FreeTruth

Have you ever had someone wash your feet? I'm not sure you can fully enter into the emotion of the scene in John 13:1-15 if you have not. Recently we were discussing this scene at our care group. One of our young women commented on what it would have been like to be sitting above our Lord as he humbled himself in the position of a slave or servant to wash our dirty feet while looking up into our eyes. Could we bear such a moment?

Eight years ago as we prepared to take our youth group to Brazil I had to sit above one of the young men who had diligently served me in this project for two years. He asked to wash my feet and the emotion I felt towards him at that moment made me understand why Peter would blurt out, "Lord, you shall never wash my feet." It was deeply humbling. As tears flooded my eyes, it was actually painful having someone I cared so much about take a position of humility below me and look into my eyes.

Jesus then wraps his garment around him and sits back at the table. Were the disciples dumbfounded, in shock, having watched Jesus lovingly touch each disciple? Were they were confused? Did their hearts burn with love?

He says to them, "If I then, your Lord, and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you." This act of great humility Jesus meant as a teaching tool, to be followed by his atoning sacrifice on the cross.

We are to take up our cross and follow him daily. But what about washing one another's feet or, perhaps more applicable, serving one another with the humility of Philippians 2, putting ourselves beneath the concerns of another brother or sister in Christ?

I think this example is one we all embrace in our "one anothering," yet do we remember that Judas was also one whom Jesus knelt before, perhaps looked into his face and washed his dirty feet knowing full well his dirty heart. That reality causes my heart to cry out along with John, "Behold, what kind of love is this?"

It is a self denying love, a hard love to live up to, a love that we desperately need to have infused into our hearts from our Father. It is the love that resided in Jesus as he set His face toward Jerusalem. This Lenten season, ponder this love, setting our affections upon the Lover, by grace getting beneath our brothers and sisters, taking advantage of opportunities to serve. Perhaps in the process we will be blessed to see them with the eyes of Jesus and cultivate a deeper love for one another.

Holding a feeble hand of a weak brother, encouraging the faint heart of a sister, admonishing a rebel soul back towards repentance to their loving Savior, will all result in new affections in our hearts towards one another and a greater appreciation for our Teacher who led us by His humble example as seen in John 13:1-15.

by Pat Bowditch

Labels: God's Love, Guest Post, Humility, Lent, Servanthood, The Love of Christ

Returning to my series presenting "Reasons to Believe the Bible", I find that what it says about us provides compellingly precise insight that suggests a Mind which knows the subject intimately and infallibly; that is to say, the Mind of God.

The Bible is compelling because of how nuanced to perfection its presentation of human nature is. Contrary to those who teach on the one hand that humans are no more than highly evolved primates, and on the other that they are “basically good, tabula rasa innocents”, the Bible describes humanity’s unique dignity (as image-bearers of God, Genesis 1:26, 27) and inherited depravity (Genesis 6:5; Jeremiah 17:9; Psalm 51:3-5) with nuanced balance and unapologetic honesty.

Philisophical materialists, evolutionists, and others of similar mind, would say to us that Man is animal, and no more; a random collection of chemical actions and reactions accidentally borne along by an endless, meaningless stream of randomness. As such he is essentially nothing other than matter, devoid of any true value, or unique dignity.

The Bible says otherwise by telling us from the outset that we are "made in the image of God", and as such are possessive of great dignity, yes, even glory and honor (Psalm 8:4-8). In his intellectual, moral, spiritual, relational, aesthetic, and dominion gifts, Man stands alone in glory and honor over the natural world. What the natural order tells us, the Bible first declared!

But alongside this heralded dignity of man the Bible presents a mourned depravity of Man. Man, though gloriously gifted, is also ingloriously depraved. He's a fiend, a cruel tyrant, a selfish taker, a gutless compromiser, a lazy fool. Someone has quipped that the Bible doctrine of man's depravity is the most easily proven doctrine in the entire Bible. All one has to do to prove it is to read the news, study history, watch a child's natural instincts to be selfish and mean, or simply look into a morality mirror.

Someone else has said that the naive notions of man's enlightenment, and grand nobility, once popular in the late 1800's, ran shipwreck in the 1,900's against the jagged rocks of the atrocities of Nazi Germany, Stalin's Russia, the segregated south, and endless news of wars and fightings and divorces and child abuse and the rest.

This, my friends, is what the Bible has been saying all along. Man is a grand reflection of God who somehow has become a moral monster as well. All other world views err by denying one side or the other of the paradox called Man.

The Bible gets it right. Why? Because it comes from the One Who sees things deeply and as they really are. He knows us because He simply knows. And some of what He knows, He has chosen to tell us about, in a Book.

That's another reason why I believe.

Labels: Apologetics, Human Nature, Humility, Nature, The Word of God

It is common, where I work, for two men to have an "on the job" conflict. It happens almost daily. Many of these men are new believers coming out of various kinds of addiction... but they are eager to learn this new walk of faith in Christ. Old habits surface however, and the flesh dies hard. We find that the work place itself becomes an excellent training ground, and that conflicts invariably lead to growth.

I have discovered that every conflict can be traced back to a man's wounded pride. If the men truly understood humility, the conflicts would go away! And so, some time ago, I posted in a prominent place the following from Andrew Murray:

Humility is perfect quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed or irritated or sore, or disappointed. It is to expect nothing, to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me and when I am blamed and despised. It is to have a blessed home in the Lord where I can go in and out and kneel to my Father in secret and be at rest as in a deep sea of calmness when all around and above is troubled.

Brothers and sisters, wouldn't this be a wonderful way to live!

Labels: Guest Post, Humility

From "The Mark of the Christian", by Francis Schaeffer:


LAMENT

Weep, weep for those
Who do the work of the Lord
With a high look
And a proud heart.
Their voice is lifted up
In the streets, and their cry is heard.
The bruised reed they break
By their great strength, and the smoking flax
They trample.

Weep not for the quenched
(For their God will hear their cry
And the Lord will come to save them)
But weep, weep for the quenchers.

For when the Day of the Lord
Is come, and the vales sing
And the hills clap their hands
And the light shines
Then their eyes shall be opened
On a waste place,
Smouldering,
The smoke of the flax bitter
In their nostrils,
Their feet pierced
By broken reed-stems.....
Wood, hay, stubble,
And no grass springing,
And all the birds flown.

Weep, weep for those
Who have made a desert
In the name of the Lord.

Evangeline Paterson

Labels: Guest Post, Humility, Love, Mark of the Christian

What are the practical implications of Calvinism, particularly the doctrine of election? God’s sovereign electing grace, like all Biblical truth properly understood and responded to, should and will have powerful applicatory sanctifying effects upon the heart and mind. The end of all Biblical instruction is the transformation of our lives, to the supreme end that God Himself is glorified. And one of the effects of unconditional election upon the life of those who have experienced it and realize its significance, is humility--it should humble us to the dust.

The following quote speaks pointedly to this:

Rather than promoting pride and elitism, election is a profoundly humbling doctrine for believers. It keeps us from trying to reverse roles with God (Rom. 9:6-23). It persuades us to let God be God by teaching us there are some things that God has not revealed to us because they are not good for us to know, such as who is elect and who is reprobate (Deut. 29:29) or what tomorrow might bring (James 4:14). Election teaches us not to occupy ourselves with matters too difficult for us (Ps. 131).

Election also humbles us by making us realize that we owe everything to God’s grace. If our eyes have been opened, we see that our salvation is entirely due to the sovereign love and pity of our God, and not to any merit of our own. Electing grace initiates our salvation, accomplishes it, and preserves it. Peter says in (1 Pet. 1) verse 5 that we are “kept by the power of God.” Thus, we can boast of nothing. "A proud Calvinist is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms," Robert Peterson notes.

Dear believer, in electing you, God has given you everything. He has given you His Son, and through Him a new heart, a new status, and a new life. Humble yourself quietly before your electing God, remembering that you owe everything to Him. (Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism, pgs. 69-70)

Is humility a grace that we are genuinely pursuing, and in some real way exhibiting, both in response to God and in relation to each other? I don’t mean merely that we recognize it as a good idea. But rather, is the reality and awareness of God’s absolute and comprehensive sovereignty, a sovereignty that extends even to our personal destiny--both in this life and for eternity--having its prostrating, dust encountering effects in how we live each day? In what specific ways should this posture of humility be increasingly evident in our lives?

And remember, a proud Calvinist is an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms.

Labels: Doctrine, Election, Guest Post, Humility

In 2 Kings 17:15, 33 we read:

They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them ...So they feared the Lord but also served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom they had been carried away.

As I read this in my devotional time this morning I was struck with a spirit of repentance and grief. I cannot escape the fact that I have fallen into some of the same sin as ancient Israel: in many ways I have followed the sins of the nations around me rather than being faithful to my God and confronting my culture by leading my neighbors away from their sins.

I know that I posted a series of cultural sins that we're in danger of committing back on March 28th, but this morning the reality of these came to me with greater clarity and precision. The question came to me like this: "Tim, what are the specific ways that you have taken on the thinking and values of the nations rather than the heart of God and ways of truth?"

Here are ten answers God gave to me (these are not at all polished, but are a raw expression of what the Lord said to me by His Spirit):

1. I've subtlely accepted the relativism and a live-and-let-live mindset of the nations as is evident by my lack of urgency in speaking to people of their sins and of their need for the gospel. The fact that I do not leave my house in the morning with one agenda: to speak to as many people as possible of Jesus Christ and of their desperate need for Him, reveals that I've bought into the world's lie that it doesn't need Him.

2. I've subtlely lived a pluralistic/relativistic mindset whenever I've hesitated to say point blank: "Jesus is the only way."

3. I've given in to the world's love of popularity and the idol that image is everything when I've held back in speaking of "Jesus' by name and of people's sins and of God's holiness with clarity and conviction, because I did not want to offend or lose a friend.

4. I've caved in to political correctness when I've been bold in the pulpit but fearful in the marketplace; when I've preached holiness and the exclusive claims of Christ to the choir, but not to the lost.

5. I've embraced worldly materialism when I've neglected needs of the church and kingdom, and have treated luxuries and extras like they were needs and even rights.

6. I've trusted in the city of man and in man's help when I've treated religious liberty as a right to be fought for when in fact Christians throughout time and around the world have not had one bit of it themselves.

7. I've embraced the worldly hedonism of the nations when I've lingered on the advertisement or enticing picture or ice cream buffet or pillow or juicy gossip too long.

8. I've followed the nations distorted values when I've treated the arts and entertainment and pop culture and even high culture as if they were worth a level of attention even beginning to approach the attention I give to personal holiness and specific, bold, sin and cross-saturated gospel witness. When I in all honesty have given more thought to enjoying or even recovering the arts than to the plight of and an active pursuit of the lost never dying souls that I meet everyday, I'm flat out worldly.

9. I've followed the nations when I treat government and politics as if they have answers for human need, and can ever be trusted to "do the right thing". When I devote more concern and care to how to fix the economy or vote for the right candidate than I do to how to reach my neighbor and rescue him from a dreadful eternity, I have--just like the world--valued this life more than the next.

10. I've followed my nation's values when I treat luxuries like multiple health care options, college education, religious liberty, a relaxing night out, snacks between meals, second helpings of food, a new shirt, and another pair of shoes as needs and rights rather than as the flat out excess they most often are.

Folks, I'm not nuancing anything here, I realize. And I realize that a thousand "buts" and qualifications come to mind for each of these points. But I am making a primary point: we are at great risk of repeating Israel's sin, and in truth, we already have. We have followed the nations rather than our God.

Let us repent and mean it. Let us confess our idolatries and turn from them. Let us renounce all that we hold dear and go hard after God as never before.

This is what God expects, and if the Old Testament record shows us anything, it is that God isn't kidding.

Labels: Culture War, Humility, Repentance, Sin, Worldliness

I interrupt my series on embarrassing moments to announce that I have a cold; a full-blown, head-filling, body-aching, strength-sapping, want-to-stay-in-bed type cold. Add this to the twenty year long everyday, every minute, unrelenting headache that I have and there are the makings of a rather uncomfortable couple of days ahead of me.

Mix in with that that there is a lot to do this week. Big stuff is happening in the church this weekend, and there's a ton to attend to. This is all a recipe for stress and self-pity. I know that what I'm facing is nothing, and I do mean nothing, compared to what many of you may be facing. I wouldn't pretend to have it as hard as some of you. That would be insane and insensitive.

My only point is that it's in times like this that just that kind of insanity can hit. I'm facing some stress and discomfort which, given the insanity and insensitivity of my flesh, is sufficient to make me feel sorry for myself and be anxious and bothered about how it's all going to get done. In case you haven't noticed, self-pity is never very sane.

I'm convinced that God gives us head colds, headaches, hang nails, and hassles precisely to remind us that He's in control and we're not. He means us to know that we are weak and dependant on Him. I'm convinced that He messes with our plans, stockpiles our cares, and rearranges our appointment calendars when we're not looking (to insert such things as colds, crises in the family, and whatever else He thinks will get the job done.)

This way we feel really weak, really needy, really desperate for grace from Him. It's the way He's always kept His children praying and trusting and loving only Him. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 comes to mind. God could have taken Paul's stress point away, but He didn't; so Paul had to learn to rely on grace and glory in God all the more.

Here's a question for you: do you believe that God rules over headcolds and headaches? I'm not asking if you believe in some kind of weak "God allows" or "He let's these things happen" view of Divine sovereignty. I'm asking if you have room in your theology for the God who's self-described in Exodus 3:11 as the One who makes the deaf and mute and blind? Check it out and think about it. Does your faith accomodate a God who makes people deaf and mute or afflicted with colds and cancers and crises? Do you have a category for a God who gives and really does take away--as He took away from Job (Job 1:13-22)?

Here's what I believe: I have a head cold because it's part of the eternal plan of God for my life and for my good. I have a headache because at this moment (and for the past 20 years) it's been the very thing God has known that I would need. And I believe that every trial and stress point and burden that have accompanied these afflictions through the years are not merely things permitted; they're things planned.

God does more than permit; He purposes. That's not to say He's the cause for it all (He does not cause sin, and He does use means to accomplish His ends), but it is to say that if it's happening to me right now, even if it's not fun, it's because God knew it was the very best thing that could happen to me right now. It's because God wants me to learn trust and faith and humility and hope and the true sufficiency of grace in all of the hard turns and twists of life.

God afflicts because He wants us to arrive at the faith realization that no matter what we face or lose or suffer, if we have Him we have enough.

So as I process my head cold today, I'll try to do it knowing that there's not a maverick germ in the universe that can step outside God's will. The germ got me, because God loves me and knows what's best. It's as simple as that.

Just a few things to think about as you face your stress points today. I'd not want you to face anything--not even a head cold--without knowing and being able to trust the One Who's in control.

Labels: Dependance on God, Humility, Sovereignty of God

Most Embarrassing Moment #4

I was an 18 year old college freshman on the starting line up of my basketball team. It was my first college game weekend. Our season opening weekend included a Friday night away game about five hours from school and then a Saturday night home game. I was starting out on what would be a fairly decent college basketball career that would be marked (I include with a little bit of probably sinful pride) with quite a few high points and high honors. But apparently it was meant to start off pretty embarrassingly.

I arrived at the away game all filled with excitement. As game time approached we went into the locker room and I began the process of changing into my uniform. Shorts, jersey, socks. It was time for the sneakers. Reaching into my classic Adidas duffle bag I pulled out my size twelve footwear and saw to my utter dismay that I had brought two left foot sneakers. Back at school--five hours away--under my desk were a matching pair of right foot sneaks.

It was near game time and there was nothing to do but panic. In an amazing display of thoughtlessness, no one else had been careful enough to have size twelve feet and to make sure to bring along an extra pair of sneakers in case the brainless rookie forgot his. So I had no choice but to wear two left sneakers to play my first college game.

Not only did it feel weird, it was weird. And it wasn't missed by the fans. During the game as I'm sitting on the bench at one point I had a fan tap me on the shoulder, with a few more looking over his, and ask me, "Do you have two left sneakers on?" What could I say--as they laughed at my expense. I did have the last laugh as it turns out, as I scored 22 points in my debut and we beat those who scoffed at my feet.

I wonder: my wife giggles nearly every time I grab hold of her randomly at home to spend a moment or two dancing with my beloved. It's clear to me that she does not giggle out of romantic glee. She giggles because as a dancer, I have two left feet. Perhaps my freshman college B-ball experience left a permanent mark.

Back to my debut weekend. You'd think with that experience the night before I would have been a bit more careful the following night. Turns out I got it even worse.

The starting line up was introduced and it was time for me to take off my warm up sweats. Being that I played for a Bible college, we always prayed before our games to ask the Lord to keep us safe and godly during the game. Just as the prayer began one of my team members tapped me on the shoulder with a huge laughing grin on his face and said--with others looking on--"Hey Tim, your jersey is on backwards!" And so it was.

Picture it folks. Hundreds of fans. Big, cool, manly, super athlete. Jersey on backwards. I mean really: picture it! The high back of the jersey choking my neck; the low front revealing half my back.

What's a man to do? One thing is for sure, he is to seize the time of prayer when everyone's eyes are closed in spiritual humility and devotion, to take off his jersey and put it on right. Do it before too much damage is done.

I decided to forego being spiritual to preserve my ego. And I admit it, if I had it to do over again, given the same circumstances, I'd do the same thing.

Weird how life is. God has a way of letting us blunder just to help us maintain at least a little humility. Here I was pretty full of myself. Big man on campus. Starting freshman b-ball player. Time to strut and feel good about myself. And God decides to let me play the fool. It was good for me; such moments always are.

Don't be surprised folks: if you think of yourself a bit too highly, God will love you enough to let you do something to look really foolish. This isn't cruel; it's kind. Just when we think we have it all figured out, and we've arrived and we're the big man on the block, God will remind us that we can't even put our sneaks and shirts on right without His grace guiding our brains.

So today, as you tie your shoes, change your clothes, breathe a breath, lift a finger--remember: it is all by grace that He supplies. And if God should use you to make a difference in someone's life for His glory and kingdom, make sure to let God know that you know it was He and not you who did it.

Have a good and humble day.

Labels: Humility, Laughter

I was asked recently to think about some of the more embarrassing moments in my life. It should perhaps trouble me that I had zero difficulty thinking of several. What is really disturbing is the knowledge that I have almost certainly suppressed the memory of countless really embarrassing episodes, which others may remember well.

Anyway, let me share five of these over the next few days so I can have the chance to learn humility through laughing at myself with others looking in.

Most Embarrassing Moment #5:

I was in the second grade. Yes, as in 7 years old. Early signs of precociousness were much in evidence: soaring intellect, superb athleticism, endearing charm, astonishing oratorical abilities. Actually I was an average 7 year old in most ways, but definitely not average in one thing: I liked girls.

The fact is that I had a sharp, ever active eye for female beauty and charm. In fact I compiled a list of my top ten favorite girls in school. This helped me keep my life and priorities in order. I told you a day or two ago that I'm all about living an ordered life, so there you have it. I decided to start early. There's no good in having all these females around if I'm not going to be organized in how I evaluate them. Either that or I just had a weird and troubling seven year old fascination with girl cuteness.

The list was meant to be a very private thing of course. And so it was until one of my siblings got hold of it. And thus began an early-in-life embarrassing moment, one which my siblings have never let me forget. Do the math, there’s been 43 years of laughing at my expense over my girl-crazy early childhood.

It was bad enough that they discovered the list. What made it worse was the little game they decided to play with it in hand. When the whole family learned of my list the game was on to guess which of the girls in my class made the top of the list. As guesses didn't come close, my list-bearing sibling started giving out clues.

The clue I remember was: "She's the girl that has--what shall we say--the least actual appeal and personality." In other words, in my sib's opinion, she wasn't very cute. In fact, in his eyes, of all the girls in my class, she scored lowest on the cuteness/charm scale.

What was particularly disturbing in all of this was that the whole family--based on the clue--guessed who it was right away. So much for my second grade level discernment of beauty.

Now I grant you that this is no life-shattering moment of horrified embarrassment. But it did cause me cover my head a bit, and I haven’t forgotten it. And what did I learn from it? To be honest? Not much. I won’t pretend that I did. I did make sure to guard my lists a bit more carefully from then on, but that’s about it.

One thing I can say now: my family has had hours of laughter at my expense over that episode—along with several others that I’ve provided for the family story-telling repertoire. I am by far the one that is talked about and laughed at more than any other in my six-sibling family. It's been my calling in life.

Here is what I have learned in the time since childhood. It’s okay to laugh, and it’s best to laugh at your own expense.

Humor is good. And humor seems best when it sees the funny in one’s self. Humor at one’s own expense humbles the self, and it frees others to see us as those who are secure in who we are (in ourselves and more importantly, in Christ) and who can then share a moment of life and joy sustaining laughter. It’s all good. I guess that’s today’s life lesson.

By the way, it’s a good thing I started training in female charm discernment so early. It allowed me to hone my skills to perfection by the time I was sixteen when I met Gayline. Otherwise I would have let the most beautiful young woman in the world walk by unnoticed, and who knows whom I would have ended up with then!

Labels: Humility, Laughter