Hidden Flowers of Christ's Garden

"There is probably no grace of the Spirit in the believer more underrated or overlooked than that of patience. And yet there is not one which presents a stronger evidence or a more lovely illustration of the Christian character than it. Like some of those flowers God has pencilled with beauty, and perfumed with sweetness, which unfold their tints and breathe their fragrance veiled from human eye, this lovely and lowly grace of patience is almost entirely lost sight of by those who are borne onward upon the sweeping tide of this ever-heaving, active age of the Christian Church.

  And just as those flowers are only to be found in turning aside from the beaten path and the excited multitudes who throng it, into some quiet, shaded nook, so those patient sufferers of Christ's Church- those precious plants of His garden, so dear to His heart and so beauteous in His eye- are only to be met in scenes of suffering and sorrow, sequestered and shaded from all but God. Thus, in this age of Christian service, of rapid thought and of earnest action, there is danger of overlooking the hidden flowers of Christ's garden; in other words, of forgetting that there are passive as well as active graces of the Christian character which are as much the fruit of the Spirit, and requiring equally as skillful and diligent culture, and are as pleasant and glorifying to God, as an apostle's zeal or a martyr's heroism."

THE TREE OF LIFE by Octavius Winslow

Book Review: A Rulebook for Arguments

I love good books and I have a recommendation for you: A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston.  

 

In fact, I think you should read it and refer to it often. You may say, “but I don’t get into arguments”. If you said that, then you definitely should read this book. This isn’t about fighting, this is about communication. This is about persuasion, and about recognizing errors in logic when people are trying to persuade you. The book gives you a very basic overview of logic and argumentation, a great introduction to a wider and deeper world. If you are at all interested in apologetics, this would be a nice book to grab. Coming in at only 90 pages, you are not going to be overwhelmed. I regularly refer back to it to to check myself and others.

If I were the king of the internet, I would make it a requirement to read this book before posting a comment. Once upon a time, when I and the internet were still young, I spoke harshly and committed many a logical fallacy in many a comment sections. After reading this book, a soliloquy ensued. “If only I could have known!” as I rested a regretful head on keyboard calloused hands. Rising from my office chair in resolute determination I said “If others knew that the clever comebacks and quips they so often hear from the pulpit and news sites are logical fallacies and are not helping the cause but in the long run, hurting the cause, they can avoid the mistakes I have made!”

In all seriousness, this is a really good book to at least get you familiar with the concepts of logic and to recognize when you are not thinking clearly about a topic. It might ruin cable news for you, since political talk is a lesson in fallacy, but I’ll chalk that up as another reason to go and get this book. This is NOT a Christian book, written from a Christian perspective, so you’ll need to be discerning. However, all truth is God’s truth and logic helps you to see, hear, understand truth, and defend truth. If we are going to defend truth, we need to defend the truth in a truthful way.  I’m not the only one.   If nothing else, you'll learn some cool Latin phrases. 

Pure Heart, Good Conscience, and Faith Unfeigned

Tuesdays with Timothy  #4

  

1 Timothy 1: (5- 7 )  Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned: 

The man of God has to take up his charge to gospel fidelity with love and that must come from a pure heart. He must have a  clean and holy heart. A heart that has been cleansed and purified by the Holy Spirit and a heart that is continually sanctified by the Spirit of God through the Word of God. This pure heart will preach with pure motives. A man of God must strive to live a life of holiness. As Robert Murray M'Cheyne said "In great measure, according to the purity and perfection's of the instrument, will be success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.  A word spoken by you when your conscience is clear, and your heart full of God's Spirit, is worth ten thousands words spoken in unbelief and sin." All Christians must fight this battle, but so much more the man of God.

A conscience free of guilt from both man and God goes along with the pure heart. If a man is living in unconfessed sin in His life, then he will not be able to preach the Word effectively. The man of God much strive and labor, as Paul, to live with a good conscience toward man and God. Not a perfect life, for no one can live a perfect life. But if He loves God, and loves God’s people, the man of God must strive with all that is in him to have a good conscience. A man with a guilty conscience, full of unconfessed sin, will not be able to stand boldly before His people and declare the truth. Acts 24:16  And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men. Paul exercised himself, he strained, he labored, he took great pains to do what was right. And when he failed, he took great pains to confess and repent.

He must also preach from a true faith in the Lord Christ. There have been many a minister that preached the gospel truth, that have yet to grasp hold of them. Many men have declared the good news without hearing it, and expounded gospel truths without receiving them for themselves. I have known men who were faithful teachers of the Word, or so it seemed, who later came and confessed that they never had really believed the things they taught. They preached them because that was what the church believed. So with unfeigned faith in the gospel truths, the man of God must stand before the people and proclaim the truths that are settled in his heart with unswerving faith and conviction.  The man must love the truth, receive the truth and its sanctifying power, apply the truth with obedience and gospel repentance, and then hold to the truth and proclaim it was pure faith and conviction.

Monday Verse: Shh...It's a secret

I don't know who wrote this. I heard Alistair Begg quote it in a sermon and will now use it with regularity. 

There once preacher called Spurgey'

Who really detested liturgy.

But his sermons are fine,

and I use them as mine;

and so do most of the clergy.

Wisdom Laughs

Proverbs 1:26-29  I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;  (27)  When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.  (28)  Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:  (29)  For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:

When Wisdom laughs, she doesn’t seem very nice. But where in the Bible does it say we are supposed to be nice? What is it to be nice? Who decides what is and what is nice? Nice is to not ruffle feathers. Nice is to never cause a stir. Nice is to be politically correct. Nice is to follow the social rules of society. Where are we called to be nice?

We are commanded to be loving.
We are commanded to be kind.
We are commanded to be tenderhearted.

We are not told to be nice. Wisdom laughed, and she wasn’t very nice - but she was very loving. She was very kind. She was very tenderhearted. Lady Wisdom had done all she could. She had pleaded. She had warned. If she speaks in the language of the KJV, she beseeched and besought. Why don’t we ever complain about what the sinner does to Lady Wisdom? They laughed first. They ignored her. They hated her. They mocked her. WE mocked her.


Proverbs 1:20-25  Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets:  (21)  She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying,  (22)  How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?  (23)  Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you.  (24)  Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;  (25)  But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:

When we ignore the warnings of Lady Wisdom and when we are neck deep in trouble, it is then we look to Wisdom and seek her help and advice. When the whole thing is over, and when we’ve reaped what we have sown, we can lift our head out of our hands and share a meaningful glance and say “Hindsight's 20/20 - if we had only known.”

Hindsight is 20/20. But so is wisdom. Wisdom tells you the bridge is out and to turn around. Hindsight realizes the bridge really was out and sign was correct, and meditates on that reality while waiting for the wrecker to pull your car out of the creek. That is why the sage is seen as prophet-like. Not because he can actually peer into the future, but because he knows that Lady Wisdom is a sure guide. Wisdom is able to perceive what is going to happen because we live in God’s world.

Don’t laugh at Lady Wisdom, or one day, she will laugh at you.

To Live is Christ

Great song from Nathan Clark George. The music starts at :30.

The End of the Charge is Love

Tuesdays with Timothy  #3

1 Timothy 1: 5  Now the end of the commandment is charity....

The end of the commandment is referencing the charge mentioned in verse number three.  Paul besought Timothy to “charge some that they teach no other doctrine.” A charge is to relay a message, declare, or command and Paul instructed Timothy to relay this apostolic message. They were not to preach any other doctrine and now we see the desired purpose of this charge to faithful gospel preaching is love. The apostle did not suggest that they stick to gospel preaching, he commanded it to be so.

This is proved later on in the chapter when Paul speaks of the proper uses of the law. The law can be used, but only lawfully in accordance to the commandment given by Paul to stay in the gospel truth and teach no other doctrine. The gospel was committed into Paul’s hands as a faithful minister (I Tim 1:11) and this same charge of gospel fidelity was charged to Timothy (I Timothy 1:18). Paul instructs Timothy to charge those men who desire to be teachers that they too must hold to this command of orthodoxy. Not only are they to have the right doctrine but they are to have the right motives. Faithful gospel ministry and love go hand in hand.  The end of the commandment is charity, or love.

The end of this commandment, (the command of orthodox preaching), is love. It is a love for God, for if you love God you will not lie about Him. You will not use God, God’s people, and God’s church for you own purposes. If you love God, you won’t twist His Words in order to further your own agenda. If you love God, you won’t willingly harm His people for evil ends. It is a love for Christ and a love for Christ's Bride. It is also a love for the people of God. The gospel ministry and the preaching of the Word must be from a position of love of God’s people. There are hard truths in this book. Necessarily, toes will be stepped. Sins will be exposed. Wombs will be open. If there is not a love for God and a love for God’s people, then it will be easy to pass by hard truths in order to keep and gain favor with me or use the law as a club to beat men with, to take out vengeance on people with whom you have a grudge. The more a man loves his people, the more he must be delivered from fearing them.  When a man has been amongst his people for some time, and knows them and knows their sins and their situations and something comes up that he KNOWS will step on toes and may start trouble and will get someone mad at him, it is only by love for God and a true love for His people will he lay down the hard truths, for the good of his hearers.

Monday Verse: Bad Sir Brain Botany

Here comes Monday, right on schedule. It always comes so suddenly to smack us right in the face. Never fear, Monday mornings don't last forever. Reminds me of Bad Sir Brian. He was more than a little pushy when he had power to push. But people will only be pushed for so long before, well, I'll let you see what happens...

BAD SIR BRIAN BOTANY

by A.A.Milne

Sir Brian had a battleaxe with great big knobs on.

He went among the villagers and blipped them on the head.

On Wednesday and on Saturday,

Especially on the latter day,

He called on all the cottages and this is what he said:

"I am Sir Brian!" (Ting-ling!)

"I am Sir Brian!" (Rat-tat!)

"I am Sir Brian,

"As bold as a lion!

"Take that, and that, and that!"

Sir Brian had a pair of boots with great big spurs on;.

A fighting pair of which he was particularly fond.

On Tuesday and on Friday,

Just to make the street look tidy,

He'd collect the passing villagers and kick them in the pond.

"I am Sir Brian!" (Sper-lash!)

"I am Sir Brian!" (Sper-losh!)

"I am Sir Brian,

"As bold as a Lion!

"Is anyone else for a wash?

Sir Brian woke one morning and he couldn't find his battleaxe.

He walked into the village in his second pair of boots.

He had gone a hundred paces

When the street was full of faces

And the villagers were round him with ironical salutes.

"You are Sir Brian? My, my.

"You are Sir Brian? Dear, dear.

"You are Sir Brian

"As bold as a lion?

"Delighted to meet you here!"

Sir Brian went a journey and he found a lot of duckweed.

They pulled him out and dried him and they blipped him on the head.

They took him by the breeches

And they hurled him into ditches

And they pushed him under waterfalls and this is what they said:

"You are Sir Brian -- don't laugh!

"You are Sir Brian -- don't cry!

"You are Sir Brian

"As bold as a lion --

"Sir Brian the Lion, goodbye!"

Sir Brian struggled home again and chopped up his battleaxe.

Sir Brian took his fighting boots and threw them in the fire.

He is quite a different person

Now he hasn't got his spurs on,

And he goes about the village as B. Botany, Esquire.

"I am Sir Brian? Oh, no!

"I am Sir Brian? Who's he?

"I haven't any title, I'm Botany;

"Plain Mr. Botany (B.)"

Tuesdays with Timothy #2

1 Timothy 1:3-4 As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,  Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.  

Paul, having left Timothy in Ephesus exhorted him to charge some men in the church there that they teach no other doctrine than the true doctrine. Doctrine is teaching and what we teach is not our own but God’s Word. Paul did not mess around when it came to the preaching of the Word of God and the truth of the gospel. He would brand an angel a heretic if he came into God’s house and preached another doctrine. There was no space for exploration. There was no “conversation” to be had or suggestions to be made. Preaching is not a dialogue. Very plain and very simple – no other doctrine. I think it very sad that in these days, you can be cut off and cut out of fellowship for being divisive and a trouble maker for standing for a doctrine or taking a stand on a particular issue, but heretics are giving a pass in the name of love. There are some really nice heretics, who have great personalities and probably a hit a dinner parties. We can’t give place to their teaching, for even an hour.

Neither were they to give heed, or pay attention to fables and endless genealogies. I have noticed this trend recently as well, that many of the big names in evangelicalism are all for stories instead of sermons. Myth instead of ministry.  Tall tales more than truth declared. I may be breaking the rules of the internet, but C.S. Lewis who was not a sound Christian man, and many suggest he may not have been truly converted, but is brandied about as a pillar of Christian thought because of his fables. People love a good story and in order to soothe their conscience, a man can go to “church” and be entertained by stories, or a good fable can get him to think – and he’ll be entertained all the way to Hell.

The genealogies had a purpose, until the time of Christ. Now, the endless searching after family trees to find some secret hidden meaning or some spiritual insight do nothing but start fights and strife. We might not have the genealogies now, but certainly there are silly discussions and questions that are asked that do nothing but start trouble. I’ll die on the hill of orthodox Christianity and doctrines of the Word of God – but I won’t die on a mountain made out of a mole hill, no matter how deep you think the question is, any more than I am afraid to mix my metaphors. 

True preaching needs to edify, or to build up. Sometimes, in order to build up you have to tear some stuff down. You might have to knock down a few walls in order to build up a nicer room. Know down a few trees to build up an addition. Sometimes you have to knock down a few sins before you can build up in the faith – but the purpose is for godly edification. Fables or genealogies do neither. Godly edification, not just edification. Joel Osteen builds people up, but that is not godly edification. This isn't pragmatism, that as long as people are built up in the end, the process doesn't matter. Paul says godly edification

Paul gave a postitive and a negative. Don't preach new doctrine. Don't tell stories instead of doctrine. Don't gender strife by debating and going beyond scripture and twisting scripture with genealogies. Do preach sound doctrine. Do edify the church.