think about the enormity of his loss.

Now look at his response:

"Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." (1:20-21)

First, he acknowledged his grief. He rent his clothes and shaved his head, as was customary in the culture of the day. But then, in his grief, he fell down upon the ground and worshipped. 

He acknowledged God's right to take what He had given Job in the first place. He did not blame God, he did not even ask why. He just surrendered to God's will. 

And then he praised God. 

What a remarkable thing to do. I don't know if I would think to praise God in light of such grief and loss, but that is what Job did. And lest we think he was somehow harmfully repressing his emotions, look at God's view of Job's response:

"In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." (1:22)

Job sinned not.

Right there, in the midst of a magnitude of loss most people will never even come close to experiencing, Job responded sinlessly. He did not blame God, he did not argue with God. He simply accepted what God had allowed and chose to praise Him in the midst of his grief. Though Job was a sinner, just like you and I, this was one thing God said he did right.

But Job's testing was not over: Satan again accused Job before God, this time citing Job's health as the source of his faithfulness to God. So God in His wisdom --and yes, in His goodness, too-- allowed Satan to bring upon Job an ailment that would cause constant and intense suffering. Then, in the midst of his physical and emotional agony, his own wife tells him to "curse God, and die." Supportive, huh?

This was Job's response to her:

"What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" (2:10)

This response shows Job's unshakable commitment to the truth that God has the right to do whatever He deems best. How ungrateful we are to eagerly take His blessings, only to complain when He allows them to be removed, as if they were ours all along!

I'm reminded of a quote from Anne of Green Gables, where Marilla tells Anne, "God does not want you for a fair-weather friend". 

When suffering comes, it is easy to focus on the trial, seeing nothing but darkness around us, but Job's response shows us that when darkness surrounds us, when pain engulfs us from every direction, we can look up and find peace of heart in knowing that God is in control. 

God approves of this response as well: "In all this did not Job sin with his lips." (10)

The sinless response to suffering is to look up, acknowledge God's sovereignty, and trust His unchanging goodness. It is to surrender to God's will, and to praise Him, not just in spite of, but because of what He has given and taken away. In short, it is to trust Him.

 Fully. Completely. Stubbornly. 

Trust Him. 

"Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."

James 5:11