July 17, 2008
Bob Kauflin on Truth and Music
(HT: DG Blog)
Come Weary Saints - Review
I've been enjoying Sovereign Grace Music for about seven years now. I love how each song exhibits a distinctive blend of theological precision and musical excellence. I love how my affections are raised in proportion to spiritual truth being more clearly apprehended. I love how the centrality of the substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection of Christ on our behalf is set forth in various lyrics and melodies. The songs help me remember that just as I received Christ (i.e., by faith), so I am to continue to walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith (Col. 2:6-7).
Of course, many of the songs are also uplifting in tempo. Sovereign Grace Music employs a full array of instrumentation and is not averse to drums and electric guitars. I often play albums like No Greater Love while I'm running and doing other forms of vigorous activity. The energizing aspect is a side benefit, and I naturally enjoy this style of music.
Perhaps that is why the first thing that stood out to me in Come Weary Saints was the relative solemnity of the songs compared to those on other albums. I suppose this was not unexpected: I believe this is the first album Sovereign Grace Music has produced that is specifically aimed at ministering to Christians in sickness and suffering. In the product description, they note:
...all our problems don’t end when we turn to Christ. We still get sick. Marriages end. Children die. Our plans, great or small, are disrupted. We grow weary in the battle.Very true. Which is why this album is a most welcome addition to our home. With twelve new songs, there is much that can be said. Song writers include Steve & Vikki Cook, Stephen and Mark Altrogge, Joel Sezebel and Todd Twining, and Peter Gagnon. Bob Kauflin chips in by adapting older songs by Henri Malan (It Is Not Death To Die) and Samuel Trevor Francis (Oh The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus). Kauflin's rendition of the latter is probably one of my new all-time favorite songs (I've listened to it over 100 times).Scripture assures us that God is sovereignly using our difficulties as tools to make us more like his Son. “We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Ro 5:3–5) While we know these things are true, in the midst of our hardships we can lose perspective. Problems can loom large, and our hopes can grow dim.
I particularly appreciated the unity of message in Come Weary Saints. Each song seemed to complement all the others, as if variations on the same theme: God's faithfulness in the midst of our sufferings and temptations, ordaining all things for our good that we might enjoy Him both now and forever. One song thanked God for the trials and pain through which our faith is strengthened and we are sanctified (Every Day, by Sezebel and Twining). Others focused on the grace of Christ at Calvary which preserves us day by day. Still others spoke of God's ways being higher than man's. Etc..
I highly recommend this album. The songs are wonderful for personal or family worship, for uplifting background music, and for seasons of spiritual lethargy.
July 14, 2008
Keller/Piper on The Mysterious Distribution of Suffering
I previously mentioned Marvin Olasky's interview of Tim Keller in World Magazine. Here's one exchange:
WORLD: When logical arguments about the reason for suffering sound cold and irrelevant to real-life sufferers, what do you do?That brought a question to my mind, which I record below along with Keller's answer:KELLER: You shouldn't say a darn thing. If you're saying someone is right in the middle of it, then I think your job is to speak when spoken to. There is no decent thing to say other than your own presence, which mediates if you are a Christian.
The existential answer is that only Christianity believes that God has entered the suffering world. We don't know what the reason is that God allowed evil and suffering to continue, but we do know what the reason isn't: It's not that He doesn't love us, because if He didn't love us He wouldn't have gotten involved. Whatever the reason is it's mysterious but it's not indifference. The cross proves that.
CHEDIAK: With regard to our not knowing why God allows evil and suffering to continue: Do we not have some clue in passages such as the Luke 13 account of the Tower of Siloam? It seems that God visits us with suffering as a "megaphone" (CS Lewis) to awaken repentance. "Unless you repent, you shall likewise perish." And the persistence of evil, similarly, is due to God's kindness and patience, intended to engender repentance (Rom. 2:4-5, II Pet 3:9). I suppose there is some mystery in the "Why me?" question, if we suddenly get cancer in our later 40s or something. But isn't the question more like "Why not me?" Each new day is an experience of God's mercy.A most helpful distinction. See also John Piper's post today on the very same issue.KELLER: There are two ways to understand the question of the mystery of suffering - the 'why do we suffer?' question. There is an abstract theological version of it and a practical pastoral version of it. By looking to Luke 13 etc you are trying to answer the abstract theological version--which is, "why do human beings suffer in general?" Your answer is a good Reformed one, which I first heard John Gerstner give many years ago. He said, the real mystery is not why we suffer so much but why we suffer so little--the real mystery is why God is so merciful to us. OK. That is perfectly true. In general, our suffering is less than we deserve and in general the human race suffers so we can have the self-sufficiency knocked out of us.
But that's not the 'mystery of suffering' question for most people. They want to know why some people suffer so much more than others, why some relatively good people suffer horrendously and other relatively bad people get off the hook. Biblically, that is the more dominant question--see it in the book of Job, Habakkuk, and all through the Psalms. The real question is why there seems to be such huge unfairness in the distribution of evil and suffering.
I've noticed that young Reformed leaders prefer to look at the suffering issue from the abstract, theological point of view rather than the typical Biblical way or the way most people in suffering look at it. That's OK but you should know the limits of how much it can help people. It is of no use responding to a young husband with two young children who just lost his wife, who says, "why me?"--with the answer, "why not you?" Of course, I know you wouldn't do that (though I'm afraid I've seen it happen.) The strange distribution of evil and suffering is mysterious--God is all-wise and just and we know there is a reason for the distribution but we can't see it from where we stand. We have to trust him. Saying, 'we all deserve even more suffering' is true but not particularly helpful on the distribution issue.
So when in an interview I'm asked about the mystery of suffering, I usually answer the pastoral question, since that is where most inquirers are, or, as in my book Reason for God I separate the two questions and answer each.
Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections Audio For Free
Christian Audio is offering a free download of the audio book of Jonathan Edwards' The Religious Affections. Simply add it to your cart and use coupon code "challies08" to get it for free. (Challies will be hosting a discussion of this book, as he has previously done with other good books.)
(HT: Tim Challies)
Prodigal Love for the Prodigal Son (C.H. Spurgeon)
Speaking of Tim Keller, I was reminded of the discussion on his forthcoming book, entitled The Prodigal God (Dutton, October 2008). Many have taken issue with Keller's use of the word "prodigal" (see the comments). On the WTS site I saw a link to an old C.H. Spurgeon sermon on the Luke 15 account entitled "Prodigal Love for the Prodigal Son." In ascribing "prodigal" love to God the Father, Spurgeon apparently meant "overflowing" because he notes in the first paragraph that the subject of the sermon will be "the overflowing love of God toward the returning sinner." Excerpt:
See the contrast. There is the son, scarcely daring to think of embracing his father, yet his father has scarcely seen him before he has fallen on his neck. The condescension of God towards penitent sinners is very great. He seems to stoop from His throne of glory to fall upon the neck of a repentant sinner. God on the neck of a sinner! What a wonderful picture! Can you conceive it? I do not think you can; but if you cannot imagine it, I hope that you will realize it. When God's arm is about our neck, and His lips are on our cheek, kissing us much, then we understand more than preachers or books can ever tell us of His condescending love.
July 13, 2008
WORLD Magazine Book of the Year: The Reason For God
Marvin Olasky pens a great article and interview with Tim Keller, author of WORLD magazine's Book of The Year, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (Dutton, 2008). Excerpt:
WORLD: What's the difference between proofs of God's existence and "clues of God"—and why is the difference important?Read the whole thing (need to login to access the full text).KELLER: I can give you enough rational reasons to believe in God that fall short of demonstrable proof but that cumulatively give me warrant to say that Christianity makes more sense than alternate views of reality.
There are enough clues of God's existence that when you add them all up it makes more sense to believe in God than to not. That's short of proof. And if somebody says, you haven't proven it to me so I don't have to believe it, they're using a naïve rationality. The fact is, they believe all kinds of stuff they can't prove.
July 12, 2008
Tony Snow (1955-2008)
Tony Snow, former press secretary to President Bush (2006-2007), died this morning as a result of a three-year battle with colon cancer (which spread to his liver). In addition to being a conservative commentator, Snow once had a syndicated talk radio show, The Tony Snow Show.
Perhaps less well known is the fact that Mr. Snow was an evangelical Christian. He wrote an article for Christianity Today in July 2007 called Cancer's Unexpected Blessings. Here's an excerpt:
I sat by my best friend's bedside a few years ago as a wasting cancer took him away. He kept at his table a worn Bible and a 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. A shattering grief disabled his family, many of his old friends, and at least one priest. Here was a humble and very good guy, someone who apologized when he winced with pain because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable. He retained his equanimity and good humor literally until his last conscious moment. "I'm going to try to beat [this cancer]," he told me several months before he died. "But if I don't, I'll see you on the other side."His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity—filled with life and love we cannot comprehend—and that one can in the throes of sickness point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms.
Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?
Snow's article reminded me of a song I've been enjoying from Come Weary Saints. The song is called It Is Not Death To Die:
It is not death to die
To leave this weary road
And join the saints who dwell on high
Who’ve found their home with God
It is not death to close
The eyes long dimmed by tears
And wake in joy before Your throne
Delivered from our fears(Chorus) O Jesus, conquering the grave
Your precious blood has power to save
Those who trust in You
Will in Your mercy find
That it is not death to dieIt is not death to fling
Aside this earthly dust
And rise with strong and noble wing
To live among the just
It is not death to hear
The key unlock the door
That sets us free from mortal years
To praise You evermore
(HT: JT)
July 11, 2008
Church Reform When You're Not the Pastor
Greg Gilbert has three excellent posts so far on the topic.
1. Reform is easier in a small church than in a large one.
2. Do what Christians do---love.
3. Make yourself a help, not a problem, to your church's leaders.
Speaking of being a healthy church member, Thabiti Anyabwile has a new, short book out that spells out ten marks of one:
1. An expositional listener
2. A biblical theologian
3. Gospel-saturated
4. Genuinely converted
5. A biblical evangelist
6. A committed member
7. One who seeks discipline
8. A growing disciple
9. A humble follower
10. A prayer warrior
July 10, 2008
Exaggeration and Overcommitment
My latest article with Boundless webzine has been published. In a nutshell, the article is about how both exaggeration and over-commitment are distortions of the truth. With exaggerations, we stretch the truth to fit our purposes. With over-commitments, we either lie and say we will accomplish what we cannot accomplish, or we neglect our other God-given priorities in order to make our word good. Here's the opening:
I'd already done all the work I could do without the deliverable I needed from Bob. If I didn't get his report, I wasn't going to be able to finish the project on time. He'd told me that he'd have it for me by the end of the day yesterday, and while he meant well, we all knew that Bob just used words differently. End of the day could just as easily mean end of the week. You simply couldn't count on the guy to keep verbal commitments.Check it out.As nice as he was (he always meant well), everyone in the office was starting to make up excuses to avoid having him as a part of their project team.
July 08, 2008
Tough Questions Christians Face - Ligonier Conference
Speaking of conferences, I'm looking forward to attending and live-blogging the Ligonier West Coast Conference entitled Tough Questions Christians Face. From Dr. Sproul's invitation:
Christ has redeemed us to be a light that directs others to Him. Fulfilling this call requires us to be able to deal with the most difficult questions asked about the Christian faith. If we are unprepared for the darkness around us, it will be harder to counter it with the truth of God’s Word.Those six tough questions are:On September 26–27, 2008, during Ligonier Ministries’ 2008 West Coast National Conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., Ligon Duncan, John MacArthur, and I will look at six of the toughest questions Christians face. We will focus on the biblical approach to issues including science, the problem of evil, divine sovereignty, human responsibility, the exclusivity of Christ, postmodernism, and the Gospel.
1. Has Science Disproved the Existence of God? (Ligon Duncan)
2. Why Does God Allow so Much Suffering and Evil? (John MacArthur)
3. If God is Sovereign, How Can Man be Free? (R.C. Sproul)
4. Is Jesus the Only Way? (John MacArthur)
5. Should the Church Embrace Postmodernism? (Ligon Duncan)
6. What is the “Gospel”? (R.C. Sproul)
If you come, look for me typing away in the back of the room and say hi.
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