Dullness

Why do I languish, thus, drooping and dull,
                    As if I were all earth?
O give me quickness, that I may with mirth
                          Praise thee brimfull!

The wanton lover in a curious strain
                   Can praise his fairest fair;
And with quaint metaphors her curled hair
                           Curl o'er again.

Thou art my loveliness, my life, my light,
                   Beauty alone to me:
Thy bloody death and undeserved, makes thee
                          Pure red and white.

When all perfections as but one appear,
                    That those thy form doth show,
The very dust, where thou dost tread and go,
                           Makes beauties here;

Where are my lines then? my approaches? views?
                    Where are my window-songs?
Lovers are still pretending, and ev'n wrongs
                            Sharpen their Muse:

But I am lost in flesh, whose sugared lies
                   Still mock me, and grow bold;
Sure thou didst put a mind there, if I could
                           Find where it lies.

Lord, clear thy gift, that with a constant wit
                    I may but look towards thee:
Look only; for to love thee, who can be,
                            What angel fit?
                 
—George Herbert, The Complete English Poems (New York: Penguin Classics, 1991), 107–108.
 

Musing Over the Word of God

John Piper on the practice of Christian meditation:

What does meditation involve? The word meditation in Hebrew means basically to speak or to mutter. When this is done in the heart, it is called musing or meditation. So meditating on the Word of God day and night [Ps. 1:2] means to speak to yourself the Word of God day and night and to speak to yourself about it—to mull it over, to ask questions about it and answer them from the Scripture itself, to ask yourself how this might apply to you and others, and to ponder its implications for life and church and culture and missions.

—John Piper, When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight for Joy (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004), 124-125.

Religious Affections Essential

Are "affections" (what we would call "emotions" or "feelings" today) important in Christianity?

In 1746, Jonathan Edwards wrote an important and famous book, A Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections. He wanted to make one main point in this work: "true religion, in great part, consists in holy affections" (95). He defined "affections" as "the more vigorous and sensible exercises of the inclination and will of the soul" (96)—such as love, hatred, desire, delight, joy, grief, sorrow, hope, gratitude, compassion, fear, anger, zeal (97-99).

So, yes, if Edwards and, more importantly, the Bible are to be our guide, the affections are essential. Without them there is no true Christianity. Certain feelings and emotions are not optional or seen in only certain personality types. True Christianity consists, in great part, in holy affections.

—Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections (ed. John E. Smith; vol. 2, Works; Yale University Press: New Haven, 1959), 95-96.

The Holy Spirit at Work

"When we find any of the good truths of the gospel come home to our souls with life, vigor, and power, giving us gladness of heart, transforming us into the image and likeness of it—the Holy Ghost is then at his work, is pouring out of his oil."—John Owen

Content with Notions of the Truth?

"When men content themselves . . . with notions of the truth, without laboring after an experience of them in their hearts, and the bringing forth the fruit of them in their lives . . . a decay must needs ensue."—John Owen

Social Grace and Supernatural Grace

I think I've put my finger upon something about middle class and upper middle class conservative Christian society, not least of the Wheaton variety: social grace, it seems, may well be mistaken for supernatural grace.  So here's a question: Are tidy, clean-nosed Christians who live in affluent societies with significant social expectations more prone to mistake social grace for supernatural grace?  I think so.  I think it's a danger for my corner of the Christian world. 

And by the way, I'm not slamming social grace!  That can be a proper outworking of Christian faith.  However, it mustn't ever be more influential than or mistaken for supernatural grace.  A tidy, clean life can go to hell while observing all the acceptable and respectable social graces.

Authentic Christian Experience: A Sense of God's Love on the Heart

"Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Rom. 5:5).  In On Communion with God, John Owen rightly points out that this is God's love for us, not our love for God, as the context makes crystal clear.  With genitival phrases, context is all.  Hermenuetics 101.  Owen got it.  Owen then says that the love of God in Scripture speaks of either God's love of purpose to do us good or of the love of acceptance and approval with God. 

Now, for the heart of this post, and the heart of Christianity: experiencing God's love on the heart. Owen asks this question: "Now, how can these [God's love of purpose to do us good and God's love of acceptance and approval] be shed abroad in our hearts?" Answer: "Not in themselves, but in a sense of them—in a spiritual apprehension of them." That's it. That's what's often missing in intellectualistic forms of religion that try to pass for Christianity.

To be sure, Christianity embraces the mind, the intellect. But that's not all. If that's all one has, a cognitive experience of the faith, one does not have Christian experience. Christian experience always includes this sixth sense of divine realities on the heart, melting it, moving it, satisfying it, rejoicing it. God's love is apprehended spiritually, that is to say, by the Spirit shed abroad in our hearts as we behold the glory of the once-crucified and now-risen Lord Jesus, who loved us and gave himself for us. A sense of this on the heart, really tasted, really perceived, is worth more than ten thousand worlds, worth more than all the pleasures, experiences, and evidences this world can afford. And it goes infinitely deeper, down into the depths of eternity past, taking us into eternity future—and there holds us in divine love, sent by the Father, purchased by the Son, shed abroad by the Holy Spirit.

Marks of Authentic Faith

In Ps. 40, we see the faith of David in action.  Amid his trials and tribulations, set before our eyes are two essential ingredients of genuine faith: (1) patient waiting; and (2) confident trust.  These are even two checks to discern whether or not there is true faith in our hearts amid our trials and tribulations.  Oftentimes we think, speak, and act as though faith is just intellectual assent.  It's not less than that, of course; but it's so much more.  And without that more, there is no saving, gracious faith.

Now David's faith in Ps. 40.  First, look at verse 1: "I waited patiently for YHWH; he inclined to me and heard my cry."  Here is patient waiting for the Lord's deliverence amid evils beyond number encompassing David, amid iniquities overtaking him so he could not see (v. 12).  True faith.  This is what it looks like.  How long David waited, we're not sure.  But he had to wait.  Deliverence was not immediate.  Fill in the blank with your evils-encompassing-you-beyond-number, with your iniquities-overtaking-you-so-you-cannot-see.  And then wait patiently for the Lord's deliverence.  It will come.  Count on it.

Second, note the confidence of verse 11:  "As for you, O YHWH, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!"  David knows his God, has tasted his ways and seen his heart, and so looks boldy for God to act in accordance with his revealed character and works.  He will do it again, David says to himself, this faithful, covenant-keeping God of steadfast love and mercy.  So as you wait patiently for the Lord's deliverance in your "pit of destruction," your "miry bog," remember who your God is and how he acts toward his own.  Consider and count on the grace, mercy, and love of God in Christ.  He'll put your feet on a rock, making your steps secure! (v. 2).  Do not doubt that!  He is faithful; he will bring it to pass.

So there it is: patient waiting, and confident trust.  The stuff of real faith.  May God be pleased to grant an increase of genuine faith in our churches.  And why do I pray this?  For the same reason David experienced deliverence in Ps. 40: that God's great deliverences might be told and sung in our congregations (vv. 9 and 10).

No Mistake More Terrible

B. B. Warfield says this cautionary word that I find so important for those of us Christians who are so busy, busy, often in "ministry."  Christless activism are perhaps the right words.

"There is no mistake more terrible than to suppose that activity in Christian work can take the place of depth of Christian affections."