Thoughts on Scripture and life
for the glory of Jesus Christ
Help, I’m Anxious! (Part 2)
What does our anxieties reveal about our belief in God? When we are anxious, we believe that God is not all that powerful and is not all that loving. What! How can a Christian believe such blasphemies? And yet, by our anxiety, we betray our sin.
Dear Christian, you do not need to be anxious. You are not God; you are not in control—and that’s a wonderful thing. Your God is the King over everything; you can rest in Him.
Dear Christian, you do not need to be anxious. You are not alone in this world, left to care for yourself. Your God is full of love and He cares for you; you can rest in Him.
Help, I’m Anxious! (Part 1)
The question I want to ask is, “Does God care about our anxieties?” More specifically, does the gospel of Jesus Christ, the good news of His death and resurrection, have anything to say to us about our anxieties? Yes. Absolutely. The gospel is good news to anxious hearts, for when we trust God as God, anxiety melts to peace in Jesus Christ.
Resource Round Up: Racial Tensions, Social Justice, Critical Race Theory & Intersectionality
Thinking theologically about race tensions, critical race theory and intersectionality, and a response to the "Black Lives Matter movement.
Jesus I Come by Indelible Grace
What is the Christian life but leaving and cleaving? We leave all that we were and cleave to Christ. Behind lies nothing but death. Bondage. Sorrow. Night. Sickness. Want. Sin. Shame. Failure. Loss. Earth’s sorrows. Life’s storms. Distress. Unrest. Arrogant pride. Self. Despair. Fear. Dread of the tomb. Depths of ruin untold. But before us, in Christ Himself, is life and all the blessings therein. Freedom. Gladness. Light. His health. His wealth. Glorious gain of His cross. Jubilant psalm. His blessed will. His love. Access to raptures above. Joy and light of Heaven. Peace. Glory.
Heaven, Our Home
In Heaven, God will surely and finally overwhelm our heartbreaks. God will knit closed the wounds of war, schism, disease, and brokenness. God will erase the scars of sin; sorrow will reign no more.
Christianity and #BlackLivesMatter
We have a better resource than learned sociologists, informed friends, or the news cycle; we have the very words of God. Have we heard what He says? Many of us have learned from politicians, celebrities, and influencers. But what have we learned from the Scriptures about ethnicity, murder, abuse of authority, oppression, justice, government, violence, submission, outrage, and anger? God determines reality, not His creation. We need more than a two-verse theology of Micah 6:8 and Amos 5:24. We need a comprehensive, biblical, godly, just, compassionate, faithful, God-over-all worldview to interpret all things.
Some Practical Advice for Helping Suffering Christians
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
the clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy, and shall break
in blessings on your head.Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
but trust him for his grace;
behind a frowning providence
he hides a smiling face.His purposes will ripen fast,
unfolding ev'ry hour;
the bud may have a bitter taste,
but sweet will be the flow'r.Blind unbelief is sure to err,
and scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
and he will make it plain.[1]
Resource Round Up: Black Lives Matter, Racism, and Truth
I tried to wait a lengthy portion of time before posting on this issue. Wisdom dictates careful analysis and patient prayer, not rash activism and emotional outbursts.
I am not sure I have waited long enough. But here are some resources that myself have found helpful during this time. Right action must be preceded by right thinking. Right thinking is always preceded by truth.
Behold Jesus Christ, the Suffering Servant
What could be more everyday suffering than griefs, sorrows, illnesses, and diseases? This means that Jesus carried not only our sin, but also our suffering to the cross. Yes, He absolutely suffered under the wrath of God for our sin; that is the dominant note of Isaiah 53. But He also took even the temporal effects of sin—earthly suffering—for us. Cancer, depression, loneliness, disability, abuse, sickness, sadness, betrayal, abandonment, conflict.
What Suffering People Need Most
But what was it for you? When your suffering blocked out the sun, when you didn’t even know what to pray, when your world was one of confusion, fear, chaos, what was it like? I don’t know your deepest sufferings, but I do know your prayer:
Where are you God? Don’t You see? Don’t You care?
In those moments, when your fiancé dies, when your cousin commits suicide, when you’re diagnosed with cancer, when no one understands you, when your entire country has been ravaged and bodies are strewn in the streets and the temple of God is no more, what do we need the most? Someone to throw a truth grenade at us? To ‘just let go and let God’? To believe that ‘Everything happens for a reason’?
That’s not enough for me. A Band-Aid just won’t do. So we’re back at our question: “What does a suffering person need most?”
Suffering is Never Simplistic
The question posed to me was this: how do we counsel suffering brothers and sisters in Christ?
To start, let’s dive into a book all about horrific suffering: Lamentations.
You know the famous words from Lamentations 3:22-23 from the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.[1]
But I wonder, have you ever heard the context of those words?
The Black Plague in Geneva, Theodore Beza's Treatise, and COVID-19
In 1542, the world was decidedly pre-modern. It would be at least 100 more years until the invention of the first microscope and over 250 years until the first vaccine. The cause of the black plague, a bacillus called Yersina pestis, wouldn’t be discovered for another 350 years.3 In those days, ‘medicine’ meant blood-letting, drinking ground unicorn horn,4 and consuming concoctions of lead and mercury.
But pre-modern or not, in the fall of 1542, the black plague came to Geneva. At the time, the renowned John Calvin, reformer of Geneva and de facto leader of the Company of Pastors (the group of pastors for the entire city of Geneva), was just 33 years old. The Reformation was just reaching maturity, having been accidentally kicked off by Martin Luther 25 years earlier. Mary I of England (who came to be known as Bloody Mary for burning Protestants at the stake), was still 11 years from the throne.5
Weekly Roundup: COVID-19, Part 2
With the world practicing social distancing to prevent spreading COVID-19—which, for anyone not living in 2020, basically means we’re all stuck in our houses—lots of Christian bloggers have taken to writing. When it becomes impossible to practice the usual forms of ministry—Sunday service, small groups, meet ups, etc., bloggers put pen to paper (er, fingers to keyboard) and write!
Weekly Roundup: COVID-19, Part 1
The whole world is talking, writing, posting, worrying, preparing, and responding to the COVID-19, also called Coronavirus Disease 2019. This post is not meant to share medical information about the virus, or discuss what ought to be done, but instead to curate some of the pastoral responses and the encouraging stories that don’t make it on the major news outlets.
May we respond to such a time as this with faith, not fear, with courage and trust, not despair, for our gracious God is with us and reigns as King forevermore.
Weekly Roundup: Suffering and Lament
The deepest pains of the human heart are not healed with a trite truth or by quoting a Bible verse. Indeed, the first response of the faithful often ought to be lament: a raw, crying out to God of faith that ultimately rests in Him. This week’s articles are all about lament: what it is, it’s importance, and how to do so. May you be freed to cry out to God as His beloved child.
Weekly Roundup: Comforting Sufferers
This week’s roundup has some resources on how to love and help those who are suffering.
Weekly Roundup: Stories of Suffering
Unless you were born yesterday, you have suffered. Welcome to the human condition. This week’s roundup features stories from fellow sufferers. May you find hope in their struggle, as they share how they found hope in our faithful God.
Weekly Roundup: Prayer
It only takes one question to make any Christian instantly ashamed: How’s your prayer life?
Weekly Roundup: Complementarianism
If you’ve been anywhere near the Christian Twitter world in the past couple of months, you would know that there’s a complementarian crisis. So, for this week’s roundup, I read through 9Marks’ Journal —Complementarianism: A Moment of Reckoning. You can peruse all of the articles of the journal here, but I picked out my favorite articles and put them below. Enjoy!
Weekly Roundup: Humility
For this week’s roundup, I dug into the archives and pulled articles about humility. I choose it because this is a character quality that we all, at all times, in all places, need to grow in.