Monday, February 28, 2011

Hosea and Amos: Root and Fruit

How are the books of Hosea and Amos related? Both prophets ministered in the eighth century B.C. Both spoke into the northern kingdom a message of impending judgment. Yet their messages—to the same target audience—were quite different, at least in emphasis. So how are they related? In the literature on the book of the twelve, known to most more familiarly as the minor prophets, it is has been suggested that Hosea and Amos are related and perhaps never circulated independently. The Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament) has Amos after Hosea, not Joel, as in the Masoretic text (the standard text of the Hebrew). So how shall we their think of their relation?

I suggest that we see them related as root and fruit. Hosea strikes at the corrupt root in Israel, namely, idolatry. The people had played the whore with foreign deities. And Amos strikes at the corrupt fruit of social injustice and oppression. The culturally elite and wealthy walked all over the poor commoner. Now do you see the connection? Root and fruit. Idolatry always has social consequences.

May Hosea and Amos speak anew to us today, those of us who all too easily separate root and fruit.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Resolved

I'm still enjoying Edwards' famous Resolutions. Here are two more I find stirring:
40. Resolved, to inquire every night, before I go to bed, whether I have acted in the best way I possibly could, with respect to eating and drinking.

43. Resolved, never henceforward, till I die, to act as if I were anyway my own, but entirely and altogether God's. . .
Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 16, pp. 753-759.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Self-seeking Blinds the Soul

From Thomas Brooks' Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices:

Self-seeking blinds the soul that it cannot see a beauty in Christ, nor an excellency in holiness; it distempers the palate, that a man cannot taste sweetness in the word of God, nor in the ways of God, nor in the society of the people of God. It shuts the hand against all the soul-enriching offers of Christ; it hardens the heart against all the knocks and entreaties of Christ; it makes the soul as an empty vine, and as a barren wilderness: 'Israel is any empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit to himself (Hos. 10:1). There is nothing that speaks a man to be more empty and void of God, Christ, and grace, than self-seeking. The Pharisees were great self-seekers, and great undervaluers of Christ, his word and Spirit. There is not a greater hindrance to all the duties of piety than self-seeking. Oh! this is that that keeps many a soul from looking after God and the precious things of eternity. They cannot wait on God, nor act for God, nor abide in those ways wherein they might meet with God, by reason of self (p. 189).
Incidentally, it is obvious that Brooks lived in primitive times. The masses, at that time, were not enlightened by the modern doctrine of self-esteem. But had Brooks lived in our enlightened times, how might he have put his instruction?

So let's meditate upon Phil. 2:3-11. And be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving ourselves (Jas. 1:22).

Sunday, February 20, 2011

A Lie is like a Snowball

Sunday afternoon rest and refreshment often includes some jovial reading in Luther's Table Talk. If for no other reason than that the reading is immensely fun, Table Talk ought to be read widely (especially by tight-shoed and clean-nosed religious folk). Here's a picturesque Lutheran point, free of charge:

"A lie is like a snowball. The longer it is rolled on the ground the larger it becomes" (No. 342).

(Feel free to reuse without acknowledging your source. He's dead, and wouldn't have minded anyway.)

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Resolved

Here are some of Edwards' resolutions on speech and self-control.

First, on speech:

16. Resolved, never to speak evil of anyone, so that it shall tend to his dishonor, more or less, upon no account except for some real good.
31. Resolved, never to say anything at all against anybody, but when it is perfectly agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor, and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, and agreeable to the Golden Rule; often, when I have said anything against anyone, to bring it to, and try it strictly by the test of this Resolution.
34. Resolved, in narrations never to speak anything but the pure and simple verity.
36. Resolved, never to speak evil of any, except I have some particular good call for it.
70. Let there be something of benevolence, in all that I speak.

And on self-control:

20. Resolved, to maintain the strictest temperance in eating and drinking.
39. Resolved, never to do anything that I so much question the lawfulness of, as that I intend, at the same time, to consider and examine afterwards, whether it be lawful or no: except I as much question the lawfulness of the omission.
56. Resolved, never to give over, nor in the least to slacken my fight with my corruptions, however unsuccessful I may be.

(Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 16, pp. 753-759)

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Resolved

Still more resolutions from Edwards' justly famous Resolutions, which he wrote at age nineteen:

28. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
30. Resolved, to strive to my utmost every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.
44. Resolved, that no other end but religion, shall have any influence at all on any of my actions; and that no action shall be, in the least circumstance, any otherwise than the religious end will carry it.

Oh that God might raise up more teenagers like this!

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Satan's Coming Assaults

"In a calm, prepare for the storm" (Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, p. 181).

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

A Heart of Perfect Forgiveness

Here now is a stellar exposition of Matt. 18:21-35: A Heart of Perfect Forgiveness. Stellar, I say, mainly because it simply gets at the heart of the matter, a matter which is always relevant for all of us who know incalculable mercies in Christ and who still sin and get sinned against. Forgiveness is a going concern and need. Day by day. Both ways, up and down, left and right. So thank you, Lord Jesus, for this parable mediated through one of your gifts to the Church.

Another reason to listen to this sermon: here's a preacher, a Neanderthal one might think, who still believes what Jesus actually said about hell. Hell is real, friends. And we need to reckon with Jesus' words in this regard far more than we're wont to do. From time to time we ought to find ourselves sick to our stomachs and shedding tears as we consider the doctrine of hell and all those heading there. This is serious. Words cannot do the doctrine and reality justice. Eternal torments, eternal wrath, eternal misery. Forever and ever, without relief, no letting up. Horrific I say! Unbearable! And this is the lot of all who do not recieve the forgiveness of God in Christ and extend it to others. Oh let us heed this merciful word and get serious! God help us, have mercy on us.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Riches and Honor were Nothing to Him

From McIntyre's The Hidden Life of Prayer:

"Pius IV, hearing of Calvin's death, exlaimed: 'Ah, the strength of that proud heretic lay in this, that riches and honour were nothing to him'" (106).

Friday, February 11, 2011

Storms Beneath Our Feet, Sky Above All Blue

In a recent post I mentioned McIntyre's book The Hidden Life of Prayer: The life-blood of the Christian. Chapter 7 is called "The Hidden Riches of the Secret Place." There, one benefit of secret prayer that McIntyre notes is that "prayerfulness produces a singular serenity of spirit" (105). He continues:
When one looks into the quiet eyes of him that sitteth upon the throne, the tremors of the spirit are stilled. Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise; and the valley of the shadow of death is tuneful with songs of praise. Storms may rave beneath our feet, but the sky above is blue. We take our station with Christ in heavenly places; we dwell in the Sabbath of God.

'Here I lie,' said Thomas Halyburton when his death-hour was drawing near, 'pained without pain, without strength yet strong.' Seguier, a French Protestant, who was sentenced to death, was mockingly asked by one of his guards how he felt. He replied, 'My soul is as a garden, full of shelter and fountains.'
May we know that secret place so that in the day of our dying we shall be serene and assured within, ready to glorify God in death. The Hidden Life of Prayer is available at amazon. Take up, and read!

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Resolved

More resolutions from Edwards' Resolutions:

9. Resolved, to think much on all occassions of my own dying, and of the common circumstances which attend death.
10. Resolved, when I feel pain, to think of the pains of martyrdom and of hell.
17. Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
18. Resolved, to live so at all times, as I think is best in my devout frames, and when I have clearest notions of things of the gospel, and another world.

In our day, we do the exact opposite of what Edwards was trying to do in resolutions nine and ten. We don't like bad feelings that attend such thoughts. And they seem rather morose to us. However, this was Puritan wisdom, and wisdom indeed (Ps. 90:10, 12). At least Moses would have agreed with Edwards (or maybe Moses informed Edwards' thinking; I'm taking an OT criticism class right now, and I'm a bit muddled on the direction of these things).

A side bar: Just think about what the psychologists and psychiatrists (the modern day religious intelligentsia) could say today of someone like Edwards. He was probably pathological from his birth, certainly from his "conversion" onwards.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Resolved

From Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions:

4. Resolved, never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God; nor be, nor suffer it, if I can avoid it.
7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

This young man was serious. And as a biographer once noted of him, it appears that Edwards really did aim at keeping, and in measure did keep, his seventy resolutions, written as a young man, all the way to the end.

Friday, February 4, 2011

The Value of Trials

Here's a little poem I rather like, recorded in The Hidden Life of Prayer: The life-blood of the Christian, by David McIntyre:

Trials make the promise sweet,
Trials give new life to prayer,
Trials bring me to his feet,
Lay me low, and keep me there.

By the way, if you're looking for a good little book to provide instruction for your prayer life, McIntyre's is helpful. It's a simple, short read. Yet it's packed with golden insights.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Little Ones

If you were looking for a pride-flattening message for your swollen self, this O'Donnell sermon should help you become smaller (as I hope and pray is happening to me). Preached last Sunday, based on Matt. 18:1-14, called "Little Ones," this word is health-giving for those of us who, like Nebuchadnezzer, walk in pride. God is able to humble the proud. And God is able to restore our reason, delivering us from the madness of pride.

The word is also a good word about the seriousness of sin, corporately and individually. Sin is deadly and damaging. And these blood earnest words of Jesus are unpacked for faith to respond soberly, seriously, even violently, warring against rebellious hands, feet, eyes. Souls are at stake. Our souls. Baptized souls. Church-going souls. Outwardly tidy and clean, educated and sophisticated middle-American souls. Then following this word, a word which ought to make even the holiest saint tremble, words of comfort, words of joy, words of the Shepherd's never-ending, always pursuing love lift the heart to see the Father's heart, and leave it subdued. And surrounded by angels.

One word about the mechanics of the exposition. Pastor O'Donnell follows the text tightly (always helpful), betraying that he's done some serious homework, instructing most helpfully how the four pericopes hold together, relate, and mutually interpret one another. Enjoy.