We celebrate Independence Day, not the 4th of July
July 4, 2024 § Leave a comment
If you know what we celebrate on July 4th, please say so.
The holiday is Independence Day—not July 4th or the 4th of July or even just the 4th. We celebrate Independence Day. « Read the rest of this entry »
Happy Thanksgiving! Now don’t insult God and stop feeling guilty
November 23, 2023 § Leave a comment
…be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. (Colossians 3:15-17)
What is it about thankfulness that we don’t get that made it necessary for the Holy Spirit to inspire Paul to mention it three times in the span three verses?
Giving thanks is a simple enough proposition: God gives to us and we acknowledge from grateful hearts his generosity to us.
« Read the rest of this entry »A true shepherd sent from Jesus to keep watch over the flock
May 22, 2023 § 1 Comment
Harry Reeder was a pastor, a true shepherd sent from Jesus to keep watch over the flock that he had purchased with his own blood.
That truth has risen to the forefront of my mind, settling in and holding reign over my thoughts and emotions as the tributes, testimonies, and accolades have flooded the internet the last days, as staff and church members have stood together and alternately reminisced, prayed, and wept, as his precious family has shown us the right way to use social media by calling us in their own grief to praise God even in this hard but sanctifying Providence.
« Read the rest of this entry »“Happily Ever After”
April 12, 2023 § Leave a comment
On Saturday, April 8, 2023, I had the privilege both of walking my daughter, Hannah, down the aisle to give in marriage to her soon-to-be-husband, Garret Landry, and of then giving the wedding homily, which follows.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”—Revelation 21:1-5
Everyone loves a happy ending. Or, at least, they should. There are those who insist that happy endings are bogus, and that books and films that incorporate them are sentimental and unrealistic. Critics, philosophers and the generally jaded have always resisted happy endings because, they say, that’s just not how things are.
Most of those Eyeores also say that those who long for happy endings are denying reality and are longing for a fantasy-fairy-tale existence that will never be. It’s just escapism. They say the reason why we like happy endings is because we want there to be a happy ending; it just makes us feel better to believe that everything turns out all right.
Well, they’re wrong—praise God. The reason we like happy endings is not because we just want them to be true; we like happy endings because God created us for a happy ending. God made and saved his people for the ultimate happy ending: to spend eternity with him. It is not escapism to long for wholeness and completeness in joy—it’s the very fulfillment of what we were made for!
And that vision of that fulfillment is what we started this wedding ceremony with, from Revelation 21:1-5.
Here, in the second to the last chapter of the last book of the Bible, God decides to wrap up the entire story of redemption—with a wedding. But not just “a” wedding, it is the wedding—the wedding that all true weddings anticipate: The Marriage of the Lamb of God, God’s Son, to his Bride —every last one of those for whom the Lamb died to save, from the beginning of history to the end. They’re all here, in this vision. As Jesus said in John 17, he has not lost one of them.
So, as history ends and eternity begins, God draws every eye to look at his Son’s Bride. He’s saying, “Look at her! There was nothing that could keep me from getting her, nothing that could keep me from preparing her for my Son. Not Satan, not even her own sin and imperfection, not even her being prone to wander.”
God’s heart’s desire was to get a Bride for his Son—so he loved her from before the foundation of the world, sent his Spirit throughout the ages to call her to himself, one by one, heart by heart, and sent his Son to redeem her, paying the full penalty for her sin on the cross, then rising from the dead to raise her to eternal life. What faithfulness! What commitment! Jesus truly paid it all to make his Bride his own, forever.
So how does today’s wedding compare to that one? Well, God won’t break the bank for the wedding of the Lamb, because he owns everything! Seriously, today’s wedding is but a shadow of that one; God means for all weddings, our marriages, our lives as husbands and wives to ultimately point to this wedding and its Groom: Jesus.
God draws our attention to the Bride of Christ, redeemed by Jesus, at this wedding at the end of the ages, in order to draw our attention, before that time comes, to the faithfulness of Jesus. He sought us, he bought us—and so the rings you will wear, the vows you make, the union you will become, all of these are pointing you both to the God who loved you and gave himself for you.
So, Garret—show Hannah Jesus—because he is her Savior and Lord. Lead her to Jesus in your prayers, in your words, in your time in the Word. Just like you, without Jesus she can do nothing—but in him she can face all things. Love her like Christ loves his church—sacrificially, and to the very end.
Hannah—show Garret Jesus. He needs the grace of Christ just like you, so he can shepherd you, care for you, and build you up. Keep him before the Lord every day in your heart and mind, in your honor and respect for him.
And both you—forgive one another, as Christ forgave you. You’ll need to do that every day, but he will give you the grace you need every day to do that. And never forget that he is with you. In this passage he says, “The dwelling place of God is with man.” That will be the face-to-face reality one day—but until then he has promised to never leave you or forsake you—you are not alone.
Finally, I also think God chose a wedding to end the Bible because weddings are new beginnings. He says here in verse 5, “I am making all things new.” Your new life together is a picture of the new life that will be ours with Christ, forever. So let God make every day something new in his grace—ever after—until you go to be with him or he returns. And no matter what, you will truly live happily ever after. That’s what you were made for. Here—and forever.
In the very last paragraph of the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis puts it this way:
“And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.” (Lewis, C.S. The Last Battle. New York: Harper Collins, 1994, p 228.)
“…and his name shall be called…Prince of Peace.”
December 23, 2022 § Leave a comment
“Prince of Peace”–day 4 of devotions from Isaiah 9.
Of all the names in Isaiah 9:6 of the Son given to God people, perhaps none resonates within us so deeply as “Prince of Peace”—particularly in times such as ours.
We are surrounded—no, immersed—in conflict.
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“… and his name shall be called…Everlasting Father…”
December 22, 2022 § Leave a comment
Day 3!
“And they lived happily ever after.”
It’s amazing. No matter how cynical we become as a culture, no matter how jaded, we still flock to movies with happy endings. Some would call it wishful thinking, a simple and childish form of escapism that the more realistic among us (known by the rest as “pessimists”) know better than to embrace.
The Bible has another answer: “[God]…has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
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“…and his name shall be called…Mighty God…”
December 21, 2022 § 2 Comments
Day 2 of the reblog of my Isaiah 9 devotions.
Perhaps the most transfixing images of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina are those of the rescues. It is difficult to forget the hundreds of people huddling on rooftop islands, some having spelled out pleas for help with their own clothes, waiting for deliverance. Over the days that followed we saw the Coast Guard do what it does best; as their helicopters hovered, trained rescuers were lowered on cables with baskets and harnesses to deliver the trapped to safety. Their courage, bravery and strength were all necessary in the right combination for the rescue.
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“…and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor…”
December 20, 2022 § Leave a comment
I was recently looking through some past Advent devotions I had written and came across these four devotions from Isaiah 9. It is a gross understatement to say that the Bible is always relevant, but I was struck by the truth that, “the more that things change, the more they stay the same.”
Over the next four days, as we head to Christmas Eve, I will repost each of them. May the Lord use them that we may “fresh courage take”!
We all want advice—but we are often afraid of seeking it. Studies show that, though more Americans than ever are seeking professional counseling of one kind or another, most seek help only as a last resort; ironically, most of the very same people do not want anyone else to know they are seeking counsel! Whenever I ask why those who come to me for counseling haven’t come sooner, the answer ultimately comes down to “I didn’t want to ask for help.”
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Crotchety confessionalists strike again!
March 3, 2022 § Leave a comment
It’s that time of year—when nasty Presbyterian-types, me included, repost Carl Trueman’s (as I see it) now-classic article about Protestants and Lent. One of the arguments levied against those same Presbyterian types who largely agree with Trueman is that most Presbyterian churches celebrate Easter and Christmas, something they have snatched from the orthodox Church Calendar. This makes them inconsistent and—aha!—unable to criticize those who celebrate and promote Lent as a part of Presbyterian worship.
« Read the rest of this entry »Why are we so desperate for cultural validation?
February 5, 2022 § 1 Comment
There’s an awful lot being bandied about regarding the Colbert clip, which I shared from a post by Todd Pruitt including a bit of commentary from Scott Christensen.
All this “family squabbling” (which is not nearly as enlightening as it is predictable) aside, what is most interesting is to me what Colbert actually says here. I hear nothing that is distinctively Christian or even Catholic, for that matter, in anything that Colbert says. It is vacuous enough to be supplied with just about any “Christian” spin one wishes to give it, which requires bringing one’s own presuppositions to that spin; it isn’t possible, as far as I can hear, to find anything of much clarity or even weightiness. Even when he speaks of “Belfast” as a movie that seeks to be “funny about sad” and “getting it” being a “Catholic thing,” we are left with no more information about Colbert’s faith at the end of the “interview” than we had its beginning.
The conclusion, I believe, is that he is a liberal Catholic whose faith appears to be more about sentiment and emotional expression than it is about content, especially the content of redemption. Moreover, there is nothing of the Gospel in anything he says—which, to be fair, is not likely something he even had in view when asked about how his faith and his comedy overlap.
I see no difference in the eagerness of some to see a bridge to Christianity that in this clip than when folks see Gospel testimony every time an athlete points to the sky or an artist thanks God at an award show. Why are we so desperate for the validation of our culture?
If this is a commendable way of handling faith in a way that our “culture can handle” then it is clear to me that our culture is largely just as vacuous as Colbert’s statement. But I am left asking, “Where are we told to share our faith in a way that our culture can handle?” Jewish culture couldn’t handle a Gospel that proclaimed a crucified Messiah, and Greek culture couldn’t handle a Gospel that proclaimed human wisdom was foolish and human strength was weak. No human culture can handle the Gospel, period.
None of this, of course, means that Christians are to be arrogant, argumentative jerks; we must never intentionally poke our culture in the eye, especially not because we don’t happen to like the culture. But when the Gospel pokes the culture in the eye—when Jesus is doing the offending—we don’t abandon him in our proclamation to embrace a thin, non-offensive progressive gruel masquerading as God’s gracious good news.
Roblog 