BibleDriven

This is from a post I did some time ago over on “Let My People Read.”

One of the books through which I’ve been reading (and working) recently is Susan Bauer’s The Well-Educated Mind. It’s a practical and encouraging guide to a classical self-education through reading the great books of literature. Near the beginning, in a chapter on “The Act of Reading,” she responds to a common objection that often serves as a rationale (however unjustifiable) for not even attempting to read serious books. The objection is: But I read so slowly; it will take me forever to get through those lists of Great Books! Her answer is “spot on”:

Reading is a life-long process. There’s no hurry, no semester schedule, no end-of-term panic, no final exam. The idea that fast reading is good reading is a twentieth-century weed, springing out of the stony farmland cultivated by the computer manufacturers. As Kirkpatrick Sale has eloquently pointed out, every technology has its own internal ethical system. Steam technology made size a virtue. In the computerized world, faster is better, and speed is the highest virtue of all. When there is a flood of knowledge to be assimilated. the conduits had better flow fast.

But the pursuit of knowledge is centered around a different ethic. The serious reader is not attempting to assimilate a huge quantity of information as quickly as possible, but to understand a few many-sided and elusive ideas. The speed ethic shouldn’t be transplanted into an endeavor that is governed by very different ideals.

I say again, “Amen to that!” So why not start today to nourish the life of the mind for the love of God?

“I call you my brothers, and count it my privilege and joy to serve with you. And to you and this common cause in which we stand I give my life. I will go anywhere with you, and face anything, to the end of finishing the mission we’ve been given—faithfully, fully, courageously, and honorably, so help me God.”

As I listened to these words—from my Platoon Sergeant to her soldiers—I longed for them to be the words and the heart found in our churches. Alas, that it’s so rare.

Let’s commit ourselves altogether again to “walk in a manner worthy of [fitting, proper, of comparable value to]  the calling” to which we’ve been called (Ephesians 4.1).

“The culmination of all things is near. So be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of prayer. Above all keep your love for one another fervent, because love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the varied grace of God. Whoever speaks, let it be with God’s words. Whoever serves, do so with the strength that God supplies, so that in everything God will be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 4.7-11, NET).

I was just on the way from the church over to my little “reserved” table at Starbucks for an afternoon of java and jotting some notes on the history of Christian thought when I noticed, on the car in front of me, this remarkable “thought”—Jesus is coming … look busy!

Aaauuugghhhhhh!! Now, if I’m not completely mistaken, that’s a quote from George Carlin—not really the best source of theological reflection, you know. And I don’t know if the little lady driving this car was a Carlin fan (if so, I would never have guessed it), or whether perhaps she thought that this “thought” had some merit, but its message is fundamentally unbiblical and the attitude behind it dismissive and dangerous.

Here’s what I mean. Jesus is coming … that’s absolutely true. God “has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness” by this man whom he’s appointed, and of this he has “provided proof to everyone by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17.31). The appeal that flows from that truth, though, is not “Look busy!” but “Repent!” The Judge of all the earth will not be fooled by “looks.” Oh no! “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ …” (2 Corinthians 5.10), and the word Paul uses there for “appear” is actually passive voice, and means “be made known, be revealed, be brought to light, be seen through,” i.e. for who we really are. “Looking busy” when Jesus comes won’t make any difference. What’s the hope of the hypocrite—the one who pretends to be other than what he or she is—when Jesus comes? None!

Jesus is coming! Repent! Be faithful unto death! Hold fast to our confession and to the hope set before us! Don’t grow weary in doing good! “We must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12.1-2).

But what we must not do is just try to “look busy”!

Biographies—good biographies (or perhaps I should say biographies of good people)—are always heartening, motivating, and edifying. I’ve recently been reading (slowly, for effect) Alan Jacobs’s good work entitled The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis. It’s one of those books … a page or two (sometimes a paragraph or two) and then lots to think about.

This morning I read where Owen Barfield was introduced into Jack Lewis’s life. World War I had just ended and both were back at Oxford, where they met through a common friend (Leo Baker), when each was about twenty-one years old. Owen Barfield “would become one of the most important people in Jack’s life” (90). In fact, Jacobs concludes, “it is Barfield, and Barfield alone, without whom we could not imagine C. S. Lewis as we now know him” (91).

That set me to thinking. We’ve all known some one or two or so folks like this in our own lives—life-shapers for good! I can think of, oh, maybe a handful of friends, some formal and some informal teachers, who have had a life-shaping impact on me for good. My shortcomings and failures are no reflection on them, but much of what is good in my life has some direct connections to their having been in my life. Friends like these are great mercies of God. Think a little today of those who’ve had such an impact in your own life, and thank the Father of every good and perfect gift for their faithful and fruitful friendship.

Well, this is my first try at making a WordPress theme. It’s okay, I guess, and works well enough. Just a warning to expect tweaks and twists, and maybe complete overhauls in the days to come as I keep working on BibleDriven’s look and feel. Now, it’s late and way past time for sleep!

For those of you interested in matters related to ancient manuscripts of the New Testament (including digital photos of many manuscripts), check out The Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts. I have the privilege right now of helping the Center to index a number of manuscripts that have recently been photographed (which is sharpening my Greek some but also straining my little eyes). This project as a whole should prove a tremendous boost to New Testament manuscript study around the world. Kudos to Dr. Daniel Wallace, et al. for undertaking this important work.

Carson began the devotional with this true observation: “When people know little about the God who has actually disclosed himself, it is terribly easy for them to sink into some perverted view of this God, until the image held of him has very little to do with the reality.”

He concluded with this troubling illustration: “Yesterday I received in the mail a letter from one of America’s premier television preachers, inviting me to send money and offering me in return a Christmas tree ornament of an ‘angel’ with a trumpet, to remind me that God had commanded the angel looking after me to blow a trumpet to celebrate me. What kind of pared-down and domesticated image of God do such leaders hold that they should utter such nonsense?” (D. A. Carson, from the August 14 Devotional, For the Love of God)

Indeed!

Please read the article entitled “The day the circus came to church” written by Pastor Don Hattaway (Tabernacle Baptist Church, Cartersville) and appearing in The Christian Index (July 30, 2009). In case there’s not a copy of The Christian Index at hand, the article can be read online HERE. More and more voices are beginning to cry in this ecclesiastical wilderness, and my hope is that the Lord is about to do great and mighty things for his church in our place and time. “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts …” (Hebrews 3:15; 4:7).

Back on Christmas Eve, I stopped at one of the local coffee shops (imagine that) for a good cup o’ joe and to read a while. When I went in I was greeted by a young man I had met there before … and he looked serious, intent, concerned. He leaned over and said, “We still need to believe.” And I said, “Yes we do!” He then told me that he’d been thinking that morning about the state of things—the world, our nation, the economy, people’s lives—and he was burdened about it all and about the fact that so much skepticism and pessimism and fear of the future and all that kind of stuff was what occupied people’s minds every day. So, he said, he wanted to make a difference, to change the way people think about life, to help them through trouble and trial and sorrow. And to that end, he’d sat down that very morning and written a reflection, an exhortation, on “Why We Should Still Believe.”

He gave me a copy. Then he gave me a lot of copies and asked me to give them to folks at church if we had a Christmas Eve service. I took them and told him I’d give it a look. He went on about his “work” and I grabbed my coffee and sat down in the corner at a table, and started to read:

“The world today has become complicated and full of negativity,” he wrote. “You look at the headlines on the newspapers and the front page is consumed with financial scandal and war.” I couldn’t argue there. Then he wrote, “Realizing this I start to think about what is missing, what is strong enough for us to go back to a time of simple innocence.” I was hopeful. He went on, “As my mind races looking for an answer, one name comes to mind, Santa Claus.” I nearly fell out of my chair. His conclusion? “The world today needs Santa Claus more than ever … On this Christmas I have one wish, that we all start to believe in Santa Claus again.”

And in that instant, my heart was broken, not just for him but for a whole culture and a world so desperately empty, rudderless and adrift that people look for hope and help in a fable they know to be false, grabbing for anything they think will help keep their heads above water, longing for some lost innocence, some moment of inspiration, some little anticipation for a better world. I looked around for him, but he was gone. I wanted to say, “Yes, we do still need to believe, and there is a Name that comes to mind, but it’s not Santa Claus. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, God the Son born under the Law to redeem us from the Law, Redeemer, Mediator, the One that Christmas celebration is all about, the only One who has done something about all that’s wrong in our world, who is taking all who believe in him not back to innocence but on to holiness and glory, who has promised not just a better world, but a new heaven and earth! In him we have life, in him we have hope, in him we find joy, in him we’re given peace that passes understanding and hope here and hereafter.

And that’s no fable!

My wife, Allyson, and I had the opportunity to be in Louisville this weekend (13-14 DEC 2008) for the wedding of a very good friend. And on Sunday, there was occasion to attend worship services in two very different churches.

The first was a non-traditional community church—laid back sort of dress, a rockin’ band, a largely young-in-age congregation, meeting in a very nicely renovated school building. The second was a very traditional Baptist church—casual business sort of dress, a pianist and choir with director, an older-in-age congregation, meeting in an older and stately church building. The music in the first was contemporary (maybe even cutting-edge); in the second it was conventional and time-honored hymns. In the first we sang from words displayed on a number of plasma screens mounted from the ceiling around the room; in the second we sang from hymnbooks and lyrics printed in program. In the first we sat in cushioned chairs; in the second on standard pews.

On the surface, things couldn’t have been more different.… but both were the communion of saints!

In both, our songs praised the Lord who saved us. In both, the Word of God was read, and heard, and proclaimed with power and proportion, but without apology. In both, Christ was exalted as Savior and Lord, Redeemer and King, God and man, the Word made flesh. In both, there was fellowship and prayer. And in both, we celebrated the Lord’s Supper in unity, remembering his first coming and anticipating his second coming. Together, though in very different ways methodologically, we were part of something much larger—the communion of saints—and the glory is the Lord’s!

Prince of Glory, gracing heav’n e’er time began,
Now for us embracing death as Son of Man.
By your birth so lowly, by your love so true,
By your cross most holy, Lord, we worship you!