biblical worldviewing

How the Lord got my attention and showed me biblical worldviewing in a waiting room full of pregnant women.

My pastor from my church in Greensboro greatly blessed me by giving me a stack of books along with the books he was lending me for my short stay at Reformed Theological Seminary. It is to my own detriment that I have not begun to go through these books until just recently when I started this one during a period when our internet went out (which tells me something about my priorities/bad habits):

Sinclair Ferguson’s exposition on the book of Ruth has been opening my eyes to some of the great dramatic and narrative aspects of God’s Word. Reading Ferguson’s comments on Ruth has allowed me to take Ruth slowly enough to really ruminate on what’s happening in the book–I mean, how hard is it to be an old widow with no one but a foreigner for a daughter-in-law with no job in today’s world? Imagine a few thousand years ago! These women had fallen upon desperate times during a famine–a time that was already desperate enough in the land. If it wasn’t for God’s wisdom in restoring these women according to his plan, they would surely perish.

I took Sarah in for her scheduled check-up at human services on Friday. It really breaks my heart that we can’t afford to go to a private doctor’s office and get good, personal care for our first baby, but the quality of medical care at the county human services is no less than any good doctor. Human services lacks that personal touch and comes with a lot of waiting–but it’s free. The other day, as I sat in that waiting room crowded with all these pregnant women, I was praying with my eyes open. About 70% of the women are Hispanic and don’t speak English; the rest are mainly African American with a couple Vietnamese and other Asians here and there. There are little children running around everywhere, presumably because they would have no one to look after them if the mother did not bring them in, and maybe because they too have appointments with human services. There was no way for me to know if those women were married or unmarried, or even if the fathers who were not present (there was probably 1 man for every 7 women) are even part of their lives at all, but I was centered on one verse from Ruth. It is a benediction that Naomi spoke over Ruth and Orpah when Naomi was telling the women to depart from her.

Ruth 1:8,9 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. The LORD grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

Naomi’s prayer is answered later in the story of Ruth. We see how Ruth makes a decision that is much like a profession of faith (”your God will be my God”) and becomes included in the Covenant of God, and experiences the blessings of the Covenant. I found myself looking around the room at those women and praying for each one, saying “May the Lord grant that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband!” As we have seen from the story of Ruth, it is well within God’s power to see that every one of those women are brought into the Covenant and given the blessing of a worthy husband.

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.