Vanity Faire Redux

“…thus the degeneration of man – the distortion of the divine image through sin – is a direct attack on the glory of God. We must recognize that anything that is degrading and animalizing to humans is in line with Satan’s plan, be it an attitude, a habit, an addiction, a sexual practice, or a mental preoccupation.”

-R. Kent Hughes, Luke, Vol. 1, That You May Know the Truth, p. 306

“For the glory of God is a man fully alive; and the life of man consists in beholding God.”

-Irenaeus (2nd Century), Against Heresies, 4:20:7

“All human communities are fallen. So I do not have to be blind in order to hold on to such an idealistic view of my community or my church, or my friends. And yet a true Christian community can witness to the fact that while men are not perfect God is involved and will continue to be involved in substantial healing. By expressing love and compassion in concrete ways – feeding the hungry, accepting the lonely, helping the helpless – the Christian community can show that real answers come from God, not man.”

-Udo Middelmann, pro-exist-ence, p.116

“Silver scales flash bright and fade, in reeds along the shore. Like a pearl in sea of liquid jade, His ship comes shining. Like a crystal swan in a sky of suns, His ship comes shining."

-Bruce Cockburn (Canadian songwriter), All the Diamonds

“Ecce Homo” ('Behold the Man' in Latin) from John 19:5


We didn’t really have it planned that way, but Monday was our second visit to the Oregon coast in a month. Some friends from our sister church in Canada were at Seaside for a week “on holiday” and we drove down to meet them yesterday morning and then we spent the day with them. It has been several years since I’ve been to Seaside. I remember my parents taking us there as kids. The cheesy aquarium is still there and so are the cool 50’s style bumper cars. But as we came out of one of the shops I wasn’t quite prepared for what I would see next. Lydia and Nathanael actually saw him first. He was a man in his 40’s dressed as a woman, full-beard, notwithstanding. He was dressed in a pink outfit with a matching hat, heeled shoes, tattoos, and some sort of accoutrement that made his physique look somewhat feminine. Throughout the day we saw him several times as he made his way through the crowds. He seemed unaffected by the stares, comments, and double-takes of those around him. In fact, I found myself watching the people that were watching him. The responses ran the gamut, from nonchalance to incredulity, to laughter, to disgust. As we made our way back home we drove through Astoria and by now it was dark. Shuffling along the dark street in Astoria was a disheveled man in a full-faced motorcycle helmet, an obvious street-person, staring down as he shuffled along, all alone. As we continued down the road Judy and the kids and I began to talk about those we’d encountered during the day. The man in the dress and the fellow in the helmet came up. As we talked I couldn’t help but remember the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Gerasene man among the tombs in Luke 8. Naked, once a city dweller, now alone and living in a graveyard, self-mutilating, possessed by many devils, driven mad, and living in fear he meets Jesus as soon as the boat comes ashore. Surely he was aware of the recent phenomena of storm being calmed. Maybe for the first time in a long he sensed there may be hope, even for him. Whatever the case, he and his tormentors immediately recognizes who Jesus is and he falls down cries out for mercy. Jesus casts out the devils and speaks to him as a man. Some people come to see him and now he is rational, restored to his right mind, and he is fully clothed and seated at Jesus’ feet. And now they become afraid. They want Jesus to go away. Who is this Man anyway? It was better for them that this man stayed possessed and lived among the tombs. Jesus then sends the man on a mission to tell everyone he meets about the Messiah. He rationally and immediately obeys and proclaims throughout the city what Jesus did for him.

There’s something about the obviousness of terrible sin and terrible need that serves as fertile ground for redemption. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Desperateness, in the recognition that our only hope is in the Savior, is often the prevenient grace that precedes salvation. As our family talked about the man in the dress we wondered if the gospel might be much closer to that man than the hundreds of other “normal” persons that passed by him on the sidewalk. His sin and need was much more blatant than the many that derided him or paid him no attention. Their lives were normal and under control. They, at least, had the appearance of sanity and of having it together. Struggles with sin, marital strife, broken relationships, death, business failure, wayward children, mental illness, fatigue, disease and the torment of devils bring us to the end of our self-sufficiency. It’s then we recognize our desperation. When I got home I sat and read Luke 8 and marveled again at the story. What a glorious Savior. I’m grateful that God meets us in our sin and insufficiency, and doesn’t wait until we’re all cleaned up before He comes to our aid. I found myself praying for the two men we had seen, and then praying for Christ Our Redeemer as well. We do well to remember the Gerasene man. It’s the sick that need a physician. May we never lose our sense of profound desperateness and need for a Savior.

Apologia Pro Vita (a defense of life)

“If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of virtues was, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point.”

-CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory

“Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.”

–Proverbs 3:3,4

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

-Matthew 5:14-16


It’s one thing to carry on a discussion about love, and yet it’s quite another thing to love demonstrably. Over the course of the past several weeks you have demonstrated love of the most magnanimous sort. Today Kevin and I were able to write a significant check to the adoption agency to help offset the upcoming Bowen adoption. For a small church and a new church plant this represents sacrifice and overwhelming God-honoring generosity. Be assured that this is an evidence of the grace of God operative in your lives. Because of your generosity a significant difference will be made in the life of a young child. You are to be commended. This is a pro-life apologetic that is second to none. It’s one thing to give assent to the pro-life position, it’s quite another to love by investing in life.

Several years ago I remember reading Melody Green’s tract on abortion and George Grant’s book, Grand Illusions. I wept as I read them, sorrowing over my callousness for the unborn. These were the means God used to awaken my slumbering heart. Grant’s book was one of the most significant pro-life treatises I’ve ever read. I was already convinced of the pro-life position, but I remember the steeling of my soul as I read this book. In this book Grant exhaustively traces the beginnings of the modern abortion and euthanasia movements. It had a chilling and sobering effect. Just recently I read that 43% of African-American pregnancies end in abortion, that since 1973 12 million(!) African-American babies have been aborted, and that every day in the US 1,500 African-American children die through abortion (Anthony Bradley, World, 2/19/05). C.J. Mahaney, in his book, Humility, cites three things he hates; abortion, child abuse, and racism. I must admit I concur with my dear brother C.J. And I can’t help but think that these are some of the things that God hates also.

Not only am I grateful for your commitment to life, not only am I grateful to this child’s birth mother, I’m grateful for the Bowens. The Bowens have demonstrated love for the Savior by opening themselves up to God’s direction in adoption. They could have easily said no. They could have made other things a priority, and yet they’ve become convinced that one of the best means to demonstrate the adopting love of God is to adopt a child. Gospel love is demonstrated by bringing in an outsider and making them a part of a family (Eph. 1:5). God is an adopting God, and in this way the Bowens have shown us the character of God Himself.

In his book, A Godward Life, John Piper expresses his frustration with his limited efforts at stopping abortion,

“Therefore I am frustrated that I only have one life to life for the glory of Christ. One life should surely be devoted to stopping the carnage (we must speak graphically or we lie) of abortion. Another life should surely be devoted to saving people from hell. What shall I do? What is the solution to my frustration? The solution is the diversity of the members of the church of Jesus Christ. I cannot go to all the unreached peoples of the world with the good news of salvation from sin. I cannot spend all the time I would like writing, speaking traveling, and agitating for the cause of threatened children. The only solution I know is you.” (p.206)

Dear friends, thank you for being part of the solution and demonstrating love for the Savior in demonstrating love for this child by your gifts. I am grateful and humbled to be able to serve Christ Our Redeemer Church alongside of you.

Irascible Blackberies and the Human Heart

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

–Hebrews 3:12-13

“The heart is a maze that only God can solve (Jeremiah 17:9-10). Computers cannot decipher its floor plan. We modestly admit we don’t know someone else’s heart, but the truth is we can’t even know our own.”

- Kris Lundgaard, The Enemy Within, p. 36

“This is the subject, the seat, this dwelling-place of this law of sin, - the heart; as it is the entire principle of moral operations, of doing good or evil, as out of it proceed good or evil. Here dwells our enemy; this is the fort, the citadel of this tyrant, where it maintains a rebellion against God all our days. Sometimes it hath more strength, and consequently more success; sometimes less of the one and of the other; but it is always in rebellion whilst we live.”

- John Owen, Temptation and Sin, p. 171


Over the last week or so I’ve made an all-out assault on the blackberries at our place. I sprayed them on Wednesday evening and on Saturday afternoon and yesterday I’ve continued to take back the areas overtaken by the nasty vines. I am amazed by their tenacity. You can mow them to the ground and in no time at all they are back with a vengeance. You can spray them with herbicide and they suffer only a temporary set-back. I have bloody scratches and scars from battling them. I’m determined to exercise my Adamic prerogative by gaining the upper hand.

As I was waging war upon the blackberry vines I was thinking about the reality of indwelling sin and the predicament we find ourselves in. Contrary to Scripture much of contemporary evangelicalism would say that man can choose good and that man ultimately decides either in favor of God or against God. For some reason, natural man likes the comfort of being a functional Pelagian. Pelagius was a 5th century monk that taught that the human will can, by itself, choose good or evil, and that God is not needed for moral decisions, especially regarding salvation. According to Pelagian, man can easily choose the good and he ultimately decides either in favor of God or against God. Not only in Pelagius, but there is a universal belief in the inherent goodness and/or moral neutrality of man. Thankfully, the Scriptures give us an accurate picture. The issue is the heart. Man’s heart- the seat of all moral determinations has been effected by the Fall. For fallen man every decision bears the permeating effect of a nature at odds with God. The Apostle Paul says it this way in Romans 8:7, “For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.” The unbeliever cannot please God. There is no commonality. The foundation is misplaced, in fact, it is hostile. The ground of all affections is not found in God Himself, it is opposed to God.

The problem with the blackberries is that I’ve yet to get at the roots. That’s ultimately what I’m after, but I’ve not gotten there yet. Unless the roots are adequately dealt with, the same tenacious and thorny vine will spring up again and again. Contrary to the Pelagian view, the Christian finds himself in a predicament. He is in conflict with himself. By the Cross and through the regenerative power of the Holy Spirit a death blow has been dealt to the inherent rebellion of his heart. However, it’s only at that final day his heart will finally and completely be subdued, and then only will he give unalloyed obeisance to God forever. Like the blackberries, for now, the nasty vines keep cropping up. While the death-blow has been dealt we still wrestle with an unkind word, a suspicion of motive, an uncharitable thought, an unforgiving grudge, a lusting glance, a half-truth, a desire to get our own way, a sharp tongue, a lack of trust in God’s goodness, and a host of other sins. Last year I found the passage I quoted above from Hebrews 3 come home with great force. The writer of Hebrews warns believers of an evil, unbelieving heart, and I found myself struggling with an evil, unbelieving heart. The root had been dealt a death-blow, but I was still struggling. As Christians, every day of our lives will be waged in warfare against a heart that, in Owen’s words, “…is always in rebellion whilst we live.”

Our great comfort is that God has graciously provided a more-than-adequate remedy in the gospel. The power of the gospel in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ are the effective tools of warfare in this battle. However, we must avail ourselves of it. We mustn’t think this is a battle we can wage or win on our own. We need the means of grace that God provides. We need the power of the gospel through His Word, His people, and His grace. And this is a battle we fight by the Word of God and arm in arm with one another. We should become familiar with being suspicious of our motives. We should become wary when we have thoughts of removing ourselves from hearing the Word of God preached, or associating ourselves with other believers. This is surely the wrong path. The most effective way of subduing the evil, unbelieving heart is to make God’s Word and God’s people a priority. These are the gospel means He has given. This will get to the heart of the matter.