Playing Hide and Seek with Humility

“But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

- Isaiah 66:2b

“The whole human race is infected with the disease of pride; for by the gospel all the glory of the flesh is reduced to nothing…The doctrine of humility…is…confirmed by the precious blood of Christ.”

- John Calvin, Genesis II:264, cited in Calvin’s Wisdom, p. 154

“That demon of pride was born with us, and it will not die one hour before us. It is so woven into the very warp and woof of our nature, that till we are wrapped in our winding-sheets we shall never hear the last of it.”

- Charles Spurgeon, Fear Not, The Spurgeon Archive, www.spurgeon.org/sermons/0257*

“I am more afraid of the pope of ‘self’ than of the pope of Rome and all his cardinals.”

- Martin Luther

“I know I am proud; and yet I do not know the half of that pride.”

- Robert Murray M’Cheyne (quoted in Humility, the Forgotten Virtue, by Wayne Mack)


How does this happen, and on the Lord’s Day no less? That day when I foolishly think I’m on my best behavior, I found myself acting once again in arrogance. Anxiety led to arrogance and there I was defending my defenseless position. I would have argued all afternoon that I was right. Smug and self-satisfied, it was only later that day that I saw my wrong. My sin then led to a phone call and a confession of sin and a request for forgiveness. “I was wrong…I sinned against you…I was arrogant…You were right…Please forgive me.” She was gracious and freely offered forgiveness.

Why is it that the first place I seem to go is self-defense and a self-assured attitude of my own right understanding? You’d think that by now I would have learned this lesson. And this is by no means the first time. This is ground I’ve walked again and again. Why is it so hard to admit that I am are wrong? The roots of pride run deep in my heart. Its invasive tendrils wrap themselves around everything. I cannot think, say, or do without pride’s ensnaring effect.

The sobering reality is that without the gospel I have no hope. I will ever and always be an arrogant man unless Christ shows me great mercy and opens my eyes to my arrogance. Left to myself I’m frightened at the prospect. When faced with the battle of indwelling sin and the ensuing daily conflict Paul writes to the Romans, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:24) He understood that indwelling sin has a power far beyond anything we might try to manufacture. Paul then goes on to give thanks to God through Jesus Christ for help in this ongoing battle.

Dear friends, the Christian life is not for sissies. There is a battle raging and we’re right in the middle of it. Until I take my last breath pride and arrogance lie in wait, ever watching for an opportunity to seize my thoughts, words and deeds. I need the gospel. I need the assurance that this battle is not my own. I need the abundant grace of God in the surety of the ascended Christ that arrogance has been dealt a death blow, and what I’m seeing now is simply the last gasps of a dying enemy.

In all of this I’m grateful for a church where confession of sin is often made and forgiveness is freely given. We are a church of needy sinners living life under the care and protection of a glorious and gracious Savior. Thank you all for letting this be a place where the battle for humility is being fought. Thank you being a humble example to me.

With joy, Dan

Cultivating a Heart of Thanksgiving

“And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

- 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.”

- Colossians 3:15

“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”

- Philippians 1:3-5

“I have now said repeatedly that he is treated with the honor he deserves when he is recognized as the author of all good things. It follows that our receiving them all from his hand should be attended with continual thanksgiving.”

– John Calvin, quoted by B. A. Gerrish in Grace and Gratitude

“He who would have a double heaven must begin below to rejoice like those above.”

- Charles Spurgeon, Treasury of David, Psalm 33:1


Next week we’ll celebrate a national holiday. I have to admit that this holiday somewhat of an enigma to me. I enjoy it because typically this holiday has escaped all commercialism. It seems to be a time that many family and friends are able to gather, and indeed, some of my fondest memories are of Thanksgivings past. Often it was a wonderful day spent with family and friends with an unmistakable highlight of being the most delicious meal of the year. I think Thanksgiving is enigmatic in that it was intended as a special day for giving thanks. A special day to give thanks? I need a life of giving thanks. So often in my everyday life, thanksgiving, as the posture of my heart, evades me. And I am not thankful because I am not content. I find murmuring and complaining is often my attitude. Rather than seeing everything as coming from God’s gracious hand I grouse about even the minutest details.

Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs preached a series of sermons to help unthankful and discontent people like me. The sermons have been compiled into a little book entitled, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. Burroughs’ own life could have been the seedbed of ingratitude. He was born in 1599 and died in 1646 at only 47 years old. His ministry was filled with difficulty as he found himself in the middle of several large-scale controversies within the church. He was a conscience-bound and Scripture-bound Puritan during the Acts of Uniformity in England in the 1600’s. He was ejected from his first pastorate for non-conformance and his heart was broken over divisions within the church. These sermons were published in book form, posthumously, two years after his death. And now this collection still serves the church over 350 years after his death. Imagine yourself as a persecuted parishioner in an Independent church during the enforcement of the Acts of Uniformity. Likely as a non-conforming parishioner you are experiencing severe suffering. Listen in as Pastor Burroughs exhorts his congregation using these words,

“A gracious heart can indeed tell how to enjoy God as all in all to him. That is the happiness of heaven to have God be all in all.” (p. 67)

“Certainly our contentment does not consist in getting the thing we desire, but in God’s fashioning our spirits to our conditions.” (p. 130)

“Contentment is a sweet, inward heart-thing. It is a work of the Spirit indoors.” (p. 20)

In the middle of conflict-ridden England Burroughs was able to bring a God-ward perspective. My prayer is that both you and I will live in the good of the gospel to the extent that it affects our degree of contentment and thankfulness, and not only on one special day. I think if we could but glimpse the breadth of God’s manifold kindness to us in the work of redemption contentment and thankfulness would be an inseparable part of us. It would change us from the inside out.

May God give us a renewed vision of all He’s done for us in Christ. And may this Thanksgiving be the beginning of a lifetime of thanksgiving.

Desiring to be more content and more thankful, Dan

Joint Heirs Together in the Grace of Life

“Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."

- Genesis 2:18

“…man still needs to be tamed.”

- George Gilder, Men and Marriage, p. 47

“As I considered taking Kate as my wife, I entreated our Lord God earnestly to help me.”

- Martin Luther, cited in Katherine von Bora: A Reformation Life, Rudloph K. Markwald and Marilynn Morris Markwald, p. 70

“Lost in this moment with you, I am completely consumed.”

- Big and Rich, Lost in This Moment


November is a month full of significance for me. It’s the month we celebrate Thanksgiving and it’s my daughter Esther’s, and my grandson Gideon’s birth month. But, truth be known, when I think of the memory of most significance my mind takes me back to November 27th, 1976. That was the day (Thanksgiving weekend) when a very beautiful and very young woman pledged herself to me. This month we’ll celebrate 31 years of marriage. I remember a frequent conversation when we were younger that always started by a matter-of-fact assertion, “We will grow old together.” Thankfully, we’ve gone a ways in that process. Thirty-one years together is an indication of God’s irrefutable kindness to someone like me who deserves nothing but aloneness and alienation. November is a reminder of grace.

This November another celebration is in order. In November of 2002, and in the weakness of post-operative surgery, Judy began what the oncologist would call 21st century barbarism. This month is her 5-year marker. Cancer surgery and chemo-therapy changed the course of our lives, and yet time would prove this to be a severe mercy. Behind a seemingly providential frown there was surely a kindly smile. Marriage had become a means of grace and now suffering was becoming a means of grace as well. In the mystery of covenantal union we had become joint heirs together in the grace of life. Richer and poorer, sickness and health, grace and mercy, were all working together to reflect something much more significant. Even after 31 years we are still a faint shadow of the reality (the mystery of Christ and His church), but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Judy, thank you for saying, “I do.” You are an incomparable gift of grace to me. Here’s to growing old together. I love you more than ever.

Dan