A Book Unlike Any Other
The Bible may be a book, but it is a book unlike any other. The Bible is inspired—breathed out by God and in that way perfectly reflects the mind and will of God. The Bible is also complete, sufficient, inerrant, and infallible. Because the Bible is all these things and so many more, it is powerful and effective. Because it is God’s Word, it comes with all the power and authority of God—power and authority sufficient to change us from the outside in.
Michael Horton says, “God’s word does not merely impart information; it actually creates life. It’s not only descriptive; it’s effective too. God speaking is God acting.” Thus, as we read the Bible, the Bible reads us. As we study the Bible, the Bible studies us. As we examine its every word, it examines our every thought, our every action, our every desire, our every inclination. It identifies our shortcomings; it calls us to change. But more than that, it provokes and promotes and causes that change.
How do we know? Because “the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). As God speaks through the Bible, God acts through the Bible, for “God speaking is God acting.”
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A Family Easter Update
Easter weekend is always a special time in Canada, not least because both Good Friday and Easter are public holidays. Whether you celebrate Jesus, Passover, the Easter Bunny, or nothing at all, you get two days away from the hustle and bustle of normal life. In an era in which governments seem intent on tearing out the religious roots of our nations, I do wonder how long these distinctly Christian holidays will remain. But for now, at least, they are a part of the annual ebb and flow.
My family spent the weekend in a relatively quiet way. We have had a bit of a busy time lately and have plenty more busyness coming up in the next month, so didn’t mind the thought of laying low. That said, we went to church on Easter Sunday, of course, to celebrate the resurrection. We also had a fellowship lunch together as a church—the first in a while—and very much enjoyed getting some time with friends new and old. Because Toronto is a major world city, we tend to have many people coming and going, so there are almost always people to greet and people to bid farewell. Our church is endlessly fascinating that way.
We expect that the next month will be dominated by the final planning for Abby’s wedding. She is due to marry Nathan in Louisville on May 15! This will be the first wedding of that generation on our side of the family and just the second on Nate’s, so we are all quite new at this. Still, Abby has done a wonderful job of planning and organizing, with Aileen also working out some of the fine details. Michaela is going to be Abby’s maid of honor while Ryn will be one of the bridesmaids. The service will be co-led by the pastor from our church and the pastor from Nate’s. We are all very excited about it and eager to celebrate together. It has been a difficult couple of years for our family and it will be lovely to join in a true celebration.
Over the past few weeks I have been putting the final touches on a book that will be available this fall—a book I’ll be telling you about very soon. The cover and text are complete and the page layout is very nearly there as well. I should have one more opportunity to look at it all in a week or two and then it will be off to the printers for a mid-September release date. In the meantime, I’m in the opening stages of a very different kind of book—one aimed at a younger audience—that is still a couple of years away from completion. I am pushing boundaries with this one, but am hopeful it will come out well.
I have not done much public speaking since the pandemic shut down conferences two years ago and do not have a lot of plans to do so in the future. That said, I am slated to be at the Getty Music Sing! Conference in Nashville this September. This is a major event that includes a host of speakers and musicians and draws a large and diverse crowd of attendees. If you plan to be among them, I will look forward to meeting you there. If you don’t plan to be among them, well, it’s certainly not too late! Either way, I hope to host an “extra” event there that will include a couple of speakers you’ll enjoy and perhaps a bit of music. Stay tuned for details!
In the meantime, thanks for reading. I expect I’ll have another update on the far side of the wedding… -
A La Carte (August 21)
Good morning. Grace and peace to you.
(Yesterday on the blog: How To Pray For Someone Who Is Dying)
Can the World Cup deliver on community and transcendence?
Here’s a look at how sports can promise something like transcendence but how it will always fail to ultimately deliver.
If it’s not in the Bible, you really don’t have to do it
A helpful reminder: “There are many things that may or may not be helpful. Many things that we might think would benefit us in some way. Many things that it might be good for us to do in our community, for our community, and that may in some way serve the cause the gospel. All these things you are a free to do. They may even be good to do. But it pays to remember, you are finite and if Jesus hasn’t specifically asked you to do them, you are equally free not to do them.”
Why The Briefing?
This is a fun little behind-the-scenes glance at Al Moher’s “The Briefing.”
I Thought You Should Know, Again
Here is another of Kristin’s helpful reflections on the gospel and the Christian life.
“God Knows I Love You”
“How does a pastor pursue a love for the congregation? This is where the rubber meets the road. We might wish it wasn’t so but those we know best are sometimes the hardest to love. Ask a husband or a wife! So it is with a pastor. A pastor who knows his flock knows their personalities, quirks, weaknesses, and even sins.”
You’re Only Human
Sarah considers her finitude in light of some of the challenges of motherhood.
Flashback: The Place To Begin When Learning About Social Justice
As Christians consider how to act righteously toward others, as we consider the right response to injustice, as we ponder matters of inequity, we have a book of the Bible that is meant to guide us.We make a mistake when we allow the memories of the past or its influences so to absorb our mind and heart as to unfit us for doing well the duties of the present. —J.R. Miller
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When God Unfolds His Will in Pieces
Before the tabernacle was assembled upon the plains, Moses received a vision of it upon the mountain. Before he directed the first weaving, the first stitching, the first forging, he had been given a detailed image of the completed whole. God led him in a comprehensive walkthrough and delivered to him a thorough set of instructions.
It’s for this reason that there are chapters in the book of Exodus that run in parallel. In chapter 26 God provides instruction: “You shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns; you shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them.” Ten chapters later we read this description: ”All the craftsmen among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains. They were made of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns, with cherubim skillfully worked.” Again, “You shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains one to the other with the clasps, so that the tabernacle may be a single whole.” And so, a short time later, “he made fifty clasps of gold, and coupled the curtains one to the other with clasps. So the tabernacle was a single whole.”
Thus it went from the tabernacle to the altar to the table to the lampstand to the Ark of the Covenant. Moses had received clear and exhaustive instructions from God and to be obedient he simply had to do exactly as he had been directed. God’s will was clear and it fell to Moses to execute it.
We may wish that God provided this kind of direction today. Especially when we come to life’s trials and difficulties, its questions and uncertainties, we may wish that God would describe what it means to be obedient from start to finish, from beginning to end. We may wish that he would give us a vision of the whole before we set out and that he would give us a thorough set of directions before we take the first step. We learn quickly, though, that this is not God’s way.
It’s not that God has no plan for our lives or that he is making things up as he goes. It’s not that he is adeptly responding to circumstances and directing first this way and then that. It’s not that he neglected to create a clear blueprint in his mind or that he lacks the power to execute it all in its minutest details. No, the truth is that God has every bit as much of a design for our lives as he did for his tabernacle. Our days are as clearly and precisely laid out in his mind as was his place of worship. If it was important to God to tell exactly how many rings must fasten each curtain, then certainly no detail of our lives is too small, no moment too trivial, no decision too insignificant to be meaningless or to fall outside of his plan.
But when it comes to our lives, God chooses to unfold his will in bits, in steps, in phases. He chooses to unfold his will in real-time and not in advance. He chooses to unfold his will in such a way that we need to exercise faith—faith that all we experience is within his providence, faith that the way will become clear as we go, and faith that when we look back upon it all, we will praise him for his wisdom. We proceed through life with a page of directions that includes just the next step or two, not with a booklet of instructions that displays the completed whole.
But even with this being the case, we lack nothing that is necessary to live faithfully and well. Where God gave Moses a blueprint, he gives us many promises. Where God gave Moses a detailed plan, he gives us many sweet assurances. Perhaps the best of them is this: “The Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.” As we live with him and for him, he keeps back nothing we need to live in the way that pleases and honors him. And if God keeps back from us no good thing, then it must be equally true that he dispenses to us no ultimately bad thing. His providence does not fall into the two categories of good and bad, but just the one category of good. Everything is ultimately good because everything proceeds from his wisdom and falls within his plan.
Thus, whether our path leads through green pastures or dark valleys, we can be certain that God is withholding no good thing. Whether our path leads through depths of pain or heights or joy, we can have confidence that God is dispensing no evil thing. Whether our path leads in just one direction or forks into many possibilities, we can be sure that the God who told exactly how many rings must fasten each curtain is the very same God who will dispense the wisdom we need to discern whether it’s best to stay or return, to accept or decline, to press on or turn back. No matter where God leads, we can have the highest assurance that through it all he is making us more like Christ and bringing glory to his name. For the Lord is our sun and shield and he bestows to his beloved nothing but favor and honor.