Well, I decided to get adventurous and attempt to host this blog on my own server.  It appears that I managed to actually accomplish the install without and serious problems (although there’s still plenty of time for that to happen!).

 

Although I have some tweaking to do yet, everything seems to be functional and running as designed, so I’ll be making all my new posts at the new address.  This is the link to the new address.

“ ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’” (Eph. 6:2-3)

This verse in Ephesians follows the familiar command, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord,” and as A.W. Pink writes in Chapter 3 of The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross,

“It is too often assumed that this fifth commandment is addressed to young folks only. Nothing can be further from the truth.” (p. 59) 

I realize that I have definitely made this unconscious assumption – that obedience and honoring were more or less synonymous, and that the command somehow becomes less forceful as I move further into adulthood. Pink aggressively counters this assumption:

“The conclusion that this commandment loses force when childhood is left behind is to miss at least half of its deep significance. As intimated, the word ‘honor’ looks beyond obedience, though that is its first import. In the course of time, the children grow to manhood and womanhood, which is the age of full personal responsibility, the age when they are no longer beneath the control of their parents, yet has not their obligations to them ceased. They owe their parents a debt that they can never fully discharge. The very least they can do is to hold their parents in high esteem, to put them in the place of superiority, to reverence them.” (p. 59) 

Over the last few years, I have been blessed to watch as my parents have used their own example to display the true extent of the command, “Honor your father and mother.” Here are two brief summaries of their stories.

   Seven years ago, my Dad’s father abruptly terminated him from a job into which my Dad had poured time and emotion, sending my Mom into depression, uprooting them from their home, church and close friends. Dad had to find a new job, a new place to live, a new way to provide for his family. God’s grace was at work in Dad’s heart, though, and over time he worked to keep a broken relationship open, taking his days off from work to drive 4 hours to see his father and talk with him, often about the Gospel.

   Three years ago my grandfather was diagnosed with a degenerative heart disorder as well as Alzheimers; he has grown steadily weaker, and lives now as a resident of the nursing home which he owns. My Dad continues to make 4-hour drives to see his father, to eat lunch with him, to talk with him for a few minutes. Of three brothers, my Dad is the only one whose care and compassion for his father show through in their visits. Grand-dad often doesn’t recognize his own sons much anymore, but for some reason when Dad is there he perks up and is a little more himself.

   Dad doesn’t have to take his days off to drive 8 or 9 hours round trip, and visit the very nursing home where his father showed him none of the honor that he had earned through years of faithful service. But he does it joyfully, and in his visits he shows something unusual to everyone who sees him. HE HONORS HIS FATHER, through the grace of God working in him.

   Thirty-two years ago, my newly-divorced grandmother (Nonna) moved in with her daughter, my Mother. She and Dad could not have known the impact that would have on our family and their marriage. We have many, many wonderful memories of my Nonna, but there were hard times too. My parents’ marriage suffered incredible strain as time went on; sometimes that strain was caused by my grandmother’s conscious, deliberate sin.

   Dad and Mom didn’t have to care for Nonna as well as they did, for as many years as they did. As she required more and more attention, they could easily have found a place for her where other people would have provided for Nonna’s physical needs. But they both, especially Mom, desperately wanted Nonna to stay at home with them, because something would have been missing anywhere else. No caregiver, however well-trained, no matter how good their intentions, would have HONORED Nonna as her daughter did.

   In the last couple years, Nonna’s physical and mental abilities degraded little by little, forcing my Mom to do more and more for her. For the last couple months, my Mom was taking care of all her mother’s physical needs, and supporting her spiritually as well.

   Five weeks ago my grandmother, who did love her Lord Jesus Christ with all her heart, went home to be with Him. She was at home, in her bed, my Mom and Dad by her side. They were singing hymns to her, reading the Scripture to her, encouraging her as she faced her final battle. Mom and Dad HONORED THEIR MOTHER to the very last instant of her life here on earth, and beyond. Nonna’s homegoing celebration (as we called the funeral service) was exactly as she had wanted – everything was designed to worship the God she loved and to HONOR her desires for those she left behind.

My words are totally inadequate to convey my respect and gratefulness for the way my parents, grandparents six times over, have lived out a deep honor toward their own parents. Over the last few years especially, it seems as though God has turned a magnifying glass on them for me, amplifying their actions and attitudes, demonstrating that they are still fervently obeying the command, “honor your father and mother.”

Dad and Mom, I pray that God will honor your service to Him and your parents, and that it will indeed “go well with you, and that you may live long in the land.” I look forward to the opportunities I will have, small and large, to make up for many lost years and honor my father and mother as well. By the grace of Christ working in you, your lives have set the standard high.

“The Word of Victory” is the next-to-last chapter of A.W. Pink’s The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross. I’ve been reading through this as part of Tim Challies’ Reading Through the Classics series. Tim gives a good thorough review of the chapter at his site today.

In this chapter Pink examines Jesus’ words, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) These words of Christ are more “approachable” for me than some of His other words from the cross. While Pink digs deep into the implications of this statement, the general conclusions seem to be a little easier to draw out.

Here are the major points that he examines:

“Here we see:
1. The accomplished fulfillment of all the prophecies that had been written of Him ere He should die.
2. The completion of His sufferings.
3. The goal of the incarnation is reached.
4. The accomplishment of the atonement.
5. The end of our sins.
6. The fulfillment of the law’s requirements.
7. The destruction of Satan’s power.”

The first thing that I noticed in this chapter was the disparity between the situation which the onlookers saw, and the actual reality of the situation. Those around the Cross saw a defeated man who was near death. No one survived crucifixion – the man they saw there was in the most helpless, hopeless position imaginable. They would never have guessed that these words were a declaration of the greatest victory that ever had been, or ever would be. As Pink says,

“From the words of the victim, we turn now to the words of the victor.”

This is perhaps one of the most incredible contrasts between perception and reality ever to exist.

Second was the presence and clarity of the Gospel in these words. In 5 of the 7 sections of the chapter Pink digs deep into how this saying us about the Gospel. It really is the climax of Jesus’ work. He told His disciples that He had come to “seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10); He was on the cross to complete that mission. Pink uses words like goal, accomplishment, fulfillment, and destruction to describe what Christ meant when He said, “It is finished.”

“All that a holy God requires has been done…All that is necessary for the sinner is to rest now by faith upon what Christ did.” (p. 121)

The last thing, very convicting for me, was how weak my love and gratitude towards Christ is. As he summarizes again the events surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion, Pink writes:

“We cannot contemplate too often what the Saviour endured in order to secure our salvation. The better we are acquainted with His sufferings, and the more frequently we meditate thereon, the warmer will be our love and the deeper our gratitude.”(p. 115)

I think of Christ’s words in Luke 7:47 – “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” My love for the Lord isn’t small because I don’t have much sin to forgive; my problem is that I don’t realize the actual depth of my sin, and how much God has forgiven through Jesus’ sacrifice. The only way to grow in my love for Christ is to stay near the Cross, to stay near the Fountain that both reveals and cleanses my sin day by day.

The major theme of A.W. Pink’s The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross is that Christ’s death was completely unique because He was truly the Son of God. Every one of His words, every action, displayed in some way that He was Divine.

During Bible study last Friday night, I was reminded that Jesus had predicted this very thing as He repeatedly told the Judeans who He was. After attending the Feast of Booths He stayed near Jerusalem, teaching in the temple and becoming more aggressive about declaring His relationship to God the Father. John 8:58 is the verse I’m most familiar with – Jesus’ statement that “before Abraham was, I am.” However, at least twice before during that discussion He explicitly claimed to be the Jehovah God who had revealed Himself to Moses.

In John 8:28, Jesus predicts His death, and what that will reveal: “So Jesus said to them, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am.’” I never really noticed this – that His very death would prove that He was the eternal God. Matthew’s Gospel confirms that Jesus’ words were indeed true: “When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’” (Mt. 27:54)

I’m really glad to have read this book by Pink, since it has taken John 8:28 and just opened it up. Each chapter of the book shows how Christ’s words were true – how he showed in every word He spoke from the cross that He was no mere man, but God Himself.

These words are so easy to write, but so difficult to absorb – how unspeakable is it that the God who descended on Mount Sinai in fire and smoke, so holy that He could not be approached, is the same God who hung bleeding on the cross, made sin for me. Meditating on that certainly helps to deal with my pride and self-focus. “Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15)

It Is Finished – Part II (Hark, the Voice of Love and Mercy)

This is the second of two of Gadsby’s Hymns I mentioned which Red Mountain Music has updated. Again drawing on Jesus’ proclamation, “It is finished,” the writer of this hymn focuses on the floodgates of blessing which result from Christ’s finished work. I am very moved by the truth in these two hymns, the accomplished fact of my redemption and the fact that no more work for salvation needs to be done. Great cause for rejoicing and gratefulness.

Taken from the Gadsby Hymnal #93
Words: Attributed to Jonathan Evans, 1784 and Benjamin Francis, 1787

Hard, the voice of love and mercy,
Sounds aloud from Calvary!
See, it rends the rocks asunder,
Shakes the earth and veils the sky!
“It is finished, It is finished,”
Hear the dying Savior cry.

“It is finished,” O what pleasure,
Do these charming words afford.
Heavenly blessings, without measure,
Flow to us from Christ the Lord.
“It is finished, if is finished,”
Saints the dying words record.

Finished all the types and shadows,
Of the ceremonial law;
Finished all that God had promised;
Death and hell no more shall awe.
“It is finished, it is finished,”
Saints from hence your comfort draw.

Tune your harps anew, ye seraphs;
Join to sing the pleasing theme;
Saints on earth and all in heaven,
Join to praise Immanuel’s name.
Hallelujah! Hellelujah!
Glory to the bleeding Lamb!

©2006 Red Mountain Music; www.redmountainmusic.com

It Is Finished

This week in The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross, I’ve been reading Chapter 6, “The Word of Victory.” In in A.W. Pink expounds Christ’s triumphant words, “It is finished.” As I read the chapter, I was thinking of two old hymns from the Gadsby’s Hymnal which Red Mountain Music has updated. The first is titled, simply, “It Is Finished.” The writer, Thomas Kelly, centers this hymn on the victory which only Christ could have won. As one of my former pastors used to say, If this doesn’t get you on ‘shouting ground’ I don’t know what will!

Taken from the Gadsby Hymnal #982
Words – Thomas Kelly, 1769-1855

“It is finished!” Sinners hear it;
Tis the dying Victor’s cry;
“It is finished!” Angels bear it,
Bear the joyful truth on high:
“It is finished!” Tell it through the earth and sky!

Justice, from her awful station,
Bars the sinner’s peace no more;
Justice views with approbation
What the Savior did and bore;
Grace and mercy now display their boundless store.

“It is finished!” All is over;
Yes, the cup of wrath is drained;
Such the truth these words discover;
Thus the victory was obtained;
‘Tis a victory none but Jesus could have gained.

Crown the mighty Conqueror, crown Him,
Who His people’s foes o’ercame!
In the highest heaven enthrone Him!
Men and angels sound His fame!
Great his glory! Jesus bears a matchless name.

©2005 Red Mountain Music; www.redmountainmusic.com

Reading in 1 Samuel 1 the other day started me thinking about God’s timing for events in our lives. When I’m waiting a long time for something, or there’s a difficulty in my life, I often ask “Why now?” Usually I can think of a bunch of reasons why now is really a bad time for a trial to enter my life. Or if I’ve been waiting, praying for something for a long time – why won’t the Lord bring it about? It seems like such a good thing – why isn’t now the right time for it?

I don’t think that I’ll get an answer 99% of the times that I ask “Why now?”; most of the time that question seems to be pointless even to ask – like there’s no ultimate reason behind the timing of my waiting or my trial. 1 Samuel 1 and Luke 1 have helped me get a handle on an ultimate perspective on events in my life.

In the end, history is really not about me. I know – that shouldn’t really be a startling revelation. Once I get a handle on what history IS about, the “Why now?” question suddenly gains perspective. History is about God establishing a Kingdom – that’s the ultimate story. The timing of every event in history serves to bring the Kingdom a little closer to its ultimate fulfillment. Events that seem unreasonable and disjointed from an individual perspective begin to flow together when I look at them through the lens of the Kingdom.

Why was Hannah (I Sam. 1:1-5) barren for so many years? It had nothing at all to do with her. She was to be the mother of Samuel, who would deliver a message of judgment to Eli’s family and anoint Israel’s greatest earthly king. These things needed to happen at a certain time – God’s time.

Why was Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-7) barren for so many years? It had nothing at all to do with her. She was to be the mother of John the Baptizer, who would prepare the nation for the Messiah’s coming, who would baptize the Messiah Himself. God had a time, an hour even, planned for His Son to come into the world; therefore, the forerunner had to be born at a certain time. Elizabeth would conceive in God’s time, not hers, to serve a Kingdom purpose.

The stories of Hannah and Elizabeth give me hope when I find myself asking, “Why now?”, or “Why not now?” Although I will probably not ever get an answer to the question, I have confidence that behind the timing of every event in my life there is a Kingdom purpose. Perhaps in eternity, in the Kingdom itself, I’ll see how God has woven thousands of years, billions of lives, trillions of seemingly random and disconnected events, into a flawless tapestry to the praise of the glory of His marvelous grace.

I’m finally getting caught up with Reading Classics Together. The discussion of Chapter 5 isn’t up on Tim Challies’ site yet, but I figured I’d get this posted and attempt to get somewhat back on track.

Chapter 5 of A.W. Pink’s The Seven Sayings of the Saviour on the Cross is entitled “The Word of Suffering.” In it he unpacks John 19:28, where Jesus said simply, “I thirst.” I am amazed at how much meaning Pink is able to unpack from these two words and the short verse that surrounds it. He is almost Spurgeon-like in his ability to take a small passage and mine it for a significant amount of meaning. He again draws out seven specific points. “Here we see:

1. An evidence of Christ’s humanity
2. The intensity of Christ’s sufferings
3. Our Lord’s deep reverence for the Scriptures
4. The Saviour’s submission to the Father’s will
5. How Christ can sympathize with His suffering people
6. The expression of a universal need
7. The enunciation of an abiding principle

Immediately on starting this chapter I was struck by the ultimate irony of Christ’s request. After all, this was not the first time in the book of John that He asked for a drink. In John 4, Jesus began a conversation with the Samarian woman by requesting a drink, then revealed to her that He could provide living water. The incongruity of Christ, the Fountain of Living Water, being thirsty is a major backdrop for this chapter.

The more I think about Pink’s first point, the less I understand and the more I’m in awe of the incarnation of Christ. Pink writes,

“The Word became flesh; He became what He was not before, thought He never ceased to be all He was previously.”

That Jesus was at the same time fully God and fully Man is stunning to me, and especially as he hung here on the cross. I simply don’t understand how Jesus could be God at the same time that He took on Him the sin of the world, and died in His body.

Pink also brings out that Jesus’ asking for a drink displayed His submission to His Father. He could easily have satisfied His physical needs, even on the cross, but in order to fulfill Scripture, to complete every single prophecy, He placed Himself under God’s will and let His need be known. Pink makes two applications of this to our lives, one in regard to thankfulness for all of our blessings, and a second about our own submission to the Father. The author asks,

“First, the Lord Jesus delighted in the Father’s will even when it involved the suffering of thirst. Are we so resigned to Him? Have we sought grace to say, ‘Not my will but Thine be done?’ “

In response to that question, it seems to me that on the surface it would be harder for us to take that attitude than it was for Jesus. He always knew exactly what the Father’s will was, always knew through 40 days of fasting, temptation, exhaustion, unjust trials, horrible torture, and crucifixion that He was carrying out a plan laid out from eternity. Somehow I think that because I don’t always know what God’s will is that it’s harder for me to submit, to willingly suffer. Now, I don’t think that’s right – there is never a circumstance in which I cannot trust the Father to do right; but I think there’s some room for exploration on that subject.

Pink’s final point is that in the words “I thirst” we see an expression of Christ’s desire for fellowship with his people. He reasons from John 4 that Jesus is refreshed by communion with His people, and that our love to Him actually satisfies Him. Something about that emphasis doesn’t seem right to me, but maybe that’s just because I haven’t really ever thought about Jesus having that attitude before. In chapter 2 Pink has written, “to have us forever with Himself is that to which he looks forward with eager and gladsome expectation.” Perhaps that is an aspect of the satisfaction to which Isaiah 53:11 refers.

Where is the Gospel in this chapter? I see it in point #6 – the expression of a universal need. Pink very ably points us to Christ as the only one who can truly satisfy our thirst.

“There is something in every natural man that is unsatisfied,” he says. “God made us, and He alone can satisfy us…Christ alone can quench our thirst.”

There is no more important activity for me than to come to Christ and drink deeply, continuously, and find all my satisfaction in Him. He has promised that if I hunger and thirst after righteousness I will certainly be filled, and He will most certainly keep that promise.

I’m way behind in my “Reading Classics Together” endeavor; took an unexpected reading and blogging break to take care of some family emergencies. More to follow on that – God has shown our family an amazing amount of grace here recently. I might ignore my need to read books in order and just skip to this week’s chapter, then go back and get the rest as time permits. We’ll see.

<This is a very personal chapter – it is really an examination of the salvation story of this dying man. Pink first examines the circumstances surrounding the presence of Jesus next to a thief on the cross, then goes on to break the episode down into 7 headings: “Here we see:

1. A representative sinner.
2. That man has to come to the end of himself before he can be saved.
3. The meaning of repentance and faith.
4. A marvelous case of spiritual illumination.
5. The Saviourhood of Christ.
6. The destination of the saved at death.
7. The longing of the Saviour for fellowship.”

There are three aspects of this chapter that really got my attention.

First was Pink’s emphasis on the sovereignty of God at the very beginning of the chapter. He writes: “From all eternity He had decreed when and where and how and with whom His Son should die. Nothing was left to chance…” Part of me just asks, wasn’t there another way? God, who could do anything He determined, deliberately chose the path from the garden of Eden to the Cross, knowing the incredible suffering that would involve. And Jesus Christ, eternally God, was from all eternity submitted to carrying out the will of His Father. There’s no way that I would have designed the world this way; but because God is infinitely wise and good, this plan of salvation is perfect. Wow.

The second major point for me was that of seeing the thief as representative of myself. Pink anchors the process of salvation in this first point – that my nature is no different than that of this man on the cross next to Christ. I am by nature an enemy of God, hating Him, speaking against Him, rebelling against His authority. As I read this section the words of the Stuart Townend hymn “How Great the Father’s Love” came to my mind: “Behold the Man upon the cross / my sin upon His shoulders / Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice / Call out among the scoffers.” I don’t want to see myself this way, but oh, how important it is that I do.

Equally as important as continuing to recognize my nature as the same as that of this thief, is communicating that to my children. It’s easy for me to treat my children as though the way they act makes them good people, that saying I have “good kids” equates to them having a good nature. Without discouraging or condeming them beyond what they are able to handle, I have to remind them that they are in fact sinners by nature who must trust Jesus to save them. About this Pink writes,

“Whilever you palliate sin or prevaricate about I, you are shutting yourself out from Christ. Christ came into the world to save sinners – self-confessed sinners, sinners who really take the place of sinners before God, sinners who are conscious that they are lost and undone.” 

Finally, I am amazed at how different Christ’s response to this man was from what mine would have been in the same situation. Earlier, He had petitioned His Father to forgive those who crucified Him. To this request He could have responded, “You are the reason I am hanging here! You have been mocking me, accusing me – and now you want me to save you?” But He says just the opposite. Early in His ministry, Jesus taught His disciples, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.”
(Matt. 5:44-45) In receiving this thief into His kingdom, Jesus Christ shows His divine perfection, as He told His disciples to be perfect.

This is ultimately an expression of the Gospel. An open enemy of God, justly condemned for my nature and crimes, I cannot do anything to save myself. Nothing in me would cause God to look favorably on me, and I could not reasonably expect Him to actually forgive my rebellion against Him. But through and because of His incredible grace, the Holy Spirit opens my eyes, makes me cry out to Jesus for salvation, and He is true to His promises – He receives me into His kingdom. What an incredible blessing. I need to meditate on this, to feel the gratefulness that the thief must certainly have felt even in his last moments on earth.