Bible

What Does Genuine Mercy Look Like?

/ davidsschrock / 1 Comment

mercyWhat does mercy look like?

In Matthew 5:7, Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” The mercy that God will give refers in this passage to the divine favor that God will grant to his merciful children on the day of judgment. But what does it mean to be merciful now? 

In my Sunday sermon, I sought to answer that question and here is the answer I gave.

In response to the gospel and enabled by the Spirit, mercy gives to the needy, forgives the offender, in order that all might give thanks to God.

Thematically, mercy gives and forgives for the sake of thanksgiving. Let me unpack that definition. Continue reading →

Blessed are the Merciful: Giving, Forgiving, and Thanksgiving

/ davidsschrock

samaritan“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”

Matthew 5:7 was the text I preached yesterday. In my sermon, I answered three questions:

  1. Does God show mercy to everyone?
  2. Why does Jesus say “Blessed are the merciful” instead of “Blessed are the faithful?”
  3. What does mercy look like?

In answering that final question, I gave the answer: True mercy gives generously and forgives sincerely in order to increase thanksgiving to God (cf. Rom 15:8-9). In response to the mercies of God (i.e., the gospel), mercy proactively schemes, plans, and prays for the increase of thanksgiving to God by means of our giving to those in need and forgiving those who have offended us. In short, genuine mercy involves giving and thanksgiving in order to cause thanksgiving to God.

If you have struggled with understanding how we can be merciful, or if you—like me—have struggled to be merciful, consider this beatitude which calls us to cry out for mercy, so that we too might be merciful!

Here’s the audio:

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

How Sheep Can Shepherd Their Shepherd’s Lambs

/ davidsschrock

ImageI am thankful to be at a church that loves our children and encourages me to spend time with them. I have members who ask about the time I am spending with them and have never received a complaint for the time I take with them or the times I bring them with me to ministry activities.

On that subject, the need for churches to care well for their pastor’s children, Chap Bettis has provided seven important exhortations for the way churches can shepherd their pastor’s children. Let me share them with you: 

  1. Give grace to the pastor’s children on Sunday.  
  2. If you have a concern, talk to your pastor about behavior that characterizes the children. But do so with an attitude of loving acceptance.   
  3. Be generous in your praise.  
  4. Limit church criticism and complaint to private conversations among adults.  
  5. Be brave and rebuke the critics. Unfortunately, not everyone in the congregation will follow this suggestion. When grumbling and faultfinding spill over in front of you, speak up.  
  6. Give your pastors room to deal with their children’s hearts. Older children will go through some spiritual ups and downs. How will you think about those bumps? With care and affection? Or self-righteous judgment?  
  7. Give your pastors margin to minister to their families. Children need their father. . . . Even as a church member, you can encourage your pastors to care for their families.

These seven guidelines and the explanations Chap provide come from twenty-five years of ministry with, by God’s grace, children who are not embittered towards the church. 

May God multiply Chap’s testimony, and give pastors church families that shepherd their children well, even as they shepherd their church.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss  

[photo credit: ThomRainer.com]

Luke Short’s Long Life

/ davidsschrock / 1 Comment

sowingIn the Puritan Paperback, The Mystery of Providence, by John Flavel, Michael Boland gives the publishers introduction. Commenting on Flavel’s remarkable influence, he writes of Luke Short, a man deeply impacted by Flavel—some eight decades after Short heard Flavel!

Here’s what Boland writes:

Luke Short was a farmer in New England who attained his hundredth year in exceptional vigor though without having sought peace with God. One day as he sat in his fields reflecting upon his long life, he recalled a sermon he had heard in Dartmouth as a boy before he sailed to America. The horror of dying under the curse of God was impressed upon him as he meditated on the words he had heard so long ago and he was converted to Christ—eighty-five years after hearing John Flavel preach. (John Flavel, The Mystery of Providence, 11) Continue reading →

Announcing Our Third . . .

/ davidsschrock

stockingI am overjoyed to announce that we are expecting our third child in July. Here’s my announcement from Facebook:

At Christmas this year, our joy was increased
God gave his Son and more to the least.

An extra stocking was hung by our chimney with care
An announcement was made that we can now share.

Titus and Silas were told they would be 
Big brothers to a sibling three

Eager to meet the new baby soon
They counted the months, April, May, June

July is the month we expect our third child
Another rambunctious boy? Or a girl, sweet and mild?

Whatever God gives us we will give praise,
Aware of his goodness, proclaiming his grace.

Grateful to God for this gift and humbled by the stewardship of raising another child.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Whose ‘Blessed’? Five Reflections from the Psalms

/ davidsschrock

blessedBlessing. It’s what every wants, but few know how to get.

In America, we have a certain brand of blessing that has come to be known as the prosperity gospel. You can find its explicit version on TBN and its more subtle form in a Christian bookstore near you. This subtler prosperity gospel comes with invitations to ask God for the impossible and promises to help you break through to the blessed life. In its softer form, the blood of Christ may not be denied; it’s just hidden behind the luggage of the Lord’s blessings.

In other words, instead of centering on the “blessed and only Sovereign” (1 Tim 6:15), this soft prosperity preaching, as Kate Bowler calls it, centers on man and his earthly desires. Lost is a sense of eternal gravitas and the biblical conviction that God created the universe for his glory. What it lacks is a sense of what blessing is and isn’t. We need to let Scripture inform our understanding of blessing, and we need to see that true blessing is radically God-centered. Continue reading →

Christ Did Not Come for Chimpanzees

/ davidsschrock / 1 Comment
chimp

Photo Credit: From CNN article “Chimps should be recognized as ‘legal persons,’ lawsuits claim”

This month the New York Supreme Court is deciding on whether or not to rule on a case involving the legalization of chimpanzees as human persons. Yes, this is a real report, not one from The Onion. In the state of New York, the Nonhuman Right Organization is filing a lawsuit on behalf of four chimpanzees—Tommy, Kiko, Hercules, and Leo—to let them have the same rights as humans.

Unable to speak for themselves (because they are not human), CNN reports that the leader of NRO (Steven Wise) and the co-founder of the Animal Legal Defense Fund (Joyce Tishler) are making the case for these animals that humanity (i.e., homo sapiens) is not a necessary prerequisite for personhood.

Such is the moral insanity of our day, that men and women made in the image of God are unable to see the (biological, social, spiritual, and legal) differences between humans and apes. Albert Mohler critically reports on this subject on his daily podcast, The Briefing (Dec 4, 2013), and Graham Cole in his new book, The God Who Became Human: A Biblical Theology of the Incarnation provides a Christological reason why men and women are different than apes.

Anglican professor of theology at Beeson Divinity School, Graham Cole makes this critical observation. “The very fact that God became truly human underlines the value of human life. The Creator did not become a lion (apologies to C. S. Lewis) or a dolphin or a parrot. He became one of us” (The God Who Became Human, 150).

Cole is exactly right. Humanity is not only distinct from every other species because we alone are made in God’s image (Gen 1:26-28). Humanity is also unique because Christ only took on human flesh (Rom 8:3; Heb 2:16-17). What was once obvious to humanity—that man and beast were categorically distinct and therefore deserved different legal standings—has been lost in theory and is now requiring a court ruling to determine what personhood means.

Cole continues his Christological argument for humanity’s uniqueness and stresses that Jesus himself recognized the difference between man and beast, giving greater value to the former.  Citing Catholic and Protestant scholars alike, he writes,

As . . . the eminent twentieth-century Roman Catholic Jacques Maritain argued often, “the sanctity of human life ultimately rests in the fact that Christ became incarnate as a human creature, not some other sort of creature.” Protestant theologian Karl Barth adds to the chorus: “The respect for human life which becomes a command in the recognition of the union of God with humanity has incomparable power and width.” It is no surprise then to find in the Gospels that Jesus operated with a scale of creaturely value. Human life is more valuable . . . than that of a sparrow, even a flock of them (Matt 10:29–31). This valuing of human life over that of other creatures is criticized by some as ‘speciesism’ [e.g., Peter Singer] but is fundamental to a sound theological anthropology that factors in the reality of the incarnation. (150)

Indeed, as the court case in New York reminds us, we need to go back to the basics and reiterate that man and beast are not the same. God created man in his image to rule over creation, not to receive them as persons with equal rights. While Scripture declares that the righteous will have regard for the life of his beast (Prov 12:10), it never confuses the difference between people and pets. Even more, with the coming of Jesus Christ as a man, we see in Scripture and history that God’s incarnation is the final word on who he thinks is most valuable. Christ gave his life to redeem the human race, and we ought not confuse who that is.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

One Solitary Life

/ davidsschrock

oneJames Allan Francis was an early-twentieth century American pastor who authored a handful of books. He is also the “anonymous” author who stands behind the famous poem, “One Solitary Life.” This poem which often circulates at Christmas time is a testimony to the power of Christ’s humble life.

As Christmas nears and we contemplate Christ’s incarnation, may we be reminded of the glorious power of Christ’s humble life.

He was born in an obscure village,
the child of a peasant woman.
He grew up in still another village
where he worked until he was thirty.
Then for three years
he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book.
He never held an office.
He never had a family or owned a home.
He didn’t go to college.
He never traveled more than 200 miles
from the place he was born.

He did none of the things
one usually associates with greatness.
He had no credentials but himself;
he was only thirty-three
when public opinion turned against him.

His friends ran away.
He was turned over to his enemies
and went through the mockery of a trial.
He was nailed to the cross
between two thieves.
While he was dying
his executioners gambled for his clothing,
the only property he had on earth.

When he was dead
he was laid in a borrowed grave
through the pity of a friend.
Nineteen centuries have come and gone
and today he is the central figure
of the human race,
the leader of mankind’s progress.

All the armies that ever marched,
all the navies that ever sailed,
all the parliaments that ever sat,
all the kings that ever reigned,
put together,
have not affected
the life of man on earth
as much as that One Solitary Life. [1]

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

[1] James Allan Francis, The Real Jesus and Other Sermons (Philadelphia: Judson Press, 1926).

Christmas in Dark Places

/ davidsschrock

Okay, so I must make a confession. I have become quite a fan of spoken word poetry. I didn’t know quite what to think when Jefferson Bethke ripped religion and rhymed for Christ—after all Scripture does commend (some) religion (James 1:27). But I think I am catching up now. And, after learning more, I greatly appreciate Jefferson’s viral video.

Jefferson’s craft (spoken word poetry), an art form which preceded him and has benefitted from his exposure, is a great medium for communicating punchy, lyrical rhymes about any number of biblical truths. At Halloween this year, I ran across Glen Scrivener’s “Halloween: Trick or Treat?” and thus when I heard he was doing a Christmas video, I was surprisingly excited.

Among other things, Glen is a spoken word poet who hales from the land down under (which you will need to know to understand his video) and now lives in the United Kingdom. His poem is very British (or Australian), but the message is right on. My favorite meditation reflects on the fact that the Word who spoke the world into existence became speechless.

What a thought! The Word in the form of a babe was for a time unable to speak. What incredible grace and patience to endure the muteness of infancy in order to speak to me—and to you!

Glen’s poetry, like Jefferson Bethke’s and others is something you should keep an eye out for. It will stir your heart and it is a great medium to share with others, especially unbelievers!

For more on the theme of light coming into the darkness, see my (more theological and less artistic) posts:

Darkness: The World Into Which Christ Was Born

Between Darkness and Light: The Lord Who Ordained the Darkness

The Light of the World Never Fades

Soli Deo Gloria, dss

Remembering November 22, 1963: JFK, C. S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley

/ davidsschrock

jfk2

Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination. What many people do not know is that on that fateful day, two other “world leaders” also died—C. S. Lewis (Christian apologist and children’s literary giant) and Aldous Huxley (author of Brave New World and many other works).

In college, I came across these three fact from the book Between Heaven and Hell by Peter Kreeft. In that book, Kreeft imagines a conversation between JFK, Lewis, and Huxley. It is a compelling look into three different worldviews. Honestly, I cannot remember how the book ends—that is who goes to heaven and who doesn’t—according to Kreeft. But sitting fifty years out from these men’s deaths, Andrew Wilson captures the difference in less than 140 characters:

In memorial of November 22, 1963 and the deaths of John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, and Alduous Huxley, here are a number of links furnished by Joe Carter, Albert Mohler, and a few others to help us make sense of these men’s lasting legacies.

Fifty Years After JFK’s Assassination. Albert Mohler reflects on the respective worldviews of Kennedy, Huxley, and Lewis. (The Briefing)

‘Brave New World’ was a Timely Warning. Allan Massie gives a brief accounting of Alduous Huxley, his Brave New World, and how Huxley’s vision is coming to fruition in the twenty-first century. (The Telegraph)

9 Things You Should Know About C.S. Lewis. In short order, Joe Carter gives us a Lewis trivia that range from his writing, to his friends, to his fondness for nicknames.(The Gospel Coalition)

The Tale of C. S. Lewis’ Imaginative Legacy. Dan Dewitt, Dean of Boyce College, explains how the ‘Elvis of evangelicalism,’ C. S. Lewis abandoned (writing) theology in order to capture the hearts and minds of readers with his most effective medium—literary fiction. (Southern Blog)

Finally, for those who want to go deeper, let me encourage you to pick up the illuminating book I mentioned at the beginning: Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley.

Soli Deo Gloria, dss