biblical worldviewing

As you might have noticed, I like reproducing letters I have written on here because they are usually packed with things I love to talk about on here anyway, and I have this policy that I try to only say things that I wouldn’t care if the whole entire world heard them too.

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The first: an excerpt from a letter to a friend I made who is gay and told me he had a crush on me.

yes, that is a big surprise, but it doesn’t really bother me because I see it as just total confusion. I don’t see it as real, and I don’t think you should either. the problem with all of us is that we LISTEN to ourselves, and never TALK BACK to ourselves. we listen all the time, like when we get up in the morning and listen to our body that tells us to feel grumpy or eat or go back to sleep–we listen to it without even thinking where it’s coming from. AND THAT’S THE PROBLEM. we wouldn’t want to be in a situation where we were constantly listening to someone ELSE at all times, and just doing whatever they said!! why put up with it even from our own self (which is no different in essence than any other person’s self)

just think, if someone put a earphone on you and talked into it by a radio, and pretty much told you everything you were supposed to do at all times, you would rip it out and say “no, you do not know what’s best for me”

the same is true of our bodies and our crazy emotions. they do not know what’s best for us. this is why I think that in the Psalms, the men who loved God always talked back to themselves, like in Psalm 103:

“Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

or in Pslam 42 when the writer goes after his soul (his emotions and heart) and talks back to it:

“Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.”

I just know that the emotions and physical wants we have are lies, and the promises they make are not real. like when my emotions or my soul tell me to just turn on the TV and not pray, because it’s restful to watch TV… that’s such a lie, because watching tv does not give real rest, only numbing and complacency. real Rest to the soul is only found in God, like Jesus said in Matthew 11:

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

and there are so many other lies that we are told, the worst one being that we are sufficient in ourselves to live and have meaning. this is the lie that tells us that we do not need or want Jesus Christ over us in his rightful place. this is the lie that keeps us from LOVING the truth that Jesus is supreme over all the earth and over us, and keeping us eternally if we are his. this lie that we are self-sufficient and worthy of life and goodness…. this is the lie that makes us hate the thought of Jesus being sovereign over us, and this hatred is what makes it clear that we are not his.

you see, the truth is the truth and is not changed: Jesus is reigning over all things and people. Like he said in the Book of Revelation, Jesus is said to be:

“the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens. ”

and also Jesus says:

“I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”

Christians are people who LOVE this truth, and that means they belong to Jesus because Jesus has saved them and made them his own. Satan and the demons HATE this truth, but they still know its true. People who are not Christians usually don’t know the truth, or if they do they hate it. I’m telling you all this to give you the opportunity to SEE Jesus, the living real Jesus, just like he’s standing in the mall and telling you this himself, that he is almighty, that he is glorious and so merciful, that he is able to save and forgive and hold and keep forevermore, AND LOVE HIM. See and love. Hear and love, know and love, love and thank, and worship and exalt and extol! It’s all about him.

it’s all about him and our deceptive hearts, that lead us into believing that there are things OTHER than him that are beautiful or worthy, are killing us and leading us further into death. I know for a solid sure fact that the way you may have a crush on me or any other guy is not TRUE–just as sure as I know that any desire I have for doing anything apart from loving Christ is not true, because only Christ is true, and he is the source and essence of all truth. God the Most High in Jesus the Son, through God the Holy Spirit is the source and essence of all LOVE and LIFE and BEAUTY! don’t you see? anything not ROOTED and FOUNDED and PROCEEDING OUT in or of the LORD Most High is false and not real and a shadow and a poor copy…

and Jesus tells us we must bow to him, believe he was crucified on the cross to provide for the forgiveness of the horror of our sin, he who was the essence of God, who never sinned, died on a cross in our place, and was raised from the dead, showing his power to secure his people to life forevermore, defeated death once for all time on OUR behalf, when we could do NOTHING he did EVERYTHING, and calls on us now to NOT harden our hearts, but to bow to him and trust in him alone!

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The Second: a letter I sent out to the 9 or 10 people who I have been in communciation with about starting a church youth ministry.

Dear friends,

Greg, Nate and I sat down last week and really talked about the formation of a youth group at Spring Garden church. We talked about a number of factors that we have to consider in the timing of this launch, and yes we think it would be so great to go ahead and just get something going–anything, but we check ourselves there. It would be great, but we asked ourselves if it would be premature? My heart goes out for the youth of our church as much as Greg’s, Nate’s or any of yours, but we don’t want to have forced labor. What I mean is that we would hate for this to turn out like many other programs that Spring Garden has undertaken–situations where a few, motivated people have stepped out to do something, and later found the support of other people missing at the time when they needed it most.

I believe the Lord has made Spring Garden into a church that loves excellently and meets so many needs of so many people! All this he has done already, and already he has shown his power mighty through our weakness! It is grace and a mercy so extravagant that we even have each other, and can fellowship and break bread and imbibe communion wine as a Body, led by Christ the Head. We do believe, however, that Christ the Head gives spiritual wisdom to his Church and because of our church’s history and mission, we think it’s best to put this ministry on hold (always laying a foundation for it, and meeting whatever needs we can) until it can be realized as a whole church.

If there are any questions or thoughts, or if you have something on your heart for this ministry that we don’t know about yet, please feel free to respond to everyone on this list.

Love in Christ,
Blake

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.

“Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them but they are talking to you, they bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in this psalm] was this: instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul?’ he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says: ‘Self, listen for moment, I will speak to you.’” Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Spiritual Depression (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1965), 20.

This message is powerful; it comes at a cruical juncture in this week and really, at this point of my life when I have been struggling with issues of purposelessness. I feel like a shell of the person I was when I was actively involved in full time ministry. There is something about being able to pour yourself out to others in ministry all the time that fills you up at the same time. I do have ministry though… to everyone I interact with on a daily, casual basis. I thank God for that, but I long to have full time, intentional ministry. How can I really thank God for something if I long for something “better” though? I know, I’m a total mess and a hypocrite. I guess it’s natural for me to want ministry just as it’s natural for someone to want to have a great job and sense of accomplishment; there’s nothing spiritual about that. The spiritual longing I need is not for ministry, but for exceeding joy in God. I know this, but I also know how richly blessed I was to be in ministry when I was.

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Yesterday I was having lunch and finishing a paper that was the last one due before spring break. I was thinking about my birthday coming up (it’s on Monday) and how I would probably just come home on Sunday after church here in Greensboro to spend a relaxing however many days in Chapel Hill before I got tired of that and went back go Greensboro to hang here till classes started. Then I started to think… “hey, it’s my birthday right? it’s spring break right? I can do anything I want!” I started thinking, “what would I do if I had a week free in China? I’d plan a big trip weeks in advance and travel and have an adventure! I’d pack up my napsack, throw it over my shoulder and head to the train station with a ticket in my pocket to go to Beijing, Shanghai, or somewhere like that, that’s what I’d do! and what am I planning now? when I have a full week off, it’s my birthday, I have a brother who lives in Florida… wait, I have a brother who lives in Florida!”
So the rest is obvious. I’m putting my bicycle in the car, heading down to Gainseville on Monday or Tuesday for 4 to 5 days of hanging out with my brother, riding around a lot, and probably taking a like, 100 mile bike trip to the beach and camping there or something. Maybe I’ll decide to go on down to Palm Beach and see my friend Luken. I’m just real excited to have something to do, and a place to go!

Have a great Spring Break!

This is a segment of a paper I’m writing on the trinity and the Spirit, I may publish the rest here later

In your head, when you think on God, it needs to be as if you are rapidly ascending a towering mountain called Mt. Human Wisdom, and grasping a banner in your hand, on which is written God. You are passing stopping point after stopping point, error after error; false peaks that seem to be the highest around, no way to go higher, and you say “I may now plant this flag here, satisfied there is no higher plane!” Then, through the clouds you see breaking the imposing shape of another ridge and peak higher—higher than you dared dream, and so you run toward and up, carrying your banner. Ten times you may come to a summit and realize it is false and there is still a higher peak that makes your peak look like a valley, and even if all the clouds rolled away and you found yourself ascending on the highest summit of all the summits around you, with no way of going any higher, proper placement of God is reaching that peak and jumping in the air, then exasperated, throwing your flag upwards with all your might that his placement might be higher still.