At left: The twelve hostages who were released yesterday
Today at 8:30 PM local time, the last three of the 23 South Korean Christians kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan were released to Red Cross representatives. A total of nineteen hostages were finally set free yesterday and today, after two members of the group had been shot and killed--Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu and Shim Sung-min--and two others had been freed on an earlier occasion.
As part of the conditions for the hostages' release, the South Korean government reiterated its promise to withdraw all Korean soldiers from Afghanistan by the end of the year--and also banned South Korean Christians from doing missionary work in Afghanistan.
(Sources include Chosun Ilbo, International Herald Tribune, and The Christian Science Monitor).
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Remaining Koreans freed in Afghanistan
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
John the Baptizer
One of the more ancient traditional memorials among Christians is the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, which is commemorated on August 29 in Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran traditions. This great man of God--the one who, according to Messiah Himself, has never been surpassed among those born of women (Matthew 11:11)--was beheaded at the birthday feast of Herod the tetrarch as the result of petty jealousies and vindictiveness. By convicting a monarch of sin, John lost his head, but gained eternal glory before that Lord whose way he came to prepare.
This John was the man that the archangel Gabriel was talking about when he told Zacharias, "You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" (Luke 1:14-17).
I was born on this date. If the traditional date of John's beheading is correct, this means that I share a birthday with Herod Antipas. But far better, I was born on the same date that John, the great Forerunner of Messiah, was "reborn" through death into an unending life.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
On divisions in the Church
“I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said, ‘Stop! Don’t do it!’
“‘Why shouldn’t I?’ he said.
“I said, ‘Well, there’s so much to live for!’
“He said, ‘Like what?’
“I said, ‘Well...are you religious or atheist?’
“He said, ‘Religious.’
“I said, ‘Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?’
“He said, ‘Christian.’
“I said, ‘Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?’
“He said, ‘Protestant.’
“I said, ‘Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?’
“He said, ‘Baptist!’
“I said, ‘Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?’
“He said, ‘Baptist Church of God!’
“I said, ‘Me too! Are you Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of God?’
“He said, ‘Reformed Baptist Church of God!’
“I said, ‘Me too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?’
“He said, ‘Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915!’
“I said, ‘Die, heretic scum!’, and pushed him off.”
—Emo Philips
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
"The LORD Always Before Me"
Notes for another sermon:
"The LORD Always Before Me"
Text: Psalm 16:5-11
Exposition, part 1: David—It doesn’t get any earthier, any more direct, than David’s descriptions of the Lord in this psalm.
- “The portion”: When you divide up food, “here’s your piece”; Yahweh, the Lord, is David’s piece.
- “of my inheritance”: my share, the part that I own, my section, my own possession, what I get, what I choose for myself. David says, “God, You are my section of my land. You are my own portion of my feast.” You are just as much mine as if I didn’t have to share You with anyone else on earth.
- “and my cup”: When you take your cup and fill it up with your drink, and drink it yourself, there’s nothing more yours than that. That is what God is to David—and that is what He becomes for each of you through the symbolized reality of the Lord’s Supper.
- “You [emphatic] maintain my lot”: When it’s time for me to roll the dice to see what happens to me, You, LORD, take them out of my hands and roll them for me. The roll is in Your hands, and so are the results.
- “I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel; my heart [literally, "kidneys"] also instructs me in the night seasons”: When David couldn’t sleep, it was his God who was telling his mind and his body what to say to him.
- “I have set the LORD always before me”: as this podium is in front of me, as that table is before you, David placed God in front of him, facing him.
- “Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved”: For David, God’s omnipresence was not some abstract doctrine to meditate on; it was as real as the floor he walked on and the food he ate! “God is everywhere” doesn’t just mean “God is in China and in Mexico right now”; it also means, “God is right in front of me, and God is right beside me.” He is at my right hand; I lean on Him. This wall will one day fall or be knocked down. The pillars that Samson leaned on broke apart and took the building down with them. But God is a pillar that will not wobble or fall over—and therefore, neither will David.
- “Therefore my heart is glad”: the part of me that knows, and that makes choices, is happy because it knows what it means to be this close to God!
- “and my glory rejoices”: everything that I have that is worthy anything—money, house, car, skill with my hands, knowledge, the respect my friends have for me, everything in me or around me that is honorable, it all quivers with joy!...because it knows that God is with me.
- “My flesh also will rest in hope”: David’s body feels the gladness of his heart, and it too is comforted and relaxes. It has nothing to be afraid of.
Exposition, part 2: You, and every Christian—So you say, “That was David. He was the king of Israel, he was called a man after God’s own heart, Jesus picked him as one of His ancestors, he got to write half of the biggest book in the Bible! But what about me?”
Do you wonder if any of those things could possibly apply to you? Do you think, “Well, that’s all right for David to say, but I’m just not ‘there’ spiritually?” Are you thinking that right now?
But consider this: David knew these blessings before Jesus came, as a foretaste. But now Jesus is here, and you are in Him, and He is in you—all of Him, the same God whom David knew.
Wherever the Spirit of God is, all of God is. Now David received all these blessings because he had the Spirit, but he was afraid and prayed that God would not take His Spirit from him (Psalm 51:11). But on Pentecost, God poured out His Spirit on every member of His Church, and He has never taken His presence away. You are in that Church and belong to it, which means that the Spirit of God is yours too.
So pray this prayer with David—Psalm 51:10-12—and receive God’s answer right here in this worship service. It’s obvious that He has not cast you away from His presence—He’s talking to you! He’s feeding you! He’s giving you His own body to eat and His own blood to drink! He is saving you, right here, today, and tomorrow, and every day until the last day. He has begun a good work in you, and He will complete it.
So the Psalms are not just David’s song—they’re yours too. Everything that David says about his God here is true for you too, because you belong to the same God. If anything, you can have even greater hope in God than David did. He put his faith in the Lord in the early glimmerings of the sunrise, but now the Sun, Christ, has risen on you, and full daylight has come, to give you hope.
Let’s go through these statements again.
v. 5—The LORD is your portion, your inheritance, your feast, yours to possess, even as you belong (body and soul, in life and in death) to Him.
v. 6—He draws your property lines. He watches over your bank account.
v. 7—He gives you counsel in the daytime, and He speaks to you in sleepless nights.
v. 9—He is a plenty good reason for your heart to be glad, everything you have to rejoice, and your fleshy body to relax in hope.
v. 10—He will take care of your future. You may die, but you won’t stay dead. Because Jesus wasn’t left to rot in the grave, you also (chosen in Him) can be sure that your body won’t be left to rot forever.
v. 11—He will point out the path of life to you—the path that starts with life, that is life, and that leads to life that lasts forever. In His presence are unlimited joys, and in His right hand are unending delights.
Everything good that you always wanted, in its best and purest form, is with Him—and much, much more.
Response: Prayer, and being in His presence—What is left out of the list above? The heart of the whole matter, and the best part of all! Here it is in verse 8:
“I have set the LORD
always before me;
Because He is at my right hand,
I shall not be moved.”
No matter how true all the blessings in all the rest of this psalm may be, how will you ever truly know them unless you do something about them? He is present—so make Him present to you! He is infinite delight—so delight yourself in the LORD! He is all-sufficient for all needs—so let Him be the fulfillment of all that you need!
But there’s a catch: If you set the LORD before you, He will be always before you. You cannot have Him near you so that you can call on Him in hard times, and then dismiss Him like a slave if you don’t feel like having Him nearby any more. He is the kindest of masters to those who love Him, but the hardest of tyrants to those who are stupid enough to get into a power struggle with Him.
So then, set Him always before you as your delight, and He will truly be a delight to you always! Let these Scriptures guide the way you actually live your daily and hourly life:
Psalm 1:1-2 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 25:14-15 The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, And He will show them His covenant. My eyes are ever toward the LORD, For He shall pluck my feet out of the net.
Psalm 42:1-2, 8 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?.... The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, And in the night His song shall be with me -- A prayer to the God of my life.
Psalm 63
Psalm 119:147-148, 164 I rise before the dawning of the morning, And cry for help; I hope in Your word. My eyes are awake through the night watches, That I may meditate on Your word…. Seven times a day I praise You, Because of Your righteous judgments.
Ephesians 6:17-18 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints --
Colossians 4:2 Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving;
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Peter 4:7 But the end of all things is at hand; therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers.
Let your mind be like a compass that turns toward the north as soon as the needle is released. Every moment that you can, turn your thoughts to your Lord—when you first wake up in the morning, when you are in the shower, while you eat, when you are driving, throughout your day of work, at the moment you finish in the evening, when you are waiting for someone to come or something to happen, during the last moments before you fall asleep at night, and when you wake up during the night. Let God be your mind’s feast at every possible moment. Choose Him, and He will show Himself to be worthy of your choice and more, because He chose you first.
Psalm 16
A Michtam of David.
Preserve me, O God,
for in You I put my trust.
O my soul, you have said to the LORD,
"You are my Lord, my goodness is nothing apart from You."
As for the saints who are on the earth,
"They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight."
Their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another god;
their drink offerings of blood I will not offer,
nor take up their names on my lips.
O LORD,You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;
You maintain my lot.
The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places;
yes, I have a good inheritance.
I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel;
my heart also instructs me in the night seasons.
I have set the LORD always before me;
because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices;
my flesh also will rest in hope.
For You will not leave my soul in Sheol,
nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
You will show me the path of life;
in Your presence is fullness of joy;
at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Sydney closes doors to apostate U.S. bishop
The Anglican archbishop of Sydney (Australia) has banned retired Episcopalian bishop John Shelby Spong from preaching in any of the churches of the Sydney diocese. The Rt. Rev. Peter Jensen gave this order in response to another Australian bishop's invitation for Spong to preach in St. John's Cathedral, and to give a public lecture at St. Aidan's Anglican Girls School (both in Brisbane).
Spong is well known for his denial of almost all the essential truths of the Christian faith--including the existence of a transcendent God, the deity of Christ, the fall of man, the Virgin Birth, the miracles of the New Testament, the atoning power of Christ's death, Christ's physical resurrection and ascension, the moral authority of the Bible, the efficacy of prayer, and the hope of life after death. He has also worked to subvert traditional Biblical gender roles in the Church, by (among other things) agitating for the ordination of women and homosexuals as priests. Despite these things, he was permitted to continue serving as bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, New Jersey, until his retirement in 2000. Since then he has maintained an active schedule of speaking and writing and is influential in some Anglican circles.
This latest discord over Spong, between two Australian Anglican archbishops, is the most recent in a series of fractures that have appeared in the Anglican Communion. This denomination numbering almost 80 million members worldwide seems to be headed for a major schism, unless God intervenes to prevent it, over a cluster of disagreements rooted in different views of the authority of Scripture.
(Sources include Christian Post and The Australian.)
Sunday, August 12, 2007
The anti-creation and its aftermath
After the beginning, man deformed the heavens and the earth.
Then the earth was again formless, and void;
and the light became dull over the face of the deep,
because the spirit of man was cowering over the face of the waters.
And man said, "Let there be darkness,"
and there was darkness.
And man saw the darkness, that it was pleasant;
and man loved the darkness rather than the light,
and he separated himself from the light,
and remained in the darkness.
And man called the darkness "Light,"
and the light he called "Darkness."
And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And man said, "Let there be firmaments
between me and the waters,
so that I may gain power over the waters."
And man built his cities
of wood and stone, iron and concrete,
and he seeded the clouds and dammed the rivers,
and took dominion over the waters,
but his heart hated the waters even as he dominated them.
And the evening and the morning were the second day.
And man said, "Let the waters be gathered to serve me,
and let the plants of the earth, and their fruits,
be mine and not another's."
And man fought great wars over earth and water and crops,
and he created great famines,
and many men died in the wars and by the famines,
and yet man when he was victorious thought that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the third day.
And man said, "Let there be light in the darkness,
and darkness in the midst of the day,
and let the signs and the seasons,
the days and the years,
be confused."
And man made little lights
in imitation of the great lights of heaven,
and he set them throughout the night,
so that his toil might never cease,
and with the smog of his cities
he turned the day into darkness.
And man mingled day and night,
and turned them all into dim and cheerless pallor;
and man thought that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
And man said, "Let the waters be polluted with toxic wastes,
and let the open firmament of heaven
be choked with noxious fumes."
And man deadened sea and sky
with oil spills and plumes of smoke,
and with the wreckage of ships and planes from his wars,
and with human corpses;
and man thought that it was good.
And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
And man said, "Let our will be done
upon the living creatures of the earth;
let them exist solely for our pleasure,
and let our hatred be poured out on them."
And man hunted and killed the living creatures
and the beasts of the earth,
not for food, nor for protection,
but only to take away life.
And man cut down forests and made pasturelands barren,
and many animals died for no purpose, and left a void behind,
and man thought that it was good.
Then man said, "Let us make god in our image, after our likeness;
and let god be our servant, and serve us;
and thus let us fulfill our will upon the earth."
So man created god in his own image,
in the image of man he created him;
male and female he created it.
And man cursed the god that he had made, and man said to it,
"Be sterile, and diminish;
and let your name remain in the temples, and on the coins,
and in the mouths of the simple,
but let our will alone have dominion."
And in the name of the god whom man had made,
he turned against the God who had made man,
and nailed Him to a tree stripped of its branches.
Though God took flesh that man might live,
man seized that flesh, that God might die,
and man alone might be exalted in that day!
And man saw everything that he had done,
and behold, though the earth was ruined,
he thought it very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were darkened
by the sinfulness of man.
And on the seventh day man sought rest
from all his work which he had done,
but though he had labored and toiled long,
his soul was not satisfied,
and his heart brooded on in the darkness.
And very early on the eighth day,
which was the first day of the week,
some women who still sought after their crucified God
found the stone rolled away from His tomb,
but they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.
Then two men appeared to them in shining garments,
and said, "Why do you seek the living among the dead?
He is not here, He is risen!"
For God Himself stripped gods and men of strength,
and rose on high, to reign and come again.
Before Him all must bow the knee, in heaven and on earth,
for He it is who says, "Behold,
I am making all things new!"
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Early Christian rock
Slate published an article last week looking into some of the most striking Christian rock musicians of the 1960s and '70s, and those who influenced them.
Both "this present age" and the next, both righteousness and wickedness, show themselves unmistakably in these few paragraphs. The Jesus People movement and Christian rock did much to remake American Christendom in the second half of the twentieth century, both for good and for ill. The Lord God does not accomplish His purposes on earth in a vacuum. People like Lonnie Frisbee--an ex-druggie hippie youth minister, instrumental to the growth of both Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard Movement, but who struggled with homosexuality and eventually died of AIDS--are the kind of people we ought to expect to encounter in the Christian Church. We are, after all, a people still stretched out between sin and righteousness, hoping against hope for a salvation that is as certain as God's promise.
Monday, August 6, 2007
"With All Your Might"
Notes for another sermon that I preached at a small church fellowship:
"With All Your Might"
Text: Ecclesiastes 9:10-18
Introduction: This world is a complicated place to live in. God told Adam and Eve to have dominion over the earth; but since the Fall, the serpent and the earth often seem to have dominion over mankind. Instead of man mastering his work and the circumstances of his life, work and circumstances threaten to master him.
The Preacher (a.k.a. Solomon "son of David, king in Jerusalem"), in his dry and level-headed way, analyzes the situation with all of its ironies...and points the way to a solution.
I. Work while you still can! (v. 10)
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, where you are going."
Might is strength, power, ability, efficiency, capability to produce. Pour yourself and your strength into your work, whatever that may be!--a job, school, marriage, remodeling your home, discipling a younger believer, drawing near to God through worship and Scripture and prayer.
Pour out your energy on what comes to your hand, not what is out of your grasp. It is foolish and useless to spend your time and strength dreaming about what is not yours to have. If it is good, and you have a chance at it, go for it! But if you know that it is unattainable, don't waste time daydreaming about it. Work and speak and think for the glory of God, right there in the position where He has placed you, making the forward progress that is possible from that position. 1 Cor. 7:20-24. It is better to be free than to be a slave; but wherever you are, you are God's, and you ought to act like it!
Proverbs 23:6-8--"as he thinks in his heart, so is he." You will become like whatever you dwell on. If your mind is directed by the Spirit of God, your ways will come to resemble the ways of God. (What are those ways? Love; creativity; service; sacrifice; mission.) If you dwell on what you cannot have, you will become bitter and unfruitful. Phil. 4:8-9. Find out who in your life is like Christ, is worthy of imitation, and then follow the good you see in them! Then do, with all your might, whatever your hand can reach. The caves in Hannibal, Missouri, and the true story behind Tom Sawyer: Injun John gave up trying to get out, and died within feet of the open air. Do not give up, but keep working at whatever task is already within your grasp; if you persevere, you will soon break through to the freedom that you long for.
Work your hardest on whatever you can, as long as you still have opportunity. There is a long sleep ahead of you between your death and the resurrection of the body. Phil. 1:21-26. Even Paul, torn between ministry on earth and being with the Lord in heaven, chose to be on earth a while longer for the sake of those Christians whom he could not help any longer if he was taken into heaven. John 9:1-5. As long as you are in the world, you too are the light of the world as disciples of Jesus (Matt. 5:14-16). Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might!
II. The goodness of wisdom in the midst of futility (vv. 11-15)
When you "turn" and take a good look at the world "under the sun," this is what you see: excellence often doesn't pay. Under the sun, it's often true that nice guys finish last. The fast runners lose, the great warriors die, the wise starve, the intelligent are poor, and even those who are in the know don't get the good breaks (v. 11). Under the sun, the death of man (who is made in God's image) looks just as senseless as the death of animals (v. 12). Because of Adam and his sin, we all have been laboring under a curse (quite literally) ever since that bad beginning (Genesis 3:17-19). In spite of the sun’s brightness, the world it looks down on is a very dark one.
Worse, it can look like even wisdom does no good (vv. 13-15). The poor wise man rescued the town from destruction--bravo! But once the thrill of victory passed, no one remembered him. "Under the sun," wisdom itself can look as worthless and vain as all the rest of the world's tiresome activities.
We are tempted to say, "Well, that's just reality! Deal with it." But this life "under the sun" is not the whole story, as Solomon (the author of Ecclesiastes) himself tells us. Proverbs 4:18--The path of the righteous is like the sunrise, becoming brighter and brighter, until the sun itself will disappear and only righteousness will remain; that will be the true daylight, and not just this temporary life "under the sun." Proverbs 15:24--For the wise, the way of life winds upward, ultimately taking him right out of the reach of Sheol (the grave/hell).
The key is to look higher than the sun, to Him who will shine as brightly as ever when the need for the sun’s light has disappeared forever (Revelation 21:22-27). He alone makes wisdom worthwhile, and work, and strength, and intelligence, and all good things. Without Him, these things are dust and ashes. But if you are in Him, you will outlive both prosperity and ruin and come at last into a kingdom that has no end, beyond the reach of all pains and sorrows and disillusionments.
In that place, even that poor but wise man whom no one remembered will have his just reward—not a bit too little, and not a moment too late.
III. A clear-eyed hymn of praise to wisdom (vv. 16-18)
Wisdom is better than strength. Wisdom saved the city when strength could not--
even though the poor man is despised and no longer listened to. (Cf. Winston Churchill's defeat in the British elections of July 1945--and yet his courageous leadership in the war was still worth the cost!)
The quiet words of the wise are better than the shouts of those who rule over fools--
even though the wise often find few to listen to them! (But those few wise disciples are more powerful than all the fools in the world who oppose them. Just think of the victory that the twelve apostles of Christ and their followers won over all the political, military, and religious power in the world!)
Wisdom is better than the weapons of battle--
even though one sinner can wreck many good beginnings! (If wisdom is necessary for victory in open battle, it is even more necessary when your friends betray you.)
Conclusion: In Solomon's words, Ecclesiastes 12:13-14...God's coming judgment of every work and every secret thing, both good and evil, will cause all things in heaven and on earth to come out right. "Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small" (Friedrich von Logau, trans. by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow).
John 21:15-22. In the joys and in the moral outrages of life, the Lord Jesus tests and purifies your love for Him, and through it all He calls you to follow Him. So what if your wisdom leads to dishonor in the eyes of the world? So what if your faithfulness ends in frustration and persecution? So what if you die young, and your brother stays alive until Jesus' return? That is not your concern. Your call is to follow Him. Your task is to seek wisdom and live by it, no matter what the consequences, because at the end of all things you will see that the results are truly "very good." And whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might.
Friday, August 3, 2007
Life and death: Son Jong Nam in North Korea
On Wednesday of this week, North Korea added its voice to the calls for Taliban forces in Afghanistan to release their 21 remaining South Korean hostages, who were kidnapped while on a Christian charitable mission there. The deputy director general of the North Korean Foreign Ministry was quoted as saying, "We hope that South Koreans kidnapped in Afghanistan could return home safely." He added, "It is the consistent stance that our republic is opposed to all kinds of terrorism."
Also on Wednesday, Crosswalk.com reported (on behalf of Voice of the Martyrs) that former North Korean army officer Son Jong Nam is on death row in North Korea, facing public execution by Kim Jong-il's government for his evangelistic activities. Mr. Son was sentenced to death for being a "national traitor" and "receiving Christianity." (A similar report about Mr. Son's case is available here.)
So I ask you, President Kim: do you really value Koreans' lives? Why should you urge the Taliban to spare South Korean Christians, when you sentence your own citizens to death simply for confessing that same Christ?
If you would like to do something tangible to support our brother Son Jong Nam, you can do so by going to Voice of the Martyrs' prisoner advocacy website to find out how to pray for Mr. Son, how to write to him, or how to write to North Korean officials to ask for his release.
