Green helmets pop up to peer out
Over the blue battlefield as
The pilots steer, weaving a pattern
Of dodges, rolls and dives, determined
To evade the anticipated shot.
So effective they are, these silent fighter pilots,
At evasion, it does not even matter
That they have no bullets.

“The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8)

I’ve heard a number of people point out broader applications of this description of the work of the Holy Spirit. Here Jesus is speaking specifically of conversion. But there is a broader principle at work, namely, that the Spirit is sovereignly free in all he does.

One recent application I came across was in a sermon by Tim Keller, senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City. He said that Christians must approach communion with God as a sailor does sailing. A sailor has many tools and tactics for moving his boat across the water. But despite all his resources, he is at the mercy of the wind. He cannot conjure a breeze, nor can he predict where and when the wind will blow. “The wind blows where it wishes.” But when the wind blows, the sailor knows exactly what to do with it. He raises his sail, turns it in the corresponding direction of the wind, adjusts the rigging or the rudder, etc.

In like manner a Christian has no control over the Spirits moving within him. The joy that we long to mark our lives and especially our communion with God is a fruit of the Spirit. We are at the mercy of the Spirit. But like the sailor, we ought to know what to do when the Spirit blows on our hearts. Of course that assumes that we can even recognize this work in the first place. But in all our reading, meditating, praying, and other disciplines, we are waiting for the Spirit to touch our hearts with the presence of God and the joy that comes from knowing him. When this Wind blows, may we quickly raise the sails of our hearts to be blown along in the knowledge of the love of Christ our Savior!

Community is commonality;

“They held all things in common.”

If we live in the same house,

We do not have community.

If we are family,

We do not have community.

If we read the same books,

We do not have community.

If we raise our kids alike,

We do not have community.

If we attend the same bible study,

We do not have community.

If we worship in the same sanctuary,

We do not have community.

In all these things externalism reigns,

Thus the outer is shared, the inner excluded,

And all things are not common.

But if I share my heart, and you yours,

And we both share Christ,

We have community.

The only way to have all things in common

Is to share the only all-inclusive things;

Our hearts and the Christ that binds them.

In John 17:24 Jesus prays, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” John Owen sees the value Jesus places in the ability of his followers to see his glory. It is, as Owen says, “one of the greatest privileges and advancements of believers, both in this world and unto eternity” (1:286). Jesus prays that believers may behold his glory, not out of a prideful desire to lift himself up, but out of love for his followers, knowing that this and this alone will give them true satisfaction. “Hereon do our present comforts and future blessedness depend. This is the life and reward of our souls” (1:288).

Owen gives us 5 directions to aid us in the duty of meditating on the glory of Christ. If we would heed his advice we would find ourselves greatly motivated to seek and behold Christ. (1:312-322)

1.) “Let us get it fixed in our souls and in our minds that this glory of Christ in the divine constitution of his person is the best, the most noble, useful, beneficial object that we can be conversant about in our thoughts, or cleave to in our affections.” (312) We must start by stirring ourselves up to truly believe the worth and joy there is in “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” This is not something we attain naturally; delighting in the glory of Christ is not our default disposition. We are in our sinful nature dead to this most beautiful object. We default to “spending money on that which is not bread, and laboring for that which does not satisfy.” In essence our starting point in seeking to behold the glory of Christ is always repentance. We must ask God to incline our hearts and open our eyes.

2.) If we would see Christ’s glory as the highest object of our thoughts, we must “diligently study the Scripture, and the revelations that are made of this glory of Christ therein.” (314) John 5:39, Luke 24:26-27, Matt 13:45-46 ( Owen sees the field as representing scripture, the pearl the glory of Christ). When talking about meditating on the glory of Christ, it is easy (for me at least) to think that I am to meditate abstractly, to “imagine” the beauty of Christ’s glory. But we only see the glory of Christ in the Word. The glory of Christ is centered in the gospel, and the gospel, the story of redemption and God’s covenant love, is found in scripture.

3.) Having placed the highest motivation on seeing Christ’s glory, and then searching scripture for it, we must consider it our duty to frequently meditate on it. We can assent to the realtiy of Christs glory without attending to it in solemn meditation. “it is…to be lamented that men can find time for, and have inclinations to think and meditate on, other things, [that] may be earthly and vain; but have neither heart, nor inclination, nor leisure to meditate on this glorious object.” (317)

4. “Let your occasional thoughts of Christ be many, and multiplied every day” (317). Where #3 refers to lengthy set aside times of prayer and meditation, here Owen refers to continual communication throughout one’s day. “Generally, Christ is nigh unto believers, and of a ready access; and the principal actings of the life of faith consist in the frequency of our thoughts concerning him…Christ dwells in them by faith; but the actings of this life in them (as wherever life is, it will be in act and exercise) are proportionable unto their thoughts or him, and delight in him” (319). “A great rebuke it ought to be to us, when Christ hath for any time been long out of our minds.”

5. All of these directions are vain if they do not issue in adoration and love to Christ. “The design of this discourse is no more, but when by faith we have attained a view of the glory of Christ, in our contemplations on his person, we should not pass it over as a notion of truth which we assent to – namely, that he is thus glorious in himself – but endeavor to affect our hearts with it, as that wherein our own principal interest lie; wherein it will be effectual unto the transformation of our souls unto his image” (321). This is the end goal, the purpose for which we initially repented of not keeping.

May we take Jesus’ prayer earnestly.

Christianity is full of paradoxes, truths that appear to be at odds but are not. Why is this?

The ultimate source of truth is God, for he is ultimate reality, and truth is that which corresponds to reality. Because God is ultimate truth, all truth comes from Him and no truth is truly known unless it is known in relation to Him. That is to say, we can’t know anything unless we know God.

But because God is infinitely transcendent and we are finite, we can’t know him unless He reveals himself to us. God reveals himself in degrees: in creation, in his Word, and ultimately in his Son. Jesus Christ is the ultimate revelation of God (Heb. 1). As such, he is the ultimate source of truth. But God reveals himself through his son in a paradox, indeed, the ultimate paradox: Deity assuming a human nature, God and Man in one Person.

So, all divine truth comes to us through a paradox and thus will be paradoxical to one degree or another.

Understanding this should help us tremendously as we wrestle with theological difficulties like divine sovereignty and human freedom, cultural transformation and gospel constancy, or the power of the Spirit and the truth of the Word. The tension between those ideas should not be so surprising in light of the fundamental nature of God’s revelation through Christ in the gospel. That doesn’t mean that embracing the tension is easy; it isn’t. But at the very least it should keep us from pulling the “inconsistent” or “illogical” cards when discussing those topics because as evangelicals we all embrace orthodox Christology.

One of my favorite topics to think about and discuss is the gospel. It is the all encompassing teaching of scripture, the ultimate revelation of God. All that God would have us know about himself, the world we live in, and ourselves is contained in it.

With that in mind, it amazes me to realize that the gospel is fundamentally a story. It has characters, a protagonist and antagonist, setting, themes, motifs, and of course, plot. In fact, the stages of the gospel, often described as creation, fall, redemption, consummation, correspond to the fundamental aspects of plot: creation/exposition, fall/conflict, old covenant/rising tension, cross/climax, new covenant/resolution.

The question is, which came first? Does the gospel conform to basic plot structure, or does story flow out of the plot structure of the gospel? It’s obvious that I think the gospel came first. The very possibilty for stories comes from the fact that God’s highest and most eminent revelation of himself is itself a story.

Clerihews in the news!

Kim Jong Il
Fired a missile
Disguised as a satellite;
The U.N. sees it as unpolite

Do you clerihew?

Judge Sotomayor
Has got some sore
For saying she’s keener
By being Latina

I know it’s probably not the impression she meant to give, but the quote is just too funny to pass up:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life…” [LA Times]

Man must have just enough faith in himself to have adventures, and just enough doubt of himself to enjoy them.