Saturday, March 10, 2012

Roe v. Wade, 35 Years Later


Breaking Hearts

On a day not unlike today
Did our court rule and say
that the life of the unborn
was not a life and could be torn
away as if the child was a blob
of flesh, though his heart did throb

Tears of pain and guilt
rack the minds which were built
upon the premise of
choices known as self-love

The alter here is very high
where the children often come to die
Who will speak in their defense
and who will pray to forgive the offense
before our just and righteous God
who gives these little ones, who now lay in sod

His is the heart that breaks each time
a child is thought not to mirror the divine
When eyes are formed and hearts do beat
and fingers on hands with toes on feet
when little people living in small wombs
would lay uncovered in chilling rooms

Oh merciful and gracious Lord
would you forgive, would you afford
us this request before your throne
for this sin too would your blood atone
please forgive us Lord we plead
may you grant us Lord the grace to heed
your words of truth and life
and save us from more sacrifice
of unborn children Lord we pray
would you deliver us from this tragic way


- A. B. Seal
(Originally posted on 01-22-2008)

Friday, March 9, 2012

Sunrise from the median...


The sunrise was magnificent yesterday morning as I sat in my patrol car parked in the median. I took this photo while in the median of I-94 near the 12 mile marker. (I took a similar photo of a sunset several months ago, that photo recently was put on the cover of the Trooper magazine.) In case you're wondering, the item in the photo is the hood ornament on my patrol car.

It is good not to waste such moments. All creation displays the glory of God, as He has designed it to do so. While walking (and working) "in the valley of the shadow of death" it is nothing short of majestic to enjoy the varied displays of God's glory, which He makes of Himself in order that we may know Him more and enjoy Him more. That His light does so shine here is but a taste of the glories we will experience when we are eternally encompassed with His glory, as we live in His presence, enjoying Him and glorifying Him forever.

Again I am reminded of the famous catechism statement:
The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

Or as Piper put it:
The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

Both of these statements have proved powerful in relaying truth to the inmates at the jail recently.

(Originally published on 03-18-2008)

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Sirens, Cisterns, and Superior Satisfaction

Psalm 73:25-26
Whom have I in heaven but you, and on earth there is nothing that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail but you are the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

How easy it is for our hearts to desire something other than the Lord. Calvin rightly said that our hearts are perpetual idol factories. When we begin to long for something more than God we are entering very dangerous territory. When the affections of our hearts long after another more than after God we have made an idol.

There remains a contrast to our idolatry prone hearts:

I believe the psalmist when he said, "on earth there is nothing that I desire besides you." I believe it is possible to have the affections of your heart laser focused upon God and Him alone. (I'm not saying that I'm doing this, but rather that I want to do this.)

When is the last time you evaluated your life and considered, "What is it that I desire that either competes with my desires for God or comes close to doing so?" (I'm asking myself this question too.)

There are an overabundance of siren songs luring us into deep danger. There are songs which are less subtle than others. There are also siren songs which are so entirely subtle that we can hardly even notice them. It seems to me that these are the ones which will claim the most victims.

These subtle songs lure their victim's into ineffectiveness, complacency, apathy, misguided contentment, and ultimately to a life lived in service of self. Siren songs such as these steal our time. They will convince you to lay down your cross because it is simply too heavy. All this in efforts to undo Jesus' instruction to take up your cross and follow Him. Almost in a perfect parallel to the deceit which took place in Eden, "Did He really say that? Is that really necessary?"

When your heart, or the sirens, are telling you something is to be desired more than He is, danger is near. This is a significant warning flag waving like crazy in the wind of your heart. Do not fall for these siren songs...

They are only illusions, only broken cisterns.

Rather combat these adulterous desires with the most powerful weapon against them: the most satisfying pleasure - God, whom the Scriptures refer to as the Fountain of Living Waters. Life is war and the battle is for the affections of your heart (and mine).

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Taming Tigers...

Yesterday during our family's trip to the zoo we encountered this rather large tiger.

My five year old daughter was quite nervous and would not stand next to the glass by herself. It occurred to me that although we were only a few feet from the massive animal, I was completely unconcerned for our safety. This was obviously because of the secure facility which housed the great beast.

I could not help but ponder the parallel; our lives are lived in close proximity to the treacherous enemy of our souls. 1Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Our God is our shield, our defender, and our fortress. Though daily we walk in the midst of predators we need not tremble for them. Romans 8:31b If God is for us, who can be against us?

Psalm 23:4-5 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Certainly this life affords us various experiences of suffering and trials. This is why the Psalmist uses the phrase, "the valley of the shadow of death." What a solid foundation we have in God's sovereignty over suffering. We can say with the Psalmist, "I will fear no evil, for you are with me." If He is with us, what have we to fear? There will be troubles, there will be trials, there will be dining in the presence of enemies... But He is with us. And our God is the One who can make ALL things, including suffering and tragedies, work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Romans 8:28).

I love how John Piper puts it in his poem about Job:

The Misery of Job and the Mercy of God
(Part 4)

I have some friends who thought they knew
The mind of God, and that their view
Of tenderness exhausted God's,
And that severity and rods
Could only be explained with blame,
To vindicate his holy name."
"So you think it was God who made
You sick?" "I think God never laid
Aside the reins that lie against
The neck of Satan, nor unfenced
His pen to run at liberty,
But only by the Lord's decree."
...

That he might kindly show to me
What I would be when only he
Remains in my calamity.
Unkindly he has kindly shown
That he was not my hope alone."
...

And finally, my servant, Job,
Can you draw down and then disrobe
Leviathan, the king of all
The sons of pride, and in his fall
Strip off his camouflage of strength,
And make him, over all the length
Of earth and heav'n, to serve the plan
Of humble righteousness? I can.
I make Leviathan my rod.
Belovèd Job, behold your God!"

Friday, March 2, 2012

To You It Has Been Granted...

"Have you considered my servant Job?"
This single divine inquiry set ablaze an inferno of tribulation for Job. The searing flames of righteous Job's trial were ignited to highlight the glory of the All-Sovereign God. Though a severe cost was paid by Job and his family, their flaming circumstances have since served throughout the mellennia to display the glory of the Sovereign God who reigns over and above all circumstances.

Joseph too suffered great pains. This also served the very same purpose, God's glory put on display for all to see. Such displays of the glory of the Lord are costly. Joseph's painful and trying ordeal set in place both the divine provision for his family, and ultimately also four hundred years of the enslavement of the nation of Israel in Egypt. Tremendous suffering was endured by generations of God's people until the time was right for the Lord to unleash a magnificent display of His glory in the mighty and multi-miraculous deliverance of Israel from Egypt.

So also all of humanity is bound to endure an enormously vast array of sufferings. Yet these painful situations and trying circumstances serve to display the glory of our God who reveals Himself in and through them. Our sufferings are not in vain. There is purpose in the midst of this pain. One day all sufferings will cease, but until then we have an opportunity to glorify the Lord on our painful path. This opportunity is unique to this side of heaven, for on the other side the Lord will no longer be glorified through our pain, as it is there that He will be glorified in the eternal removal of it.

For it has been granted to you
that for the sake of Christ
you should not only believe in Him
but also suffer for His sake
- Philippians 1:29

Not only do we among humanity bear the burden of suffering. The Lord Himself also stooped very low to bend beneath the unimaginable weight of divine suffering granting the greatest display of His glory. This side of heaven the most clear revelation of the glory of the Lord is seen in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Divinity became humanity to deliver mankind from bondage to the insanity of worshipping everything but Him.

For in Him
all the fullness of God
was pleased to dwell,and through Him
to reconcile to Himself all things,
whether on earth or in heaven,
making peace by the blood of His cross.- Colossians 1:19-20

Thursday, March 1, 2012

One Day The Fog Will Lift

The other morning while returning home from work I was impressed at the thickness of the fog hanging in our neighborhood. Once inside I looked out my front window into the gray haze surrounding our home. The thick gray mist was almost blinding. I could barely see a nearby tree across the street from our house.  The fog caused me to be completely unable to see the house right behind that tree.

I was struck by the illustration of our temporal shortsightedness. Caught as we are in the midst of this temporary fog, we are amazingly shortsighted. Our present state of blindness regularly prohibits us from seeing the various dangers on our paths and often we run headlong into them.

Then it hit me. One day this temporal fog will be entirely dissipated as the light of the Son is unveiled and as it shines in its full strength illuminating everything. On that great day even the blindest among us will behold His glory. In the all encompassing light of His glory even our hidden sins will be illuminated as we will begin to behold the horror of the manifold atrocities of which we are all guilty. We will come face to face with the guilt of our continual exchanging His magnificent glory for many things infinitely less glorious.

It is also then that those who are in Christ will see more clearly than ever the glories in the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. The gold mine that is the cross of Christ will be more thoroughly mined in that single moment than it has been by all of the theology books throughout history combined. We will stand in awe of the Lamb of God and of what He accomplished upon that cross. Thus the eternal worship of the great Christ will begin as His purchased people will be intensely satisfied by beholding the eternal magnificent light of the Lamb who was slain from the foundations of the earth.

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
- 1st Corinthians 13:12

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.- Revelation 21:23