THE IMPOTENT CHURCH

How does the church lose its potency? What is potency? What is the mission of the church supposed to be anyway? And how can one life make a difference?

I've been thinking about these things for the past couple days ever since I had a conversation with someone that made me sad. I humbly postulate that worldliness is a thriving cancer in the church, at least in this nation. We gladly swallow the lie that what we consume with our eyes and ears will have no effect on us. I include myself in this indictment. What is the major avenue by which the spirit of this age enters our eyes and ears and poisons our hearts and sears our consciousness? The media. Lately I have tried to be in the habit of praying while preparing to pay at the grocery store. I pray that the filth being sold at the checkout won't grab my attention. I pray that the Lord will avert my eyes. (See Psalm 101). Many times I fail. What saddened me in this recent conversation was to hear a Christian unconcerned about watching a certain movie which glorified sinful, and can I say evil, behavior. I said that I strive not to laugh at what God calls evil.

One of the many ways this worldliness has infected me is in the way I speak about sin. God calls sinful behavior evil and abhorrent. There is no doubt about how God feels about sin. But I shy away from saying certain behaviors are sinful or evil. I'd rather use a more moderate tone and more palatable words.

Today I was reading a little book by Spurgeon called The Key to Holiness. He says this ~

"You who profess to be followers of Christ, I pray that you will set a high value upon purity of life and godliness of conversation. Consider the blood of Christ as the foundation of your hope, but never speak disparagingly of the work of the Spirit, which makes you fit for "the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. 1:12). Yes, prize it; prize it so heartily that you dread the very appearance of evil."

In 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Paul says, "Avoid every kind of evil."

How do we get to the point where we dread the very appearance of evil? In my humble opinion, I think the main thing is this -- Pondering the Cross and the horrifying suffering our Savior went through as propitiation for our sins should put within us such a holy fear of God that we would never think to laugh and be entertained by what is evil. I pray with all my heart that I don't get jaded, that I never cease to be amazed at what the Cross accomplished and how the Spirit has made me fit for the inheritance of the saints in light. More programs and bigger churches are not going to infuse the church with a godly potency. More Christians living holy and distinct lives before the face of God will.

OTHERS HAVE GONE BEFORE ME IN THIS JOURNEY

This hymn was written by John Newton and is titled, I Asked the Lord That I Might Grow. Elisabeth Elliot quoted it in a recorded talk I recently listened to.

I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek, more earnestly, His face.

’Twas He who taught me thus to pray,
And He, I trust, has answered prayer!
But it has been in such a way,
As almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour,
At once He’d answer my request;
And by His love’s constraining pow’r,
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry pow’rs of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

Lord, why is this, I trembling cried,
Wilt thou pursue thy worm to death?
“’Tis in this way, the Lord replied,
I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ,
From self, and pride, to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou may’st find thy all in Me.”

In Future Grace, by John Piper, he describes Charles Spurgeon's struggles with recurrent despondency. Spurgeon suffered with gout for most of his life. "Despondency," he said, "is not a virtue; I believe it is a vice. I am heartily ashamed of myself for falling into it, but I am sure there is no remedy for it like a holy faith in God."

Tomorrow I will write about preaching to ourselves. It is a concept that both Martin Lloyd-Jones and Jerry Bridges have written about. I will end with the words of Isaiah ~

"For from of old they have not heard nor perceived by ear, neither has the eye seen a God besides Thee, who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him." Isaiah 64:4

UNDULATING CURRENTS

This journey is not a plateau. Why do I keep thinking that I've arrived? I cling with all my might to these high places and am continually dismayed and surprised when the fog rolls in and my spiritual vision is cloudy. I've written before about the fight for joy. I'm struggling. I'm trying to fight but at times just want to get in bed and pull the covers over my head. I wake up in despair sometimes, for no reason. I'm sure I could go into an in depth analysis of why I feel like this now but I don't think you'd like to dive into that sea of melancholy and self-pity with me. My in-law's pastor, Tim Kirk, said that if we're naive about our enemy we will be left defenseless and vulnerable. I don't understand the enemy's gameplan against me personally but I do need to realize my weaknesses. I need to throw myself into this fight and realize the truth of Romans 8 ~ If God is for me, who can be against me.

John Piper has had more influence on my Christian life than any other person. For the next couple weeks I'm going to attempt to go through Piper's book, When I Don't Desire God-How to Fight for Joy. I believe Piper really gets to the root of what this journey is all about and how When I we are to relate to God and His word in a passionate and brutally honest way. There are no easy answers. In the foreward of the book he writes this ~

"When all is said and done, only God can create joy in God...To be satisfied by the beauty of God does not come naturally to sinful people...Therefore this book calls for deep and radical change-which only God can give."

I think one of the changes God wishes to work in me is to irrevocably separate my identity from my performance; to be thoroughly grounded in being a redeemed child of God. And so I will pray and I will fight with all the strength that God provides.

Oh Lord, may the eyes of my heart be bright with the glory of Christ. Remove every blinding obstacle, and show me your glory! And thus give me more joy than all the gladness that the world can give. And by this joy in Jesus Christ, fit me to love and serve and sacrifice. (adapted from John Piper)

WHAT DO I REALLY WANT?

The logic went something like this, first in my head and then down to my heart. I desire to be pregnant. I also desire God's glory to be made manifest in my life. Both things are good. The Lord calls the former a blessing and reward. However the latter always holds the trump card. To desire God's glory above all things trumps all of His gifts, even His most precious ones. Therefore, to pursue the not-givens in life is illogical. Even though being pregnant would be a good thing, it would not be the highest way, the way to most glorify God at this time. Why? I don't know. The one thing I do know though is that the highest way, the way of glorifying God, is the way to the most joy and the most fulfillment. All other roads are dead ends.

LITTLE HOUSE AND GARBAGE

Before I explain the title of this post I thought I would let you know that our new puppy is adorable and doing very well. Having never owned a pet before I was a little nervous my first day with him by myself while my husband was at work. I had a mild feeling of panic that was akin to the first night home with your first baby when I put him in his crate and he wouldn't stop barking. What to do?! Well, I got some good dog training advice here and started right away to train the dog not to bark. He's been very good today after only one day of bark training but we'll see what happens tonight. Last night we went to bed and the dog barked for about 15 minutes straight. I hope I don't get any flaming comments if I said we just let him "bark it out". One more thing, it seems handling the dog has curbed my hand eczema. We'll see if that continues.

Now, after thinking it over a bit, I thought I would write about the most interesting thing I observed in the Little House series. Maybe Laura never mentioned its presence but I'm pretty sure of this one thing -- the Ingalls family did not roll their garbage to the curb each week to be picked up by the municipal garbage truck. In fact, I'm sure they rarely had any garbage to speak of. Time and again I read about how they used scraps of cloth to make a Christmas present or leftover for something. And they never, ever wasted food. Frankly, it shames me to think about all the stuff I throw out and all the stuff I'm pretty much obligated to throw out because it's packaged in a certain way. When I think about the impossibility of living like that now, I remember the Basement Tape where Jonathan Daugherty explains how his family is striving to solve their garbage problem without the help of the local garbage company or landfill. Their family strives to use less and disposes of the leftovers in an efficient manner. I wish I could remember which Basement Tape that was on. Maybe someone else out there could provide that information. While our family isn't in the position to do what the Daugherty's are doing with their garbage, it still bothers me that I'm not creative enough to sew some special something out of my daughters worn out dresses.

SHEPHERDING A CHILD'S HEART - the last installment

This will be the last review of Mr. Tripp's book. I appreciate Lis and Karen joining me for this review. Maybe we can do it again!? I have some other books in mind.

I'm going to review the last four chapters today which cover childhood and the teenage years.

Chapters 16-19
Childhood: Training Objectives & Procedures
Teenagers: Training Objectives & Procedures

Tripp says the childhood stage is between ages 5-12. The big issue in this stage, he says, is character development. Your job at this stage as a parent is to focus mainly on the underlying character issues that are driving your child's behavior. Whereas in the previous stage you were establishing your authority as a parent, in this stage you are building on that foundation in order to address the inner heart issues such as selfishness, pride, laziness, etc. What I found most helpful in these chapters was a concept of analyzing your children's behavior in three different dimensions ~ in relation to God, himself, and others. In using this tool I can analyze the the underlying nature of my child's behavior and shepherd his heart in the right direction instead of just laying down a bunch of rules for my convenience or for the sake of superficial peace in the house. Tripp recommends sitting down with your spouse on a regular basis to discuss the behavior and needs of your children. It's like an annual assessment. I think this is a wise thing to do. The chapter on procedures for childhood training focused mostly on addressing heart issues. Here Tripp continues to emphasize the necessity of getting to the root of behavior and appealing to your child's conscience through Scripture. If you never analyze behavior in this way you end up only addressing externals and run the risk of growing a sense of Phariseeism in your children. He also points out that parents need to think long-term when addressing behavior problems. If you think your five-year old's want of possessions is only natural and never address it as a form of idolatry and greed, this behavior will continue to grow and the child will have a more and more difficult time understanding the underlying heart issues of his behavior. When I read these chapters I was reminded of an old radio program of Elisabeth Elliot's called "Bringing Up Souls for God". You can find it here. I liked these two chapters for the most part. The only problem I had was that he was not very objective when it came to talking about education. His writing assumed a public/private school paradigm (his experience is as a Christian school administrator) and addressed the issues of how you can't always be with your children during this childhood phase. Speaking as a homeschooler, that is one of the main reasons why we homeschool - so our children will be in our home and under our influence and training for the majority of the time.

The next two chapters have to do with teenagers. Even though I don't have a teenager yet, I did glean much wisdom from these chapters. Tripp continues to unfold his theme of shepherding our children and building relationships with them. He argues that even though this phase of life is difficult for our children, parents do not need to resort to 'Survivor' tactics ~ outwit, outplay, outlast. (He didn't use the Survivor analogy but I thought it fit :) Building on the foundation of authority and character development Tripp continues to flesh out the shepherding process and what needs to be addressed in this stage. He mentions three points of emphasis ~ The Fear of the Lord, Adherence to Parental Instruction, and Disassociation from the Wicked. Running in and out of these themes is the importance of guiding your children in the context of honest, daily living - sharing Christ and your experiences in a way that will lead them to further internalize the gospel. In the area of training procedures, the result of all your training should be to raise up young adults who have a firm grasp of the gospel and its influence in their lives and a deep and abiding relationship with their parents that will continue to grow even after they leave home. Here is a quote from the last chapter that I think sums up everything Tripp has been saying ~

"Your heart's desire in every phase of childrearing is to see your children internalize the gospel. The desire in all your training, in all your entreaty, in all your correction and discipline, is to see your children come to the place where they have embraced the claims of Christian faith...Internalization is the fuition of all that we have considered...Internalization is your children coming to maturity as persons who know and worship God."

I only have two minor problems with the end of this book. The first problem has to do with his use of the word teenager. This may be minor to some but actually the concept of the teenager is new to the 20th century. I agree with those who have said that there's a danger in prolonging a sense of childhood when your 13-18 year olds should really be taking on a lot more responsibility. I don't think Tripp is guilty of this but I think it's an important issue. Go here to read Elisabeth Elliot's opinion.
The other problem I have has to do with an apparent contradiction in the last chapter. I may be stepping into deep theological waters here but that hasn't stopped me before. *grin* In the last chapter Tripp says that ultimately internalizing the gospel is the work of the Holy Spirit and no parent can produce that as a result of his labors. Then he says, "You labor, however, in the hope that God honors His covenant and works through means. While you dare not presume upon His sovereign mercy, you may labor with expectation that the gospel is powerful." A couple paragraphs later he says this though, "I have been asked, 'Don't you think that if you raise your children the right way, God has promised to save them?' If such a promise existed, it wouldn't comfort me. I haven't raised them well enough." While I appreciate Tripp's humility in this second quote I am left a little confused when I compare what he says to the first quote I listed. What does it mean when he says, "in the hope that God honors His covenant"? I'm assuming he's coming from a strong Reformed Presbyterian background so when I read this I thought he was referring to some notion that God was bound by some covenant to save the children of believing parents. So when I read the second quote that seemed to contradict what he was just saying about the covenant. I wished he would have elaborated on what he meant by the whole concept of covenant instead of just writing with the assumption that the reader had the same theological understanding and background.

Overall I'm glad I read this book and reviewed it. I think reviewing it helped me to further clarify my convictions in some areas and also helped me to not be afraid to disagree with an author and someone I respect. I am constantly tempted to become a "disciple" of the latest person I read or come to admire. I think I'm better now at chewing on someone's opinion, evaluating it according to Scripture and then internalizing the good and putting aside the things with which I disagree without guilt.

Like I said at the beginning of this post, I think I want to review another book in the future. For now though I'm going to work on a series of posts about the Little House books. I just finished reading the whole series to my kids (and to myself!) including the posthumously published The First Four Years and On the Way Home which is a diary of the Wilder family's move to Missouri. Having grown up with the TV series I was fascinated by the stark differences between the TV series and the books. The books win, hands down. I can't wait to write about the lessons we learned and share the little tidbits that some of you may not know about Laura's life.