4 hours ago
Showing posts with label Christian History. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian History. Show all posts
Years ago, when I first started reviewing books for my blog, I read a book by a popular Christian author that I would have thrown across the room if I were the type of person to do that sort of thing.
The thing that made me so frustrated with the book was a particularly sappy description of loving Jesus in a way that made him sound more like an eager-to-please boyfriend. I have long hated Jesus-is-my-boyfriend language in books, because it is offensive to the very idea of a biblical love of God, and completely eliminates the idea the idea that we are to fear the Lord.
The fear of the Lord is an idea that alot of Christians have trouble understanding, and I relate to that struggle too. Now, loving the Lord, we think we understand that. Even the idea of having a reverence for the Lord is something that is simpler to comprehend. But fearing the Lord? Why do we need to fear Him if we know He loves us enough to die for us? Doesn’t perfect love cast out fear? Isn’t “fearing the Lord” more of an Old Testament thing? We know we don’t have to fear His judgement if we are in Christ, so what are we supposed to be afraid of? And are we literally supposed to be quaking in our boots, or does fearing the Lord mean something else?
In Rejoice And Tramble*, Michael Reeves provides one of the most beautiful explanations for the fear of the Lord that I have ever read. He explains that properly fearing the Lord is a more full, complete idea than merely having a '“reverence” for Him, a word which Reeves calls not inaccurate, but nevertheless “anemic”. Fearing the Lord is not in opposition to loving Him - it instead describes the right sort of love we are to have for God, a love that trembles. It is a fear that is not joy-sucking, but joy-fulfilling. It is not a fear that causes us to cower or run away, but rather a fear that draws us to our awesome, fearful God.
“The Lord looks on the heart and is pleased when He finds it quaking in wonder, love, and praise…For the nature of the living God means that the fear which pleases Him is not a groveling shrinking fear. He is no tyrant. It is an ecstasy of love and joy that senses how overwhelmingly kind and magnificent, good and true God is, and that therefore leans on Him in staggering praise and faith.” pg. 67
One section that especially rung true for me is where Reeves explains the right fear of God as our Creator, but then reminds the reader that properly fearing God’s creative power is not enough with the understanding of Christ’s redeeming work for His own. Fearing God as Creator has always been the easiest way for me to understand the fear of God, because His power and might and infinite understanding are so obvious and awesome when viewed through His creation. But Reeves points out that we only rightly understand God as the Creator when we understand the work of Christ. We don’t have to earn the favor of our Creator, which is something that would lead us unto sinful fear since we all instinctively know it is impossible. No, Christ has earned salvation for us, and because of that we can truly enjoy the glimpses of God’s character that we see in creation.
“The fear that is ‘purely evangelical’ continually and wholly rests upon Christ’s redemption as sufficient, not our own works. It is not left wondering if our sins might outweigh Christ’s righteousness, or if Christ’s righteousness needs some topping off of our own efforts. It can therefore remain constant in dependent wonder, not terror. Indeed it’s wonder is only increased by the perfection of Christ’s redemption and the infinity of His grace toward such extreme sinners as us.” pg.99
We can have true pleasure in the work of God in creation when we understand Him not just a fearful, powerful Creator but also the one who is our Redeemer. A right fear of God is a fearful love, understanding His power and greatness as it stoops to rescue “ a wretch like me”. This great God, who created all things, also redeems us, and because of that all His works become more wondrous and joyful to us.
“‘Gazing upon the vast expanse of waters - looking up to the innumerable stars, examining the wings of an insect, and seeing there the matchless skill of God displayed in the minute; or standing in a thunderstorm, watching, as best you can, the flashes of lightening, and listening to the thunder of Jehovah’s voice, have you not often shrunk into yourself, and said ‘Great God, how terrible art thou!’ - not afraid, but full of delight, like a child who rejoices to see his father’s wealth, his father’s wisdom, his father’s power - happy, and at home, but feeling oh, so little!’” -quoting Spurgeon, pg. 79
In this book, Reeves draws on the writing of some of the greatest theologians in Protestant history, such as John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, and Charles Spurgeon, which adds a depth of understanding to his explanations of the fear of God. I appreciated Reeves including the experiences of fearing the Lord from men from church history who truly understood the fear of the Lord as something that makes us “rejoice and tremble.”
“The fear of the Lord is the only fear that imparts strength.” pg. 146
Reeves reminds us that this fear of the Lord is not just a right response to understanding who God is, but it is the fear which causes all other fears to pale in comparison, like the light of the sun making the light of a candle of no effect.
“As the fear of the Lord grows, it outgrows, eclipses, consumes, and destroys all rival fears. So the Lord could advise Isaiah: ‘Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, Him you shall honor as holy. Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.’ When the fear of the Lord becomes central and most important, other fears subside.” pg. 144
Reeves closes the book with reminding us that “the fear of the Lord will endure forever.” Our eternal state will consist of us finally fearing the Lord perfectly, and falling on our faces in loving adoration, joy, and wonder. The Holy Spirit works in us by growing our joyful fear of the Lord, and in Heaven it will finally be perfected. We will understand God rightly forever, rejoicing and trembling. The way Reeves described it made me long even more for that day!
“In other words, our eternal joy will consist precisely in this fear of God: rejoicing and marveling so entirely that, like the angels, we burn and tremble and fall on our faces in wonder.” pg.163
If you have ever struggled to understand the fear of the Lord, I highly recommend picking up Rejoice And Tremble. I firmly believe this book will deepen your understanding of this wonderful fear that we are called to, and make you love the Savior all the more for His fearful glory and majesty.
*Note: I received a copy of this book for free from the publisher in exchange for a review - this is my honest opinion.
Church music has long been an area of interest for me.
I grew up in a picturesque little church complete with a white steeple and bell, on a plain surrounded by mountains, and every Sunday we sang hymns. Having that kind of foundational experience with the great hymns of the faith gave me a very strong appreciation of songs with theologically deep - not just theologically correct, but deep - lyrics. I still love hymns very much, for a multitude of reasons. One reason is that songs that have stood the test of time, not just decades but centuries, tie us to believers throughout all that history until now.
That said, I'm not one to eschew good modern music either. If a modern song is theologically correct and rich (a rarity, unfortunately), I'm apt to love it just as much as my old hymns.
Unfortunately, the challenge with any worship music, new or old, is to make a good judgement about whether this song is rightly praising God, or if it's subtly "me-centered" or praising man. It can get very tricky, and I'll admit that I'm pretty picky about the songs that make it onto my personal list of favorites.
With the challenge of finding Christian music that is sound and has the right focus, I started to wonder, why isn't Psalm-singing more common these days? The Psalms are, after all, songs. If God gave us a songbook right there in the middle of the Bible, why don't we sing them more?
I have personally never been in a church that sang Psalms, and when I realized that, it started to trouble me. There are some that think only Psalms should be sung in church - I'm not of that persuasion, but shouldn't we at least include the Psalms in the musical rotation? Why wouldn't we?
There are a many reasons why a lot of denominations might not sing the Psalms anymore, and I'm not sure I'm completely equipped to give a good summary of that right now. But the more I thought about it, the more I determined that though we might not sing Psalms in church much, that didn't mean we couldn't learn to sing them ourselves. So this year I've been working pretty hard, reading books, trying to figure out how to do just that.
I will write a separate post about how we've started to add some Psalms to our repertoire, but first I wanted to give a few reasons why Psalm-singing is something worth doing - including within your own family.
1. The Psalms are God's songbook.
As I mentioned above, there is no other songbook anywhere that can be rightly described as inspired by the Holy Spirit Himself. All Scripture is God-breathed, and that includes the Psalms. When we sing the Psalms, we are singing God's very words back to Him, and there is something very beautiful in that.
2. When we sing the Psalms, we can be sure we are singing theologically correct songs.
You don't have to analyze the Psalms before you sing them to look for errors or a wrong focus - God gave us these songs to sing from His Word. As long as the Psalm hasn't been "adapted" beyond recognition, there is alot of peace in knowing we are singing Scripture.
3. The Psalms connect us to believers in the Old and New Testaments.
Just as I love hymns in part because I know so many believers have sung those very words before me, the Psalms connect us even more with believers through the ages. The Israelites sang these very songs, Jesus likely sang Psalms with His disciples, the early church sang psalms. It's very inspiring to think we are singing the same praises to God that have been sung through so many ages.
4. I believe Scripture tells us to sing Psalms.
I recognize some people will differ with me on this, but I think Ephesians 5:19 indicates that we should keep singing the Psalms. Paul says:
"...speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord..."
I know many people say that this verse is just referring to different types of music, but I really don't see why the word "psalms" wouldn't mean the psalms of Scripture.
5. Singing Psalms is an effective way to memorize Scripture.
No other book of the Bible has been put to music as much as the Psalms have, and this gives us a prime opportunity to take God's Word and hide it in our hearts! Not every Psalm song is a word-for-word adaptation, of course, but even if it's not word-for-word, a faithful adaptation will get the ideas of the Psalms embedded into your mind.
5. The Psalms are formative.
If you get an opportunity to read Scott Aniol's book Musing On God's Music, I highly recommend it. In it, he points out that the Psalms aren't just empty words - when we read and sing them, they are forming us as Christians. The Psalms are a cohesive book about what it means to live as a believer in a fallen world, until Christ comes to earth as King and reigns forever and ever.
Psalms show us how to respond when we are attacked and persecuted, when we are hopeless, when we sin, when we are needy, when we are full of joy, when we prosper. They rightly order our affections, and train us to respond in a godly way no matter what life brings to us. And they show us how to keep our eyes fixed on the Lord through every bit of it. Why would we not take advantage of this beautiful gift God has given us in the Psalms by learning to sing them from our hearts, until we see Him face-to-face?
I hope I've convinced you to at least consider learning to sing the Psalms if you never have before. I can tell you it's been a beautiful thing to start learning different Psalms with my kids through singing them together. Hearing their little voices singing the songs God gave us is so moving, and I know the words are being absorbed into their hearts while we sing. Since I've started this process, snatches of Psalms have also come to me in the form of a melody playing through my mind, and it's been an encouragement whenever I think of one of our Psalm songs. I know that learning the Psalms through song is going to be an effort that will be well worth it when I look back at how we spent out time together someday.
Another post coming soon on how to go about learning to sing Psalm songs when you are not very musically gifted, like me!
Have you ever sang the Psalms? Does your church use a Psalter?
I'm always interested to hear other people's experiences with Psalm-singing.
For the first time I put together a Reformation Day party, and I think it was a success! I thought I'd share some of the things we did in case anyone else wants some ideas for next year.
Before I get into it, please check out all my Reformation Day posts here! Over the years I have shared a ton of book suggestions and other resources for learning about the Reformation as an adult and with your kids. Every October we spend time studying the Reformers leading up to Reformation Day!
1. Reformation-themed snacks. My sister brought worm pudding as a play on the "Diet Of Worms" which was the counsel where Luther made his famous statement about standing on the word of God! We also made edible hammers out of marshmallows and pretzel sticks. Aside from that we just had fall snacks like apples and pumpkin dip, along with popcorn, and chocolates!
2. Watched a movie about the Reformation. This year we did the Martin Luther Torchlighters animated show, and before the party I had my kids watch a short documentary called "On The Shoulders Of Giants" as an extra.
3. We colored the Lutheran rose symbol. This is a symbol that Luther invented to represent different doctrines, and it was fun to talk about it together while the kids colored! Here is more information about this symbol.
4. Reformation Day games.
Pin 95 Theses On The Door. We played the classic "pin the theses on the door" - I kept it really simple and just drew a dry-erase circle onto the center of our glass door, and blindfolded the kids so they could try to pin the theses printable papers onto the door (we got the printables from this guide).
Five Solas Target Practice. For a second game we drew concentric circles on the driveway with sidewalk chalk, and then wrote the five solas, one in each circle. The kids had to try to toss a stone into each sola circle. It was trickier than it sounds!
5. We sang "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God". This is Luther's most famous hymn, and we've been practicing it! It was nice to sing it together as a group!
6. Reformation Day craft. I wanted to include some sort of Reformation Day craft, since my kids are still at an age to enjoy that sort of thing, but we ran out of time! This year we were going to do a printing press activity, which I got from the guide from Brighter Day Press, but if you have rubber stamps at home I think that would also give the same idea! You can read more about what the printing press had to do with the Reformation in this post.
7. Reformation Day shirts. My kids still had Reformation Day shirts that I've made them in the past, and of course we all sported our shirts for the party! Not necessary at all, but fun!
(Me in this year's Reformation Day shirt. I didn't make this one, I got it from Sola Gratia Co!)
We had a really fun time, and the kids are already asking that we do another party next year! This party was obviously focused on elementary school kids, but I am storing away ideas for how to make a Reformation Day party more "grown-up" as they get older.
Every year in the month of October, I dig out all my church history books, and especially books related to the Protestant Reformation. Reformation Day is today, and October is the perfect time to dive into the history of this turning point in the history of the church.
This year, one phrase that has stood out to me is the Latin post tenebrous lux - which means "after darkness, light".
I love that this become somewhat of a slogan for the Reformation. So much is contained in those words.
The Reformation dusted off the light of the gospel.
When I think post tenebrous lux the first thing I think of with all my book reading is, of course, the Reformation itself. Medieval times before the Reformation were indeed dark spiritually. Few ordinary people had access to any part of God's word, and they all had to rely on the Catholic church's presentation of the words of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible, which most people could not read for themselves to either confirm or deny the church's teaching.
Human beings are sinful, and without God's word being available for accountability, this led to alot of unbiblical teaching and corruption. People were taught that they never could know if they would be in Heaven after they died - to claim assurance was considered a sin. They must become righteous in themselves to a certain level in order to receive the grace of God that would usher them into Heaven - if not, they must do their time suffering in Purgatory. But of course, they could purchase indulgences to shorten their loved ones' time in Purgatory - there were cathedrals to be built, and this was the church's way of raising money.
Imagine living in a time when there was no hope of you ever being able to read the Bible for yourself, no hope of ever being sure of Heaven, because who could ever know if they had been righteous enough? What a burden to bear!
The Reformation was a perfect storm of events that God used for the recovery of the gospel, and it made the Bible available to the ordinary man. The reformers discovered from Scripture that we as sinners can never attain to any level of righteousness on our own. All our righteous deeds are as filthy rags.
But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like [b]filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,Have taken us away.Isaiah 64:6
No, it is Jesus's righteousness that wholly saves us, through faith in Him alone. When we trust in Him by faith, a faith given to us by the grace of God, the righteousness of Christ is accounted to us, and His righteousness is perfect. Because of Jesus's death to pay the price of our sin, and His perfect righteousness which He gives to us, we can be perfectly assured of Heaven when we trust in Him alone. No one else gets the glory for any piece of our salvation except God alone. And the reformers knew all this because of careful study of God's word alone, which leads to the next thing that the slogan of the Reformation reminds me of.
Scripture is a light.
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.Psalm 119:105
I don't think alot of modern Christians fully understand how rare and beautiful of a thing it is that they are able to hold a Bible in their lap and read it for themselves - indeed, to sometimes have a shelf full of unread Bibles, even. We take Scripture for granted today, but there was a time when there was no translation of Scripture that the masses could read. There was a time when people would go to great lengths and pay a high price, just for a few pages of the Bible. No wonder there was a period of darkness, because the only way we can come to a knowledge of the truth is through the word of God!
The Bible often refers to itself as light, because it is the very word of God, active, effective for bringing the light of the knowledge of Christ to our hearts.
Back then, even a few pages was as a blessed lamp, giving hope to those wandering in darkness. Now so many Bibles "light" our land that we have sometimes forgotten what a beautiful light it truly is.
The Reformation is what allowed us to have a shelf of unused Bibles in the first place - God allowed Luther and the other reformers to recognize the true gospel in Scripture around the same time as Gutenburg invented the printing press. A perfect development at the perfect time to allow God's word to be read by anyone who could read.
Sometimes the world is dark, sometimes so dark things seem hopeless. But God always brings us light, in His wonderful mercy and grace.
Christ is our light.
For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:6
When I read the phrase "after darkness, light", the other thing that came to mind is Christ Himself. Without the work of Jesus on our behalf, we would be lost in the darkness of our sin. Because He suffered the punishment that we ourselves deserved for our sin, having no sin Himself, He became the perfect sacrifice in our place.
He bought us peace with God with His blood.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace...Ephesians 2:13-14
On that glorious morning, He rose from the dead and conquered death and darkness forever! The darkness that is left in our world today is just the remnants, the last ragings of a defeated foe. Our light has come in the hope we now have in Christ.
So many are still walking in darkness, blind to the light of the knowledge of Christ. They don't know what He has done to save them. They are blind and dead in their sins, relying on lies, perhaps relying on their own supposed goodness to somehow be enough, even though it never can be. Everything we do is tainted with sin, which God cannot have in His presence. Humanity has no hope of seeing His face - except if we give up any notion of our own goodness, confess we are sinners, and cling to the Savior as our only hope.
On this day in particular, many celebrate darkness and make light of death, a morbid coping mechanism. I hope while our culture glorifies death and darkness today, we who have placed our trust in only Christ won't forget that we also are to be the light of the world.
You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
Mathew 5:14-16
We are lights not because of anything we have done, but because of the light God has given us in Christ and His word which we are now called to share. We know the hope that is in Christ, because we ourselves have been brought out of the darkness of our sin and death into the marvelous light of salvation in Jesus. When that really sinks in, how can we help but want to share it? I hope today is a day for you to bask in the light of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, and find some way to reflect that to others. That's why we are still here!
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
Ephesians 5:8
Let's give others a chance to also treasure those words. After darkness, light. After blindness and darkness and sin and rebellion and death - Christ.
Soli deo gloria - all to the glory of God alone.
Happy Reformation Day, friends!
For the last several years, October has become a sort of "Christian History Month" around out house. Not only do we celebrate Reformation Day on October 31st (our preference over Halloween, which we don't celebrate), but we spend more time over the whole month of October learning about other heroes in church history. I even get into the spirit and break out Christian history books and documentaries for myself to enjoy.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
