biblical worldviewing

I just wanted to post an excerpt from this great book that was a particular blessing to me. I love how Bunyan paints the Christian journey in such stark, imperative terms. Once you strip away all the cares of the flesh, you see the Gospel call the same way Bunyan does: repent or perish. Everything is worth forsaking for the embracing of Christ. A great scene is when Christian is running towards the light and his wife and children call after him to stop, Bunyan says that Christian plugs his ears and runs, shouting “Life! Life! Eternal Life!” Just following that, two men, Obstinate and Pliable attempt to make Christian turn and come back to the place Christian calls “the city of destruction”. Obstinate goes back, but Christian talks Pliable into coming along.

CHRISTIAN: Come, neighbor Pliable, how do you do? I am glad you are persuaded to go along with me. Had even Obstinate himself but felt what I have felt of the powers and terrors of what is yet unseen, he would not thus lightly have given us the back.

PLIABLE: Come, neighbor Christian, since there are none but us two here, tell me now farther, what the things are, and how to be enjoyed, whither we are going.

CHRISTIAN: I can better conceive of them with my mind, than speak of them with my tongue: but yet, since you are desirous to know, I will read of them in my book.

PLIABLE: And do you think that the words of your book are certainly true?

CHRISTIAN: Yes, verily; for it was made by Him that cannot lie. Tit. 1:2.

PLIABLE: Well said; what things are they?

CHRISTIAN: There is an endless kingdom to be inhabited, and everlasting life to be given us, that we may inhabit that kingdom for ever. Isa. 65:17; John 10: 27-29.

PLIABLE: Well said; and what else?

CHRISTIAN: There are crowns of glory to be given us; and garments that will make us shine like the sun in the firmament of heaven. 2 Tim. 4:8; Rev. 22:5; Matt. 13:43.

PLIABLE: This is very pleasant; and what else?

CHRISTIAN: There shall be no more crying, nor sorrow; for he that is owner of the place will wipe all tears from our eyes. Isa. 25:8; Rev 7:16, 17; 21:4.

PLIABLE: And what company shall we have there?

CHRISTIAN: There we shall be with seraphims and cherubims, Isaiah 6:2; 1 Thess. 4:16,17; Rev. 5:11; creatures that will dazzle your eyes to look on them. There also you shall meet with thousands and ten thousands that have gone before us to that place; none of them are hurtful, but loving and holy; every one walking in the sight of God, and standing in his presence with acceptance for ever. In a word, there we shall see the elders with their golden crowns, Rev. 4:4; there we shall see the holy virgins with their golden harps, Rev. 14:1-5; there we shall see men, that by the world were cut in pieces, burnt in flames, eaten of beasts, drowned in the seas, for the love they bare to the Lord of the place, John 12:25; all well, and clothed with immortality as with a garment. 2 Cor. 5:2.

PLIABLE: The hearing of this is enough to ravish one’s heart. But are these things to be enjoyed? How shall we get to be sharers thereof?

CHRISTIAN: The Lord, the governor of the country, hath recorded that in this book, Isaiah 55:1,2; John 6:37; 7:37; Rev. 21:6; 22:17; the substance of which is, if we be truly willing to have it, he will bestow it upon us freely.

PLIABLE: Well, my good companion, glad am I to hear of these things: come on, let us mend our pace.

CHRISTIAN: I cannot go as fast as I would, by reason of this burden that is on my back.

The time is 11:50 pm and I just now got back to the house I live in after leaving it this morning at 6:45 am. Tuesdays, as I wrote before, are the longest day of the week–the day I drive to Charlotte and sit under 9 hours of lecture at seminary. I am exhausted, mentally over-stimulated, and greatly blessed.

As I think over this time of my life, I cannot help but feel thankful. The Lord did not have to bless me with work and employment in the form of substitute teaching, which has turned out to be a very satisfying and interesting job, but He provides. The Lord did not have to bless me with my gorgeous fiancee Sarah, which, after the longest day, is the best refreshment to see her, talk to, and pray with–even for just a 30 minute stop on my way home tonight, but He provides. The Lord did not have to bless me with precious opportunities to learn of Him and His Word, but He lets me be in seminary. And the Lord does not have to put me through trials–He could actually give me what my flesh wants and leave me to grow numb to Him through prosperity, comfort and health. On the contrary, the Lord lovingly reproves me through trials that make me to lean upon His grace all the more.

I feel God’s blessing through so many of the delightful things He gives, but sometimes I feel His hand upon me all the more through trials. Right now I can only say I am faced with an exceptionally large trial–but already I have seen the goodness of the Lord in putting me through this.

I hope to write more about substituting soon! There’s so much to say about that–I could devote a whole blog to it (or even write a book after a few more months/years of doing it). Call it something like “Sub-stance”. I don’t know…

I was driving home from Palm Beach, FL, last March when I heard this the first time on the highway, and it moved me to tears of repentance and joy. Since then, I have listened to it numerous times and even attempted to memorize it, and just now I found it has been published as a video. It’s worth every second of the 10 minutes.

I just got back last night from almost a full week in Florida. Little did I know, even though God provided countless blessings on the trip, the highest blessing was fighting my sin on the drive home by myself listening to a John Piper sermon. Here’s the transcript. I think it’s something I’m going to try and memorize:

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Oh, that the risen, living Christ, therefore, would come to us (even now) by his Spirit and through his Word and reveal to us

—the supremacy of his deity, equal with God the Father in all his attributes—the radiance of his glory and the exact imprint of his nature, infinite, boundless in all his excellencies;

—the supremacy of his eternality that makes the mind of man explode with the unsearchable thought that Christ never had a beginning, but simply always was; sheer, absolute reality while all the universe is fragile, contingent, like a shadow by comparison to his all-defining, ever-existing substance;

—the supremacy of his never-changing constancy in all his virtues and all his character and all his commitments—the same yesterday, today, and forever;

—the supremacy of his knowledge that makes the Library of Congress look like a matchbox, and all the information on the Internet look like a little 1940’s farmers almanac, and quantum physics—and everything Stephen Hawking ever dreamed—seem like a first-grade reader;

—the supremacy of his wisdom that has never been perplexed by any complication and can never be counseled the wisest of men;

—the supremacy of his authority over heaven and earth and hell, without whose permission no man and no demon can move one inch, who changes times and seasons, removes kings and sets up kings; does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; so none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?”

—the supremacy of his providence without which not a single bird falls to the ground in the furthest reaches of the Amazon forest, or a single hair of any head turns black or white;

—the supremacy of his word that moment by moment upholds the universe and holds in being all the molecules and atoms and subatomic world we have never yet dreamed of;

—the supremacy of his power to walk on water, cleanse lepers and heal the lame, open the eyes of the blind, cause the deaf to hear and storms to cease and the dead to rise, with a single word, or even a thought;

—the supremacy of his purity never to sin, or to have one millisecond of a bad attitude or an evil, lustful thought;

—the supremacy of his trustworthiness never to break his word or let one promise fall to the ground;

—the supremacy of his justice to render in due time all moral accounts in the universe settled either on the cross or in hell;

—the supremacy of his patience to endure our dullness for decade after decade; and to hold back his final judgment on this land and on the world, that many might repent;

—the supremacy of his sovereign, servant obedience to keep his Father’s commandments perfectly and then embrace the excruciating pain of the cross willingly;

—the supremacy of his meekness and lowliness and tenderness that will not break a bruised reed or quench a smoldering wick;

—the supremacy of his wrath that will one day explode against this world with such fierceness that people will call out for the rocks and the mountains to crush them rather than face the wrath of the Lamb;

—the supremacy of his grace that gives life to spiritually dead rebels and wakens faith in hell-bound haters of God, and justifies the ungodly with his own righteousness;

—the supremacy of his love that willingly dies for us even while we were sinners and frees us for the ever-increasing joy in making much of him forever;

—the supremacy of his own inexhaustible gladness in the fellowship of the Trinity, the infinite power and energy that gave rise to all the universe and will one day be the inheritance of every struggling saint;

And if he would grant us to know him like this, it would be but the outskirts of his supremacy. Time would fail to speak of the supremacy of his severity, and invincibility, and dignity, and simplicity, and complexity, and resoluteness, and calmness, and depth, and courage. If there is anything admirable, if there is anything worthy of praise anywhere in the universe, it is summed up supremely in Jesus Christ.

He is supreme in every admirable way over everything:

• over galaxies and endless reaches of space;
• over the earth from the top of Mount Everest 29,000 feet up, to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean 36,000 feet down into the Mariana Trench;
• He is supreme over all plants and animals, from the peaceful Blue Whale to the microscopic killer viruses;
• over all weather and movements of the earth: hurricanes, tornadoes, monsoons, earthquakes, avalanches, floods, snow, rain, sleet;
• over all chemical processes that heal and destroy: cancer, AIDS, malaria, flu, and all the workings of antibiotics and a thousand healing medicines.
• He is supreme over all countries and all governments and all armies;
• over Al Qaeda and all terrorists and kidnappings and suicide bombings and beheadings;
• over bin Ladin and al-Zarqawi;
• over all nuclear threats from Iran or Russia or North Korea.
• He is supreme over all politics and elections;
• over all media and news and entertainment and sports and leisure;
• and over all education and universities and scholarship and science and research;
• and over all business and finance and industry and manufacturing and transportation;
• and over all the internet and information systems.

As Abraham Kuyper used to say, “there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’” And rule with absolute supremacy. And though it may not seem so now, it is only a matter of time until he is revealed from heaven in flaming fire to give relief to those who trust him and righteous vengeance on those who don’t.

Oh, that the almighty God would help us see and savor the supremacy of his Son. Give yourself to this. Study this. Cultivate this passion. Eat and drink and sleep this quest to know the supremacy of Christ. Pray for God to show you these things in his Word. Swim in the Bible every day. Use the means of grace. Like God-centered, Christ-exalting books. Don’t go home without books to help you in this. Get John Owen on the glories of Christ and the mortification of sin. Get Mahaney on the Cross and the glory of God in marriage. Get Powlison and Patterson and Edwards. And with all your getting—whatever it takes—get the all-satisfying supremacy of Christ at the center of your life.