Friday, December 30, 2011

New Year's Resolution

I am not a big fan of New Year's resolutions in general, but those of you who know me know that I am a big fan of Jonathan Edwards. Trevin Wax of Kingdom People adapted a New Year's prayer  from Jonathan Edwards' resolutions (the first 21). (Thanks to Stand to Reason for pointing it out.) Enjoy:





Lord God Almighty,
I understand that I am unable to do anything without your help,
so I ask you to enable me by your grace to fulfill your will.

Give me grace to do whatever brings most glory and honor to you,
pleasure and profit to me,
and life and love to others.

Help me to number my days,
spending my time wisely,
living my life with all my might while I still have breath.

Humble me in the knowledge that I am chief of sinners;
when I hear of the sins of others,
help me to not look upon them with pride,
but to look upon myself with shame,
confessing my own sins to you.

When I go through difficulties and trials,
remind me of the pains of hell
from which you have already delivered me.

Place people in my path who need my help,
and give me a compassionate and generous spirit.

Fill my heart with such love
that I would never do anything out of a spirit of revenge,
nor lose my temper with those around me.
Hold my tongue when I am tempted to speak evil of others.

Thank you for the gospel and for the hope of glory.
Help me to live in light of these truths every day of my life,
so that when the time of my death arrives,
I will rest assuredly in you,
and you will be most glorified in me.

In Christ’s name...

By His Grace,
Taylor

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!

Thank you, God, for being born,
You who first invented birth
(Universe, galaxies, the earth).
When your world was tired and worn
You came laughing on the morn.

Thank you, most amazing Word
For your silence in the womb
Where there was so little room
Yet the still small voice was heard
Throughout a planet dark & blurred.

Merry Christmas! Wondrous Day!
Maker of the universe,
You the end, & you the source
Come to share in human clay
And, yourself, to show the Way.
~ Madeleine L’Engle, Most Amazing Word

Merry Christmas! What we have been anticipating in Advent has finally arrived. Today we celebrate the birth of Jesus. The greatest King born in the humblest of circumstances. Christ did not come with an army, though He could have. He did not take over Herod's kingdom, though He could have. He did not replace Caesar Augustus, though He could have. He was not even born into a wealthy family. He chose an insignificant girl to be His mother. He chose an insignificant man to be His earthly "step-father". He was born next to barn animals. The greatest King born in the humblest of circumstances.

Isaiah 9:6
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

That God would take on human flesh defies all logic. That He would take on human flesh in the lowliest of circumstances is even more incredible. Yet He did so that we could know the joy of being in relationship with Him. Merry Christmas!

By His Grace,
Taylor

Monday, December 19, 2011

The Fourth Sunday of Advent

"The astounding truth is that in Jesus Christ, humanity encountered God in a real, personal, historical, and tangible way." ~ Kenneth Samples, Without a Doubt

Yesterday was the last Sunday in Advent. The time of anticipation is coming to an end because the celebration is near. When we truly reflect upon what we celebrate in Advent we cannot help but be astounded. Listen to the expressions of wonder from a couple of the greatest minds in Church history:
He by whom all things were made was made one of all things. The Son of God by the Father without a mother became the Son of man by a mother without a father. The Word Who is God before all time became flesh at the appointed time. The maker of the sun was made under the sun. He Who fills the world lay in a manger, great in the form of God but tiny in the form of a servant; this was in such a way that neither was His greatness diminished by His tininess, nor was His tininess overcome by His greatness. ~ Augustine, "Sermon 187"
The next thing that I would observe concerning the incarnation of Christ, is the greatness of this event. Christ’s incarnation was a greater and more wonderful thing than ever had yet come to pass. The creation of the world was a very great thing, but not so great as the incarnation of Christ. It was a great thing for God to make the creature, but not so great as the for the Creator himself to become a creature. We have spoken of many great things that were accomplished between the fall of man and the incarnation of Christ: but God becoming man was greater than all. Then the greatest person was born that ever was or ever will be. ~ Jonathan Edwards, "Of Christ's Incarnation" from A History of the Work of Redemption
Soon we will celebrate the birth of the "greatest person... born that ever was or ever will be", God "great in form... but tiny in the form of a servant." It truly is the "season to be jolly", but not because of presents, time off work, or even family celebrations. Those are good things, but they all pale in comparison to the celebration of He who made joy becoming like us so that we could experience joy in Him.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Friday, December 16, 2011

Christopher Hitchens has Died

"He didn't want to leave behind his rebellion against the One whom he saw as 'a celestial dictator,' and in truth, it’s literally a miracle that anyone does. Without God’s grace, none of us would see Him as He is." ~ Amy Hall, writer for Stand to Reason

When I woke up this morning and saw the news--Hitchens has died from pneumonia as a complication of his cancer--I was not sure how to really feel about it. In many respects Hitchens was a pain the neck for Christians as well as other religions. He was one of the "new atheists," an atheist evangelist, a man who made it his life's work to draw people away from belief in God. That would make it easy to hate him and to be happy when we hear about his death, but is that how we should react? Not at all.

In many ways, Hitchens and I are a lot alike. He firmly stood for what he believed; I stand for what I believe. He loved his family as best he could; I love my family as best I can. He had issues with rage; I have issues with rage. He was hated and loved by many; I am hated by many and like to think I am loved by some. His heart was rebellious against God; my heart is rebellious against God. In fact, the only substantial difference between Hitchens and I is that God replaced my heart of stone with one of flesh by His grace through faith that is not even my own, so I cannot boast (Eph. 2:8-9). We are a lot alike, Hitchens and I, and only by the grace of God is there any substantial difference. We should not be happy about his death. We should grieve that an image-bearer of God with a towering intellect was blinded by his heart-rebellion until his death. We should hope and pray that his death will be used by God to draw others to Himself and not drive them further away.

Pray... that brings up another thing that struck me this morning. I must confess that I never once, that I can remember, prayed for Hitchens. That is sad. In all the time I have spent debating his thought with people who followed him, I never once prayed for him. Hearing about his death this morning was a wake-up call. Jesus said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..." (Matt. 5:44). Hitchens was never a personal enemy, but he was an ideological enemy. Hitchens never personally persecuted me, but he did persecute Christians. And I never prayed for him. Now, I will not go the route of saying, "What might have happened if I had prayed?" because God is sovereign, even over my sinful lack of prayer. However, this does remind me that I need to be praying for his peers like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett.

May the death of Hitchens cause all of us who are Christians to think, "There but for the grace of God, go I." May it also wake us up to pray for others like him. What would happen in the world if God changed Dawkins' heart and he became a Christian? Do not think it far-fetched to imagine. He changed me.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Monday, December 12, 2011

The Third Sunday of Advent

  "Go back eighteen centuries before that. Who could have cared about the birth of a baby while the world was watching Rome in all her splendor?... Palestine existed under the crush of Rome's heavy boot. All eyes were on Augustus, the cynical caesar who demanded a census so as to determine a measurement to enlarge taxes.... What could possibly be more important than Caesar's decision in Rome? Who cared about a Jewish baby born in Bethlehem?
  "God did. Without realizing it, mighty Augustus was only an errand boy for the fulfillment of Micah's prediction... a pawn in the hand of Jehovah... a piece of lint on the pages of prophecy. While Rome was busy making history, God arrived. He pitched His fleshly tent in silence on straw... in a stable... under a star. The world didn't even notice. Reeling from the wake of Alexander the Great... Herod the Great... Augustus the Great, the world overlooked Mary's little Lamb." ~ Charles Swindoll, Growing Strong in the Seasons of Life (43)

Yesterday the third Sunday in Advent. The Church continues the age-old tradition of celebrating Advent so that we do not make the same mistake the Romans and Jews made 2,000 years ago. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement of Christmas and forget about the reason behind Christmas. There is nothing wrong with celebrations, presents, and family traditions. In fact those are good things, but it is easy to get caught up in them and forget about the good news of Christmas.

Luke 1:31-33:
"And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
Luke 2:10-11:
"Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

By His Grace,
Taylor

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Book Review: Telling Secrets

"I not only have my secrets, I am my secrets. And you are your secrets. Our secrets are human secrets, and our trusting each other enough to share them with each other has much to do with the secret of what it is to be human."

Recently I finished a book called Telling Secrets by Fredrick Buechner. It is a kind of spiritual memoir similar to Augustine's Confessions (though not nearly as good as Augustine's work). Below is my review of the book:

In 1992 a crime drama with Robert Redford called Sneakers hit the box office. It is one of my favorite movies. There is one scene in the movie where Redford’s character, Martin Bishop, a man with many secrets, is playing a game of Scrabble with friends when it hits him that a mysterious phrase whose meaning he has been trying to ascertain is really just an anagram. He dumps all the Scrabble pieces off the board and pulls out the letters of the phrase: “setec astronomy.” He begins to arrange and rearrange, and he goes through a number of iterations. Then, in one of the watershed moments of the film, he discovers the anagram decodes to “too many secrets.” This movie is about secrets and a mathematician’s computer program that allows him to decrypt any encryption protocol so that he can read anyone’s secrets, any of the “too many secrets.”

Buechner’s book is about the many, many secrets that we all carry. He tells us about our own secrets by telling us about his. In one of the most salient statements of the whole book he says, “I not only have my secrets, I am my secrets. And you are your secrets. Our secrets are human secrets, and our trusting each other enough to share them with each other has much to do with the secret of what it is to be human.”  In the book, Buechner candidly talks about many secrets, but there are two main secrets that weave throughout this memoir—the secret of his father’s suicide when he was 10 years old and the secret of his daughter’s battle with anorexia. He turns to these secrets, particularly the secret of his father’s suicide, again and again to gain insight into who he is as an old man and what God is doing in his life.

The secret of his father’s suicide weighed especially heavy on his psyche because it was not just his secret; it was a family secret. It was not just a secret his family kept from outsiders but a secret they kept from each other. They never talked about his suicide and even avoided speaking of him. Soon, Buechner’s father was almost completely forgotten along with the secret. Buechner writes, “Our secrets are not hid from God… but they are hid from each other, and some of them we so successfully hide even from ourselves that after a while we all but forget they exist.”  The lies we tell to ourselves and others in order to cover up the secrets eventually begin to look more and more like the truth. Yet, the secrets are still there, buried far beneath the surface, and they define who we are (“I am my secrets”) in ways we cannot understand because we do not tell them. Not only do we not understand ourselves when we do not tell our secrets, but we also do not understand truly how God is shaping our lives. “[I]t is precisely through telling these stories in all their particularity… that God makes Himself known to each of us most powerfully and personally…. to lose track of our stories is to be profoundly impoverished not only humanly but spiritually.”  In this book we learn of many of Buechner’s secrets, but it is especially in the telling of the secret of his father that we see Buechner begin to understand himself and God’s work in his life.

There is one section of this book that often returns to my mind. We learn early on that Buechner is an ordained minister. As he talks about this aspect of his life, he probes deep into the affect that secrets have on the ministry of a preacher. Pastors are supposed to be a witness to the presence of God in their lives as well as in the lives of their people, he holds—“a major part of their ministry is to remind us that there is nothing more important than to pay attention to what is happening to us….”  Yet, as ministers become more involved in the lives of the people they shepherd, they begin to neglect their own. They harbor secrets, for many reasons, which prevents them from seeing God’s work in their lives. Sadly “they tend to become professionals… who speak on religious matters with what often seems a maximum of authority and a minimum of vital personal involvement. Their sermons often sound as bland as they sound bloodless.”  I found this challenging as one who is an intern at a church, teaches regularly, and preaches on occasion. Preachers must not only convey the facts about the truth but show that it is active in their lives. Not to pretend that they have everything figured out but to show that they can feel it working in them, changing them, doing what they say it will do. In another work I read recently, The Pastor as a Minor Poet, the author Craig Barnes says, “As odd as it may sound, it's the scars on the pastor's soul that make it attractive.... What we pastors present with our lives is an incarnated version of the healing and redemptive work of the Gospel.... We simply speak to our congregants as a people who have existential knowledge of truth.”  Buechner and Barnes remind young seminarians like me that pastors need to tell their secrets. Of course they must be wise about when and what they reveal and to whom, but the truth they preach must be truth through their personality, which means telling personal things—telling secrets.

This book is a memoir similar to Christian classics like Augustine’s Confessions in that it is not just one man’s story. Certainly it is Buechner’s secrets that are being revealed but, as he says himself, “My story is important not because it is mine, God knows, but because if I tell it anything like right the chances are you will recognize that in many ways it is also yours.”  As we read Buechner keeping track of his story, we cannot help be drawn to the events that have shaped our lives. Some of the events we read in his book may be similar to experiences we have had, others may be completely foreign. All of them, however, will cause of to think of our story and I believe that is the goal of this book. By reading Buechner’s secrets we start to think of our own and we are encouraged to tell them. When we start to do that we begin to understand ourselves better and the great work of God in our lives.

By His Grace,
Taylor

Monday, December 5, 2011

The Second Sunday of Advent

"When we open the package of Christmas we find that God has given us many gifts--vulnerability for intimacy, comfort for suffering, passion for justice, and power over prejudice... In the gift of Christmas, the unassailable, omnipotent God became a baby giving us the ultimate example of letting our defenses down... There is no way to have a real relationship without becoming vulnerable to hurt. And Christmas tells us that God became breakable and fragile. God became someone we could hurt. Why? To get us back." ~ Tim Keller, Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus: Experiencing the Peace and Promise of Christmas (36-38)

Yesterday was the second Sunday in Advent. If you attended a church in almost any Christian tradition you probably saw the second candle of the Advent Wreath lit and heard one of the prophecies about the coming Messiah read. Many of us who have been "churched" for most of our lives have heard these before so it is sometimes difficult to remember how incredible the subject of Advent is. The "unassailable, omnipotent God became a baby". "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..." (John 1:1, 14a) The Word that was God became flesh. When we really stop and think about it that is an incredible. The sovereign God became a vulnerable baby. Why? "To get us back." To redeem the relationship. That is the celebration we anticipate with Advent.

By His Grace,
Taylor